Starlight Parade

What a wonderful weekend to start the holiday season. After I had rested some and everyone as gone back to their homes I had the weekend alone with Glenn. We went to Redmond's Christmas starlight parade, what fun we had.

Thanksgiving Day!

Happy Thanksgiving! What a wonderful day we had, last week I posted the menu for our family dinner and I am pleased to say most all went well. Almost everything was a hit except for the corn bread dressing, I have always wanted to try it, I guess I won't be using that recipe again everyone preferred breaded dressing so I have made a note for next year. I spent most the week shopping and cooking for that 1 hour of eating, but boy was it worth it especially when I look at these wonderful photos. So here they are I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Lucy in her dress that Uncle Micah brought back from his trip to Vietnam and Japan.



Micah showing us his cashmere suit he had custom made in Vietnam. It is just beautiful.

Yusuke saying hi to June. We were pleased when we found out Yusuke was coming again this year, he is a fellow college student of Micah's. Since his family is in Japan he has been coming to our home for Thanksgiving he is so fun to have around.

Here we all are after dinner.

Lucy liked the rolls!

The potatoes that Dustin is dishing up were a weird color due to the nutmeg the recipe called for I was concerned nobody would eat them, they were all gone by that night, that would be 8 lbs of potatoes!

Glenn proudly carving the turkey, he was such a great help, he even let me boss him around before the dinner :)

The BONFIRE! at dusk, what fun it is to stand around the fire and talk. I was in bed a little while after this, tired I was. While I was fast asleep the kids heated up the left overs for a midnight snack.

Happy Thanksgiving from Our Family to Yours!

ps. Happy Birthday to my Sister!

Winter is here!

We had a day off together, our choices where: take a drive to broken top, go to Costco, put up Christmas lights, take a nap. So here is what we decided to do:

Our most favorite place in Central Oregon is BROKEN TOP, the average person only has a short window to be able to enjoy the area because of snow. So when we started up there we knew that it probably would be closed off but that way we could just say "see you in the summer" to the area we enjoy so much.

see you next summer!

Mt Bachelor, Bend Oregon

Below are the marks made by the early bird skiers , it was really pretty it looked like streamers coming down the mountain.

OK, so we decided to put up lights, all of our neighbors across the canal have told us how much they have enjoyedd our back yard like the garden, wild flowers, our dog Juniper Berry. So we decided to decorate our back yard this year instead of the front. It looks pretty cool we decorated the entry way into the garden, lined the Voodoo Lounge and hung some weird hanging down lights in the big juniper tree. Very nicely done I might say. Christmas Time at the Voodoo Lounge!

More holiday tidings to come!

Thanksgiving Day Menu

Being in retail you have to know how busy we are in the store, getting ready for the busiest time of the year. With that said every year I cook Thanksgiving Dinner, the whole Family comes to the house for a few days and EATS! Well except for Casey and Holly, Casey has to work and I understand that, maybe someday they will be able to come but until then you are in my thoughts and I am thankful I have you as my Son.






During this time of the year I like to be over organized, this is when Glenn would start calling me Monica (from Friends), I would prefer to be Phoebe, I like her free spirit, she is a little strange sometimes but I like that in a person. Keep on track Betty, So I think I have my menu ready to go.

*2008 Thanksgiving Day Menu*

TURKEY- following the recipe from Martha Stewart.com Turkey 101 from Lisa

PECAN CORNBREAD DRESSING - everyday food

MASH POTATOES WITH BOURBON GRAVY -everyday food

CRANBERRY RELISH - from Virginia

STEWED GREEN BEANS WITH BACON - everyday food

SWEET POTATO CASSEROLE - everyday food

ROLLS

PUMPKIN PIE

ANGEL FOOD CAKE W/BERRIES

CHAI SPICE GIRLS COOKIES

APPETIZERS -

OLIVE GARDEN HOT ARTICHOKE AND SPINACH DIP

SEASONED TOASTED BAGUETTE

CHAMPAGNE

SPARKLING CIDER

Holiday food photos posted at a later date!.

Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Washing Windows 101

Boy did I learn a lesson today, Clean Windows = a bright sunny home!

I have now put on my calender to clean my windows inside and out every 3 months. I can't believe the difference. It makes your whole world "shiny" where before they were cloudy and dirty and it is something that you really don't notice until you take the time to clean your windows.

It was so easy I cleaned 7 windows inside and out between the sun room and living room in under 1 hour. I used a bucket, squeegee, dry clean rag, warm water, 1/4 cup of dish soap and 1/8 cup of baking soda. The baking soda is to keep dirt, rain spots and dogs wet noises from making marks on the window between cleaning. So here is some advice:

Take a moment and really look at your windows not just through them, then you can decide if you need to wash your windows if you do try my recipe I guarantee you will be amazed!

No photos today just some good old housekeeping advice.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA:

Approximately 3 months ago a friend of mine asked me if I had heard of this book series, The Twilight Saga, http://www.thetwilightsaga.com/ , I hadn't and she said I think you will like it I will bring you the first book in the series. I had to explain to her that I was a slow reader and I don't like to be all caught up in a book I only like to read occasionally. I then went onto say "the last thing I wanted to do was get all caught up in a series" well I am hooked, I ended up reading the 1st book almost 400 pages in a months time that is record time for me. I wanted to tell everyone I knew about the series and talk about the book I was reading. I am sure Glenn only listened 1/2 the time when I was telling him were I was in the book. It was so bad during this one part I couldn't put my book down, I told Glenn I was going to mop the floor after everyone went to bed, which I was going to by the way, but then I saw it sitting there on the table the 1st book in the series, Twilight. Well I guess you know the rest so I had to mop before I went to work the next morning, OH BROTHER!


What is so funny about this is, the book is a young adult reader, and they are saying that since the marketers have also put it in the adult reader section there are actually just as many adult reading it as young adults are. So I bet you are wondering what the book is about, or if you do know I bet you might be agreeing with me. The book is about kids in high school, and one group of them are Vampires and a Human Girl and a Vampire fall fall in love well there is alot more inbetween but I can't expain it all. I know, I know but trust me what a story line and The Author Stephenie Meyer is a wonderful writer. I am working though the 2ND book, New Moon. I went into the book store in down town Redmond to ask when the 3rd book would be out in paper back, not until March/April 2009. I said something like that is to bad I wanted it before the holidays started, the Lady behind the counter said oh are you getting the series for your Daughter, the other person behind the counter which was a male said no she is getting the book for herself, then he looked at me and said am I right, I smiled and said yes. I then told the lady she should read it she wouldn't be sorry she just sort of gave me a worried smile so I left. I laugh about that little episode all the time, I guess you would have to have been there.


Now the Movie called Twilight from the 1st book is coming to the theaters next Friday, and you can bet I am going to be there. I know the book is always better but I still want to see it. Maybe I will wear all black, just kidding :)


So I will try to keep blogging about life and stuff, but I do know the book is keeping occupied just ask Glenn but He is being a pretty good sport about it.

photo courtesy of Glenn taken in Burns Oregon

Happy Halloween

I know its a little late but here it is. My Halloween post:

I work with a very nice Lady that has older kids like me so her nor I really get to go out and "trick or treat" and we both live in areas where we don't get many if any trick or treaters at all. So we like to work the closing shift at work and wear costumes.







We get these plastic hats that protect the straw hats that come in the summer so we were wearing them around one day being funny. That is when we decided to decorate them for our costumes this Halloween and we would be "the worst, best dressed salesperson".



I am not really creative so I asked Amanda, my step daughter, to help me and she came up with the inspiration for my hat from the book Go Dog Go. What is funny about this is when a Man brought his kid into the store to "trick or treat" he said "look honey her hat looks like the one from the book, Go Dog Go. I guess you could say, we did good Amanda.



If you can't tell this is my hat sitting on top of a pumpkin! The photo below is looking down at my hat, the little kids just loved looking at it.

Yes, that is a photo of Marie Antoinette attached to my hat, Why you ask? Because I could, I replied.

The Trick Or Treaters started at 2pm and by 5pm we had over 500 little goblins and big monsters come through our store. My Granddaughter Lucy came into the store after visiting her Grandpa at his work she was so cute in her costume.

Lucy, you are the cutest butterfly I have ever seen!

My Co-Worker and I talked about what we wanted to do next year, we came up with Ballerina's or barber shop quartet. I guess we will all have to wait and see. Have a very BOOtiful day!