Catering With the O'briens

Last Friday was quite a busy day for us.

Thursday evening Daniel drove to Portland, Oregon and spent the night with the Berkompas's, so he could film the funeral of Pastor Pollocks father Friday morning.

Later in the afternoon Mom, and the twins attended a wedding, while Stephen, Priscilla, and I, drove down to Aberdeen to cater a fundraising dinner for the Crisis Pregnancy Center with the O'briens.

We always have so much fun when we get to work for them, one of the reasons is because they are the perfect example of a godly couple doing their best to serve the Lord in everything that they do. They are such a good testimony of what true Christians are, and they have been such a blessing to not only us but pretty much any one they come into contact with, plus they make some of the best food you'll ever eat or see.

The first thing we did was set the tables, and make sure the place settings were all straight, then we filled up water pitchers, and glasses.

After that was finished Sill and I cut the bread and make a bread basket, then while we waited for the real work to begin Stephen and I played hymns on the old piano.

When the food was all set out on the buffet line and the people started filling their plates, our next job was to keep everything on the table filled, there was pork roast and gravy, roasted potatoes, roasted apples, freshly made bread, and Salad.

When everyone was finished eating we cleared the dinner plates and started to serve dessert, there was Chocolate cake, Cheesecake with raspberry sauce, and a gluten free berry pie for those with allergies.

After they had finished dessert and all the plates had been cleared it was time for us to eat, after which comes the longest but still fun part...

scraping, rinsing, washing, drying, and putting away all the dishes, pots, pans, and silverware.

At around 10:40 the last dish had been loaded into the van, and we were on our way back to the O'briens house to unload the van and put everything where it belongs.

When everything was unloaded and put away we all went upstairs got ready for bed, and after Stephen, and I played a few hymns we all went to sleep.

The next morning after eating breakfast, talking, and drinking tea, we were on our way home.

We had a really great time as always and are looking forward to our next oppertunity.

Latest News Part 2 (the best part!)

About 3 months ago, Mom and Dad told us something we had almost given up hoping for...
We are expecting our 10th baby!

This may not sound like a miracle to some of y'all but the reason it is to us is that 2 years ago mom was 6weeks pregnant with our 10th, and un-known to us it had gotten lodged in one of her fallopian tubes.
As the baby started to grow it caused the tube to rupture and because of hemorrhaging and loss of blood mom almost died in the emergency room.
After it was all over the Doctors told us that there was very little to no possibility we would ever have another, but God has showed yet again that nothing is impossible for him.
She is due in late May, so hopefully we will be all moved into our new house before the birth.
(we think it's a boy)

We've received word that Dad should be home a month earlier than we first expected, somewhere around the first of February.
We are looking forward to our time of reunion after such a long time of seperation, but there certainly wont be an excessive amount of vacationing, why? well...

The Army has decided that 6 years in Washington is long enough, so as of March 2008, we will be on our way to another interesting and exciting family adventure....
Packing up, Moving, Saying Farewell to all our Washington friends and driving 3,000 miles from the West Coast of Washington, to the East Coast of Aberdeen, Maryland.

Our travels will take us through Spokane Wa, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and finally the Army Post of Aberdeen Proving Ground MD.
But thats not all!
After 2 years in Maryland: Finding a house, church, piano teacher, symphony etc.
we will be packing up again and moving down to the lovely state of Virginia, for a few years,
and after that?
who knows!
We are looking forward to the coming year and seeing what stories we'll have to tell by the end of it.:)
(be sure to stay tuned!)

Birthday's and Weddings

Last Friday October 19th, we celebrated Josephines 6th Birthday.

On Thursday Daniel took her to Chuck E Cheese, The Dollar Store(her very favorite shopping place), Starbucks, and lastly the Capitol so that Brian could do a photo shoot.










Friday morning, Kenneth-Lee and Isaac helped me make our traditional Birthday breakfast: Waffles with Strawberries and whip cream, while Priscilla hung streamers, and Daniel, Stephen,and the Twins, blew up balloons.















After breakfast and getting dressed for the day, Daniel helped her make an Angel Food Cake, with Strawberries, then they sat in front of the oven and watched it bake.



October 19th also happened to be the date that Mikal and Stephanie chose for their wedding,
(Mikal is the son of moms oldest friend Josephine Gross.)
Mom and Josephine met in the 7th grade in Germany where both of their Fathers were stationed in the Army.

The wedding was at 6:00 in the evening and not really a family event so as it was Jo's birthday she got to choose who went.
It was held in Seattle and traffic is usually pretty bad as well as directions, (we usually get lost there because a lot of the streets are named the same except for a distinctive "N" or "S" to mark the difference,) so at 3:30 Mom, Sill, Jo, and I were on our way.
We only took one wrong turn (because the name was the same as the directions) but after hitting a dead end, figured out which way to go.

After the wedding Ceremony we drove a few blocks to the reception, which was decorated with Red Roses, tea candles, and little white boxes with truffles.
Mrs. Josephine had told all her friends that it was "Little Miss Josephine's" Birthday and introduced her to so many people that Jo was exausted from greeting people.
After dinner we stayed for an hour or two so mom and Josephine could talk, then around 10:30 said our goodbyes and home we went.

First Adventure

Last Tuesday the milk man called and let us know he was ready for us to come pick up our milk.
As Daniel was gone and mom wasn't feeling well, I offered to pick it up.
The children love going places all offered to accompany me, so after a little arranging, Abigail, Gabriella, and Josephine piled into the back-seat and off we went.
We waited for about 5 minutes before the milk driver arrived, and after sorting out the 11 gallons that were ours we were on the way to our next stop: Cash and Carry.
The road we needed to take was blocked by about 10 police cars, and it happened to be the only way I knew, so after a little thought I figured out which direction we would need to follow, how many streets to go up before turning, and thankfully my calcuations turned out to be correct.
The twins felt very important shopping inside the Dairy refridgerator, and Josephine wanted to see where all the "Big ice-cream" (the 5 gallon buckets) were so we went inside the Big freezer, and after picking out which flavor she wanted us to get when her birthday comes, we went to purchase our butter.
After stopping by the Rowlands to give them their half of the milk we were on our way home.
The whole time I was driving the girls repeatedly exclaimed "Oh Nanny this is so much fun! aren't you so excited to be driving all by yourself?"
And to tell you the truth...
It was.

I Passed! :)

As of 12:00 this afternoon I am now an officially licensed Washington Driver.
The twins parting advice to me as I was walking out the door was " Don't fail Nanny or else you wont be able to take us on a date to Starbucks."

Mom had never been to the building before and I had only been with Daniel once so you can imagine my panic as I took a few little "detours" on the way.
Just as mom called Daniel to ask where we were supposed to go I saw the building, and all was well.
Daniel suggested that we do a little practice parallel parking, so after that we sat and waited for the drive instructor to finish with somone else.
We had about 15 minutes to wait so what else do you do when your nervous? pray.
The instructor was very easy to relax with but I still was a little dazed, especially when waiting for a red light I forgot about the "right on red" rule.
As I sat waiting for it to turn green he asked if I remembered any kind of rules about "right turns" and "red lights."
Other than that I turned too wide when backing up into the road, and once I looked into the mirror instead of over my shoulder.
When the test was over and he was telling mom and Daniel the things I forgot to do,
I sat there thinking " I must have failed, the children will be dissapointed" then he turned and informed me that I had indeed passed with a score of 96, and could proceed into the building to get my card.
When we returned home the children all came shouting and running asking "did you pass?" when I told them I did they all let out a huge cheer.
(after the celebrations they all started planning their dates.)

Food Fun, and Fellowship

A few weekends ago two of my dear friends Tara and Kelly Riddell, held a "Maidens Quest" Retreat in Renton and asked me to be their Pianist. Priscilla and I went and we had a wonderful time.

The Burwell family graciously offered to host us at their house, so that it would be easier to get to the church instead of having to travel back and forth each night.

The last day of the conference had different elective sessions: Napkin folding, Corsage design, Hair braiding, and Natural beauty.

Priscilla wanted to do the latter so we both went and made different natural "potions" like elbow scrub, hand exfoliant, and other interesting things.

After everything was over and we had all the conference things packed, we went out to dinner at a Thai restaraunt.
We all decided just to let Mr. Riddell pick and order everything, and by the end of the meal we were pretty sure he'd just about ordered everything on the menu because just as we thought we were finished, the waitress would bring out another platter, and after we had passed it around and finished, out came another, and another, and another, and another......( I think you get the point) it gave us all quite a laugh especially because she would put it right in front of Tara so there was quite a long line of (11)platters in front of her plate.

We calculated and it evened out that we had eaten 1 1/2heaping plates each, (which for girls is a lot)After we had finally finished we all agreed that we would probably have to roll out of the restaraunt.

The next morning being Sunday we went to the Burwells church, and after the early church service visited Starbucks for breakfast.
After Sunday School, we went back to their house where we all got changed to go to Alki (the beach in Seattle)

and then where did we go?...... Out to Lunch:)

After eating, we walked up and down the beach and took lots of pictures then Daniel came to take Me and Sill home. We stayed and talked for a while, walked to Starbucks, had fellowship for another hour or so, then we finally made our way home.

(If your wondering why we did so much eating well: The Riddells, Burwells, and Rebsch's are all from Texas, and we're from Oklahoma so.... must be a Southern thing.)