Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all! We have had a relax-ful day. We got to sleep in and then spend the day in our PJs. With no family in town it was just Waymond & I all day. We opened gifts, watched some movies, made a nice Christmas lunch and watches some more movies. Waymond is having left-overs now while he's watching the last of some NASA documentaries on Netflix. Enjoy some pictures of the day:












One of the gifts Waymond bought me. Its a locket, it hard to see but it a picture of trees and a seagull on a light poll. It's awesome!

Good News

We got our Court Date for our adoption, January 24th!! We are super excited to finally get to meet our boys! We bought our plane tickets tonight. We'll be in Ethiopia January 19 - 26th! Earlier this evening Waymond and I were discussing Ethiopia as the birth place of coffee. He's been reading a new Ethiopian travel book and he said that coffee trees grow wild there. There is a wild coffee forest, it's like blackberries here! I'm sure I'll have tons of pictures and videos to post during our trip! So very exciting!

Holiday Tradition

Our one and only Christmas tradition is making a Gingerbread House. We've been a bit busy lately so we just got to it tonight. To be completely honest neither of us were too in to it. We've both been sick for about a week now. I don't think it's ever a good idea to have both people in the household sick at the same time! So, any who, our house reflects our tiredness. Not the best work we've done. But, next Christmas we'll have a couple of kids to get in on the family tradition and the can go crazy with the candy!

Pictures

I finally uploaded some of the pictures from the game. I'll get the ones off my phone soonish!

NBA Game

As part of my Christmas gift Waymond purchased Trail Blazer's tickets for last night. They were playing the Phoenix Suns! We took off work a little early and headed to Portland. I'll post some pictures when we get them off our phones, but I learned last night that Trail Blazer's fans do not like Steve Nash! I also learned that Trail Blazer's fans get super excited about free Chalupas!

It was a late night, but we had a great time! We got to have wings at Buffalo Wild Wings, VooDoo doughnuts and see basketball. Couldn't get much better!

Here's a great shot Waymond got on his phone. Waymond said I should have jumped like I was blocking his shot.

Posters

Waymond has been working on a poster that our Adoption Agency can sell. He finished them up this weekend.

Let us know if you want one before we send them off to our agency. Email me or leave a comment and I'll find out how much they are selling for. If you live in town we won't have to ship it to you! Or if you live in the Tulsa area since we'll be there in a couple of weeks to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday.



























A close up view of the wording. Written by Tom Llewellyn. You can also link to his Letter off Dead blog here or under blogs we visit on the right. Very talented man! His new book would make a great Christmas gift for any young reader. Waymond and I read it and loved it.

















Waymond's printing area in the basement. Not fancy but it works!

Happy Black Friday

We had a great Thanksgiving day yesterday. We hosted several friends who also don't have family in town. We do a pot luck style where everyone brings a couple of things and this year the food was especially amazing. Great food, friends, Wii playing, football, kids running around, black friday ads, what else could you ask for in a holiday. Well, maybe family...











No, she is not eating two plates of food, just holding someone else's plate. But the picture was too good to not take!


















This afternoon we had leftovers for lunch and it was good the second time around!

Just sharing

I love this town we live it. Sadly the people who have grown up here don't know how to drive in snow due to the fact it just doesn't snow here too often. I would like it to snow even less!


Two inches of snow (if that) and a city bus over-turns onto a sidewalk by the University! Thankfully no one was seriously injured.

People go crazy here when it snows. I should write the Driver's Education department and make sure they are teaching the good ol' "pump your brakes when it's slick" trick!

Editing: I'm putting an edit on this post due to the fact that our friend Ben told me that if you have anti-lock brakes you don't have to pump them. Drive safely out there this winter!!

Food Drive

My company is having a Food Drive for NW Harvest. It will be at our office, 3517 S 13th ST, Tacoma on this Saturday November 20th. If you have some extra can foods in the pantry consider bringing them by!

Saturday work day

We had quite the productive Saturday. We are having our house resided in the coming weeks (we have a leak that needs to be fixed, sad!). Part of the deal is that we would remove our deck before they came to put new siding up. Of course I had to document it all in photos! Sorry not much during pictures and we were both working!

Thanks to some friends, Ben & Gab who came over to help!

Christmas Gift suggestion

Our adoption agency does a Holiday Project every year to raise money for different projects. Here are the details (a copy of the email we got, so when it says I, it doesn't me the Hamptons):

We have received many donations in the past in honor of a
family or child that is home, grandparents, teachers, great aunts and uncles...
A donation to the Holiday Project is also a great gift, for the 'folks who have everything'! For a minimum $30 donation, we will collect those names and addresses and a special "a holiday gift from _______________ in your honor will benefit children at Layla House and Humanitarian projects in Ethiopia" will be sent in mid-December to
the recipient of your choice.

This year, the project will be smaller, and will encompass the following programs, with half of each total going towards Humanitarian Aid...

(A $30 donation will provide for one child or caregiver)

Children at Layla (where our boys are), Wanna and Opportunity Houses will receive A New
Traditional Outfit, Small wrapped gift and Candy.

Caregivers at Layla, Wanna and Opportunity Houses will receive a modest cash bonus which they can use to purchase holiday foods, and other items for their families.

Children in the Orphaned Student Project (OSP) will receive a modest cash bonus which they can use to purchase holiday foods, and other items for their families.

Sheep will be provided for several small orphanages in order for them to have a festive holiday meal.

The breakdown looks like this...
GROUP /TOTAL NEEDED

Layla, Wanna and OH kids $4600

Layla, Wanna, and OH staff $5400

OSP $7000

Sheep for orphanages $3000

Total: $20,000

Of this total, $10,000 will go towards humanitarian aid.

For families who would like their donation to go to a certain child
or program, I would be happy to receive those requests!

Since I am in charge of keeping it all straight, Once you have made
your donation via mail or online, please send me an email with your
name, donation amount, and where you would like the money spent.
Don't forget to send me the 'In Honor Of' info, if you would like a card sent to your honoree.
Once we begin receiving donations, I will post weekly updates to let
you all know where we are, and what we still need!

There are 3 convenient ways to donate....

**Donations can be made by check or money order and sent (with a note
specifying "HOLIDAY GIFT PROJECT" and your preferences) directly to
AAI at the address:

Adoption Advocates International
709 South Peabody Street
Port Angeles, Washington 98362

**Donations can also be made conveniently at the AAI website, by
clicking the "DONATE NOW" button, click on "Holiday project" and type
what portion of the project you would like your donation to go to,
in the Donation Designation Field. (Click HERE to go directly to donate page) www.adoptionadvocates.org

**An option is also available at the Benefit Orphans store, where you can also find great gifts for the holidays that benefit the GRACE Fund and other AAI projects. www.benefitorphans.org

**PLEASE DON'T FORGET TO EMAIL ME WITH YOUR DONATION DETAILS! And feel free to email me with any questions! If I don't know the answer, I will find someone who does! socialbug69@hotmail.com

Also, check our agency's blog, it could answer questions about the projects to benefit!

Been busy

We had a productive Saturday! We started by sleeping in until 8am this morning and then going to breakfast at the Shakabrah. We spent most of the rest of the day moving our bedroom downstairs and the guest bedroom upstairs. Our king sized mattress was quite the challenge, but Waymond managed to get it. I really did help and didn't just take pictures!






















Now we are all set to get our boys' room ready for them! I know I haven't mentioned yet on the blog, but we are adopting two boys from Ethiopia. We are hoping to have them home by March or April of 2011, but of course we won't mind having them home earlier!

Part of the welcome gift we can send them is a t-shirt. That is what we did this evening. We made them some Tacoma shirts. We also printed a few onesies we had bought for a gift.




















































Waymond also tested out the beginnings of a poster design he's doing for our adoption agency.

































Just thought I'd add this picture. Waymond's gone all Tom & Jerry! :o) In all the movings of rooms we found a few holes in the drywall that we are assuming some mice friends have been freeloading on us. Waymond set a few traps to make sure we get them all! When I went up to see it, it reminded me of cartoons. All he needed to add was a neon sign that said free cheese with an arrow!

Christmas Gifts

Need some ideas for Christmas? All the money made from this esty shop goes to our Adoption Agency, AAI. http://www.etsy.com/shop/socialbug69. Just thought I'd share. She has some really cute pieces!

Mini Thunder Storm

We actually had a thunder storm this afternoon along with a little hail. I couldn't believe my ears! Well, I'm not sure if it was a thunder storm, but we did have thunder and that doesn't happen often here!

Tonight

So today after work, I opted to go to the library instead of the gym! :o) I checked out the Martha Stewart's Cookies cookbook (even more counter productive since I skipped the gym). My friend Alexis has been baking cookies from this book and they have been super tasty! I can't wait to try the carrot cake cookies! mmmm... I'll let you know how they go.

Now we are watching It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. A classic!

Dinner

Tonight I made an easy dinner even easier! We had a Bell Pepper Slow-Cooker Pasta (recipe to follow). It's an extremely easy recipe and I made it easier by buying frozen bell peppers from Trader Joe's. Here's the recipe:

3 bell peppers (any color), chopped into 1-inch pieces
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cans (14.4 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
2 cans (6 oz) tomato paste
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1 pound cooked pasta
shredded Parmesan cheese

Combine all ingredients except pasta and cheese in a slow-cooker. Cover; cook on low for 7 hours or high for 3 hours. Mix in pasta and serve with cheese on top. And, dinner is ready!

So tonight, I substituted one bag of frozen bell peppers and one bag of roasted bell peppers & onions for the 3 bell peppers and onions. I actually only used one can of the paste because I miss read the recipe...oops! I just opened both bags of peppers dumped them in my slow cooker and added the other ingredients and cooked on low for about 5 hours and it was bubbly and delish! I think it needs salt, but that's just my opinion. Waymond thinks it could be spicier.

I got the original recipe and the idea for using frozen bell peppers from Stacy at work. And, I'm not sure what magazine she got it from.

Enjoy!

Funnies

These were on my calendar at work while I was away. Just thought I'd share.

We're back!

We made it back to Tacoma! I think we'll be going to bed early tonight for sure. The time change just kills us when we are in the Midwest. And we didn't get a whole lot of sleep. Although we did get to hang out with most of our friends.

I didn't do very well on the picture department while we were in Kansas City! But we did snap a few photos while we were at Tea Drops last night.





















Waymond's favorite drink, frozen bubble chai tea from Tea Drops! mmmm so delish.
















Look how happy he looks drinking it! He almost got another one for the road just because he knew he wouldn't have another for awhile!
















Congrats to Carlos & Sara on their marriage! We had such a great time hanging out with them.
















We stayed with our friend's Tommy & Stephanie (Destiny their daughter is on the end).

KC

We made it to Kansas City for our weekend of weddings! Our first wedding is tonight and then we'll have another Saturday night. And, Waymond will be preaching Sunday at Grace Church. In between Waymond is making sure we are eating plenty of BBQ!

We've been able to see a few friends in the short hours we've been here which has been great. It's a bit strange since its been three years since we've been back. Everything is familiar, but still changed. Slowly highways and streets are coming back to memory.

I'll post some picture when I dig the camera out of the bag!

Apparently you can drive and talk and text in Missouri. Every other driver is texting - seems strange!

Pear Butter

The Metropolitan Market had an amazing deal on local organic pears so we tried our hand at pear butter. I had some this morning on waffles and it's pretty tasty! We used a recipe from a cookbook my Mom got me. We tweaked it a bit and used Cardamom instead of Nutmeg.

Our tomatoes

Our tomato plants are finally started getting red tomatoes! We cut up one our heirloom ones to have with fish tacos and they are amazingly sweet and tasty! They are less acidic.

Here's a nice pic of some of our heirlooms and early girls. The heirlooms are less "perfect" looking, but super tasty!

The Best

Just wanted to share with everyone the BEST tea ever! We were at Cutter's Point for coffee and I wanted Chai. They serve Oregon Chai, which I'm not a huge fan of. I asked what kind of hot tea they had and the barista suggested this Coconut Chai. She added some steamed milk and yum!!

I think I've had a cup of this everyday since I got it.

EMP/SciFi

We bought a membership to the EMP/SciFi Museum in Seattle on Groupon. I love that they have a display of the original Planet of the Ages moive. And that they have life size Charlton Heston. So fun!

I have to have a picture everytime I'm there!!

Pray for Zimbabwe

Today is the international Pray for Zimbabwe day. Waymond and a friend Brian did posters to hang around Tacoma. We have several churches in Zimbabwe and a couple from our church here in Tacoma are helping with a church plant in Kezi.

For more info:
http://ncctacoma.org/zim/
http://www.lovezim.org/