Changes...

No pictures this time, only news. Jami and I are moving! I will no longer be working here in Washington, but will be venturing out on my own doing...WHATEVER! I am getting my contractors license and praying in the work. God seems to have blessed us with the possibility of buying some property in Oregon, and we are extremely excited. I will post some pics and more news later! Enjoy the Fourth!

Time flies!

We have dried out up here in the northwest. It was a wet winter, but spring is finally here. The first Easter we were here it was around 80 degrees, and this year it was in the 50’s. Its finally back up to the 70’s and 80’s now, and we are loving it.

Jami bought some plants for the front yard. I don’t know the names of them, except for the rose bush. Ask me about a car part and I can tell you, ask me about a flower or a bush and I will just tell you it’s a flower or a bush…so, we got a couple flower plants to put next to some other bushes in the front yard. Yeah, I am a guy, I know.

We are looking to possibly move. We are feeling like we need a bigger yard for the dogs to stretch their legs a bit. They are getting bored with the small amount of room they have, and are tearing it up. The grass is struggling, the hot tub cover is half eaten,(puppies love to nibble), and the kids chairs get pushed around the deck all the time. We need a bigger playground for them and the kids.

I don’t know if you remember JJ & Gretchen who sang in our wedding, but they came up to the coast last weekend and we met them there, spent the day with them and had a great time waling on the beach, and finding little trails to hike on. We did some more Geocaching as well. That’s always a ton of fun. The picture above is of Ana on the beach.

The kids are growing fast. Jorryn is not yet four years old and he is almost as tall as Ana. I need to measure them again to see exactly how tall they are, but they are getting to big, too soon, at least it seems so.

There is an amusement park here in the Portland area that has allot of fun rides that the kids can go on and is not expensive at all. We try to go a few times a year, and we now know for sure that Ana and Jorryn could probably take on any roller coaster Disneyland has to offer. They are CRAZY KIDS! They love all the rides.

We went to the zoo, and low and behold, we saw this sign on the way out. Apparently its okay to drink while you are in the zoo, but you can’t drink after you leave. I was confused, but now know for next time.

Just a note

Rain or shine. That’s pretty much sums up the mornings here right now. The weather guys get it pretty close, but it still seems like rolling the dice when you get out of bed and open the blinds. It’s definitely getting nicer, that’s for sure. I had to mow the grass twice last week. The yard-work season has come into effect full force.

Softball season is here as well. I had my first city league game last night. It was the first of two placement games that we have at the beginning of the season to match up teams by skill level. We did well, the score was some-teen to nothing. Yes, we won. We also have a three game minimum tournament this Saturday. That should be fun.

Jami entered Diva’s pups in a dog show last weekend. What fun! Jami was nervous, but did great with the pressure. The dogs were stinkers though. She had been working with both Chance & Gabe in the confirmation, and they were looking AND behaving well the night before. I even went through all the motions that the judge would do, to see if they would stand still and let me check their teeth, etc. They did great. Come ringtime, they weren’t sure about the whole thing. They wouldn’t stay stacked, and who is this strange guy touching me??? Look at all the other dogs-Why am I following this dog, why is that dog following me! They did well for the first show all things considered. New sights, sounds & smells. Again, it was fun.

I have a new job description, which I will elaborate on later.

Jami’s folks will be here the week after Easter. We are looking forward to that. We are spending Easter at my folks place. There are LOTS of good hiding places for eggs down there!

Also, I am curioius if anyone actually reads this thing, so I enabled the post feature. If you want to make a comment on anything, or just let us know you like the updates, post it! Click the post icon at the end of whatever post you want to comment on. Thats it! Okay---Until next time, have a great Easter.

TheVonRudens

Quartery update...

Well here it is…FINALLY a new post. WHOO HOO!

Last we left you it was Thanksgiving, and we were in Reno, visiting family. We had a GREAT time. Lots of food, my birthday.
I must say if you are to have a birthday near a holiday, thanksgiving is the best. There is no need for special food prep, or calling to get your family together, that’s all built in to this great day. I get a great food spread only rivaled by Christmas dinner, family is coming anyway, there is a football game to watch, and on top of that, I get presents. Its not close enough to Christmas to combine the gifts, (Christmas & Birthday), and it always gives you a four day weekend as well. So lets recap;

1. No extra prep for the party-built in
2. No extra invitations, family will be there anyway
3. Football game
4. Awesome spread for food & dessert
5. Presents that will not interfere with Christmas

This was the first Christmas we had with just the four of us. We got a tree, went down to a tree farm and cut our own. Had a blast! Tried to go up and get a tree the weekend before, but all we got was temporarily stuck. We are normally at Jami’s folks for Christmas Eve, exchanging gifts, and opening stockings on Christmas morning. This year we stayed here in Vancouver, and opened our stocking on Christmas Eve, and opened our presents on Christmas morning. It wasn’t the same without all the family, but new kinds of memories were made.

Ana is currently doing gymnastics 3 times a week. She goes twice a week to her normal class, then once a week for a TOPS class which works specifically on her strength building for competition. She loves it. Jorryn isn’t as thrilled as he has to wait with momma for the two hours of each class, but he is a trooper, and keeps busy with books or coloring, etc. Ana comes home and practices all the time. Standing on her head, handstands the splits,(OUCH!).

Jorryn is currently in swimming lessons. He is almost done with his classes, and still can’t swim. BUT…He isn’t afraid of going under the water anymore, and he definitely has more confidence when in the pool. Being afraid of the water is a major hindrance in learning, and maybe that will be the most important thing he gets out of it. He looks forward to it two times a week, with a huge smile on his face.

Jami is trying to get Chance, our dog ready for some shows this year. He is learning manners and how to listen. Like a puppy though, he is full of energy, and wants to play.

I just got back from camping this last weekend, but I will save that one until I can get the pictures ready for the post. Until next time…

Jer, Jami, Juliana, Jorryn

Coming attractions....

Howdy all! I am here alone this weekend with the kids, and I think I will be able to catch this page up! Jami is on a womens retreat until Sunday afternoon, and I have a few projects around here...updating the page is one of them. I have to get everyone caught up on the after Thanksgiving trip, as well as Christmas, and Jami's BD...our trip to the coast. Stay Tuned...

Update for Josh ....and others

As you all well know, we haven't updated in awhile. We will be taking a little trip this weekend and I plan on getting an update next week. Thanks for the patience!

Thanksgiving

We are on the road! Jami and the kids traveled down to Reno to be with her family the week before Thanksgiving, and I flew down the week of. We will all drive back together the weekend after Thanksgiving, hopefully rested up and ready to get back home.
The kids and I took the dogs geocaching on Monday, traipsing around in the desert, climbing rocks and looking for little tupperware containers with treasures in them. If you don't know what geocaching is, check out the website at www.geocaching.com.
My little Ana is a great rock climber, FEARLESS. Jorryn is not so bold as of yet, which is probably a good thing. I only really want to worry about one being a daredevil right now, not two. Here are a few shots of us climbing and caching.

Thanksgiving will be good. Lots of food, games, sports. Jami's football team , the Broncos, will be there for our viewing pleasure. Lets hope they don't let us down. I hope not, I picked them in my football pool. Fun for everyone. I just hope I don't eat to much as to ruin my chances of winning another ping-pong game!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Jeremy & the Family

Camping trip...

In the middle of August, I took the kids camping for the weekend for the first time. Jami had to stay home with the brand new baby puppies, and we missed her. There were 24 kids and 7 families at camp if I remember right. Never a dull moment with all them running around. The picture is of Juliana and I in the creek with our dog Ashes next to us. in case anyone is wondering, the keg is full of beer. Henry Weinhart's Root Beer. Ice cold from being in the creek. We had two of them shared for the whole camp. Several hiking trips wore the kids out, no wait, that was the adults. I know we have all talked about it before, but if we could only harness that energy...

The kids and I slept in the back of the Yukon, no tent this trip. We had a great time eating s'mores Saturday night, and a pancake feed on Sunday morning before we headed out. A good time was had by all, and we look forward to our next trip out with everyone, Jami included!

Oh yeah, I was able to get a little paintballing in too, one of my pastimes the I have that is a little safer than motorcross, which Jami is happy about.






Until next time...
Jeremy & the family

Our Family

Just a quick hello to all as we are gearing up for posting news about whats going on in our lives and what we are looking forward to in the future. Come back soon to hear all the news about Juliana and Jorryn's activities, Jamis new adventure with Breeding Diva and having puppies, and me trying to stay in shape while sitting behind a desk all day. The pic is from last weekend on their first trip to see their daddy. They have all eyes and ears alert for the first glimpse.
Thanks for the visit!
Jeremy and the Family.