January 2012: new foods, storms, hockey and babies.

Remember how I said that I probably shouldn't tell people I want to try new foods unless I am really going to do it? Well, just as I imagined, sharing my new year's resolution with the entire internet has caused the people close to me to force me to try new things.

For example, Ashley, my 'daughter' (Long story there, and actually I'm not even sure anymore why she began calling me mom), made me cookies. They were peppermint, which I have never tried. When she first told me about it, I definitely made the eh-no-thanks-that-sounds-gross face. But... I tried them. AND, they were delicious!

A couple weeks later, Aaron made some sort of vegetable goodness for Talicia, Cameron and me that included zucchini and squash. Both of which I now love. I also love peppers, which I had tried before this particular meal. I could probably eat bell peppers, cooked or raw, at every meal.

Next up, magic tofu. Which is seriously the very last thing I thought I would ever try. I mean, what even IS tofu? I still don't know. Anyway, its a bunch of vegetables... peppers, onions, mushrooms... cubed, fried tofu... and this really good orange-y, spicy, sweet sauce that Aaron created. I'm pretty sure I ate almost all of it. (Except maybe some onions because I still don't think I like them.)

Some other things I've tried, but don't have pictures of: chili, indian food, red spaghetti sauce, polenta, brussel sprouts, goat cheese, quinoa, sprouts... I know there is more.

Shifting gears a bit, we had a major winter storm a couple weeks ago. Real snow and ice and power outage kind of storm. Followed by wind and tons of rain, and now this weekend calls for 60 degrees and sunny. Oh how I love Washington!

Anyway, on the first day of the power outage, we hopped back and forth between both my parent's houses. My mom's house is tiny and cozy and has a fireplace. So even with no power, we were warm. The neighbors boiled water on their wood stove for us to have hot chocolate, and we played games by the fire. Right out of a movie, huh?

That night we ended up staying at my dad's. He had a generator [TV, ability to charge our phones] and a fireplace and they have a huge living room. We watched a ton of TV (which I don't get to do at my own house), played Bananagrams and drank of ton of coffee. The next morning, we walked around the golf course to survey the damage. All the snow and ice was falling off the trees. It was beautiful and a little bit scary. Talicia and I were literally one step away when a HUGE piece of snow and ice fell from a tree we'd just been underneath.

Flash forward again. [January was a long month.] This past weekend Aaron took me to my first ever hockey game. (Annnnd to The Buttered Biscuit in Sumner, which was so good it deserves its very own post!)

The game itself was cool. Who doesn't love seeing people beat each other up on ice? Those boys are brutal. And I love pretty much all sports, especially when you're at the game watching it and not seeing it on TV. But I think I got more of a kick out of the people around us, and the little things they did between playing hockey. We happened to be there on the night that fans threw teddy bears on the ice to be donated. Bears were flying EVERYWHERE. There's always that one guy that has to wait until all the bears are picked up to throw his down.

They also had a dance off. And an 'unfreeze this t-shirt ice cube with a water bottle and then put it on' competition. And a thing where people tried to throw foam pucks into the sunroof of a car on the ice.

We ended up losing to Portland, which was fine because they are number 1 and we are pretty much at the bottom. But I had so much fun! :)

Another new thing in my life, working with the kids at Abundant Life. I've been easing into doing a bunch of stuff for the children's ministry. Usually I'm just doing a bunch of administrative stuff... checking kids in and making sure all the classes are good to go, and then slipping into the main service. This week Brad ended up needing my help with the big kids. He talked about washing feet, and the kids played a game that involved taking off their shoes.

I decided to end this blog with a picture of the cutest baby around. Ashton's cousin, Finn. I nanny for Ashton every week consistently... and every now and then I get to watch his precious cousins as well. Finn is the sweetest, happiest, chubbiest, cuddliest baby I've ever known. He's pretty easy going, hence the Spiderman costume he let me dress him in this afternoon. He crawled all around the house in that costume, and didn't take it off until he could no longer keep up with his older cousin and siblings. What a sweet boy!