Guest Appearence

A press release that went out this week. Please note the second to last sentence.

The Estacada Arts Commission presents its 7th annual Writers Night at 7 pm, April 18th, at the Springwater Grange, 24591 S. Springwater Road. As always the event will be hosted by Stevan Allred. This year's event will be a mix of poetry and short stories, in response to an audience request at last year's reading. Poet Melanie Green will read new poems and poems from her collection"Determining Sky". Portland Writer Steve Deniston will read "Duck Fishing in Dufur," a short story. Joanna Rose will read a selection of her poems, and Stevan Allred will read a short story called "Conflations of a Hard Headed Yankee."

My writing teachers (Stevan and Joanna) I've been studying with on and off for the past year invited me to read at this. Stevan lives in Estacada and has close ties to the arts community in the area. Holly and I went last year (and the party afterwards) and had a great time. Now I get to read at it too. Should be a blast!
-Steve

At the Park

We met Sidra and Auntie at the park for a little play time and then went back to our house for some hot chocolate. Even though it was sunny it was a cold morning.
I didn't get any pictures of Sid, but here are some of the boys and the goose that gave Tim a run for his money. It kept following him VERY closely as he threw bread down for the ducks, geese and sea gulls to eat. I think it might have been blind because it seemed to lose track of him every now and then, see him again and hustle over to him.

Joe's Performance

Joey's play performances were last Thursday and Friday. The play was a series of folk tales from around the world and Joe was in The Three Hares.

He played a rabbit who didn't listen to his parents, and instead of digging a burrow deep underground he built a house out of sticks. When the fox came along it promptly ate him in one gulp.

We had heard great things about Joe from the teachers working with him and it was a real treat to finally see him perform. He did a great job, got all his lines right and talked nice and loud so everyone could hear him. Not only that he was really funny declaring he wasn't going to listen to his parents and would build the kind of house he wanted.

Happy St. Pat's Day

As expected by the boys, the usual Leprechaun shenanigans happened at our house. The picture doesn't show it, but the milk was turned green, along with a few other drinks in the fridge. The upside is they left some presents. The boys got green shirts (or in Tim's case a shirt with a green Chameleon on it), some Leprechaun money and a toy or two.

Joe wasn't available for the photo shoot, he is in the final week of practice for his school play so he's a bit busy all week after school.

Tonight the boys wrote some notes to the Leprechauns hoping they'll swing by again and write back. We'll keep you posted.

We Moved In

After waiting five days while the wood floors were refinished, we could finally get back into our house on Friday. The company did a great job on the floors (led by "Joe the Floor Guy") and we are SO happy we decided to have them done.

On Friday Holly and I took the day off and brought a load of "outdoor" stuff to the house. Random yard art, the red bowling ball, the basketball hoop, and some other odds and ends. The big move was Saturday though. We had some great friends who helped out (thank you Tom, Tom, Suzy, and Florence) and especially our parents who have been great for us during this whole crazy move. The first thing we did was get the beds put together so that when we were ready we could all just roll into them and fall asleep, which we all did that night.

We're starting to unpack and make the house ours now. We have most of the furniture in the living room. Enough dishes in the cupboards we can eat some meals. And the rest is slowly coming together.
No great pictures yet, so you'll have to settle for this one where I set the camera on the floor to get a picture of the redone hardwoods.
-Steve

We're In!!!

We got the keys to our new house this morning!! We spent a couple hours walking through, looking at things, figuring out what might go where and enjoying it. We have to wait until Saturday to move in though. The carpets are being cleaned and the floors are being sanded and refinished. That's really what will take so long, waiting for the floors to finish drying.

Meanwhile we'll continue to be spoiled at Grandma and Grandpa B's (thanks so much for letting us stay with you for two weeks!) and taking little loads by the house every day, getting ready for the BIG move on Saturday.