Seattle adventures

I'm such a bum. Andee and I went up to Seattle the weekend of Feb. 25th and I took maybe 3 pics... and 1 was with my phone, so that doesn't even count! And since I don't like to post messages w/out pics... enjoy the generic Space Needle pics from the internet! Dang, it's gorgeous out here!!
Andee and I loaded up on Friday after work, headed to one of my co-worker's house to make a quick appearance at her party and then headed off to Seattle around 9pm. We got there late, chatted with the parentals (Andee's folks) for a bit, and then crashed b/c breakfast is a tradition and it comes super EARLY! So, Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn and headed off for good 'ole waffles!! Then it was off to Leilani Lanes to cheer Mr. Andy on in his bowling tournament! Then Ms. Gussie, AndeeLynn and I headed to numerous malls in the Seattle area to search for shoes, handbags, makeup amongst many other girlie things! Saturday evening we hooked up with some of Andee's friends from college and my friend Jen (moved to Seattle from P-town a few yrs. ago) and we all enjoyed a night of dancing and catchin' up!!

Sunday morning we checked out a church in South Seattle and it was quite the experience! We, of course were a little late, but that didn't stop the ushers from taking us all the way up to the 3rd row. To our surprise, we still managed to get in on quite a bit of praise & worship, including a special song with Anson Dawkins!!! I was LOVIN' it!! Anson is 1/2 of the gospel group Dawkins & Dawkins. I first heard them when I was in Louisville, KY on my mission trip and that's where my love of gospel began!! Their CD was the first gospel CD I ever purchased, and I had to special order it, of course, considering I lived in Hays, KS! Anyway, I was thrilled to see him up there leading worship!! It was great!! SO... after worship, the choir's selections, a special prayer time, a special guest doing spoken word, and a group of young rappers sharing their talent, a special offering, the regular offering, and another reading, and then the embarassment of the guests (yes, that's right... they made us stand up to make sure we were warmly greeted... it was fabulous. They originally asked us to raise our hands, and when Ms. Gussie was the only one to obey, I think they made us stand up as punishment! Just kidding! That's just how some folks do... old skool folks, anyway!) So 2.5 hrs. later, the pastor only had 10 minutes left to give us a word, and even tho it started off a little crazy, he had a good message... too bad we weren't there to hear the rest of it the following week! SO... 3 hrs. later, we grabbed a bite to eat, stopped off to give love to Andee's nephew, Devon, and headed back to P-town! Fun times!!

Who knew...

Connect 4 and Jenga could be so entertaining!! My friends, Matt & Sara threw a little gathering at Matt's apartment to show off his new crib and offer up some good snacky-snacks & beverages!! He's got a killer loft apartment and it was fun to connect with some friends for a laid-back night of games and conversation!! And I'll just add that I was the CHAMPION of Jenga... beating out Tari and Matt!! Woo hoo!!!

How cool is this!!

For those of you who remember my waterfall pics from when my Uncle Wayne came to visit at the beginning of February... check them out a few weeks later!! God is a creative genius... that's all I gotta say!!

Luv me some cookies...

Every year we make Valentine's cookies with the kids from the 1-on-1 program (mentoring program at church) and watch a movie! Unfortunately, this year we were missing quite a few kids (mine in particular) and tutors, but we had fun nonetheless... here's some pics of our crazy crew!

Movie date!

So Mia and I went on our first movie adventure to see Wallace & Grommit at the St. Johns Pub!! It's not your traditional movie theatre, it's part of a restaurant, so you order food and chill on big, comfy couches while you watch your movie!! It's fabulous!! Well, she had never been to a theatre before, so she was completely awestruck with how BIG the screen was!! And she would NOT stop talking and making comments thru the entire movie... no matter how many times I ssshhh'd her. I was crackin' up... luckily there were only 7 other people in the theatre... 2 of them being kids!! I was a little worried that she was going to get scared by the monster "Were-rabbit" b/c it's a little more threatening when it's 20x the size you're used to, but she was fine!! At one point she busted out "what the heck?" She was killin' me!! And she also couldn't understand why I couldn't just get up and get her more milk!! Not realizing it wasn't as easy as running to the fridge, and that I couldn't leave her, nor did she want to miss the movie... too funny!

After the movie, we headed home talking about other movies, and i asked her if she liked Veggie Tales... she was like... "no, they frustrate me". As I hold back the giggles, I ask why and she replies... "well, I'm just not old enough... see, you have to be either like 100 or 16. So i'm just not old enough yet. But you could watch it!" OH MY GOODNESS!! Where does she get this stuff!!! Too funny!! Not sure who had more fun... her or me!!!

Zoo Crew pics

Here's a few pics of my kindergarten class at church!

Rain, Rain GO AWAY!!!

My Uncle Wayne (Mom's oldest bro) flew in to P-town for a class for work. So instead of dealing with a mess at my new home or being depressed about Lily... I entertained!! We went to dinner on Tuesday and Lily actually joined us for that meal... at Henry's, of course! Wednesday night, we cheered on the Blazers in a surprisingly exciting game against the Spurs!! We lost, and didn't win a free Chalupa for breaking 100 pts.... but it was still good times!! Friday we met up out to again for a night out in the Hawethorne district! My cousin Stephen (Mom's other bro's youngest son... are you following all this?) was touring the NW with the band he promotes/manages... Slim Cessnas Auto Club (or something like that). It was so good to see him and catch up... and I was so proud of him!! He's doing something he loves, and he's great at it!! They were the headliner, which means they didn't go on until after 12:30am and were still playing at 2am when we finally left!! He wouldn't let me take his picture, but I got some great ones of Violet and Justin, who came out to show their support and enjoyed the well-deserved night out while Justin's mom watched the girls!!

Saturday morning, Uncle Wayne and I checked out a couple of art galleries and tried to spot Henry Winkler and Kevin Costner at a movie shoot, but no luck. We grabbed lunch at a nice little seafood restaurant along the Willamette River and hit a furniture store before heading out to the Gorge to check out Mulnomah Falls.

After the falls, we did a little shopping downtown and then came home to crash on the couch with some pizza and a movie! We watched The Gospel to prepare him for my church on Sunday morning. Mt. Olivet is quite a bit different than the Reformed Presbyterian that he goes to, and I grew up in. But it was good! He survived the clapping and swaying like a pro and didn't even realize that 2 hrs. had flown by!! We grabbed some breakfast and then headed to the airport. It was great to have him out here, and it was a nice distraction from what could have been a really tough week.

So as he headed back to Kansas... I headed back to the house to unpack. Fun times.