Thanksgiving

Jake & I went to Charleston to spend Thanksgiving with my sister, Emily. We drove down Wednesday afternoon & came back Saturday morning. It's just under 4 hours from Wilmington to Charleston. We had a great visit. It was fun seeing her AGAIN this weekend & her new house!

Our Thanksgiving Feast

I brought the Pumpkin Pie.

Tuttle Family Reunion

Last weekend we went to Pennsylvania for our Tuttle Family Reunion at Camp Calvary. Our last reunion was my senior year of college-Fall of 2003. It was so fun seeing everyone! Here are a few pictures from our fun weekend.

Grandma with her kids (missing Uncle Chris)

Some of the great grandkids (missing 5+)

Cousins & Spouses

Sisters

It was WONDERFUL to see my family!

Luke & Jake (brothers-in-law???)

Singing "Orphans of God"

Cousins

We left our camera in our cabin until Sunday morning. Oops! I'll have to steal some pictures from my Dad's camera. We had a wonderful weekend.

Babysitting

Last week our pastoral staff had their annual retreat. We watched Micah & Laci while Pastor Dave & Jenny were on the retreat. We have watched Micah & Laci before.
This time we had Micah & Laci from Thursday late afternoon through Saturday afternoon. Once again, we had a great time together.

Friday (while Micah was at school) Laci & I made a necklace & bracelet. We also mixed up sugar cookies, which we rolled out Friday night with Micah & Jake.The kids like to play Pig Mania!

Saturday morning Jake did Micah's hair like his. You should've seen Dave & Jenny's reaction to Micah's frohawk! Priceless.

A Homemade Christmas Gift

I decided to make some Christmas gifts this year with my "free" time (since I am STILL job searching). I asked my friend Beth for some gift ideas & she suggested a book for our niece & nephews. The book would say what our life is like here in NC. I thought that was a GREAT idea since we only see them a few times a year. (I used to see them weekly at church.)

I decided to do the ABC's about our life in North Carolina. The book is going to through laminating machine & then I'll bind it & make a cover.

Jake brought home the laminated pages Wednesday night & we worked together on putting the book together & binding it. Here is the finished product:

Hopefully the kids will like it! It was fun to put this together for them. I only spent money on more glue sticks & laminating, otherwise I used up scrapbooking supplies that I already had. It did take a lot of TIME, but i have some of that right now. :) I started another project yesterday that will be another Christmas gift.

PS--Jen if you see this. . . don't show the kids! ;)

MORE Flowers from Jake

I had a little bit of a rough day yesterday.

I have been job searching since we arrived in Wilmington (beginning of August). I thought that I would have a job by the time Jake started school (end of August). Obviously God has different plans. There was a job that i had had 2 interviews with & really wanted. Yesterday, I found out that i did not get the job. I was so disappointed. Jake came home from school with a bouquet of flowers for me. He's so sweet. The bouquet even has green button mums, which we had in our wedding. I arranged them in a vase (from our wedding) while we talked. Later Jake just sat me on his lap & held me. I am trying to fully trust God for ALL things (good & bad & disappointing times). I would love to be working full time right now, but God has not allowed that, yet.

Jake's a keeper! I am so thankful for my wonderful husband that God brought into my life. God has been so faithful to us & we will continue to trust Him for the future.

Face-Lift

I have been sick & tired of my blog template/background for months now, but have not had the time to fix it. I started looking for a new background, but I was not finding what I wanted.
I decided to ask my cousin Loraena, the blog queen, for some ideas. Her blog looks so great! She actually used a designer whose proceeds go toward an adoption fund. Loraena also told me about this website. They have such great backgrounds! I may have to start changing my background more often--maybe even seasonally!

Our New Favorite

Two weeks ago I made granola. Jake loved it & we ate it right up (for breakfast, snack, etc. . .) So I made a BIG batch the following week. Homemade granola is so good!
Here is my "recipe":
(Typically, I just dump whatever is in the cupboard.)

• 4 cups old fashioned oats
• 1 cup coconut
• 1/3 cup pecans
• 1/3 cup almonds
• 2 cups cereal (Last batch I used Cheerios & Chex.)
• 1 cup Raisin Bran cereal
• 1/2 cup craisins
• (You can also add oat bran, wheat germ, powdered milk, sesame seeds, Rice Krispies, etc. . .)

Mix the previous ingredients in a large bowl & set aside.

• 1/2 cup oil
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Whisk in a microwavable bowl. Microwave for one minute. Mix again & pour over dry granola mix. Make sure mix is evenly coated. Pour granola onto a deep baking sheet.
Bake at 325 for 30 minutes. Stir granola every 10 minutes.

**Most recipes call for a lot of oil (one cup!). I use juice instead (less fat & healthier). The sugar in the juice works well to coat the granola & allows it to clump. You can also use maple syrup.

Haunted Hayride

Jake & I are youth leaders at Grace. Saturday night we had a haunted hayride out at the Dixon Farm. It was fun! We first bussed the kids to an open field where they played football until it was good & dark. Then all of us leaders took our places in the woods along the path. I was in a truck waiting to turn on the truck, rev the engine, turn on the lights & honk the horn as the tractor went by. Jake was further down in the woods with an empty paintball gun. He was also near some men with chainsaws (minus the chains). The teens seemed to love it!

Charleston Trip

Jake & I had the priviledge of going on the Junior Class History Trip to Charleston on Thursday & Friday. Jake drove the bus. We had a great time.

Group photographer

The group. We had 28 kids & 3 chaperone's.
This was taken at the Charleston Aquarium. Next we hit The Market for some shopping!

Trying out the big gun mounted on the truck.
This truck was randomly parked outside the market.

We even got to meet up with Emily! We met her at Frankie's Fun Park where the kids did go-karts, archade games, mini-golf, etc. . .
Later that night we had a walking Ghost Tour downtown.

My pilot. We toured the USS Yorktown on Friday morning.

The Citadel

Touring the submarine. It was a little claustrophobic.

We toured Fort Sumter Friday afternoon & then headed home.

Reminiscing

I've been reminiscing about this same weekend of last year. My how things can change in only ONE year!

Jake actually missed Fielday last year. He purchased his ticket to come visit me (for the first time) in MN from Friday morning to Sunday morning. After buying the ticket, he realized that Friday, November 2, was HS Fielday. Oops! Tonya was very understanding & still let him come to Minnesota. We were officially dating as of Sunday, November 4, so tomorrow we celebrate one year of dating. Can't wait to see what many many many more years hold.

I love you, Jake.
I am so thankful for God's sovereignty in our lives & bringing us together in His perfect timing. God has truly blessed me MORE than I could have EVER asked for or thought possible.

High School Fielday

Friday was WCA High School Fielday.
I helped Jake & Tonya set up on Thursday. We got out to the farm around 11am on Thursday & finished around 5pm. Jake & I headed out to the farm at 6:30am on Friday morning. It was pretty chilly (low 40's) while we were finishing things up. My feet were frozen--you'd think that I'd be used to those temps.

Jake finishing up a few things.

Getting ready to start the second game. It was a car theme. There were 4 teams: Mustangs, Corvettes, TransAms & Cameros

Stopping at the "DMV"

Transporting the kids. More transporting

Map Quest gameSlug Bug Game

Tabulating pointsMr. Phillips the crash dummy (also the HS Principle)

It was fun day. The kids seemed to have a great time!
There were 8 different stops for games. The farm had LOTS of acreage & we used a lot of it. I am amazed by Tonya's imagination to think all this up.