Proud & Strong Supporter

Our Sunday School memory verse today was Acts 17:25b in the NIV:

He himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.

The lone male first grader asked,

"Does He give that to girls too?"

Yes, most definitely yes.

THIS is why I am a proud & strong supporter of the TNIV.

Feliz Navidad

Our friends Dohnson & Dok Joo have been introducing us to Korean food lately, so today was our turn to have them for North American food: tacos & cookies!



Here's "Little John" with his taco. He eventually decided he preferred soft shells as hard shells are too much like crackers.



Joseph really mastered the "turn your head and bite" style of taco eating! He also invented his own taco variety - taco meat, a little cheese, and apple slices :)



The kids groaned when I told them they had to help make dessert, but when they found out that meant decorating Christmas cookies, they were all for it. Here's Una with her cookie snowman.



Dok Joo's cookie was the prettiest of them all. What technique!



Dohnson's hobby is photography, so he got us to take this picture. Isn't it fun?



Afterwards, we used up our sugar-energy with games of Guesstures and Sorry. It was such a great day.

Baker Sighting!

We've had 22 days of straight rain. Ugh. Even though it doesn't beat the record, it's a long time. Yet today there were blue/grey skies AND you could see Mount Baker in Washington! Let me tell you, it was a real emotional lifter!

Two Random Things I've Learned Lately

1) Pineapple Express - Admit it, when you first read this, did you think it was a new kind of drink or some kind of crazy train something-or-other? When my colleague first started talking about this, I thought that she was for sure pulling my leg! Well, it's a real thing and it's a BIG DEAL here on the West Coast. Rather than trying to explain it using the correct terminology, I'll let you look it up.

A quick explanation is that it is a certain type of front that comes from down by Hawaii and brings huge amounts of precipitation to B.C. In two days we received twice as much rain as we normally get in November. In the mountains they get snow but a pineapple express also brings warm weather, so the fear is the snow will melt, causing huge flooding issues. Tack that onto the fact that this November has fully lived up to being the wettest month of the year up here, and you know the umbrellas have been out in full force.

2) Yam vs. Sweet Potato - These two foods have always intrigued me. A can of sweet potatoes shows orange root vegetables, but every grocery store/farmer's market I've frequented have the orange root vegetables labeled as yams and the brown-skinned ones are labeled sweet potatoes. I like to buy fresh but I'm never sure which ones to buy!

So I looked it up. Low and behold, you can't buy true yams in North America! (At least not in regular stores - probably can in stores that sell produce from all over the world.) There are actually two kinds of sweet potatoes - the light brown variety and the orange-flesh variety. The USDA actually allows the orange variety to be called yams to help with differentiation, but they aren't true yams. True yams grow in Asia, Africa, South America, and Oceania - and can grow up to 8 feet long. Imagine buying one and carrying it home!

Now I can buy the orange variety and know that I'm buying the real deal.

A Weekend with Family

We just spent the last three days with John's brother, Ethan, and his great family - Anika, Anamarie & Amelia. An afternoon was spent in Langley and then we headed to Vancouver!



One of our first stops was at Capilano Suspension Bridge. You've heard of Lynn Canyon Suspension Bridge many times, but this bridge is double the length - 140 meters! Once you cross the canyon, you find yourself with many trails you can follow. Our favorite was the Treetop Adventures, where you get to walk on more bridges up in the trees.



Our hotel was the Fairmont Hotel. Quite a luxury for us - yay for travel agent rates! We had a great view from our room:



Look at what was waiting for us!



You know you're in Vancouver when your hotel bathroom has a permanent umbrella stand in it.



Believe it or not, the Fairmont Vancouver has two resident dogs!



It's November, so we experienced cold and wet weather. Check out how Anamarie survived the rain.



There were respites from the rain, however, like when we were at Lonsdale Quay Market.



We ate awesome food all weekend, ranging from fresh fish to delicious Chinese to scrumptious pasta. Of course we stopped at La Casa Gelato for some dessert! Despite all the choices, Amelia & Anamarie easily made up their minds - Cotton Candy & Bubble Gum.



Thank you so much for coming to visit us, EAA&A!

Annual October Visit

Tradition, tradition!

A much loved song in our household! John's mother has told me that she had to be extremely careful to do anything new when John was little because he & his brother would announce it was tradition and his mother had to do it that way from then on. Since we've moved so much since we got married, we ourselves haven't been very good at starting traditions. However we were excited to have John's dad start a tradition for us: his annual October visit!

He was here two weekends ago - you know, the weekend with the Packers vs. Vikings game and the World Series. We spent lots of time watching sports and playing cards. The sunshine on Saturday did call us outside, and we went east to Cultus Lake. I absolutely loved how the path was COVERED with leaves.



Being in the Northwest the leaves were damp, so no crunching...
but who cares? There were so many!



Below shows you what a lot of trees look like in the parks.
The moss is incredible.



A macro shot for you.



The view of Cultus Lake from the top of Teapot Hill



While I worked on Monday, John & TomDad went to Vancouver. They toured around like they like to. The funny thing? They went shopping for boating supplies!

Tarnished Silver Jewelry? Read on...

Saturday night I went through my jewelry box, to reorganize it and to of course learn the depressing news of which earrings have lost their matches. Ugh.

Anyways, I have a few nice pieces of silver jewelry that were no longer wearable because they were so tarnished. In short, coal black. I decided it was time to take care of that because, well, what else does one have to do on a Saturday night?

Here's what you do:

Boil water. While it's getting hot, place a piece of aluminum foil in a glass pan and put the silver jewelry on it. Pour the boiling water over the jewelry. Then, sprinkle a little baking soda on top of the water. Now watch.

It's unbelievable. Within twenty seconds, the jewelry looked new again. You have to witness this chemical reaction!

Leave the jewelry in for five to ten minutes. Then, take it out and wash the jewelry with a bit of dish soap. Enjoy your shiny accessories!

Live Webcam: John in the Library

Here I am, deep in thought and hard at work in the library.