Looking Back…

Another year has come and gone and it was fun to look back and see the highlights of 2014.

This collage is not in order of some of the events of our year. I realize that this post is mostly for my benefit to keep the events of the year from getting lost in my mind. (photobucket highjacked some of my photos)

January ~ Both our sons have birthdays and we celebrated in person with Josh. The excitement of the Seahawks getting to the super bowl was brewing. Katie was still living with us while Andrew was serving in Afghanistan.

February ~ Super Bowl hysteria and fun in the Seattle Area. We had snow. A trip to B.C. to visit Matthew’s House with the Mennonite Girls Can Cook. New Dishwasher.

March ~ Sounders Soccer Season opens. Weekend trip to Eastern Washington to visit Dan. We celebrated my birthday there. Attacked by tumble weeds! Celebrated my birthday again with Josh and Laura at the Wild Ginger. Katie and I traveled to Abbotsford for the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Paska class at Lepp Farm Market.

April ~ Got my first “Smart” phone that made me feel less than smart. I was able to set a table for 10 at our Friendship Tea at church which was such a fun and well planned out event.Katie and I visited the tulip fields in the Skagit Valley. We celebrated Easter with Josh, Laura, Katie, Steve and Lana. Katie and I packed her and Andrew’s car up and headed out on our road trip from Seattle to North Carolina. I named our trip Sea-Jack since our destination was in Jacksonville. We met up with Dan and Jamie on the first day of our journey for breakfast in Spokane. The last few days of April we hit some wild weather in Montana, South Dakota and then we got weather relief in Nebraska and Illinois. We met up with my bloggy friend Pam and her daughter for lunch in Kansas City on the last day of April. Happy meeting and time together.

May ~ We traveled through Kentucky and into Tennessee making a two night stop in Asheville North Carolina where we enjoyed a wonderful meal on the Sunset Terrace at the Grove Hotel and the next day we toured the Biltmore Estate and Gardens. We reached our destination on Sunday May 3rd and began the search for an apartment for Katie and Andrew. We didn’t search long and signed a lease and moved in within two days! Katie and I celebrated Mother’s Day at brunch and the next day treated me to a massage that was real nice after our road trip and moving everything into the apartment on the 3rd floor with no elevator. I flew out from Jacksonville to meet Greg at his conference in Orlando on the 15th of May. Andrew returned home from Afghanistan on the 17th of May safe and sound for which we are so grateful.

June ~ Started the process for our bathroom renovation. Had a large pine tree cut down. World Cup began. My niece Debbee and her husband Lenny came to visit. The “Girls” from B.C. road the train to Edmonds and we had a fun day together eating and shopping. We traveled to Portland to attend Nate and Abbys wedding.

July ~ We traveled to Jolly Old England to celebrate our 40th Anniversary early. We enjoyed a week in the Cotswolds and time in South Wales and Henley on Thames and finished off our trip in Windsor. Our bathroom renovation began. My niece Michelle, Ryan, Jackson and Avery came for a visit.

August ~ My brother Leonard and Mandy returned to Kiev to finalize adoption proceedings for our new nephew Andrew. Katie and Andrew packed up all their belongings in North Carolina into a pod and their car and started their roadtrip across the country to settle here in the Seattle area. Andrew’s terminal leave was final the end of August. Almost as fast as Katie and I found an apartment in Jacksonville Andrew and Katie found an apartment about 10 minutes from us and had possession of it in time for their pod to arrive from North Carolina. Their apartment is withing walking distance to the college Andrew is now attending. We celebrated Josh and Laura’s anniversary together the end of August.

September ~ Our bathroom still wasn’t done. Ugh. I had two fun reunions with friends of our family growing up in September. Katie and I were able to meet Timi and her daughter Tamara here in Washington and then in the middle of the month I saw Timi again with her sister Milla in California at an open house on the anniversary of my mom’s death. It was good to see my pop and most of my family while I was in California. It was fun to see Terry (Dear’s brother) and Christina along with Kacie and her guy. The heat wave that was happening while I was there was epic. We terminated the bathroom contractors time at this old house and did the finishing touches ourselves. I joined the Senior Center and started in an exercise class there and joined a walking group, too.

October ~ Katie and I met up with some old friends for a tea expo in Seattle. We sold a couple vehicles and purchased another one. We got a new fireplace insert. We attended a Dave Ramsey seminar with the kids. On October 30th we all traveled (except Andrew) to Dan’s place for a fun weekend of hiking, eating and shooting. This was Laura’s first time in Dan’s neck of the woods.

November ~ We enjoyed an early Thanksgiving meal on November 22nd when Dan and Jamie traveled across the harrowing pass to spend the weekend with us. On Thanksgiving we went to Dave and Jody’s for good food and good company. Thanksgiving came late this year and we went right into Christmas preparations. We attended our last Sounders game of the season missing out on the MLS cup final game to the L.A. Galaxy. Boohoo.

December ~ We celebrated Laura’s birthday at a new restaurant in Bothell and enjoyed cake and gift opening at Katie and Andrew’s. On December 14th we had the B.C. Mennonite Girls and their husbands here for a dinner party. On the same day as the party we got the exciting news that our son Dan had asked Jamie to marry him and she said yes! We were able to celebrate with them in person when they traveled here on Christmas Day from Eastern Washington. Christmas was an all day fun time enjoying each other, gifts, and good food. The day after Christmas we celebrated again with my sister Lana and Steve and Dave and Beth. We had Dear’s famous tomato rice soup. We toasted Dan and Jamie and then later in the evening we sang Happy Birthday to Katie and enjoyed cake. Dan and Jamie made it back to Eastern Washington safely.

We are going to enjoy a quiet last day of 2014 here at this old house!

Blessings to all in the New Year!

True Confessions…

…this will be my last confession of 2014…

I have not had much experience in working with yeast doughs or doughs of any kind. I’m going to work on this in 2015. Today on Mennonite Girls Can Cook I posted my first attempts on recreating one of my mom’s wonderful Pirog пирог recipes.

The standard shape for my mom’s pirog is rectangular. They can be closed or open-faced with no crust on top.

Sometime in 2015 I will share a savory pirog that my mom used to make with a closed presentation.

Click here to get to Mennonite Girls Can Cook and my Sweet Apple Pirog пиро́г.

Without the Guests…

…the preparations are in vain. It’s because of the long-awaited guests that the preparations were completed. This time of year as we remember our long awaited Savior who came to earth on that first Christmas, the preparations for my guests had more significance. Most of my guest photos were taken by Anneliese and Lovella. Thank you for sharing girls!

Lovella brought this very cute flower arrangement as a hostess gift and I found the perfect spot for it next to my sign that Katie wrote on. It was time for the party to begin and for everyone to eat, drink and be merry!

Kathy and Lovella prepared an Antipasti Platter for us all to enjoy before we sat down to dinner.

Our daughter Katie came to help with the serving.

It was time to find our places at the table.

When everyone found their spot we sang Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow. This has become a tradition for our gatherings.

Katie made sure the soup was hot before she served each person their cup.

Between the courses we sang Christmas Carols. O Tannenbaum and Silent Night were the two chosen and sung in English and German. I wasn’t surprised by the choices my “German” guests made.

It was time to get the dessert plates ready.

After dessert we had fun popping our Christmas poppers and wearing our crowns.

Before the girls retreated to another room to open the little gifts purchased for each other, Judy handed the guys their gift for the evening.

They each got their very own apron…

I’ll add the shout out to the young man who makes these to sell once I get the information from Judy. Since we let him use our logo he gifted us with the aprons for our “boys”.

By this time my eyes were drooping but my heart was full. I’ll leave you with a few closeups and cameos…

I got a kick out of this wine bag that Bev and her guy brought us a bottle of wine in.

What a wonderful world God opened up to us “Girls” over these past several years. I’m so thankful that God brought us together and has deepened our “love for one another”.

So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Philippians 2: 1-4)

Praying you are feeling the Joy this Christmas!

The Preparations…

On Sunday December 14th our long awaited Christmas Party with the British Columbia Mennonite Girls and their husbands began at three in the afternoon. My preparations had been going on for a while.

Joy was the theme and red and gold were the color choices I picked. I had red glassware but only had a total of 10 pieces so I was on the hunt for 6 more goblets or glasses to fill the 16 place settings we would need for our party. When we traveled to our son’s home in eastern Washington in early November we shopped at some thrift stores and found a set of 8 red goblets for a real good price. Yippee!

We do not have an open concept home by any means and to be able to fit 16 around tables we had to get creative. We decided to empty out some of the furniture from our living room so we could fit two round tables that would each be set with eight place settings.

Where there’s a will there’s a way. I saw a package of red and gold Christmas Crackers at Costco and knew they’d be a fun addition to the table. The red and gold sparkly chargers came from HomeGoods. I already had a stash of cloth napkins in red and gold tones and napkin rings that worked nicely with the color theme. I found flat Christmas wreaths and red candle holders for my center pieces.

Here’s a photo the day of our gathering with all the last minute touches added to the table. This photo was taken by Lovella. The next couple of photos were taken by Anneliese.

Our front porch was transformed with a fake little Christmas tree that we had in our condo when we lived in Southern California for a few years. The vintage red step stool was a fun piece to put some of my lanterns on. The cedar branches and all the greenery with red berries, rosemary, and holly came from my yard. I had the large glass jars that I filled with the greenery and added a candle in to warm up the entry to our home.

I’m enjoying our new 3D star that we purchased this year that adds it’s light to welcome you to our front door.

My next post will show the people that made all these preparations worthwhile. Here’s the sneak peek of the girls and the guys.

More to come soon with some great photos from Anneliese and Lovella who clicked away while Dear and I worked on getting the food ready for everyone.

Since I finally set a table and took some photos I’m going to link this post to Cuisine Kathleen’s Let’s Dish for this week. If you’d like to see my guests seated at these tables click here.

P is for Pumpkin Cookies!

These cookies are perfect for this pumpkin time of year. The recipe for these Pumpkin Spice Cookies is located on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog. Click and you’ll be taken straight to the recipe.

The first time I made them was for a wedding shower for our daughter Katie.

I’m linking up to ABC Wednesday that was originally started by Mrs. Nesbitt and now hosted by a few faithful followers!

Turkey Pepper Chili…

Head on over to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog to get the recipe for my Turkey Pepper Chili!

Happy Monday everyone. How was your weekend?

We had a calm weekend and got a lot accomplished. Lawns mowed or should I say fallen leaves vacuumed. We sold two of our old vehicles on Craig’s list. I finally went through all the stuff we hauled out of our bathroom before the renovation and threw out a bag full and filled the new cupboards and drawers with what we decided to keep. Have a great week!

E is for Ellen…

ABC Wednesday is already on the letter E. Thank you to Denise Nesbitt the proud founder and to the whole ABC team!

E is for ellen b. and a few of her favorite things…

This is a theater on Main Street in Bozeman, Montana spotted by daughter Katie on our cross country road trip back in April.

Ellen loves and enjoys spending time with her family.

Ellen loves her brothers and sisters and her dear old pop. This photo was taken last September at my dear old mom’s funeral.

Ellen loves her nieces and nephews. These cousins have so much fun together!

Ellen b. with her sisters and mom enjoying each other 6 months before her mom died.

Ellen loves Dear’s brother’s family to the left of the groom and below.

Ellen loves her whole big family including her brother in laws and sister in laws.

Ellen loves the girls from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook and is so thankful to have them as her true blue friends.

Ellen loves to travel to England and all of the United Kingdom.

Ellen loves Soccer/Futbol and has been to games in Manchester and Milan. Her favorite team is the home team, the Seattle Sounders.

Ellen is a Seattle Sounders season ticket holder along with her son and daughter in law.

Ellen loves Dear. Their 40th wedding anniversary celebrations have begun already.

Ellen B. and Dear started celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary with a trip to England in July where they spent one of their days in Oxford.

Ellen likes to read Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Sayers and a little Chesterton so it was a treat to eat in the Pub where these authors were known to meet.

Ellen loves God and His son Jesus who has given her eternal life through his death and resurrection.

Congratulations if you made it to the end of this very long post!

Fresh News

Do you need a fresh new sandwich idea? Click over to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog for this sandwich combination.

I still can’t show you our finished bathroom…because it’s not finished. OYE! In fact after they wrap up today and clean everything up they will still need to come back in a couple weeks to finish up because of some boo boos. Part of the flooring needs to be redone and of course it’s on back-order and 2 cabinet fronts need to be replaced. We have come to the conclusion that we are not good candidates for hiring out work. In the meantime, I have found some nice accessories to go in the updated bathroom like that brushed nickel soap dispenser above.

Other news from this old house…apples are falling off the tree.

And these beauties are brightening up the yard and deck.

What’s new at your place?

Eggs-cellent

Click over to the Mennonite Girls Can Cook Blog to get the recipe for Gluten free Ranchero sauce for Huevos Rancheros and other Mexican dishes. We served this dish when my niece and her husband were visiting in June. My niece is Gluten and Lactose intolerant so I had to come up with a breakfast that would work for all of us. This recipe got the thumbs up from her and my son who is lactose intolerant and from the rest of us who don’t have to watch our gluten and lactose intake.

Last night my son, nephew and grand nephew attended the Seattle Sounders Soccer Game. My nephew got this photo of me with the few, the proud, the Marine Corp band. I enjoyed a fun back and forth with these Marines.

And here’s my son, nephew and grand nephew…

We had a good time in the sun even though our team lost.

Today at this old house the bath/shower tile surround is going in. Should be a full day of work here. Hope you all have a good Tuesday.

All Aboard!

Judy and I decided to pull together a trip to the Seattle area for the Mennonite Girls Can Cook who live in British Columbia. Judy came up with a plan for the 7 B.C. girls to drive to Bellingham, Washington and hop on Amtrak south. It’s hard to corral that many girls and come up with a good date for everyone but we finally did and Wednesday June 25th would be the day. When the day was finally here one of the 7 had to stay home. Life happens…

I made a sign so they couldn’t miss their tour guide and limousine driver for the day. The car the rental agency gave me seemed as big as a limousine. This photo that Bev took catches the big white ~~limousine~~ SUV in the background. Thanks Bev for the photos I’m stealing from you for this post.

Our first stop was the Queen Mary Tea Room near the University of Washington.

We each had a different china pattern on our tea cups.

The food was delicious and presented nicely. We finished up at the tea room and after checking out the Tea Emporium we drove to our 2nd stop of the day, University Village.

“University Village is an open-air lifestyle shopping center which offers a unique formula of locally-owned boutiques and signature national retailers. U Village is a regional destination for home furnishings, popular fashions and unique gift items with a distinct collection of restaurants and eateries.”

We all enjoyed the beautiful flowers that were blooming in hanging planters and large planters throughout the center. We gave ourselves a time limit and we managed not to lose anyone while we were here.

Next stop before our dinner reservations would be my humble home. A couple of the girls had been to my house before but it was new to the rest.

It was fun to have everyone in my home for a quick refreshment and tour.

We stole Dear away from his bathroom renovation work to take a photo of all of us together on our deck steps.

We made dinner reservations at the Beach Cafe on the Edmonds waterfront which was just a hop skip and jump away from the railway station. The girls wouldn’t want to miss the train.

Several of us chose the different fish tacos for our meal while others had shrimp and scampi dishes. We shared a couple desserts just to top everything off with. By this time in our day we were rather beat and forgot to take some photos of our dishes and desserts.

On to the station and our goodbye hugs.

A lovely day from beginning to end.

I’m already making plans for an Island getaway for the next MGCC girls day out.

Here’s our day through Anneliese’s lens.

Tonight Dear and I are meeting up with Josh and Laura to celebrate a late Mother’s Day/Father’s Day meal together. We will also celebrate the U.S.A. advancing to the round of 16 with our 2nd place finish in group G.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

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