And Snow, And Snow, And Snow!!

Okay, I got more than I wished for. The biggest snow fall & record low temps for the area! I successfully picked Patrick up at the airport on Friday...4 hours for a 2 1/2 hour drive. Look up Spokane,WA for the weather report. Amazing. God granted us a safe journey and I even had my 2 pooches when we picked "Daddy" up at the Spokane Airport. They were very well behaved (for a change??). Jessica and David made it in from Seattle last evening---that took them about 9 1/2 hours compared to normally 6 1/2 hours, and Jessica drove the whole way!! She's quite a gal. Right now they are out snowshoeing with the dogs. I'll post pics later...gotta get back up to the cabin and ice some cookies, as well as wrap some gifts. Yes, last minute, but I've had the gifts for several weeks. Jen, the salvation bracelet arrived today. Yippee! LOVE it and I'm sure Jess will too. MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL MY DEAR FRIENDS WHO READ THIS. BTW, I figured something out the other day as I was writing the word Christmas on a package: The first 6 letters spell Christ, this we all know, but the last 3 spell "mas", which means "more" in Spanish. So, lets all celebrate MORE CHRIST this year and in the years to come!! Love you guys, Always, Cassie

Let It Snow

Here are a few more shots of my decorations. I LOVE my Hallmark Tappers (in video). Each morning and sometimes during the day I press a button & tap with them. I bet Daisy (of Dancing With Daisy) would also love these little guys. Finally got some good snow! It is 8 below at the cabin right now. Brrrrrrr. Snowed around 15inches yesterday. You can see the difference in a few hours by the amount of snow gathered on the owls head. It's getting really cold out here in the Jeep right now, so I'm gonna sign off. Blessings to all who read this. love, Cassie

Odds ‘n Ends

Since she has established her alpha dog status, Baby Rocket Dog always ‘calls’ shotgun when we go for a ride in the car. Poor little Hootie only gets the coveted seat when he’s my only passenger. He has wheedled his way up there next to her, but she prefers to have that seat all to herself.

Patrick has spent about $100 at the US Post Office so far shipping Christmas “stuff” to me up here in farrrrr N. Idaho.

They keep threatening 2-3” of snow up here, but so far this December all we’ve gotten (on my hill) hits the ground and melts. LOTS of muddy paw prints on the deck and if I don’t wipe the pups paws at the door, what a mess they make inside. Sure glad I opted for porcelain tiles floors instead of carpeting! Oh yea, the mountains all around us are covered in the fluffy white stuff. Schweitzer should open for skiing in a few weeks.

Went out to pick up some cool shoehorns from a couple at Perkins Lake this afternoon and they had LOTS of snow all over the road. It’s 14 miles out. We have 40degrees today and Mr. Sun is shining down on us….they didn’t have a ray, not a ray of sunshine out at Perkins Lake Road!

Papa Byrd’s Bistro has the BEST chef in the Inland Northwest. If you every get to farrrr north Idaho it is a must stop. I try to stop in & get the yummy homemade soup at least every few weeks. It’s not your run of the mill stuff. It is out of this world….ie: red pepper tomato or butternut squash jalapeno. Out of this world delish!!

Papa Byrd's Bistro dining room is all dolled up for Christmas. These are the owners of Papa Byrd's. They are an uncle & niece and Papa Byrd was her dad who passed away.

PHILLIPS ' SMILING MOOSE POINT

We have decided on the name for our place finally. We are now officially known as SMILING MOOSE POINT. The smiles come in because we don’t do any hunting here…I like to think of it as a sort of refuge for critters in hunting season! (I am not anti-hunting, folks…just not at our place.) And the point is because our cabin is situated in the side of a hill. You all know we get plenty of moose on our little 10 ac. piece of paradise, so that’s fitting. I really like the name better than [Dead] Grouse Point and we have tons of moose paraphernalia around the cabin. Daughter Jessica even made us a plaque around 10 years ago for outside the then non-existent door which is adorned with two moose! And, my sweet grandson, Leslie Andrew, gave me a little stool when he was 6 yrs. old, with a Christmas moose on it. (His mother said he picked it out himself at WalMart and insisted that he must buy it for Grammy.) I guess all the moose postcards I sent him paid off ;<). Anywho, welcome to Smiling Moose Point, now go home!! You've seen this guy before, but now he has his snowflakes on!

This picture hangs in our dining/kitchen area. My neighbor Denise is the photographer and she snapped our little moose cow while she was wandering in our woods at the cabin. (photo copyrighted and copied by permission only)

This is the stool Leslie Andrew got for Grammy for Christmas 2005. I just love him so much! Miss you Andy-boy.

The plaque also holds our door bell, which is portable, so I can unplug it at will. he he he.

OUR TREE & MY 8 ORNAMENTS FOR DECEMBER 8th

On Dec. 3rd I picked out a pretty little Frasier Pine Christmas Tree at Boundary Trading Co. but had no way to get it to the cabin and cut the ½ inch from the bottom before placing it in the stand. I didn’t purchase it, for that reason. Well, I stopped at Shelman Realty where Jeff (the fellow who sold us our property and also a member of the Mennonite church we attend up here) is a salesman. I knew he had 6 kids and the eldest, Scott, looked old enough to drive, so I thought maybe I could get him to have Scott pick up my tree & make the cut for me sometime soon. Jeff said he was heading home to eat lunch & then run down to Sandpoint, but if I wanted, he would take it to our place for me…no need to go back up with him. When I got home, there was the tree right next to the door, with the ½ inch cut off. It was then a snap for me to chop off the bottom branches and get it in the stand. What I didn’t know until Sunday, was that the Mennonites (that wear the hair coverings) don’t put up Christmas trees! That made Jeff’s act of kindness extra nice in my eyes. I am surely blessed to have found such kind friends in the Lord. (He also makes a mean BBQ chicken!) Thank you Jeff!

The first picture here is of the tree after I put on the lights, but without any other trim.

Okay, blogger extraordinaire Jen of http://www.unglazed.blogspot.com/ has put out the challenge for all to make a list on December 8th to show 8 of our Christmas Tree Ornaments.

They are:

1. My Favorite

2. The Oldest

3. The Funniest

4. Most Memorable

5. The Ugliest

6. The Reddest

7. The Greenest

8. The Tree Topper

I had a hard time picking my favorite, because I really like all of my ornaments. Because of my difficulty in choosing, I have decided to show pictures of my other favorites in the next couple of days. So many have special meaning to me (like my bud, Maria, made me an ornament to honor the Americans killed by the terrorists on 9-11, as a forever reminder) so I really need to devote yet another day to special ornaments.

As for now, here are my first 8 picks:

1-I'll state the obvious reason: It conveys the the true meaning of Christmas.

2-This little plastic globe with the angel with outstretched wings was on the tree when I was a baby in our home. My parents put all plastic ornaments at the bottom of the tree so us babies wouldn't get hurt. I think it might be the soul survivor.

3-This funny little clothespin snowman was made by my little daughter Jessica Rose when she was in Kindergarten. I guess this must have been when I began collecting snowmen. Isn't he sweet?

4-I chose these 4 (Eenie,Meenie,Minie & Moe) as most memorable because Jessica got them for me a few years ago and I thought it was pretty cool that she still adds to my snowman collection.

5-This ugly thing was actually once quite lovely.It was an ornament made by my Secret Santa (Linda Stehlik) my freshman year in college.She crafted it from glass from Old Main, which was torn down the beginning of 1968.Ugly & cool at the same time,right?

6-Red!

7-Green!(looks blue in the picture though)

8-And my snow angel tree topper. My sweetie got that for me about 10 years ago, knowing my love all things snowman!

And here is the finished tree! I just love it. I was so filled with joy as I trimmed it and listened to Christmas music, thinking of the greatest gift of all: Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior. Many blessings to all my friends. My wish for you is to know our Lord's love this season of hope & always. love, Cassie

Sweet Potato Pie

Saw this video on Daisy's blog, http://www.dancingwithdaisy.blogspot.com/ . It is one of my favorite James Taylor songs and has very special meaning for me, so I wanted to share it with you. So, you can check out either link by just clicking on them here. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wh60VmEOpCU

Thanksgiving At Hawks Landing

This is John Schrom, the master of the house & me after eatting the yummy meal.

John is cutting the bird & Julia,the lady of the manse, is sitting & waiting to be served!!

Ian's pup and my old pal Mateo Schrom.

Food, glorious food!

I had Thanksgiving at John & Julia's this year as Patrick was in Phoenix celebrating with his clan. We didn't want to spend turkey/praise day apart, but I messed up his flight rez and he had to go back on Monday. It was sad being apart, but at least we were both in good company. Julia and John had 'their' boys there. David's whole family came in from Oregon and Mickey's mom and dad were also there. Mickey's mom,Nancy, prepared the meal and she taught the boys to make homemade (FROM SCRATCH) crescents. The meal was fab. Turns out that Nancy is a professional chef and renowned! Yum, yum,yum.

The pics at the top are John and Julia. The rest are a mix of shots: Marule, Hava the pup with Matteo, David's fam playing UNO, The famous chef Nancy with J&J, The lovely table that Justin set, me in my new Norwegian jacket.

There were little qq cards under each of our bread plates and we had to read them and then answer. Mine was "If you could hang a saying on the wall of every house in the world, what would it be?" Well, I was abiding by the old saying not to discuss religion, politics or sex, so I said,"I have a first choice, but I'm not going to say it (Jesus Is Lord) so I will tell you my second choice." The Abe Lincoln saying about being the best one(see the KVMC picture). Well, then when other people went, they started talking about being happy for "change" and "getting goosebumps when Barack said his acceptance speech", etc, and I was thinking....I should have told them my first choice, if they were going to be bringing politics into it it looked like I really should have brought the Lord into it!! Oh well, shoulda,woulda,coulda. I said that I must be the only Republican in the room and Julia said they loved me anyway.....well, I love you anyway too Jules!! he he.

Oh I almost forgot: Hootie and Baby were left in the cabin alone and when I got home there was a pile of feathers on the floor. It wasn't my stuffed grouse, but they somehow got my good duster down and destroyed it. They both looked guilty. Bad dogs.

I'm grateful for my friends and family and yes, dogs. I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. God bless you richly. love, Cassie

Happy Thanksgiving!

God bless you and keep you and have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone! love, Cassie

KVMC School Sale

On Saturday Patrick & I went to the annual Kootenai Valley Mennonite Church School Sale. All items are donated by folks who attend the church and each year there are new and different crafts and furniture. (I made 4 sock monkeys & a little sock boy for the sale. I was excited to see that they sold quickly.) We sure look forward to attending this sale every year not only to look at & buy cool handmade items, but also for the yummy pies and other goodies. It’s also a good place to visit with friends since breakfast and lunch are available (for a very reasonable price) and there is plenty of seating in the cafeteria. I didn’t think to bring my camera until several hours after the sale opened, so missed out on pictures of some fabulous bookshelves, a full bedroom suite and tables full of pies, breads and jams. Outside some men were making apple butter in a large caldron --- which takes hours of stirring. AND, there were free buggy rides too! I went for a buggy ride while Patrick took Baby Rocket Dog out of the car for a little walk.

Patrick & I drove around to all the different craft sales going on. Then, we went home and left off Baby and picked up Hootie and hiked around the State forrest to look for a Christmas tree. No luck there. I want a fluffy tree like a Doug Fir or Blue Spruce, so will probably end up buying one.

The 2 pictures at the top here are of Hootie & me at Smith Lake.It's state forrest land.

Freedom Isn't Free

(This post is a day late, as the network was down.)

Today is Veteran’s Day. Just want to say thank you to all the men & women in uniform past, present and future. The mostly unsung heroes of our nation. The USA (& countless other nations!) owe you a huge debt of gratitude.

These pictures are from the ceremony held here in our little town. As I was watching the soldiers and sailor standing there, unflinching, in the pouring rain all I could think of was this is a piece of cake for them….Nothing compared to the hardships they’ve endured for us while defending our freedoms.

I had never witnessed the formal ceremony performed by the VFW for burning the old and tattered flags. It was really quite touching. Long may Old Glory wave! God bless America and our armed services.

Now go kiss a soldier, airman, sailor, marine or coastguardsman! (I’m saving my kisses for you, Patrick, so extras when I see you on Saturday.)