Natalie

Whoops

In my last post I inserted a photo of the tile without the grout. Here's the finished product. More photos to follow.

Yeah, our backsplash is finished

The tile for this project had been sitting in our garage since before summer. I finally had some time to put it up. It turned out pretty good for my third tiling job ever. However, I had never attempted vertical application before this nor had I attempted the diagonal pattern. I would do things differently now, but obviously it's too late now. Pretty good huh?

Surprise

After Derek's ODP test I surprised him with a weekend in the wine country. We went to McMinville, Oregon and stayed at the Oregon Hotel. It was very eclectic to say the least. We didn't have a toilet or shower in our room--they were both down the hall. The hotel did however give us nice robes to wear for the trek. After we checked into the hotel, we boarded a van and was whisked away to three local wineries. Derek didn't have a clue as to what we were doing until getting onto the van. It was a great surprise and we had a fantastic time!

The next day I took him to the Evergreen Aviation Museum, home of the Spruce Goose. He thoroughly enjoyed looking at all of the aircraft. Now I know what it's like for him when I go into a scrapbooking or craft store. I enjoyed myself too because Derek was like a kid in a candy store and it was funny to watch. The weekend was very relaxing and wonderful, but we couldn't have done it without Derek's dad watching our children-- so thanks Bob we really appreciated it.

Test Results

Sorry it took so long to post Derek's test results...life happens I guess.

Derek ended up coming in 2nd and missed first by 1/100th of a point. :( His performance was excellent, but he missed one question more than the other guy on the written test and that's where the 1/100th of a point came from. All of the guys were neck and neck with each other and all finished within points of each other. Five tested and four made the promotion list. Derek should be promoted to Lieutenant in a couple of weeks. Hopefully he'll stay on "C" shift and at his current station. We are EXTREMELY proud of him and his performance and are happy to have him back!

Test day has arrived

Well it's finally here! The day that we've been waiting for. Derek got a good night's sleep and woke up this morning a little grumpy. I don't think he was nervous about the test, but something was bothering him. I know--He hadn't had his coffee yet. For some reason he decided not to make one at home this morning. He probably went through Dutch Bros. drive thru on his way to the test. Cross your fingers that he does well.