Oregon or bust! (Day 297)

What an amazing weekend!!!

Brent and I went to Salem OR to speak for the student body of Corban University (our Alma mater). We decided to make our trip into a mini vacation (#74) and left a couple of days early so we could visit our dear friends in Eugene OR (#66 ). We are so blessed to have friends that will put us up, and put up with us :-)

While we were in Oregon, we (meaning I) decided that our friends were too cool to stay Muggles, so we introduced them to the joys of geocaching (#72).

On Sunday afternoon, we left our friends and drove up to Salem. The college had reserved a hotel room for Brent and I for the night. We spent the evening just vegging out, Brent finished a book and I continued to work on crocheting my moms blanket (wow... that sure makes us sound old & boring doesn't it?)

The college is about 10 minutes from the hotel so the next morning we weren't rushed at all. We enjoyed the continental breakfast and then packed up the car and headed over to the college.

There were around 300-350 students who attended the chapel service. I was nervous before hand but once I got up on stage I was flooded with peace and it felt almost natural. God was definitely present. The students were receptive and afterwards, we were able to speak to some of them and got some very good feedback.

The only thing that could have been better about the weekend was us. Both Brent and I were struggling with the tail end of a stomach bug. My stomach was unsettled as was his but he had the added bonus of his "tail end" producing all sorts of nasty smells.

Busy, busy, busy! (Day 287)

Busy is a 4 letter word (see my 2/5/11 post), and busy is the best word to use to describe the last couple of months. In fact I have been so busy accomplishing my goals that I haven't had time to blog about them (this is my attempt to excuse away my unfaithfulness to my blog... it's working for me, hope it works for you too :-)

I am going to make a list of what I have been working on so that I don't forget to blog about anything that I've done. In order to keep you on your toes, I will not be writing about them in that they are listed.

16. Go to 10 group exercise classes
25. Make 10 bibs for Des Moines Pregnancy Aid

26. Help serve a meal at the Union Gospel Mission

40. Learn Geo-caching

46. Try 20 new recipes

47. Bake 3 cakes from scratch

48. Crochet a blanket & give it away

82. Invite 3 of our neighbors over for dinner

87. Visit 20 new parks/ playgrounds

94. Go to the Ballet

#48. Crochet a blanket & give it away

My mom went in for surgery last week which gave me a great excuse to get out my forgotten crocheting and try and get it done. I had begun this project months ago, I was almost half way done and thought I may actually complete it. That was until I (with the help of my mother) realized that I was dropping stitches.

For my non-crocheting readers, this means that if I continued on, I would indeed still make a blanket. It would, however, be triangular. Seeing that the blanket is being made for my mother, I tried to sell her on the idea that everyone has normal boring rectangular blankets, but triangular.... that's UNIQUE!

I do believe that ripping out half of a blankets' worth of stitches takes almost as long as crocheting it does. I am now 1/4 of the way completed with a beautifully normal blanket.

# 94. Go to the Ballet

I have been told that I am "lucky". If there is a $20 bill or a diamond ring on the ground, I am the one who finds it. I have entered drawings for concert tickets, deep freezers, a gold bracelet, mariners baseball tickets, and a slew of other things, which I always seem to win.

I loved the Steven Curtis Chapman concert, use my freezer from Dream Dinners on a daily basis, have a bracelet that I rarely wear, and went to an amazing baseball game where the man in front of us just happened to have tickets to the next days game, and out of the blue, gave them to me.

It is no surprise that my son Micah would inherit my "lucky" gene. A while back, the boys and I went to the Seattle Center. Just so happens, that Radio Disney was also at the Center on that day. They had a drawing that kids could enter, so I had both of the boys enter the drawing. A few weeks later I got a call informing me that Micah had won 4 tickets to the Ballet.

Micah decided that he would like to invite a friend of mine and her daughter along. He knew that my friends' daughter was in ballet and thought that she would really enjoy seeing Cinderella at the Pacific Northwest Ballet. As you can see, he also inherited my sweetness gene :-)

So off we went, the ballet was good. Afterwards I was talking to my girlfriend and came to the realization that I am one of those people who appreciates ballet, but by no means, am I an enthusiast.

#46. Try 20 new recipes

I love to cook, hate baking, but LOVE cooking. You may be asking yourself "if you l

ove to cook so much then why haven't you got this goal accomplished already?" That is a good question. I guess that when I think of the phrase "new recipe" it means something completely unlike anything I have ever made before. I am one of those cooks that takes a recipe and ma

kes a variation of it. That to me is not a new recipe, just an altered one.

Last night I made "Panera Breads Broccoli Cheddar Soup". I make potato cheese soup all of the time and I would assume, removing the potato and adding broccoli does not a new recipe make. I found a recipe online and decided to give it a shot. The way that they had me make the roux was a little different than how I made it for my soup. The recipe called for nutmeg which I would never have thought to add to my potato soup. It wasn't until I tasted the thick green gooeyness, that I decided it was indeed a new recipe worthy of blogging about, and one that I will be making often. YUM!

#82 Invite 3 neighbors over for dinner.

I invited some neighbors over for dinner, they came, we talked, we ate.

All in all it was an enjoyable evening (side note: I would have invited them over even if this wasn't one of my 101 items so it feels a bit like cheating... oh well)

#16 Go to 10 group exercise classes

I was at the YMCA with the boys one afternoon and I was ready to go but they were begging to stay in the teen zone just a little bit longer. It just so happened that there was a Zumba class at that time so I thought "what the heck, I'll give it a try".

What the heck is what I was thinking for most of the hour long class. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the class, but I'm pretty sure that if I was earning my living through using my Latin inspired dancing skills...I would starve.

#26 Help serve a meal at the Union Gospel Mission

I did not actually complete this exactly as it is written, but I am marking it complete anyway.

The family and I went down to the Dream Center on a Saturday morning and helped to prepare sack lunches for the homeless and others who are less fortunate. It was fun doing this with Brent and the boys. I was so proud of how my boys jumped right in and started working and we are all looking forward to going back and doing this on a regular basis.

I figure that my intentions behind this goal were to help prepare a meal for others. With that in mind, I feel like I did complete this goal, just not at the Union Gospel Mission.

Micah was a great "runner" and made sure that 2 sandwiches went in every sack.

Ben was the master mayonnaise spreader

Brent was the master mayonnaise eater!

#87 Visit 20 new parks/playgrounds

The boys and visited a playground in Des Moines. We didn't spend long there because, it honestly wasn't a very great park. I know, your dying to know Why would we go to a not so great park?

#40 Learn Geo-caching

This is the answer to why we would visit a not so great park!

In my mind I had built up geo-caching as this difficult and complicated thing. It is not!

I found a great website that took all of the difficulty out of it for me http://www.geocaching.com

What is geo-caching? It is basically, a treasure hunt using a GPS, or in my case my iPhone (they even have an app for it).

So now that I understood the concept, I decided to take the boys out on our first geo-caching adventure, which is how we ended up at a not so great playground.

Here are the photo's to prove that we are true geo-cachers!

The boys with our very 1st Geo-cache

Ben searching for the second cache.

We found our second cache just as it started to rain.

I was recently told that I am a geo-caching addict and it very well may be true seeing as I have gotten my children, husband, mother and a few of my friends hooked.

I can't say too much more because some of you are most likely geo-cache "Muggles".

#25 Make 10 bibs for Des Moines Pregnancy Aid

I bought the material to make these ages ago and finally decided to take a crack at sewing my very first bib. It actually turned out OK.

I used a pink flannel frog print for the front and a coordinating yellow flannel for the back. I put quilt batting inside for extra absorbency.

I still need to add the Velcro but other than that I am pretty pleased with myself.

#47 Bake 3 cakes from scratch

As you know, I really do not enjoy baking cakes so this is biggie in my book.

In our house we have this crazy tradition called "torture mom" My children know that their mother is a pushover when it comes to birthday cake requests. They come up with an idea for a cake, and then they bat their big brown "irresistible to say no to" eyes and I am a goner.

I love my children and want only the best for them, which is why I don't buy the cheap $0.99 cake in a box mix. I go all out and have been known to spend upwards of $1.89 on their boxed cake mixes.

This year I decided to kill two birds with one stone and make Micah's cake from scratch. This was not done out of love for my child, but rather loathing of a certain goal that I had to accomplish.

When Micah declared what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday I nearly passed out. Here is what our conversation sounded like

Micah: Mom I think I know what kind of cake I want for my birthday

Me: Really buddy, what kind?

Micah: A chocolate cherry one.

Me: Sounds yummy! What shape do you want it in?

Micah: Mine.

Me: I know you want your cake, but what shape do you want it in?

Micah: I want a mine cake!

Me: A mind cake? Like, grey brain matter?

Micah: NO! A mine, like a gold and jewel filled MINE cake.

Me: What?!?!?

Micah: Oh and can you make mine carts too.... that would be soooo cool! (this line is delivered with batting of eyes and a big toothy grin)

After a minor panic attack, help from a dear friend, and a ton of baking (the first cake failed and was replaced by a good old $0.99 box mix) this is what we ended up with.

The bottom sheet cake is the non ruined home made chocolate cherry cake. The mountain is made by good old Betty Crocker.

4 letter words (Day 231)

LAZY is a 4 letter word that I have grown rather attached too . I love being lazy, bumming around the house in comfy clothes is my favorite way to spend my day.

WORK, another 4 letter word, is the opposite of LAZY. Work makes lazy not possible. WORK is one of my not so favorite 4 letter words.

I have very little to blog to you about because I have let the "L" word take over lately. I don't want to be a lazy person, but I don't want to not be one either. So, I there I was, stuck in the middle of a battle between lazy and work, and it appeared that lazy was winning.

That was until some dirty nasty 4 letter words began to take sides with lazy. When SLOB, MESS, and UGLY joined in on the fight I knew that LAZY had the upper hand. That was until WORK pulled out all of the punches and invited KIDS, GILT (that is how Micah spelled guilt on his spelling test), LOVE, DUTY, and of course BLOG. With so much ammunition poor LAZY didn't have a fighting chance.

So there you have it folks, I am back after more than a month of allowing lazy to rule the roost. I fell off the blogging wagon but I am pulling myself up by my BOOT straps and kicking LAZY to the CURB.

Ketchup (Day 197)

I have a few items to blog about I'm going to make it quick seeing as this is my second post for the day and my creative juices have been thoroughly juiced.

The holidays were wonderful. We were able to spend a lot of time quality family time together and in doing so I have been able to turn a few item bold (formerly bold and green, the blog is no longer letting me use colors for some crazy reason so now they are bold and black)

#93~ Over Thanksgiving, we had a freak cold front roll in and we ended up with around 6 inches of snow which allowed for us to build a snow fort. It wasn't the best snow fort, but the boys called it a fort so that is good enough for me.

Pre-fort picture of our house after the first snow fall.

#30~ The North Hill Community Club nominated me to be the "chair" the annual Christmas potluck. I know how to use chairs, I know how to purchase chairs and I even know how to throw chairs but when it comes to officially having the chairing title this was a first.

The event was a success and I have heard rumors of future chairing coming my way.

#60~ In all honesty, this is the reason that I haven't blogged much recently. We have nearly finished the kitchen remodel. I am SOOOOO happy with the progress that I am marking it as complete even though we still have a little bit of painting and a few cosmetic things left to do.

As far as remodels go I think we did pretty good, we are still married and mostly sane :)

This is the new breakfast bar. Not the greatest picture, but it is the only one that I have as of right now. I will post before, during and after photo's in the near future.

Got Milk? (Day 197)

It seems as though no matter how hard I try I go into a store for just a few items, I end up coming out with several bags and a receipt that is 8 feet long.

When I put #41 (make a grocery list, go into the store and ONLY buy what is on the list) I was hoping that it would compel me to become more organized about what I really need to buy. I have a knack for attracting junk food, kitchen gizzmo's and of course the "meal in a minute" cook-azines (not really a cookbook and not exactly a magazine) that are always near the check stand and never have a single "minute" recipe in them.

I am of course proud and yet a bit irritated to announce that I have completed #41. Next time I make a 101 list, I will spend a little more time thinking of items for the list and make sure that the goals are really something I am going to enjoy doing.

I know, I have lost most of you (that is assuming that anyone is reading my ramblings) and the rest of you (once again making the same assumption) are thinking "get to the point!"

Here is the point, I went in to buy milk, I walked out with only milk. I then went home put my milk in the fridge and drove right back to the store so that I could buy cereal at 75% off that I just happened to have a coupon for an additional $.75 off. I bought 3 boxes of cereal for $.27 each. THAT is amazing!!!! I probably spent more on gas than I did on the stinkin cereal.

Not forgotten, just ignored (Day 167)

My dear blog,

Please do not fret, I have not forgotten about you, I have instead been intentionally ignoring you. If you feel a bit like the red headed step child it is because.... you are. I know this may come as a shock to you, but I figure I should tell you know while you are still young.

I could tell you that I have been busy remodeling the kitchen or preparing for the holidays all of which is true, but those would just be excuses. When the real truth is, I just don't want to think about you right now so if I pretend that you don't exist maybe you will vanish, so far this has not happened.

I am 167 days into our relationship, this is about the time when the newness and sparkle begins to fizzle. I am hoping that in time we will once again grow together, how I long for day 2 or 35 or even 72.

Please don't get me wrong, I am not giving up on you. I just need a little space right now. It's me not you. We can still be friends.

Your Friend,

Tricia

PS- I should let you know that I changed #60 from helping to plan for and build a deck to helping plan for and remodel the kitchen.

I didn't tell you sooner because I knew you would understand :)

A quick blog (Day 139)

I am not the most computer savvy woman in the world, but I am not totally computer illiterate either. I know enough not to jump onto the table when my husband asks for the mouse, and I can navigate the world wide web without buying a plane ticket.


Today is one of those days that I wish I either knew it all or none at all. If I knew it all I wouldn't have spent the last hour and a half trying to update my list (the one on the right side of the screen). If I knew nothing than I wouldn't know or care about what a blog is and I would have spent the last hour and a half blissfully ignorant.


I was planning on this being a quick update on what is happening, my plans have not worked out. For some reason unbeknown to me, my list turned itself all black and bold. When I tried to fix it I just messed it up more. I have hopefully, fixed the problem and I'm now on to tackling my attitude which needs a little adjusting. Now that I have vented, I can write about some of the wonderful things that have been happening in my life.


#9- I realized that I never told you that I did indeed make it 30 days with no soda. Since I completed this I have cut WAY back. I am happy to be done with that one :)

#22 &23 - It's official Cornerstone Community Church is our home church! We are all adjusting and figuring out where we fit in. Brent is helping out with the worship team and I was able to help with their first Trunk or Treat. It took a full year but I am so glad that we patiently and prayerfully took our time in making this decision.

#30- I volunteered to chair the Northhill Community Clubs Christmas party on Dec 14th. I will let you know if this was a good idea on Dec. 15th

#47- I have not made my Persian Love Cake. I am putting it off, no good reason, just not ready to clean up the enormous mess that such a project is sure to produce.

#88- I was blessed to be able to go out to lunch with a dear friend at a cute little pub in Enumclaw. I would love to tell you what the name of the place was but I don't remember what it is. I can tell you that I liked what I ate (but can't remember what I ate, fish & chips, I think) and was happy with the service. I would totally recommend that you visit this great place next time you happen to find yourself out in the middle of nowhere, I mean Enumclaw.

#97- I have attended not one but two conferences. I attended a conference with Brent that was held at RCC (a church we use to attend). It was on the 7 letters to the 7 churches (Revelation). I really enjoyed the speakers, they were all really wonderful. It was neat getting to catch up with some old friends who were there.
The other conference that I went to was Women of Faith. I was not planning on going and then out of the blue I got a phone call and was offered a ticket.
I was overwhelmed and in awe throughout the entire event. I came away with some great information and a whole lot that I have to try and process through. I was reminded of some painful truths and reassured by a loving God who knows me and loves me anyway.

"Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." James 1:2-4