Monday, May 21, 2007 Busy Life!!!

What a crazy and hectic life I live lately!! We had a great time in Hood River, but after unpacking Marc headed to California for three days for work. It is hard to believe that our little "redneck" boy from Corbett went to California on a BUSINESS TRIP!!!! I think the whole trip was worth it for him when they bought him a $50.00 T-bone at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Portland! A meat and Potato guy my man is!!!

This past weekend we went on a much needed vacation to the beach. It was so much fun, we hadn't been to the beach in about 4 years. It is a little farther for us to get there from here than it used to be from Corbett. We headed through Salem to Lincoln City and stayed the night there. Of course the hotel had to have a pool! The boys (including Marc) had a blast in the pool alone. Marc said that we could have just rented a room in a Bend hotel that has a pool and the boys would have been just as happy! It's true but, they had so much fun clamming!!! Marc and Beau got a huge Big Blue clam. Beau was so proud of it he was showing it to all of the other clammers there. Pretty soon there was a whole group of people digging in the same area as us.
Of course we had to go to the taffy shop that we went to as I was growing up. they have the best taffy in town! We shopped, a lot! The boys were looking for the "perfect" gift for their Girl Friends ( notice it's not GIRLFRIEND, I was informed that they are "just girls that are friends"!!!
We visited the wax museum, Ripley's believe it or not and the Undersea gardens. I have to say that I was disappointed in all three of them. I think the only update that any of them have had in the 30 something years I have been going there is that they added a Lord of the Rings display at the wax museum. Other than that they all had just about the same thing they have always had. I wish we would have spent our money on the Oregon Coast Aquarium instead.
We went to a cool glass blowing place. we wanted to have the boys blow their own glass floats nut, it was $65.00 each person! So, we just sat and watched them make all kinds of beautiful floats.
Scrapbook news
I finally finished one of the Japanese albums, it was shipped last week! Pam also asked me to do some invitations for her so, I printed the invitations and envelopes an mailed them Friday before we left.
I am taking a break from Scrap-A-Doodle for the Summer. Debie and I agreed that people (myself included) will be too busy during the summer break to do classes. So, I will spend some time this summer coming up with some new designs.
Marc is on call all Memorial Day weekend, so we can't go out of town so, I think I will join some friends at a scrapbook weekend retreat. It is kind of an impromptu get together, but it is with some friends I haven't been able to scrap with before. It should be a lot of fun.I probably should get myself organized.
Anyhow, talk at ya soon!!
Don't forget, you can leave comments after my posts, just click on the link at the bottom of the post.
Nicole

Sunday, May 13, 2007 Happy Mother's Day!!!

Happy Mother's day to all the moms out there!!
What an awesome day at church today! There were 8 baptisms and one incredible testimony from one of Marc's new friends, Dennis!!

It's a beautiful day again today, and I get to choose what we are going to do the rest of the day. I think we are going to hike Smith Rock or Pilot Butte!
Wish us luck!

May 9, 2007 Summer's Almost here!!!

What a beautiful week it has been in Bend!

Friday, we dropped the boys off for a weekend of fun at Grandma and Grandpa Haines' house, then we headed East.

Marc and I spent the weekend in Hood River for the Hunter's Ed Conference and had a wonderful time!! There was a welcome cocktail party Friday night and we were able to connect with some people from all across the state and visit with people involved in Fishing Ed and Bow Hunter's Education.

Saturday, Marc was in classes all day so, what was a girl to do with so much free time? I finished a complete 8 X 8 mini "all about me" scrapbook in one day!! I watched a chick flick, read a book, got a facial, and a manicure and a pedicure!!
I have not relaxed so much since Mexico last year with mom!! It was wonderful!!!

Saturday night there was a banquet with dinner, and an auction and awards ceremony. It was neat to see how many men and women have served as volunteers for 25 years and more!! One guy I talked to has been a volunteer for more than 40 years!!! It is amazing how committed these people are to the education of our hunters!!

It was back to reality and work on Monday. Marc had a hunter's ed class on Monday night and the boys and I went to dinner at the church with the Strength team. It was so neat to hear their testimonies and how far some of them have come to get to where they are now. One guy even spent 2 years and 14 days in jail! That was until the chaplain, a petite little old lady, witnessed to him.

Marc bought me an i pod as an early Mother's day gift. Anyone who knows me well knows my obsession with music. It has been a big part of my life for a very long time! I sing with commercials, with the radio and I have even been known to sing with elevator music! I have been wanting an i pod for a long time but, couldn't bring myself to splurge on such an expensive gift for myself. So, the last few days I have been loading my Cd's onto the computer and downloading music from the Internet. I am loving it!!! The only thing now is that I still sing but, the boys can't hear the music, only me singing. Oh, well, such is life!! :)

Until next time.......

Thursday, May 3, 2007 Marc's Birthday!!

Today Marc turns 36!!!

We went to see the Strength team last night at church and they were awesome!!! They burned wood and broke bricks, bent a horshoe into a heart shape and blew up cans of soda!! It was so much fun and what's even better is many people committed their lives to the Lord!!
The boys brought home a couple of souvenirs, broken bats and boards that they had autographed. It was definitely worth staying out until 9:30 on a school night!

Not much to talk about today, just getting ready for the weekend in Hood River. I will let ya'll know how it goes on Monday!

Tuesday, May 1, 2007 "budget looks good!"

Well, I am so excited because the school principal stopped me in the hall yesterday to let me know that the budget looks good for me for next year!! I was worried about what I was going to do. When I applied for this job I knew it was temporary but, I was holding out hope that the budget would allow for me to come back. Well, it looks like they may be able to hire another EA also!

Marc and I are heading to Hood River this weekend for a Hunter's Ed conference. It should be fun, a lot of relaxing and shopping on my part. I am looking forward to just hanging out. Especially since we worked so hard last weekend around the house. Donna (our neighbor, and surrogate grandmother for the boys) and I went plant shopping and got some great new plants for the flower bed between us. Marc and I bought a new tree for the front yard and he replaced a lot of the bad sod in the yard. Painting is suppose to start this Thursday but, the weather report is calling for rain, so we will see.

Longboard Louie's Eastside is open!!!
We helped Jeff and Kathi a little last week and were rewarded with a free meal over the weekend. I have to say that the Halibut Enchilada was my favorite!!! The prices are reasonable and Jeff is planning on having seasonal Margaritas!!! This weeks is Blood Orange Margaritas!! They are awesome! We even went in on Sunday just to have a couple more and chill out from a busy weekend! If you get the chance you ought to stop and say hi to Wendy, she is so nice and serves up a great fish taco!!!

On the scrapbooking side of things, I entered another contest. One through Creating Keepsakes mag. It is called Fresh Faces, basically it is a call for un-published scrappers to be highlighted in the mag. I entered the allowable two layouts and I am hoping for the best!!! One of my biggest goals in life is to be published in Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Bend Christian Fellowship
The strength team is coming to town this week!! Their motto is
POWER/INTENSITY/MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION
It should be a blast, they blow up hot water bottles with their mouths, break bats with their hands and break bricks with their heads!! It starts Wednesday night and the finale is Sunday night. I hope we see you there!!!

Remember:
Make the most of every day!!!