Jamie's Wedding

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend a very special wedding: my first best friend, Jamie Shutta (who I've known as long as I've known myself!), married Lucas Monkonnen in a beautiful ceremony on Camano Island, just north of Seattle, Washington.  This was my first time in the Pacific Northwest, and it was amazing!!

Wow!!  Why have I never visited Washington before?!?

When I arrived in Seattle on Friday, I drove up to Bellingham, WA to visit Genavee where she goes to school at Western Washington University.  We took a nice walk around campus and into town, where we had dinner at Boundary Bay, then we relaxed at Genavee's apartment.

The view from campus of Bellingham and the Bay

On Saturday morning, Genavee and I went down to the bay and took a walk along the awesome over-water walkway!  We skipped some rocks, ate a croinut (that's a croissant doughnut, which you MUST try!) and even saw a "ninja squirrel"!

 

 

 

 Next, we drove down to Camano Island for the wedding.  This was a beach experience like none I have every had before: a pristine stone beach, crystal-clear water, towering pine trees, and in the distance, the majestic Olympic Mountains.  To top it all off, we were enjoying the very best weather that a Seattle October has to offer--sunny and warm!

The wedding was held right next to the water at Cama Beach State Park.  It was laid back and fun, yet beautiful, with a bluegrass band and an intimate ceremony.  Jamie was a stunning bride!  She and Lucas seem absolutely right for each other.

The reception took place just up the hill in the Cama Cafe: an excellent gluten-free meal; more bluegrass (and later, a rave...); and time to reconnect with some of my friends from High School.  It was awesome to get to see Jamie's parents and siblings, who were like a second family to me when I was little, and to catch up with my good friend Brittney.

Now I'm back home in New Mexico and the tall, green trees of the Northwest seem like a surreal dream!  But I am so thankful to have gotten to take this trip, however short, to celebrate such a special occasion!

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Monkkonen!

Both Hands Project

This Saturday we had the opportunity to help with a really cool service project called "Both Hands".  The Both Hands organization helps make adoption affordable for families by organizing a sponsored work project at the home of a window.

The idea comes from one of my favorite Bible verses in the book of James: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."  (James 1:27)

 So on Saturday we helped work on the house of a lady from our church, to raise money for a family who is adopting two girls from Ethiopia.  It was so encouraging to see the family of God coming together that day in amazing ways.  Tons of work got done, and lots of money was raised towards the adoption.

In the morning, my main job was weeding the yard.  It was fairly easy and satisfying weeding, thanks to the recent monsoon rains!  However, my legs are still feeling the after effects...

Side yard, before

In process of weeding...

Back yard, after

In the afternoon I dusted bookshelves, washed windows, and patched a crack in the floor.  In the meantime, lots of painting and repairing was going on throughout the rest of the house!  Jonathan was busy as the official photographer/videographer of the event.  You'll see some of his pictures and videos here.

Bookshelf, before

Bookshelf, after

Painting the bedroom

Patching the crack (i.e. canyon!) in the floor

So, our weekend was full but fun and encouraging.  I also had fun trying out a new bread recipe that I found on this website and I think will become a staple in my kitchen.  Called "Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day", this recipe is a genius idea of mixing a simple dough (without kneading!) and letting it sit in the fridge for up to two weeks.  When you want freshly-baked bread (at just 40 cents a loaf), you pull out a ball of dough, preheat a pizza stone in the oven, and bake your bread for 30 min.

When I tried my first hot, crusty slice of artisan bread, I was momentarily transported back to France...and I have no higher praise for bread than that!  :)  I highly recommend this recipe!

Projects and Pinwheels

This weekend I have been busy grading my students' "Island Nation" projects that were the capstone of our geography unit.

I love this project because it reinforces the students' knowledge of geography and map skills, in a way that is so much fun they don't even realize that they are learning!

Their task is to imagine that they discovered a brand new island which they must promote with a map and a brochure.  On the map they must include: a title; a compass rose; a scale; a key; and at least eight landforms that we learned about in class. 

In the brochure, they must explain their island's climate(s), topography, and natural resources. 

By the end of the project, the students have  hit on almost every topic we discussed in our unit, while letting their imaginations run wild!

It was funny to see the variety of island ideas represented in a given class.  We had the nice islands with candy, rainbows and unicorns:

And, of course, the islands that were full of deadly perils:

(I love this one!)

Overall, the students' work on this project was extremely creative and well done.  My "Great Work" wall is again full!

On a final note, today we had the middle school youth group at our house for dinner.  I had a bunch of leftover turkey deli meat and no idea what to do with it.  I found this recipe for turkey and bacon "pinwheel" sandwiches, which turned out to be fun and yummy!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a lot of fun this weekend, first celebrating Jonathan's 28th birthday, then taking a quick camping trip to McGaffey!

I decided to make a pumpkin cake for Jonathan's birthday this year.  I was nervous, since baking any kind of cake here at 6,500 feet can be disastrous, and pumpkin cakes can be difficult in the best circumstances...but with this recipe and these tips for high altitude cake baking, it turned out pretty well!  Jonathan took the cake to school to share with the other teachers on Friday.

On Friday evening, we had Jonathan's favorite dinner (chicken poppyseed casserole), opened presents and cards, and prepared for our camping trip!

On Saturday we went to McGaffey, the nearby state park, and camped in "the Meadow" with a great group of people from Rehoboth Church.  The campfire cooking was excellent...the stars were breathtaking...the Werewolf games were intense...in short, a very satisfying camping experience!

This morning, we took a hike to Milk Ranch Canyon.  There was some water in the canyon, and some beautiful wildflowers along the trail!

Other camping activities today included Fruckets ("Frisbee Buckets") and several exciting card games.

Just as we were preparing to leave the camp, a few small rain showers turned into the most spectacular double rainbow I have ever experienced!  Between this rainbow and the awesome sunset on the drive home, I was vividly reminded of God's grace and power.  What a great end to a memorable weekend!