Keeping Cool

Swimsuit: $7.99 at Costco
Sprinkler: $1.25 at 2nd Edition Resale shop
Pool: FREE from next-door neighbor
Cool Fun with our daughter: Priceless
(make sure to click on the picture to see the absolute joy on her face!)

Loving the warm weather (At last!)
k~

Won't you be my neighbor? Now where's the fence?

Living in the 'burbs means the chance that you will have neighbors is very high. But if you're lucky enough to live in an older neighborhood, most of the time there is at least a little breathing room between you and your fellow inhabitants. And a good fence.

Last winter during a particularly bad windstorm, a panel of the fence that runs between us and the house behind us, succumbed to its rotten feet, and had it not been for a conveniently-placed tree, would have landed flat on its back. Instead, it stayed propped up against said tree until as recently as this last Monday. This is when HE showed up.

Now about a month or so ago, I noticed the neighbor behind us, in her yard talking to a gentleman, and pointing at the fence. So, I thought I'd walk out and see if they were discussing the fixing of the fence. It seemed only right to at least gather some info, as it was our fence too. I should also mention, we've lived in our current house for six years this August, and up until this moment, we've never met the neighbors who live behind us. I know, we should be more pro-active and get to know our neighbors, but they're busy, we're busy, etc., etc., etc.

Anyway, so the neighbor lady and I introduce ourselves, and she says this is a contractor who's in the process of getting her an estimate for the fence. At this point, they haven't decided whether they're going to fix just the broken panel, or replace the whole fence. I say, "Well, as it's our fence too, when you decide, please let us know, and we can at least contribute for our part of the fence." So we left it at that.

Fast forward to this Monday. I look out the back window, and I see the same man, who has now begun work on the fence. The broken panel has been removed, as well as another part of our shared fence. He's there all day, working away, but by evening, the new panels have not gone back up. And by the way, we were home all day, and no communication from our neighbors about what's going on.

The next morning, I'm inside doing some housework, and happen to look outside. This man is now in our yard. He sees me, and motions for me to come outside. I do, and he says, "Did they tell you I was going to be in your yard?" I said, "No, but I figured you would have to be, as you're working on the fence, and it's obviously not done yet." He said, "Well, when I'm done you'll have a very nice looking fence, because in addition to replacing the panels, I'm also pressure- and oil-treating the old panels so they'll look like new." And then he went on to say that most people don't take care of their fences and should, because treating them is only $2000, whereas a new fence can be $5000. I mumbled something, and then retreated to the house, cringing and seeing the dollar signs multiplying, because I knew he was both treating and repairing the fence.

Today, day 4, and we've still heard nothing from our neighbors, and this man continues to work. Now I realize he's already done some of the work, but I'm really nervous because I haven't seen any quote, and have no idea what our portion may be.

So I'm asking you readers for some advice on what we should do. My mom says, "Don't go borrowing trouble and worry. Just wait and see what happens. I mean, you never even saw a quote, so you could always say, 'We didn't agree to that amount.'

However, I don't want to start WW3 with these neighbors--we still have to live here, after all. And he did do the work, so I want to do the right thing there.

The reality is, we don't have a couple thousand dollars just lying around that we haven't known what to do with. And yes, we could have gone out and gotten our own estimates, but I think if it had been up to us, we probably would have tried to fix it ourselves---Laura VG, Clint does owe David some reciprocal fence/post-hole digging time :-)

Suggestions? Help please!

Back from the Desert (literally!)

Lest you think I'd fallen off the planet as it's been over a month since my last post, rest assured: We're fine :-) It's just that up until this last week, we've had the same old, same old, with nothing really exciting to report.

But now I can write about our recent family getaway to Sunriver! We decided this year to not take a big trip for several reasons: Kyra's 2 1/2, $$$, we went to Hawaii last year, Kyra's 2 1/2, $$$$, do I need to go on? Instead we chose to vacation locally, within driving distance --although this was before gasoline hit over $4 a gallon--EEK!

After looking on Craigslist, we found a nice 2 bed/2 bath house for rent in Sunriver for only $99 a night--a real bargain :-) I admit, I was a little worried, as we'd never rented a house in Sunriver before, but thought if it was absolutely horrible, we could always stay with my sister who lives in Redmond.

Also being early June, we weren't sure exactly what to expect weather-wise, but we crossed our fingers and hoped for warm sun--the house came with pool passes after all :-)

On our drive over, we took Santiam Pass, and encountered SNOW at the top of the pass, which was funny at the time, but was actually a preview of the weather to come :-( As one TV weather forecaster said while we were there, "We're having unseasonably cold weather this time of year. Tonight's low will be below freezing." Below freezing!?!? But being that we are Oregonians, you learn early on that you can't let the weather dictate your mood or what you do. You just adjust your wardrobe accordingly. And that's what we did, including a little unplanned stop at the REI in Bend, as David had forgotten a warm coat...

All in all, I'd have to say this was one of the most fun family vacations we've taken, and now I'll leave you with some pictures of our trip:

Day 1:
See-sawing with Daddy at
Fort Rock Park

Day 2:
The Old Mill District in Bend
to buy a coat

Day 3:
Feeding the fish
Fall River Fish Hatchery

Day 3:
Hanging out with Daddy
Deschutes River

Day 3:
Look Mommy, a pine cone!
Can I keep it?

Day 3:
Down by the Deschutes River
with Mommy

Day 3:
Yes, that's snow on the ground in June

Day 3:
Cascade Lakes Hwy.
Guess we're turning around...

Day 4:
Cousin Tatum's Birthday party

Day 4:
Snuggling with Grandma A
after a long day

Day 5:
Enjoying the Sun (finally!)
Lava Cast Forest

Day 5:
Benham Falls Bridge

Day 5:
The Princess

So there you have it. I promise to not go so long between posts next time, even if I have to write about ho hum things :-)

Happy Monday friends~
k~

May Day & Marigolds

This year I decided Kyra & I would start a new tradition in our family and make May Day Baskets. May Day also happened to fall on a Thursday, which is typically Play Date Day for our MOMs group, so we asked one of the other moms in our MOMs group & her daughters (ages 4 & 18 months) to join us.

As neither of us wanted the expense or mess of using real flowers, we decided to go to Michaels and buy silk flowers instead. We also found these really cute little galvanized watering cans, so I'll admit we changed up the "basket" idea a little bit :-)

Anyone who has tried to do a craft with young ones knows they do a little and you do all of the rest. But that was okay, because the cutting of wire-stemmed flowers was a challenge even for me--I have the war wound to prove it where my scissors slipped and cut off half my fingernail--OUCH!

Anyway, with the baskets put together, we gathered up all the girls, and the fun began. At our first stop, my neighbor saw us through their kitchen window so we weren't able to do the delivery properly--ring the doorbell, and run. But he was very grateful, none the less.

The other neighbor's house was more successful, in that we were able to ring the doorbell, grab the girls' hands, and shout, "RUN!" as we dashed around the corner. The looks on the girls' faces were priceless. And the neighbor was beyond excited. She said we made her day :-)

Then our friends went home and Kyra & I delivered our last two baskets, one to each Grandma. Below are those precious moments:

Flowers for Grandma H

Flowers for Grandma A

We also discovered this really brought out Kyra's love of real flowers, plus all the flowers are blooming now as it's Spring. So last weekend we went out to this great nursery, Farmington Gardens and brought home some marigolds for her to plant. Below are some snapshots of she and Daddy planting these.

I do it, Daddy!

Look, Mommy! A worm!

Dirt: the new conditioner

All in all, we're very happy for the sun to be "back on", as Kyra says, and we're looking forward to the warmer, drier days ahead.

Happy Tuesday friends,
k~

Something I never thought someone would say to me

When I retired from my "career/9-5" life, I had the luxury of trading my business wardrobe of skirts & dresses or nice pants, for my mommy wardrobe--jeans or casual pants nearly every day.

Apparently once again my dear 2 yr old daughter has a fashion opinion about this, which she shared with me yesterday: "Mommy, you're a man." I couldn't put a skirt on fast enough...Sigh.

Next stop: Project Runway

The other day I'm getting ready for my exercise class, and am in the process of picking out a shirt, when my little Fashion Guru takes one look at my pants, and says, "Mommy, not that shirt. It doesn't match." Oy vey!

All it took was one broken latch...

and she was in the street.

Now before you start to worry that our dear little Kyra is the "she" in the story, take heart. I'm talking about another young lady, and the story thankfully has a happy ending.

We were driving down the main neighborhood street earlier, when we noticed a young lady sitting right in the middle of the road. I asked David to pull over, and we got out to see if we could help.

As I got closer to where she was, I quickly realized several things: 1) We were right in front of a group home with disabled residents. 2) She was alone and 3) she was in danger of being hit. Although the traffic on that particular street is not extremely busy, people have been known to come flying around that corner, and she was hard to see, sitting down low on the ground.

Not knowing exactly what to do, but knowing I needed to get her out of the street, I started praying, and then slowly started to approach her. When I got close enough, I called out to her, "Honey, you need to get out of the street. It's not safe for you to sit in the middle of the road." I then continued walking toward her, all the time talking quietly and hoping that she would even let me help her.

I helped her to stand, and we got out of the street, at least temporarily. Then things got really difficult. Her verbal skills were practically non-existent, but her sheer determination to get back into the street, not to mention extremely strong arms, was almost more than I could handle.

Still praying like crazy, I was able to keep her out of the street for the most part, until David & Kyra were able to bring out one of the caregivers from the group home. They immediately recognized her, and thanked us profusely for helping her. I said I was just glad we were there at the right place at the right time, and could help. It seems she'd been in the fenced back yard, and then had made her way out to the front with the help of a broken latch on the gate.

I'm so glad we were able to help, and that she didn't seem to be any worse for the wear. I don't know that I can say the same for her caregiver, who looked more than just a little green around the gills.

But the story doesn't end there. When we got home, I sat down to read a little bit of this great book called "90 minutes in Heaven", by Don Piper. It's a true story about a man who was in a horrific car accident, actually died, and then, in his words, "God sent him back."

I'm reading along, and I come to the following section where Don is having a conversation with the man who he believes prayed him back to life, his friend Dick Onerecker:

Don says, "Again, Dick, I want to thank you for saving my life. I obviously can't thank you enough for your faithfulness in obeying God that rainy day."

"It was what anybody would have done," he said..."I just knew I had to pray for you. I could only think that you were hurt, and I wanted to make you feel better. I didn't do anything unusual."

"But you did. When the officer told you I was already dead----"

"Listen to me, Don. If you saw a little kid run out in the street, you'd dash out there and try to save that child's life. Human nature is like that. We try to preserve life, and I will do that any time I get the opportunity. So would you....Yet here we are sitting in this place (they were in a restaurant), surrounded by people, many of whom are probably lost and going to hell, and we won't say a word about how they can have eternal life. Something is wrong with us."

"You're absolutely right," I said. "We're willing to save someone in a visible crisis, but a lot of folks are in spiritual crisis and we don't say a word about how they can get out of it."

Talk about being convicted. Here I had just lived this very scenario, and yet how many others did I pass today that were in eternal crisis, and I didn't say a word?

Going forward, my hope is to be like Don & his friend Dick who, as a result of their experiences, vowed with boldness, to be on the lookout for opportunities to talk about Jesus and His saving love.

Blessings friends!
k~