The Results are in...

We just got home from the hospital and the results are in. The visit went well. We got to see our baby's spine, head, hands, feet, heart, brain, and all those things that you want to see on a baby. We also were able to see whether the baby was a boy or a girl. The technician reminded us that nothing was guaranteed, but the results seemed pretty clear. We're going to have a BOY!!! This is contrary to most polls that we took. When we talked to family we asked them what they thought and most people said a girl. Only Gene Tilgner, and Sarah Overby said a boy. On our blog poll the vote was 7 for girl, 3 for boy. So only 30% of the people guessed correctly. We are so excited about little Stanley. We appreciate all the excitement and support from you. Stay tuned for more news regarding our little one.

Early Vacation, sort of...

Today has been an interesting day at work for me (Scott). Soon into the first class of the day an announcement was made about a power outage and that students need to stay in the classrooms. My classroom still had power, although my computer screen was doing something weird. Soon after that the fire alarm went off and we all filed outside into the parking lot, in the rain. We stood around for a long time until someone let us back in only to herd the mob into the gym. Turns out there was an electrical issue, most likely from rain seeping through the roof (it's an old school), and they eventually shut the power down to avoid a bigger problem which shut down the power in the surrounding area. Well, after standing around in the gym, going back outside after some kid pulled the fire alarm, and back to the gym, they finally told the kids who have cars to go home and the rest of the students to wait for the buses. By the time the buses came it was about 10:15. It then took an hour and a half to finally release the staff to go home. Kind of crazy. Lesson plans are shot. But now I get the afternoon off, and later we get to find out whether we're going to have a boy or a girl!!! Vote now if you haven't voted yet. That includes you mystery bloggers who never post. It is a completely anonymous poll. Hopefully we'll post later today.

Make Your Predictions Heard

We're finding that everyone wants to add their input into what gender our baby will be. At this point if someone asks "What are you having." Our only honest answer is, "A baby." That or "We're having chicken (tonight for dinner)." Anyways, let your opinion be heard. We have our ultrasound Monday to hopefully find out what gender our baby will be. Make your predictions by then (see poll in the right column), and we'll see if more people are thinking we're having a boy or a girl. I put twins in there for the fun of it, no ultrasound (of the two) showed any hint of twins, but that will be your million to one odds guess.

Hilarious Site

Tonight I (Scott) was working on my lesson plans for tomorrow, and Heather was looking at blogs. We found a link from Amy's blog of a youtube video, and that led us to a new web site. It is RhettandLink.com. Now, we cannot say that everything they do is clean and appropriate because we haven't watched all of their videos (yet), but all the videos we saw were absolutely HILARIOUS and clean! Two of our favorites were the Healthy Fast Food Rap and the Invisible Bed Fence. We had to pull ourselves away because we were laughing too much and we had to get to bed. But we thought we'd share it with you first. Tom and Dan, we thought of you two when we saw some of their videos and thought you should make some of your own "randomness videos." PS. The videos seemed to work better on youtube, but that could just be our slow computer.

Red Boot Duo Performance

The next Red Boot Duo performance featuring Heather on Oboe, Rhythm and Vocals and Cinda on Guitar and Vocals is this Friday night. The performance goes from 7-10 at the Mt. Hood Roasters in Welches. Come enjoy dinner, live music, and a fun and relaxed atmosphere. Hope to see you there!

What Pregnant Women Get Away With

Have you ever stopped to realize what pregnant women get away with? All the time they are able to excuse themselves, “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m pregnant.” Could you imagine a guy trying to get away with that, “I’m sorry I blurted out like that, I’m male.” It wouldn’t work. Take a couple of examples Heather and I dealt with recently (and I share these with Heather’s permission and we are able to laugh at these…now). Case one, we are talking on the phone and I did or said something that rightfully upset Heather. Her response, she hung up on me. Well, I called her back, and when I got a hold of her I said, “You hung up on me, how rude.” Then I returned the favor and hung up on her. Men, do not try that at home. The results were not pleasant and although I did not spend the night on the couch I had to go into a serious apology mode. While she was able to hang up on me, I was by no means justified or allowed to hang up on her. Why might you ask Heather was able to get away with that? Because she’s pregnant. Case two: we had an extremely fun and goofy night last night. It was one of those nights where everything we said or did was funny. Well, Heather was playing with a rubber band, and I told her not to shoot it at me or else I’ll have to return the gesture. (And no, it’s not quite going where you think it is). A few minutes later, I was looking in the fridge trying to make my lunch for the next day. Out of no where I get pelted with a…banana peel! That’s right; Heather threw a banana peel at me! Her excuse was she was trying to throw it away, although I was not even close to the garbage can. So I mimic a throw to the garbage can and throw the banana peel back at Heather. Fortunately we did not have the same type of blowup with the phone call incident, but I did get hit again with the banana peel, and I was close to being in the dog house. Anyways, the moral of the story is that pregnant women get away with almost anything. If they forget something, blunder their words, or even throw banana peels at their husbands it is dismissed as the hormones raging in their bodies. If I forget something or make a mistake while teaching (which unfortunately happens too often) my only excuse is that I’ve been working too much with dry erase markers. Oh well. On a serious note, we love this journey of pregnancy, although the hormones do tend to flare up, and Heather’s body is constantly sore as it grows. Take care friends, and hopefully we’ll post again soon.

Keeping a Clean Home

How many of you find it difficult to keep a clean house? Why is that? Heather and I were talking about it the other day and were wondering if it was because of a lack of time or a lack of motivation. Well, who doesn't like a clean home? It feels good, you can find things easily, and it's less stressful. The obvious answer then is our home gets messy because we don't have the time to clean it up. The conversation started for us when the statement was said, "If only we had a week at home with nothing else to do, then we would have a clean home." But having a clean home is more than just cleaning everything once, it's keeping it clean. For us younger generation, we get going so fast that we start to take short cuts (don't put away the clothes at the end of the day, don't load that dish into the dish washer, drop the mail on the desk) and those little "short cuts" lead us "have to have" a week to clean up. Heather has really enjoyed a website called "Flylady" and it's all about routines to declutter and keep things clean one little step at a time so you don't need to do those big deep cleans as often. What we need to do is get in those habits of not taking "short cuts" and put that shirt away when you head to bed in the evening. And remember that there needs to be a place for everything and everything in its place. Any thoughts on this? ~Scott PS. Anyone know of a good system to clean the shower and not let that soapscum build up?

Oh How Time Slips Away

We apologize for the long delay between posts. We find it disappointing when you go to someone's blog time and time again and find it unchanged for a long time. Now here we are having more than a month since our last post, especially with everything that is going on.

The biggest and most exciting thing which we have not posted about is our upcoming edition to our family. For those of you who haven't heard we are expecting our first child in April! We found out the beginning of August. The day before we moved and the day of Josh and Shannon Andrews' (Edson) wedding. We didn't tell anyone (except one or two people) until our first housewarming where we told our family. Then we announced it to our friends at our second housewarming. We are really excited about it and are looking forward to the new adventures it will bring.

Other news, on the day of our first doctor's appointment Heather was in a car accident. She was rear ended and it totally mangled our bumper and the side of our car. Fortunately, Heather and the baby were not seriously hurt. Unfortunately, she has been having back pain (and sciatica) since then. Fortunately, she is able to get physical therapy, and massage therapy through the insurance. Unfortunately, we get to go through the hassel of insurance claims again. Fortunately, our car got a new bumper, it was stratched when we bought it and now we have a new bumper.

Scott has now started work at Barlow and is loving it there. He teaches Algebra, Geometry and Algebra 2. It is fun to work with some of his old teachers and he has some really great students this year. With teaching he is now super busy again and we are trying to find that balance between doing a good job at work, and not spending too much time outside of work planning lessons and grading papers.

Enjoy reading the rest of our posts. We have our trip to Portland, the Red Boot Duo, and our move from McMinnville to Gresham. Hopefully our next post won't be delayed until mid November. Enjoy.

The Red Boot Duo

Heather and her mom Cinda have combined their musical abilities and are now known as the Red Boot Duo. Cinda plays harmonica, guitar, and does vocals. Heather plays the oboe, rhythm instruments, and also does vocals. Together they are a great pair (get it pair of boots, Red Boot Duo...never mind). Anyways, they played at the Mt Hood Roasters in Welches, and while the crowd was not the size they had hoped for, it was a great evening. Enjoy the pictures and some of their music.

See more pictures of the Duo

Tourists in Portland

On Labor Day Weekend we thought it would be fun to spend a day in Portland as tourists. We set out to start at Lloyd Center, take the Max into downtown Portland, take the street car into the Pearl District and enjoy lunch at a nice cafe, and then tour the city and end up at the Portland City Grill for dinner during happy hour. Unfortunately, it was not as glamorous as we had hoped. Don't get me wrong, we had a blast and it was a neat and fun experience. But things didn't go quite as planned. First of all, we toured around the Convention Center and the Rose Garden a little, and then Scott had the fun idea to walk across the Steel Bridge (it has a cool bike/pedestrian path near the water). Well, that was a lot of walking, and by the time we actually got into downtown Portland, we were already hot, tired, and sweaty. We forgot that last summer when we were visiting different cities in Europe that you get hot, tired, and sweaty! Anyways, we still had a lot of fun with the day. We had lunch at Manzana which was absolutely amazing, and we split a meal which saved us money. Because it was a holiday, a lot of the small stores that we wanted to visit were closed, such as a ribbon and button store that Heather wanted to look at. We did get a lot of fun pictures, and did enjoy dinner at the Portland City Grill. A fun day, but we think we've had enough walking for awhile.

We're no professionals, but check out our Pictures of Portland.

The Move

Well, we are going back a ways and we wanted to give you some insight into our move from McMinnville to Portland. On the McMinnville side of the move we were blessed to have Tim Suddeth, Eric and Melanie Lindquist, and Jeremy and Claudette Stevenson. With all of us the work to load the truck only took 3 hours. The most stressful part of it was wondering if we would have enough room in the van. Fortunately, with Tim's packing knowledge, and Scott's puzzle skills we were able to fill the van to the very brim, and were able to fit the remaining items in our car, Jeremy and Claudette's car, and our arm chair in the passenger seat of the van with Scott. Wow!

Our old home in boxes.

Fortunately it didn't rain so we were able to stack everything outside of the van.

Will it all fit?

Yep, it fits!!!

On the Gresham side of the move we had Gene Tilgner, Steve, Sue and Seth Overby, and Dave McCarthy. Jeremy and Claudette deserve a special thanks for helping on the Gresham side as well as the McMinnville side. With the help, we had the entire van unpacked in 30 minutes. It was incredible! We had a few bonked heads as the van was really close the the garage door, and we had several people comment how incredibly well the van was packed. Thanks Tim and everyone who helped!

Crazy August

Wow, August is almost gone and September is almost here. This month has just flown by! Scott is busy with new teacher stuff at Barlow, and Heather is trying to get a few more music therapy jobs. Things have been crazy. We're adjusting to our new home and trying to find our new home routines, like taking out the garbage, keeping clutter down, watering the lawn, etc. Scott's freshman start school next week Tuesday and the rest of his students start Wednesday. He still has a lot of things to finish before then, and is working hard at them. We're sorry that we haven't posted any pictures recently. We just downloaded a bunch off of our camera, but haven't gotten them into Picasa yet. We promise to have them up soon. For those of you who missed our housewarming, it was a lot of fun! We had 25 people show up, and ended up having a neat "Jam Session" at the end of the night. It was amazing how many musically talented friends we have. Those without musical gifts like Scott were able to enjoy the music and help pass out instruments. Come to think of it, Scott was the only non-musical person there! Wow. Anyways, have a wonderful week and blessed Labor Day Weekend! We're thinking of having a "tourist in your own town" day this weekend...

Loving our New Home

Sorry it has been so long since our last update. One of the problems with moving into a new home is changing your address a million and two times. Also with that is getting Internet up and running which we have not been able to do yet (Comcast couldn't come until the 23rd). Therefore, we are at Scott's parents and updating our blog on their computer. That means no pictures for you today. But we will say that things are going really well for us, and we are absolutely loving our new house. As for the housewarming gathering, the date for that will be (drum roll please....) Saturday August 25th. We know that wasn't one of the original dates, but with the lack of votes on our poll, and wanting to give people time to put it on their calendars, that is the chosen date. So tell your friends, spread the word, and give us a call or email for directions or if you have any questions. That's all for now, have a wonderful day and hopefully we'll be posting again soon.

Moving Day Fast Approaching

We are only 2 days away from our move from McMinnville to Gresham. We went camping for the first part of the week with our friends Matt and Holly Smucker. They have been in Taiwan for the last year, and we had this camping trip planned months before we knew when we were going to move. We went to Camp Sherman, which is about 10 miles west of Sisters. It was a great time to get away and just relax. Now, however, we are scrambling to finish up packing, changing addresses, and preparing for the move. We pick up the keys to our new place today (Thursday) and we move this Saturday. If anyone out there is available to help us moving we would love the help. We start packing the truck in McMinnville at 9am, and we plan to be in Gresham by 2pm. If you are interested you can call us or just show up! Enjoy the sun, and we'd love to hear from you.

Housewarming Poll

As we get ready to move we wanted to get your opinion on what day would work best for you to come to our Housewarming Gathering. It will be in the evening and include a Potluck Dinner and some great fellowship time. You may mark all days that work best for you on the poll. Let us know so we can pick the date that works for the most people. Feel free to tell others about it. We look forward to seeing you.

Our New Home

We're coming up on our 3 year aniversery (August 7th), and we have always lived in an apartment. Now that we're moving to Gresham we decided it was time to rent a house instead. We're both done with school, both working, and now we can afford to not live in an apartment. On July 14th, we put a deposit on a really nice house in Gresham, and we're excited about it! It is only 3 years old and has three bedrooms, 2 baths, garage, large living room, patio, and in a nice neighborhood. We move in August 4th and we will have a house warming gathering sometime soon after that. If you are available to help us move either on the McMinnville or Gresham side of things please let us know. Many hands make light work!

To see more photos of our new home click here.

Fun Times: The Fourth and Sandy Mountain Festival

For the Fourth of July we decided not to go to the big McMinnville Fourth of July Celebration at Patton Middle School. Instead, we went to McMenamin's Hotel Oregon and enjoy a nice dinner on the rooftop! It's a really neat experience, they have a bunch of tables set up on the roof and you can see all of McMinnville. We went at 7:45, had a late lunch, watched the sunset, and enjoyed the fireworks going off all around McMinnville. At 9:45 we were also able to enjoy the Patton Middle School Fireworks as well. It was fun to just relax and enjoy a long drawn out dinner. This last weekend we were able to enjoy the Sandy Mountain Festival. We watched the parade with Megan Schiffner (Knoll), Cinda, and MaryJane. It is always interesting for Heather to go to the Sandy Mountain Festival because she is constantly seeing old friends. At the festival we were able to enjoy some of the good food, and shows. We saw Tater A. Peal, a clown who use to perform with Barnum and Bailey Circus and who is a good friend of the Tilgners. Cinda was also performing at the Festival, although she was listed as Troubador Cinda and performed as Nana Banana. She is indeed a lady of different personalities!

To see more pictures click here.

Gresham Here We Come

We posted earlier that Scott had a job offer that would bring us back to Gresham if he passed his Advance Math Test. Well, we are now proud to announce that Scott passed the test!!! That means next year Scott will be teaching math at Sam Barlow High School. It has always been Scott's dream to come back to his Alma Mater, and God has definitely taken us on some interesting routes to get there. We have already started our search for a place to live, and we are looking at renting a house. We are not quite at the point where we're ready to buy. Hopefully in a year or so we will be. If you know of any place to rent in Gresham that is in a safe neighborhood, and under $1000 a month please let us know. Also, we'll be moving August 4th, and would gladly welcome any willing and able bodies who would like to help us move. In other news, Heather is 2 days away from being done with her internship! We are excited about her finally being a professional Music Therapist, although she has always been a top notch MT. Thank you for those who have been praying for us. We've really appreciated the support. Enjoy your summer, and we'd love to hear from you.

Abbey Road Farm

Yesterday Heather came to me and said she wanted to check out some of the attractions in and around McMinnville. So today that's what we did, and what a fun time it was! Our first stop was the Yamhill County Fairgrounds to see an Equestrian show. Neither of us have ever had a horse, but it was still neat to watch. Scott has had some exposure to dog shows, so he had an idea of what the judges were looking for. However, it wasn't exciting enough for us to stay very long.

After that, we traveled to Lafeyette and turned Northwest up Abbey Road. There is an Abbey called the "Our Lady of Guadalupe Trappist Abbey." It was a really neat site, and it would be a wonderful place to go for a spiritual retreat. There was a pond and lots of trails leading off into the woods. Though, for our outing that day, it wasn't the right place for our picnic lunch we brought. Our final stop was the Abbey Road Farm Bed and Breakfeast. Heather had seen it on her way home Friday evening and wanted to check it out. We had looked at the website the night before, and realized that staying there was way out of our price range, but thought it would be a fun place to see. Wow, were we impressed. Judi Stuart greeted us as soon as we stepped out of the car. For the next 3 hours, Judi and John (the owners) gave us a tour of the rooms and the farm. We got to see the Llama, Alpaca, sheep, goats, chickens, donkey, and their dog Annie. We helped Judi gather eggs, chase the male goats back into the pen after they got into the hay storage area, and pick cherries from their trees. The Stuarts moved to Oregon about 4 years ago from Las Vegas when they decided they wanted a different kind of lifestyle. Now they have a working farm where they grow alot of their fruit, milk their goats, and gather eggs from their hens. You will have to visit them to see for yourself how wonderful of a farm they have. We absolutely enjoyed our time outside without a watch and just enjoying the fresh air. Check out some of our pictures at Abbey Road Farm. Thank you for visiting our blog, please leave a comment to let us know what you've been up to. We'd love to hear from you.

First Weekend of Summer

Our first weekend of summer felt nothing like summer. Especially for Heather. She had to work on Friday (internship) and because Scott was done, he tagged along with her up to Portland. While she drove around and did Music Therapy stuff, he went to Lloyd Center, bought a new video game, saw Pirates of the Caribbean, traveled by Max out to Gresham, and read his new book "The Copper Scroll." That evening, Heather continued her busy Friday with Good Shepherd Orchestra Rehearsals for the Patriotic Services. Scott enjoyed a Potluck for the Czech Team's Farewell Dinner. On Saturday we were blessed with some down time to take a stroll in the country around the Overby's home. That evening was the Patriotic Service which was very well done as usual. Good Shepherd definitely does a really good job in honoring our veterans. Heather had the honor to play the Oboe in the orchestra for the services. It was a lot of hard work, but always well worth it. It was after the Patriotic Service in 2003 that I (Scott) asked Heather out for our first date. Sunday, Heather was back at Good Shepherd for more services. Scott got to take Steve, Sue, and Seth Overby to the airport to go to the Czech Republic. We had the privilege to go last year, and unfortunately we were not able to go this year. Soren and Sarah Overby are also on the team. After the services and taking family to the airport we were able to enjoy lunch with Heather's family! Beth, Gavin, and Andrea are up from Arizona, so we had lunch with them, Gene and Cinda, Aunt Rosie, and Auntie Joyce. It was a lot of fun having everyone together. Usually it is only for the holidays, but Beth and the kids weren't around for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or Easter this past year. Now we're home and gearing up for another week of work. Heather is 3 weeks away from being done with her internship. Scott is starting summer school tomorrow. He will be teaching for McMinnville High School's summer school for the next 4 weeks. Thanks for checking our blog. Until next time, enjoy your summer.

Job Hunt Update

I wanted to write a quick post updating you on our current job/living situation for next year. I (Scott) only had a one year temporary position at McMinnville High School, and as things stand right now, there is no full time math position opening up to re-apply to. I have been interviewing at multiple schools, and finally have a job offer!!! The catch, I have to pass my Advanced Math Test, which I took 2 weeks ago, and I won't know the results for another two weeks. The job will put as back in Gresham, which is where we would like to be when we start a family. These are exciting times, so be praying that those test results will come back positive. Heather is almost done with her internship, only 12 more trips up to Portland from McMinnville. While she finishes that, I am going to be teaching summer school at McMinnville High School. My family leaves for the Czech Republic on Sunday, and this weekend Heather is playing in Good Shepherd's orchestra for the Patriotic Services. That's all for now, have a great weekend!!!

Catching Up

I (Scott) am sick today, and I thought this would be a good day to catch up on life. Both Heather and I have been going going going so much these past months that we feel we've gotten behind in many areas of our life. This past week I have lost a lot of sleep (which is why I am sick now), and we have gotten behind on the dishes, keeping our house clean, work, blogging, etc. So here is our attempt at catching up on our blog. For Memorial Day weekend we had the chance to house-sit for our friends Jeremy and Claudette Stevenson. They recently moved from McMinnville to Wilsonville. There new apartment is nice... resort nice! At the apartment complex there is a pool, hot tub, fitness center, and lots of palm trees (Heather's favorite part)! Since we were house-sitting for them we just had to take advantage of these amenities. We were able to meet some really nice people in the process too, Clovis and Devon. They even invited us over one evening and Heather got some pampering, while Scott hung out with Clovis and their son Bear. On June 3rd, we had a wonderful opportunity to spend time with Gavin and Andrea Tilgner-Tovar, our niece and nephew who live in Arizona (Heather's sister Beth's kids). They were staying with Nana and Papa Gene (Cinda and Gene) and the 5 of us (Mom, Us, and Kids) went to the Rose Festival together. We enjoyed snow cones, Elephant Ears, and watching great shows at the waterfront village. These included a Taekwondo demonstration team and "Captain Bogg and the Singing Pirates". It was great fun to see Gavin and Andrea again as we have missed them a lot. After our time at the Rose Festival we headed back to the Stevenson's, but on our way we decided to give Brad Kehr a call. Low and behold he had the evening free so we picked him up and watch King Kong on the Stevenson's big screen. Heather was even brave enough to watch the movie with us. This was really cool because earlier that day Scott was telling Heather that he would really like to see an Action Movie on the Stevenson's big screen TV. Scott finally took his Advance Math Test last weekend, June 9th. It has been something he has been dreading, but when he took it he said he actually felt pretty confident about it. Now all we have to do is wait for 4 weeks before the results come in. That evening, after the test, we got to enjoy a night to dress up and go on a date to a Regency Ball! "A what?" you may ask. A Regency Ball. One of Heather's good friends in McMinnville, Laura Plett, has a passion for the Regency Era (Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, and Emma) and English Country Dancing. She teaches ECD classes once a week, and a few of times a year she puts on a ball as a social gathering. At the ball everyone dresses in Regency Period Attire (or modern formal wear) and we learn different English Country Dances throughout the evening. While some of you guys out there might be laughing at the idea, it is actually very fun. How often do you get to be Prince Charming for the evening? Since then, we are just moving closer and closer to our final dates (or lights at the end of long tunnels). Scott is within just a couple of school days until the end (June 20th). Heather is exactly 1 month away of being done as of Tomorrow, Wednesday June 13th. Scott is still on the job hunt and has had 4 interviews with 4 turn downs. We are just praying and waiting for the right job to come up. That's about it for the Overbys in McMinnville. We hope you are doing well wherever you are. Again, we'd love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave a comment to let us know what you're up to. To see more recent photos check out our web album. God Bless you all.

Beach Trip

We can't believe we forgot to mention our beach trip!!! For Heather's birthday Scott decided to surprise her with a trip out to the Oregon Coast! OK, he tried to surprise her. Heather is one of the hardest people to surprise, and Scott was planning on taking her to the coast either the weekend before or after her birthday. Well, Heather had already decided that Scott needed to take her to there so on the Thursday before her birthday she announced to Scott that they were going to the coast for her birthday. For those of you thinking that Scott really hadn't planned on taking Heather to the beach, ask Soren. Scott called Soren that week (Tuesday or Wednesday) asking about the best places to go while at the beach.

Anyways, we went. We packed up a picnic lunch, and went off to Lincoln City. When we arrived the weather was... well, let's say typical Oregon Coast weather... COLD and WINDY! For those of you who don't know, Scott is not a big coast fan. In his words, "You go, look at the ocean, then say 'OK let's go.'" Well, we went, looked at the ocean, ate our picnic lunch bundled up, then left because we were freezing cold. Fortunately, our beach adventures did not end there. As we were driving away from the beach, Heather decided to call one of her friends, Megan Schiffner (formerly Knoll) on a hunch. B.T.W. Heather was a Bridesmaid at Megan's wedding in December. When Megan answered her phone Heather asked where she was and Megan said that she was at the Oregon Coast!!! We had just driven past the Knoll's beach house before our picnic. So we went to see Megan, Jen, and Yvonne at the outlet mall, and they invited us to come join them at their beach house. Their invitation changed what would have been a fairly lame trip, to an absolutely fun one. At their place we played a little bit of the Wii (the new video game console by Nintendo), a new game to us "The Farming Game," and some Ping Pong (Table Tennis for those who know better). The Knolls even invited us to stay for dinner. We had a lot of fun with each other and with our friends. Check out more photos here. Praise God for friends and fellowship!

P.S. For those of you who know Tom Regan, and understand his "Xtreme" activities check out the pictures of Scott attempting "Xtreme Ocean Rock Skipping"

May Adventures

Well, it's almost the end of May and we thought it was time to post again. This month has been filled with fun adventures. We started out with a fire and ended with a fire. If you haven't checked out the pictures of the house burning yet, we would highly recommend it for entertainment purposes (especially for you pyros out there). Today we were enjoying dinner, and we noticed things were getting a little hazy outside. Later, as Scott was setting up the fan to help us survive the heat when he noticed that a lot of people were starting to gather outside and the haze was getting darker. We both went outside and saw a jeep with flames bursting out of it!!! The hood was engulfed in flames (right under a tree) and there were no firefighters in sight! Our neighbors were just getting off the phone with 911 and they were told the fire department was trying to get someone over here. We were afraid the engine might blow, and we did hear a loud "POP". Fortunately, it was only a tire. Soon the fire department did arrive, and it turned out the jeep belonged to our former manger's daughter who just moved home. Well the car is totaled. The firefighters wrenched the hood off, smashed in the driver side window, sprayed water inside, and ripped apart the dashboard. One of the more interesting pieces, was that the back was full of her stuff since she's in transition, and we got to watch the firefighters unload the back of the jeep for her, which included bags of clothes, dresses, a CD player, Abercrombie and Fitch bags, and the like. We don't envy the hassles and inconveniences she'll be going through now, but it did provide a nice diversion from life.

In other news, Heather celebrated her 24th birthday this month, and we were able to enjoy a fun family dinner at the Olive Garden. Scott was interviewing for a teaching position in Gresham, which made the dinner possible. For her birthday Heather received some fun new rhythm instruments, "Captivating" on CD, Cities and Knights of Catan, and a beautiful 5 pane canvas as an early birthday present her sister painted for her. Here are some pictures of the dinner plus some more pictures.

Also this month we helped our friends Jeremy and Claudette Stevenson move to Wilsonville. It was sad to see them move from McMinnville, but we are excited for the next stage of life God has in store for them. This past week we have been house sitting for them since they are out of town.

We are so excited that we get to see our Niece and Nephew, Andrea and Gavin this weekend. They are up from Arizona for a few weeks, and we haven't seen them since last August when Beth and Thomas got married in Mexico.

Other than that we are very excited for summer. Scott finishes work June 20th, and Heather finishes her internship July 13th. Please pray for Scott as he continues to look for a job. So far he has had 4 interviews and no job offers yet. Also pray for perseverance as the end of the year is especially hard as far as student behavior goes and motivation for teachers. Pray for Heather as she comes closer to the end of her internship and the board exams she will need to take to become board certified in Music Therapy. Pray for safety as she continues the arduous drive to and from Portland, and that gas prices will go down because it leaves quite a dent in our bank account.

That's all the news from our home front. Please feel free to comment we'd love to hear who's reading this and how you're doing. We did change some things so you don't have to have a blogger account to leave a comment. Have a great June!

Passions define...

So, what are we passionate about? Us: Worshipping God the Father and Our Lord Jesus Christ (we desire to grow more in this) Summer vacation (Scott-finishing teaching 6-20-07 and Heather-finishing internship 7-13-07) Playing games together and with friends Camping Scott: Heather Teaching Running Ultimate Frisbee Heather: Scott Card making and Candy making (visit Taste and See blog) Homemaking Music These are just a few of the things that we are passionate about at this time. How about you? What are you passionate about?

Wow, this past weekend has been really busy and full of exciting events!!! We've broken down the three events in three posts.

1. Brian and Abby Boatman's Wedding
2. Soren and Sarah Overby's Graduation from Corban
3. A house burning right out our back patio.

Check these out posts and the pictures that go along with them.

The Boatman Wedding Friday, May 4th. We were honored to attend the wedding of Abby Langbecker and Brian Boatman at McMenamin's Edgefield. Heather has known Abby and Brian for many years and it was such a joyous occasion to see them married. It was also fun for Heather to see some great friends from her years at the Church on the Mountain. The wedding was in Blackberry Hall and was an absolutely gorgeous event. Click here to view pictures.

Soren and Sarah Overby's Graduation from Corban College Saturday, May 5th. Soren and Sarah Overby graduated from Corban College both with their degrees in Education. They are the first two Overbys to graduate from Corban. For those of you who know the Overbys you might be saying, wait a minute, didn't Sjana (pronounced Shawna) go to Corban. The answer to that is, sorta kinda. She went to and Graduated from Western Baptist, which is now Corban College. So, the same school, but new names. Plus, when she graduated from "Western Baptist" she was no longer an Overby but a MacSwan. So both the college and Sjana have had a name change to make the statement technically true that Soren and Sarah were the first Overbys to graduate from Corban College. And technically Sarah walked first so she graduated before Soren did. Side note: Soren and Sarah will not be the last Overbys there, Seth is planning on attending Corban this fall. After the graduation the whole Overby and Roach clan (Sarah's maiden name was Roach) went to the "Best Little Roadhouse" in Salem. And let us tell you, it is a very good little Roadhouse. We enjoyed Onion Straws (like onion rings but smaller) and yummy honey bread, and by the time our meal came we could only eat a little of it. Don't worry, we enjoyed it for lunch the next day. With a group of 20 (yes there were that many of us) we got to eat outside on the heated patio and enjoy a fun time of fellowship with our family. After the food, Soren, Sarah and the two of us went over to Northern Lights Theater to catch a movie. Unfortunately nothing good was showing (it's $3 a movie at Northern Lights) so we went to Blockbuster to rent a movie and watched it at Soren and Sarah's place. We rented "Man of the Year" with Robin Williams and we loved the plot and some of the jokes. By some we mean about 15%. Otherwise it was just raunchy humor. Scott and Soren got to play some Halo on Soren's Xbox, which Scott really enjoyed. The day was fun and filled, and we send our congratulations out to Soren and Sarah again and to all those of you graduating from High School or College this year. To those who are close, keep hanging in there, you can do it!!! Here are some more pictures from the graduation.

Fire Day: Sunday, May 6th. About 3 weeks ago we had an influx of firefighters congregating at the house across from our back patio. We found out that some people bought the place and were going to burn it down to subdivide it for townhouses or houses. The date for the big burn was May 6th. Between then and Sunday firefighters occassionally showed up to cut holes in the roof, cut out walls, do some smoke drills or other firefighter-esk things. May 6th finally arrived and boy was it a show!!! There were probably 5-6 firetrucks and lots of firefighters. They started with small burns, and they would go in and put the flames out. Then it was time for the big show. I know we have lots of pictures, but it's the best way to explain the excitement. The smoke went really high, the flames were HUGE. We could feel the heat from our apartment which is about 75meters from the house. Since the burn they've completely hauled away all the rubble (concrete and all) and they will start preparing the land soon for more houses!!! Just what we need. To fill you in about this house (it was no ordinary home). It seems to have once been some sort of recreation center because there are two stories on one side of the building which both seem to just be large open rooms. In the other side of the building was an old run down swimming pool! Yes an indoor swimming pool that even had a side bathroom/changing room/kitchen. But, it's all gone now. Enjoy the show.

Before: More Pics

During: More Pics

After: More Pics

Young Married's Game Night at Church on the Hill: April 21st We had a game night for the young married couples at our church in McMinnville. We "co-hosted" it with our friends Jeremy and Claudette. It wasn't that well planned due to the busyness of life. When we arrived at the church the room was locked. When we got in, nothing was set up as it was supposed to be, and no childcare was arranged. Oh well, it was still fun, even if there were 10 toddlers running around. There was good food, Thank you Jeremy for the chicken wings, and fun games. We played Apples to Apples, Uno, the Shocking Game, and Wii. For those of you who aren't sure on what those last two games are. The Shocking Game (there's no better way to describe it) is where 2-4 people hold these futuristic looking remotes all connected to the center console. It will flash red and make annoying sounds, when it stops making noise and turns green everyone hits the button on the remotes. Last person to do so or does so too soon, gets shocked. One of the guys there said it's not quite as shocking as holding an electric fence. Let's just say it was most popular among some of the guys. The Wii is the new game system by Nintendo. The controller is more like a remote that senses your movements. It's lots of fun. We were playing a "Wario" game that has you do a bunch of little mini games like hold the remote like a waiter, or like a remote, or like a tug of war rope. Very different than your typical game console. After the game night, we went to another activity (also at the Church on the Hill), Heather's friend Laura was hosting a Victorian Regency Ball. There we learned a bunch of dances like you would see in Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma. For you guys out there, it was actually a lot of fun. Even Scott and Jeremy enjoyed it (Jeremy and Claudette joined in for a dance). Overall we had a really fun night.

Click Here to see more pictures from the game night

Scott's Birthday Family Dinner and Bower's Baby Shower: Sunday, April 16th On Sunday April 15th, we got to enjoy a birthday dinner for Scott with his family. We went to the Cheesecake Factory at Washington Square Mall. Yes they serve Cheesecake, but that's not all. They have HUGE MEALS at decent prices, and the service was amazing. Well, with a party of 10 people plus a highchair for our nephew Hunter, we needed a little bit of special attention. Those attending were: Us (Scott and Heather), Scott's parents (Steve and Sue), Scott's Grandparents (G'pa Richard, G'ma Bettie, and G'ma Carlene (G'pa Stan was home sick)), Scott's Siblings (Sjana and her husband Brian, Seth) and our nephew Hunter (Sjana and Brian's son). Before the dinner, Heather enjoyed Bethany Bower's Baby Shower! Baby Rhubarb (they didn't know the gender), was due May 5th. We haven't heard yet whether Rhubarb is a boy or a girl and the new corresponding name. While Heather was partying it up, Scott was at Starbucks lesson planning, and finishing the book "The Ezekial Option"

To see more pictures from our weekend click here.