Finally another entry. This blogging thing is way above me!
It is well into Fall now in Portland. We have yet to slow down and enjoy our favorite season. We went all summer without one trip to the beach-this is the first time in 10 years! Now I am craving the winter storms and must see the ocean. We did make it to the Pumpkin Patch and made it successfully through the corn maze without loosing anyone.
We have had such a busy time adjusting to the school schedule, family in town visiting and the start of my (Julie) business, we have yet to stop and smell the rain, sleep in, or just play in the puddles. Soon all the leaves will have fallen and it will be a long COLD (our furnace is going, going, gone soon) winter.
So here is the recap of Sept, Oct. and a little bit of Nov.
In Sept. I decided to officially license myself and start my Personal Chef/Catering Business. For those of you who don't know it is called "EthelKay's" with the hopes of one day morphing into "EthelKay's Bistro- A taste of Home". A life long dream of mine and Pax's to own our own restaurant. So I decided just to go for it because it's not like I have a ton on my plate now or anything......Well, our wonderful church has used EthelKay's for several events! It has been so wonderful. I really have found my niche I guess you could say. I do so enjoy doing this. The girls have enjoyed helping me get organized for the events, packing boxes and coolers, Ethel enjoys shopping for the events with me and Katherine enjoys the whole process of testing out the menu prior to the event. I have no doubt that child will be a chef someday-if nothing else she is going to make her Husband very happy with her cooking!
Ethel is doing great at school. We LOVE her teacher and couldn't have created a better community if we tried. She has several friends at school (like we had any doubt she would make friends). Our good friend Jackson goes to the school but isn't in her class. She does see him several times during the day, as well as his mom Megan who seems to always be there. Ethel thinks this is so cool that she see Megan there! We also know kids from our church that go there so to say Ethel is well connected is much of an understatement.
Katherine is at the same preschool and has the same teacher as last year. We love her too. A lot of the same kids are in her class again. All that really matters to Katherine is that her friend Leah is in her class and that she can do 5 flips in a row on the playground! KayKay does more crafts at school than any kid I have ever seen and she never seems to be tired of making pictures for Ethel (she really does admire her big sis)! Speaking of big sisters KayKay has turned out to be a wonderful big sister and I new from the time that child was born she needed to be a middle child. She is enjoying her days with just Mommy, Daddy and Ruthie where she gets to run the show!
On to Ruthie.....Ruthie is well, a baby. She is completely mixed physically and every other way too. She is both Ethel and Katherine. She has the overall happiness and laughability that Katherine has (basically goofiness) and the patience and will that Ethel has. Is that the perfect Baby or what! She has just started rolling over, she says DaDa, KK and lots of goo's. She is eating babyfood but only likes oatmeal, bananas (not mixed) and greenbeans
with rice? NO FRUIT, NO other VEGGIES. Go figure? She has found her special time-5 minutes after the girls go to bed until about 11:00pm. This is when she gets Mommy and Daddy all to herself! OK so you may be asking why is Ruthie's name not in the Business? Well, I really started this business about 4 years ago but never fully launched it. The name was EthelKay's then for obvious reasons and it just stuck. So we have decided when we open the Restaurant we will have a blueplate special everyday and instead of people asking "what is your special"? It will be "what is the Ruthie today"?
Here is my recap of October......I can't remember much except Pax's Parents came for a visit. I have to say that it was the best visit thus far on record. We had a great time with them just hanging out with the kids, swimming, going to the pumpkin patch, shopping, oh and the best part was they blessed Pax and I with a night out and they took all 3 kids-Yep, all 3 for the night! It was so exciting, Pax and I got to see a real movie-by this I mean not a rental or a cheapy, a full price movie and go to dinner all in the same night! It was one of those-what do we do with this time, m
oments? We hope they come back soon-not just for the nights out but we really did miss them, and the kids had fun too.
I had my first official "back at Mosaic volunteer opportunity" at our church in October. I helped out with the Halloween party they had. I had the face mask room. It was a lot of fun, very messy but still fun to see all the kids and families at our church. I admit I missed being involved with the kids. Miller don't take that the wrong way-I'm in no way ready to come back! Ethel was Hannah Montana for Halloween, Katherine was a witch (not a scary witch but a nice witch-her words), Ruthie was a pumpkin but looked more like a butternut squash! We spent Halloween in our usual traditional way......with the Peters of course! I think this will continue well into the teen years, probably longer. Jackson made a very fine Indiana Jones-all abo
ut the accessories with that boy.
Nov. has flown by and I cannot believe it is half over and we will be eating turkey and putting up Christmas decorations in just a few weeks! What an amazing year it has been. We will be celebrating Thanksgiving with another round of the Peters! Again another tradition I hope will continue into our golden years-or at least till Megan kicks us all out of her house. Our friend Dana (the one worthy of just one name) will be there as well. As I have said before,
I love catching up with her. She is one of those people you can live vicariously through.
My dad is here for a visit as I type (well he is probably at his hotel asleep right now).
We have been having a good time with him, sharing stories, listening to how he is converting from PC to MAC (he has been taking classes almost everyday at the apple store-funny). KayKay has taken a special liking to Pappy and wants to be with him all the time. It actually reminds me a lot of how I was at that age. Ruthie as well always has big smiles and laughs for her Pappy. Ethel, well, just a bunch of dry humor and bad jokes, that's Ethel for ya!
So to sum things up....Fall in Portland has been very busy but life is good for us all and we have been extremely blessed by the Lord. Farewell for now-enjoy some update pics-PS the dog (Maggie) is a friends we sit for at times when we are missing ours. We (the girls) are still working on the 5th member of the family to come around to our doggie situation.
It is well into Fall now in Portland. We have yet to slow down and enjoy our favorite season. We went all summer without one trip to the beach-this is the first time in 10 years! Now I am craving the winter storms and must see the ocean. We did make it to the Pumpkin Patch and made it successfully through the corn maze without loosing anyone.
We have had such a busy time adjusting to the school schedule, family in town visiting and the start of my (Julie) business, we have yet to stop and smell the rain, sleep in, or just play in the puddles. Soon all the leaves will have fallen and it will be a long COLD (our furnace is going, going, gone soon) winter.
So here is the recap of Sept, Oct. and a little bit of Nov.
In Sept. I decided to officially license myself and start my Personal Chef/Catering Business. For those of you who don't know it is called "EthelKay's" with the hopes of one day morphing into "EthelKay's Bistro- A taste of Home". A life long dream of mine and Pax's to own our own restaurant. So I decided just to go for it because it's not like I have a ton on my plate now or anything......Well, our wonderful church has used EthelKay's for several events! It has been so wonderful. I really have found my niche I guess you could say. I do so enjoy doing this. The girls have enjoyed helping me get organized for the events, packing boxes and coolers, Ethel enjoys shopping for the events with me and Katherine enjoys the whole process of testing out the menu prior to the event. I have no doubt that child will be a chef someday-if nothing else she is going to make her Husband very happy with her cooking!
Ethel is doing great at school. We LOVE her teacher and couldn't have created a better community if we tried. She has several friends at school (like we had any doubt she would make friends). Our good friend Jackson goes to the school but isn't in her class. She does see him several times during the day, as well as his mom Megan who seems to always be there. Ethel thinks this is so cool that she see Megan there! We also know kids from our church that go there so to say Ethel is well connected is much of an understatement.
Katherine is at the same preschool and has the same teacher as last year. We love her too. A lot of the same kids are in her class again. All that really matters to Katherine is that her friend Leah is in her class and that she can do 5 flips in a row on the playground! KayKay does more crafts at school than any kid I have ever seen and she never seems to be tired of making pictures for Ethel (she really does admire her big sis)! Speaking of big sisters KayKay has turned out to be a wonderful big sister and I new from the time that child was born she needed to be a middle child. She is enjoying her days with just Mommy, Daddy and Ruthie where she gets to run the show!
On to Ruthie.....Ruthie is well, a baby. She is completely mixed physically and every other way too. She is both Ethel and Katherine. She has the overall happiness and laughability that Katherine has (basically goofiness) and the patience and will that Ethel has. Is that the perfect Baby or what! She has just started rolling over, she says DaDa, KK and lots of goo's. She is eating babyfood but only likes oatmeal, bananas (not mixed) and greenbeans
with rice? NO FRUIT, NO other VEGGIES. Go figure? She has found her special time-5 minutes after the girls go to bed until about 11:00pm. This is when she gets Mommy and Daddy all to herself! OK so you may be asking why is Ruthie's name not in the Business? Well, I really started this business about 4 years ago but never fully launched it. The name was EthelKay's then for obvious reasons and it just stuck. So we have decided when we open the Restaurant we will have a blueplate special everyday and instead of people asking "what is your special"? It will be "what is the Ruthie today"?Here is my recap of October......I can't remember much except Pax's Parents came for a visit. I have to say that it was the best visit thus far on record. We had a great time with them just hanging out with the kids, swimming, going to the pumpkin patch, shopping, oh and the best part was they blessed Pax and I with a night out and they took all 3 kids-Yep, all 3 for the night! It was so exciting, Pax and I got to see a real movie-by this I mean not a rental or a cheapy, a full price movie and go to dinner all in the same night! It was one of those-what do we do with this time, m
oments? We hope they come back soon-not just for the nights out but we really did miss them, and the kids had fun too.I had my first official "back at Mosaic volunteer opportunity" at our church in October. I helped out with the Halloween party they had. I had the face mask room. It was a lot of fun, very messy but still fun to see all the kids and families at our church. I admit I missed being involved with the kids. Miller don't take that the wrong way-I'm in no way ready to come back! Ethel was Hannah Montana for Halloween, Katherine was a witch (not a scary witch but a nice witch-her words), Ruthie was a pumpkin but looked more like a butternut squash! We spent Halloween in our usual traditional way......with the Peters of course! I think this will continue well into the teen years, probably longer. Jackson made a very fine Indiana Jones-all abo
ut the accessories with that boy.Nov. has flown by and I cannot believe it is half over and we will be eating turkey and putting up Christmas decorations in just a few weeks! What an amazing year it has been. We will be celebrating Thanksgiving with another round of the Peters! Again another tradition I hope will continue into our golden years-or at least till Megan kicks us all out of her house. Our friend Dana (the one worthy of just one name) will be there as well. As I have said before,
I love catching up with her. She is one of those people you can live vicariously through.My dad is here for a visit as I type (well he is probably at his hotel asleep right now).
We have been having a good time with him, sharing stories, listening to how he is converting from PC to MAC (he has been taking classes almost everyday at the apple store-funny). KayKay has taken a special liking to Pappy and wants to be with him all the time. It actually reminds me a lot of how I was at that age. Ruthie as well always has big smiles and laughs for her Pappy. Ethel, well, just a bunch of dry humor and bad jokes, that's Ethel for ya!
So to sum things up....Fall in Portland has been very busy but life is good for us all and we have been extremely blessed by the Lord. Farewell for now-enjoy some update pics-PS the dog (Maggie) is a friends we sit for at times when we are missing ours. We (the girls) are still working on the 5th member of the family to come around to our doggie situation.
