first blizzard-ish

Today was kind of gnarly, in a pretty sort of way.  It was the first almost blizzard.  I mean no one actually classified it as a blizzard, but it seemed pretty blizzardy.

Okay, so it doesn't look like it in the picture, but there is a whole lot of snow coming down sideways.  We can do better than that, of course, but it was a good start.  There has actually been quite a bit of snow the last few days and is supposed to be more for the next three.

Unfortunately it has got me into the Christmas spirit.  And here I was thinking that I had turned into a only once December hits type of Christmas girl.  Well, at least I am the even before October girl that I used to be!

working girl

Maddy has her first job.  She is a waitress…. oops, that is not politically correct…. she is a server at a Korean restaurant called Irori.  Our little worker serves Tuesday and Wednesday from 4:30 - 8:30 and an occasional shift on weekends.  Bringing home the bacon!  Well, actually, she brings home some dinner for herself every shift which she readily shares, but the "bacon", aka: fat cash, she keeps for herself.  We should probably go back to the good ol' days when kids had to work and put their earnings in the pot for the whole family!

Well we went out for dinner last Wednesday to check out the service, and were rather pleased.  Although our server wouldn't let us take her picture…. rude!  

They have Korean food, obviously, but also other asian dishes and an occasional daily special of some other culinary background.  All of it is delish!  Seriously good food.  And we've tried quite a few things with all that she has taken home.

Cade had teriyaki chicken wings.

Lucy and I (and everyone else) shared the cleverly named Platter A…. with cucumber rolls, California rolls, Dynamite rolls, and BC rolls.  Her boss threw in a gift of Alaska rolls which were my personal favourite - although I was rather surprised to like it.  They had shrimp, cucumber, crab, avocado (my intolerance seems to be dormant currently!!), with smoked salmon on top, and a spicy sauce.  Oh my they were good!!

Mia had a teriyaki chicken bowl which was to-die-for!!!!  It's like eating heaven.

And Eric had a spicy pork bowl.  I couldn't really try it because my mouth was still extremely sensitive at that point (quite a bit better now, thank you!).

All in all I would highly recommend the place.  Great people own and run it (and cook!), the food is so good, and the service is fantastic (at least on Tuesdays and Wednesday!).

P.S.  Tip well!

baking a playground

should-be-embarrassed-by-today's-standards (but couldn't really give a rat's bottom-side) discloser:  photos in the following post are crappy; with iPhone in lousy fluorescent lighting, unedited

deal with it.

Yesterday was super fun.  Like senior year, but funner.

Two families in our small group each have two daughters adopted from Ethiopia.  Last year they did a bake sale to raise money for some project out there (yup - that's me not paying close enough attention).  This year they planned to do another one and mentioned it during our life group time.  It is to build a playground at a church (I can pay attention when I'm paying attention).  It is a fabulous idea for many reasons - of course to give the kids a place to play and fun stuff to do.  It will draw many many kids there, as there isn't another playground around, and will provide a lot of opportunity for the church to do outreach.  Fabulous.  So after they mentioned it, we all said we'd do some baking.  After more talking, we figured we may as well making it a fun-life-group event and do it all together!  Off to the church kitchen we go….

There were some serious - serious - issues before our family left the house (as in what in the world happened to our kids last night while they slept? kind of issues).  But man, once we got there and got to work, everyone was fantastic.  It was great.  The whole of us…. four families and two ladies…. were like a well oiled machine.  There wasn't a bunch of assigning of tasks; everyone just found their niche and went to it.  It was really fun and very productive.

I very clearly instructed the kids to not do any licking of fingers and such, since these were being made for others.  Why is it the oldest… the model for the youngers, who disobeys?  Or maybe she was just the only one caught on film!

By the way, it only takes $3000 to build a big ol' playground (well, actually it'll be new….) out there.  Same thing out here has a price tag of about 30x more!

The Lehmans brought chili for dinner, and the Walls brought homemade buns, so we feasted together as well.  After dinner it was time for church (we always go to Saturday night), but I skipped out.  My back was screaming at me (don't worry, my caring husband enforced some rest times for me).  My back has been screaming at me a lot lately.

We are so thankful for a life group that loves doing stuff like this.  It is right were my heart is at and it is great being with like-minded people.  

And we can't wait to see pictures of the playground in Ethiopia!!

halloweening

Halloween happened here.  Not gonna lie, I wasn't sure that it would, and I wasn't sure (after a while) that I wanted it to.

As much as I'm not a huge Halloween person - I mean I love the costumes, the jack-o-lanterns and all that, but heavens to Betsie, I could do without all the creepy gory stuff - Halloween still remains one of the most difficult times to be away from our friends and family in California.

Maybe I've turned the memories into perfectly perfect pictures of what happened, but I've always loved our Halloween in Fairfield.  All meeting at the Wurzbachs (do they even do this anymore??), having chili, everyone dressing up - including the adults (fantastic ideas for costumes), trick-or-treating together, hot chocolate out on the stoop for anyone wanting to warm up (although seriously, like it is cold enough there for hot chocolate then…), the guy who takes (and gives) a polaroid of each kid (must cost a fortune), the guy who has super elaborate and extremely scary decorations - so bad that the kids will walk far around that house, and then all the kids comparing and trading candy when we are all tuckered out.  And we can't forget the almost impossible task of leaving Rancho Solano because there are far too many people out and about.  But all of that summed up is really just friends - amazing friends with whom we have amazing fun.

Sigh.

I've attempted - at least in thought and inviting - to replicate some of that, but no one really bites (plus I was sick last Halloween and not so super well a few days before this one).  The reality is, it would be tough to get something like that going.  Not unless we paid all of the teenagers in town to come and hang out on our street.  And I'm not willing to do that, in case you are wondering.  Everyone kind of does their own thing and there are a lot of anti-Halloweeners here.  Or is it Hallo-wieners?

I ended up getting very - very - sad before Halloween came.  I didn't have time or energy to make great costumes like I used to, people had their own things going, and I missed…. like crazy-missed, our Fairfield family and friends.  So I did nothing.

Until the day before.

Kind of spur of the moment I brought in the pumpkins we had outside and asked if the kids wanted to carve.  Yes, I was so down, I didn't even really take steps before hand to do that.

There is nothing quite as fun as seeing your kids handling sharp knives since you have never bought real carving tools.  Holding your breath with each stab, waiting for their precious fist to slide over the blade….  But they have so much fun.  And there was no blood (we are rather anti-blood, especially when it comes to Halloween; especially when it comes to almost anything).
Early on in the Halloween process I really thought I missed making the kids' cool Halloween costumes, as I alluded.  Man I used to love that.  But finally I realized that there is a lot less stress involved in doing things more simply.  And it gives them joy to work on their own costumes.  Just look at the joy all over Mia's face.

I was so proud of her as she fixed up the dress she borrowed.  She didn't even ask for my help - she just did it herself.  I was impressed.

We (and by "we" I mean "I") even made the front of the house festive.  Leftover corn stalks from decorating the church (more on that later), bushel baskets, jack-o-lanterns and such.  It was kind of even fun.

Lucy carved a heart-eyed-cyclops-puking pumpkin.  Very cute - just like it sounds.

Cade made a large-orb-with-huge-facial-cavities pumpkin.  Also adorable.

And Mia carved the happiest little pumpkin ever.  It makes me think of the song "Happiest Christmas tree" - but of course, with, well, pumpkin, not Christmas tree.  The song goes through my head whether it makes sense to you or not!

Maddy ditched us and went to the fancy-sophisticated-carving-people's house (aka the Giesbrecht cousins) to do some fancy-sophisticated carving of a lovely little lighthouse (like the alliteration?  It's like I'm still in high school).

Okay, so the Ackermanns are lame.  But I like me some good old fashioned carvings!

Early in the evening we headed out to Century 21 realty, which my uncle and aunt own, for some free hot dog dinner.  It was a pretty proud moment being able to call Ketchup and Mustard my kin.

Our house was the meet-up place for Mia and her friends.  They met up here, headed out for some trick-or-treating and ended up at another girl's house for warming and sugaring up.

Mia was Cinderella, by the way.  A well-bundled, in order to keep warm, Cinderella.

Once Mia and her friends were off, Cade, Lucy and I headed out to the land of fancy-sophisticated-carving.  Eric stayed home to treat some trickers.  Or trick some treaters.  Or give out candy to kids.

And off we went, trick or treating, with the black knight - aka Cole (from Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail - fabulous costume!!) and his mother.  Yes, everyone has a mother - even the black knight. And yes, he saw about as well out of his helmet as you would think.

Cade was the smartest (perhaps also the laziest - but it worked for me!!) kid.  He decided to be a snowboarder.  And somehow, with this brilliant costume idea, he didn't get cold like everyone else.  Lucy was the cutest little cowgirl around.  And yes, she did rather look like Jessie from Toy Story, but be sure you don't tell her that!

Glenda and I took them around their (rather quiet) neighbourhood of which Glenda knew pretty well every single person and who belonged to whom and who lived in what house for how long.  She is impressive with her social skills.  After they took that haul (and haul it was as there weren't a lot of kids out so people were super generous), we went to visit grandparents.  First stop, grandma.

Grandma had a delicious assortment of Nestle candy bars (of which I ate zero because they all taste yucky due to some nasty mouth issue that I have - again).  My favs.

Then off we rode to grandpa and grandma Rose's.  They almost emptied their candy bowl into the three kids' bags, especially when Cade told them that he was going to split his candy three ways with his two friends on our street - friends whose parents don't let them participate (and he did split it, by the way - all his own doing.  I was a proud mama).

It was pretty late by the time we got home, so the normal festivities of sorting and trading candy had to take place Saturday morning.

It may not have been Fairfield, but it was a fun Halloween after all.

thrift store fashion

A brief little post.

Apparently for a few years now, the women's ministry in the church we go to has an event featuring a fashion show using only items bought at the thrift store.  Grandma Rose asked if any of us would be willing to participate.  Normally I would as I buy several things second hand, but life was a little too crazy, having just moved and started back at work (it was at the end of September), so I passed.  But some of the granddaughters participated!  They all found some great things.

Alex actually found Mia's dress for her, which we were thankful for.  We tried to also find a sweater, but didn't have much luck (we only had about 7 minutes to look one day, so that may have had something to do with it!).  She did find shoes and a purse though.

I'm all geared up for it next year though (well, maybe!)  I've already bought a few things that I could wear!