River fun on a hot day...

I had heard about a place near Triangle Lake where there was supposed to be a natural rock waterslide, but I had never known exactly where it was........until Wednesday that is!

The place is called Lake Creek Falls. I read about it here while looking for a river nearby to dunk my hot, sweaty kids into during the 90+ degree heat wave we are currently experiencing. We have friends in from Idaho visiting family in Junction City who have been there before and after being unable to join them for a dip the day they were going, I posted that I wanted to go to the slides on my Myspace profile and the next morning I got a call at 9:30am from my friend Jen asking if I had made plans to go to the slides with anyone that day. She had been wanting to go to water too, so right there on the spot we made a plan to throw everyone in the car and meet out there.

We had so much fun (despite the construction delays) and thanks to Jen's waterproof camera, we have some cool pictures to share! Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Settling In...

Well, here we are in our new house. I am working steadily on making it a home little by little each day. It is very peaceful here despite the frequent trains passing. I enjoy it very much.

We have painted the downstairs completely and have half of the master bedroom finished (so we could set up the big bedframe and not have to move it again). Adam, Brielle and Zeb have been working on finishing the fence and we are about to start building some gates which we have never done before. We were generously blessed with gift card money which we used to buy the lumber for our fence and a few odds and ends for the house. That left us enough money to buy a pool! We have been working on setting it up. It's one of those Easy-Set kind with the blow up ring around the outside. We are all really excited to get it up and running as the temp climbs every day! Today it is 94 degrees at 5:10pm! We are roasting and everyone eagerly offered to help "smooth the wrinkles" from the bottom of the pool! :D

I'll write more in a few days. As soon as I find the box with the video camera, I will finish posting about Emily's last recital. Until then, blessings on your little head.

A New Addition......

Well, the long awaited day finally came yesterday. We got a puppy! Her name is Peanut and she's adorable. She is 1/2 Welsh Corgi, 1/4 Golden Retriever, 1/4 St. Bernard. What an interesting mix. She has the short little legs like a Corgi (which we love) and the markings of a St. Bernard which make her so cute.

Her is a little smilebox slideshow I made of some pictures:

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Long Awaited Vegas Pics

Well, I know it's been nearly a month since I went and I haven't put up any pictures yet so thanks for bearing with me. These are just the ones I had on my camera. I haven't gotten the rest from everyone else yet so I can make a BIG slide show. That will come in time. (I tried to make a smilebox slideshow of them, but something is wrong with my program because it won't let me make any new ones, so I used slide.com instead.)

It was so nice to be able to get away somewhere where no one calls us Mom all the time and we didn't have any responsibilities. We were able to just relax and not even have a schedule. So refreshing. Not that I don't enjoy being a mom and wife and all the other hats I wear, but sometimes I like to drop all the other hats in the air and put on the one that says I'm just Melody. I like what I like and can enjoy it in peace and quiet or share it with my sister-friends without interruption. We all need that once in a while.

I really enjoyed going to Vegas and seeing all the magnificent hotels and things like the Bellagio's fountain show and the Tournament of Kings show at Excalibur, but I was glad to come home again to my family. It was a great get-away and we all had a marvelous blast together.
(The song I picked is for Tab. It seemed to fit best out of all the choices.)
Enjoy!

Buying a house...

Well, the time has finally come. (Honestly, in my anxiousness, I wondered if it ever would)
We are buying a house. It's a fabulous deal for what we get:
a 5 bedroom, 2.1 bath house in Harrisburg, Oregon with 2,045 square feet. It has a large yard and a finished garage. The driveway is stamped concrete which is very cool.
Here are some pictures of the inside I took a few days ago while showing my sister the house.
This is standing in the living room looking at the front door. Just on the other side of the closet you can barely see the stairs to the upper level where all the bedrooms are.

This is looking the opposite way from the front door to the rest of the living room

This is looking from the front room into the kitchen

Here is a better look at the kitchen. That is a small island in the center with storage underneath and it has an outlet on the side...very handy.

We asked them to put in a dishwasher, but I'm wondering if this is where they will put it. If so, how will we open it with the stove in the way?

This is what a ".1" bath looks like (it means it only has a potty and a sink).

...it is also where our laundry will be.

This is from the top of the stairs. If you click on the picture it will magnify and you can hopefully read my notes.

Let's work our way around on the right. This is a pic of the "short hall" before Zeb's room. The whole hall is the length of this closet (about 7 feet). Oh, I took this picture from the doorway to the upstairs bathroom. I didn't bother taking any of it because it is kinda small and, well, it's just a bathroom.

Then we have Zeb's room which looks smaller in the picture than it really is. It's just right for him and he's decided he wants a camping themed room so I will be painting pine trees and a campfire on the wall. I want to find him a bed-tent too.

Then we go to Eli's room which is long but not too narrow...he wants a star wars theme...

Emily has the biggest of the kid rooms as is fitting and she thinks she might want an Indian theme with lots of bright colors. Maybe I can find some sari fabric for her curtains...

Then there is Brielle's room. She is going for pink and black and I think we are doing a french boutique look. We found a really cool idea for a window covering that I will leave a surprise for now...it will be fun. She has the best view of the neighbor's chickens and turkeys and of the surrounding hills.

Then there is the master bedroom. It is big enough that it won't fit in one picture, so this is from the doorway looking left to Adam's closet.

...here is the walk-in closet on the opposite side of the room that I get to turn into a craft room :D ...

This is a look at our vanity in the master bath...for some reason the old owners took all the mirrors...


...and here is the tub...(all of the pipes have been weatherized and the toilets taped shut)...


Well, there you have it. We are scheduled to close on June 6th. I am more than excited. Of course, I've been perusing paint samples for days and planning projects like crazy. I will post pictures of all the finished projects as they are completed.

Arrow of Light and Crossing over Ceremony

Last night was Mr. Meticulous' Crossover ceremony from Cub scouts to Boy scouts. It was really cool. He joined pack 260 at the beginning of the school year and has worked extremely hard to earn his Arrow of Light award (not all boys work hard enough to earn this one and the other 2 who did have been working on it for 2 years), which is the only award from cub scouts he is allowed to wear on his new boyscout uniform. We are so very proud of him.


The ceremony itself was a neat experience. As he crossed over the bridge from cub scouts to boy scouts he paused halfway and turned to salute his cub scout den leaders farewell, then he turned to salute the boy scouts and Scoutmaster Scott as they saluted him for his hard work and achievements.


Scoutmaster Scott congratulated him on his hard work and diligence


and one of the Eagle scouts from the boyscout troop helped replace the old neckerchief with the new troop one as a welcome gift.


Then they asked him to join them in saying the Scout Promise which is:

On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law: to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

This weekend, Mr. Meticulous is going to Camporee as his first outing as an actual boyscout. Typically, the camporee involves competitions, with events such as fire building, knot tying, first aid, emergency preparedness, pioneering or orienteering. He will be judged on his uniform, how well he packs, how well he sets up his camp and other things. It will be fun.

The first weekend in June Big Daddy will join Mr. Meticulous for a backpacking trip where they will also be responsible for cooking their own food and other fun stuff. It's wonderful that they get to spend time alone like that. It's really good for both of them.

After Mr. Meticulous' long awaited trip to Ketchikan in July he will be off to Camp Hahobas in Washington for a whole week of boy scouting fun. I am so excited that he is involved in this particular troop because they are Christ centered in all that they do. The troop's personal motto is Scouting for Christ which they have on their own hats. It's nice to know what we work at teaching him is being reinforced by his troop and it's good to see the older boys take the younger ones in and encourage them. Yay God.

If you would like to see some pictures of the troop's fun you can go to their website and check out activities. Big Daddy and Mr. Meticulous went to the Buford Recreational Area and learned about forestry and geology. (If you click on the pictures they will zoom so you can actually see what's going on.)

Science Olympics

Back in April, Chicky-babe had the opportunity to compete in the Science Olympics on behalf of her middle school. Science Olympics is a series of problem solving events that are fun to do and require students to apply their knowledge of science in creative ways. Students work in teams rather than individually. A talented team of middle schoolers practiced after school a couple days a week and competed with other teams from each of the area middle schools.
There were events like the catapult, mouse trap cars (which must be solely propelled by the force of a mouse trap), life science relays (where questions must be answered in a relay format), and metric estimation among many others.

Chicky-babe and her partner were handling the metric estimation portion for their team. There were about 12 random items lined up on a table and they had to go down the row estimating weights, lengths, thicknesses, areas, volumes and distances, etc., on those items. There were things like a golf ball, an eraser, a pencil, an empty bucket, a glass jar, a magnet, a section of the gym floor...you get the idea.
Here she is hard at work:


Everyone did an outstanding job helping Hamlin take an overall 2nd place in the competition!


Chicky-babe's skill was apparent despite her nerves and she took home a second place ribbon in her team event. Way to go!

Another Fantastic Foreign-Food-Friday!

We had the opportunity to share our foreign food night tradition with our world-traveling family last Friday. The cuisine of the evening was Turkish food. AMAZING! Not spicy like Thai food but full of lots of different spices and flavors, it was so delicious. Here is what we ate:

Appetizers were hummus with Pide (pita) bread, olives, goat cheese and Turkish Cacik which is a yogurt/garlic/cucumber/mint type dip that was a huge hit with everyone.

The main meal was Turkish chicken (which was marinated in a minty-yogurty-spice laden marinade), Pilav (which is a simple white and brown rice pilaf) and a Turkish salad full of tomato, bell pepper, cucumber and fresh parsley.

For dessert I made 2 different recipes of the famous Turkish Delight which were such a hit that they were nearly instantly devoured. There were only a few lingering ones left for the next day.
Here we are enjoying all of it:


The food was fantastic and we happily ate all the leftovers the rest of the weekend!