Child Labor Laws?

On Wednesday Chico worked most of the day from home. He had some stuff to put together for a job he'd be going to and there was no reason he couldn't just do it from home rather than at the job site.

He had to make up some boxes, so when the boys and I got home he asked them if they wanted to help him while I made dinner. Hey, why can't I help while someone else makes dinner? (Oh winning lottery ticket, where are you?)

Chico came in to ask me if I wanted to see the sweat shop he had going in our driveway.























"Heh, heh, heh" Doesn't Chico's grin just seem like the sweat shop boss earning his huge profits!

















The boys love to help their dad! They just have such a look pride when they call me out to show me whatever it is they're helping with, the yard, the car, it doesn't matter.

Plus, mama doesn't mind the quiet time in the house while they're outside. "Heh, heh, heh" she says while stroking her pretend mustache. :)

Mystery Solved!

Last Friday morning I was sitting in the living room, still in my pajamas when I heard a knock at the door. It was around 9 am. I figured it was one of the neighbor kids, so I waited for one of the boys to run upstairs and answer it.

A minute later the person at the door rang the door bell and the boys still didn't come running (they usually come running to see if it's one of their friends). So, I slowly got up hoping whoever it was might have given up, so I didn't have to open the door in my pj's and bedhead.

When I got to the door, I opened it and no one was there. I stepped out a couple feet onto the porch and looked towards the driveway, but didn't see anyone. Oh well, back to whatever show I was watching.

A little bit later, I was making breakfast for the kids and called them upstairs. When they came up they said "Frosty the Snowman" is at the door. I just kind of laughed and said whatever. They said "No really, Frosty's at the door" and they wanted me to come see. A couple minutes later I went towards the door. We have one of those long windows, about a foot wide that runs the length of our front door. Well, Through the window I see a plastic snow man about 3 feet tall sitting there!

I went outside and looked around, couldn't see anyone. Now was some neighbor playing a joke on us? Why is there a snowman on our front porch? My parents have one that they display at Christmas time that's really old (used to be my great aunt's) and I like it. It reminds me of when I was young. This one's not quite as old and charming, but it's alright.

I called my Dad's cell phone thinking maybe he found it for me at one of his Friday garage sales. He wasn't answering, so I called my friend Alicia, who also sometimes garages sales on Fridays and she's always got a list of things her friends like and/or are looking for in her head. She had had some people over at her house for a breakfast, so it wasn't her. Hmmmm?

I'm thinking this is so strange because when the knock and door bell ring happened earlier, I did go out and look and didn't see anyone. I mean it was probably only a minute after the door bell that I was out there. I called Chico to see if maybe he knew anything about it, but no, still a mystery.

As the day went on, each time we went outside I kept thinking is some neighbor watching us and laughing at this practical joke. We have great neighbors and this would just be something done in fun. There's a little ceramic rabbit that made it's rounds around the neighborhood and finally landed permanently at one neighbor's doorstep. They put it in their flower bed and thought whoever's missing it could just come and grab it when they discover it. Well, it's been there for a couple years now, so I think it's found a permanent home.


Finally that evening the mystery was solved. My dad finally returned my call and said he had picked it up at a garage sale not far from our house. He said he had knocked and rang the doorbell, but no one answered. Now, how did I miss him being in my driveway getting the snow man out of his car?!?! His car's white and small like one of ours that was parked in the driveway. I guess I just glanced up and saw the white and didn't focus on the fact that there would have been two white cars there!

So, here it is a week later and Frosty is still on our porch (I know). I have to find somewhere to store it, and I don't have a flower bed to put him in, so I'll just tell the neighbors that I'm going to start decorating for Christmas a little each week, so I'll be done by December. I'm sure they'll like that. :)

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Eleven years ago today Chico and I finally made it legal. It only took seven years of dating for him to propose (you know you have to take the time to get to know each other) and then one more year to plan the big event. It was a great day! It took place on a Friday evening (just like today) at "The Hideaway" in Mountaindale.

The weather turned out great! I think there was a little rain the couple days leading up to it, so was a little nerve-wracking with an outdoor wedding. We had about 300 family and friends in attendance and I believe a good time was had by all. Anyhoo, I don't know where all of my "non-professional" photos are from that day (how bad is that!!), so I found my professional proofs and scanned in a few to share.

These are two of my favorite photos of Chico and I. I'm the one in the dress, lol.





Here are me and my "homies" (my friend Kelly, my cousin Cathie, moi, my friend Cindy and my friend Linda)



Here's our entire wedding party. I didn't have a photo of Chico and his "homies", so in this photo are Chico's cousin Mark, Chico's cousin Eddie, my cousin Dale and our good friend James.



This is one of my favorite photos. This is all of our grandparents and parents with us. Over the last few years we've lost three of our grandparents (my Nanny & Pop and Chico's Grandma Gallegos). They are missed, but I'm so glad that we were able to have so much of our family with us that day!

Back Row: Grandpa Garcia, Rose (Chico's mom), Raul (Chico's dad), Fred (my dad), Janet (my mom)
Front Row: Grandma Gallegos, Grandma Garcia, Grandpa Evensen, Grandma Evensen, Grandpa Kirby (Pop), Grandma Kirby (Nanny), and the happy couple



And this I threw in because it was a cute action shot. Notice none of my homies were up in the front row trying to catch the bouquet! But Aunt Lena was there ready to get herself a new man!!



I love looking back at photos and reminiscing (Chico, not so much). This makes me want to watch our wedding video. We had some awesome videographers! Maybe Chico will sit and watch it with me tonight (ha ha). Hmmm, maybe my boys will? Anyone???

Woo hoo, an Etsy sale!

I was surprised to see that I finally sold one of my Paper Bag Albums in my Etsy shop!! If you never saw it in my shop, it's this super cute little 6x6 photo album made from 3 brown paper lunch sacks and lots of cute, thick textured card stock. It's embellished with fun prima (paper) flowers, pewter charms and cute buttons.

I've sold a couple in the past to some of my neighbors, but this is the first one I've sold on Etsy, so I'm excited. Now to get my act together and make some more for the upcoming holiday season!

This one's going to a woman that's recently had a baby girl and is returning from maternity leave on Monday. She wanted a little album to put on her desk at work (a kind of brag book).

Wii had a good visit in LaGrande

Last Thursday I rode along with my Dad to visit my grandparents in LaGrande. I worked a whole 2 hours before meeting up with Dad and leaving. Needless to say I was exhausted! :)

We arrived in LaGrande around 6pm and Grandpa & Grandma had just finished their dinner. So Dad and I made the first of several trips to Denny's for a meal. There aren't a lot of eating choices in LaGrande! After dinner we went back to their house and watched a couple episodes of Murder She Wrote. It's pretty much Angela Lansbury, Andy Griffith or Westerns at the Evensen household. Sometimes Grandpa gets a hold of the remote and you get some Price is Right or Bull Riding (shows that don't require you to really hear what's being said).

Friday I hung out with the Grandparents while Dad made a trip to Hermiston to buy some more old motors to add to his swap meet inventory. While Dad was gone my Cousin Greg and his family came by on their way thru town. They live in Boring, OR (pretty fitting name I must say), but they were headed to a wedding in Boise, ID. I haven't seen Greg and his family for at least 4 years. His kids are so big!! They've got Scandinavian blood on both sides. Our family is Norwegian and his wife Edda is from Iceland.

Here's a couple photos of their family as they were about to leave. From Left to Right - Sidney (I believe she's 13 and she said she's about 5'11"), Edda (mom), Stuart (he's 10, don't know how tall, but his mom says he'll probably be taller than his older brother from the history of their height measurements at the same ages), Greg (dad) and Spencer (age 16 and about 6'4" so far). They're certainly a beautiful family!!



Once Dad came back we went to Denny's (trip #2) for dinner, this time with Grandma & Grandpa. Grandma said she wasn't really hungry so she ordered a piece of Cheesecake for dinner!! I tried to tell her she needs to eat something a little better for her, but she didn't listen (just like a kid). After dinner we took the grandparents back home and got to see my Aunt Maria (she's one year older than me, so that just sounds weird) and her daughter Jamie.

We watched some AFV and just a bit of the Olympics Opening Ceremony. Unfortunately we missed most of the cool stuff, but did see the 2,008 Chinese drummers - AMAZING!!! I wish I could have watched the rest! Dad and I went to visit Uncle Gil E for a bit, too. He showed us some of his new toys, some more model airplanes. He got a cute little one that's made for flying indoors!

By the time we got back home, my Aunt Linda was there. It was great to see her. I haven't seen her since we were in LaGrande last November (for Grandpa's 90th birthday). That probably doesn't sound unusual, but Linda lives in North Plains (about 10 minutes from my house), but we only seem to see each other in LaGrande (almost 300 miles from my house). Crazy!!

Linda and I tried to finish watching the Opening Ceremonies. I made it all the way, but Linda fell asleep right before the lighting of the torch. Too bad, it was pretty cool.

On Saturday Dad and Linda went out and did some yard work, while I kept Grandpa & Grandma company and watched some more t.v. What was on the boob tube today you ask? Well, how about Bonanza, Maverick and some movie/series with John Larroquette (from Night Court) as a lawyer (and a much more decent lawyer than his character "Dan" on the aforementioned 80's comedy).

After the majority of the yard work was done my Uncle Richard and Aunt Lynn came by to visit (good timing). Linda had rode up with them Friday night, but they stayed at a hotel because there wasn't much room left at Chez Evensen. Well, having enough of the old TV shows, I decided to introduce the Wii to anyone interested. Richard and Lynn really enjoyed it! I think Lynn's favorite was the bowling and Richard was partial to Cow Racing. Lynn and I tried out all the other sports and I was sore for the next two days. How sad is that!! We even got Grandpa to bowl about 3 games. Once he figured out the remote, he did pretty good.

Here we are bowling...
Look at the form!


Look at the concentration!






Are you getting this on film?


Can you tell they're related?


All tired out from so much "physical" activity we decided to go to lunch. Guess where??? You betcha, Denny's for the 3rd time in two days!! We had a good lunch and went back to the house to pack up. Dad and I were leaving Saturday afternoon. I did my normal photo ops with everyone before leaving. Unfortunately I didn't get Uncle Gil E or Maria & Jamie the previous day. I'll have to be better at taking photos before the day we leave.

Kandi & Grandpa


& Uncle Richard


& Grandma


& Aunt Linda


& last but not least, Aunt Lynn!


Whew, that was exhausting!!!

Finally... some photos!

Well, the boys have been on the road since July 16th and we've finally received some photos this morning showing some of the things they've been up to.

They started their tour (Granny Tour 2008) in Nyssa, OR and Boise, ID. From there they traveled to Blackfoot, ID and went camping. They then traveled to Yellowstone and now they're headed back west. The latest news is they will be home sometime next week after visiting the Nyssa area once again. It will have been a whole month that they've been gone! Crazy!!

This photo is actually from the weekend before they left on their road trip. Granny took Mateo to Graceland. Granny & Mateo in front of the Graceland Gate.


Some photos from their camping trip. Jaxon caught a BIG fish :)






















Mateo learned to shoot a rifle - yikes!!






And of course they enjoyed some roasted marshmallows, yum!



I'm not sure where they were for these photos, but this cracks me up!






Here they are at Yellowstone...






Aren't they cute! I'm excited to see them next week. They sound like they've had loads of fun while they've been gone and I'm anxious to see all the photos that I know Granny took!!

My 1st Card Workshop

On Sunday afternoon I held my very first Greeting Card Workshop. Earlier this year I donated a basket of Close to My Heart supplies and a Gift Certificate for this workshop to the Dilley Elementary School Auction (Mateo's school). This workshop was attended by the winning bidder of my basket, her mother, her 11 year old daughter and a friend of theirs.

I was a little nervous because I'd never met any of these people before and I didn't know what their skill levels were. I came up with 5 different cards to make and tried to start off easy and gradually do a little more with each one.

I think the cards came out pretty cute...

#1 - Simple stamping on textured cardstock and a simple ribbon added.

#2 - Simple stamping, colored with CTMH markers and layered cardstock.























#3 - Stamped Butterfly image and cut out (kind of tedious), then glued with 3D foam squares & added a simple word.























#4 - My Favorite! Layered some coordinating papers, stamped & added fun accessories (brads, photo hanger & ribbon).



#5 - They enjoyed learning this criss cross pattern and were surprised they could stamp directly onto the twill ribbon.
























They all seemed to really enjoy the workshop and they've requested that I make it a monthly event so that more of their friends can attend. That's pretty exciting! Now, I need to get my creative juices flowing and come up with some new ideas. Wish me luck!