O Holy Night

Last Sunday at the close of the service Rick sang O Holy Night to close our Christmas Season. It was wonderful to share this moment in both services with fellow islanders who have been snowed in unable to attend church services.

Kitty Christmas...

Sentinel Cat... Jenny bought this collar with bells and Midnight loves it! He feels like a Prince when he's all dressed up.
The reindeer hat was a little big, so it has been re-gifted to Peach and Blackberry M-E.
Don't these two remind you of Emy and Lisa??   Missy is on the left and Midnight is on the right. They are pretty inseparable.
Missy (sissy) is the least snuggly kitty, but she does have her moments. Rick just got lucky.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Let's face it. Our tree will not be the same this year, now that Thing 1 and Thing 2 live here!

They think the tree is a special fixture just for them to climb and enjoy. So in order to still feel like it might be Christmas time we have changed just a teensy weensy detail. Our tree is an unbreakable, edible tree! Yes there are colored LED lights that they ignore, but the Christmas balls have never quite been the same.
Yes, we have Lindor Balls on our tree and candy canes. Both are Joe's favorites. The rest of us just mainly like the Lindor Balls. Kitties don't seem to care.
Speaking of Kitties. Missy if feeling festive and pretty. Some days it's fun to dress up even if you don't have anywhere to go!

Goodbye Hollie, Tim and ELLIOTT!

They are leaving us, leaving beautiful Orcas Island for Boston.  Oh Yeah, there's family there.  But what are we?  I think we are Family of Choice.  We have grown to love this little family and to say we will miss them is an understatement.  Elliott, you are just too stinkin' cute.  He was smiling at Ronna and I just got lucky with the camera.  Knitting just won't be the same on Wednesdays....

Show Me the Pig

I have been challenged that for a pig lover there is a suspicious lack of pigs on the blog.  Well far be it for me to back down from a challenge.  There is one pig that stands out this month and that is our Camden pig. What is a Camden pig, you may ask?  Since our mission trip in the spring we have designated this bank to hold loose change and "leftover" bills to send to Urban Promise. We dump it out every so often and send it on to be used where it's most needed.  I was surprised that this time it added up to $42.  You just never know. So Merry Christmas Urban Promise. 

A Normal Evening at Home

As soon as anyone uses the shower the kittens are quick to jump in and watch the water drip.  That is how exciting it is on Orcas Island!
Rick, who is home from work, looks suspiciously like he is still at work?  He never seems to be disconnected. Sorry Barb, no bucket truck needed for this guy.

This season has been busy for Joe with lots of performances. On Thankgiving weekend he played on three different islands one short song.  This Friday evening he plays at a benefit dance with Orcatrazz, the swing band.  On Sat. and Sunday he plays with the Choral Society at their Christmas performance at Orcas Center.  So, seen here is one of the things Joe does with his "spare"  time. PRACTICE. The amazing part is that noone had to tell him to do it.

Kitties, Kitties, and more Kitties

We were over at Barb's getting some details sorted out for the K2tog booth at the fair when the kitties discovered our "display tree".  Dexter and Deisel want a tree like this for Christmas.  Barb's kitties are about 2 weeks younger than ours and they are still so fuzzy cute.
Meriel is pretty taken with Dexter (or is it Diesel?) Momma Bailey is seen watching how her baby is being held. (Bailey is a Beagle, adopted Mom)
Our kitties got their present early... a bed big enough for the two of them.  They love it, and use it thanks to the sprinkling of Catnip to lure them.
This will be forever remembered as the Year of the Kittens.

Life is Full and Fun

Trudi came for a quickie visit. I mean quickie.  She was here two days, in order to see her first grandson.  We got to visit around all the rest of life going on at the Spinner house. No visit is too short.  It was just wonderful to connect after a year or more of not chatting.
Can you ever get too much of kitty pictures?  Can you tell where one kitty ends and the other begins?
Our new burrito "Kitty Roll".  She loved it, her own little cave.

Kitty Antics 2

This was actually the first clip we took of Thing 1 and Thing 2. We decided to use what we had for cat toys and they love this little rhythm egg, but they are not too sure about Joe playing the Trombone. They took off in separate directions at first but then relaxed enough to eat while the horn blared overhead. It looks like all is quiet and they've settled down into Joe's room for bedtime. Goodnight!

Our House is a Kitty Playground

Midnight is riding the "brown wave" of paper. It makes wonderful crunching noise and is great for hide n seek.
Doesn't Misty look innocent here?
They were sleeping nose to nose on my lap.
We have learned the fine art of cat napping while they play on our laps.

Kitty Antics #1

Well, we have adopted 2 kittens and have had them under our roof just over 24 hours. They are very fun, exhausting, distracting and sharp of claw.  They are brother (Midnight) and sister ( Misty or Shadow). This clip is dark but you get the general drift.

Setting My Sights High

The past week or two I feel like I have been on a Huge Hamster Wheel.  Well, I hope to hop off soon and get a rest.  I am almost finished the baby quilt for a shower this weekend, almost done cat sitting for 1 1/2 weeks, and have basic cleaning jobs, no biggies, to do.  The weather is supposed to be stormy today and it is chilly. Sounds like a day to sit by the fire, watching a good ole movie and sewing binding on the baby quilt.  I still have leftover chili and cornbread to tide me over.  Sounds picture perfect.

What's Cookin?

So the other day I made fresh homemade tortillas loaded with onions, black beans, three cheese mixture and homemade salsa. Oh my, it was delicious.  It is our favorite kind of food. So what to make for election day dinner????  Maybe chili since it is chilly out here in the wild west, or black bean soup??? 

What is your favorite Comfort Food?

Fall Weather Wet West Coast Style

I was trying to clean the Family Center and kept getting distracted by the ever changing weather. The Aspens are so pretty right now coupled with the low lying clouds and Buck Mt. in the background.
If you look far right you see Crescent Beach and the water. Every season has something beautiful to notice. 

Carnival to Remember

Raggedy Ann found a friend to hang with... Nice Marianne
Michael and Christopher were non-stop action... in fact Spiderman looks ready to shoot a web.
Ariel aka Shaye
Miss Piggy aka Delaney
Buzz Lightyear aka  Judah
The Human Torch  aka Caleb
And good ol' American Gothic goes Hawaiian. 
I have never seen such preparation and careful work to utilize the entire church building to enjoy a harvest carnival.  I was very impressed.  I manned the jumping castle and got to see quite a few of the kids I have in Awana. I decided to show you a few pictures. 

Jenny's new Digs

So here is Jenny's new home away from home .

These pictures are soooo funny because it was pitch black in the garage until my flash went off! That's why you're getting such an action shot. The same is true of the picture of the backyard. It was totally black but I thought I'd try to get a picture and it lit up fairly decently.





Jenny moved into a Theme House this year, the theme being "Nursing". She shares the house with 3 nursing students and wow do they have a sweet situation. They have a two car garage, nice backyard, three bedrooms upstairs, one down with living rooms on both levels. The kitchen/ dining area is small but has everything they need. Very nice... See for yourself

$3.98

It's always nice to be home again. Our knitting group met yesterday and we actually had yarn in our hands! Hollie is back and we got to see the beautiful Elliot! Where was my camera? After we solved the world's problems, and on my way home I glanced at the gas price. When we left on our trip it was $4.19 so I should be happy to see $3.98, but it seems a cruel joke after getting to pay as low as $2.64. Shipping the gas to us surely doesn't cost that much does it? Another benefit to island life!

Fall Family Weekend in Spokane

We saw some of the prettiest scenery on the trip. Fall colors, beautiful weather to enjoy the water scenes. The gas prices were the best we have seen in a long time. I think our best price was $2.64 a gallon which was appreciated since we travelled at least 750 miles.

We like to travel the backroads to enjoy the scenery and the lack of traffic.

We were able to connect with Greg at Eastern (why didn't I take pictures???) deliver his goods from mom and get a tour/sample of the music department. Greg's class was very inspiring. We really appreciated being there and seeing it first hand.
Nathan was harder to reach and we had to forget technology and throw pine cones at his dorm window to finally get in touch with him. All goods were delivered, though we were getting ready to eat Nathan's cookies!

We drove over to Dave and Marjorie's to help with the final loading of the moving van. They are officially moved! It was nice to be there and help if only a little.

Jenny gets her orders and then meets and delivers the orders to her "men". They then work out a plan of action together. We were encouraged to ask questions during and throughout the operation. It was very interesting and done well.


To see in person the leader that Jenny has become is inspiring and amazing. She was the platoon leader and led the drill for an ambush.
The entire trip had a flow to it that made me know that God had gone before us to make the most of our time and everything went smoothly.

Our Awana Cubbies

We meet on Mondays and have so much fun. This sweet bunch of seven 3 & 4 year olds are very fun, energetic and genuine friends. We enjoy a good solid base of leadership to share the responsibilities and it makes it run very smoothly. (most of the time:) Our Cubbie Key Verse: God Loved Us and Sent His Son.