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Photo Albums |
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Staying connected across the miles.... |
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Martino Family Web Site Ralph, Rebekka, Rachel, and Russell Martino
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Family Progress Report |
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Rachel is now in the third grade. She loves books, and is reading at a 7/8th grade level. She is taking piano lessons and ice skating lessons, and is in the Girl Scouts (Brownies)
Russell is still in nursery school, and has developed quite a personality. He will be in Kindergarten next fall!
Annie is hanging in there, and is now 12 years old (time flies).
Bekki, after taking the fall semester off, is teaching Anatomy and Physiology lab at the Rogue Community College. |
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Photo Archives |
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Current Photos |
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Updated August 25, 2012 |
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Oregon?! |
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As Ralph’s manager read from his script with HR by his side, the dismal realization hit—”you mean your downsizing me!?” Ralph said, incredulously.
“Yes” he said grimly.
Thus began a life-changing whirlwind of activity. There was a frenzied job hunt, a trip to the Bahamas, plumbing leaks, the elation of a new job, and a 2500 mile cross country trip to Medford, Oregon. Ralph started his new job on June 22 at Musician’s Friend, an internet-based retailer of musical equipment. Bekki and the kids had to survive 6 weeks of summer with Ralph across the country. Finally, Bekki and the kids left for Grand Lake, Michigan to spend time with Bekki’s family while Ralph stayed back in Tennessee for a frenzied week of packing, moving, cleaning, and preparing for sale a 3200 square foot house filled with stuff. Things were so hectic that for a week Ralph had just a single meal a day and averaged just 4 hours sleep, with an all-nighter right before the movers came. It took until 3:00 on that Friday afternoon to get everything cleaned and the car packed (every cubic inch of our caravan was filled). At that point Ralph and Annie began their trek to Medford, a torturous 2500 miles and 40 hours of driving. The clock was ticking—they had to be there by the time the movers got there at 8:00 on Monday morning.
They arrived exhausted on Sunday night after driving after driving 10, 19, and 11 hours over the three days. Ralph worked like a dog on the house for 9 days to get it reasonably livable for the arrival of Bekki and the kids. Of course, they had their own disasters. While on vacation, Russ got a broken arm at a playground!
Now, everyone is here in Medford, Rachel is going to 1st grade at Hoover Elementary, Russ is in Nursery School, our house in Tennessee is sold, and we are doing our best to see the sights in beautiful southern Oregon. Rachel hiked her first mountain, climbing 1100 feet to the top of Roxy Anne Peak in Medford. Oregon is one of the most bicycle-friendly places in the country, and we decided to try to turn it into a family activity rather than just a Mommy and Daddy get-away. We got a tag-along bike for Rachel and a trailer for Russell, and have gone on some great family rides on the local bike trails. The kids loved it and can’t wait until spring to do more rides!
We have also had some wonderful trips. We spent a long weekend in early November seeing the Pacific coast at Crescent City, and seeing the Redwoods and Jedediah Smith State Park in northern California. It was a truly awe-inspiring experience.
After Thanksgiving, we took a trip up to Newport, Oregon, to see the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We also spent time at the Yaquina Head Lighthouse and seeing the beautiful Oregon coast.
See pictures in our October and December albums.
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Disney! |
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In 2008, Aunt Marie and Uncle Tony invited us to join them at their timeshare in Orlando. At the time, we envisioned a road trip from Memphis. As it turned out, it was a pair of 9 hour flights from Medford, Oregon into Orlando. However, in spite of the added hassle and expense, we met them at Marriott Cypress Harbor. They spent 3 days with us and we all had a fantastic time. They arrived on Sunday, and we immediately handed the kids over to them and headed out food shopping. They bonded with the kids immediately and everything went great. We had a relaxing afternoon and evening, and rested up to hit the parks over the next 3 days.
We went to Disney Animal Kingdom the first day, and had a great time seeing the animals and going on the safari. It was especially fun because Rachel went on her first roller coaster ever (Everest), and turned into an adrenaline junkie. Russ’s favorite part was the dinosaur section.
The next day we relaxed at home and hung out again. That night we went to downtown Disney, and saw the T-Rex restaurant and the Lego store. Russell loved the huge dinosaur models there.
The next day, we went to Sea World. The kids loved the shows, and Rachel did the Atlantis roller coaster. The kids had such a great time, and were so sad to see Aunt Marie and Uncle Tony leave.
However, we were still able to meet up with Rachel’s godmother Nancy at Magic Kingdom the next day. It poured, but that did not dampen our enthusiasm. Rachel loved the Philharmagic (which terrified her the last time she was here), and the train through futureworld. The kids had a great time getting pictures taken with Buzz Lightyear and Ariel, and Russ loved the Buzz Lightyear ride (we did it 3 times).
See our March 2010 album for some highlights from the trip. |
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Summer of 2010 |
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This summer has just sped by! It all started in the spring, when Bekki requested a tent for Mother’s Day. We wound up taking four camping trips over the summer! Our first camping trip was to Brookings, on the Oregon Coast. We went over the Memorial Day weekend. The kids had a great time, and Rachel was so excited to see the Ranger’s presentations on the local flora and fauna and to become a “Junior Ranger”. The kids loved going to the tide pools and seeing the star fish and other seaside residents that were left exposed when the tide rolled out. They also loved playing on the beach and the whole camping experience. Unfortunately, the weekend ended on a sour note when it rained that last day, and we had to take down all our camping gear in the rain and load it wet into the car. Fortunately, it was not raining back in Medford, and we were able to dry it out once we got home.
Then came Rachel’s birthday—a sleepover for six of her friends. You cannot imagine the pandemonium of 7 little girls in sleeping bags in our family room. In fact, it was so loud that Rachel decided she wanted to abandon her friends and to go to sleep in her bedroom to get some peace and quiet!
Three weeks later (July 4th weekend) came our second camping trip—again to Brookings. The kids enjoyed the beach again, and in addition, we went down to the port to see fireworks.
Later that month, we had our third camping trip. We stayed in a campground on the Smith River just east of Portland. We met Bekki’s brother Chris and his family there, and had an amazing time. In addition to playing in the river, we took a day trip up to Mount Hood. Even though it was nice and warm, there was still snow at that elevation (7000 feet). The kids had a blast playing in the snow. After we were through camping, we stopped in to visit Bekki’s Aunt Mary and Uncle Phil in Portland. In addition to having a great time visiting with them, we also went to the Portland Zoo and Science Museum.
We subsequently had another camping trip down to the Redwoods, had a Japanese foreign exchange student stay with us for 2 weeks, and then Bekki and the kids went to Las Vegas to visit a good friend who had moved there from Memphis. Finally, school started, and life would have been almost normal, but Bekki got a job teaching chemistry at the local Junior College! So she is extremely busy re-learning all the chemistry she knew 20 years ago but forgot. The craziness continues!
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Fall of 2010 |
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We had a wonderful fall, and even managed to bike all the way down to Ashland (30 mile round trip) with the kids in tow! We had a fantastic trip to see Aunt Mary and Uncle Phil in Portland, including a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner and other activities. We had a chance to go to the OMSI science museum again, plus the Children’s Museum in Portland.
Christmas was also very fun. We had breakfast with Santa at the Rogue Valley country club, and did a walk with the local YMCA to see Christmas lights in Medford. We had a wonderful family Christmas at home.
The kids are growing like weeds. Russell and Rachel are both in gymnastics and love it. Russell actually had a “gymnastics party” for his 4th birthday. Rachel is taking piano and making great strides. After going to a birthday party for one of her friends at the local ice rink, Rachel decided she loves skating and started taking ice skating lessons.
In September, Bekki started teaching chemistry at Rogue Community College, and has been spending a lot of time on preparing for and teaching the classes.
Please see our December and April photo albums for the latest family pictures. |
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2011—Quite a Year |
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2011 was like a blur. Bekki started the year teaching biology lab for RCC, and was extremely busy. Russell turned 4 years old and Rachel turned 8.
The big news was related to Ralph and his employment crisis. Musician’s Friend decided to lay off most of their Medford staff and move a few selected people to Los Angeles. Since we did not really want to move to Los Angeles, Ralph started looking for other work opportunities. In early June, he received an offer to work for ITT Technical Institute in Indianapolis, and was just about to accept that offer. However, at the last minute he received a call from Harry and David in Medford about an opening they had. Within a couple of days, they arranged a full day of interviews, made an immediate offer, and instead of moving to Indianapolis we wound up staying in Medford. Unfortunately, Ralph had to start right away and lost all of his vacation. Work has been great, although it has been a big adjustment being in a company where 80% of their business is done in a 5 week period around Christmas. We are in the busy period now, and things are getting more and more hectic!
Bekki and kids were able to join Bekki’s family on a trip to Grand Lake in Michigan for two weeks and at least they were able to have an enjoyable trip for the summer.
We were able to do some fun family day trips. We had a great trip to the waterslide park in Redding California. We had great hikes at Crater Lake and at Mt. Shasta in California. We had a bunch of family bike rides, and took the kids on a 30 mile round trip from Medford to Ashland on the bike path there, and also on a 26 mile round trip bike ride in a bike path in Cottage Grove.
Our niece, Alison, is attending Oregon State University. We took a trip up to Corvalis to meet with Bekki’s brother’s family for a “Beaver” football game. Bekki attended the football game to see Alison in the Marching Band, while Ralph took the kids to the Eugene Science Museum. A great time was had by all.
Fall has finally hit, and the weather is starting to get cool and rainy (it will stay like this consistently from now through the spring. We again will be driving up to Aunt Mary’s home in Portland for Thanksgiving. Bekki’s mom is here for two weeks through Thanksgiving, and will be driving up with us.
Christmas was extremely busy working at Harry and David, where most of our yearly sales come in just a few week period. However, we all survived, and the family had a wonderful Christmas.
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2012—Keeps getting better! |
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Ralph is loving work at Harry and David. The people are great, and we are getting budget to make major positive changes. The company is doing well and seems stable. And his boss is great. What more could he ask for!
In a fit of unbridled optimism, we decided to take the plunge—we are having a house built! Move in should be some time in November. We are taking lots of pictures as construction occurs, and will have a photo album ready to post when we move in!
It has been another fun year. We had a great Christmas. Rachel had great fun in the snow at the Girl Scouts Snowcapades. We did numerous hikes during the spring and into the early summer, and we had a camping trip at the Oregon Dunes. The dunes were amazing—sand dunes at some points hundreds of feet high. We also did some canoing and some swimming in the area.
The highlight of our summer was a trip to NY to sightsee and see Ralph’s family. We had a great time—lots of pizza, pasta, and Italian ices. We spent time with Ralph’s parents, sisters, brother, and nephew. The kids swam at relatives pools, and even had a couple of trips to the beach. It was such a treat to see relatives who we had not seen in from 2 to 5 years. Hopefully, we will not wait quite as long before we can go back again. |