Home made pizza was for dinner tonight. It was very yummy. I was creative and put on such toppings as zucchini, cilantro, spinach, sour kraut, and then all the normal ones like pepperoni, mushrooms, and black olives too. I made several pizzas so we have plenty of leftovers for the weekend. My mom and dad will be in next week for Andy's graduation and I am trying to figure out what I'm going to fix while they are here. So far, I am thinking pork chops, fish and chips, Pizza Hut, and we'll see what else...

Life has done a lot of changing around here the last few months. Andy has moved out, and then 4 months later moved back in. Kali stayed for an extended visit of almost 2 months. Now, Isaiah is here for a time. We have also had record amounts of company and many goings on. In all these things I have had countless ideas for blogs, but let time slip me by or wasn't ready emotionally to share. In an effort to get back to blogging, I have decided to get back to the basics of my blog, which I do from time to time.

I have recently started menu planning again and thought I would share with you the meals we will be having. This will make blogging a little simpler for me and hopefully give some ideas to some of you.

Tonight is sour cream enchiladas and the guys are waiting......

Kali

Kali, Dale's niece is here visiting for an extended amount of time. I have really enjoyed her, of coarse I must say this as she is reading over my shoulder presently. Hehe. But really, it has been a lot of fun. We go to the gym and do water aerobics, walking, and pilates. We are working on a quilting project that Kali started with the sisters in Olympia. We have also been grocery shopping, (always a highlight of my day!) had a teenage girl sleep over night on Saturday, went to see Dear John, the movie, done some cleaning jobs for pay, hung out, and had an all around good time while she has been here.

Happy now Bethany?! ;-)

Change is in the air

We've had a lot of change around here the last month or so. Andy stayed in Oklahoma after Christmas and has no intention of moving back home. We'll see how that goes he is working and staying with family right now trying to save up enough to go out on his own. He seems to be loving it out there.

We have been taking classes for foster care and if all goes well should be done with licensing in 2-4 weeks. I thought I would be bored and have a lot more time on my hands after Andy left, but that hasn't exactly been the case. I have had more time to get the extra things done that you always want to do but don't have time for.

I have started going to the gym. Another sister and I walk together several times a week there. We also do water aerobics, and I even tried some of the workout machines the other day.

Sorry for slacking off the last few months, but I am going to try much harder to keep you POSTed from now on :)

An eventful week

We have had a very eventful week around here. Here's the gist. On Sunday Dale got down with his back. He was in an extreme amount of pain off and on. He had a hard time walking and we borrowed a walker from a friend to help support him. Monday he was feeling a little better and only had to use the walker once. Tuesday was our anniversary (19!). Dale went to work, but only managed to work until lunch. Later that evening, after he had rested, we went out to dinner and to see Little House- the musical. It was all very nice. Dale did pretty good through it all too. I decided to cancel my trip to Oregon/Washington on Wednesday morning. I didn't want to leave just in case Dale had a relapse. Wednesday Dale was able to work all day and go to church that night.

Today's Thursday, I wonder what's going to happen today??

Fall Clean Up

We have been working up in the attic, cleaning up the old blown in insulation and replacing it with encased insulation. It is much cleaner and you can breathe around it. Breathing is good! It has been yucky, dirty, hot work, but at least we'll be nice and toasty this winter!

We have also finished the kitchen pantry cabinet.

This is a picture of our other kitchen cabinets. I think it's a pretty good match! We didn't paint the hinges on the new cabinet because we plan to replace the painted hinges on the other cabinets.

Our weekend

We had such a good weekend. It all started on Friday because Andy and Dale didn't have work or school that day. We drove to Boulder and scoped out the job Dale is getting transferred to and also did some Christmas window shopping. They have a great mall nearby. It was huge! We brought hot soup and ate our lunch in the car, then continued with our shopping. We all enjoyed it very much.

On Saturday we worked on the house, getting the pantry cabinet closer and some much needed cleaning and organizing done. Whenever there is a project to do, Dale always has to clean the garage first. This used to really irritate me, but then I thought about when I have a big cooking project, what's the first thing I do? I clean the kitchen. That made me feel better about it, but I am still annoyed when the whole day is spent cleaning the garage and the project is put off for another day, when the garage will need cleaned again. But, this was not the the case on Saturday, and at least part of the projected work was completed. We didn't have near as many trick or treaters as we expected, so we were left with way to much candy. Needless to say, I am going to go workout today.

Yesterday we had a good meeting. One of the prayers really touched me. Many of the words were the feelings of my own heart, but I hadn't yet put them into words. It was beautiful to me. Our ministry was about forgiveness, and how that is the only subject in the Lord's prayer that Jesus elaborates on. Sometimes it is very hard for us to truly forgive, but don't we want to be truly forgiven?

After church dinner, we went and had some family photos taken and a few more senior pictures of Andy. I am excited to see them all.

We spent the rest of the day at sis Sharon's playing games, visiting, and watching movies. A great end to a wonderful weekend....

Then up at 5 this morning to get Dale off to his new job, and here comes another week!

I think winter is here...

Our first big snow storm this season started Tuesday night. It has been a slow but steady snow fall ever since, and is still falling now, Thursday morning. School was let out at noon on Wednesday and so Andy had plenty of time to get out there and shovel the walks. It is a city ordinance that sidewalks be shoveled. Church was cancelled last night and there's no school today. The picture of Andy below is after it had been snowing for about 18 hours.






This next photo was taken at 6:30 this morning after Dale shoveled the walks again, and 36 hours after the snow started to fall. It wasn't snowing much when I took this picture, in fact I didn't realize it was still snowing until I looked at the photo. It is snowing heavier again now.

This is our garden where we still have onions and carrots. Yikes! I hope they will be okay, but I pretty certain the onions won't be able to make it. We have over 12 inches in most places, but it is supposed to stop snowing this afternoon.


I'm not ready for winter. I don't like being cold, and also the closest assemblies are 4&5 hours away, over the passes. It makes me feel a little claustrophobic even though I live in this huge city. To end on a positive note though, I do think it is quite beautiful and it is getting me excited for the holidays. On Tuesday I was at Costco getting groceries and I knew the snow was coming, Costco had their wrapping paper out and I couldn't resist buying some. Winter is here so I might as well embrace it!

We got some things accomplished this weekend, well Saturday really. Dale worked on a new pantry cabinet for the kitchen. It is in place but it still needs paint and doors. It is 8 feet tall, 2 feet wide and 2 feet deep. I am so excited to fill it up! I will post some before and after pics later.

Andy and I worked out in the yard on Saturday and I made a big discovery. I absolutely hate yard work. I remember thinking this as a young girl, but I thought I had grown past it. I feel like I have put sooooo much time into my yard this year and it still doesn't look great by any means. I feel judged by our immaculate neighbors who tell me to my face that it would be no big deal to get our yard looking great, we just need to bring in a CAT. That's all, just dig up our entire yard, oh and build a retaining wall, but definitely get rid of all the horrible white rock. By the way, he told me all of this the first time I met the him! Ya, I really hate yard work at this point, but we did make a little head way. We freshened up the bark in our little side yard and put a brick path through it just across from the brick path in the rocks. Again, maybe I'll post pictures later.

One thing that feels awesome through all of this is that we own our house. I can't get used to the feeling and it surprises me sometimes. Oh yeah, I can paint that wall if I want to. It feels great.

We had a good meeting yesterday and Bro Joe and Sis Kortney came home with us. It is strange here as opposed to Olympia, because it feels like we have so much more time on Sundays. Church starts at 10 and we are usually out by12 or 12:30. We live 5 minutes from church so we are normally home by 1, eating by 1:30. Yesterday was a little shorter meeting so we were home even earlier. Joe and kort stayed until about 5. We had a great visit with them and felt it was a good Sunday. At 5 in Olympia I felt that my time with the brethren was just starting.

I hope everyone else had a good weekend.

Back on the net

We have been without internet for the past few weeks, but now we are connected again and the connection is much faster. It has been about a year since I've been able to hear the music on my blog because of it. This morning I sat almost teary eyed and listened. The first song is very special to me.

I have been sewing lately. I am going to make my dad a rag quilt for christmas. They are so much easier and faster because there is no quilting invoved. I chose 8 flannel, plaid materials in several colors; red, blue, green, and cream. The material basically looks like the flannel shirts he always wears. I hope he likes it.