Boys to Men.....How did it happen?

AJ (Ian) and Mikel Pizzolo in 1999, just young boys.

Mikel and AJ in 2009!
When and how did they turn into young men?

They have known each other since the 3rd grade and have been friends ever since.

Frank, Tammy and Mikel Pizzolo joined us for dinner on Saturday. We have been trying to get together for too long. It's embarrassing how long we have been trying to get together since the boys....er, young men graduated high school. But we finally did it!

Lisa and Tammy

I can't remember the last time Mikel has lounged on my couch.
He looks pretty comfortable here! It was nice to have him hanging around again.

Frank and Mikel
I have always admired the close relationship they have had
as father and son.

We have enjoyed a great friendship with the Pizzolo's over the years.

The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson~

The Crash of 1929!!!

January 14, 1929 that is!

Delores Cecilia Miller crashed into the world 80 years ago!

We had a big celebration to commemorate that happy day.

What a blessing she is to all who know her.

Dodie with her children.

In back: Mike, Chris, Dodie, Greg and Charlene.

In front: Jeff, Susie, DeaDee, Kevin and Sharon.

Missing are our dear Elmer and Beverly.

(Sorry Kevin but it was either you looking like this and looking at the camera

or Chris not looking at the camera at all)

Dodie with her sister Angie and her husband Frank who made a special trip up from Texas and their brother Norbert's daughter Carol who came from California to join the celebration.

Chris

Chris' oldest boy, Craig.
Janelle, Chris' daughter, was not able to make the party.
She was missed.

Chris' second oldest boy, Brian

Chris' youngest, Jason

Bev's son Daniel.
Bev's son David and his wife Sarah and Bev's daughter Sonya, Richie and Dodie's great-granchildren Joshua and Jacob could not join us for the party. They were all missed.

Daniel blessing us all with his amazing God-given talents.
Simply beautiful.

Dodie, Craig and Diane (Dodie's pastor's wife) enjoying
Daniel's performance.

Jordan, Greg's oldest.

Lisa with our oldest, AJ

Jackson and Ian waiting their turn on the ping-pong table
getting hopped up on Mountain Dew!

Steven, Kevin's oldest son. Kevin's wife Leann, daughter Anna
and her husband Jason could not
join the party. We missed them too.

Kevin's youngest, Joel

Jeff and DeaDee joining the ping-pong fun
in the garage.

Sharon and her son and Dodie's youngest grandchild, Ryder

Sharon's son Nick

Greg's wife Laura, Sue and DeaDee

working their magic in the kitchen. The dinner was amazing.

Charlene and DeaDee taking a rest from all their work in the kitchen.

Charlene and Richie

Charlene's oldest, Tim and his girlfriend Keisha

Charlene's daughter Rochelle and our daughter Mollie.

They were the only girl cousins at the party.

Charlene's boys, Jake, Cole and Alec

DeaDee.

She made the trip from San Jose to come be with us all. DeaDee left her husband Nick and kids, Nick and Andrew home this trip. We missed them.

She and the other ladies planned a great party for Dodie. It all came together well.

Well done ladies!

DeaDee wearing her apron doing dishes.

Charlene and DeaDee made up some questions to test how well we all knew Dodie and the major events in her 80 years.

Charlene made up the questions for the grandkids.

Here are the questions and answers:

1: What year was Grandma born?...1929
2: What is Grandma's middle name? ...Cecilia
3: What kind of car does Grandma drive?... Lincoln Town Car
4: What city does Grandma live in?... Tumwater
5: How old was Grandma when she married Grandpa?... 22
6: What is Grandma's favorite food?... Spaghetti
7: How many grandchildren and great-grandchildren does Grandma have?... 31 and 2
8: What is Grandma's mom's and dad's name?... Teresa and Alphonse
9: What state was Grandma born?... Ohio
10: What is Grandma's favorite place to go on Sundays?... Church
11: How old is Grandma today?... 80

Some of the answers were pretty funny. Wrong... but funny!

Dodie looking at Jackson's "test" paper.

Jason, Joel and Bradley trying to come up with the funniest answers to the questions.

I'm sure they weren't correct but they were funny!

Charlene administering the "test" while sitting with Ian, one of the winners.

Ian tied with Jackson for first place. They got 9 out of 11 correct.

Their prize was lots of candy!!!

DeaDee, Steven and Susie playing the adults game to test their knowledge of how well they know Dodie.

DeaDee made up these questions. There were more of them and were way more detailed. Michael, Sharon and Charlene all tied for first place with 20 out of 25 correct.

For a tie-breaker they had to choose a number between 1 and 80.

Michael was the victor! The prize was two movie tickets!!!

Yeah, another date night!!

Sharon with Dodie and her cake.

Blowing out the candles!

All the cousins posing for a picture, which was no easy task!

Missing are: Sonya, Anna, Craig, Janelle, David, Daniel, Tim, Rochelle, Mollie, Brandon, Casey, Nicholas, Andrew

and Lucas, who was at the party but was missing for some reason.

Dodie opening up her gifts.

The main gifts were a water purifier she has been wanting for a long time and

a yardwork schedule for each weekend for the summer to help

Dodie maintain her yard.

The party was a great success and so much fun.

Dodie's pastor Dennis blessed the food and prayed a blessing over Dodie and her family.

It was a wonderful night and I know Dodie was blessed by it.

God bless Dodie.

~Lisa

A Good Tree

Matthew 7:17-18,20: Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.... Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

If I were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict me?

I want to be a good tree.

~Lisa

A Good Book & Time to Kill

The pleasure of reading doubles when one lives with another who shares the same books.

~Katherine Mansfield~

The kids had a two-hour delay for school today due to water over the roadways. After breakfast Ian and Jackson grabbed a book and read while waiting to catch the bus. I can't think of a better way to kill time than with a good book.

Ian spent most of his free time over the Christmas break reading. I think he read at least 4 books! He caught the bug for reading for pleasure after he started and finished the Twilight series. So, I think his love for reading is rubbing off on Jackson.

Jackson is in the top reading group in his class. He has caught the bug to read for pleasure...from Ian. Also, his teacher has a "Pizza in the Park" day in June for his students who have read a certain number of minutes over the course of the school year. All of my children have had this teacher for the 2nd grade and all have earned "Pizza in the Park". Jackson doesn't want to be left out. Read on Jack!

~Lisa

Button, button, who's got the button...?

Michael and I took advantage of our "dinner and a movie" gift we received

for Christmas from

our good friends Barb and Kerry.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a fantastic movie.

I recommend you see it.

~Lisa

New Years Eve Fun

Happy New Year! Welcome 2009!

After midnight we were all sitting around talking about which resolutions we were going to make, if any. Michael and I didn't have any. Butch and Tina talked about a few but for the most part no one really seemed excited to make any. As I was cleaning up the dishes I flipped my perpetual calendar to January 1 and read the verse:

I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalms 34:1

Everyone agreed that this was a pretty good resolution for the new year.

We invited our good friends Butch and Tina Williams with their children over for a night of good food and good fun. Our neighbors Steve and Diane joined us too.

The kids were playing the Wii, Guitar Hero and Apples to Apples and Catch Phrase with us.

Go Team 1!

Butch is declaring that his team is #1 but he was on team 2

so that would be impossible.

Tina peering into 2009

Michael looking festive

Carmen looking cute

Neighbor Steve telling a story I'm sure! He's got some good ones.

I told Butch that this photo was going to be put on the blog because he would not stop mugging for the camera. We were trying to take a semi-good photo. So, it is what it is, as Tina likes to say!

Tina and I were posing for a picture of just the two of us but before I knew it she was posing for the camera all over the place and whoever was taking the pictures just kept snapping them. So this is Tina giving face!

The Williams Family
Tina, Carmen, LC, Maisy and Butch

Good fun!