family gatherings

We have enjoyed family gatherings the last two weekends. First on Thanksgiving weekend we had the Riedesels and Jonathan, Tonia and Teresa here for Thanksgiving dinner and a birthday celebration. Reuben joined Laura for an inside look at the family and he was introduced to our extreme card playing. On Friday of Thanksgiving weekend we visited Grandma and Grandad and then had a potluck and game night at Linda and Tom's.

This weekend Jonathan and Tonia and David came down again for a dance with Linda and Tom. Chris and I got to babysit David and he was very good. We are a little out of practice with the diaper changes, baths and bed time rituals but they came back quickly. He is lots of fun. Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Larry stopped by to give David his Christmas sock Grandma has been knitting. We are anxious to get them hung on the wall. Laura joined us today for lunch and laundry. She is off to Disneyland this week.

Teresa has finals this week and will be back by Friday. I haven't heard the exact day. We look forward to having her home for a few weeks.

A new addition to the gingerbread creations

I will have to admit that Laura was right in that I couldn't actually not make a gingerbread house if everyone else was making one. Although I am glad I wasn't trying it with everyone else or I would have been too stressed. Monday as I was cleaning up and putting stuff away I knew there was enough gingerbread left for a small project. I had found these cute carousel figures at the dollar store and decided I may as well go ahead and make my own especially as I kept wanting to add little details to everyone else's. lol. So I made a carousel, ticket sales house and concession stand. The trees in the back are for sale as Christmas trees (but there is no sign for that). This is how I justified a summer scene at Christmas.

Our Annual Gingerbread Creations 2008

This past weekend was our annual gingerbread fest. This year we had Laura, Teresa, Tonia, Grandma Ruth and Rosie. I didn't do my own house but had a hand in all of them. I made at least 7 double batches of frosting, three and a half batches of gingerbread, 5 batches of window and water syrup, did lots of shopping for supplies (the best places were the dollar store and Winco's). We used 14 pounds of powdered sugar, approximately 30 cups of flour, 4+ dozen eggs, two pounds of yogurt, 1 bottle of corn syrup, two boxes of vanilla wafers, 1 box of ice cream cones, and a large bag of chocolate covered rocks... just to name a few of our ingredients.

Our newest family member Rosie Stiltz joined us this year for her first gingerbread house. She was the first one done and didn't need much help. Her house featured a fence made from yogurt covered pretzels and a pond with a bench beside it. She actually had more added to it after this picture was taken. Her roof was made from licorice.

Grandma Ruth made this beautiful Christmas tree with lots of color and sparkles.

Reuben dropped by to check out Laura's progress. Laura made a lake house complete with lake, fish and dock.

Teresa made the Turtle River Inn with a covered bridge and River

Tonia's colonial mansion or plantation house . She ended up with a fallen tree in her yard by morning but quickly replaced it with a friendly snowman. Flexibility is a key ingredient in gingerbread houses!

I got to help with David more since I wasn't making my own house this year.

Check out Tonia's blog for more pictures.

Harvest time.

While I was up north Chris harvested our butternut squash crop. We tried one tonight and it was very good. Chris has also been painting Teresa's room. It is almost done, mostly the ceiling to do.

This past weekend Laura and I went up to Jonathan and Tonia's and Tonia showed us how to make theses lovely christmas ornaments. Tonia's family has been making them since she was a little girl. We plan to add it to our traditions as well.
Also this weekend we visited Rich and Bev and family and celebrated Gloria's and Rich's birthday. It was fun to get together again.

This is a poor picture of the growth chart I am making for my friend Kaylene who just had a baby girl last Wednesday. There is room for pictures between the "flying geese" triangle designs.

Duty or desire

I have finally finished a job making rugs for a lady at church. I am very grateful for the money it provided but must say I feel a new sense of freedom. Even though I am sitting in the same chair, using the same sewing machine I am now working on my desires instead of doing my duty. It makes all the difference. I am currently working on a growth chart for my coworker, Kaylene who just had a baby girl this morning at 2:30 AM.

I also attended a local quilting guild for the first time last night. I enjoyed listening to the speaker and got some good ideas. I only saw one person that I knew so next time I hope to bring a friend. I joined for the year as it was more economical than paying for each visit. So I plan to attend again.

I am thankful for more days off now so I will have more time for quilting and projects around the house. Chris is off for the next week so hopes to do some painting of Teresa's room. He started on one wall last weekend.

What's been happening?

I much prefer to blog with pictures because a picture is like a thousand words but alas I have no new pictures so will have to make do with words. Thursday Linda Stilts (I am still getting use to calling her that!) and I drove to Portland and placed program bags on the seats of the Rose Garden arena for the Women of Faith conference. The literature we had said to expect 4 or more hours of work but we were done in a record 1 hour and 45 minutes. For this effort we received a free ticket for the main conference (Friday night and Saturday). It was well worth the effort and an easy way to enjoy a free ticket. We even had seats five rows from the front on the floor so we had a good view. The conference was great with some new faces and lots of familiar ones. I rarely laugh as much anywhere as I do at the Women of Faith sessions... or get as many tears in my eyes as they share such heart touching issues and truths. If you haven't gone before I highly recommend it and if cost is an issue go to the website and volunteer for bag distribution.

I have been plugging away at making applesauce before the first frost and have successfully picked all the apples I can reach (there is one branch with about 5 apples that are much too high but I will leave them without guilt). I just have about 20 more to process into pies or applesauce. We will be eating good this winter. I am trying to determine just the right time to pick the many butternut squash.. Soon I think as we had frost yesterday morning. The many tomatoes are now no more but I did make some into sauce for the freezer.

Chris has been trying to do some fishing and explored the Kalama River but still has had no success except to enjoy the beauty and peacefulness of the outdoors. (Or mostly peacefulness as he does have to put up with rude people sometimes)

I have also been trying to finish some sewing projects. I have worked on several but still haven't finished them. Maybe this week. That is most of what is going on.

Keep your eyes on Jesus during this turbulent time.

Tom and Linda's wedding

Enjoy these pictures. Remember they are in reverse order.

Bountiful harvest

We had our first real garden in many years and are enjoying a bountiful harvest. We won't show you a picture of all the weeds that didn't get pulled but enjoy the pictures. Even God lets the tares and wheat grow together. The parable of the sower takes on much more meaning if you actually try gardening we discovered. I've been making applesauce. I have over 25 pints frozen and have hardly made a dent.

Sunflowers are fun!

The butternut squash are plentiful and huge.

Our trip to Colorado

We flew to Denver on 9/11 and rented a car and drove to Colorado Springs to participate in the the last three days of something called Hosting His Presence. It was primarliy a time of of worship and praise that culminated a period of 90 days of round the clock praise and worship to God at one of the churches in Colorado Springs. The last three days were held at the Phil Long Expo center. It is a little hard to describe but was a moving experience for both of us and we are glad we were able to participate. We primarily were involved in the praise and worship but Jan took one afternoon off to visit her aunt Charlotte and cousin Bruce in Denver. We also took about 3/4 of an hour and visited the Garden of the Gods while in Colorado Springs. We didn't have as much time as we hoped because we ended up taking a LONG way getting there but saw more of the city that way. LOL God is so creative and awesome as demonstrated in the variety of his creation.

This a picture of Pike's Peak Some of the scenery at The Garden of the Gods

Jan was able to visit Charlotte and Bruce at the Gem and Mineral show in Denver on Friday. I was able to show Charlotte the quilts I finished for her that were pieced by Charlotte and Grandma Lee many years ago. I also got to see her in her element with her rock club. Previous to my arrival she had about 1000 school children visiting their booth. I also got to go see Bruce's shop where he creates and works on his custom jewelry.