Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm playing catch up with Thanksgiving pictures.  I'll try to get some up from Christmas soon.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house for the first time.  It was fun to have so much family visiting at our house.  Most of them came from the other side of the state and we don't get to see them much.  

I thought this was a cute picture of Greg's sister, Teri, and her husband, Jason.  I'm making the face I often make when I eat...the face of trying to get something unstuck from my braces.  Can't wait to get them off!

Greg was excited about the turkey.  His parents bought it from the farm they often visit, so it grew up like a normal turkey, eating normal turkey food, and it was fresh.  Yum!

That's Michael and his girlfriend Leslie.  He owns a CrossFit gym and she works as an RN at Children's Hospital in Seattle.  It was fun to have them along.  I'm liking the way things are turning out with the girls Greg's brothers are dating.  It's nice to have our numbers evened out a little, and I'm glad we all get along so well.  I'd love to have all of them for sisters!

Lory, my mother-in-law, and my mom.  Isn't it great that I like my in-laws as much as my own family?

That's Maggie in the background.  She's marrying David this summer.  They live in Spokane and are lots of fun to meet up with after a temple trip.  Maggie had Dad mesmerized with her stories of how she met David and when they decided to start dating.  She's fun to listen to and watch while telling stories because she is so animated and expressive.  I think she should be a professional storyteller.

Does this look familiar?  I keep finding pictures of Greg with a wooden spoon over his ear like that.

What a silly guy.

2012

2010

2006

Greg and his mom worked on the turkey together.  It was good bonding time I think.

Can't wait for you to come back and visit again!

Happy Halloween

At work, we (nursing and Mary from X-ray) decided to dress up in pajamas for Halloween.  I think that's the best costume idea I've ever tried!  Much more comfortable than an itchy wig or face paint...  

The night before Halloween, four of us ran over to Walmart and found matching pants (the black ones that say, "Boo.") and coordinating Halloween shirts.  We had fun posing for silly pictures and pretending do some kind of procedure on one of the nurses.

Our camera woman jumped in for the last shot.  She's in administration and lots of fun to be around.  She had a wooden spoon stuck in her hair for the day with her apron.  I thought that was a cute idea.

The nurse I specifically work with is sitting just in front of me.  She is one of the reasons I love my job so much.

I love to see the temple

"I love to see the temple, I'm going there someday,

to feel the Holy Spirit, to listen and to pray

For the temple is a house of God, a place of love and beauty.

I'll prepare myself while I am young. This is my sacred duty."

I went to the Spokane temple yesterday by myself while Greg was at work.  I've never gone alone, but it was a peaceful experience.  It was so beautiful, and I enjoyed the time I had to think and ponder things in my life and choices I'm making.  

There was a nice couple there who offered to take my picture when they saw me with the camera.  I enjoyed visiting with them while they showed me around the temple grounds.  They are in charge of landscaping, so it was fun to talk about all the plants and see their work.

"I love to see the temple, I'll go inside someday
to covenant with my Father, to promise to obey.
For the temple is a Holy place where we are sealed together.
As a child of God I've learned this truth: A family is forever."

                                                                                                                                                                                                 Janice Kapp Perry

Hair cut

I got a hair cut.  How do you like it?  If you can't tell what's different, I got bangs.  I think it looks weird because I'm not used to it yet.  It looks like I'm wearing a wig. haha

Only one person at church noticed, so I guess it's not really as different as I thought.  Someone else asked me if I got new glasses. haha

Oh, and of course the teenage girls that I teach noticed.  I love that they always tell me if they like my dress or the way I did my hair.  They are so sweet and cute.

I shared my testimony in sacrament meeting and I said how much I love my calling in Young Women's and that my worst fear is of getting released.  I was half afraid to say anything about it--like I might jinx myself and get released the next week.  I just feel like Young Women's is the place to be for me.

I love this video!

I loved this song, and then it was even better when I saw the video of this guy's proposal.  What a good idea!

Gardening! Sort of...

I wasn't sure what we were going to do about a garden this year.  We moved into this house, but it's still a rental so I can't dig up the yard and make a big garden plot the way I'd like to.  So I didn't start little seedlings this year because I was indecisive and thought I probably wouldn't have a garden...But when I started seeing other peoples' gardens on our evening walk I decided I had to do something.

Here's the solution for this year:  Garden vegetables in long planter boxes.  It's not exactly 60 pepper plants and 20 tomato plants like we did before, but we should still get something from these little guys.  And it will be fun to watch their progress as they grow fruit this summer.  I've got red, green, and orange bell peppers, tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, and two kinds of squash.

Maybe next year we'll come up with something better.

Maggie Graduated!

This is my sister-in-law-to-be, Maggie.  (And my silly husband.)

Last weekend Maggie graduated from Gonzaga University, so we had a nice time visiting with her and lots of family.  Below is Maggie with her fiancee, David.  He is Greg's younger brother.  Greg and I love hanging out with the two of them.  It's great to have in-laws that you would be friends with anyway.

Greg's parents came to stay with us for the weekend, and his uncle, Bob, from California.  It was fun getting to see them too.  We only get to visit a few times a year.  And we see Bob even less.  Greg and Bob got some special time together going out for a movie after the rest of us went to bed one of the nights.

I've really enjoyed hanging out with these guys since they moved to Spokane.  It's about two hours from our house in Pullman, but we go to Spokane about once a month to go to the temple anyway, so we can usually meet up with them sometime that day.  I will really miss them when they move away.  I think they should come back and David could teach at WSU.  That way Maggie and I could hang out all the time.

Congratulations Maggie!

Flat Hunter

My nephew's class in Texas is doing a project to learn about different places by sending a small and flat version of themselves in the mail to visit friends and family.  "Flat Hunter" came to visit us in Pullman, so we showed him around.  We showed him the rolling wheat fields of the Palouse, as well as the dam on the way to Ellensburg.  We had a good time.  

We had so much fun we decided to make flat versions of ourselves to send back to his class!

Thanks for coming to visit Hunter!  See you next time!

Craigslist--$5

I was about to go to bed one night and I thought, "Eh, I'll browse Craigslist for a second while I wait for Greg." I saw this picture and thought it was pretty, so I emailed the lady. Not 24 hours later it was hanging on my wall. Cool.


I plan to get a few other pictures to go with it--it looks kind of lonely there on the wall by itself.

Happy Easter!

I think this may be an Easter miracle. The rainbow maker mom gave me a long time ago finally started working! (Or maybe it's just that we are heading out of winter and there's finally enough sunlight getting through to my window.)



Here's our Easter fun.


We went shopping together last night and picked out the chocolate we like: Reece's Peanut Butter Eggs and Cadbury's Eggs--the kind with the thick sugary "egg yolk" in the middle...Mmmmm...

Then we watched "The making of the Labyrinth" while putting together our Easter baskets. Jim Henson was a pretty talented guy. It's really too bad he died so young. I wonder what other movies he would have made if he were still alive.

After we finished that, we spent some time before bed putting together one of the puzzles Summer sent. That was fun. 100 pieces is just right for an evening project. And I like the picture a lot too.


I had kind of forgotten about Greg's basket. I made this a couple years ago. It still looks funny to me.


And of course, let's not forget the thing we are celebrating at Easter. I love this picture. My parents have a similar picture in their home that I liked to look at. The Atonement and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of those things that is important to remember year-round, so I keep this picture on the wall in our living room to help me remember.



This weekend there's a page about Easter on Mormon.org where you can comment and share your thoughts and feelings about Jesus Christ. I thought it was kind of cool to see that there are thousands of comments already. There's also some neat Bible Videos on this website, and a Facebook page with some Easter cards that you can comment on too.



Watching that video and reading the scriptures about Christ kind of makes our Easter basket and egg traditions seem silly and nonsensical. I've been trying to think of some good traditions to have (besides Easter baskets) at Easter so my kids will know why we celebrate Easter. What kind of Easter traditions do you have in your family?