An Auntie (and Uncle) of Two!

Yesterday at 1:58 PM (Germany time) my sister-in-law and brother had their second beautiful daughter. Denali, the BIG sister now, wants to name her Minnie Mouse March Grace Duffy. The Grace might stick, but Ryan and Vicki will still need to work out the final name when he returns from Iraq any day now. She is beautiful, with a nose, mouth, face shape and probably hair like Ryan. Here's a picture of her with Ryan's picture nearby.
It's a great feeling to be an Aunt. I wish I could see the girls more, but when we do have a chance to visit, I like to teach the how to sing, dance, be good girls, and to teach them about Jesus, as much as is possible with toddlers and infants. Hopefully we'll get to see them sometime before Christmas.

The Moon Turned Red

This winter there was a lunar eclipse, which turned the moon red. I took this shot outside our apartment in the parking lot. I thought it turned out pretty well.

Indulging the Taste Buds

On a recent trip out of town, I was given a nice meal allowance and decided to use it! I thought I'd put a little plug in for Frank's Diner in Spokane, WA with this lovely picture of the hot chocolate I ordered early one morning. It was fantastic!


The last night of my trip I decided to explore a "fancy" restaurant, again in Spokane, called Wild Sage. One item on their menu (you the know the one that you look at outside the restaurant to make sure you can afford to eat there) that drew my attention was Pesto Gnocchi. Here's a picture of it before I devoured it.


And I couldn't pass up the tantalizing coconut cream pie with passion fruit sauce. Little did I know it would be decorated with edible orchids. It was decadent and well worth the stomach ache afterwards.
A final word on indulging the taste buds is one that describes a more REGULAR occurrence at home. We discovered the pizza dough for 98 cents at WINCO and couldn't wait to try our own toppings. So we added some pesto, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, spinach and sometimes other ingredients. It tastes fantastic and is cheap to boot.



Enjoy a tasty treat for yourself...

Avoiding "Blogger" Deliquency

One day I'm going to be good at this. Or maybe, I'll just keep expecting people to keep checking our blog to see how life is going and making comments, even though I haven't posted for well over a month (and this seems to be the norm lately). Expectations dashed once again.

This is truly a testament to how busy life can be. As we are drawing close to Easter, I've been thinking more about simplicity. What is REALLY important? Relationships, health, beauty, being present rather than living in the future or past. This is my list.

A conversation with a good friend yesterday reminded me that it is good to simplify. To test certain traits or character or habits to see how important they really are. So, drawing from the goal of another friend, I've decided to not buy clothes for myself for an entire year (this doesn't count necessary replacements for important garments). I made this decision in mid-January and now it is easier than I thought it would be to purchase clothing for myself. I look in my closet and see rows, in my wardrobe and see piles, just the fact that I've mentioned "closet" and "wardrobe" are indications of my bounty. And I've actually found that resisting consumption of clothing for myself, has helped me be more others-focused. We'll see how this goes as the year progresses.

During this pre-Easter week draws on I hope to simplify my life more by fasting from criticism this week and prayer at least twice a day for others whom I tend to criticize or are struggling. I'm finding already that I really have to be aware of my thoughts, and to think positively, instead of negatively about situations as my first reaction. I hope this exercise will prepare me to be more ready to receive a message from the Lord this Easter. This is such a wonderful time of year to focus on my spiritual and emotional health. Pray for me in this endeavor.

Us at our favorite gelato place with friends

Facebook... I was warned!

So I've recently embarked on the fascinating and yet addicting world of facebook. I was a friend who invited me. I was my own curiosity and adventure that kept me going back. Yes, I love the hunt for old friends, high school and college classmates and reminiscence. I've found fellow band-nerds, x-country team mates, church friends, teachers, friends and their siblings and the search continues. It's be great getting in touch with people I had completely lost contact with. Though it is addicting, I'm trying to limit myself and not mention it to everyone I meet. It's just that sometimes technology really does HELP our lives instead of COMPLICATE them... sometimes.

By the way, if you want to see my profile and become my friend on facebook, search for Nikki Smith. I'm sure there are only 250! Good luck!

Snow like I've never seen before!

This weekend we had our annual Big Lake Snow Weekend. This is the one weekend each year when the Vancouver Church has the opportunity to spend the weekend at Big Lake Youth Camp in the winter. Our group was small, but we sure had a lot of fun and got to know each other better.

Over the weekend we enjoyed riding innertubes behind the snow cat into and out of camp, sledding/innertubing down the big hill onto the frozen lake, eating and fixing yummy food, playing games until early in the morning, and snow shoeing/cross country skiing in some very snowy conditions! Over night on Saturday night it must have snowed almost a foot! The powder was amazing and really fun to walk around in, sled down, and especially land in after a quick trip down the sledding hill.

A few great experiences I remember are standing on the frozen lake Friday night with a clear sky and bright stars to gaze at. It seemed like the longer I looked, the more stars I saw. I even saw a shooting star! It was also fun to venture out on cross-country skiis with my parents down the road, through the woods, up and over a hill, to find a warming hut along the trail. I really like sledding on Sunday morning, since every landing was soft and cushy from the many inches of powder. What a blast!

Here are some pictures from our trip.

Thought I fell of the face of the planet?

Hello friends! So its been a LONG time since I posted and I know that is bad blogging manners, but life has been very hectic (not that it slowed down for those of you who have kept up your blogs). So we're checking in...

To be brief, we celebrated Christmas with a drive down to Mel and Linda's, a restful, sunny and celebratory 6-day stay with them. Christmas festivities included hand bell choir concerts, parties, singing carols, walking in red wood forests, bird/surfer watching and lots of eating!!! We were blest with lovely presents and came home with iron wood furniture, full tummies, great pictures and warm memories.

New Year's Day was the Taylor family celebration, which commenced with snow shoeing at Wind River Recreation Area. Denali was so cute in her new snow skiis, and showed us how she could stand up and even balance while being pulled behind the Chariot! We celebrated with family at our humble apartment by exchanging gifts and eating yummy pizza!

We squeezed in a few more hang-out times with Vicki and Denali before they flew back to home again until summer. Next time we see them, there will be three, instead of two... WOW!

Besides holiday events, we've spent time with friends studying the Bible (the Friday night crowd has grown from 6 to 16, which is really pushing the firecode limit in our 1 bedroom apartment). These have really been high points for me, since connecting in God's word is such a unifying experience. We really look forward to opening the Sabbath this way.

And our busy lives continue...eat, play, work, pray, sleep. You know the drill.