Guess what....?

Its no longer ours!!! We accepted an offer on our house in early May, and we officially closed on Wednesday. We were hesitant to say anything until everything was final, which it now is. We're renting back from the buyer for another month, and we'll be rolling out of town on June 28th!

Swingset Fun

Over four years ago, Adam began work on our wooden backyard play structure. One of those "you-and-a-buddy-can-assemble-this-in-a-weekend" type kits. Feel free to blame Home Depot for the faulty advertising. A mere six weeks later, we had it up and running. Here are some pictures of the assembly with a little help from little Alex, who was two at the time.

This play structure has become a staple of our backyard. Its seen many, many hours of use. Its where both Alex and Allison (and the neighbor girl) learned to work a swing. They've also learned to jump...off the swings AND the slides. (I have video documenting this, but for some reason I'm having difficulty uploading it. Check back later). The upper level clubhouse areas have been 'imagined' into everything from pirate ships to campgrounds to museums. I know the museum sounds odd, but right now, even as I type this, they've "opened an exhibit" of pine cones, leaves and acorns.

All that to say, it will be one more thing we'll need to leave behind. So, I'm trying to take as many pictures as possible. I've posted a few below.

This seemed like a good idea at the time.

Poor Adam. This was not his idea. Allison missed the self-timer on the first one.

We went to California this weekend....

....can you tell?

The good news is, our little Corolla averaged 40mpg!

We spent the three day weekend in glorious Lake Tahoe, although the weather was far from glorious. As you know we've spent multiple summers in Lake Tahoe as part of Campus Crusade's Lake Tahoe Summer Project. Even though we are extremely excited about our transition, we've realized that its summers in Lake Tahoe that we'll miss the most. We wanted to pay it one last visit, while we were still within road tripping distance. It may be many years until we return.

Due to the lousy weather, we spent most of our weekend indoors, but we still had a fabulous time!

Grieving

Yesterday I shed a tear as I placed the dinner table scraps in the garbage, rather than giving Copper a fourth meal. Then I smiled as I realized for the first time in 10 years our trash can is on the floor (where it belongs) rather than on the counter (in order to keep the dog out)!

Sad Day

Our dog Copper passed away today (Monday) at the ripe old age of 10! He had had a rough couple of weeks, so we knew it was inevitable. I've been thumbing through photos and found a few to post on here. We didn't wind up in the digital world until late 2003, and unfortunately all our older pictures are packed. He was awfully cute as a pup, even though I can't document that here. Maybe once we get relocated and unpacked I can upload a few more.

You Know You're From the Northwest When....

Since we are soon leaving the Pacific Northwest, we thought it would be fun to share with you some truths about those who live here. Most are taken from Facebook, but we added a few ourselves.

You feel guilty throwing paper in the trash.
You use the statement "sun break" and know what it means.
You feel overdressed wearing a suit to a nice restaurant.
In Portland, you point out all the streets that Simpson characters were named after.
You know the difference between Chinook, Coho, and Sockeye salmon.
You can point to at least two volcanoes, even if you cannot see through the cloud cover. (Our children can even do this)!
You think people who use umbrellas are either wimps or people from California.
You design your child's Halloween costume to fit under a raincoat.
You complain about Californians as you sell your house to one for twice as much as you originally paid.
Every day is casual Friday.
Oregonians, you go out of state and wait in your car for someone to pump your gas.
You know the exact day you had school off because it snowed like....one inch.
Your lawn is mostly moss and you don't really care.
You know the difference between a rhododendron and an azalea.

Happy Mother's Day

Ongoing Responsibilities

As we mentioned earlier, we will continue our employment with Campus Crusade for Christ through the fall. We are busy transitioning out of our roles in Portland and training our replacements.

Earlier this spring Anne, once again, directed the annual National Human Resources Sending Associate Conference. During this conference, new Sending Associates are trained in order to effectively recruit, interview, hire and assess new Campus Crusade staff members. Not only does Anne determine the schedule of the conference, she also presents the majority of the training material from up front. She has become one of the foremost experts on our new staff application and our hiring process. This is a busy season for her because, nationally, we hire most of our new applicants during the summer. Along with hiring our new staff, she has been asked to consult with a working group that is rewriting our application materials. This will keep her busy throughout the summer.

Since January, I have been working with our staff that are leading our International summer projects. Our teams are anticipating their upcoming summers, preparing to spend 4-6 weeks in: Japan, Croatia, Italy, Venezuela, Australia, Costa Rica, and Russia. My role has been to assist them operationally and strategically. I’ve been busy processing donations, filling out insurance forms, addressing parent concerns, identifying travel issues, etc. Some of our teams leave this week! Please be praying for them and their students as they encounter what will be an unforgettable summer. I will need to continue my role coaching these leaders until all teams return to the U.S. and their finances are wrapped up in August.

Sick Day

Today the kids were home from school and other activities because of constant complaints of sore throats, fevers, etc. After a throat culture revealed that they didn't have strep (thankfully) the rest of the day was spent resting and whining. Although, we did make this map of the continental US, and apart from it being entirely off-scale (Illinois is nearly the same size as Nevada!) and the fact the Kentucky looks absolutely nothing like it should, I think it turned out OK.

Allison, now, is fast asleep. Alex is in the shower (claiming he needs to wash off all the germs, again!), and we're off to clean our home for another showing tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed.....

House Guests

Every year we have a family of robins make a nest somewhere in our yard...either on the back porch or in a large bush outside our front window. Throughout the past few springs, we've enjoyed watching their eggs hatch and seeing them care for their young. This year, however, they chose a new spot for their nest. Right in the middle of the roof on our front porch. We found this to be a little bit of a nuisance, considering we are attempting to sell our house. So, once they began their work, we immediately began to stop it. I must say, these are the most persistent robins we have ever seen. Daily they have returned with their nest materials, and daily we have knocked down their work and cleaned up the mess. This has been going on for over three weeks now, and it gives us one more thing to do in order to prepare our house for a showing. Adam had the idea of placing one of Alex's dinosaurs up onto the ledge where they were nesting...thinking a lizard would scare them off. Now they seem to be preparing a nest for the dinosaur too. (See the pictures below). They've worked so hard, I think we'll let them stay, once our house sells.

Eugene Marathon

We had a great Sunday in Track Town, USA for the Eugene Marathon. Adam was pleased with the course and clocked in at a little over 4 hours. It was really an impressive finish considering his minimal training. The kids and I, following our one-mile-fun-run, spent the day as spectators at the finish line at Autzen Stadium. Both the kids received medals and t-shirts for their efforts. Alex also received a Marathon Finisher's Certificate for completing his 26.2 miles.

For Sale

Our little bungalow is still for sale. Trust me....you'll be one of the first to know when it is no longer ours.

New Car

Two weeks ago we purchased a new (to us) Toyota Corolla. Its a 2004. Prior to that we were driving a 1995 Ford Windstar which was a gift to us in 2001. It served us well, but it needed to be retired. Fortunately we were able to find someone else who needed it more than we did. We decided it was time to downsize due to rising gas prices. Plus, as our children get bigger their car seats get smaller, so we don't need the room of a minivan. It has been fun to drive and much less painful (price-wise) to fill up the tank.