Civil War

There was a civil war reenactment last week here in Lebanon, the first one ever here in town. Here are some pictures of the camp, men, and the battle that happened. Hope you enjoy, we did.



It was just a small glimpse of the real action, but gave a fresh perspective on what the men went through during the split our our nation. Two sides, both fighting for what they believed in, both dieing for their cause. Very sobering, and good to revisit history so we will not forget. We thank all those who choose to do these reenactments, and the hard work they put in to keeping history alive.

Baby Goats

There were some baby goats born last week at Grandpa & Grandma's house. They were soooo tiny! Their names are Tiny & Humphrey. I didn't get any really close pics of them, but here are a few. (click on any image to enlarge)

Here is a pic of Grandma & Ana. Also a few pictures of Grandma's flower garden, and Grandpa kickin' back and enjoying the evening. Actually there is a big chink of meat on the BBQ behind him and he is waiting for the timer to go off.












This guy is here to keep you comapny if you want to just hang out in the front and need someone to talk to.


Weather is holding in there, its going to be a beautiful summer!

K-9 Confusion

Jami posted some pics of our shepherds, and I would consider these real, honest to goodness K-9's. The following pictures are of Jami's sister Julie's so called dog. I am still trying to figure out if it is part of the K-9 family. I think it may be some sort of superior being. It either doesn't know how to walk, or it is royalty, and simply must be carried everywhere. Fed on a schedule, bathed & dressed by others, and to top it off, he can make a stink in the yard and someone cleans up after him! Is it the face? If anyone has any information on this being, let me know. I'll let you decide! I think its called "BRODIE"

The Dogs

Hi, Jeremy will be so happy. This is my first post. After reading his most recent post I couldn't help but feel something was missing and then I knew! Diva, Chance and Gabe are not on here! You would think that we didn't have 4 dogs! Shame, Shame. I'm really surprised that Jer has not put a pic of Gabe on here at least since he is his dog, so is Ashes But only because he says it. (ask her and she'll tell you the truth :) ). Gabe was one of the pups we sold and got back a 10 months later. He is a blessing to our family. Jer says "he is my kind of dog." That is a huge compliment considering Gabe is not a aussie or bodercollie. Gabe is very playful and him and Ashes are constantly fetching-though Gabe thinks its more fun to play keep away.

I can't help but feel a little bad for Diva. She went from being a very pampered indoor dog to a little less pampered outside dog. She loves her boys and I have found would rather be with them than me most of the time. It's a little heartbreaking but I still love her. I knew from the day Chance was a day old that he was going to be MY dog and he is. I still have high expectations for him though I don't think it will be in the conformation ring anymore. Neither of us enjoyed our last show all that much and so I've decided if it isn't fun then don't do it. I'll give agility, obedience, and herding a try and hope they will be a blast.

Chance is on the far left, next to Diva. Gabe is playing with his ball. I'll try to be better about updates now that I know how to do it.

Spring is in full force

Nice to have a break in the cold, wet weather, and have the sun peeking out through the clouds. It seems that the slow growing grass, that has been green all winter has been given a shot of Miracle Grow. I had to pull a little maintenance on the tractor, then put the mower back on so we could get after the fields before they turned into a jungle. Here is Jami out in the midst of it.

The kids also had a sad surprise when we got home from the park the other day. Their tire swing limb had broken.
We were just glad they weren't on it when it came down. Ana just had to climb it.

Jami & I got some mountain bikes. I know, I know, you say it's a phase. Well maybe it is, but we are having a lot of fun riding down at the park. We are supposed to go on a 14 mile ride the first weekend in June, and I am not so sure either one of us are ready for it. Thats not to bad on a bike, but if you haven,t ridden in years...it could be a major undertaking, or maybe just call the undertaker.

Ana and Jorryn are in a kids club called AWANAS, and there was a pinewood derby race that they entered in. Too much fun. I think the dads that helped make the cars for the younger kids were more eager to win and get the fastest times than anyone there. Jorryn got to race early on, so he got a track record, but it was broken later by the kid who won first place for the day. Actually Jorryn didn't place, but Ana got third, and her friend Alexis got second. It was a fun day for all of us. Jorryn was more excited about the cotton candy than any car race! I think he had the fastest time inhaling the candy...then he was the fastest kids as the sugar burn hit him.

Enjoy the weather, be back soon!

Jer, Jami & kids!

Poison Oak

Spring is weighing heavy on us and the yard is growing amazingly fast. We spend a good half a day in the garden area, getting beds ready for planting and cleaning up all the overgrown areas around the walking spaces. The kids helped and I was inpressed as to the fun they had with all the bugs we saw.
We also started to clear out the front hedge, where the dreaded poison oak is. I expected to get it, but Jami was a not really getting into the bushes were it was growing. Next day I started to have the rash breakout on my arms, then it just got worse from there. I ended up with it over my arms, torso, and parts of my legs. It took a week and a half for me to see the rashes subside, and start getting back to normal. Jami on the other hand didn't get the rashes, at least right away. She ended up with a patch that started 5 days later, and then like me, got it over the same areas of the body. it seemed to be worse on her, to where the rash would blister, and one patch got infected. It took two weeks for hers to subside. We are finally having some itch free sleep time now.
Work is great, God is good. I have a full schedule into August now, with some flexibility, and that is always nice.
The fields needs to be mowed, and the garden planted, so this weekend I am hoping for sun!

Until later...

Jer, Jami & the kids

A long long time ago...

Thats whe that last post was. This hasn't been a priority, but it should be!
Things are going well. Jami is out of town this week visiting family in Reno, and then on to a dog show with Chance. We think he has good potential, we shall see. He doesn't have the experience in the show ring, but he may do well just the same. Good luck to him!
Post agin soon with pics.

Wetlands

Hello again from Winter Lakes. Yes, what was once dry, grassy meadows, and a almost non existent pond, we now have tons-o-water. Here are some before and after pictures.





Makes for a mucky mess for a bit. The creek is pretty high as well. When we had our big rain a few weeks ago, the water level came up several feet overnight.

We finally raked up our yard. Big trees make big leaf piles. I should have had the burn pile going that day....oh well.

Ana also lost her first tooth! She was very excited about it, but didn't work it very often, so the new tooth was coming in behind the old one before she had it pulled. I think she was afraid the last little bit hanging on the tooth would hurt too much to take it out.





Okay everyone! Have a great Thanksgiving! More news and pics to come!

Recap on the house...

Hello All!

I got the camera back from Jami so I could take some pictures of the house and put them on paper for you. First there is a little background on the place, and how we were blessed with it.

Jami & I have been wanting some property, someplace pretty, and with room to grow. A place that we could get for a decent price and fix it up ourselves how we like it, and give it our personality. We have found the place.

Before we left Reno, we were praying about finding a place just like this, but we were not sure how God’s plan for us would work out. We became attentive to His leading, and I decided to take a job in Vancouver, working at a desk, and let my recent shoulder surgery heal up. We could not find a house in our price range, so we settled for a place in town on a small lot with a newer house, knowing that in a few years we could sell it and move to a bigger lot, possibly out further in the country.

The job worked out for a few years, then the plans to grow changed, and my position was eliminated. The new position in the company wasn’t a good fit, but I was thinking I would make a go of it, and stick it out. We started looking at houses up in that area, and fell in love with a one acre lot with a decent house on it. After looking at several more houses, our realtor asked us if we wanted to make an offer on the house, and our initial reaction was “yes”, but I had a little check in my spirit, like we should wait through the weekend. This was Friday about 3pm. At 5pm, I was told that my pay would be reduced to a base salary, 14k less than what I was making at the time, with a possibility to increase depending on my new performance. All this in a position that the last two years training had little to do with. We decided that this was CLEAR direction from God to move on, for He had bigger plans for us.

We decided to start looking for a place down in the Lebanon area, and on one of our trips down visiting the folks, a friend of mine asked us if we would be interested in his sisters house. He said they had considered selling, and since we were in the market, we should come by, take a look, and see what we think.

It was a dinky little house, almost 900sf, but it had almost 13 acres, and a ton of potential. The owners had done allot of work on it already, but it still had allot of things yet to do.

We walked the property, and decided it was the place for us. In the following week, we were set on a price, with no realtor, and got all the paperwork ready.

The next step was to sell our house, and although we seemed to have lots of interest, no one was willing to buy it. We think that was also part of God’s plan, because we ended up selling it to some friends who needed a house exactly like what we had, and if we had sold it immediately, they would not be able to buy it. The way things worked out have been extraordinary, and everyone involved has felt like things have been orchestrated from the start.

We have two huge meadows with the year round creek along one side. They are below the house, which sits up on the hill. There is a Quonset for a garage/shop. The house is a little two bedroom one bath. There is a kitchen, living room, and mud room. The mud room used to be the patio, but it was covered and closed in. This is currently where the washer and dryer are.

The kitchen and master bedroom was painted over smooth walls, no texture, and where the sheetrock met, you could still see some of the joints in some places. There was baseboard missing in the kitchen, and where there was trim, it was the old clamshell style. The living room had a meringue look to the texture, high sharp points. We decided to re-texture and re-trim all the rooms, walls and ceilings, except for the kid’s room, which would be done later after a future remodel. This has been a lot of work, and we are still in the process.

The outside needs new siding, a few windows changed out, and something done to the roof over the mudroom, (it leaks). We also have lots to do getting the bushes trimmed back, the poison oak eradicated from the corner of the courtyard in front, the garden shaped up, and some fencing.

We put up a 40’x40’ dog kennel for our shepherds. They like the new leg room when they have to be put away.

Ana & Jorryn have a little playhouse. It’s pretty cool for them to play in.

I have been trying to get projects done around here, as well as working for a dollar to keep the bills paid, and believe me, it keeps me hoppin! I find myself thinking that the days need to be twice as long so I can balance out the projects a little more.

I hope the pictures turn out pretty good, and you can get a good idea of what we got going here. It’s been fun seeing how the place is changing, and how faithful God is in taking care of us in the process.

Hope things are going good for everyone!

Jer, Jami & the kids

Sad News...

I know its been awhile with no news, but things have been a little hectic here. Jami has been trying to get some things ready for the kids and school, I have been working and trying to get projects done around the house.
My StepMother is Janna, and her mother is Grandma Marjorie VanDyke, who has been feeling under the weather, and went in to have some lumps checked out. The result was she has terminal cancer, very advanced throughout her body and she has less than two months to live. Janna is already down at the house with her, and Jami left last Thursday as well to visit. I am here, getting things buttoned up to go down as well with Dad.
I will talk more later as I get news. We only found out last week.
Pray for her in these uncomfortable days.

Mowing, painting , cleaning

Here it is, the update. I guess I will start off by telling you about the move. We were blessed with 13 acres, and an older (1948) almost 900 SF home that needs allot of work for both curb appeal and some inside help to keep the bugs and the mice out. We have a squirrel in the wall to the outside mud/laundry room and the dogs want to eat him.
We have textured the kitchen and master bedroom so far, added trim and painted the bedrooms and the kitchen, but the living room has this heavy texture on it that I will have to fill and float out smooth with sheetrock mud before we retexture to the 21st century.
It is a cute house. The previous owners did a bunch of work already. They updated the electrical and plumbing, which is very important, exposed the nice hardwood flooring that was covered by carpeting, put in newer vinyl windows, and updated the kitchen. They also pushed back the brush that was growing on the property and encroaching on the house. I figure that if they hadn't taken affirmative action against it, the house would have been engulfed sometime in late 2007. We now have lots of meadow to mow, and a metal garage that is used for storage at this point.
I am working odd jobs here and there, using my building skills and praying that God will keep bringing in the work. He has always been faithful to provide, we sometimes just overspend! Life is simple for us right now. We have to be humble because of what we have, and we are thinking that allot of the things in life we used to think important are not. Its not the size of the paycheck, what kind of car you drive, or how big your TV is, its friends and family. I spend more quality time with my family, and am happier with less material goods than I could have ever thought. Don’t get me wrong, I still drool over the Bose Home Theater system, and plan to have one in my home someday, but right now, if I try to make the bigger money and have it all immediately, and sacrifice family time, I am wasting precious years. My kids would be growing up without me. I will sacrifice my home theater, fancy car, and a bigger home in the now, to have a walk down by the creek on our property with the kids and my wife. God has blessed me with a wonderful family, and I want to enjoy them while I can. Okay! Enough Jer rant!
I am posting some pics showing Jami mowing the fields and some work on the house, our creek, etc, etc... Busy Busy! Send us emails, we love to hear from everyone. I promise to try and keep this thing updated more...no really, I promise.

New Home

Well...here is a quick note to say, more to come tomorrow. I have been extremely busy, and the move along with all the projects have been keeping me from any good updates here. This pic of Jorryn is before we textured and painted the kitchen, and if you zoom in, you can see white paint in his hair. We are having a blast . Look for new pics soon.

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