A few things about me:
Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. infant/ preschool leader (Positive Disciple program)
2. waste management radio operator
3. forest fire fighter
4. teacher
Four movies I've watched more than once:
1. Oh Brother Where Art Thou
2. Madagascar
3. Sponge Bob
4. A Knight’s Tale
Four places I have lived:
1. Arlington, Or
2. Kihea and Lahaina,Maui
3. Prineville, Or
4. Castle Rock, WA
Four T.V. Shows that I watch:
1. So You Think You Can Dance
2. CSI
3. Dog Whisperer
4. Dr. G the Medical Examiner
Places I have been:
1. Phoenix and Tuscon
2. St. Louis
3. Pasadena
4. Canada
Four People who e-mail me (regularly):
1. Beth Filion (school secretary)
2. Family Blog e-mails- SPRAD (sharps, porters, rudds & deans
3. Ellise Anderson (the boss
4. Brian – once a week on Wednesdays- his day off
Four of my favorite foods:
1. pasta alfredo
2. thai soup
3. smoked salmon
4. Chocolate
Four places I would rather be right now
1. At the beach with my family
2. Camping in the woods w/ friends and family
3. still sleeping in my warm cozy bed
4. on a trail ride with my in-laws
Four friends/family I think will respond:
1. Brian
2. Heidi
3. Susie
4. Mel (my sister)
Things I am looking forward to this year:
1. Spring break
2. Summer vacation
3. Christmas at home
4. Watching my nieces grow and change
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Baby blog
So for all of you that can't get enough baby info we have started a Samia and Piper only blog at www.grudd.net/blog. We will be posting more photos and video there for your viewing pleasure. We are primarily establishing this site so Greyson's family can see the babies but anyone else is welcome to take a look. We will also continue to post a few photos and videos on this site as well. The new site doesn't have much yet but hopefully I will get more up soon.
-Mel
-Mel
I wanted to show a small portion of my cousin's home and fantastic garden ( also your dad's/ Larry's ). Carolyn and Bob live in Santa Cruz and have the most incredible home and yard. They are collectors and the yard is huge with different gardens, sections w/ flowers, trellis's etc. Two large koi ponds and one small koi ponds that are fasinating. The large koi fish will eat right out of your hand. They make a sucking sound and open their big mouths just like babies when you hold the food close to the water.
Carolyn is one of grandma's niece's; Aunt Ruths' daughter. She is truly a one of a kind lady; I call her a fairy princess, because that's how she appears. Wears flowing long dresses and has long hair; is so talented with flowers and cooking. And is so full of laughter. Wish all of our family could meet her and her husband, Bob. Mom and Bernie stopped by their house on their trip back from Washington. They had a nice visit.
Did you notice I happened to get in a picture of a couple cute guys? I asked Stephanie the other day to send new pictures and/or video because us Grandparents do miss our babies ( right Jan, Larry?)
Bye for now,
Aunt Chris/ Little Sis
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
India is going to the zoo snooze which is a great overnight field trip/sleepover at the zoo. I have a litter tiger at my work. She is two and she constantly hits, bites, headbutts, shoves, pinches and kicks the other babies/toddlers. I told Kaitlyn's mother (who said she's never seen this behavior at home or Grandma's) to come and observe today. I also let my director know that after Kaitlyn slapped me in the face - quite hard- that it was either me or Kaitlyn because it's unacceptable. The director backed me and said the family often does not pay their bills??? And the older preschool sibling has the same behavior problems. So it would be an easy decision.
Christian is still loving football. Tuck watches the practices and jumped and tackles imaginary players.
I went to Seaside last weekend and had a blast body-surfing. Glad we bought those wet suits. Lucy is now fussing anytime we close to the frig- for her icecubes- It's not like Brit with her barking and ball, but I wish we'd never started it.
Love to all,
Traci
Christian is still loving football. Tuck watches the practices and jumped and tackles imaginary players.
I went to Seaside last weekend and had a blast body-surfing. Glad we bought those wet suits. Lucy is now fussing anytime we close to the frig- for her icecubes- It's not like Brit with her barking and ball, but I wish we'd never started it.
Love to all,
Traci
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
A dearth (from Mom/Jan)
So what's going on out there - I know you are very busy, but . . .
It has certainly been busy at work for me. My boss's mother has moved here and is very ill. He is providing a lot of direct care so is off-loading what he can in other people's direction including mine. We had Open House at Holley last night. Not a lot of people, but it was a nice evening. I did a short PowerPoint with several pictures of the kids in it so that was well received.
I had a terrible muscle spasm in my upper back/shoulder area. It got so bad I had some numbness and tingling own my arm. I finally called the doctor's office for an appointment when nothing I tried (Ibuprofen, heat, muscle relaxants, etc.) seemed to help much at all. I said I had a pain in my upper back. Then they asked about it radiating and which arm, and presto they were sure I was having a heart attack and got me right in. I tried to assure them I was certain it was a muscle thing but they were having none of it and insisted I come right in. Sure was a quick way to get an appointment! Of course, it was just a really bad muscle spasm. Whatever he gave me worked pretty well even though it has taken a week to completely subside. Don't know how I did it- apparently an old age thing. Or maybe lifting several cases of bottled water.
Pat (HS principal friend) and I had a trainer show us a routine to do at the gym with free weights. I can sure tell there are a few muscles I haven't been exercising before. I like doing the free weights and its just nice to have a change.
Charlie has a friend who comes to play every day or two. It is a very small odd-looking little dog with sparse white hair. Mina has a visitor, too, but I think he just wants to fight. He comes to our sliding glass door in back and stares in. William's battle injuires are pretty healed now although he still looks beat up with the shaved tale and patch on his side.
Not much else here. We are hoping for school pictures??? Also we need new baby pictures because we know they are changing so fast and probably look totally different now than before.
Melanie, Chris Cvitanich is living in Portland area & working in Troutdale (Early Childhood Intervention). Is it okay if I give her Dad your phone number and/or e-mail?
By the way, I have some of your cell phone numbers, but others that I didn't write down and just had in my cell phone are gone. I left my phone in my pants pocket and it got washed. (I'm blaming that on being on the drugs for my shoulder pain.) The upside is that I wasn't at all concerned when I learned the phone was defunct - at least not until the next day. Anyway, I've got a replacement now. The insurance I've been paying at a rate of $5 a month for 6 years = $360 charged me a $50 deductible and did replace the phone. I'm thinking that's not such a good deal.
Well, I've rambled on enough. How about some updates from the rest of you?
Mom/Jan/Grandma
It has certainly been busy at work for me. My boss's mother has moved here and is very ill. He is providing a lot of direct care so is off-loading what he can in other people's direction including mine. We had Open House at Holley last night. Not a lot of people, but it was a nice evening. I did a short PowerPoint with several pictures of the kids in it so that was well received.
I had a terrible muscle spasm in my upper back/shoulder area. It got so bad I had some numbness and tingling own my arm. I finally called the doctor's office for an appointment when nothing I tried (Ibuprofen, heat, muscle relaxants, etc.) seemed to help much at all. I said I had a pain in my upper back. Then they asked about it radiating and which arm, and presto they were sure I was having a heart attack and got me right in. I tried to assure them I was certain it was a muscle thing but they were having none of it and insisted I come right in. Sure was a quick way to get an appointment! Of course, it was just a really bad muscle spasm. Whatever he gave me worked pretty well even though it has taken a week to completely subside. Don't know how I did it- apparently an old age thing. Or maybe lifting several cases of bottled water.
Pat (HS principal friend) and I had a trainer show us a routine to do at the gym with free weights. I can sure tell there are a few muscles I haven't been exercising before. I like doing the free weights and its just nice to have a change.
Charlie has a friend who comes to play every day or two. It is a very small odd-looking little dog with sparse white hair. Mina has a visitor, too, but I think he just wants to fight. He comes to our sliding glass door in back and stares in. William's battle injuires are pretty healed now although he still looks beat up with the shaved tale and patch on his side.
Not much else here. We are hoping for school pictures??? Also we need new baby pictures because we know they are changing so fast and probably look totally different now than before.
Melanie, Chris Cvitanich is living in Portland area & working in Troutdale (Early Childhood Intervention). Is it okay if I give her Dad your phone number and/or e-mail?
By the way, I have some of your cell phone numbers, but others that I didn't write down and just had in my cell phone are gone. I left my phone in my pants pocket and it got washed. (I'm blaming that on being on the drugs for my shoulder pain.) The upside is that I wasn't at all concerned when I learned the phone was defunct - at least not until the next day. Anyway, I've got a replacement now. The insurance I've been paying at a rate of $5 a month for 6 years = $360 charged me a $50 deductible and did replace the phone. I'm thinking that's not such a good deal.
Well, I've rambled on enough. How about some updates from the rest of you?
Mom/Jan/Grandma
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
video test
So it appears that we can now post video as well as photos. So I am going to put on a video of Piper smiling.
Monday, September 10, 2007
More pictures...
I wanted to post some of our pictures. The first is a picture of Brian's truck. I will let him tell the details but everyone was fine.
The babies had their 2 month checkup. They were both about 10.5 pounds and were already caught up to their age. They were in the 5th percentile (weight, height, head size) at birth and are now up to the 50th percentile.
We are having the Halo 3 tournament in three weeks. So far I have the Lopes boys attending with the rest of the Dean family showing up before and after a wedding they are attending. I talked to Traci and she said the kids and she will likely be attending, but Tim will be staying home to move them into their new house with the help of some students. I believe mom and dad said they were going to come but I haven't heard from them lately.
Greyson has our "new" truck fixed up except for a wiring problem with the headlights. We are in desperate need of a trip to the dump to take our recycling in.
so where are the first day of school pictures??
The babies had their 2 month checkup. They were both about 10.5 pounds and were already caught up to their age. They were in the 5th percentile (weight, height, head size) at birth and are now up to the 50th percentile.
We are having the Halo 3 tournament in three weeks. So far I have the Lopes boys attending with the rest of the Dean family showing up before and after a wedding they are attending. I talked to Traci and she said the kids and she will likely be attending, but Tim will be staying home to move them into their new house with the help of some students. I believe mom and dad said they were going to come but I haven't heard from them lately.
Greyson has our "new" truck fixed up except for a wiring problem with the headlights. We are in desperate need of a trip to the dump to take our recycling in.
so where are the first day of school pictures??
Saturday, September 08, 2007
porter update
We really enjoyed all the pictures from baby Noah to the beach trip. Bernie and Grandma look like they had a good time.
India broke her arm jumping from hay bales at the fair. She said she still had a great time and wants to enter a sheep for 4 H. I told her we should start with a bunny or cooking first. Tuck is enjoyng his combinded 3-4th. class and his best subject is still P.E. He did well on all his placement tests which is unusual since he typically acts like he can't read or do math. Then his teachers think he needs special ed until we take his computer games away and then magically he excells in his tests.
Christian is pretty small compared to his classmates and was leary of trying out for football. Thankfully he is having a wonderful time and the guy giving him his sports physical reassured him that with his long legs and big feet that he'd be plenty tall in a year or two.
I'm working full time in the infant/toddler room at the Condon Child Care. It's in the Elementary building, so I get visits from India and Tuck oftern. The work can be stressfull and labor intensive but it's good to get out of the house and still be close to the kids.
Tim seems to be a perfect fit so far for his job. The community is thrilled with him although in small communities that could change over a minor issue. He really made the school secretary mad when she complained of a "skater" kid wearing a shirt with a skull and the American flag - in protest to the war- Tim felt that the kid was entitled to his beliefs as long as there wasn't any foul language or sexual references. We do have free speech in Condon. The secretary went away in a huff, but the kid was pleased.
We have been renting a 2 bedroom 1 bath house. Three kids, two dogs and three cats. Way too crowded - even with booting the cats outside. We've trained the dogs to stay off the sectional. Oh and Molly finally became a real dog with an official bath and trim. She's no longer a dust mop and we brush her each night to keep her all pretty. She's actually quite a small dog without all that hair. Anyway, back to the house: we got a call on a 3000sq. ft rental in town. It is really nice and the owner said she'll want to sell in a year or so. That's when our leasers negotiated to purchace our house.
Condon isn't very pretty, but it's safe and rooted with generations of really friendly farmers and ranchers. One of our neighbors brought us a delicious zuchinni bread and plate of cranberry cookies after the first week we arrived.
We'll be moving into our new house the last weekend of September. Half of our stuff is still boxed. I'll leave that up to you if you view that as a half empty or half full kind of thing.
Love,
Traci and family
India broke her arm jumping from hay bales at the fair. She said she still had a great time and wants to enter a sheep for 4 H. I told her we should start with a bunny or cooking first. Tuck is enjoyng his combinded 3-4th. class and his best subject is still P.E. He did well on all his placement tests which is unusual since he typically acts like he can't read or do math. Then his teachers think he needs special ed until we take his computer games away and then magically he excells in his tests.
Christian is pretty small compared to his classmates and was leary of trying out for football. Thankfully he is having a wonderful time and the guy giving him his sports physical reassured him that with his long legs and big feet that he'd be plenty tall in a year or two.
I'm working full time in the infant/toddler room at the Condon Child Care. It's in the Elementary building, so I get visits from India and Tuck oftern. The work can be stressfull and labor intensive but it's good to get out of the house and still be close to the kids.
Tim seems to be a perfect fit so far for his job. The community is thrilled with him although in small communities that could change over a minor issue. He really made the school secretary mad when she complained of a "skater" kid wearing a shirt with a skull and the American flag - in protest to the war- Tim felt that the kid was entitled to his beliefs as long as there wasn't any foul language or sexual references. We do have free speech in Condon. The secretary went away in a huff, but the kid was pleased.
We have been renting a 2 bedroom 1 bath house. Three kids, two dogs and three cats. Way too crowded - even with booting the cats outside. We've trained the dogs to stay off the sectional. Oh and Molly finally became a real dog with an official bath and trim. She's no longer a dust mop and we brush her each night to keep her all pretty. She's actually quite a small dog without all that hair. Anyway, back to the house: we got a call on a 3000sq. ft rental in town. It is really nice and the owner said she'll want to sell in a year or so. That's when our leasers negotiated to purchace our house.
Condon isn't very pretty, but it's safe and rooted with generations of really friendly farmers and ranchers. One of our neighbors brought us a delicious zuchinni bread and plate of cranberry cookies after the first week we arrived.
We'll be moving into our new house the last weekend of September. Half of our stuff is still boxed. I'll leave that up to you if you view that as a half empty or half full kind of thing.
Love,
Traci and family
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Fun Times with the Family
Couldn't resist posting a few more baby pictures. Hope you don't mind.
Hey,
Loved all the pictures on the blogg. We've got a pretty good looking family, don't you think? I haven't really had the time to hear all the news about the beach trip, but Mom and Bernie sure had a great time. They both had fun and Bernie felt very welcomed with all of you.
I'm not having fun at work, can't believe I have so many more years to work. But I'm probably just in a slump and missing the grandbaby. Phil and I also haven't been out in the rv for a couple weeks, so am very anxious to take off. We are planning a short vacation to the San Luis Obispo area. I can't wait..
Love to all,
Chris
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
A Few More Pictures
Hazel brought over a cd from Ed with pictures from the reunion and I thought I should post a couple.
Beach Trip
I am going to post some pictures on this page!? Enjoyed our mini-vacation with everyone so much. I was very happy that the rooms and sleeping arrangements were as nice as I had hoped. The surf was great, the food delicious; a special thanks to Jennifer and Janice for cooking, Greyson and Melanie for their company and for their adorable girls to hold , Bernie and Mom for coming up from CA to be part of our end of summer celebration and conversations, the sand digging girls Kalena and Emma, my two surfing granddudes Gabe and Nicholas who showed great concern, sympathy, and hilarity for their whobbly Grandfather, Brian for his usual high energy, thoughtfulness for others, and really great jokes, and Hazel for her help and love of us all. To my wife, Janice, a special thanks for getting me into the water, into my suit, out of trouble, and letting me go to the casino each day.
Monday, September 03, 2007
best coast trip yet?
I had such a good time with you guys, and appreciate the flexibility and help you gave us with our babies. I have a blast with you every time, but this particular trip seemed quite special. Maybe because we have kids of our own to enjoy. I think too Nicholas and Gabe are growing into a couple of witty and intelligent guys, and I really enjoyed hanging with those two this trip. They were making me laugh pretty hard in spite of some pretty banged up ribs (the surf was ruthless). Glad to meet Bernie, and see Ruby while they were there. Grandma faraway, you have it coming in pinnocle. Thought we were a team there until you started ripping on me. The rest of you...as always, a pleasure. Jenn, the food was wonderful, and I cannot thank you, Jan or the grandmothers enough for caring for those babies while mel and I were in some sort of zombie state. Jan and Larry---coast house was beautiful, and I feel fortunate to have the opportunity to spend time with you both there. Congratulations on the winnings!!! Brian, we'll have to catch up on that beer when our two little punks are caught up on milk and sleep. And I'll miss you most of all scarecrow. much love,
G
G
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