Newsflash - George moves out with Marilyn's help

George packed up his stuff & moved to Wilsonville, Oregon to start his new job with Celstream.

I actually drove the truck. Ok it was only from our house to the U-haul office but that does count!

Our trip to Wilsonville, Oregon was actually fun!

George is all set up in his bachelor pad. This is the view from his living room balcony.

He has a small kitchen now equipped with a microwave and a cookbook cleverly entitled "A Man, A Can, and a Microwave"! I will admit to a chuckle when I think of him cooking his own meals, cleaning his own apartment, and doing his own laundry!

I just read this quote from the President of our Church, Thomas S. Monson, "Our journey into the future will not be a smooth highway stretching from here to eternity. Rather there will be forks and turnings in the road, to say nothing of unanticipated bumps."

We are stepping forward with faith that this job is the right thing even though we don't know for sure whether a move to Portland will be in our future. Leaving HP was definitely an unanticipated bump but I'm actually excited to see where the "forks and turnings" will lead us!

A wonderful gift

Remember Kelsey? She was the wonderfully talented Young Woman who graduated from high school last year. http://bondia2000.blogspot.com/2009/05/another-amazingly-talented-young-woman.html

She brought me the best gift today....a charcoal drawing of our beloved Cirera.

Isn't it just amazing? It is difficult to get enough contrast in a drawing of an all black dog and Kelsey did it beautifully. She captured Cirera's sweet little dog face. Thanks you so, so much Kelsey. This will be framed and will be a treasure that the kids will fight over someday!

Sun in January!

I do love living here except for the seemingly endless gray gloomy days of January. So we were happy to have the excuse of our nephew David's wedding in Phoenix to escape to the sunshine for a few days.

Somehow flowers and sunshine and 70 degrees don't seem quite right in January but we really did enjoy it!

David & Melissa seem to be so happy together. I enjoyed getting to know her family too. They were married by a minister friend that David met on his mission. He flew from Maine to Phoenix to officiate at their wedding.

Always fun to get together with George's siblings!

George, Karen, Tammy & John

Plus me, Richard, and Katherine!

Since I've been working on this post the sun has come out and it is a beautiful sunny day here too! Not 70 degrees however!

New Year's Eve - Goodbye 2009!

I can't say that I am sorry to bid farewell to 2009! Since we were recovering from stomach flu (John, Scott, & Matt), blood clots (George) and a cold (me) we had a low key New Year's eve. We watched "Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince" until almost midnight & planned to celebrate the change to the new year in the traditional Spanish way. In Spain as the cathedral bells toll midnight one is supposed to eat a grape with each chime. This becomes a rather remarkable feat when you remember that in Spain there is no such thing as a 'seedless' grape! In Eagle, Idaho there are seedless grapes but no cathedral chimes so we satisfied our Spanish urges by eating a few grapes and drinking some really wonderful sparkling cider instead of the traditional Spanish Cava, or champagne!

So goodbye 2009 and welcome 2010! Come what may and love it!!!!