Looking forward to Monday Morning!

So, this thought crossed my mind today -- "I wonder how hard it would be to make bagels." Well, tomorrow morning I don't have to be to work until 10am so, since this site says it is super easy and should only take about 1 hour, I'm going to go for it! I'll post photos tomorrow!

**UPDATE**!! YUM!!!!



They were fairly easy to make and super chewy and yummy! I will definitely make these again and even work a bit on jazzing them up! The recipe called for the dough to be made into 8 bagels, but I made it into 16. Final calorie count according to Nutrition Data: 135 calories, 1 g fat, 4 g protein! Not too bad! And actually, somehow my bagels came out 5g smaller than ND calculated them to be! Bagels and coffee at my house anyone?!

Happy Anniversary!

Last night we celebrated Bonnie and Larry's 50th Wedding Anniversary with a little dinner here at home. Their anniversary was actually in March, but they were with their kids in Alaska at the time followed by a European trip, followed by me being sick and time slots just filling up! Anyway, it was so special to celebrate them with Don and Sandi, Kelvin, Carie and Eliza, Alice and Myrt. We really missed Joe, Jasmine, Ezraylah and Iliana, but they were sick and felt it best to keep their germs to themselves. We had hoped to be able to have this dinner when their daughter Michelle was here, but I was sick and she was headed to Europe, so we thought it best NOT to send our bug with her! Anyway, we had a wonderful evening honoring a wonderful, faithful example of a godly couple! Happy Anniversary and many more, Bonnie and Larry!

Don't we dress up nice?

Some dear customers of mine are celebrating 50 years of marriage and their daughter asked for photos of us. These customers are deaf and so Tiana and I both have had opportunity to use our sign language (in-)abilities, thus the "I Love You" hands! But in general, I thought this was a great picture that should be shared!

Good Evening!

Well, it's been almost a week since we last chatted. And how have you been? We've been busy! After Kent's mom left on Sunday night we did some touch-up cleaning to prepare for my parents coming on Tuesday evening! They pulled in just about in time for dinner. I had Wednesday off so the two of them and I took the bus downtown and hopped on Light Rail and rode it all the way to the airport and back. I made sure to take notes this time so that we can know where we need to go back and explore some day. We had ridden it once long ago and seen some neighborhoods that could use a good explore, but there was no way to remember which one had what appeal. I had thought that would be something fun to do today, but we woke up late and decided to go buy a new gas grill instead, so that took Kent most of the afternoon to assemble so that we could use it for dinner! I bought a salmon fillet and a steak and we grilled those with a pepper/onion/potato medley. YUM! Right now we are waiting for someone to come and buy the old one from a craigslist ad we placed! I need them to get here so I can get ready for bed! Some of us have to work in the morning before Meeting! Mom and Dad left on Friday when I went to work because they wanted to be at a funeral today. Short visit, but sweet! While they were here, mom and I had to visit our favorite Scrapbooking store that is going out of business. They are getting down to just about nothing and it made us so sad! I did manage to find some more papers and I managed also to make a card, but only one! I need to have sent that one off, but it will have to wait until at least Monday. My cards are never on-time! So, I hope you've had a nice week and all the best as a new one starts!

Happy Mother's Day!

Me and my baby at the beach this afternoon! She's the little one who made it possible that I have a Mother's Day!

We had lunch after Meeting at Gordon and Ivona's.  Notice Gordon did the cooking and we'll pretend that Kent was reading him the directions on what to do next!  It's our secret that he was just checking out other recipes! ☺

Ivona (and Jonathan) needed to get the momentous occasion on "film"!  With Gordon and Kent doing the work, it left plenty of photography time for both of us!

And Nana had time to read to Emily, too!

  Thanks so much for inviting us ALL to stay for lunch today!  It is always so special to spend time with my dear "sister" (one of these days I'm going to drop the quotation marks!) and her beautiful family.  While we were there we also tried to get the kids to cooperate for a photo shoot.  Um...well...you can judge for yourself how successful we were!  Truly we caught their personality if nothing else! ☺
Mother's Day

On Thursday night, Kent and I went out on a date.  We went to the Edmonds beach since we were a bit early for our reservation and then off to Cafe de Paris.  YUM!!

Friday we got a bit of a late start, but we headed over the mountains to Leavenworth.  It's such a beautiful drive and a beautiful little town.  We had a smidge of rain, but mostly just clear skies.  We walked the length of the main street a couple of times, had a delicious German meal, drove part of the 1/2 marathon route, played a round of mini-golf and stopped for a Starbucks on the way out of town.  I was able to enjoy the drive home since I'd finished my book on the way over instead of watching the scenery!  The next day a part of the same road was closed due to a fatal accident!
Leavenworth

Saturday was a lay-low sort of day.  We'd walked poor mom-in-law to death on Friday, so we just ran errands here and there on Saturday until we had to take Tiana to a volunteer gig over on the Eastside.  She helped out with a formal dance for developmentally disabled adults.  All in preparation for her future career as a special education teacher.  She was kind of wishing to not go until after she got there and got into it a bit!  Sounds like she had a great time, did lots of "dancing" after serving dinner and had a grand ol' time!  Of course, I don't think she would have put it quite like that!!  I'm sure she'll look forward to the next time she can help the organization again!

So, you can see we had a full weekend!  I'm very grateful for the time off that I had this week, although I would have loved to have had today with my family completely, too.  Maybe one of these weekends we can enjoy the WHOLE thing together!
Have a great week and to all the moms -- HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

ME day!

So, Melissa would be proud -- I took a "self-care" day today - away from work, away from home! I got on just about the 1st ferry available after Tiana was off to school and I headed up to Port Townsend. It's been years since we were there. The last time we were there we spent little to no time, really! I meandered my way up there -- stopping for a photo shoot in Port Gamble, ambled through Ports Ludlow and Hadlock and finally reached my destination. I LOVE Port Townsend! It's very Victorian, full of natural beauty and just what I needed. I saw 7 deer in town -- all very docile, the weather held for most of the day, the walks through old Fort Worden were super peaceful and quiet -- except for the buzz of the bees and the calls of the gulls. I came back earlier than I expected, but very well rested, so I deem it a success! If you are interested, I have a bunch of photos! (Click the picture!)

First an apology...

I have to start this out with an apology to my sister-in-law, Kathy!! Kathy has been known to shake Orange Juice without lids on and we've had fun poking fun at her. For the record, Kathy...I'm sorry! I will never say anything again! This morning I opened a brand new carton FULL of orange juice but for some reason did not replace the screw-on cap. Well, yes, yes I did then decide it needed a REALLY GOOD shakin' and I got a side-of-the-head full of juice! And all over my plate, the table, my robe and the floor! I made me a monster mess! And all before Union Meeting! I also was dropping knives and other scary things, so be very glad you weren't at my house today! And now on to the brave souls who did venture into our house! Mom P. is here and since I know how much she loves my "sister" Ivona and Gordon and their kids, I invited them for dinner (or breakfast as the case was!) Here's some of the pictures from the evening. If you want to see them all, click here.

The girls working on their posture by carrying books on their heads!

"Watch out girls! I'm growin' up super fast!"

And what is cooler than a fort made out of sheets, blankets, and chairs?!