watch out metalworkers! you've got competition

"embrace life and all it has to offer" has been a motto of ours for quite some time and, in light of recent family events, it's even more fitting. we hope you're doing the same.

this past weekend was a chance for us to enjoy some new experiences, including attending the "women in trades" fair in ne portland. it was a way for us to learn more about non-traditional careers for women, such as a forklift operator and mechanic. in the process, we were offered the opportunity to weld -- something neither of us had done before. nervously, we agreed to give welding a try. as we donned protective eyewear, a helmet, coat and gloves, we wished we had brought our camera to capture the moment. but alas, all we have to show for our experience is a miniature metal sculpture. mine is the palm tree, lucky's is the sailboat.



before you get too impressed, please understand we didn't cut out the metal objects. no, our welding teacher had already done that for us. all we did was use electricity to melt metal in order to fuse the base to the sculpture. below is a close-up of the backside. see the clumpy bead of metal along the base? notice how, because i chose a palm tree, i didn't have much to weld, whereas lucky had to show off by picking the sailboat, which meant lots of welding. now are you impressed??? well, it was actually quite scary. we both decided a career in welding wasn't for us.



we also spent some time at the convention center as we wandered the aisles of a pottery and ceramics fair, a glass beads and glassworks fair, a furniture builders fair, a jewelry fair and the "i've had enough of people" fair.

sunday was elizabeth's birthday so we got a chance to take her to one of her favorite breakfast places, violet's. again, we wished we had brought the camera to the restaurant because my hot chocolate arrived at the table with the word "violet's" written across the frothy white foam in chocolate sauce. fancy!

speaking of fancy, we leave for hawaii in less than two weeks and boy, oh boy, are we ecstatic!!!!!!

please know we think of you often, and we love and miss you all. sending lots of love and hugs across the miles...the girlz

here's a picture of us with the birthday girl.