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Another building at Petra

The Treasury @ Petra

Petra

If you're poor, you only get the goat's head. You boil it and eat it for breakfast

Very recently slaughtered goats hanging in the market...dinner anyone?

180,000 shards of broken glass =number of Kurds killed by Sadam. 5,000 lights = number of villages destroyed by Sadam.

More at the museum
Part of the Kurdish Museum dipicting Sadam's atrocities.

Where Al was asked to be the pastor.

The beach @ Aqaba.

Jordanian women at a class at the Alliance Life Center.

Giddy-up.

Aqaba Jordan

Where King David had Bathsheba's husband killed.

Amman Jordan

Al just returned from 2 weeks in the Middle East. He and 3 other guys from our church went to Jordan and Iraq to encourage the missionaries and visit some community centers. In Jordan, the team spent time in Amman and then the coastal resort of Aqaba. The community centers are doing a great job of reaching out and meeting the needs of their neighborhoods, something we want to do with our center here in Salem. After a week in Jordan, Al and the guys flew to Kurdistan Iraq. While there, Al had the privilege of preaching at the International Church. He preached from Ephesians and got wonderful feedback from the congregation. They even asked him to be their pastor. A great compliment...but no thank you. The noise and the dirt and the lonliness of being away from family was a clear indication to Al that he is NOT called to the mission field. God bless those that are. They serve Christ with incredible strength & determination. On their return to Jordon, the guys got to travel to Petra to see the amazing city that is carved into the canyons there. Al said that the structures were more impressive than the pyramids, and that's saying something. All in all his trip was wonderful. But he and I are glad he's home.

Happy Birthday Sweet Al

Lunch at our favorite restaurant at the Paris

A pretty good Beatle cover band

March Madness at the Mirage Rhum Bar

No explanation needed

The lobby of the Wynn


The beautiful Encore Hotel

On March 26th, Al turned 60. To dull the pain a bit, I surprised him with a trip to Las Vegas. We left really early on Friday morning and returned really early Monday morning. We have been to LV so many times that it feels like our 2nd home. But for some reason, this trip was really really fun. The fact that it was Spring Break and NCAA Tounament time added to the party that is always happening in Vegas. And for some reason, Al and I got invited to several parties...with fun young people buying us drinks, pretty girls fawning over Al (for a bachelorette party scavanger hunt) and lots of great basketball. We ate fabulous food, enjoyed the sunshine, took long walks and sampled beverages of all types. Mmmmmmm! Bust mostly we just had fun being together. Happy Birthday Al. Your wife loves you!

Happy Birthday Sweet Porter

Look who's 2! Porter Everett John DeBacker came into our lives 2 years ago today. What a precious gift he has been to us. His sweet gentle spirit, his kind nature and his curiosity are wonderful traits that he demonstrates everyday. Our 2 grandboys are perfect counterpoints to each other. Finn will teach Porter courage and Porter will teach Finn restraint. Someone once told me that until I had grandkids, I just couldn't imagine how much I would love them. And they were right. Porter, Finn & Maggie are my joy. Happy Birthday P-Man. Grammie loves you!

Happy Birthday sweet Finn

It's hard to believe that Finn is already a year old. It seems like just yesterday we were welcoming him into the fam. Finn is an incredibly fun and funny guy that does everything at hyper-speed. He cut several teeth at 13 weeks, rolled over way ahead of schedule, and walked at 11 months. His determination is becoming legendary and his approval/disapproval/joy/frustration and every other emotion is obvious on his beautiful little face. Truly, I have never seen a more expressive baby/toddler. There is never a doubt about where you stand with him. It's hilarious and delightful! Happy Birthday, Finn Boy. Grammie loves you!

The Playroom is Done!

After several months of planning and painting and shopping and ordering, the palyroom here at home is done and I love it! During the school year, I have the priveledge of caring for my grandkids 3 days a week. Porter is 2, Finn is 1 and Maggie is 2 months old. I knew that keeping 3 little kids at the same time was going to be a challenge so Al and I decided to eliminate 1 guest room and create a fun and safe place to contain the g-kids.We chose the downstairs guest room so there would be no stairs involved plus there was a connected bathroom. It was hard to come up with a decorating scheme that was winsome for the kids but also somewhat sophisticated as it's the first room you see when you come through the front door. I finally found a rug in the Pottery Barn catalog and I had my inspiration. We refreshed the yellow paint that was already on the walls, painted the brown on the bottom half and painted and put up the red chair rail. I bought the workbench in Redding last summer, we've had Dakota the Wonder Horse for years, JJ donated the easel (the chalkboard was green so I painted it brown) the table and chairs came from Costco, the little windsor chairs were picked up at a street sale in Silverton, I ordered the alphabet letters on-line and the rocking chair was ordered through Goodnight Room at Bridgeport. The last project was to clean out the closet so all the plastic toys could be put out of sight (someday the closet will become a fort or secret cave, a space ship or maybe an enchanted castle for Maggie). I'm so happy with the finished project and the best part is the kids LOVE it. And for this grammie, knowing that the kids are safe and contained and well entertained is the icing on the cake.

Uncle Phil's Palace

Last weekend, Al and I met dear friends Nancy & Curt Kendall in Eugene for a basketball game at the new Matthew Knight Arena. Let me just say, WOW! The entire facility is first class. Other than the size, you feel like you're in an NBA arena. The exterior of the building is beautiful and much like Autzen, the long stairway to the entrance gets you revved up for fun stuff ahead (and we went in the back door). Inside there are a couple of things that are baffling. The first being the floor. As you can see from the picture, it's brown and has trees and they are brown. Oregon's colors are green and gold. Don't you think green trees might have been a better choice? Also, our $41 seats were three rows from the top of the bottom level which was fine. However the next tier up, hung over our heads and impeded our view of the stats board. Some architect goofed I'm sure. On the plus side, the Knightvision scoreboard was fantastic, the food was good, the seats were comfortable and the place was rockin'. There's nothin' like college sports if you want to have a good time. Alas, the Ducks lost to Stanford but that was the only downer of the day. Thanks N & C. for makin' it happen. Love you.

Phoenix In February

Jana was scheduled to attend a conference in Phoenix so she and JJ and Finn and Al and I decided to make a mini vacation out of it. What would be nicer than to get of rainy grey Oregon and head down to warm sunny Arizona? In a horrible trick of fate, the sun was out beautifully, but the valley was experiencing the coldest temperatures in 82 years. None of us packed with that kind of cold in mind so we all ended up buying some more appropriate outer wear. Finn was sick with a cold the entire week were there so we didn't do much visiting and Jana and JJ missed a few dinners out so they could get Finn to bed on time.
Jeff & Kerry opened their home to us so we invaded in force. One tends to forget how much stuff you have to take when you travel with a baby. We had a delightful time catching up with Jeff & Kerry and their daughter Katie, and brother Randy and his sweet Robin. We had a Taco night (of course) and made the trek into Jordan's (our favorite restaurant when we all lived in Phoenix). We spent a couple of hours at Encanto Park, the site of many Sunday picnics, birthdays parties & duck feedings. The park is in the heart of downtown Phoenix and it is really lovely.
Once at the hotel, Finn & I just hung around while Jana was busy during the day. We brought our dinners in so Finn didn't get sicker and so he didn't expose others to his cold.
It wasn't exactly the vacation we had expected but it was really really nice to spend a little time with my brothers and sisters in law. And truth be told, I like Phoenix best when it's blisteringly hot. Next visit will definitely be in the summer :-)

Christmas 2010

Can anything be more fun than experiencing Christmas through a child's eyes? How about 2 adorable children? We had a wonderful day with our kids and grandboys. The boys were a bit overwhelmed by all the stuff, but they had a fun time none the less. Finn loved the paper and boxes and Porter loved his vacuum and guitar. I had so much fun taking pictures of the boys that I didn't take many of anyone else. I think Jana took the one of the boys and me. Later in the morning, Marek & Suzie and Rhonda, Lauran and Lyndan came for our traditional Christmas brunch of egg casserole, fruit and cinnamon rolls. It was so delightful to relax with the extended family. We sat around the table for several hours and visited and laughed and caught up with each other. We don't do that often enough. 2010 was a very good year and our Christmas celebration was the icing on the cake.

Magic at the Mill



Zoo Lights



This Christmas, Al and I did a few things we've never done before. We had never visited Magic at the Mill here in Salem and had never gone to see the Zoo Lights in Portland. So a week ago Friday, we bundled up and headed out to Mission Mill. It was really "small town" but fun none the less. Lots of lights, crafts for the kids, special entertainment, a fun model railroad layout, victorian carolers and a very interesting demo on how the mill actually worked (both before and after automation). And their Santa was fabulous looking. I think he was the real Santa. The cost for admisiion was $5 and it was worth every penny. It will be fun to take the grandboys next year.
A few days later, we joined Maryanne, AJ & Porter, Jana, JJ & Finn and JJ's sister Kristy and her 2 boys at the Portland Zoo for their annual ZOO Lights Festival. If you want to see lots and lots of lights, don't miss a Christmas trip to the zoo. It's really incredible to see every tree & bush, every fence, every walk-way, every building completely covered with multi colored lights. It's gorgeous! And all the little boys LOVED riding the train. We will definitely do Zoo Lights again.

Random Pre-Christmas Pictures

Porter showing Grammie the handful of grass he's about to feed Big Brown
My Hearts at Home girls after our dinner and party.
After the Gospel Christmas Concert, we had a nightcap at the gorgeous Heathman Hotel
Fun to ride the carousel with the special Christmas horses

Porter & Santa in front of the playroom tree