My last photo & post of 2008 (I promise)...

I almost forgot to post this...Why I smiled today...I have a wonderful husband and daughter, what's not to smile about! ;-)

This also makes post #700 for the year 2008...glad I kept this blog up-to-date this year. Lots of fun and smile worthy memories!

2008 Year in review...

Hard to believe yet another year has flown by. Victor, Charlie and I are so very lucky to have our wonderful family & friends both near and far. Here's a little look back at our 2008...I'm also working on a photo collage, but I'm a little challenged yet when it comes to Photoshop elements (Shelley said she'd send me instructions when she can).

• Trips to Mt. Hood for some sledding & snow shoeing...just need Charlie to start liking the snow!
• We attend four weddings this year of family & close friends.
• Josi/Glenn in March, St. Patty's Day to be exact.
• Susie/Shawn in May in HAWAII.
• Erica/Stephen in June on one of the HOTTEST days of the year and the ceremony was OUTSIDE.
• Kim/Tom in November at a cool pub in Sherwood!
  
• Shawn saves my photos...love having techno geeks as friends!
• The NY Giants win the Superbowl!!!
  
• Victor & I both turned 39...oh my, 40 is less than 6 weeks away.
• The KU Jayhawks win the Final Four b-ball tournament.
• We go to Oahu, Hawaii for 2 weeks in May to visit Nana & Papa Green and Victor & I go to Maui to attend Shawn & Susie's wedding. We also get to see Scott & Suzanne!
• Celebrating Charlie's 2nd birthday in Hawaii.
  
• Fun trip up to Anacortes to visit the Washington Greens. Uncle T and the entire town work on an amazing playground for the kids. Charlie, Claire and Marilyn get to spend a fun-filled day together and we celebrate their 3 May birthdays. We also stop by Relay For Life of Stanwood to visit my blogging buddy Doreen and her family.
• 6th Annual Relay For Life of Hillsboro - over $120,000 raised and over 150 Survivors honored. WeeBees for a Cure are the 5th highest FUNdraising team.
  
• Great Nana Charlotte, Uncle Donald and Aunt Sue come for the family wedding and we get to spend some fun time with them. Great Nana gets escorted off Cannon Beach by the Chief of police... ;-)
• 4th of July--fun at the Hillsboro Parade and then over at Susie & Shawn's place for some WILD fireworks courtesy of their crazy neighbor Chris!
• Sisters quilt show week with my WeBee buddies at Black Butte Ranch. We've been going every year since 1992.
• A few bocce ball tournaments this summer for Victor, Garland, Ken and Vincenzo. They don't win, but they have a great time playing!!!
  
• We just get settled into my parents home and then they move back early and we then live together until our house remodel is done in October.
• Biggest change for 2008...we had a pretty big remodel done on our home. 2 bedrooms added and COLOR is added to our lives via Maria (aka-Eldin) our friend and painting guru.
• Relay For Life of Newport -- camped out for 18 hours with the Hoffmans and Mr. Litkie..it was fun just attending another Relay and having zero responsibility!
• Trips to the Oregon Zoo and getting to see baby Sam the new elephant who was born in Sept.
  
• Summer Olympics see Michael Phelps win 8 gold medals.
• Victor & Kathy go see Jeff Dunham and Robin Williams perform in Portland and laugh their heads off.
  
• I attend my 4th Relay For Life Leadership Training Summit in Reno in Sept. Dr. Gordy Klatt (founder of Relay) is back and I get the pleasure of hanging out with our divisions top fundraisers. Another AWESOME experience.
• October has us going to Arizona to visit Nana/Papa Cina and Great Nana Charlotte. We have lots of fun and Victor & I get a couple of nights up in Phoenix while Nana & Papa babysit for us.
• Halloween Charlie dresses up like Pooh the Super Sleuth and gets to attend 4 different parties.
  
• Relay University in mid-November. Best one I've been a part of. The Relay Staff did an amazing job arranging everything. I had the pleasure of presenting with Shelley & Mark.
  
• November brings the Green Family Unit (my brother Tim, Sister-in-law Kellie, nephew Jack and niece Kaylie) to visit from San Diego. We get to spend a fun-filled weekend in Seattle/Redmond and get to spend some great time with Uncle T/Aunt L, Dave/Katie/Claire & Marilyn. The 5 kiddos get along great. Early Thanksgiving meal the Saturday before and it was just a wonderful weekend.
• One word sums up December.....SNOW!!! We had record snowfall and had a white Christmas! I've been instructed to NEVER hope for a white Christmas again, unless we decide to spend Christmas on Mt. Hood some day.

• Along with all the good times, we also lost some dear friends this year and we continue to keep them and their families in our thoughts and prayers.
• We also keep our friends and family that have and continue to have some pretty serious health issues, in our thoughts and prayers.
  

We hope that 2009 will be everything you want it to be and THANK YOU for being in our lives (even if we don't get to see you as often as we would like)! Come visit...we technically have a guest room now, it's just a little full still with my stuff!

Love - Kathy, Victor & Charlotte

42 ways to make 2009 awesome

Thanks Shawn for sending this to us...great ideas to incorporate into your daily life.

http://masteryourcard.com/blog/2008/12/15/44-ways-to-make-your-2009-awesome/

Smoking ban starts TOMORROW in Oregon!!!

2008 is drawing to an end...

We are staying home this evening. I'm working on my 2008 Year in photos, not quite there yet. In just a little less than 7 hours it will be 2009! Seems like just yesterday we were ringing in 1999...

Yeah Beavs & Ducks!!!

Both the Oregon State Beavers (today) & the University of Oregon Ducks (yesterday) WON their bowl games!

Congrats to all you Beav & Duck fans out there!

I Hope You Dance...

Heard this song on the drive home from work a little bit ago. I just love it...words to live by! It always makes me get a little teary eyed, but a happy teary!


I hope you never lose your sense of wonder,
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger,
May you never take one single breath for granted,
GOD forbid love ever leave you empty handed,
I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance,
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances but they're worth takin',
Lovin' might be a mistake but it's worth makin',
Don't let some hell bent heart leave you bitter,
When you come close to sellin' out reconsider,
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along,
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone.)

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean,
Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens,
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance,
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance.

Dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance.
I hope you dance....I hope you dance..
(Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder where those years have gone)

Sleeping Beauty...

Charlotte's new favorite movie (or at least this week)!

Thank you Uncle Chris, Aunt Linda and kiddos for Charlotte's Christmas present. We received it last night, via UPS, which is pretty good. I know quite a few folks that are still waiting for their Christmas boxes to arrive due to the weather the last couple of weeks.

Why I smiled today...Charlotte got to spend a couple of hours with Nana Green and the puppies. She even helped Nana go shopping at the pet store and helped Nana carry out their purchases. Thanks mom for watching her for a few hours today!

Happy Monday...

This is how I found her this afternoon when I got home from work...sleeping like a baby!

















We have a working oven again, YEAH! A very nice repairman that we found thru Angie's List was able to come out this morning, replace the sensor that had burned out and didn't charge us a fortune to do it!

Merry Smithmas...

Merry Smithmas -- from the Smith & Goodwin families of Missouri (my mom's younger brother & sister and their families).... Here's to you guys, looks like you had a wonderful Christmas!

Just 3 more days until Oregon is SMOKE FREE!!!

The Oregon Smokefree Workplace Law

World of Work

Those of you that have ever spent anytime with me or have seen me near someone smoking KNOW how much I despise smoking (not the people, just the addiction)!!! Just so happy that starting Thursday, bars and restaurants in Oregon will be smoke free! We will still have to walk thru a cloud of smoke to get into these businesses, but it'll be smooth sailing once we are inside!

Why I smiled today...Hearing this reminder (Oregon Smoke Free) on the 3:30am news (yes, I've been awake since 2:30am--couldn't sleep)...

Last weekend in 2008...

As the weekend winds down, I can't believe that in just 4 short days it will be 2009! Time sure does fly when you are having fun!

Why I smiled today...The snow is pretty much gone, we watched a couple of good football games today and Charlie ate all her breakfast, lunch and dinner (without too much coaxing)!

Saturday evening at our house...

Garland, James and Shawn came over tonight for gaming at our house. They are still going strong at it's 10pm. It's nice to have them come to our side of town every once in a while, no long drive for Victor & Shawn.
















Isn't this Christmas ornament that Karen made for us totally cool!!! She is really into beading (like Angie)...more patience than I have. THANK YOU Karen, we will be adding this gem to our tree every year!

Fun with Amy and Karla...

Tonight Charlie & I got to spend a few hours with Kim, Andy, Amy & Karla. We had a great meal (thanks you guys) and the girls got to play for a few hours. Lots of laughter and running around. We don't get to see them nearly enough, but it was great to see them for a few hours.

Why I smiled today...I DROVE for the first time in nearly 2 weeks and Charlie and I were able to spend time this afternoon & evening with friends!

















Silliness in action...all three girls with their feet & legs in the air...
















Lots of fun playing dress-up.

Meet Miss Maisie...

No, we did not get a puppy for Christmas. The Turpins did! Due to our lovely winter storm, they weren't able to pick her up from the breeders until today. Charlie and I were able to meet her in person this afternoon. She is such a little cutie!
















Maisie fell asleep while sitting in my lap...how cute is she!!!
















How cute, the happy family together at last!































Tyler got a cool new electric piggy bank, so after 8 years of having his Crayon bank, he was so nice and gave it to Charlie today, she was VERY excited! THANK YOU Tyler!!!

Saturday morning fun with Pooh, Tigger and Duplos...

Okay mommy, let's build another tower, yes??
















Charlie, Victor & I had fun working on her new word builder game and mommy made all the pieces go together...







































Charlie doing some early morning "pretend" drawing in one of my old Creative Memories scrapbooks.
















Mister Snowman is now all alone on his fence (YAHOO)...time to take him down and put away until the next snow storm (hopefully 10 years from now).

Day after Christmas...

Why I smiled today...Spent a fun day with Victor & Charlie. We ventured out to Washington Square (not my smartest idea), but found a couple of really great deals at 50 & 70 percent off.

Play-Doh time...

What's cookin' in Charlie Cina's kitchen???

Only took Victor and Charlie about 30 minutes to put her new kitchen together!

Papa Cina, Charlie is busy making you some pancakes for dinner!!!

What 2 1/2' of snow look like...

After the snow plow goes by your home and you can't get in or out of your driveway...But the SUN made an appearance this afternoon...warmer weather is on it's way to melt us out...

Snow storm 2008...

As seen from my father's camera...He took over 250 photos and downloaded all of them for me on a zip drive so I could post on the blog tonight. Gee, dad takes tons of photos, wonder where I got my photography bug from? The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

Thanks dad for all these awesome photos!



















Jessie & Murphy have had ENOUGH of this cold and snowy weather!


















Dad even took a self portrait of himself, to PROVE he was there!


















A hawk decided to perch on one of the torches on the back porch. Nice shot dad!

























Looking down where my parent's driveway normally is to the street that is also buried in over 18"+ inches of snow....



Somewhere to the left of the address sign is my parent's driveway...good grief!