Roasting Coffee at the O'Neal's

Spencer has recently taken up a new hobby... roasting his own coffee. (Buying green beans are almost half the cost as buying already roasted beans, and they last up to a year. Once you roast them they last about a week, but are fresher then store bought.)

He wanted to share the first roasting experience with the O'Neals when we were over there last. Here's a few snap shots from the day...

All you need is an popcorn popper (that has slits in the inside to circulate the air), cardboard or metal tube (that sits in popcorn popper opening), metal strainer or stock pot, and a wooden spoon.

The first batch...

cooling the beans...

The girls have a turn :)

The finished medium and dark roasts... Spencer is pleased :)

The Fashion Show

I was able to put together a fashion show for Motherhood, and Friday was the big day.

It was so cool, because everything actually worked out according to plan... and everyone I asked to model for it all came!!!

HA! When they saw the hundreds of people we would be going to model in front of, some of them thought they felt the baby coming on... :) Nice try. But we all went out there....

one carrying twins...

one full term...

or just a belly pillow...

(I modeled too) and it was a lot of fun.

So much planning was involved for just 2 minutes of fame... but it was all worth it.

It's a small world after all...

Color photo found at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46355638@N00/2142122437

I was working one wintry day over the holidays and in walks this girl who I recognized from the church in California... and she looked at me and immediately said upon recognizing me... "This may sound strange but are you from California?" And said "Yes" and she said, "Are you SPENCER'S wife?"... "Y-eeeesss?... It's Shannon right?....O'NEA-llL?" "Yes, and my husband is Sean! Do you live in Lincoln???" "Yes we just moved out in August." "Wow, we just moved out Last August!"...

So come to find out they actually live about 3 blocks from our house, so we exchanged info to get together for dinner after the holidays. It's crazy that while living in California, we hadn't actually gotten to know the O'Neals, even though we had the same circles of friends... so when we went over to their place for dinner it was strange to see pictures of people we knew from Grace hanging on their walls.

We have since gotten together again for crafting/sewing days, and it's really refreshing to have a friend and fellow believer close by again... something I really miss having at my fingertips, like I did while at Grace.

It's so amazing how God puts together certain groups of people together when HE wants them to be put together... perfectly orchestrating everything in HIS good timing, so that we find new friendships when we least expect them, and need them most. PRAISE GOD!