it's not what it looks like

because it looks like something you've seen on a episode of Hoarders, but really it's just the contents of my bedroom closet.

why is it on the bed? well, i have the week off and decided to paint the inside of the closet.



and this is the inside of my very first Coach purse:



isn't it pretty? wouldn't it be lovely inside a closet? fortunately, we had painted a wide purple stripe around cassie's bedroom a while back, and i had paint leftover from that.

here's the "Before" picture:


ta da! purple!


and here's the "After" picture:

a free closet makeover, and it was all done in one day! whoot!

Harry Christmas!

Arnold is home from Camp Pendleton and hadn't seen the final Harry Potter movie yet, so we decided to have a movie marathon. We added up the times for all eight movies (19 hours 40 minutes) and decided to watch the first one on Friday night. Saturday morning we started early (by kid standards -- it was 8:15) and watched them all!

Originally we thought we'd play a drinking game -- taking a drink of butterbeer each time someone in the movie said "Harry," but after the first two glasses of butterbeer (about 30 minutes into the first movie) we were all feeling a bit queasy so we stopped that.

For dinner: shepherd's pie and roasted garlic and rosemary turkey breast.

This afternoon we'll celebrate Christmas dinner with friends. I'm taking a red velvet cake, a pecan chicken casserole, and homemade rolls. We'll play "Pictionary Man" and "Pit" after dinner like we did on Thanksgiving at their house. Can't wait!

We'll take family photos this week and hope to get some cards in the mail early next year. Merry Christmas!

magical

It was time for our Third Annual Pilgrimage to Disneyland. This time, since Arnold is stationed at Camp Pendleton, we started by picking him up before heading to our hotel.

Saturday morning we headed to La Brea Bakery in Downtown Disney before entering the park. First stop in Disneyland? Star Tours! A couple of times!



We soon learned that we had stalkers!

Stalkers? In Disneyland?

Why, yes! It's Josh and Leona! Woot! If you're gonna have stalkers, these are the ones you want to have!


So we rode some rides and basically had a fantastic time. The lines weren't too long, but it doesn't matter if you're standing in line with people you love! More time to visit!


And then there was the screaming.

Tower of Terror. LOVE IT! Three times in a row before we decided to move on to something else.

It was a magical week! Cassie and I spent six days in the parks. We're already looking forward to next time.

gratitude

sometimes i get in a mood and i want to get rid of the clutter. usually i can clean out a closet and fill a box with castoffs and the mood passes. this last one, though, has been going on for several weeks.

a few weekends ago, i emptied the workroom. rolled the shelves out, stacked all the boxes in the hallway. emptied it out, cleaned the floor, and then started putting things back. that weekend five boxes were moved to the garage (there's getting to be quite a pile of boxes down there, waiting for a garage sale in the spring).

the workroom looked great! the table was even cleared off so there was an actual place to work! that lasted until the next weekend when i decided to clean out my bedroom.

anyway, in the workroom i found a box labeled "Cassie" that had old school papers and sketchbooks, etc. i plopped the box down between her and the t.v. and asked her to sort through it. she founds lots to amuse her, pausing occasionally to read aloud from a journal entry she'd written in elementary school. in fifth grade (2007), she was describing her bedroom and how she'd like to redecorate. she describes the colors she'd like, and things she would want to have in her room. she then went on to say she'd have to wait to redecorate because we would probably be moving because 1) our house is falling apart, and 2) we can't afford it. Cassie made a list of things that were in need of repair in our house at that time. there was rot at the back of the house, the dryer was broken, the washer was old and unbalanced, the microwave didn't work and more.

as she was read aloud from this journal entry we both laughed until it hurt.

how far we've come. everything in cassie's list has been repaired or replaced, the house is in much better shape than it was four years ago with lots of work done and a new roof this year. God is good.

we have so much to be grateful for. i'm not going to make a list, but if i did, my family would be at the top.

tomorrow we depart on our third annual pilgrimage to Disneyland. can't wait to see Arnold and any other Gillespie's that might show up.

a happy and blessed thanksgiving to all of you!

flaky

it snowed all day yesterday. beautiful, fluffy flakes of snow that just kept coming. i shoveled the back stairs so i could get to the garage, and a few hours later the snow was 5.5" deep. we measured the snow on the railing a few times during the day, and by the time the snow stopped it measured 11.5" deep. beautiful, beautiful snow. and a great excuse to forget about the usual saturday errands.

i stayed home all day. spent a lot of time on the deck with a camera trying to capture the lovely little flakes. not as easy as it sounds! i'd find a perfect flake, and by the time the camera would focus, more flakes would fall on top of it, or it would begin to melt. here are a few of my favorites...








this one is on my glove...



and this is a view into my kitchen window. doesn't it look inviting?



these flakes are out of focus, forming the head of Mickey Mouse.


five days 'til disneyland!

orange you glad?

i was not having a very fun day at work, but i get to work on the baby floor when terry takes her break, and this might have been the best part of my day today

except...

stephanie came into the kitchen to find the tweezers in the first aid kit. she said "kiara has a cheeto up her nose and lolly said to try to get it out with the tweezers." (kiara is about 19 months old). and i said "you don't need tweezers, just cover up the other side of her nose and blow in her mouth. savannah used to put stuff up her nose all the time, and that's what the doctor told her mother." and then i was like "bring her over here to do it! i wanna watch!"

so she went back and got kiara and brought her over to the baby floor, and i was like "want me to do it?" and she handed her right over. so i laid kiara on my lap, put my finger over the side of her nose that didn't have cheetos in it, and blew in her mouth. it didn't work, and kiara looked a little surprised, but wasn't upset at all, so i tried it again and the thing moved out a bit (not quite far enough to grab it), so i tried one more time and VOILA! out it came!

it was NOT a cheeto, though, it was a piece of orange peel that had been in there since breakfast.

fun times. i love my job.

Cassie is in LOVE!

In love with her new CAMERA, that is!

Cassie bought a Nikon D5100 when we were in Juneau and she is totally loving it. And taking some fabulous pictures. I think she's on her way to being professional.

ice, ice, baby

Mendenhall Glacier, then...

and now...

When Arnold was home for a week, we enjoyed a brief visit to Juneau, travelling on the M/V Fairweather. Shopping, dining, a visit to the Rock Dump and Mendenhall Glacier. A good time was had by all.

sophomore year

Cassie is now a sophomore at Sitka High!

diversion

My friend, Patrick, has some property on Prince of Wales island and wanted to bring a truck over. He brought me along to keep him company. It was not the adventure we had planned, but there were lots of good times.

We ferried to Ketchikan, first. Arriving at 4:00 a.m., we had plenty of time before our 3:30 p.m. departure to Hollis. Another ferry passenger had suggested Ward Lake as a good place to hike, so we did the two-mile hike around the lake (once early in the day, and again in the early afternoon when we didn't feel like competing with cruise-ship passengers to walk around downtown). A very nice hike. Lots of birds along the way, but no bears.


After arriving in Hollis, there was the nerve-wracking drive up to Whale Pass. Beautiful country. Gravel roads that seem to be one-and-a-half lanes wide with lots of curves. Saw several adorable deer, but no bears.

Too many misadventures to mention. The people of Whale Pass are WONDERFUL, kind people. God bless them! The remote location was difficult for the unprepared. We had hoped to fish and bring home lots of salmon. What we did instead was practice casting on the river while the fish jumped around us. Probably laughing. It was fun, though.

Lesson learned: a hot shower makes everything better.

job perks

this is my friend, Chalice.

Chalice's mom works for a local tour company and got Cassie and me on a wildlife viewing cruise yesterday. it was a pretty awesome three-hour tour (even though the Gilligan's Island theme song was stuck in my head for part of the journey).

there were four crew members on the boat, and four passengers! plenty of elbow room on a boat that has a 112-passenger capacity.

we saw a whale!


this humpback whale was bubble feeding along the shore. really cool to watch! you'd see a ring of bubbles in the water, and then the whale would emerge through the center, gobbling up anything he trapped in his "bubble net."

we also saw lots of sea otters, sea gulls, eagles, murrelets, and beautiful scenery.


we were offered scones, coffee and hot chocolate at the beginning of the cruise,
and smoked salmon at the end. yum!

the view of downtown Sitka from the boat.

More Power Tool, Ya!

I have a broken step. It just needs a couple of screws. So yesterday I bought a new drill/driver and some deck screws. Brought it home and plugged it in to charge the battery (for NINE hours).

This morning I took my newly charged, new screwdriver outside with my screws and...

hm.

The screw isn't going into the wood. And I managed to strip one of the screws in the process.

So I decided to read the directions!

The directions are printed in Spanish, French, and Man. There are words and phrases like "torque" and "keyless chuck" and"spade bits." I have no idea what any of this means, except that I think I need directions written by a woman.

good things

so, maybe you people who live in places where you can buy fresh, organic produce won't get why this is exciting, but we recently signed up for fruit and vegetable delivery from Full Circle Farms. you've seen this same photo on facebook. you may have also noticed posts on facebook about Cassie eating green vegetables. well, this is why.

for $45 (including delivery charges), we get a box of food every other week. this is our third box and we have been very pleased so far. you can log in online and see what they're planning to send you, and make substitutions if you don't want something (like a nasty grapefruit, for instance). we've enjoyed some new things, like broccolini and chard, and had some very tasty stir-frys. the oranges, apples and strawberries have been delicious. and who doesn't love fresh cilantro?

anyway, we picked up our box today. whoever packed the box added a little something extra that was not on the packing slip.

wrapped carefully in brown paper were two yellow tulips. slightly wilted from the trip, but beautiful just the same.

"If I had a flower for every time I thought of you...
I could walk through my garden forever."

Alfred Lord Tennyson

take a hike

saturday in Sitka was a GORGEOUS day. just about everyone in town was outside playing in the sun or working in their yards. i hiked around beaver lake with patrick. cassie and her friends hiked up mt. verstovia (where there was six feet of snow at the top!). legs were a bit sore last night, but what a beautiful hike!

Hoppy Easter!

32.55

according to the calendar, i'm 48 today.

realage.com says i'm 44.2.

this morning, my wii fit told me i was 20.

i took a quiz online "how old do you act?" and my results said 17-19.

so i think i'll go with the average and call that my age.

night at the movies

i love "you've got mail" and watch it over and over. recently i decided to add the original 1940 movie "the shop around the corner" to my netflix queue and am watching it tonight.

in "you've got mail", the main characters work in rival bookstores in new york city. in "the shop around the corner" they both work in the same shop.

in budapest, hungary.

anyone can cook

in 1985, volume 1 of the fun times cookbook was published. shortly after that, mom and daddy began collecting recipes for volume 2. i ended up with that recipe file, and thought that lori and marlon's wedding was a good time to get it done.

so here it is -- the gillespie fun times cookbook:



somehow i did not win the lottery again so i can't purchase copies for all of you, but you can order your own here:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/1625951/a7fc52a512317f39576a2f776398b72f

bon appetit!

something's different

our recent trip to arizona was much too brief. and completely different than every other visit in so many ways.

• we stayed in a hotel
• we rented a car
• we didn't eat at taco bell
• we didn't buy any coach purses
  

this was our first time back since daddy died, and mikie's "welcome home" text when our plane landed in arizona made me cry. this time it doesn't feel like home.

the drive to sedona was beautiful. the wedding was lots of fun. seeing family is always wonderful. but now we're just visiting.

love you and miss you all.

belgian waffles

we're having belgian waffles for breakfast this morning for daddy's birthday. and probably some pie for dessert tonight.

sure do miss him. happy birthday, daddy.

when life gives you lemons

This morning I was zesting lemons to make lemon and poppy seed scones, and I was thinking about Daddy. We'd be out running errands in the Suburban, and when he'd pull into the driveway on Colby Street and see that another lemon had fallen from the tree, he'd say "Ah! The lemon gods have blessed us with another lemon!" And we'd pick up the fallen lemons and put them on the kitchen counter. Soon there would be enough of those blessings to make a pitcher of lemonade.

Sure do miss him.

Happy Valentine's Day

Sending hugs and kisses to my family. I love you!

Show and Tell

Last month, inspired by a friend's facebook post about starting new projects when the old ones don't get done, I invited friends to commit to completing a project by February 5. We celebrated with a "Show and Tell Cocktail Party" at my house.

Cassie made "You Did It!" certificates for everybody. I found some delicious appetizer recipes. Everybody completed a project to share. It was a wonderful evening.

Here's my project! Remember the quilt I started for Arnold last fall? It just needs to be tied. Woot!

Happy Groundhog Day

We really did want to keep the family tradition of eating pancakes and sausage today, but I just didn't feel like it. I suggested biscuits and gravy, but Cassie turned up her nose. Then I suggested this:



Aunt Joyce's ham balls with orange sauce, and mom's butter dips. Nobody has EVER said "no" to butter dips.

So we're sticking to the tradition of eating ground hog (bonus -- ham balls contain both ground ham and ground pork!). It's delicious. I didn't bother with a green vegetable.

And while I'm cooking this holiday meal, Mikie calls with a fabulous surprise! You people are insane. I love you. Cassie and I are shopping for houses in Mesa right now.

random furniture placement

Someone in Sitka was inspired by the mystery piano in florida, I think. Yesterday we passed this cabinet sitting by the road...


The sign said "Take it away. Fix door, replace glass." We drove by it several times during the course of the day. The sign was soon removed but the cabinet was still there in the evening. Cassie and I thought we should add a lounge chair and coffee table to the arrangement, but it was gone this morning. Still find it very amusing.