It's been TOO long

Wow, I can't believe I let 4 months go by without posting anything...yikes!

We are all settled in Clackamas, OR; kids are in school, making new friends, joining after-school groups/activities. Libby started Drama Club this month and they will be performing in Nov. Ethan started Tae Kwan Do yesterday and was so excited to learn what his name looked like spelled in Chinese.

Wade is keeping busy at work. His patients love him (of course!) and he is earning respect from his fellow providers in the company for his ability to sell to some tough patients. He does miss hanging out with his friends, so he still gets very homesick for Idaho.

I've started up my scrapbook classes and have a couple ladies that come each month. I also got recruited to teach couponing and cake bites at a Super Saturday (this weekend) for Wade's Patient Care Coordinator's ward. So I've been trying to type up all the helpful info and add a few pics too.

We just started Dave Ramsay's Total Money Makeover (Wade and I agreed we can't move back to Idaho until we are out of debt) and that is going pretty good so far. Couponing definitely helps the grocery budget to stay in control and still get plenty to add to our food storage.

Speaking of Food Storage...we got re-acquainted with some friends from our past....Eric & Becki Reed. They don't live far from us and we have been getting together almost every Sun. (after the Bears game of course) Anyway, Becki introduced me to foodstoragemadeeasy.net and I have been excited to get my family prepared and organized. ( I'm sure I have a 3 mo. supply of food, but I need to finsh up my 3 mo. plan in excel to be sure.) We put together our 72 hr. kits and praticed escape routes from inside the house. The website has a place you can sign up to get checklists every 2 weeks...and if you know me, you know I will do almost anything if it's on my checklist ;)

I have also been canning. I LOVE all the fresh produce around. I'm sure I had access before, but here, it is just overwhelmingly available. I have raspberry jam, peach jam, raspberry/peach jam, strawberry jam, zucchini puree (all frozen), salsa and spaghetti sauce. I am having a blast learning new things. I had done freezer jam before, but this time, they actually turned out! And I learned about the water bath canning.

There some things we really like about Oregon. Yard Sales--start later, sometimes 10am and go untilthe early evening. So that is nice, we don't have to be up at the crack of dawn to find good deals. We like to go explore--each weekend we try to go somewhere new. We've been to the waterfalls 2x, 3 different beaches, the zoo, and a handul of rivers.

Granted, it hasn't started to really rain yet either ;)

So we'll see. I have a great ward--much more spread out than in Idaho. I haven't found any BFF's yet, but some really good people anyway. We difinitely miss our friends back in Idaho and hope to see them around Thanksgiving when we head to I.F. for the holiday.

Well, that's all for now.