Sunday, June 27, 2010

And now, a word from Nate

I am going to steal the idea from Shannon (thanks sis) and publish some of the stories that Nate came up with this year as I am sitting here going through mounds of school work that came home last week.

They made a writing book, sprial bound, and this is a sampling - spelling errors not corrected.

On Friday I went to Idiho to see my Grandma and my cosins. My trip ended on Monday. I stayed in a hotel for three days. I went swimming with my cosins. My hotel name was Haladay express. My cosins hotel name was Red lion. It was fun. We had so much fun. There was funny at evry corner.

I like Mario super bros. for wii. I am on wold eight its four players. the charecters are Mario, Toad, Toad, Liuege. There are eight worlds.

I made a flower at school. We all day three peices of paper. And tishyou paper and I got blue. We all got little peices of green paper. we all got big pices of green paper then we put all the pices together.

I like sharks they are cool. They live in the water. They are very dangeris and scary. They are anamals. They live very deep down.

I like Ester becuase it is the day that Jesus came to heven. The Ester bunny comes. When he comes he brings candy and treats. I got a paper airplane set from the Ester bunny. It is very cool.

Monday, June 21, 2010

First Day of Summer Vacation

They look so sweet when they are not trying to kill each other.





Thursday, June 17, 2010

Sealed, for your Protection


Remember that scene in ET The Extra Terrestrial where the scientists seal off Elliot's home with plastic to avoid alien contamination. Well, we have that. We are getting ready to film scenes from ET 2- Invasion of the moisture monster.
Just kidding.
A week ago we discovered a leaking hot water pipe. UNDER our house. Had we not had our hardwoods re-done recently, it might have taken much longer to notice. But all of the sudden, the floor started to cup (curl up), then discolor. When Dave tried to peek under the house he discovered a pond. And soaked insulation. And wet sub floor. And the big M: Mold.
One week later, one plumber later and 2 ServePro dudes who practically live here - we are drying out. We no longer have access to our laundry, downstairs bath, family room, hallway or nook. We have about 10 loud fans and dehumidifiers running 24/7 to dry out the sub floor and under the house.
Thank GOD Grandma lives across the street!
The moral of the story is: Go look under your house!

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

9504 Nw Bartholomew Drive, Portland, OR


This beautiful 4859 square foot home has 6 bedrooms and 3.10 full bathrooms. It is located at 9504 Nw Bartholomew Drive in Portland, OR.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Have you seen Kyron Horman?



This child is missing. Look at him. Look again. He is 7 years old. Kinda looks like Nate with glasses. It could be any of our children. He vanished into thin air.
This child is gone. Could belong to any of us. Missing from the school where his mom dropped him off and walked him in. Vanished from inside his very own school. It's 10 minutes from here, tops. It's a nice area. We are sick about this. Portland is sick about this.

Kyron is three feet, eight inches tall. He weighs about 50 pounds. He was wearing orange and black cargo pants, white socks, worn black Skecher tennis shoes with orange trim and a T-shirt with the "CSI" logo.
Anyone with information on Kyron's whereabouts is urged to call the Multhnomah County Sheriff's Office tip line at (503)-261-2847.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

The 3 P's

Since Ian has decided he is "allergic" to cake, we did big cookie pizza
And cheese pizza. All 8 kids had to squish around the one picnic table.

Pinata time!

Candle time!

And...we're done


After what seems like 47 straight days of torrential rain, (and a couple of near panic attacks by me) we woke up yesterday to a gorgeous, sunny, warm day. Good thing! We had Ian's birthday party at 11am, planned for outside, and a baseball bbq at 5 - both in our backyard!
7 of Ian's classmates joined us for the 3 P's - Pizza, Pinata and Playing! We were able to surprise Ian with a bouncy house for the party (oops, forgot to take pics of that!) and so far it is worth it's weight in gold. The kids have been bouncing non-stop for 2 days.
I think the week long birthday celebration that began last weekend at Waffle House, has come to an end. We can't belive our baby boy is 5! In my head he is still at chubby little 2 year old.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Road Trip! New Rules.

Birthday singing is a litte embarassing!
Loves Sonic! Thanks cousins!

The Palouse
We made it.
Where's Ian?
Cousins, and a few furry friends

So we road tripped to Lewiston this past Memorial Day weekend. Following Ian's graduation and a half day for Nate, we hit the road. New road trip food rules: No Chain Restaurants. Only local hot spots. First stop, Kennewick. Hubby's pizza is famous for their thin thin thin crust pizza and yummy sauce. I wanted to try the pepperoni, sausage, dill pickle pizza but didn't get any takers. Cheese and pepperoni it was.

In Lewiston we discovered Waffles and More. Need I say more? And then there was Sharp's - we met the cousins there. They have the best 'secret fry sauce' around.

Finally, our on-the-way home standby stop is Cousins in the Dalles. Home cooking comfort food. Dave always has the pot roast and Ian likes the roast turkey and mashed potatoes.

Other than food, we had fun. Met the cousins there and had a grand time swimming and playing. We caught a NAIA World Series game with the local Lewis Clarke team beating their opponent, 10-5.
We visited with Great Grandma Sprenger and Great Uncle Tom and Aunt Janet, and met their new puppy Abby. Dave got to got to the shooting range with Uncle Tom which was the highlight of the trip for him.

At the end of the trip we got to celebrate Ian's birthday at the restaurant of his choice. He chose Waffle House, of course! The staff even sang to him over pancakes.



The Graduate


Ian Thomas Shuster is proud to announce that he has graduated from Prince of Peace.
The Graduating 4's entertained a crowd last Friday with at least 15 songs complete with sign language and theatrics. Ian was front and center and was sure to make the most of it - jumping up and down and clapping and throwing the horns to mom and dad as much as possible.
\m/ \m/


With wonderful Mrs. Hull and a buddy from class

Always loves the ladies!

Wednesday, June 2, 2010