Westwoods

Spreading a little cheer.... From Judy's house and front porch...  We had coffee over their last night and I wanted to share her beautiful arrangements... Merry Christmas!

  We had a fun filled evening last night with friends we seldom see these days.  Matt and Amy are here for Christmas and Hans and Jo are here as well.  Altogether we had 15 kids and ten adults.  Things are a little different than the days when we had only one child each.   Amy helped with all the food and put the finishing touches on the party by adding wonderful starbucks coffee beans and Lindtt dark chocolate mints.  I'll let Amy talk about the food...  We made a bunch of appetizer foods and I really am not a very good food artist.....           Okay, so now I get to talk!  (It's Amy)   Shilah put on the most amazing wonderful party for us!  Bruces are living in a really big house right now so she was able to really give a nice party without the feeling squished in a house like sardines.  She used white and green and brought in the green from outside.  The light was dim...

I love this color of green.  So fresh and clean.... and full of hope... Thoughts about Christmas and the season.  Last night I watched Sabina Wurbrant or is it Sabrina Wurbandt?  Sorry,  I forget the details of her real name.... What I remember is her testimony of her time in prison.  She talked of our words.  Are we blessing or cursing in adversity.  She kept repeating a verse.  "Let the redeemed of the Lord, SAY so"  She said we say so by how we bless or curse what the Lord has given us.   Such wisdom.  She said to study Psalm 107 as they were able to remember that Psalm in prison.  Her testimony gave hope to many.  Hope:  A reason to LIVE....  The gift of Jesus!    Live.  Hope.   Bless. 

This is what its all about lately.  Once it starts this year, it can't stop.  I guess it's making up for lost time last year.  Anyhow, the kids live out there.  School was cancelled yesterday so I even went out and went sledding for the first time in years.  It's gorgeous.  It's also a trial to the mail man.  It's hard to drive up to a mailbox and deliver the mail with out getting sucked into the ditch.  Yesterday the semi from Spokane was stuck in Naples till ten-thirty so Bruce didn't get his mail til much later than usual.  Needless to say the house has come to a screeching halt the last couple of weeks.  [That is the building of the house]...We have much to be thankful for... We're warm and we are family...

I thought I would show you the crafts I did.  I'm going to do more for Christmas presents... I warn you...  Anyhow, I didn't do as much as usual because of our crazy life with building and all that entails but I did make an effort.  SO what you see is felt purses,{my girls loved them} gift cookies made with oatmeal, craisins, walnuts, and white chocolate, Christmas wall hangings, and fridge magnets. Here is a better picture of the magnets.  I got my idea out of a book at the library but after the project was done I found them bigger and better in Sharon's store.  So much for originality... Hahha!  It's a half marble, craft paper, and good magnets.  I could only find those at Michael's .  I love heavy duty magnets.  Half the time the school projects the kids bring home float to the bottom of the fridge because they don't have decent magnets in this town.  I do love living in the sticks though. And of course, the usual baking day...

 ON Sat.  The children and I spent awhile outside raking pine needles and cleaning the yard.  It was interesting hearing their different perspectives on the operation.  They both had ideas why its good to rake the yard as well as good reasons why its good not to rake the yard.  The latter ideas being after they were tired of the while thing.   It made me think about life and families and our differences.... Here's some majorly different perspectives....  This was fun.... Look at all the originality popping out in each sibling.    Think about what each one is thinking.... Kari, I agree totally...smile And then its nice when everyone gets it right together....  Thanks for the poses all.  It's been good. 

It was beautiful!  All five day we were there.  Very unusual for Oct they said.  I have so many pictures and so much has happened; I can't think what to pick and choose.   Me and my beautiful daughters. Grandma June took the camera with the crew that went crabbing... They even caught a starfush.   The crab were very good of course. Many hours were spent playing on the beach.  More later... 

So, just to let everyone know what's been going on with us,   We are moved into Ted and Kendra Bylers house as they are currently in Chile.  It has turned out to be the perfect arrangement with our fall company and busy building schedule.  The house is happening as fast as possible because we want to move in by spring.  Bruce had a whole week off work to get the walls up and then on Friday night Norvan, Danny, and Jay helped put the trusses up.  I know we owe them bigtime.  We feel very thankful for family and friends.  I feel just plain sheepish about getting any help with this project because we have done this so often and its getting old for everyone; at least that's the impression I get.  But I am glad to help my friends and family in need so I guess I should lay down my pride and be just plain grateful.  So... BIG thankyou to all... I am sitting in the parking lot of the Bread Basket doing this.  My in-laws are at home doing ...

The view from our back porch... Or what will be our back porch... If you look hard enough to the right you can see Mom and Dad's house.  Front of house. Back of house... Men at work...

My Entry way... How I shall miss thee... Thy calm, serene color... I took a bunch of pictures before I packed it all away.  It will be my comfort on a day I need more "pretty" My favorite color as well as favorite collection of things...  Oh you beautiful,  beautiful , green/blue thingys... I get to take my house plants with me.   All is going well with the moving.  I had two weeks of wonderful help.  While Jess was here, we did corn and lots of packing boxes.  While she did the laundry and dishes I was able to kiss my things goodbye as I packed them in boxes.  We are moving next Monday and Tuesday.  We actually can't move into our rental until Sat. the eighteenth so we are packing an enclosed trailer full.  Also, the new homeowner said we could use half the garage for a week while we wait.  We'll be staying at Mom and Dads house in-be-tween places.  That's all for now...  I'll keep you posted.  Har har....

"Mommy, I think that to God we are so little that we're like His little toys."  {She watched  "Toy Story 2" last night.} I guess she might have a pretty good perspective... When Toria was four, just after she started going to Sunday School, she became very convinced of her hunger one day...  She came to me with flashing blue eyes and got in my face and said..." Mommy, you know the story of that guy that ate the pigs food in the Bible?   THAT'S how hungry I am!" Kids have a way with words for sure...  Now must go clean the windows for the first time in a very long time...

K.  Here's my pretty....  Yesterday  I needed pretty so I came in here to blog about it and afterward it disappeared...  My point was that seeing "pretty" makes me think of the good in life and to thank God for all of it...  Not only the roses but also the bugs on the roses.  Just being thankful for what is...  Because God is... To take a moment and breathe deeply of the goodness of God and all the blessings in your life right now even if there are a few icky things to deal with today... To thank God for the family He's given you and and all the little treasures He's added in the past ten years.  To remember what it is I love and treasure about my marriage.   To worship God for all His goodness to undeserving me...

Before our lives get a little crazy.  We are moving.  We heard the news as we were driving home from the Skrivseth reunion.  Things are a bit of a mess because right before our trip to Wisc. Bruce started eye balling a one acre piece of property just down the road from mom and dad's place.  I figured it was a waste of time since we already own an acre of land around the corner from where we live now.  I found out however, that that in no way slowed my husbands desire for a different piece. So now, we are stuck with our house sold and money tied up in two different one acre pieces.  One is for sale of course, but no ones buying these days.    Except someone just bought our house and third acre....  Hhmmm.  miracles do happen....  OK so bottom line here.  Pray for us.  We need a house to rent, put two children in school, and move in the next couple weeks.  Not to mention all the canning and freezing I've been doing...

Possibly largest cow ever. Her name is Sally Mae or Molly Sue or something like that.... She recides over highway 94. The money was raised in the 70's while Bruce and I were being introduced to the world. The total of dollars to put her here was a huge amount that I can't remember right now... over forty thousand??? That was a lot of money back then. Still is for that matter. Got milk? This was Torias idea for her daddy to pose this way. Notice the leash attatched to Bruce's arm. Snoopy thought the cow rather threatening. He braced his little back legs and barked for that cow to move aside. Imagine the fear in his little dog heart when "Owner" went to drink milk straight for the source as you might say. The last KOA turned out to be the first ever in North America. It was big and crowded. There were activities to do that could "keep a feller busy fer a week". There was a big beautiful pool and hotub area. The whole campsite was along th...