Pictures from last weekend.

Finally, the weekend recap.

Okay, so finally I'm doing what I promised I would do. First thing first, the cabin key did not make its way to us and we didn't know this until 4pm last Thursday. So this is the last minute back-up plan that could have been better.

So I scrambled and got everything together by about midnight and then the next (late) morning we headed off. First we went somewhere to camp that was within an hour and thought that would work out great...wrong...forgot that there is an military base way too close so the noise of aircraft doing touch and goes was deafening. Don't get me wrong I LOVE watching the jets (I dreamed of being a fighter pilot as a teenager, then glasses came and I was horrible at math so that was out), but not when we are supposed to have some peace and quiet for the weekend. So we went to another place and that still wasn't going to work (still too close). So we made a decision to hop the next ferry boat and head to Orcas Island. Thankfully we made it to the dock in time. The cruise over was so beautiful and really smooth. Once we got over there it was quite late and we found the campground in Moran State Park and started setting up camp. It was getting very dark and the wind was blowing so hard, but we got set up and had dinner and went to bed (8pm, what is wrong with us). All through the night the wind blew so hard. If you know anything about Washington you know to be wary of the trees blowing over. Well, that night was one of those times that you feared a tree could topple over at any moment. Not to mention how COLD it was. We only got a couple of hours of sleep that night. The next morning we broke camp because we realized that the road noise was quite bad where we camped and thought we might find another camp. It was a beautiful site though. We drove up to Mount Constitution to see the view. "Mount Constitution at 2,409 feet is the highest point in the San Juan Islands. The steep, winding road leading to the top is well worth the trip." There was snow up there and the fog was thick at times and then it would clear. We never did get a really clear view from the top, but got a couple of pictures on the way down that were quite nice. It was really quite an amazing view. We did find such a lovely primitive campground up near the top, but I was being a wimp and didn't want to stay because I was cold and tired. So we jumped the next boat and headed home. Hopefully our next trip will be a lot better. The first camping trip of the year is always ruff.

I'm not getting pictures to work so that will be in a separate post.

Scrapbooking attempt #1

Breanna Update

I promise I will tell about last weekend soon, but wanted to share some info I got about Breanna.

Amanda quote: "Sarah/Lily has also taken to Breanna so well. She loves sitting on the arm of the couch and playing with her and I like these two pictures so very much. Breanna reacts by belling laughing at Sarah, who is quiet the little ham. Breanna has been doing so well. She is picking up weight and her neck is getting stronger by the day. She is so easy to put to sleep. She loves to snuggle and likes to have a cloth near her face She usually cries for a few minutes but is out in 5 minutes. I love putting her to sleep. We will probably be doing her surgery in early April. I am so grateful to all the families that have contributed to the medical cost of doing this heart surgery. I will have to arrange this with Dr Li."





Please pray that the money will be raised for her surgery. We still sit at $2,525 and need about $5,000.

Not for the faint of heart!

We watched a movie last night about where our meat comes from. I won't recommend watching the movie due to language and other stuff, but I do think the message should be known by all. Maybe if we all start thinking about what goes in our mouth it will make a difference. Long ago I learned what happens at Tyson chicken and I will not buy their chicken. I have switched over to a lot of organic products such as milk, eggs, yogurt and veggies, but now even though we don't eat a lot of meat, we will be more careful where and what kind we buy.

These are cartoon videos so it makes it easier to watch, but the message is still there.

A heart full of thanks!

Didn't Daleea do such a beautiful job on my blog! I just love the way it looks and I will say I only told her a couple of vague things that I would like to see and she created exactly what I wanted. I don't have beautiful words like she does to express what I want or feel. So sometimes it is a little hard for me to say what I want to when I want to. Daleea is such a special friend and what a blessing she is to me. She has such words of encouragement that get you through one more day. She is also hoping to bring home another daughter from China so please join me in praying for their journey to Isabella and that the Lord will direct their paths. I would like to turn this post around to her because she writes what is in my heart that won't come out. Thank you Daleea, you are a blessing to me.

New Squares for SiJi

Square #3 from The Hoglund Family


Square #4 from The Beebe Family


Square #5 & #6 from The Barrett Family





Square #7 The Shamel Family

To My Dear Friend April....

My Dear April,
First I want to thank you for entrusting me with your blog, and for allowing me to do a post...

I don't think you realize how special you are. You have one of the purest hearts I have ever known. Your sweetness is precious. You are a reflection of Christ Jesus' love. You are a jewel in His crown... I am honored and blessed to have become your friend. You always lift me up and make me feel like a better person. I hope that one day, through the grace of Jesus I will become the woman you believe me to be.

I do understand the journey you are on... my heart breaks for you as I know that your arms ache to hold your child in them. But, I also know that God is faithful... His timing is perfect and that He has always known who your daughter is... When you were a little girl and dreamed of holding your child in your arms... He knew who she was. When you dreamed of going on a mission to the far away land of China... He knew you would. His ways are not our ways... they are so far above and beyond what we could ever imagine, or hope for. Sometimes He does not give us the desires of our hearts because He has something so much better in store for us in His perfect will for our lives. Sometimes He allows us to come to a place of brokenness so that we will turn to Him, our Father, and surrender... to draw closer to Him... to step down and allow Him to sit upon the throne of our hearts.

Please know as you travel this journey to find your child that you are not alone... If you need a shoulder to cry on... I am here. If you need someone to scream out your frustrations at... I am here. If you need someone to pray with... I am here. If you just need someone to listen and understand... I am here. As difficult, and overwhelming at times that this journey can be... As heartbreaking and seemingly impossible it may seem.... I promise you that one day.... You will hold your SiJi in your arms and you will thank God for each tear that has fallen, for each day that you could not take another step on your own, for each time your heart broke a little more even though you thought it was impossible that it could hurt any deeper, for each moment, day, week and year that you had to wait.... because it led you to her.... YOUR child. You will thank the Lord that the CCAA did not give you your referral one day or even one year sooner because that would mean that you would have someone else's child and you wouldn't have your SiJi's . Although you will be overjoyed that the wait is over, in your heart you will know that you would do it all again if it meant holding YOUR daughter in your arms.
Weeping endures for a night.... but JOY cometh in the morning.... Hold fast dear friend, stay the coarse...... One day the morning will come and your heart will flood with a joy beyond what you could ever imagine and your precious little one will be safely in her Mama's loving arms.
He hears your cries... He is with you each step you make.... He is on the throne and He is oh, so faithful.... Run into the loving arms of your Father, He is your strength, your refuge, your hope and your peace... You are a Mom.... and one day your baby will be home.
God's peace my friend, and God's speed
Love,
Daleea

Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
And whose hope is the LORD.
For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,
Which spreads out its roots by the river,
And will not fear when heat comes:
But it's leaf will be green,
And will not be anxious in the year of the drought,
Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
Jeremiah 17:9-10

"Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know."
Jeremiah 33:3

Be still, and know that I am God;
Psalm 46:10

Blogsitter ... Check

Clothes packed ... oops

Tent or whatever we will need for our adventure-filled weekend ... forgot about that too .

Food purchased ... sorta, but not really.

Dog washed and toenails done ... yup, that was an easy one. I bathe her once a week; sometimes more if we go play in the mud.

Blogsitter ... well a girl has priorities and that was the first one. :-)

Hopefully we are going to do something great starting tomorrow morning. My hubby has taken a vacation day before he loses it. We had a great plan and then it unraveled due to it costing way too much $$. So then we thought we would just stay home and relax, but then we had an offer of a free cabin. Great (I sure hope it is really clean and not too dated, you know skungy carpet?), but that might not happen because the holder of they key is far away from town today and he sometimes forgets things. Now we are thinking of a backup plan that involves the great kind of dirt that I wouldn't mind rolling in. Yes, the great outdoors...no walls. Needless to say I don't have anything ready and it is 3:05pm Thursday. Not much time until tomorrow morning and yup, I'm blogging. Thankfully I will not have Internet all weekend so I have a little time to defrag and my hubby will remember who I am. j/k I'm not that out of control yet. lol

In my absence I have been crazy enough to give my blogger information to someone who will be bloggy-sitting. I know I'm only going to be gone a few days, but I thought it might be fun. She might be as quiet as a mouse and not say anything or she might be a prankster. I guess you will find out before me, but I have no worries about what she will post. Have fun my friend. Don't forget to leave a comment for her or me. :-)

I will be having a peaceful weekend somewhere away from crowds and I hope you all enjoy your weekend as well. I will try to take lots of pictures.

Do you need a new spring-do?

Are you needing a new look to your blog? Do you feel a little blue when you look at it? Do you need a new spring-do? I know I have mentioned Daleea doing blog design before, but I wanted to do something more to try and help get some business coming in.

This is taken from her blog:

"As many of you know, I have spoken of my longing to return to China one day. For several months now I have felt in my heart that we will have another daughter and I have given her the name Isabella. For now she lives only in my heart. We have no plans in the immediate future of beginning this journey. In fact, the Lord would have to move mountains for us to even begin. Certain things would have to come to pass for us to even start the paperwork. One of which is my husband would have to believe that she is meant to be ours too. He doesn't feel like we are to have another daughter but he has said that if it is God's will then He will open the door. I know this is true.... If she is just a longing in my heart then it will not be.... but if she is truly ours I know the Lord will move those mountains and bring her home.

I am designing blogs as a way to save the funds to hopefully bring our daughter home one day. I also will be using part of the proceeds to help the children in China who are waiting

Our blogs are very personal. They are windows in which we share the lives of our children, and our families. They are windows into our hopes, our dreams and our souls...
We here in BloggerVille laugh together, cry together, celebrate together, hold each other up and carry each other through the difficult times.... We are a community, we are extended family...

I would love to design something beautiful just for you...

I am asking for a donation of $50.00 for the blog and $25.00 for the header.
If you are interested please email me at jewelsofmyheart@yahoo.com Subject: Blog Design"

Daleea is such a beautiful person and I have no doubt in her ability to create a blog that will reflect who you are. She listens so well and has the gift to connect with you.

(Don't look at my blog as an example of her work. She does beautiful blogs...mine someday will be done by Daleea, but for now you can see her work here, here, here and of course Daleea's that is ever changing.

Video Monday what else can I say

I just have to share one or two more videos and have been meaning to share them for some time now. As you know in my house we are big fans of the classical guitar. So I thought I would share with you my favorite quartet. They are the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet and they are so entertaining and great. The guy on the left is Andrew York and he is no longer with LAGQ, but I'm (well we are) thrilled that we get to see him in concert in April. Of course I will be doing a post on this. Andrew York is my favorite guitarist and next in line is John Williams and then David Russell. As you can see my husband has brainwashed me and I love it. :-) I hope you enjoy these as much as I do.

If this video doesn't put a smile on your face...I don't know what will.

"Pachelbel's 'Loose' Canon"

This video is amazing in the fact that each person is playing only one small part of the piece.


"Bach - BWV 846, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Prelude #1"

If you love these like I do you can order the DVD from Amazon.

I can't resist.

Alaska_Moose_Video4
Uploaded by pivoineforumtosainu

I thought I was crazy until I saw this. Who knows...maybe I am crazy and someday I really will be a moose momma. Hopefully the CCAA isn't reading this. We may never get through the review room. :) I think Sierra takes up too much room in our bed and she is only 17.5 lbs. I can't imagine having a moose in your house much less our bed.

From my kitchen to your computer.

First of all I have to say thank you to Mrs. U at Making a House a Home. She did a post of homemade mayonnaise on Wednesday and so I gave it a whirl in my blender and it come out great. I usually use "Grapeseed Oil Vegenaise" instead of regular mayo, but I will say I really like the homemade mayo. I think I will make it with grapeseed oil next time and see how that comes out. You can get the recipe here. If you like or use mayo at all you should give it a try...don't worry it is really really easy.

The second item is my pots and pans. Take a look at the photo below.

Isn't this pitiful? I can't believe that I'm even putting it out there for you all to see. My friend Paula did a post yesterday about a pot party and so I thought I would see if you have pots and pans that look as bad as mine. I have had this set for 8 years or so and obviously I have used them a lot. I will admit I sometime put them in the dishwasher, but for the most part I wash them by hand. Can you tell which pans I don't really use?

Yea, the pretty ones. I never use metal in these but still you can see in the small sauce pan (upper photo) that the coating is chipping off. Costco states that there is a lifetime warranty on these pots and pans, but do I dare take them back after 8 years? I don't even have the receipt. Oh what to do?

Well, this is my dream set of cookware below. It is an All Clad Copper-Core set. I will just have to enjoy them from the picture because they are normally in the $1600 range, but wait...they are on sale right now for a limited time for ONLY $1150. Yeah, won't be getting those. :-) I would love it if you shared about your cookware...whether it is nice or not-so-nice. Obviously I love cooking.

Dropping like flies.

You know you are in big trouble when blogs you have come to know and love start dropping like flies. This China wait has opened up a world of bloggers of those who have gone before me and it gives me hope for the future and helps pass the time. I am sad though to say that three bloggers I have been watching have decided to quit. So if you watch my blog and have a blog and have never posted a comment can you PLEASE, oh Please leave me a comment so I can come for a visit more than likely over and over and over again. Thanks. I am going to go sulk for a bit and maybe when I come back there will be some new comments. :-)

Hey, on the bright side...spell check is finally working.

PS. Those of you who are not dropping like flies...don't even think about it!

One of Sierra and Miss Tilley's Adventures

I came across a couple of pictures that I have to share. The story behind these photos is the best part.

My parents had given us kites for our Anniversary (2006) so we went over to this soccer field to try them out. We had Sierra and her sister Miss Tilley (my parents dog from the same litter) with us. I had left the car door open because I needed to go back and get something, but before I got back Patrick had his kite up and flying. Miss Tilley got so freaked out she ran back to the car and jumped in the passenger seat with Sierra right behind her going..."what's wrong, where are we going in such a hurry." Tilley then jumped into the drivers seat leaving Sierra in the passenger seat. It was so cute as though Tilley was going to drive them away. I was taking the pictures with my phone so excuse the bad quality.

Is your home safe from lock bumping.

A friend just e-mailed me this video on lock bumping that robbers are using to get into homes. Is you home safe?

Mountain Solitude

Sunday, February 17th was our anniversary of our first date 13 years ago. We have never been ones to celebrate Valentine's Day due to the fact we were both home pining away wishing we were out together. It has become a tradition to celebrate on the 17th. Weird I know. Sunday topped the concert any day of the week for me. We packed a picnic lunch and ran to Starbucks for the morning cup of java even though it was around noon. We grabbed a bagel and sat at a little shopping center park (very quaint) and enjoyed our bagel in the warm sunshine. We then decided to drive to Mt. Baker Ski Resort and see how much snow was out there. There is between 180-195 inches or 15-16 feet depending on how high up you are. This doesn't even compare to "the 1998-1999 Ski Season it was said that Mt. Baker set the world record for annual snowfall. The peak of the mountain had an estimated total of 1,140 inches of snow which barely passed Mt. Rainier's record of the 1971-72 season. In total that is 95 feet of snow in one year. That is 126 inches of snow per month, over a 9 month period." Can you even imagine. Thankfully there wasn't that much snow up there or we wouldn't have been able to have such a lovely picnic in the snow.

In between the lower and upper runs there is a nice pull out and we saw that there was an area we could get up on the 15 foot snow berm. We got up on top to take in the view and found a wonderful place to have a picnic. So the trusty hubby went back to the car for our lunch. There was an area where someone had snow camped and so we laid out our water proof blanket and spent the next couple of hours playing with Sierra in the snow and napping in the sun. We explored a little bit, but with that much snow and no snowshoes or even snow boots it was a little tricky. At one point I went through the snow up to my hip and had to call for help.

Sierra LOVES snow and played herself to exhaustion. She sleep all day yesterday and is seeming like she might sleep all day today again. I do know if I were to say the word SNOW to her she would be full of life and spirit again.

The only frustration to the day was where the people snow camped they left all their garbage. We live by the rule or motto "Pack It In, Pack It Out" "Leave No Trace" so we cleaned up the area first. I wish everyone would practice those rules. Now we have beer cans and beer bottles in our recycling (how embarrassing), but I can't just throw them in the garbage. Even though it is very frustrating that some people are such slobs, I am happy we found all the garbage instead of it littering up such a beautiful place.

In the mountains I am so happy and free. Although I love Seattle for short periods of time...Sunday was the better of the two days by far. Once we were at our picnicking site we saw no one and it was absolute peace. I do not thrive on cities or lots of people. I much prefer the solitude of being alone with the ones I love in the mountains or someday on the water in my kayak. For now I will dream about the snow melting so I can put my pack on my back and hiking boots on and hit the trail for a couple of days at a time.

Make a postcard - it's easy!

Saturday Concert

Sorry this has taken me so long.  We really had a wonderful weekend. Saturday we drove to Seattle
to see the concert. We were a little early so we ran down (more walked very fast) to the waterfront
to get Ivar's Fish and Chips.  It started long ago when we visited Seattle for our 2nd Anniversary
and now anytime we visit Seattle we have to do it.  So we hurried and ate and then ran all the way
up the stairs back to the concert hall. We made it just in time for the doors to open (sweating and
all, what a great idea I had : ).  The seating was general so we really needed to be there just as the
doors were opening to get a good seat.  We got good seats and although Miss Yang was nervous
and seemed to be having pain in her hands, it was very enjoyable.  It was her first time in Seattle
and she seamed to like it.  Her English was very good and she was so soft spoken and just had such
a sweetness about her demeanor.  This was my hubby's birthday gift from November, so
HAPPY LATE BIRTHDAY!

Please check back today for another post about our Sunday adventure.

Pre-Concert Enjoyment

Tomorrow night we will enjoy an evening with Miss Xuefei Yang. Just thought I would pass along a little bit of our excitement.



Excerpt Taken From Miss Yang's website:

Born in Beijing, Xuefei began playing the guitar at the age of seven, and took formal tuition at ten from Chen Zhi. Soon after, she made her first public appearance at the First China International Guitar Festival. She immediately gained such acclaim that the Spanish Ambassador in China presented her with a handmade concert guitar.

From the age of 13, Xuefei was educated at Beijing’s Central Conservatory of Music.

At 14, she made her Madrid debut, which was attended by the composer Rodrigo.

In 1995 John Williams came to Beijing. He was so impressed with her playing that he gave two of his own Smallman guitars to the Central Conservatory of Music, in Beijing especially for her and other top students to play.

During her school years, Xuefei played extensively in China, Hong Kong, Macau, Spain, and Australia and gave concert tours in Taiwan, Japan and Portugal. Throughout this period, she appeared on numerous radio and television broadcasts in China and abroad. The pioneering spirit of the internationally acclaimed guitarist and EMI recording artist, Xuefei Yang, has been evident since childhood, as the first : • Guitarist to enter a music school in China • Guitarist to graduate with a BA degree in guitar, in China • Guitarist to receive an international scholarship from the Associated Board of The Royal Schools of Music, for her postgraduate study at Royal Academy of Music • Chinese person to receive such a scholarship • Person from mainland China to launch an international career as a guitarist • Chinese guitarist to sign with a major record label (EMI).

White Moose

Here are two home videos of white moose. I know I'm a crazy moose lady or crazy moose momma as some people know me.