Where did September go?

Good golly, Miss Molly, it has been a long time since I posted on this blog. There are a couple of posts on Travels With Sadie, but I have been remiss in posting here.


We have been busy, since we returned from San Diego. After a leisurely trip up the coast with stops in Santa Cruz and Crescent City, we took a five day vacation to reconnect with each other. It was a wonderful time in Woodland, WA at the Columbia Riverfront RV park (see Travels With Sadie).

When we returned home, we hosted a potluck supper for our Bible study group. It was a good turnout, and we enjoyed reconnecting with these dear friends. We will switch from summer-potluck mode to "school-year-study" mode soon. In the meantime, members of the group have been busy. Michael has been traveling on business, Kathy L. has been busy with preparing for and participating in a bead show. Kathy makes the most beautiful glass beads. Click on her name above to go to her website and see some of her wares. Ben and Shirley have been off to Wallowa Lake for a combination business/anniversary celebration trip.

Last Sunday was a busy day for us. We went to church at 9:00 AM and then to a marriage ministry meeting. From there it was off to a barbecue, kicking off Dale Ebel Ministries. Dale was the founding pastor of Rolling Hills Community Church, where he served as senior pastor for 31 years. He recently retired from that position and is taking a different approach to ministry. Please visit his website to learn more.

The barbecue was held at the home of friends of Dale. This wonderful couple has seven children, which means it is a blessing that they are able to have a large home on several acres, complete with swimming pool and sport court. They have dedicated this beautiful home to the service of the Lord, and they sponsor similar gatherings from time to time. The weather was lovely and the company even better. Hot dogs and hamburgers were provided, along with beverages. Guests brought salads and desserts. It was an impressive spread. After lunch, nine people were baptized in the swimming pool. I always get a thrill out of watching a baptism, so this was a real treat for me.

After the barbecue, we headed to our friends', the Davises', home, where we joined a party in progress bottling last year's wine production. Steve makes outstanding wine and gets all his friends to help with the process. It is quite interesting and a lot of fun. We had helped with the destemming of the grapes last year, so this was the culmination of the process.

Last week, we headed out to Barton County Park, which is situated on the Clackamas River. There is a post about this on Travels With Sadie, as well. The stated purpose of this trip was to find some blackberries, which abound in the park. In years past, we have gorged ourselves on them. This year we were too late, but we had a great time anyway. The river is so beautiful, and the park is seldom crowded, so we feel like it is our own private resort.

Yesterday, we were invited to Steve's house again. This time, it was for destemming 400 pounds of Pinot Gris grapes for his next batch of wine. Amazingly, it only took the three of us about 2 1/2 hours to destem and press the grapes. This batch should yield about 100 bottles of Pinot Gris wine. Judging by Steve's prior efforts, it will be wonderful.

Today we attended church early and then came home to enjoy the last warm sunny day for a while. Jill puttered in the yard and in the laundry. I puttered in the motor home, making some repairs and improvements. It was a nice, relaxed day. This evening we had dinner on the patio and then sat by the fish pond and chatted and enjoyed each other's company. Life is, indeed, good.

Oh, no! Not again!

Click on Josiah to see a couple more pix.

Today is Judah's 2 week birthday. In honor of the occasion, Grampa uploaded a picture of each of the boys, and one of the two of them together. Judah is growing by leaps and bounds. He achieved his birth weight by day five. Now he feels much heavier, and he has filled out enough that I told Laura, "If his tummy gets any bigger, we can call him Judah Buddha!" She liked that!

Jill and I will hit the road for home tomorrow. We're planning to stop in Santa Cruz tomorrow evening and Crescent City on Friday. Saturday morning we will fulfill an ambition and drive over US 199 from Crescent City to Grants Pass, and then continue homeward on I5.

So, this will be the end of the grandkid pictures for a while. Next, you can probably expect some pictures of Pat and Katie's house. Their offer was accepted, and they should close on the sale by September 30th!

More grandkid pictures

It is hot in San Diego today, so we all went to the beach. This is actually Judah's second trip to the beach. Tim and Laura took the kids to the beach on Thursday. Click on the photo for a couple of random shots.

Below is a video of Josiah playing in the water with a big yellow dog named Jackie.

Judah's second week

Click the photo for more pictures of Judah


It sure is busy with a baby in the house. As I have written before, my job has been to keep Josiah busy. This is no small task, and I do go to bed tired each evening. The kid is non stop motion from dawn 'til bed time.

The pictures I have included above include Judah's first bath and a rare shot of Judah with his eyes open in Grampa's arms. The rest are pretty self explanatory. Hope you enjoy them.

And here's a picture just for Josiah!

Trying to keep up...

Click on the picture of Josiah for a slide show.

Baby Judah is 1 week old today. It is hard to believe that much time has passed. Laura is recovering slowly from her drive-by birthing (she arrived at the birthing center about 20 minutes before Judah was born!).

My job has been to keep Josiah occupied, while Mom and Dad get settled in with the new baby brother. Of course, Jill has been right there with me all the way. She works like a Trojan from dawn 'til bed time, cooking, doing house work, laundry, tending Laura and caring for Josiah. Right now, she and Josiah are napping.

We took Josiah to Spanish Landing park on the waterfront in San Diego this morning. He had a great time playing school and apartment on the play structure. Grandma and Grandpa played along and even went down some of the slides! It is pretty warm here today, for San Diego, so even though we were by the water, Josiah got pretty hot and his face was flushed.

We decided to take him to McDonald's for a little lunch and some play time on the indoor Playland. This, of course, followed yesterday's movie (Ponyo - very cute!) and lunch. Josiah wanted clam chowder, so we went to King's Fish House and had some very yummy chowder.

On Monday it was a trip to Burger King play land, which was not as well suited to Josiah as the one at McDonald's. He had a personal victory, though, when he went up the second rope ladder to the "orange" box (a plastic cube with orange, plexiglass bubble style windows).

And so it goes. One adventure follows another. How he keeps up the pace he does is beyond me. If I could keep up and did so for a couple of weeks, I think I would be ready for the NFL season.

Don't know when we will be headed home, yet. It will be nice to have life back to normal, but there is something pretty wonderful about being a grandpa!

It's best to be prepared for miracles...

I got the call at 6:30 AM on Wednesday, "Be ready," said Jill. "This is it." I leapt out of bed and began working on all the tasks I had somehow not completed, although my intentions had been good. First was to pack my bag. Next I had to run to WalMart and get a new battery for the car. I had known this needed to be done, but somehow, I hadn't got around to it. Next was a stop at the pharmacy for a new tube of high fluoride content toothpaste, which I had ordered several days before, but had failed to pick up.

Then it was home again, turn on the garden hose to refill the fish pond, and go back to the garage to install the new battery in the Ford. That task was successful, so I turned off the hose and got the lawnmower fired up to trim the front lawn. Next was to gather Pogo's belongings and put her in the car. Then I remembered to put out the garbage cans for pickup on Thursday. I ran next door to the neighbor and asked her if she would bring our garbage cans back up to the house after they were emptied the next day.

At 10:03 AM, I left the house. The car also was not filled with gas, so I stopped at the filling station. I noticed that the car was very dirty, so I headed for the car wash. Just as I arrived there, I realized I had forgotten to throw in the bag that I HAD remembered to pack, the one with all the special request items that were needed in San Diego by various family members. So, I had to go home and start over again. Finally, at 10:36, I was on the road, heading for San Diego to see my new grandson.

Jill had called in the midst of my preparations to tell me that he was born at 9:14 AM, just 20 minutes after Laura arrived at the birthing center. I didn't even find out how much he weighed or how long he was. Anyway, I was on my way. I drove until about 9:00PM, when I finally found a pet friendly motel in Stockton. I called Jill and got the update. Judah Robert Sagawa was born at 9:14 AM, Wednesday, August 19th, 2009. He weighed 8 pounds even and measured 20" long. Mother and son were home by 3:00 PM and doing fine.

It was a long drive on Thursday from Stockton to San Diego. I hit the road at 6:00 AM and arrived at 3:00 PM. When you look at the pictures, you will agree, I am sure, that Judah was well worth the drive. Oh, and did I mention that it was absolutely wonderful to be reunited with my wife after three weeks?

Of homes and family...

So, although I haven't posted in a while, I haven't been idle. Today I finished the project in the yard where the pine tree died. Since my last post, I spaded the ground there, roto-tilled it, added three bales of peat moss and four sacks of composted steer manure. While I was about it, I capped off three of the four sprinkler heads and added a drip watering converter to the fourth one.


After I competed all of that, I decided that instead of using the whole area for a flower bed, I would plant grass and just make a flower bed along the base of the rock wall. Below are some photos of the finished project. The white flowers are a perennial version of salvia, of which I had never heard until I got to the nursery. The crimson flowers, of course, are chrysanthemums. I love them, although I have never had great success with growing them.

Before planting, I spaded some sand into the soil in the flower bed, and the soil is nice and fluffy and wonderful to work with. I have no doubt that it will become compacted over the winter, but some judicious mulching should help.

I have to give credit where credit is due. Over the weekend, I had a visit from Patrick and Katie. They helped me fetch the sod for this project, and Patrick helped me lay it in place. Being a math teacher, he was able to make several suggestions about how to get the most coverage out of the sod with the least waste. I only wish he had been with me when I was figuring how much I needed. I made an error in calculation and ended up with a two roll excess of sod.

While Pat and Katie were here, we had some fun, too. We spent Friday running errands, including a stop at the mortgage broker who is helping the kids arrange financing for the purchase of their first home. That was followed by lunch with Patrick's sister, Kat. From there, it was on to a post-operative visit regarding Pat's recent eye surgery. Finally, we picked up Gramma Jane and went out to dinner to celebrate Patrick and Katie's first anniversary, which is actually tomorrow.

After the sod project, Pat and Katie and I spent a lazy Saturday chatting, playing games and nibbling. All in all, it was a wonderful time for me. I hope they enjoyed it as much. They went home last evening to prepare for tomorrow's outing to look at some more houses. I think they are on the brink of choosing a house, and it wouldn't surprise me if it happens this week.

In the meantime, Jill is still in San Diego tending Laura, who has been on complete bed rest until yesterday. Her baby is due in three weeks, but whenever the little bundle arrives, I will hit the road to join the family for the excitement of a new baby. I have missed Jill, terribly, but I am so proud of her for taking on the job of tending Laura and Josiah, who celebrated his fourth birthday yesterday.

When it is all over, Jill and I are going to hop in the motor home and have a getaway for about a week.