2 Point Muffins

I've prbably tried about 317 low-fat muffin recipes.
To me, they all have a gluey texture that turns me off.

I have finally found my Neo. On the SPARK RECIPES site.

I find the texture was better after they had completely cooled. Also, I added some cinnamon to the batter, not just the topping.

Ingredients:

1 cup old fashion rolled oats (not instant)
1 cup non-fat milk
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
2 egg whites
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. sugar

raisins or nuts (optional)

Directions:
Soak the oats in milk for about one hour.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Spray muffin pan with cooking spray.
Combine the oat mixture with the applesauce and egg whites, and mix until combined.
In a separate bowl measure and whisk the dry ingredients together.
Add wet ingredients to dry and mix until just combined.
Add nuts or raisins if desired.
Do not over mix the batter or the muffins will be tough.
Spoon muffin mixture into muffin pan.
Combine the cinnamon and sugar and top each muffin with some of the mixture.
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until done.
Remove from pan, cool and enjoy.
These can be frozen and reheated in the microwave for a quick breakfast.
Number of Servings: 12

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user JOJOMKE.

Take another minute...

I posted this in the fall sometime, but I just read it again this am and had to repost it.
I know it's a long one, but it's sooooo worth reading and considering, it so hits where my heart is at... wishing you all a soul satisfying day!


Erwin was once in the Middle East and had been..."invited to speak to a group of Muslims, specifically about the history of Christianity. Pressed by my translator to answer a question that I had somewhat evaded, I was left with nowhere to go but to talk more specifically and personally about Jesus. I had been describing to them my own sense of disapointment with and even disdain of the religion of Christianity. They all quickly agreed that as a religion, there were deep problems and inconsistencies between beliefs and practices.

But eventually they wanted to know what exactly was the meaning behind the coming of Jesus. Somewhat apprehensively I began my best effort to translate back into a Middle Eastern context the story of Jesus (after all, this was Jesus' home turf) and, more specifically, why it would be necessary for God to become human. This, from my vantage pont, was the story of God. It's a love story, by the way.

"I once met a girl named Kim."

My translator looked at me confused. I'm sure he was wracking his brain, trying to remember some biblical character named Kim. He stopped translating and just looked at me. I encouraged him to simply translate.

"I once met a girl anmed Kim, an I fell in love."
I continued, "I pursued her with my love and pursued her with my love until I felt my love had captured her heart. So I asked her to be my wife, and she said no." I could feel their empathy, if not their pity.

"I was unrelenting and asked her again, pursuing her with my love, and I pursued her with my love until she said yes."There was huge relief through-out the entire room.

I went on, "I did not send my brother, no did I send a friend. For in issues of love, you must go yourself.

This is the story of God: He pursues you with his love and pursues you with his love, and you have perhaps not said yes. And even if you reject his love, he pursues you ever still. It was not enough to send an angel or a prophet or any other, for in issues of love, you must go yourself. And so God has come.
This is the story of Jesus, that God has walked among us and he pursues us with his love. He is very familiar with rejection but is undeterred. And he is here even now, still pursuing you with his love."

The images we often receive of Muslims are that they're angry, hostile, and violent people. I can tell you that in this moment I knew there was something transcendent that connected all of our hearts and souls together. A belief that was supposed to divide us strangely united us, and I feel most certain that I knew why. Every human being longs for love. The possibility that God is love is an almost overwhelming prospect.

In that moment the story of Jesus was not about who is right and who is wrong, what God's name is and who his prophet is, but what exactly God's motivation toward humanity is. If the message that God wants to get across to us is just about getting our beliefs right, then he didn't need to come himself. If God's entire intent was to clarify right from wrong, no personal visitation was necessary. If the ultimate end was simply to overwhelm us with the miraculous so that we would finally believe, then even God taking on flesh and blood and walking among us was far from necessary.

There is only one reason for God to come himself, because in issues of love, you just can't have someone else stand in for you.

When it comes to love, it has to be face to face. There has to be contact. Love cannot exist where there is only distance. Love can survice distance, but only by the stength of what comes through intimacy.

Like Solomon's lover, God is gong up and down the streeets of the city, traveling the most obscure paths and untamed wilderness, walking on unnamed roads in the most desolate of places, searching for the one he loves -- and that one is you and me and every human being who has ever walked the earth, has taken a breath, and has longed for love.

Religion exists not becasue God loves too little, but because we need love so much. In the end all religions misrepresent God. They either dictate requirements for love or simply become a requim for love. I think many of us have rightly given up on God on this basis alone. We've been told that God is a reluctant lover and that his standards must be met before there can be any talk of love. This is lunacy. Love exists because God is love. Our souls will never find satisfaction until our hearts have found this love that we so desperately yearn for.

God is not passive, for love is never passive, but always passionate; and passion always leads to action."

Crock Pot Love

This is the easiest dinner in the world. Kind of a sweet & sour thing.
MUST be served with rice and corn (in our opinion.)

CHICKEN ROSA

Put enough Chicken Thighs to feed your family in the crock pot.

Mix together the ROSA in med bowl... adjust to taste:
R - Russian Salad Dressing (and if you want to lighten it up you can find a recipe for the dressing and cut the oil down), one small bottle is good for our family of four.
OS - Onion Soup Mix (about one packet)
A - Apricot Jam (a good sized glob, depending how sweet you like things)

Pour the sauce over the chicken and let it simmer away for a few hours.... sooooo yummy.

We're Broken

What kind of parent lets their kid snowboard with a cast on his arm? Probably the same kind that let that same kid walk around with a sore arm for 5 days before they realized it was broken.

So, as I dropped my little darlings off with their sporty-spice father for a boys' night of snowboarding at Big White last Friday, my parting words were, "Adam, don't break anything, because if we have to take you to the hospital because of a snowboarding accident and you already have a cast on your arm, we're going to get a special file at the hospital."

Off they went to hit the slopes and off I went for, what was supposed to be, a nice long evening with some good friends.

9pm Joel calls, "Well, we've got another broken arm"
"Tell me it wasn't Adam!"
"It wasn't Adam."
"Oh, poor Brodie... are you taking him to the hospital right now?"
"No."
"Is he in an ambulance?"
"No."
"What are you doing?"
"I'm not taking him the hospital."
"What are you talking about?"
"It wasn't Brodie."
"uuugggghhhh.... your right or your left?"
"Left" said my lefty husband.
"Meet you at Emerg."

After an amusing 5 hours at emergency including a great "Special K" trip, he came home with his "very professional looking" black cast, a mit-full of drugs, and a subtle disregard for the "keep it elevated at all times" instructions.

Two weeks later, the guy is still suffering. Today had an appointment with the Orthopedic surgeon to check on the progress, and apparently the bone fragments, (when you're 13 your bones buckle but when you're pushing 40 your bones shatter) are settling into the tissue rather than back with the bone. Ouch.

So it looks like he'll be having surgery tomorrow, and then another 6-8 weeks of being casted.

Good times.

Poor Lefty.

P.S. After this I'm disabling the download of my blog to "notes" on FB. If you would like to follow my blog, you'll have to do it the old-fashioned way.

Nesting.

Our family has been mildly obsessed since the day we got back from Thailand. We'd been putting the dog-thing on hold until after our big adventure. Now, the time is right and we were on the hunt for the right dog.

Joel had seen a dog online at the Penticton SPCA, so Saturday afternoon we took a drive to visit him... he was a big beautiful thing, who really needed a lot of space and yard--something we knew we couldn't give him, great as he was.

And then we saw Ellie.

A cute, black mop of a thing.
Super soft long hair, a suspected schnauzer-poodle-maltese-cockerspanielish little girl, a 5 month old stray found in Kamloops. We spent a lot of time with her, talked a lot about the pros and cons of her vs. another larger dog I'd see on Friday at the Kelowna SPCA... and resigned ourselves to the fact that, while we really love big dogs, we can probably make a small dog happpier, and she's a "big" small dog-- and maybe she'll still grow a bit. If not, we still love her.

We love Ellie.

So, here I sit, researching and trying to figure out all the things I need to get between now and Thursday when we take her home, (she's being spayed on Tuesday), and I need the help of all my dog-lovin' friends.

What do I need?
Who's a good vet?
Who's a good groomer?
Does anyone have a second hand crate to sell or know someone who does?
Who's a good trainer (for me, not the dog :-)
What are the most important things?

PLEASE, OH WISE ONES, ENLIGHTEN ME!

This feels strangely like it did 13 years ago when we were about to bring Adam home.

The kids are beside themselves.
(Joel's happy to have an actual dog to blame.)

The Week in Review...

10. I finally FINALLY painted my master bedroom. I've been wanting to do it for years, but you know how painting bathrooms is... too much cutting in, what to do about the toilet, how do I get the hairspray spots off first... Anyway, it's over, and I'm happy.

9. Our appliances are all reaching their 10 year mark and breaking down. Our fridge pees on the floor 1-2 times per week. Not looking forward to replacing them, however, I've always considered having a crushed ice dispensor to be the height of decedance, so there may be an upside should we find such a fridge on sale somewhere.

8. Adam broke his arm while snowboarding last Saturday. We didn't realize it until Wednesday. FLUSSSHHHH... there goes "Mother of the Year" yet again.

7. Cheryl directed me to a great website : exercisetv.tv and I've done a couple of the workouts this week... one made me unable to move for 3 days, but I'm back, baby!

6. I'm also doing the Wild Rose detox, without the laxatives, thank you very much. I'm on day three, will cheat a little on Saturday night at friend's for dinner. I'm totally ok with that--sweet freedom.

5. Last week I got together with some friends and made 26 cards! I was able to give away 3 of them this week... I love giving & receiving homemade cards.

4. I'm sad for Joel's sister Debbie, who has to have chemo and surgeries this spring and summer... but thankful that she had fibroyd surgery last week or they would never have found what they suspect to be ovarian cancer.

3. Brodie reaaallyy needs a haircut... his faux-hawk is at an all time high and I fear he will put an eye out, and it won't be his.

2. Tomorrow I'm going to Bliss to run with my solesisters... I missed the last 2 weeks with them.

1. I'm reading a book called "Drowning Ruth" for a book club... so far, I like it, but I'm realizing that I'm not a very discriminating reader, as I like 90% of the books I read.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

It had a good sauce.

It was a warm evening, as we walked through a dark open market in Bangkok. We'd already had dinner at a soup vendor, but Joel had a hankering for something more substantial. After 24 days of eating in Thailand, we'd become quite comfortable with walking up to a BBQ vendor and ask for "one of these and three of those".

And that's what he did.

He didn't know what they were, but they came highly recommended by the vendor, and it looked like they had a good sauce.

"I think it's livers or something" he said after a couple of bites of his skewer. Followed by the thought, "when in Thailand..."

Minutes after the skewer was consumed, I started to tell him a story that one of our missonary friends had told me... about the grossest thing they'd eaten in Thailand.

"She described it as a skewer with round pieces of meat that had a hole in the middle" I relayed.

"That's what I just ate" he said.

pause.

"You just ate a stick full of chicken anuses."


Side note: Joel had seen a kettle full of chicken feet at the same vendor and thought, "oh no thanks, that's disgusting."

Like I Care.

Tammy cut my hair yesterday... i. love. it.

I did the long hair thing, which, I have to say, was nice for putting up in a clip for running and traveling... but it looked like crap, as I have the finest hair on earth and it amounts to nothing when pulled into a ponytail.

I could use my little ortho-elastics to capture my entire ponytail.

So, I am happy to report that my Entertainment-Reporter-Erin-Cebula-inspired hair cut was a good move, and I'm just happy to look like someone who cares.

Now if I could just get these braces off I'd be ridiculously gorgeous.

Ridiculously.

I said it.

Baan Sak Fan Orphanage

After our wonderful week in Phuket, we drove an hour and a half north to Phang Na province.
We spent most of the week at the most amazing place... Baan Sak Fan Orphanage.

Meet Gai & Somraum...
two amazing, loving, selfless Thais who left their life in another region and moved, with their own 3 kids, to Takuapa after the Tsunami--to raise other people's kids.

See these smiles? They're the real deal.
This couple are doing an amazing job of loving, leading and caring for about 20 kids, mostly teens, who don't have anyone else to take care of them. Most of these kids lost their parents in the Tsunami of '04. In some of their eyes, you can see a little sadness, but mostly this is a group of very happy, healthy, amazing kids--in a new family of their own. We were basically the fun squad... showing up for 4 or 5 hours a day with crafts and sports and games... we had an amazing time getting to know Gai and Somraum, as well as the kids. The kids were pretty shy with their English, but we still had a lot of fun making cards and decorating notebooks... (thanks to my scrappin' friends who sent me off with a whole dufflebag full of craft supplies!)

beading and manicures... We also got the kids hooked on Dutch Blitz, Uno and Twister...
Lots of fun playing with the kids, despite the language barriers... our kids did so well, diving into every new experience and person...We fell in love with everyone of them and can't wait to visit them again.

A group of Swiss doctors donated the money for the land and the buildings, and supported them for 2 years. Now they are in a situation where they daily depend on God to meet their needs. They have a brilliant plan to become financially self sufficient--chicken farm, pig farm, palm farm (for palm oil). Businesses that will provide reliable income for these kids, this great big family. They have such a solid plan, and Joel and I are honored to advocate for them here in Canada so that they can get things going, and extend their ministry to kids who need love and care. These are savvy, sophistocated people and all they need is a little help from people like us. A little money goes a long way in Thailand. If you're interested in helping them, we'd be than happy to tell you more.

These Little Piggies went to Market

Joel had searched all his life for a certain type of girl. At 22 he settled for Dawn Kern. 17 years later in a Phuket Market he found her.

The pancake lady.

I too, have a non-sexual crush on this woman.

(That kind of assumes Joel's crush on her is also non-sexual... hmmmmmmm.)

Becky took us to the market and we found our way back a few times (mostly for pancakes)… the sights and smells were something else. We’ll spare you the smells, here are a few sights:

We bought some amazing fruit and veggies, left all the meat products behind, and the boys had to pause at the cookie vendor. We’ve become addicted to these little shortbread-like cookies with pineapple jam in the middle. I’ve got 4 bags coming home.


Surprise, surprise, it’s all about the food.

Christmas Day in Thailand

Christmas Day

The boys opened their Christmas present (new snorkel gear) last night and we headed out to the beach first thing this am. We went to Ao Sane, a quite, lesser known spot with decent enough snorkelling and had a great time. The sand wasn’t soft and powdery, but small bits of coral—nice that it didn’t stick to everything. We had a great lunch at a restaurant right on the beach and then drove around the island for a while…saw the touristy beaches (which looked great and weren’t tooooo crowded).

For our Christmas Day dinner we drove around and decided to try a cute little place with a thatch roof. Once inside we realized that it was a place where you can fish for your own giant prawns and then they cook them for you. It sounded a little corny and we had a little language barrier issue, so we weren’t sure how it was going to work, but we eventually figured it out and ordered some interesting crab and prawn dishes and the kids fished the whole time, caught about 6 prawns which they BBQ’d for us and we promptly inhaled. The kids had such a good time, we chatted with a TV star from Dubai (according to, as if we’d know) —and it’s definitely the most unique Christmas dinner we’ve ever had! Next year we’re going to go to a shoot your own turkey restaurant.

Places, Everyone!

I have soooo many photos but it's taking FOREVER to load them, so here are just a few :-(
During this week here in Phuket, we’ve been helping out a team of Canadian missionaries who came here after the Tsunami. Thailand is a largely Buddist country, and for the most part, to be Thai is to be Bhuddist. The team has been given a few amazing opportunities to come into schools and share the Christmas story with the students. These guys worked really hard at preparing a 1 hour program to take to different venues… two parks, two schools and an English club. They did an amazing job pulling together a nativity play (I made the costumes and brought them with us), as well as another little skit, some Christmas carols in Thai, and a couple of games.

Our family was invited to be involved in the play… I helped with a little intro skit about all the different Christmas traditions people around the world use to celebrate, Joel was Herod (though really wanted to be sweet baby Jesus), and the boys were shepherds.

We did the play for the first time at a park on Tuesday night. For the last few months the team has been going to this park, which is beautiful and well used, and happens to border on a very poor neighbourhood. Every Tuesday night the team comes with hockey nets and sticks and play street hockey with the kids. They usually have about 20+ kids show up. As soon as we parked and started unloading the faces started appearing… these little guys look forward to having all these big Canadians playing with them once a week. Doing the play for them was fun and a bit of a gong show with little guys wandering onto the “stage” mid scene… so cute. We had fun playing hockey, coloring, and doing the play with the kids, who all went home with a treat bag. A great chance to do the play once through with an audience before the next day at the school.

And that’s where we spend Christmas Eve. We did two “shows”, one for the preschool-grade 3 and one for the 4-9th graders. There were about 500 kids in EACH group…. it was insane. The play was a hit, the games were so fun for them (we did the one where gifts are wrapped in many layers and you pass it around your table until the music stops then unwrap a layer, do it all over again until someone gets to the gift—you know the one.) It was soooo cute to watch. For the younger group, we passed out a candycane and a Thai story of Jesus’s birth as they left. Watching those little hands “wai” us (their gesture for thank you--putting their palms and fingers together infront of them, and a little bow)… it just melted us. I could have packed up a couple dozen of those kids.

They fed us an amazing lunch and then came the older kids… the ones more our kids age. It was a mad house! As they were coming into the “cafeteria” Joel-the-giant got a lot of attention. Again, they loved the play and afterwards there was time for “mingling”.

Joel – would just hold his arm straight out in front of him and kids were trying to jump so their heads hit his hand--- endless entertainment. It all sequed into armwrestling.

Brodie – first dazzled a small crowd with is “stupid human tricks” (popping his shoulder out of joint) which led way to arm-wrestling with other boys until his poor little spaghetti arm could take it no more.

Me – these kids LOVE getting their picture taken, which was exactly what I wanted to do too! So between the odd request for a close-up look at my braces, I was mostly a photographer for Thai’s next top model.

And then there was Adam.
I don’t know what to say except that it was probably close to a Jonas Brothers Tour experience. As soon as it was time to “mingle”, about 100 young ladies produced cell phones to take pictures of Adam, had him typing his phone number into their phones, and was signing autographs.
I was amused on a number of levels, including the fact that I don’t own a cell phone that takes photos.
As for the star himself, he enjoyed every split second of his 15 minutes of fame.

It was a pretty great Christmas eve.

The Morning After

The Morning After

“I wish we could live here all the time” Brodie said on hour 12 of his Thai experience.
I think that was still the pork soup talking, or maybe the BBQ’d chicken he was about to dive into at a “restaurant”—which is more like a tent with tables and food for sale. These food stalls lined the streets of the Bangkok area we were in for the day. It’s food stall after food stall, cheap, delicious, and apparently safe, since we all enjoyed it and no one was the least bit sick. We also ventured into a local convenience store and picked up some chips. “Double Cheese Pork Burger” and “Spicy Squid” flavoured.

Our flight to Phuket was later that night. Becky, our “friend” (who we’d met once before they moved to Thailand almost 3 years ago, and who has been our contact as we’ve planned this trip), was waiting at the airport for us. It was midnight by then and she brought us right to our home for the week, which is a cute little 3 bedroom house around the corner from Greg & Becky’s. The woman who lives here is also a missionary at has gone to Canada for Christmas, so offered us her home and truck—very generous of her.

I woke up at 6am the first morning here in Phuket and made myself a cup of tea and watched the neighbourhood wake up. It’s so cool to be able to spend this week in a real Thai neighbourhood, hearing the chatter of neighbors (the windows are mostly all screens) and the chickens, the dogs, the cats, the kids, the great smells, (and the not so great smells.) It’s also really nice having Greg & Becky around the corner—our boys and their 4 kids have really hit it off and can walk back and forth in one minute. They are great people and we’re having a fun and informative time hanging out with them and their team this week. Unfortunately the internet at this house isn’t working so I have to use their modem when I want to go online—I’ll try to do that again soon!

(It's taking forever to get photos up on blogger with my internet access... I'll add them when I can, or they might be on facebook as that seems to load faster.)

One night in Bangkok

Just like the eighties hit song, our one night in the big city on our way to Phuket will stick in our heads for a long, long time.

20 hours after our departure fromVancouver we arrived at Bangkok’s totally impressive, modern and “space age like” airport. Our hotel picked us up and by 1am we were settled in our very cool little hotel, complete with gorgeous dark teak wood everywhere. Our poor hotel guys at the hotel huffed our 5 x 40lb suitcases up 4 flights of stairs to our room, teasing that we must have refridgerators in them. (We didn’t try to explain in our limited Thai that we were mules for 1750 candycanes, a suitcase of gifts for missionaries and orphans…)

We loved our room, but we couldn’t sleep (and didn’t really want to either!) So, off we wandered, down the alley to some street vendors and had THE MOST AMAZING SOUP IN THE WHOLE WORLD. It was our first taste of Thailand, and we were sold.

Flights for 4 from Vancouver to Bangkok - $6000
Extra car to take you to the hotel because you have so much luggage - $3
2 bowls of the best tasting soup you’ve ever eaten - $2
One memorable stroll through a safe Bangkok neighbourhood at 2am with your family – Priceless.

FLEEING THE COUNTRY!

Well, after almost a full year of planning, saving, researching, preparing, the day is almost here and we're leaving tomorrow night! I will try to update my blog and/or facebook as much as possible.

Until then, 4 Kerns and 1750 mini-candy-canes are off to warmer pasture!

PEACE OUT.

Too Lazy or Buzy (you be the judge) to Write, but enjoy

Thirsty?

I heard about this very cool thing, called the "Advent Conspiracy" a few weeks ago... I'm so inspired and moved by this concept, the heart behind it, the practicality... I really, really ask you to take a couple of minutes and watch this video... I'm so pumped about it. Funny enough, today and yesterday I haven't been able to drink the water from my tap. If you're in the same boat, "water" might be on your mind too. This minor inconvenience this week is a "drop in the bucket" of what other families face daily. Thanks for watching. If you'd like more info about this movement, visit adventconspiracy.org or water.cc (Living Water International)

Today

I got to work on another cool closet project.
I had lunch with two of my favorite girlfriends.
I'm thinking frozen pizza for supper.
I have spent WAYYYY to much time looking up clips of the comedians we saw this week at Just For Laughs... here's a taste.



"David O'Doherty was born in Dublin at the end of 1975. He wanted to become a professional cyclist, then a professional jazz musician, but an almost complete lack of talent in these areas meant that he became a professional telemarketer, ringing up strangers to ask them to rate things out of ten." from his website category, "biographical details uncomfortably written in the third person."

Lusious Lashes?

Am I the only one who has been on a 25 year hunt for great mascara?

I believe my search is over.

I love this product.

About $15 from Shoppers Drugmart... they recently started to carry the GOSH line.

Power Drop

When the kids were little, they got the biggest thrill out of "Power Drops", which entails Joel lifting them up to the ceiling and then dropping them onto our bed. When you're 3,4 or 5 it's a pretty wild ride.





Fastforward nearly 10 years.





Tonight, for some reason, the Power Drop was resurrected.





Pretty hilarious watching Joel try to lift Adam, who now stands at almost 5'7", to the ceiling. Brodie's not exaclty compact any more either.





To save Dad's back, there was a 2 Power Drop limit.





Do not try this at home.

Gay for Fey

I love Tina Fey.
She's hilarious, beautiful and talented.
If I could be any celebrity, it would be her.
I am unabashedly a little gay for her.

If you've enjoyed the show 30 Rock, and if you haven't I have to ask "Why Not????"... you might enjoy these clips of Tina's character, Liz Lemon, at her finest.

Friday Favs...

Best things about this week...
1) Wednesday Joel turned 39... "No Finer 39'er"... and the four of us had a very special dinner out at Cactus Club. He'd ordered himself a Garmon?? which is a fancy running watch that measures your distance, heart rate, pace... perspiration output, attitude, swear words... very high tech. On top of that fancy gadget, we bought him a pair of fancy undies... you know the big controversial billboard that read, "Comfort for his balls"... well... $29.99 later Joel's junk is resting nicely in bamboo underpants.

2) Closure... I've had this temporary job, working in the sales center for another development... my goal was to earn enough money to pay for 1 or 2 tickets to Thailand. It's been prety quiet. OK, that's generous. Most days I was done my work by 9:50 and that included watering the plants, emptying the dishwasher and possibly running to Safeway for cream. I knew at any moment my job could come to an end--- I was paying for my parking half a day at a time. Today I found out that they are closing the sales center at the end of the month, so it's just good to know the timeline. This job has been an amazing opportunity to earn almost 3 tickets to thailand, the time to sit on the computer and research and plan, the opportunity to get to know a couple of very cool people that I really hope to keep in touch with, and another taste of the working life that makes me so thankful that I do not have to work full time.

3) A note from Brodie left on the kitchen table while I was in the shower and he was heading out the door... "By Mom I (heart) u" How sweet is that 10-year old?

4) NineStyles... a great accessory shop on Ellis, between Lawrence and Bernard, has amazing jewellery, hats, etc... is having a buy 2 get the 3rd free sale... and she's got decent prices to start with! Check it out....

this is one of the pieces I treated myself to, (apparently for losing my job????)5) Cheryl and I have gone into the closet. Stay tuned for details. (I know, you all saw it coming.)

Thailand or Bust

Hellllloooo my friends!

It's been a crazy fall... I've had an interesting little temp job (next post), have had a very cool opportunity (post after that) and one of the most exciting things that I have yet to post about is that our family is going to Thailand!!

We leave Dec 17th for 25 days! The first two weeks we'll be in Phuket, working in an orphanage and doing come Christmassy community things with some Canadian missionaries we've hooked up with, (this is one of the areas that was hit hardest by the Tsunami a few years ago.) We will have one week of traveling at the end of the trip and still have to decide on the details of that part of our adventure.

We're SOOOO excited and know it'll be a life-changing experience for all four of us!
So much to do in the next 2 months to get ready for this big adventure!

The kids are pumped, and Joel is really excited about stepping away from this whole North American, consumeristic scene. Being in a third world area is really where his heart is. I love that about him, and how it reminds me to hold "stuff" and comfort loosely.

That said, I will still keep it my goal to NOT come home with a baby and own a hut on a Thai beach somewhere.

Inappropriate Laughter and my growing need for "Depends"

Newport Oregon, July 2008

So, you know when you're just busting up laughing in a place that really shouldn't be filled with hilarity? But you can't help yourself, and you just keep thinking of funnier and funnier things to say, so you try to spit them out, all the while doing a terrible job of keeping your laughing quite... and the tears are rolling---oh the tears.

Whilst wandering the quaint streets of Newport, OR, we kept seeing this poster...


"Not your Daughter's Jeans" greatly intrigued Patti (my sister-in-law) and I.
There was only one thing to do.
Try them on.

So, into the "old lady clothing store" we went... armed with Nathan and a camera.

Patti's pair were "dressy"... with extra stitchery. Very Fancy. Sure, she would need to get them hemmed, but with a nice pair of Naturalizers and a smart top, she'd look sharp. Sadly, the pictures don't do them justice.


Mine were more casual, every day slacks. They were so casual infact, that they had no back pockets and no belt loops. My ass was 32 inches long.

We were laughing sooooooo hard, and the ladies who worked there kept walking through the changing area where Nathan was discreetly trying to snap a few photos of us... they're not great but you get the idea.

My final line before I could no longer speak was after about 3 minutes of stifled laughter... "Patti, I think I have to buy these. I've just peed in them a little too much."