Hoppy New Year!

Wishing all our friends, old and new, a safe and "hoppy" New Year!!

Blessings and love, Cassie & Patrick

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A to Z Mondays ~ The Letter B

BOOTS!!!

I love footwear of any kind, but I did not realize that I own 10 pair of boots until deciding to take these pics! Yikes! And the crazy thing is I wear (most of ) them quite frequently once the weather turns cold. I’ll wear my fuzzy Uggs in the car trip back to Phoenix then stow them away until we return to farrr North Idaho. (Unlike some of the movie stars I don’t wear them with shorts when the temperature is in the 90’s.) The grey and purple hiking boots are my oldest and have gotten tons of use over the past 15 years. Jessica & I purchased matching hiking boots for our first trip to Glacier National Park in NW Montana. Yes, faithful old boots they are…pretty comfortable too.

For more B words go see buddy Jen. Have a good week all.

love, Cassie

Merry Christmas Day!

Patrick drove me down to the visitors center to post this. He's out walking Hootie now while I try to get this done with Baby Rocket Dog breathing down my neck! We had a lovely Christmas. Went to 11pm Christmas Eve service with our friend Marilyn, and got home around 1230a.m."ish". The service was different from any candlelight services I have ever attended. Our pastor is a real evangelist and explained why we all need a saviour and why God had to send His only Son. Quite powerful. Four people asked to have Christ as their Lord and Saviour. Wow!! I do wish we had sung a few more Christmas carols though. We made up for it at home though, as I've played Christmas cd's for the past 2 weeks.

Had a leisurely brunch of (blog friend Carolyn's) Savory Incredible Pie, bagels and our homemade huckleberry jam. Yum. After I cleaned up the dishes I lite the final candle on our Advent wreath and Patrick read from God's Word. I'm glad I took some photos of him reading. Doesn't he look handsome?

After that, we played a lo00nnng game of Scrabble and Patrick creamed me. 229 to ... not even gonna tell you my score. The fire roared and I'm thinking we better head back home now to get warmed up again. It's about 20 degrees F. right now.

Merry Christmas to all my friends, old and new. Jesus is the reason for the season. What an awesome God we have!!

love, Cassie

A to Z Mondays ~ The Letter C

Cat. Cat in Hat. (middle photo)

Cool Christmas Cats. Cats in Hats.

You can click on the photo to enlarge. The Cat Hatter's email and phone# can then be seen.

Go see Jen for more A to Z blogs!

Have a great Christmas week. Relax a bit each day and maybe take a little nap. Don’t forget to stop and smell the flowers…even if they’re frozen! Best of all, remember why God sent His Son to Earth. Our perfect Saviour for our imperfect selves. Amazing!!

much love, Cassie

PS-Chuck, my 11 year old cat is no longer with us, but I still enjoy looking at his photos. Hope you do too. (He was a miserable fellow, but I loved him.)

A to Z ~ The letter D for Daughter---Happy Birthday Dear Jessica!!

Jessica in her kitchen. (Cake above by Amanda, Anika's mommy. Nice job!)

Jessica and (other) Jessica.

Jessica and friend.My sweetie, Patrick.

Jessica and friends.

Food.

Food.

And more food.

Hi Patrick! I love you!

David and Eli.

Friend Matt and his baby, Anika (3mos. old).

Jessica and David being adorable! Me looking like Mrs. Santa Claus. (note to self:LOOSE WEIGHT!) Jessica and Patrick looking adorable! Patrick, the 2 dogs, and I surprised Jessica by coming to Seattle for her 29th birthday. Her sweet hubby, David, helped us set up the logistics of the surprise. (We stayed at the Red Lion Inn in Bellevue, Washington, which allows, even welcomes, pets!) So, Saturday morning (after a 9 hour drive the day before) we met David at JoeBar in Seattle and waited to surprise our sweet Jessica. She was SO surprised. Mission accomplished! Saturday night they had a party (theme "Back in Black") at their apartment for her and Pat and I attended. Now we're packing up the car and getting ready to drive back to farrr North Idaho. We love you Jessica!!! ps-I may be a bit late with my A to Z post this week.

Sorry For The Public Outburst...

As my daughter told me on the phone last night, I shouldn't blog when upset, 'cuz I can't take it back. She could tell I wasn't myself (then who was I??). Sorry for the little outburst and display of ingratitude on that last post. I don't really hate Phoenix, I just like the woods and country a whole lot more. (I have to say though the motor scooter I do NOT like.) As Lynn and several others said in their comments, I do have so much to be grateful for. Especially that Pat wasn't in the car when the tree fell over. Yes, we have auto insurance though I think our HOA insurance should be who covers it. Either way, we pay for it. I was still "stewing" last night when Jess called and I asked her to pray for my attitude. I'm still a bit cranky, so I'll ask anybody out there who prays to send one up for me to be sweet and kind and not so depressed. God is good all the time --- I guess I need to be reminded when I'm in the spoiled child mode. Thanks.

love, Cassie

ps-Patrick gets into Spokane on Friday. Yippeee!!

What a Revoltin' Developement This Is...

Remember that stupid song from HeeHaw "If It Weren't For Bad Luck I'd Have No Luck At All"?

Well, this is our little Ford at the condo down in Phoenix. Seems they had a storm last night and Patrick didn't put it in the garage because he says he was cleaning the garage up. His stupid motor scooter (which is a death trap and I hate it) was in the garage but not the Ford ... Yes folks... I hate Phoenix and this is just one more thing to tick me off. I Soooooo don't want to go back there in Jan.

Oh well. Got this off my chest. Thanks for letting me vent. Happy Tuesday, what's left of it.

A to Z Mondays ~ The Letter E

The Letter E.

Elves.

Yup, farrr North Idaho is the hideout for a band of Elves. Apparently one of these Elves broke into our cabin while I was asleep and talked the dogs into having a party. They chewed on a few Christmas CD covers, ate a couple cubes of butter, drank a few brewskies, noshed on some of my firewood and generally messed up the cabin. These photos taken by a hidden camera are the only proof that this behaviour was encouraged by an Elf! Here we thought the pooches thought up this mischief all by themselves---the truth is it was Elves!!

Go on over to Jen’s for more Exciting E words!

Have a great week.

love, Cassie

PS - Our High temp today is supposed to be 14 degrees F. Yikes!!

I have soooo much other stuff to blog to you about now. A few photos from the Turkey Trot and all about how I helped the wardrobe mistress at The Nutcracker Ballet on Saturday. But I'm FFfffffreezing out here in the car and must go home and build a fire!!

A to Z Mondays ~ The Letter F

The letter F.

Finally I Found a letter I can call my Favorite ‘cuz I know several F words that tickle my Fancy!

On Saturday I carried 100 pieces of Firewood from our woodshed to our deck. Phew was I aching after that. Our highs have been in the 30’s (F) so I usually have a Fire going at night. My Fireplace is a BIS (from Canada) and is very efficient.

I might have mentioned this before. I love Fire. I’m the expert Fire-starter at our cabin. I know the best way to “build” the kindling to have a perfect Fire every time. Not bragging Folks, just stating the Facts! To build a Fire I like to use a stick or two of Fatwood. Fatwood is the wood from tree stumps that has concentrated sap, so ignites pronto. I usually buy mine from L.L.Bean. I also always make sure to have a charged Fire extinguisher near the Fireplace. That’s prudent, even though I’ve never needed to use one. We also keep a Bible on our Fireplace hearth…God’s word is also a Fire extinguisher of sorts, if you get my meaning here. Anywhooo, we also have these cool little green sticks that when put in a Fire they make the prettiest colors. They have some chemical on them (that Friends will probably Find out was the eventual cause of our croaking!!). Along with the Fotos of all my F words I’m also showing one of my ceramic Fireplace door. Now, I really do love to clean out the ashes each day, but cleaning the door is a real pain in the butt. I have this spray stuff called Stove and Hearth Cleaner that is a help, but sometimes that black stuff is so baked on I need to really to use a powerful arm. You can’t use anything abrasive on it, due to the type of ceramic glass. Well, you get the picture…I do the door about every Five days of burning.

Okay, enough about my Fire related chores. For more A to Z bloggers let your Fingers do the walking on over to Jen’s blog. Have a good week friends!

love, Cassie

Happy Thanksgiving All!

Psalm 100:4-5 4 Enter His gates with thanksgiving; go into His courts with praise.

Give thanks to Him and praise His name. 5 For the Lord is good.

His unfailing love continues forever, and

His faithfulness continues to each generation. Psalm 100:4-5 (NLT)

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” George Washington

Happy Thanksgiving to all who pass this way!

Patrick is in Arizona and will have Thanksgiving with Mom and Dad Phillips, Uncle Deo and Aunt Mary and his sisters and cousins and all their families. They'll have their usual huge gathering, very informal, and filled with lots of love. I'll do the Turkey Trot (our little town's first) with a few gal buddies, then my friend Marilyn and I plan to take each other out to a nice lunch. I'll miss Patrick, but have found I can be thankful by myself or in an intimate setting much easier than in a crowd (just for the sake of being around people)! We have much to be thankful for and all praise goes to God for His many blessings. I'll try to get a few photos of the Turkey Trot to post here.

Love, love, love to you all, & Abundant Blessings,

Cassie

A to Z Mondays ~ The Letter G

The Letter G.

Garrison…as in Garrison Keillor of A Prairie Home Companion fame. Garrison created A Prairie Home Companion which I try to listen to every weekend. It’s on National Public Radio on Saturday and then repeated again on Sunday evening. The 2 hour show goes by so quickly that I’m always disappointed when it’s over. Garrison’s show has a little bit of everything. All different types of music: country, bluegrass, occasional classical, just about every kind! This week he had an artist on Nellie McKay from Great Britain who was really good. She said Doris Day was her idol…but she actually had a way better voice than Doris.

(If you click on Nellie's picture it'll take you to her website.)

Garrison plays several parts on his show, my favorite being Guy Noir, Private Eye. There is so much tongue in cheek and corny humor, but I sure do enjoy it. I have always loved radio shows like this because they allow a person to stretch the imagination. When I was a young girl there was a radio show called Radio Mystery Theatre that I used to love to listen to. Golly, I’m rambling. Gonna go now. If you get a chance, listen to Garrison’s show sometime. Let me know what you think of it.

Thanks Garrison Keillor for the many hours of listen pleasure you have afforded me!

Jen, the genius behind A to Z Mondays, has a list of other A to Z bloggers on her sidebar. Go on over to check ‘em out! Have a great day.

love, Cassie

Another H ~ HERO

Had to add this P.S. to my previous A to Z post: I just checked my e-mail and there was this article taken from The Pulse:

UBS chooses Pat Phillips for Hero campaign

You might recognize the face on the United Blood Services bus. It belongs to Pat Phillips, Digital Control Specialist, Agua Fria Generating Station.

Phillips is a dedicated blood donor who began giving blood when he was in the Army. When he joined SRP he kept giving and now is nearing the 20-gallon mark. In addition to whole blood, Phillips donates platelets which are used in large quantities and over extended periods of time by patients with leukemia, cancer, aplastic anemia and marrow transplants.

It takes longer to donate platelets – about 1 ½ to 2 hours, as compared to a whole blood donation which takes about 30 minutes.

“The slight discomfort and time required pales in comparison to the good it accomplishes for those in need. I like to think that I’ve been able to help save many lives through my participation,” Phillips said.

As a committed donor, Phillips’ name came up when United Blood Services decided to wrap their mobile-donation buses with images of top donors as part of the “Hero” campaign.

“Pat is part of a very small donor base – the people who donate platelets. Platelet donors can contribute more often and so far this year Pat has made 10 platelet donations and two whole blood donations,” said Carla Fields, Director Donor Recruitment for United Blood Services of Arizona.

Earlier this year, five buses were wrapped and the one with Phillips face has been traveling to various sites around Arizona, including Agua Fria Generating Station where he works.

OOooooooo-Oooooooo my H-E-R-O!!!

A to Z Mondays ~ The Letter H

HEART!!

Isn't the heart a miraculous muscle??

Patrick holds my heart in his hand.

And of course, you all know that Jesus holds the key to my heart!

To finish my heart post off here's a clip from a really fun old musical called Damn Yankees. My parents saw the original on Broadway so us kids got to listen to the record from the show as youngsters, so we knew all the songs. You Gotta Have Heart was one of my favorites (I regret that the coach in this clip takes God's name in vain, and apologize for it. I doubt that the original play did that.)

Have a great Monday and don't forget to go visit Jen's blog for more A to Z bloggers. Love and blessings to all who read this blog! Cassie

A to Z Mondays ~ The Letter I

The letter I.

ILSA.

Ilsa is originally from the Rhineland of Germany. She has the cutest little accent that she never lost after many years living in the USA. Everybody in her city in Montana seems to know her, as she is probably one of the friendliest people in existence! We try to visit Ilse at least once a year. Oh, and Ilse is also the BEST cook I know. She has the gift of hospitality and loves to make people feel welcomed...she can lay out a spread on the table to make Martha Stewart jealous...and she does it without any to-do. Amazing woman.

Ilsa is one of my dearest friends in the whole world. She is like a second mother to me...only nicer! Jessica and I met Ilsa about 15 years ago while fly fishing on a river in Montana. Ilsa was walking her dogs at the time and we struck up a conversation. The rest is history. She has taught me so many things. LIKE: How to keep my Revere Ware copper bottoms shiny at all times. How to keep my linens smelling sweet in the closet. She taught me how to make yummy huckleberry jam. I just love the lady! So, my one and only "I" is Ilse.

For more I's go see Jen's blog. Have a good week.

love, Cassie