let it snow. let it snow. let it snow.

Dec. 29th, 2009

Last night we had our only snow of the year.

It lasted only for the night so we were happy to get out and enjoy it.

We walked up the hill to the cafe for some food, fun, and crazy car watching as people tried to make it up and down our hill on their way homes from work.After our meal, we went for an excellent walk in the neighborhood. . . made a little snow man. It was a gorgeous evening.

Happy birthday to my older bro. Looks like ol' Jack Frost remembered your birthday. *grin*

c is for : clear & cold, cappuccino, chocolate, & cookies

It's a clear cold 34F outside today. I'm delighted it's not raining! Great opportunity for a homemade cappuccino & bowl of oatmeal to kick start the day. To follow up with breakfast our renter (yes, we rented the spare room so we can try to keep our place a little longer since my DH will be returning to school to finish up his degree and we'd like to stay close to the campus) and I armed with aprons got busy in the kitchen melting white chocolate and covered an entire bag of Snyder's pretzel rods before sprinkling them with crushed candy canes. Mmm... the dining room table is covered in wax paper so they can dry. A delicious treat to take along with us to family time tomorrow. Then we baked at least 5 dozen cookies. Nothing too fancy, just a nice variety of chocolate chip, mint chip, and butterscotch chip cookies. O yeah. *smile* And I had my share of lickin' the bowl at the end too... *sheepish grin*

the colors of happiness

I found this post in draft form from 9/17/09. But it's definitely one of those gray winter days today, so I think I should definitely POST it. :D

Perhaps I should save this post for some gray day this winter... but I was perrusing my flickr account, remembering the land of Texas and this one really brought a smile to my face. I think it just breathes

H A P P Y . . .

(better viewed in flickr)

fall: pumpkins, leaves, friends, & lattes

Even Spongebob got out in the fresh air.

The tree outside my window.

A sweet visit from my sister & a dear friend!

Confession: Shadows make me feel tall.

My street. Isn't it lovely!?

the Jeschke's : a fairy-tale wedding

The weather was just the right kind of pretty on this Friday afternoon wedding. And for October that is an excellent thing! No rain. Blue skies. And glorious brilliant Autumn leaves.

A piano and cello welcome the guests with luminescent melodies. The groom: eager, happy and nervously standing at the front. The cheerfully dressed bride's three attendants where escorted by the vested groom's men down the extra-wide aisle.

The bride was adorned in the 'puffiest' white gown and walked down the aisle by her two brothers in vests & top hats.

The ceremony was sweetly choreographed with the couple reading from the Song of Songs and giving their vows to one another (backed with verses! ~wink~)... sayin' their i-do's... everything was going without a hitch, until after they were asked to kiss & pronounced man & wife... the room erupts into cheering and clapping. (so it's my turn* to cue the recessional music...) ...but WAIT! a whisper to the Bride from the maid-of-honor... (I too pause because I had also noticed there was something rather important missing). The Bride turns and brakes into folding-over laughter... and says between bouts of giggles: 'WE FORGOT~giggle~giggle~THE~giggle~THE RINGS!!' Now the whole congregation is joining in laughter. And the now-'married' couple compose themselves after having flipped through their note cards and begin speaking to one another... reading from their lost cue cards... "Russell, with this ring..." "Sarah, with this ring..." Once they were finished exchanging rings they throw their hands up in the air and shout with glee, HURRAY!!!! ...now for the recessional... loud and clear: "L- is for the way you look at me! ~ O- is for the only one I see! ~ V- is very very extraordinary! ~ E- is even more than anyone that I adore!"

Awh, THEY'RE SOOO CUTE! And completely unforgettable!

Russell & Sarah

Bride with bridesmaids

The Excitedly New Mrs. Jeschke.

NO!?!? It's not the ol' ball & chain? O yes it is.

(courtesy of Russ's ol' neighbor guy)

Great pic of mother of groom & daughter.

Two Groomsmen: The best man & the old man. heh heh...*wink*

And us. with love. <3

* [My job this special day was that of 'time keeper': sending the attendants down the isle, cueing music, adjusting the sound, & pressing PLAY on the CD player for the recessional. (how do I get roped into these things??! *grin*]

guestroom art gallery

Masterpiece Gallery

I have been enjoying using my second room at my place, not just a guestroom, but as an art-studio. Some of my favorite times are painting with others. Recently these others are lil' folks... here are some of their masterpieces:

Mt Hood & Firetruck, by Em.

HummingBird, by Acacia, age: 9

Apple&Banana, by Sarah, age: 7

I LOVE THESE... by Noah, age 4

Flower & Lavalamp, by Anthony, age 8

Streetlamp, (part 1 of a series of 7) by Erik

Apartment Building, by Jacob, age: 7

the colors of summer

Finally I have pulled myself away from all the other occupying things to post these sweet photos from the Farmer's Market down at the park blocks at Portland State University. I absolutely LOVE the colors. Infact I think I'll have to actually develop some of these for the walls of my house!

o the places we'll live...

Here is the long await post of our current dwelling place. I LOVE it for it's proximity to campus, it's roominess (SOOO perfect for the church life), but especially for it's charm and LIGHT. You'll see what I mean when you view the pics. I'll try to post a seasonal neighborhood views as time rolls on.

i like to mooooove it, moooove it

Yeah for a half-hour of children, music, movement, laughter, and singing! I got to help a friend out today as she begins her new business. She hosted a demo-class at the Ledding Library in downtown Milwaukie.

sign up now for a class:

'Kindermusik with Camille'

a 'trillium'-times less crowded!

We set off rather late in the afternoon on Friday to find a camp site at Trillium Lake near Mt. Hood (who happens to be quite bald looking this time of the year! *gasp!*)... only to find that the campground was FULL... so we opted for the over-flow campground (which happened to be CLOSED but with the gate swung wide open and a few other happy camp-ers setting up camp). We didn't have the lake view, but we got a flowin' creek! It was actually quite awesome. Funny, it was called "Still Creek" b'cuz there wasn't anything still about it. :D Sadly we only got to camp for one night due to other obligations back in town (thankfully a short and beautiful 1.25 hr. ride) ...I will say more about this lovely time if I can grab the chance, but for now I just want to get some photos up for you all to enjoy.

We found a nice private place along the creek (within our HUGE campsite) to set up our tent:

Our campsite was surrounded by huckleberry bushes. They were delicious in the oatmeal Saturday morning. :)

A late morning sun on the creek by our tent:

A not-so-snow-capped Mt Hood:

A hike around Trillium Lake:

The 'giraffe/ostrich'-like tree we found along the way:

The End: (professional tent-cleaning *crumb nazi? maybe ;) ).