The Sherwood Forest

Packing up to go camping!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 19:45:00 +0000

Our truck has been out of order this week due to maintenance. It's actually in our garage, up on jack stands. Jason has been diligently working on it for the last 7 days, hoping to have it ready to roll for our camping trip this weekend with our bible study group.

Looks like we will be taking the car...

How will we fit: 4 camp chairs, 2 sleeping bags, pillows, roll up table, 5 gallon water jug, air mattress, 3 clear packing tubs, 2 coolers, multiple grocery bags of dry food, ladder golf AND enough firewood for the weekend in a Honda Civic?

Maybe I'll go out to the garage and cheer Jason on - you can do it!!!! (You have to do it!)

I think we need a new look

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:47:00 +0000

I think our blog looks kinda depressing. I like the little picture at the top with the name and stuff but the black is starting to get old. I think we need a face-lift. Nothing to cutesy but maybe something more interesting...I'll have to bring it up with Jason.

Southern Oregon Vacation: Installment 2

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:53:00 +0000

Wednesday, July 1st we packed up all our stuff and hit the grocery store in Medford before driving up to Union Creek. Usually there is a pretty good temperature difference, being cooler at Union Creek, but not this day. It was really hot and sticky! I can't remember the last time I was at the cabin when it was so hot. We pulled in, and took a nap first thing. Jason went out fishing, only to return to say the mosquitoes were really bad, so we drove up to the store to get bug spray. We didn't really spend time outside because of the mosquitoes, we did manage to cook dinner on the dutch oven, but then came inside to eat. Lewis drove up from Klamath to have dinner with us. Basically we stayed inside for the evening, going outside once for about 15 minutes to play a game of Ladder Golf.

Thursday, July 2nd we got going in the morning so we could get a good hike in. We hiked Union Peak in the Crater Lake National Forest. The first about 3 miles were on the Pacific Crest Trail, and then turned off for 2 miles up to Union Peak. The mosquitoes again were very bad, we almost bailed. The trail had a good amount of snow still too which made navigation difficult. We were on the trail about 75% of the time. Luckily we had a GPS leaving us at trail. We made it to the top around noon, ate lunch and enjoyed the view, then headed down when we spotted thunderheads and heard a couple rolls of thunder! We made it down and back to the car around 2pm. We were ready to just sit on the tailgate and rest our feet and recover, but the bugs were thick, so we jumped in the truck and headed to Crater Lake. We drove up and got out and looked at the lake, then did the East Rim Drive around the lake. Beautiful drive, waterfalls, great views, overlooks, pictures, good stuff. After we left Crater Lake we headed to Diamond Lake and a campground that has hot showers! We felt much better after a shower, we discovered we were both sunburned and counted the bug bites. Pretty much the rest of the day we rested.

Friday, July 3rd we went up to Beckie's Cafe for breakfast and ate huge pancakes bigger than our faces. We waited until the Harden clan showed up, around 1pm. Altogether we had about 20 people at the cabin, and basically we spent Friday sitting around, catching up, playing games, fishing, and eating. More people seemed to help disperse the mosquitoes which was nice!

Saturday, July 4th we ate a big breakfast and then went out for a hike to Boundary Springs, the head waters of the Rogue River. It was a hot and dusty hike, but very pretty at the end. We took a group picture, sorry I don't have it, but it was kinda annoying because the bugs were really bad the whole time we were taking pictures. After the hike, people took napes, went fishing, while the more practical types got pedicures! Aunt Donna brought her little foot spa and did pedicures for whoever. It was awesome! We ate a yummy dinner of tri-tip and sat around the rest of the night.

Sunday, July 5th Jason and I were in charge of breakfast for the crowd. We made French Toast and bacon so we got up and started cooking! We ate breakfast then started getting packed up so we could head home. We loaded up and said good-bye to everyone and 4 hours later we were home! Side note: Last year the cabin trip was later, in August, and we were coming home to work on roofing our house! It was so nice to come home this year and just relax and not tackle a major house project!

And that is the story of our Southern Oregon vacation.

Southern Oregon Vacation: Installment 1

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:06:00 +0000

We only blogged 5 times in the month of June! Oh my gosh, that is a record low. July should be a little more eventful in blog land.

So we just returned for a 10-day vacation, nowhere tropical, but hot nonetheless: Southern Oregon!

Friday, June 26th we left Sherwood and headed South. We met up with Jason's friend Peter in Wilsonville and caravaned down to Grants Pass. I got dropped off at my grandparents house and Jason and Peter took off to 4-wheel on the McGrew Trail out of O'Brien. If you want to know anything about this trip, you will have to ask Jason! I was picked up by my mom and went on to Medford. I forgot how hot Medford gets in the summer! Oh boy. Yuck.

Saturday, June 27th was another hot one. Mom and I dinked around the house during the morning, Dad had to work. Around noon I headed out for a wedding in Trail. I spent the afternoon at the wedding, melting in the heat! As soon as I got home I took a shower and then lounged around the rest of the day, too hot! We rented "Slumdog Millionaire", interesting movie! Not quite what I expected, but still good.

Sunday, June 28th Jason returned from his 4-wheeling trip, dusty and dirty. We spent the afternoon getting him and his truck cleaned up and hearing all about his trip. And playing Ladder Golf in the back yard with Mom, Dad, Cassie-dog, and Lucy-dog.

Monday, June 29th we spent the morning trying to figure out what was wrong with the truck - the breaks we squeaking so we thought the brakes were bad, come to find out the 'tie-rods' (not sure if that's the right word) were worn. We didn't do anything about it (and still haven't) because Jason can do the work cheaper on his own. We had lunch with Kellie at yummy Senor Sam's - a Southern Oregon joint. Mom and I spent the afternoon running errands and Jason researched truck parts! More Ladder Golf.... Oh, and I got the phone call that I was being recalled to work for the fall!!! Yeah!!! Praise God.

Tuesday, June 30th we headed out, picked up Grandma Harden, and drove out the Merlin-Galice Highway to Graves Creek to hike the Rainey Falls trail along the Rogue River. It was a hot hike along the cliff above the river. We were able to watch a bunch of rafters put in and go through some rapids. We hiked about 4 miles total, and I didn't see any snakes so I count it a success!! After we got off the trail, we went down the river and cooled off our feet and let the dogs swim. Pretty much the rest of the afternoon was napping and staying cool. Have I mentioned that Medford is hot in the summer???

Next installment of this blog will include the activities of July 1st-July 5th...

Neskowin & Proposal Rock

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 22:30:00 +0000

Saturday we hit the beach for some fun in the sun - minus the sun, with our bible study group. I was going to write a blog post, but one of the other girls that went with us, Stephanie, wrote an amazing account of our beach adventures, so you can read her words!

A Lazy Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 02:58:00 +0000

Friday was Jason's birthday and the last day of school. Jason spent the day fishing with a friend at Lost Lake. I cleaned my classroom all day. We spent the evening in Forest Grove with the family and ate a yummy dinner!!

Saturday Jason went mountain biking with a different friend along the Mollala River Trail, and then went to another friend's moving party. I stayed home and worked on cleaning the house after neglecting it for my first year of teaching. I rearranged our bedroom and cleaned liked crazy, did tons of laundry, worked on a puzzle, and worked on a project (can't tell you what it is cause it's a gift, and maybe it is for one of you!!).

Today we slept in and went to the later service at church. We found a place in Sherwood that makes bubble tea and so we had bubble tea after church! We used to get it all the time at this little place in Corvallis near where Jason lived. If you don't know what it is, it's amazing yumminess! Basically black tea with fruit or flavors and tapioca balls that you drink with this massive wide straw. So good! The ones we got today were more like slushy fruit smoothies with tapioca balls. Jason got strawberry and I got mango! Uh-oh! A new treat we really like... :)

After our bubble tea coma hit us in full force, Sunday afternoon became watching golf on tv and taking naps. After we peeled ourselves on the couch we ran a couple errands. I made a strawberry-rhubarb coffee cake with rhubarb from our garden and strawberries from Jason's friend's garden. We went for a walk while it was baking and now we are...I don't know what we are doing now. I am obviously typing this blog, and Jason is out checking out the garden.

School is out now, but I will continue to work this week. Monday and Tuesday are make-up days from the snow we had before Christmas break. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday are additional optional work days, that I am opting for so I can get paid for them!!! Still no word on being recalled for next year, we will keep you posted when we hear something.

The strawberry-rhubarb coffee cake smells sooo good, so we need to go eat it. Hope you all had a relaxing weekend too! Oh---this just in! A photo update from our garden, Jason just planted the lettuce. We also have 3 tomato plants, a rhubarb plant, and an artichoke plant.

From Drop Box

Bye-bye 2nd Period!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:55:00 +0000

I promise to not write a blog after every classes final is over.

But I am so thrilled that 2nd period is done and over and they are not returning!

Take your attitude, talking back, slacking, hacky-sack playing, i-Pod listening, i-Touch playing, lazy, swearing, non-listening selves away!!

Ok, that sounded evil, but I was just being descriptive so you can understand. :)

The End

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 04:38:00 +0000

I can hardly believe my first year of teaching is almost over! We have just 5 school days left, and they will be anything but normal.

We have 2 sorta regular days, and then Wednesday-Friday we have a wacky 'finals' schedule. My classes are spending pretty much all week cleaning the kitchens and classroom after 10 months of use and abuse. Plus, I am cleaning out all my things (posters, books, lesson plan binders, etc.).

Friday is a half day (and also Jason's 27th birthday!!!) so it will be a fun day. Then I am working the whole next week with some extended staff days from the snow - thanks Artic Blast '08 - and some optional paid days too. Why not get paid??

Then, who knows! Hopefully I will be recalled for next year, otherwise I might become a substitute teacher!

Crazy Storm ?!?!?!

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:35:00 +0000

What the heck happened today?? It was a beautiful Day until about 4:30. All of a sudden the wind just picked up. It was strong enough to take out several large trees and tons of branches. It also picked up alot of pollen and dust since it hadn't rained yet. This all happened really fast. I was on my way to go kayaking in Newberg while it was nice out. Things sure did change.

Here it is before it started raining but right after the wind picked up. Kinda hard to tell but the trees are blowing alot and in the distance it is really hazy with pollen blowing around.

Some friends and I met up at the river just in time for the rain to come down in buckets. We were hoping the storm would pass and we could still get out... Then the lightning came. It was quite an impressive storm. We decided tonight was not our night for kayaking. Oh well. We're going to go during lunch tomorrow. :)

11

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Thu, 28 May 2009 22:00:00 +0000

Just 11 days left with students! The nice weather and the long holiday weekend are making each a little more difficult to come to school, but the kids are complaining less because they know their freedom is coming. I think the students and teachers have reached a common agreement that we are all ready to be done.

Another Amended Countdown

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Fri, 22 May 2009 05:28:00 +0000

Oh the drama. I have tried to not be involved in any way whatsoever. I didn't spend hours speculating my future, I didn't try and figure out all the potentials outcomes, I just waited until there was something to actually think about.

RIF (reduction in force) notices were delivered on Wednesday afternoon and one had my name on it. Today was kinda a weird day.

It sucks that maybe I won't have a job next year, and it's annoying to not actually know that for a fact, and it's frustrating that "they" can take their sweet time to decided to inform me of anything. But I'm not stressed, and I'm not worried. I must seem weird, but I like to call it faith. I know that God is in control of the situation and I believe that He will provide for us. I am thankful that I had a job this year and we will just wait and see if I have a position next year.

So now the countdown has changed, to represent the number of days I am still an employee: 15

Tile Installation Complete

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:09:00 +0000

Installed the slate tile. Now all we got to do is grout!

Slate Tile Backsplash

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Sun, 17 May 2009 06:00:00 +0000

Long day of tiling... here's the progress:

A Different Approach

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:45:00 +0000

After a day of students like yesterday was, I have decided to amend my countdown to represent the number of days left with students.

Tool for catching Kid-ism's

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:44:00 +0000

Some kid today made the most "duh" statement, and I thought right away:

" I hope I can remember that because I just have to share that with the world!"

And now, I forgot what he said.

Dang.

I need some kind of tool, some quick catch, a way to store away these little morsels that kids dish out all day long, so I can save them up, savor them, and share them with all of you! I think I need to get a little note pad, label it "kid-ism's" and just stop what I am doing when they happen, and write them down. I need a pocket protector!

So sorry I can't remember it, but it was a good one! If I remember it later, I will share it for sure.

Summer Countdown

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Mon, 11 May 2009 22:16:00 +0000

I can hardly believe I have made is this far without setting up a countdown till summer vacation! I do have a countdown chain in my classroom, you know, the kind you used to make to countdown to Christmas or your birthday! (Please tell me you did that too!) My students update it every day, but as you probably know, it's really more for me than it is for them.

And so now, without further ado, and because you can already see the number displayed here in all its massive-ness, here is the wonderful countdown for days left until summer vacation!

A Weekend of Food

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Mon, 04 May 2009 05:55:00 +0000

On Friday, I got to go to Western Culinary for a Pro-Start teachers training. I went through a rotation of 4 classes (Baking, Garde Manger, A La Carte, and Food & Beverage Pairing). It was really fun and a great break from the day to day stuff at school. I got to dress like a chef for the day, make some yummy things, and best of all, the culinary students cleaned up all of the mess!! I didn't do a single dish all day!

Saturday I made a couple of cheesecakes (3) for an event that my classes were participating in. And we had family over for dinner.

Today was the event my classes were a part of. I (and a few students) served cheesecakes (16) for a couple of hours in the afternoon.

Then I came home and made Jason and I some personal Strawberry-Rhubarb crisps!

And tomorrow we are having enchiladas with our bible study group (12 people) for Cinco de Mayo.

That's a lot of food!!

Kitchen Collage

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Counters Installed

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 22:04:00 +0000

Here's some photos of the installed counters. The sink is all plumbed up and working. I'm working on getting the under counter lighting installed. Then we still have backsplash tiles, trim, kick plate, and a few cover panels left to install. The kitchen is fully functioning now. We went for 3 weeks without a sink. I'd say thats pretty good timing! Here's the pics:

A non-kitchen blog post

noreply@blogger.com (Jason & Sara) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 23:39:00 +0000

Enough about the kitchen already! Geesh, don't we have anything else going on in our lives???

Not really. No.

Seriously though a lot of our time has been consumed by the kitchen, working in it, driving back and forth to Home Depot multiple times a day, and trying to figure out what to eat and how we are going to prepare it in a make-shift kitchen.

We are really excited to have people over to enjoy our kitchen with us, because as we all know, people gather in the kitchen. And that's the amazing thing about food, is that it connects people and that it (should) consume a lot of our time to prepare healthful and loving meals for the people that we feed. I am thankful to know how to cook and I am blessed by blessing others with food.

I am hoping to cook a lot this weekend in our new kitchen! I want to make a big, yummy breakfast! And bake a pie or something. ("Make a cake or something" - Pedro from Napoleon Dynamite). I am so excited to try out all the new doors and drawers and shelves!

Dang, this turned in to a kitchen post. Sorry.

Island Finishing & Handles

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:52:00 +0000

Guess what we did this weekend? ..... No really, guess................ yup, i'm sure you guessed right. We worked on the kitchen! Saturday we spent pretty much the whole day working on it. Didn't even quit for dinner we just worked through dinner. We did some finish work on the island: installing side cover panels, running electrical to two new outlets. Installing those outlet boxes. Then installing the front filler piece and the rear panels. Island is ready for counter!

We also installed the other filler pieces in the kitchen. The base cabinets are now completely ready for the counter. After we got all that ready we decided we'd put the handles on. I made a template from a Ritz cracker box and got to workin. It took a loooooooong time but we got it done. We were one handle short though so we're going to have to go back to ikea! Cassie was a good help with the handles! :)

Oh, and it wasn't all kitchen this weekend. Tualatin Island Greens was having a family weekend. The mini golf was free and a large bucket of balls was $1 so we took advantage of that Saturday and Sunday! Gotta take breaks! :)

Base Cabinet Installation

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 15:00:00 +0000

Tuesday Night my parents came over and we finished putting in the base cabinets. It took a little while to figure out how they should go in because of the out of square wall but we got them all in and secured. I think its really starting to come together!! We test fit all the appliances and they fit. The range is really tight in the opening but we kinda like the look of it snug fit. The counter top guy will be out this week and measure and then come install later next week!

Wall Cabinet Installation

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:00:00 +0000

The wall cabinets went in fairly easily. The system designed for ikea cabinets to install is very smart! Basically, you hang up a rail, slide in these bolts, and then set the cabinets on the bolts and tighten it, secure the cabinets to each other and you're done. The problems arise when you have an old house that isn't built perfect and you have walls that are 1" out of square over a 2' level. Or walls that are out of plumb about 1.5" from floor to ceiling. Those things make hanging cabinets challenging. Nothing that trim can't hide right?

Before Mel left we got most of the wall cabinets up. We had some issues with the pantry cabinet and over fridge cabinet though because they went from the floor to the ceiling which exaggerated the 'out of plumbness.' In the beginning of this week Sara and I finished getting the wall cabinets and pantry cabinet installed. Time for base cabinets!!!

The box in this cabinet is hiding that huge mess of wires that you may have seen in earlier pictures:

Completed Wall Cabinets:

Few More Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 15:00:00 +0000

A close up of the texture we applied to the walls

The island base completed

Mel & I after a long weeks work

Father & Daughter

Sara and I REALLY REALLY want to thank Mel (Sara's dad) for taking a whole week to come up and help us. This project seriously would have dragged out months without his help. Instead its going to be completely finished in a matter of weeks. There is no way I could have done all that work without his help. 36 cans of Dr. Pepper, 24 cans of Coke Zero, and coffee helped us work faster too.

Thank you Mel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kitchen Remodel Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Jason) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 14:47:00 +0000

This was Monday last week. I think. Well, I'm not too sure. All the days have blended together. Here are some photos from one of the days. We did taping and mudding of the drywall this day as well as building the base for the island cabinets. And then we had Italian sausage sandwiches for dinner! :) yum.

Ok I looked through the photos again and I think this slideshow actually has some of day 5 (tuesday) where we added the 3rd and final coat of drywall mud and that evening we painted primer on the walls.