Thanksgiving

So This weekend has been amazing. One of the best Thanksgivings I've ever had. In part due to the man in the picture below. It's crazy how different a holiday can be when you have someone special to share it with. But on top of that I spent it with a group of 23 and sometimes more people who are some of the greatest people you will ever meet. This time last year I would have never expected myself to be in Kansas for the next Thanksgiving with a group of people I barely know but who are fast becoming like family.
Why Kansas you ask? Well it is the home of the Hawthornes, a family that takes in stray college students over the holidays. The Students are invited by their sons Curtis (fjord) and Craig (Grey). (Many have chosen to stray from there families in favor of the Kansas get away, and quite a few, including Luke, are repeat offenders.) The weekend was so Laid back that over 4 days it was up to you to pick your pace, and be as active or lethargic as you chose.

The weekends events included :
A ridiculously hard puzzle and Games! : Munchkin, Settlers of Catan, Axis and Allies, Polish Ping Pong, and Stupid (don't ask)

FIRE!

Keeping Warm

New Friends

And Friday evening it began to snow

And everyone went out to play and experiment with the coals of Thanksgivings fire.

There was the lift

and the placement

the fan & the flame

The cutting of the hole

The realization that the hand saw just isn't going to cut it & the introduction of the drill

The onlookers

The Supervisor/Enabler tries his hand

The hand gets really hot

The Laura watches with delight and stands far back with healthy fear

The mission is accoplished

The crowning glory (the phoenix rises from the ashes)

The final act

The morning comes covered in white

As does the car

Other events of the weekend :
*Sheet rocking basement rooms
*Eating
*Taking random quizzes about how well you will survive the zombie apocalypse
*Eating
*Figuring out why the router doesn't work
*Eating
*Driving back home in the front seat, smiling that you are the girlfriend of the driver, and not crammed in the back of a Mazda 3 with 2 other people for 6 hours
*Eating

The littlest birds

So this weekend Luke and I went to Weatherford TX, and I was introduced to his Grandparents, and a large contingent of his family. It was a blast! Large gatherings always make for adventure. On Saturday we went to Traders Village, an interesting schmorgusborg of trash and treasure, and explored it's rows of shops. The best of which was a shop with beautiful little birds.
The other little beauty is Lilia, Luke's 2 year old niece, and his cousin's daughter Larrisa. They were so sweet and cute, especially covered in Cheeto dust.
And last but not least.... Yes I let Luke take a picture of me.

I think the greatest story of the weekend would have to be when his adorable Grandma demanded attention, and when holding her hand up was not enough, she smacked Luke's sister Gwen and said, "Gwen, tell her to be quiet." "Her" being Luke's aunt. It was great. She is feisty and quirky, with a great sense of humor.
Other than that this weekend consisted of moving, moving, and.... more moving...... fun fun fun. Anyway I am currently in Kansas with over 30 people, most of which I don't know. :)
It's great fun. So far we have worked on a puzzle, slept, ate food, worked on the puzzle again, and now I sit here while a large group of Letourneau students and alum play munchkin, and debate whether or not someone has died from the giant nose.
Happy Thanksgiving all!

Ideas and more

All right, so I have come up with an idea as to what I would like to do with this blog thing. I am a huge fan of the blog print & pattern and the idea is to do something similar with the things that inspire me, the things I see that other people would like that I know and the final products of my work. Anyway, I think it will be a fun way to fill people in on the world of Erin.
And so it begins.

So in church world Christmas is a main event that usually involves lots of time and effort, or this year running around with my head cut off. Between Having mono at the beginning of this month and still trying to recover, moving to a new home and all the joys that are happening with that (while trying not to do to much so I can fully recover) and all the Family festivities of this time (while trying not to do to much so I can fully recover) it has been interesting.But as for Firewheel, the sermon series will be unOrtHoDoX. which makes some fun and interesting Christmas decoration ideas. On an outing to the mall with Luke we came across the beautiful store anthropologie. It's window display was awesome.

upon closer inspection was the realization that the "ice" was straws, so the idea is born to use this as the unorthodox Christmas decorations at church. One realization I've had in church design though is that everything has to be BIG! so when thinking of what might happen for the Worship Center, it had to be bigger than straws, or we would have had to do so many straws that it would be impossible construction time, especially on a tight schedule. What is like a straw but large? I thought to myself. Thus the idea of replicating the idea with PVC pipe is born. How this will turn out I'm not sure. And as it unfolds I will be sure and update you. Please be praying that it all works out. Things that happen in my head sometimes don't play out on paper.

The rest of the images are other pretties I found on my trip to North park mall, and some

detail shots of the straw-cicles.Window detailBarney's New York window display featuring the very "in" green theme.
Nordstrom's Thanksgiving Graphic

Painting in Nordstrom

White House Black Market window display

wow

Alright so I am going to start trying out this blogging thing to help people keep informed in the world of Erin, since I am quite horrible at it. Don't expect much. :)