Happy Anniversary, Stotchy

Butterscotch aka Stotchy aka Ms. Stotch aka Little Bodhi aka Butterball has been living with us for a year now. She's mellowed out a lot and we love her so much. Yeah, she does the annoying dog things like chew on practically everything but we still love her.

The Colors in Our Neighborhood

Our neighbor's tree

Autumn has officially become my favorite season. I love the colors. The bright oranges, yellows and reds against the crystal blue sky. The air is so crisp that you actually feel the chill come into your lungs.

It's so beautiful right now and we have about a week when the leaves are still on the trees and the colors are bursting. I walked around our neighborhood yesterday and this morning and snapped pictures of my favorite scenes.


A block from our house

How blessed are we to live in such a wonderful, colorful neighborhood? I had to pinch myself today as I think of all the places in the world I could have ended up. Really, it's weird to think about.


Our street

Sometimes I just go and stand out in the middle of the road and take in all the glory that is fall. My neighbors think I've lost it.

Just today it started to get windy and the trees are shedding their leaves. I'm glad I went out and enjoyed the autumn hues the leaves provided while I could. Next week the pictures will tell a different story.

Josie Loses a Tooth

Dear Josie,

Could you be more specific?

Love, The Tooth Fairy

Something to Ponder

If I have political signs in our yard for both political parties does that make me a maverick?

October 3rd Addendum

I was chatting with my sister, Carrie, and she said her sister-in-law had baby girl born this October 3rd as well.

So we each had baby nieces born on October 3rd, both were born before noon, & both girls' names start with the letter"M"....coincidence?

An Autumn Oregon Adventure

We finally made it to the Sisters/ Bend Oregon area to redeem our auction purchase of the vacation home, AKA the night Molly got drunk, thought she was rich and decided Bend would be a great place to take a vacation. The Bingely Family also thought this sounded like a great idea except decided they were moving one week before the original date back in February. Well, the Bingleys were replaced by Mom, Dad and Auntie Lisa sans Uncle Bro.

We left last Tuesday evening after school and met up with Mom and Dad at a hotel in Kennewick, WA. After a yummy continental hotel breakfast we hopped in the cars for a little geocaching on our way south to Sisters. One of the caches brought us to this tree filled with shoes. Now since the girls have seen this their thoughts have been "if shoes can grow on trees, why not money?"

We arrived at the vacation home on Wednesday afternoon and were not disappointed. The house was located in the Tollgate neighborhood in Sisters. The house had 4 bedrooms, three baths, a wonderful backyard that was adjacent to the wilderness. The most fun part about the house were it's three lofts that the girls had a blast playing in.


On Friday we went into Bend to try out the different microbreweries. Lots of beer was consumed on this day. Our favorite beer was from Deschutes Brewery but McMenamins definitely took first place in atmosphere. We walked through Drake Park and the Old Mill District. Bend is a neat town and we hope to spend more time in it the next time we are in the area.



One of the highlights on our trip was the lava tube cave south of Bend. It was pretty impressive how huge it was in spots. Josie and Annabelle loved to run ahead of us, hide, turn off their flashlights and then scare us.



My dad found a hiking trail at Belknap Crater. He, Nate and Annabelle went while Mom, Josie and I hung out in Sisters. Dad was very wiggly to have found a whole drawer at the house filled with topo maps and hiking books. My dad can't sit still for very long. He is one of the most active people I know.




Say the vacation isn't over! Here Josie and Annabelle get thrown in the Sisters Jail just long enough for a photo. Chalk up another wonderful vacation for the Spains.

October 3rd is a Great Day!

Morganne Sophia Spain was born on October 3 at 8:09 am. She weighs in a 6 lbs and is 18 inches long. Congratulations Nick and Bonnie!

Now I say OCtober 3rd is a great day because it is. My mom's birthday happens to fall on October 3 and it's also the day that Nate "officially" asked me out.....18 years ago. Now we have little Morganne's birthday so it makes October 3rd even more special.