Serve Grants Pass

    I am going to start this by saying God is good! Better than good, he is AWESOME! Nick and I pitched a local military family to our home group for our Serve Grants Pass project.
   Let me tell you about the family, dad is gone on his 7th deployment leaving his wife and their 4 kids at home. I simply cannot imagine how hard this is. So in all the years I have known them, I have never seen their backyard. When I asked about it, the wife/mom filled me in.
   They had a rotting deck and  a rotten picnic bench. They had a trampoline that had a bent up frame, and no net, the legs would fall off as the kids jumped on it! They had a mixed media walkway that consisted of concrete, rock, brick, and more concrete poured over concrete and painted.
    Nick went over and took a look at it and this is what he saw;  A mixed media walk way that was angled the wrong way so every time it rained all the water ran right into their garage. There was a rotting deck and picnic table. There was a death trap trampoline in the back yard that she insisted on keeping due to it being the only thing her kids had to do in the yard.
   When the home group agreed that this would be a good project that would help tremendously we registered it with the church.
   I was really excited to help them as they are the sweetest family and they deserve to enjoy their back yard! So the deck, picnic bench and walk way were torn out during the 2 week prep prior to the Serve Grants Pass project day. I also convinced them to get rid of the trampoline. I could not promise a new one but i told them we had some fun ideas for the back yard. We laid some weed barrier and Nick built a nice frame to keep some rock in for the walk way and for under the deck. We were there every day after work for about 2 weeks doing prep work. Nick even used some vacation days to get more done. We shoveled and wheel barreled tons of rock that was given to us at a fraction of the price. We had a new trampoline donated as well as a new barbeque! Things were looking good! We did not tell the family about what it was going to look like or what we were doing. They just knew we were there, and their yard would look great! For 2 weeks we labored for our friends and ate TONS of pizza and taco bell. When project day rolled around, all we had left was the deck to build, a small fence to build and to put together a trampoline and barbeque! We had a great turnout and several people came to help with the proiect.  The kids were literally screaming and jumping, as they saw us carry the trampoline by! It was beyond worth all the hard work and effort that was put in and I am so proud of our kids and everyone else who pitched in!  GO TEAM!!

WOW! Fast forward 4 Years!

    Hello friends and family! Sorry about the NOT posting for the last 4 years! Life got away from me! 

     This last year has been an unforeseen adventure! We started the year off with a bathroom remodel in our new house that took 6 months, but was well worth the wait. We stripped it down to the frame and started fresh. (Except, we left the tub) We now have a very spa like feel to the main bathroom and it is Beautiful! Nick has such vision and skill. We also painted Titus’ room, built a tree house and built a car port. The boys are in heaven with their tree house and spent several weekends this summer sleeping in their tent in the tree house.

Nick and I have been married for 5 years! He is such an amazing, Godly man! I couldn’t ask for anything more! We have some small home improvements planned for this next year, we’ll see if they stay small. (Nick gets a vision, and can’t help himself!) I am working at American Aquarium Products and am learning a lot about aquarium and pond maintenance, as well as fish diseases and how to cure them. We also added an addition to our family late last year! He is a medium sized dog named Wrink. He is a Pugalier, (half Pug half King Charles Cavalier) and he is such a delight! Still doing some annoying puppy things, but that soon will pass! 

Taylor is 10 years old! Heavens, how time flies! He is 10 this year, and has a “friend who is a girl” but not a girl friend. They have a secret club and they draw each other pictures!  Too sweet! He is loving school, and is part of an after school Lego robotics club, and was also one of 12 kids chosen for Brain Bowl (Battle of smarts). He has also been recognized by the state of Oregon as “Intellectually Gifted”.  He is still playing the violin and he really enjoys it! Such talent!

Arthur is now 9 years old and really enjoys reading, enough to earn recognition with an Advanced Reader Award at his school and has been able to focus on building Bionicles and Lego space stations! He still wants to be a Paleontologist and is currently studying Volcano’s and how they work. Last year he did an impressive report on Dinosaurs. He included a lot of information, I even learned some things!  He will be great I'm sure of it!

Titus is 4 and it is showing! The 2’s are terrific compared to the 4’s, but we are enjoying the challenge! He is in a Pre K class this year and can now write his name and is recognizing several letters and numbers! He is enjoying school, and his favorite day is Tuesday. Tuesday is “bag day” and they bring something in a bag that starts with the letter of the week. They then give clues about what it is and see who can guess! Titus is very outgoing and loves making new friends. When we pull up to his school all the kids come running, screaming “Titus is here! Hi, Titus!” It is fun to see him growing into such a fun person!

I think thats it for catching up here! I will post more frequently!