Easter

Its always interesting to see what the newbies think of our strange customs....

The baby obviously has the right idea, but his inexperience is keeping him from full enjoyment of this holiday.







Big brother, on the other hand, seems to be with the program, and actually, is adept at finding candy at many other times of year, and in many places besides the garden!





Then there's Ali. He has joined our family for the last 2-3 months of his stay in America, and I'm sure that he doesn't know a whole lot about Easter either. And the relationship between Easter eggs and the Resurrection is fuzzy at best for this Muslim from India. But he knows a good thing when he sees it! Welcome to our family!




The extended family keeps growing. The nice thing about that is that there are always young folk to make the egg hunt fun and drag us oldsters into peeking around tree trunks as well. Of course, the seniors are just helping out the juniors....













Just so there is no confusion -- rabbits don't actually produce Easter eggs. Our small flock of hens (names, "Extra Crispy", "Deep Fried", and "Miss Bossyfeathers") maybe had a little something to do in that department. Although the real reason I included the photo is because I am amused that the three chickens are totally in charge of the three cats (one is camouflaged as dirt) who are looking longingly at all that tasty meat walking around.

Took my students whale watching! I was so excited, and I think my enthusiasm was contagious, so we were all disappointed when this was the best we could see. Still, it WAS a wild whale, and we DID smell his/her foul breath, and I am grateful. The boys made sure I knew how much they enjoyed this opportunity and wanted to do it again -- yeah, right.




So we went to the zoo. They seemed to like it a lot more and I got to people watch. Interesting...










Having Nina and Nathan around leads to interesting activities. Nathan started this brick path to our front door just before our one and only snowfall last Thanksgiving. In February I finished the last little bit of it, and made the one flower bed nice. It looks so good! The front yard is going to be really pretty one of these days!








So happy Albert could visit! Unfortunately, with two new jobs, I couldn't very well take a lot of time off, but Albert is resourceful. He decided he wanted to try squid and octopus for dinner. The squid dinner turned out pretty good....








The octopus, on the other hand, well....












We took Benny shopping with us -- it made shopping much more fun, but it took a lot longer. He's a good kid -- in the final analysis, he did, in fact, obey us and not take the candy -- but it wasn't an easy decision.







We took Albert camping at camp Zarahemla. If you double click on this photo you will see that it was snowing! (so nice to have a heated cabin!)










But it was beautiful!












We dropped by Fort Simcoe -- the history buffs among us thought it would be a neat experience, but in early April it's not. Closed. Cold. Old porcelain and furniture seen through the windows. And no spiffy updates from 30 years ago (or whenever it was) that Dad took a school trip there. But we were happy to spend time with Albert. This may be the last time we see him for years, since he will be graduating from RIT soon and returning to Kazakhstan.

Good start for 2011!

I was so pleased to have a birthday lunch with my sisters-in-law, mother-in-law, and one of my daughters. I also enjoyed sharing some other cultures by suggesting we eat in an Indian Restaurant. Now everybody knows what a Mango Lassi is, and loves them!

This area needs a German Restaurant!






Two adorable grandsons! Benny's personality is growing day by day and his vocabulary is exploding, with some interesting results. Ephraim is sitting up, has the biggest smiles, and talks with his hands. The two of them get a kick out of each other, and are going to team up on a lot of mischief in not too much longer!




Feeding the missionaries sometimes leads to unexpected activities. Elder Denny from Australia was smitten with the fabric of my pillows and commented that a tie made of that fabric would be awesome. So I made one. There wasn't quite enough fabric, and I have never done this before, so parts of the back of it look *interesting* and the smaller end had to be quilted together, but it turned out amazingly well. Elder Denny was delighted, and I'm going to make more (different fabrics as well) and see if they will sell.


Chinese New Year. Of course, we don't celebrate it as lavishly as they do in China, but we decorated the dining room and invited some of Zixu's friends over and had a fun evening making filled dumplings and lots of other food. It was, all of it, totally delicious! The symbol to the right means "happiness". But, not realizing, I hung it on the wall upside down. Not to worry, however, when it's upside down it means "coming." So it's actually a good way to hang it (upside down it means "Happiness Coming" -- at least in the context of New Year) . Just the same, I'm glad I didn't hang it sideways!

I have a lot of fun taking exchange students around. For them everything is new. We made our annual trip to Seattle in January this year (the roads over the mountain passes were not too snowy) to take advantage of Muslim Day, when the Muslims in Washington State march on the Capital and speak with representatives, for the purpose of showing the positive things Muslims do in this state. My Indonesian and Indian students were excited and enthusiastic about the energy. My Macedonian student was not. There are problems between Muslims and Christians in his country and he did not feel at all comfortable and kept his distance. At least he saw some of the process. Since the march on the Capital was our last activity, he did enjoy the other things we did, as did they all, including the Palestinian girl I invited along because I know her host mom. We visited the Space Needle, the Science Center, the Museum of Flight, the Aquarium, and took a tour of the harbor. We would have done more, but after watching a 3D IMAX movie with them (something about "extreme waves") I realized I didn't feel so good, and when it got worse after we left the theater, I realized that it wasn't the movie, it was me. I was sick! So the group was forced to slow down a bit! But they still saw a lot and had a good time. I was able to leave the two Muslims in the care of a lady from the local mosque, and took my unhappy Macedonian home early. My achy body was glad to get away early too!

The students are also supposed to do at least 20 hours of volunteer work during their year here, so I took them to serve food to hungry people at the Union Gospel Mission. Being who they are, they boys (and their friend who joined us) had a great time. I'm getting a pretty good education too -- there are so many people who help others and in such a variety of ways.





We got to host our monthly extended family gathering. I was pleased and impressed that we managed to fit 35 people into our home, with (almost) adequate seating (a little less than half are in this photo). It was good to do something together! I am glad everybody got to see how nice our remodeled home looks, and I am especially happy we are keeping our comittment to get together more often!

December

After the fun of building the snow fort, it seems nobody ever entered it again. I did, however, document its demise as our White Thanksgiving melted into a green/grey/brown Christmas!























The warmer weather did give us some beautiful fog some mornings!






Inside was a merrier scene. The rest of the Christmas decorations went up! Christmas music streamed off the internet.

<-- Tree 1






Tree 2 -->











And we mustn't forget gingerbread houses. Sadly we were having too much fun doing other stuff when family was around (like cooking really yummy food) that we never did make them. These delectable samples were created by exchange students!

Finally, Christmas day! The stuff leading up to Christmas gets more and more fun every year, but opening presents with family around is still something to look forward to.

God bless us! Every one!

Busy weekend!

No day, and certainly no week, is complete without some time with Benny and Ephraim. They are growing like weeds, but a lot more fun.













"Arting" together with Aunt Julie! Benny may have some talent -- he's really really good at drawing little squashed spiders! He loves "dawing"!





We enjoyed a fun Christmas party with the White Bluffs Elementary School Steel Band. They were good! The Limbo was fun! (But just the same, I'm glad of the excuse of back problems so that I could just watch!)







We had the priviledge of a visit from my supervisor at PAX, and did some fun activities with her. Spokane was our destination so we could also see Missy and Lewis and their student Pahmie. It was awesome to see them, even just for a short time, and the scenery was beautiful!














We stopped by St. John's Episcopal Cathedral in Spokane -- I love stained glass windows, and they were here in plenty. Learned a bit about stained glass artists, and the masons who built the cathedral, and some of the planning and symbolism that went into building it. Even though I've been in a few huge European cathedrals which dwarfed this one, St. John's was still magnificent!








We also visited an IMAX theater and saw some nauseatingly up close and super cool extreme sports. And finally a visit to a nice warm, lush greenhouse. Smaller than I wished, but still VERY nice on a cold winter's day!









The next day we visited some old friends at an alpaca farm!




And, so fun, we started decorating for Christmas! After last year's cardboard box and plastic sheet theme (while remodelling), it is especially enjoyable to put up our holiday best.

Thanksgiving

We had a surprise (though not entirely unexpected) early snowfall and lots of frost. The driving is nasty, but everything is so beautiful! Hearing geese calling each other I looked up and caught this breathtaking view of a flock soaring through the crisp blue skies.







I'm such a sucker for flowers! Roses in the snow. One of many small perks that exchange student coordinators occasionally get.





Yay for Thanksgiving, and lots of family, and lots of food! Like I need to stuff myself! I have the most wonderful family! 42 of us got together for dinner at the church -- where there was enough tables and room!





We enjoyed many games!










Not only was the snow beautiful, but fun too; sledding, and igloo building being the most favored activities.