Spaghetti Face

My friend Leanne is so creative. She bought a fall cookbook and found a great way to decorate spaghetti. We had a little dinner party and everyone was a complete mess when we were done! It was great.

Grandpa is in Afghanistan

A little over a week ago was Richard's dad's birthday. He is a doctor for the Navy and was recently deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan. For his birthday everyone decided to write him a nice letter and we spent some time taking pictures which I printed out and put in the envelope. These are some of those picts.

We are told that his "hospital" and dwellings are a little more primitive than he is used to. I wish we had some pictures of him to share but he doesn't really have internet access to send them to us. We recently heard from his wife that he is doing well and she said that sometimes as a doctor he has had to help heal some children there in Kandahar. That part made me sad but also happy that he is there to help them.

Eagleview Camping

We went on one last camping trip for the year with some friends a few weeks ago. It was a beautiful, clean camping area with the river within walking distance. It was cool to walk around on the rock that used to be under water and find all kinds of treasures. Richard and Mark found some tadpoles which he used to fish with. Yucky!!

Sheep Poo

Ever since we moved to Roseburg Richard has really wanted the kids to have a chance to participate in 4-H and earn some money raising and selling an animal.  This year our oldest is the right age to start.  He wants to raise a lamb.  Since we don't have enough land and are not zoned for livestock, we are working on a friend''s ranch in exchange for the use of their land to raise a sheep. 

 Our first family project was to clean out the sheep pen.  It was about a three hour project, shoveling and hauling to the manure pile.  Last week Richard took the oldest two to help get the hay for the winter and load it into the loft.  This weekend we will be helping to haul the feed to the barrels.  It is a great experience and one of the perks is that we get to fish in their pond!!

I'm 34!!!

I had a fabulous birthday.  It was on a Sunday and Richard and the kids spoiled me by getting all ready for church without me, making me the most amazing two layer cake (with three candles and a 4 candle to represent 34,) and being super fun all day.  For dinner we had my favorite, home made pizza which I insisted on helping with to make sure it was just right.  They bought me some really cute shoes which I of course wore to church.  I got lots of fun phone calls from family which kept me happily chatting for hours.

Before my birthday Richard took me out to an awesome Roseburg football game (we won by a lot.)  My friend Leanne took the family out for pizza and got me the fun canoe picture (she and I hang out on the river together) and the super fun chalkboard/coat hanger that we love.  My friend Marci brought me some amazing lemon cranberry scones and some fun kitchen things and another friend, Shirley, brought me a nice accessory for the kitchen.

Overall, a very well celebrated, fun birthday.  Tomorrow the ladies in the cul-de-sac will come for a lunch which will be the last of my birthday celebrations.  Even when you are 34 it can be fun.

  

River Highs and Lows

The dam that is about a mile down the river from us had to have some repairs done so the water was drained out to expose the dam for those repairs.  Here are some picts of the lows and one pict of last year when the river flooded the park (use the green mailbox as a reference.)

Evening at Cooper Creek

Some friends invited us for family night to go out on their boat at Cooper Creek.  We had a ton of fun on their tubes.  The kids had a blast as they went two or three on one tube and would bump into one another.  Richard and I would have contests to see who could stand up on one the longest.  It was a blast.