An excellent article!

I found a link to this woman's blog on Mrs. Jenny Chancey's website on being a dedicated daughter at home, Click on the post title to read the article. Enjoy!

Two New "Family members"

Most of you know that my dad bought my mom(isn't he sweet!) a baby grand piano, but it is SO beautiful, I just have post pictures!

We had to move and re-arrange all the furniture in the living room to make room for the piano!

This is the corner (actually it's more like half our living room!) Where the piano is, so you can see the before and after effect.

We got the piano on Monday night, and dad recruited some young men to help him and the piano mover get it in the house. The piano weighs close to 800 pounds!!

The mover-man was a kind elderly man, with a thick German accent. And at one point when dad stepped out to put something in the truck, he asked Ali to hold the flashlight for him, so Ali crawled under there, and mom thought it was so cute, she had to get a picture! :)
Ta-DA!! There it is! The piano has hardly been left alone since we got it, and my mom absolutely LOVES it!

Most of you also know, that since I have to put my beloved Rosie down, (sniff, sniff) That I have been looking for another dog/breed. So after weeks of going in circles, and thinking and praying about what to do, my parents and I have decided that the best idea, is to keep one of Rosie's puppies. So...Our second "new family member"...

This is Sophie!

She is so tiny, she weighs about 2 lb, and so adorable, even dad can't resist her! She has a really sweet, spunky personality, and I think she will be a wonderful show dog as well as a little buddy!

Alright, one more thing, did any of you notice the beaUtiful orchid on the piano? It was given to me by my friend Nancy, who knows how much I love orchids, and it now has an official home on the new piano. Thank you Nancy!! :)

Meet...

The 24 ounce, giant redwood latte/mocha from Woods.

About every 3 months or so, my Woods punch card is filled, and I am allotted one free drink, of any kind, any size. So... since I am inherently Dutch, I stretch this free bonus as far as the law allows, and get them as big as they come! I'm not kidding, these things are "ginormous" as we like to say. Do you know how many shots are in these things?!?! FOUR! Four shots of caffeine packed espresso. This thing will last me and some of my family members (I could never drink it on my own, and contrary to popular belief, Dutch folk are also very generous, :) almost all day, so this baby is shared and warmed up in the microwave until we are shaking from the caffine, and sick of coffee. But we love it, and in a few months as the punch card starts getting full again, we'll be ready and looking forward to another 24 ounce, giant redwood latte/mocha. :)

Home again, home again!

Last night at almost exactly 9 :50pm, our pilot brought two tired travelers down for a smooth landing in the Bellingham Airport.

For the last four days my mom and I have been in Palm springs CA. visiting my grandparents. And we had so much fun! My grandparents had several adventures planned for us, so there was never a dull moment! ( I took all of these pictures, so these are the real thing:) I couldn't stop taking pictures of the beautiful mountains that surrounded us.

On day one, it was slightly overcast, but still warm, and we went to a large outdoor market, where they sold everything from jewelry, hats, pottery, and belts to socks and earmuffs. (who would have thought people would be thinking about buying earmuffs in California!)

On day two, it actually rained! But that didn't stop us! We went to a famous date farm called Shields. In their shop they sell everything made from dates! Jams, cookies, cakes, candied dates, ice cream, and dates of many, many different flavors! My mom and grandparents were in heaven because they all looove dates, but I really, really don't like dates! But I still had fun looking with them! And after they were through sampling all their different dates, they bought a couple of packages, and we all had some of their delicious ice cream which Shields makes themselves. I had chocolate, and everyone else had their famous date ice cream.

Then we returned home and I did some swimming. The pools at the resort where they stay, are filled heated by the water in the natural hot springs that the area is known for, and I tell you, those pools are really warm! I went swimming that night when there were less people, and the pools were steaming!!

On day three we went up the palm springs tram. (refer to previous post for more info) It was a warm sunny day, but up at the top of the mountain, it was 26 degrees, and they had 2 1/2 feet of snow!! It was beautiful at the top, and the ride was amazing! The views are exceptional, and even my grandpa who doesn't "do" heights, absolutely loved it. We really enjoyed that. Look at the pictures of the beautiful views from the top of the tram!! Those tall white objects are a few of hundreds of windmills that power the area.

After some lunch, we headed out to the Living Desert, which is a zoo of sorts, but this included botanical gardens native to the California desert, as well as animals. That was a really beautiful and well put together place, and we were glad we went.

My favorite was the butterfly/humming bird exhibit that they had. It is a small, enclosed, outdoor garden, where the humming birds and butterflies live in natural unison. Two of the birds were nesting in small trees, so close I could have touched their tiny nests! I also loved the frogs!)

Part of the zoo, was a life size re-creation of an African village they call Watutu. That was fun to walk through!

Cousins.....:)

On our last day, we took a nature walk along the San Andreas fault. It runs along an oasis in that part of California, and after a 3/4 of a mile walk in the desert, you suddenly come upon this beautiful, gigantic grouping of huge palm trees,

that surround a natural pond, and make up a small palm tree forest.

Along the way we spotted several of these adorable four-toed lizards.

And several of these rather un-nerving signs!

It definitely makes you observe the other signs that say "Stick to the trail!!"

But thank goodness we saw neither sight nor sound sound of these reptiles!

Grandma and Grandpa in front of a stunning view of the mountains.

But now that our trip is over, and the Lord has my mom and I both safely back at home, I have to admit, that I'm glad to be back! It is difficult when you don't have your siblings to talk to, and exclaim over this sight or that, or to ask dad about this or that bird or tree. I know I definitely prefer traveling with my whole family. But I still had a blast, and this trip will serve as a road marker, as I travel through my life.

Some History on Valentines Day.

I wanted to know how Valentines day came about, so I went online, and found this, I thought is was very interesting! :

Under the rule of Emperor Claudius II Rome was involved in many bloody and unpopular campaigns. Claudius the Cruel was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. He believed that the reason was that roman men did not want to leave their loves or families.

As a result, Claudius cancelled all marriages and engagements in Rome.

The good Saint Valentine was a priest at Rome in the days of Claudius II.

He and Saint Marius aided the Christian martyrs and secretly married couples, and for this kind deed Saint Valentine was apprehended and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. He suffered martyrdom on the 14th day of February, about the year 270.

Hundreds of years ago in England, many children dressed up as adults on Valentine's Day. They went singing from home to home. One verse they sang was:

Good morning to you, valentine;

Curl your locks as I do mine ---Two before and three behind

.Good morning to you, valentine.

In Wales wooden love spoons were carved and given as gifts on February 14th. Hearts, keys and keyholes were favourite decorations on the spoons. The decoration meant, "You unlock my heart!"

California here we come!

I think I've probably mentioned to most of you, that my mom and I are going to fly to Palm springs next Sunday to visit my grandparents for four days, who are vacationing there, but I thought I'd share some google images pictures of where we'll be staying, and what we'll be doing.

One of the days we're there, we're going to go and visit my first violin teacher in Studio City where she lives, which is just a few hours away from where we'll be. I haven't seen her in over five years, so I'm looking forward to meeting with her again. On another day my grandparents want to take us on the Palm Springs Aerial Tram way, which travels up Mt. San Jancinto in Chino Canyon, about 10,804 feet!! Which comes to about 2 1/2 miles up in the air!!

I love any kind of nature exploration type of thing, so this intriges me, and I'm looking forward to it. We'll be leaving on Sunday morning at about 5:20, and I love getting up early, if we're getting up to leave on a trip or something. Contrary to my mother, who hates getting up very early!! :) Put together, my mom and I could probably fill this many suitcases!

But since you have to pay alot extra, for any other suitcases we bring other than our carry-on, we're limited to something the equivalent of this....

Which really isn't much, but I think we'll manage!

I can't wAit to go, and I'll make sure I take LOTS of pictures so I have lots to blog about when I get back!

Oh dear...

I'm really quite sorry dear blog readers, life has been busy the last week or so, and I forgot about the blog for a few days!

One of the things that has kept us busy, is that all the girls in my family, and the girls in my Aunt Jenn's family, (minus baby Grace:) have been preparing to give the devotional and do the craft for our mothers and daughters devotional night called Keepers at Home on Wednesday night.

My aunt is doing the craft part, and we're doing the devotional part. My mom will be doing the actual devotional, but we're helping behind the scenes, and doing a short skit. The topic we're doing is diligence. So my mom asked me to write a skit involving myself and my sisters, so we've been having fun practicing our skit and learning our lines. The skit has to do with being diligent when you're doing your music practice, and we almost always end up giggling before we're through!!

My aunt also asked me to take care of the table decorations, which is so much fun for me, because I love being able to get creative anytime! So we'll be decorating with teacups, and pink and red ribbon, (we'll be following a valentines day theme) white lace, and little dishes of pastel colored mints, and little red candies. We also have a door prize that night, to give away for whoever's birthday is closest to valentines day.

Happy February everybody!