Author Archives: Ellen

Joy!

Thank you to all of you who prayed that the Marine’s would let Andrew come to Atlanta with Katie. The powers that be approved his trip and we are pleased and filled with joy!

I made a trip to Hobby Lobby this week and they had a lot of goodies on sale for 40% off and other items for 50% off. I bought that Joy sign that was in their Christmas section but it’s staying up at my house all year long. They also had all their glassware at 50% off so I bought some glass containers for my Smirntopf. I’ve been waiting for this kind of sale to purchase them.

Sure hope my Smirntopf turns out well. It will look pretty in these containers for gift giving.

After Thanksgiving we’ll start thinking about giving the Smirntopf a taste test and getting it ready to package for gifts.

Today I’m thankful for…

~ God making it possible for Andrew to come to Atlanta.

~ Our trip to Atlanta where we get to see Andrew and Katie.

~ Our second cookbook and all the encouraging words we heard from all our friends in blogdom.

~ Getting a couple more of my recipes for the cookbook completed.

~ Our small group and the 2 new couples that have joined us.

~ Dear’s promotion at work.

~ A day off today to just putz around and get ready for Atlanta.

~ Our Women’s Bible Study and the beginning of our study of the book of John.

~ That our son Dan is now the proud owner of his own home and land and has slept there for a week!

~ That our son Josh was recognized in his industry for his humanitarian endeavors.

Last but not least…I’ve lost 12 pounds!!!

What are you thankful for…

It’s 10-11-12!

I wonder when the next time that will happen!?

…I need to back track to document what a fun Sunday night we had in downtown Seattle at the Sounders Soccer game against our Cascadia rivals the Portland Timbers.

We always start with our local military representatives holding the flag while we sing The Star Spangled Banner. This night there were over 50,000 voices strong singing. That is really cool. Total attendance for the night was 66, 452.

…and the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air!

Our Emerald City Supporters went all out with a banner depicting the Sounders coach Sigi Schmid going all in.

An all time favorite player on our Sounders team retired earlier this year and he was honored this night with the golden scarf. He really is beloved by the fans and the stadium went electric when he was honored!

As the sun set in the West the sun set on Portland, too. We sent them back to Portland defeated 3-0.

So I’m still going around and around on my theme and I’m not finished yet. Double Oye!

What do you have planned for 10-11-12??

Atlanta, Georgia

 

On Saturday Dear is headed to Atlanta, Georgia for a business meeting and I’m tagging along. We are staying downtown in the Peach Tree area. The exciting thing about this trip is that Katie and Andrew are meeting us there for overnight since they are just an hour away from Atlanta by air. We are still waiting to see if the Marines will allow Andrew to stray that far from the Base. Katie will come regardless. We hope that both of them can come. We haven’t seen them since the wedding in March.

The burning question is how much we can jam into our 2 days and how much we’ll be able to experience that is “Atlanta”. Any suggestions from any of you would be appreciated! Did I tell you I’m excited to see our East Coast kids???

Announcements, Announcements, Annou-ounce-ments!

The Mennonite Girls Can Cook are happy to announce that our second cookbook will be released Spring of 2013! Click over to the MGCC site to read all about it and to leave a comment for a chance to win our 2nd cookbook.

AND…while I’m making announcements, don’t be surprised if the look of my blog changes this week.

Happy Thanksgiving Canada!

Fall, Fun, Food, and the Future of Flight!

We had a very peaceful Fall day on Saturday here in the Pacific Northwest. We are still dry…breaking records with our dryness. Everyone here is trying to get out and enjoy this unseasonable weather because we know that soon enough our rain will return.

Saturday morning my sister and I headed to Country Village in Bothell to check out a Fall Craft sale and our 3 favorite shops at the village.

Fall decorations and wares were everywhere to see in the very bright sunshine.

At the craft fair our favorites were the letter blocks and we each purchased 3 sets of them. I chose Thankful, Gobble and Joy.

Joy is still packaged in the cellophane because it will probably be a gift for Christmas.

Santa was happy to see we were already thinking about Christmas.

This was another purchase at the fair at the right price.

On Saturday evening we joined Josh and Laura along with Laura’s parents for an evening at a dinner fundraiser for the Future of Flight at the Boeing campus in Everett, Washington. The event was to raise funds for the education programs that partner with local schools to promote math and science. Josh’s company Axia Home Loans in Lynwood, Washington sponsored our table.

Father and son checking out the silent auction. Josh ended up winning 3 or 4 of the items he bid on at the silent auction.

The theme of the event was “The Adventures of Amelia”. We found Amelia and took a photo with her.

We sat amongst the aircraft and engines for our dinner and live auction.

The food was surprisingly good for a big event like this one. They had the tables silent bid for our desserts. The higher bidders took all the chocolate choices early! It was another creative way to raise more money for a good cause.

I took this centerpiece lantern home with me after placing the only bid for it at our table.

On our way out there were gift bags to take home with the Airfield Bombshell Wine from the evening along with a wine opener, cork, and a signature rub from the caterer. That was a fun surprise.

Tonight I’m headed to a rivalry game between the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers. There have been over 66,000 tickets sold for this game so the atmosphere will be electric! The fans longtime favorite player, Roger Levesque, who retired earlier this season will be honored with the “Golden Scarf” tonight, too. I’m wondering if this will be our last game of the season in the sunshine and no rain.

Hope your weekend has gone well.

I Stand Amazed in the Presence ~ Hymn

Rosemary reminded me of this old favorite of mine and I wanted to share it today…

I Stand Amazed in the Presence

I stand amazed in the presence
Of Jesus the Nazarene,
And wonder how He could love me,
A sinner, condemned, unclean.

Refrain

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

For me it was in the garden
He prayed: “Not My will, but Thine.”
He had no tears for His own griefs,
But sweat drops of blood for mine.

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

In pity angels beheld Him,
And came from the world of light
To comfort Him in the sorrows
He bore for my soul that night.

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

He took my sins and my sorrows,
He made them His very own;
He bore the burden to Calvary,
And suffered and died alone.

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

When with the ransomed in glory
His face I at last shall see,
’Twill be my joy through the ages
To sing of His love for me.

O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
And my song shall ever be:
O how marvelous! O how wonderful!
Is my Savior’s love for me!

Words: Charles H. Gabriel, 1905.

Across the Line…

…our Canadian friends are celebrating Thanksgiving this weekend.

They have a long weekend lasting into Monday.

A question for my Canadian friends. Do you wait till Monday to celebrate or do you choose a different day on the weekend?

I know for us with married children and children scattered here and there we go with the flow and share with our kids’ in laws on which day we claim for the turkey.

It was so nice having Dear home all day today. He doesn’t like to just sit around so we moved some furniture around which then meant he had to raise some art work. We are making the living room roomier because our small group has grown to 12 people and we need to fit everyone in there.
Hope you all have a very nice weekend.

A Little Glimpse…

…of Vienna. Or…what happens when the photographer doesn’t go on the trip!

I am thrilled to have my Dear back home with me. I uploaded his photos from Vienna. He had a total of 18 photos with 11 of them being of his hotel room. It was a very nice room, lots of space and filled with nice amenities. I’m chuckling because I loaded my camera for him to take with an 8GB memory card.

I will give him a lot of slack because he was working during the day and the one half day he had off it was raining heavily so there wasn’t a good opportunity to take photos! The photos he did take were a good representation of the city. He’s got a good eye!

My Pharmacist spotted the Apotheke. Doesn’t the city look clean?

Dear’s company booked rooms at this nice hotel, the Radisson Blu Palais.  I was really impressed with the size of the room and all the great features. Dear said that they stocked the refrigerator with beer, water, apple juice, orange juice and a sparkling drink. If you used anything from the refrigerator you weren’t charged and it was replenished the next day. I like that concept.

Did I mention how happy I am to have Dear back home? His next trip I’ll be tagging along. I’ll tell you more soon.

Homecoming…

This mama duck is really excited that papa duck flies over the skies of Washington today on his way to SeaTac airport. Because he was in Europe we didn’t have the daily phone call opportunities that make being apart from each other easier. So much news to share, mostly good but some sad news, too. He gets home a little before noon on Wednesday.

Maybe he’ll have a window seat and get to see our dramatic Washington volcanoes from the plane…

I mowed the weeds yesterday and used the mower as a vacuum for the leaves that have fallen. Maybe I’ll put something in the crockpot so things smell good when Dear arrives. It’s good that he’ll have Thursday off so he can work on that jet lag that always accompanies such a long trip through several time zones. What does your Wednesday hold?

Uninvited…

…but welcomed!

This little visitor arrived in my yard and I had never seen it before. I let it know that it could come over any time if it just promised to take home the unwelcome rats that enjoy my yard, too. I hope this pretty black and white creature understood my request…

Speaking of black creatures, on Monday morning the crows were making a constant high pitched cawing noise with no stop in their intensity. I went outside to see what was up and there was a murder of crows and it looked like they were trying to commit murder on one of their own. I got a broom from the garage and walked out to the fence where one of the crows had gotten one of it’s wings stuck in the chain link. I talked nicely and took the broom and gently pushed the wing out from the link. It immediately flew away and the rest of the crows all took off and haven’t returned yet. I hope they have me on their favorites list now and go cawing somewhere else…

I looked up murder of crows and came up with some interesting information. This is pretty gruesome so you might want to stop reading here but I think this was exactly what was happening in my backyard Monday morning…

“…I do know, however, that the behaviour of ganging up on one crow (which does not necessarily have to be the weakest) is real. In Swedish, it’s called “kråkriksdag”, roughly translated as “crow parliament”. I’ve seen it happen, and it is a brutal event. There is some general squaking, but there is no clear target. Suddenly it starts and all of them jump on one crow, picking at it until it is dead, literally tearing it to pieces. They are so focused on this that you have to run straight in among them to scatter them.”

I guess I really did save the life of this crow that was stuck and defenseless.