Maybe I missed my calling in life. I've been working on graphic designers files for so long that sometimes I feel like I could do some designing myself. Here's a poster I did for our friend Dustin. I may even get some tattoo work out of it.

Sunday morning II and Sunday Afternoon

The bottom picture is of Tatum, Samara's younger sister. Samara painted her face.

Sunday afternoon we took part in the Sellwood Monster March. We marched with Owen and his family. Owen is Oscar the Grouch, Jillian the Bumblebee. We started the march at LLewellyn Elementary School and marched down Milwaukie Ave. It was a beautiful day, warm sun and fun friends. It couldn't get any better. John and Amy's crew went as Batman  and Robin. Kyan was Robin!  It was a very busy weekend. We are all looking forward to Halloween and then we're all gonna pass out. Not because of the sugar coma, but from sheer exhaustion!

Don't forget to watch The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown Tuesday night at 8p.m. (channel 2)

John's 39th birthday is also Tuesday, October 28th! Happy Birthday, Big Guy!!!!! I'll get there some day...

Sunday Morning

Sunday morning Jillian and I continued the 5 year tradition of Halloween cookie making with Samara, Tatum and Michelle Tanchuck. Samara was just a baby when we started this, she is now a smidge over 5. We had a lot more fun this year because everyone was able to help. Although, Jillian and Tatum ate more sprinkles than went on the cookies.

The picture of Samara all "made up" is my handy-work with cookie pens. Once I did this, all the girls went wild and wrote on everything. (except the cookies) They are getting really good at rolling out the dough. They should be pros by the time we get together at Christmas! 

Saturday Night

Saturday evening Owen Brown, Chris, Dawn, and the Grandparents came over for a Halloween Party. We had home made Mexican food and carved pumpkins that Grandma and Grandpa grew in their garden. Jillian and Owen really enjoyed themselves. They got Goody bags and had so much fun helping carve their own pumpkins! We really like The Browns. We are very glad they are our neighbors and friends. Happy Early Halloween!!  (photos courtesy Chris, Julie and John)

Saturday Morning

On Saturday I worked the Annual Halloween Carnival for my company. I and another co-worker were in charge of the face painting booth. Jillian decided finally that she wanted a blue and purple heart on her cheek.  There was another bee at the carnival from a different program and we talked the girls into taking a picture together. The last shot is of Heidi, Maddy and Jillian. They used to be in Jillian's class at the VA and still keep it real together!

Hey all... This past weekend Jillian, Grandma and I went out to Hood River to get apples. Jillian really enjoyed herself this year. We went on a hay ride and we all got to pick an apple off the tree. She danced a lot to a Mexican band and even got to eat ice cream on the way home.  So much fun!

racing

So Julie took me to the races this past Sunday. Not a good way to keep a man wanting a motorcycle calm.
A friend of ours, Dustin, races motorcycles and Sunday was the last race of the season. since neither of had seen motorcycle racing live before we thought we'd give it a go. All I can say is there is no way you could get me out there. Those guys are nuts! Everyone kept saying it's safer on the track than on the street but no thanks. Even got to see a guy wipe out in a group of about 15 bikes. Amazingly no one got hurt or hit. Dustin did pretty well, getting third in the 2 races we watched and sealing third place overall for the season in one class of bike. I got a few good shots of the action and have some gifts now for our friend. He has also asked me to design a poster for his race team to thank all of their sponsors.
On a little different note, my motorcycle will have to wait as I spent my motorcycle fund on a mountain bike (bicycle). No pictures of it yet, but I paid $495 for a $1299 bike. Yes it's new, it was a leftover 2005 model. SCORE!

Flower comes for a visit

This is Flower. Flower is the class Guinea Pig. She spends most of her day surrounded by kids ages 2 1/2 to 5. She is such a sweet girl. Now that Jillian is upstairs, she is lucky enough to volunteer to bring her home on the weekend. Usually one of the teachers takes her home, but oh no, not this weekend.

We took Flower home on Friday and set her up on a little table in Jillian's room. We took her out of the cage and I held her so Jillian could pet her. We covered the cage at 7:30 p.m. and much to our surprise Jillian wanted to sleep too. For a brief moment I thought we could get a guinea and Jillian would want to sleep every night at 7:30. the only loop hole in this plan is that Flower will also wake up.

Jillian came into the bedroom at 6:19 a.m. saying,"Mama, Flower is awake! Wanna come play with us?" WE ARE DEFINITELY NOT GETTING A GUINEA PIG!

Jillian and Grandma fed Flower carrots from the garden today, and a couple grapes. I think it was a good experience for us all. Even John gave Flower a couple pets.

Nite-Nite, sleep tite Flower. Tomorrow you go back to school.

The Wild One

Can I get his Triumph if I say he's handsome?

A Vote...

John and I have been having a discussion: I think that Marlon Brando was extremely attractive when he was in his STREET CAR days. John says he is not. I said the only way to settle this is to throw it out into cyber world.

Please help us settle this dispute, whether you are man or woman. Cast your vote.

I speak for Marlon Brando and he approves this messsage. (Really, he told me in a dream.)

MOTORCYCLE

So John has been trying to break me on the idea of a motorcycle. Every night he is on line looking and drooling. I always told him it better come with a good divorce lawyer because I don't like them. I don't necessarily worry about him, its the other morons on the road that don't realize he's a dad and husband and probably only care about getting home, themselves.

Today, I caved. I told him if he wanted to kiss Jillian Good-Bye every morning for possibly the last time then he could get one! 

He is stubborn!

Post your comments please, for better or worse. 

Oh, and if you know of any good divorce lawyers, pass those numbers on to my e mail...

The Tongue

Have you ever noticed that some people use their tongue when they are really concentrating? It's not used for any purpose, but just seems to come out and move around. Jillian seems to have gotten this from her dad, however it does seem to be more in the genes than a learned behavior. Maybe it's a sign of greatness. After all, Michael Jordan is famous for it.