Busy/Fun Time of Year

I have not been posting because I have been busy and I have been sick.. and well I updated my blogger site and to be honest I have no clue how this all works now. The problem with not updating as soon as they come out is that you may miss a few and by the time you do update you have missed the how to steps they walked you through with the earlier updates. I am sure most of my blogging friends are shaking their heads thinking to themselves there have not been any updates... lol well it has been about 6 years since I updated :) If you can see this post it means I figured it out.

Sick.. cold/head stuff ...this has been floating around since we went to Montana... Dave kept thinking he was not feeling so good but then nothing happened.. well it hit last week.. him on Tuesday and then me on Thursday. I had a few days with no voice at all.. and spent a couple of days just laying in bed sure my head was going to explode. I am feeling a lot better this morning.. made it through the night with no cough meds and really got some good sleep.

Right before I got sick I jumped on the train and headed south to see my parents and my sister for a couple of days. It was pretty icy at my parents house and mom ended up taking a spill and breaking her ankle pretty bad.. she had to have surgery on it and it is all wrapped up. She is doing Awesome!!  She has a wheel chair and a walker and is using the walker more and more.. her attitude is amazing too... instead of being all upset about it she is using it as an excuse to tackle a lot of stuff in her life and make some changes.  I am hoping she is able to use it to slow down a bit maybe.  She does a LOT of stuff for other people.. makes hundreds of quilts for cancer patients and helps so many people with so many things.. not that she should ever stop.. she loves what she does... I just hope that she is able to look around at everything in her life and really put the focus on things that make her happy.. maybe she is already there... I am not sure... I have to say I am using this as an excuse to spend some more time with her and my dad.. I am planning on making a few more trips up to there to stay for a few days each time.. I love both my parents so much and am so grateful for all they have done for me in my life.. so much love and support and butt kicking when needed ( which was/is often ) truly no one could ask for better parents.  There is no way I can pay them back for all the wonderful they have given me... I am going to make more of an effort to try though... we have spent the last few years connecting as friends and adults and I have loved every second of it...lol it all happened just in time to show me that even though my teenagers are pulling away and making their own lives.. that there is hope of strong relationships. Funny how parents get really stupid when you are a teenager and then smarten the heck back up when you have teenagers :)  Gives me some good days to look forward to and lots of "I told you so" time.

Fun stuff.... while at moms visiting she sent home some tiny jars with me.. these are cute... mom and I have become hooked on baking things in jars.. pies and cakes and dinners and just about anything.. so much fun and great way to do portion control. She had found some very tiny jars... normally we use half pint jars with the wide mouth... she found some about half that size.. only holds about 2 TBSP of pie filling... Love them!  I made up some pies in the jars and took them back up for her to put in her freezer.. I knew she had some company coming.. and these would be perfect for that.  

 Trying to show how tiny the jars are.

Green is apple pie and red is cherry... just take them out of the freezer.. pop the tops off and bake in oven until brown and bubbly.. can serve in the jar.. or slide out onto a plate.. add whip cream or ice cream and it is perfect dessert.

Dave and I have done some fun Christmas type things...  We visited Leavenworth for the Christmas tree lighting festival.  So beautiful... so many trees and so many people.. we walked around and visited the shops and had a wonderful night.. holding hands and taking pictures of the lights and just being together.

Then we also did the Lights of Christmas here locally... The Lights of Christmas ... walked around again holding hands and being amazed at all the lights.. we love the walking around holding hands part.. even with gloves.. it is all sort of snuggly.. find ourselves leaning close together and whispering and laughing.

We have also been working in the shop... not as much as we would like but as much as life allows.  Dust collection is still not complete.. it is how it is and we will have to live with it for awhile. It is not as good as we would like.. but we think it will have to do until we can afford to buy a larger collector and figure out where to put it.  We really need a lot larger shop.. at least twice the size of this one and with no car stuff in it would be perfect.. then again.. we need to start buying some winning lottery tickets.. or at least a ticket :)  Some day it will all work out... always good to have goals to keep reaching for.. the more reasons to work hard a person has the further they are likely to go.  Today we will start building again in there.. starting with the drawers and doors for the cabinets we built. Then organize a little and with the new year we will be starting on customers orders.  

Christmas around here this year is very laid back.... no presents... that takes care of a lot of stress... and almost all the kids are off busy doing stuff other places.  Oldest is home from college so he will be here... and then next one is in California, I wish he was able to be here.. I know he is alone this year and it breaks this moms heart... I also know he will be ok... I am hoping to get to see him in February. My two youngest are doing some stuff with the other sides of the families.  We will be going to my in laws for Christmas eve dinner... I am looking forward to that.. some great people to visit with and wonderful food.. will be a nice night.  Then Christmas we will just be home working in the shop and being lazy .. watching movies, eating and enjoying being together. Being thankful for each other and amazed at how each year gets more and more wonderful just being together. 

One of Those Wonderful Nights

Today was spent at home.. I made this weekends lunches and dinners up and did some cleaning.. just a lazy day. Then tonight Dave and I headed into town for the Shop East Stanwood.. I had read about it in the local paper.. it promised carolers, twinkling lights and in house specials. Well it was said to be from 4 to 7.. we drove through at 5 and there were no people or twinkling lights.. the carolers were there but not playing.. we thought maybe it was slow to get going.. we went up the street and had some dinner... we did good and we split a small sampler tray.. had two Huge glasses of water each. Then back to to the shopping area.. found a spot right on the street... because there really was no one there around :( The carolers had gone, learned it was to cold for them and their instruments. It was nice though.. we walked in and out of the shops.. visiting with the shop owners.. all of them had trays of cookies and snacks and tea and hot chocolate.. we were good and said no thank you! At the end of the street is Stanwood Cupcakes and they had just locked their door and shut off their lights.. but when they saw us peeking in they opened up and I am so grateful. I was able to get the gift certificates for my mail lady and garbage man for Christmas... and for the first time I was able to try their cupcakes... I had the Chocolate Ganache and Dave had the Chocolate Peanut Butter...they were wonderful. Just the perfect amount of sweet and flavors and the cake was just how we like it. They are truly the perfect little treat! We visited the Frame shop.. which is the friendliest place in town... They not only have a lot of work by a lot of local artists.. but they have a selection of English treats.. candies and jams and teas... We go there to pick up treats for Dave's dad.. and for us too :) They have the sweetest dogs in the shop too.. every time I am there they saw hello and I just want to spend hours playing with them. Another place we love in that area is the SnowGoose Bookstore .. it is one of those shops that you walk into and you just feel right at home.. our only problem is that we always find a lot more books than we can afford :)

We took the long way home and drove around talking, holding hands some more and looking at Christmas lights. When we got home the house was all lite up with our lights and the fireplace had everything all warm inside. Friends stopped by and visited for a bit and it was just a very wonderful day/night.

To Montana and Back in a Weekend

Last Friday really really early in the morning we took off for Bozeman Mt. with some friends of ours. We have added a new camera to out collection.. an hd web cam... we put it up on the gps in the dash of the jeep and then I can take pictures and videos. Since I can not wait to do a post about our trip I thought I would start with one sharing some of the pictures and videos from the web cam.. and later after our friends come over and we put all the regular camera pictures in one place I will do another post with some of those.. they will be much better.. I know there are some wonderful animal pictures from our trip through YellowStone.. we saw big horn sheep slamming their heads together and huge buffalo just lazing around on the side of the road.

This is in Montana.. somewhere... one thing I learned about taking photos with the web cam.. I need to put the quality up so I get a better picture... bad enough the wind shield is covered in ick... but most of the photos were taken on the lowest setting and they are just not very good.

Wallace Idaho is a small little town... Interstate 90 used to go right through the middle of town, they are known for having the last stop light on I-90

Driving through Yellow Stone and we have to stop so two coyotes  can cross in front of us.. I missed the first one but here is the second one... we did pull over and take a bunch of pictures so will add those later :)

On our way home Sunday night... sky was clear and beautiful.. coming out of Spokane the sunset was so beautiful and it went on for many miles. We even saw Mt Rainer which none of us knew you could see from there.