WEEK 38

A birthday!

Here's the low-down on Charlotte's 13th birthday! She had a GREAT day!

busy weekend

What a weekend! This will officially be the last post made about the new deck because as of this weekend, it is finished. (Well, except for the trim on the stairs which we had to special order.) We found a killer deal on clearance patio furniture and we spent Saturday hosing off the deck and putting together the table and chairs! Even though it takes up half of the yard, our yard feels so much bigger now!

We also found these Adirondack chairs for $10 a piece (also clearance) and we put them outside our bedroom door.

Also on Saturday, we spread new bark and playground chips throughout the yard. We are so happy with the way everything looks...clean and fresh.

Because we tortured the kids by making them weed the playground and pull up the tomato plants (and it was torture for them), we rewarded them by taking them to the EWEB fountain for some playtime (and then for ice cream). It was so HOT today so the fountain felt really great!


Finally, I finished Charlotte's 13th birthday cake yesterday. She wanted a zebra print cake and since I had never done one before, I watched a few Youtube videos showing me how to do it. What would we do without the internet? Anyway, we are celebrating her birthday tonight! I can't believe we have a teenager!

big projects

Hey everyone! We have so much to report this week! First off, I started another new project (this one I don't intend to finish for several years but thought it would be fun to start now.) As I've watched several of my good friends send their children off to college (and even marriage) I started wondering how prepared my girls will be when it is their turn. Charlotte is only 5 years away after all. So, I started to compile our family's most favorite recipes and over the next few years, I am going to create a cookbook for each of them to take with them when they leave home. Each recipe will have a picture and some fun memory or advice about the dish. Once it's finished, I'll get it printed and spiral bound. So, for now, I'm working on including our favorites...and remembering to take a picture or two when we sit down to dinner. The next step is to start teaching my older girls how to actually cook!

I have only done one page with 2 recipes...two recipes that every single member of our family devours. The funny thing is, both of these recipes come from my mom. I have a feeling there will be lots of Grandma Millar recipes in this book!


Secondly, the deck is ALMOST finished!! Casey just has to build one more set of steps and do the finish work on the stairs. Hopefully by Saturday, it should be done! Isn't it huge? We love it and I am amazed at how solid it is. It doesn't creek or groan when you walk on it. Since it is made of plastic, we will never have to refinish it or replace rotted boards. The far corner of the deck is where the hot tub will eventually go. It will be my little oasis :) Casey swears he will never ever take on another project like this one. We saved so much money by him doing all the work though, it was totally worth it!

Finally, we are MOVING! No, not our house...we'll probably be here until we die..but our office. We found an amazing office space in Eugene that is 5X the size of our current office and costs about the same as we are paying now. It even has a conference room! Casey is so excited about it. We start moving our business over on October 1st. To make things look more professional, he designed these new vertical banners that he will display in the new showroom and at bridal shows and trade shows. (of which he has 3 next month.) He got them in the mail last night and we had so much fun setting them up.


Anyway, October will be a crazy month for sure! Wish us luck!

WEEK 37

Back to school and a new deck

The first thing that I just have to report on is our new deck! It's not done yet but Casey has cranked all of this work out in just one week! (and this for a guy who has never built a deck before...and is learning as he goes.) I am so proud of him. We are so very excited to have this huge outdoor living space done in the next two weeks. I am very very very tired of dusty footprints all over my wood floors! The goal is to finish it by the time the rain starts so finishing by the end of this month is a must!

The spot where Maggie is standing is double reinforced because in some future day, it will hold a hot tub. Since we tore out our master bedroom window and put in a sliding glass door, Casey and I will be able to just walk out of our bedroom into hot tub heaven. (Now to save enough money to afford a hot tub:) )

As you can see, the deck is pretty large and takes up half of our backyard. This section of our yard was just "wasted space" before and we feel like it will get used much more with this deck. Because we are living in Oregon...and we get 9 months of rain...we are using treated wood for all of the foundation and for the top, we are using a product called "Timber Teck." It is plastic and therefore, will not have to be replaced due to rotting. We hope it lives up to it's advertising!!


9 times out of 10, I will look out the window and see Casey in this position. He nails in a board, stops, measures, makes sure it is level and then thinks about his next step. Thankfully, one of our very best friends (Shawn Stockford) is a deck expert and he comes over frequently to check on Casey's work.

Okay, now on to the really exciting stuff!! School started!!! Hallelujah!! Here are some pics of the girls' first days of school in no particular order.

Lydia is in a 3 day preschool. (The same one that all of our girls attended)

Here is my big 7th grader!! Isn't she a beauty? She has really taken little sister Jillian under her wing at middle school. We are proud of Charlotte!

Maggie is in 4th grade and Allison is in second. That makes only 2 kids at the elementary school! That's so strange!

Finally, the biggest change this year is Jillian's start of sixth grade...and middle school! She went a day early so that the sixth graders could have the school to themselves without the craziness of 7th and 8th graders around. So far, she is doing well and enjoying it. (Though she seems so small compared to everyone else. Maybe that is just in her parents' eyes)

I have not quite figured my days out yet. My mornings are very quiet! I have so much that I need to do but I really don't want to start any of it!

Week 35

10 mile bikeride!

What a terrific Saturday we had as a family! We decided to take a bike ride together from a park in Springfield, all the way out to Eugene and back. Eugene and Springfield are equipped with some of the most amazing bike trails. You can get just about anywhere using these trails. The ones we took today were far away from any traffic, along parts of the river that one would never see from a car. This picture is of the kids before we started our ride.

We made it 5 miles before we ran in to Valley River Center in Eugene. We decided to lock up our bikes and go inside to eat some lunch. Casey, feeling generous, also bought the girls ice cream!

About a mile from the mall is Skinner's Butte park. (the bike trail leaves the mall and goes right past this park.) We let the kids play for a few minutes before continuing.

Another mile down the trail sent us right past EWEB. Thankfully (since it was 90 degrees) there was a fountain that the girls rode their bikes through. Not getting wet enough, they got off of their bikes and thoroughly soaked themselves.

Because it was such a warm day, the wetness gave them an extra boost of energy to finish the path. At the end, we rode 10 miles today! It was so much fun that we repeated the trail on Monday night for FHE. This time, we rode 12 miles! Way to go girls!

I'm a bit behind but here is my project 365 for not this week but last.