Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Of Course We Are Crazy

In less than a month H and Odessa board a plane to go another continent and 3 time zones away.  WHAT?  Yeah, I know it is crazy.  Why would we do such a thing you ask?  Here are 3 reasons:

1.  Well, we want to be intentional in giving our kids a global world view in order for them to be passionate about loving everyone and sharing the Gospel.  Up to this point, this has been taught to them by hosting international students in our home.  When the opportunity came for a short term mission trip through church we thought it would be a great way to teach our eldest (14yo now, how did that happen) about another culture, people, and ministry. 

2.  This is a great season of life; we have a lot of support, our little kids are not quite as needy, our next adoption is in progress but not at a spot we need to be home, and we have be financially blessed.  (I guess that is like 4 reasons right there.)

3.  Odessa says Jeff told her they should look into it and go.  Jeff says it was Odessa's idea.  So really it was probably God's idea.  You can't argue with that.

As we approach this trip at what feels like a sprinters pace, we hope that you will pray for us. 

  • For safety.  
  • For unity as a team.  
  • For our family, this will be the longest even Jeff and Odessa have been apart in 18 years. 
  • For all the final preparations fall into place.


*I'm being a bit vague on purpose so I don't publish all our specific dates, destinations, and duties in one place for the world to find.  If you would like to hear more, let us know and we will send it privately. 

**Be prepared for a huge photo dump to come!

Tuesday, January 8, 2019

We are finished!

Last winter we knew we had a big problem went rain started coming into the house at the top of 2 windows and Turkey Tail Mushrooms grew out of the siding.  We did what any responsible person in Oregon would do - stapled a large sheet of plastic up and ignored it until the weather was better.  We also planned, budgeted and waited for timing and money to work out.  We were blessed with a windfall earlier this year (but that's another couple of stories) and it looked like we would be able to afford this big project.  We were optimistic that we could get it done in a month and half.  Early July we got to work! Be prepared for a photo dump for the rest of this post.
This is a picture of what the house looked like before got to far into the project, I forgot to take any before pictures of the complete house.  Also notice that chimney is wrapped in a tarp - that was also repaired this year!

We soon discovered that the house had almost no sheathing (1 end had it, but that's where we found dry rot and had to replace most of it anyway). So, after replacing rotted studs we put up sheathing.  A bonus to no sheathing, when we could see all the way through the attic we discovered we had and attic fan!  $20 to fix it and it made a huge difference in keeping our house cool this summer.   


We also found fun things like this in the front entry.  Where cement meets house you can see where we cut the old siding to remove it - yep it goes below the cement!  A lot of sealants, flashing and creative thinking went into this area and it is much better protected now.

 

Next, up went the house wrap of which we needed about 2.2 rolls of - if you are needing any of this stuff let us know, they don't let you return partial rolls.



First piece of actual siding went up on September 14....which is when we were originally thinking we would be finished.  This is the first piece (L) and one of the trickiest pieces going up (R) lining up a light, a window,
an electric box, and a door notch in 1 piece!

 














We signed under the last piece, 3rd signer was our wonderful worker Caleb, what a blessing he was.
Last piece went up October 12.  Also pictured here is a peek at the entry.  Since there was no sheathing it was a good time to move the light to the ceiling instead of hitting you with light in the face next to the door, and if you are going to move the light, you might as well update the ceiling with tongue and grove too.



At the end of September we had the siding and trim up on the back of the house.  Notice the blue on each seam? That's not caulk yet, that is paint.  We painted the back and edge of every board that went up so it was even more protected .... and we hopefully will never have to do this again.

We were far from done with the job though.  We still had caulking, more painting (Odessa had been working on eves, gutters and fascia all summer already), and the dreaded shingles to go.


 


Odessa was able to do the first coat of paint on the entire house in a day!  There wasn't any battens up or trim to worry about painting onto so it was easy and it felt awesome to see so much progress.


If you refinish the outside of a door, you might as well finish the inside of the door to, and you might have to sleep for 2 nights in a house with a front door made in 5 minutes in the dark.



We are ready for shingles!  And for a very large pile of garbage to be gone.  
Tip:  if you have a pile of garbage this big, don't let it get wet - it then weighs close to 3 tons and costs 
you more to have disposed of.





Shingle progress...it's very slow.  Also, battens have started going up and being painted.  We started shingles at the end of October and we finished the first week of January.  It has been determined that Jeff really loves Odessa and has proved this love in shingles over the last 2.5 months. 




Because it took so much longer to finish, the project ran into other projects we participate in.  Like Dressember (see this blog post for more information).  I did it!  Painted in a dress in 30 degree weather.  Actually, it makes quite a nice tent around your legs and kept me pretty warm over my work pants.





Little man picked up some mad skills too as super nail magnet boy, painting the back of boards dude, 
and he fired the nail gun - with dad's help.   

   


Another tip:  if you need to keep your preschoolers occupied during a 
project that keeps dragging on, sharpie markers work well on house wrap.

Share with the Lord's people 
who are in need.
Practice hospitality.
Romans 12:13

This verse is written above our front door.  We hope to bless all who enter, share all we have, and remember to love all. Welcome to our finished house!








The final shingle was nailed into place around 4:00 pm last Friday and we are done!  Approximately 5 months,  52 sheets of plywood, 48 sheets of siding, ~ 150 batten boards, 6 new outlets,  4 new windows, 1 new sliding glass door, 2 faucet extensions, ~ 40 gallons of paint/stain, 74 tubes of caulk, several hundred shingles, over 10 thousand nails and many trips to the hardware store.  We now own a pretty good set of tools to complete siding jobs and a pretty good base of knowledge!  Hit is us up of you need a tool or some help with your own project.

Many thanks to Jim at Parr Lumber who ordered almost the perfect amount of everything, introduced us to some really good new products, arranged deliveries of supplies even when they were small, and answered all of our silly home owner questions.  Also, thanks to Caleb for all the hours he put into helping us get this project done, working weekends and holidays.  We could not have finished without him.  Also, thanks to the following folks who lent a hand, a tool, or watched children for a day or more: Luke, Ben and Leanne, Natalia, Trenton, Jen and Leo, Jake, Joe, Zach and Lindsey, Mandy, Heidi, Clara, Cricket, Mark, Jeff, Netflix, Sandy, Bob, Alan, and Tyler (first nail driven)!   If you are needing a hard worker let us know and we will get you in touch.  

And with that, the extra items have been returned, the work shoes have be thrown away and we can tuck in for the rest of winter (tools still to be organized in the garage).  We hope to be crafting, resting, playing games, hanging out with our kids and having folks over.  If you would like to come see how the house looks in person, let us know and we would love to have you over for a meal and a game.



One final tip.  This stuff...right here...is awesome! 

Friday, December 21, 2018

Hope in Darkness

Today is solstice... the longest darkness of the year.  And we are tired.  This year it seems to be particularly dark.  Maybe it's because of the house project we tackled this year has taken much much longer than expected.  Maybe the 3 Gorges Dam has slowed the earth enough for us to notice and we really are a bit darker.  Maybe an alien ship accidentally flew into the sun and bumped it a bit further away.  I know it probably isn't any of those, but it feels as if the dark leaves later and creeps in earlier.

But today is the turning point!  Slowly the light returns.  Just another reminder that light (in the form of a baby) came to dark world and brightened it a bit.  Slowly light spread over the world and that baby gave hope.  I never want to forget or lose that.

Tuesday, December 18, 2018

Humbled by my Daughter

Last year some of us participated in Dressember.  It's a movement to raise awareness of human trafficking by embracing femininity and wearing dresses all December .  To learn more about this please watch the attached video.  I promise it is worth 12 minutes of your time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGuTpWTcSE8

For about 2 weeks our eldest has been talking about Dressember.  We participated some last year.  I was really proud when she made it 28 days (I think) out of the month.  It has not been brought up again, though I had been thinking of it as I inventoried my dresses this past month trying to remember how I stayed warm last year.  I took inventory and planned, but never said anything.  She on the other hand has told friends at school and tried to recruit her summer camp girls group to participate.  I'm not even sure that she fully understands what human trafficking is or how horrific situations can be, but she has a passion to be an advocate for these people.  She never once asked for more clothes to participate, she never complained last year about being cold or inconvenienced.  She tells people....I'm humbled.

I would encourage your to learn more about this movement.  We do not officially register, but have chosen to give a donation to a reputable organization.  Let us know if you plan to participate in some way, we would love to have you join us.

*If you think you read this before, you probably did.  I accidentally deleted it and just figured out how to copy it out of my history.  

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Resurrecting This Blog

So, it has been about 5 years since we last posted here. We are still around but, a lot has changed in our lives.  The original purpose of blog is still true (see "Who we be" to the right of the screen).  In an effort to make note of some milestones in our family life and to be on Facebook less we hereby resurrect this blog and intend to post more of what we are up to.   Stay tuned if you like.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

Easter Update

Normally people send out Christmas letters to update friends and family as to their goings on.  We decided not to be normal this last year.  Instead we have this Easter update for you all who read this.
HAPPY EASTER!
The dandelions are blooming and the rabbits and chickens are out - must be spring gardening season!

So here it goes, our big events list of roughly the last year:
Clara:
  • Started dance lessons this year
  • Started preschool, she attends 3 days a week
  • Learned to successfully crack an egg - which was one of her personal goals for when she turned 5
Heidi:
  • Qualified and participated in the regional spelling bee
  • Doing top notch in 2nd grade
  • Started dance lessons this year
  • Read over 4,500 minutes in February for her schools love of reading month
Odessa:
  • Now working 3 days a week at the girls school
  • Is wrapping up her 4th year coordinating MoPS at church
  • Learning more about the benefits of going gluten free
Jeff:
  • Recently started a new job as a COBOL programer (yes that COBOL)
  • Still working with the college group at church
  • Trying to teach fishing to the girls
  • On the lookout for a free pot bellied pig to till the garden (if you know anybody...)
 Well that is us in a nut shell.  In other news, we also remodeled our bathroom (oh fun when you only have one), added 5 hens to our brood (more on them below), and purchased a car resembling a rolling lemon complete with it's own passenger shower AKA a '84 Honda Civic hatch back.

We hope this Easter has found you well for He has risen! He has risen indeed!

Chickens

To all who wish to know:

We were finally able to add 5 hens to our family last August (I know the post is long over due).  After over 8 months of city council meetings and petitioning - out cute little town finally allowed families to have 5 backyard hens.  Both Heidi and Jeff were able to present at a council meeting and written up on the local paper.  We started building our coop last June and finished in August.  Our 2 Road Island Reds and 3 Buff Orpingtons moved right in as 2 month old pullets a dear farmer friend raised from chicks for us when it looked like city council would pass.  

Rules for the coop:  
Odessa - it has to be cute, it has to be strong - I am not cleaning up headless chicken leftovers after a raccoon/skunk/opossum visit 

Jeff - it has to be practical

Here's what we got:



 We added a small green house off the south end.  We had 4 herb plants successfully winter over in there.

On December 6th we got our first eggs:

Our $321.65/egg prizes!

We have been tracking our total cost divided by number of eggs received very closely since we are only on a 2 year trial in the city council's view and we want to show that we truly invested in this chicken endeavor and are definitely not in it for really cheap eggs.  We so far have received around 300 eggs from our little beauties and if we don't buy anymore food or have to turn over any hens in the next 18 months (completely unrealistic) we would need roughly 2,000 more to be at 25 cents an egg - which is still more than the grocery store. Boy are they good eggs.

This spring we started letting our hens out while we are outside working - they are really funny creatures.


If anyone would like more specific details about our coop size or who to get in contact with if you are wanting to petition your local city council for backyard hens please do not hesitate to leave a comment and we will do our best to help.