Sunday, September 30, 2007

Roser Update

Hello Family! We are doing well and we hope you are too!

Acadia has started 3rd grade and loves it! She has also started piano lessons and I am very impressed with how quickly she is learning it. She played the Can Can for her music class at school. She had forgotten her music at home so she played it by memory! She is now learning a two handed song. I'm proud of her and how well she is doing. :) She continues to take gymnastics as well. It makes for very busy Fridays since both piano lessons and gymnastics are after school on Fridays. But it's all good! :)


Acadia and I have been reading a lot together. In August we started reading the Harry Potter series and just finished the final book this weekend. It was fun to read together! It was fun for me to reread them. :) Now we need to decide what to read next!


Aurora is getting so big! She is now 14 months old! She has 4 teeth, almost 5. She is still getting into everything! And the stinker is getting smarter about it, too. hehe She is trying (unsuccessfully, thankfully) to climb over the baby gate! She loves music! She loves to "help" Big Sister play the piano. She dances whenever music comes on. It's fun. :)




We're working on reroofing our house right now. Unfortunately, the rain has finally returned at the same time. It will all work out though. Whatever Ryan doesn't get finished on his days off this week, he'll get done next week when his step-father comes up to help. :)



We're planning on driving down to SLC next weekend to attend General Conference. We're very excited! Now that Acadia is 8 years old, she can sit in the Conference Center and she is excited to see the prophet in person! It will be Ryan's first time being there for Conference, too.


In November, we have two trips planned. One short visit to Reno to see Ryan's East Coast parents when they go to visit Ryan's brother and family. And then our Thanksgiving trip to Sacramento. Last year, work trumped our Thanksgiving trip and we are hoping that doesn't happen again! *keep fingers crossed*


So there is a lot to look forward to! We love hearing about you guys, so keep posting! :)

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Exciting Times

Sorry we haven't kept in touch much.    We've really have a LOT going on this summer.  Well, not so much me right now, but Michael certainly does.

He is about to become a business owner. He is opening his own coffee roasting business along with a partner, Bruce. We finally managed to come up with at least enough of our part of the  financing to get us started. We found this cute little espresso cafe in downtown Vancouver called Paradise Espresso and Deli by chance not long after Mike & Bruce decided to become partners.  Mike and I went there to grab lunch.  He was familiar with the place, having talked to the owner several times in the past about working there and helped him with some roasting.  They serve sandwiches and of course coffee drinks. While we were there, the owners daughter, who was working behind the counter mentioned that her dad was selling the place.  So Michael called him the next day and let him know he was interested. Of course, Bruce and his girlfriend were in Europe at the time, so Mike didn't know if he would be interested, but when he got back, they looked at a few other places, but decided on this one.

Michael and Bruce will continue the espresso cafe with a few changes, but the main focus of the business will be a coffee roastery that will focus on Kona coffee, though that won't be the only one they offer. This part of the business will be strictly a wholesale business if I understood correctly. Right now Michael just completed all the legal forms (rather than having a lawyer do them up). Michael is very good at that sort of thing you know. Now the seller, Phil, just needs to have his lawyer go over them. Tentatively they are looking to take over the business on November 1. Scary and exciting at the same time. Oh, the new name of the cafe will be McKona Koffee Paradise Kafe. Michael's moniker on the home roast list he's on is Mike McKona. So, stay tuned.  More will be unveiled as things move forward. 

As for me, I'm still working in Portland, and still wondering what I'm going to wind up doing when they disband our Admin group. Not sure where I'll wind up. We keep hearing rumors that the powers that be have placed us somewhere, but no ones telling us. Plus we're not sure when it will happen. Could be next week, or next month. Needless to say, it's just a little stressful. I'll be eligible for full retirement in November, but Michael says I'll probably have to stick it out a couple more years. BUT, I'm still going to have my retirement run to see how much my annuity would be. Who knows, maybe I could go sooner if it's enough.

We did take a little time out in August and made our annual trek to the Long Beach Kite Festival.  It was great fun, visiting with our friends from Seattle, enjoying the beach, sand and of course the kites.  If I can ever get Mike to download the pictures we took (I'm sort of inept at that), I'll post a couple of really interesting ones.  We had pretty good weather overall, it rained some on the last Saturday, but not bad enough to bring the kites down.  Unfortunately, when it got done raining, the wind died and everything came down anyway.  Overall, it was very enjoyable.  Taylor stayed at the house while we were gone to just look out for things. We boarded the kitty because he was taking medication and had a drain tube in his leg from an abscess we discovered the week before.  He's doing fine now, though we still have to give him subcutaneous fluids everyday because of his kidney problem.  Oh, I also took the next week off and just dinked around the house.  I hated to go back to work.

We want to let you all know how much we love you all and hope that someday very soon, we can all get together again. 

Love, hugs, and kisses

Debi & Mike




Tuesday, September 11, 2007

HOLY COW!!!!






Happy Birthday Adam and Hana !!! Happy Birthday 2 you!!!!

Adam turned 4 on Monday the 10th and Hana turned 1 on the 11th!!! WEEEE!!!! WOW !!!! It is crazy how time flies!!!
LOVE YOU ALL!!!
AMANDA JACOB ADAM AND HANA