8-6-2007 Newsletter

So our new week started by finding out Justin's younger brother has proposed to his long-time girlfriend (she waited the two years he was on a mission). The wedding will be September 22nd, which will make a busy weekend again for us, but a wonderfully busy weekend. Since his brother is getting married in Portland we will be spending quite a lot of time with Justin's family, of course, and then on the 23rd my cousin is having a mission farewell in Roseburg. So busy but wonderful! On Sunday we attended the morning church so we could make it to our friend's wedding. We picked my mom up and headed to Dallas (about 25 miles north). It was at a vineyard and it had an amazing view of the valley. You could also tell that if it hadn't been cloudy you would have been able to see at least one mountain in the distance. The bride (our friend) looked amazing, and it was a very simple and elegant wedding. Not to mention the food was wonderful! Levi, whenever it became quiet, would fold his arms as though we were going to pray... very cute! He behaved for the most part, which we all appreciated. I was surprised though to find so many people breaking wedding faux-pas. Several people were wearing black or white (which I have always been told you never do for a wedding), and numerous people were casually dressed, including several in jeans. My mom and I were appalled! I guess if the wedding theme warrants such dress then it is fine, but this was an elegant wedding... nothing casual. Anyway, what are you going to do? After the wedding, and dropping my mom off, we headed to Justin's parents in Albany for dinner. It was a Levi-friendly dinner, as there was Mac 'N Cheese, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, and peas! He was in heaven! He ate very well that evening. His parents then let us borrow the seventh Harry Potter book as we left and both Justin and I separately read through chapter five before bed.Well during the family reunion last week Justin spoke to my uncle Gerry about his career as a pharmacist. Ever since then Justin has been very intrigued and curious about this field. It has really sparked something in him! He has more desire for this career than any other we have discussed. He and I have done a lot of research, and even found that he can become a Pharmacy Tech at the school he is currently attending in less than a year. And with that job he would get a three dollar an hour pay raise. So we are really looking into this and finding out all we can first before making a decision and praying about it all. Another thing we are looking into is trading in our car. We really need one with better gas mileage and one that is more reliable. Our car has caused many holes in our money bags. So we are going to look into that further as well. With this Monday became a lot of research for both of us (as well as reading Harry Potter). Some more blessings came our way on Monday when Justin found out that if he bikes to work 8 out of the 10 days he works in two weeks then he'll get a $40 bonus with each paycheck! He already bikes every day, so without any changes on our part we'll earn more money! Such a wonderful blessing for our situation!On Tuesday we took the car over to a dealership to see how much we could trade it in for, and they only offered us $3000 tops. That is well below what we thought we could get, so we are trying to sell it ourselves. If you know anyone looking for a car for around $5000, let them know we are selling! It is a very good car, a 2001 Dodge Stratus, with 80K miles on it. We have kept up to date on the maintenance and it recently had a tune up and oil change. Okay, enough of me plugging my car. Well, after that news we were a little less uplifted, but we listed our car at Justin's work and on Craig's List. Hopefully something will come of it.The next couple days we spent in the pool since it was hot outside. I was able to use my underwater camera to get some fun shots of Levi and his cousins underwater! I was very pleased at how they came out. I decided one day I would like to buy an underwater digital camera. Levi is doing a lot better now with saying words and even uses some on a regular basis (besides Choo! Choo! and Car). He loves to say cookie and bus. And he'll even say his version of thank you, which sounds more like 'schoo' than anything else. He has also taken to grabbing a shoe and throwing it at me or Justin when he wants to leave, that or knocking on the front door and saying 'Go!' It is quite adorable to watch. We are still working on saying 'All done.' and 'Please.' But all in due time.I was asked this week to take photos for Justin's brother at his wedding. Hopefully I will be able to do this, I think it would be a great experience, and surely a money saver for Marcus. I am very excited about doing it!Saturday we had the Benton County Fair here in Corvallis. It was fun to watch Levi get so excited, especially when he saw the animals. This fair didn't have all that the other fair we went to did, but we still had fun in the sun! Levi wanted so badly to pet all the sheep as we walked past them, and he kept pointing and saying 'Baa!' over and over again. He led the way through the animals and we walked past sheep, goats, and pigs. When we left he got to see horses and cows, he was thrilled! That evening we had the opportunity to celebrate Levi's cousin's second birthday with him. Justin's sister recently moved back to Oregon, and we are so happy that we can now attend things such as birthdays! Besides Levi loves playing with his cousin and they have their own language and everything! It is so cute to watch them play.Sunday we found out the power at our church building went out. Our bishop decided to proceed with our first meeting anyway, so we had church by camp lamp-light. It was a new experience, but almost made it more spiritual! Mostly because so many people showed up, even though the power was out! We also had a family dinner at our house that evening and made BBQ ribs! It was a very yummy meal, and Justin hasn't ever had homemade ribs, so he loved it!

I am on my way right now to the hospital where a neice of mine was just born. They haven't given her an official name, but it may be Evelyn. She's the infant picture!!