FFF ~ Fullness

Time to link with Susanne at Living to tell the Story for our favorites from this past week.

The theme for my week was filled to the brim, full, fullness…

Fullness:

1. The state of being filled to capacity 2. The state of having eaten enough or more than enough and feeling full.

1. Friday last we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving with our Canadian neighbors. My sister and her husband joined us for a Honey baked spiral ham, cheesy scalloped potatoes, asparagus casserole and rolls. We were full and satisified.

2. Saturday we had a lazy time vegging out in our robes most of the day. Definition of vegging: to spend time idly or passively. Synonyms: chill, dally, dawdle, hang about, lounge, kick back… And what made this mood successful were all the leftovers from our Canadian Thanksgiving the night before.

3. A new series at church called “This is War”. Our pastor began a series on Spiritual warfare and the first sermon was so encouraging and practical.

4. On Monday Dear, Katie and I had a menu food tasting for the wedding next March. We got to eat so many delicious choices. It was a fun task to narrow down our choices keeping in mind our guests which include some lactose and gluten intolerant individuals.

5. Hearing from Josh and Laura from Hawaii where they are celebrating their tenth anniversary. It’s great to hear that our very hard working kids are getting some much needed fun and relaxation in a tropical setting!

Hope all is well in your part of the world. I’m headed to Sacramento on Sunday to attend my friend Kathy B.’s memorial service. If you think of it I’d appreciate your prayers for her husband Bill and her sister Jeanie as they walk through this separation on earth.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Our Canadian Thanksgiving…

It has been a long time since I participated in Tablescape Thursday with Susan at Between Naps on the Porch. We decided to celebrate both Canadian and U.S.A. Thanksgiving this year so I decorated the table and invited some family over for a less traditional meal.

I was happy to be able to use these green and amber goblets together.

The transferware have stable scenes on them and stagecoach scenes.

For our American Thanksgiving in November we will have Turkey and all the trimmings!

My sister and her husband joined Dear, Katie and me for our meal of Honey Baked Ham, candied carrots, scalloped potatoes, asparagus casserole, rolls. We had a simple dessert of ice cream to finish off the meal. We also test tasted some white wines to narrow down our choice for the wedding in March. We’ve already chosen the red wine.

I’m looking forward to coming around and seeing some old bloggy friends and your tablescapes this week.

Other Than Food…

…here’s what else was photographed while we waited for our tasting.

We were a little early for our food tasting yesterday so we took a little drive around the area of the wedding venue to see what we could see.

Isn’t this an inviting sidewalk for a stroll?

The wedding venue doesn’t have the best of views because this boat garage blocks a lot of it.

If you peek through the parked boats you can see Gas Works Park across Lake Union.

We are experiencing this kind of weather today with lots of powerful gusts of wind. Our power went out this morning for a couple hours because of some downed wires or a downed tree on wires. The road I take to our church for Bible Study was closed so I had to find an alternate route. It all worked out just fine because many people were late and they adjusted the start time. Flexibility is a good thing…

Warning!

If you are hungry step away from this post!

Dear, Katie and I had a food tasting for Katie and Andrew’s wedding on Monday. They said to come hungry and I’m so glad we did. Go grab a snack before you scroll through these photos…

We’re going to be served all these items plus cake!

The three of us were able to narrow down all these fabulous choices for the menu that will be served at the wedding. We considered having something that gluten, lactose and meat intolerant people could eat, too. Katie has to talk to Andrew before the final decision about the flavor of the cutting cake is determined.

We’ve had some good rain and wind today. How about you? Hope your week is starting off well.

Speaking of food…I posted my asparagus casserole (twist on the green bean casserole) at MGCC today. Click over and enjoy…

Seaplanes

“Kenmore Air was founded in 1946 by three high school friends, reunited after
World War II. With one airplane, and a single hangar near a swamp at the North
end of Lake Washington, Bob Munro, Reg Collins, and Jack Mines gave birth to
what was to become one of the largest and most respected seaplane operations in
the world.

Today, Kenmore Air is among the best-known and most respected float
plane operations in the world, flying an eclectic mix of piston Beavers and
turbine Otters and Caravans, landing passengers on glaciers, lakes and harbors
among the mist-shrouded fjords and islands of the U.S. and Canadian northwest. “

One of the options for my daughter and son-in-law’s get-away from their wedding site is to leave on a seaplane. Wouldn’t that be dramatic and fun?! Might be a little hard to tuck the wedding dress in while she boarded, though. Tomorrow we get the fun task of tasting several menu choices for the wedding. They told us to come hungry. We are really looking forward to seeing and tasting the choices we have.

I’m linking up with Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday.

Thanks to God ~ Hymn

Thanks to God

Thanks to God for my Redeemer,
Thanks for all Thou dost provide!
Thanks for times now but a memory,
Thanks for Jesus by my side!
Thanks for pleasant, balmy springtime,
Thanks for dark and stormy fall!
Thanks for tears by now forgotten,
Thanks for peace within my soul!

Thanks for prayers that Thou hast answered,
Thanks for what Thou dost deny!
Thanks for storms that I have weathered,
Thanks for all Thou dost supply!
Thanks for pain, and thanks for pleasure,
Thanks for comfort in despair!
Thanks for grace that none can measure,
Thanks for love beyond compare!

Thanks for roses by the wayside,
Thanks for thorns their stems contain!
Thanks for home and thanks for fireside,
Thanks for hope, that sweet refrain!
Thanks for joy and thanks for sorrow,
Thanks for heav’nly peace with Thee!
Thanks for hope in the tomorrow,
Thanks through all eternity!

Words: August L. Storm, in the Swedish Salvation Army paper Strids-Ropet, 1891; translated from Swedish to English by Carl E. Backstrom, 1931.

You Can Never…

…be too thankful!

So we decided not to wait till November to celebrate Thanksgiving. We decided to celebrate with our Canadian cousins, our neighbors to the North.

We had a great evening with Katie, Steve and Lana. I’ll be sharing a couple new recipes soon that were a hit.

FFF ~ Hello October!

October is taking off with a whirlwind of activity around here. We have so much to be thankful for. The last 7 days have been full to the brim. Here are some favorites from that time. I’m joining with Susanne at Living to tell the Story with Friday’s Fave Five.

1. On Saturday I hit the road early for 2 book signings with the Mennonite Girls. Our first stop was in Washington very close to the Canadian border and the 2nd signing was in Vancouver, B.C. It was a great day with 6 of the other girls. We had time to chat and we met old friends and new friends. I logged in a little over 200 miles on my car that day.

2. On Sunday Josh and Laura came over for a casual meal and we had a good time of catching up.

3. On Monday Katie and I met with her wedding planner and got a lot of details sorted out. I snapped the photo of Katie in front of the post office mailing off the wedding invitations. Even though the wedding is far off 75% or more of our guests are from out of state so we want to give people time to plan their trip.

4. Tuesday night Josh and Laura picked me up for the Sounders Soccer game playing for the U.S. Cup. It was an epic night and we were so happy to win for the 3rd year in a row.

5. We’re beginning to feel more and more connected at our new church. We thank God for bringing us to this place at this time.

This weekend is Canadian Thanksgiving so I want to wish all my Canadian friends a Happy Thanksgiving. I’ve decided to make a non turkey Thanksgiving dinner tonight. We’re having a spiral cut honey baked ham, scalloped potatoes, an asparagus casserole (more details to follow) and rolls. I’m nixing the dessert this time around. There’s enough cream in the potatoes to count as dessert! OH CANADA! Be Thankful! We’re thankful for our friendly neighbors to the North!

I hate to be a broken record….but if you don’t see a comment from me on your Fave Five it means blogger won’t let me comment.

Y oh Y is for Yarrow Bay…

Time for Alphabe-Thursday with our great “teach” Jenny. We are on the letter Y. I happened to be at Yarrow Bay in Kirkland last week ~~killing~~ enjoying time while my daughter was at an appointment. Thankfully I had my camera with me and it wasn’t raining…

Yarrow Bay and Yellow Kayaks. Two for the price of one!

I even managed a shot of daughter after her appointment. Our daughter is going to be moving away across the country to North Carolina soon. Every now and then we look at her and moan a quote from My Big Fat Greek Wedding… ~~Why~~ Y you want to leave me???

Any of you have kids that have moved far far away from you? I’ll be around soon to see your Y’s!!

U.S. Open Cup Title 2011

SEATTLE (Oct. 4, 2011) –” The Seattle Sounders won their third consecutive Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup title with a 2-0 win against the Chicago Fire in front of a record crowd this evening at CenturyLink Stadium in Seattle. Goals from Fredy Montero and Osvaldo Alonso helped the Sounders become the first team in 42 years to win the Open Cup three years in a row and ensured goalkeeping legend and team captain Kasey Keller ended his final season with at least one piece of silverware.”

It’s always great when the team you are cheering for wins. We were surrounded by a great group of friends last night at the game and we were not disappointed at the outcome. Here are some photos showing the highlights of the night for me.

The following sequence of photos are from the opening of the ceremonies with the Star Spangled Banner being sung and the men and women of all the military branches holding the U.S. Flag. I really enjoy this part of the night and I like to zoom in on “The few. The proud. The Marines!”