Frozen Flamingos!!

It's busy times for everyone this time of year and we've barely had a moment to blog...

Here's some of the highlights from Christmanukah 2012...so far.

 

 

Frozen Flamingos!!!  It snowed this week and the flamingos had to fend for themselves.  Brrr.

 

 

Our cactus bloomed in early November. It's pretty spectacular.  I've taken it to work because it's SO big it doesn't fit in the house anymore. 

 

 

So far we've made at least three batches of marshmallows....they are just so darn ga-ooood!  This has become our holiday tradition...and I'm glad we stumbled upon something that will always remind us of holidays together.  We find ourselves noshing away on the mallows with a power-sugary trail falling behind us.  I guess that's so if we get lost, we can find our way back to the mallows.

 

 

The only cookbooks Anner needs between Thanksgiving and New Years -

 

 

Check this guy and his holiday spirit!  He's at the bus transit station and has a Christmas tree with him. It's not even bound up with twine.  I wasn't there long enough to see him board the bus, but I wish  I could have seen that!!  I wonder if they charge extra fare????

 

 

Anner and Santa. I was there with 3 year old Deano who was not going to have any part of the Santa biz...and I don't blame him.  Santa's a little freaky if you're three.  This particular Santa was kind of creepy (which might be normal for Santas in general), but I could handle it for the 10 seconds it took to get this shot.

 

 

 

We've done lots of cookie making, but nothing like my mom's 1000 dozen in 1966. Her record for Most Cookies in a Season still stands 46 years later.  Aaron hears this story and thinks to himself, "I bet I could eat a 1000 dozen cookies. Let's try it!!" But here's the kicker...she did it without an electric mixer.  Not a stand mixer.  Not a hand mixer.  A wooden spoon and a big bicep.

I have one word for that: Ufda!

 

 

Tonight the kids come for "Christmas dinner" which will consist of be snowman shaped pizzas. 

More to come later this week!

 

Happy Holidays!

Saving Thanksgiving

WARNING: I have something on my mind (not felt turkey headbands) and I’m about to leap onto this virtual soapbox.  This one right here – it looks like a good one.  You can’t say I didn’t warn you!

SHOPPING.
I love shopping.  It’s one of my favorite things to do with my girlfriends.  When my pals aren’t available to go, I’m perfectly happy shopping online.  Just ask my husband who knows what’s happening when I reach back for my credit card (I should just memorize the number, shouldn’t I?) 

HOLIDAYS.
I also love the holidays – all of ‘em.  I like the twinkly lights. I like the high-energy feel of downtown.  I like things that are red.

NO LIKE.
What I don’t like?  I don’t like Christmas music starting the day after Halloween.  HALLOWEEN??!!!  And that’s why I had to walk out of Sears on November 1st when Bing Cosby started crooning.  

I don’t like Christmas decorations in November.

I don’t like Thanksgiving being all but forgotten.

AND what I really, really, really can’t stand for is Black Friday starting on Thanksgiving Day!  What could anyone possibly need besides, perhaps, another pound of butter or some Pepto, that they can’t wait for Friday?  Nothing.   Nada.  Zilch.

Not only is it completely unnecessary, it takes away the one-and-only holiday retail workers see all season.   So here’s my shout-out to all my retail friends who I know don’t mind the busy season and certainly like to have a job but would just like to eat their turkey and watch the game.  It’s why I signed this petition to show my solidarity for Target workers who would like to have Thanksgiving off. I invite you to sigh too.  http://www.change.org/petitions/target-take-the-high-road-and-save-thanksgiving

Really, I think we can all occupy ourselves until midnight when the door buster sales start.  To prove it, I thought up
50 things I could do besides shop on Thanksgiving Day:

1. Watch the Macy’s Parade. I love a parade.
2. Read through all the ads in the big-fat-Thanksgiving newspaper.  I love that too.
3. Cook Thanksgiving Dinner
4. Eat Thanksgiving Dinner
5. Watch movies OnDemand
6. Eat Second Thanksgiving Dinner a few hours later
7. Make out with my Hubs  (these aren’t necessarily listed in order)(he made me say that)
8. Take post-eating nap
9. Bake cookies – the ones I never make because they take a lot of time…typically found in my Martha Stewart cookie book
10. Watch football.  I’m rooting for Texas all day long.
11. Play board games with my Honey.  Correction: WIN at some board games with my Honey. What’s the point if you’re not playing to win?
12. Make presents for my nephews
13. Catch up on Covert Affairs (guilty pleasure)
14. Practice for dance class
15. Prepare my Christmas/Hanukah list
16. Blog about the weekend
17. Write holiday cards.  Mom says the note inside the card is more important than the card itself. 
18. Go for a bike ride (okay, I haven’t ridden a bike in 10 years, but I could go for a bike ride.  I have a bike.  Maybe “dust off the bike” would be equally good.)
19. Write my grandma in the nursing home
20. Scan old family photos in honor of gram’s 100th bday
21. Sew a new sock critter – I have the perfect one in my mind
22. Go for a walk
23. Go for a run (“run” might be an overstatement, but in theory I could go for a run)
24. Do a TurkeyTrot  (“trot” …that I can do)
25. Knit (maybe “learn to knit” would be more accurate)
26. Yoga. Streeeeeeetch.
27. Watch TV
28. Organize my travel books
29. Work on a polymer clay project
30. Hang out with Aaron; he’s pretty fun (see lucky #7 above)
31. Post funny things on FB
32. Post pictures on Pinterest
33. Take pictures wearing my turkey headband
34. Comment on pictures on Pinterest
35. Make grandma’s 100th bday present (A silk flower for her hair that says “100”…where’s my glue gun?)
36. Make a poster on Snapfish
37. Practice braiding my hair
38. Juggle
39. Make a birthday cake for my boss
40. Clean the house ---oh wait, that one is done!
41. Enjoy the clean house
42. Write my niece in college
43. Plan our next big trip
44. Call my mom
45. Call my step-mom
46. Call my mom-in-law (I normally refer to #44-46 as “call the moms” but I needed some filler so I broke it out)
47. Text my best pal, Heidi Ho
48. Email my brother
49. Hug
50. Be thankful for a day off with my hubby

That about sums it up.  I’m leaping back off the soap box and going back to regular life now.  Hope you have a very Happy Thanksgiving...and Black Friday.

We have a Winner!!!

We are just about recovered from a long, wonderful summer of shows, friends and all sorts of outings and activities.

 

The Salmon Days show last weekend was pretty spectacular!!!  Aaron won the Best Craftsmanship award...which is nothing to sneeze at.  Check out that ribbon!  I'm going to frame it someday.  It was well deserved and luckily it matched Aaron's shirt.

 

Seriously?  We're both thrilled.  It was just So. Much. Fun. to watch the judges walk into the booth and hand him the award.  Aaron was speechless.  We were at one show a couple of years ago when the judges walked directly towards out space and as I was reaching for the camera they swerved and went into the booth next to us.  Then they were heading out to give the next award and again they turned towards Aaron and then walked over to the booth directly across the hallway.  This time was waaaay more fun. 

 

 



See how nice the ribbon looks in the booth?  Pretty snazzy!

While we were at the show we purchased this year's Anniversary Art.  It's a Captain America shield!  We've wanted something colorful on the back fence for a while and though we may have been thinking of something slightly more sophisticated, when we saw this we knew we had to have it!  Turns out it's made out of recycled oil barrels.  What's more American than that!?

Aaron's alter-ego came out as he was about to hang up the shield.

We also attended the wedding of one of our friends from the Brain Cancer Walk.  It was a pretty wonderful evening out - a great time with good food and dancing.  Plus, I like seeing my honey all dressed up.  Handsome he is!

Fun to dress up once in a while...
...and it was a chance to wear my purple suede shoes.  Don't get that chance often enough!

Speaking of the Walk, here's the full length video of the flash mob we were in.  We think pretty much our entire blog-o-sphere has seen it, but just in case you haven't, here's your chance.  Oh the precision!! (not.)

 

Can't forget our trip to the Mariner's Press Box.  Now that was super-fun!  Our friend Ben (Aaron's college roommate) had the hook-up via his dad who bid at the chance to sit in the press booth for charity.  Seeing all the stats and quick factoids squeezed onto a legal sized sheet of paper was pretty cool.  I want that delivered to my inbox every day!  We've gotta say that Rick Riz, Dave Valle and Kevin Kremin made us feel totally welcomed and like we were their only guests.  I'm sure they rotate a bunch of groups every game, so that's saying something.  We were there for one very short inning.  Such was the way of the Mariners this season, but we still had a great time.  As Aaron said, this was definitely the best blowout loss we've been to EVER!!!

 

 

  

Suddenly the weather turned this week.  The heat is now on.  The raincoats are out.  It's dark when we get up ...it's dark when we come home.  Must be time to bake some cookies.  Nutella chocolate chip - yum!!!

 

2012 Seattle Brain Cancer Walk: LET'S DANCE!

It's Monday night and another Seattle Brain Cancer Walk is in the books, but I've gotta say, it's still on my mind.  It was such an amazing event this year!!

Here are the numbers:
2,700 walkers (up from 2,000 last year)
140 patients and survivors registered (up from 100)
$675,000 raised!
I was on two teams this year. 

Some of the 2,700 participants walking around Seattle Center.

Team Tull - in honor of a colleague of mine, Steve Tull, who was diagnosed in December, raised over $2,000.

Worthy of Hope - in memory of John Norsworthy and my "normal team" raised over $9,000.

WOOT!  WOOT!

The money gets matched 9 times over…so this fundraising will really help the research and patients here in the Pacific Northwest.

How the walk started:
This being the 5th Anniversary Walk, the organizers wanted to do something really special.  One way or another they decided to have a Flash Mob start the Walk!  It's kind of a long story, but I was told about it (and then sworn to secrecy) a little more than a week before the Walk.  I couldn't have that knowledge and not do something with it -- secrecy or not!!  So I immediately told Aaron and then signed us up to be in the mob!  Despite our, umm, vast (yeah, right!) dance experience, I will tell you we were both pretty nervous about it. 

We went to two practices and then spent a week holed up in our house practicing, practicing, practicing.  It would have been quite the sight if you were around our office at 11pm watching us bounce around in front of the online practice video!  Then Saturday morning's opening ceremonies started and moments later we were in a group of 50 dancing our hearts out!  It was So. Much. Fun!  Our own little Glee experience!  Both of us can't wait to sign up to do it again.

It was all recorded and sometime soon full video will be available.  We'll send that link out once we have it.  In the meantime, here's an iphone recording from Aunt Janice (one of our Worthy of Hope teammembers).  If it looks like a black square on your screen, hover with your mouse and find an arron pointing to the right and click on it.  It should come up.

 
How the Walk felt:
GREAT!!  Every year it gets bigger and better.  The Walk is more about connecting people than it is about the money.  Yes, the money is really important…but the Walk is rooted in community.  This year, Aaron and our friend Karen Howard (his college roommate Ben's wife) came across a woman who looked lost. They said 'hello' and made a connection.  The woman said her husband had just been diagnosed. She had come to the Walk hoping to meet someone else who was dealing with what she’s dealing with.  She broke down explaining it to Karen and Aaron.  Because of heavy traffic she arrived late and the Walk was nearly over.  That didn't stop Karen!  She took the lady by the hand and said, “Well, let me walk you around and introduce you to some people!”  Just like that, they were off into the crowd.  And that really captures the day.  I know lots and lots of connections were made that help people get through their days.  We hear that many patients make “getting to the Walk” one of their goals as they fight their cancer.  We do our best to deliver.  Here’s a great story KOMO News did about the Walk which really captures it better than I can describe it: http://queenanne.komonews.com/news/community-spirit/785438-parade-crusaders-joins-fight-against-brain-cancer

Worthy of Hope -
Here are some team pictures.

Evie with our team sign.

Brunch at Barrio. 
They donated to the Walk, so we're happy to support them. 
Please pass the blood orange mimosa! Oh! And the food and company were superb.

Karen and Aunt Janice.

Aunt Janice, Karen, Anner and Aaron went to lunch the day before the Walk.  Aaron and I had to say, "oh we have work to do...we've gotta get going"...when secretly we had flash mob rehearsal to get to.  (hee hee hee)

This year we got Worthy of Hope coffee tumblers made. 
Mine is packed and ready to go for work tomorrow.

 

Tent of Honor. 

Every year, volunteers put up thousands of folded cranes and pictures of people we walk for. 



 

 

This was in honor of a colleague of mine, Steve Tull.  His wife and I worked together. 
They joined us for Brain Cancer Awareness Night with the Mariners.
On Walk Day they were taking their youngest to college. 
We had a "virtual team" in Steve's honor.

This is a co-worker of mine from HDR.  I didn't know her, but she had a lot of friends.
They work in Portland and sent pictures and stories for us to post.


 



Patient and Survivor Tent:

This is the area I help with every year.

 

This year we gave away over 100 Experiences to patients and their families.
Look how happy everyone is looking for the perfect thing for them!
This is a big highlight to watch.

 

Anner and Nan - P/S Tent Co-Chairs.
*LOVE* working with Nan.

We started setting up waaaay before day light.  Who wants to join us for a 4:30am set-up next year?



We have lots of beautiful displays...mostly thanks to Nan.
She even arranged the flowers.



This wasn't in our area, but it's too cool to not show off.
It's a gray, handmade brain cancer quilt that was used for a fundraiser.
Gray never looked so good!
 

It really was a magical day - getting up early to set up, seeing everyone arrive all excited to be part of the Walk, Flash Mobbing (and not tripping over ourselves!!!), doing the actual Walk and talking with all the patients and supporters, having a wonderful brunch with all our Worthy of Hope teammates and, I admit it, then getting home and taking a nap!  :)  Really looking forward to next year, but first, it's time to help Aaron get ready for doing Salmon Days in two weeks.

If you'd like to read a bit more about the results of the Walk, here's some more info from the SBCW newsletter:

Every dollar raised for the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk leverages an additional $9 in funding from other sources to advance brain cancer research and treatment in the Pacific Northwest.  This means that we are seeding the ground in our region for new research projects and treatment options. In our final newsletter before the Walk, we wanted to take this opportunity to highlight and recap some of the key groundbreaking clinical trials that your support over the last five years has already helped.

• Toca 511 Trial – This is a genetically engineered virus used to insert a gene into glioblastoma cells that ultimately harms and hopefully destroys the cell. The Ben and Catherine Ivy Center for Advanced Brain Tumor Treatment at Swedish is one of only eight sites in the country participating in this trial.

• Temozolomide Trial – The Ivy Center team is leading this trial with the Seattle biotechnology company Accium Biosciences where researchers use a 15-ton particle accelerator to analyze tumor tissue to determine exactly how much of the chemotherapy drug impacts its target. By using this new approach, doctors hope to better optimize brain cancer therapy so they can deliver the right drug to the right patient at the right dose.

• DCVax Brain Cancer Vaccine Trial – A cancer vaccine used to train patients’ immune systems to attack and kill their brain cancer cells. The Ivy Center is currently the only location in the Pacific Northwest that offers this vaccine to newly diagnosed patients. This vaccine has made its way to the FDA and is pending approval.

We are passionate in our pursuit to find new treatments for brain cancer, and look forward to seeing further advances with these trials and hopefully more each year. We said it in our first newsletter, and we’ll continue to say it over and over again – your involvement produces results for people living with brain cancer. Your support matters and it is appreciated!

More information: http://www.braincancerwalk.org/

FUNTOWN - 2012

Funtown: Wherever Anner and Heidi are.

Last month Aaron and I met our friends the Kampe's on Madeleine Island located on Lake Superior.  Everyone was very excited about taking the ferry from Wisconsin to Mad Island.  I thought it was exciting because I had never seen such a cute little ferry!

It had been triple digits and drought so naturally we packed all t-shirts, shorts and multiple swim suites.  Except when we arrived the weather turned cold and it was about 65 and rainy.  On the up-side we got to hear the thunder, which is a rarity in Seattle. 

The rain and thunderstorms, changed our plans of spending everyday sprawled out on the beach.  Instead, the kids were forced to run around the house a lot and Aaron and I went hiking in the rain.  Still... we managed to eek out a fine time.  We ate well and had great social times with the Kampes.  Michael took professional photos of Aaron's jewelery which was another bonus (which you've seen the pictures on his newsletter)

You can see we had a good time:

Cute Little Ferry (I counted room for 20 cars...they probably can sqeeze a few more on).

Anner and Morgan showing Aaron the love.  The boys totally adore Aaron (who can resist?)  Morgan wanted to ride home in our car because we're "funner".  We like to think we're funner too, but since we wanted to stop and look at art we shoved him into the truck with his parents and went on without him.

Can't have vacation in the woods without s'mores and hobo pies.  Not having kids we didn't know exactly how dangerous a camp fire can be.  Ben nearly ignited Aaron with a flaming marshmallow.  Luckily, Aaron has cat-like reflexes and got the heck out of the way in just the nick of time.  

This is Lake Superior - "The Greatest of Lakes" the signs read.  It IS big!  It's cold.  It's clear.  It was very, very nice.
 

Here's Heidi and I bundled up for a day at the beach.

Aaron brought official Ultimate Frisbee frisbees to give to the boys.  It was a life-saver (or at least a sanity saver) when he took them out to "toss the disc" while Heidi, Mike and I made dinner or were packing for an outing or something.  Aaron proved to be even better than a Game Boy - and that's saying something!  Ben and Morgan played and played and played. 

We celebrated Aaron's birthday on the island.  The An-I-Mal flip flops were a big hit.  It wasn't warm enough to go without socks, but these are pretty fun footwear.  

 

A Day I Swore I'd Never Let Happen...

...I let so much time go past between "real" vacations that my snorkel gear has corroded shut!!!!  The zippers just popped off in a puff of dust. Noooooooo!!

Check that out...every single zipper on both sets of snorkels are 100% corroded shut.  100%!!!
We tried several things to "un-corrode" it, but that salt is a powerful substance. 

In a few moments I'll take a scissors to the bag and save my gear. Assuming it's operable and hasn't all disintegrated, I'm off to buy a beach bag to shove it all in. Then I'll take a solemn oath to never, ever, let four years pass between beach vacations. With that...I must check my swimsuits and make sure they have not also turned to dust.  Then we will begin packing for Funtown!!! Can't wait!

Getting Ready for Funtown 2012

We are eagerly counting down the days (17) until we arrive at Funtown 2012.  I.e. our family vacation to Lake Superior. 

We are looking forward to the vacation we don't want to miss the fun and excitement of Olympics and that's why we invented the Funtown Olympic Committee!! 

We're letting Ben and Morgan pick the events and the teams during "opening ceremonies".  Here's the score board we made for them:

Funtown Olympics Score Board. 
Glittery stars will be the "metals" for each event.  These are just for show. 
The scoreboard is actually blank at this time.

We made some event suggestions for them, but really it's up tot he boys: 

• The Back-float (Anner will SO win this!)
• Doggie Paddle (with flippers)
• Cannon Ball Plunge (assuming the water is deep enough)
• Teaspoon-Water-Relay
• Super Soaker Skeet (planning to get sponges or water balloons; throw them in the air and see who can hit them with their water guns)
• (Frisbee) Discus Throw (Aaron is a strong contender in anything that involves "tossing the disc around")
• (Frisbee) Disc Golf (I understand the boys are pretty good at this!)
• 1 Mile Marathon (assuming it’s below 75 degrees)
• Long jump (Jump around...jump around)
• Jump rope-athon

What other ideas can you think of??

I think I'm a shoe in for Back-Float and Aaron is a likely gold winner in anything that involves a Frisbee.  We'll see if the boys play to our strengths or not.

Debby gets here in a just a few days so we are looking forward to that too!  She'll get a good chance to cool down.  Bring a sweater!  We will be taking in a lot of the art scene while she's here and I'm sure we'll eat out some place fabulous too.  Can't wait!!

We're also re-planting a bunch of flower baskets this weekend since the flowers from spring have all pretty much died.   The garden looks good, but the baskets are not happy!

Not so secretly, I'm also planning some birthday fun for Aaron as he celebrates his birthday in Funtown.  I'll enlist the help of the resident grade-schoolers to really make it special. 


 

SUUUURPRISE!

Really, I don't think there's too much more that needs to be said. 

We flew into Atlanta last week to help surprise Abby for her birthday.  Let me just say, this was one well executed plan (well done, Wade!!!); she simply had no idea that something special was in the works.  We had so-much-fun keeping it a secret and getting ourselves to Atlanta.  I'm pretty sure it was as much fun for us as it was for her.  This picture says it all. 

Abby, Wade and cousin Mark. 
She's really surprised, but she still hasn't seen Aaron yet! 
That took it to a whole other level.  ...cue the Kleenex.

So the birthday was Tuesday and that left us with the rest of the week to fill up.  We had the priveledge of meeting and staying with Henry Barr, the new puppy dog.  He's a very nice little guy and it was great being in a house with a dog for a change.  Sadly, he only entertained me with one game of fetch. 

Generally Henry looks happier than this picture depicts.
He's cute, hops around like a bunny and is fuzzy. 
Thumbs up from me!

The other really fabulous highlight of the trip was spending the afternoon with Mitchell.  He and Aaron are just alike.  We played Apples To Apples for HOURS. As we were playing Mitchell made sound effects (I'm pretty sure he has no idea he's doing it), which reminded me of Aaron who does that all the time.  They are their own sound tracks.  

Aaron and his look-alike, Mitchell.

During our last visit to Atlanta the Carter Center was being remodeled.  We have an uncanny ability to visit presidential museums right before they are remodeled.  Then I feel compelled to visit again to see the new and improved version.  I don't really recommend this as the way to go... better to just see the updated versions!  Let's just say now that we'd like to go to the Hoover museum in Iowa.  Maybe just by saying that it'll inspire the Library of Congress to go ahead and update it now so it's ready for our visit.

We've toured the Carter Center before and I remember my knee jerk reaction being that it felt "dark and dated" and just wasn't as good as other presidential museums.  I can now report that has been fixed!  The new museum is AMAZING!!  We really only studied the first half of it.  I can't wait to go back and walk through the second half (the post-presidential part).

Also worth noting - the grounds are beautiful.  We'll explore those more when it's not 102 degrees outside.  We posed for this shot but our faces practically sizzled as we stood there.

This is what Anner and Aaron look like when they are roasting. 

Finally, after seven years of waiting I got to taste Papa Barr's infamous made-with-a-secret-ingredient-french-toast.  It was delicious, in a sweet vanilla kind of way. 

The infamous french toast and Joel.

Now Aaron's back to work and I head in tomorrow.  Luckily we have family visiting in a few weeks and we're just 31 days away from our Funtown, WI vacation.  There's lots to look forward to this summer and we can't wait!