Friday morning finds

I found a really neat old dress form this morning, The violin is a very old one and I will have to research it a bit to find out its value

These dominoes are the old ones with the brass brad in the center

some very old tiny books and compacts

We went out for a brief garage sale drive this morning. I didn't want to be gone long as I am putting in a garden today. Not a big deal except for the fact that we had to rototill an area and then haul good dirt way into the back yard. Any way I actually found a few fun things even in a very short amount of time.

Yard favorites and A new friend for Grace

old metal chairs

A vintage concrete fountain

My favorite iron patio set

A very weathered birdbath

Grace and Jackson

As usual we spent Memorial Day with family and friends. We had a wonderful barbecue and enjoyed family and fun. Yesterday, daughter Grace found a dog on Craigslist and convinced me to take her to Albany to take a look. Well as you can see by the picture "Jackson" and Grace got along so well he decided to come home with her . Whats one more pet anyway. After all we only have two other dogs, two cats, three bunnies, 15 chickens and a house full of kids. Oh yes and fish. So as I took some pictures of Grace and her new buddy I also wandered and snapped some of my yard favorites.

I Love chickens!!

13 chickies

Hubby Marv rigs up the coop to the tractor

The little gals are having a hen party

One little known fact about me is that I love chickens. After hinting to hubby Marv for a few years he finally gave in and decided to build a chicken coop. As with everything he builds it had to be very sturdy,well-built and functional. I absolutely love how it turned out. Getting it out of our shop turned out to be a bit tricky but as usual he managed quite nicely. We let the kids pick out thirteen ckicks and they are so cute!

A Garden cottage for Anne

Anne and Marvin by their new Garden cottage

My Marv adding the finishing touches

Special request for old metal roofing

This is an early on picture,We assemble the sections at our home and then deliver and set up

We have a sweet friend Anne that has wanted a garden cottage for some time. Today we had a great time setting up the cottage she purchased and got to share her joy as she saw her cottage evolve. Her excitement was priceless :)

Happy Mothers Day!

Emma looking not overly thrilled to have a picture taken

Sarah keeps forgetting to look at the camera

Maya just wants to play

Happy Mothers Day To Mama

Hope everyone had a wonderful Mothers day. We were up late last night helping clean up a huge garage sale that was a fund raiser we were involved with. I then came home to prepare Mothers Day dinner for our gang. All that to say I got not much sleep and started off the day a bit groggy. We went to church and then had a yummy barbeque ribs dinner. I wish I'd have taken a picture. They looked as good as they tasted and were quickly devoured. I usually try to talk my kids into a few pictures for mom on Mothers Day. Has anyone tried to get a good picture of 9 kids at the same time. I am an awful photographer anyway. I just won't take the time to sit still and learn how to take decent picture. I always love the pictures and its all about memories anyway. As you can see not everyone was cooperating :)

Aaron runs the Eugene Marathon

Aaron right after the finish line

Big sister "Kookie" is so proud of Aaron

Our awesome friends Lisa and Dustin

We are so proud of you Aaron!!

Our 17 year old son decided to run the Eugene marathon not to long ago and has been training the last few weeks. I was a bit concerned about the distance and his strong pain threshold, knowing he wouldn't give up even if he was in tough shape. Well he amazed me and did a fantastic job.Hubby Marv and I went to the 23 mile point to cheer Aaron on and I must admit it was hard for me to watch him as I knew this must be grueling. He was fortunate to have some wonderful friends of ours that are distance runners run along with him to pace him. All this to say he made it and we are so proud, what an incredible feat.

May 2nd a date that is both happy and sad

This is a picture of my mom in her twenties
isn't she pretty

The picture below is after the gang jumped in the pool :)

May 2nd for me is both happy and sad. Tomorrow is the birthday of our youngest child. She has been a pleasure from day one. However it is also the day I lost my mom 3 years ago to pancreatic cancer. I am so fortunate to have had a wonderful, godly, intelligent,wise,extremely committed and solid mother. My mom was all black and white with no gray area. She new what she believed and she new what expectations she had of people. I really didn't know how much I admired my mom until she was diagnosed with cancer. Wow how stoic she was. She never complained, and her time left was all about those she was leaving, not herself. She had an incredible attitude about death and was confident of where she was going. I have missed her terribly and as Mothers day approaches I am so thankful for the wonderful mom I have had.
Tomorrow is also sweet Sarah's birthday so we celebrated today with a party in the potting shed. We had a great group of girls that eventually ended up in the pool (filled with last years water,ugh!) They did have a ball!