Presents from Russia!!!

We were hand-delivered (thank you Sherrie!) our birthday gifts today... all the way from Belarus!

The "Package..."

What was inside... Newspaper...

Thank you Tama!!! Pictures are my favorite and these books are full of them! :-)

SNOW!!!

We woke up this Sunday morning to about 5 inches of fresh snow! It 's SO pretty...

I like how the window silhouetted this picture

Down by the shed...

This one was taken after meeting, and the snow had stopped so some has melted, but it's kinda a neat picture of our little town.

Old woman

That's me. Officially old. I made the big two-zero today, and let me tell you, the aches and pains have begun. Or maybe that's just my food settling from Thanksgiving meal #2...? *Grin*
Here's a quick run-down of our weekend...

Thursday:
9:00am - Preheat oven
9:30am - Insert turkey
11:00am - Ongoing process of our VIP guest arrival begins...
12:30pm - Turkey's done (ack! a bit early)
1:00pm - 2:00pm - Chaotic kitchen frenzy
2:15pm (ish) - Eat... yum2:45pm - 7:30pm - Food settles, games, people talking all at the same time, dessert...
7:30pm - 8:30pm - All waddle to Sherrie and Loren's to see the progress of their home
9:00pm - 11:00pm - Back to our place, chat w/Geoff & Nat, hold baby Jacquie, play w/Kat
11:00pm - Happy to be in bed...

Friday:
Marissa - Worked (banker's hours aren't all they're cracked-up to be)
Peter - Well, here's proof that I married the most wonderful man in the world! You can only imagine the state our house was in after all the festivities on Thursday, w/much dishes to still be done, and tables to be cleaned, floors, chairs, etc etc. I came home from work Friday night to find: Dishes - clean. Floors - mopped. Tables - cleaned and put away. Chairs - cleaned and put away. Kitchen - spotless. And on top of all that... 7 loads of laundry washed and folded. Wow. How did I ever get so lucky??!!!!!!!!!!
5:30pm (ish) - Headed down to Wilsonville to stay with Mara and Steve for the night.

Saturday:
8:30am (ish) - Breakfast at Steve and Mara's... Happy birthday singing and yummy pudding pastries with fruit...9:30am - Head off to Dave and Sandra's for Thanksgiving #2
*copy 11:00-2:15 of Thursday's schedule*...more Happy Birthday singing, presents, dessert... and we're off to make the trek back home.

T'was a fantastic weekend, and sorry, this blog has become much longer than I intended... hope y'all had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving!

Check out our webpage for all the pics!

Thanksgiving Preps...

Tables set up for Turkey day... I think last count we were at 22-ish. The "ish" leaves this an open invitation, so if you can come, please do!
I was cordially informed this week that I will be the black sheep of my family... as they will all be in Yuma for Turkey, all except for me. :-( I do have a notion however, that as much as I will miss every one of them... that I will have a great time with my newest family!

More tables...

Gram, these leaves are from the dollar store..., you'd be so proud! Oh, and there are dried apricots from Tom and Audrey in the colander... snacks for Thursday!

Also, I made cupcakes tonight for the kids to decorate... mmm
I think that about sums up this Sunday evening!
Happy Thanksgiving to you all that I can't spend it with!

BIG NEWS!!!

Our grass is growing!!! And I am SOOO excited! They're SO cute right now... just little tiny green grasses... maybe 1/2" long... I can't wait until they grow up!!

Moving again...

No, not us. :-) Thank goodness.
We've been helping Sherrie and Loren transfer their things from the trailer to the new house. Even though it's only a short distance across the road, I don't think moving is ever very fun! The most exciting part has been seeing their house progress in to their home now, and it's almost ready to live in! WOOHOO! Below are some pictures of the house-in-progress... I suppose they're about a week or so (?) out from moving in!!!

Freshly painted sun-burst...

Trim...

Faucets...

Old house...

See our webpage for more pics!!

Flooding

We've had record amounts of rain here for this time of year, and we're definitely seeing the effects of it! Below are some pics taken in Hood River, about 20 miles west of us.




Pretty incredible eh? We haven't seen any damage like this here in The Dalles, but it sure feels close to know it's only 20 miles away!
One of Sherrie's co-workers took these pics (that's who's pictured in the last one... and yes, that boulder is in the middle of the road...)

Have a wonderful weekend!

Jeff's Birthday #30

We helped Jeff McCormick ring in his 30th year yesterday.

Marissa surprised him with his family from Los Angeles... the rest of us were just paparazzi... or maybe moral support? :-)

L-R: Dad McCormick, Jeff McCormick, Mom McCormick, Sister used-to be McCormick, Jerry & Josiah Jeff and Marissa Kinman - Our partners in crime in Cancun...

And, the corvette. Mmm... 2007 C6 Roadster... FUN!!! (Darryl took Peter and I for rides!)

Too bad cars aren't much of an investment... otherwise, that'd be our next one! Yummmm

Halloween Ranting...

Just my luck...

I had a craving the other evening for some lemon-heads. Actually it was more of a see-them-on-the-shelf-and-want-them craving, but nonetheless... they were on sale. 2 fer 2! So, I grab two rather LARGE boxes of lemon-heads, a bag of peanut M & M's for trick-or-treaters... and we're off for home.
Promptly eat one box of lemon-heads.
Plop the rest into the candy dish, not to be thought about until the hallowed night of October 31.
*Ding-Dong*

You know, I might take this opportunity to add in here that trick-or-treating has really turned into an un-fun event. I remember when... nevermind, enough said.

Peter answers the door (I might add here that it's 8:30 p.m. and VERY dark out) only to find two... teenagers! He graciously lets them take some candy, but one of them DIGS! Only to find the "rather large" second box of lemon-heads. And he takes.

Those were our only two halloweeners that night.
Growl...

I suppose I didn't need them anyway.