Our last snow for 2009!

It started about 1:30 pm, just little tiny white flakes and then the whole sky opened up to the biggest flakes ever!  Lacey braved the roads and came up to the house so she stepped out with Tristan and Addie and I snapped her picture.  It was rather late in the day, but they managed to get a few rides on the sled while Tristan and I stayed indoors where it was warm and cozy!  I love this winter wonderland, wish it would stay, but I fear it will warm up and be gone sometime tomorrow!

The Living Room

This is it people!  We borrowed a couch from Lacey as it fits in better with the decor of this house, but I wanted you to see our family room.  I did not put up a tree as we had only just finished the flooring and aren't really suppose to put a lot of things on the floor until it 'cures'.  Also, do you see the dark brown painted sections on either side of the fireplace?  Well, the one on the left will be built in shelving eventually and the one on the right (with the big picture hanging there) will hold a big screen TV.  Since we think it may be several months before those pieces are completed, we thought it would look better to just put up a piece of sheet rock and paint it (which, by the way, my girls did for us!) and we bought some cheap molding and the girls painted that and it all went up and it helps the house look so much better than looking at exposed 2 x 4's!  There are actually two posts on either side of the entry into this living room and the wood is Juniper!  A local business makes furniture out of this wood, he had to go to Nevada to find the ones this size for us!  We love them!  Our flooring is mesquite wood, one of the hardest woods there is, and it came from South America.  My kitchen is not done yet, I don't have drawers, so I will wait to send a picture of that room!

And I must tell you, it only takes a push of a button for me to have a fire going!  It is so cozy and warm to sit by the fire, or on the couch and do a little reading, which finally I am able to do now that Christmas is past!  thanks for stopping by and checking in with my blog!

December 29th a BIG BIRTHDAY for Lacey!

Lacey celebrated 8 years clean and sober!  We are so proud of her!  Of course this is a very big day for her and our family because it is the day that indicates a new birth for her.  A new life, for sure started on that day!  It was a long journey, but with God by her side, a wonderful husband and now three children, she is the young women that I imagine God always wanted her to be.  I am sure her journey is only just beginning, but we are so happy to have our "Lacey" back with us!

So congratulations, Lace, way to go!!

Chirstmas Day

Merry Christmas!  We began our day going going to Mass to celebrate the birth of our Lord.  Scott offered to watch Jalen (he does not do so well in a quiet environment, hah!) so the rest of us went and had a peaceful service!  Scott was lucky enough to help Jalen build things with his new Handy Manny tool bench!  Wow, they spent about 1 1/2 hour building, destroying and rebuilding!  And on the way home I get a phone call from Scott, "are you coming home now? an hour and a half is a looooong time!"  LOL!!!!!  Can you tell Papa hasn't had much experience with babysitting by himself?

In the late afternoon, the Iacolucci clan all gathered over at Dina's new house for our Christmas day celebration.  We do an Italian feast with meatballs, baked spaghetti, chicken/broccoli fettuccine, salad and bread, of course!  After the gifts are opened and the pasta has settled, we take slices of the pie that Lacey, Marty and Dad made!  What a great eating day!

The children spend about 5 minutes unwrapping the gifts!  It sure does go fast!  Marty gave the girls big jugs of cat litter to take to their favorite kitty shelter, PAWS.  They were so happy about that, he is going to take them there to drop off the litter and to play a bit with the kitties.  No new kitties to come home with them, as they adopted a one year old puppy from a shelter.  Happy is his name and he sure is a cutie and so good.  Being a one year old, he is already potty trained for being in the house, that is a big plus!  Happy is a mixture of several breeds.  He has the softest black hair, not too short like a lab, (although he has lab in him), but not too long like a retriever, (he has that in him also) and he is SUPER fast at running!  OMG watch out, he could knock you down just from the wind as he blows by you!!  He is really a sweet dog, was perhaps a bit mistreated or at least very neglected at his first home.  He is showered with all sorts of love and affection from the Snook kids!  And he soaks it up!

My dad played a little Italian hand game with Tristan and he just kept giggling and loving it!  I wonder if any one of you know that little game:  you take the hand of the other person and you speak in Italian, and unfortunately I don't know how to spell the words, but I could do it phonetically and see if anyone can tell me what it means.  My dad doesn't know, he just knows how to do it.  I so clearly remember my Uncle John playing that hand game with me from a very young age.  So this is it phonetically spelled:  taking the wrists of the other person you rub their cheeks and say:  moo sha moo sheel (remember it is phonetically spelled!! tee hee), then taking their hands and rubbing your own cheeks, say:  gosh a goo sheel! Back to the other's cheeks:  poca te (which actually means:  little you! so I think it is:  a little for you); going back to your own cheeks:  poca me (little for me!) and then this is the fun part, back to the other person you kind of slap their cheeks many times and say:  poca to ta kwan!( a little for everyone...maybe?)  The last part is where Tristan just cracks up laughing and starts flapping his arms and legs.  I can't tell you how many times my dad had to stand there and play that with Tristan, he got such a big kick out if him!  So hopefully one of you reading this can help me out with the spelling and the words!

Christmas Eve 2009

It's all about the children, isn't it?  We had a great meal at Lacey and Aaron's house.  The children were very excited to open the gifts and see what they had been given!  Jalen wanted to open every gift!  He and Caleb had a little power struggle over one of Caleb's wrapped gifts!  But the 'bigger' man won!  lol!!  The children ripped into their decoratively wrapped gifts in no time at all and hugs and thank you's were spread around the room with gratefulness.  Our little Tristan was absent from this chaos as the day turned into night so he was tucked into his bed (his mother was very thankful for that and was in no way willing to wake him for the family picture).

A 65th Wedding Anniversary Dinner

December 16, 1944 Bill and Elsa Foelker were married, so on this day  2009, they asked for all the adults in the family to go out to dinner with them!  We went to Clarke's in Lake Oswego and had a wonderful time visiting with each other;  laughing and sharing a really wonderful meal together!  We feel so blessed to have them both here to celebrate this great day and we look forward to many more years of celebration!

The Ass Jet 3000

I know, you are wondering what the heck is the Ass Jet 3000.....well this is the name my son-in-law named our new toilet in the master bathroom!  You are maybe getting an idea and a picture in your mind of what this toilet does. 

Well, I was the first to use it tonight and it had me in stitches, LOL all by myself in the room!!!  First, when you walk in the room, the seat rises!!  Then you sit on it and it is WARM!!!  I mean really warm, feels soooo good, you would NOT believe how good it feels!  Okay, now picture this....a panel is mounted on the wall next to the toilet and it has pictures and words that say:  Rear, Soft Rear, Front!  So, after doing your business it 'washes' you, depending on whether you need the front or the back or BOTH cleaned!  And, was it normal or if you are having some 'soft' issues (which for your information, I WAS NOT!) you can select the button to take care of your needs!  And you can select a 'jet spray' or a gentle over all mist spray!!  LOL, there I go again, just laughing myself silly!!

But wait, that is NOT all...no way.  It dries you!  YES I kid you NOT!!!

OMG!!  Is this more information than you ever wanted to hear from me?  Well, let me just tell you, I think this toilet is a must in every house hold that has young children!!  Just think of all that it does for you and as a mom or dad, you don't have to do for your little one!!  Especially if they are having some "soft" issues!!!  LOL  And for little girls...OMG it is a life saver for sure!!

NO I will NOT be posting any pictures with this post!  BTW, when you get up it flushes and closes the lid all by itself.  I am surprised that it didn't greet me:  "Welcome Colleen!"  Wait, maybe I can program it to do that!

Be still and know that I am God.

God knew that I needed this weekend at this time in my life.  It was the first overnight women's retreat from church and we spent the weekend looking at and talking about this Psalm.  What does it mean?  It can mean many different things at different times.

Rapha:  be still
Hebrew:  loosen your grip
Latin:  to vacate


Be still...quiet, calm, silent, aware, receptive, breathing, don't worry, listen, patient, open, release
   we "surrender" in order to know that God is in control.
   we "let go" in order to know the saving power of God in our lives
   we "give up trusting" in ourselves and our own designs in order to experience the glory of God's all sufficiency.

Know...understand, believe, trust, accept, awareness, confident, realize, intimacy

know that I am God...recognizing, acknowledging and answering God, have intimate relationship with Him by what He says in the Bible...His Holy Word, give up control, trust, believe it, abundant love, complete surrender, experience God, recognize the things He does in our lives.

Did you know that you could just say "Amen" all through out the day for your little prayer to the Lord?  I liked that idea a lot.  For example, after changing a dirty diaper:  AMEN!!  After doing all the dishes morning, noon and night:  AMEN!!  After folding all the clean clothes:  AMEN!!  After putting away all the clothes:  Amen!!  Do you get the picture?  How great it is to always be in the presence of God, and how better than to always be in prayer.  Our Blessed Mother, Mary says:  "Pray so that your lives can become prayer!"  How beautiful is that and how awesome to live your life as in prayer...always acknowledging God throughout the day for all the joyful and wondrous things He does for us.

Martin Luther says:  "The fewer the words, the better the prayer."  "Amen" fits right in with his thinking~!

I have come to realize that the presence of God is within.  It is His voice that brings calm and direction, so I must remember to sit, be still and be aware of Him in my life...every moment of every day.

In the chaos of finishing up a new house, moving from the old, packing, unpacking, washing windows, wiping down doors, vacuuming, vacuuming, vacuuming (the new house!) cleaning out a garage...it was time for me to be still....to just breathe and not stress about all these delays with subs not showing up for the scheduled work.  On Friday at 2 PM I again asked Scott if I should just stay home because I was feeling guilty about leaving him with all the stress on his shoulders.  But my DH encouraged me and said, "No, you need to go and enjoy yourself and have a good time and get some reflection time."  So at 4:30 pm that afternoon I was on my way to the retreat and it was the best thing I could do for myself.  I am now sharing with you this great verse from Psalm and challenging you to read the verse, reflect on it and to maybe keep saying it to yourself:  Be still, be still, be still, it can come to mean:  don't worry now, I am taking care of things!;  I have things under control!; trust Me!


A new mantra for me:  "Give me the grace to be quiet, to listen for your voice in my heart."

A Sign of Hope...

Could this be a little "God Wink" for me...something to give me hope and to see the beauty in the day filled with choas, dust and endless errands to Home Depot?  This is a 'tree' azalea and it is by the front porch.  Here it is the end of October and this little guy has two brand new buds!  Isn't this awesome?  Yes, I do believe...and the first sign of the pink bud did indeed give me hope and encouragement to face the day....in spite of two trips to Home Depot!

Remodeling the old house!

We are not done yet, but now we are in the middle of living in a mess in the kitchen at this old house.  It was decided that painting the cabinets would best be done before we move because seriously, it is a major disruption and can you see getting three children up in the morning, getting breakfast, packing lunches and keeping Jalen out of the "tent"??  And doing it all in the laundry room because you have NO access to the sink, the stove, the refrigerator?  We did put the microwave in the laundry room and can heat up a few things and of course make some popcorn for an evening snack!!  Just thought I would show you the chaos I am living in right now!

Creating in the Craft Room!!

Yeah, it is done and I am still organizing, but so much better than where I was!  I love it!!  I am still getting things placed where I need them...but I have plenty of time to figure that out!  It is a wonderful room to create and to get the "mojo" going!!  I can hardly wait until I have hours ad hours to "create"!!

Another "Sneak Peak" at the Kitchen!!

Are you all ready for this?  It is absolutely beautiful...I can hardly wait to start cooking in this awesome kitchen! The counter tops were installed today and they are fabulous!  The BIG ISLAND, as we call it, is the biggest island our fabricator has ever done!  The copper sink sits in the center and the counter flows over the top of it.  Do you see the posts at the edge where the bar stools will sit?  Aren't they cool?  Hal carved all them and added the upholstery nails so that it looks like all our doors from Mexico that have clavos in them.

All of the back counter tops are a chocolate brown, so beautiful, with lots of movement with darks, and reds and even some bits of white in it.  I am very very pleased with how it looks.  The stove top island, which is not done, will have the same dark chocolate granite counter top.

Now for some scary, exciting and stressful news!  Dina's house sold!!!  YIKES!!  Are you kidding me?  That means we have to be out of this house by November 16 because she has to be out of her house by the 20th!  I have a feeling a lot of our "stuff" is going to be staying right here in this house because we will not have enough of the house done to move everything.  We are going to really push hard to get things done, but some things are out of our hands....like the cabinets!  Hal is a one man shop and he is worth the wait and is working as hard as he can.  So it will be done when it is done.  I do think we will have the kitchen and at least the guest bedroom/bathroom done before we move.  And of course, MY CRAFT ROOM will be done, so I will be happy!!

I will keep you posted on our updates, hopefully we can pour a patio and front porch in two weeks!

Our Riley Dog

Riley, our part chow, part retriever, part other things was having some problems walking last spring.  He did what we called "twittering" while trying to stand or walk.  In other words, his feet did a little dance without going anywhere.  And his back legs would give out on him!  Poor thing.  So we took him to the vet, did a bunch of tests, then he was referred to a neurologist!  A doggy neurologist!  This Doctor actually was the same one who did the surgery on Bandy's neck about 25 years ago!

He had to do more extensive testing...a cat scan of sorts to see his spine and what was going on.  The prognosis was to do surgery in one week....this was last April!  Riley was to be on steroids for one week prior to the surgery.  Well, gosh after one week of being on the drugs, he was like his old self, walking fine, no 'twittering', wanting to chase balls, jump etc.  So we brought him back to the doctor and said, "Look!!  He is walking great!"  The doctor was actually very surprised, so we all agreed that we should wait and continue him on the pills, but at a lower dose and see how he does.  So in August Scott and I were thinking he looked like he was hurting again and needed the surgery, brought him back to the doctor, he assured us that giving the drugs to Riley every two days instead of three would be okay for him.  So, let's re-evaluate him in November!  Well, it really only took a couple of days that we had colder weather and rain and we thought Riley was hurting again.  Not sure if it was the colder weather and arthritis, but we decided we shouldn't put it off any longer.  The doctor agreed.  Riley had his spinal surgery on Monday and came home today, Thursday.  He is looking godd, feeling pretty good and walking okay....a little bit hesitant, but pretty good for the kind of surgery that he had.  The doctor was very happy with the results.  For the next couple of weeks we need to walk him and not let him roam on his own.  He will get the stitches out in two weeks....I say stitches, but really they look like staples!

We are happy to have Riley back home chatting with us and keeping us company!

Be still, and know that I am God

Our church is having it's first ever 'over night' retreat in November. One of the ladies who is organizing it, asked if I would help with some sort of token 'gift' for each lady attending. There may be close to 60! The theme is just what the title says....so I got on the internet and found a stamp with that verse on it and I bought it. Then I whipped up a couple of bookmarks, a little box, a post-it-note holder, and a candle to show my friend. They all had the verse stamped on them someplace. Of course the one she really liked, which she thought was "over the top" and so unusual was the candle. I found a site on the internet to buy 5 dozen for just under $1 each. They are 2 x 3 in size and just perfect for this size stamp. Are you wondering how I did it? It is so super simple, you might just want to try it yourself. You stamp the verse, or maybe you want to stamp a flower or a leaf, or a tree branch...anyway, stamp it on tissue paper!! Then cut around and close to the image as possible. Place it on the candle and then wrap a strip of wax paper around the candle. using a heat embossing tool, heat the image, but be careful not to get too close to the candle or else you will melt it!! You will slowly see the image adhere to the candle and become darker. Take the wax paper off and you are set with a new gift to give someone! I am cutting some scallop circles to place under the candle for the place setting at the table. I think everyone will love this little gift and will be anxious to take it home, put it in a special place and light it to remember all the blessings God has given to us, and if we are still we can hear Him speak to us!

Caleb is 10!!

We had the family over for potato soup and pizza to celebrate Caleb's 10 birthday. Gosh, I can't believe that he is 10! Time sure does go by fast...well, yeah, my girls are 32 and 30 (plus!!)!! Ellie and Lily came to our house after school and had the idea to make a sign for Caleb. So they each took a couple of letters, colored them and then we hung them up. Lily made the happy birthday sign and it looked fabulous! So as the kids and Papa Ben gathered around the birthday boy, we sang the birthday song and he blew out his candle. Aaron's family bought him a drum set, so Scott and I are going to give him drum lessons! He is very excited about that, and I am excited that the drums are at HIS HOUSE!!

A New Bag for ME!

I decided I needed a new bag to carry my bible to Women's Bible Study every Wednesday. I have been using a bag the girls bought for me at the Women of Faith conference a couple of years ago. The stitching is coming apart on the bottom seam, and I was thinking it was time for a new one. So I went to a fabric store last Friday and picked out my fabric and started cutting and sewing and now I have it done! I am actually quite pleased with it! I did not have a pattern, I just measured the one I had and figured that was pretty close to the size I need. When I go to bible study, I have the bible, and the book we are working on, plus I usually throw in a water bottle, so it needed to have some width and height to it. I stamped the center piece and the sentiment says: "Cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you" 1 Peter 5:7 . I added a couple of little flourishes and then I stitched around the circle. On the other side, I stamped my initials and also added some fun flourishes. I sewed on two pockets to the inside to hold pens and other miscellaneous stuff I might have! That's all for now.

A Big Boy's Toy!

Thanks to our other son-in-law (and he will do anything for me also!, aren't they the BEST! If you don't have sons it is at least good to have wonderful sons-in-law!!) Aaron brought over his back hoe so that Scott and Joe could clear away all the piles of stone, tile, wood and rubbish and clean up our yard and get the driveway graded to where it needs to be before the rains come. Jalen was in AWE of this big piece of machinery! He was very hesitant to get too near it at first, but I managed to get him to stand on part of it, then he slowly managed to work his way up to the seat and be the 'driver'. We made up a song to the tune of "Down by the station...see the little driver pull his little lever...!) Jalen loves being over at our new house. He LOVES the drill and hammer and screws and LADDERS!! Oh Yes, he is ALL BOY!!

So here he is in 7th Heaven pretending to be the "Big Driver" pulling all the levers!

Halloween Under the Crawl Space!

This is a job that is good for a son-in-law! I am sure you all have heard my stories of "mouse in the house" except mine was MICE in the house. Did you get that? Plural!! As in more than one, or two or three...yes!! Lots of mice! So I finally threw up my hands and called the "Orkin man". He placed traps everywhere. They are the traps that have "stickiness" inside the tent and the mice go in and can't lift their feet! EEWWW what a way to die..and I didn't think about it until later when Scott said, "So these cute little guys are going to squeel for a couple of days and we have to listen to them before they actually die?" Well, gosh darn it, I am sorry but they have NO business being in my house! Stay outside in the field and have a hay-day, just don't come inside! But FYI, it doesn't really take that long for them to die (so I am told) and they really don't squeel so you can hear them (that's even better!). Apparently, they need to keep moving in order to produce heat in their body, and when they are stuck and can't move, they rather quickly go into hypothermia and die. I know, I know, it still doesn't sound so good, but seriously, would you want to see one of those little guys climbing up your drapes? Would you want to see one running across your family room floor? Or, I just heard this yesterday from my DH (dear husband!) that one came and climbed up my (MY!!) rocking chair and sat on the arm rest! Scott was sitting in his chair and was rather startled to look over and see this thing sitting on it's honches looking at him!! Can you believe it? So Scott gives it a little 'whack' and knocks it down to the ground and stuns the poor little creature enough to pick him up and take him outside and make sure he NEVER enters our house again (you get the idea, right?) Now I have to say, that is a bold move for Scott, cause he will not kill a spider, a box elder bug or anything, he "catches" those things and puts them outside!

So anyway, on with the story. The Orkin man had to go into the crawl space and place traps and informed me that a lot of insulation was down on the ground. "Hellooooo, Jamie!" (By the way, he will do most anything that his Mother-in-law" (that's MOI!) asks!!) So he braved the elements and took care of putting the insulation back where it belonged! Good son-in-law!

And as a side note, YES we caught three of those cute little buggers down in the crawl space. However, all the way upstairs to the highest room of our house (we call it the upstairs storage and furnace room) we caught five (5) of those little buggers. Yeah I say!! So this nice man (the Orkin guy!) will be coming out every month for a year to help keep these guys from coming into my house (soon to be Dina's house! and Jamie's house, so really when he was being a nice son-in-law, he was actually being the owner and taking care of his crawl space insulation!) Now is that a nice gift to my daughter and her family, or what?

The Best Potato Soup EVER!!

About 12 years ago or so, Scott and I went down to Monterey California (and right now we can't remember why we were there, isn't that sad? That is why I have this blog, to help me remember things like this!! tee hee!)

Anyway, as we were roaming around the city, we found a wonderful restaurant...Italian, of course! And the reason I can remember it and the name, Rosine's Cuisine, is because I bought their cookbook! And they have the best, I mean the really best Potato Soup recipe. Tonight when I was talking to my dad, he said he made the best potato soup he ever had and it was from Rosine's, I had given the recipe to my mom years ago. So I thought, WOW, I better post this in case someone needs to have this soup this fall, using some of those good potatoes from the garden or at least those yummy small gold yukon ones from the store (or better yet, the farmers market!) This is comfort food at its BEST!! So good to warm the tummy and the soul on those cool fall and winter evenings...very filling, with only a garlic or cheesey bread to go with it!

Potato Leek Soup

1/4 # raw bacon, finely chopped
2 Tbsp butter or margarine
3 leeks, white parts only, chopped
1 cup celery chopped
4 cups of potatoes, peeled and cubed
3 cups strong chicken stock
3 chicken bouillon cubes
1/4 tsp. pepper

Roux: 1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/3 cup flour
3 cups milk or half and half

In a large saucepan, (or Dutch oven!) cook the bacon in the butter until almost crisp. Now I like mine crisp, so I make sure all the pieces are really crisp! Add the leeks, celery, and potatoes. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally and browning up the potatoes. Add the chicken stock, bouillon cubes and pepper. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile in another saucepan, melt the margarine or butter. Stir in the flour, making a roux. cook for a few minutes, then wisk into the soup (I usually take a ladle of the soup and add it to the roux before I dump the whole thing into the soup...just to make sure it blends good and doesn't get lumpy!) When the soup has thickened, add the milk or half and half, sirring well. Taste for flavor and adjust salt and pepper if necessary.

That's IT! However, my own version is slightly different..
1. my hubby doesn't like cooked celery so much, so I leave that out.
2. I don't like soggy bacon, so I take my bacon out of the pan after it has been crisped up. I DO NOT add it into the soup, I serve it as a garnish on top of the soup!
3. I add a little bit of grated cheese on top, along with maybe a few slices of green onions and then of course the bacon bits!
4. to be honest, I actually fry up closer to a whole pound of bacon, cause you know, when you trim the fat and have those little itty bitty pieces, they don't go very far and I like to have more than just three or four pieces sitting on top of my bowl of soup! I just wrap those bacon bits into a paper towel and then into a zip lock bag and can just pull a few out at a time as I serve up the soup for several days!

I hope you have a chance to make this and I wonder if Rosine's is still around? I have made several of their recipes, next time I will post their delicious 'meatballs'. My family LOVES them and Scott likes me to make meatball sandwiches when I have leftovers!

So, as Julia Child would say: Bon Appetit!!

The Book of Ruth

Do you all know "Ruth" from the Old Testament? I was telling my dad about her the other day when he asked what I had done that day. I told him I went to Women's Bible Study and I proceeded to tell him about Ruth. He had never heard of her! We had done a study several years back on "Women of the Bible", so yes, I knew about Ruth.

What I LOVE about Ruth is her devotion, LOVE, respect, and care for her Mother-in-law! Yes, you read it right, mother-in-law! In Ruth 1: 17-18, she says, "Don't ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us."

Ruth finds faith in the context of family! Millions of believers after Ruth have found faith in the context of fellowship. When we find God, we find others, and we find ourselves as well. Saint John writes, "for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20).

I think we can all learn something from Ruth. Even though her husband died and Naomi, her mother-in-law, tried to send her back to "her own people, back to her parents and country", Ruth refused to go. In the Old Testament families took care of each other, many generations living under one roof. How often today do we see the elderly living in a nursing home, a retirement facility, or an assisted living facility and never being visited by family...or at least not very often! It certainly gives one something to think about. Where do we want to be at the end or nearing the end of our lives? Do we want our children to care enough about us to be close by and providing comfort and love? I am not saying the elderly should NOT go to a facility, I think some are absolutely fabulous and one can have many friends and conversations whereas in their own home, they often have no one with whom to talk. "I'm just sayin' keep the love, respect, caring for our elderly close to our hearts. Don't let them end their days alone. Be sure they know that they are treasured and cherished in this world and will surely be in the next with our God.

Favorite Restaurant

Today, Friday, September 18, Scott and I celebrated our 38th Wedding anniversary. I know, can you believe it? So tonight he asked me where I wanted to go for dinner...and I suggested "Clarke's" in Lake Oswego. We had been there once before two years ago when his cousin from Norway was here. We had a delicious dinner then and we had another one tonight! AND Scott said, "Now I know my favorite restaurant! CLARKE'S!! He had Caesar salad which was so good..light dressing, just perfect! And then for his entree he had the lobster risotto and it was the best! I had their soup of the day, Tomato Bisque (which is one of my favorites!) and then my entree was the most tender, delicious flank steak with a bearnaise sauce. And the mixed vegetables were just out of this world wonderful...tender, flavorful, so good! Sorry, NO room for dessert tonight!

So there you have it, Scott's favorite restaurant! Give it a try sometime and let me know if you, too, like it as much as we do! And maybe one day we can go together and share a meal!

Bon Appetit!!

Julia Child I am NOT!

Bon Appetit everyone!! I went to the movie theater tonight with my two friends, Liz and Becky. We saw: "Julia & Julie. I give it TWO THUMBS UP! I really really liked it, there were so many funny, laughable parts to this movie and gosh darn it, I sure wanted to have some "beef bouillanase" (how the heck do you spell that anyway?) by the time the movie was over! Had to settle for "Chile's", however the company was great! I showed off some cards that I have made over the course of several weeks, and I gave Lizi her birthday card and a little box I made that held 4 (four!!) dark chocolate Moonstruck chocolates! Dark chocolate is Lizi's most favorite chocolate and she deserves the best for her 60th birthday coming up next week!

After watching this movie which featured Merrell Streep as Julia Child and then Amy Adams as Julie Powers, (who happened to start a blog featuring all the recipes she made in one year from the Julia Child Cook Book), I thought maybe every once in a while I should post a favorite recipe here in case anyone wanted to try it out. The other night at Bill's birthday dinner, Scott was asked to name his favorite restaurant. And try as he might, he really couldn't come up with a favorite (although we both love Mexican), he turned to me and said, "You have really spoiled me with the meals YOU make". AAAHHHH, isn't that sweet? Or was this a hint to start cooking again? I kind of go in spurts of cooking a lot and then not at all! Of course, that doesn't count lunch cause I do that everyday for him and Joe...although Subway, Papa Murphy's, 5 Guys Burgers and Fries, Big Town Hero, even the chinese restaurant in Willamette (Essence of China) helps me out with lunches. So, okay, I do pretty good following a recipe and I do get a lot of kudos from my sons-in-law when we have family gatherings....especially if it is 'Italian' food!!

So lately, Scott has been having a hunger for Monkey Bread. Have you ever had it? It is easy peasy to make, so I am going to share the recipe here and I want you to know that I did not make this up, you can find this on many websites just by typing in Monkey Bread. The version I use is from OurBestBites.com. You really should check out this site, I have made many of the dishes from this site and they have all turned out really good. So now for the recipe:

Bundt pan butter and floured (I actually use Pam spray and flour!)
1/2 cup sugar
2-3 Tablespoons of cinnamon
2 cans of the buttermilk Pillsbury or store brand name is fine refrigerator biscuits
1 stick butter
1/2 cup brown sugar

Combine sugar and cinnamon in zip lock bag (gallon size)
After you "pop" open the biscuits, cut each one into 4's!, toss them into the sugar/cinnamon bag in batches to cover all the sides of the dough. Melt the one stick of butter and add brown sugar and bring it to a boil, then add the nuts if you are using them! Place all the pieces of the biscuits into the Bundt pan spreading them out evenly. Pour the butter/brown sugar mixture over them. Bake for about 30 minutes. Remove from the pan fairly soon while it is still hot! (Now, this is just me...but I actually save a bit of the butter and brown sugar mixture..just a bit and heat it back up quickly when I pull the bread out of the oven and when I turn it over onto a plate, I pour the remainder of the caramel over it, so now what was on the bottom gets all that nice gooey syrup on top. That's it, easy peasy, I told ya!

Okay, so a side note here: This is NOT low cal!! AND I think you need to make this when you are having a small crowd. Of course, when I make this for the 4 men building our house, it gets almost entirely devoured! But..."I am just sayin'" make it when you know others will be around to help you eat it all gone...and especially while it is nice and hot fresh out of the oven!!

So let me know what you think! Are you wondering why it is called "Monkey Bread" I think because of all the little pieces (you know the dough biscuits you cut into fourths) in this bundt pan get "picked" at just just like monkeys who pick at each others hair to ummmm, you get the idea! Now the recipe I posted here is actually one from Paula Deen, but in comparison, they are quite similar. Sometimes I even double the butter and brown sugar and really make it yummy!

An Addie story

Wished I had taken a picture, but I didn't have my camera...darn. Poor little thing was vomiting starting at 5 Am and still doing it at 12:30, plus she was running a pretty high fever. She couldn't keep any liquids down, when she would take a drink, she would throw it up. Finally Lacey decided to take her to Urgent Care and I came down to babysit little Tristan and Caleb. She spent a couple hours at the Urgent Care and they told her to go to the hospital as Addie was very dehydrated and needed an IV to get fluids into her! So more hours were spent in the Emergency room at the hospital. She was running a fever of 103.8 and was just like a limp rag doll. She didn't even flinch with the IV going into her arm, she just laid on her Mommy's shoulder and slept.

Finally at 6 PM she was released from the hospital and her temperature was down to 101. She is still feeling the results of that day...cranky, moody, tired, sore. Needing lots of TLC! And on top of all this, Aaron was on a Men's Retreat! So Lacey was trying to handle all this by herself! Fortunately, her mother in law was in town and staying with her, so she had help with both Tristan and little Addie. And I brought Tristan to the hospital when he was needing to be fed! Thank goodness for GRANDMA'S!!

Grandma stories...

Okay, so I told you about the customer appreciation days, right? While the kids are working the store, I am doing my part by babysitting. (At this point I have to tell you how HAPPY I am that Aaron does his own thing aside from Papa Murhpy's!) Dina's children. Fortunately, Aaron was home to watch his own children. And actually I only had Jalen and Lily! And Lily was easy peasy to watch as she mostly watched TV. However, Jalen and I spent about two hours playing 'hide and go seek'! And that little guy is so good at hiding....and he stays quiet! He doesn't answer you when you call his name.

So he managed to get into his Mommy's bathroom and grab a lipstick! (You know where this is heading, right?) Well, I was on the phone to his mommy when he flew by me and I caught a quick peek at what he had in his hands. So, I was nearly on his tail, but not nearly fast enough...he disappeared right before my eyes. As I talked to Dina I walked through every room and looked in every corner...TWICE! And still I could not find him. I asked Lily (who was by the way sitting on the pot!) if she had seen Jalen. She asked if I had checked her mommy's closet...I looked in there and said, "yes! no Jalen!" She comes running in, slides onto the floor on her belly and looks under the shirts all hanging in the closet and pulls them back, sure enough, there he is on his back, tucked against the wall, under the shirts and pants painting his face with the lipstick!

We got his face all cleaned up and proceeded to play more hide and go seek! And chasing...he especially loves to be chased and to chase. Well, I have those two bum knees, you know, so I can only run so much and then I am wiped! Finally he started hiding from me and I decided it was time for me to hide! I chose the BED!! Covered me all up with a blanket, thought I was nearly invisible, we had not done anything with the bed, so why would he even look this way. I left a little pocket open so I could see his feet as he came into the room. He stopped just feet from me and then all of a sudden he gives my leg a big WHACK! I jumped up and laughed and asked how did he know I was there! But he was off to hide in the closet....again!!

So much fun...but so exhausting. But he and I are definitely BUDS!!

Papa Murphy's Customer Appreciation Days

This last week Papa Murphy's had "Customer Appreciation" days! So I was busy babysitting while the daughters and son-in-law were knee deep in dough! The first day was overwhelming and we did more than we had planned and anticipated, so Dina was making runs from her store to the Oregon City store bringing dough and other products that they were running low on. Two of our stores had to close early because we simply didn't have any more crusts to sell! Now that is not necessarily a BAD thing, however, considering this was 'customer appreciation' days, that was not a good thing at all for our customers! So we made some adjustments, increased our dough production and tried to get ready for the second day. We have some of the most AWESOME employees anyone could ask to have. At Oregon City, we had our ' young pizza makers' stay until 3 AM to finish cleaning up and washing all the dishes from the chaos of the first customer appreciation days sales. And then at 3 AM our very loyal, dedicated prep crew, managed by Debbie showed up at 3 AM to start the prep for that day which included sheeting out over 1400 pizza dough balls, grating all the cheese needed to go on those crusts, open many cases of pineapple, olives and every other topping that needed to be prepped and ready for the second days' sales. They had not ONE bit of cheese left in the store from the first night, so Jamie had to make a run to our supplier and he loaded up the pickup truck with over 2600 # of products! Well, the second day was FABULOUS and our Oregon City store has a new record sales for pizza ...1352! That breaks all past records, including all Halloween's and that is normally our biggest day ever! We all survived and are now getting the much needed rest we need after those two big days. WE LOVE OUR CUSTOMERS!! At our Westwood store, we had only one person to make all the dough - 32 batches by himself! He was there until 4 in the morning! Next year we will be more prepared and know what to expect...unless they change the offer, then everything we know will be out the door. But $10 for any pizza any size! Yahoo, what a great deal!

9.11 - 87 and going strong!

We celebrated Bill's 87 birthday at their favorite restaurant, Castagna, on 19th and Hawthorne . It is always nice to get together with John, Robin, Bill and Elsa and have good conversation and good food. We are so blessed to be celebrating birthdays with our parents, the only one we miss is my mom! We look forward to many more!

Back to School!

It's that time of the year again...for students and teachers! My good friend, Mary, is back in the classroom. She teaches kindergarten at the Boones Ferry Grade School in Wilsonville. Mary is a very dedicated teacher so actually she has been in her classroom for several days of the past two weeks (her own time!). And her classroom shows it! She is all organized, ready and just waiting for next Tuesday. She is teaching full day kindergarten again this year. So far she has 20 students, however 4 of those have some kind of special educational needs! We were wanting to get together for lunch, so I brought sandwiches to her and we sat at the little tables (brought back memories, I tell ya!) and ate our lunch in the classroom and had a great visit. She made me feel like a very 'special guest' as she brought me around to all her coworkers and introduced me as her friend. And even though all teachers had been back in the classroom for two and a half (paid) days, there rooms were nearly not ready for children!

But that is my friend, organized and ready to do battle -- with peace of mind knowing everything is in place! Her mom is 97 years old and is living with her...so she feels the need to be particularly ready in case she needs to take some time off. We had a great lunch and I loved seeing all her interest centers. I just LOVE her period!!!

Want a Kitty??

Yesterday I had about three phone calls from Ellie asking if I could please take her and Lily to the PAWS store (it is a 'kitty' shelter and adoption store in Willamette). I was trying to get my windows clean...you know all the 'junk' that accumulates inside the runner of the windows, not to mention the ledge and then all the box elder bug "poop" that is all over the frames and windows! However, after the third call, I decided that taking them was more important than clean windows. After all, there is still tomorrow....

So off we went to the cat shelter, except Dina and Jalen came also. Jalen was so excited when a kitty would 'jump' from the floor to a ledge. He would say, "bump (jump in Jalen talk), kitty"!! It is soo cute! He managed to get a hold of a kitty and I thought he was going to strangle the poor thing, so I quickly snapped the picture and we rescued the cat from his clutches! The girls are so anxious to move into this house so they can adopt two (2) kitties...you know they prefer the kitties go to homes in two's so they have a play mate while the girls are at school!!

A Sneak Peek at the inside of the house

The top picture is showing some of the kitchen. The door in the center is actually the refrigerator and it has drinks in it for the workers! The door on the right goes to the pantry and the open door on the left goes into my "craft room", which is the next picture! Most of the cabinets are installed, we need some crown molding at the top and obviously my counter top, but then I can start loading my room with my hobbies of paper crafting...card making, scrap booking, and then yarn for knitting, and my sewing machine, too!

The next picture shows the installed ovens. Yes there are TWO, no more issues with cooking a turkey, rolls and veggies!! Because I am also having a steam oven and then of course a traditional microwave! And YES, Scott had me make some chocolate cookies and bake them in the new oven. He said they were the BEST HE EVER ATE! (whatever....). so he thinks we are ready to move in...ha ha! The next picture shows the two posts for the entry between the living room and the entry room. The posts are Juniper and they came from Nevada. A local "log furniture" person went to Nevada to hunt for these for us and it was not easy to find ones especially for the size we wanted...but he came through for us! He brought them to us about a month ago and we set them in the living room, after a weekend of relaxing, we came back to the new house and Scott found little pilings of "saw dust". Beetles were living inside the wood...so back to the shop and into a kiln for several days to kill the beetles! Thank goodness, I do NOT need beetles living in my house!

The last picture I posted shows the front door and the entry room. All our doors are made of mesquite wood and they were made in Mexico. The wagon wheel on the ceiling also came from Mexico and is 150 years old. Scott attached it to the ceiling, put wire through the center and then when we were in Coeur d'Alene for vacation, we found this hanging light fixture and thought it would look great below the wheel. So there it is!

The entry, hallways and all bathrooms have a stone that came from a quarry in Mexico...the hardwood floors that we have are also mesquite, but I believe that wood came from South America. So there you have a sneak peek....are you anxious to see the whole thing? Well, so am I! I mean I am excited to move in...you know that it has been over two years since we started this project! Isn't there a saying about "patience" and "all things are worth waiting for" and I am sure there is more...but really I am ready to move and be done with this project! And I must admit, we are close, I am painting all the crown molding right now and Scott is painting some of the rooms that were not already done. You see, some of the walls have clay on them, and the color is incorporated in the clay, so they are all done! Kind of gives the house a "Tuscany old world feel!" Well, when it is all done, I will post more pictures so you can see it and then you all are most welcome to see it first hand and get a tour!

Things happen in three's and four's

Caleb was riding his bike to their old house to water plants for his mom, on the way home, his pedal fell off the bike and he really scraped up his big toe....of course that wouldn't have happened if he was wearing shoes instead of flip flops! ONE: sore big toe!

Addie seems to love the shower and doesn't want to leave it, of course a lot of toys are in the shower for her to play with...letters and alphabets that cling to the walls and sliding plastic door. It took Lacey 45 minutes to finally get her out of the shower (Lacey had tried about three times turning off the water and Addie just laid on the shower floor and screamed! So the water came back on!!). Later that same night, she was back in the shower, only this time she tripped and hit her chin on the metal strip that the sliding doors sit on. As with most "head" type cuts, she really bled a lot and her chin was swollen, but no stitches were needed! TWO: Addie's cut chin.

Caleb is taking a music camp this week (actually Ellie and Lily are in the camp too) and he wore his flip flops to camp. No big deal, cause they are inside playing instruments. Except during lunch break the kids were playing tag and Caleb took off his flip flops so he could run faster and guess what? Another stubbed toe! This one was rather ugly and was stinging, so the camp called Mommy to come get him! THREE: another big toe stubbed!

After resting a bit after getting home early from the big toe stubbing at school, he got on his bike to visit a friend (he was wearing a close toe shoe this time!) and while riding through a forested area and leaning a bit too far over the handle bars, and hitting a root....he was thrown head first into a tree! He cut his chin pretty bad and Papa thought it definitely needed stitches, which he said: NO WAY! But Mommy took him to an urgent care after getting the younger two children to bed and guess what? Yup, he had a total of 8 stitches in his chin...3 under the skin and 5 on top. Now he was actually pretty good for the chin repair, but when the doctor took one or should I say two looks at his two big toes it was clear that they needed to be cleaned and disinfected immediately. He was NOT a happy camper about cleaning his sore toes. But with a little topical numbing agent, they managed to clean them up and told him to keep them clean, soak them a couple times a day and be sure they were totally dry before putting on shoes. FOUR: cut on chin requiring stitches!

Well, this was certainly a couple of rough days for Lacey and just think, Tristan is only almost 4 months old! Aren't you just anxious to hear more of the Prueitt emergencies?

Serenity Lane Girls!

Thanks to my beautiful Lacey, the door was opened for me to meet a group of ladies who helped me survive the early years of Lacey's recovery from addiction. Her AA birthday is December 29, 2001, so this coming December she will be celebrating 8 years! And let me tell you, we celebrate every birthday. We make it a big deal and make dinner reservations and Dina, Jamie, Aaron, Lacey, Scott and I all go out to celebrate this great day.

So for me, it was in April of 2002 that I first went to the Serenity Family Group meetings where I met these beautiful women who were going through the same recovery process with either a spouse, son or daughter. We have a lot in common in that we all live with a recovering addict and let me tell you in the early years it is not an easy task! We were led by a wonderful counselor named Gary and then after about 1 1/2 years we had another counselor named Lloyd. Both pushed us to look deep into ourselves and to be accountable for our own feelings but also to be kind and caring to ourselves.

We still get together several times during the year, not to "work the program", but to renew our friendships and to hear all the good stories that are happening in each of our lives. So far, everyone from that group is still 'drug' free just like Lacey. What a testament to all of them for their hard work, and to each of us for our hard work to achieve a life of serenity!

Front row, left to right, Colleen, Judy (her birthday today and reason for our gathering!), Julie.
Back row, Gerry, me, Kathleen and Betty (our hostess!) one person not pictures is Toni, she was in Hawaii with some of her family!

Sunset on the drive through the Gorge

More Lake pictures and stories

As I look back I don't have any pictures of Scott golfing. However I did capture a family of turkeys ( that kind of sounds like I am comparing Scott to a bunch of turkeys, doesn't it? lol!!) walking around our house and so many deer all around the lake. Addie has the eagle eyes when it comes to spotting deer, she yells out: "deer,deer!" The best picture was an osprey feeding it's young. Unfortunately, my camera couldn't zoom in enough to spot the little ones with their mouths wide open for food, but you can clearly see the osprey and the HUGE nest sitting at the top of a tree. Very cool!

I couldn't help but snap a picture of this sign posted at the golf course near the 100 year old cabin that they use as the pro shop. If only....

And on the drive home, we had a beautiful sunset and there are so many windmills up through the gorge! It was a great trip thank you for taking the time to read through my lengthy stories and view the pictures of my family!