Numbers part 1

If  the world were a village of 100 people:

• 6 of us would own 59% of the world's wealth
• If you have a bed, a refrigerator, a roof over your head you are one of the top 25 richest people in the world
• 18 of us would struggle to live on less than $1 a day and 53 of us on less than $2 a day.
• All 100 of us would mean infinitely more to God than just a statistic or a number - a face, 2 hands and feet, a heart and a soul that He delights in and cares for.

Click here to see the miniature earth slideshow:  http://www.miniature-earth.com/

Full moon, vampires and black cats, oh my!

Yes, I've been "bitten" by the Vampire bug.  The vast majority of my Halloween weekend was reading and finishing the 2nd book - 400 pages in less than 24 hours!  Crazy-ness...
I never would have imagined myself getting so caught up in a story like that and one of my staunch policies for reading is NO sappy romance stuff, but this seems to be one exception.  It is rather addicting.

The other major event for my halloween weekend is my black cat escaping on halloween night and me running around in a panic for over an hour, it was a full moon even- of all the nights to escape!  Thankfully my wonderful neighbors came out to help me.  Literally as soon as they stepped out their door, Tami called his name and he came running to her.  Little stinker...

So he was not cat napped by wierd satanic people ready to do horrible things to him.  (yes, these are the wierd things that go on in your mind when you're looking for your cat at 10 pm on Halloween night.

Here he is playing in a box of yarn that I took with me to Africa last summer...

Reddi-wip and grandma

My sister in law, Andrea, has this great recipe for Pumpkin cookies that are always a family favorite this time of year.  she put the recipe on her blog so I decided I was going to try it out yesterday.  If you would like the recipe, please check out Andrea's Blog by clicking here: http://cakhbell.blogspot.com/2009/10/delicioso.html

Those of you who knew my Grandma Lang would know that one of the very first things she would do when things were a little rough for the family is bake a big batch of cookies or cook an incredibly large meal for all of us.  So that was my motivation behind the cookies. 

I was at my parent's house baking them, I had some really good music on and I could almost feel grandma there beside me, inspiring and helping me.  One of the things she was really good at was mixing things up a little in a recipe, so in the cookie batch I put a couple of dallops of sour cream and a little extra flour, and they turned out so moist. 

When I got ready to make the frosting, I realized that my parents had no milk, (which the recipe called for) so being inspired by grandma's style, I found a can of Reddi-whip (that's kinda like milk right?) and I mixed with Cream cheese and vanilla, melted them together, whipped it and drizzled it on the cookies!

They turned out really good and the best thing I got to do is give them away so I could put some smiles on some very important people just like grandma.  Thanks Grandma and Andrea!

Crazy Cat Lady

Yes, It's true, I have officially become a crazy cat lady.

Sitting at home last Sunday vegetating under a snuggly blanket, I got up and wadded my blanket on the couch. When I came to sit back down, Mr. Whiskers had decided to take a nap on the blanket. So he was all curled up with a little ball of yarn I made for him (which he loves)...

so yes, I actually took time out of my day to make a ball of yarn for my cat, I let him take the blanket and Yes, I take pictures.

Giving me the evil eye. "When is this crazy lady going to stop interrupting my cat naps?"

But who could resist such cuteness?

VALDEZ

So the question is: To cry or not to cry...


Things here at Cabinetrends (our cabinet showroom) have been a little slow as of late, so I decided to go into my "clean sweep" mode. Over the years there has been a massive amount of samples, thousands of brochures, and other random supplies that have been compiled into every nook and cranny in this place.



So after spending DAYS cleaning, throwing out and organizing all of these items I was on the verge of my crowning moment in this process by finding a logical way of organizing brochures and then...CRASH! In slow motion all of those brochures exploded on to the ground as I was moving my brilliant organizing system.



Thus confirming the appropriateness of a nickname that my brothers have for me: Major Valdez - yes because I have a tendency to spill things.

Ladies you know those moments where you are on the brink and you have a choice to laugh or cry. Well...

I chose to laugh!

My hometown

Many of you know that I have been a lot of places and there is beauty in all of them, but I have to say that there is nothing in the world like coming home, flying over Mt. Rainier, the Puget Sound and Seattle.

(at the seattle center)

There's nowhere in the world like it - so many colors, sights and sounds. Where else can you find mountains, water, forests, and such a great city in the same place?!!

The beautiful Puget Sound!

So last spring I took a photography class (which I loved...) Today I came across some of those pictures and thought that I would share some of my favorite pics in honor of my hometown. :)

The beautiful Bellevue Botanical Gardens in the spring!

Cherry Blossoms at Mom and Dad's house!

The Space Needle

Only a few of the sights of our great city! Go Seattle!

The Big FANTASTIC

On Wednesday, Papa Steve, Grandma Carolyn and I got the privilege of taking the little girls to the fair and it was a wild ride to be sure! We started out with the Cotton Candy which they weren't particularly impressed with.

Then we attempted to go look at the animals. Pearson did the best with not being afraid of them and the camel was fascinating and scary...

Then we moved on to the rides which they enjoyed... although they kept trying to cut in line which was tortorous for them.


I love this picture of Pearson and Heidi. Pearson had a difficult time keeping her shoes on. during the boat ride she kept dangling them over the edge, as if to threaten to throw them at any time. I'm not sure what Heidi was thinking...

My particular favorite was the "carriage" ride. It was a train that Kyla and I decided was a carriage that would take us to our prince charming. We waved to all the people passing by which she was very into. :)

Then we moved on to the eating portion of the day which of course concluded with Icecream.


It was an unforgettable and wonderful day of memories!