Tea and such............

We had our fundraiser tea for Anna, we had alot of fun with it. It was a "vintage" tea, so costumes and decorations were very fun..................

Do not come to tea too early, you may catch people in their work clothes, not looking

ready for tea at all!!!

All the early work getting done, and tea room is ready.........

Each table was just a little bit different.......this one was shades of green with green glass plates, an old feed sack with an old sifter holding the pansies..........

This table had pink plates, an old tin tea box holding the pansies that sat upon

an antique doily................

This table was my mothers old Franciscan "Wild Rose" dishes, which was fun since they are authentically vintage and that is my mothers vase holding the pansies.....

My mothers aprons and my little dresses!!!! How cute is that!!!

Decorating was fun as I have alot of my mothers things from the 40's - 50's......

Usually at the end of the hall right here, we put lattice up to hide all the pews back there. Well that lattice finally got put on my front porch!! LOL. Sooooo, I had to brainstorm about what to do........voila!! Vintage tablecloths.....that is the whole reason this became a vintage tea...it all started with these tablecloths and what a fun theme it was!!!

We had lots of helpers.....................

Here is Anna and her friend Becka Delery

This is Anna Daniels and Daisy Marsden, they helped with serving.....

Anna had a corner set up with a display of her England trip, with a map and some souvenirs and her pictures along with two letters she has written about what God is doing in her lilfe right now.

We did get some things made to sell and had a little store set up in the back corner, we did very well actually, sold quite a few things............

Anna was happy to sit and take peoples money!!! :)

Jenny Marsden also helped with serving and she also played the piano for the ladies which they thouroughly enjoyed.
Ladies enjoying tea...................
The tea was done, everyone enjoyed themselves and Anna raised some money for her trip......all in all I would say that was a successful day!!

ON ANOTHER NOTE...................

So, we were just ready to mow our lawn for the first time and the lawn mower broke!!! So, our kind neighbor, Nate, came and mowed it for us...................

This is pretty fun to have all that green right out our front door. See the dirt on the other side of the fence?? That is what it looked like before where the grass is!!

Just keeping warm on a nippy spring morning.....................

Plane ticket in hand..................

Seems like you can talk all you want but once that ticket is in your hand it is a for sure deal!! Tickets were purchased today! Anna flys from Portland, Oregon on Monday, June 2nd at 8:45a.m. Five hours in Philly and she flys out that evening and arrives in London at 8a.m. on Tuesday morning, June 3rd.

Then she will have the adventure of finding her way around in London!! She will meet up with a friend she knows from Bend, but that she actually met when she was in Cornwall last October. She will stay with her Tuesday night (she lives in London). Then Wednesday she will meet up with Heather, the other girl she is teaming up with. They will

try to find each other at Paddington Station in London. Have fun with that girls!!!!

At which point they will board the train and head for Truro.........
There they will meet up with friends who will receive them with open arms and make them feel right at home........

In the meantime, we are still keeping busy working on that tea fundraiser!!!! When that is over it will be almost time to go...... :(

Guess who is going to England?!?!?!

Anna is leaving for England on Sunday, June 1st. WOW!! Not much time left. But we have all been packed and ready to go, so really all she needs is to make sure her things she packed are what she still needs.

She is going for a 6 month stay. She just sent out a pile of support letters today. Turns out she will not be able to work there so she needs to raise all of her living expense. She has enough for a plane ticket and a little more.

May 17th we are doing a Tea out at the Alfafla Hall where we have done them in the past. This one is different in that it is a fundraiser for Anna and we are making things to sell there too.

Lots to squeeze in to just four weeks!!! (eeeekkksss)

Please pray for our last little bit of time together. It will be short and busy. But we are excited she can go and get started.

It will be different around here........................

5 Acres in Alfalfa!!

Here is proof that our house is really for sale!! :) So tell all your friends, 5 acres in Central Oregon!! WOW!! We have the greenest grass in Bend right now!! (oh, not the grass in this picture, up in our front yard you will find a lawn about as green is the

picture of England on this page.

It is kind of fun to be here right now, as soon as the weather warms up again we are going to plant some flowers and even some herbs in the garden. Maybe even some lettuce or something. Might as well feed ourselves while we wait. :)

Just do not know when it will warm up again......

Good Times with Friends.......

We had a bonfire a couple weeks ago. The forecast said it was going to be 78 the following Saturday. Hard to believe since we were in the middle of a blizzard at the time. But, we decided to just once have faith in the weatherman and go for it!! :) So, we had the first bonfire of the spring and enjoyed the special time with friends.

Younger friends thought up their own ideas of entertainment.....
How cute can you get...........


Ben was awesome on the guitar as always.......

Dennis BBQd hamburgers, yum..........
Nothing more relaxing than gazing into a fire with awesome guitar in the background a full tummy, topped off with a cup of coffee and those awesome Marsden Brownies!!!!!

We are grateful for friends and family..................

Just another Spring Day........

We woke up this morning to snow on the ground. Out our front window, enjoying our new hand rail we spotted this quail!! He sat there for a long time. Usually there are quite a few of them all together, so I am thinking this one is standing guard and the rest of his family is under shelter from the snow that is falling. I find it very amazing how in the animal/bird etc. world, God made the males beautiful so that preditors would be attracted to them and the rest of their family would be safe. Just look at this little guy, who would think he was a male. When I see quail, I think they look like proper little ladies on their way to a tea party, wearing their little hats adorned with a feather!! I think I can safely say, I am glad God did not plan it that way in the human race. I am glad our men are big and strong and manly and there to protect us in a different way, I am not sure I would want all our men to be "pretty". LOL. Enjoy your spring day, wherever you are, find something new and happy.

SPRING IS HERE!!!

Do you think?? Hmmmm.......snow flurries in April........oh yes, this is Central Oregon!!! "April (snow) showers bring May flowers!!" Hey, we're doing good, little daffodil leaves are coming up, as well as tulips and other spring bulbs. If you look closely the rhubarb is coming alive. And at the base of many plants, there is green!! Just don't leave the area and go somewhere that all these things are in full bloom, keep your focus here and YES! spring is upon us.

Seems like we are in the habit of writing on this blog about once a month. Anna started this blog so that when we got to England we could keep it updated on a regular basis so people who wanted to could see what we were up to. Since we are not gone yet, it is hard to write much.

Our house has been 4 sale for 3 weeks now. We lowered the price once and we have not had one single call. We are trying some different things this week to see if we will have a better response.

Dennis has not worked for a couple of weeks, he had jobs set up for this week, but they keep falling through or getting pushed out, so he has had to look for work without much success. This would be a very good time for our house to sell. :) With the time off, he has kept busy getting cupboard doors on, building a new island in our kitchen and he has started on new kitchen cabinets. Also, he has done some great trim work in our living room around the window and front door, beautiful knotty pine with a craftsman style to it. Nice work!!

Anna is working for a friend making Salsa and doing some sewing projects that were ordered from her online store. She is keeping busy and having fun.

Janice keeps busy just keeping the house nice in case anyone would call to see it. She has done a small tea recently and we are thinking of having another big one soon. It is also tax time, so lots of bookkeeping to do. :( Fun times!!

Anna has been living out of her suitcases for a very long time, she wanted to know exactly what she could take. Janice was done sorting and packing a long time ago as well. Storage is packed and we have a huge pile of stuff for a garage sale after the house sells. We are pretty much ready to go, all that is left to pack are a few things we are using.

Basically right now, we are continuing to live our lives in Bend, Oregon. Spending time with friends and staying involved in our church. Waiting on God and His timing. We had heard many stories about how fast people sold their houses and were able to just GO!! We had thought that would be our story. But God has a different story for us. We are excited to see what that story is as it continues to unfold. We are learning lessons, being challenged and continuing to trust God to lead us and guide us in His perfect way.