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Michael
December 6, 2006
Wow time flies when you're busy! We've been so busy over the summer and
through the holidays that I can't even remember everything we've done. Oh well. As you can
see from the pictures, I finally finished the girl's rooms. We also got an early snow
right after Thanksgiving - heavy enough for a day off from school! Carolina is quite busy
with her job, but enjoying it also. Oh, and Mercedes is now a registered student at
Oregon State University!!
Michael
June 27, 2006
Summer time is here! The kids are on summer break and I now can work
on all those household chores I've been planning all winter...as soon as this heat wave
ends (it's been breaking 100 and setting records). Mercedes will be busy working this
summer with babysitting jobs and learning the importance and scarcity of the ole' mighty
dollar. Rowan will be busy practicing the piano, playing with her toys and whatever
educational stuff I can throw at her. Oh, and yesterday Carolina started her new job
as MANAGER of the unit she first started working for at the State!
Michael
March 15, 2006
We finally got snow!! A little late in the winter, but it was very
nice to see. Rowan has been wanting it to snow all winter, so she was quite pleased
to be able to throw a couple of snow balls (at me of course). It's still cold and wet
up here, so we still haven't been doing much outside, but are really looking forward
to an active summer (I REALLY want to get out and do some mountain-bike riding).
Rowan has her own digital camera now, so she'll be helping me keep new pictures
posted.
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Michael
January 10, 2006
Happy New year everyone! Ok, ok, I know it has been MONTHS since I
posted anything here. When winter comes everything seems to slow down and get
busy all at the same time. We haven't been outdoors as much (especially when it was
getting down to 22 degrees) so I don't have many pictures to post, but I'll probably
get a few up soon. Since my last posting we've had a birthday (Mercedes), Thanksgiving,
our local Holiday Parade (Mercedes participated again, but no pictures of her this time),
Christmas (we were all sick) and New Years (which we shared with good friends and my
mom)! There are probably a few other things we've
done in that time but it went too fast for me to remember - maybe I'll find pictures
to jog my memory.
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Michael
September 30, 2005
We finally went camping! (or, I finally got Carolina out into the
woods.) Carolina, Rowan and I spent the weekend at a campground about 40 minutes
from Salem, soaking up the beautiful scenery and celebrating Rowan's birthday. Carolina
seemed to enjoy herself - it probably helped that we weren't "roughing it" too much. Rowan
of course loves going and doing things like this and really enjoyed sleeping in a tent.
We'll have to try this again next spring.
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Michael
September 9, 2005
I think I'm finally learning the definition of busy! We constantly
seem to be doing something, but now that Rowan has started school today (and
Mercedes tomorrow), maybe things will slow down a bit...yeah right!
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Michael
August 17, 2005
Ugh...it's HOT! We finally are going through our normal hot spell
for the summer, except it's been going on much longer than usual. Help...I'm melting...melting...
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Michael
July 21, 2005
This is NOT good. Although I've seen a number of pictures of them, I
now know what a hornet's nest looks like in person! We have a basketball sized nest
in a tree in our front yard. It's too high to spray poison in and disturbing the
hornets (like shaking the branch) just makes them angry. Unless I can find a safe way
of dealing with it myself, I guess I'll be calling the professionals. BTW, it was at
least 90 degrees today...and it rained!
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Michael
July 18, 2005
It's HOT!!! Too hot actually. We had friends visiting from SoCal this
weekend and spent the day sight-seeing out on the coast. Luckily it's a little cooler
over there. We had a picnic, looked around the tide pools, visited two light houses, and
basically enjoyed all the scenery. I, as usual, took lots of pictures.
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Michael
June 20, 2005
Father's Day 2005 - I'm 40 years old, overweight, out of shape...and I
just finished a 50 mile bike ride! (And lived to tell about it.) Feeling a bit energetic
and gutsy, I signed up to ride in the annual Watermelon Rides, organized by the Salem Bicycle Club.
The rides consist of 50, 100, 125 and 200 mile routes - I of course opted for the 50. The
routes wound through the Willamette Valley offering a beautiful scenic ride. Ok, so who of
you are willing to try this? :-)
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Michael
June 13, 2005
So we finally picked a nice day for a hike! The Basket Slough National
Wildlife Refuge is about 15 minutes away and is home to a number of animals like deer, beavers,
rabbits, owls and many types of birds (geese, hawks, meadowlarks, etc.). There are a number
of marshes and a lake, with trails around them and through a few small oak forests. It was
a fairly easy walk of 6 miles.
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Michael
May 31, 2005
Only in Oregon. On May 18 we had record rainfall (the most on this day
in over 50 years), then a week later we get a heat wave - with a couple of days in the mid-
nineties. With the nice weather here we decided to plan a picnic at the beach...but the
forecast quickly changed to "scattered showers". Oh well, in true Oregonian fashion we
went anyway. Except for a bit of drizzle during lunch, it was actually a very nice day
and was comfortable enough to stay out on the beach until it got dark (which is pretty late
around here). The fire didn't hurt either.
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Michael
May 23, 2005
Finally, the nice weather stuck around long enough for us to enjoy
a nice day at the coast (on our way to Florence). It had been awhile since we last
drove along the coast to simply enjoy the scenery. Rowan's Gallery has a few new
pictures also, plus I put up pictures of Mercedes going to her first Prom (ahh...the
life of a teenager.)
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Michael
May 18, 2005
Well, I now have an answer to my question in my last post: It's winter!
It seems we got our spring in February and we're now having our inter. It has been
so inconsistent we can't really guess what to expect. We've been busy taking advantage
of the nice weather in between the bad (is it ever really bad?), so I should have some new
pictures up soon. I hope to be out on the bike trails soon where I can get a lot
of nice pictures (and view some beautiful scenery).
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Michael
March 30, 2005
Ok, is it Spring or is it still Winter? If you live here, you may not
be able to decide. A month ago it dried up around here and all the trees and flowers
started blooming - everything looked really nice. Everyone started dressing in their
summer clothes, driving convertibles, and generally doing all the usual outdoor activities.
We've even had talk about a possible drought this summer. Fast-forward to now: it's been
raining for a week straight and it's cold again! Don't get me wrong, we really need the
rain, but it's really hard to plan things when you can't even tell what season it's going
to be on a daily basis.
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Michael
March 16, 2005
Time sure flies when you're busy! As you can see by the pictures,
the kids have been busy too - we took Rowan to the Mission Mill for
Valentine's day activities, and Mercedes was performing at a district-wide concert.
I also posted pictures of our visit to OMSI to see their "Animal Grossology" display.
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Michael
February 2, 2005
Groundhog Day! Nothing really going on here, although everyone is
*almost* over the colds we've had since Christmas (or earlier). Our winter appears
to be mostly over except for some cold temperatures - flowers are already starting
to blossom. That means it will soon be time for road trips and picture taking!
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Michael
January 15, 2005
The ICE-WOMAN COMETH (hey, who ever said it *had* to be a man). It's
thirty degrees and raining - no, that doesn't mean snow, for us it means freezing rain.
Anything that got rain on it last night is frozen in ice (almost a flash-back to last
year) and it probably won't melt until late tomorrow...maybe. The weather report
says it "feels like" 23 degrees out. Burr.
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Michael
January 5, 2005
Ho Ho HUMBUG! Finally the holidays are over and we can move on to
the next one (the stores already have out their Valentine's Day stuff). This Christmas
wasn't too exciting...Rowan was quite sick over her entire school break and Carolina
was sick for half of her time off from work. I don't think I'll post any Christmas
pictures this year. With have the family sick, it wasn't much of a photogenic day :-)
Happy New Year everyone!
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Michael
December 25, 2004
Merry Christmas everyone! It is dark and gloomy outside today, but
nice and cozy inside. The kids seem to enjoy their morning, although Rowan is so sick
she ran out of energy to open gifts :-( Hope everyone is having a good day and not
eating too much.
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Michael
December 23, 2004
The weather people lied! Ok, so what else is new. We had about two
clear nights , but otherwise it's been cloudy with an occasional drizzle. Now they
are saying it may rain on or the day after Christmas, which may also bring snow. This
would make Rowan happy because she has this idea that it should snow on Christmas...I
wonder where she got that idea. Happy Holidays everyone!
UPDATE: It finally cleared up today...but it's REALLY COLD!
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Michael
December 18, 2004
Bummer...we won't be having a "white" Christmas this year, the weather
forecast for the next week is sunny and clear. Oh well, I guess it will be nice for
going outside and doing things (aka, yard work).
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Michael
December 10, 2004
Well, we are coming up on our 6th Christmas here in Oregon and this
year I finally put lights up on the house! They're not much, but it's a lot
better than the lights in the front windows I've been doing the past couple of years.
Carolina is happy.
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Michael
December 2, 2004
I know, I know, it's been a LONG time since I've updated our pages! We
were so busy (doing what I'm not sure) that I never made time to do it. So...here is about
six months worth of activities in one update. I hope to get back to updating on a regular
basis, and plan on using this blog to fill everyone in on the "little" things going on
in our lives (or useless ramblings, whichever feels right at time).
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