Time To Volunteer!!

On Tuesday night our family (minus Eric who was sick) went to the Northwest Children's Outreach in the Pearl District of Portland. The ministry serves other organizations in the area, filling needs for complete baby layettes, diaper bags, clothing and toys. It is very clean and well organized by specific type of garment, gender and size. This is one portion - looking down the little girls' row..
After we picked up a child's order, we would go around the building "shopping" for the child -- a specific amount of clothing is placed into each order, several shirts and pants, pajamas, onesies or t-shirts, socks, underwear, a coat, sweatshirt, hat and gloves, shoes, a little scripture book, and 2 toys and 2 or 3 stuffed animals! I cannot imagine what the little 2 year old boy will do when he gets his bag! This is all for one child - so awesome!

My husband Jim isn't normally a big shopper so this required extreme concentration..

OK, so he did have some break time with Noelle's husband Brad... apparently some macho "fishing" talk was needed.

Jenae absolutely loved this night and she said "when do we get to come back!!??" She would dig around the stack of names to find the little babies and then become a personal stylist to that baby... she was putting together the most adorable little outfits!

Shanna also had a great time, what 10 year old girl wouldn't enjoy "shopping" for cute clothes and fun toys for other kids? She was also adding her fashionista flair to her bags. (I'm now thinking that maybe dear ol' Dad shouldn't have been left alone with clothing choices - hmmm)..

This is my dear friend Noelle at the end of the night, she's so beautiful but it took me 3 tries to get a picture of her with her eyes open - haha!

One last picture of Shanna the cutie making a little baby girl warm and adorable!

We're going to be taking our kids to NCO every month on the last Tuesday night as part of our community group at our church, Rolling Hills Community Church. If any of you in the area want to join us, please do!

Portland Farmer's Market ... Sigh....

I recently enjoyed a beautiful day at an outing to the Portland Farmer's Market downtown by PSU. Some friends and I went to South Park (not the comic strip) for a great lunch and then went to the last farmer's market of the season (sad). I wanted to share some pictures of the crisp Fall day!
Here's Judith (red jacket) and Noelle (black jacket) getting ready to buy some flowers..
I didn't buy any pickles from Picklopolis but I did enjoy the sign.

Every imaginable variety of organically grown vegetable was displayed and it was just fun to walk around marvelling at the beauty!

Lots of vendors had beautiful flowers for sale, quite a treat in October!

Portland is a very eclectic little city as I'm beginning to see more and more... Noelle works as a realtor downtown and she's got the pulse of the city for sure! As I go places with her I will keep posting pictures of my new discoveries.

Eric's Birthday and Choir Concert

Eric took of his buddies to Red Robin and a movie for his 15th birthday last week... L-R are Conor, Eric, Derek and Nick...
Eric and Derek went to school together K, 1st and 2nd at Kennedy Elementary in Medford, OR and then again in Middle School. Derek moved up here to the Portland area about 6 months before us so even tho they aren't at the same school we have Derek here a lot!

I think ice cream was a bit much after their dinners... It's so amazing to think that Eric's 15 and can legally drive a car! The permit test is happening this week sometime. Yikes. Be on the lookout.

Eric's first high school choir concert was this week, he sang with the Tenor/Bass Choir and in the All-Boys songs. He's front row and center in this picture.

He had a falsetto solo in the old 50's song "Get a Job".... he didn't even seem nervous and sang really great --- the boy with the long, swaggy hair in the top right of the picture is a senior in Jenae's class and is already college bound with a full-ride vocal scholarship! Eric and Justin sang the highest part in another song together because they both have a high range... Eric was excited.

High School Musical On Ice - Amazing!

Troy and Gabriella looked a little bit different than they do on-screen, (actually a LOT different), but the lip-syncing was great and we all had a blast!

Ryan and Sharpay were pretty close in resemblance and fabulous dancers and skaters as well..

It's absoutey crazzzzy what people can do on ice skates; it looks as easy as walking across a gym floor. (Which the Rose Garden actually is when the Trailblazers are playing on it!)

My friend Gina and I, she's Haley's mom...

Shanna and Haey looking at the program while waiting outside in the cold. It was a great night!