Non Stop Action!

I know it's been since May, but here I am! Finally. It's been non-stop since May. We've had a great summer with beaucoup exciting events! Well let's start in June when Mom, Grama and Grampa came to visit. They stayed for 3 weeks I think, everyone stayed at my new house which was awesome! It definitely helped make me feel more at home.

We took a little field trip down to the casino in Florence. Everyone won . . . except Grama. Sad! But you couldn't tell by the look on her face!

I left for San Antonio right after everyone left for a week to work at the GSA annual Expo. One of my fav parts of working at LRI is that I get to work with my friends, so going to San Antonio with Starr was awesome! We had a blast, made a lot of contacts and have since gotten a few good sized orders! I had no idea San Antonio would be so beautiful and the Riverwalk was so fun!

The day I got back from the show Leo's parents, Dave and Dallas, arrived from Hawaii. They spent June/July with us. We sorted through a lot of stuff and worked on getting many of their things packed away nicely. It doesn't look easy to sort through 30 years of stuff! So many memories and both Dave and Dallas are collectors, especially Dave! :) While they were here visiting we had Dallas' birthday to celebrate and we decided to throw David an early 60th birthday party. We also celebrated Leo's birthday early. It was great! On top of all that I got to meet David's niece, Ashley. She lives in Napa and has 4 kids. She is so fun! We really hit it off!It was really good times.Dallas' birthday at the rose garden in Eugene. This is one of her favorite trees in Eugene.

Ashley, me and David at his party.David's birthday is also their anniversary. Here are some pics an old friend of their's brought to the party. This was their wedding day.The day after Dave's party we took a bunch of our friends down to Ray's to ride the train.

The day after we got back from Vegas we headed up to Portland for a Snoop Dogg concert. Lily bought us tickets for Leo's birthday and about 6 of us rolled up there and had a great time! Then for a little extra excitement, when we got back to the hotel we were staying in we heard gun shots, probably a block away. In less than 5 seconds there were cop cars arriving and by the end there were like 30 cop cars! It was crazy! About a week after David and Dallas flew back to Hawaii we left for PGI. PGI has become one of my favorite events. The friends we have made there and the passion they all have for this artform is amazing! I'm going to write a seperate post about it!

The same day we flew back from Iowa, Jeremy flew into Eugene. I was so excited to pick up my little brother and we had a great time hanging out! We picked mom and grama at the airport 3 days later and headed over to Ashley's house. That night is when little Barrett Wayne Harris arrived. Jeremy and I were in charge on little Lincoln for the night and we rocked it! We made dinner, played games and did the "tuck-in night-night" rountine perfectly! It's really fun being an aunt!

He only looks a little bit scared. :)

My favorite pic I took of Linc.
The new family of 4. Absolutely adorable!

So, the rest of the summer I spent driving back and forth from my sister's and my house for work. I definitely put some miles on the truck! Dad got here about the end of August and got to stay through Sept 13, I think. It was really great to get to spend some time with my dad! The last weekend before they left Fred, Gina and Katie came over and we had a front yard campout. It was awesome!

I love you all!

P.S. More posts to come soon! I promise!

Volunteering!

About 3 weeks ago Cyndee, our GM @ LRI, asked me if I could donate some time to help the Triangle Lake Booster Club. Every year they put on a Chicken BBQ and Auction to raise money. The Booster Club at Triangle Lake does a lot for the students, especially because the school is so small and underfunded(138 kids K-12). I said sure thinking I was going to make some posters and what not. Well, about last Monday Cyndee came back to me and asked if I could help with a bigger project, the Powerpoint Presentation that goes along with the auction. I said sure, I was excited to help. Little did I know the exact proportion of the "time donation". I spent about 20 hours on it by Saturday night when my computer did not save and reverted to an earlier file, about 6.5 hours earlier. After being at the school from 9 am to 9 pm, I had to go home. I was definietly a little upset. Then I remembered what donating is to me, a real gift of love and patience. Something that is difficult feels much more rewarding in the end and is usually much more helpful. So, I calmed down and eventually fell asleep around midnight. Cyndee stayed and worked on it for a while Saturday night and I came back at 6 am on Sunday. The auction started at 1 pm and the show was finished!

The auction went off great. They raised about $14000 which goes to help all the sports at Triangle Lake continue.

Here's the crowd, the turnout was awesome! The whole gym was full! My view of the stage. They auctioned off over 250 items!
It was a totally exhausting adventure, but well worth it. It makes me feel a lot better knowing the community and participating in it. I'm excited to help again next year and hopefully it will go a bit smoother!!

My love to you all!

Oh yeah . . .

Just a couple of funny shots of baby boo boo.
Our love to you all!

What fun we have . . .

Leo and I have been having so much fun with our new car! We drove over to Florence for dinner and here's a few pics I took. Triangle Lake, about 6 miles from our house.
Leo looking super cool driving.

Yeah!

The bridge in Florence. What an awesome day!

It's about blooming time.

My Future Garden

My Future Blue Ribbon Dahlias. :)

I am so happy that the signs of spring are finally popping up. I do pretty well with Oregonian weather, but every April/May I get really really really ready for summer and a little sunshine. Oregon is so beautiful in the spring and summer. It's awe inspiring and makes it clear that GOD is totally amazing!

Notre Maison

That means "our house" in french. Finally, some pics of our new house. We're still unpacking boxes and it's definitely taking time to get everything settled in but, Leo and I feel very very blessed to get to live in this amazing home.

The front

My new favorite room in the house. I've got my seeds to start a garden, which I've never had, and plan on starting them in here soon before moving them outside in May/June.
Our front door. Dave and Dallas had the stained glass commissioned by some local artists.
The backyard. In the back is the hot tub deck.

Our deck out the side door. The gate is made out of nuclear core reactors. I have no idea?!?

Our wood powered central heat exchange. It keeps the house to a steady 80-85 degrees. Just the way we like it! :)

Our living room, still a little messy.

Our dining room and kitchen.

The library, still under organization. . . probably will be for a while. :)

The laundry room which leads to another bedroom, but currently it's all the "laundry room" which means if it's in here its probably clean.

1st upstairs bedroom. We're planning on turning it into a gym.

The upstairs bathroom.

The movie room/our bedroom for the moment. There is another bedroom upstairs that will be our bedroom eventually but for now it's full of Dave and Dallas stuff.

I think that's pretty much the whole house except the downstairs bathroom which has freshly bathed dogs in it so I didn't get a picture. I think the only thing left is the new convertible we got. It's a 2001 S2000 Honda. It's super fun and super small, one of the percs of not having kids. :)

I think that's the end of our tour today. My love to you all!!!!!