Home Sweet Home

Hello Everyone!

We're home now but I have a few photos and a tale of woe for you.

Here I am with some friends at the General Store on the Ulapauakua Ranch in upcountry Maui.  They were full of wisdom for me. :-)

Have any of you ever driven the infamous Highway to Hana?  It's quite an adventure.

This is the only winery on Maui, right across from the general store.  Isn't it cute?

Mama's Fish House is a must when you visit.  This my lunch of coconut prawns.

This was Dennis' lunch.  Wild Boar, Fresh Tuna, octopus, poi and a couple of things I cant remember.

My handsome Hubby and I under the Banyan tree in Lahaina.  This tree takes up an entire city block.

We visited the sugar plantation and saw this beautifully decorated Christmas tree.

A close up of one of the decorations.

The Tree topper.

This was a Ford truck used years ago on the plantation.  It's been beautifully restored.

Do you see the black line in the middle of the ocean?  The fin sticking up?  That's a whale right outside our room.  The only camera I had was my iPhone so I couldn't zoom very well but it gives you a perspective how exactly how close it was.  It played in that area for about a half hour before cruising northward.

A short tale of woe.  Our room or lanaii was inhabited by a spiders nest somewhere.  Every night we were bitten, Hubby much, much worse than I was.  He has 16-20 bites on his legs!  Our condo would do nothing until Monday- we had reported the problem the Wednesday before.  By Monday morning we had enough and came home two days early so Hubby could see a doctor for the bites.  Please keep him in your thoughts, a couple don't look very nice but the doctor thinks he got the antibiotic process started quick enough to avoid problems.  Alhough we did have a few things we did that were enjoyable, overall it was not a fun trip and was very stressful.  I spent most of the time washing bedding and cleaning the condo trying to find the spiders.  A lot of money was spent on a not so fun vacation since we couldn't swim, hot tub or walk on the beach after the first night

Oh well, we are very, very, very happy to be back home.  On Friday early in the morning I have a flight to Portland to have lunch with Gracie, Teresa, Taci and Becky at Taci's new house.  I'm renting a car there and then I'll fly back home that evening.  I'm looking forward to seeing my girlfriends!  The only drawback is having to be at the airport by 4:30 in the morning!

I'll leave you with a picture of Piper that Mandy texted me this afternoon.  They baked cookies this morning and then after Piper's nap they decorated them.  The picture is the aftermath of decorating and tasting the cookies!  So cute!

Have a lovely, lovely day my friends.  I'm sorry I've fallen behind on reading some blogs while away but I'll try to do better now.

Blessings,

Betsy

Hawaii Bound

Up at 3:30 a.m.!  Ick!  It was a cold and dark drive to the airport.  After a 45 minute flight to Seattle we had breakfast here...

Have you all heard of the 12th man on the Seahawks team?  It's the fan.  

Then my handsome Hubby and I boarded this pretty plane for a 6 /2 hour flight.

To this!  The view from our lanai, only about 15 yards from the white sands of Sugar Beach on Maui.

We arrived just in time for a sunset walk on the beach and here I am, one very happy girl.

Life is GOOD!!!!!!

Blessings my friends,

Betsy

Finished!

Happy Friday my friends!  Is it beginning to look a lot like Christmas at your house?  Just look what we have at ours.  Snow?  Nope.  Ice.  We had freezing rain yesterday morning and again last night.  That, my friends, is about 1/4 of an inch of ice on the sidewalks and streets.  It may not sound like much but oh my goodness, the absolute havoc it plays on the roads!

Last night after Bible study, Dennis and I had to take two ladies downtown, one to the bus plaza and one to the senior plaza where she lives.  Usually some friends drive them, but the roads were so bad they didn't trust their car to go any further than their house.  I have these amazing snow tires on my car that the colder it gets outside, the softer the tires get and they do REALLY well on ice.  Kind of like suction cups!  I didn't want him driving all the way back home by himself so I went along.  It was terrible, even with my car.  The roads glistened with ice and the hills...oh my goodness, the hills.  Needless to say, I breathed a prayer of relief when we were safely back in the garage.  So today is the second day in a row I'm carless.  I've been making him drive my car to work both days because of the ice.  I love, love being "stuck" at home.

My very last Christmas gift is done!!!  Drumroll please!  My I present Caleb's Wonderful Wallaby Sweater in Denver Broncos colors!

It didn't turn out to be absolutely awful.  The top of the hood wasn't supposed to be blue, just the trim around the edge, but I ran out of orange and couldn't find more in that dye lot anywhere.  It kind of looks like a football helmet when it's on, (if you stretch your imagination), so I think it will be fine.

I also put together three more blankets for the childrens shelter.  Two for boys and one more for girls.

One more wheelchair blanket for the Veteran's Home.  This makes a total of 3 for the Veteran's Home and 7 for the children's shelter.  I was going to deliver them today, but since I'm carless it will be Monday if the weather cooperates.

The suitcases have made an appearance and swim trunks and swimsuits have been tried on. (Eeek!) That is NOT a pleasant experience.  SInce we only take carry-on and don't check bags, there isn't much to pack.  I become a minimalist when I travel.  Only this one bag on the right and a diaper bag like tote with lots of pockets.

Tonight is date night with our best friends, Neal & Jenny.  We'll go out to dinner and then come back here for a rousing gme of dominoes.  I know. We're boring.  But we can talk while we eat and play dominoes and that's the entire point of getting together.  We try to do this the last Friday of each month, but the past few months have been crazy with Mandy's move and Jenny's job.  Last week was Thanksgiving  and they had lots of family here so we bumped it back a week.  I'm looking forward to it.

We also have some people we've never met staying here tonight and tomorrow night.  Our  neighbor passed away very unexectedly last Saturday.  He was diagnosed with cancer less than 5 weeks ago.   They are very close to our age and sweet people.  His wife is overwhelmed with family coming in for the service tomorrow and doesn't have room for everyone.  We've volunteered our two guest rooms and she is very grateful.  We do this quite often so its not unusual.  But...we're leaving Tueday and have a family of four people who are using our house while we're gone.  It's another friend who's daughter, son-in-law and grandson who are visiting from New York.  Her apartment isn't big enough for all of them so we volunteered ours since it would be empty while we're gone anyway.   I'll need to get all the sheets washed and have everything presentable for them by the time we leave.  Plus finish packing too.  Whew!  

We get home from Hawaii on Wednesday night at midnight.  Our houseguests may still be here and then Friday at 6:00 a.m. I'll be flying to Portland for our ladies bloggers lunch with Gracie, Taci, Teresa and this year Becky will also be joining us at Taci's new home.  I'll fly back home that evening because we have a full day planned for Saturday!  I'm looking forward to seeing the girls.  It's been quite a few months since we've been together.

I hope your Christmas plans are going well.  Take a deep breath and let it out. :-)  I'm enjoying looking at blogs showing all the decorations and preparations.  In the midst of it all, I hope everyone is remembering the reason for the celebration.  The birh of the Christ child, Jesus.

"Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done wonderful things, things planned long ago."  Isaiah 25:1

Blessings,

Betsy