Waiting

The "to-do before my family shows up" list is almost entirely crossed off. I know it's silly to post a photo of my list, but at least I am not posting a photo of my fridge this time! Some of the things on the list were more like early spring cleaning. Things that needed to be done anyways, so why not use the motivation of visitors to make yourself get the job done? The DVD just popped out of the computer which means my camera memory card is now ready to be filled. One last item on the list needs to be crossed off, anyone want to fill in for me and take my Sunday School class?! :)

Basket Carnival

What housewife doesn't love a good basket? I know I sure love baskets, boxes, tubs and buckets a lot. If I won a shopping spree, I think the first thing I would buy would be baskets and after that- clothing. This week, there is a carnival going on here that is all about baskets, so I thought I would join in and show bloggityville a few of the baskets around my house. I have a kajillion other posts to post, but those can wait. Like days 2 through 7 of Hosh and Jolly's visit as well as days 1 through 4 of our trip to Eastern Washington for a beautiful wedding and a reunion with family. Oh well. I am going to procrastinate and post about baskets instead and get even further behind. Once I write all the posts that I need to post, I will just post them right away with no regular Mon/Wed/Fri schedule, so keep your eyes on my "recent posts" list. :)

My favorite use for old tupperware style containers is to organize drawers and cupboards. If there is a place that needs a container, I look in my plastic collection first before going out and purchasing something. I am trying to phase out plastic containers anyways, so using them for organizing a drawer is better than throwing them our or donating them. Another thing I love, but haven't shown below is the basket inserts from Ikea. They are great anywhere they can fit!

I also love expanding letter files. They can be used to hold cards and stationary, appliance manuals, important documents or anything else you can think of. I use small ones for my tags and small flat scrapbooking embellishments. I use file sized ones for scrapbook papers, velums etc. They work so good, keeping everything easy to find and easy to store.

Ok, here are my baskets and boxes.

Kitchen utensil drawer. Most of the actual utensils are kept in two crocks beside the stove. These are parts for small appliances as well as misc. kitchen items.

Silverware drawer. The baskets in the back hold can opener, garlic press, peelers, milkshake spoons, small fancy serving utensils (pickle forks, spreading spoons, cheese knives, butter knives) and baby utensils, knives.


Canister-candies for Sunday School class. Pink-pasta. Short- teas
Blue- spices, Green- spices and cake decor. Tiny- spice and seasoning packets

This basket is on the floor of our front closet. It holds mittens, hats and scarves.

Living Room- This holds hats for Bible readings and Hymn sings.

These two picnic baskets hold picnic supplies in the laundry room- plastic plates, utensils, water bottles, table cloth, table cloth holders etc.

L to R in the laundry room: #1-The Mr.'s motorcycle gear, #2-laundry (iron, softener sheets, static guard, shout, spray n' wash, bleach pen) #3-shoe supplies- polishes, protectants, cloths and brushes.

Top drawer- basket of threads, needles, sewing machine feet, button tin, fabric scissors, measuring tape, pins.
Middle drawer- lace, rickrack, trims etc.
Bottom drawer- patterns.

Desk drawer- scrap paper, stamps, office supplies and phone books.

Then there are the photos of my closets, which are here and here. The spare room closet really doesn't look organized, but it really is! Each of those boxes and tubs holds only what it is supposed to hold. :)

I highly suggest heading over to the Basket Carnival and spending a few minutes clicking the Mr. Linky links that are slowly being added to the list. I have gained a lot of organizing inspiration and ideas so far!

Overview

The whirlwind is gone and the aftermath is cleaned up. Everything is back to where it was before and I am starting to relax. I would go for my walk today but it is sleeting outside. When I use the term sleet, I am referring to the British definition of the word which is what I grew up using- a mixture of rain and snow. It is like slush falling from the sky. Today's version of sleet has a little more snow that rain since the ground is white. Not the best weather for a three mile walk, but I might just find an umbrella and make myself go anyways because I need to get back on track and the fresh air would be good for me. Meanwhile I will continue to procrastinate on the walk issue and get this blog post up before March is over.

I will post one or two photos from each day. Each of these days could really be a post of there own, but that is what happens when you stop blogging for 10 days. You learn a lesson. Next time I would really like to just post a quick update with photos every few days. We'll see if that happens or not.

On Monday I got my hair cut. I have before photos but haven't taken an after photo yet. I will try and remember to take one soon and post it for you because I know you care about stuff like that. (not)

These little darlings are David, Esther and Luke from over here. I babysat them here on Monday evening while I finished cleaning my house from top to bottom, hanging artwork, doing laundry, moving the decorations around my house and baking. They are good kids, so yes I really could keep doing those things while looking after them at the same time!

"I'm a man with a pretty necklace" he stated as he posed for this photo wearing sparkly gold beads. I can imagine his mothers face is a little pink as she reads this. :)

She is wearing my mother in laws old sunglasses upside down. I love playing dress up!

Hello there Little D!

On Tuesday I was sitting in my car at the Abbotsford, BC airport at 8:32 am when my sister's airplane flew across the sky right in front of me. Excuse the dirty windshield. I was quite relieved to see her plane land because a lady with a neon yellow vest and a mini clipboard had been following me around. The airport no longer has free parking so I was changing parking spots every 10 minutes as I waited for my sister. I probably burned more gas than the parking fee would have cost, but I didn't have any change and refused to use a credit card in those silly machines that take forever before they actually charge your card.

Once my sister and I were finally on our way into the USA we decided to go straight to the Seattle Premium Outlets. We shopped there for a while and then made our way to Ross Dress for Less and Famous Footwear in Burlington, Ross Dress for Less in Bellingham as well as Bellis Fair Mall before heading home. Once we were home we piled all our bags on top of the washer and dryer. After eight hours of shopping, this is what we had. One notable fact is that my sister bought five pairs of shoes, which she posted about here.

Wednesday was food preparation day. This is Drooler's mommy mixing up a massive recipe of carrot cake. That full bowl is the wet ingredients, she is working on the dry ingredients bowl and later, there was another huge bowl of the carrots and other things that were mixed in. What a crazy job. They turned out great though! I hope she forgives me for posting a photo of herself wearing one of those lovely hair nets. LeAnne has a bunch more photos she is going to email me, so check back for some more beauties. We all went over food handling safety in the form of a quick course on Lord's day afternoon, so there was a lot more hair net wearing, hand washing and general kitchen tidiness and safety.

Drooler trying out the car seat that will someday hold his baby sister. I got it for free from my neighbor. I have no clue where the blanket came from, but he sure liked it.

PC wanted in on the fun. Tickle Tickle!!!

On Thursday the Mr. picked my parents up at the airport while Kim and I slept in made 12 dozen cookies for conference. Once they were at the house we had brunch and then went to Fairhaven for the afternoon. I love Fairhaven. I have been there many times, but this was the first time I saw the photo booth and the statue.

This is Kim. There were supposed to be a few photos of me with the statue as well, but for some reason I can't find them.

Why anyone would cover up brick with stucco I'll never know! I am glad the brick is showing it's face once again. It is so beautiful.

Daffodils are showing their blooms all over the place now. I actually have one little mini daff blooming in my front yard, but the mini ones don't last long. I can't wait for the tulips! Maybe this year we will be able to make it to the Tulip Festival.

This building in Fairhaven had beautiful old light fixtures.

This is Rupert. I fell in love with him while loitering in our favorite toy store. We always spend quite a bit of time in this store. There is always one employee out on the floor playing with toys, and that is part of their job description. The fun part about it is that you are introduced to a lot of fun new toys, or reminded about fun ones from your past. Mom secretly bought the flying squirrel puppet and squished him in her purse for me. She brought him out later while we were in the car and I was so excited. He is adorable and looks pretty freaky with his beady eyes and real looking fur. Mom helped us name him Rupert and now I have a feeling he is somewhat of my mascot and might just wind up in lots of places in the future. Currently he has a home proudly displayed on top of my bookshelf with a pile of books and some bird houses. He always has a pose like he is about to karate chop something, which I think is hilarious.

Thursday night was the official start of the conference. Supper was served and there was a prayer meeting after.

Drooler sitting in Emma's car seat, holding Emma. He loves babies.

Look at all the kids! There was a crazy amount of kids at the conference and it was so much fun. It was freezing outside, so you can imagine how many more are inside the building running around in the warmth.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were wonderful. In the reading meetings we took up the Upper Room Ministry in John 13 and 14. It was really good to go over these things again and the ministry is so incredibly practical. I hope that each one came away with something. I know I did. I plan to listen to some of the meetings over again, especially the moments I missed here and there. There were words spoken from many different brothers and each one had a word that touched my heart. I seemed to really need the spiritual food that this conference fed me, so it was very enjoyable. Speaking about food :) once again the ladies here did their own catering for the seven meals during the conference. I must say that I was very impressed with the planning and carrying out of the meals. Thank you for all your hard work D and Aunt K. Your organizational skills in the kitchen blow me away. Thanks to everyone else that worked hard in the kitchen as well as in other areas during the conference to help it run smoothly.

Kathy, Margaret, LeAnne, Myeisha, Kimberley and Gwynne. I think I butchered spellings, but you get the point. I love to see young people at conferences and it brings back a lot of memories for me. Conferences were my favorite when I was in YP.

Princess' babies. This was my first time to see the new baby. He is just 1 month old! Such a snuggler and so adorable.

I got to hold Little A while Phi had some help from mommy.


My dear friend Kasia took this photo of Little A and me. Thanks Kasia!

Ok, excuse me while I go a little baby crazy as usual. Doesn't he make a cute little cabbage patch?

Good morning! Did my flash bother you?


Sunday night Phone Guy, Princess, Phi and Little A came to spend the night and Little A had his first introductionary taste of XBox 360. See him down there all nestled in between the guys?

On Monday* The Mr., my dad and Phone Guy played a couple rounds of disc golf at Cornwall Park. Kim was still in BC with her friends. Mom and I spent the time shopping at Ross, and then they came and picked us up and dropped us off at Bellis Fair mall Kohls. I highly suggest Kohls because so far both times I have been there, I have bought all my items at 70-90% off. This time I got two shirts for $6.70. I especially like the brand Sonoma.

On Tuesday we went to Mt. Baker and found some amazing snow in the Canyon but that is going to be a separate post, because judging from the size of this post, most of you would not like it if I uploaded another 7 photos to add to it! My sister and parents flew out Wednesday morning and I miss them now. (Come back soon!)

*edit: I forgot to add that while we were sitting and eating breakfast on Monday, we recieved a call from my cousin Amy in Idaho. She explained to me that her brother Rob was in Blaine of all places! He was on his way to see a friend on the Island, as well as my Uncle and Aunt who live there, and broke down. We went and picked him up so he could have a warm place to rest for the day, as he had been driving through the night. He ended up getting rid of his car and Amy's hubby Casey came all the way from Idaho (10 hours) to pick him up, turn around and drive straight back. Not so cool for Rob or Casey, but cool for me because it had been quite a while since I had seen Rob and I got to meet Casey for the first time.

Thanksgiving Preview

Today is preparation day. Not only for Thanksgiving, but also for conference! I thought I would give a quick glimpse of what it is going to look like around here tomorrow.

Table centerpiece.

Mantel

Hand made napkin rings.

Napkin Ring Tutorial:

1) Drive past Michael's on your way to Costco when you are in a rush. Let mouth fall open as you gaze at the 90% signs.
2) Park, get out, buy bunches of small 2-3" silk flowers as needed.
3)Purchase package of 18 gage floral cloth wire. If you don't have wire cutters, straw or strong glue (I did) buy those also.
4) Finish shopping as needed, rush home.
5) Cut 6" pieces of wire as needed with wire cutters, shape into circles using a tea light candle.
6) Twist ends around circle, leaving ends sticking out. Those ends are where the flowers will be placed.
7) Use pliers to make the bottom of the circle flat, so the napkin rings sit well. Your circles should now be a D shape with the twisted ends on the round part of the D.
8) Tie a straw bow around center of twisted ends.
9) Pluck off a bud and a leaf from any stem. Place drops of glue into their holes. I used wood glue and let it dry over night and it worked great. Regular white glue is not strong enough. Add glue to the wire ends too if you like. Place flower and leaf onto ends of wire.
10) Let dry overnight. Check in morning- one of mine had to be re-glued.
11) Fill with cloth or white paper napkins. With paper napkins, it looks nice if you open them up, and then pull them through the ring.

I made 21 napkin rings for under $4. Guests can take them home as favors if they want. I think these would also work well for wedding showers or little girls birthday parties.

Baker Lake Lodge

As I had mentioned earlier, it turned out that The Mr. had a four day weekend fall right into place for the Labor Day festivities. We were able to attend a gathering of young couples at Baker Lake Lodge, which is owned by PSE, Sallad's employer. Click the link and you can see a picture of the huge fireplace that makes the room look dwarfed! PSE rents it out to employees for an amazingly discounted price. Sallad and Grace arranged the trip and invited 8 couples to attend. Drooler's family, Chip's family, Andy and Jennie, Harrison and Anna, Dave and Jenn, Wiggle and Luke's family, Sam and Robyn and The Mr. and I.

The lodge was incredible. There was a dining area with a large buffet area, complete with buffet warming dishes for food. The kitchen was a full professional kitchen, with anything you would ever need. You could open any cupboard and find numerous stacks of serving ware, pyrex and corningware dishes, platters, electric skillets, cutting boards and hung along the ceiling and sides of the room were frying pans, stock pots, water pitchers and a huge amount of different serving and cooking utensils.... the list would be endless if I tried to type it all out. It was a dream situation, and most of us brought things from home that we wouldn't have even needed. Of course for a kitchen lover like myself, it was so much fun to use and it felt like playing restaurant as a kid. When each meal was done and the dishes were piled up in the bins, each one got sprayed off with a huge industrial sprayer and loaded it into the big dishwasher. It was pretty cool, and I developed quite an addiction to washing dishes. Unfortunately, it didn't carry over to my home life- my dishwasher isn't half as fun!

The Kitchen

The guys dish up. Heidi and I decided to just serve
from the pots- much less clean up!

H and A. Notice the huge industrial fridge
and freezer behind them!

Jamin, Lukey, Bonnie and Wiggles.

The living area of the lodge was huge and included a pool table, table tennis, bar area where we served dessert and hot drinks each night, piano, leather couches and the biggest fireplace I have ever sat in front of. We had fires the whole time we were there and it created such a nice atmosphere. The kitchen provided as much coffee, hot chocolate, tea or cider that we wanted because there was a hot water tap on the coffee maker. Each night we had a bible reading, and they all turned out very nice. It was such a neat feeling to be able to sit down with so many young couples and be able to read the Word and talk about it. Sunday evening we had a sing after our bible reading, and we had Bonnie to play the piano - for once we actually carried a steady tempo and tune!

Bonnie wow's Drooler. I love how he is just sitting back and
watching her play. Usually he plays along!

This was a constant sight around the pool table. For some reason,
the guys were always laughing more than they were playing.

The lodge had 9 bedrooms layed out hotel style down a long hallway, and included all usual amenities, as well as things like toothbrushes and paste, razors, unlimited bedding and towels etc. Each one had their own bathroom, and their were additional bathrooms in the hallway, as well as a sauna and laundry room.

The three D kids all tucked in for the night. They were SO excited
to sleep in bunk beds. The twins had never slept in a real bed before, and
Lukey did end up falling out sometime in the night, although he slept through it!
I love how the twins shared the bottom bunk- one on either end!

I have many more pictures and stories to share about Baker and our daily activities, so check back later!

Sunny Skies Again!

It's sunny again, just in perfect time for my cleaning schedule. Today my cleaning schedule says something along the lines of "clean windows- inside and out." Aargh!!! Why couldn't it be pouring rain so that I would have a good excuse to stay inside with a good book and a mug of licorice tea? There are 10 windows in this house, and some of them are huge. It's going to be a big job, but they really need to be done. Thankfully, I was able to get three of them done the other day, and the insides of a couple others done yesterday. That will really help. I am glad I have the cleaning schedule, because it reminds me to do certain jobs that would otherwise get forgotten and get really bad before they were done. I love the look of clean windows, so I better get crackin' right after I post this.

Yesterday on my walk I saw the same bunny I took a picture of before. It must be a little tame... either that or it has rabies! It hasn't charged me or tried to bite yet, but I guess I better be careful and not try to pet or feed it. They say that there are rabid bats in this area, so I guess that means there could be rabid rabbits too. Ok, now I am freaking myself out.

Here are some photographs from yesterday. I know I take a lot of nature pictures, but I love nature and enjoy taking photos of it. There are so many wild roses blooming that our backyard smells like rosewater right now. Just a faint sweet rosy smell. Yum. I used to work at a garden where the hippie owners would provide rosewater in a fancy glass atomizer (complete with bulb to squeeze) to mist your face with. They also provided ginseng extract in little glass bottles you stuck a tiny straw into. It tasted like orange peel- yuck. Maybe they thought it would make us work faster? The rosewater part was lovely though. Very refreshing after a hard day mucking around.

PS: if any of these photos are overlapping, would you please comment and let me know? Thanks. You can click on any of them to view them larger.


Does anyone know what kind of bush has blue flowers?

This is my first rose bloom of the season.

The path I walk on.

Wild roses.




























The state park is busy even on a Thursday night. I love the smell of all the marshmallow roasting fires! Look carefully in the duck picture, there is a little tiny duckling right in front of the mama duck.

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings. Malachi 4:2