The fun we had

I think there are a lot of reasons why Christmas always ends up being a good time. The excitement and laughter of family getting together is part of it. And of course there is always a good old fashioned baby-tickling that can be fun. Watching your nephew dress up in his new Superman costume...
Or maybe it's the guys doing the dishes after Christmas dinner...

Family - together playing games, eating good food and enjoying eachother's company...

And it could be your baby sleeping from takeoff to landing that makes Christmas travel so perfect...

The sparkle and glow of the Christmas trees, cousins playing together, Family Feud and Phase 10 until late in the night, eating excellent food, it's all of these things and more that made Christmas so special this year. I hope that yours was filled to the brim with family and friends!

Technology

So I was thinking the other day that when I first went to grade school, my friend's mom was the secretary and she did all of her work on a typewriter...I know this because we often played on it after school! By the time I was in 5th grade we had computers in our classroom and played the original Oregon Trail game. That was awesome! In 7th grade, we had a computer lab and that's when I learned how to type and make a basic excel worksheet. It wasn't until my Freshman year in college that I signed up for an email account. And I finally owned my very own computer after my Junior year of college. I say all this to say how quickly and how amazing technology progresses.

I can only imagine what technology will be like when my baby goes to school...power point presentations for show and tell and who knows what else.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

There's just nothing quite like having snow. Every season is so beautiful for its uniqueness...spring flowers, summer sun, autumn leaves, and snow in the winter! We had snow over Thanksgiving and it was glorious! It gets quiet, things slow down and it takes you back to snow angel days! I love snow!

Thanksgiving

I am thankful for...
Relationship with God
The best husband
Sweet son
Family
Friends
A loving church
Warm home
Refrigerator & cupboards full of food
Good health
The beautiful state of Washington
Starbucks coffee
Running car
Clothes
Target
Rain
Trees
Turkey & Cranberry sauce
Van Morrison's music
A good book
Washing machine
Dishwasher
Fresh baked cookies

I sometimes forget what I am thankful for. This was a good reminder for me to sit down and think of specific things God blesses me with. What are you thankful for today?

A typical day in the life of me...

Every day, many times each day, my son gets his little counting colors music train out and hooks it up. Here is how the full volume song goes (minus the catchy little music):

The music train is on the track
Singing a song
Clickety clack
The music train is ready to go
Get on board hear the whistle blow
Red car with one teddy bear
1! We're having fun! (grrrrr)
Orange car with 2 shiny bells
1 2! They ring for you! (ding ding)
Yellow car with 3 fuzzy ducks
1 2 3! Quack for me (quack, quack, quack)
Green Car with 4 little drums
1 2 3 4! Play some more (drum sound)
Blue Car with 5 square blocks
1 2 3 4 5! At the station willow ride
The music train is ready to go
Get on board hear the whistle blow!

I go around singing this song when I am in the shower, driving in the car, while cooking in the kitchen. I can not stop singing it! I am guessing some of you out there have a similar toy story. I'd like to hear about it...

Superbaby

Should you find yourself in dangers way, call superbaby to save the day. I realize he only has his little scooter to rescue you, but never underestimate the speed of him on his machine! He can pull books off shelves in a flash and stir toilet water in the blink of an eye!

He's Back...

After many many months (okay, so it was over a year) of writer's block, my husband has decided to resurrect his original blog! If you would like to check it out: http://jjeb.blogspot.com/ He has been writing some interesting spiritual thoughts. I also want to say that I would have loved to insert a little link there, but I don't know how to do that...so if you want to tell me how, I thank you. -Priscilla

I sold it on ebay!

So one of Jeb and my favorite hobbies is to sell things on Ebay and Craigslist. We go to garage sales and scout things out to buy that we can turn around and sell for a little extra cash. We have also sold so many random little do-dads that have just sat in boxes in our closet for years. It amazes me sometimes that people actually want this stuff...but I am also very pleased and it tickles my funny bone when we do sell some useless piece of junk. It also makes me feel good to get rid of all of the material items that seem to clutter our house and our life.

We made 5x what we paid for this lovely poster of a man called horse...it's crazy that people actually want this!

However, in the midst of this fun little hobby, people have grow to think that we are so money-hungry that we will sell anything ever given to us just for some quick cash. That just is not true. We keep things that mean a lot to us or things that are valuable or that are important to the family or that were given to us by special people. We only sell useless, unwanted items. Trust me...and you should try it to, because it is fun to make a small profit off of the stuff that you would otherwise be donating to Goodwill!

We doubled our money on this italian tea cart repro!

Family Ties

So there has been some big family news. This has been all excitement for Jeb and I! Rachel and Stephen are now engaged! He surprised her at her birthday party and popped the question in front of all of us! They are planning a wedding for some time in July!
My brother Jason and his wife Jen are pregnant and Liam will have another cousin to play with sometime in March! This isn't the greatest pic of them, but it was the most recent, from just a few weeks ago at the Mariners-A's game...the Mariner's were down 3-9, but came back in the 7th inning (after we left to go home) to win 10-9. I can not believe that we left early at probably one of the Mariner's best comebacks in the past few years! Oh well....

Abs Diet

So we are on this "diet" but I don't really want to call it that, because I eat more than I do when I'm not dieting...just food that's better for me. I feel great, Jeb feels great. It is really fun to try to be healthy together. I like knowing that there's someone else out there trying to improve their health along with me. Basically, if you have never heard about it, you eat 6 times a day (that's a lot) and you work out 5 times a week for 30 minutes each day. I like this plan because i can manage it. I like it because i still get to eat cheese and meat and bread and even icecream now and again. and I like it because i can still go to a restaurant and find things that are okay to eat. I am not writing this because i think you should go on this particular diet, I am just writing this because i like it and I feel like it has a lot of "moderation" to it, which is what I believe in. I am also writing this because i feel like I need to update our blog. so there you go...

And the best perks of this abs diet is once a week for one meal, the guy tells you to blow it. he gives you permission to eat as much of whatever you want for one meal. this is my incentive meal to do good throughout the week and i look forward to it every week so that i can pile my plate full of fried gnasty food and icecream sundaes and grease just so that i can feel sick afterwards and look forward to it again the next week. i like food!

A peek inside our travels...

"Jebcito" was extremely popular at camp. Everyone loved him so much and everybody called him Jebcito - (Little Jeb or Jeb Jr.) He had a lot of fun and was a really good camper! I hope he can have many more international experiences as he grows up!

A nice way to end every night - with fun stories of the days happenings and some worship to God. Latin Lovers...
Latin Dogs...

This picture doesn't represent how scary this dog or all the other latin dogs are. Let's just say that I would never want to be on the same side of the fence as any of these mad dogs because they bark and growl like they would tear you to pieces!

Crazy Ecuadorian Driving...
Shopping at the market...
The best souvenirs (Ecuador futbol jerseys)...
Rachel & I at the "supermaxi"...

The viewpoint over Quito...It was a beautiful trip had by all!

Nothing like a good whipping

They played a lot of games at the camp in Ecuador that we would easily get sued for here in the states. This particular game was actually very funny to watch and let me also say that I was very relieved to have to watch Liam so that I wasn't able to play games such as this one.

The object of this particular game was for two people to clasp hands (london bridge style) and have one person just stand in the middle. Then they would yell out "switch" and either the person in the middle, the two people with clasped hands, or everyone would have to run to make a different set of clasped hands with a person in the middle. The catch is that there were several people running around with belts and if you didn't make a new "unit" fast enough, you got whipped.

Jeb was sort of a cheater at most of these games, here he couldn't find anyone to make a unit with, so he was hiding from the belt people. After this picture, they all chased him down and whipped him. The look on someone's face when they were getting whipped...below
Belt in action... A lot of people ended up with welts from getting whipped, but they all had fun. If only we could play games like this in America...

We are home! Ecuador was beautiful, wonderful, inspiring, encouraging, and faith-building. The camp was fabulous. The Ecuadorians did a great job with the camp. One thing that really impressed me was that some of the kids rode a bus for 12 hours to get there. That is dedication to get to church camp. The other thing that was awesome about this camp was that a majority of the kids that were there were not from church. I am so glad that they were there and were able to hear about Jesus.

I am so inspired by the tutores (counselors) at the camp. I loved to watch them work with the teens and run the camp. Because of our inability to speak Spanish fluently, it was through these people that we could see the words of faith being passed down to the teens. I believe that God brought us there to see His good work being done through others in a different language...and it was humbling and empowering at the same time to know that I as an individual wasn't significant because I couldn't even speak the same language, but I believe it was powerful because we were so united as a group of Christians regardless of language and words, our faith was one and the same. That was the beauty of this trip.

This week's coming attractions

Ahhh...it is such a good feeling to finally have passport in hand! It arrived in the mail today and I am so thankful and relieved! We have been counting down the days until we leave for Ecuador and the time is already here! I should be cleaning our house and packing right now, but decided to take the opportunity to update our blog since we won't be posting for a few weeks. Here is a very brief preview of our trip and I know that these few pictures won't even capture what our experience will really be like but they are a few things that I expect to see. Above is the geography of where exactly Ecuador is. It's funny how many people don't really know where it is located. So for the geographically-challenged, it is in north-western South America. The equator runs right through it. In fact, on the last day that we are in Quito we usually take the teens to the Mitad Del Mundo or the Middle of the Earth monument so that they can take their picture in the northern and southern hemisphere or some people just like to pee on the equator.

We first arrive in Quito, a very beautiful city. It is not the typical tropical south america that one would imagine. It is high in the Andes mountains, about 10,000 feet elevation and very mountainous. I am not for certain about this picture, but the mountain above might be the famous cotopaxi, a popular peak for advanced mountain climbers. but like i said, i'm not for certain, all I do know is that you can see it while in quito.


The majority of our time is going to be spent at campamento bellevue. here are all the campers at the firepit/amphitheatre. i have yet to enjoy an ecuadorian camp session. jeb had lots of stories to tell about his time there last year. he kept on commenting on how different it is from american church camps. i am excited to be there for it this year. because of the language barrier, we know a little spanish, but not enough to teach any classes or anything, our main responsibilities at camp are just to participate in the activities, to help clean the bathrooms and set up for classes, etc, and cook in the kitchen. it is a week of service and behind the scenes helping.
Once camp is over, we usually take a few hours to go to the otovalo market. The picture above is the market and it really doesn't represent the hustle and bustle that takes place there. It is like a HUGE saturday market with lots of beautiful hand-made sweaters, jewelry, dolls, tapestries, paintings, etc. There are so many beautiful things to see and it is a great tourist trap. I am a sucker for all the purses. Last time I went I came home with like 4 or 5 new purses. the other things about the market is that you have to be ready to barter. The people in cayambe (where the camp is) dress like the above pictures. It is a more rural village area, so they dress with these hats and all the ladies where a blouse with a shawl or jacket over it and a long skirt. And they are very short because of the altitude. most of the men and women are probably less than 5 ft tall. someone told me once that it is because of the reduced amounts of oxygen in high elevation that makes these people shorter and broader. look at that beautiful baby above. they are just as cute as that picture. that's one thing i will miss this year is that we won't be having a vbs like we did in the past with all the little tykes, instead we're sticking with the teens at camp. but they are so adoreable. a lot of times the older sisters would bring their baby brother/sister with them tied onto their back with a sheet. they are so cute!
After all is said and done we end back in quito for our last full day. we usually go to all the tourist spots. this is old quito. it is such a beautiful part of the city with narrow streets and georgous old buildings all in the old spanish colonial style. i would love to just take a vacation to quito sometime as i have never gotten my fill of spending time there.

now as the final day of preparation for the trip arrives, the same old feelings run through my head of why i even decided to go. don't get me wrong, i am excited, but it is so big and looming over me until i finally get on the plane and am on my way. i don't know if anyone else ever feels that way right before time to leave, but i get that feeling often before volunteering for anything. then in the midst of it all, god just guides me and takes me through and at the end of it all, i can hardly imagine what i would have done if i had just stayed at home. god always helps me through those feelings of uncertainty and once i make it through i can only be thankful for what he did along the way. so here's a prayer for god to just do what he wants to do with this mission trip. work mightily, change hearts, change lives, make us love you more.

see you back here at the bristowhanna blog in a couple of weeks!

Leaving on a jet plane

I had to get my passport updated with my married name on it this year. So I sent it in along with my marriage license about 6 weeks ago. Every day I walk to our mailbox to see if it has arrived and every day so far I am disappointed. It's not like I'm down to the wire, but we leave 2 weeks from today. I know it will come because if you send it in with your money, it will come! Or at least it better come or I'm going to have to freak out. Liam already got his about a week ago, and we got ours at the same time except mine had to be mailed in. So if I don't get it, we'll have to revert to Plan B. And right now I don't have a Plan B, but I do know that if I need to I will come up with one.

Update - July 28
Okay, so I finally got something today from the US gov, but it's not my passport! Apparently I have to also send a copy of my driver's license that shows the married name that I am using because for some stupid reason, the marriage license and Jeb's official name change document that shows that his name is legally Bristow-Hanna (instead of just Bristow) isn't enough. I know that is kind of confusing, but it was good enough for me to get all of my other government-issued documents. So I am a little bit freaked out because the girl on the phone said there is no guarantee that I can get my passport even if I fedex overnight the driver's license to them and include a fedex overnight for them to mail it back to me. So things are out of my control as far as if I'm going to get this thing in time for my trip now! Yikes! Please say a prayer to get this passport in time! Thanks!

My name is Liam and I like to do drawerings

"Well, you know my name is Liam and I like to do drawerings.

I like to draw all day long so come and do drawerings with me.

Come and do drawerings with me!"

Men are good

I am glad that men and women are different. I am thinking this because lately I have been reflecting on my extreme moodswings. Happier than sunshine and fresh baked apple pie one minute, sad over who knows what the next, and then out of nowhere the fires of hell blaze from my eyes. And in the midst of all of these ridiculous shifting of mood, there lives my husband...sweet and steady. Thank you to all the men out there for being stable and knowing we can count on you when the storms of wife are raging.

Mad Cow

This cow kept on giving me (jeb) the evil eye during the whole family reunion! He just kept staring. So finally I gazed into the beasts' eye and he showed me my future. Look closely...what do you see?

I like food

As I sit down to write this blog I am munching on Stauffer's Animal Crackers from Costco. I am pretty amazed because this was the huge 5 lb size container of these suckers and they are about 3/4 gone. The reason why it is amazing is because I, Priscilla, have almost eaten a huge bin of animal crackers all by myself. These crackers were suppposed to be for Liam, but at the rate he eats them, they are going to be here until 2010, so somebody has to eat them right? I just can't stop myself. They're so good!

Life on the farm...

This past week was our first Allaway family reunion. This is my (Priscilla's dad's) family, for those of you who are wondering. We got together in Trout Lake on my grandfather's farm and it was perfect. This experience was like traveling back in time to my childhood, but being able to take my own son with me to the place and the people that meant so much to me growing up. Here are a few pictures and reflections of our time there. Above is a picture of the hay ladder, where they used to load hay into the hay mow (mow as in rhymes with cow, unsure of spelling). All of my cousins and I as kids would climb up the hay ladder into the hay mow where we built forts, played hide and seek, and we made a giant swing with a fire hose once. The hay mow was our favorite place.
Don't you miss the days when you wore your swimsuit all day and were unashamed and it didn't matter if you had a full diaper and were dirty. Man, those were good times, and here are all my cousins kids doing exactly that. Liam is with Jeb in the middle and Jayden and Eleesha (my sister Stephanie's kids are on the left and right).
Okay, so my cousins are hicks. But they are really nice people! I am proud of my family. Here is Jeb shooting a potato gun that they made out of pvc pipes. If you look very closely you can see the potato just being fired out of the shaft. It's hard to believe that just a little bit of aerosol hairspray can make a potato fly like that!
Liam and Jeb watching the cows feed. My grandpa was a dairy farmer, so we visited a nearby dairy and watched them milk the cows and the kids fed baby cows. Liam loved it and was amazed at all the animals!

Oh the fun we had! The food was great, it was awesome to see family all together in one place, and we had such fun riding bikes, feeding pigs, playing horseshoes, shooting guns. Can't wait to go back again next year! This was like the best vacation at the best time for us! And we finished off the weekend with a big bang. God gave us a huge thunder and lightning show that went for hours right around us! The lightning lit up the whole sky and the thunder rolled. It was awesome! I love the city, but there is something about the country that I miss. I love the simplicity, the dirt, the peacefulness, the quiet. The city is great, but I believe a little country is good for your soul!

Decisions

I feel lately that our schedule has forced us to choose. What is the best choice? Do I see friends or family? Do I try to cram everything in and be ridiculously busy? Do I choose camp or VBS? Do I choose church or family? In most situations, I think one may be a better option than the other, but yet they are all good options.

This is my struggle. To decide between good and best. To decide where my priority will be. To decide how not to overcommit myself to things. To decide how to live out my faith for Christ, but to not be so busy I can't stand it. To decide how to make time for family for just fun and being together. To decide when it's time to just rest and be still.

Lately decisions have become a lot like drugs to me. Just say no.

Garage Sales and other stuff

We've been busy...summer has officially started and with it came the sunshine and everything else. We had a garage sale the last 2 weekends to raise money for our teens going to Ecuador! I am thrilled that Jeb, Liam, and I will all be going this year and my sister Rachel will be meeting us down there too. FYI - my sister Rachel has a boyfriend and is going to be doing mission work in Panama with him, then joining us in Ecuador. His name is Stephen, and I know some of you AIM people know him. Well...she's pretty cookoo over him and I couldn't be happier for her! This week has been VBS. Jeb is the story time guy and I am cooking meals for everyone. Will post more later...

mr. golden sun

Where are you?

I was counting on hot days & nights

swimming in the lake

some camping

and a little water skiing

Please shine down on me

Happy Dad's Day!!!

For Jeb, you're a wonderful Dad...and to our Dad's, the best Dad's ever! We love you!

Breakfast food

Pancakes, crispy hasbrowns, bacon, biscuits & gravy, eggs, coffee and cream...toast with butter...yummm!!! Breakfast is by far my favorite meal...and while I usually go with a bowl of cereal...it is the meal that I enjoy the most and the only meal that I could eat at any time of day...it's good for breakfast, lunch or dinner...so versatile! I am writing this to list a few of my favorite breakfast joints...usually if they have old school coffee mugs, it is going to be good!

I realize that I am only going to recommend a few places in a very limited geographic range, but these are the BEST that I have ever eaten at...and in general I go for the mom and pop places, not so much into the chain restaurant...so if you are in the area and are looking for the breakfast with personality...

KJ's Cafe, Trout Lake, WA - the original best breakfast you could ever get, specializing in huckleberry pancakes

Cameo Cafe, Portland - I recommend the coconut waffle...especially with butter, powdered sugar and lemon

Bijou Cafe, Portland - organic bacon and eggs!!

Cadillac Cafe, Portland - the hazelnut & banana french toast is killer

Fatty Patty's, Battleground - you're guaranteed a heart attack...but it's good stuff

Should you ever find yourself in Santa Rosa, CA, don't miss out on Hank's Creekside, everything's awesome and you can watch them cook your food

Brown Bag Cafe, Redmond, WA - huge portions, homemade bread

Pancake Corral, Bellevue - family owned business for 50 years...great service with a smile, a nice mom and pop atmosphere with great food...get there early or you'll be waiting outside

I must be hungry...

A POEM FOR LIAM, BY DAD

Dearest Liam,

You are my son.
I hope that some day, you will own a gun.
Wont that be fun!?

You are a really good right now,
But if your not...watch out!....POW!
You will get a spankin from Uncle bacon.

Now that your 1, there will be no fun.
There are lots of responsibilities around here.
You need to clean up mom's can's of beer!
The windows are dirty, so make em clear!

Liam, Liam, I love you so dearly!
I want to know you more nearly!
I am saying this sincerely!
your dad!