More Pictures of House Coming!!

Caution Ahead: You may not want to change the color of your house while one of you is at work!

When we bought our first tiny house in Tacoma Washington (bk-before kids), the paint started peeling on the outside. It was guaranteed not to do so back came the painters to re-do the job. Vern went of to work not knowing that painters were arriving that day. In fact, I did not know they were coming. We knew what color we wanted to paint the house but----------------the painters arrived and informed me they were painting that day and I had to choose the paint from 6 choice. Of course not one was what we wanted. Vern could not be reached by phone and of course there was no such thing as a cell phone. Really, we had only land line phones. If you left your home or office no one could call and bug--oh excuse me--no one could reach you by phone. I also do not remember if there were answering machines but I know we did not have one at home. I chose the color all by myself and the painters painted the entire house.

So hubby is at work and gets a ride home. He told the driver friend to stop at the bluuuuuuuuu------house and the house was olive green! His friend must have thought Vern was crazy!

What a shock! (It was almost like the shock when I painted the bathroom lime green when Vern left for work one day. My parents were coming for the weekend. It was bad so Vern had to wallpaper part of the bathroom to help offset the shocking green before they arrived.)

So, this time the shock is not bad but we still think we are at the wrong house when we arrive home. The bottom half of the house is not done but will be some type of brick or stone. I am so glad the brown is disappearing after over 20 plus years in this house. Oh, we did plan to change the siding on the house and we both knew when it was happening

Surprise Pictures Are Coming Soon!

Wait till you see what is happening at the Van Houten's!

Our LaPrador---She is a Beauty!!!

Faith decided she had missed dad so much when he spent the entire week in Portland. She surprised him with her whole self!

The Danger of Christmas and Dogs

Well, Christmas is off to a rough start in our house. My wonderful preschool families gave me so many wonderful treats that I guess Faith and Toby were jealous. I went downstairs to get tissue paper and was gone 2 minutes. Faith inhaled a box of chocolate and peanut butter fudge. I know, dogs are not supposed to have chocolate so thankfully it was not the dark baking chocolate. Someone asked how I knew Faith ate it. Faith can set time records eating a bowl of food. Toby does not eat fast and he only got to lick the wax paper off the candy.

A few years back, we made an emergency run to a vet clinic in Kennewick, Washington on Christmas day with Toby. He had eaten an unknown substance in my mom's yard. It turned out fine but it was not what one wants to do on Christmas day. You see they gave him a weird medicine in his eye to make him throw up. It worked but it was disgusting. I actually wanted some of that medicine in the house. You see this in not the first time Toby has eaten something very strange. One day he ate a partial SOS pad. Bad news for him! He felt crummy but was OK. By the way, that medicine turned out to be a derivative of morphine and even the vet is only allowed to keep a small amount on hand. In otherwards, they would not let us have any. We had to put baby locks back on our kitchen cabinets.

So, I am hiding every Christmas present and guarding them with our life. I am also thankful for Brian and Christy who never got into things like Faith and Toby have.

The Van Houten Clan

It has been very busy at the Van Houten clan's house. Preschool started for me smoothly and then it just started getting busier and busier at school. This year is going great. Miss Chris, who I work with, and I have two wonderful classes. We have seventeen 3 year olds on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. The other three mornings, we have 16 four and five year olds. Very soon, we will have a new boy named Toby joining us in the three day class. He is the son of the new pastor who will be arriving at the church where I work. We are very excited about having Toby and his family join us.

Vern is also very busy at work. He finished up a job at a hospital in Missouri and then came home to move a boat building business and also is working in Portland, Oregon on a job. He will not be traveling quite as much as we believed he would this fall. In January, he will spend a great deal of month in Portland.

We are attempting, with very little success, to get the yard cleaned up for fall. We had our first frost this morning. I am not looking forward to scraping those car windows but I do love the cold, crisp air of fall and winter. Everyone does think I am nuts when I say I do love the winter. Deep in my heart I am a Wyoming girl, in case you did not know. I spent my childhood in deep, deep snow in Torrington, Wyoming and I loved it.

This past September, we had a wonderful 10 days with grand puppy Walker. Brian and Megan have a dog now. Our lab, Faith, thinks he is the best just as we do!! Toby, the Shit Tzu, on the other hand, just tolerates Walker but at least Toby did not try to beat up on Walker.

Our friends and 2nd family, Rudy and Anne, are expecting and we are so excited. I keep telling them, that I will do any favor for them that they ask me to do, so long as I can babysit when the little one arrives. Sounds like a plan to me. The next 4 days, I am caring for their 2 dogs, so I figure that should give me lots of baby sitting opportunities with the precious baby.

Randy and Christy are all settled in Hawaii. Randy arrived home from Iraq the end of Sept. The two of them spent lots of time getting needed items for their first apartment. I do believe some of those items were a HD television, livingroom furniture, a diningroom table, new printer and kitchen stuff. Christy has really been cooking some wonderful meals. Vern and I cannot figure out why she did not cook while she was here with us.

Brian and Megan are happily celebrating the arrival of their new nephew Lucas Marco Jonathan Goodman who was born to Jenny and Matt Goodman. Megan's brother and his wife, Jenny, sure have a cute baby. I joined in the celebration by going shopping for baby boy clothes and just happened to find the cutest little pair of 6 month old size jeans, warm up pants and 4 shirts to match. I used great control but I still have not bought any toys or books for him.

More to come as we move into November and December.

Lots of Time Has Gone By

I have decided this blog thing may not be something I'm good at. First of all, I never remember how to sign in-------------I never remember my password that is. Second of all, I do not want to take the time to write anything because I end up telling everyone everything before I ever get anything written. So, this time Christy is home from Iraq and out of the Army and she fixed my blog so I can get into it. She is also helping me clean out lots of junk and we are getting organized in the house and at preschool. So, I will leave you with that. It is time to go enjoy my daughter. She will be with us till the end of September and then will be moving to Hawaii to join her husband, Randy. He is still in Iraq at this time.

Connie