R is for Ronnebeck!

I never thought I'd be able to do it... but I feel kind of amazing this morning... I conquered the NaBloPoMo!!!! I'm a rock star... cue the "eye of the tiger" music now! Thanks for Reading :)

I love it when Relay finds me in little ways. I was in the grocery store yesterday (wearing some relay gear) and the checker asked me about it. He had been in a Relay in Kitsap County before, but was looking for a nearby Relay to join. I was filled with pure glee... well, you've asked the right person! Being the Team (Development) Retention Chair I was more than pleased to extend ways in which he can get plugged into Highline Relay. I gave him my e-mail address, and he has all ready contacted me, seems like he's enthused to be on board... we're excited to have him! Relay... every day... in a little way...

On the wall by the tree with care... and all our child hood decorations are there :) We're very very happy that we got our decorations up yesterday... Christmas is HERE! (almost) Bla

Guess what's happening at our house today? and the answer is not animal torture... though, these pictures could probably be considered that! Today we're decorating for Eric and I's Favorite time of year! CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So Excited!

Happy Birthday Troy Troy! I can't belive you're allready 6! I hope you had a TON of fun at Tun-O-Fun! And I hope all your birthday wishes came true. Love you little buddy! Aunt Abby & Uncle Eric!

These are the three decent photos I captured all day. Considering one of the three is of the canned cran ... I consider Thanksgiving day photos an epic fail. Thankfully the day itself was not an epic fail. The 5 th annual Oleson / Ronnebeck Thanksgiving Spectacular was amazing as always! We ate lots of food, rested, enjoyed each other's company and played ticket to ride! As tradition goes, Cosmo and Seven stood in the kitchen and waited for something to fall from the carving magic... something... anything... And Aquman did his best to stay out of the way of the giant Golden boys! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, can't wait for year #6! Love you Tim & Kat!

The Make-a-Wish foundation is an amazing organization that grants wishes to kids battling cancer and other serious illnesses. The most popular wish is a trip to Disneyland or Disneyworld! The Make-a-Wish people go above and beyond the call of duty to make even the wildest of wishes come true. Last year, a young Seattle boy made a wish to be a superhero and the Make-a-Wish foundation orchestrated an entire city to make his wish come true – click on the link to see the story, caution: it will make you melt. Every year Macys hosts a mailbox to Santa for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. For every letter to Santa that gets placed in a Macys Santa Mailbox they donate $1 to the Make-a-Wish foundation, up to $1,000,000!!!! As you can probably tell, making wishes come true is sometimes costly, and the Make-a-Wish foundation needs that $1,000,000! So, I’m rallying troops to get your buts to Macys and bring a letter to Santa! I walk by Macys nearly every day, if you e-mail me a letter to Santa (mr...

What's more Thanksgiving than a Pecan Pie made from scratch baking in the oven? I can't find the words to say just how thankful I am today, so I'll leave you with this... I hope your day is filled with love, family, friends and thankfulness. We're on our way to Tim & Katherine's for the 5th annual Oleson/Ronnebeck Thanksgiving spectacular, Turkey and Pies in hand! Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Congratulations to my cousing Pete and his wife Amber on their new little one. And Congratulations to Keagan for being a new big brother! Enjoy your bundle and welcome to the Nielsen clan Cooper!

The funny thing about Thanksgiving, is that you spend 12 hours shopping for it and then chopping and cooking and braising and blanching. Then it takes 20 minutes to eat it and everybody sort of sits around in a food coma, and then it takes four hours to clean it up. ~Ted Allen Oh Ted Allen, You speak the words that are too true. I have to say, however, that Tim, Katherine, Eric and I have mastered eating Thanksgiving together. We often talk through the entire meal and stretch that “20 minutes” into an hour, and then back away from the table and lull each other into a nap after the feast. After our naps, we stir for pie and coffee, and a board game or two, normally trivia or “Ticket to ride”. And then we depart, sleepy, ready for slumber (or at least I am) Kat packs me some leftovers; in fact, I think I own over half of Katherine’s Tupperware containers as Eric and I will feast on left overs for days after Thanksgiving. Normally, around the 29th I wave my white flag of surrender and beg...

Thank you God for the dose of snow... it made me sing FA LA LA LA LA... LA LA LA LA all day long! Even though it's a few days shy of when I will "officially" embrace Christmas I'll take it where I can get it after fighting my Fa La La La La drought last year; and really? Who can resist puppy paws in the snow and a snowy face? He makes me melt. So does the one in the red hat.... Snowy family photo! And here's our snowy alley; 3 inches, 4 in some places, and up to 5 and 6 in other places. We' have a bit of snow in the hall of our apartment, I give that credit to the amazing wind storm we had last night, I'm thankful we still have power as the south end is struggling with that today. So there ya go... two blog posts in one day... :)

I was all smiles as the snow was falling on a bustling Seattle city. I love snow, so much, but I'm starting to rethink our relationship as snow shuts down Seattle and for some reason makes people stupid. But then again maybe I'm the stupid one as this lady uses her umbrella to keep the snow off her, I'm practically rolling in it! All in preference I guess. Speaking with my friends from the North, it sounds like my two hour commute home last night was a breeze. Tacy & Crew didn't get home till 7:30 (we get off at 4) and Megan who only lives in Ravenna got home at 7. Mindy didn't make it home at all - Told you the 6 th ave inn was a cozy deal, huh Min? I layered on the clothes like a good South Dakota girl knows how to do, and headed out into the snow this morning scoffing at those folk who "obviously don't know how to handle the snow". I quickly learned that two of our three major roads out of Des Moines were blocked off courtesy of the De...

But my work computer is delightful... Since I have no place to go... Let it Snow... Let it Snow... Let it Snow... Oh wait... I DO Have to get home tonight... So Please Snow Gods help Metro grow a brain so I can go home - the chain's weren't necessary this morning, but they sure made me giggle. I ♥ Snow!

Aquaman is determine to help me in my new venture of learning how to Crochet! I have successfully made two coasters and a pot holder, but basically it's two little squares of crocheting goodness and one larger one. I am enjoying the craft, but it's a little more difficult than I expected it to be. Maybe I'll have Tacy show me a few pointers because she's the master at it!

After work yesterday I met my good friend Dawn downtown for Happy hour at Sazerac's . We like Sazerac's because they have a pretty cheap happy hour and it includes these amazingly delicious truffle cheese potato balls which we normally order 2 plates of! We decided to share a bunch of Tapas and Finger foods because we couldn't decide what to order. We ordered - 2 orders of Potato Truffles - Spinach Leek Dip - Sour dough grilled cheese - Cheeseburger sliders - Mixed spiced nuts - Turnip soup - Sweet potato fries Does that look like a lot of food? because it was!!!! After we couldn't eat another bite we headed out down the street to Bed, Bath and Beyond because we had a gift certificate to share from Dawn winning a prize with my amazing Jelly fish costume! We walked around the entire store before we chose the same item - a beautiful teal scarf. I also found a laptop case for my computer for only $7! Then, we walked back to Dawn's car to head home. We chatted a...

Yesterday my Boss made me try one of these, it's a Pomegranate! I Really enjoyed it, and promptly went to the store and bought one of my own. In more "Something New" news... I have decided on my new breakfast bus beverage.... English Breakfast Tea has stolen my heart for now... Yumm....

When did I move to Gotham City????????? I read this story online this morning and could just about not believe what I was reading - I quick checked my calendar to see if it was April first and if the PI was just playing a clever April Fool. But alas it is not April, it's November, and yes, this story is true... Seattle has their very own band of vigilante / superhero's and they're calling themselves "Rain City Superhero Movement". Can't wait to see where this goes... Check out the story (below) the PI ran on them today... Goes to show that what they say is true... "God is Great, Beer is good, and PEOPLE ARE CRAZY". A man who identifies himself as Phoenix Jones the Guardian of Seattle, part of the Rain City Superhero Movement, poses with an unidentified Seattle police officer. Department officials alerted officers to the self-described superhero, who said his new costume will be more elaborate. Vigilante justice has come to Seattle, an...

Congratulations to Kris & Tamijo on their new little bundle Avery Anne. And Congratulations to Addison to being a Big sister!!!

I have had a hard time with my faith recently. There have been a lot of bumps and bruises, and I love GOD, but I’m having a hard time being “in” to GOD right now. It’s been a real struggle being in between weird stages with our church, and trying to deal with life’s biggest issues all at the same time. It’s so much easier to sleep in on Sunday morning, and it’s so much easier to read a book that doesn’t require you to examine yourself while doing so. I go through peaks and valleys in my relationship with GOD, and I guess I’m just in a very long valley right now. Every so often a “aha” moment comes along and smacks me back where I need to be, and though this post isn’t THAT type of moment, it’s a moment that makes me tear up and feeds my heart a little bit of what I need. A little background of the author of what I’m about to share before you read it, Karen Russell is a photographer in Oregon. She has a blended family of Her, Her Husband Josh Downs, His daughter Courtney, Her Son’s Ross...