Jannessa and Drew, Who Knew??

About a year and a half ago, I blogged about the "small world" we live in, in a post called, Coincidental Connections. One of these "coincidences" was the fact that my niece, Jackie at one time had a little boy named Joey as one of her first foster children, along with his younger sister, Kryssy. Joey eventually went to live with his father, here in P-town, and about 10 years later, I met him again at my church, after I moved here...but I didn't put two and two together at that time. Well, Joey just HAPPENS to be very good friends with Drew, who is the son of one of my very good friends, Lisa, (QTPies7).

And now, you're thinking, "Okay, but you've told us all of this before, you really ARE losing it now, aren't you? What's the big deal??" (I'm TRYING to make a long story short...but it's not working). Stick with me... after having had Joey and his sister, Kryssy in her care, my niece took in a set of three siblings, Tiffany, Jannessa and Timmy...and then she adopted them all, along with (eventually), Joey's two biological half-sisters, Kryssy and Lily. Anyway, before Joey left for the Marines, in July of 2008, Jackie had a party for him, and invited his friend, Drew. Here's a picture from that party:

For reference, the guy bending over, comforting the little girl in this photo, is my brother, Bob. Directly behind Bob, is Lisa's son, Drew. Then L to R, Kryssy and Joey. In the right-hand corner, (with the date across her chest), is my great-niece, Jannessa. I don't know if this was the very first day they met, (I think Jackie said Joey had brought Drew to their place for dinner before this), but it was right around that time. Now....the big deal is... almost exactly 1 year and 11 months later, Drew and Jannessa will become HUSBAND and WIFE!! Therefore, my friend, Lisa and I will soon be related...sort of... Here's the happy couple:

(I borrowed this pic from Lisa's blog)

Lisa is having a lot of fun helping the bride and groom get everything ready for the wedding, and I think it's pretty cool, knowing the entire wedding party myself. They're having all of their siblings involved in one way or another, and since I happen to know them all, it should be a very fun wedding for me to attend. Now, just one question...which side of the church do I sit on, the bride's, or the groom's??? Lol!

LANO!!! (Ladies' ALL Night Out)

Friday night was our monthly Ladies' Night Out at church. This is always a good time for the women of our church to get together and talk, eat, play games and just get to know each other better. There is a core group of us that have been meeting monthly for quite some time, and there are others that come occasionally too. We're happy to have anyone join us, and it's always the second Friday of the month, in the fellowship hall.
Here are Cindy, Regina, Jody and Christina, playing "Things" along with Lisa, Sarah, Anna and me. It was a fun game, but because there were so many playing, and we were getting tired, it was really hard to remember who had already asked whom, what questions...if that makes any sense.

The littlest "lady" there, was Jody's brand new baby, Tessa, (held here by Sarah), who was born January 8th. She was born a few weeks early, and is just a little peanut, but is absolutely perfect and adorable.

Here's Anna, holding little Tessa. They were both wearing the same shade of pink, and I just had to take a picture of them.

This last one was one of our "later" LNO's with 5 of us staying into the wee hours of the morning...we left the church parking lot at 4:00AM. I was about a mile from home, when I received this text msg from my husband. "Are you COMING home?" I called him and assured him that I was indeed almost home, and he said, "I knew it was called Ladies' Night Out, but I didn't realize it was going to be Ladies ALL Night Out!" So...I think we have to change the name of our monthly outings at church to "LANO" now, whatdaya think??

A "Killer" New Year's Eve Party!

This New Year's Eve, we were invited to a murder. Well--a murder mystery party, anyway. Our good friends, Jody and Dan hosted it, with Dan participating in the drama, and Jody making sure everyone was well-fed...organizing the entire event, and keeping everything running smoothly.

It turned out to be the most fun I've had on New Year's Eve in a very long time!

The setting was in the Wild West town of "Roadkill" in the Wyoming Territory in 1881. We were all invited there for a good old fashioned hangin', but first...we had to determine who the guilty parties were...

Here's the cast of characters:

Left to right, back row: Yours truly, as "Dee Adela Muerte" (which apparently means "Day of the Dead" in Spanish), a Mexican beauty, who is plagued by bad luck and has been thrice widowed. Her first husband was a local politician, but since her second and third were the town pastor and the undertaker, she now performs both of those duties for the citizens of Roadkill, in her husbands' absence.

Next, (played by my husband Ray) is the former sheriff of Roadkill, "Wyatt Hertz" who is now retired, ever since a shotgun blast caught him in the "tender parts." He now runs a lucrative "Rent-A-Horse" business. What? You never heard of Hertz Rent-A-Horse?

On the other side of Ray, is my friend Lisa, (of QTPies fame), playing "Helena Handcart" matriarch of the Handcart clan. Sadly, Helena lost all 13 of her sons in a shoot-out at the "Parkay Corral."

Here's a close-up of "Elvira" and "Butch."

"Elvira Lynn Fection," played by none other than our own Sarah (Sassyfrazz), is the famous madam of The Pigeon Ranch, the best litttle you-know-what in Roadkill. Next to her, in the dungarees, is Anna, who is Moving Forward as the legendary "Butch Chastity. She's known for many train robberies, and can drink her fellow outlaws under the table, and has been known to kill a man, just as soon as look at him!

"P'Elvis Swagarin," was played by Donnie, (Mr QTPies). P'Elvis is a mysterious lone gunslinger, who recently rode into town. Solemn, poker-faced, and bowlegged, he's a cowboy's cowboy. Born Peter Elvis Swagarin, he's known to his friends as P'Elvis.

This is, (of course), the famous " Chief Breaking Wind" of the now apparently extinct Cowpai tribe. The Chief, is played by Terry, who is also known in bloggyworld as "Mr. Sassyfrazz." Don't you just love his braids?

Last, but certainly not least, is "Elias Truist Heath," (say that name out-loud a couple of times to catch the meaning), played by our host, Dan...also known as one of Jody's Joys. Elias is an up and coming heartthrob gunfighter, who was orphaned as a boy and raised by the honorable judge Waylon Payne. Ain't he handsome??


We were each given a booklet at the start of this adventure, and were instructed not to turn the page until we were told to. There were four "rounds" in which our booklets told us certain facts to keep hidden, unless we were asked directly about it, (in which case we had to tell the truth), and certain facts that we had to reveal about the other residents of Roadkill before the end of each round. This wasn't always easy to work into the conversation...but it was fun nonetheless.
I don't want to give away any more of the story, or reveal who the murderer (of Judge Waylon Payne) was, in case anyone wants to get it and do this murder mystery party game. Jody said she got it off of Amazon.com, where I see there are others available too. This one was called, "The Good, The Bad and The Guilty." if you're interested.

Thanks, Jody and Dan, for an awesome party and a great way to ring in 2010!

PEFC's Old Fashioned Christmas 2009

Last Saturday night was our annual "Old Fashioned Christmas, at church. Several couples host tables, decorating them and inviting guests to join them. This year, we decided to do a table again, sort of at the last minute, because there were more church members that wanted to attend, then there was room at the tables for. I'm glad we did. It was a very nice evening.
This was our table. I used the lighted village I got from Molly and Christian last year, for Christmas. We had to set up near an outlet, so we could plug in, of course, but it worked out quite well.

This is our table lit up with candles. I found the cute little stockings the night before, for just 50 cents apiece and took them home and wrote names on them, and then filled them with candy. At that point, we only had 5 guests coming, so with the two of us, there were seven...but it was a good thing that I'd set the table for 8, (just in case) and bought an extra stocking. While I was doing them, we got a call from the coordinators, saying that one of the couples at our table was bringing the foreign exchange student that was staying at their house. Cool! Our table would be filled...and it was very nice to meet this young woman from Brazil, and she seemed thrilled to have a stocking with her own name on it. Try writing "Carolina" with glitter glue on a miniature stocking sometime! It's a good thing I have lots of practice writing with icing...it's kinda the same.

This is a close-up of my centerpiece. I thought it turned out pretty cute:

I was going to use a round piece of white felt to put the houses on, and was trying to think of what I could use to trace around...when I thought of my wedding cake base...and then I thought, why not use it to PUT the centerpiece on? That was one of my better ideas...

Before we had planned on doing our own table, we'd been invited to join some friends at their two tables. I think this is the third year that my friends, Jody and Lisa have gotten together with their husbands to do two tables...one for the girls, and one for the guys. I hated backing out on them at the last minute, but I figured if there were that many people that needed a place to sit, they could easily replace us. Well, it wasn't as easy as I hoped, but in the end...they filled out their tables too. Unfortunately, AGAIN this year, Jody's husband Dan was called out of town on business and wasn't able to attend.

Here's the ladies table. Lisa used her expert cake decorating abilities to make this gorgeous cake for her centerpiece. She's got a lot more patience than I do. She ended up making hundreds of snowflakes out of royal icing, to get enough unbroken ones to put on her cake. The cake itself was made of styrofoam, but the icing was real. The table turned out to be very beautiful and elegant.

Below, is a picture of it in the dark, with the candles lit, and an LED light inside of the bowlful of ornaments:

Meanwhile, their "better" halves were busy working on an interesting table of their own. Donnie and Dan had cut pieces of metal plating to serve as a table cloth, and fashioned a Christmas tree out of welded chains for their centerpiece. There were nuts and bolts all over the place, as well as tools and work gloves, all to give it that masculine feel. This table got a LOT of attention! Good job guys!

Hopefully, next year Dan will be able to actually attend the event and sit at the table he is hosting! Below, is a picture of the table lit up...and I do mean LIT UP! There table was right in our line of sight to the stage...and thankfully, Lisa saw to it that the tree lights were turned off, so as not to blind us! Thanks, Lisa!

Here are a few more of my favorite tables...

This one, done by Dave and Lori F. was very cute. They had dishes covered with berries, and an adorable bear nativity scene in the center. Below is a close-up of the centerpiece:

The sign says "Have a Beary, Berry Merry Christmas!" Clever!

This gold table, was decorated by the coordinators of the whole event. I love how it turned out!

Their table was very rich and elegant looking. Above it is pictured with the room lights on, and it was very pretty, but below, it was even prettier by candle light.

The table below, was decorated by our friends, John and Julie F. with a kind of a horse theme. Julie loves horses and has one of her own. There is an old fashioned lantern in the center of the table..

...and if you look inside the lantern, you'll see a figurine of baby Jesus, which confused me for just a moment...and then it hit me...

Jesus IS the LIGHT! Duh.

This is the Hobo table. We were thinking they should have started those beans a few hours earlier though...it's a good thing we had chicken, potatoes, salad and dessert served to us, those beans were taking forever!

Here are the head hobos themselves, John and Jackie B.

For entertainment this year, The Kingery Family performed. They are a local group from Minnesota, who play and sing bluegrass music. I've never seen so much talent in one family in my entire life! I was very impressed with their musical abilities and their awesome voices!

They have six daughters, and two little sons...and they are all very, very gifted musicians!


The Girls' harmonizing was amazing!

And then the little boys got into the act. The older of the two actually had to climb up on a chair to play his dad's bass! The little one played the harmonica. The family had recently been featured on Jason Davis's "On the Road" program, and the dad said that Jason Davis kept calling it a "harmonicker." I'll have to watch for that episode to be on again.

I'm already trying to think of what to use for a centerpiece next year. If you're in the area, and would like to attend as one of our guests, let me know...and I'll be sure to invite you next year...

Holly and Hal Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure!

Yesterday, a couple of blogger friends and I had an awesome opportunity! We got to go to a sneak preview of "Hal and Holly Moose: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure," at the Mall of America theaters. We were each allowed to bring one special guest. My friends each brought one of their preschool age children, and I brought my grandson CJ, who lives with me at the moment.

BURBANK, Calif. (Oct. 15, 2009) – ABC Family and Build-A-Bear Workshop® are coming together to create a little holiday “hoofla” this season as the network debuts an animated special that marks the first time in the retailer’s 12-year history that its plush animals are brought to life on television.

"Holly and Hal MooseTM: Our Uplifting Christmas Adventure,” a one-hour feature movie, makes its nationwide premiere on ABC Family on Tuesday, Nov. 24 at 7:00 PM ET/PT (with an encore presentation on Saturday, Nov. 28 at 10 AM ET/PT). The television special is based on a book and series of webisodes that introduced Holly and Hal Moose last year and captured their holiday antics, powerful imaginations and love of adventure.

We arrived at the Mall and had to find our way to the movie theater. When we got there, we were surprised to find Holly and Hal there (in person) to greet us, before the movie!

Here's Sassyfrazz's little girl, giving Holly a big hug.

Here's the movie stars, Hal and Holly.

They were super excited to be starring in their very first film!

I even got a couple of pics of the movie itself. The kids really enjoyed the show. The story was mostly about following your dreams, (Hal has always dreamed of flying with Santa's reindeer),

But there are other good elements to this tale as well, for example, when Holly, (the older sibling) is asked to watch her younger brother after school, she's forced to make the tough choice between going to her friend's party and doing as her mother as her mother asked...you'll have to tune into the movie on Tuesday to find out what she chose...but of course, just as every good children's Christmas story goes...our heroes, Hal and Holly ultimately end up saving the day, when "the storm of the century" threatens to cancel Christmas!

Don't forget to tune in to ABC Family, Tuesday 11/24 at 7pm Eastern, 6pm Central. There will also be an encore presentation on Saturday, 11/28 at 10am. For those of you who do not have access to ABC Family (we don't), this cute new holiday movie will also be available on DVD, starting on Wednesday, 11/25. I'm sure we'll have to go pick up a copy. CJ just came in and told me he wants to watch it again!

Here's my grandson, CJ and me.

And below, is Lisa (QTPies) and Sarah (Sassyfrazz) with their little ones. Did you know that Holly Moose actually has her own blog as well? You can go to Holly's blog to get more info and previews of this fun adventure!

The movie was a very fun treat...but wait...there's more! Courtesy of Build-A-Bear Workshops, we were also invited to their store after the show, to make our own Hal and Holly Moose pair to take home! They provided the animals, as compensation for our reviews, but any clothing or added items, like sounds or accessories were extra.

Our experience at Build-A-Bear Workshop was awesome! This nice lady led our group through the entire process. First, we had to bring our mooses (meese?) to the stuffing machine.

Each of the children took their turn stepping on a foot pump to make the machine work. Below, is Maddie stuffing her "Holly" while CJ and Sam look on.

CJ's turn to stuff his Hal.

Next, our helper tightens up the pre-sewn threads at the back of each moose. Just before this happened, we were all instructed to pick out a heart for each animal, because after all...everyone needs to have a heart, right? Also, if you choose to put a sound into your creation...this is the time to put that in, as well. I chose to put the song, "Jingle Bell Rock" in Molly's Holly.


The next step, is "fluffing" our new little buddies...CJ seemed to take this job quite seriously.

There is another foot pump here, which causes air to blow on the animal, while it is being brushed. Next, we picked out clothes for them. We all decided to dress them in their signature outfits from the movie, but they have quite a large selection of clothing available for purchase.

At the movie premiere, we had each received a Build-A-Bear backpack too, (gotta love swag)...so we put our new little buddies in the backpacks for the kiddos to carry around, it was so cute!

Here's our little threesome in front of Build-A-Bear Workshop.

I love this picture of one of the huge trees at the MOA, with the three little ones looking waaay up to the top. The tree was humongous, it was at least 3 stories tall!

We had to stop and take a picture of Nickelodeon Universe, on our way to the food court for lunch. Shortly after lunch, we had a bit of a scare. As Lisa was throwing our garbage away, 3 year-old Sam wandered off...in a very crowded MOA food court at lunch time! This is an experience that many of us mothers/grandmas have had before, and we tried not to panic...but I think we all earned another gray hair or two at that moment. Thankfully, in probably less than a minute or two, mother and child were reunited! Whew!!

Here's CJ and his pal, Hal on the way home.

Molly was very excited to meet "Holly" and CJ has been carrying "Hal" around everywhere, ever since his good friend was made! He even attended church with us this morning. Thank you, thank you, Build-A-Bear!!

Festivities For A FIRST & A FIFTIETH!

Last Friday night, my friends and I were once again "partying" at church. We had a couple of good reasons to celebrate, this time though: This is my friend Jody, with her littlest "joy", Miss K. who turned ONE year old that day.

This is her Barbie cake, made by our friend, Lisa! Didn't she do a great job? She made a small cake for little Miss K. to dig into too.

We also had another friend, Miss Pam, who shares the same birthday...she just happened to be celebrating her "Big 5-0" that day.

This is the cake that I decorated for her. Being of the "over 50" crowd myself, I prefer not to be all morbid about it, and chose the much more upbeat "It's Beautiful Over the Hill" theme.

I thought it was interesting that we both put little pink flowers with yellow dots on the cakes, as if we'd planned it that way. We hadn't.

Some of the guests, waiting for the Pam to arrive...to yell, "SURPRISE!"

Meanwhile, the other guest of honor decided a little nap was in order.

Here she is digging in to her own little birthday cake.

"Mommy, is this REALLY okay?"

Singing "Happy Birthday to You"

The two "birthday girls"

Birthdays can be MESSY!

...But it's always fun to get PRESENTS!