Two Adult Children

I am no longer responsible for these people. Technically.

Our Bella turned 18 today, the naughty thing. We had a fun day eating and shopping (our favorite birthday activities) at Pine Street Biscuits and IKEA, where she was gifted with a new chair for her room. Later we had Russian chicken for dinner (her choice), cake and more presents. Yay :)

LDS Prom

In our area, our church puts on its own prom night. This year it was held in Longview. Bella was asked to go by a good friend, Spencer, that she's known for years.

They ate at The Rock pizza restaurant with some friends, and then were (kind of unfortunately but it ended up being OK) driven to Longview by Spencer's parents, Frank and Shanna. Spencer turned 16 in January and still can't drive with anyone but family members in the car. Hubby and I went along for the ride and had dinner with Frank, Shanna and another ward mom, Donna (her son and his date ate dinner with Bella and Spencer).

It was a very fun evening. Shanna and I sat in the back of their minivan and talked chickens and chicken coops all the way up to Longview. :) Oh, and the kids had a good time too. Bella was very happy she decided to go.

Pyramid!

Roz is in the middle row, second from left

Ward Talent Night

Been a little busy.

Hubby and I went to the ward talent night tonight. None of our children were interested in going, so we turned it into a date. Our ward has some pretty talented people - the stuff they can do is impressive. We had a nice ham (me: ham-free) dinner and sat with the Turleys and chatted people up. Good times.

Prom Dress Shopping

We had so much fun shopping for her prom dress. She had a pretty specific idea of what she wanted - modest, with longer sleeves, and black (but she was okay with blue) - and we were able to walk right in and find it. Pretty amazing. The sales lady who helped us found shoes and jewelry that were perfect.

Bella's never been into the idea of prom but after getting the outfit, she was allll over it. I asked her what made the difference and she said "The dress." If only I'd known, I would have taken her prom dress shopping starting when she was about 12. :)

Churchy Selfie

Tonight the ward youth went to the Life of Christ exhibit put on by a neighboring stake. It's similar to our stake's Festival of Nativities but with Easter stuff instead of Christmas. Here's Carter having some phone fun in the back of our van on the way.

Weekend at Grannie's

Yay! Cousin time! Mel had a weekend free and she came over to Grannie's to visit, so we all met at Grannie's and had a good time.

Harrison, Demeter, Kiley, Roz, Carter, Zane

Po and Kiley

Hey, cutie.

Aw yeah.

Spokane Game

Carter is 2nd from right

Hubby sez: "Nice win Timbers Green. 2-0 in Spokane."

Hangin' at Grannie's

Young Women Victorian Tea Party

This was a really FUN activity we put together for the ward young women. Our bishopric and stake young women presidency came and ate yummy, beautiful foods and had fun with us. We all dressed in Victorian garb and had a great time. 

Tying the quilt. Bella at top right

Look who has an Emma 'do!
Don't you wish you had one too!

Amy & Bella

Oh yeah, that guy

Watching Magnum PI reruns.

Brennan: Hey, isn't that Richard?
Me: Richard?
Brennan: From Friends.

Weekend in Salem, Oregon

GO BLITZ!

We went to Salem for Bella's last soccer tournament ever (sniff, sniff). The accommodations at Residence Inn Salem are quite lovely, just so you know. 

Before the last game I took a trip to the local Fred's to restock our supplies.  Here's an actual conversation I had while buying a few candy bars for my family.

Skinny 24-year-old Fred Meyer clerk: Oh, I wish I could eat these, but I have a low tolerance for sugar and I think I'm allergic to chocolate. 

Me: (giving him the hairy eyeball)

Clerk: No, it's seriously sad! I can eat all the junk food and fried stuff in the WORLD and I'll stay at, like, 4% body fat! It's so low that the doctor told me not to exercise, and I'm sad cuz I LOVE exercise!!

Me: SHUT UP YOU LITTLE WEASEL

Blessings

We're thinking of changing Charlotte the minivan's name to Ma Kelly. Every so often we have to take her to the mechanic and throw money at him so she can keep going. "Yeah, do it. Hey, it'll be good to see her spit again, eh?"

Today's happy Charlotte moment happened this morning when her serpentine belt broke as I was driving on 39th Street. It was expected - we'd been listening to it squeak for weeks and knew it was just a matter of time.

This morning I did the usual route, dropping off all the kids at school, and less than five minutes after the last kid was at the last school, CLUNK there it went. The car kept running, but I couldn't steer very easily. I turned right onto a side street, somehow, and parked along the curb. Then I called Hubby and AAA. While I waited, I walked to the nearby Safeway for a treat and Carter's lunch, and detailed the car with some handi-wipes. :) 

Hubby met me at the car later and we decided, for fun, we'd take a walk and see if we could find the belt. There it was, still on the street, even after the usual morning busy-ness. But the very coolest part was this: When the belt broke and fell off, it also snapped off the belt holder-thingie (I'm sure Hubby knows what the name of this little part is but he's not here at the moment), and we also found IT in the street. Who knows how much it would have cost to replace it!

There was no inconvenience, no danger (imagine if it had happened on the freeway), no one needing a ride, no one missing school or even being late, no extra cost. We had Charlotte towed (free from AAA) to our favorite mechanic and had her fixed at a reasonable rate. 

AND... it happened... on payday. We were very, very happy. 

Blessings indeed.

Deep Thought

"The crows are calling my name," thought Caw.

Looks like some ladies are ready to play soccer. This was their last practice. Awww.

Bella's and Rosalind's teams

Meanwhile, back at home...

Warming up...winding down

Smugness

Not even 7:00 am yet and the family's soccer day is already underway. Heh heh heh....suckers.

Proof that Gran is still with me

Fred Meyer grocery employee: I don't ever shop at Winco. I don't like to bag my own groceries.
My brain: Do you chew your own food?

Missing my sibs today. Love you guys.

November 1981

Geeking in Portland

I received my copy of Uncle Shelby Smith's death certificate today. Shelby was Gran's dad's brother. Normally I don't order death certificates but Shelby and his family have proven to be quite elusive, genealogy research speaking, and I was hoping to catch some new bit of information that could help me out. 

Boy, did I. Check out that cause of death. (Click on the picture)

The reason for my geeking

Since Bella and her friend MK needed a ride to the Timbers soccer game, I decided to drive them and hang out in downtown P-town and be a genealogy geek. 

After the adventure that is always "parking on the street in Portland," I made my way to the Multnomah County Public Library, hoping to go back in time and read about Uncle Shelby's accident. This also ended up being a bit of a disappointment. No LA Times on microfilm? Why do I even BOTHER. (By now I was a little bit frustrated.)

No LA Times, but THIS they have.

It appears that I will have to hit up the LA Times for Shelby's obituary and news of his accident in some other way, but it was a mostly fun and quite interesting evening.

While we're busy geeking, here's a list of life history questions so you can do genealogy for the people you already love. Awwww