Amy tagged me to put on the 5th picture in my 5th folder, so here it is:
My 5th folder was our Norway trip and this picture was taken the first day we were driving. We stopped along the road at this place to take a picture of this waterfall that was roaring off the top of the cliff.

Now I tag Mother and Dawn.

It's Tuesday Again

If you read Christy's blog you know she took Patrick to the neurologist yesterday. I went with her to watch the other kids while she was in the appointment with him. I worked about 2 hours in the morning, then left to go up to her house. In spite of the fact that it was mid-morning, traffic was still pretty awful. I got there just in time to help her get shoes and coats on the kids, then off we went. The appointment was with an extension of CHOP and was about 45 minutes away from their house. When we got there, the 3 oldest kids and I stayed in the outer waiting room while she took Patrick and Asher with her to an examination room. There was a TV in the waiting room and just as we got there, a video started: Peter Pan. Because the kids rarely watch TV, they were mesmerized through the whole movie. So there really wasn't much for me to do except watch it with them. I could have left and I don't think they would have noticed! That's how tuned in to the movie they were.

After the appointment, I came on home, then went in to the office for another 45 minutes before calling it a day.

Andy worked today on the front porch. It's looking good. He finished the siding, put in the lights and hung the shutters again. Then this afternoon he prepared to put the railing up. He dug and poured concrete for the posts that will hold the railings at the bottom of the steps.

So what did I do today? Well, my house needed a good cleaning and laundry needed to be done. I also took the Thanksgiving turkey carcass, put it in a pot, covered it with water, added an onion and a couple stalks of celery and cooked it about an hour. I was able to get more meat off the bones, as well as 3 quarts of broth. So we'll have turkey for a couple more meals.
The rest of the week promises to be busy, so I don't know when I'll be back.

What a blessing it is to enjoy being together with family. There are many families that won't get together and if they do, don't enjoy it.
It's been a fun couple of days. On Friday, our 3 daughters and their families and Andy's 2 brothers and their families joined us for turkey dinner. Believe it or not, we all fit in our dining room. It ended up being about 30 people, including the 2 babies. There was so much food and we stuffed ourselves!
Grace stayed with us after everyone left. She stayed Friday and Saturday nights, then I took her back home this morning. The last time we were together, she wanted to play games with me; but with all the people, including little ones who like to mess up games or walk in the middle of the game, it's practically impossible to finish one and stay sane! So this was a good opportunity to have a whole day to ourselves. She wanted to sleep in the tent, so Andy set it up in the front room.On Saturday, we played games, walked to our pond to feed the ducks, drove to the park to play and walk around,
then stopped in at my office to prepare for Sunday.
Andy was gone all day. He drove up to C & C's to help Christian with his addition project. They got a lot done...hopefully, Christy will soon update her blog with pictures. Andy got home in time for supper (left over turkey, stuffing, potato filling and pie), then built a fire in our chimnea. It was a beautiful night to be outside, clear and still. Unfortunately, we didn't have any marshmallows or chocolate bars, so we couldn't have s'mores. (I know...what kind of Grammy am I!)As soon as Grace had her breakfast this morning, we took off to deliver her back home. I was able to make it back in time for 11:00 service at church. Thankfully, traffic was light and I made good time.

One last picture: the front porch. Andy wrapped the posts on Thursday. It's looking good.
What does he need to do to finish?
1. finish the siding that he had to take off.
2. put in the lights on either side of the door.
3. put the shutters back up.
4. put on the railing around the sides and down the steps.
5. bring in topsoil.
6. plant the bushes and finish landscaping around the porch.

Thanksgiving

Shout for joy to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is He who made us, and we are His; we are His people, the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise; give thanks to Him and praise His name. For the Lord is good and His love endures forever; His faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psalm 100

Andy and I were by ourselves today while our daughters spent the day with their families and in-laws. We are all getting together tomorrow, so in anticipation, I spent all day in the kitchen. There will be 31 people here: our own kids and grandkids, as well as Andy's 2 brothers and their families, plus Sarah (cousin) and Bekki (cousin of a cousin).

I made 2 batches of rolls, pineapple au gratin, potato filling, a cherry pie, an apple custard pie, a cheese ball, and sausage stuffing. I plan to cook the turkey in the morning. Dinner will be at 2:00 pm so I'll have plenty of time.
I had an adventure while baking the apple custard pie. I had it in for 30 minutes, then had to add the crumbs to the top and bake another 40 minutes. It was in for the second time, when all of a sudden after 10 minutes, the smoke alarms started blaring. I checked out the oven and the pie was blackening (as you can see in the picture above). I checked the temperature and it registered at 500 degrees! Oh, no. This happened before and we had to have the oven repaired to the tune of $350. Yikes! The stove is not even 4 years old and it wasn't cheap. Then it was repaired in February. What is going on? I found the receipt for the repair and fortunately, the parts are warranteed for 1 year. So we'll have to have someone come look at it again. Thankfully, there's another oven in this house (Mom's). I still need to cook the turkey, then heat up all the other stuff we're having.

My sisters-in-law, daughters and Mom are bringing sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, applesauce, corn, mashed potatoes, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, apple pie, green bean casserole. It makes my mouth water just thinking about all that food.

Andy spent the day working on the front porch. He got the posts wrapped and started replacing the siding. I didn't take any pictures of what he did today because by the time he finished, it was dark. I'll be out there in the morning with my camera so next time I post, I'll include them.

Needless to say, we're both pretty tired out, but looking forward to a fun day tomorrow.

On Saturday morning I went to a bridal shower for Rachel. This is a young lady who lived with us for a year and 9 months, from August 2005 to May 2007. She's getting married Dec. 31. At the shower we were asked to form small groups of 4-5 people and make a wedding dress out of toilet paper to dress one of the people in the group. I was chosen to be the model which suited me just fine. I don't have a lot of creative ideas when it comes to something like that, but as you'll see by the pictures, we had a couple of people who were very creative.

The lineup!

Believe it or not, I was voted the winner!
A blushing bride at my age!

Andy went up to help Christian today with his building project. I had gone grocery shopping at Trader Joe's last night and picked up some things for Christy. Andy was supposed to take them with him when he went this morning, but he forgot. And I forgot to remind him. So after I cleaned my bathrooms and started a load of laundry, I drove up to Christy's, too. As it turned out, it was helpful that I did, because Christy needed to take Naomi in for some blood work. She was able to go with just her, instead of dragging all 5 kids along. I stayed long enough to eat lunch with them, braid Grace's hair, read some stories to the kids, watch the progress of the project, and visit a little with Christy.

My finger is doing better. It still looks angry, but doesn't hurt a bit. The plaintain stuff Christy gave me not only acts as an antibiotic, it also is a pain killer. Good stuff to have around.
And I finally had success in finding a couple pair of jeans that I like. Several of my blogging friends gave me some suggestions, I checked them out and voila! Actually, they are not quite as high in the waist as I would like, but I think I can get used to them sitting a little lower. They just don't make jeans the way they used to! How many moms are there out there, and they don't make mom jeans anymore! Sigh! How comfortable is it to have your jeans sitting in the middle of the baby tummy that will never be flat again no matter how many situps you do! Oh well, I'm sure if I wait long enough, mom jeans will come back in style again some day. One can hope.

Random News

The Headline News...
This was the big weekend at church for our kids. Dawn directed a children's musical/drama: Malice in the Palace (The story of Esther). There were about 48 kids involved. They performed it 3 times this weekend: once on Saturday night and twice on Sunday morning. They really did a bang-up job. I watched it all 3 times and each showing was as enjoyable as the others. Here are some pictures:

Queen Vashti (in braces)

Preparing the cast for the show

2 cute little "Israelite" girls
The King of Persia with his guards
Haman leading Mordecai
through the streets on the king's royal horse
Haman groveling at Queen Esther's feet

In other news...
Christian and Christy and family and Ricky and Amy and family came down to see the production at the 11:00 showing. Then everyone came to our house for lunch afterwards. We ordered panzarottis and pizzas.

We had a grand old time together.

In other, other news...
It has been pretty cold recently. This morning at 8:00 am, the temperature was 26. Brrrr. But my mums are still blooming away and I was able to have fresh flowers to brighten up my kitchen today.And it's finally cold enough for Andy and me to wear the sweaters we bought in Norway in May. They are 100% wool and cozy warm, as well as excellent quality and beautiful.

And finally...
I have a bad reputation with knives - a propensity to cut myself. My fingers have all kinds of scars and pieces missing! Consequently, I have always thought it best to keep dull knives in my drawers - less chance of getting seriously hurt. But about a year ago, a friend's son was selling Cutco Knives and we felt compelled to help him out and bought a set. I really should let other people use them because as I said, I am dangerous with a knife in my hand. So I was cutting up the lettuce today for our salad, and you guessed it! I took a slice off the end of my left pointer finger. I didn't realize at first how profusely I was bleeding. I had put a bandaid on the wound and thought that would take care of it, but it didn't stop bleeding and began oozing (no, make that gushing) off the end of my finger.

Dr. Christy fixed me up with her plantain concoction, which I happened to have some in the bathroom cupboard, and bandaged me up.

After I cut myself, Amy told me she had brought me a finger protector she had bought from Pampered Chef. Why, oh why did she wait to give it to me until after I cut myself!!

Anyway, typing this up with an injured finger has been interesting!

The Front Porch

Andy has had some time recently to work on the front porch and progress is being made. He worked on it Saturday afternoon and took some time off work on Monday afternoon. On Sunday a young man (15 years old) approached Andy and said he really liked the front porch and could he help work on it. So Andy told him to come over Tuesday morning and help. They got a lot done this morning.

This picture is before the weekend. Years ago someone gave the church this scaffolding. It comes in handy.

Siding is done!

Working on the ceiling.

Wrapping the beams

In other news...
My most used pot is kaput! The handle fell off.

I tried using it anyway, but that wasn't a good idea and I had a hard time stirring.

These pots have a story. When Andy and I were in our first year of marriage, living in Portland, he going to seminary, I working full time to pay the bills, we got this invitation in the mail for a demonstration of pots and pans. If we went and listened to the demonstration, we would receive a free gift. As C & C say: "if it's free, it's for me!" So we went and listened to the spiel. The problem was that they made these pots sound like they were the best things that were ever made. We were told that they were so well made that they would last a life time and we would even be able to pass them along to our children! Wow! And of course, they would cook all our food to perfection with a minimum of effort on my part. Etc. etc. etc. We were sold! But they cost $350.00 and we had to buy TODAY. As soon as we walked out the door, the deal would no longer be in effect.

Well, I still can't believe we did it because Andy doesn't fall for these lines, but we did buy them. I really have enjoyed using them. I think they were well worth the money we spent for them (even though we couldn't afford them at the time). They really didn't last a lifetime - since I'm still very much alive. And I don't think I'll be passing them along to my children. But what can I say? It makes a good story.