Even More Snow

To say that the weather has been strange the past few days is a gross understatement. It snowed off and on all day yesterday, but was of little notice other than it was pretty to watch. All that changed last night.

While at our Moms' Nite Out for the co-op, some of the moms received calls that it was snowing at their home. We looked out the window and, sure enough, it was snowing even down at the church. We were having so much fun we didn't even think much of it. At 11:00, I called Chris to see if there was any snow at home yet (it wasn't sticking where we were in the lowlands). He didn't even know it was snowing, but it was already covering the yard a bit. We went back to our game of Apples to Apples. At about midnight or so, Chris called me. The boys had played on the deck after I called and you couldn't tell they'd been out there. Cars were having trouble getting up the hill past our house. And it was still snowing. The BIG snow, with huge flakes! That was our cue to pack things up and head for home, which we did rather quickly.

By the time I got home there was quite a bit of snow and I DIDN'T make it up the hill to the house. Chris had to back up and take a run at it 3 or 4 times before he made it. The snow here is not like the snow in Minnesota. It's nasty and wet and heavy and slick as a wet fish.

our Easter egg tree in the snow

This morning we found that two of our trees broke and I saw several broken trees on the way to a Pampered Chef party this morning. One was a beautiful cherry tree completely loaded with pink blossoms. :o(

a piece of our tree landed on our neighbor's garage roof

this little tree fell on our fence out back

But the good thing about snow is playing in it...(even if it is raining)

snowball fight!!!

Strange Snowy Sunny Spring Day

Yesterday while we were at lunch with the Davises, it started to snow. Nothing stuck, but there was snow. It did that on and off all day. When we woke up this morning we could see that it had snowed during the night. It snowed more this morning, but nothing to show for it. :o(

snowy morning

Then early this evening while I was cooking dinner, it was sunny with beautiful blue skies. Chris always says "if you don't like the weather here, just wait and it will change." Yeah, but sometimes I would like the good weather to stick around for a while. :o)

sunny afternoon

Visitors From the North

Yesterday our friends Joel and Emily came to see us. And we got to meet Corbin!!! They came out to see Emily's family down in Oregon on the train. We felt so special because they took the time to come up and see us while they were in our neck of the woods.

We had a great time! Corbin is such a fun kid! We were so busy having a good time talking, playing pirates (Corbin and the boys), talking, playing with dishes (Corbin), talking, stacking blocks (me and Corbin), talking, eating, talking, seeing our church, feeding Corbin sour jelly beans (I wish I had a picture of that) and (did I mention) talking, that I hardly took any pictures. I feel kind of bad because none of us got much sleep either. But it was so wonderful to visit and talk about what we have been up to and what God is doing in our lives and in our ministries. Pastors and their wives need that and we don't get it very often. Thanks for being such a blessing to us you guys! Hope to see you this summer!

Corbin

hanging out in the schoolroom and petting Betsy

getting ready to leave

Before they headed south, they treated us to lunch at Yan's Chinese (yum!)

Thanks guys! We'll be thinking of you while we eat leftovers tomorrow for lunch. :o)

He Is Risen!

Hope you all had a blessed Easter this year!

Our Easter was very nice this year. The weather was not pleasant, but that did not detract from our celebration of the resurrection.

We had a great turn out for our Easter breakfast, egg hunt and service. It was so wonderful to praise the Lord with such a choir!

After church, we headed south for Easter dinner with family. As usual, it was lots of fun to see everybody and visit.

Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!

Today was our official egg day. This morning we decorated our Easter eggs for tomorrow morning's egg hunt. I also made my traditional Jello eggs for Easter dinner. And tonight after everyone was in bed, I put together the egg bake for tomorrow's Easter breakfast at church.

Whew! That's a lot of eggs!

Here are some photo highlights of our "eggs- tra" special day...

Andy's favorite egg

Will's egg was too big for the wrapper

Zack's favorite

My favorite

Will's favorite

Chris' favorite

"The Best Of" plate

Jello eggs (one of our favorite Easter treats)

Fort Clatsop

Yesterday my Westward Expansion class took a field trip to Fort Clatsop. Unfortunately, the weather was very authentic for our experience. Also, Zack was sick so he and Chris couldn't come. We missed them, but had a really good time.

arriving at the fort

standing in ranks

playing Yankee Doodle on the mouth harp

After she played her song, Jill did a living musket demonstration to help explain to the kids how a musket works before she fired a real musket.

Will and Seaman

a broken tree on the trail

Andy at the canoe landing

Private Will

On the way home, a friend told us about some downed trees near the park. This video really doesn't do justice to how massive the destruction from the December storm was.

William Tell (sorry, Andy Tell)

This afternoon, Andy was out back shooting arrows and he shot one right through a piece of wood and into the target!

He likes archery. :o) Great job, Andy!

Recycling In The Rain

Our boys are going to sleep good tonight! Last night they went to a friend's sleepover party and apparently didn't get much sleep. It was a quiet day at our house. :o) After Chris got home from church, we headed north to one of our elder's house to get the old windows he had replaced so we could take them in to recycle.

We did our windows and it seemed worth the effort, so we thought we'd try it again. When we got there, the weather was beautiful. The sun was out and it was warm. Perfect! But being in the NW in March, the weather changed fast. Soon it was pouring down rain and then it began to hail. We decided to pack everything up and take it home to work on it here and there when the weather is dry.

Needless to say, we got pretty wet packing it up in the rain. But it's home now and we'll pray for some dry weather soon.

I took these pictures BEFORE the rain started, but you could probably tell that...

I love spring flowers!

Baby Dear's Wee Little Things

My sister Amy and I have decided to go into business. We are going to be selling handmade baby items on-line. My youngest sister, Theresa, designed us an adorable logo. My sister will be posting her items soon at the Etsy store.

It's been a lot of fun but is much more complicated than I thought it would be. :o)

Check us out at weelittlethings.blogspot.com or click on the link on the sidebar under "Favorite Links".

The End of an Era

There hasn't been much going on around the Leingang household lately other than school, work, pink eye, confirmation, the stomach flu, speech path, piano, a cold, co-op, ... But today we received news that I thought warrented a post on our blog.

It's a sad day in Packer Nation. Brett Favre announced his retirement today. After 17 seasons it was time.

“I know I can still play, but it’s like I told my wife, I’m just tired mentally. I’m just tired,” Favre told ESPN’s Chris Mortensen in a voice mail message. (from an AP news story)

Football won't be the same anymore. But you can check out everything you could want to know about Brett at http://www.packersnews.com/favre/