Down the road & back again...

2010-08-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

Wow! I can't believe that I'm finally able to create a new post on this blog! For the last month or more, there was a technical problem that would not allow me to create a new post here.

Because of that, and because of the great reviews that I've heard about Wordpress.com I have officially moved my blog there.

When I did that, I edited my last post (since I couldn't get in to create a new one). And sadly, I just discovered that the edited post did not go out in the RSS feed for those that have subscribed to my blog. So, you may not have known that I was still blogging, but had moved to another location.

I must admit that the last few months have been crazy busy, so I haven't been as prolific as I was before, but I'm getting back on track again.

I hope that those of you who subscribed before, will come over and subscribe to my new blog site at http://nanhann.wordpress.com/. I've missed your visits and love your input!

2010-06-25T17:02:00.003-07:00

Hello again,

Have you given up on me? I hope not!

Sadly, since I continue to be unable to create new posts for this blog and cannot seem to get any help in fixing the issue, as of today, I'm moving. I have been considering a move for some time, so this has prompted it a little sooner than I expected. As a result, I've decided to transfer all of the content from this site over to a WordPress blog site and keep going from there.

My new blog URL is: http://nanhann.wordpress.com/

My blog name will continue to be: Down the Road and Back Again...for now. I have plans to change it, but just haven't come up with the perfect name. Let me know if you have brilliant ideas. I could use them.

If you like to visit me here, please consider subscribing to receive my new blog post from there or plan to visit often. If you don't want to subscribe, please bookmark the site as soon as you get there since I expect that at some point, I'll be closing this blog down.

For now, I'm considering the new blog "under construction". If all goes well, I hope to have the it ship-shape for my 4 year blogging anniversary on August 9th.

Thanks so much for visiting. I hope that you think things are even more fun and creative on the new site. I especially hope to be able to categorize the posts so you can find what you're interested in, more easily. As always there will be tons of pics, tips, and little glimpses of my world.

Any suggestions for changes or improvements now that things are being revamped? What would you like to see more or less of?

See you on the other side!

Nancy

2010-06-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

I promise that I will soon have more time to post to my blog.

This is in downtown Sarajevo, a bustling city with lots to see and do.

If you haven't had a chance to see some of my (favorite) pictures culled from the several thousand from Bosnia, they are now up on Facebook. You can see them here without signing up for FB. If you looked at the first batch a week or so ago, be sure to skip ahead a few pages in the album if you don't want to see the old ones.

They don't include lots of the sponsored kids' pictures (which we'll show on the 26th) or the couple of days we spent in Croatia and Amsterdam. I'll post those in separate albums later.

They also don't include photos of Dan and Julie and kids (our missionary family) in Bosnia. For security reasons they have asked that I not post photos online with their last name, so just to be safe, I'm posting their photos on a private page. If you would like to get a link to those photos, add a comment below or send me an email to hannfamily[at]cox.net.

This gives an indication of how much the Bosnian audiences loved Bob and Terry's music that was so different from their own. These ladies were literally dancing in the aisles by the end of the concert.

This window is at the Breza church. To me it symbolizes God's desire to be a breath of hope in our sometimes gray world.

This week I'm working on putting together a PowerPoint for our team's presentation, which will be on Saturday night at Open Door Fellowship church if you want to come and enjoy some great original music (written by our teammate Bob Ryan) as well as stories and other photos from our trip.

At some point I will be back to regular posting...I promise. Thanks for your patience. Is there something you're missing in my posts? I hope so. What is it?

2010-06-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

For all you international travelers out there - here's a tip about your passport

It was so much fun to have our passports stamped on our recent trip and aside from a few comments that Terry got about the lack of a beard on his passport photo, everything went smoothly and the folks were quite friendly overall.

But here's a word of caution if you're planning an international trip in the future.

Apparently the "real" expiration date on your passport is actually six months before the date shown on the page. From what I've been reading here a good number of countries will not allow you in if you have less than 6 months left on your passport. I can't find a specific reason why, but suffice it to say that you would probably not be a happy camper if your round trip flight got you only as far as the airport (at your destination) and back.

That means we need to get to work on getting ours renewed since it expires in 2011.

Have you ever run into any issues when your passport was reviewed? I hope not.

Have fun traveling!

2010-06-09T12:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I haven't had time to post more about our trip to Bosnia. We're home and getting re-acclimated to our sleeping schedules and "real" lives.

These are a few shots from our first stop in Podstrana to catch our breath from the long flight. It's on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia along the Adriatic Sea.

In the meantime, here's a link with some more photos (but still not the whole trip). They're on my Facebook page, but you don't have to sign up to see them here.

This last photo is from a little town called Omis. I loved the architecture there!

We did a lot of walking on our trip, which was wonderful. The weather was great everywhere we went!

Hope to be back on top of posting here soon.

2010-05-26T07:01:00.001-07:00

Quick Overview of our Bosnia Trip so far...

I don't have time to caption all of my photos right now, but if you're interested in seeing an overview, check out this slideshow below from my Picasa page.

Our trip has gone smoothly as far as logistics. Bob's head cold has been the biggest hurdle for their performances. Most people can't tell that he's having issues, but for those of us who know what the songs should sound like, we can tell that he's struggling at times.

Please be praying for him especially the next few days. We leave today for Sarajevo and the guys will be performing either at churches or another venue on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. He will need a strong voice to make it through those times.

Terry's harmonica and mandolin have been a big hit with everyone.

Funny note! Not that I want to perpetuate this stereotype, but I think it's hilarious that several Bosnians have also recognized the similarity between Bob and Terry and Statler and Waldorf from the Muppets
This seems to reveal itself most often in their dry sense of humor when they're performing. The Bosnians weren't going to tell us, but it kind of slipped out at lunch the other day. Apparently they were laughing about it when the guys were performing at the Coffee Bar the other night. I love it!

Sorry I don't have time to share more, but we're heading out to Sarajevo in a few minutes. Hopefully I'll have time to fill in some of the blanks when we're there.

Thanks for all your prayers1

2010-05-15T09:03:00.000-07:00

Suns/Lakers series starts on Monday.

Check out this Video of Suns vs. Lakers Rivalry

2010-05-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to my favorite guy in all the world!

Terry's birthday was yesterday! It's not that I forgot his birthday, it's just that I forgot to create a post in advance about it and we've been so busy that I didn't have time in the last few days.

That doesn't make him any less special or less loved. I'm so blessed that God gave him to me over 30 years ago. I wouldn't want to share this life and it's adventures with anyone else.

Here are just a few highlights of the fun we've had this past year... what a great year it's been and now we're heading for Bosnia in the next few days! Can't wait.

Steamboat Springs, Colorado in August

Disneyland in September

Randy Thompson Christmas Concert in December

Dave Argentati Concert in December

Terry & Bob played several places around town this year

Flagstaff Snow Day in January

Suns Game in April

2010-05-09T20:38:00.000-07:00

My updated "cottage" furniture!

I'm so excited about the transformations that are taking place around my house lately.

Ever since we moved to Arizona 6 years ago, my goal has been to create a coastal cottage atmosphere in my Southwest desert home. You may think that's crazy and out of place, but my heart just feels at home in the cozy comfort of pale blues, greens and lots of white. I love the unpretentious air of painted furniture, yard sale finds, slipcovers and piles of throw pillows. I want my guests to feel like they can kick off their shoes and put their feet up from the moment they walk in the door.

My inspiration comes from the cottage that my aunt owns on the shores of Lake Erie near Vermilion, Ohio. This precious place is where we spent countless happy-go-lucky days swimming, spitting watermelon seeds and searching for Easter eggs. It's a source of joy in my memory bank and I long to create the same atmosphere in my home even though we're miles and miles from the nearest lake.

So, it's with that in mind that I've been dreaming of painting some of the furniture that I've had for many years. The pieces were acquired in a different era, when darker colors filled my home. Now, even though I love the pieces, they needed a face-lift. It's been on my To-Do list for years, but because of the time involved, it never quite rose to the top of my priorities for one reason or another.

That's why I was thrilled when my sister, Sharon told me that she and her boyfriend, Craig were starting a business of refinishing furniture. Craig has been doing furniture refinishing for many years, so it was a natural progression to open his own shop. These are the pieces I had them start with, for me.

Unfortunately, I forgot to take a "before" photo of this cabinet, but this little slice from another photo gives you an idea of the original colors. The body was a forest green and the top was a deep red. Terry bought the piece (with beautiful hand carved wood front) for me years ago when I pointed it out at a craft fair. In recent years I was using it to store VHS video tapes, so it was a bit outdated, both inside and out. I still love it, but wanted a lighter version.

The other pieces were 2 vintage school chairs that I picked up at a swap meet in Ohio.

I decided on a palette of pale colors that can be moved throughout the house when I feel like mixing things up, which I often do.

The cabinet sports two subtle tones of sage green and the chairs are a pale buttery yellow. An added bonus is their use of eco-friendly paints, stains and materials. Low-VOC paint, etc.

Of course, Craig did a gorgeous and thorough job on the inside of the cabinet as well. When I re-loaded the cabinet I updated the contents too, with some of my placemats and napkins, so it's more practical and user friendly since it sits in the dining room.

If you need any furniture painted or refinished, or are looking for some gorgeous pieces that they've already "Re-imagined" check them out. Below is a link to their Facebook page and contact info as well. They can also re-create new pieces from a combination of partially damaged old pieces. Check out their pics on their FB page.

Re-Imagine Fine Furnishings

Call Sharon or Craig at 480 343 1189

Furniture Re-Imagined from a green perspective with Eco-friendly products and upcycle quality furniture for your home.

Re-created, Refinished, Re-purposed, Recycled, and Re-imagined.

Follow my blog and keep an eye out for my post about the other pieces that they're working on for me. I have "before" photos of the next pieces. I'll also be showing the transformation of the living room with my new white sofa slipcover. Hope to see you again soon!

2010-05-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

A few more pics from the plane ride...

This is what the sky looked like when we took off from Boise. It was cloudy and windy, but the takeoff was as smooth as silk. Phil and Mark are great pilots!

On the way home we flew over the Grand Canyon. Isn't it gorgeous from 40,000 feet?

2010-05-08T10:27:00.001-07:00

Mason Jar Candle Lanterns

These sweet lanterns are on sale for $6 at Pottery Barn, but I'm sure I could make them cheaper at home. All it takes are the jars, sand, candles, wire and wire cutters.

Hopefully I'll have some time to work on it later in the summer when we get back from Bosnia. If I do, I'll post some "how to" photos and Mason jars come in different sizes and shapes which would make them even more fun.

Aren't they cute, though?

2010-05-06T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hey gang, Here's another great giveaway from the Pioneer Woman.

Go and enter today for a chance to win this iPad!

2010-05-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

I just came across this giveaway from the Pioneer Woman and just had to share it. She's giving away an awesome DSLR camera and Photoshop Software! Wow - go and enter to win! But don't get your hopes up because I'm going to win it. :-)

Happy shooting!

2010-04-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

Boise Trip

Some of you may have seen my note on Facebook about my unexpected trip to Boise for work. My boss asked me if I could go today and tomorrow to do some training for a new project that we're working on.

Imagine my surprise when I find out that we're going in his private plane! Turns out that he and his wife and another couple need to go to Montana, so they decided to drop me and my cohort off in Boise on the way. So, about 8:30 this morning I arrived at the Scottsdale airport and drove right up to this plane. They drove my car away to hold until we get back and I climbed aboard (after a few pics). Crazy, huh?

Part of the fun of this trip was seeing my friends, Phil the pilot (and Mark his co-pilot). I hadn't seen them in a while. I've never had the privilege of riding in the plane before, so this was a REAL treat!

This is what it looks like on the inside. There are 6 seats, plus 2 for the pilots. Very comfy and everything you need, like cup holders, pull up tables, electrical outlets, etc. After about a 2 hour flight, we arrived in Boise and they brought our rental car right to us.

We spent the afternoon learning and gathering information for the project.

This is the view from our hotel window. There are snow capped mountains in the background. The temperature right now is 47 degrees and it's windy with a chance of showers (as you can probably tell). Tomorrow the sky's supposed to clear up a bit, but the high is still only forecast for 56. I don't mind though because it's just one more day that it won't be hot.

Tomorrow we go back for more training, then we'll meet up with the others and the plane late afternoon or early evening to fly back home.

What a fun trip and I can see why people that can afford it, go this way. It's so much less stressful than fighting the crowds at the big airports.

2010-04-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

For those of you who will never have too many books...

Check out this contest at StrongFamilies.

Just by becoming of fan of their Facebook page you can have a chance to win a free autographed book - and you get to choose the book.

He has some great ones for life and parenting or even children's books for those special little ones in your life.

Spread the word! The more fans he gets the sooner the drawing will be.

2010-04-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

2 Sweet Friends + 1 Husband's Birthday = 1 AMAZING Suns Game!

In case you haven't heard, Terry and I had the awesome privilege of going to the last Suns home game of the season this past Tuesday against the Denver Nuggets. And you know what made it the most fun EVER? We got to sit in the FRONT row!!! Yes, on the floor just a single NBA basketball player step from the court.

Let me start out by admitting that even though it was intended as an early birthday present for Terry (his bday is May 13), I probably had as much or more fun than he did. I was so excited that I could hardly sleep the night before and I kept catching myself just before I would blurt out something about it in the days prior.

You see, Phoenix Suns basketball is my absolute favorite sport to watch. Even though Terry watches nearly every team sport with legs, and has tried to teach me about all of them, my first sports love is those "Sunnies" (as my son-in-law calls them). I fell in love with them back in the mid-70's in the early days of our relationship. That was when he took me to a game and I thought that all they did was run up and down the court and whoever made the last basket won. Now I know most of the players by name and position and can point out a pick-and-roll or an alley-oop when I see one. I have realized that the reason I like basketball more than other sports is because it's a more relational game. There are no helmets to block their expressions and there's constant movement and interaction between the players. I love to isolate on one player and follow them on and off the court. Not in a stalking sort of way, but like a proud mom watching their favorite "Sun" and their progress. I generally choose my favorites, based on personality and temperament, not necessarily their accomplishments on the court. Anyway, I could write a whole post just on my love of the game, but I'll save it for another time.

Today I get to take you into some those special places where I (and some of you) have never been. It was an experience I'll never forget. I don't want to say too much about where we got the tickets, but suffice it to say that there are a couple of angels out there that shared a little bit of heaven with us and we will forever be grateful. Do you think they'll have basketball in heaven? I think so, and the home team will always win. :-)

Fun stuff! Terry figured out that we were going to a game, which didn't surprise me because I had taken him to Suns games for his birthday before. But he had NO IDEA where we would be sitting and the other treats that were in store for him. It was so great to see his eyes open wide with surprise when we pulled up for valet parking, then walked into the building and found our way to the special entrance for these ticket holders.

We held 2 tickets for ROW A, Section 113 but I hadn't showed them to him yet. I didn't tell him about the free food throughout the game at the AOT Club either. I was trying to be discreet so as not to look like a total geek, so here's a shot of the club from my camera location at my side. To the right you'll see the underside of the seats that are behind the basket. Up ahead are the food stations where we had our choice of so many tasty treats. One of my favorites was the 4-cheese mac-n-cheese. Mmmm...it was good and probably tasted even better since I've been trying to watch calories lately and have been staying away from things like that. There were several meat options and all the sides you would want. Free beverages too.

We arrived fairly early because we weren't sure how crowded it would be and weren't sure exactly where we were going. When we entered the club we were warmly greeted and got the low-down on how things worked. Fortunately, we had plenty of time to have some dinner and even stop into the Team Shop. Afterward we sauntered out to see the players warm up before the game started. If we had chosen to, we could have stayed in the club and watched the players come out of the locker room and go thru the tunnel. It's just beyond the eating area above.

These are really OUR seats for the night! Yup, front row. Our feet are on the sidelines very close to the baseline, directly across from the visiting team's bench. We've sat down in this area before to watch the teams warm up, but never for the whole game.

This is what the Denver warm ups looked like from our seats. He's standing between the 3 point line and the out of bounds line.

This is Nene Hilario coming on the court for the starting line up introductions. Apparently he legally changed his name to just Nene, which is more of a nickname - Brazilian Portuguese for baby. He's good friends with Leandro Barbosa.

What I really need to know is how can I get one of those "PHOTO" stickers for the back of my shirt. Of course my camera's not as big as theirs, but it would still be fun to be able to wander around all over the place to take pictures. And I must say that the male/female photographer ratio is very imbalanced. I could help with that.

This is the opening tip off.

Since Denver is one of the most tattooed teams in the NBA, I wanted to try to get some pics of some of them for our son-in-law, Andrew's benefit. Chris Andersen is a prime specimen if you like tattoos.

Here's a fun action shot with Grant and Amare making a great effort at guarding the Nuggets.

Sometimes this was the view that we had from our seats. We're willing to make that sacrifice for the location that we had. I must say that the target was very tempting.

And of course we need a shot of LB since he's our daughter, Amy's favorite player. This is the best one I could get. The Brazilian Blur doesn't stand still for very long.

Isn't it interesting how intent the guys on the bench are watching everything?

Our favorite coach, Alvin Gentry! He's doing an amazing job this year. I love the way he's allowing the bench to play in tough stretches of the game. The young guys are growing more and more skilled and confident because of his trust in them. Their new defensive emphasis really seems to be making a difference too.

The final score of the game was Suns 123 - Nuggets 101. It was so fun to watch and even more so because they won the game! What a special treat to be able to enjoy it from court-side. Wow! It was a night that we'll never forget. We were so thankful for the chance to do this. That's one thing that I can cross off of my "Bucket List".

2010-04-07T22:33:00.000-07:00

Exploring the Apache Trail

A few weeks ago we took a drive out on the Apache Trail with some of our dear friends to see the spring desert in bloom.

We made a quick stop at Lost Dutchman State Park to see if there were flowers in bloom there, but we were a bit too early for that area. The Superstitions Mountians were gorgeously green though.

Spring in the desert is a beautiful thing, especially with all the rain we've had lately.

This is Canyon Lake. We ate lunch by Apache Lake and also drove beside Roosevelt Lake. It's surprising how much water is out there in the desert.

We made a quick stop at Tortilla Flat. Cathy found a nice necklace in the gift shop and we picked up some drinks in the restaurant. This is the second place I've been this year where the walls are covered with dollar bills. I think it's actually a clever way for the restaurant owners to make a few extra bucks.

Just look at these amazingly delicate flowers that bloom in the desert before it gets hot. Wow! Aren't they beautiful?

Then when we got out to take pictures of the flowers we came across this old rusted out can. It's been a long time since I've seen a can that had to be opened this way, so I just had to take a picture of it.

And look at this sea of lupines! Wow! The roadsides were filled with them.

Here's Cathy and Terry's wandering around in the background. You can see how green the mountains are in the distance too.

There were poppies too! Isn't this a sweet color combination? Blue, white, and that butterscotch yellow!

Marshall had a bunch of new camera equipment that he was trying out, and I'll bet he got some great photos.

We stopped to see Roosevelt Dam (which I had never been to). If you look down near the lower right part of the dam, you'll see two pick up trucks to give you an idea of the size of it. It's massive!

This bridge is just beyond the dam. Originally the road actually went over the dam, but when they had to raise the height of the it they moved the road.

And since we were running out of daylight we didn't have time to stop at Fish Creek or at Tonto National Monument, so I guess we'll have to plan another trip out there.

All in all it was a perfect day!

Have you ever been there?

2010-04-05T21:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter 2010

This weekend Terry's Dad and his wife, Ginny rolled into town from North Carolina. Ginny drove the whole way 2065 miles over about 4 days. Pretty awesome, huh? They arrived at our house early afternoon on Saturday.

We were honored that they joined us in going to church on Easter morning. And since they were staying at our house, where the Easter Bunny might not find them, I decided to make up an Easter basket for them. It was fun shopping for a few treats that they could enjoy and take along on their trip home (if the candy lasts that long). We discovered that Terry's dad has quite a sweet tooth, which is not so great when you're diabetic. I bought low carb chocolate especially for him. (Trader Joe's is a great place to get that if you're wondering). Plus a few regular chocolates and some Jelly Bellies for Ginny. Turns out Dad likes Jelly Bellies too, even though he's not supposed to have them.

We enjoyed a great turkey dinner on the back patio in the afternoon. The weather was perfect! We had slow roasted turkey, low carb stuffing, green beans and salad. We tried to keep it manageable since we're all either watching carbs or calories to some degree or another.

Then after dinner we went for a walk with Grandpa and Ginny for a few miles or so (down to Baskin Robbins for dessert, because Cold Stone was closed).

On the way home when we were just a block or so from our house, we noticed a creature on the roof of one of the houses with a little annoying mocking bird squawking at it. At first we thought it was a big cat sitting on the roof, then we realized it was a big OWL. It just sat there on the peak of the roof right at the edge and only a few feet from the little bird. Every once in a while the owl would turn his head and hoot. I'm sure that he must have been perched near a nest, otherwise the mockingbird wouldn't have been so aggressive.

We stood there for several minutes watching it, then all of a sudden the owl took off and flew right toward us. Wow! His wingspan was probably close to 4 feet across. This photo is a little blurry because I had to zoom in on it, but you can clearly see the owl's features. I'm not sure I've ever seen an owl in the "wild" that close up.

And I'll leave you with this sneak peek at one of our Spring flower arrangements. I'll be doing a post about it because I think the "vase" is unique and actually kind of a fun idea, especially to use for an event. I'll tell you more about it later...

Hope you all had a Happy Easter!

2010-04-02T05:52:00.002-07:00

Happy 28^th Birthday to our Daughter, Amy!

Since Kevin had his turn seeing his school pictures, now its Amy's turn. Today is her birthday and I asked her dad to write a birthday note for her too. This first photo is Amy in Kindergarten. They're all cute photos as you'll see.

Here's the note from her dad:

Wow, are you actually that old? That’s pretty scary for your parents.

We’re so proud of you & what you’ve done with your life. We do wish you had decided to do it here in Phoenix instead of moving back to LA, but that’s OK.

We’re thankful for how you’ve grown & for the choices you’ve made - earning your Master’s, getting married, starting your own business. We’re so glad you brought Andrew into our family. And we’re very thankful for the marriage with which God has blessed you two.

I miss going to your plays & concerts – I still remember how proud I always felt watching you perform (maybe someday you could think about starting to do that again). I miss the other family times we spent together, like family vacations, holidays, and going to plays, concerts, & Suns games together. I remember how you & your brother used to pick on each other so much, and then what great friends you became.

It’s hard being separated from you by 400 miles and not seeing you as much as we’d like, but as long as I have history books you want to borrow, I know we’ll stay in touch.

Happy Birthday, my beautiful daughter!

Now slow down … I’m going to feel ancient when you turn 30.

Love, Dad

1st Grade

2nd/3rd Grade

Amy was one of just four or five 2nd graders in a combination 2nd/3rd grade class and by the end of the year the teacher recommended that she skip 3rd grade because she had been doing 3rd grade work all year anyway. By then we didn't have much choice since it would have been silly to make her sit thru 3rd grade again. She handled the jump just fine.

4th Grade

(her shirt says "Chill Out")

5th Grade

6th Grade

7th Grade

8th Grade

9th Grade

10th Grade

11th Grade

12th Grade

(her casual photo - I like this one better than the formal one because it looks more real, like she is.)

Formal Senior Portrait

This was taken in 2005. We sure love being with our girl.

And here's Amy and her precious husband, Andrew in 2008.

We love them and miss them and wish they lived closer to us because they're so much fun to have around.

Happy Birthday, Amy! We hope you have a blast at Hearst Castle and an awesome year ahead.

2010-04-01T08:59:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have been absent for so long. I have tons of things to post, but just little time.

Here's one that I couldn't pass up sharing.

Did you know that non-profit organizations can get FREE BOOKS FROM THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS?

And these aren't old worn out books. They're brand new books! Think of the things that your local homeless shelter, senior center, school, or after school program could do with this opportunity!

This is not an April Fool's joke either. It's for real.

Check it out! It's amazing!

Oh and be sure to come back tomorrow for Amy's birthday post.

If You Could Read My Mind

2010-03-16T13:58:00.001-07:00

Here's a video of Terry playing in Tucson with a couple of his friends. You can't see Mark, the cellist sitting behind them, but hopefully you can pick out his music.

The sound quality isn't great, but it's fun to have a recording of their music. They're hoping to play together again, so when they do, you'll have to come and see them.

2010-03-15T18:52:00.002-07:00

One evening an old Sioux told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

"One is Evil - It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.”

"The other is Good - It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Sioux simply replied, "The one you feed."

I LOVE the truth in this story! Thank you to The Wizard Academy's Monday Morning Memo - I discovered this in the Rabbit Hole. If you don't subscribe to this weekly newsletter, you should. It's always very interesting.

2010-03-14T21:16:00.002-07:00

Herb Gardening 101

For the last 3 Sunday afternoons I had the chance to attend a class at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. The class was called "Herbs from Garden to Kitchen". Our teacher was Catherine Crowley, also known as "The Herb Lady" (this is a link to her blog) and wow does she know her stuff! I got a notebook full of tips and useful information.
We also toured the Herb Garden on site at DBG and had a chance to touch, taste and smell some unique herbs that Catherine brought in from her own garden. Have you ever seen Chocolate Basil? How about Cinnamon Basil? My favorite was Lemon Basil. Actually pretty much anything with lemon smelled delicious. There's also Lemon Thyme, Lemon Grass, Lemon Verbena and even more.

We learned about shopping for plants & seeds, as well as planting, location, watering, sunlight, fertilizing, insects, etc. I always thought it was nearly impossible to grow anything but cactus here in the desert, but I'm learning that there are actually quite a few plants that will thrive here. The most important thing is WHEN you plant and how much sunlight the plants will get. Even though our days a quite warm, Catherine says that EVERY edible plant needs at least 4 to 6 hours of sun each day.

For the grand finale of the last class Catherine brought in several samples of recipes that she had made with herbs, plus we watched some video of other recipes that she had created. You can see 4 different kinds of tabouli in the photo above. We got copies of the recipes to take home too. Oh, by the way, in case you don't know...everything tastes better with fresh herbs!

We're pretty much at the end of our range for springtime planting now, so I wanted to pick up a few things before it was too late.

On Saturday Terry and I did some shopping. Here's what I planted today.

Yellow Pear Tomatoes, Strawberries, Alyssum, Lavender, Basil, Lemon Basil, Parsley, Rosemary, and Chives. We also picked up these yellow flowers that I thought were Euryop daisies, but the tag on them says some kind of Butterfly something or other...oh well, they look similar, so we'll see how they do.

We picked up a nice Star Jasmine vine for the atrium in the back yard too. I hope it does o.k. The area doesn't get a lot of sun, so it's iffy. But, I love the scent of star jasmine, so I'm hoping we can make it work.

This last photo is what the front entry area looks like now with our humble little garden...or maybe I should call it my humbling little garden (depending on how it does).

I tried a few things that weren't recommended, but we can't really afford to buy a bunch of big flower pots right now, so I had to use what we had. The Herb Lady recommends that you use pots at LEAST 2 FEET across if you do container gardening in Phoenix, in order to insulate the plants from the heat. Most of the pots we have are smaller than that, so I tried to keep them away from the edge. We'll see how they do....

Eventually we need to extend the water drip lines so we can run one into each pot, but for now we'll hand water them. And the long term plan is to fill the plant shelves in the front of the house with pots as well. I think it will add some nice color, scents and even some goodies for eating too.

I really love having God's amazing creation around. My grandmother made her living as a farmer, but the knowledge wasn't passed down to my generation. I always thought it would be great to have my grandmother come and live with us for a year or so and teach us how to garden, but unfortunately, that never happened. Terry did pretty well with a garden when we were in California, but so far he hasn't had the time or inclination for it. Hopefully this will get us started and eventually our yard will be overflowing with little bits of God's glorious beauty.

2010-03-11T17:30:00.016-07:00

Bikers rejoice!

Google has just added intelligent biking directions for more than 12,000 U.S. bike trails as a new option inside Google Maps.

The company writes that the new biking features will “include as much bike trail data as possible, provide efficient routes, allow riders to customize their trip, make use of bike lanes, calculate rider-friendly routes that avoid big hills and customize the look of the map for cycling to encourage folks to hop on their bikes.”

The new option now sits next to the current Google Maps standbys — car, public transit and walking — for online routing options, so users can select the new option from the dropdown menu to uncover a Google-recommended bike routes (likely sans big hills!).

You can also turn on a “Bicycling” layer via the “More” tab when zoomed into a particular city in Google Maps. The trails’ green hues should indicate terrain and road type. Dark green equates to bike-only, light green means there’s a bike lane, and dashed green means it’s a decent biking path but one without a bike lane.

Before you get too excited, we should note that as of right now biking is not an option in mobile apps, so make sure to plan ahead before you hit the pavement.

I am not currently a biker, but I hope to get a new bike soon. This great news reminded me of my brother, Pat who has cycled from Florida to Ohio and West Texas to Louisiana. He was always looking for a good map that would tell him how he could get safely from one place to the next on his bike.

So on behalf of all bikers everywhere...Thank you Google maps!
(this tidbit discovered thru a newsletter received from www.Mashable.com )

2010-03-06T11:59:00.008-07:00

We're Hoping to go to Bosnia!

Terry and I are excited about a chance to travel to Bosnia and Herzegovina for a short-term mission trip – our first ever! God has provided the opportunity and the availability of time off for us to travel and we are so very thankful.

If we can raise the necessary funds, we'll go as part of a team from our church, led by Bob and Helen Ryan. Helen leads Open Door to the World (ODW) an outreach arm of our church, Open Door Fellowship, in Phoenix and her husband Bob is an amazing musician and songwriter. The Ryans have been working for years with the people and churches of this struggling nation since the war that tore Yugoslavia apart in the 1990’s.

Open Door to the World, has worked to help bring hope and reconciliation to Bosnia since before the war's end. Beginning with a long-term assistance program to Bosnian refugees arriving in Phoenix, and working to impact the country with yearly teams to Bosnia itself, ODW has formed long-term relationships in the struggle for peace there.

Mission:

This year, the Catfish Hunters musical duo (Terry and Bob Ryan) have been invited to perform at various venues in three towns in Bosnia and Herzegovina. What we’ve been asked to do is present songs that speak about forgiveness, hope and reconciliation to this war-scarred country. It's a badly needed message.

Now here’s the awesome part!

Terry’s part in the team will be to use the musical gifts God has given him to minister in the cities of Mostar, Sarajevo and perhaps one other. For those who haven’t heard him, he’s now playing guitar, mandolin, banjo, bass and harmonica. Through the Coffee-bar performances, our Team’s prayer is to reach out to the communities as a connecting point between the Christians and their non-believing friends in those cities. They'll be playing both at churches, to encourage believers, and in secular “Coffee-bar” venues to bring the message of forgiveness and reconciliation.

I hope to use my photography to capture glimpses of the stories of the Bosnian churches, people and ministries and bring them home to those who want to know more about the work God is doing there. We also look forward to opportunities to share Christ and to encourage the hearts of the believers, young churches and our own Open Door Fellowship missionary family there (the Tinlin’s) in practical ways as well. Along the way I hope to provide written and visual updates, whenever Internet access is available.

We hope to be a blessing to the people of Bosnia. And we believe that doing so in God’s name will be a blessing to us. You can share in that blessing – In prayer as we prepare and while we travel, in financially supporting this work, and by keeping in touch with what we find and experience as it happens, through our regular communications during the trip.

In a nation of several million people and fewer than 2,000 evangelical believers, the churches struggle to meet the needs of their members and to have a significant impact on their cities.

Open Door to the World ministry trips are financed through the fund raising efforts and personal contributions of team members. Your participation with us is a significant investment in the Bosnian churches and their testimony in the surrounding communities.

And so…

We would welcome any questions you have and will look forward to keeping you abreast of our plans, preparations and travels if you decide to partner with our team.

Bosnia is still filled with strife and ethnic and political division. Without Christ, there is no solution that will bring these divided people together. Your prayers and financial support will give us the opportunity to use the gifts and talents that God has given us to encourage and minister to the people of Bosnia, using the universal message of music to reach across language and ethnic barriers to share the Good News of Jesus Christ!

We're so excited for the opportunity to use what God has given us. Here are several ways that you can help:

Add a comment here or send an email to hannfamily[at]cox.net to let us know that you'd like to join our prayer team. We'll keep you updated all along the way.
Terry and I will need to raise a total of $3400 to cover the anticipated expenses for the trip. We're about half way there! To be a part of blessing the Bosnian churches through our team, you can mail a check made payable to:

Open Door Fellowship

8301 N. 19th Avenue

Phoenix, AZ 85021

Important to Add: BOSNIA in the check memo field

Or go to www.ODFChurch.org now and click on the Paypal link to donate online. It's very important to Add: BOSNIA in the memo field so they'll know where it goes.

ODW will be hosting a dinner and theater performance fundraiser on April 23rd and 24th. Let us know if you want information about tickets to attend. Proceeds will help with our trip, as well as others.
There will also be a silent auction fund-raiser on that night. If you’re not able to give monetarily at this time, then maybe there’s a product, craft or service that you’d be interested in donating for the auction.
Become a fan of "The Catfish Hunters' Musical Bridge to Bosnia" on Facebook. You'll find more information there, have a chance to ask questions about our trip and see what's happening in preparation.
To learn more about the goals of Open Door to the World visit www.ODFchurch.org and click on “Outreach”.

We hope you're as excited about this opportunity as we are! Can't wait to get there and see how God will use us to impact these communities.

2010-03-04T22:04:00.000-07:00

Playing with Dave Argentati in Tucson

Last Friday, Terry and I drove down to Tucson so he could join his friends, Dave Argentati and Mark Converti to play music at the Glass Onion Cafe.

They played a mix of 70's covers, James Taylor, Jim Croce and others, as well as a good supply of Dave's original songs. Terry even sang lead on a couple of old favorites. One of these days I'll get a video tape of it.
The cafe itself is a quaint little place with about 10 tables or so. All the seats in the house were full and there were even people standing outside to listen to the music. The photos behind the guys are called the "Wall of Fame". The owners take pictures of their patrons and hang them up on the wall.

Our friends, Doug & Liz Johnson (Liz is in red on the left -Doug is sitting in front of her on the other side of the table) from Santa Clarita, CA moved to Tucson a few years ago. Liz and I have connected on Facebook and they were so sweet to come and hear Terry and the guys play. They also brought their son, Zach (in brown) who is in high school now. The last time we saw him, he was about 10 years old, so he's changed A LOT and is quite a handsome, well mannered, young man. He was so polite to sit thru 2 hours of oldies and songs that he'd never heard before. Thanks Zach.

In this photo you can see a glimpse of Mark, the cellist sitting behind and between the guys. He adds such a beautiful sound to the trio.

After the concert we had a chance to hang out with Dave, Kathrin and some of their friends. What a great group of people they are. It was such a fun night but we didn't leave their house until midnight! We had a wedding to go to the next day (more on that later) so we decided to do the 2 hour drive home. Or should I say, Terry did the 2 hour drive home while I slept most of it. I think we're getting too old to stay out until after 2 am. The next night we ended up coming home early after the wedding and I slept like a rock trying to catch up after a short night before. It was well worth it though, and we would do it again in a second! Maybe next time we'll stay overnight in Tucson.

If you want to see a few more pictures you can go here.

2010-02-28T21:03:00.001-07:00

Happy 26th Birthday Kevin!

This past year I've been working on sorting all my printed photos and because of that, I now have (almost) all of the kids' school pictures in one place. For some reason I'm missing Kevin's 4th grade picture (who knows why), but otherwise they're all here -starting with Kindergarten.

I thought it would be fun to see Kevin and his many faces throughout the years. Isn't he just adorable! Each of these pictures brings back so many memories of watching him grow, change and mature into the man that he is now. This year, I asked Terry if he would write a birthday note for Kevin, so here it is.

"Kevin, we’re so proud of you! We think of you often off in that foreign land called Mississippi, and wish there was a way we could be closer.

We’re very thankful for the man that you’ve become, but I definitely miss those days of watching you grow up. I miss going to your basketball games, plays, and choir concerts. I miss going on camping trips & canoe trips with you and the different places we went on our family vacations. I miss so many different things we did together as you grew up – playing basketball, going on hikes together, playing guitars. As anyone who knows you will agree, you are always a lot of fun to be around.

Sometimes a little quirky, but always a lot of fun.

The fact that you chose to serve your country for the last few years makes me very proud. It’s been a joy and a special privilege to be your father, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what God has in store for you in the years to come.

Have a great birthday, Son! We hope to see you very soon. Love, Dad"

1st grade

2nd grade

3rd grade

5th grade

6th grade

7th grade

8th grade

9th grade

10th grade

11th grade

12th grade

Shortly after his 21st birthday

Last Summer - as handsome as ever!

Happy Birthday dear son! We love you forever.

2010-02-27T10:52:00.000-07:00

Not sure if you've seen this, but it's amazing!

The picture below (wait to look at it until after you read this). It's that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas , who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner.

The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta. She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, 'Hand of Hope.’ The text explaining the picture begins, 'The tiny hand of 21-week-old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.'

Little Samuel's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture. She said, 'the photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person.’ Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful.

Now see the actual picture, and it is awesome...incredible...and hey, pass
it on. The world needs to see this one!

2010-02-20T18:28:00.000-07:00

Fort Myers, Florida (Part 8) - Our Visit to Sea Salt in Naples

I'm sure you're wondering what "Sea Salt" is in the town of Naples, besides of course the actual salt. Well, we were wondering too. Diane had decided that she wanted to buy a few more of those delicious Norman Love chocolates to take home for family and friends and when checking online, she found out that they were also sold at a place called "Sea Salt" in Naples. We weren't sure if it was a store or what, and didn't really have time to look it up before we left. We didn't even write down the address, but Alice thought she had a good idea of where it might be, since there are a few well known shopping areas in the town.

After the rest of our adventures in Naples, we decided to try to find Sea Salt, so we drove around 5th Avenue and 3rd Street with our eyes out for a sign. Finally, we decided to ask a couple of women who were walking down the street. They didn't live in town, but said they thought there was a restaurant named Sea Salt somewhere on 3rd Street. That was the case and soon we were walking up to the door.

When I saw how welcoming the outdoor terrace was, I was disappointed that we hadn't given it a try for lunch on such a beautiful day. Oh well, too late for that now, but at least we could track down the chocolates we were looking for.

Well, it turns out that in addition to chocolates, they also have a little shop inside that sells all manner of treats, including - you guessed it - sea salt.

Now this wasn't just any old run of the mill boring white sea salt. The owners, Venetian chef (that's Venice, Italy, not Florida or California) Fabrizio Aielli and his wife, Ingrid have collected dozens of flavor-infused salts. And our first surprise was that Fabrizio himself offered to let Diane and I sample a few! He was so enthusiastic about every detail of our tasting. I wish we had had more time to savor his descriptions delivered in that wonderful Italian accent, as well as the flavors and the moments of discovery.

He let us try Lemon Twist, Chipotle and Ghost Pepper infused salts. The Lemon would have definitely been delicious on any kind of fish, chicken or even vegetables.

Of course, I enjoy lemon flavor on most anything so this was a special treat.

Next we tried the Chipotle, which had a smoky southwestern flavor reminiscent of our familiar Arizona spices. Obviously this would be great on Mexican food, but also pork, beef and so much more.

And for the big finale, Fabrizio took great care to explain that the Ghost Pepper from India, is recognized as the hottest pepper in the world and that it was wise to use it very sparingly. I was actually familiar with it, since our friend Jay is a big fan of hot spices and has been trying to buy some seeds so he could raise his own Ghost Peppers. So, knowing what I know about those peppers, we made sure to have some water available to douse the heat after we tasted this unique salt flavor. When I tasted it, I actually took only one grain of salt and that one little piece felt like it was burning thru my tongue. It wasn't horrible, but I don't think I would use it very often in cooking, if at all. In fact, I think it was quite daring of Fabrizio to even consider using it on his dishes. I imagine that there's an elite audience for it.

Soon Fabrizio was told that he had a gentleman waiting for an appointment and although he appeared to enjoy our little adventure much more than the thought of his upcoming meeting, he had to say goodbye. We were so appreciative of the time that he took to share his passion with us. Diane bought a small bottle of the Lemon Twist and we headed for the door.

And our last surprise was seeing this adorable dog waiting at the table for Fabrizio to come for his meeting. I'm assuming it belonged to him because he was watching him so intently and waiting so patiently for his master to join them.

So that was our last big adventure in Florida and what a fun little detour it was!

2010-02-20T15:30:00.002-07:00

If your name was in the dictionary, what would the definition be?

2010-02-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

Fort Myers, FL (Part 7) - A Visit to Naples

On our last day we wanted to be pretty low key so we'd have time to get packed and have a good night's rest that night. Besides, Mom was starting to get tired. At 86, it was a big trip for her and she did so well the whole time!

Alice suggested that we take a leisurely trip down the coast to the beautiful town of Naples. It was a gorgeous drive along the coast and actually over several islands linked together by simple bridges. When we got into town we made a quick stop just to see the beach.

The weather was a little cool, but the day was still gorgeous to sit and enjoy the beach. The sand there is much more fine than it is in California. Not sure why. Does anyone know?

Aren't these birds just sweet in their chorus line?

Next we went into town and had lunch at Tin City, then took a drive around the lovely neighborhoods.

There was such a variety of architecture there. I love the boldness of the tropical colors in the aqua house. That one's for you Linda. Most of these homes back up to the water. Besides that, it was an area similar to Beverly Hills, although not sure that the price tag is quite the same.

The Banyan trees in the front yards were amazing as well. After seeing the huge one in Fort Myers, you can tell why they would have to keep these well trimmed so they don't take over their whole yard. They're so unique and a little spooky at the same time.

I must say that there were quite a few "For Sale" signs in the yards. Just another indication of the state of the economy all over the country.

Now we made one more stop at Sea Salt before we ended our day, but I'll save that for the next post since it had surprises that were both fun and a little sad. That was our last official event of the trip.

Come back tomorrow to see what happened!

2010-02-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

Happy

alentine's

Day
to my favorite guy!

Taken at Fish Creek Falls in Colorado last summer.

2010-02-13T16:15:00.001-07:00

Fort Myers, FL (Part 6) - Cruise to Cabbage Key

On Sunday Alice made reservations for us to take a day cruise to Cabbage Key so we got up and out a little earlier than usual and headed across Sanibel and Captiva Islands to catch the Lady Chadwick.

Our host and guide was so friendly. He spent time explaining so many interesting details about the natural and human history of the area.

After about an hour on the water, we arrived at the island. This is the restaurant at Cabbage Key where we had lunch. It's also said that the song "Cheeseburger in Paradise" was inspired at this location.

This is what it looks like inside. The walls are covered with real dollar bills. Our cruise guide said that it's estimated that there's $70,000 or more on those walls. Just look at how thick that pole is in the middle. That's a lot of layers of paper! The bills that fall on the floor are donated to charity.

Of course we had to add our dollar as well. With all 4 of our names on it. It's hanging on the door between the restaurant and bar. We'll have to go back and visit it sometime.

The folks who run the restaurant were kind enough to offer to take us down the short walking trail in a golf cart since mom has some trouble getting around. We drove by this house with the friendly blood hound howling from the porch. It kind of reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean.

Alice explained tha this is a Strangler Fig tree that has wrapped itself around a palm tree. Very strange and kinda creepy.

More of the beautiful flora on the island.

This moss covered speed limit sign reminds us to S-L-O-W down. Of course, on an island that's only 100 acres and has no automobiles, its easy to take it slow.

This is the observation tower that Alice and I climbed.

Here's the view from the top.

This beautiful crane is outside the kitchen door waiting for a treat.

We had several dolphins swim alongside our boat. I never get tired of watching these amazing creatures.

We headed back "home" by mid-afternoon and enjoyed watching the Super Bowl and the commercials that night.

Tomorrow we'll head to Naples, FL for our last day of our mini vacation. Come back soon.

2010-02-13T13:35:00.000-07:00

Big news day! Be sure to read all the posts...

You can just imagine how excited we were to see our own adopted Sun, Steve Nash as one of the final four people to carry the torch and have the honor of actually lighting the cauldron! Wow! I can't even imagine how proud and excited he must have been to represent Canada in his own home province in that way. Wow! WOW!!!! I would have been crying my eyes out at that point.

See more on his comments here and here.

2010-02-13T12:52:00.001-07:00

We interrupt our Fort Myers trip to bring you a great deal!

I came across this wonderful line of Rip Squeak children's books and beautiful illustrations a year or so ago and have been trying to figure out who I can buy them for. I love good quality books and can't say no to a wonderful illustrator.

I just found out that all their merchandise online is 50 - 75% off!

If you have little ones in your life or will be attending a baby shower or birthday party in the coming months, these would be wonderful gifts or artwork for the walls of their rooms.

Enjoy!

2010-02-12T20:50:00.000-07:00

Fort Myers, FL (Part 5) - This and That

Here are some places we visited just for fun.

We had a chance to "meet" Alice's pets on Friday night. Aren't they the cutest little ones? Lacey is a Pomeranian, but Alice keeps her trimmed really short (except her tail). I really love the look. She looks like a miniature fox.

And Charlie, the cat was given to her by her neighbor. He's a beauty, isn't he? He's about twice the size of our cat, Shredder.

Diane was warming up for a fun evening. She looks a little messy from the rain that fell earlier that night. It's amazing what humidity does to your hair. I forget about that when we live here.

Saturday Alice took us to Norman Love Confections and it was wonderful! Norman even came out and talked with us. His chocolate is delicious! Look at those gorgeous desserts! I couldn't talk anyone in our group into splitting one with me...bummer.

We also went to Manatee Park to see if we could get a glimpse of those interesting creatures. We were able to see them poke their noses and tails (photo above) out of the water. Sadly the cold weather there in the last month is taking it's toll on this endangered species.

Made a quick stop at the Shell Factory and saw hundreds of shells of all shapes and sizes. The store is pretty kitchy, but a fun place to visit. Look how cute my mom looks here.

While passing through town one day, we made a quick stop to see the Banyan tree at the site of the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford summer homes. You can see Diane and Alice standing in the center. Remember this is just ONE tree. They're all over southwestern Florida. The homeowners keep them trimmed, but they are so unusual looking.

Several times while we were there we had to cross the Caloosahatchee River between Fort Myers and North Fort Myers. It's a huge river! There seemed to be water everywhere we went. We were never quite sure if we were looking at a river, a canal, the Gulf of Mexico or some other body of water.

We had dinner overlooking the beach. It was beautiful. This is the view from our dinner table. Doesn't this look like a preview of the Spring Break crowd?

And here's the view down the beach.

Here's Diane daydreaming that she could live in Florida. She couldn't stop talking about moving there. I told her she'd better go visit for a while in the summer before she made a final decision. I can't quite imagine 90 degrees with 90 percent humidity. Can you say "stifling"?

So I leave you with a beautiful sunset over the Gulf of Mexico. I hope you enjoyed the quick tour. Tomorrow's post will be about our cruise to Cabbage Key.

How would you feel about living in Florida?

2010-02-08T09:06:00.001-07:00

Fort Myers, FL (Part 4) - Beautiful Music

When we went downtown for the First Fridays Art Walk in Fort Myers we had a chance to meet some of Alice's friends, enjoy some delicious food, browse a few galleries and hear some great music!

These are a few of the friends that Alice meets up with to enjoy First Fridays and other night life around town. They are a sweet bunch of folks.

While we were there we heard the legendary John Mooney play blues (slide) guitar for free at the Indigo Room! He's a pretty amazing musician as you can see from his website. (There's a photo of him playing with Bonnie Rait among other things). Apparently he has family in Fort Myers, so he comes to see them and drops in at some of the local places to play. Sorry that the photo is blurry. I was using our table as a tripod and it kept getting bumped, but you get the idea. Here's a photo from his website.

After that we wandered down to have dinner at the French Connection Cafe. The food was excellent and very reasonably priced. Even though we had a pretty big storm earlier in the evening, the weather was perfect for eating outside.

Check out Alice's Steak Salad. Mmmm!

Later we stopped in at this Arts for ACT Gallery and Boutique set up to raise funds for (Abuse Counseling and Treatment) in the Fort Myers area. See the beautiful blue scarf hanging over the partition? That's where I found MY beautiful GREEN hand-dyed silk scarf by Sara Long that I promptly purchased to bring home. It was VERY reasonably priced too. I loved all the quilted art and textiles here.

Alice has a friend, Kat Epple that was playing music at another gallery - Space 39 (also free to listen) so we headed over there to hear her music and meet more of Alice's friends. We learned that Kat's music has won 8 Emmys for film scores and has been nominated for Grammys! Pretty awesome, huh? Unfortunately, I don't know the names of the other 2 musicians, but they all played beautifully! The guy on the right is playing a theramin. You can go here if you want to hear what one sounds like. It has something to do with radio waves...

Well we're headed out to Naples today, so that's all I have time for. We had a really fun time at the Art Walk, thanks to our host and tour guide, Alice.

2010-02-06T21:11:00.001-07:00

Fort Myers, Florida (Part 3)

This is all I have time for tonight. First thing this morning we decided to take some pictures in our hotel lobby because the colors are so much fun! This is me and my mom (of course). See how my new scarf matches the bench?

This is our view from the window of the restaurant where we had dinner tonight at Fort Myers Beach. Isn't it gorgeous!

We also saw Manatees today, or should I say little bitty glimpses of parts of Manatees. I'll post a picture later, but you won't be impressed. I need to go thru and figure out which shot actually shows enough of it that you can recognize something. The water wasn't clear, like it appears to be in the photo below (courtesy of SeaPics.com). It was kind of exciting to see them though. Did you know they're called the "Cows of the Sea"?

Tomorrow we'll be cruising to Cabbage Key. Hoping to see dolphins along the way.

More pics to come... Have a great Sunday!

2010-02-06T09:07:00.003-07:00

Fort Myers, FL (Part 2)

Here are a few more highlights from our first day or so...be sure to scroll down to see the first post if you missed it.

When we landed, Mom's sister Alice picked us up from the airport and took us to our hotel. When we walked in the room, she had left a huge bouquet of gladiolas! Did you know that Fort Myers used to be the Gladiola Capitol of the US (maybe the world, I don't remember).

Alice also had created a huge basket full of local treats with fresh shrimp, gorgeous fruits and veggies, tourist brochures, wine, etc. She even brought a book from a local author and checked out some books about the area from the library. The shrimp and other food were great snacks to have as we settled in for the night.

What a fun surprise! I'm sure it took a lot of driving around (and money) to pull all those things together.

Check out those scrumptious Norman Love Chocolates! We told her we want to go visit that store. They are works of art! Mmmmm...

Alice has lived in this area for a long time, so she's the perfect host and tour guide. We're so excited about our time here, but we know it's going to be too short already.

Next post - Beautiful music in Fort Myers...

2010-02-05T22:25:00.001-07:00

Fort Myers, Florida !

For those of you who don't already know, I'm in Fort Myers with my mom and my sister, Diane on a short vacation to visit my mom's sister, Alice. Unfortunately, it's after midnight here and we have a busy day planned tomorrow (and most every day that we're here), so this has to be short and sweet.

I just couldn't wait to post a couple of pictures of some of the things that we saw tonight when we went downtown to their First Friday Art Walk. Yes, they have one too. We'll talk more about that later.

Right now you can admire this awesome art installation with words shining all over the sidewalk, building, pedestrians and ...

...even on the trees!

I just LOVE it! Alice didn't really know the story behind the choice of the various words. Some of them are definitely real words, but others look to be either made up or another language. I haven't had time to research it. Let me know if you know anything about it.

Anyway, this is at the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center in downtown Fort Myers.

Here's a close up of the words below as well.

Later we went into this gallery that had some gorgeous textiles!

I found this beautiful hand-dyed silk green scarf for only $15! What a fun souvenir to bring home as a reminder of the wonderful time that we've already had...and it's only the first day here!

We also enjoyed some amazing music tonight, but that will have to be a post for another time. In the meantime, do any of you know what a theremin is? I can give you a hint. It's a musical instrument and we got to hear one tonight! More on that to come so stay tuned...

2010-01-29T19:35:00.001-07:00

SNOW DAY!!! (Part 1)

Sometimes my heart just aches to experience the changing of the seasons. After growing up on Ohio, with the full range of sights, sounds, and smells of the season, I just miss it so much that I need to get somewhere out of town. I especially feel the tug in the Fall and Winter. We get our own share of Summer and enough of a feel of Spring that I don't miss that too much.

The last few weeks there have been so many reminders of snowy winter, especially last week with all the snow that they got in northern Arizona. I started thinking about a road trip to Flagstaff probably on Thursday, but the storm continued thru Saturday which made it dangerous to drive up there before last Sunday. So that morning we got up and decided to hit the road.

It was a perfect day! The roads were totally clear, the traffic was light and the sun was shining as we headed up the mountain toward Flagstaff. This was our first glimpse of the snow in the distance.

We drove thru Starbucks in Cottonwood on the way up and Terry picked up an apple fritter with his coffee. He didn't want me to take a picture of him eating it (he's supposed to be watching his carbs, you know. But I think this is incriminating enough.

Next we started to see snow on the ground by the road...then we really got into snow country! Look how heavily it was covering the trees.

Look at this gorgeous shot of the mountains coming up from the south of Flagstaff.

Not sure if you can tell (below), but we're actually parked in the road. The off and on ramps were plowed, but not the road that they lead to. There was a 6 foot pile of snow in front of the car from the plow blocking the road, so if there was anyone living down there, they wouldn't have any way to get out unless they had a snowmobile or something.

This is the sign that goes across the road. I'm not thinking that anyone's going to get anywhere in that direction on something with wheels.

Here's Terry starting up the hill. You can see that it was thigh high in most places. Fortunately it was pretty good packing snow and there were a few paths that were packed down enough that we could walk on them without sinking down too deeply. There were a couple of times that I "fell in" and Terry had to pull me out so that my camera wouldn't get in the snow (which happened once). It's so funny because there's just no leverage to push yourself up, since your hands sink down in it too.

It had been so long since we'd been in the snow that we forgot to bring extra pairs of pants. Fortunately, we didn't get too wet and we did have dry socks, so we were o.k.

It was so sweet to hear the crunch of the snow under our feet! I love the SOUND of Winter.

And look how amazing the trees were!

We watched showers of snow coming down from the branches very regularly. Fortunately we weren't beneath any of them.

Isn't it cool that there were icicles hanging from the tree's needles?

When we first got there, the only people around were a couple with their little boy. I'd guess him to be around 5 and he was having a blast...so were his folks.

Then just before we left we were joined by a young family from Phoenix with 3 boys who had NEVER seen snow! What an exciting day that must have been for them. And the littlest one couldn't have been more than 3 years old. As they were trying to climb the hill he kept sitting down in the snow and his mom kept telling him to stand up. Then the dad suggested that maybe he couldn't stand up with all the clothes bundling him up. He was SO adorable! That's him coming down the hill on the sled all by himself.

It brought back some great memories of our snowy adventures with the kids in years past.

After playing in the snow there for a bit, we started driving toward town then decided to head toward Lake Mary to see if we could get there. Our prospects didn't look good, but we stopped at the visitor center and had a chance to take a few more pics, of course...

It's taking me forever to get this post up, and I need to leave again soon, so I'm going to do it in two parts.

Stay tuned for part two of our snow day! It was a blast!

2010-01-24T10:00:00.004-07:00

I just signed up for this class at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix and I'm so excited! I've heard that it's relatively easy to grow herbs here in the desert climate, but they surely don't last on my window sill in the kitchen. I'm looking forward to finding out the secrets of planting them (and keeping them alive) outside. I will mostly plant in pots to start with, if that's workable. When I'm finished with the class and my herbs are thriving it will be exciting to use them for cooking. Fresh herbs are SO much better than dried ones!

Herbs from Garden to Kitchen

Take your herbal knowledge to new heights–from growing herbs in your garden to dazzling your senses in the kitchen. In three sessions you will learn herb gardening for success in the desert, herb varieties and their uses, and delicious herb-inspired recipes and menus for healthy cooking. Open your senses to the bounty of herbs that grow in the desert. Also included is a wonderful informational and instructional manual prepared especially for this series by your instructor Catherine The Herb Lady. Limit 20.

Session 1: Edibles in the Desert - Learn to garden for success in this introductory session designed to get you growing. From planning to planting, ‘The Herb Lady' will teach you about our ‘flip- flop' planting times, give you the scoop on soil, and why "location, location, location" is as important in growing herbs as in buying real estate. You will also learn about one of most important tools for desert gardening, bugs both good and bad, and more.

Session 2: Herbs - Anise to Zahtar - Discover the incredible variety of herbs that can be grown right here in our desert. While some are used to beautify, others are aromatic and flavorful, and many are "multitaskers", fulfilling many roles. Learn about gardening with themes, plants that play well with others and some that do not. This session includes an interpretive guided tour of the Herb Garden.

Session 3: Beauty on the Table, Delicious on the Dish - Treat your taste buds in this savory session by sampling some herb inspired recipes prepared by ‘The Herb Lady.' This interactive session will lead you, step-by-step, through a wide range of healthy, mouth-watering menu ideas. All are tasty, some unique, and all guaranteed to put more real food with real flavor on your plate, while minimizing fat and salt.

2010-01-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Today I've been cleaning up the office and getting rid of some holiday catalogs that piled up on our desk. Of course, I had to just flip thru a few of them and here are a few treasures that I found.

Check out these cool picture frame stickers from UncommonGoods.com !

For those who can't put a lot of holes in the walls, or want something that's easy to change around, these look like so much fun!

They range in size from 4 x 6 " to 8 x 10". Just imagine the possibilities. You could even stick them to a mirror or window or even your refrigerator.

I also love this idea for making a customized name sign with photos of different objects that are shaped like letters. I can't copy the picture, but go here and zoom in to see the detail. For example, each letter is a black and white photo of things like wrought iron scrollwork in the shape of an "S", or a wooden barn door with the boards in the shape of an "N". All kinds of creative objects. I'm sure that all you creative photograhers could do this yourself and just put the words in a college frame.

I really like this custom Nautical Tile Clock from National Geographic (www.shopNG.org). If you provide them with the town and zip code closest to your waterside home or favorite spot along the U.S. coastal waterways, the Great Lakes, Alaska, or Hawaii, their artisans in New England will screen print a local chart on tumbled marble to create an analog clock.

Someday maybe I'll get one with my hometown of Vermilion, Ohio, right along Lake Erie.

Well, that's enough browsing for now. I need to get back to cleaning.

2010-01-21T21:10:00.001-07:00

20th Annual Forever Friends Gathering

January 16th was our chance to get together with some of our dear friends, all of which we've known for 30 years or more. I'm not sure if it's really our 20th year of doing this, but it's been a long time. It started when we lived in Southern California for 18 years and nearly every winter we'd come back to Phoenix between Christmas and New Year's to visit family and friends. We always tried to reserve one day to gather with a few of our dear friends that we've known since the late 70's when we lived here in AZ the first time. Most of these friends were married around the same time as us and had children at around the same time. Our kids have known each other since birth and hopefully our grandkids will be the same.

This year the Mozingos graciously hosted the gathering. It's really one of our favorite places to go, because it's like going out of town, even though they're still in the metro Phoenix area. You'll see why from the photos.

This first pic is the inside of their front door. They built this adobe home themselves and it has so many gorgeous touches that make it unique. I just love the character of it. The sidelight is made from the bottom of wine bottles. I love the way the light shines thru it.

Most of us arrived by mid-afternoon so we could watch the Cardinals playoff game against New Orleans. We had high hopes, but if you know anything about football, you'll know that they lost miserably, so the attention soon turned to the delicious food, wonderful fellowship and beautiful weather outside.

We each brought something to contribute to the meal. Appetizers, drinks, desserts, soups, etc. I won't go into a lot of detail because I forgot to take pictures of the food before it was picked over, but as always, we had so much more than we could eat and EVERYTHING was amazing! If you don't want to come to these gatherings for any other reason, you will come for the food. We are all very good at putting on a good spread.

During half time, many of us wandered outside to get our minds off the game and to see the latest developments in the Mozingo compound. Some of us were fortunate to get a tour of Rand and Michelle's winter garden. Brimming with gorgeous greens, turnips, radishes, cauliflower, broccoli and more. It was fun to see and sample so many delicious healthy treats. Thanks Rand! You're a gardening inspiration.

After the tour we all just hung out in the back yard for a while. I decided this year that I wanted to try to take a group photo at these annual gatherings so that we can look back at the growth and changes that have happened. Sadly we haven't done it all along, but we still have lots of photos of these times together each year. And now that I have a tripod and a remote control for my camera, it makes it that much easier.

The Thompson clan was out in force, but the rest of the families were a bit light on kids. I think our kids would have loved to be there, if they weren't living in other states. We need to figure out a way to do this when they're in town sometimes. And Emolyn was the only grandchild here, so needless to say she was quite the center of attention. I look forward to the day when there are scads of little ones running around, experiencing what true friendship looks like and the love, grace and joy that fills these times together.

Shawn, Nicole and Emolyn

This is Jenna and her friend Sarah. They've been friends since they were born too!

I love this shot of these old friends sharing stories.

Can you guess who they're all looking at?

You guessed it! Emolyn!

Can you tell that her Uncle Tyler adores her?

She's at that perfect age when she'll do all kinds of "tricks" with the prompting of

adults around her. We saw many animal impersonations, ad-lib songs, dancing and so much more.

What a fun age she is!

Emolyn's parents, Nicole and Shawn, of course.

And here's Aunt Miranda singing with Em.

There was a threat of rain, but fortunately it held off for our get-together.

Enjoy the rest of these photos. They are self-explanatory. I hope you get a picture of this wonderful place, group of people and time together. It's one of our favorite gatherings of the year. We wouldn't miss it for the world.

We decided that next year we want to bring marshmallows, chocolate and Ginger Snaps and make a new kind of s'mores. Doesn't that sound delicious? But what should we call them?

2010-01-20T22:13:00.003-07:00

Check out this gorgeous lettering!

You can download these drop caps and others like them to dress up your blog or website here.

The Daily Drop Cap is an ongoing project by typographer and illustrator Jessica Hische. Each day (or at least each WORK day), a new hand-crafted decorative initial cap will be posted for your enjoyment and for the beautification of blog posts everywhere.

What a cool idea! How generous of her!

Special thanks to Amy for sharing her discovery of them.

Here's another one. Don't you just love them both?

2010-01-16T10:05:00.000-07:00

Don't forget to vote for Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire to be All-star game starters. Today is the last day to vote, so let's put Steve over the top.

Go here to vote now!

2010-01-09T22:00:00.001-07:00

Oh My Gosh - I am so far behind...
...that I don't even know where to start.

It's kind of funny that I signed up to Journal my Christmas and only managed to do one post about it. So here's what I'm thinking about doing next year. I'll go thru the list of topics that I got this year and try to write about them thru-out the year. Then when they come around in December, I'll already have the text and will just have to copy it into the blog and add photos. I'm assuming that she changes it up a little each year, but some of the topics have to be repeated, right? So, I guess that needs to go on my To-Do list so I don't forget to write about Christmas in July. I'm really looking forward to the journaling. It's just way too busy in December, so I need to do some prep work.
For now, I'll catch you up on one of my decorating updates around the house. While I was taking the Christmas tree ornaments down, I decided to change my branch a little. It started out with the removal of a few more sparkly items and the addition of some heart-shaped ornaments in preparation for Valentine's Day. Then I decided to add a few more ornaments and such to represent various things that we're looking forward to in the coming year...so I call it my New Year's branch. Here are some of the items on it now. When we get closer to Valentine's Day I'll add a few more hearts probably.

In the first photo above, it's obviously a globe turned toward Europe. That's because the big news is that we're going to Bosnia on a short term mission trip there in May (hopefully). Did you know that it's across the ocean to the east of Italy? You can read a little more about our plans in our Christmas Letter, if you haven't read it yet. Tonight we watched the movie, "Welcome to Sarajevo", which gives just a glimpse into the horrible war there in the 90's. We're also reading some books about it and learning from those who have been there in preparation for our trip. There will be lots more news to come on that as well.

In this next photo you'll also see:

The car represents road trips that we hope to take. We love adventure whether near or far. Now you have to ignore the fact that the car is sitting in a tree. We're not planning on anything like that happening!
The music note is a reminder of the new opportunities that Terry will have to play publicly with his friends Dave and Bob, as well as doing what he has always loved, playing with the worship band at church.
The mitten behind the note represents my hope to get up to the cold country to see some snow sometime this year.
The little framed ornament says "Be Merry" - just a reminder to be joyful in all things.
The word tags say "Thanksgiving" (to fill our hearts with it), "lazy days" (to slow down and relax once in a while), and "flowers" (who doesn't love them!)

And you must have noticed that sweet chubby red cardinal sitting on the branch. We could say that it represents our Phoenix Cardinals football team, or having a chance to get out and enjoy some nature during the year, but in reality I just think he's an adorable little guy and wanted to see him perched on the branch. Besides, he matches the color scheme. (my branch, my rules)
On the right of the photo below you'll see a camera. Guess what that represents?

So needless to say, we're as excited about the year to come, as we always are and maybe a litle more so, since we have some new adventures to look forward to.

Be sure to stop by again to hear about the rest of last year too! It's coming soon, really...

2010-01-06T07:16:00.014-07:00

50 Ways to Help the Planet

Amy posted a link to "50 Ways to Help the Planet" recently. So many of them are very easy, so I thought I'd post some of them here. For the rest of the list, visit the link above or at the end of this post. (List is provided compliments of "Wire and Twine")

1. CHANGE YOUR LIGHT
If every household in the United State replaced one regular lightbulb with one of those new compact fluorescent bulbs, the pollution reduction would be equivalent to removing one million cars from the road.
Don't like the color of light? Use these bulbs for closets, laundry rooms and other places where it won't irk you as much.

2. TURN OFF COMPUTERS AT NIGHT
By turning off your computer instead of leaving it in sleep mode, you can save 40 watt-hours per day. That adds up to 4 cents a day, or $14 per year. If you don't want to wait for your computer to start up, set it to turn on automatically a few minutes before you get to work, or boot up while you're pouring your morning cup 'o joe.

3. DON'T RINSE
Skip rinsing dishes before using your dishwasher and save up to 20 gallons of water each load. Plus, you're saving time and the energy used to heat the additional water.

4. DO NOT PRE-HEAT THE OVEN
Unless you are making bread or pastries of some sort, don't pre-heat the oven. Just turn it on when you put the dish in. Also, when checking on your food, look through the oven window instead of opening the door.

5. RECYCLE GLASS
Recycled glass reduces related air pollution by 20 percent and related water pollution by 50 percent. If it isn't recycled it can take a million years to decompose.

6. DIAPER WITH A CONSCIENCE
By the time a child is toilet trained, a parent will change between 5,000 and 8,000 diapers, adding up to approximately 3.5 million tons of waste in U.S. landfills each year. Whether you choose cloth or a more environmentally-friendly disposable, you're making a choice that has a much gentler impact on our planet.

7. HANG DRY
Get a clothesline or rack to dry your clothes by the air. Your wardrobe will maintain color and fit, and you'll save money. Your favorite t-shirt will last longer too.

8. GO VEGETARIAN ONCE A WEEK
One less meat-based meal a week helps the planet and your diet. For example: It requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef. You will also also save some trees. For each hamburger that originated from animals raised on rainforest land, approximately 55 square feet of forest have been destroyed.

9. WASH IN COLD OR WARM
If all the households in the U.S. switched from hot-hot cycle to warm-cold, we could save the energy comparable to 100,000 barrels of oil a day.
Only launder when you have a full load.

10. USE ONE LESS PAPER NAPKIN
During an average year, an American uses approximately 2,200 napkins—around six each day. If everyone in the U.S. used one less napkin a day, more than a billion pounds of napkins could be saved from landfills each year.

The other 40 tips are here. Take a look and see how many of them you can put into practice in the new year. How many of these are you already doing? I think I'm at least at about 50% of these practices and trying to incorporate more every year. Your grandchildren will thank you for it.

2010-01-05T13:00:00.004-07:00

Ready for something “real” instead of a New Year’s Resolution?

How about making the decision to make a 2 Degree change in your health, your home and your heart for God – not a “180 Degree” change that you’ll never keep.

Like finding a friend and the two of you committing to doing (and bugging each other to do) ten sit-ups and five push-ups a night. Or drinking five glasses of water a day. Or having one dessert every other night, instead of every night.

For more ideas on making 2 Degree changes in your home and heart for God check out my friend, John Trent's book of the same title - click here to read about "The 2 Degree Difference"!

2009-12-30T17:12:00.005-07:00

Our Semi-official Christmas Letter - 2009

Greetings to you, our dear friends and family!

If you have a few minutes, settle into your favorite chair and catch up on our latest news.

As always, God has been good and our year has been full! Most of you know that we have been empty-nesters now for a few years. The photo of the whole family was taken at Disneyland for our one weekend all together so far this year. We’re excited that we’ll be together again for the weekend after Christmas. Now let’s see what the family has been doing…

Kevin recently spent about 6 months in Afghanistan conducting some top secret missions with the Air Force. He’s not allowed to tell us what he was doing for at least 50 years. (Safe bet that we won’t even be around by then, right?) He was honorably discharged from the Air Force in August and is now working for a strategy and technology consulting firm. His job is located in Meridian, Mississippi, a somewhat smallish town a few hours from the gulf. Quite different from anywhere he’s lived before. All we know is that he’s doing curriculum development and training for the military, relating to the equipment that he worked on in Afghanistan. He’s been there since early October and is still getting acclimated to the job and the terrain.

Amy and her husband, Andrew are living back in Southern California, just a half hour or so from where they grew up (in Santa Clarita). She was able to transfer with her job from a similar position in Scottsdale. She’s an editor for press releases, so gets in on the breaking news before any of us hear it, but isn’t allowed to say anything. She’s also pursuing her dream of being a wedding and portrait photographer and had the privilege of shooting a wedding in Italy, as well as several others this year. Her hope is to eventually do photography full time, so if you know of anyone who’s looking, please pass her name along. She’s willing to travel. Visit www.TeeganPhotography.com to see her work.

Andrew has pretty much landed his dream job! A few years ago he attended The Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences here in Arizona, and then was offered an internship at a recording studio in So Cal. Since then he has moved to a new studio and has the privilege of working with and learning from a well-known mixing engineer. He’s worked on albums by Green Day, Dave Matthews band, Hanna Montana and many others. He also has a chance to do his own free-lance engineering work in his spare time. He LOVES what he’s doing and is learning so much!

Terry is thankful to have survived a round of layoffs at American Funds and has been enjoying some special assignments in his job that keep him from getting bored. He also loves the 10 minute commute! During his free time he has been playing music a lot! Just this month, in addition to the time he plays at church on Sundays, he played in a band for a Christmas concert for 2 nights, then with a different band at a CD release party at a coffeehouse the next weekend, and this weekend he played with a friend at the local Borders Bookstore. He already has a few gigs scheduled in January as well. I'm so glad that he has the time and opportunities to express his gifts and talents in this way. It's what he loves to do more than most anything.

As for me, I’m working 4 days a week for Uhlmann Family Offices http://www.familyoffices.org/ . I enjoy a lot of variety in my position. Parts of my days are spent assisting the non-profit organizations that share office space with us. I have the chance to do a little bit of everything…event coordination, basic graphic design, photography, help with mailings, blog posts, website updates, and even a bit of bookkeeping. I really love my job and my schedule! My Fridays are precious to me because I have a chance to spend time with my mom and take her shopping, to doctor appts, lunch, the movies or whatever we decide to do together. My sisters come along sometimes as well. It gives me the chance to make up for some of the time that we lived in So Cal. I love having that extra day to get things done either with family, friends or at home. Speaking of extra time, I now have the time and energy to pursue hobbies like photography, blogging, crafting and hopefully sewing soon (when I get my machine).

Terry and I also were blessed with some fun travel this year. We went to Steamboat Springs, CO for a week in the summer. Kevin and two of our dear friends were able to join us too. We had gorgeous weather and spent a lot of time outdoors. In September we spent a long weekend enjoying Antelope Canyon and the north rim of the Grand Canyon with a couple of other great friends. The next weekend we drove to L.A. to go to Disneyland with Amy, Andrew and Kevin. We had a blast!

In early November we spent a week with Terry’s dad and wife, Ginny in North Carolina. We were treated to some amazing Fall colors and other gorgeous scenery there. It was wonderful to have the chance to spend some extended time with them.

So what’s on the horizon for 2010? You’ll have to ask the kids about their plans, but I’m hoping to travel to Fort Myers, Florida with my mom and sisters in February. At 86, my mom still loves to travel, as long as one of us comes along with her. We’re looking forward to visiting her half sister, Alice there.

In May, Terry and I are hoping to travel to Bosnia with a few people from our church. Open Door Fellowship has had ongoing relationships assisting several churches there since their war and unrest in the 90’s. Terry and two other guys are planning to go and play music at several churches and coffeehouses. The men who lead worship at these churches are often the pastors who end up doing everything on Sundays. The guys will be able to give these pastors some rest from that portion of the morning and will give the congregation a treat by having some different music and musicians. They’ll also play at local coffeehouses to begin to make connections between the churches and the community they serve. I will be going along to help with whatever I can and document as much as possible with photos. They haven’t had anyone go with them to Bosnia for the purpose of capturing the images of the people and places and I hope to be able to bring home visuals that will help them spread the word about the work they do there and the needs that are evident. We will be raising money for the trip in the coming months, which will be a first for us.

We'd love to keep in touch thru-out the year and hear updates from you anytime. We’re all on Facebook (except Terry), so look us up there.

We trust that you have a blessed new year, filled with the love of family and friends. We look forward to hearing from you and seeing you in the coming year!

I'll leave you with a photo that we took of the family just this week. Amy made the beards and mustaches as stocking stuffers for all of us. Fun stuff, huh?

Love from all,

Nancy (and Terry)

2009-12-19T10:15:00.003-07:00

Christmas Ham

Sorry to have been MIA this past week or so. I'm sure you know that it's the time of year...see below for a holiday tip.

Of course, I have several events to post about, but no time at the present. I thought I'd offer a quick suggestion for a great recipe if you're making ham this year for your holiday celebrations.

I found this recipe last year and it was delicious and so easy! I substituted orange juice for the ginger ale and added a few extra cloves and brown sugar for a larger ham, but otherwise stayed pretty much with the recipe.

The awesome thing is that you can do it in a crockpot and have it cooking while you're at church or opening presents or busy with other things, then its' ready when you are! It has amazing flavor and doesn't dry out!

Give it a try and let me know how you like it.

Citrus Crocked Ham Recipe (compliments of BetterRecipes.com)

Enjoy!

2009-12-08T21:05:00.001-07:00

Day 8 - Journal Your Christmas

Are you wondering where the posts for days 1 - 7 are? Well, for now they're in my head. I've been too busy to do any posts, but I'm gathering lots of thoughts and ideas. Once we get to Sunday I should have a LOT more time, I think... and maybe I'll try to go back and catch up on some of the journaling days that I've missed.

This week we have practice on Weds night (which is also our 32nd wedding anniversary), our Home Group Christmas party (here) on Thursday night, Terry has a concert in Scottsdale on Friday night, we're celebrating our anniversary on Saturday and we will be helping with worship at church on Sunday morning. Then I think the schedule is pretty open until Christmas. Yea! Oh, I still have some Christmas shopping and wrapping to finish up, but that's easy peasy compared to these last few weeks.

I thought I could post about today's topic since it's about the Sights of the Season. I've already been snapping pics this month, so I can easily find what I need.

I love this photo above of our cat, Shredder. She's trying to look so innocent, but you can see the evidence of her tail wagging if you look at the trees on the windowsill.
This past Friday and Saturday 12/4 & 5 - my hubby played in a Christmas Concert each night with some of our best friends. (He's the third one from the right in the rust colored shirt.) Randy Thompson is the featured musician in this band, since many of the songs were written by him. Terry loves playing these concerts with Randy and I love going to them! It's such an awesome way to start the holiday season.

Another one of my favorite sights in December is the bare branch that hangs in the living room. It's so much fun to change the decor with the seasons. This winter it's sparkly! Silver, gold, crystal and white snowflakes, icicles and other various ornaments. With these decorations it can stay up past Christmas and through the other winter months as well.

And here's a little peek at our Christmas bathroom. This year, I made the two framed pieces on the walls. The black framed picture is filled with holiday designs and expressions from scrapbook paper and the red one, framed in white is "Merry Christmas" greetings on wrapping paper. What a fun and easy way to change out your framed artwork for the holidays!

Be sure to click to enlarge the photos.

Decorating our home is one of my favorite parts of the holidays. Thanks for visiting!

2009-12-04T07:32:00.017-07:00

Journal Your Christmas 2009

Yes, it's true! I have signed up to participate in "Journal Your Christmas". It started on December 1st and goes thru early January. I just signed up last night, and as you can see, I'm already behind. But it's all good! See...the cool thing is that if you pay once, then you can participate every year until...forever.

So, here's what I'm thinking...this year will be my preview and warm up year. I'll get all the materials and information and if I have time to post or scrap book, then I will. If not, then I'll just start digesting the resources and thinking about what I'll do for next year. Then I'll have a whole year to prepare and ponder and get ready to do it for real. And next year they'll add even more cool stuff!

I just started downloading the materials and supplies and I'm very excited about how much is included so far! She is very thorough in giving you all the tools you need to complete an awesome project.

Don't worry, I'm sure I'll post something about Christmas in the next month or so. It just may not be every day. But even if it's not about Christmas, it will be interesting and insightful (at least I like to think so). So please come back often or set yourself up as a follower on Google or add me to your RSS Feed so you can see my posts every time I add a new one. That would be awesome!

See you soon!

2009-12-03T18:57:00.000-07:00

Antelope Canyon - Arizona

So I've been falling behind on posting about travels. I posted some photos on Facebook in September when we were there, but I know everyone isn't on FB, so here are a few of my favorites from Antelope Canyon. I don't know about you, but I've seen pictures of Antelope Canyon for years, but never knew until recently that it was in Arizona!

We had the chance to go there with our friends, Marshall and Cathy on our way to a weekend at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and we were glad we did!

It's an amazing place for photography. The only catch is that in the middle of the day when the lighting is best, there tends to be large numbers of folks in there for their tours. There doesn't really seem to be any limit to the number that they take in at one time. If there is, then the limit's probably a little too high because there were times when it was really quite crowded in those narrow passageways. I wish I would have taken a picture of the people inside the canyon to give an idea of how crowded it was.

The Canyon (and others like it) are all on the Navajo Indian Reservation near Page, Arizona (see map here) in a somewhat desolate-looking area near the northern border between Arizona and Utah. It's amazing that these canyons are hidden in the desert there. If someone didn't have photos and directions to the place, there's no way we would have found them. There's no indication from the highway that these gorgeous formations are anywhere around. And if you've been to the reservation, you know that the Navajo are not much for permanent structures, so we weren't quite sure where to go to pay and start our tour. After a couple of stops we finally hooked up with a tour run by a woman (Carol Bigthumb) whose grandmother had discovered the canyons back in the 1930s.

This sandy riverbed was the road to the canyon for much of the way. It was very soft deep sand, so kind of strange to ride on. The drivers tried to stay closer to the edge to keep from fish-tailing too much in the soft sand.

The tour guides were generally relatives and we spent most of our time with Gabriel , Carol's son-in-law (in the hat in photo below). Turns out he is a believer and he was a great guide! Very patient in pointing out the various rock formations with names, helping us find the best places to stand for photo ops and even looking at my camera to try to change some settings to get the best shots. Now I'm sure some photographers would be offended by that, but I thought it was very nice of him to offer to be so helpful.

The guides were also very good at directing traffic throughout the canyon so that photographers could have the "illusion" of being there alone. They would hold up a group of people behind a curve in the canyon so that another group could take pictures of the space with no one in front of them. Some of the photographers got a little pushy, but all in all it went quite smoothly considering the numbers. I must admit though that as long as you have a tripod, and a camera that can be set to manual, it's really hard to take a bad photo in there. The play of light on the beautiful red/orange rocks is simply amazing!

The first picture is near the beginning of the canyon and gives you an idea of the size of the space and the sandy floor. If you go, please remember to wear closed toed shoes unless you want your feet to be totally dirty when you come out.

The rest of these are pretty much self-explanatory. Let me know if you have any questions. Enjoy!

2009-11-29T22:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Diane!

Today is my oldest sister's birthday! She stopped counting birthdays long ago, and I honestly don't keep track, but I can tell you that she is the first born in our family and I was born 5th, so that gives you an idea how much older she is than I am. Yes, I'm the one that was always pestering her and her girlfriends to let me play with them and they always thought I was just an annoyance because I was too young.

I do appreciate the fact that she laid the groundwork with the teachers in our small town by being a model student and getting good grades in her classes. Of course that was all undone by the 3 siblings in between us, so it just depended which Perkins child they had in their class whether they thought I'd be wonderful or trouble makers. I, of course was an excellent student so it was sometimes tough to undo the rebellious reputation of my other siblings, especially in the upper grades. Oh well, that's life. I learned to deal with it and my teachers and I learned not to judge a person by their siblings or by other people's opinions of them. Good life lesson overall.

The first photo here is Diane and my oldest brother, Rusty. The black spot on his nose is from a faceplant of some sort (he was a rambunctious boy - see reference above). My mom must have taken a whole roll of film with him like that. Not sure why...doesn't Diane look like the perfect big sister though? We won't talk about the time she accidentally almost killed him.

Next one is a family photo before my youngest brother Michael came along. Aren't we all so spiffy and sweet looking? Diane's standing by my mom. (I'm in front on the left.). Sharon always had better hair than I did.

Next is a photo from 1960, also pre-Michael. Diane is on the left in this one.

Then one of the 4 remaining siblings in our family (L to R) from youngest to oldest. The photo above is at least 15 years ago when all of us sisters happened to wear pink, which was very unusual. We are all VERY different from each other in oh so many ways, not the least of which is fashion choices.

The next is a Stratton family photo. We miss their son, Nick and it was good to see Steve on Thanksgiving Day.

Lastly, these next 2 are of us 3 girls on a trip to Breckenridge with my mom a couple of years ago. The last few years since Terry and I moved back to Arizona from California, us girls have been trying to do a trip each year together with my mom, who loves to travel! She will be 86 in a month and we have a trip planned to go to Florida in February to visit her half sister, Alice. Mom is looking forward to it and these trips have given us sisters a chance to get reacquanted after living apart for over 18 years. I've learned to love and appreciate them more as we spend quality time together.

This last pic is an awesome sailboat ride that we took in Colorado. It was the first time on a sailboat for most of us, which is pretty surprising considering we grew up a few hundred yards from Lake Erie.

I'm thankful for my sister, Diane. She has been a sweet friend and big sister. It's been fun hanging out with her these last few years since I've been back. I look forward to many more years of "hanging out".

Diane, I hope you had a Happy Birthday! Love you lots!

2009-11-26T22:19:00.001-07:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

I trust that everyone had a great day, filled with the love of family and friends. We shared a great meal and did some catching up with the Perkins family today.

This is the gang (above) that was there for dinner. I'm right there behind the camera, as usual. I didn't want to take the time to take the picture with the timer while the food was getting cold. I'm not sure why Terry looks so puzzled. Oh well.

There were 11 of us all together, which is a small group for our family, but since our kids live out of state and weren't able to come this year, that reduces our numbers by 3. Both my sisters'other kids were out of state too and Dustin was at his girlfriend's house, which reduced the numbers even more. Left to right around the table: Terry, my brother - Pat, my oldest sister - Diane, Russell's friend - Sharon, my mom - Jaye, my sister Sharon's son - Russell, Diane's daughter - Lisa, Diane's ex-husband - Steve, my sister Sharon's husband - Steve, and my middle sister Sharon. Kind of funny - 2 Sharons and 2 Steves in that small group. Steves kind of run in our family for some reason. None of them are Perkins', they just joined the family one way or another.

Here are the girls in the kitchen getting things ready. I was kind of surprised that we 3 sisters have so many different ideas about cooking the traditional Thanksgiving foods. You would think that we would have all learned the same way, but I guess over the years we've discovered new recipes. I did realize that we never really all cooked meals together with my mom when we were young. I guess it's because when I was getting to be old enough to be interested in cooking my sisters were both already out of the house. So now we get the chance at least once or twice a year to spend a little time in the kitchen together.

Doesn't this look like the refrigerator of a Grandma? I think it's sweet that bits of Kassidy, Jacob and Josh's names can be seen in the alphabet soup there.

Our family never seems to be short on desserts. In fact, we had 6 different desserts for 11 of us! That works out to more than a half a pie each. I think that's a bit of overkill, but we divided up the leftovers and managed to send it all home with someone.

Nothing significant about these peppers. I just like the way they coordinated with the plate they were on. Aren't they lovely?

This is a little bit of the fresh cranberry orange relish that I made. I'm not a big fan of the canned stuff so thought it would be fun to try a recipe with fresh cranberries. It was so easy! Here's how to do it.

1 bag fresh cranberries (washed and bad ones discarded)
1 orange with the peel left on (washed)
1 apple with the peel left on (washed and cored)
1 cup sugar
Cinnamon, nutmeg or ginger (optional - to taste)

Throw everything but the sugar and spices in a food processor and chop. Place in bowl and add sugar and spices. That's it! This can be made 3 - 5 days ahead and it tastes even better.

I also added some of this same mixture to raspberry jello to make a cranberry jello salad. I think that was even a little better than the relish by itself. But both of them turned out pretty good, I think. They're not nearly as sweet as the traditional canned or cooked cranberry sauce. The orange rind gives it a citrus tang, which I personally prefer over the ultra-sweet of the other kind. Try it sometime with ham too!

This last photo is a little centerpiece that I put together to transition from fall to Christmas. Fall items with Christmas colors. The green apples are faux, but there are two huge fresh pomegranates in the jar as well. I hope they stay fresh for a while. I love the deep red color of them.

Well, I'm planning to do a little bit of Christmas shopping on Black Friday. Terry has to work, so I have the day to myself. Not sure if I'll go out or if it will be online. I never go out early...usually sometime mid-morning. As are most people, we're cutting back some on Christmas this year, so I have to be more selective in what I buy. It's hard for me because I like to show love by giving gifts. It's also tricky because Kevin will have to carry everything back on the plane and A & A are in a tiny studio apartment so don't have much room for anything of any size.

I just realized that this is getting pretty long so I'll close for now. I'm thinking about trying to journal about Christmas every day in December, but we'll see how that goes. Be sure to check back again soon. There's lots going on in the coming weeks.

2009-11-25T20:20:00.001-07:00

Christmas ideas are brewing...

I just opened one of my favorite emails from Better Homes and Gardens (BHG.com) and with just a few clicks found some great Christmas ideas.

Below is the description that shows with the first photo, but the idea that I like best is having the pegs by the front door and a shelf too. We don't have a fireplace, hence no mantle and I haven't found a great place to hang our family stockings, but I love this look and it would be so fun to have stockings hanging by the entry and a shelf to put our favorite Christmas trinkets.

"Set near the front door, a multi-tiered dessert stand offers departing visitors an array of thanks-for-coming confections, including cellophane-swathed molded cookies, bags of crimson candies, and tiny baskets chock-full of sweets."

I also like the idea of painting or writing on glass. They show a mirror here, but you could do the same thing on a window or glass door. I was thinking of some simple snowflakes and a few cheery greetings.

This same email also had some fun ideas for non-traditional holiday color schemes. Since we have a red sofa in the living room, our Christmas colors pretty much NEED to include red, so I'm a little bit limited. Soon I'm hoping to get a neutral colored slipcover for my sofa (it's on my wish list) so I can branch out to some new colors. Anyway, this year I bought some natural colored kraft paper and some simple red and white print paper to wrap gifts. I'm thinking of throwing in a little touch of black to make it a little more classy. Picture brown kraft paper and red/white papers with red or black twine or ribbon of all sorts. I'm not sure yet...we'll see how things turn out when I get everything out to decorate.

I'm looking forward to getting started with decorating this weekend. Even though it's not the end of the month yet, we have a busy December so I want to start early. Besides, last year we were out of town for part of December so I didn't do much decorating. This year I hope to have some more time to work on it.

What are you planning that's new for your holiday decor this year?

2009-11-21T21:20:00.004-07:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TED!

Ted is Terry's 4th oldest brother. From oldest to youngest they are Terry, Tom, Tim, Ted, Tod (and Julie). Talk about a tough time getting to know their names when I first started dating Terry. It was crazy! This photo is before Julie came along.

Ted's the middle one in the front row of kids above. I'm sure he was a busy little guy, keeping up with his 3 older brothers. See next photo.

I've known Ted over 30 years and these are just a few bits of info I can share about him in honor of his birthday.

He doesn't particularly like to get his picture taken. These 2 photos above are his favorite poses. Either he covers his face with his hand or makes an ugly face (sticks his tongue out or something). He also gives me a really dirty look sometimes, like he's going to deck me. But since it's his birthday I didn't want to show you his "mean" face. Anyway, I have DOZENS of photos in one of these 3 poses of him. Sigh...maybe someday he'll come around.

Once in a while when he's distracted by kids or others, I can sneak in a photo of him and he looks great!
This picture of Ted and Kristi holding Amy at their wedding when she was just a couple of months old is one of my favorites! Don't they look too young to get married?
I think they were more excited about me being pregnant than I was. They used to bring me pickles and ice cream every week and they watched Amy and later Kevin for us all the time. They have always been a great aunt and uncle to our kids. Well except maybe for the time that they lost Amy under their bed or let Kevin get his head stuck in their stairs, then made him sit there while they took a picture. (Oh well, nobody's perfect.) Who has that picture anyway?
We loved having them nearby when we lived in So Cal. It was so nice to have family around to share our holidays and special occasions with or just to hang out on a quiet weekend. We miss seeing all of them more often.

Did you know Ted loves to dance. I'm not sure he'll admit this one, but as you can see, I have several photos to substantiate this rumor. I'm also aware of a video that's floating around somewhere from a decade ago which can also confirm that fact. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my hands on it or I would have posted it here for proof. True story.

(just kidding, Ted)

I guess that's all I'll share for now. Ted, I hope you have an extra special day. Just wish we could be there to share it with you!

Love, Nancy and Terry too.

2009-11-17T06:20:00.003-07:00

Holiday Baking - Cranberry Nut Bread

Those of you who know me, know that I don't do a lot of baking, but it doesn't stop me from appreciating excellent baked goods when I see (and taste) them.

My friend, Cathy made this Cranberry Nut Bread and shared a slice with me. It was delicious! Moist and full of flavor but not too sweet. Now is the time to make it because cranberries are in season and often on sale. Mmmmm...it would be great for gifts too!

She got the recipe from "A Taste of Home" magazine and you can find it on their website here.

And here are some fun ideas for ways to wrap the loaves if you give them as gifts!

Try it - you'll love it!

2009-11-16T06:13:00.036-07:00

MyHomeIdeas.com

Check out these great ideas for decorating, entertaining, gardening and more at this website...from the experts at Real Simple, All You, Coastal Living, Southern Accents, Southern Living and Sunset magazines! Not sure about you, but these are some of my favorite mags! And being a magophile* (similar to bibliophile**) that's saying a lot!

And here's a sweepstakes to win $5000 toward a room makeover!

Here are more sweepstakes too, if you enjoy the thrill of the possibilities.

*Magophile = a person who collects or loves periodicals or magazines.

**Bibliophile = a person who collects or loves books.

2009-11-14T12:05:00.000-07:00

Did you know that Ladies Home Journal has a daily giveaway sweepstakes?

Just go to win.LHJ.com/ and find out what you could win today plus be entered for their $5000 grand prize.

2009-11-13T19:53:00.000-07:00

A Quiet Weekend at Home while Terry's Away

I'm sitting here in my PJs eating little wedges of a giant Rome apple that we brought back from North Carolina and drinking a glass of Riesling called "RELAX". The house is quiet except for the hum of the laptop and Shredder's purring every once in a while.

Terry is probably just landing in Las Vegas for his annual Football weekend with Greg and Mark. Unfortunately, Kent couldn't make it for this 18th (or is it 19th) annual getaway. The guys will get into town tonight, get settled, filled and rested for their 2-day marathon. Saturday they'll get up relatively early to have breakfast, then snag a good set of seats at their chosen casino sports book. They prefer the ones that have personal monitors at each seat so they can select their favorite games to watch thru-out the day. That is a personal monitor in addition to the 2 or 3 DOZEN HUGE TVs filling every inch of the walls of the room.

Once they get settled into their seats for the day, they'll try to keep track of ALL the college football games going on all over the country. They may bet a little on a few of them. When the crowd cheers, they'll search the screens to figure out which game just had a great play and watch the replay. Once in a while they'll take a break (one at a time so as not to lose their prime locations) and maybe go play a little video poker or slots or grab a quick bite to eat. They'll probably trash talk about their picks and compare notes to see who might get lucky and have a good day, but mostly they just enjoy the camaraderie and the annual overdose of uninterrupted football.

After the majority of games have ended they'll leave their posts and head out for one of the amazing buffets along the strip. Then on Sunday morning they'll start the routine all over again with the NFL football games. Oh and they'll probably sprinkle in a few NBA or NHL games as well.

I don't even think that they talk much about their lives, even though they usually only see each other this one time each year. Once Terry came home and I asked him for an update on the wives and kids and he said they never talked about it. He tries to get at least a little bit of info for me now because I gave him such a hard time about it that time. Maybe we should try to plan a get together with the husbands AND wives so we can find out what's happening in everyone's world.

Well, I told him to win a lot of money so we could go to Ireland next year. Do you think there's any chance of that? I always fall back on the fact that Terry's brother, Ted won $20,000 on the 2nd Keno card that they ever played! Can you imagine? Wow!

As for me...Shredder and I have the house to ourselves. Even though I love spending time with my hubby, I also enjoy these quiet weekends when I can do absolutely anything that I want. I could stay in my pajamas all weekend if I wanted to (but I won't). I can get projects done, go hang out with my girlfriends, go shopping, read, stay up late, blog, sleep late, watch chick flicks all weekend or whatever in the world I want. Not that I couldn't really do any of these things when Terry's at home, it's just different somehow. When he's home (especially on the weekends) I want to spend time with him and that's my priority, so personal projects get set aside more often. I'm glad these weekends don't happen too often, but I enjoy it once or twice a year.

So maybe I'll get caught up on some of my blogging this weekend. And I'm already planning an outing tomorrow with a friend. I do need to get going on some Christmas shopping too. I'm sure I'll manage to fill up my time before I know it.

What do you do with your alone time?

Have a great weekend, whatever you're doing.

2009-11-10T06:51:00.018-07:00

We brought a little bit of North Carolina home with us...

Just before we left on our trip, someone asked Terry to bring home some fall leaves from NC and I actually remembered to do it. The last day we were there I took a Ziploc bag on our walk downtown for lunch and gathered a dozen or so leaves of various colors. Red, green, brown, golden, orange and shades in between.

After collecting so many beautiful colors, I didn't want them to go to waste, so I'm preserving them in a solution of glycerin and water. Have you ever done that? When we were kids we used to press them in books and iron them between sheets of wax paper, but I've heard that the glycerin process works much better.

I need to leave them in this solution for 3 or more days. I hope they look almost as beautiful when they're done as they did when I picked them.

In case you're interested here's a description of how to preserve leaves in several different ways.

2009-11-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

Recovery Day Tradition

We seem to have established a tradition on our last day of vacation before going back to work. We order Chinese take out for dinner, usually from Dragon Palace at 13825 N. 32nd Street (just north of Thunderbird).

After being away from home, we generally don't have a lot of food in the house and don't feel like cooking or shopping, so take-out is the perfect solution.

Some of our favorites at Dragon Palace are Sauteed Happy Family, BBQ Pork Appetizer. The Moo Shu Pork is also very good.

Here's a quick review that I did on Yelp.

2009-11-07T08:38:00.000-07:00

More pics of our NC visit. I just added our day at the Biltmore Estate!

Go here to see them all!

2009-11-06T06:48:00.006-07:00

Nov 6 - Happy Anniversary Amy and Andrew
Today Amy and Andrew will be celebrating their 4th wedding anniversary. It's hard to believe that their big day was that long ago. Time has just flown by.

So many things have changed for them in these last four years and I'm sure the next 4 will be the same way. They are busy following their dreams and enjoying life together. What a blessing to have them in our family. We look forward to seeing where God will lead them in the years to come.

Happy Anniversary you two!

We love you both!

2009-11-04T08:19:00.000-07:00

National Parks Postcards

You may remember that we discovered some great vintage reproduction National Parks postcards when we were at the Grand Canyon.

Well, we saw a similar poster at Great Smoky Mountain National Park yesterday and wondered if we could find more of the postcards for the Eastern parks. They didn't have them at the Visitor Center, but they did have notecards and we looked at the package to find the website where we could buy the ones that we want.

This is what the Smoky Mountain one looks like and there are others for parks we visited as well. I'll be placing an order for a few when we get home. Then we want to put them all in a large frame and hang it in our office with the rest of our travel posters. So far, all the ones we've bought have this vintage look. Kinda fun, huh?

2009-11-02T18:06:00.000-07:00

We're enjoying Fall in North Carolina!

For those few people out there that check my blog but are NOT on Facebook, here's a link to some photos that I've been posting of our trip to see Terry's Dad and his wife, Ginny in Hendersonville, NC. This is them in the photo (left). They do a lot of walking around town. They live less than a mile from Main Street, so have access to a bunch of fun places to visit when they're out and about.

Tomorrow we'll drive to Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The park is celebrating their 75th Anniversary this year. I will be taking my National Parks passport book to get stamped and we'll try to find a poster or postcard from the park that we can include in our collection of places that we've visited that hangs in our office.

Check out these gorgeous red leaves that were on a tree right on main street. Aren't they amazing?

I hope you enjoy the other pics too. I'm trying to post a few more each day, so check back again later too.

2009-11-02T07:21:00.004-07:00

It's Fall in Arizona!

I wore a jacket and scarf last week and this week we're enjoying the cool crisp air in North Carolina!

Here's a great recipe for Slow Cooker White Chicken Chili that I found on BettyCrocker.com. I tried it last year and it's VERY easy and delicious!

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

2009-10-31T06:29:00.077-07:00

Happy Halloween!!!

Halloween just isn't what it used to be for me. I've definitely done my fair share of trick-or-treating. In fact, growing up in Ohio, we used to dress up and go out as early as possible all around the neighborhood and fill a large paper grocery bag with candy until it was so full that we could barely carry it. Then we'd go back home, just to get another empty bag and head out again. My favorite house to go to was the one that gave out hot apple cider and fresh donuts! Mmmmm...

As a youngster, part of the fun of Halloween was figuring out what kind of costume to have my mom make. She never used a pattern and NEVER bought those cheesy costumes with the stiff plastic masks from the 5 and Dime store. We always came up with unique ideas and she just figured out a way to make it work. I guess that's what you do when you have 6 kids and not a lot of money or ways to get to the store.

I'll admit that one year she got a little TOO creative and decided that I should be Mother Nature for Halloween. Now what would you imagine Mother Nature to look like? She decided that I should have leaves sewn all over my leotard (which later became dead and brown) and that's all I remember of it. I also recall that my sister was a beautiful sparkly silver Christmas package with a huge red bow in her hair that year and she won a prize for the prettiest costume at our neighborhood Halloween Party. People just kept looking at me and asking, "What are you supposed to be?" (Not my most fun Halloween to be sure.)

I do know how to get in the Halloween spirit, as evidenced by this photos of me as an adult. I'm the scarecrow on the left and yes, my belly was stuffed with straw. This was at California Institute of the Arts where I worked in the Accounting office. My boss, Christina (on the right) was so excited about Halloween that she would take vacation days just to decorate the office. We won the CalArts contest almost every year for the best decorated office on campus. She was the mastermind of it all. I was just there to help. That was in the mid-90's and may have been the last time I dressed up for Halloween.

I have had a lot of fun continuing the tradition of creative costume designs with our kids too. It was always a challenge for them to come up with an idea and for us to make something from nothing. Often times it was a matter of some thrift store shopping with a few alterations, props, accessories or make up. Other times it was just whatever we could do to bring an idea to life. As they got older they created their own costumes and they were much more creative than I ever was.

These last 2 shots are the first time we dressed Amy up for Halloween. She was 17 months old and I debated and debated about whether to do anything. On Halloween Day I decided it would be fun, so we went down the street to the nearby Salvation Army Thrift store and I bought her whole costume. I love the one of her looking at her own face in the mirror.

So for those who love this holiday, have an awesome spooky day! I'm perfectly content to decorate for Autumn and avoid all that scary stuff. I enjoy watching others celebrate the holiday and that's good with me.

In fact at the very moment when this is scheduled to post, Terry and I will be on our way to North Carolina to visit his Dad and wife, so we'll pretty much miss Halloween altogether unless they have trick-or-treaters at their house. But we're o.k. with that.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!

2009-10-30T07:01:00.015-07:00

Christmas Decor:

Can you believe that Christmas is right around the corner?

Only 8 weeks away! Wow! How are you doing on your Christmas shopping? I'm hoping to pick up a few unique items when we're in North Carolina this week. Terry and I probably won't do a lot for each other's gifts since we've had some extra fun traveling this year.

But, I love decorating for Christmas! I have quite a few stores that I like to check out for decorations. Some are a little pricey, but I like to look anyway, especially for potential after Christmas sales. Others have a wide range of prices that make some items a great deal anytime.

Crate and Barrel has some of my favorite ornaments at very reasonable prices.

Restoration Hardware has more retro, classic, but unique items, but still some sweet finds.

Target also has nice things for very reasonable prices.

After Christmas when this pillow goes on sale, I want to get a couple of these from Pottery Barn. I really like it, but wouldn't pay $50 for any pillow cover, no matter how nice it is. I think the colors have great potential for several of my rooms. Can you see it on my red sofa or with the blues and greens in the Family Room? It would even work on the patchwork quilt on our bed! It's great to have options.

We're looking forward to a fun holiday season! Hope you are too.

2009-10-29T07:06:00.004-07:00

HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Today is Terry's dad's birthday and here are a few photos from his life!

This first one is of him and his brother, Dick.

I love this one of him trying to do yard work with an injured foot. What a hero! I wonder if he actually got anything done that day.

And check out the primitive backpack that he used to carry Julie around when they were camping. Pretty interesting, huh?

And then there's this awesome one of all the Hann boys. Did you know that our Amy was the first Hann girl born in 3 generations? Terry's little sister Julie was adopted. Coincidentally, Amy is in the bottom photo with Dad, Ginny, Terry and I. We were eating at the Mining Camp, one of the Hann family's favorite places to go. Everything is served family style (all you can eat). What other place would you want to go with 5 hungry boys to feed?

We are so blessed to have Terry Sr. (Theron) in our lives. Especially for me, since my dad passed away when I was 20 years old. Terry (Sr.) is the only grandfather that our children have ever known and they love him dearly.

He's such a sweet man, full of love, joy, compassion and kindness. He loves to laugh, joke and have fun!

We're looking forward to celebrating his big birthday when we're back there visiting next week!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!! SEE YOU SOON TO CELEBRATE YOUR BIG DAY!

(Ginny, Don't forget that you can click on each of this photos to make them cover the whole screen.)

2009-10-28T07:05:00.004-07:00

HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY GINNY !!!

These are pictures from Dad and Ginny's wedding day in Rochester, New York a few years ago when we officially welcomed Ginny into the Hann family. It was such a special day! My Terry was the Best Man and Ginny's daughter was the Maid/matron of Honor.

We're so happy to have her in the family. She takes good care of Terry's dad and is so much fun to be with. She loves to laugh and has such a great outlook on life.

Very soon we'll be flying to North Carolina to visit them. This will be our first time there, but I know it won't be our last.

Ginny, we hope you have an extra special day and we look forward to celebrating with you when we get to North Carolina.

2009-10-24T07:29:00.022-07:00

Brunch with the Family

I have been so excited about sharing these photos with you! These are from the restaurant where Andrew and Amy took us for Breakfast/Lunch the last morning we were in L.A. It's on Ventura Blvd, in the San Fernando Valley (Tarzana) and it's called CiCi's Cafe. If you're ever in the area, you MUST try it.

On Monday morning we drove down to A and A's apartment from Santa Clarita and Kevin still hadn't decided when he was going to fly home to Omaha. After looking at some airline ticket prices and discussing logistics about how to get around if he stayed and how to get to the airport with Amy and Andrew working, he decided to ride back to Phoenix with us and fly out of the PHX airport the next day. It saved him about $100 and we got to have a few more hours with him, which was great for us.

After Kevin booked his flight for the next day we loaded up and drove a short distance to one of Andrew's favorite places. He said that he orders from there a lot for work as well and I can see why. Everything that I saw and tasted looked delicious and their menu is HUGE! It would take years to get thru everything on the menu unless you ate their every day, which would not be hard to do.

The restaurant itself is fairly unassuming. It's located in a strip mall so you'd never know it was so appetizing unless someone took you there. This is the basic dining room below. They definitely need to expand because Andrew says they're always busy.

So...photos from top to bottom - here are 3 of the gorgeous and delicious meals:

Andrew's Steak Salad
Terry's Banana Macadamia Nut Pancakes (not low carb!)
My sandwich, which is seem to recall had turkey, swiss cheese, artichoke hearts and arugala (and maybe more) plus sweet potato french fries. MMMMMM!!

Don't they all look amazing? Kevin had some kind of an egg scramble which really doesn't photograph too well, so you don't need to see it here.

Sadly, Amy ordered some food, but then didn't feel good enough to stay and eat with us. So we said goodbye to her there so she could go home, rest and try to feel better before going to work. I'm happy to report that she has gone to the doctor since then and they're trying to figure why she hasn't been feeling well for a while. We love her and were sad that she couldn't stay and eat with us. We hope that they figure it out soon.

2009-10-22T21:54:00.000-07:00

California Adventure with the Family

The middle part of our Disneyland day with the kids was spent at California Adventure, which you may know is right next door to Disneyland. Kevin had never been there (I'm not sure how that happened) so we were excited to show him some of the great rides there.

My favorite one there, by far, is Soaring Over California! If you haven't ever ridden it, it's definitely worth the visit. You can't take pictures while on the ride though, so I can't give you anything to see there.

The guys did the Tower of Terror and liked it. Amy and I saw several Disney characters while we were waiting for the guys to come back from the Tower of Terror. We must have been near a "cast member" entrance.

The Muppet 3-D show was cute as well as the Monsters Inc. ride, but overall CA Adventure would have a hard time standing alone as a viable amusement park. There are some interesting things there though. We always talk about going to check out the winery, but never quite get there. Have you been there? If so, what's your favorite part?

Here's a link to more photos from the day.

2009-10-22T21:20:00.000-07:00

I'm only 6 posts away from my 500th post! Can you believe it?

This photo has no particular significance. I just have always liked it and didn't want to post merely text. It's a pull chain for a floor lamp that we saw when we stayed at the Majestic Inn and Spa in Anacortes, Washington a few years ago.

It was a great place to stay and a sweet little town close to one of the Washington Ferry Terminals.

2009-10-21T07:34:00.108-07:00

Happy 75th Birthday Mom!

On Saturday we had a 75th birthday celebration for Terry's mom. She has been a mother (raised 5 boys and a girl), wife, sister, aunt, great-aunt, grandmother, daughter, partner, co-worker and friend to so many and she hasn't had a birthday party in many many years so we thought it was time to honor her and celebrate her life.

We were a little disappointed (especially for her sake) that more people weren't able to make it, but we enjoyed our time with those who could be there. We had Mexican food for dinner (one of her favorites) and showed slides of some of her life history. We also had Costco Chocolate cake with Chocolate Mousse filling, which is her favorite dessert. Fortunately, the smallest size we could get was the half sheet cake, so there were lots of leftovers for everyone to take home. Mom said she'd freeze individual slices to spread them out over the coming weeks. Good for her!

Another fun surprise was that her sister, Patty (in New York) contacted a bunch of their cousins and other relatives that Carole hadn't seen in a long time and asked them to send birthday cards to our house before the party. So when she arrived we had a basket full of birthday wishes for her. She really enjoyed hearing from all those folks after so many years.

I found another use for the branch in the living room, too. These are photos from various seasons in Carole's life (click to enlarge). It was so much fun going thru old pics to find some of these wonderful ones. Thanks Amy, for scanning all those old Hann family slides and thanks to Patty and Susan for sending some that they had at home too.

I'm so thankful to have a mother-in-law that's so kind and sweet and loves to laugh. She's always been patient with her children and their spouses, no matter what. She has never tried to give unsolicited advice and always forgives and loves her family thru thick and thin. When I hear so many horror stories about some "mothers-in-law" I'm so thankful that mine is so awesome! What a blessing to have her in our lives. I only wish we could see her more often.

So all in all several generations were in attendance for Carole's big day:

Check out a few of our favorites from the slideshow that we put together for her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM !!!

WE HOPE YOU HAVE MANY MANY MORE.