Open House

Katie, mom and I had an open house the day after Christmas to enjoy our home with family and friends.  The timing was tough for many, but we really enjoyed spending time with those who were able to come.  It was so nice to share our home with the people we love.  Here are a couple of pics from our day.  Hope this is the first of many happy gatherings in our new digs!

Katie's classmates Tom and Ryan catch up in our kitchen

Kyle and Michelle Klippert, my friends from church

Uncle Chuck's girlfriend Cathy, and Aunt Patricia

Uncle Chuck and Aunt Peggy

Erin Honeycutt and her son Cooper, my friend from work

Little Cooper at 2 months old was the start of our party!

Jon Helen...he is in Spokane

So my sweet uncle Jon has been dating my mom's friend Lorraine for the last year, but Katie and I haven't seen our elusive family member until we went over for Christmas.  So for the rest of you doubters (like Katie and me), here is some photo evidence that Sliver has indeed moved to the East side.  Welcome to Spokane Jon!

Even in the photos, Jon tries to hide his identity...

Jon sporting his new stocking that Lavs made for him.

The man in all his glory!

Parlange family Christmas

Katie, mom and I headed over to the Parlange's after opening our presents to have Christmas with the boys.  Katie and I helped drop off presents before heading to Pat and Glo's to have dinner with the Lund/Longinotti clan.  It was fun seeing the boys open their gifts.  Katie and I even played some horseshoes with Alex and his new wooden playset.  Enjoy the pics...even one of the elusive Riveria and one of Sliver.

  

Christmas festivities

Katie, Mom and I had a busy day on Christmas.  We started the day off with present opening at our house. Here are a few pictures of the fun times.

Mom and Katie enjoy some coffee while checking out their stockings.

Love these key covers.  I found them in Boise when I was visiting my friend Tara and had to get them for Katie.  Hilarious!

Megalina found these gems for Katie.  Does this girl know our Binxy Kat or what?

I got these precious plates from my mom.  She, Aunt Sue and I have all been slowly collecting pottery from this place called Kara Irish Pottery. These plates are part of my dream kitchen with their cute knitting patterns.  They are joining my oval baker, covered casserole dish, and my cream and sugar holders.

Mom models the new leopard-print snuggie that Tony and Cara got for her.  The woman was made for this handy little blanket with sleeves.  Somewhat trashy, but she's already rocking it like nobody's business.  Perfect for knitting and reading!

Katie shows off her new Bella mittens that mom knit up for her.  They are so cute.  She's wanted them for a year, and mom finally gave in and made them.  They are perfect, although Katie did immediately demand that mom redo the seem as her sensitive hands felt a yarn bump!

This beautiful table runner is my present from Pam! She hand knit it and then ran some beautiful red yarn through the drop stitch pattern.  My pictures don't do it justice!

The Snuggie...

This is how I've seen my mom almost every time I've come into the living room since Christmas.  She loves her present!

Baking like crazy

Katie, mom and I have been cleaning like crazy to get ready for Saturday's open house party.  While taking a break yesterday, we decided to make a menu for our guests.  Katie is making yummy sausage balls, and we are cooking a ham.  I am making some vegetarian soup.  For some reason, I also decided it would be better to make some rolls from scratch instead of buying them, and knowing how busy the next few days will be, I decided to do it last night.  So I whipped up a triple batch of bread dough, courtesy of William and Sonoma's essentials of baking, and created some beautiful rolls.  I didn't have enough of any one pan, so I made regular dinner rolls, clover-rolls, and pull apart rolls.  All equally delicious.

        I also whipped up some chocolate crinkle cookies for the festivities.  Although, it's anyone's guess whether they will actually last that long.  It's one of my favorite Christmas cookies; I still have fond memories of mom making them for us when I was little!
         So, if you're going to be around on Saturday afternoon (4-7), drop by the house and enjoy some of the goodies!

Pies for Crosswalk

I've spent the last two days (the first two of my vacation) giving a little of my time to service.  Specifically, I've been doing stuff at Crosswalk, Spokane's teen shelter.  Yesterday, my friend Lisa and I headed down to help wrap Christmas gifts for those who the shelter provides for.  It was awe-inspiring to see all the amazing gifts that had been donated to take care of the kids.  I had so much fun wrapping their surprises.

Today, I joined some of our youth group members to bake pies for the Crosswalk Christmas dinner.  WE made six apple, and 9 pumpkin pies for them.  I packed them all up in my car and headed down with our steaming fresh pies.  We had so much fun preparing this gift for their dinner (we heard 90 people would be there).  I just love how much our youth group kids love to serve.  8 kids gave up their free time to bake for peers who have little at all.  The pies turned out beautifully.  Here are a couple of them.  Lisa joined us at the church as well.  She had bought a bunch of hams which she cut up and cooked at the church before taking them down. I'm so happy we could help give them a merrier Christmas.  It makes me thankful for all that I have and how blessed I am in family, friends, and life! Love you all!

Gingerbread houses

Katie and I went over to our friend Michelle's to make gingerbread houses tonight.  It was so much fun!

Here is my beautiful gingerbread creation.  A replica of my portable classroom (I wrote it out in case you couldn't tell).  The jellybeans are my students sitting at their mini shredded wheat desks (I'm the yellow jelly bean).

This is Katie's creation.  A cute little house complete with a door and opening for skinny people to get into it.  Sadly, Katie's house didn't make it home in quite the state she was hoping for...

Oh well, still fun even if the architecture was a tad bit bockity.

Matt Kellen

My buddy Matt has just returned home from two years in South Africa (we haven't seen each other in a year and a half).  We caught up over coffee and then headed to the PI to watch the Zags get their asses handed to them by Duke.  Katie eventually joined us after the two hour nail appointment.  I'm so excited that he is back home for a bit.  We had a great time together picking up where we left off.  Next outing: Chiefs hockey game or ice skating.  Either way fun times.  Now if I can just convince him to come work at Camp Cross with me this summer...  Sorry no pictures, but here's one from Matt's blog.

The champions

For those of you who aren't my Facebook friends, you probably haven't heard the news. My 7th grade JV volleyball team won the league championship last night. We went undefeated, 6 wins, 1 tie, and then went on to win the league tournament 4 games to 1. It was quite the acheivement especially since I believe on playing everyone equally at the middle school level. From the best to the worst, everyone played and contributed to our season. I had so much fun with these girls! I can't wait to do it again next year! Go Freeman Raiders!

White Trash Heaven

Absolutely. Amazing.
I passed this house on my way to Greg and Melissa's in Vancouver, and couldn't believe my eyes.  At first I thought that they perhaps made and sold these lovely wood carvings, but no.   They just have hundreds of them to decorate their yard.  Words do it no justice, so here is my fav little house.  I will never miss the turn off to the Larratt's with this fabulous landmark!

Visit with the Larratt's

I got to head out to Vancouver, WA this weekend to visit with my good friends Greg, Melissa and JJ Larratt who moved to Vancouver this Fall.  It was so much fun to spend time with everyone.  We didn't go out to do a lot, but I had a great time catching up with Melissa, playing with JJ, and seeing Greg when he returned from a business trip to Hawaii.  Their new house is perfect, and Melissa is making it into quite the home for their family.  I even got to babysit JJ last night, which was so fun.  Here are a few pics from the weekend! Thanks for having me.

Santa Express

Today, I took four of the kids from my National Honor Society down to work at Santa Express, a small shop for kids to buy presents for family and friends which benefits the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery.  This is so my favorite activity that I do with my club.  We get to spend the afternoon helping kids shop for surprises and the money goes to such a great cause.  I even got a visit from my favorite pre-schooler today (thanks to Wowo).  Mikey and I picked out gifts for the brothers, teacher Kim, Mom and Laurie.  Only Jon got left out...must be because he's kicked Mike out of Mama's bed! Apparently, he could not wait to have everyone open their presents.  Mom and Loraine are holding out.  Here are a couple pictures from the day!

Nightlight a success

     I spent last weekend at Nightlight with 25 of the funnest youth! Michelle, Colin and I headed down with a group from Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Pullman, and journeyed via rental bus to Walla Walla.  I hadn't realized how much I missed that town until we were pulling into it.  Such a beautiful city.  Nothing better then walking around the Whitman campus or strolling around downtown.

It was great catching up with a few of my old youth group kids (who are in college now).  A couple of the high schoolers were in 3rd and 4th grade when I was the youth minister at St. Paul's.  So crazy! We kept the kids busy running all over town.  My favorite event was when we sent the kids on a scavenger hunt through downtown.  I got to hang out at the local book store waiting for them.  We also took them ice skating, and to the local Festival of Lights parade.  The floats were perfect for Walla Walla: everything from horses with lights strung on them, to 8 John Deer's as Santa's reindeers.  My friend Kimi was walking with her new Roller Derby team, the Walla Walla Sweets.  The kids made and stuffed stockings for a community service project.  That's the stocking I puffy painted on the left.  I haven't lost my touch (thank you Delta Gamma!)

All in all, I had a great time visiting with old friends, and seeing the old sites, and a few new ones.  Below is a picture of Whitman's new art building.  It was breathtaking!  I am definitely planning a trip back as soon as possible this Spring.

The next visit will NOT be 5 years in the making!