Baby will be warm

We are so blessed with people who bless us with their gifts. This weekend not only did julie go to a shower and received beautiful handmade quilts, but Dad helped Randy with the bathroom project and painted the baby's room. By the end of the weekend, everyone was tired but there was a great sense of completion.

Oh, the days of yesteryear

We were looking at some old pictures from a couple of years ago. We both look fit and skinny. Maybe again one day.....

Future Grandparents visit

Over Presidents' Weekend, my parents came for a nice visit. With them they brought with them Baby's new "corvette" stroller. Randy's mom was also in on the gift, purchasing the infant car seat that snaps in to the stroller. The whole contraption is very cool and can be adjusted for many different stages of life. We had fun playing with all the things this system can do! Randy marveled at the engineering behind such a collapsable four wheeled baby transporter.
Along with the gift, we played Bridge a couple of nights! Randy and I are getting better but it does take lots of practice to play with experienced players.

Nesting projects

As mentioned in earlier posts, Randy and I have been nesting differently. While I have been making quilts, Randy has been redoing the bathroom. Both projects are getting closer, but have had their obstacles. My sewing machine stopped sewing straight and started dropping stitches as I was attaching the binding. So, the puppy dog quilt will have a hand stitched binding sewed onto the edges.
On the bathroom front, Randy has encountered some tedious tiling which requires lots of cutting and piecing and fussing. Last weekend, he did finish the shower. The next step is to place the tile floor in. Both projects will be done in due time. We are just hoping they are finished before May.

Randy's Nesting Project

With the anticipation of our baby, both of us have taken on "projects" to get ready for the newcoming life in our family. While my projects have been sewing quilts in anticipation of converting my quilting room to the baby's room, Randy's projects have involved using crowbars, drills, saws. The first project was to add shelving to our upper attic space. The second project was to add shelving the garage. The third project which is still in process is the biggest of them all! It involved taking our master bathroom down to the studs and rebuilding it. Randy took out the bathtub-which we gave away on Craig's List- the shower, the sink and finally the toilet! He installed a pocket door frame
The intent of the project was to get it done during vacation time in December, but due to the blizzard in December and then flooding, materials were not arriving in the time frame we had set for them. Last weekend, Randy finally was able to place the new bathtub and then the Wedi board could be installed. Now we are waiting for the rest of the tile to arrive. Randy will put that in himself and I will vacate the house due to the fumes in the grout.
Today's adventure involves picking up a bathroom cabinet. In the end, we will be happy with the final project when it gets done.

Found it!

After searching for days on my computer files, I finally gave up and looked on Randy's computer file for the picture of Grandma. Voila' ! I found it and sent it to my computer to post. In the picture, Grandma was 96 and looked great! Since her death, I have been searching for photos of her and rebuilding my strong good memories of her. One photo I found is of her and my dog, Sierra. They were good pals and Sierra always remembered Grandma for her kindness in letting her stay at Grandma's house when I was working on my Master's degree. (Since Sierra was a puppy, we were afraid that Blitz might hurt her accidentally when they played.) That summer in 1995, I would take Sierra to Grandma's were she would hang out for the day while I was in class. Then I would pick her up in the evening. Sierra always remembered Grandma and would greet her with a tail wag and kiss any time she saw her. I like to think of them reunited in Heaven. Grandma and Sierra.

The search for a picture...

This morning I continued my search for my favorite recent picture of my grandma. It was on our wedding day and it was a nice picture of her. No luck in finding it, but I did find one of my favorite candid shots of me and some of the bridesmaids hiking our dresses up and strolling through the rose garden of Avery Park for the photo shoot.

Pictures of Family and Grandma

Right now our thoughts and prayers are going to Julie's Grandma. At 99, she is a true marvel. Its amazing to think she grew up in a time and place with no electricity or running water. Her love of animals was passed on to her family. In fact, one could say she has been the matriarch of the family and has been a lady of grace and love.

Baby is a .....KIcker!

Randy and i went to have our fifth month ultrasound. Baby is a kicker. Literally, Baby kicked like a donkey my left side. No wonder my hip hurts! Baby tried to get hands in mouth but missed, usually hitting the front of the head. The heart has four fully developed chambers. My favorite feature were the tiny feet which were a task to catch still. Both feet finally were measured and are about one and half inches. So far, these ultrasounds have been a highlight. We could see backbone and vital organs were all healthy. Yeah!

Onward to San Juans

A couple of weeks ago, we had another chance to go up in a plane with Randy's friend from work. Randy flew us to Roche Harbor where we landed and walked around the docks. It was fun to learn about the history of this town where former President Teddy Roosevelt would vacation. Roche Harbor was an old mining town that was turned into a boating town. Now it is a haven for tourists traveling to San Juan Island and boaters. After strolling around with our friend, we flew back to the airport. This time I flew us back to the airport. (Note: we flew in a Moonie that had two sterring wheels, so Greg really was flying but we had the experience.)

Fall pictures

This fall we have been enjoying our maple tree colors. All around Washington, the colors are spectacular!
We were visited by the elusive Piliated Woodpecker. His head was red and his body was about 12 inches long. He had a hard time staying on the feeder.

Virgo Birthdays

Every year we have with Julie's Grandma, we marvel that she has lived another year. Today Grandma celebrates her 99th birthday! Wow! A few weeks ago, most of the family gathered at my mom's house to celebrate Mom's, Aunt Joanne's birthdays and then later travelled to see Grandma and take pictures. Randy and I were unable to attend due to previous engagements, but we did make it down last weekend to celebrate a little later. Grandma was not up for picture taking so we are hoping to photo shop her into the big family photo soon. We did have a picture taken for real with Mom and Dad at their house. To celebrate Mom's birthday, we had a nice dinner at home and played a quiet game of Bridge. It's always fun to go visit family and walk around in a rural setting.

Aloha OSU

As is becoming a tradition in our family, Randy and I made our annual trek to Corvallis to watch a Beaver game live. This year we selected the Beaver-Hawaii game and were happy to see the Beavers win. The quarterback, Lyle Moevao had a great game as did several of the other players... the Rodgers brothers and Sammie Straughter. Randy enjoyed sitting back and watching Mike Riley coach. He really is the mastermind to the offense and lets other coaches handle the defense. The final score was something like 48-7 with the Beavers on top. Another record for the day was the heat. The temperature was in the 90s but in the direct sun in the new section of Reser Stadium it felt like 120 degrees. So all around it was one HOT game!

Hip to Be Square

Over the summer, Randy surprised me with tickets to the Huey Lewis and the News concert at the Tulalip Casino. The late summer weather cooperated with us and we had a beautiful evening outside flashing back to out high school years and the music we loved so much. Huey's voice was outstanding! Both of us have heard musicians who have lost their ability to sing the songs the way they did twenty five years ago. Not so with Huey! To listen to his music, I would not have guessed we were in 2008! What we both loved about the band is the diversity in the brass section. The music is upbeat and fun. What a great concert!

Huey Trivia:
He is the leader of Huey Lewis and the News.

Attended Monte Vista High School in Danville , CA .

Has two children, son Austin (born 1985) and daughter
Kelly (born 1983).

Scored a perfect 800 on his math SATs.

In 1967 he graduated from Lawrenceville Prep at the age
of 16 in Lawrenceville , New Jersey .

His parents divorced when he was 13.

He has a brother named Jeff.

Huey dropped out of Cornell University to spend a year
living in Europe playing the harp.

Attended Cornell University , majoring in engineering,
but dropped out after his junior year, because he was in
a band called Clover and they were preparing for rock
stardom. Clover (minus Huey Lewis) provided the
instrumentals for Elvis Costello's debut album, "My Aim
Is True".

When the Band Clover broke up he formed Huey Lewis & The
News, the so-called 80s Band.

Huey Lewis successfully sued Ray Parker Jr. for
plagiarizing the medley to his song "I Want A New Drug".
They settled out of court and agreed not to talk about
the case in public. In 2001, Lewis talked about the case
in public when he revealed that Parker paid to settle
the suit on an episode of VH1's "Behind the Music"
(1997). Parker then sued Lewis for violating the terms
of their agreement.

Enjoys playing golf.

On the song "Hip to be Square", from the album "Fore!",
the backup singers at the end of the song include San
Francisco 49er stars Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott and Joe
Montana .

The original name of his band was "Huey Lewis and the
American Express". It was later changed to "Huey Lewis
and the News" due to legal reasons.

Huey Lewis & The News won the British Phonographic
Industry Award for International Group in 1986.

Although Lewis licensed "Hip to Be Square" for use in
the movie American Psycho for a 6 figure sum, he forbade
the song to be included on the CD soundtrack release (a
few early pressings of the CD included the song).

During an interview, he said that he learned how to play
the harmonica while hitchhiking across Europe .

Broken Top and Three Sisters Wilderness

After climbing down the mountain between electrical storms, we were famished and decided to use the cook stove to cook up some oatmeal from the back of the truck. While eating our breakfast, we had a conversation with a forest service ranger about camping opportunities and hiking trails in the area. He told us to follow the road on the other side of the Todd Lake parking lot and work our way back to the Broken Top trail head. This proved to be wonderful advice as we discovered the grassy, rolling hills I was picturing the day before. Throughout these grassy areas were snow run off streams which provided much music to our ears.
We were able to park our truck after 4-wheeling down the road to the trail head. (note: I don't think I would try this route in a vehicle without 4-wheel drive due to the deep ruts occaisionally in the mud road.) From there we hiked 1-2 miles to the base of Broken Top. This we decided was an area worth returning to on future trips! The wild flowers and streams provided much enjoyment and restored nerves after the electrical storm earlier in the morning.