Day 255: Visiting Cassie

We went to visit Cassie at her parents' house for a while today. Zaria enjoyed chasing after the dogs, and said a few things we didn't know she knew-- Cassie's name and "tail" as she pet the dog's wagging tail. She also pointed at knees and toes and said those words, which I attribute to singing the song "Head and Shoulders Knees and Toes" a lot lately.

Day 208: Car fixing

It was a lovely day to do some car work, so Jamin and Roy had fun doing up some brakes and a couple of other things for our friend Cassie. Zaria came out and enjoyed watching for a while, as well. Cas rewarded us by taking us all out to eat at Taste of India, which was very yummy even if some of the spice didn't agree with us later.

Day 169: Girls rock

John and Jen ended up acquiring some free tickets to see the Wild play, so we had Maria over this evening. She and Zaria had a good time playing on the drum together. I also was entertaining Cassie and Kami, so it was a real girl-power evening. Jamin got home late and I opted not to go to a political meeting with Cassie to meet a candidate in lieu of putting these girls down to bed while Jamin ate supper. Cassie came over afterwards to tell me about the meeting and we realized we've been friends for roughly half our lives!

Day 161: Pannekoeken!

Today was KTIS' "Drive Through Difference," which I really would've enjoyed being part of, but we had plans already to take advantage of the Monday deal at Pannekoeken-- buy one, get one for 2.99. We had thought they were buy one-get one, but it's still a great deal and they are so good. I have a recipe for the standard fruit kind that I'm excited to try sometime. I had a meat & veggie one, Jamin had a southwestern one (right side) and across from us, Cassie had her standard Rotterdam pannekoeken with metwurst sausage.

Day 140: Amazing Race finale

I haven't really followed The Amazing Race this year, but I've had favorites in past races and thought it'd be fun to join Cassie and Kami in watching this year's finale. I was glad to see it, since the racers ended up in Anchorage Alaska, where Jamin and my old housemates from Portland now live.

Day 130: Mai and Isaac come to play

I didn't make it to FNG this week, and last minute decided to invite Cassie over for dinner and games, who then invited our old friend Sarah and her two kids, Isaac and Mai to come over. So we had a full house! Isaac helped watch the girls a little bit, but Mai and Zaria had fun playing with various musical toys while us grown-up girls played a game of Hoopla. Good food, good fellowship, and a fun game even though we were often distracted. Earlier in the day I took Zaria, Jen and Maria to see the Model Railroad Museum in St. Paul-- today is Jen's birthday! The museum was really cool and kid-friendly, one of those free museum pass places you can check out at the library. Next time I need to remember to bring my camera.

Day 107: Stockings are hung on what?

Zaria just got her own stocking tonight, a gift from "Auntie" Cassie. It's very lovely, but perhaps it's strange that we've hung our stockings up on our china cabinet.
"Their stockings were hung on the China cabinet with care, with hopes that the dishwashers soon would be there."
On another note, Zaria was very sick today. Too much partying, perhaps? Anyway, she ralphed a few times, but seems to be out of danger now, and didn't show any dangerous signs of dehydration. It was interesting because at Mother's Fellowship this morning we volunteered at Feed My Starving Children, and my poor baby couldn't eat today!

Day 98: Gametime up north

We joined Cassie, Derek and Dave up at Cassie's timeshare condo for a fun late weekend of games, hot tubbing, and relaxing. I learned this new game they're playing in the photo, Tripoley, which is pretty fun. It's like a mix of poker and Michigan Rummy. Zaria did pretty well, but she didn't like to be ignored for real long.

Day 89: Golden Birthday Girl

It was Sarah's golden birthday yesterday (same age- 29), so she's wearing gold here. I guess there was supposed to be a prize or something for whomever wore the most gold. I missed that memo, and I wore gray and green. Sarah's an amazing woman, a friend from Cassie's dorm long ago that I don't see very often. It was fun to hang out with Sarah and her gang of friends, many of whom work with youth or missions. I also happened to find Jhonessa at the party, whom I haven't seen in about 2 years, and then it was a random meeting at a library. She was an old Bethel friend of mine, so it was fun to catch up with her and find out she's going to seminary these days. She's the one in this photo with the pink pants. I was actually attempting to get Sarah's feet in this shot and do one of those funny perspective photos, but after several tries I gave up.