Manzanita, OR

So we went away for Memorial Day weekend to Manzanita, OR to Kristene's Dad's house by the beach. He lives about 1 block from the beach and takes about 4 minutes to walk there from the house. They are also next door to a pretty decent pizza place. So it took us about 5 1/2hrs. to get there on Friday night because the traffic was soo bad. We got there and get settled and went to bed around 1am. We then got up around 8 thanks to Kadin (who wakes up when the sun shines). Devin and I rolled out of bed and took the kids for hot chocolate and doughnuts (Amber and Kristene were still sleeping, and Lance, Ted and Patty went golfing at 7:30). We picked thoes up and went to the Beach to eat our food. It was a pretty foggy day. As the day went on, it got foggier. Here are some pictures from the foggy day:

At one point, Addie and Patty went down to the beach to get seashells and they had vanished. All you could see when she walked back was a soaking wet Addie who fell into the water because she couldn't see the wave. So she had to wear Kristene's poofy vest. Addie only brought 1 sweatshirt and that got wet.

Lance and Devin bought a frisbee and couldn't stop playing with it, that and the football. They had soar arms and shoulders. But they sure did have a good time.

So the next day we drove to Tillamook and the boys and Patty went golfing and us other girls went to a small city and went to antique shops and did the Tillamook tour. I felt really sick the entire ride there and the time we spent there, so I didn't get any pictures of it, but we did try our best to have a good time. All the kids got there fresh ice cream and they were pretty happy about that. That night we had a fire on the beach because the weather got so nice. So here are some pictures from that night:

So the last day that we were there on Monday was a short one, Devin and I were out of there about 12:15 to start the journey home. Kadin got to rent one of thoes bikes that you steer with your hands/body. He got his pant leg stuck in the chain buit once we freed him, he was off again (a nice way to loose the energy before he got into the car). So here are some pics from the last day:

So this house that we stayed at is called the Wood house. The walls the ceilings, the cupboard, EVERYthing is wood (well almost everything, there is some carpet). It was a really fun time, and because it was so fun, I have to post some more pictures of the good times, please enjoy:

The weight Challenge

Ok, since January Lance and I have been doing weight watchers. I was SHOCKED when I got on the scale back in January to weigh in for the first time. I couldn't beleive how much I had let my self go. You never think about it when you are doing it, and then when you stop and you look back, you realize that what you were eating and doing really packs on the pounds faster than you think. So we turned over a new "leaf" and started the shedding process, so here is a before picture of me when I was 171. WOW......

And this is me last week at 155. I have droped some more weight since this picture. But I have been trying REALLY hard on this and trying to stay active. It is NOT easy, but I thought I would give an update, especially to you Shelf (you know who you are).

~Mothers Day Bashes~

So we had a great time for Mothers Day. Devin and I hosted Brunch at my house, (which we didn't start eating till 2:30 when Troy finally showed up). We hosted so that non of the mothers had to cook or clean, so between Lance, Devin, Tom and me, we knocked out all the food. And I must say that it was DELISH. We had Acini De Pepe Salad, fresh fruit, cinnimon rolls, breakfast casserole, and 2 crab quiche's. We rocked the food, MMM MMMM it was Good!!! We opened up the french doors and put the tables outside along with the food. It was actaully decent right then, the sun was out and the birds chirping. The kids got to use the rope swing in the backyard!! So here are some pics to sum up the day!

We then went over to Dev's parents for dinner. They Always so a crafty project every mothers day, so this year, she picked out making animals out of socks and gloves. So us gals got started, and we made a Zebra (which aunti Susan came wearing her rainbow socks that got sacrificed for the Zebra), a blue jay bird, a dog, a half of a bunny, and I made an elephant. It took a lot of time to make them, and they were all done by hand stiching them, but it really was quite fun. Devin made his special Apple Pie and it was Phenominal. Mmmm goood hunny! He's a picture of my little elephant that I made from Daddy Trowbridge's old dress socks! He's soo cute, I want to make a ton more!

The Appraiser...

So.... We had a thought. When Devin bought his motorcycle that interest rate that he got was 16%. By the time is all Said and Done, we will be paying double what he bought the bike for. WOW, that's really bad. So we figured that we have done all this work on the house, that maybe we will have enough equity to get a home equity line of credit, which would have a pretty low rate.

We busted our tails to get all the work done, all the little projects finished up, and finish the little touches left in every room. The Appraiser chicka came out on Monday and took pictures, looked at the site and compared our home to the others in the neighborhood. We were supposed to get the appraisal back on Wednesday...

We got it back. It didn't come back as high as we wanted. But it came back high enough that we needed. The bike is now going to go onto that line, and that will automatically save us $5500 in interest charges. Yeah for that. We have made $38,K on the house since we bought it in August of 2007. Keep in mind though that we did spend about $20K for all the supplies to do everything we wanted. So Devin and my part time job over the last 7 months was worth 18K. Not too bad I guess, and that's with the market down now.

It kinda felt like a slap in the face, like our work wasnt' good enough, but you can't get mad at the market for how it is. We got the minimum that we needed for the bike anyways, and the most Positive thing about the whole appraisal, I got Devin to finish up all the little things from last November and our house is SPOTLESS. A good start to the week especailly when we will be having a house full of guests this whole weekend. Well there are my thoughts, you should be thankful that I didn't write them yesterday when I got the news. )-:

Let the good times roll

So these are the good times if you have forgotten:Doing projects on the house and trying to fit everything in my litte beemer has kind of taken a toll on us. We are limited to what we can put in there, and if we get things that can't fit, well we would have to find someone to borrow a bigger vehicle from. NO MORE... We are going to Lowe's almost every other day day to get stuff to finish the multiple projects we have going on.... So We bought a TRUCK!!!!! It's a little Toyota truck that both of us had on our "list" since we were young teens. So now it's crossed off our list and no more trying to CRAM big things into a little baby car. So here it is, it's nothing extrememly special or pretty, but it definitely gets around!!!