New house

Well the latest news in our life is we are not building a house in tangent. Long story short the appraisal did not meet the amount we needed to cover building. It felt to us that it wasn't meant to be. So we decided to look at other options just incase. We fell across this place and both love it. We have an accepted offer on the house and if all goes smoothly will be new home owners in 30 days or so! kaysha

Newport Marathon and Our Garden

Deena just before the halfway point.

Brent just after turning around at the halfway point.

Deena on her way back after the half way point. Look at that sky. VERY nice day.

The garden is looking great this year.

I added a new fence and six and one half new raised beds. What do ya think? We are excited.

Our New Front Yard Lake

Did you know we were installing a lake at our place. Here is a close up. Be sure to bring your fishing poles next time you come.

Where are the ducks?

Might be some bass in there.

Here is the slough adjacent to our new lake. Look for the bullfrogs.

Our game warden watching out for fishermen without a license.

Just Playin' Around

I've just been playing around with different blog backgrounds, and I wanted to make sure that no one cares. I'm happy to change it back if any of you prefer it the way it was. - Deyce

STEPHEN and OKSANA, updated

Hey everyone,

Stephen here. Over the Christmas break I came across a few copies of The Robbins Reporter, the family news letter that was at one time sponsored by Dawn and Jon if I remember correctly. There were stories and interviews of family members, it was a real treat. It was also somewhat time consuming to produce, I'm sure. Phone calls, typing, printing, mailing, etc. I decided that I was going to take charge of the family blog and really DO something with it.

I had really good intentions, but obviously very little follow through. Here's to redemption and second chances though, right?

Dawn called me the other day, in part to find out if she could help me with the internship/job search (hint hint, other four siblings!), and also to see how I was doing. I realized that I had never really cleared up the situation with my marriage so, here goes! Oksana and I are doing really well. Our relationship was pretty fragile there for awhile, but we've decided to give things another shot and so far so good.

Speaking of Oksana, she has become somewhat of a passionate cook! She is still very busy with work, but she enjoys going through recipes, and trying new things. I selfishly think she has chosen her new pastime wisely.

Last week I went to Washington DC for an interview at the Embassy of Peru. I originally asked if the interview could be over the phone, or via skype, but they said that it needed to be in person.

The Embassy of Peru, on 17th and Massachusetts

So I showed up for my interview, and all it really consisted of was the guy saying, "this is the embassy, when do you want to come work here?" It was short and informal, no fingerprints or photographs, certainly not something that would normally warrant a cross country flight, but I digress. The internship is unpaid, but so far it's my only offer so I'm thinking about maybe doing it. I am not thrilled about spending another summer away, but since DC is considerably closer (and cheaper), I'm thinking I could come home for Sunriver, and

Oksana could visit for another week and we could break up the time this way. We'll see, I'm still looking at all my options.

In other news, I sprained my ankle pretty bad Monday morning in my law school basketball league. I came down on someone else's foot, and heard/felt my ankle "pop." It was pretty painful, but the x-rays were negative, just a sprain. I was on crutches the first two days, but today I'm just wearing one of these big goofy boots. The morning after the sprain, I was sliding down our stairs on my butt, feeling sorry for myself, when I remembered that Kelly spent basically an entire year like this, but WORSE because she had bone taken from her hip and drilled into her feet! Crazy! I immediately stopped pouting and hopped into the kitchen for breakfast.

Speaking of Kelly, one of her screws came loose (literally), and she had it worked on, so make sure you all call and see how she's doing! ;-)

I recently wrote an article for the U of O online law journal (which is a fancy way of saying "blog"). I spent quite a bit of time on it, so if you have a minute to read it that would be cool. You can find it by clicking here.

Last but not least, I went to a funeral this morning, my friend Ben Verhoven's mother Mary passed away. I was obviously not great friends with his mother, but I have great memories from the time I spent in the Verhoven home growing up. It was a special place, and that had a lot to do with his mother, no doubt. Anyways, the funeral was a reminder of just how rare and special great mothers are, and how those of us who are blessed enough to have one in our lives often take their presence for granted.

So, thank you Mom for being amazing in every way, and thank you also to mothers like Mary Verhoven who made growing up in our community a fun a wholesome experience! Moms are awesome.

Stephen

February 2010

We had dinner at the top of the Tower of the Americas. It was awesome. I tried not to look on the way up. If you want to see great picture, check out Deyce's facebook. She's a better photographer than I am.

The dinning floor rotates slowly so we had a changing magnificent view

These next two are on the river walk. The first one was a boat tour. We went down several times, the last time at night. It was a beautiful experience. People were friendly and polite, great music at the market and riverwalk, and I got to spend it with a beautiful daughter, son in law, and grandson who were kind enough to invite me along. It was a trip of a lifetime for me-loved it and thank you Garrick and Deyce. Garrick drove, Deyce navigated and I -I'm not sure what I did. I would say babysat in the back seat but Logan was so good he didn't need me.