Sunday, November 30, 2008

Happy (late) Thanksgiving!

It feels like Sam & I have been running around for the last week and I'm sure it won't slow down until after the holidays.

Monday: both of us worked and then I had an interview... don't want to jinx anything, so that's all I'll say.

Tuesday: work once again, but we came home to lovely visitors - my mom & grandma. They were on their way to my grandma's brother's house and made a stop to see our home. We enjoyed pizza & Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2.

Wednesday: I worked all day, but worried about Sam because he was home sick. I took care of him after work and he even mustered up energy to help me bake 2 apple pies (pictured above) and apple scones.

Thursday: we originally thought we'd be able to sleep in on our only day off, but our plans changed. We got up early and drove to Sandy to have a Grable family breakfast with Phil, Donna, Laura, & Matt. It was delicious and very good company. Then we ventured over to Sam's aunt's house and visited for an hour before we had to get on the road to our next Thanksgiving - my grandma's sister's house. After an hour in the car, we arrived, but were both not feeling well so we weren't much fun. We did enjoy a delicious dinner, but had to scoot out before dessert since we were both working early the next morning. We arrived back home and went right to bed.

Friday: Sam worked his half day and I worked a full day. I would have done the "Black Friday Shopping Event", but I'm not sure I could have done it & worked a full day, so I passed on it. Friday night was our night to watch our recorded shows, which was a nice restful evening.

Saturday: Another early morning at the Grable house as we thought we had a only one more nice day to finish painting the inside of our garage. We got a lot of it done and are happy with the way it looks. We'll have to finish it off another day, but it will work for the time being. After painting, I made a pumpkin pie for Sam since we missed out on any desserts on Thursday. Another plus was that Elf was on TV on Saturday and we watched it while I unpacked our Christmas decorations and put them up. We haven't bought a tree yet because we're planning on buying a fake tree when we find a good deal - we might have to wait until next Christmas to start our tree traditions.

Sunday (today): we went to church and came home for a day of rest. I was able to sign, stuff, & address our Christmas cards - a job I was putting off for a few weeks. Sam made a delicious meal of brown rice & orange chicken, so good! And although we aren't ready for another week of work, we'll take it nonetheless.

We hope you had a good Thanksgiving with family and friends. Happy Hollidays!

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Today was deemed "domestic day" by yours truly.
My mom and grandma are coming over the mountain on Tuesday (depending on weather) and I wanted the house to be clean & homey. I think I succeeded.
I started the morning early (7:30am) with a batch of pumpkin scones, which were delicious. Then it was on to cleaning - vacuuming, dusting, cleaning toilets, and doing laundry. I love the way a clean house looks & smells. Plus, I feel like a grown up, ha!

Tomorrow we're headed to Sandy for the Sandy Baptist Annual Harvest Dinner with Sam's parents, sister and brother-in-law. We're excited for good food and family time!

Yay for a short week of work! I only get Thursday off, but I'll take what I can get. We can't wait to spend time with both my side of the family and Sam's side of the family. We'll be traveling from Salem to Vancouver to Sandy, then back home. It will be a long day, but definitely worth it!

Well, I just filled my stomach with Papa Murphy's pizza and now I'm ready for a Saturday night with my husband and our cuddly puppies. Good night!

Friday, November 21, 2008

Happy Friday!
After a full week of work, I couldn't be happier that it's the weekend.
Plus, I'm starting it off with a new hair cut!
Hope you have a good weekend!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

I miss these three girls. Period. Sometimes I think to myself, how did I get so lucky to meet these amazing women? Thank you George Fox for bringing us all together.

On the left is Bethany, my travel mate. Although she's been all over the world, the two missions trips I took in college were with Bethany and I'm not too sure I would have made it through them without her. She's always the one passing you the "are you ok?" smile and I love it... makes me feel ok =). Currently, Bethany is working with Invisible Children, a passion of hers from some time now.

In the middle, we have Kelly, my best friend. We met our freshman year and were roommates sophomore, junior, & senior year. We've been through ups & downs, but still grew closer together in the end. As I type, Kelly is finishing up her last month in Thailand, working with women coming out of the sex trade industry.

And on the right leaves Chelsea. We met my junior year, her sophomore year, while helping with the homeless on Friday nights. There was something instant between us - we just clicked. I think there is something about us both being hopeless romantics and scaredy cats. Chelsea is over in Uganda, Africa at the moment, using her major (social work) to help those in need.

That's right, I admire my friends who are completely self-less and giving everything they have to those who need it most. I miss them every day, but know that we'll all be together again someday. I love you Bethany, Kelly, & Chelsea! Keep on keeping on... You three are awesome!

Saturday, November 15, 2008

What a nice day it was today. No rain + sunshine = nice day!
Sam & I decided it would be nice to take the puppies to a new park and wear them out. Except we forgot the fact that they are not good around other people or dogs - they bark at EVERYTHING! Yup, not too much fun. Holding the dogs (as pictured above) was one of the only ways to get them to keep quiet, so a lot of our walk went like this. We did wear them out though. They came home and cuddled with us all afternoon. Luckily we had good movies on TV and we let them sleep & us rest.
It sure was a beautiful day and another experience to mark in the books, but I'm not sure how quick we'll take them out again...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

This dog got his nails trimmed this morning... more drama than necessary.
His nails seemed to be growing at an alarming rate and before we knew it, he'd probably be in the Guinness Book of World Records - they were THAT long.
Following some biting, whining, and bleeding, the job was done and now the nails are much shorter.
After Buster's nail appointment, we stopped for a "day off" Starbucks and then went grocery shopping. We had a simple lunch of grilled cheese and I cleaned our bathroom shower. Tonight, we're making a rainy day dinner of noodles, sauce, & chicken, as well as homemade sourdough bread - yum!
Hope you're all having a good Veteran's Day - thank you to all the Veterans out there.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

This weekend, Sam & I decided to use our kitchen a little more than usual. We gathered all the ingredients and went to work. Sam made us a delicious lasagna from scratch, but sadly, I didn't get a picture of it... I wanted to eat it too quickly. Sam used to make me Italian dishes from scratch when we were dating, but he hadn't since we've been married. I almost forgot how good of a cook he was =) As a thank you, I decided that I would make something for Sam - a homemade apple pie! He loved it and went back for seconds, possibly thirds. It felt good making something he liked so much.

Now we're gearing up for another week of work. Luckily we both have Tuesday off (Veterans Day), so we have a shorter week ahead of us. Yay!

Monday, November 3, 2008


I finally filled out my ballot tonight. I know, I know... it's taken long enough. Part of me feels like I am just one person, how big of a difference can I make. But the other part of me feels like this is a privilege that I should definitely take advantage of. So that's what I did. Now I just need to drop it off tomorrow, Election Day.
At church on Sunday, Pastor Randy really made a good point about everyone needing to just pray for whomever will be our next President & Vice President. No matter if they are the one you wanted in office or not, they need prayer because of the position they are about to embark on.
May the best one win...

Sunday, November 2, 2008

November, already?
Hard to believe, but we are well on our way to the end of the year.

Yesterday was our sister Laura's birthday. The family arrived around 11:30am and we caught up and hung out. Laura opened her presents (one shown above) and we all partook in a few of her birthday cookies (she decided she wanted cookies instead of cake). We had hoped that the weather would hold up for one more day so we could venture to Silver Falls Park and luckily, it did! We made our way out there and had a beautiful walk/hike around several of the falls. There was even some prime opportunities for family pictures.

After we had enough walking, we drove back and cooked pizza and played games. Matt, Josh, & Laura all went home, but Donna & Phil stayed the night and went to church this morning. It was nice to show them where we've been attending since we've been living in Salem. They also got to see Kristi play the piano for worship and it was great!