some springtime happenings

Spring in Oregon is a beautiful time! we've had some rain, but more sun. Flowers are blooming, roses and poppies are everywhere, the garden is taking off, and everything is green. Here's the life in photos:

our friends Marv and Nancy and Joan and Art all came to visit us, and we crashed their hotel room at Mcminamins, having a lovely but brief visit. 

We stopped by Multnomah falls 

Julia and I have fallen off our morning walk routine, which is bad for my general exercise, but it does give us wonderful lazy mornings, eating breakfast and reading and playing around. I'm hoping to switch to an afternoon walk routine to get back into the habit!

during a playdate, Julia and her friend Aurora climbed into bed and Julia read books to her!

Dave went to alaska for a graduation ceremony of former students, and while he was gone my friend Whitney came to hang out! we dragged out my paper stuff and spend a morning making cards.  

Julia's been 'reading' to her baby a lot.  

lettuce in the window box 

lavender blooming out front

a wild rose bush 

iris, all the ones in the yard so far are this shade of purple. I'm hoping to get some yellow to mix in!

another wild rose

the strawberry bed got netted and has been producing a few berries. more are pinking up!

the adjacent bed has kale, lettuce, carrot, radish, and rhubarb. 

when it is not raining, I sit on the porch with Julia and some blankets and drink my coffee. 

Julia's new favorite game is "go to sleep" which involves dragging her bedding out to the sidewalk and pretending to sleep. 

some friends of ours are moving into town from the country and have been showering julia with gifts as they pack. she's in love with the wagon!

occasionally I care for this little girl, Maya. She's a sweet little thing, but it does remind me how nice it is to have a 3 year old!

princess Julia, ready for a walk. 

foxglove are blooming

Julia's taken on the role of flower inspector and takes her duties seriously. walking to the post office 4 blocks away can take over an hour. 

more flower inspecting and dancing upon

I can't seem to stop starting new seedlings. these are basil and dill and hyssop.  

mint is popping up all over!

I planted this last fall but forgot what it was. something good for tea. hopefully someone will come along who can tell me. 

I'm growing some potatoes in containers. supposed to have less pests that way. 

I've had to boot the chickens back to their pen for the near future while the seedlings grow. They were pretty miffed at me for a few days, but seem fine again. 

we've got a serviceberry that is producing berries, but there's an orange thing covering many of them. i doubt it is good and hopefully someone will come along and tell me how to get rid of it. 

the cherry trees are producing, and the birds have noticed!

the raspberries are getting ready to ripen

the tomato bed is taking off. 

the sage is flowering 

the peas are growing up their trellises

we planted a few sunflowers, and hopefully they will grow huge.  

some blueberries are here!

my sister caroline and her boyfriend Matt came for a night. 

we checked out the evening light on the waterfront

Julia was smitten, of course. good thing that next weekend is joe's graduation so she'll get to see lots of family!

may flowers

We've had some amazing weather here. Sorry Minnesota, but the west has got you beat for early springtime! The month has flew by with few major markers. Dave's school had its annual fundraiser, doing just fine by raising 40,000 for next year's operating costs. (Charter schools in Oregon are funded by the state at 80% and fund raise the remaining 20%.) Everyone at school is pretty happy that it is over until next year! I passed all my EMT finals so now I'm official, at least on paper. I've begun to incorporate into the local team of emts, but I think it will be a bit before I feel really comfortable with everyone. Julia's been her usual awesome self, loving the spring weather which means lots of outdoor play. Her favorite thing to do is pull up grass and flowers, find scraps of wood and build nests. Sometimes she pilfers the real eggs and I find them later in rather artful piles in the lawn.

Our little silkie hen managed to hatch a chick, much to our joy, but then we were devastated on the 2nd day to find the chick dead and the silkie covered in mites. It was a real tragedy that I didn't catch fast enough. We've recovered from the disaster now, and maybe someday we will try hatching another batch of chicks. 

We went to a luau at Dave's college, which has a strong Hawaiian population. On the way, we visited our friends, the Gustafsons! 

lots of frolicking in the sunshine. the boards on the ground are one of Julia's nests. 

I've done a few drills with the local emts. we were practicing low-angle ropes rescues here

For about a week I couldn't figure out why the chickens had all stopped laying. I usually get 4-5 eggs a day, and suddenly I was down to 1 egg a day! Finally I discovered that they had been hiding a secret stash of eggs from me behind a hay bale! There were more than 20 eggs in the cache! Now I'm on the lookout for secret egg stashes, but they've gone back to laying eggs in the coop. who knows why! 

I finally took Julia in for a real haircut! Our daily battles over combing out the snarls were just too much. She was apprehensive about it, but the stylist won her over by giving her "princess pink lips" when we were done. She's commented daily on how she had pink lips ever since. She still gets all worked up when I go to comb her hair, but the snarls are pretty much nonexistent, so hopefully she'll relax soon. 

showing off the hair, the wings and a new dress!!! (thanks Bekah!!)

one day at storyhour, they put up a stage. the kids went nuts over it, putting on the most avaunt garde performance imaginable. 

And here's a new first, Julia went to preschool!!! There's a sweet little preschool that we've been noticing at our friday playgroup. I checked them out for next fall and Miss Amanda the teacher suggested that if we were interested, she would be willing to have Julia as a drop-in for the spring. So last week, we tried it and she LOVED it. Not so much as a tear when I said goodbye and when I came back 3 hours later and stood in the doorway, she made eye contact, smiled a huge smile and then went right back to her project of watering the plants. I think we'll keep on doing it on fridays, since she's so happy and to give me some time to myself once a week!

springing

It's been awhile with no contact, but my computer developed some mysterious symptoms that were eventually linked back to the last time I got it fixed for water damage. Just a small mountain of money later, here we are again. lots has been going on. We took a trip to Washington the week prior to Easter to visit the grandparents and a few of my family members.

digging in the sunshine at Grandpa Dave's

Julia is much less shy around Grandpa Dave then she used to be. Now she'll talk to him! We left for home a day early and didn't get to say a proper goodbye and she got mad at me that she didn't "get to hug and kiss Grandpa Dave" goodbye! 

birthday present from Uncle Olaf! 

playing "nest"

on a walk, she insisted on holding Olaf's hand. He was sweet enough to accommodate her! 

I neglected to get any photos with Grandma Gini! shame on me! It was a good visit, but it was nice to get back home too! Julia got to play with all her new birthday toys, and I did lots of yard work in the sunshine!

the iris are popping up and the hyacinth that we planted in the fall are blooming away! 

The chicken coop finally got a new coat of paint. Same color as the house trim! 

we had some lazy mornings in bed

kisses for julia!

kisses for momma!

no more kisses!!!

we've started frequenting the playgrounds again now that the weather is lovely. Whenever we are going home, Julia complains "I dont WANT to go home!"

Easter morning the Easter bunny had left some surprises out in the yard 

I had made some more easter cracking eggs this year. you save up some mostly whole egg shells for a few weeks, getting them by using a knife to crack off just enough of the tip to pour out the egg, rinse, dry, and dye when you have enough. let dry, fill with whatever, and cover the open end with a square of tissue paper glued to the edge of the shell. When they are found, you have to crack them to get the surprise! she had chocolates and some little tiny animals in her eggs. 

candies!!!

all fancied up for church! Julia's dress shed glitter like a fairy on steroids. we were all covered by the end of the day. 

church had another egg hunt but thankfully these were fill of change that the kids got to collect and donate to the food bank. someone was so smart when they planned that!!!

more days in the sun and some time at the beach.  

Julia got to meet some baby goats! I got to milk the momma goat! I've been invited back to do it again and perhaps become a backup for the farmer in case he needs one. I loved doing it so soon I'm going to go again! 

One day I sat down with pinterest and actually tried to make some of the hair bows I'd been pinning for awhile. Mostly successful! Julia's pleased with the new selection. 

more fun at playgroup!

Our friend Nick came to visit. He's moving to portland in the fall, so we are extra happy. Julia was a big fan. She rode on the "buffalo" for a good 40 minutes before he got tired. 

then they went for a trike ride. 

then they chased chickens and petted the ones they caught. 

then we all feasted on bbq and food and food and more food and some more food! it's good to have friends visit! 

yay!

despite my stern reprimands, Julia picks all the flowers, so we've got lots in the windows. 

I've been working hard at finishing my EMT course. Today I took the 3rd of 4 finals, and the last of the finals is on saturday!