Home Sweet Home

I'm HOME!!! Yippee! Yahoo! Oh it was so good to sleep in my own bed last night with hubby by my side. I've missed that very much. But...I do miss my little Piper a whole bunch. We had heavy rain when we left Portland yesterday for the first three hours of the drive. It changed to drizzle for awhile and then we actually had dry pavement for about half an hour. Then it was into the heavy snow coming down. I felt so blessed and thankful for good neighbors when we got home and found our driveway and sidewalks all snowblowed for us. I was thinking about trudging through snow to unpack the car and it was wonderful to find it all done. It's been flurrying all day today but no accumulation. I took Craig and Addie, (the lovely neighbors), two knitted dishcloths and Addie was overjoyed. She loves when I give her handmade things, especially dishcloths. She said Craig did the snow removal but she's happy to take the dishcloths! :-)

Following are few pictures that were on the camera when I got home. Miss Piper LOVES to be read to. She follows the pictures in the books and has definite favorites already. Mandy reads to her every single night and has since her first day home. Our family are all a bunch of bookworms. You should have heard our movers when we moved from Nebraska!

Here is the picture of Gracie, Teresa and Taci when we had lunch together two weeks ago while I was in Portland. All are bloggers that live in the Portland area and it's fun to get together when I visit. The three of them lunch together quite often and I'm jealous!

The last picture is of Polly and Chloe. Notice the same exact pose!!! They are always in the same position as the other. If one is curled up in a ball, the other is too. Chloe is really missing Polly today and Mandy say's Polly is acting lonely too. So sad.

I've spent the morning catching up on desk work and cleaning some. A busy day but it's really good to be home and around all that's familiar.

Sorry this is short. Lots to do when you've been gone a long time! Have a wonderful day.

Blessings,

Betsy

Sunshine Saturday

Hello everyone! I'm sorry I've been away so long. I'm still trying to decipher the picture mystery on Blogger. I think in order to post pictures, I'm going to either have to delete some old ones or pay. I think I'll begin with deleting a few and see what happens. But that will be next week when I have more time.

I've been busy traveling the past week. We went to our son's in Montana for Easter weekend. Three egg hunts with the grandbabies on Sunday and a WONDERFUL resurrection Sunday service. It was a grand fun-filled time. Hubby took Monday off work so we were able to stay an extra day. We drove home Monday and then Tuesday morning I travelled alone to Portland, OR to see our daughter. She is expecting her first baby and asked me to go the the doctors visit with her so I could hear the heartbeat. Oh that little one was kicking up a storm in there. I just can't wait to meet this little person sometime in September! I drove back home yesterday and finally relaxed a bit today. Almost 1800 miles driven in 7 days! My car definitely needs an oil change.

While in Portland I took a side trip on Thursday to Multnomah Falls to see a blog friend Teresa. She is also in the Lucy group on Ravelry. It was so good to meet her in person. She volunteers at Multnomah Falls and is a wonderful person. I'll have to figure out how to add links to others blogs on here. I know you would all love it. She posts beautiful pictures of the Columbia Gorge and her farm. And she is a much more regular poster than I am!

My new ipad just decided to quit working while in Montana so hubby and I took it to the geeks at Best Buy this morning. They did what they called a hard reset and it was just like new. Literally. All my information was gone and I had to start all over. Very frustrating. They said sometimes the software has a "little hiccup" and this happens. So I've been trying to reinstall all of my apps etc. this afternoon.

Hubby and I decided to put our little pop up camper on Craigslist today. We have one man interested and he's driving over from Walla Walla tomorrow to look at it. Yes, there is really a town called Walla Walla, Washington! Sounds funny doesn't it?

I'm hoping to be better about blogging, but with so much illness this year, I just haven't had the energy. Hopefully with spring arriving, it will be easier!

Have a wonderfully fabulous weekend.

Blessings,

Betsy

Happy Tuesday!

Good morning friends.  Well, I'm still sick but determined to do a few things today.  This is the third day of temp over 101F.  But, I still think it's just a "bug" that has to run it's course.  And my knitting group meets this morning.  :-(  I was really looking forward to that since I haven't been there since the first week in December.

Well, with no further ado, here are my last Christmas 2011 pictures  This was our annual Bible Study Christmas gift exchange and potluck.  These are some of our closest friends in the world.  And before I'm asked, yes, this is at my house!

Some of the "spread" of food.  What is it that is said about church potlucks?  It's the best home cooking in the world!  Roast with all the "fixins", chicken enchiladas, fried chicken, deviled eggs, two kinds of potatoes, homemade salsa.  Yum.

 Barbequed sausages were added to the dessert counter because we ran out of room on the island.  Then we had homemade Russian Creme with Raspberry sauce, cookies and a pumpkin crunch dessert.

 Presents for our swap.  Have any of you done this? Each person has a number and chooses a gift in that order.  They can either choose a new unopened gift or "steal" a gift that they liked from someone else.  The gift can only be "stolen" 3 times and then it stays with that last person.  We do this every year and it's great fun.

 This is Mark.  He was home from Boise College for Christmas.  He's been coming to our Christmas potluck and exchange for about 16 years now.  But, all good things must end.  He's graduating this year and getting married in May.  He'll probably be pastoring a church by next year.  What a sweetheart.

 This is Marks mom Ellen, (on the right) and Kim.  Ellen is our housesitter extraordinaire!  She takes such good care of our baby Chloe and the house when we're gone.  And that's Neal in the back giving them both bunny ears that they're unaware of!

 Lana, Debbie, Mark and Dean.  Lots of good things to eat!  I know, I know, it's not popular to have magnets on the refrigerator anymore,  But, we buy a new one whenever we travel and it's one of our memory makers.  I figure when I get old, it may be the only traveling I do, to look at them and remember.  Also, they hold up our grandchilrens drawings very well!

 Kevin and Lana.  Kevin was legally blind his entire life until a few years.  A miraculous surgery gave him his sight.  Now he even drives! Lana is is wife and a wonderfully spirit filled woman.

 Neal, who is Dennis' best friend.  He's a little out of it on this particular evening.  He just had two wisdom teeth pulled and was taking pain medicine.  He didn't each much!

 Here we're getting all set up for the gift stealing!!!  Oh, that's Jenny on the sofa by Neal, (the left),  She's my best friend in the world.  I tell you, that woman would do anything for me, and yet we're complete opposites in personality.  Isn't it funny how that happens?

 Here's the other side of the group!  Now you've seen my kitchen, dining room and living room.  I don't think I introduced you to Bev.  She's the lady in blue on the right side of the picture.

 And this, my friends is the most stolen gift of the evening.  It's two C.D.'s of all the old Christmas hits.  We put it in the player and listened to the songs the rest of the evening.

My handsome husband, Dennis.  He opened five gifts that night.  Everyone kept stealing them from him.

And that's it!  The last Christmas picture for the year.  We took the decorations down on Friday.  I always like to have the house back to normal by the first of the year.  I'm so happy I didn't put it off until Saturday since I've been sick every day since then. 

Dennis went back to work today and life returns to it's own rythm.  I'm really going to miss him being around all day.  I counted the days and in the last 22 days he's only worked 6!  We were in Hawaii for 8 days and then two 4 day weekends.  I don't know when we've ever had this much time together and I've loved every minute of it.  Of course, he did work on vacation and also from home several hours everyday.  (Thank you ipad and cell phone!) but at least we were together.  One night, we were walking on the beach trying to take in the sunset and his phone rang. He talked for almost 45 minutes to a man from Australia!  He kept telling him that he wasn't in the office and didn't have the information he needed.  He would call his office the next morning and have his secretary fax the information requested.  The guy just didn't "get it".  He kept talking, talking, talking.  And...Dennis missed the sunset, but I thought it was beautiful!  So....he never really gets away but he seems to be fine with that and I get to be with him so it's all okay.

Enough rambling.  I'm off to my recliner and my knitting for awhile and hope I feel better soon!  I hope you all have a wonderful day too.

Blessings,

Betsy

Random Thursday

Life is slowly returning to normal in the Queen house.  Dennis is working Tuesday through today and then another four day weekend for him before he's back to 12 hour days.  After eight days in Hawaii and two four day weekends, I think normal life will be difficult for him.

This is how Chloe is recuperating after the weekend romping with Polly and Tucker.  They are really lovely dogs and very well behaved, but she was exhausted from all that playing.  And yes, we let her on the sofa, but notice the sheet covering.  It catches most of the dog hair!

 I don't remember if I've already shown you this picture, but if I have, please humor me.  It's rare that I get more than one child together at a time.  From left to right, son-Jamie, hubby, granddaughter, me, grandson, daughter-Mandy and son-in-law-Brad. Tucker is the black lab, Chloe in the middle and Polly a yellow lab on the right.  See how small Chloe is?  We had a wonderful time!

This is a wreath that Mandy taught me to make last summer. I keep forgetting to show it to you.  It uses one old paperback book and a wire coat hanger.  I love it!  I used a duplicate copy I had of a Debbie Macomber book.  Have you ever read her books?  If you knit, you'll love her Blossom Street series.  She even includes free knitting patterns in the books!

I made this ipad cover the day hubby bought me the ipad last week.  I used one of my Mom's buttons from her button box.  My mom died when I was 29 and I inherited the button box.  Everytime I get into the box, memories rush back.  I think the cover turned out well, don't you think?  It only took about 4 hours to make.  The pattern is a free download on Ravelry if you want one yourself.

Well there it is, a few random thoughts.  This morning I visited my friend in the nursing home.  She was not in a happy mood and nothing I could do cheered her up.  Some days are like that, but most are still good.  Then I took a big bag of baby hats to the local hospital.  The nurses ooohed and aaahed over them and were so grateful.  It's cold up here in the northwest and those babies need hats to go home!  It makes me feel good to see their faces and know they appreciate them.  I do a lot of knitting for online groups, but those items are all mailed away.  Sometimes it's fun to actually see the faces of the recipients.

Tonight is our annual Bible Study potluck and gift exchange.  We always do it after Christmas so everyone can relax more.  Usually it's in January!  This year we're squeezing it in before the end of the year.  It's always at our house and we have about 20 people here.  I supposed I better get off the computer and start cooking or my food will be the only food not prepared in time!

Happy New Year and Blessings to all of you in the coming year.

Betsy

More Hawaii and Christmas Cookies!

Good Morning Everyone!

Thank you for the comments yesterday from Olivia, Carol and Kaylana.  It's nice to know people are really reading the blog, otherwise it gets boring just talking to myself. I do enough of that already!  You all have such interesting lives.  Olivia in beautiful Bavaria!  I'll bet Christmas is amazing there.  Kaylana in Latvia.  May I ask what you do that you live in such exotic places all the time?  And Carol, I'm so happy to hear about the little one being so much better and will be able to celebrate Christmas with you and the family.

It's been a busy couple of days around the Queen house, preparing for 2 adults kids and their spouses and 2 grandkids too!  No big deal-the cookies turned out terrible!  It was my first time with a new sugar cookie recipe. I mixed the dough last night and refrigerated it overnight just like the recipe called for.  They were supposed to bake 5-6 minutes and when I checked the first batch after 4 minutes it was already burned.  I still have to ice the remaining ones, but I'm not optimistic.  It's okay, I can always throw them out and run to the store.  In years past I baked about 20 different kinds of cookies every year.  Now that we're alone, Dennis and I do NOT need all those cookies so I hardly ever bake anymore.  I did want to give the grandbabies their own sugar angels from Grandma though.  Oh well.

Last night Dennis surprised me with my Christmas gift early.  I thought our gifts to each other was the trip to Hawaii, however he presented me with an ipad last night.  I charged it overnight and just tried to set it up.  I'm so horrible with techy things, I can't even turn the thing on.  Thank goodness our son is a systems analyst and great at all things computer.  Hopefully he can get it all going for me this weekend.  Now....I have no gift for Dennis.  Can you believe he said my gift to him is just loving him for all these years?  How did I get such a WONDERFUL man?  I am truly blessed.  He said the ipad will be easier to keep track of all my knitting patterns and blogs.  He has one for work and loves it.  I think lugging around the laptop for vacation made him decide to get something smaller for me.

Okay, with no further ado, more pictures of Maui!  Of course we need to begin with yet another sunset because I do love the sunsets.

 Here we are at what is called the "whale nursey" of Maui.  It's just off Maalea Harbor and usually there are many whales and babies, but this year we didn't see any.  It was still beautiful but we missed the whales.  Taking pictures of yourself is always an adventure.  Arms out, head up, (or down).

 No whales, but beautiful nonetheless.

 This sign is at the pull-off.  I'm sorrry it isn't easier to read.

 Another of us at the Banyan Tree in Lahaina.  The tree takes up the entire city block and is amazing.  I know there are a lot of pictures of us, but normally we take lots and lots of the scenery and none of us.  We decided before we left that we would take more of the two of us.  Our son in Japan has requested pictures of family this year because he misses all of us, so we decided to try to provide some from the trip for him.

This is the view from upcountry.  We were on our way to the Ulupalakua Ranch and winery.  The previous picture was taken just around that curve at the top left of the picture.  The condo we stayed at is one at the very right of the buildings in the middle of the picture.



 
This is the view from upcountry, of the island Molokini.  Lots of snorkeling and turtle watching out there.  The building you see is the Maui Prince.  This is the last hotel on the southern coast of Maui and the first place we ever stayed on Maui about 11 years or so ago.  It's very quiet and every room has a partial ocean view.  Very exclusive.  Very golf resorty.  We could never afford to go there now.  It's been sold and the new owners charge almost FOUR times what we paid for our room.  Isn't the ocean beautiful?  You can just make out the cinder cone on the left.

 The next two pictures are the Tedeshi Winery on the Ulupalakua Ranch.  It's the only winery in Maui.  Although we really aren't drinkers, they make a pineapple wine that you can't get anywhere else. Isn't it pretty decorated for Christmas?

 This is a picture of the black lava flow from the 1700's.  The road ends just past this.  Well, it doesn't actually end,  but there is a section so rough that it makes your rental contract invalid if you drive on it.  Who can afford to pay for the car if it's damaged?  We never go past this point.  If you could continue, you would be on the road to Hana.

 The cinder cone by the Maui Prince Hotel with the black lava beyond it, then the ocean.

  That's it for today.  A few more tomorrow morning for you and we'll be all done!  Tomorrow I need to bake pies and prepare the celery, onions etc. for the stuffing.  I try to do as much as I can before the kids arrive so I can spend time with them, not cooking.  Then I'm going to make my homemade noodles and chicken for dinner tomorrow night.  It's my son's favorite dish and I always make it for him when he comes home.  I do love to cook for my kids!

Hope your preparations are all going well also and you remember to make time to think about the reason we celebrate!

Blessings,

Betsy