What have we been up to?

DC trip - the night before

2008-06-15T23:58:00.001-07:00

Here is the view from our room :)

Our Backyard

2008-06-15T23:30:00.000-07:00

OK OK I know I've been posting alot tonight... I'm clearing out the camera for our trip starting tomorrow. I'm sitting here in the dark while the kids are sleeping (yes sleeping!) in the hotel room. We get up at 4am so we can be on time getting to the airport accross the street (we are at the Hilton right near the airport with a gorgeous view of the water)...

So back to the post... I wanted to show you our new backyard!!! Next time you come down you'll have to see it in person :)

We hired a neighbor from down the street to do the work, got the stone from RCP. We went with Classic Oak flagstone which I think turned out gorgeous. We wanted it to have a natural feel to it, so we kept the larger pieces of flag and filled the joints with crushed quartz (I think we might add more crushed quartz after we seal it). I think it looks amazing. Most of the pics were taken from the deck off of our master bedroom as that was the only place I could get all of the area at once.

It was interesting to watch the progression, with first the sand, then the leveling of the sand, then all the pieces being fit together, leveling (3 full days of leveling after the pieces were all in place), then the jointing. It was quite a process. Each piece weighed around 250 pounds I think Chris said (Chris if I'm wrong correct me :) )

Enjoy!

Each week has it's own album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/heather.gray.walker/BackyardWeek1

http://picasaweb.google.com/heather.gray.walker/BackyardWeek2

http://picasaweb.google.com/heather.gray.walker/BackyardWeek3

http://picasaweb.google.com/heather.gray.walker/Backyard

Ashley graduates from 8th Grade :)

2008-06-15T23:14:00.000-07:00

Thursday miss Ashley graduated from 8th Grade. It was the largest class Murrieta has ever had - 624 kids graduated this afternoon. She looked like a goddess I told her with her flowing dress. She had a great time, very nice ceremony even though it was HOT! I got a little sunburn on the areas we missed sunblock - and I sat for an hour under an umbrella!

She got a watch for graduation, and her friend Laura came over and spent the night. The graduation was bittersweet for her, as many of her friends (including her bestest friend Victoria, in the pic above) are going to Murrieta Valley High next year, unlike her (Vista Murrieta for Ashley)...

Ashley graduated with a GPA of 3.7 this year. Not too shabby!

Here are all the pics from the event:
http://picasaweb.google.com/heather.gray.walker/Graduation

Slideshow:

Ashley's 8th Grade Dance

2008-06-15T22:38:00.000-07:00

So Ashley had her 8th grade dance Wednesday June 11th. Here is what she wore - isn't it cute :) I dropped her off at her friend Laura's house so that they can go to the dance together. She said they had fun with everyone there, and there was drama with kids getting in trouble at the dance (but of course not her group LOL )...

If you want to see all the pics I took of her, They are here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/heather.gray.walker/8thGradeDance

Heather won an Award!

2008-05-15T11:29:00.000-07:00

So this week I was presented with the AIM Exec Excellence award for my part in working on the Separation from Boston Scientific + Integration into Abbott gigantic project. Out of our entire AV IT organization, 10 of us were picked for this award. The Senior managers picked key people from each major team as the leaders for their efforts and successes in their particular area.

This award is the highest IT award given out at Abbott I'm told. Now that I'm part of the Elite, I told my manager that I deserve a special set of letters after my name. He said that another recipient was talking about putting "Major Award Winner" after his name in his signature. I'm thinking more along the lines of initials, which always seem important. What do you think...
Heather Walker, MAW
...
and next June -
Heather Walker, MAW, MAM

:)

We're Land Barons!

2008-05-15T01:56:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody, we've got to share our latest news. We're about to be landowners! We signed a contract tonight on 2 acres of land just outside Cove. It is a beautiful piece that we just fell in love with.

Click images to enlarge. Here's a view from the top of the property looking west toward La Grande. You can see most of the land in this photo. The roads form the eastern and southern boundaries. The fence in the middle distance with the RR tie gateposts is the western edge. You can just make out some treelimbs on the extreme right that are near the northern edge. The photo flattens everything out--we are actually looking downslope from probably 300 feet above the valley floor.

Here's our backyard--good ol' Mt. Fannie!

Another backyard view. The truck is parked on the upper (eastern) edge of the property.

Looking NW toward Mt. Emily. These are the cottonwood trees that you see just a bit of in the first photo. Our boundary is on the other side of the trees. There's a lovely little creek that flows beside the trees and is also on our land.

Looking SW toward Union. You can see the fence that forms the lower (western) edge of the property.

We're buying it from an artist and her screenwriter husband, originally from northern CA. They lived in Portland for about 6 years before moving to Cove. They were originally asking $85,000. They lowered the price to $79,500. We negotiated to $72,500 final price. (Oh, and I have to throw in a smallish painting :)

What do you think?? We're pretty excited!

Good news from Jared today, too. He's linked up with a tech job placement company in Beaverton that is going to recommend him as part of a creative programming team that will be designing software for a company called Ethicspoint.com. Good luck, Jared!! Why don't you tell us all more about it?

Love,
Mom & Dad

Chris & Heather in San Francisco!

2008-04-27T22:23:00.000-07:00

While Mom & Dad were up in Washington visiting Judd & Kathy and friends, Chris & Heather were up in San Francisco hanging out for the weekend. We flew out from LA on Friday night in a little plane that freaked Chris out the whole hour flight! We had a great time checking out the city, Alcatraz and the Muir Woods with a little wine tasting in Sausalito!

Our Hotel
We got a killer deal (139/night!!) at our hotel - the Fairmont Hotel. It's an absolutely gorgeous hotel with beautiful rooms! Here is a photo of the outside of the hotel. It had a charm all of it's own :)

Adventures in San Francisco
We visited Alcatraz on Saturday and had a great time learning about life on the rock. Chris has been there three times, but loves it so much he can't stay away! Here's a shot I caught of him behind bars :)

Of course we took a city tour and saw the city :) I love taking city tours because you get an overview of the whole city in a few hours, and then can go back to the places that peaked your interest. Here's me in front of Postcard row...

The Golden Gate bridge is so beautiful - did you know the cables are this big?

The wind on Saturday was COLD and very strong! Check out my ponytail in this pic!

The last highlight I want to share is our evening with Chris' old old friend from High School Steve. Steve met us at our hotel Sunday night, and walked us all over town to several bars. We walked from the Fairmont down to Union Square and then accross town several blocks up and down the hills. I thought I was going to fall over with all of those steep hills! We had lots of fun though, and saw some really cool places!

When we went to Sausalito we found this great Wine shop with tastings & Art gallery. Heather had lots of fun tasting all kinds of wines from boutique wineries around California. I have to tell you, check out their wine club - I think it is most definitely worth the money!! http://www.bacchusandvenus.com/

Of course I can't end this post without showing one of Chris' passions. Every time - and I do mean EVERY time we see a big chair, Chris has to sit in it. This night was no exception...

Our Tieton Trip

2008-04-26T01:34:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody! We took a trip last weekend with my old art Prof Judd Koehn and wife Kathy to Tieton, Washington, to visit some old friends.

Tieton (Tie'-eh-tun) is a small town (1600) at the northern edge of the Yakima Valley, in the eastern foothills of the Cascades. Very lovely rolling high ground, about 1000 feet above the valley proper, with lots of apple orchards. Our longtime friends Ed Marquand and Karen and Kerry Quint of Seattle have bought property and huge warehouses once used in the fruit business, and are converting them into beautiful loft living spaces and an arts complex. You can see pics and learn more about it on their website: http://mightytieton.com/.

Ed and Kerry were art students at Eastern in the early to mid 70's. Kerry was a sculptor who went on to build ships and later manage a shipyard in Seattle. Ed is a very talented designer who formed Marquand Books in Seattle years ago. He publishes beautiful art books, really world class. He gave me about $400 worth of books!

They've got these huge studio spaces, (including a fully equipped printmaking studio) and they invited me to come up anytime for a "residency" and use the studios. I plan to take them up on it.

Here's Judd showing Ed a sculpture he's doing. Ed's a nice guy and really connected in the international art world, because of his publishing. He often works with major museums like the Smithsonian, or New York's Museum of Modern Art.

He grew up in LA. Shortly after his mother died when he was 18, he went on a road trip in an old VW van and ended up in La Grande. He stayed and started school there.

Here are just a few of the beautiful art books Ed gave me.

Judd, Mom and Kathy in Karen and Kerry's loft. There are 14 lofts in this converted warehouse. 12 are sold already, and they just finished them. There's a large gallery space in the center of the complex, and lots of communal spaces. They have high ceilings with huge old original beams. The design is very contemporary. Bedrooms are below grade downstairs.

Karen Quint in the kitchen of their loft. She was the director of Foster White Galleries in Seattle in the late 80's.

Here's Kerry. He's the man Friday doing the hands-on management of construction, etc. at Tieton. He's good at it, after 18 years managing a shipyard. He has a great sense of humor--is really funny.

As an art student in the 70's, he had a bushy afro!

It was a fun trip. On the way home we stopped at a winery at Benton City and sipped (just a little :)

Love to all,

Mom & Dad

Our Portland Visit

2008-04-01T23:17:00.000-07:00

We had a short but fun trip to Portland last weekend. I had to buy some canvas and art supplies. We left Friday eve after Mom got off work and drove to Wood Village that night, where we stayed in a real nice Best Western. Next morning we went to an art supply store down in NW Portland, where I got my stuff. Then we went to Powell's Bookstore. Melissa and Jared, and Jared's girlfriend (also named Melissa!!) met us at Powell's and we went to Henry's up the street for a nice lunch. Jared's Melissa is a hairstylist in a shop downtown--she had to leave for an appointment.

After lunch, Mom and Melissa went shopping and Jared and I walked around the Pearl District looking at galleries. Met a longtime artist friend of mine at one of the galleries, and made a new artist friend at another.

We spent Sat nite at Melissa's, then everyone gathered at a restaurant for breakfast Sun morning before we left, including Bobby and his daughter Haley and mother Connie.
We had a great time.

Great to see the posts on Ashley's OM group. That looks right up her alley. Thanks, Arielle for posting the self-portraits. OMG, you're blonde again! And your hair is getting so long! You look beautiful, as always.

Love, Mom/Grandma & Dad/Grandpa

Happy Easter!

2008-03-23T21:10:00.000-07:00

Hope everyone had a great Easter. Here are some pics of me with Bobby, Haley and Connie (Bobby's mom). Love and miss you all!

Xoxo

M

Frozen in Central Park

2008-03-20T12:50:00.000-07:00

This was cool enough I wanted to put it on the blog. This link is to a video this group made of a pretty elaborate practical joke. Except this joke doesn't make anyone feel bad or silly or embarrassed. Over 200 people went to Grand Central Station and froze at the same time for the same amount of time. It's funny to see how people reacted to them, and really cool to see how some people froze. They were really good!

Here's the link:
Frozen in GCS

Ashley & OM

2008-03-09T00:26:00.000-08:00

So this year Ashley was part of the Odyssey of the Mind chapter at Shivela school. The idea of "OM" is to teach kids creative thinking. During the year they do various activities to stretch their mind, work together and develop teamwork skills, step outside the box and come up with something unique and new. It is soo hard to understand what in the world they do, so I'm going to put a couple pictures here, and give you the web site so you can find out what it's all about. Ashley really enjoyed OM this year and will likely join the High School group of OM next year.

Last weekend, Ashley's OM team went to Palm Springs to the area competition at Palm Springs High School. It was a full day long. The entire campus looked like Halloween - so many kids and so many unique and interesting costumes, props and crazyness.

Each team competed in their own age group - there were little kids in Elementary school on up to High School. Each team solved a "problem" with a creative skit complete with characters and a full script with music and performing arts weaved into the skit. They were required to make all the props they used in the skit, and they had to do all of this with a budget!

See more pictures in our Photo Album

Learn more about Odyssey of the Mind

2008-03-06T12:12:00.000-08:00

August 07...

Jared's Birthday, 4-16-07...

Hi guys,

Your mom is scheduled for cataract surgery on March 24th. Dr Pettit (SP?) in LG is doing it, he has done almost everybody in the valley. When he examined her, he was amazed that she had been driving in southern California. He told her she was legally blind in the left eye, and the right one not a lot better! They are scheduling to do the other eye April 14.

It's an outpatient procedure, and they apparently don't even use an anaesthetic. I'm not sure if it is laser surgery or what. Your mom's been wanting to get this done for a long time, so she's excited that she'll soon be able to see again.

Grandma Younce is doing a little better, though she seems pretty non-responsive to me--hardly says anything. Grandma Gray doing well. A Podiatrist came the other day and manicured everyone. Grandma Gray kept saying "We had to soak our feet!"

Love to all,

Dad

Funny for today :)

2008-03-03T16:01:00.000-08:00

This was in today's PE...

Want a Bigger picture or to subscribe to see more of Non Sequitur?

Grandma's Horse

2008-02-28T16:24:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone -

I forgot to mention the other day that I got a picture of Grandma's horse. It's really cute!

Update on Grandmas

2008-02-28T12:21:00.000-08:00

To update everyone on Grandma Younce, she is home from the hospital and doing better, though still very tired and pretty weak. We were in last night about 5:30 and she was in bed. Your mom talked to her for awhile and said she's doing OK.

Grandma Gray is plugging along, doing pretty well. Her memory is troublesome and funny at the same time. It's increasingly hard for her to retain something, even for a minute. But you still can carry on a pretty good conversation with her. She gets confused from time to time. She thinks she has a horse--I have no idea where that comes from! She mentions it fairly often. She said it was down the hill on the pasture outside (the ground around the house is flat.) Last night she said "You don't have any livestock anymore, do you?" I said no and she said "You can have my horse."

New Job Offer

2008-02-26T14:57:00.000-08:00

Hi guys!

I need your help. I received my offer today from Contech and I have until tomorrow to get back with them. They offered $5K less than what I wanted and they only offer one week of vacation for the first five years and then after that you get two weeks. Right now I get 2 weeks. Plus I would have to pay $40 per month for my health benefits and right now I do not pay anything. Because I will have a much longer commute with this new job it will actually cost me if I take the offer as is. I know, doesn't make a lot of sense for me to accept that offer but I am going to try and negotiate. That is where I need your help. I would like to offer $5K more than they offered me and ask for an additional week of vacation. Do you all think that is unreasonable? I am not sure what to do, I feel like an hour glass running out of time here in my current position. I just found out today that they are laying off 15-20 people in the next 30-45 days. I'm sure I will be part of that. But, I do not want to sell out for less than my worth and be frustrated in my new position from the very start. Any ideas on how to write a great negotiation letter?

Thanks guys, any advice would be helpful!

M

2008-02-25T14:08:00.000-08:00

Really too bad to hear of all the snow and cold weather in SoCal. It's been really nice here. I just snapped this photo out back this morning:

2008-02-25T13:17:00.000-08:00

Hi guys! Really glad you set this up as a family blog, Heather--thanks. Now I can spam everybody!

Hey Miss Arielle, how about posting some of your photos on the blog? We wanna see 'em!! Yours too, Ashley!

Grandma Younce is in the hospital--may be released today, not sure. She had bad congestion and high fever. They started treating her for something called C-Diff (I'd never heard of it), an intestinal problem usually caused by overmedicating with antibiotics. Think they tried 4 different antibiotics trying to get rid of congestion. We're hoping she's feeling better. Grandma Gray is doing pretty well. She's got a sore foot--one of the other ladies in the home ran over her foot with a motorized wheelchair! Don't think it's too serious, though. We're all so grateful that she's adapted well to Ruth's house--she really feels at home there. Grandma Younce was slowly getting more used to it too, I think.

Anybody guess why we gave this painting to Chris for his birthday?:

DC

2008-02-25T10:47:00.000-08:00

So, many of you may already know Ashley is going on a trip to Washington DC this summer - the week of June 16th. The trip will include all the usual Wash. DC stuff, memorial, congress, lincoln memorial, etc. and it will also include a trip to Amish Country.

Here's the link for the trip in case you want to know...
http://www.worldstrides.com/discoverdc/Discoverdc.asp

But what you may NOT know is I'm going too as a chaperone. It will be almost 20 years since I was in DC. It was in July of 1988 when I last was there, so it'll be really interesting to see it 20 years later. Wonder how much is different from when I was there last (I also wonder how much I remember!). It should be a fun trip. We plan to bring computers along so we can blog our days while we are there.

Grades, Grades and more Grades

2008-02-25T10:16:00.000-08:00

So Ashley got a 3.8 this past semester - YAY Ashley! She of course was on the honor roll and got to go to an assembly for all of the overachievers at her school... She was really excited.

Speaking of Ashley... she got her official High School registration packet this week. She's picked her classes for next year (well really only picked electives, but still had to circle the right core classes for her grade). She picked German as her first choice for a second language class, and French as her second choice. She also picked Digital Photography as her first choice for visual arts elective, and I believe the second choice is multi media. She is jazzed to join clubs at Vista - her biggest problem is deciding which ones to join because she loves so many of them! Stay tuned to find out what she chooses.

Meanwhile, I just finished my first class (mgmt 604 - Managerial Assessment and Development) and got my grade - an A - 4.0 baby! I think it is ON between Ashley and I now... LOL!

New Tats?

2008-02-15T23:37:00.001-08:00

So Chris got a new tat, the week after the anneversary of his best friend's death. This one's for you David!

Just call it Snow-Mont :)

2008-02-15T09:32:00.000-08:00

So if you haven't heard yet we had a pretty cold day yesterday. In fact, it really did snow in Beaumont yesterday! I also heard the east county San Diego it snowed too. When we went out last night for Valentines day, we could feel the icyness to the air - it was 38 degrees! That's pretty cold for Murrieta :)... So enjoy the snow pics of Southern California!

Oops I forgot my login!

2008-02-03T20:41:00.000-08:00

Right after my first (and latest) post, I lost the login to this blogspot. Now, I've finally found it - so I'm back! I have alot of catch up to do, so I will be updating this blog very soon...

Ashley's new haircut - Jan 2nd 2008

2008-01-11T21:12:00.000-08:00

So we went to the mall on New Years eve and tried to get Ashley's haircut while her best friend Victoria was with us, but we couldn't find a place to get her hair done. Apparently all the stylists were working 1/2 days so we couldn't find anyone available. So we waited until New Years Day.

We came back to the mall on New Years Day to get her hair cut and this time there was someone available to cut her hair :) She was so excited to talk to the stylist and discuss her hair and what style would look the best on her. They talked for awhile, and then she got it cut. You could tell she was very excited as she was sneaking peeks in the mirror with her little subdued grin she gets when she is super excited but doesn't want anyone to know. It was so cute!

So here she is - Miss Ashley with her first real hair STYLE. Starting the year 2008 off nicely :)