for 1/2 of this Mattie duo: 30 down, 70 to go.

MCMLXXVII
(1977 for my friends who don't remember how to add up Roman Numerals)

World Population: 4.230 billion

President: James Earl Carter, Jr.
Vice President: Walter F. Mondale
Population: 220,239,425

US Life expectancy: 73.3 years
Violent Crime Rate (per 1,000): 50.8
Property Crime Rate (per 1,000): 46.0

US GDP: $2,026.90 billion
Federal spending: $409.22 billion
Federal debt: $706.4 billion
Median Household Income: $13,572
Consumer Price Index: 60.6
Unemployment: 7.1%
Cost of a first-class stamp: $0.13
Cost of a new home: $54,200.
Gallon regular gas: $0.62
Dozen Eggs: $0.82
Gallon Milk: $1.68

Superbowl: Oakland d. Minnesota (32-14)
World Series: NY Yankees d. LA Dodgers (4-2)
NBA Championship: Portland d. Philadelphia 76ers (4-2)

Best Picture: Annie Hall
Record of the Year: "This Masquerade" -George Benson

Random Events:
TV Miniseries, Roots, premieres, draws an audience of 130 million
Star Wars hits the theaters
Elvis Presley dies at age 42
The neutron bomb is developed
President Carter pardons Vietnam War draft evaders

Greatest 1977 Achievements:
AnnMarie is born, 2/9, at 9:36 am in Exeter, CA. (She is later adopted and loved by 2 great people, Don and Toni and meets them for the 1st time in Visalia, CA on 12/24/77)
Greg is born, 4/10, in Santa Maria, CA

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One 30th celebration down, 1 to go for Greg.

Thanks to my friends who came along and celebrated with me, I had a great time and I love all my very cool gifts. :o)
Thanks Greg and Belly for a GREAT(!) weekend. I love you both.

On Friday night we all went to dinner at Yasmin in Beaverton, enjoyed some great Shish Kabob and pita bread. On Saturday, the 3 of us headed to the annual Chocolate Festival at the World Forestry Center in Portland. We had a great time and as the pictures at the bottom will show, Belly loved sampling chocolate.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. Enjoy!

Our girl is learning to read!!

All the snow melted. :o(
January is over and in a few short days I will leave my 20's. boo hoo.
We are going to owe taxes this year (never good for fattening up the piggy bank).

That (in a nutshell) is our sad/bad news.

On the bright side....
Its February and my birthday is in a few short days! Even though I leave my 20s behind, I love birthdays and I'm looking forward to celebrating with some friends.
Disneyland/Dodger game (yeah--no longer a suprise) is just around the corner at the beginning of April.
Greg is in process of up-training to complete his promotion to Apprentice!
I also start up-training at work this month (doesn't afford me a cool raise, but does give me a break from answering phones which is always a delight).
We are in month #2 of what has so far been a very successful money makeover for this year. We are on our way to being debt free!
I finally found an Armenian community here in the Portland area that is in process of building a church! This is especially exciting since we haven't really attended church since moving up here and didn't want to just pick any random church that might not have the same values or beliefs as ours. For any San Joaquin Valley-dwelling family members of mine who read this blog, check out their website. It has a great newsletter, pictures, and information about the ACO here.

But allllllllllllllllll that is still not as great and cool and exciting as the fact that our girl, Belly, who is just 3 1/2 years old, has learned to write her own name without help and (drumroll please), is officially learning to read!!!!

She started showing interest in the last month or so, so we took a stab at it and she has starting sounding out simple words. So far she can read the following words by sounding them out; cat, bus, cup, pup, up, & dog. She can officially spell and write the words Belly, cat, and bus. We are so proud! Before we know it she will be off and reading all sorts of words and books. We are completely in awe of how her little mind has started to process phonics and the ability to read. It's amazing that not that long ago she was just a tiny baby who could only smile and goo at us.

Besides her learning to read and write she is also learning to ride her bike. On her 1st birthday her cousins T/D/K/M got her a bike and a helmet. We tried getting her to ride on it for a long time but her legs just weren't long enough and so we would push her around the driveway until our backs were sore from bending over to scoot her along. Well, no more. At almost 38 inches tall now, she can reach the pedals and move herself!



That's the news from the land of Mattie. We will add more pictures/video soon so keep an eye out. Tell us what is new in your lives, send us a comment on the 'ole blog! We miss reading your comments and tidbits. ;o)