Thanksgiving 2008

Thus far, it has been a lovely thanksgiving weekend filled with lots of visiting and good food. For some reason, my camera has hardly made an appearance since last weekend. I guess it's good to take a break from picture taking sometimes, although it doesn't make for as interesting of a blog. Tyler and I took Wednesday off which was a nice way to relax before the holiday. We visited our families. On Turkey day, I helped mom in the morning and then headed up to Bothell to join Tyler's family. We had fun catching up with Blayne and Megan, watching football, enjoyed a delicous meal, played 'Uno' and 'Guess Who', and sat by the warm fireplace. On Friday, we met my family for lunch and visited Tyler's family for dinner and a game of 'Apples to Apples'. Today, Beth and Dave joined us for a visit to mom and dad's complete with barn chores and all :) It was nice to catch up with them and show them around the 'farm' a bit. I am so thankful for the luxury of time to spend with family and friends over this Thanksgiving weekend ~ its been great fun.

AT&T Team

Tyler's co-worker Khushnum invited the team for an authentic Indian food lunch at her home on Sunday. I enjoyed trying something new and loved the food! Not to mention seeing Charlize, Anthony's beautiful little girl. She provided much entertainment for us, just as Alfred did the night before! She loved the chicken who danced and played the chicken dance, if only I could get my hands on one of those for my crazy mom :) Khushnum had already decorated for Christmas, which added to the spirit.

Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

Karlie and Jordan were fabulous hosts of a Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving potluck last weekend. We toasted to their first Thanksgiving in their new home and Lindsay and Jordan's first year of marriage. It was great to see everyone and enjoy a delicious meal together. Alfred, of course, was the center of attention and received much love that evening. We enjoyed a few rounds of Mario Cart and Bowling on the Wii. Good times!!!!

Welcome, Kate & Glory!

My day started off with a very pleasant surprise; announcement of the arrival of Kate and Glory! Congrats, Team Eddy and thank you for even posting pictures :)

I love this school!

I love Seattle University! I love the community, love the difference that we make, love the connections that we have. This year, SU was chosen to award the Opus Prize, a faith-based humanitarian award of one million dollars! We celebrated as a university and opened it to the Seattle community at Benaroya Hall on Tuesday. The evening was complete with the SU choir and orchestra, absolutely amazing!


The three finalists, from Nicaragua, India and Burundi, were such inspirational leaders filled with faith, love, and compassion.

If you need a few minutes of heart-warming stories, click on the finalists link and play the video for each of them (in the bottom right corner of the screen). So touching! We heard the stories of the students and faculty on the nomination committee and the stories of the nominees. It was a beautiful celebration of their work and I can't say enough positive things about the difference that they make.

Feliz cumpleanos, mi hermanita!

We celebrated Becca's 25th birthday last weekend with two grand feasts! On Saturday, the fam went to Emerald Queen Casino for their surf and turf buffet. It satisfied my craving for crab quite nicely :)
Here are mom and I waiting outside in the cold!



On Sunday, Becca, Tyler, Trinh, John and I went to Todai for sushi, Becca's craving! (Not to mention the fact that Todai is free on your birthday!) It was very tasty. John, as usual, was the most adventurous. I think this was his 6th trip to the sushi bar, oh my!



Hope you enjoyed all of the celebrations, sis!

Alley 24 Open!

I proved to be a consistent putt putt golfer at the Sightlife Alley 24 Open on Friday! I teamed up with Karlie, Michael, and Kati for the fun and of course, to benefit a good cause! It was a ton of fun and Jordan's hard work paid off, the event was a great success! Neighbor businesses 'hosted' the holes, so it kept things interesting.

Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!

Tyler and I visited his brother Myles at Woodland Park Zoo on Tuesday. We somehow just missed the rain so we counted our blessings for that. Myles is working on the construction of the new penguin exhibit so we saw the progress on that. We both hadn't been to the zoo in years, it was good to see the new work.

How Many of Me?

Interesting! Go to this website, type in your first and last name, and see what you find out!
There are 16 people in the U.S. named Laura Hauck.
There are 779,394 people in the U.S. with the first name Laura.
Statistically, Laura is the 57th most popular first name.
There are 6,419 people in the U.S. with the last name Hauck. I wonder how many are related to me?
Statistically, Hauck is the 5640th most popular last name.

I want to be back on retreat

The silent retreat was refreshing and amazing! I can see now why there are so many people who return each year, one woman was on her 17th straight year :) The location was Palisades Retreat Center on Dash Point in Federal Way. Absolutely stunning views of the sound and surrounded by a peaceful forest and gardens, as you will see from my pictures :) It was great to experience a community in silence. The weekend was filled with prayer, reflection, journaling, reading, lots of good sleep and food! I can't wait for next year and I am sure you can tell why!

Silence

Tomorrow afternoon, I leave for a weekend silent retreat. Yes, I will spend the weekend in silence; definitely a step outside the box for me. I have a hard time with silence. I most always feel like there is so much to do and talk about. The large majority of my silent time is spent sleeping. So, I think this will be a rewarding experience for me. I look forward to the time for reflection – away from the cell phone, internet, chores, and business of daily life. I’ll let ya know how it goes. :)

Yay!

Election day began with a very important message from my pal, Noah! And ended on a very inspirational note. There was much celebration in our home as we were joined by Garin to watch the election unfold. Here are a few shots of our celebration.



Here's to hope and change for our future!

Double date

We teamed up with Beth and Dave for a fun double date on Saturday. First stop: Cactus, one of my favorite mexican restaurants. Green enchilades--Yum! That's all I have to say about that :) Next stop: the Showbox at the Market for Vince Mira, the young Johnny Cash. Little did we know, there were eight other bands playing as well so it was a fun (and very late) night of music. Highlights besides the food and great company: wearing my red boots, excellent music, old country classics, trumpet lit on fire, dancing, supporting up and coming musicians, extra hour of sleep, seeing older couples on a double date wondering if that will be us in 20 years and last but not least, did I mention great music? :)