A Jumble

I missed blogging on Friday and if felt weird. Blogging has become a habit for me so when I skip a day in my "schedule" here and there it gives me a strange feeling. Is that bad? I don't know! This might be somewhat of a jumbled post as I describe my weekend and also tack some random items on at the end so bear with me if you can. Each of these photos was taken at Minea Farms, which I will mention later.

That little peice of paper on the old wheel is a Bible verse! They were sprinkled throughout the shop.

We were in Kirkland for The Mr.'s days off visiting family and we had a lot of fun. We stayed at the J house, you know... those ones with the kids I call J1, J2, J3 and J4 around here? It was a great time with lots of visiting since we also got to spend time with Mom J as well as Sallad and Grace. I said we did lots of visiting but we did a fair amount of shopping too! After Latté's at Starbucks in down town Kirkland with Mom J, we walked over to one of my favorite kitchen shops- Sur La Table . There we purchased a bamboo stir fry spatula which is one of my favorite kitchen utensils, an appliquéd dish towel with a beach scene (that I had wanted last summer and was now on sale) and an early valentines gift from The Mr. - Scharffen Berger Chocolate! (I just couldn't put it down so he bought it for me- it was 70% cacao which is my favorite.) It's almost 10 oz of solid yummy dark dark chocolate, so I hope it will last me a while! That evening, L&P (the J parents) took The Mr. and I out for an amazing dinner for The Mr.'s birthday which was actually in July. Have you ever heard of Ruth's Chris Steak House? First we had really good bread and then they brought out crab stuffed mushrooms and barbecue prawns for appetizers that were so good you couldn't believe it. Then the salads came and then... the meat! The steaks there are amazing and I mean that. They are put into an oven so hot that I can't even remember the numbers, and then brought to you on a plate that has been heated to 500 degrees. Every minuscule drop of moisture and flavor is sealed in. It keeps the steak perfect for the whole time you eat it. I could write an advertisement for that place, so I will just stop now. I will simply complete this paragraph by saying that we also had mashed potatoes and asparagus as side dishes with cheese cake for dessert. I think I am still full. Thank you so much L&P.

Fruit leathers for sale.

While the guys played racquetball on Friday morning, I got to hang out with P as she ran a couple of errands and we stopped at two really neat places, Minea Farm and Theno's Dairy. Minea farm is a place that The Mr. visited when he was younger. They have many different types of apples, apple cider, mulled cider, fruit leather, dried fruits and honey and samples to try among other things. Theno's Dairy is a great place to stop for local pies, fresh milk and really good icecream. If you are ever in this area, I suggest you visit these shops. we came home with fresh Pink Lady Apple cider and fresh milk in real glass milk bottles.


Later that afternoon The Mr. and I went to Ikea with plans to keep Sallad and Grace company as they shopped for baby room furniture and a closet shoe rack. Instead we came out with enough stuff that we needed our own cart. Which proves that place is crazy and must have some sort of spray in the air that makes you spend money. We got an apple corer (the ones at Sur La Table were $9 more,) 4 dish towels, a black metal café table to go with the chairs on our front porch, cardboard storage boxes to organize my hats and seasonal clothing, wooden hangers to replace the plastic cheapies in our coat closet and I think that's about it but I feel like I am leaving something out. Anyways, the point of the story is that if you want to get some good stuff for cheap, go to Ikea. I personally think that if you treat Ikea stuff right, it will be fine. It is not Sur La Table quality, but it's better than not having it at all, or buying the cheapest quality versions Walmart offers. After that we walked around South Center mall a bit and then at 7:30 there was a meeting by the visiting brother B at the Kirkland meeting room, so it was a nice busy day! On Saturday we went to Gold Creek Gym, which is where The Mr. and his family had a membership when he was a child. The kids swam and the guys played some more racquetball until it was time for us to leave.

When I got home, I checked my email and found this:

Anna gave me this award here. I nominated quite a few excellent blogs just a little bit ago, so I am going to have to skip this one, but thank you so much Anna! I will just say one thing though- each and every blog in my lists in the side bar are great blogs. I love checking to see if there are new posts and throughly enjoy reading them!!!

There are also two new items around here that I would like to point out. First, scroll all the way down to the very bottom of the blog and check out the cute poem that my Mother in law (Mom J aka MIL) wrote for me. Isn't it great! She left it as a comment on this post. Secondly, I added a new link near the top of the sidebar that says "My 101 in 1001" click on it and check it out if you have time! I need accountability. :)

One more item of interest, I saw 31 bald eagles on my way to meeting Lord's Day morning. Maybe I should have been paying more attention to the road. This happens here only a few times each year and it surprises me each time. Did you know that young bald eagles aren't very pretty? They seem larger than their sleek majestic looking parents because of their fluffier young feathers. Sometimes they look pretty scruffy with fluff and feathers at odd angles as they mature and become "bald."

Well, I hope you enjoyed this jumble of thoughts and I hope I didn't lose you. Pat yourself on the back right now if you actually read this entire post!