Visit With My Aunt Nancy & Uncle Tony!

My Aunt and Uncle stopped by with their good friends Joe and Marcia over the weekend... we had a GREAT visit! Eric & Jenae just love my Aunt Nancy and Aunt Robin -- 2 of my dad's sisters... They are freakin' hilarious (well, their guys are too!) Jenae and Eric came back with all kinds of bad stories about their aunts when they went down to So. Cal. in July!! Aunt Cherie is spared their bad rep because she's on the East coast. Someday we'll all get together I hope!

Uncle Tony gives Eric a bad time and vice-versa... it's USC vs. UO for these two!
Thanks for stopping by - we'll see you at Spring Break for cheerleading nationals!

Speaking of cheerleading... a few pictures from last weekend:

Tonight's the homecoming parade and game - Jenae's last high school homecoming game! Sad...

Grain Goodness

My breadmaker has been getting quite the workout of late, two loaves were birthed today. This beautiful honey wheat bread.....
and this amazing banana bread with walnuts (lots) and chocolate chips....
The wheat bread which is just the standard honey wheat recipe from the Breadman pamphlet is very good as printed, but for a shout-out to Omega 3's I dropped in a good 1/2 cup of finely ground walnuts. Trying to get hubby's Hdl cholesterol up, and the rest of us will benefit too. I also used canola oil instead of melted butter (duh!), and subbed 1/4 c. of egg beaters for the egg. Jenae said at dinner "mom your bread is dank"! I said, "Is that good or bad"? haha
(It's good.)

First Day of Jenae's Senior Year!!

My little baby has started her last year of high school. It's something that she and I can't believe; we talked about it today after school / before cheer practice... she said that it really hasn't hit any of them yet, they kind of look around for the "older" kids, and then realize they ARE the older kids now!
I took these pictures of Karissa, Jenae and Alex after they had been at Senior Sunrise 6:00 am, then came home before school started...
Jenae drives Eric to school every day now, no more bus for him!
It's great having them both at the same school....even if just for a year.... although her guy friends came and found him today and carried him into the senior hallway and gave him a big wedgie in front of a giant group of seniors!!
The girls do love teasing Eric (and he loves it too I assure you).
Tomorrow night's the first home football game!! It will be very exciting for this mom! Eric gets to wear his Tualatin Mafia shirt for the first time and Jenae's going to be cheering on the big box right in the center! I'll post lots of pictures for sure.

B-A-C-K TO SCHOOL ... (Happy Voice!)

Eric's first day as a bald Freshman!! Tualatin High School now has TWO Giorvas kids! I'm happy that they get a year together. Both Jenae and Eric came home today saying how cool it is to see each other all during the day. Jenae and the other seniors (yes, indeed, senior) don't start until tomorrow but she's a Packleader (freshman babysitter) so she went today too. She is doing lots of leadership things - she spoke today at the opening rally and she's in charge of the rally on Friday too. No pictures of her today but I'll get some of her tomorrow morning on her way to Senior Sunrise (watch the sun rise together on the first day, watch the sun set on the last! Cute, eh?)
Eric and Shanna getting ready to head off to 9th and 5th grades...
Shanna's in a class with two good friends, Sam-left and Maddie-right. She likes her teacher so far, but this judgment may be revised at any time..
Fun organizing all the classroom goodies!!!
I had a fabulous day of working and enjoying the solitude! Beautiful weather and sunshine and children happily nestled away at school. Priceless.

It's Been Quiet Around Here...

With Shanna gone to visit our friends Byron and Sarah's little girl Caitlin. We met up with them at PF Chang's at Bridgeport Village on Sunday, had a great visit, then off they went!

Caitlin on left and Shanna - so happy to see each other after a year!
Our dear friends Byron and Sarah, we miss going to movies with them every weekend!
The girls hamming it up....
Karol and Sarah, bff's of course! Byron and Sarah's daughter Megan and son-in-Law Andy.. They're moving up here in a month! yayayayay!!!!
After lunch, the kids played in a radio contest promo game.... Andy won a gift certificate at UnderUForMen - haha...

Getting sticky with it....
Caitlin and Megan - twins much???
After saying our goodbyes I met my mom who had my brother Greg and wife Jen's little girl, Morgan with her.... we went to Ross and had a fun time with her. I believe my mom (Nana) was told NOT to purchase any toys for Morgs but we had to bribe her to get her into the cart!! Sorry Greg and Jen..... btw, my name is "Auntie Teerol".
It's been good for Shanna to be away with her friend, but I'm anxious to go get her tomorrow!!

30th Anniversary Party!

My sister-and-brother-in-law, Tim and Judy, had a surprise 30th Anniversary luau thrown by their 5 kids this weekend.. The kids had them arrive at the park blindfolded (they thought they were going to Mexican food!).....
and then they took the blindfolds off to "SURPRISE!!!" and many, many old and new friends and family members! Plus a big sign announcing their gift of a trip to Maui this December!
Tony, the oldest, almost 30 years old, read a very touching and funny poem written for his parents..... there's a lot of humor needed in a family with 5 kids each born 2 years apart! The 4 kids pictured are: Jana, Janine, Tony and Jandi. Timmy, the baby, is serving a mission in Brazil for 2 years.
Tony and his wife, Krista, put together a fantastic video presentation with lots of great pictures from Tim and Judy's wedding, then a journey through each of the kids being born, then on to the grandkids.... everyone was in tears, it was very touching.
This is our great-niece, Abby, Tony and Krista's 2nd child. (Tim and Judy's only grand-daughter out of FIVE grandkids!) Anyway, nobody can get near Abby except Krista when she's awake, so I got this shot quickly!

This is Conner, swinging away at a pinata... He's Janine's baby.
This is Kasen, Rosie's 3rd child. Rosie is another one of our nieces from sister-in-law Joann.
This is my baby girl Shanna with Rosie's middle child, Graci. She's actually so much like Jenae as a 3 year old it's unbelievable.
And here's Preston, Tony and Krista's son, spittttttting image of daddy as a baby!!
Benjamin is Jana's oldest boy, he's one of the few blondes in the family because his daddy is very blonde! There's never been a blonde kid in Tim and Judy's family so Jana having little blondes is very funny!

And here's Jana with tiny baby boy Elijah.... he's blonde too and just as precious as can be. What a sweet cuddle bug he is!
Eric and Jenae (and Shanna of course) pretty much spent the day chasing around after their cousin's little babies... the moms are completely worn out these days!
It was a beautiful party with chicken and beef kabobs, lots of fruit, salads, rolls, chips and salsa and costco cakes (the best!)... Grants Pass Oregon has a beautiful park but boy, was it hot that day! Us Portlanders felt a wee bit uncomortable .... (read: sweating like pigs).....
Great Job Tony and Krista, Jana, Jandi, Janine! It was an awesome day!

SENIOR!??!

Jenae's starting her senior year next week! I can't believe it. I. Can't. Believe. It. She's such a great girl, just so darn funny... she keeps things hoppin' wherever she is. I'm going to really try and focus on savoring every single moment of this year before she's off to OSU or UO next year. Last year of being a cheer-mom unless Shanna wants to cheer in high school -- she's recently saying she does want to be a cheerleader. I took this picture of the 4 senior girls on Varsity at Tualatin High School last week. They're beauties, right?? (Jenae's the one without blonde hair and blue eyes FYI) She looks like a foreign exchange student in Sweden.

White Christmas - I Mean Summer

This is what we awaken to after our short summer night's sleep (because Jenae comes home in the wee hours and Eric and friends are very loud playing whatever it is they play)............

Seriously, I'm sick of toilet paper in our trees. This has been our plague since Jenae was in 8th grade.... no matter what school she goes to, no matter where we live, WE are the ones that get tp'd. Twice in the last week! The kids here are amateurs compared to the tp'ers in Medford that used to get us... they were real pros.

Waikiki To Visit The Sharps

Eric and Shanna were really great together on this trip to visit Bob and Cindy.

This is Cindy with a little Japanese lady at the Food Court at Mauna Loa center. She spoke verrry little English, and we couldn't understand what she would say to us... the words would just get more and more emphatic and harder to understand! She wanted me to give her either my camera or a picture of her but I couldn't do either. I think she got mad.
The food court was crazy busy and we were lucky to get 3 seats together.
Eric wading in the water by Bob and Cindy's house.
Bob - looks like he walks on water. He does not.
Shanna at Waikiki Beach.
We had such a great time visiting with the Sharps, they were great hosts to us. We ate out at several restaurants, some better than others - haha, and played cards every night. Their condo is nice and clean, freshly painted with Cindy's artistic decorating ability... very oriental. Bob's working hard as the resident manager over all 64 condos... it's too much for a retired firefighter in my opinion! Thanks again guys, we'll be back in a couple months!

Sorry - I've Been Busy!!!!!

A lot of the fam and friends have been saying, "Why aren't you blogging??" Simple answer: kids home for the summer. I've just not been able to get to the computer and download photos... but I HAVE been taking pics all along!