Disney Marathon

Gordon and I flew down to sunny, warm sleeting, freezing Florida to see Venita and family and to be volunteers at Disney World's Half Marathon on Saturday morning! We got up at 3:30am to get there by 4:30am. We were at water station #6 :o) There were 17,102 finishers on our race! WOW!
Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera, so Venita took a picture of us volunteers after the event. Venita came down with the flu so she didn't feel well enough to go with us :o( I was so sad for her. It was because of her efforts that we were all signed up for the event! There was Sarah, Tim, Gordon and I. We were layered up to the gills! I had on a sweater, fleece jacket, ski coat, plus the wind breaker and a rain poncho they gave us. It was COLD! What ever happened to going to Florida in the winter to get away from the cold up north?


Gordon and I each came down with the flu too! I got sick Sunday morning and Gordon got sick Monday morning....ugh! But we still managed to have a good time :o)

The missionaries came for dinner Monday night. I took some dipping chocolate with us, so we had a great dessert of dipping all kinds of goodies into dark Belgium chocolate....yuummm!

Thanks Venita and Tim for a good time :o) Next year, same time?....but with warmer weather please?

A Beekeepers Soap

Yes - we did it! We made soap yesterday! And it even turned out :o) Gordon made soap way back when in chemistry class, and I know that Melissa has done this type of thing for a job. So for them this is easy-peasy :o) But it is all new to me and WAY fun to boot!

Here are our supplies all set up.

I am measuring out the specialty oils and fats. Our recipe includes beeswax and honey from Gordon's honeybees :o)
These are the molds that Gordon made from wood and we lined with wax paper.

Here is Gordon stirring the Lye very carefully outside where it is freezing!

We have combine the melted oils and fats with the lye and I am mixing it with a hand blender being careful not to fling the mixture about.


Me in my protective gear! (have to be cautious with the lye) I look like something from a sci-fi movie!

This is near the end when it is thickening up (reaching 'trace') and I am finishing it with a wire whisk. (it's gone through saponification! I am learning all kinds of new words....be impressed....cause I am!)

It's been poured into the molds and we tried to even it out with a spatula.

We cover them with their lids and then wrap them up in a blanket for 24 hours.

Gordon just removed them from the molds.

Now they are cut into something of a bar!
Now we let it cure for 2-4 weeks. We'll keep you posted :o)

A Geogia Christmas

We got back New Year's Eve from spending a week with Levi, Jenny, and Sydney down in Georgia. We had a great Christmas and a great time with family! Here are a few pictures showing what we did......We popped some poppers that Jennifer sent us and these are the cool crowns that were inside!
We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner with a Honey Baked Ham that Jenny had to go to the store twice before they would sell to her......who knew you had to have an appointment to buy a ham??

Gordon's excited about dinner :o)

Sydney opening her stocking....

Sydney showing off the apron that I embroidered for her

Sydney opening a gift that is bigger than she is!

Barbie riding her scooter....Levi wants one just like it...color and all :o) (yea...right!)

I got a Wii for Christmas and we all had fun playing.
Sydney won the 'Most Improved Player'. This is her bowling stance!Sunday after church with Grandpa
Sydney baked and decorated these little goodies for us.The little Kitty was one of her favorite gifts...it was so cute. It would meow, purrr, open and close it's eyes and stretch out. Oh no....I can't remember it's name :o( It went everywhere we went!

We went to the Coka Cola Factory Museum in Atlanta. Boy, what a crowd there was! It was fun though.It was COLD outside! We had to wait in line to get in. Almost felt like waiting in line at Disney!

Here's the Coke Bear...he was quite cute and fun to watch. Look at his different facial expressions. We didn't get in the line for our picture with him...too long.I just liked this art piece!

I didn't realize that Coke got it's start in Atlanta. The museum was quite fascinating and seeing the memoriabilia was fun.

The BEST part was at the end where they we could test a lot of their different drinks that they offer from around the world. Each stand was of a different continent. There were some very nasty tasting ones and lots of very yummy tasting ones. Jennifer...the one from Honduras was one of the more yummy ones! By the time we left this area, we were pretty sick of soda!
Afterwards, we went to the American Girl Doll store north of Atlanta. Sydney was in little girl heaven!Even Gordon had a good time at the store :o)Sydney had some Christmas money and chose one of the twin dolls....and I can't believe I didn't get a picture of her with her doll!!! Levi will have to send me one of his pictures so that I can post it here.

Have I kept you in suspense long enough about Sydney's big gift? She got a key board! They set it up in her bedroom next to her bed. I showed her how it would play a song, so she would play along with it and when it finished she looked at me and said "I play good, don't I?"

Oh I have to tell you another Sydneyism....we were sitting at the table for breakfast after opening our gifts. I don't remember what the conversation was about exactly but Sydney turned to Jenny and said "All you have to do is give Santa a call on his Cell Phone!!"