bake sale

this past weekend there was a craft show here in red lake. i decided to get a table and see if i could make a little money selling baked goods :)
the craft show was friday evening and saturday afternoon. i spent monday-thursday getting ready for it. let's just say there were a couple too many late nights, and i am very very done with being in the kitchen for a while!!!

monday i made a huge batch of party mix.

tuesday was cookie day :) i made all kinds of different christmas cookies and then put a variety on a plate, wrapped the plate in cellophane, and tied a ribbon around it to make cute little christmas cookie plates
i made sugar cookies, gingerbread cookies, chocolate chip cookies, double chocolate cookies, white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies, snickerdoodles, monster cookies, molasses crinkles, and little pretzel chocolate bites.

wednesday i made a variety of breads (pumpkin, chocolate, cranberry-orange, and banana nut) as well as chocolate and pumpkin whoopie pies :) i also made apple pie filling...
this was a day of new experiences...i think the only thing i made on wednesday that i had done before was pumpkin bread...and for the most part, it all turned out

thursday was a HUGE day! i didn't go to bed until after dave went to work on friday morning. i made cinnamon rolls and sticky buns, pumpkin pie, apple pie, a variety of bars, and homemade hot cocoa mix :)

my poor husband kinda suffered the week before the bake sale. i didn't have a whole lot of time to cook much of anything for him...he did pretty good at fending for himself :) i think he's pretty glad to have his wifey back though!

not only am i tired of being in the kitchen, i am very tired of washing dishes!!!! the pile only seemed to grow and grow!
i couldn't even fit all the dishes on the counter to dry...though i am becoming very skilled a dish-stacking ;) it's amazing the amount of dishes you can fit in a teeny tiny area!


my amazing kitchen aid that my siblings got me for my wedding either felt very loved or very abused...i'm not sure which :)

the bake sale ended up being a lot more work than i thought it would be, but it was fun :)
i can do special orders if anyone needs anything!!!!

in other news...
we have snow!!!! and a good bit of it!
my husband ventured out to snap this picture for me :)
and the lake is beginning to freeze over :)
only a few more weeks until it becomes a road!

A BIG THANK YOU!!!!!

Matthew 6:25-24

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

we were blessed beyond measure today...

i don't think that i have ever been too much of a worrier. God has been so faithful to me during my entire life that i kind of just assume that he will always take care of me, just like he always has. today he reaffirmed his overwhelming love for me and his pure desire to take care of his daughter.

one week after dave and i moved up here to canada, i got a serious infection and ended up in the hospital for four days. i have never been so sick or miserable in my life! i was away from home, and stuck in a hospital bed w/ ivs filling me w/ all kinds of pain medication, fluid, and antibiotics. i would go back and forth from having a super high fever to shaking w/ chills. i threw up everything that i ate.
but even while i was in the hospital, God showed me his faithfulness and love. my new and amazing husband sat by my side as often as he could. the nurses and doctors were super sweet and kind. AND!!! part way through my hospital stay my sister and a good friend from home came to see me :) they "just happened" to be in red lake for akwachink!!! mmmm...God is just so so good!

they even blessed me w/ some beautiful flowers :)

PRAISE THE LORD the antibiotics finally kicked the infection, my fever finally left, and after almost a week of being sick i got to go home :) but in the meantime, i had racked up a hefty lil' hospital bill. when all was said and done, we owed the hospital over $9000.

Today, the community here in red lake helped us to pay off 2/3s of that bill!!!!!!!
the fundraiser made $6000!!!

the ladies in our church worked very hard to do a spaghetti fundraiser dinner for us. we had spaghetti w/ an amazing homemade sauce, garlic butter bread, ceasar salad, and huge array of homemade desserts: chocolate chip cookies, craisin cookies, peanut butter bars, deluxe marshmallow chocolate bars, chocolate cupcakes, almond chocolate swirl cupcakes, chocolate cream cheese cupcakes, chocolate cake, cranberry jello dessert, blueberry cheesecake bars, apple pie, and blueberry pie :) mmmmmmm

these were my contribution to the dessert table :)

so many people came out to support us!

dave and linda serving up the spaghetti

so...to all who helped us out financially tonight, to all who prayed for us while i was in the hospital, to all who have blessed us w/ their friendship and emotional support, and to our God who has loved and blessed us beyond words...THANK YOU!!!
-from both of us :)

11/11/2010 - my bday!!!

november 11, 1986 ... yep, 24 years ago, i was born :) yay!!!

so this year was my first bday as a wife...i liked it :)
my baby let me sleep in, and he took off 1/2 a day of work so that he could spend the rest of the day w/ me!!!! he took me out for lunch and made dinner for me :) he's actually an excellent cook! i should prolly let him in the kitchen a lil' more often!
for anyone who doesn't know, ice cream is my favorite food :) so we topped the evening off w/ that :) mmmmmmmm....so good!

i think God decided that i needed a lil' dusting of snow for my bday, so he sent it :)
it was fun sitting inside our warm lil' apartment w/ my baby while the snow fell outside...i'm guessing that won't be the last time we do that!!!

we didn't get a whole lot, but it did start sticking!!!
we have about 4 more days that the temp. is going to be above freezing, and then it pretty much drops like a rock...a week from today the forecast is calling for a high of 17 during the day, and a low of 0 at night...yikes!

besides having a wonderful bday w/ my baby here in canada, i also had a wonderful bday at home!

mom always has a bday meal for us :)


i chose shrimp!!!! it was amazing :)


we also had a wonderful salad, baked macaroni, limas, and a dairy queen ice cream cake for dessert! so so so so good!

i missed having 2 of my siblings w/ me (benjamin and autumn), but was super happy to have granddaddy, grammy and megan there to celebrate!

christian and megan

granddaddy and grammy

after dinner we decided to play "up and down the river"

partway through the game though, we lost electricity. we tried to play by lamp light for a while, but that didn't work so well.

so we spent the rest of the time fiddling with the lamps, trying to get them to work correctly.
i believe it's about time we invest in a lil' more oil and some new wicks!
it was so much fun though :) we chatted and played around w/ the candles and lamps for about an hour before the electricity came back on

mummsy dear and rebecca ... good one bec ;)

bec "warming" her hands by the oil lamp lol

here's to an amazing bday!!! in my beautiful va and in my blustery arctic :)


ps. i spent my bday morning (while dave was at work) finishing up another hat :)

this was a new pattern for me and was a bit more time-involved than some of the others that i've done, but it was a fun one to tackle :)
it has an edge that rolls up, and a little chain that weaves through it and ties in a lil' bow on the side.


two other adult hats that i've done
it's a lil' easier for me to model these than the baby hats :)

home :)

i'm home!!!!!
now i know, i know, this is my old home, and i have a new home now, but i like to think of it as home #1 and home #2.
home #1 will always be where my husband is, but bridgewater va will always be my home too...and o how i have missed home #2. it has been so good being back!!!! seeing my parents, some of my siblings, my church family, my friends...such a blessings!!!!
so yeah, my favorite "home" is definitely w/ my husband, but as far as location is concerned, it's going to take any place a long time to ever be more of a home than my lovely bridgewater, va.

this past saturday my hubby and i headed out for the airport in international falls

mmmmm....such a good-lookin' escort!!!

just had to kiss him!!!!

some evidence of the cold weather we've been having...

i don't have any pics of the rest of the trip, but i'll give you a lil' glimpse into what i've been up to since i've been home.

#1 was to make my bridesmaid dress for amber's wedding!!! which is the whole reason i am here in the first place :)
yay for a mom who can sew!!! i helped her cut it out, but she did all the sewing :)
can't wait for saturday when i get to celebrate the wedding of one of my best friends!!! i've been married for just under 3 months, but i'm already a big fan!!! she's in for a treat :)

while mom worked on my dress, i began another project :)
i'm making a quilt for mom's next book!!!!



this is her first book :)
check it out at her website: http://delightfulpiecing.com
it's pretty amazing!!!!

so yesterday mom and i went to patchwork plus and picked out the 45 fabrics needed for a pattern called "pinwheel spin."

i did all the cutting yesterday.


then i worked several hours on laying it all out...it takes a while to get all the pinwheels to coordinate so that they don't blend into each other! you switch that one w/ this one and then you swith this one with that one, but eventually you get it!!!!


can't wait to see how it all turns out :)
today mom and i are going to sew the day away :)

o, and i would like everyone to know that i enjoyed my first diet mtn. dew since i've gotten married yesterday!!!! mmmmmmmmmmmmm....so so so amazing!!!! apparently canadians are not so hyped on the stuff :( which is only slightly understandable considering they are not allowed to have caffeine in any light colored pops... :(

well, that's all i got for now, but i would just like to say again before i go, that it is so so so good to be home!!!!