Merry Christmas from the Gerlachs! We are spending the holiday in Lynden with Bill's family. We thankfully made it through the snow and ice and it's a White Christmas here. It's still snowing!! The kids are having a blast playing with their cousins, and Bill is having some quality snuggle time with Matt.

Thank you Jesus for car chains, 4-wheel drive, and loving family. Today and always we remember the humble way you came to the world, even though you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Happy Birthday too to David and Papa Bales! We love you and miss you today.

Happy Thanksgiving!

1 Chronicles 16:34- Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever!

We are celebrating today with the Bales/Runyan side of our family. Yummy food, great family, it's been a wonderful day. We hope everyone is having a yummy, restful, and thankful day!

Thanks be to Jesus for life, family, food, and all our other blessings! We are so thankful for our friends and family that Jesus has placed in our lives. We deeply enjoy where God has placed us at this time in our lives.

Thank you Jesus.

Aside from Jesus, here's what I'm (Addie) thankful for:

Halloween 2008

Thursday we had to cancel the playgroup Halloween/Harvest party because Caley and I, and the other planning mom (Rachael) were sick. We were really bummed out because we had fun activities planned like the spider web mud room, donut-on-a-string, prize in pasta, and pumpkin popcorn balls. We were really looking forward to all the kids in costumes too. Thursday turned out to be a great, relaxing day though, because Bill stayed home and took care of the kids and me while I slept until 1pm! It was a wonderful birthday present actually (he did give me some wonderful presents too, which Caley helped wrap).

Throwing spiders at a web

They made goo! (Glue, water, laundry detergent)
Bubble potion! (soap, water and dry ice in a tube)

On Halloween we went to the Everett Children's Museum and it was costume day with special Halloween activities. The girls were a wizard and a clown, because their real costumes were dirty. Later we went to the Mukilteo Boo Bash where they trick-or-treated at some Old Town businesses. For that we switched to their real costumes, bumblebees! It made for a fun day!

By the Numbers

Today I am 27. I have (a few strands of) grey hair, "extra" around the middle, crow's feet around my eyes. I'm now the age Bill was when we met (I was 19). How scandalous was that? I'm still surprised my parent's didn't object at the thought of me dating someone so much older than me. In all this, I pray that God gives me many more years, even though in 50 years I probably won't look the same as I do now, but I hope I'll still be able to run and be active! Hopefully Caley, Amelia and any other children we may have will give us lots of grandchildren!! I get giddy when Caley says, "When I a mommy, I can (blank)" because I think "Yay! Grandchildren!!" I digress..now to the actual reason I started writing this post.

In 27 years, I've...

1. been sister to one person, my brother David.

2. had two beautiful little girls who light up my life.
3. been stung by a bee three times, but I can only remember the time I got stung below my left eye at kickball as a kindergartner.
4. driven four cars (primary vehicle) since I was 16-Peugeot, white Volvo from Roger, Jeep Cherokee, blue Volvo (airport car!). Thanks MOM and DAD!
5. lived in five states- Illinois, Washington D.C., Wyoming, Oregon, and Washington.
6. been married six years, and we were married on July sixth.

7. taken nearly seven months thinking of all the things for this list (actually it was four months, but it felt like seven)!
8. been in People Magazine for "Kindergarten Cop" at age eight.
9. become sister-in-law to 9 others (so far!)- Erin, Todd, Rachel, Jason, Matt, Becky, Heather, Darwin, and Adam.
10. taken my friend Jon to the Sadie Hawkins dance in tenth grade. He had a mohawk. It was purple. But it was still really fun!
11. become auntie to eleven little kids, all under 5, with another on the way in December!
12. known my high school best friend, Jennie, for twelve years-a lot has changed since Mr. Landwehr's math class in 9th grade!
13. believed in Santa Claus until I was thirteen. NO JOKE.
14. accepted Jesus at age fourteen.
15. lived in my hometown of Astoria for fifteen years, 1986-2001.
16. hit a parked car a month after I turned sixteen, in the Peugeot.
17. scored my first soccer goal at age seventeen, after having played soccer for at least twelve years.
18. worked as an ODOT litter patrol team member at age eighteen, a job usually reserved for convicts.
19. voted for the first time at age nineteen in the 2000 presidential election (it was a week after my birthday).
20. married Bill at age twenty.
21. had my first drink, a Black Opal, at twenty-one with my friend Ann at Finn MacCool's on the Ave. It's still my favorite drink.
22. become great friends with a Japanese woman Kyoko, when I was twenty-two. She and I did bible study and always saw the same guy at Tully's. Hi Tully's guy!
23. said "see you later" at twenty-three to my Grandpa Bob when he died and went to be with Jesus.
24. graduated from the UW M.Ed. program at age twenty-four, something that was a buttload of work!
25. celebrated my twenty-fifth birthday in the Mukilteo house. It feels good to know we'll probably be here for a while.
26. celebrated my twenty-sixth birthday with friends at Oliver's Twist in Seattle. It was so fun! I had a "Vesper." (Okay, a few Vespers!)
27. had twenty-seven birthdays. Bet you didn't see that one coming! It's sad that it took me 3 months to think of.

A break from real life

This weekend my women's group took a little trip to a friend's cabin in Baring, Wa. It was only an hour's drive east and we were only there for about 20 hours but it was a wonderful break to relax, hang out, and laugh (a lot!) with great friends! Bill was very nice to take half of Friday off and watch the girls, including getting up with Amelia during the night. Thank you lovely! Here's a little picture of the weekend.

We also made a Jack-O-Lantern! Caley designed it herself and named it "Noelle's girl (Lenora)."

Laborious Labor Day

Usually Labor Day is a day of rest. Not for us this year. The second part of our house project this summer is to paint it! After much researching and deciding and re-deciding, Bill chose to paint the house with our brother-in-law Todd. Todd works in Lynden at Lynden Paint and Decorating and does house painting on the side. So for the last week we've been prepping the house, sanding and priming the trim, etc. Then on Sunday we masked most of the windows (thanks Joy and Chris!) and Monday morning bright and early started painting.

I wasn't very optimistic that this would get done so quickly, to be honest. I was fully expecting that the weather wouldn't cooperate or some other hiccup would come along. But it went really well. Todd the spider monkey shimmied up to the roof and even got the peak painted. Bill got on the roof too!

We still have a lot of touch-ups and trim to paint, and Todd is coming back soon (maybe next weekend) to finish the west side of the house because we ran out of olive green paint. So far it looks great and Todd has done a super job.

Wood

Rad title huh. That's the contemporary or modern 6th wedding anniversary present. While I didn't actually get Addie a gift made out of wood that I recall for our 6th, I did take her to a great lodge where we discovered really nice old world style hardwood floors, and a practically empty long stretch of beach with more than enough driftwood. Ok, I'm stretching it a bit, but I could make a pretty good case for keeping with that theme.

But what a great place to enjoy God's creation and each other's company for our anniversary. We had a nice time to forget about everything and just relax in Oregon at Cannon Beach. For a while I had that feeling like I forgot my pants or something, as the kids were at their grandparents for over a day, and it's always a bit weird and scary for a second when Addie and I are both together and the kids are not with us. JUST like when I forget my pants.

So we goofed off on the beach and saw some large clusters of starfish and other sea life, and once almost got trapped on the wrong side when the tide came in.




more to come.....

July 4th part duece

Just a few photos from Phil's boat on July 4th out on Lake Washington. Would have taken actual fireworks shots but on a moving boat, well...they'd be blurry. Thanks Phil and Ann for taking us out and for our friends who came along.

Jewel eye forth part wun

I wonder if the majority of Americans celebrate the 4th of July the same way every year (get together with family, go to the same fireworks show, etc) or change it up every year. We fall into the "we have no clue" category, and usually plan our 4th ON the 4th. We went to a parade in Bothell, and here are a few shots:








More to come in "part too", where we hang out with family and friends on a boat in Lake Union for the fireworks!