Good Morning...

Well, called Mom and Dad yesterday only to be told they went to Omak to eat. Chatted with Jan for a while which was really nice. I don't get that opportunity very often! Funny thing happened on Sunday. We got a $40.00 gift card to Spagetti Warehouse from Janice/Michael. So, I came home from church and told Jord I wanted to go to dinner. I asked him four times....do you have the card? We get up to dinner...eat...it was fantastic. Jord turns to me and says.."I need the gift card." I about fell off the chair. Needless to say, things were a bit tense for a while. He thought I was asking him if he had his bankcard and assumed I had the giftcard! Dinner was $71.00 dollars....supposed to be $31.00. Good thing there was money in the account or we would've been washing dishes. Gotta love'em....I guess we have a gift card for Valenine's Day. It's a balmy 63 degrees today. We actually hit mid 70's over the weekend. I do believe our bodies will go into culture shock the first winter in Washington. Hope everyone has a great New Year. Not sure what we are doing. I would like to go see Dana/Joe, they are struggling right now with Nicole gone. She needs your prayers....talk to them last night and its very sad and you don't know what to say. Life is difficult as all of us have experienced. Thanks for all the gifts and great pictures....we loved them.

Christmas in Oklahoma

Here is a little taste of our Christmas. We had a good night with Janice and Michael---played some competitive Pictionary, ate a lot of food and opened presents. Christmas Day was quiet with just the four of us. Prime Rib was scrumptous.....Jord whinned about not having pumpkin pie. I asked everyone what kind of pie they wanted and I got Apple, Cherry cheesecake and Lemon. Pumpkin wasn't mentioned so I didn't make it. Oh well....I guess I will have to make it for New Year's. Hope everyones Christmas was good....thanks for all the presents to the kids. They loved them and are hounding me to take them shopping.....Sugarman has been practicing his pitching so we decided to try out Kat's camera she got for Christmas.

Christmas Concerts

Katarina was loving her tutu

Sugarman in Full Regalia

For all of you picture purest, I forgot my camera for Creston's concert. I had to have a picture of him in his uniform. Katarina asked her classmate's mom to take a snap for me. It was horrible, so I had to doctor it up. I'll include the original, so you can see what I'm talking about.

Merry Christmas

No work today, so I tried to sleep in. Kerri will let me sleep until 8am, and then she harasses me until I am up. So up and at-em early. I ground me some fresh coffee, Blue Star Celebration Blend, that my sisters sent. Double filter, so I get that deep flavor. Thank you, girls! Very nice way to start my morning.

I love the holiday season. It is different in Oklahoma, than what I remember growing up. The valley felt isolated, in a good way. Like a little mountain village sitting at the base of Billy Goat. In the evening Pateros sparkled, and Brewster appeared like a village in the distance. The holidays usually had snow to blanket the earth and home, adding to the feeling of snuggled in. The northern sun sets early. Funny how the mind gets all rosy looking into the past. The holidays do that. I tend to get all soft in the middle.

No sight of snow here. The cold descended on us in hours. In the mid to high 70s one day to 13 degrees the next. Brutal! Sustained winds drop the wind chill well below zero. Our little villages are only visible from the street. For days it was 13, 16, 18 degrees. Raining. Now how does it rain when it is 18 degrees? Obviously somebody sinned to cause such awful weather. I suspect it was a local politician, but I hear other states got similar weather. It might have been that Illinois governor. I hear they they are taking a brutal beating. I'm not sure why we would have to take his punishment too.

The Cardinals were out in full force this morning. An exaggerated guess would be close to a hundred seed-eaters were all over the lawn this morning. Cardinals dominated the group with a few Crowned Sparrows joining the browse. At least a dozen males were scattered across the lawn, and they were out numbered by three to one by females. The little guys covered the lawn and were perched in the trees. I will miss the Cardinals.

Kerri has a pot of fresh beans on the stove. It is our traditional chili beans for Christmas Eve. Janice and Michael will be over this evening. The kids are revved up, and picking at each other in anticipation. Tomorrow will be prime-rib roast. I'm definitely looking forward to that! I do love Christmas dinner.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas!
jlw

Keep the Kids out of the presents!!

Shopping is done and presents are all wrapped. Jord actually has mine wrapped and under the tree this year, he normally is busy wrapping and we are waiting for him before we can unwrap. Enjoyed church on Sunday....Rusty, Mary and the boys were there. Hallie was not feeling great and stayed with Grandma. It was great seeing them, the kids were very excited to see faces from home. We are all counting the months, the kids get more anxious as the days pass. Jord and I are excited, scared and sad all at the same time. Janice and Michael are coming for Christmas Eve and it will be just the four of us for Christmas dinner. So, the prime rib comes out with lots of good side dishes. Jord and Janice requested homemade chili for Christmas Eve---this is what my Mom always made for Christmas Eve. I ended up baking cookies all evening on Sunday, made homemade candy most of the day Saturday trying to get ready for the holidays. I put things off and then I pay for it by having to get it done in three days. I managed to talk to Uncle Don, Uncle Jim and Cynthia in between the candy making. My uncles were emotional when I told them we were coming home. I hadn't told any of the Aunts/Uncles on my side and figured I needed to do that before they heard it from someone else. Creston and Kat are both doing inside pitching practice during the cold months. It's nice that they have a heated indoor facility so they can practice most of the year. We have managed so far to not get all the sickness that is going around, I hope we make it through the holidays without any of us getting sick. Merry Christmas to everyone!!!! I will have Jord post pic's after Christmas.

Christmas is on its way!!

Hello to everyone. I mailed Christmas off yesterday and you should be getting it within the next 6-8 days. I sent everything FED EX. I also sent Oregon's to Liz and Washington's to Mom. It was too expensive to send to everyones house, so if Liz doesn't mind......the Bellew's, Lybargers and Wilson families will have to pick up their packages. We finally got the house all decorated and its really pretty. The kids Christmas concerts turned out great. Kat offered to be a ballarina.....little did she know that she would have to wear a tu-tu. She was not impressed!! She was actually really cute, but way out of her element of comfort. Creston did a great job...they played the Jazz version of Santa Baby and actually had a vocalist with the band. It was great, Dad would've enjoyed it. Jord told me I couldn't get up and do the jig....he's just no fun! Janice and Michael are coming over on Christmas Eve to unwrap presents. They came down for church and dinner on Sunday and ended up going to Creston's Concert with us. Scotty was in church again Sunday. He sat by Bro Trentice Hamm's daughter Bridget. She's a cutie and is in the faith. I'm probably not supposed to be saying anything...oh well....his Mom's not around so I get the honors. He testified and it was good hearing him. I finally broke down and got the nerve to tell Kat's softball coach that we were moving. That was not fun.....lots of tears on both sides. he had great plans for my daughter and it was hard telling him that his plans and our plans for her were not the same. He's a really great coach and has done a lot for Kat and we are grateful for that. I got to watch Creston's pitching lesson with the highschool coach. His lesson is usually when I'm at work. I was really surprised, I think he may make a really good Lefty pitcher. He looked so grown up....where has the time gone?

Time to shop??? When!!

So, I haven't started shopping yet. I planned on doing it the next two weekends, but thats not going to work. Found out yesterday that Saturday is Kat's Christmas Vocal Concert and Sunday afternoon is Creston's Band Concert. That leaves me late at night and not getting home until 9:00-10:00. We put up the tree last night and Jord is working his magic on the house. We definately need a little bigger place to live. We are cramed in like sardines. Church yesterday was pretty good, we had a full house, had to bring chairs in from the kitchen. My biggest surprise was when Scotty walked in. After church, I did get a big hug and kiss on the cheek from him, when the brethern asked who he was.....he would say"I'm Bro. Scotty from Washington, and she used has known me my whole life". Great to see him, he looks good. We also need to shopping for clothes for Gideon's wedding. Time flies by.....