Renovation Part 2

Hello all! What a weekend! Steve taught a class on Saturday while I sent to Ikea to get some goodies for the home. After a massive amount of work... we now have new floor in our living room! We'll give you the play by play at a later time... now it is time for sleep!

What's missing from this picture?

So... the DIY network is dangerous. If you have talked to me in the past couple of weeks you'll have heard that we have been watching the DIY network quite a bit. Well, Steve has become passioned about making some changes around the home. WOW.

So he tackled the first thing today!

He took out our little fireplace (that we never use) and we put it on Craigslist. Now to the list of home improvement projects:

Take out the brick background behind where the fireplace was
Put in floor to ceiling book shelves along that same wall
Add a deck to our back yard right behind the house
Add a patio behind the garage
Finish painting the windows and garage trim
Take out carpet in living room - install wood (or laminate flooring)
Repave Driveway and create actual driveway
Take out grass on the side of house and side of garage - replace with pea gravel
Clean gutters and repair
Repair and replace fence posts
Drywall the inside of the garage
Take out the 4x4 posts in back yard
Replace fan in bathroom
Recaulk tub
Take out sofit lighting in living room and kitchen
Replace lighting in living room and kitchen
New kitchen floor
New Siding
Create a window from kitchen to living room
Expand bedroom into 2nd bedroom and create a walk in closet

Umm... We have a lot to do. Guess we are going to stick around here for a while!

Graduation

We arrived at the Oregon Convention Center around 8:45am and parted our separate ways - me to the "Graduates section" and Steve to the "visitors section." I got to meet a few people from the online forums and realized the great numbers of people that were getting this degree!

This was Marylhurst's 116th commencement ceremony - and the largest one they had! There were 4 speakers, The president and three student speakers. One of the student speakers was pretty incredible. He started his 2 year program as he was in the Navy and posted from 5 out of 7 continents and from all 7 of the oceans! WOW. Pretty incredible.

Anyway, it was a pretty good ceremony and on August 28th I'll really be able to celebrate it!

Here's some pictures that Steve and Kristi took!

Day off Ride

What a day off!

We started off (see previous post) heading to Portland to see where we needed to go on Saturday...but after that we drove up to 23rd St (kind of an upscale bohemian hang out) and wandered through a toy store and looked at the shops. Driving in Portland is a little tougher than driving in Newberg!

We then took Burnside up over the hills headed toward the 26 and Hillsboro Beaverton areas. This long part of the ride was riddled with stop signs and traffic, but gave us quite a few windy roads to enjoy.

We made it out to the Streets of Tanasbourne and Motosports Hillsboro and looked at some shoes and a new bike for Steve.

Lots of windy roads back and forth through Hillsboro and then over the Chehalem Mountain for a total of 75 miles. We'll need some more practice to get ready for our Alumni Ride in August!



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What's This!!!???!!!!

From What's this

Well, Steve and I took a trip up to Portland today to visit where I will be graduating on Saturday. Oh - Did I not tell you that? hmm. Well, I kind of didn't tell many people that I was going back to school, again. I chose an online MBA program through Marylhurst University located here in Oregon. It was an 18 month program, focusing in on Non-Profit Business. I have 2 classes left (Starting June 21st - August 28th) but am graduating this weekend because I didn't want to put it off until December.

Steve has helped me a bunch through this degree (as he did with my doctorate). I am so thankful that he is in my life and that he supports my addiction to taking classes!

I am getting ready to sign up for a new thing - Certificates! Basically it is school without getting a degree - so it is cheaper and more focused instead of general. The first program is through Capella University and in Diversity Studies. I'd then like to go on into Human Resources, Addictions Counseling, Art Therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorders (some of these are through other schools though).

I'll post some pictures of the graduation and make sure to send you the link if you want to buy pictures. :)

--Tara