This is the east side of the house where the garage and driveway are.

This is the south side in the back yard. I am standing under a large canopy type thing that this really old grape vine has grown on. Our Realtor said that in the summer there are lots of BIG grapes growing on it...so should be good!

Here we are looking northeast. As you can see between the garage and house there is a field across the street.

Northwest corner, about where the grass and dirt line is the edge of the property. The lot is 8,000 some odd square feet...most of it is in the backyard.

(Esther sitting in the front of our new house) After about six months of looking we found what we believe to be the best deal on the best house in the best neighborhood within our price range. We signed last friday on this house...and just moved in yesterday (still much more to move). It is 804 livible square feet
(tiny), but it does not feel as small as it is (we think).


It is a two bedroom and one bath. It has a washer and drier in their own room off of the kitchen by the back door as well as a DISHWASHER!!!

Well like I already said, our Volvo died while I was in Portland at the conference with my adult leaders. Specifically the timing belt jumped...I may try to fix it with a guy here in the church later on... On to the picture above...yes it is a mini-van... I know I know, I have always said that I will never NEVER drive a mini-van. Well I lied, it is so handy!

Specifically it is a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan, and we got it because of a very nice man in the church who has some good contacts and a very good heart.

Dad found this guy on Criagslist, his barn/garage burned down with two pre-1930 chevy trucks and 2 old hudsons as well. One of the Hudsons was a original condition driver, an the other was a rat rod... They also had old gas pumps and some other old car stuff...all burned...nothing insured. I went to look around to see if there was anything of value for dad....there wasn't! It was a great 30 mile scooter ride though...a little chilly...but fun.

Well Gracie has been with us for 10 months now... And Amy wanted to get her 9 month pictures done...but I am cheap, so I said lets do it ourselves...so here is one of them...Probably not the one we will send out...

So the weather here in Walla Walla has been very VERY nice. Yesterday it got up to the 60's with the sun out! So we decided to get the bike out and go for a ride a couple of weeks ago. We rode about a mile or two to Pioneer park and back to try to take some pictures for Gracie's 10 month or so pictures. I had 80's feathered hair look because I did not have my helmet...I felt like one of those hypocrite fathers that makes their kids wear them but doesn't himself...they were at my office! I have it now though!

So I was looking through the pictures that Amy had been taking around the house of the girls. And this one of Gracie just really stood out, I thought it was a great photo...very well done!

So mom and dad were kind enough to come and pick me up from the airport Portland and drive me back out to Walla Walla. Our Volvo died while I was in Portland so Amy was not able to pick me up. Anyhow, it was nice to have them out and to get to spend some time together. I know that the girls always love to see them...well Gracie may take a few minutes to warm up to Grandpa!

I went to the Church of God "Mecca" early this month... it was actually pretty cool, well the second day at least. They paid for it all, so that's a good thing in my book. The second day we had a lot of leadership training and such, I liked it a bunch and really learned about my leadership style etc. The first day they just tried to sell us on sending our students to their school. Which, I found out, is nothing like Warner Pacific College...waaaaay bigger and nicer! Anyhow, this is a picture of some of the guys that were at the conference from other places around the states. We had Georgia to Kansas to Arizona and Washington. The guy in the front on the right used to be the Children's pastor here in Walla Walla I believe.

So when I was in Indiana I was able to drive over to Defiance Ohio to see Amy's Aunt Lorena. I actually was not sure if I would ever be able to meet her, luckly this trip provided the opportunity. Lorena is Amy's Mom, Connie, older sister. I only had time to enjoy lunch with them but it was a good time to visit and get to see them in person!!!

Now that I am posting about this it seems like forever-ago. I took some of my adult leaders (left to right: me, Jared, Zenada, Roy, Ken) to a youth conference in Portland OR. at the big "City Bible" church. It is the one that as you come into Portland on I-205 is up on the hill on the right, it is a couple of big domes. Anyhow the conference was awesome, it was a good one to bring the leaders too and just do some bonding and get to know one another. We ended up getting stranded in Portland for an extra day because when we tried to go home to Walla Walla I-84 was shut down because of a 14 car pile-up as well as the ice, then everything in Washington all the way to Snaqualmie was closed down as well, and you needed chains for that one!

So I was supposed to drive home with them and then drive back to Portland the next day so that I could fly out to Anderson Indiana and Amy was going to go spend time with family in Centralia...but I had to stay, buy some extra clothes and get dropped off at the airport the next day when the crew headed back to Walla Walla... fun stuff... I missed my wife and kids a whole lot!!!

Esther and I at a local school...she was really diggin' these Jeep type things! ...I was too!

Okay, I know I have been horrible about updating the blog. Sorry. Now for the excuses; we don't have internet at home (not even the kind you can steal from some unsuspectin neighbor!), I only have internet at the office, and when I am here I am VERY busy with little or no time to do anything besides work...isn't that what I am supposed to be doing anyway. Also, we have been very busy buying a house and now moving into the house lately, so we havn't had time to come over here to my office during our "down-time" (whatever that means) to post more pictures on the blog.

With that being said I am going to do a bunch of one picture posts to bring us up to the current era, skipping some things...but we will get caught up with the idea of staying caught up!

Love ya all

ike