Spring time is great!

First up, Kay-la got her G.E.D.! We here at the Corcoran Family Blog are VERY proud of her, we are also excited that she is continuing on in schooling and getting her diploma.

Next up is spring yard care. The front yard is mostly barked in now, the pathway will be rocked in soon, and plants are starting to get planted. Pretty soon the front is going to look like are real front yard. Pictures to follow soon!

Lastly, and the most fun, is the veggie garden that is going in. We built a raised bed in the back last weekend, and are getting the veggies this weekend. But that's not all! We are getting Giant Pumpkins! I can't wait for those! And Blueberry bushes too!

I started to explain to my wife that blueberry bushes like low pH soil, in the range of 4.0 to 4.5 and that I wanted to get a soil test kit. Eventually she shushed me and said I was taking all the fun out of gardening.

What I'm doing this weekend:

Late winter updates

The big news this time is that Kay-la is off to Job Corps. She is entering the Medical Office Assistant program. We are all very excited for her and wish her well with this endeavor. We also wish her a very happy birthday!!

Noah is now a "self-manager" at school, what ever that means. He got a button and certificate for it and he is very proud of it.

The Rogue Valley Homebrewers is an official AHA homebrew club now.

Lastly Chris, Jen, and Ted have all quite smoking. Today marks the beginning of week 3 that we are all smoke free.

Thanksgiving in Arizona

The Corcoran family is in Arizona for Thanksgiving. Its been awhile since I've been here and its been a lot of fun. We rolled in to the valley at about 8:30 Sunday night and have spent the last few days hanging around the house with family. We've headed out a few times to go shopping for lucky folks at home, and last night was a nice get together. I got to see some of the guys that I haven't seen in 9 years! Hard to believe that its been that long, but everyone is happy and healthy.

Noah is having so much fun with his cousin Dylan. They are playing so much that I hardly even see him!


Its Thanksgiving morning and the kitchen is already bustling with activity so I have to keep this short or I'll get pulled into helping.

Fall Updates

The Corcoran families will be traveling to Arizona for Thanksgiving. Not too excited about the 2 day car trip, but can't wait to see family that I haven't seen in a few years, not to mention visit a few of the great breweries down there.

Over the summer, the family went camping. It was a lot of fun, but on the second to last day I slipped and fell into the river off of a big rock that I had climbed up to take photos. Of course, I had the BRAND NEW camera in my hand as I slid into the cold river. As soon as I popped up I turned off the camera but it was already too late...

Flash forward about 4 weeks. I had taken the camera and opened it up as much as I could to let it dry out, hoping against hope that it would still work, well it didn't. A few days later I was about to toss it out, but decided against all odds to try turning it on one more time. I tossed in some fresh batteries, turned on the camera and TOOK A PICTURE!! w00t it WORKS! Bet you can't tell how excited I was that my brand new camera had survived a fall into the river.

School starts, someone turns 30, and the beer is good.

School started for the kids and you know what that means. Back to school shopping, homework, enforced bedtimes, all sorts of fun! Kay-la has opted into the G.E.D. program and is already ready to test on 4 of 6 subjects. Noah is starting to really take off with his reading skills. He's found that he can read books all on his own if he just pays close attention to what the words REALLY are.

My 30th bday just passed and it was a BLAST! We had a number of folks over to help me celebrate and the party went into the wee morning hours. Thankfully we warned the neighbors and let them know that if we were too loud we would like them to let us know....not that we where loud, but we did go pretty late!

Late Summer Camping Trip

The Corcoran Family and friends went camping last weekend and here is a shot of the waterfalls that were just down the way from our camp site. This was one of the best trips we've made. Though smoky for the first few days, the last two cleared up nicely. Starry skies at night, crystal clear water during the day, it was almost paradise.

Its very strange, when camping, Ted is very energetic and excited about everything. All day he wants to explore, river walk, run around, go swimming...he never stops. Noah on the other hand was content to do what ever Dad was doing. We swam a lot in the river, explored the little fern gullies, slide down the rock slide, or just hung around the camp fire. The girls were mainly content just sitting in the river and relaxing.

A few guests showed up over the four day camping trip. Matty showed up both Saturday and Sunday. Chris and Tiff came out Saturday night for a few hours, and Bryan and Scandal came out Saturday and stayed through Sunday.

This spot is a great location. Just over the CA border its usually pretty quite. This time though there were people all over the place. This didn't really ruin any of our fun, we just had to be a bit more respectful of others. What really upset me though was all the trash these temporary neighbors left behind. I'm not talking about one or two beer bottles, I'm talking 4 or 5 days worth of trash, bottles, bags, broken items...most of it not even bagged up!