Donation

Jillian would like to thank everyone who helped her raise money for Dove Lewis Animal Hospital. Between selling lemonade and donations to the lemonade stand she was able to donate $167.00 to the sick dogs and maos (cats) to help them get better.

Summer Lovin', Havin' a Blast

Friday Dawn and I had arranged a play date for Jillian and Owen for Sunday morning. Well, the kids each took long naps into the afternoon with the promise of seeing each other later in the day. I talked with Chris, Owen's dad and he invited us all over for a BBQ. We headed over at 5:30 and brought plenty of lemonade...  We had a nice time, Jillian spent most of her time painting in the backyard, while Owen ran for the swing and eventually let Jillian get on. As the night went on the kids gravitated to Owen's room and directly into the bed. They put all the blankets and stuffed animals into his crib and jumped around for about 30 minutes. The fun ended when Owen shot out of the bed and landed directly on his head. (Nothing a little love from his dolphin and monkey couldn't fix!) 

Right before we left, the two were snuggled together. SO CUTE! We are in so much trouble...

DUELING GRAND-JO'S

So, I have noticed some feisty interactions in the comment section of our blog. Almost better than the post, sometimes. I thought I would take a stab at the action and put it out there in the post for all to take notice of. 

Jillian has two Grandma's who love her VERY  much. This is apparent because the two of them are having way too much fun plotting WHERE their beloved grand child will run away to. FYI: If Jillian could choose where to run to it would be to Auntie Mitra's! She has the best collection of refrigerator magnets to steal! You should see that girl work...

No, Seriously... Keep sending the love. It's so entertaining!!

I'm outta here

We found Jillian lying on the floor at the top of the stairs reading this book. Should we be worried?

LEMONADE! GET YOUR LEMONADE HERE!!

Good Sunday morning all!
About 2 weeks ago I read online about an opportunity for 1,000 kids across 46 states to sell lemonade for the charity of their choice. The Crayons Lemonade Co. was generous enough to send all the cardboard for a stand and 120 cans of their Tickled Pink Lemonade w/o High Fructose Corn Syrup to kids for free. The idea was started by the CEO's 7 year old son who made $100 dollars for an orphanage. He approached his dad and said they should do this across the U.S.
I was very happy when Jillian agreed to take part. She chose Dove Lewis Animal Hosp. Of course for her love of Mao's and Dog-dogs all over town. We were able to set-up in front of Moreland Frameworks on Milwaukie from 10-2 on Saturday. We did fairly well. It helps to have a cute kid and a VERY outgoing mom. We had several friends stop by and not only buy lemonade, but donate money as well. All in all we made $140. THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO CAME OUT TO SUPPORT THE CAUSE. We will be taking the money we raised to Dove Lewis sometime next weekend. We have a donation coming from Texas that we are waiting on.
LESSON: It's never too early to teach young one's about giving back. Just make sure they get a nap afterwards or you wish you could give them back!!! xoxo, julie

Celtics Win!!!!!!!

When it comes to basketball, most of you know that I am a San Antonio Spurs fan. So you might be surprised to hear me cheering on the Boston Celtics. Well, Kevin Garnett deserves it and besides that I got to watch my least favorite team LOSE!!! I'm for anyone who beats the Lakers.

It's official!!!!

So some of you know that I got a new job. For those of you who don't... well, I got a new job! I have known for over a week now but just put my 2 weeks notice in on Monday at my current job. That's why I waited until now to post it. Not only did I get a new job but one with better pay, better benefits and with a bigger company (but not too big). It has made my remaining time at City Graphics very easy knowing that I don't have to worry about correcting others mistakes constantly. I also have to admit that deadlines aren't my worry anymore. Just do what I can and that's all. No more stress. For those of you who want to further investigate my new place of employment, check out their website at:
www.infinityimages.com

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Last weekend we had a surprise party for Gil's (Grandpa) 60th birthday. We had to have it a week early to make it a surprise. Plus the fact that the actual weekend of his birthday was father's day made it a little hard to get people to come. Anyway today was his actual birthday. Hope you enjoy a few pics of the party.

Happy Fathers Day! (late)

I had a good father's day weekend. I went skateboarding both Saturday and Sunday. I left my lights on in my car for longer than 24 hrs. Bought a new car battery. Spring finally arrived here in Oregon and so did my allergies. Julie and I went and saw Old 97's in concert last night. And I got this special shirt from Jillian and yes I wore it (but not to the show.)
I want to say "Happy Father's Day" to my dad who was busy on the phone when I tried to call yesterday.

Spring has arrived!!!!

Yes, you heard me right, Spring is finally here in Oregon. What did you say? Summer is officially 1 week away? Not here. Most of our temps have been in the 50's and overcast and everyone is still wearing jackets. Oh sure, there have been a couple of nice days here and there, but not more than 3 in a row. Most people here have been calling it Junuary. Well, Thursday afternoon it started to clear out and be nice. Jillian of course has been sick with a temperature since Wednesday. Friday was beautiful and Jillian's fever broke. So outside to the park we go in Grandma Texas' handmade outfit. It supposed to stay this way 'til Tuesday or Wednesday. I'll believe it when I see it and enjoy it one day at a time.

Like father like daughter

Well, we told you how Jillian got her bruise. John's started with a skateboard injury LAST weekend that is just now starting to bruise up. Apparently I got a bone bruise on my shin and all the blood from it is traveling down my leg to my ankle. Fortunately it doesn't hurt.

Love Hurts

Love Hurts and if you know the rest of the words, feel free to sing along...
I arrived at school this afternoon to find Jillian in a heap on the floor crying. Now, if you know Jillian I'm sure this does not sound unusual. As I bent down to scoop her up her teacher says to me," These tears are justified." Right at that moment I saw it... A large raised lump of pinky-purple owie on her left cheek.
Her teacher proceeds to tell me that she and her boyfriend Owen were in a lover's embrace(hug) when all of a sudden they both started laughing, lost their balance and toppled to the carpet. (laughing all the way) Unfortunately, the bigger you are the harder you fall and since Jillian has got about 10-12 lbs. on Owen, she fell backwards and pulled him down on her. His forehead went straight into her cheek! Owen had a small pink bump along the top of his right brow. I asked both of them if they cried and both reported with a resounding, "NO!" Before we left school, I asked if Jillian wanted to say Good-bye to Owen and she waltzed over and gave him a HUG!
"Time to go," I said.
We were outta there and on our way home in no time.

toys

I don't think about riding motorcycles much anymore. It just seems to be too wet here in Oregon most of the year. However, the creative side of me has often thought of building one for fun. Especially when I see something that looks like the above 2. Most people think of Harley's as being made into custom bikes, but there are definitely some nicely done Japanese customs as well. Maybe I should set up a build a bike fund for the next time anyone asks what I want for (fill in the holiday).

YIKES!!!

Sometimes while surfing in the Pacific Northwest I get a little nervous. Surfing in Texas I saw sharks quite often, but those were smaller sharks, the largest being about 7-8ft. They may take a bite out of you but probably not willing to mess with a person of the same size or bigger. Here it is a bit different. The main food for sharks up here is sea lion and you need a pretty big predator to eat something that big. These shots were taken in South Africa, but we have them up here as well. Now, why do I go out in the ocean again???