The construction begins...

These photos were taken before we lived here. Notice the dark stained cabinets, the large box florescent light on the ceiling, and the cabinet over the breakfast bar.....soon to be all changed!

Here are some before photos...

This willow tree could be the death of us!!

Greg glaring at the Willow Tree!!

Everyone knows that I love trees! I cry when trees are cut down, I hate change, and my last name (now middle) is Green...call me a hippie, call me a tree hugger, call me a part of the green movement, whatever you wish..I just love trees- alot! EXCEPT this one!  Two days before we closed escrow the pool was a beautiful sparkling blue, the yard was free from any leaves and it looked like it could just use some flowers....Well not today! Not the day we close escrow...

 

Surprise! The Willow Tree decides to shed ALL of its leaves, fill the yard with these little yellow leaves, turn the pool a nasty color, and shed some more leaves!  I tell you... this Willow Tree could be the death of us! 

First things first.. FLOWERS OF COURSE!

VERY 1ST TASK..PLANT FLOWERS!

Yes, that's right! The very first thing on my (yes, Bree's. Not Greg's : ) list is to plant some flowers!  So that I did. Early Saturday morning (the day after my dad and Sus have arrived) we went straight to Home Depot and bought some flowers!

Daffodils it is! I love the vibrant yellow they immediately provided for all to enjoy on the back deck! Tommy took these pictures! Great pics T-Tommy!

Surprise! The outdoor crew is here!

We had just received the good news on Friday, signed papers, etc. It was late in the evening and Greg and I were just sitting at the kitchen table in our condo discussing the huge purchase we had just made! We were also trying to guess at how many times we signed our name that day : ) My dad had called and I was on the phone with him when we got a knock at our door...guess who! My Dad and Sus! They drove all the way down to surprise us!! And let me tell you, they did not come empty handed! Since you know how much they love the outdoors and working in the yard, they came with a truckload of brand new outdoor tools! Rakes, shovels, clippers, wheelbarrow, shop vac, vaccuum, air compressor, sander, oh and so much more! We could not believe it! (Although we could believe that of course they would not let a day go by without getting into that new yard to spruce it up! (And we hadn't even closed escrow, but it didn't matter! To the new yard we go!!) 

That morning was filled with pure giddiness!  I was SO excited! It was also the morning of our first of MANY trips to Home Depot! They should have frequent flier miles at Home Depot! We would have so many free flights right now!

So where to start? Well in the yard of course! 

We bought a house!! 48 hour escrow!

After a whirlwind of an escrow (48 hours!!) we are finally homeowners! We put in an offer and waited (somewhat patiently) for a long time. We waited and waited over Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's and then finally in the second week of January we heard the good news! We were homeowners! We found out Friday that our offer was accepted, we had (already scheduled) inspections on Friday, and we signed papers at the Title company on Friday! Monday the funding went through and Tuesday early AM we were homeowners!!

Here are some pictures of the house. We didn't take these picture, but got them off a realtor's listing. 

From the back corner of the yard, looking toward the back deck. 

The yard is on two levels. The lower level has the pool and lawn. The upper level is a large Willow tree, Redwoods, and some rosemary plants. So a lot of open space, not sure what to plant there.

Finally Updating Our Blog! (Sorry it's been awhile!)

So much has happened since September! I will try to fill in the blanks...but the biggest news is that we bought a house! Woohoo!!!

We made it through our 1st Year!

I love being married! We really enjoyed our anniversary weekend! Eric and Genie were so gracious and let us use their beautiful house for the weekend. We had just forgot how much we enjoyed spending time together. We biked, shopped, went to a Wine and Food Festival, watched Princess Bride on a huge screen on the beach, golfed, relaxed, laughed and just enjoyed the weekend. We need more of these! ha!

Happy 22nd Birthday Tommy!

Saturday was a jam packed day! We woke Tommy up with singing, noise makers and breakfast in bed. Then went off to a leader meeting at 8 then met up with about 20 YL folks to go to the A's game. It was a fun day! We tailgated, had birthday cake and enjoyed the sunshine.   The whole day we kept looking up at the billboard where it was supposed to say, "Happy 22nd Birthday Tommy!" But we never saw it!!! What the heck! Anywho, we concluded our day with one of Greg's close friends' weddings. Quick ceremony and lots of time for a fun reception.  It was definitely a Pioneer class reunion for Greg which he really enjoyed spending the time with his high school friends. Congrats to Dave and Jeff for their recent engagements to their girlfriends! Quiet an exciting day!

Sailing Time!

I cannot tell you how excited I am about this! We went and picked up the Sunfish sailboat that my grandparents learned how to sail on and my dad learned to sail on! It is in pristine condition and is just beautiful! I cannot wait to get it on the water!! 

Tommy has a girlfriend & we adore her!!

Yep! This is exciting news! Tommy is dating an amazing girl who we cannot quit talking about. We absolutely LOVE her! Yea for Bryanna and Tommy!  Here are some super cute pics of them... enjoy their cuteness!

Mollie Almost 1 Year Old!

Mollie is almost 1 Year Old! This Saturday I was able to spend a little time with Travis' little girl Mollie and had some first's with her (at least my first time hearing/seeing) Firsts....."Hi!" with a little wave, laughing, walking. She is precious!!! Ps- Camo and lace ruffles...so cute! Only in Biggs : )

Oh Mollie! I know you will hate this picture someday, but I had to post it on here! My dad calls this "Four-Hi". Mollie doesn't like to have her knees touch the grass so when she moves onto grass she pops her caboose in the air and walks on all fours! So cute! 

Happy 28th Birthday Gregory P!

Happy Birthday to YOU! Happy Birthday to YOU! Happy Birthday dear Greg! Happy Birthday to YOU! 

Thanks Larry, Kathy, Matt, Tommy and Bryanna for taking Greg to dinner for his birthday! 

Greg and I also celebrated by having a beach party dinner at our house! Quite fun!

The Shack

The Shack- Read It! Greg and I have been listening to the audio version on our iPods and have really enjoyed it. I also was able to spend a lunch with the author as he visited us at Woodleaf for the afternoon.  Very awesome to hear someone that is so transparent about their life! 

ISRAEL VIDEOS FROM OUR TRIP!

I just found out that there are videos from our Israel trip. Dan put all his video shots together. 

Thanks Dan! 

Click here to watch the first Israel video. 

Click here to watch the second Israel video!!

Sky High aka Bouncing off the walls!

Tommy has come to live with us as of late and we are bouncing off the walls in excitement that he's here!! Check it out!

Assignment in Santa Cruz

I just returned from an easy breezy 2 week assignment in the Santa Cruz Mountains. We did a 2 week Wyldlife camp (Jr. High). I say easy breezy because it was so short compared to my 5 week assignment in San Diego last summer at the peak of wedding chaos!

It was a great time with great people. My job was head leader so basically I got to love on leaders and kids the whole time. It was such a different assignment than my previous assignments at Woodleaf and Oakbridge. It was very small, not a beautiful Young Life property, dirty, and just different. The great parts were: our small A-Team, summer staff, (no Work Crew) and under 100 kids each week. We were able to know each kid by name and create for them an awesome experience! 

For Greg and I this was a neat assignment because it is so close to San Jose (relatively) he was able to come stay off and on during the assignment. He was able to spend time with the summer staff guys as there was not a male SS coordinator.  I LOVED having him there with me! 

Also- I found Vallarta's in Felton! The BEST burritos I've ever had!! More on that to come!

Glorious Graduations!

May and June have been a month of graduations for Greg and I. We absolutely adore our cousins. I am the oldest cousin on both sides of my family so when I get a chance to celebrate my cousins I can't wait.  As each of our cousins have spent their whole lives coming to my games, homecoming, graduations, etc. Because I went to school 6 hours away from most of them (a lot more for the rest) I have always felt sad that I could not get up there for all their games. So I rearranged schedules and rearranged again to try to make it to as many graduations I could. There were a lot! Some were on the same night so we had to put family first and miss out on some friends unfortunately but we tried to make it to either a graduation or party!  We made it to all of our immediate family-younger cousin's graduations! 

CONGRATS GUYS! WE CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE ALREADY GRADUATING!! LOVE YOU! 

Mathew's graduation from Oroville High School

Ryan's graduation from West Valley High School

Chelsie's graduation from Sutter High School

Morgan's graduation from Valley Christian High School 

David's graduation from Leigh High School 

Sorry we couldn't make it to the rest of our family and friends' graduations- we tried!! Congratulations on all your hard work! We're proud of you!! 

Jeromy's graduation from Chico State

Megan's graduation from Woodland's Pioneer High 

Jenny's graduation from Chico State

Rachel's graduation from San Luis Obispo High

23rd Annual Brent Jones Young Life Open

Another great year on the course at Almaden Country Club. I am really amazed at the generosity of people in our community that give up a day to golf and financially support the work of Silicon Valley Young Life. I am incredibly grateful for our dedicated committee. Jean runs this tournament like it's no big deal. This is her 23rd tournament and she is phenomenal. I'm learning so much from her. Greg served on the committee this year and provided great golfer/YL leader input (I love my husband--he is so great!!) Brent is also very dedicated to being present at planning meetings. People always ask if they can borrow him for their tournaments since it's just his name to ours and I always with a smile get to say, "It's not just his name. It's his tournament, his input, his perspective, his ministry and his way of giving back to the ministry that introduced him to Christ at Leland high school." It's so awesome to serve alongside people that have passion and that pursue their passions to bless others! I love my job!

Energy Block Flavor...Gross!!

Salted margarita flavored energy shot block-sick! So during Pat's Run we were given these little energy chewy things. We opened and ate them while we were running and  It was the most disgusting thing to be running (hot, out of breath, tired) and tasting tequilla(flavoring), salted margarita chewy things! Not my thought of energy!  Who made that up??! Seriously! Tequilla is not the taste I want in my mouth as I am feeling like I'm already going to die running up hill! haha

Pat's Run 4.2 Miles! We did it!

Greg woke me up at 7:15 AM and somehow (I must still have still been sleeping) that I should go with him to Leland High School to run in Pat's Run. Greg was friends with the Tillman family in high school and this was important to him-in honoring Pat. 

So....we drove over to Leland, (got lucky with close parking!) paid, got a cool yellow jersey and bib with a number on it and within 45 minutes of waking up I was starting a 4.2 mile run! (Do you know how long it's been since I've run! haha) The run went great, was challenging with a lot of hills, but it was really fun. We ran just about the whole thing and had a lot of fun in the process!

Happy Birthday DAD!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR DAAAD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO YOOOOOOOOOOU!!!

Happy Birthday Dad! Wish we could be with you! We love you!!

Mama Mia!!

My old roommates Barb, Cindy and I had a girl's night out and watched the musical Mama Mia in downtown San Jose musical theatre. It was incredible! I have seen in previously in Las Vegas with my roommates Amanda and Brook. It was fantastic the first time and then so great again! 

I absolutely LOVE this muscial. It makes me want to get up and dance and sing! It's the perfect musical to see with a group of girls.  I loved spending time with my old roomies! We need to get together more often : )

House Hunting

Ok seriously! Here's my soapbox for the day.... House Hunters.... stupid show! All they show is $200,000 homes or million dollar apartments in San Fran. Not realistic! And not helping me as Greg quite often gives me a reality check of what a $600,00-$800,000 home will buy us in San Jose. What's that you ask? A small, old, track home. Depressing.

Israel 2008 (To see ALL pics. see album link below!)

Seriously! It snowed in Jerusalem! So crazy...I thought we were going to the desert!

The Temple Steps that were dug up recently.... they continue on deep under the city.

Capernaum

Mt. of Beatitudes

I had to peek through the wall to get this picture. It's the Western Wailing Wall


I took way too many photos in Israel... Here's a link to ALL my pictures. Click Here! (Or type into your browser: http://picasaweb.google.bree.yl