I was looking through our pictures and found a few from a ride I didn’t write about. On New Year ’s Day we went for a family ride on a bike path that begins not far from us and goes to Tigard, almost to Greg’s old house. In fact, he took Louis, Otto and Solomon on the same path in… December? maybe November, and they rode by the house so the boys could see it. It is a long trail, maybe 7 miles, nicely paved. It does cross a few roads, one is especially busy, but the others have light traffic or crosswalks. It was cold New Year’s Day, but not wet. We went maybe 6 miles and I got a piece of glass in my front tire. If we had brought a tube we could have changed it, but we didn’t. Greg rode back quickly with the oldest three and the younger two and I waited for him to come back with the truck. That was when I began to feel really cold. The kids ate some snacks I’d brought and we played “I Spy” and ran up and down the sidewalk. It was sure good to see Greg when he made it back to us, and he had the heater going full blast… ahhh.

Being the youngest and the first girl, Olivia is the most photographed member of the family. We will enjoy that for now and I will be making a conscious effort to get some pictures of the older boys. Be sure and check their blogs because I am requiring them to update them at least every 1-2 weeks. It would be easier if we had an internet connection at home, but they may have finished their blog entry and have to wait a week before we get to the coffee shop so their entries may be logged late. Anyway, I did get a picture of Otto and Solomon playing with silly-putty. Olivia is playing with a few of the stickers Uncle Rick and Aunt Kathy gave her. She also received a dress-up chest from Grandma and Grandpa Straub and you see her modeling a couple of those. Finally, she was helping me make dinner last night by cutting up some Calamata olives for our burritos. Here is also a different night when I am making tortillas, Olivia is collecting some cilantro leaves and Henry is putting away dishes (at least you see he is an active member of the home).

Trails, Blogs, etc.

I cannot believe how quickly time passes. It has been over a week since I posted last, but it seems only a couple of days. Maybe life is just not that interesting; it doesn't seem like much has happened. Greg was going to go riding at Falls City on Sunday, but decided to go for a hike with the three oldest boys instead. They went on a trail in Forest Park and had a great time. The weather was beautiful, though the trail was muddy. Louis wrote about it on his new blog (link added: Adventures of Louis).






Speaking of blogs, we had to get Henry a new one. It has been so long since we have been on it that we couldn't figure out what e-mail, username, password, etc. we used to set it up. We decided to just let it go and start over. Isn't life great when we can do that? So I changed the link and he will add something shortly (he has to finish his school work first). Otto wants to start one, too . He also needs to finish his school work and have something ready to go before I even set it up. They aren't getting their school work done because everyone wants to see the pictures we choose and the template we pick, etc. It is fun and even educational. It's great when they look forward to writing. Their typing is improving as well.




As usual, Greg took a lot of wonderful pictures on their hike as you can see. I have been practicing my guitar everyday and that is fun. I practice until my fingers can't hold down the strings becasue they hurt so badly. I wish the callouses would build faster. I will continue to work on them.

Hard Working Man

I haven't said anything about Greg's work and want to let you know he is working, and hard. When the bike shop began slowing down because the peak season was ending Greg began looking for a driving job; that is where he has the most experience. He found one driving a sweeper truck. It is a new experience and he gets really dirty cleaning the truck when he's done sweeping. The owner seems like a decent person; Greg will stick with it, working hard. Unfortunately the company has some kind of an agreement with a temporary agency in Portland so Greg has had to work through them for the first 90 days. That has meant a lower hourly wage, no holiday pay, no benefits. We are interested to see what will happen about the middle of this month when we reach that 90 day mark. I'm a lucky woman to have such a hard working husband who desires to take care of his family.