Christmas

Christmas comes and goes about as fast as good skiing conditions. Which we did this year thanks to my Father in law's birthday which falls on the 25th of December. We took him skiing twice while we were home to cover both Christmas and Birthday obligations. Christmas was full of food and family. And I've got pictures to prove it.



This is what I did after every meal too.

Snowshoeing in Canada was on the agenda for this weekend. We checked it off our list right after this picture was snapped. Thanks for that Annie! A few members of our community group were there with us. It was a blast. Grouse Mountain was the location. A little money trap just north of downtown Vancouver. We stayed with big sis Joanne (even though she wasn't home for the weekend), she let us crash at her place in White Rock. We returned in time for the 7:00 oclock service on Sunday with less money, more memories, frattata fueled, and ready for the week. Except me. I came home with a cold, which gave me a day off work today so I could blog.

Yes, her future is that bright.

This one of the two times Aaron had to stop to pick a snowball out of his left ear. He decended the climb with a bleeding nose from one of our snowball ambush's. Kudos to Mark for the idea.



That's always been my strategy. Catch it so you can throw it right back.



There goes our chances of trying to catch the "rugged outdoorsmen" look.

The view from grouse at dusk.

No other way to end the night than with cocktails and and a visit to Death by Chocolate. We ran into Trevor (see sf59 post) in HMV, and he helped us close out the weekend. Thanks Trev.

This is a picture of the pretty girl who lives at my house.

American turkey tastes the same...

For all you Canadians who are reading this blog, this last weekend was American thanksgiving. Ruth and I went to sample the miller teams ( http://www.themillerhood.blogspot.com/) turkey feast. It was delightful. Cooking kudos to Brenda for an amazing turkey in the event of a broken oven (scroll down their blog for the whole story) Ruth brought her amazing sunshine yams, that made me yam happy. So I'm going to answer some frequently asked questions by Canadians concerning USA thanksgiving as I did with the Canadian thanksgiving, just to be fair. ;)

Q- Why do they have thanksgiving so late?
A- It's kind of the kick off holiday to the money=love Christmas season! However the Christmas decorations were out way too early this year, someone did a kick-off behind our backs.

Q- Do they eat turkey?
A- Yes they do. However, since a farmer in chilliwack recently found a duck with a runny nose hanging around his chicken coupe, and the americans decided to pull a 'mad cow/sick bird' law into effect, it's likely that none of our turkey's were canadian birds this year.

Q- Can you really buy beer at the grocerey store?
A- Yup. Even on holidays.



We ate out on the deck because it was the only place with enough room for all ten of us. So Josh rented one of these outdoor industrial heaters. You could light a cigarette from the mouth it. It totally rocked!

Commuting

It's a part of life in Seattle. Just thought I'd document it for some reason. Don't try this at home kids. Shooting pics at the speed of 25 mph is for professionals only.

My commute..well I don't actually have one. As Ruth often points out, I could ride my bike to work if I wanted. Ask me how many times that's happened. Ruth is the one who has the mildly sucky drive to and from work every day. Still, I felt the need to take my camera in my car last week. There was Frisco-like fog that morning.


Ha! I shot him before he shot me.

SF59

Who? Well only one of the greatest bands I've known. Starflyer 59 played at the Paradox this last weekend and they rocked. This band has inadvertently become the soundtrack to my life. I don't get to talk much about Starflyer59 so I'm going to now. It's what blogs are for is it not? I hope I don't embarrass Ruth. If you still don't think I'm a nerd then skip this post, I am about to geek out.

The first SF59 album I bought was when I was with Ruth at a Christian music festival up in Vancouver. We had just started dating. The Cd was an EP called She's The Queen. The next album was the Gold Album. A frequent topic of conversation between Ruth and I was what we were going to when we graduated. We can't get married! We'll be too young. We have to go to school, probably not the same school, so what then?
I was singing the lyrics to Dual Overhead Cam on the Gold album - She's got a hold on me / She better wait for me long.

The Americana album came out later in highschool. Similar songs for similar conversations - time moves you knew it would

Highschool Graduation. As a parting gift to the guys I used to play in a terrible band with, I bought them each a copy of the 12" vinyl, Goodbyes are Sad.

College came. Ruth went away to school in Kamloops, BC. Even though we were not technically dating I drove there to see her every chance I got. I was working and looking into film school. I took a couple of road trips to Vancouver to check out the school that year. One rainy weekend when Ruth was home, she and I went to dinner at our favorite restaurant out of town. While we were there I stopped by the Christian bookstore to pick up the new album Fashion Focus. On our way home I got into a car accident and bent up my little rusty BMW. The first song on Fashion Focus is called I Drive A Lot.

Film School in the big city. I was making mistakes. Ruth was making mistakes. And we were talking on the phone every night trying to figure out if we would ever be able to bring our relationship back together. It wasn't looking good at that time. Those were sad days. One day in the color lab I took a break and decided to surf the internet. I went straight to the SF59 website thinking that I hadn't heard an album from them in a while. The splash page was the cover of the new album. Bright yellow with a bold white title. It was called Everybody Makes Mistakes. I sat at my computer and cried.

Soon after the 'Best of' compilation came out entitled, Easy Come Easy Go.

May 2003. Ruth and I get married. Funny thing, the new album, Old, gets released the month before. So I order a couple copies for my groomsmen as gifts. (same guys I bought the Goodbyes Are Sad album for). We crack it open to listen to it the morning of the wedding as we're getting ready. One of the songs was entitled New Wife, New Life.

2004. I'm beginning to realize that late night drawing and a wife don't mix. The only good time for drawing is early in the morning before work. I Am The Portuguese Blues is released, with the song I wake Up Early.

One of my favorite songs is the one I still come back to often from the Leave Here a Stranger album. It's called Give up the war.

I read what they write

God's men of before

It's simply that I am still afraid

To give up the war

I've played all the chords

And I guess I get bored

I want to do it right

Be someone like Paul

It's simply that he was not afraid

He never gave up the war

And live when you're down

And live when you're always leaving

I want to be things

Always living

Pressing on

Our good friend Trevor, from highschool came down from Vancouver for the show. It was a fun weekend.

Lauren's Birthday

A few weeks ago, Ruth and I had a birthday game of cards with our close friends Lauren and Colin. Lauren is a skilled, texas hold'em card shark. So much so that she came in second at her own birthday game. Not totally surprising. The girl knows when to hold'em. Ruth played a better game then she's ever played before. She really thought out her hands. However she was still forced out early by a few strokes of badluck, so she was able to hang out and snap pics. Good times guys!

Fall of 2005 goes by with no blog post...

So this is what fall looked like incase you were wondering.

Canadian Turkey tastes the same...

For all you americans who are reading this blog, last weekend was Canadian thanksgiving. Ruth and I went up to Whiterock where my family converged at my sisters place, and we feasted. So I'm going to answer some frequently asked questions by you USAers concerning this holiday.

Q- Why do you guys have thanksgiving?
A- Same reason you do, theres a lot to be thankful for!

Q- Did Canada have pilgrims too?
A- I don't know, I spent history class drawing but the guys in the black hats with the funny shoes look familiar. So I'm guessing, yes.

Q- Do you eat turkey and stuff too?
A- You mean turkey and stuffing. It wouldn't be thanksgiving without it.

Straining and Retaining...

HA! My second post in one evening. I'm on a roll. I think my husband has taught me how to do this because it is a little time consumming. As in it's kind of like another chore....wash the dishes, do the laundry, update the blog...it is fun though (at least for now). So I guess if I update the blog he does the laundry??? Just jokin, he helps with all of our chores all of the time, I am one lucky wife. So anyway, last Sunday the boys had a mud slinging party at Josh and Brenda's (the infamous plungers). They host our great community group in Woodinville are trying to build a lawn and yard for us all to enjoy. I went along to 'help' thinking I would get some good exercise but after two pathetic lugs of the shovel I gave up and shot some photos instead. The boys did a great job and looked like very manly men. I then trotted off to the gym to work my muscles with some 7.5lb weights and arrived back to the Miller's in time to consume some of Brenda's great chili and cornbread. Good times.