Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow

"The snow is falling,

The trees are white,

The road has a dusting,

and everything is right."

Tara Kulla

(Until you get stuck at home and you need to go somewhere) - Not that it's happening right now:)

It's at it again!!  We woke up this morning to snow on the ground and its lunchtime and it is now a bit deeper:)

The front yard

The back yard.  Do you see the snow falling?

The car - where we measure the snow:)

You can see it snowing and the dusting on the road.

Love and God's Peace,

Tara

Making Prune Tarts - A Family Affair

My mom makes the BEST prune tarts ever . . . no doubt about it!!  That being said, I realized last year that none of the girls in our family knew her recipe!  I wanted my kids and I to learn to make them, and asked her to come and have a "prune tart making day".  We ended up doing it at Charity's house and some of my sisters joined us.

The ones who did it last year enjoyed it so much they wanted to do it again, so on Wednesday, December 15th, Mom came to Charity's and we had another prune tart making day.  We've decided this should definitely be an annual event.  Mom, Charity, Clara, Ramona, Christina and I came for making prune tarts that afternoon . . . we all showed up whenever we could.  My big kids rode the bus there and David brought the younger ones over when they got home from school.  Chet and Rick came for visiting and taste testing:)  We had a potluck supper.

Mom ended up making up the dough this year, although several of the girls helped mix on the different batches.  Charity did a lot of rolling and putting on prunes.  The girls did a lot of cutting and putting the tarts together, and I manned the ovens.

And, now, when I go to load the pictures to my blog, I realize that between the girls using two different cameras, no one took a picture of Mom.  So, here is Mom (from a couple months back!)

Charity rolling out more dough and Tiffany cutting tarts.

Forrest and Bronwyn needed to cut a few, too:)

Tiffany putting on the prunes and Aimee, Bethany and Tamara closing up the tarts.

 Bethany, Clara, Kimberly and Tamara working.

 Charity, Chauntel, Alexa and Ramona.

Prune tarts in various stages of readiness.

Two ovens were not really doing the trick, so I was WAY behind on my job!!  Pans and pans waiting to go in.

All baked and cooling!

Dozens more in containers and cooling.

It was a very successful prune tart making day.  We ended up making over 1,600 tarts - about 135 dozen!!!  Except for one container, all of mine went into the freezer.  As a matter of fact, I think I need to pull one out today.  It's been awhile since I've had one:)

Love, Elva

 

My cute siblings and Christmas pictures

I decided I'd better show you the cutest kids on the block!!

Hunter and Walker

Bronwyn Laci Kulla

Bronwyn

Hunter John Kulla

Walker

Walker Ray Kulla

Some of our Christmas pictures/cards ~ we display ours like this.  Thank you, everyone, for the lovely greetings!  We have enjoyed your pictures and letters very much.

Love and God's Peace,

Tara



Sleigh Bells Ringing ~ Part 3

I now bring to you the end of Sleigh Bells Ringing.  I hope you have enjoyed my story:)

Sleigh Bells Ringing

Part 3~

     The outlaw leader was bound up with ropes the women had found. Now, Kristie said, “The other outlaw is riding up now, Shell. This time, you better get the gun loaded.”

     “I know, Kristie. I don’t want to, but I’m going to have to. He probably has a gun on him.”

     After a few minutes, the outlaw swung open the door, and said, “John, I’ve got the ransom note put in the sleigh, and . . .” Suddenly, he noticed a gun was pointed at him. Before he could say anything, or get his gun out, he heard the other gun being cocked.

     “Outlaw, get your hands in the air, or I might have to shoot this gun. I don’t want to, but I have to do what I have to do to get us out of here. Now hold still, and Julie-Anne’s going to tie you up. One move and you’ll be dead.” Shell said it all with a confident, mean voice, but inwardly, she was trembling. Julie-Anne moved towards the outlaw, and Shell kept the gun pointed at him. After tying him up, they took his gun and made him move towards a chair and sit down on a chair, which they tied him up onto, also.

     Suddenly, they heard a jingling of bells. Julie-Anne and Shell rushed to the window, while Kristie stayed and watched the outlaws.

     “It’s Mr. Kalid and Mr. Juckson! And all of our husbands!” Shell cried, who had reached the window first. The three women rushed out the door towards their husbands and greeted them with happiness and love. The women were all asked questions at once. They all decided to go inside and explain the situation to them.

      First the women explained how they’d been abducted, and then the men explained how they’d found them. Mr. Kalid had seen the ransom note, and then he’d found the tracks of the horse. Over where the outlaws were, they were both disgusted at the reason they’d been found. Then, the men had seen the galloping horses coming towards them, which had been the women’s husbands. They had found the bells that had been thrown off and put them in their saddle bags. Mr. Juckson had come and snuck up to the house and peeked through the window, and had seen both outlaws were tied up, which had surprised all of them. They then decided to put the bells on their horses, thinking it would be a fun surprise.

     The sleigh and horses hurried down the mountain, everyone thankful that everyone was safe, except the outlaws. The bells were jingling, back on their place on the sleigh. The singing of “Jingle Bells” could be heard along with the jingling of the bells as the sleighs and horses pulled back onto the well used road. “Oh, Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way, Oh, what fun it is ride, In a one horse open sleigh . . .”

*********

God's Peace & Love,

Aimee

Sleigh Bells Ringing ~ Part 2

If you haven't read Part 1, click here.

Sleigh Bells Ringing

Part 2~

     The Sleigh Bells Mountain Rides group stopped for the night at another large cabin, similar to the one they had stayed in the night before. Everyone had been accounted for except the last sleigh, which was Kristie, Julie-Anne, and Shell’s.

     “I wonder why their sleigh isn’t here,” wondered Mr. Kalid, the group leader and owner.

     “I don’t know, but we’d better go check it out,” said Mrs. Kalid. “We can’t have them being left out in the cold all night. I don’t want anyone out there in that snow; it’s falling quickly. There’s not much else we can do, though, except go to find them.”

     Mr. Kalid, and an employee of his, Mr. Juckson, went out on the search. They rode horse back to go quicker.

     Three hours later, Mr. Kalid and Mr. Juckson returned without the three missing women. Many of the people in the cabin were up because they were worried about Mr. Kalid, Mr. Juckson, Kristie, Julie-Anne, and Shell.

     “We aren’t sure what happened to them. We went back to the spot we had lunch, but there was no sign of them anywhere. Do you remember the place we were late in the afternoon? Well, in that spot, there was a fallen tree.” Mr. Kalid said, giving his report to Mrs. Kalid and a few other employees. “I feel especially bad that I don’t know where they are since Mrs. Coneel is pregnant. If the women are out in the cold, they’ll probably die. I feel horrible, but I had nowhere else to look.”

     “Don’t take all the blame. We all should remember to regularly check on our customers. It makes me feel horrible that we weren’t checking on them, so now we don’t know were they are,” Mrs. Kalid replied to her husband.

     That night, all the people in the group went to bed with heavy hearts.

~~~~~~

     “Okay, Dustin, we need to write that ransom note.” The outlaws and women were in a cabin in the mountains, with the fire roaring, the women huddled together in front of the fire. John had built the cabin many years ago, when he first became an outlaw. The outlaws wrote the ransom note, murmuring together quietly, which the women were glad of. The only time the women could hear what the outlaws were saying was when they said, “Just put it in one of the sleighs.” The women went to sleep, but all had a restless night, with the men snoring loudly and them just being frightened, not knowing what was going to happen to them.

     When the women woke up in the morning, only the outlaw leader was still at the cabin. He said, “Ladies, I’m going outside for a bit. You stay put; I’ll be watching you.”

     When he left the cabin, Shell started talking. “Darwin taught me how to shoot a gun. If I get the gun over there,” she said, pointing towards a gun sticking out from under a blanket, “then I can hide it and keep it with me. When he comes in, I’ll threaten him and bonk him over the head with the gun. Then we can tie him up and lay him under the blanket he was using to sleep with. When the other man comes back, and he starts coming inside, I’ll the point the gun at him and tell him not to move. Then Julie-Anne, you can go tie him up.”

     “Yes, I can do that.” Julie-Anne said, even though it may be scary. “And it’s good that Kristie isn’t doing anything.”

     “I am too doing something to help you girls,” Kristie retorted. “I’m not sitting here and not doing anything to help.”

     “Yes you are,” Shell replied firmly. “We don’t want you to loose the baby, so you can just sit there. You’ll help us by watching to see when either of the outlaws get back.”

     “Do you want me to go get the gun for you, Shell?” Julie-Anne said. I can crawl over there and get it so no one sees me.”

     “Yes. That’ll work. And Kristie and I can watch to see if the outlaws are coming back. Hurry now!” When Julie-Anne had the gun, she rushed it over to Shell, who put it beside her. She knew the outlaw who had gone outside didn’t have his gun on him, so she didn’t need to load the gun.

~~~~~~~

     Dustin placed the ransom note on the first sleigh in the line and quickly galloped away. He had left that morning at about 5:00 A.M. to bring the ransom note down the mountain and get it to the sleigh before they would be getting up. He hurried away, forgetting to think about doing something to cover his tracks.

~~~~~~

     About 20 minutes after Dustin had left the ransom note, Mr. Kalid was getting up and went to check on the sleighs and the livestock. On the sleigh his wife rode, he saw a clean, white envelope. Curiously, he picked it up and then opened it. Inside was a small scrap of paper. He quickly read it, his fear and anger growing by the second. Forgetting to check the livestock, he hurried inside to find his wife just waking up, and showed it to her.

     She read: For the safe return of the three women who were on your sleigh ride, leave $10,000 in this envelope on the fallen log about 7 miles back. Do so immediately, and the women will be let go, unharmed. Otherwise, we’ll send back the sleigh with three dead bodies inside.

     “Oh, no! What are we going to do?” Mrs. Kalid cried.

     “I don’t know. I’d better go see if there are any tracks or anything. I forgot to look, I was so angry.” He hurried outside and saw the tracks of a horse leading to and from the sleigh. He hurried inside and told his wife, then went and woke up Mr. Juckson and told him to get dressed. Five minutes later they were on their way, following the tracks. Their guns were on their side, loaded and ready to go.

***********

Stay tuned for the rest of the story ~ hopefully I won't take as long this time to post it:)

God's Peace & Love,

Aimee

Sleigh Bells Ringing ~ Part 1

I wrote this story for a school assignment, but decided to post this on here.  It takes place in winter around Christmas time, so I thought now would be a good time to post it.  I'll do it in a few different posts.

Sleigh Bells Ringing

Part 1~

     Northeast of a quaint, little town called Joria, WA, was Kolan Road. One cold, winter afternoon a group of women sat in the last sleigh, behind all the other prancing horses and gliding sleighs, the bells tinkling in the lightly falling snow. Up ahead, the women heard the singing of “Jingle Bells”. “Dashing through the snow, In a one horse open sleigh, O’er the fields we go, Dashing all the way, Bells on bob tails ring, Making spirits bright . . .” The women joined in the song.

     The women were taking a 1-week sleigh ride from the 18th to the 24th, Christmas Eve. It was the first day of the ride, and the women had signed up for the ride at the last minute, so they were in the last sleigh, which they really didn’t mind, since they were able to watch everyone else in front of them.

     There were three women in the sleigh: Kristie Coneel, Julie-Anne Rika, and Shellie, “Shell” Meran. They were all married and their husbands: Richard, Joe, and Dustin, were gone to the city to buy supplies for the winter, so they had decided to go on the tour. They had been friends since first grade. Kristie was pregnant; she was due in January. Her husband, Jackson, hadn’t wanted her to go, but she’d finally convinced him. The others, Julie-Anne and Shell, had been newlywed in August.

~~~~~~~~



     John and Dustin Acran sat in a small cabin by the roadside. The fire was crackling, and they sat at a crudely made table, planning their attack against the Sleigh Bells Mountain Rides. They knew the current group would be coming by tomorrow at about 3:00 P.M. They would steal their food, which they knew the mountain sleigh rides company had lots of with them, and also, money. They had lots of money – half of the amount that the tour company charged for each person touring. And they charged lots of money.


     “Okay. So let’s plan to have a tree come crashing down in front of the last sleigh. It’s the largest and has all the food and money. And by the way, we want to do it in front of the last sleigh because then the others won’t even know we’ve stopped it,” John said to Dustin.

     He replied, “Yep, that’d be the way to do it, John! So should we put our guns on them and demand the money? And then tie them up?”

     “You’re getting smarter every day, Dustin! Yup, I knew you’d make a good outlaw! Your idea was exactly what I was going to suggest to you.”

~~~~~~~~

     Kristie sat in the sleigh, wondering why she had been so insistent about going on the sleigh ride. She was freezing and uncomfortable. Suddenly, she felt a pain that made her gasp.

     “What’s the matter, Kristie?” Julie-Anne asked.

     “I suddenly felt a pain, but then it went away.” Kristie replied. “I’m sure I’ll be fine. Don’t you worry . . .” she gasped again barely keeping out a yelp.

     “Do you want me to go get the doctor, Kristie?” Shell asked.

     “No, I don’t think so. I think I’ll be fine.”

     “If you’re sure,” Julie-Anne replied.

     That night, they, along with everyone else who was on the Sleigh Bell Mountain Ride stayed in a large cabin, with a fireplace at the end of each side of the building.

     The next morning, after a hearty breakfast of bacon, eggs, and biscuits, they left on the ride. The women had a fun time, talking together. Kristie had had no more pains since the day before.

     Late that afternoon, the women suddenly heard the cracking of a tree in their path. They had no clue what to do, so they sat there huddled together, frightened. The horses slowed to a stop.

~~~~~~~

     “What in the world, John!” Dustin said. “Are you sure they keep the supplies in the last sleigh?”

     “They did before,” John replied. “Now it looks like we have three women on our hands. I guess we may as well take them somewhere and demand a ransom for them so we can get something for all the work we did. A lot of money sounds purty nice!”

     “Sounds like a good idea,” Dustin replied.

     “We’ll jump out and put our guns on them, just like planned,” John said.

     “All right,” came the reply.

~~~~~~~

     “Ok, so what should we do? The rest of the group obviously didn’t know that we got stuck behind a fallen tree,” Shell said.

     “I guess we’ll have to wait for someone to notice that we’re not with them or find a way around . . .” Kristie was replying.

     Suddenly, they heard a loud, harsh voice screaming, “Get your hands in the air!” All three women sat dumbfounded and turned to stare at two men who were approaching them.

     “Didn’t you hear me?” questioned the man who appeared to be the leader of the group of two men. “I said get your hands in the air. And if you don’t, you do realize I have a gun trained on you, don’t you?” The women were startled by this and quickly raised their hands in the air. “Now, do you have any money?” The women dumbly shook their head.

     “Don’t you lie to me,” the second man now interrupted, yelling. “That has to be a big fat lie that you don’t have any money! That’s not even possible.”

     With a trembling voice, Kristie said, “Yes, it is possible. We had no reason to bring any money, so we didn’t.”

     “Are you positive you don’t have any money?” John retorted. Julie-Anne, Shell, and Kristie quickly nodded yes. “Well, we’re going to search through you stuff and see if you have any money.”

     “Well, you’re not going to find any.” Julie-Anne angrily said.

     “You hold your tongue, girly. I don’t want to hear any more out of you.” Dustin said. The two men started to search through their stuff. When they were done, Dustin noticed that Kristie was pregnant.

    “Oh, no,” Dustin whispered to John. “She’s pregnant.”

     “Ain’t matter much to me,” John said.

     Later that same day, with snow falling heavily, Julie-Anne, Kristie, and Shell were in the sleigh, being pulled by the horses. The bells had been taken off by the two outlaws, and they were not enjoying the ride this time. The outlaws were riding beside them on horseback. They were off the well used roads. The outlaws had been happy when it started snowing, but they had not been; the snow would cover the sleigh and horses’ tracks.

**********

I hope you have enjoyed Part 1 of Sleigh Bells Ringing.  Come back tomorrow for Part 2.

God's Peace & Love,

Aimee

Post Bazaar Sale

Well, we made money at our bazaar last Saturday, but we still have so many things left that we'd love to sell.  I have a lot of my things listed on my Etsy site - http://www.etsy.com/shop/emkdesigns.  Aimee also has a start of her's listed at http://www.etsy.com/shop/ajcrazies. 

Some of our things are just too heavy for someone to want to pay for shipping on them.  I'm going to show a bunch of pictures here for anyone local interested in buying these items.

First, I have some 1" binders with sheet protectors.  These work great for all those recipes you print off the computer.  I use mine all the time.  Here are a couple collages of the 4 I have - fronts and then sides and backs.  These binders are $7.00 each.

Aimee has a couple Christmas Countdown Block Sets left.  They are $9.25 each.

These following items can be mailed and wouldn't be too expensive, I don't think, but they're not worth putting them on Etsy.  Any money we earned would be used up in the fees we'd have to pay!

Aimee also has a few bookmarks.  A perfect gift for the reader in your home! They're $1.50 each. (Click the picture to view it larger.)

Next she has a bunch of Felt Flower Hair Clips. There's lots of colors.  If you want some, you can email ajcrazies@gmail.com and we'll email you the pictures of the color you want, as most have different types of buttons in the center.  These are on french hair clips.  They're $1.75 each.

There are a few headbands left.

This first one is an Adult Reversible Headband.  It has brown with white polka dots on one side, and a plain dark green fabric on the other.  In the back at the bottom, it has a white strip of elastic.  This is $4.25.

The second is a Red 3-Flower Headband.  It costs $4.50.

Then, lastly, Aimee has some baby and Christmas cards. They're $2.00 each.

 This baby card is the full picture of it from the first collage on the bottom right.

Email us if you'd like to buy an item.  Thanks so much!

Elva & Aimee

emkdesigns.etsy.com

ajcrazies.etsy.com

Country Fair Bazaar

This Saturday, December 4th, we will be having a couple tables at the Country Fair Bazaar at Amboy Middle School.  It will be open from 9:00 to 4:00.  Last year they had about 80 tables, throughout the gym, halls and cafeteria.  There were a lot of neat things there.  I really liked the bazaar and decided to host a table (or 2!) there this year.  The girls and I have made a lot of things in the last couple months.  We are finally winding down.  I finished my last craft today . . . just a little more pricing and then baking on Friday!!

Come to our table and you can buy homemade suckers, delicious butterhorns, bread, flower pens, notebooks (scrapbooked and fabric w/ruffle), Christmas countdown blocks, cards, crayon rolls, recipe binders, decorated clipboards, crayon cupcakes, fabric checkbook/planner covers, Bible-verse frames, flower hair accessories, bags, bookmarks, crocheted dish cloths, a crocheted baby blanket (possibly a few other crocheted things as well), aprons (for adults and children) and baby quilts.  That is basically all that we are making - I might have missed a few things:)  The crocheted items are made by Darla (Tervo) but the rest of the stuff is made by any of us ladies here.  Christopher and Clint are also selling kindling by the bundle.

This is a portion of the things that are going to be at the bazaar.  There is at least one of everything except for crayon rolls, kindling and bakery/goodies. 

To see this one bigger, click on it and zoom it in.  You should be able to see the writing then:)

These are the Christmas Countdown Blocks that Aimee made.  You can have up to 32 days 'til Christmas. 

A close up of one.

Hope to see you there:)  Thanks for looking.

Love, the Kulla girls

Real Snow!!!

When we left to church Sunday morning there was a blue sky at home.  After lunch at church it started to snow.  By the time we got home we had about 2 inches of snow.  The kids all headed out to play. 

Here is Hunter in his boy/girl get-up:)

Our front yard.

Christopher and Clint built a snow couch.

I thought this one looked pretty neat with the trees in the background and the snow falling.

Aimee thought we should have something good and fun to eat, so she went to work making magic cookie bars, and I made cheesy bacon bites.  We decided to be a little healthy and added some apples to go with them:)

Yesterday it snowed pretty much all day.  We ended up with about 6 inches of snow.  The kids had lots of fun sledding.

Last night I made snow ice cream for bed snack.

It froze hard last night and this morning I was awakened by the sound of kids whizzing by on sleds in the backyard, on the crunchy, frozen snow.  School was cancelled and they didn't take advantage of being able to sleep in!!!

I thought the moon looked so pretty above the trees this morning.

Tara and Christopher were the early birds out sledding.

Clint, Tara, Aimee, Reid and Christopher went sledding up a logging road a ways away.  Here they are ready to head out.

Clayton taking a rest from sledding on the snow couch.

Forrest was very upset that he couldn't go sledding with the big kids.  He had big tears rolling down his cheeks, but quickly dropped his head when he saw me coming with the camera.

Another picture of our backyard, with all the snow covered trees leaning over the trail.

I just looked outside as I was ending my post and saw how bright and pretty it was, so I had to run out for another picture.  It's a beautiful, freezing day today!

Snowflakes falling all over town

Slipping, sliding, everybody rushing around

There's an icy chill in the air

Telling us that winter's really here!

At least, it really feels like it:)

Hope you have a nice Thanksgiving!