Davis family farm

After we left the pumpkin patch yesterday we went to my friend Heidi's in-laws farm for pumpkin carving. It is a gorgeous piece of property with a 150? year old farm house, a few cows and creeks and amazing plants everywhere.

They had set up the barn with tables and carving tools.
Heidi and I.

The boys and G's punkie.

We had a fabulous time hanging out with our friends! Heidi used to live in our area, splitting time between here and AZ. We have boys the same age. We met through gdiapers and have been chatting on the internet almost daily since.

A few of the end products.

My fave. There was a giant spider too but it left before I could grab a pic.

I just hope Heidi and family visit again soon!

Oregon Weather Report

A few days ago I looked at my iphone's weather report for the week. For today it had listed a combo of rain and a few flakes. Okay fine.

Yesterday's weather report said for today that we might have a few flakes but it probably wouldn't stick.

They were wrong.

Again.

It snowed.

And snowed. And stuck.

And snowed some more.

This is not long after I left work for the evening at 430.

There is between 2-3" stuck. Luckily, I live only a few miles from work. I hate driving in the snow. I did try to get up our (tiny) driveway, only to almost slide into Zack's car.

Twice.

I gave up. That is my van across the street.
I decided with our luck lately there was no point in pushing it!

Only in Oregon can you leave for work in the morning in a sweatshirt (granted it was 34*) and need a snow suit/parka by afternoon!

Camping at Silver Falls!

Last weekend we went camping at Silver Falls, it was so much fun.

On the way there we went down through Woodburn and Silverton. Along the way there were some flower fields that neither Zack or I could pass up. We stopped to take some pics of G in the fields. Unfortunately the good pictures are on my dinosaur film *gasp* camera so when I get the CD back I will post more.

Here I am in front of the "purple flower" field, no idea what they are. :)


And then there is what I look like just before that picture... I had fallen in the mud getting there from the poppy field next to it as Zack and G watched from the car. Doh! Zack missed the best part, my toes were COVERED in mud.

G in the poppy field.

I wish I had paid more attention to the spot we put him, its a little sparse... but the good pic on my good camera (these are iphone pics) are on his level of the background.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and hanging out with friends; Darla and Mike and their kiddos came from Thursday to Saturday morning. And we made friends with our neighbors who were a hispanic family who kept trying to feed us! It was just like a childhood family that I love, the Gonzalez' family. I grew up across the street from them and they treated me like another one of their kids. I miss them. (Hi Lethi! I know you read sometimes)

We took our bikes and G's though he rode on the back of mine when we went as a family, he loves his plasma car. Zack hooked it up so he could pull him. G loved that even more! We love it when he decides that he is too tired, lazy, bored, or sees something shiney to go on.
And every now and then Zack would hop on and get G to pull him, which as you can see didn't work out so well.

Anyway, more pics to follow in the near (09 anyway!) future.

Strawberry Dreams!

I have always loved Strawberries, or I thought I did. Then I moved to Oregon and came to know strawberries as they should be. DARK red, full of juice and sweetness. Yum. It makes my mouth water just to think of them. Oregon berries are NOT like California berries, to say the least. Not that Cali berries aren't good, they just aren't delicious when you put them side by side.

And when you throw in that there are You pick farms 10 minutes in every direction of my house, well who can complain? Not me that is for sure. My friend Heidi and I took our boys on Tuesday and went a pickin'.

this is the farm, Groveland acres and its right across the street from Roloff farms.

g head with our loot! 15 lbs- $15!! love it!

happy boy, full belly and a full basket.

g head and Collin.

Thursday, I had planned to host our sign language group at our house and have a pot luck brunch, but after throwing up all night and day before, my house was trashed and so was I. So I threw together this lovely galette (rustic pie if you want to google the recipe- I recommend the ones with corn starch in them. this was the easy {read: lazy} version and it ran everywhere!) and went over to our friend Kelli's house who was generous enough to host at the last minute!

Saturday Heidi and I got back together and I taught her how to make "real" jam, as opposed to freezer jam. I love how easy freezer jam is, but my freezer space is at a premium and jam just doesn't earn its keep. :)

We both made two batches. Mine ended up being 24 4oz jars and 5 6 oz jars. Yum! What a great way to start the season! And I have a gallon (stuffed full!) bag in the freezer.

Gramma Janette

Today I found out the my maternal grandmother, Janette, has Leukemia. 5 years ago she was diagnosed with Colo/Rectal Cancer and later Liver Cancer. After some treatments and much medication she went into remission.

In August, the day we found out about Jonathan, we also got a call that Grandma was no longer in remission and had pre-Leukemia. At that point it was decided that if and when her cells took a turn for the worse and went into full Leukemia, she would have 2 weeks to a few months to live.

Tomorrow Zack and Grayson and I are driving to Crescent to spend some time with Gramma and the rest of the family who will be there. She wasn't able to make the drive to Jonathan's memorial so it has been a while since we have seen her. I just wish it were under better circumstances.

I have great memories of being a kid and driving from San Diego to Crescent Oregon and spending weeks and months at my grandmas house. I remember getting sick one summer and having a sore throat. She pulled out a bag of frozen strawberries and I ate those for almost a week! And the whole time I just lay on the couch and she rubbed my back.

I baking cookies with her when I was really little and when my parents got divorced and we lived with her for 5 months she let me bake until my little heart was content all the while cheering on my efforts. Even my random GIANT cookie efforts that really wasted ingredients more than anything else.

I have many fond memories of Gramma Janette. I hope she beats all odds and lives forever. Either way I hope she knows how loved she is.

Janette with Jesse James (1987)

Janette with me (1979)

Janette roughly 1978?

Janette and Leeroy roughly 1984/5

Me, Gramma Janette and Grayson 2007