Imagine Mercy

We traveled over the hill with a friend for a concert last night, to watch couple of my favorite christian bands: Mercy Me & Casting Crowns. I can barely listen to either one of these groups without tears. Their music always touches my heart and it did last night. As we were waiting for MM I saw a man standing back stage (we were in the 2nd row) and immediately noticed his T-Shirt: Black with a white hand print, red dot on a finger. I instantly knew what that was about and was set on trying to find out more i.e. trying to read the fine print. When the band came out, it was the drummer for MM who was wearing the shirt! As the set progressed I learned more. Bart Millard, who is the lead singer, shared that his son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 2 year old, Sam is now 5 so he was diagnosed about the same time Morgan was. Bart then started the Imagine a Cure Organization. That was the T-shirt I spotted. I am now on a mission to get my hands on a few.

So not only were the tears flowing from the beauty of their songs, but now also for another family who has to bear the struggles of this life-long disease. A sense of connection with another parent who has been where I have been: sleepless nights, constant worrying. I don't let myself get wrapped up in the pity party of diabetes and Morgan doesn't either. It is, what it is and I can't do anything about it, if I could, I would have. God has a greater purpose and maybe some day he will let us know what that purpose is. But in the meantime we just allow God's glory to shine through and give him the praise in both good times and bad.

Demo...Day 2

Today the boys and I tore out the laundry closet walls and made several dump runs.  Actually demo is going pretty smoothly and there haven't been any surprises.  I was terrified that we would open up walls and find termites or over the top water damage.  Fortunately, there has been nothing. Tomorrow I will pull up the carpeting and scrape the glue off the floor and tear out a cabinet or two in the current kitchen, so that on Monday I can call the plumber and electrician.

Former pantry closet...

I can't quite tell how open this area is going to be with the studs still in place.  These will also come down tomorrow and then it will really open the area up.

I still need to make some decisions about lighting.  I am hoping I will have a revelation soon, I have no idea how to plan for lighting!!

Sunday we are headed to a Casting Crown's and Mercy Me concert with some friends.  I am looking forward to a wonderful time worshiping the LORD with a couple of my favorite groups.

And so it begins

My contractor came by on Monday and took me for a ride.  I was afraid he was going to tell me he couldn't do my kitchen.  Well, as it was he can't start on it for a few more weeks and was just showing me what he is currently working on. But he did say that I could get the cabinets delivered and start doing some demolition. 

So I cleaned out the garage and made room.

The 20 or so boxes take up half of the garage.

Then Lucas and I started tearing down wall board.

We had a couple of surprises, wasp nests, but nothing else.

The demo pile wasn't too bad either.

Can't wait to get this little beauty installed!

The electrician and plumbers have been by and they are going to be great to work with.  They understand my need to get my washer and dryer re-connected in the old kitchen ASAP.  

Summer Fun

I finally had time to download the pictures from when the cousins were here. How fun it was to see them.

The girls spent a ton of time in Lena's swimming pool.

Some down time with cousin.
Little Miss DareDevil.
Yeah, they spent a lot of time doing this.
Beautiful smile for Uncle Pat.

Rules of the Road

When did the rules of driving etiquette change? I have made 4 trips up and down the state of Oregon in the past week and have noticed that driving is becoming even more frustrated. When did passing lanes become 'speed-up' lanes? You know how it is. You get behind someone who goes 5 miles UNDER the posted speed limit and can't pass because of all the oncoming traffic. (also, I am a passing scarredy-cat...I don't like to do it). I impatiently wait for the passing lane and they SPEED UP! I have to get up to 85mph just to pass them, this is just insane! Seriously, this is where road rage comes from! Is it just here or is this happening everywhere?

My boys

Lucas did a great job stretching out his snake skins

Morgan did a great job with his blood sugars

Way to go boys!

John Day

8 months. Almost as long as a pregnancy. That is how long Pat has been looking forward to our summer trip. He scheduled it back in October 2007 when we were on our fishing trip.

1 of 2 supply rafts & the boys

already in the water

What an amazing trip it was. The John Day River canyon reminds me of a miniature version of the Grand Canyon, only with a lot less people. We set off on Sunday to head up to Madras, OR. We met our guides and 4 other fishing companions the next morning at 7:30am. We then proceeded to drive for another 4 hours back into the farm lands of Eastern Oregon. We drove down the canyon, saw wild horses and put (or rather watched the guides put) the boats into the river. We put in at Thirtymile Creek. After lunch, we were on our way.

Jim, our guide, and his wife Janelle.

The boys & their guide Travis

Travis was awesome with the boys. I think the boys spent more time in the river than they did in the boat, especially that first day.

First night at camp with our

traveling companions. They were up and ready to go

by 5:30 every morning

A friendly game of horseshoes with Kenny, another guide.

We caught TONS of small mouth bass, literally!

We saw several herds of Mountain Sheep

or maybe it was the same herd we saw several times?

These guys are professionals, gas powered blender

for campsite margaritas!

Bass for the fish-fry

Which was absolutely delicious!

One highlight of the trip...2 rattlesnakes in camp on the last night!

A little unnerving, but the boys enjoyed it! Morgan was surprised by the amount of 'heat' that was packed by everyone.

Before we met Jimmy Monday morning, Lucas called him to see if he was bringing smore's. Jimmy said no, that there were no camp fires allowed on the river after June 1st. But Jimmy surprised Lucas with the makings of smore's, they were just grilled over the camp stove!

Pat, Jimmy's dad, helping Lucas with his smore's!

This was a fabulous trip. The food was delicious, the fishing was amazing, the company...we could not have asked for better. We had spectacular lightning shows one night and a couple of torrential down-pours that cooled us off. The boys had a great time swimming in the river and told us that next year, we need to bring inner tubes so that they can float down the river. Needless to say, we booked our summer 2009 vacation!