Love Fest with Z2

Annie can't get enough attention from my niece during her visit this week. She figured out a way here to get in the guest room for some loving!

Puttering In the Garden

Today it was shady enough to putter around the garden. I got to deadhead geraniums, smell the lilies, check the shrubs for wind damage, pinch back the coleus, and have my buddy Sweet William pose for a picture. I also got to pull some weeds, rake some pine needles, replace some annuals, and trim some trees, but those pictures aren't quite as picturesque!

"When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant." ~Author Unknown

House Guest for This Week

We have a special house guest this week. My niece Z2 came home from Kellogg with me to stay this week. Today is her 14th birthday. The dogs just love having Z2 with us and we did a birthday photo session with the dogs this afternoon. Annie posed nicely with the birthday girl. It was impossible to get both dogs to cooperate at the same time.
After Shelby kissed Z2 about ten times we gave up and Z2 went back to reading her new birthday book. I am sure the dogs will be back soon for another round of undivided attention.

Windstorm 2008: The Colville City Park

Pastor Shane lives right by the Colville City Park and captured these photo images last Thursday evening. I was there Friday and city workers were still cleaning up from the damage. This park is well-known for the clusters of evergreen trees that tower over the picnic areas, pool, and amphitheater. Here is a glimpse of how it looked after Windstorm 2008.It is hard to imagine wind strong enough to uproot trees with roots like these. This car was parked at a house next to the park. Thankfully people moved quickly out of the park and no injuries were reported.

Belated Birthday Brunch and Keepers from the Recipe Box

Saturday morning was supposed to be the belated birthday brunch for JEJ and Silver Valley Girl at Mom's house in Kellogg. They both celebrate their birthdays on July 3rd. Because of our wind and power problems and fires close by we had to postpone to brunch until today. Today we honored SVG and Z2 (whose birthday is tomorrow) because JEJ needed to stay home.

The Menu

Mimosas

Breakfast Pizza

Overnight Citrus Pull-Apart Rolls

Melon Salad

sparkling cider, orange juice, coffee

It was exciting to have Raymond Pert's wife The Deke in Kellogg. It was perfect weather for a brunch surrounded by Mom's flowers in the back yard.

Two recipes:

Citrus Pull-apart Rolls

I always do the overnight recipe option at the end. It works really well!

1- 25 ounce package frozen roll dough 1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted

1 cup granulated sugar, divided 2/3 cup (6 oz) 1/3 less fat cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoon orange juice 1 egg 1 tablespoon grated lemon rind 1 tablespoon grated orange rind 1 cup powdered sugar 5 teaspoons fresh lemon juice

Instructions:Thaw roll dough at room temperature 30 minutes. Cut rolls in half. Place 24 halves, cut sides down, in bottom of each of 2 9" round cake pans coated with cook spray. Brush melted butter evenly over rolls. Cover & let rise 30 minutes.While rising, combine 1/4 cup granulated sugar, cream cheese, orange juice, and egg. Beat at medium speed of mixer until well blended. Pour sugar & cream cheese mixture evenly over rolls. Combine 3/4 cup granulated sugar & rinds. Sprinkle evenly over rolls. Cover & let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350°F.Bake for 20 to 30 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cover with foil if they start to brown too much. Let cool 15 minutes. While cooling mix powdered sugar with lemon juice. Drizzle over rolls.

Overnight option: After pouring the cream cheese mixture over the rolls, cover with plastic wrap and set out about 15 minutes then and refrigerate overnight. Gently remove plastic wrap and sprinkle with rind mixture. Let stand at room temperature 30 minutes or until doubled in size. Proceed with recipe at Preheat oven step.

Breakfast Pizza

1 tube crescent rolls

1lb. sausage, crumbled, browned and drained ( I used bacon and want to try Canadian bacon)

2 cups frozen hash browns

1 C. cheddar cheese, shredded

5 eggs

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spray a 9 x 13 pan with cooking spray. Unroll crescent dough and place on bottom of pan. Press perforations together to form a rectangle.Top with sausage, then add the hash browns. Slightly scramble the eggs. Pour over potatoes. Top with cheese. Add the salt and pepper. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

Outdoor Concert: Perhaps God

Last night the Christian Life Center in Kellogg hosted an amazing outdoor concert. Silver Valley Girl's family opened the evening with worship songs and the Crigger family from the Pinehurst Assembly of God church followed them. Above are my nieces Z2 and The Princess.They warmed up the crowd as people enjoyed a BBQ and a beautiful sunlit evening. This is Silver Valley Girl and my niece Kiki Aru harmonizing.
My brother-in-law PKR was the emcee, organizer, drummer, and vocalist.

The "main headliner" for the evening was my brother-in-law's sister Laurie Roberts. She featured the songs from her new CD entitled "Perhaps God", some from her first CD and a few new numbers. Laurie has composed most of her own gospel songs. She was accompanied by Tammy and Tim McMorrow as back-up singers and PKR as her drummer. Here is how she explains the title of the CD.
"Perhaps God refers to a story in 1 Samuel. Saul’s son Jonathan, finding himself greatly outnumbered during a war with the Philistines, says to his armor bearer: “Come let us cross over . . . perhaps the Lord will work for us, for the Lord is not restrained to save by many or by few.” And his armor bearer replies: “Do all that is in your heart . . . here I am with you according to your desire” (NAS, 1 Sam. 14:6-7).
Laurie is an amazing multi-talented woman. I first met her when I substitute taught in her sixth grade class when I was still attending college. Our paths have crossed throughout the years from being in the wedding of my sister and her brother to visits at holidays in Kellogg. Laurie is a high school English teacher now in Boise and I had the privilege of spending more time with her at the recent writing retreat we both attended that I blogged about a couple of weeks ago. It was awesome to work with her and hear other forms of writing she does along with her music lyrics. She did give us a mini-concert at our open mic time during the retreat so I knew I was in for a treat last night. It has been a pleasure to get to know Laurie on a deeper level recently. It was a spirit filled evening as she sang her original compositions and a beautiful arrangement of "Amazing Grace". Later The Princess and Z2 posed for their aunt. Erika, a prophetic artist painted this creation while listening to the music all evening.
Here is Silver Valley Girl and our mother Mary posing for me at the end of the evening. If you want to learn more about Laurie Roberts and her music go here.