Reedsport

 Bethany and Laura left Grandad's Friday morning and we arrived with Dave and Gayle that afternoon. Lamar, Joy, and Solace stayed through Sunday morning, so we got to enjoy a little overlap time with them.

Grandad, Dave, and Lamar got a couple tuna, so we got to have tuna steaks and fried tuna for dinner one night. As usually happens when we are all together, we ate lots of great food the whole time.

We enjoyed some cooler weather with foggy mornings and evenings.

We spent a lot of time playing games together. This game of cribbage was particularly close, but Grandad and I just managed to win during the pegging.

After the hectic days of packing and moving lately, it was nice to have some time to relax and enjoy being with family.

Redwoods

The house we are now renting is a second house on some property out in the country about twenty minutes south of Eugene near a little town of about 5,000. It is a small house, but has lots of character and charm and we love that it is out in the country. There is a plot where we can garden, plus we were given a tomato plant when we signed the lease and there are grapes, blueberries, cherries, and apples on the property. Yes, I'm pretty excited about all of it.

The first tomato on our new plant is almost ripe. I don't think I've ever seen a tomato plant with so many tomatoes on it.

There are also great redwood trees on the property, so we had a little photo shoot.

Gayle brought her little baby giant sequoia tree along on the trip to Oregon.

Florence

 The rest of the family was visiting Grandad, so we all met up in Florence on Thursday to enjoy dinner at Mo's. After some delicious seafood, we had a few difficulties trying to get a family picture on the pier. First we tried to take advantage of the good late afternoon lighting, but a number of us were too sensitive to the sun in our eyes and ended up squinting.

 You can tell the lighting facing this direction is not nearly as nice, but at least we can open our eyes and have the bridge in the background. We also had wind and a few sprinkles to deal with.

We enjoyed walking around old town together for awhile after dinner.

Moving Days

 We are moving in stages. It began last Saturday when my parents helped us move some furniture, crates of books, and heat sensitive items like candles and home canned food and wine to their house. They will be bringing that stuff up later.

 On Monday, Dave and Gayle came down and we loaded up the rest of our stuff in the van, truck, car, and trailer. My mom and Ben P. came to help with the loading, for which we were grateful. Those stairs are a challenge. 

After some difficulties getting the right tow bar and hooking up the lights, we were able to tow the bug up with the van. We spent Monday night at my parent's house where Mom cooked up a delicious meal of trout, pasta salad, and toasted bread with frozen chocolate peanut squares for dessert. 

We left early Tuesday morning and spent 15.5 hours on the road with only a few minor difficulties. One of the tow lights fell off the bug on the way and broke, so we took the other one off and our goal was to make it to Creswell before it got dark. With that in mind, we didn't stop for dinner, just had snacks in the car, but we still had a bit of a dramatic finish as we were getting closer and closer as the sun was going down and it finally sank behind the mountains, but we still had enough light to just make it in time! It seemed a lot more dramatic than it really was to Gayle and I as we were in the Honda together after being on the road for so long. We were all glad to finally be there and for safe traveling on the way.

Work Shoes

It has become a tradition for me to throw away my old work shoes when I leave a job. After each of the past four jobs I have had, I threw away the shoes that I wore to work every day. These cheap shoes I got in the kids section at Target had a particularly hard run of almost two years and they were in sorry shape, but managed to stay together through my last day at Midtown at the end of June and then at 210 last Thursday. It is always kind of nice to throw away the old shoes; it gives me a feeling of closure.

Special Dinners

We had been planning to invite each of the kids over individually for dinner and suddenly realized that if wanted to actually do it, we needed to hurry. So we blocked off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday nights of our last week in the apartment and had all the kids over (except Emery, but we had dinner with all the Trevinos on Friday). 

Evan was up first on Tuesday evening. Each kid got to help plan the menu for their night. We had pancakes and spam with Evan. All three of the kids wanted mini pazookies for dessert; that has become a special treat at our house.

 We had mussels with Micah and played charades.

 We had chicken with barbecue sauce, macaroni salad, and watermelon with Natalie. She wanted to take a funny face picture too.

We enjoyed eating, talking, and playing games with the kids one at a time. They are such special people and lots of fun to have around.

Dilly Beans

In the midst of our first big packing day where Gayle came down to help and we got a ton done, my mom called to say she had found a good price on fresh looking french green beans and did I want her to pick some up for me. Even being up to my ears in boxes, I couldn't resist the opportunity to can something. The next day I used Joy's recipe for dilly beans for the first time. I had been wanting to try making them for awhile, so I was excited to finally be able to. It was a great project; they were easy to can since there is minimal cutting and prep work involved. And if they turn out anything like Joy's do, they will be delicious.

Fourth of July

We made it back to Visalia in time to enjoy fireworks and tasty patriotic treats with family and friends.

Redwood Christian Ashram 2014

Joshua and I got to attend the Redwood Christian Ashram last week; he was in charge of the children's program for the elementary school kids.

One of our favorite free time activities was getting huge scoops of delicious ice cream.

Monday was our first full day at camp; after a long afternoon nap and ice cream, we spent the rest of our free time playing cribbage and hanging out with Solace.

A typical day started with morning watch, followed by breakfast and the morning work hour. Then we broke into prayer groups which led into morning speaker time. Next came lunch, rest time, and free time. After dinner, we had an evening speaker time and then snacks before heading to bed. Joshua had the kids during prayer groups and both speaker times.

The grounds were beautiful. Joshua and I spent some time Tuesday afternoon talking pictures and playing frisbee golf.

We also played games with Laura and Bethany.

Cathedral Grove is where we had morning watch and also where I spent the first two work hours, helping to  rake up needles and sticks.

The whole week while we were at camp there was a prayer vigil going on. They had a chart that we signed up on for hour long slots and there was someone praying in the chapel 24 hours a day while we were there. I signed up for an hour after dinner on Tuesday and it was a special time.

Joshua led the singing at campfire for the high school and college students Tuesday through Thursday.

During work hour the second day (Tuesday), I got bit by a yellow jacket. I didn't think much of it, but by Wednesday morning it was red and getting swollen. I talked to the nurse about it and she suggested ice and elevation. We kept an eye on it the rest of the week.

Photo from Redwood Christian Ashram's Facebook page

After lunch we took a group photo.

Photo by Donna Sanders

Bob and Virginia Garland; Virginia was my prayer group leader.

During free time Wednesday there was an annual adult versus youth volleyball game.

There was break time between games; they played best out of three.

The youth ending up winning.

Photo from Redwood Christian Ashram's Facebook page

After the games, we had an ice cream social.

Then we went up to check out the new archery range.

More redness and swelling.

Wednesday night we had a hymn sing. We had to start worship early so we would have time to sing all the songs that were requested, it was great.

Tom was our evening speaker, he did a series on the Holy Spirit that was really good.

Laura and Bethany sat in the back to run sound and the slide show. I started sitting back there with them so I could put my foot up and ice it.

These were some of the quilts we made during the morning work hour.

After morning watch we would walk to the dining hall together singing the marching song.

I spent the second two days as part of the indoor work party instead of the outdoor work party. Laura and I were part of a team sandwiching quilts.

There were also people designing and sewing quilts, knitting, making cards, and tying quilts.

By Thursday, the swelling had moved from my ankle into my foot, which made it look really bad. It didn't hurt though, besides some pressure from the swelling. We decided I'm probably allergic to yellow jackets and should not get bit again.

We had a talent show Thursday afternoon.

Thursday was fancy dinner night.

Photo by Donna Sanders

ErneRuth did a great job leading singing all week.

Friday morning we had to pack up and be out of our rooms by nine. We had a time of sharing before saying goodbyes. Joshua and I got a picture with Bill and Carole right before we started.

Here's Joshua with the group of kids he worked with.

We had a good week and were thankful we were able to attend. It was my first time and I thought it was great.