Sunday, September 8, 2013

Work and Play

As mentioned before, Steven's been busting his rump with overtime this summer. With Abi's medical bills and the new roof going on this week, what a blessing! And what a blessing that he has that overtime available. So that's also meant a few house projects have been tackled. Like finding and then pumping the septic tank. Finding was key.  A friend of Steven's from the fire world came over one morning and they went treasure hunting in the back yard. Boy did they strike gold.... on the 4th try. Funny how the memory forgets where something like the septic tank is. Or maybe it wandered off on its own.  So now we'll install a riser so the next pumping isn't quite so much fun. Of course the kids loved the fresh piles of dirt that were in the yard... I'm still working on the resulting muddy clothes.
The kids have started their school year program/curriculum at day school and it seems that fall has settled in. At least until today. Our weather is back up in the 80s and we're expected to hit 90 by midweek. The garden harvest is still in full swing with peppers, green beans and tomatoes.  We're pretty excited to have 4 HUGE pumpkins on the vines too. But with all the schools in session, I thought it might be a slower time to take the kids to the beach for the day. Steven was transferred to Station 3 in Oak Grove which is a very busy station so I knew that coming off shift, he might need a nap rather than a day trip out to the coast. So, on his first shift at 3s, the kids and I took off and headed for the beach. What a great time! The weather was gorgeous and mid70's. Praise the Lord, the kids had a healthy fear of the waves after Z was tipped over by a sneaker wave and we played for a few hours in the sand. Two good listeners get rewards, so we made a pit stop at the salt water taffy shop and got taffy to share with Daddy's crew when we visited on our way home.

Labor Day Weekend

We were happy to spend Labor day weekend at home! Evi had just returned from the Alaska cruise she, Annie, Steve & Stephie went on so she spent a few days here with us before flying back to NYC. We're thrilled she'll be moving to Portland in October. I was ecstatic to watch the kids and her; it's as if she's always just been down the street. Prime example (I love this photo): As I was prepping dinner one of the few nights, I looked out the window and there's Z, naked as he prefers to be, sittin' on Auntie's lap, fishing in his pool. Love it!

Summer fun

Steven is a sun baby. No way of getting around it. So while our camping trip to Prineville ended up being a wet, soggy central Oregon trip, we took another chance to head over for a few days. We took off and met our friends Dusty and Kayla and their foster daughter K who's one month older than Zach. I had just gotten a cortisone injection to the hip so we enjoyed lots of walks, a 10+ mile bike ride and hours at the pool. Needless to say, I think Steven would spend an entire month in the sun if he had a chance! And it was well earned this summer as he worked lots of overtime so that we could pay for the new roof that is scheduled to start 9/10!