Christmas

Happy Birthday Jesus!

And Merry Christmas everyone!

Icicles Too!

We not only have more snow than we have ever had at one time since we moved to Washington almost 27 years ago, but we also have icicles hanging from the house. We don't ever remember having icicles before.

One more picture of how deep the snow is. This is the crane that stands in my pond with his head held high. He is barely able to keep his head out of the snow. His partner, who has her head bent down like she is drinking out of the pond, is nowhere to be seen.

The real icicles look pretty next to the icicle lights.

Sorry, all of you who get icicles all the time, but having icicles is a thrill to us over here, especially since they have gotten so long. I am really starting to feel like I live in N. Dakota, Minnesota, or Buffalo, N.Y., one of those states, where I've always felt sorry for the people who live there, who have to deal with so much snow and cold weather.

Fun in the Snow

Monday, after making it over the pass and back we figured the trip up to Bellingham would be a piece of cake. Once again the worst roads were between our house and the freeway, then between the freeway and Kari's house. Before we headed out to play in the snow, Saben thought he would rest awhile, and decided that Papa looked like a pretty comfortable place to rest.

Here we go with an unhappy Annika on the sled. For some reason, she really didn't want to be pulled on the sled, but it was to deep for her to walk very well and when she did walk some, she would fall down and be unable to get up. We tried to make a snowman first, but the snow wouldn't stick to the ball we formed to roll in the snow. You could make a snowball, but you couldn't roll it and gather more snow.

We discovered, after some trial and error, that Annika liked going down the hill in the sled, if Papa or Grandma held her. She didn't really like going down with Saben, but she wore her grandparents out with trips up and down the hill. Luckily, it was a small hill in Kari's front yard, because we had to carry her up along with the sled.

We found two snow angels in the yard. Later in the afternoon, after we were back in the house, we were watching a video of a baby elephant playing in the snow. It was running around and rolling in the snow and Saben asked if elephants knew how to make snow angels. It looked like it was trying because it was moving it's feet back and forth.
Kari made a snow house for Saben, that he was excited about. But he thought he needed a rabbit to live in the snow house.

Enough Already!

Sunday morning when we got up we had 4 more inchesof snow and it was snowing. We made it out to church, with very few others, as it continued to snow. We probably got a couple more inches during the afternoon, while I watched the Seahawks win and Ken shoveled off the driveway again. We were supposed to have some members of our life group over for dinner after making boxes at the food bank for the Christmas basket distribution tomorrow. Since there is no room to park on the street right now, Ken wanted to make sure people could get in the driveway. We ended up with only Tim & Mary Beth coming for dinner. It continued to snow all evening and this morning we had another 7" of snow on the driveway and the yardstick on the table was up to 21". It has been going up and down as the snow settles, then we get more. I think that's enough for awhile!

Christmas in Wenatchee

In spite of all the snow at our house, we drove to Wenatchee Friday afternoon, so we could go to the Elliott family Christmas on Saturday. Of all the roads that we drove on to get to Wenatchee, which included Hwy. 9 and 2 over Stevens Pass, the roads were worst in our neighborhood. We had more snow than Wenatchee and even Stevens Pass didn't seem like it had as much, at least the trees didn't look like they were as heavily laden as ours were. Something that hardly ever happens! The picture above is of my parents and the gift that was given to them. Kari gathered pictures of my parent's children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and put them on a nice canvas that she painted and decorated. It was a great gift for them and they loved it.

21 of us gathered at my aunt and uncle's house for lunch and to celebrate Christmas together. This is my niece, Meera and her boyfriend, Zach, waiting for things to get started.

My 3 great-nieces got to open their gifts first, then the adults did theirs. We did something a little different this year. Instead of getting a bunch of miscellaneous gifts, we had a theme, everyone was supposed to bring a DVD or a food item to put under the tree. We drew numbers to see what order we opened gifts in, then you could either open a gift under the tree or take a gift from someone else when it was your turn. It was a lot of fun and there were only 2 duplicate gifts. Ken opened a gift that was a big box of "moose munch", a treat we really enjoy. It was taken from him and when he chose another gift to open, it turned out to be another box of "moose munch". Unfortunately, it got taken from him also so he ended up with a DVD. The other duplicate was one of the DVD's. Jason opened the first one and really wanted to keep it, but when it was taken from him, he opened another gift and it was the same DVD that had just been taken from him, so he got to keep the one he wanted after all. We had a good time and I think everyone was pretty happy with what they got to take home.

Ken and I had planned on staying in Wenatchee last night and coming home on Sun. morning, but the weather report called for a storm to hit again Sat. night, so we decided to head home and left town about 4pm. It snowed most of the way home, but the roads weren't to bad and we made it home with no problem. Sometimes it was difficult to see the road because of the wind blowing snow across the road, but that wasn't to often, so we got safely home. Our church had decided earlier in the week after all the snow, to just have one service Sat. night and one on Sun. I don't know how many people attended Sat., but there weren't very many there on this morning. The roads were a lot better by the time we came home after lunch, so maybe the worst of it is over. I hope so!

Christmas Long Ago

In response to the funny Santa picture of Saben and and Annika on Kari's blog, I thought I'd put a picture on my blog of how the Santa picture is supposed to go. Of course, Deanna and I were a lot older than Annika when we had our picture with Santa taken. Since Tim isn't in the picture and I would think that he was born by then, maybe he reacted like Annika did and that's the reason he isn't in the picture. Don't you just love my coat and with it's matching pants and hat? I just wish my eyes were open, I love the picture of Deanna though.

More Snow!

After I posted yesterday, it started to snow again. This picture was taken as we headed to bed at 10pm last night. There was almost 18" on the top of the table. We had to stop using the little 12 inch ruler and go to a yardstick. We also lost power at 8:30, but it was only for an hour. We lit our propane lanterns and played cribbage (I won both games), it was almost like going camping.

It apparantly didn't snow too much during the night, when we looked at the yardstick this morning, the snow had settled a little and we were back down to 17". I made my way out to the paper box, even though the snow was over the top of the little boots I have, but there was no paper delivered this morning. I was supposed to go stock shelves at the food bank this morning, then I had a dentist appt. and was going to go to Fred Meyer for a few things, but I'm sitting at home instead. The director of the food bank decided to close the food bank tomorow due to the snow and that hasn't happened in the 6 or 7 years that I've been working there.

This is the mail box this morning. And guess what?! It's snowing again!

Snow! Snow! Snow!

This is a copy of the picture I took on Saturday, when I was excited about getting some snow. Little did I know, what was coming this week!

This is the amount that was on the mailbox at about 3pm after we got back from getting some groceries.Ken worked from home today and decided that he would feel better about me going out, if he drove. I was more than willing for him to be in charge of driving, since I don't like to drive on snowy or icy roads. As is many times the case, the roads were worst between our house and the freeway.

It has finally stopped snowing, and I measured 10" on our table on the deck. We had about an inch left from the snow on Sat., so we got 9" today and may get more tomorrow. The Christmas lights sure look pretty under the snow.

"Quantum of Solace' Review

Yesterday was Ken's actual birthday, so we decided to have a quick dinner and go to the newest James Bond movie, "Quantum of Solace". We had decided to eat at a BBQ place in Marysville, but we had the same luck as Shaun and Andrea and discovered that it isn't open on Mondays. We ended up at a mexican resturant instead. After dinner, we got our popcorn and drink at the theater and settled in for the movie. After the movie was over we talked about whether we liked the movie or not. We both thought that it wasn't as good as the old "James Bond" movies. The action was to fast paced and we found it hard to follow. We also didn't like the way the director chose to show off his style instead of making it seem like a "Bond" movie. One of the things I've always liked about the "Bond" movies is the clever gadgets that he uses. There were no clever gadgets and no "Q" in this movie. It was more a movie about revenge, both by the hero and heroine, and not about trying to save the world from someone. It pretty much killed my taste for any other new "Bond" movies. Anyone else see it? What did you think?

Ken's Birthday Surprise

I planned a surprise birthday trip for Ken as one of his birthday presents. Both of us had a surprise Saturday morning, when we woke up to snow on the ground. This is the amount of snow we had early Sat. morning.

Ken's surprise trip was taking the special snow train to Leavenworth for the day. Here I am on the train with some of the special entertainment in the background. There were different groups coming through the cars singing or performing during the trip, and it made everything very festive. It really was Christmasy, especially since there was snow falling during most of the trip and most of the time while we were in Leavenworth.

After we got to Leavenworth, we rode school buses into town from the train. After getting off the bus, we decided to take a walk by the river on some trails we had discovered last summer when we spent the weekend there. It was a gorgeous walk with snow on the trees, etc. After lunch we went into the main street area, which was closed off to cars, and met up with Father Claus. We also did a little shopping, and enjoyed some hot chocolate while huddled around a fire in a burn barrel with several other cold people.
The culmination of the trip is the Christmas lighting ceremony at dusk. We were amazed at the number of people that gathered for the event. We had no idea that it was such a big deal. You can get an idea of the crowds from the picture below. It was a fun atmosphere and we really enjoyed the whole day.
After the lighting ceremony, it was time to head back to the buses and then to the train. The trip home wasn't as much fun, because you couldn't see the scenery and there were 2 rather long delays, while other regularly scheduled trains came by. We got back to Everett at 10pm and discovered that it had been snowing most of the day at home also, so we had 3 inches of snow at our house by the time we got home. It was a wonderful pre-Christmas outing, that we throughly enjoyed.

Decorating Cookies

Tim & Mary Beth came over Friday evening for dinner and to help with decorating cookies. We got all the frosting colored, the decorative items out and we were ready to go.

My favorite decorative addition is the red hot candies, which I try to have on each cookie that I decorate. I put them on all my cookies, because those are my favorite things to eat.

We had fun getting all the cookies decorated and some were very creatively decorated. Ken made one of his cookies so it looked like a fried egg and in the picture above, is ready to eat it.

Rememberances - Past & Present

My rememberance from the past. At our life group on Sunday nights, we always have a question to get the ball rolling and last Sunday, the question was to describe an important Christmas event/tradition in your family. My answer was making and decorating sugar cookies. This is something that I did as a child, as a newly married couple, with our children, and we continue to do it as empty-nesters. Often after we were married, we did it at our home, but from time to time we were in Wenatchee at my parent's home for Christmas and did the cookies there. One of my rememberances of doing cookies in Wenatchee, is having both my Mom and my sister, Deanna, make cookies. Deanna was always worried that we wouldn't have enough cookies, so she would make a double batch. We would end up having so many cookies to decorate that it would take all day to get them all done, even with all the kids (there were 7 of them) helping. One of the hardest things was trying to clean up afterwards, and get all the frosting, sprinkles, etc. gathered up, but the cookies were so yummy, it was worth all the work when we were done.

This year we may start a new tradition, we have invited some friends over to help decorate cookies tomorrow night. It's always more fun to do it with someone, so hopefully we won't wear them out.

My present day rememberance. When I was at Kari's on Monday, Saben started talking about the trip they were taking on Friday. He asked if I was going to be sitting by him on the airplane. I had to break the news to him that Papa and I were not going to be going with him on this trip. He wanted to know why, of course, so I told him that sometimes we would go with him and sometimes it would just be Mommy, Daddy, Annika, and him. His reply was so sweet, he said, "I'm going to miss you Grandma." Another heart melting moment for Grandma.

Uh Oh, I forgot to mention Sunday

Not that there is anything all that exciting to say about what we did on Sunday, but I just want to put it down for posterity. We went to church as usual, but did have one funny thing happen there. One of the women I know from MOPS, walked by us after church and asked Ken if he was practicing his dancing for next years contest. Ken replied, "No, we're going to be looking for a new church where they don't dance." (We aren't really.) Anyway, she laughed and went on her way, but it shows that the dancing contest is not going to be easily forgotten. (Especially since we noticed that some people had cameras out and were taking some pictures.) After church we ate lunch at Red Robins, then came home for a few hours, which I used to finish decorating the house. We headed back to church at 4pm for the children's Christmas program, which was very well done, then had our life group meeting at 6 and got back home around 9:45, in time to head to bed. It was a busy weekend, but we had fun, and still got some things done that needed to get done. All in all, a good weekend.

Saturday and Sunday

Saturday morning we went out and got our Christmas tree, and didn't have to do it in the rain for a change. As always, the cats were very interested in this new thing that was coming into their house. We spent the afternoon decorating the tree with the result below.

We were able to spend a little time sitting on the couch and gazing at the finished product before I needed to get a salad and a white elephant gift put together for my MOPS group Christmas party. I spent the evening there, eating, playing games and getting to know some of the Moms in my group better. There were only 5 of us that were able to come, but we had some good conversations and a lot of fun playing "Taboo".

When you don't have kids to help you decorate and to take pictures of, you take pictures of the "helpers" you do have. Both of the cats love to play with the garland on it's way onto the tree.

The First Week of December

This has been a very busy week and I'm hoping that the rest of the month won't be quite as crazy as this one was. I know it's supposed to get worse the closer to Christmas it gets, but for me it's usually busiest the first part of December. That may be, because I'm trying to get the house decorated, my Christmas shopping done, cards addressed, etc. all in the first week or so. We also had most of the Christmas parties that we have been invited to take place this weekend. In addition to my regular activities and Christmassy things I was trying to do this week, I had 2 Dr. appointments, a dentist appointment and needed to get my hair done, so I wasn't home much to get my decorating done. (I'm about half way done and will hopefully finish up this weekend.)

Last night we attended what we thought was a life group leaders Christmas party with Tim & Mary Beth. When I asked if we were in the right place for the life group leaders dinner, I was told that it wasn't just for leaders, it was for anyone in a life group. It turned out that everyone except for 3 or 4 couples were in the 30's age group. I knew or recognized about 80% of them as being MOPS members. I had a good time because I knew so many of the women that were there, but I think I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much if I hadn't known so many. We had a nice dinner, then some games were played (MOPS people were in charge of all the games also), and we had a short talk by one of the church staff members. Everything was going pretty well, until they asked for 5 couples to volunteer for one of the games toward the end of the evening. Since they didn't get enough volunteers, they started calling people up by name, now this is where it was a disadvantage to know and be known by the game leaders. They called my name, so a reluctant Ken and I went up to the front of the room. After everyone had assembled at the front of the room we were asked to line up by age, with the oldest first and on down. Ken and I were first of course and Ken tried to bolt, when we were informed that we were going to be in a dance contest! Anyone who knows Ken knows he is NOT a dancer, and I've always wanted to be able to dance, but never have done it much. I got him to stay and they started some music that we were to dance to, (we were dancing one couple at a time, so all eyes were on us) the music was some oldies from our era including "The Twist", so we bopped around a little, (mainly me), then were able to go sit down while the others did their thing. At the end, everyone voted on which couple did the best job, we didn't win (big surprise!). But I was just proud of Ken for going along with it, although he wasn't and still isn't happy about the whole thing. Tomorrow the rest of the weekend.

Thanksgiving Weekend - Part 2

Friday, Debbie, Mom and I went out Christmas shopping. We just went to Kohl's and the Outlet Mall in Marysville and were able to get some good deals, especially at Kohl's. I think Mom did the majority of her shopping there. My goal over Thanksgiving is always, to help Mom get her shopping done or almost done, which we were able to accomplish. Usually, I also need to help my Dad get something for Mom for Christmas, but this year they are going to get something for both of them from both of them, so that makes it easy. Then on Saturday, everyone, but Ken, went up to the Bellis Fair Mall in Bellingham for more shopping. Ken's job over the weekend every year, is to get the outside lights up, which as you can see he was able to do. We ate lots of leftovers, watched a lot of Christmas movies on TV, worked on puzzles, and enjoyed the service at church on Sunday morning over the rest of the weekend.

One of the things they did during the service was to ask people to stand up and say what they would like to give thanks for. I don't tend to do that very often, but I felt like I needed to give thanks for someone that I had neglected to give thanks for previously. So, I stood and said "that I wanted to give thanks for a 15 year old girl in California, that chose to have her baby, instead of taking the "easy way out" of abortion, and that she chose my son and daughter-in-law to raise her baby." We are so thankful for her and are anxious to see our new grandson, sometime this month, hopefully for Christmas.

Thanksgiving Weekend - Part 1

We had a great Thanksgiving weekend, with 12 at our house for dinner on Thanksgiving day. Our kids and their families, plus my parents, my brother and sister-in-law made for a full table. Annika was hungry before dinner was ready, so she got to eat some turkey ahead of time and head for a nap. It was our last time to see Todd and Betsy as DINKs. (Who remembers what that stands for?) It was exciting to say good-bye to them knowing that the next time we saw them they would have a baby. We can't wait to see our new grandson!

After dinner some of us played a game called "Whoonu", while others watched a football game (Seahawks lost again) or took a nap. Our kids all left to go see in-laws, while those of us left played another game of "Whoonu", which was fun because there are very few games that my Dad can play and he was able to play that with us.

One of our traditions is to put together jigsaw puzzles over the weekend. I had gotten a new one that Ken and I had worked on the evening before Thanksgiving and we finished it up that evening. The weird thing is that this new, unopened puzzle was missing 5 pieces. Ken kept thinking that the cats had carried off the pieces until we discovered that there were not only pieces missing, but there was an additional piece. I have never had a puzzle like that and since a puzzle with pieces missing is no good, we just threw it away. We ended up putting together 3 puzzles over the weekend. It was a nice way to relax after a day of Christmas shopping.

I Am Thankful For... (Part 4)

As I have thought about the things I am thankful for, the list is huge! I'm listing just a few of the many things I am thankful for in these 4 blogs before Thanksgiving, as they come to mind and they are in no particular order, but just things that God has brought to mind. I read this quote once and it has stuck with me, "Suppose for a moment, that God began taking from us the many things for which we have failed to give thanks. What would be left?" There are a lot of things that I don't think about giving thanks for, but that I am so grateful for. I'm going to include a few things like that in this list along with some of the usual things.

• God's promises - there are to many to list, but I love that He promises to never leave us or forsake us and that everything works for our good
• Our home - warm and secure, with indoor plumbing and water available at any time
• Medical knowledge - that can help prevent illnesses, treat lots of diseases better than ever before, treatments such as Amy's surgery to help prolong life, etc.
• Cars & airplanes - so that we can go visit family members that live in other parts of the state or country. I am thinking of the pioneer days, when they knew they would probably never see the families they left behind again, I'm thankful we can see one another whenever we want to.
• Food - working at a food bank makes me grateful that I don't have to stand in a line in the cold and rain to get some food
• Books - as most of you know, I love to read and am thankful that there is such a great selection of Christian fiction available
• Friends - some old, some new, but all definately worth remembering

I think I'll leave it at that, although I know as soon as I publish this blog, I'll think of something else that I should have said. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Arlington Food Bank

We are definately seeing the results of the economic problems in our country at the food bank right now. The day I work and help with the food distribution is Fridays and we have been having twice the number of clients come to get food the last few weeks. Before things got bad economically, we would have around 35 families come each week. (They are allowed to come twice a month.) We considered a day busy if we had more than 40 families. Last Friday we had 71 families come for food and yesterday we had 72 families. This means several things: we are giving out more food, so our supply of food is getting low, also we are having to stay open for a longer period of time to take care of everyone. Our posted hours for food distribution on Friday is 1pm -2pm. We were giving out food until 3:30 the last 2 weeks. I do realize that part of the reason for that is that we are signing people up for their Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets as they get to the desk, which takes extra time. I'm going to be interested to see if things go faster once the holidays are over. It also seems like everyone who has ever been to the food bank, thinks that they need a holiday basket, even if they haven't been to the food bank since last year at this time. So maybe the number of people will go down now that people are signed up for their baskets, but since I keep seeing notices in the newspaper of layoffs taking place, I doubt it will let up much. We have been getting new families coming each each week. Food banks are definately in dire need of more donations and can use any thing they can get. I want to encourage everyone who has plenty on their tables to make a donation to your local food banks.

I Am Thankful For... (Part 3)

Ken Voelker

• my husband of 35 years
• my best friend, that I love to do things with
• my supporter and encourager, when I feel like I can't do something, he encourages me to try
• a great Dad/Grandpa that loves to spend time with his children and grandchildren
• a wonderful provider, that allows me to do all my volunteer activities
• a good cook and he is willing to help out in the kitchen with both preparation and cleaning up
• a hard worker at his job and at home
• a spiritual leader at home and church
• the one who calms me in the storms of life
• the one I bounce ideas off and helps me see what would work and wouldn't work
• the organizer of our trips, nothing left to chance with Ken in charge!
• a computer guru that can't say "No" to anyone who needs help
• patient with me even when I can't get "the stupid computer" to do what he showed me
• generous with everything he has
• a perfect compliment to me
  

I Am Thankful For... (Part 2)

1. Growing up in a Christian family with parents who were active in the church and made sure we knew that we needed to make our own decision for Christ and follow Him in baptism.

2. My extended family - parents, brother, cousins, nieces and nephews, etc., how we have stayed pretty close to each other and support one another through any difficulties that come our way. Also, that most of them are Christians and are working on growing in their spiritual lives.
3. My sister - who was my friend and companion throughout most of my life, and who I have so many great memories of. I still miss her and am glad that she was a part of my life.
4. Large grocery stores with lots to choose from - After getting groceries this week, the small groceries stores that I have gone to in different countires came to my mind. Since the stores in Mexico were the ones we went to most recently, I thought of them, but I have been to small stores in other countries, also. Until you've been in one, you don't appreciate the quantity and quality of what is in our stores. The produce departments of our stores are about as big as the whole store in some towns and they don't have the wonderful choices that we do.

5. Photographs - I love to look at and take pictures. I especially enjoy looking at older pictures and seeing what we looked like at a young age, and remembering what times were like when we were growing up. I also love taking pictures and enjoy our digital camera, where we don't have to worry about how many pictures we are taking and can see right away if the picture turned out good or not.

Rain Report

We didn't even come close to the amount of rain that was forecast. Maybe it was the mountains or foothills that were supposed to get that much rain. The rivers have been high and there has been some flooding in different areas, so somewhere a lot of rain must have come down, but it wasn't here. As a matter of fact, there were a bunch of sand bags by the door of the food bank, which is situated close to the river, yesterday when I arrived. But by the time I left, they had been taken away, so I guess that meant any danger was over. Anyway, the grand total of rain that I recorded was, (drum roll, please) 1 1/2 inches. What a let down, but at least I didn't have to deal with any potential rain induced problems while Ken was out of town. Thank you, Lord.

I Am Thankful For... (Part 1)

1. Grandkids! They are so fun, say such interesting things, and make me laugh. Annika cracked me up with her babbling yesterday.

2. Being able to go spend time with them each week. Included in that, is that they don't live to far away and the traffic isn't a problem. (I'm worried about the traffic when I go to see T&B's baby.)

3. Good-bye and hello hugs from Saben and Annika. I got wonderful ones yesterday!

4. Saben saying that he wanted to go camping with Papa and Grandma again. (He doesn't want Mommy, Daddy or Annika to go, just him and us. He does want Lara, Melia and Kiera to be there though, just like it was a year ago when Annika was born.)

5. Having a good relationship with both of our kids and their spouses. We had a good visit with T&B on Saturday and it's nice to see Kari on Mondays along with her kids.

When It Rains, It Pours!

Remember that 4 7/10 inches of rain that we got last week? Apparently, that will be just a drop in the bucket compared to this week! The headline on our paper this morning says, "Storms could dump 18 inches of rain". There are apparently 2 storms coming in, the first will give us 4 inches and the second one will give us 8 to 14 inches. I'm not even sure I'll be able to get an accurate reading of what we actually get since my rain gauge only goes up to 5 inches and I'm not getting up in the middle of the night to check it and empty it if need be. Of course, this is the forecast, so it probably won't get near as bad as they are saying. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Rainy, Dreary Week

The first week after going off daylight savings time always feels so dreary to me. It seems like all of a sudden the days are so much shorter with it getting dark so early. Add to that a lot of rain (4 and 7/10 inches, just this week! We had a total of 4 inches for the whole month of October.) and it makes for a very rainy, dreary week. On top of that it was a regular, nothing special going on week and it was easy to get a little down. I didn't even get to spend time with my grandkids Monday because I wasn't feeling very good, and of course the Dr. couldn't find anything wrong. Saben did call me Monday night and said that he missed me, so that lifted my spirits alot. The thankful blogs of my daughter and niece have also helped me cheer up and I have to remember to give thanks in all things, and I do have so much to be thankful for. I think I'll do a thankful blog next, a good reminder of all God's blessings on me and my family.

New Discovery

I discovered a new, at least to me, product one day a few months ago. I have really dry skin, but I usually don't take the time to put lotion on my legs or arms. I do better with my hands because I carry lotion in my purse and can put it on when I think of it or when my hands feel so bad that they start bugging me, but you can't really put lotion on your arms and legs in public, unless you pretend it's suntan lotion. But that doesn't really work at this time of the year.

I especially like the "in-shower Body Lotion". You are supposed to put it on after using the body wash, then rinse it off and pat dry with your towel. It says it works with the warmth and humidity of your shower. I was sceptical at first, but decided to give it a try, and it worked. I just put it on my arms and legs and it has really helped keep them from being so dry. If you have a dry skin probelm, you should give it a try.

Book Quote - #2

Another quote I liked. This was said by a mother after the funeral of her son who died in WW2, in the fictional book, "A Woman's Place" by Lynn Austin.

"Trust in God doesn't mean that He won't ever let anything bad happen," Ma told her. "It means that if we know Him, no matter what happens we can still trust His love."

"I belive that God has the power to protect my children from all harm. I have faith that He hears my prayers when I pray. But when He doesn't answer them the way I'd like, I still have faith in God's love. He knows far more than I ever will and I can trust His purposes, even though I can't understand them. Jesus had more faith than any man or woman who ever lived, but His prayer 'Let this cup pass from me,' wasn't answered. He was God's own Son, yet He died a horrible death. But Jesus' death had a purpose that no one could have foreseen at the time, even those closest to Him. I have faith in God's love. He knows how it feels to lose a beloved Son.

"When tragedies like this happen," Ma said, "we can either draw closer to Jesus, who was 'a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.' or we can turn away from Him and stop loving so we'll never be hurt again.

Halloween Fun

I join Kari and the kids each year for the trick or treating in downtown Bellingham during the afternoon. This year before doing that, which didn't start until 3pm, Saben had a party at pre-school. He was very proud of his rocket costume and kept telling everyone that he was a rocket, both at school and downtown.

Annika made a very cute Wonder Woman!

The Haul! And more to come after going out around the neighborhood after dinner. We had a few come this year, I can't remember how many came last year, but we had 18 come this year, which seemed like more than we had last year. It's still a far cry from the 100 plus kids we had when we first moved out here 21 years ago yesterday.

Announcement

Our MOPS group has a fun way for women to announce that they are pregnant. At the beginning of the meeting, the leader gets out a little box that has crackers tied with either a pink or blue ribbon, and asks if anyone wants to take a cracker. Another mentor mom and I started the tradition of announcing new grandchildren also, when we took crackers to announce that our daughters were pregnant almost 2 years ago. Yesterday, I took a cracker in honor of Todd and Betsy's baby, (notice I took one with a blue ribbon). I got to explain who I was taking the cracker for and since some of them had been praying for a baby for Todd and Betsy, they were very excited. I had been looking forward to taking a cracker for over a week, we didn't have MOPS last week, so I had to wait an extra week to announce my new grandson. It was really fun to get to do that and a couple of them knew Todd from high school or college church group activities from many years ago, so that was fun for them to learn about the baby also.

Another Busy Weekend

As is often the case, we can have several weekends where we don't have anything going on, then all of a sudden everything happens in a weekend or two. This weekend was not only the weekend that we had tickets to go see Skate America with my parents, but it was also one of the Canby Board meeting weekends that Ken has to go to. So, he left for Oregon Friday morning, and I stayed home this time because Mom and Dad were coming over Friday afternoon. Then Saturday morning, Kari brought Saben and Annika down to visit with them and stayed until almost 5pm. After they left, I called Ken who was on his way home from Oregon and was going to meet us in Everett for the skating competition, and found out that he would be in Everett in about an hour. We met up and headed for the ice arena at 6pm. The competition was going to start at 7pm, so we had a little time to walk around, take in the sights, get some food and eat before it started.

We had tickets for the women's short program and the men's free skate or long program. The women were first and they had 3 minutes to do their routine. The first skater we watched seemed to take a long time to do her 3 minutes, but after that it didn't seem long at all. Since I have tried ice skating and can barely keep my ankles from wobbling as I calmly skate around a rink, I am always impressed at what trained skaters can do. I guess the picture above is like doing the splits, only on ice and standing up.

We enjoyed the competition, but discovered that we didn't have a clue about how the judges scored the skaters. Some we thought wouldn't do very well because they had fallen or had some bobbles, still scored high, and others we thought had done well didn't score as high as we thought they should have. The men's program which was a routine that took under 5 minutes, was especially that way. The guy from the USA was in first place after the short program the day before, he was the last one to skate and we thought he had done pretty well, but he ended up in third place. We discovered that Scott Hamilton, a famous skater from several years ago, was at the other end of the arena from us, giving commentary for TV. We definitely could have used his commentary to understand what was going on. Fortunately, when they announced the scores for that US skater, everyone there booed the score, so maybe we weren't the only one that thought he did better than what the judges thought. It was nice to start getting acquainted with some of the names that will probably be appearing at the winter Olympics in a couple of years.

Esophagus Procedure

I had my esophagus looked at today and everything seems to be normal in both it and my stomach. I was concerned about how it would go because they had told me that I would have about the same amount of anesthetic as I had for my colonoscopy. I remember being aware of what was going on during it and wasn't sure how I was going to do with a tube going down my throat, if I was that awake. Especially, after the experience of having my larynx looked at, which was awful. I was NOT that awake, I was totally out and woke up with the procedure over. Yeah! That was a blessing! So, it wasn't bad at all. They gave me some pictures if anyone is interested. Trust me, they aren't fun to look at, unless you enjoy that type of thing. The worst part was the wait, they were about an hour behind schedule. Luckily I took a book to read, but I kept wondering if they had forgotten about me. So it's good to get that behind me, now if I can just get rid of this cold!

Uh Oh!

Well, my pumpkin didn't last long, even with the shortening on the inside. I figured it would get moldy pretty fast, but I really expected it to last more than a week. Oh well, I got to enjoy it for awhile and now I know not to even try bringing one inside.

Other Weekend Pictures

Kyle and Kari dropped the kids off at our house Saturday afternoon, so they could spend Sat. and Sun. nights with us. Ken had finished taking the sides off the shed and decided to burn them while the kids were here. Saben likes to watch fires (you can see the 3 of them behind the fire if you look very closely), and was very excited that Papa was making a fire and that it was a big one.

Ken had Saben pick up apples from under the tree and throw them in the fire to see what would happen. Saben will tell you that they turn black and get mushy after being in the fire. Annika decided she needed some apples also, so Saben is helping her get some.

Saben had put this sticker on his nose before he arrived and it stayed on his nose for quite awhile, before it finally fell off. Sunday afternoon, Saben and I went to a puppet play in Everett. They were doing 3 Eric Carle books, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", "The Mixed-up Chameleon", and "Little Cloud". The puppets were on sticks, the puppeteers wore black clothing and used a black light to keep the audience from seeing what they were doing. It was very effective and alot of fun to be in an audience with so many children. Our favorite story was the hungy caterpillar, which took bites out of all these different things, then kicked them away (that's not in the book), but Saben thought it was so funny that he laughed quite loudly outloud. He noticed that I didn't laugh as loudly and on the way home, I was asked why I didn't laugh loudly. You never know what he will notice! I guess coming to Grandma and Papa's house must be fun, because on Monday, when I took them home, he started talking about his friends that should come to our house also. I'm not so sure that's a good idea, since keeping up with the 2 of them is enough for us.

Pumpkin and the Grandkids

Pumpkin, who has been known to attack people's feet for unknown reasons and has managed to draw blood by biting those feet with her teeth, (just ask Betsy, who steers clear of her now) is so gentle with Annika. Annika loves Pumpkin, she actually likes both of the cats, but Patches runs when Annika comes anywhere close to her.

I couldn't believe the things Pumpkin allowed Annika to do to her, with no response from Pumpkin. Sitting on her, laying on her, crawling over her, Annika did them all, and Pumpkin let her.

Annika especially liked sitting on Pumpkin and when Pumpkin had finally had enough and moved right before Annika tried to sit on her again, Annika got a funny expression on her face, like she couldn't figure out why her "chair" had moved. She would look for Pumpkin, then start backing up to sit on her, and when she was almost ready to sit down, Pumpkin would move again. It was pretty funny to watch.

Pumpkin finally got smart and headed for someone that knew how to treat a cat.