R is for Ronnebeck!

In all of the commotion between the parade and the two flat tires I completley forgot to blog about Thanksgiving... or should I say The 4th Annual Oleson/Ronnebeck Thanksgiving Day Spectacular, as we refer to it. Tim, Kat, Eric and I are all "Orphans" to the Pacific Northwest, meaning we have lots of friends, but not really any family to spend holidays with. So we began making Thanksgiving dinner together, which usually means Eric does Turkey, I do pies and Tim and Kat provide side dishes, wine and a table for us to eat on. This year was as relaxing and as wonderful as the last and it's such a blessing to have friends like Tim and Kat to spend holidays with. And of course a few of my favorite shots from the day... Cosmo and Seven just waiting for something to fall... something... anything... Aquaman and I in all of our festiveness... We normally play trivia but this year we played TRAINS!!!! It was a blast, Eric and I can't wait to buy our own game! And my furry li

Every year going to work the day after thanksgiving I run into people setting up chairs for the parade. I never thought I would ever be one of those people but something in me made me want to go this year. Maybe it's because I had the day off work, or maybe it's just because it's a new experience . Katherine was nice enough to go with me, and she was even pretty excited for it too! We went downtown at 6am or so, and got some Starbucks breakfast and coffee and then went and sat on the curb on 4 th ave waiting for the parade to start. the Parade started promptly at 9:15 and we were able to catch the 11:20 bus home. It was such a long morning. I really enjoyed every second. It was so full of Christmas joy and fun marching bands. There's really not much to write about it because it was such a typical parade, but it was so huge and so long! After the parade we went into Macy's and dropped off our letters to Santa, Macy's donates a dollar for every letter to the Mak

For now, here's the link to all of the pictures to the parade that Katherine and I braved on Friday. The parade is on the day after Thanksgiving every year, and I'll write more about it and post more about it in a little bit, but for now.... CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS. It's my facebook album. Love, Abby

Eric is a trivia nut. He's really good at it and for the past 3 months or so he's been doing trivia night at the Ram on Wednesday nights with some friends. Tonight is the first night ever that I was able to join the gang for trivia so we went down and had a nice supper at the ram, drank some beer (not a lot, one glass), and lost (miserably) at trivia we went out to our car to go home. It was late, rainy, I was tired, and we were in a hurry to get to our turkey in preparation for tomorrow. We turned the corner and hit a curb, hard. We drove another 25 feet and realized our tire was for sure flat, so we pulled into a parking lot on the side of the Ram and I immediatly called Tim so they didn't leave in case we needed help (they were at trivia too). We got out of the car and realized that we not only popped one tire, but both of the tires on the pasenger side. So as the rain continued to fall on us, and one frantic voicemail later, Eric was on the phone to Geico, Tim and I we

Indeed... Happy Thanksgiving

I promise to try to not get too sappy in this post, but my emotions are abnormally high this time of year (lucky Eric). As much as I love living in Seattle, I hate that I just can’t drive over to my family’s house for Thanksgiving Day; and I often feel the tinge of homesickness starting Wednesday morning/afternoon ( ish ). I will keep this short, sweet and because of who I am… Include pictures, which will make me smile, and hopefully you will enjoy. In short...I'm Thankful for... This guy... who humors me more and more every day, and loves me unconditionally. These amazing People... for all the support and love My Mommy..... Can't put into words how grateful I am for her... Yep, even this guy... who hates pictures! My Sissy, for being 12 together... infinitely . This one... for being my little girl! These three... this picture says enough... and these two spectacular gals... I am thankful in so many ways for so many things... Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't imagine a better way to spend a Saturday night. Eric and I drove up to Capital Hill in Seattle this evening to take in some Soul Food and a Play. I had bought tickets on Thursday to support my co-worker Alex and go see this play his theater company THE SATORI GROUP was putting on. I asked Alex a lot about the area around The Little Theater where the play was, to see if it was somewhere Eric and I could grab a bite to eat before the play. He recommended King Fish Cafe for some Soul Food. Eric has been wanting to eat Soul Food for as long as I've known him, and so I knew it would be the perfect appetizer for the play. We were immediately seated and within 15 minutes of being there, it was standing room only people were waiting for tables. We walked in at just the right time. We ordered Fried Green Tomato's and hush puppies for an appetizer , I don't really like tomato's but I ate my fair share of the appetizer, they were delicious. Then Eric ordered a se

What am I thankful for today? I get to go get a massage at 5:30 you bet I’m thankful! Oh and many other things too! I am so glad that the end of the week is almost here. I got about 10 hours of sleep last night so I’m about ready to jitter straight out of my chair I feel so good. Of course the couple cups of coffee didn’t help one bit … right? I don’t really have much to blog about but I kind of feel like typing I guess maybe just to keep my fingers busy. So here it comes, a list of things that make me smile today… and some of them make me smile, every day! ♥ Relay for life – I’m getting so excited to establish my team and be part of that community, I get all woozy just thinking about it! Also, my Relay Tote should be coming in the mail in the next couple weeks as an incentive for the money I raised last year! Woot! ♥ My job – I seriously love my job. ♥ A Happy Momma. She’s fighting so hard, and keeping a smile on her face, I admire that so much, Last chemo was this week! WOOT! ♥ A sl

When I was a little kid I remembered sitting down at the dining room table with my Mom and help her stuff, address and stamp the hundreds of Christmas Cards that we sent out as a family every year. It was always fun to get as many in the mail box as we sent out, and sometimes more, making a mental note to add that person to our card list for next year, As an adult I’ ve always struggled with Christmas Cards. I really love giving and receiving them and know that it’s my time to send a card just to tell someone I love them and to wish them well. But Christmas Cards have gotten so much more complicated since I was a kid and I now I never know what to send… I don’t want my friends and relatives thinking the following… “Oh God, they wrote a letter”. I have my mind filled with things that I’m just dying to pour out on to the page; though I pause to think does anyone read it? Does anyone care? Don’t they hear enough from me on my blog? Then I think about how much I like to read other peopl

I don't know what has come over me, I never in the past have ever been so excited to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. I have never watched it in the past, and when I was a kid we would watch a 5 minute exerpt here or there. This year I'm fully anticipating sitting down with my cup of coffee and watching it from start to finish. Eric is usually up cooking the turkey by that time, and I shouldn't sleep the day away, so I am fully ready to get up and watch the parade! I Can't wait!

At the end of January last year Tacy and I went up to Perfect Pals to socialize the cats. I left wanting nothing more than to take them all home, so instead I committed to just go up there again instead of just saying I will go up there again. Tacy helped me keep that commitment, so today we went up to Arlington to pet cats! I only took a few photos this time. Above is Tacy loving on the kitties. At Perfect Pals you normally have one or two cats on your lap at a time and about three or four surrounding you waiting for pets. They need love so much. Here's a few unique critters I encountered... The kitty that looks like Phantom from the Phantom of the Opera. He was a sweetie, but really wanted you to come pet him as opposed to fighting for pets. And this funny looking kitty named Sweet Pea Princess... and below her Chuck one of my standby favorites. I couldn't help but to laugh at Sweet Pea Princess, and I gave her the name of Sweet Pea Princess squishy face... because l

My sister might be mad at me forever for posting this picture, but it has such a good story behind it, I’ll take my chances. I was hanging out on my break this afternoon when I received this picture in a text from my lovely cousin Amanda… and all it said was “Nice Hair”. It made me laugh so hard, I just about pee’d in my pants. Yes, I had great hair. I’m not sure where she found / saw this picture and or what motivated her to send it to me, but I will remind her that I’ve got just as many embarrassing pictures of her. And the funny thing is I’m not sure what’s more embarrassing, the hair, the outfits or the combo of all of the above for all three of us. Oh the early 90’s! I’m pretty sure my sister used an entire can of Aqua net… and my brother… you can’t see it… but there’s a long rat tail in back … I’m almost 100% sure of that. And me… well let’s just say it’s business in front and party in the back, yep, I’ll admit it, I had a girl mullet. So… Thanks Amanda… for the best laugh of m

This is possibly the most random post in the world. Maybe someday I will top this randomness, but probably not any day too soon. This Picture is in my scrolling pictures on my computer, I look at these pictures every day but for some reason, today these two made me swoon just a little bit. I think this was taken the first fall I spent out here, about a month or two before we got engaged. Eric (always humoring me) took me to a park where I could take our pictures playing in leaves. He’s such a prince. It made me feel warm and fuzzy and fall like, so I thought I’d share. How’s that for random.

THIS GUY!!! With the most BEAUTIFUL swing and best attitude in baseball... Ken Griffey, Jr. Is back for one more year as a Mariner! YAAAAAAAY! We ♥ KGJ!!!!! Happiness overflowing in our house today... For sure!

Oh how I love this time of year. Christmas things are coming out too early, and Thanksgiving is really only appreciated for too much food, football and the day after bargains. I feel a little guilt this time of year as I too want to forget the Turkey and head straight for the Christmas joy! I toyed with the idea of listening to Christmas music today even. What am I thinking? This morning, I got my Christmas fix that prevented me from jamming out to Christmas tunes all morning – My Starbucks coffee served to me in a Christmas Cup! A very Merry, Holly Jolly type Christmas Cup! The cup isn ’t as beautiful as the past few Christmas cups have been but I’ ve got to give it to Starbucks, they’ ve gone to a deeper level this year. For those of you who have yet to experience the Joy of the Starbucks Christmas Cup let me share with you the words of wisdom printed in the ornaments around the cup. “I wish everyone could see how much we all have in common” “When you wish, the world becomes brigh

Most of you know that in June of 2009 my Mom (Dianne) was diagnosed with Lung Cancer. Sitting here 1,500 miles away from my Mom I felt so helpless. Once the tears stopped, I immediately went into “help mode”. How can I help? How can we battle this C-Monster together? That’s when I turned to Relay. Relay for life is an amazing program ran by volunteers to help raise money for the American Cancer Society. In one month I raised over $480.00 in donations from my amazing family and friends. I gathered a team of 4 wonderful people and we were “The Team for People without a Team”. John & Kerri Santo, Katherine Oleson, Eric Ronnebeck and I were ready to walk for the cause and really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. My Mom was thrilled, beyond ecstatic that we were out there walking to fight for her, and for so many others. It was such a gift to watch the survivors walk around the track; it was such a glimmer of Hope for me, for our family, for our Mom. I had this misconcept

The city of Seattle stopped today and honored a fallen Police Officer. 39 yr Old Timothy Brenton was killed on duty on Halloween night. He was recapping a routine traffic stop with a trainee when a car pulled up to the driver’s side of the cop car and shot multiple times killing Timothy and injuring the trainee. I can’t even find words to type for this post. How do you explain being so hurt by a loss of someone you never met? How do you explain your heart sinking to your stomach when you see the funeral procession go by outside your office window? All I can say is Thank you to the men and women out there making Seattle a safer place; and we have nothing but prayers of peace for his family.

It's been cloudy and dreary here for the past week or so. I am loving every drop of Seattle sunshine that's been falling on us. My only sadness is that I have yet to break out my rain boots. I haven't been a great blogger recently, I have been noodling in my head what I can do to boost my post numbers and one thing that will contribue greatly is that I've dropped a blog for the season. Hocus Pocus will not continue to get attention, and come the first of the year, my 365 blog will get less attention as well, infact, I'm not really sure what will become of that blog. I'm still noodling that as well. One thing for sure is that this blog will be getting more attention. Or at least that's my hope. Thanks for sticking with me in my rainy day phase....

I'm 100% in sad mode because Halloween is over. Katherine tried to help me out by taking me bargin Halloween shopping but let's just settle on the fact that Halloween is over, and I am sad. I'm working on it...

Eric and I invaded our friends Ivan and Dawn's house for Halloween last night. They live in a residential area and were expecting trick-or-treaters. Dawn and I decided that in expecting trick or treaters we better decorate the place and dress the part. So we decorated her entry way like a witches home/apothocary and put gravestones and spiderwebs in the front lawn. I tried to get pictures of every aspect of our creation but the reality of it is that it rained pretty much all day, and it rained hard! It was difficult to go outside and take lots of pictures without my camera getting all wet, so here are a few of the highlights. We ended up dressing in lots of layers because it was so chilly outside and we sat infront of the open door. We also brought out her laptop and watched reruns of Halloween episodes of various tv shows to entertain ourselves between trick-or-treaters. We got about 40 kids total and most of them were dressed really well. I have never really gotten to dress up