Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Jean went home for Christmas


 

December 24, 2007, 7:10 AM, Jean went to be the Lord and her husband Myron who passed away in Feb. 2003. Her obituary can be viewed here. http://obit.stemmlawsonpeterson.com/obitdisplay.html?id=488408

This has been such a long path for all of her family and having her go home on Christmas Eve will always make the holidays bittersweet. Today was Jean's viewing and tomorrow morning is the funeral. I finished writing my part for Jean's funeral and sent it to Jay and Julie this evening. I had it mostly written last week, but had to do some tweaking and I just hope it is okay and that it will honor Jean.

We had a very nice Christmas all the way around, but I think I am paying for the business and the late nights now because I am definitely getting a cold. After all of the snow and bad weather we have had for all of the December weekends, we ended up with a green and not white Christmas. On Saturday it warmed up and rained and melted nearly all of the snow. We got a few flurries on Sunday, but that was about it and it hasn't snowed since then.

It is hard to believe that Christmas is over for another year. The time from Thanksgiving to Christmas just flew by. It always seems to go quickly, but this year, more than normal. I didn't even do any Christmas baking. I only made some fudge, (which turned out really sticky), and a pumpkin dessert to take to mom's on Sunday. Mark and Jared made most of the Christmas Eve goodies on Monday while Adam worked at Martin's and I spent the day doing the rest of the wrapping. Every year I say that I am going to have all of the wrapping done before Christmas Eve, but that rarely happens. The Christmas Eve service was very nice this year. Jared even had a part. Rachel Laborde sang a song while some of the Jr. High and Sr. High kids came down the aisle with candles. Later, that same group did a choral reading and Jared had some lines then as well.

I am going to make this short tonight so I can get to bed! Night, Night!

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas…

It has been another week of bad weather for us. It has been kind of strange because mostly the bad weather hits over the weekend and then hangs on for another day or so. School did delay 2 hours last Tuesday, but unlike the teachers at Concord schools, the Elkhart teachers, which is where Emma's mom works, still have to go in at the same time even when school is delayed. How crazy is that?? So I still had Emma at regular time, but had Braden early that day since his preschool was closed.

Last Thursday night we went to an awesome program with Mom, Dad, & Grandma at a church in Plymouth. It is called the Festival of Lights and they have the whole sanctuary covered with lights...from the ceilings to the walls and everywhere else. Then they have them "dancing" along with the music. This is the 2nd time we have gone to this program and we really enjoyed it. A really cool thing...my very best friend from high school, Marica Clark, (now Branch), who was the maid of honor in our wedding now attends that church, (her husband is one of the assistant pastors there), and I got to see her. This is the first time I have seen her in a whole lotta years and it was so nice to get in touch with her again.

Friday night once again both of the boys worked concession stand for the basketball game and this time Mark and I went to our Sunday school Christmas party. We met at church, had a nice meal and then did a white elephant gift exchange. It is fun, but sometimes the presents end up being more dumb than fun. I ended up with a day-by-day calendar of 365 Paper airplanes and Mark ended up with a box of chocolate covered cherries with two reindeer headband things.

Saturday morning I had an ABF Breakfast at Esther's home. I was supposed to make muffins Friday afternoon, but didn't get to them before we left for the party so ended up baking them at about 11PM Friday night. That is definitely the latest I have ever baked anything. Our brunch was very nice, but I woke up to a lot of snow so wasn't sure how the roads were going to be, but they were okay. After the brunch, I ran over to Walmart to pick up some photos and do some stocking stuffer shopping. I didn't have much shopping time as we had to be a church Saturday afternoon at 2PM for a leader's meeting and TI skit tryouts/practice. Saturday night we had the WOL Christmas party which was a progressive dinner. However, as the day progressed the weather kept getting worse and worse. Pastor Ray went with us and drove the church van and I was sure glad that I wasn't driving! We went to 4 homes for part of our meal…the Shira's for appetizers, the Zentsen's for salad, the Arko's for the main dish and Pastor and Nancy's for dessert, games and a gift exchange. Our food at every stop was excellent and at the Arko's we even got their son, Titus to play Christmas carols on the piano for us. By the time our party was over, there was quite a bit of snow on the ground and it was still coming down. Pastor said he wouldn't cancel church though unless it got much worse…….

Well…it did….get much worse! ;) We woke up Sunday morning and at first glance it didn't look like that much worse, but it was and when Mark checked the WFRN web site, sure enough McCoy had cancelled all services for Sunday. Honestly, I was quite shocked, but I do think it was a good idea. By mid morning almost all of the area churches had cancelled and Mayor Miller even declared the city a state of emergency. I am not sure how much snow we ended up with but it was close to 10 inches, I am sure. It ended up being a lazy Sunday. I made a fire in the fireplace and sat in the front room most of the day working on some Christmas projects, reading or doing things on my computer. By early evening almost all of the area schools had postponed 2 hours as we were supposed to get a lot of drifting over night. I don't think it drifted as bad as they thought, but it was still best to not have those buses out so early.

Monday morning we did a shortened day of school and when Adam left to go to work, Jared and I left to go to South Bend shopping. Thankfully, by this time the roads were pretty much cleared. We went to Erskine Commons which is where Scottsdale Mall used to be. We got bunches of shopping done and can say that I only have a few more last minute things to get done. I had put a rolled rump roast in the crock pot so that was ready for us when we got home and after dinner, Adam, Jared and I got almost all of the gifts wrapped that weren't for our immediate family.

Tonight Mark and Adam are finishing up shopping for me and Jared I got all of Mark's things wrapped while they were gone. They still aren't home yet, in fact, so it is pretty peaceful here. HA! Jared is off doing something with his IPod and Tucker is curled up in a pile of blankets on the couch in front of me.

Jean has taken another turn again. I got an e-mail from Julie today that said that they had to put Jean on oxygen and that they could only get it up to 80% or so. The hospice nurse really feels that this time she is truly nearing the end and thinks it may be only a couple of days. Jay called me tonight to say that she is still hanging on, but there was no improvement over the day. Not that any time is a good time for something like this, but so close to Christmas has to make it harder on Julie and her sisters.

Hopefully, I will get here to post again before Christmas, but we have another full weekend of course, so we will see how things go. Here is a quick rundown of our schedule.

Saturday: Shopping with Lori and then doing the annual Springer/Martin Christmas that evening.

Sunday: Church and then going down to my mom & dad's to celebrate Christmas with them.

Monday, Christmas Eve: Adam has to work until 4:00, so we will most likely stay home, prepare all of the goodies for the evening, go to the Christmas Eve service and then come home to do our gifts.

Tuesday, Christmas Day: going down to Mark & Linda's for the day.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Ice & Snow!

Jean is still hanging on. I really thought last week may have been the last for her, but it sounds like she has reached another plateau and is holding her own again. I know this is so hard on all of the family, but it all is in God's hands.

This last week has been pretty eventful weather wise. As I was typing my last blog post it had just started to snow, which ended up accumulating to nearly 5 inches overnight. All of the schools were delayed 2 hours and I think some ended up closing all together. Of course the boys tried to talk me into delaying our school, but that wasn't going to happen. HA! Then over Saturday night it got really icy again, just like I did a week ago. Many churches ended up cancelling services, especially Sunday evening. Of course, McCoy didn't close though. There have been several times where we have had to cancel Awana and WOL on Wednesday night, but only once can I remember them cancelling Sunday church and that was well more than 10 years ago when we still lived in the other house. This morning schools were delayed 2 hours and I won't be too surprised if the same thing happens again tomorrow as we are supposed to have more ice over night tonight. The ice storm is moving over IL right now and should be here in a few hours. I babysit for Emma in the morning, but since her Mom is a school teacher I may not have her as early as normal. I guess we will see what the morning brings.

Anyway…backing up a few days. Friday night both of the boys worked again. After dropping Jared off to work, I took Braden and Tucker into Martin's to see Adam and Sherry, the lady Adam works with. Before Adam got his license, I used to go in at least once a week, sometimes more and Sherry always gave Tucker a treat. Braden loves to go there to look at the animals and to hold one of the rats! After Linda came to pick him up, Mark and I went out for some Christmas shopping and to dinner. We started out at the Farmer's Market: http://www.americancountryside.us/market/ , then went to Sam's, to eat at Buffalo Wild Wings and then to Meijer for a few groceries.

Saturday, Jared and I went to South Bend for the day to do some Christmas shopping. I don't usually go to South Bend on Saturday this close to Christmas and it was really busy! I was happy though because I got quite a bit of shopping done. Still seems like I have quite a bit more to go through.

Sunday after church, we went, (slid is a better word….) to the Elco Theater downtown Elkhart to watch Jillian in "The Wizard of Oz". She had the part of one of the beauticians and an Ozian. The play was really good. In the evening the boys had their RUSH Christmas party and we went back to church to hear Jay Shaffer and his group, "Quartet plus One" sing and then we had a business meeting.

Tonight I had a very nice evening…I went out to dinner with Julie Lininger. She and I had been attending Bible study together and the last Bible study (Jesus, the One and Only), we went out to dinner before the last session. However, last Monday she had to go out to town, so tonight since Bible study is over with we went out to eat to make up for last week. We went to our favorite local Mexican restaurant, Hacienda...they have the best food! We sat and talked for nearly 2 hours after we got done eating..it was very nice.

By the way, Nathalie…if you read this…remember the man that sang Happy Birthday to you when we went there??? He was there tonight singing as well. He looked very different this time though…he got his hair cut short, (remember he had that long braid?), and he wasn't dressed in the sombrero this time either. It brought back some fun memories hearing him sing tonight.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Here I am again

We are still working on our Christmas decorations, but at least most of them are up and all of the lights work! For some reason I am having a hard time getting into the Christmas spirit this year. It just does not seem like it should be December all ready. I hardly have any Christmas shopping done and not a single thing wrapped. I don't really know what my problem is, but I wish I could just get into that "cozy-homey" Christmas feeling because that allows me to enjoy the holiday so much more. Not that I am not looking forward to Christmas, but it just doesn't "fee" right this year, not that what I am saying makes a whole lot of sense, but that is how I am feeling right now.

Jared ended up placing 3rd in bowling with a high score of 153, not too bad! He actually bowled over 160 one day, but it wasn't a league day so didn't count for a trophy…to bad! It is going to seem kind of empty next Monday since both bowling and Bible study ended yesterday. Bowling will start again in Feb. and Bible study will probably be starting about that same time too. Beth Moore has out a new study now on Psalm, and even though it is only a 7 week study compared to 10 week's which is her normal, it sounds like that is probably what we will be doing next.

Mark's Christmas party was very nice, but Saturday night we got a lot of bad weather. It kept going from snow to ice to rain, and you all know how bad that makes the driving conditions. We went ahead and went to the Christmas party and just took it slow. I was okay with that, but I was so nervous about Adam. First off, he had to drive home from work, and secondly, that evening they were having his Christmas party at one of the boss's home, where he had never been before. This is the first time he had really driven in the ice and going at night to a place where he wasn't familiar, well, I am sure you can understand why I was a little worried. I just kept praying for God to keep him safe. We are sitting at our party when I realize I have missed a call, so I ran out to listen to the message and I can't tell you how proud I am of Adam. I called home to talk to him and he decided since the roads were so bad, he wasn't even going to the party. {Praise God!} I felt bad that he had to miss his very first work related Christmas party, but I feel like he made a very mature decision to stay home. He actually started out, but only went a few blocks when he turned around and came back. The weather had gotten worse just in the hour from the time he got home to the time he left for the party. Thankfully, by the time we left to come home, even though the left side of our van was a sheet of ice, the majority of the roads weren't too bad and we made it home safe.

Julie Lininger called me today to say that things are real bad with her mom, Jean Springer. At the first call, it didn't sound like she was going to make it through the day, but it turned out that her body is simply shutting down and they feel like she may have a couple more day or as long as a couple of weeks. Jean has been ill for some time, years actually, and this has been so hard for all of them. Jean means so much to me as she is the one who first asked me to teach Sunday school for her when she and Myron went to Florida in the winter. I didn't think I was "cut out" to teach Sunday school, but she encouraged me and taught me so much. She saw something in me that I could not see, (and maybe never would have seen.) For a few years I just taught one quarter while she was away, and the rest of the time I was her assistant, helping out with crowd control and watching her teach. A few years ago, when Jean first started getting sick, she stepped down completely from teaching and I took over full time. She was an incredible Sunday school teacher and I hope that have been able to reflect some of that in my teaching. Julie asked me a couple of months ago if when Jean passed away if I would be willing to say something at her funeral. It definitely won't be an easy thing for me to do, but I want to be able to share with others what a positive Christian influence she was in my life. If it wasn't for Jean, I am sure I wouldn't be where I am today. Teaching Sunday school is a part of who I am, and even though there are weeks where I am sure I haven't done a very good job preparing, I just pray that I am being a positive influence on the little ones that I am teaching and helping them grow and learn more about Jesus each week.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

December Already!

Today we are finally getting the Christmas decorations put up. The last days have been so busy there just hasn't been time. We are getting the trees put up and hopefully the lights on and then tomorrow we will do the ornaments when we can all be here to do them. Adam is working today as usual. Already we have run into light problems just as it seems we have every year. We plugged in the 3 strings of lights, which were brand new last year for the snowman tree, and NONE of them work!! How annoying is that?? We don't have the big tree up yet, so who knows about those lights.

This weekend starts our busy December weekends. The boys work most every Friday in the concession stand for the Central & Memorial games. Last night Mark and I went to church to help get it decorated for Christmas, (then we all ate Vesuvios Pizza afterwards), and the boys worked. Tonight is Mark's Christmas party for Regal and it is at the Tippecanoe Place in South Bend. YUM! Adam has a Christmas party for Martin's at one of the owner's homes and Jared will stay home with Tucker. Next weekend is the RUSH Christmas party and the weekend after that is our adult Sunday school Christmas party and the next day the WOL Christmas party.

Tomorrow after church we have a carry in dinner for the people that have gone through the NETS training, so this afternoon I am making a dessert and a salad. I think I am going to make Beth Moore's Texas Sheet cake recipe, which is linked at the bottom left of my blog, and pasta salad. I also need to work on my Breaking Free Bible study this afternoon and if I have time, put my next quarter's Sunday school lessons into the weekly folders. If I don't have time for that today I will work in it tomorrow. Tomorrow starts the new quarter, but I don't actually have to teach since they will be spending the whole Sunday school hour going over songs for the Christmas program which will be in a couple of weeks.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

Catching up once again


Almost a month has since the last time I wrote in my blog, but I am not giving up on it! I will just keep plodding away. Mostly things have been pretty typical around here in the last weeks. There have been a few "extra" things that I want to write about though.

I have been doing a lot of research online about where we might go on vacation this year. The thought was that since this is Adam's senior year that we would let him have the majority of the decision so it could kind of be his senior trip. We just keep going back and forth. His original thought was going to Washington DC, which would be a great trip, but nothing any of us really want to do for a whole week. Then going west, to see Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone National Park was considered. Next, and the best in my opinion, we thought about a Caribbean cruise! They really aren't nearly as expensive as I originally thought, but ultimately, Mark said that it still was going to be too much money. Cruises are cheapest in Jan. and money is always kinda tight after Christmas. I haven't given up the thought of a cruise, but it just won't be this year. Now, it looks like maybe we have settled on going to the beach again….Adam's suggestion…not mine, believe it or not. However, the *tentative* plans are to go to Washington DC for a couple of days and then for a week to rent a house at the beach. We are looking at some houses at Topsail Island which is about 30 minutes north of Wilmington, NC. This area will be perfect because the college that Adam ultimately hopes to attend is in Wilmington, (University of North Carolina- Wilmington), and while we are there, we hope to arrange a campus visit.

Thanksgiving is past and now Christmas is rushing quickly toward us. Wow, the time sure does fly! We had such a nice Thanksgiving. All of my side of the family came to our house, and Mark cooked our turkeys in the deep fryer. So yummy! In fact, tonight for dinner we have are having turkey noodle soup with some of the leftovers. He cooked extra turkeys for us to put in the freezer so we will be sure to have some good turkey related meals in the next weeks.

The day after Thanksgiving was the WOL Superbowl. It is such a fun night, but very tiring!

Of course the day after Thanksgiving is also shopping day too and I every year I go with Lori. This year though she called me Friday morning and said she was sick, so she wasn't able to go! L Jared decided he wanted to go with me, so we went and picked up Jill and the three of us shopped for a few hours until it was time to get to church for the Superbowl. Adam decided not to go this year since he enjoys his job and Martin's so much. Plus then he was able to stay home with Tucker. We left church about 2:30 Friday afternoon and went to Indy to a Pacers game. They played the Dallas Mavericks and it was a good game. The Pacers won by just a few points. After the game was the big WOL rally still at the Conseco Fieldhouse and then onto a new sports complex called, "Sports of All Sorts". The place is huge and has all kinda of places for different sports. Not really my kind of place, but the kids had fun there. Then around 2:30AM, we left to head to the bowling alley, where we bowled until 5:30. Wheww! I bowled terrible the first game…only an 80 something, but my 2nd game was better with a 114, (which still isn't great, but hey it was about 3AM by that time!). We arrived back at church around 9AM Saturday morning. You can imagine we all slept a lot Saturday afternoon. We did take time to run into Martin's to see Adam though. He went to work Saturday morning before we got home and as soon as he got off there, he had to go work concession stand for a Central basketball game.

Our first session of homeschool bowling is almost over…only the party next week. Jared is very happy because it appears that his team is going to come in 2nd. He has really improved over last year.

Oh, I almost forget... on Nov. 13th, we got some sad news. Our friends the Chevalier's who go to our church and I used to babysit for Aric; their Bichon, Chloe, got hit and killed! We got Tucker because we fell in love with Chloe and we "babysat" for her several times when the Chevaliers were on vacation or away. It was very sad, of course for all of their family, and it really made me sad too. We always said that Chloe was Tucker's "girlfriend". We would even say to Tucker, "Where is Chloe??" and he would run to the door and look for her. Rosie, (the wife), was really torn up over it and I don't blame her a bit. I know I would be in BAD shape if something happened to Tucker. They had all ready considered getting another Bichon as a playmate for Chloe, and so they are going to go ahead with it and get her. Her name is Lucy and they are picking her up tomorrow. She sure won't replace Chloe, but I do think it will help all of them to have another dog in the house.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Life, one day at a time



Last Wednesday was Halloween, but as usual, for WOL, we went Track-n-Treating instead. The kids go around the neighborhood of the church and pass out bags of candy which include a tract as well as some info about our church. It was different having this on the same night as regular WOL club and it definitely rushed the rest of the night, but the kids always have fun.

Thursday I met mom in Nappanee so we could go shopping. We went to Borkholder's Dutch Village. They have a large building which includes all kinds of little booths with crafty type things to antiques. There is another building that has a restaurant where we ate lunch. We both had smoked chicken salad sandwiches and peanut butter pie for desert. YUM! It was a nice day with mom. It has been forever since just the two of us have done something together. A couple of weeks ago, a tornado came through Nappanee, but thankfully it was on the other side of town from Burkholders and Amish Acres. I really only hit on one corner, but did a lot of damage to some of the RV companies in the industrial park. Also Dairy Queen and Taco Bell got pretty hard hit as well.

The last few days I have been doing some research on where we might go on vacation next year. We told Adam that he can choose where he wants to go and that will be part of his graduation gift. We have been exploring some different ideas. Washington DC, going west to Mt. Rushmore & Yellowstone, or maybe even on a cruise!! A cruise would definitely be my top choice. I didn't even really think it would be a possibility, but after doing some looking online, they aren't nearly as expensive as I would have guessed. I found one site that even includes the airfare in with the cruise prices. But they are more like last minute cruises so nothing is available for the time when we can go yet. If we are able to go I am thinking late Jan. or maybe in March. Those are the time when the rates are lowest, (Feb. is low too, but we have a lot going on in Feb, so it would be harder to plan around. Who knows where we will really end up going, but when I talked to Adam about it he voted for a cruise. Now if we can just talk Mark into it. He is saying he would rather go west, but we will see!

It looks like this week is going to be a more relaxed week than last week, mostly just the normal weekly things so far…homeschool bowling, Bible Study, babysitting, WOL, etc.

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Some Photos

Jared and Mark getting ready to take the Gators to Plymouth for the Blueberry Festival. Aug. 24th, 2006.












Mom, Grandma Eunice, & Aunt Kathy getting ready to watch the Blueberry Parade.











Adam and his new car! Sept. 13, 2007.
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Adam is 18 now!!!



Well, Looks like I have done it again, but even worse this time. It has been over a month since I last wrote on my blog. I don't know how to get back into the habit of it, it seems. Days go by and think, "I really need to write on my blog", but then it never happens. I guess once a month is better than not at all, but still that is just not how I want this to be. I am trying, really I am, but just not making much progress. {{SIGH}}

Here is a quick rundown of things that have been going on in our lives in the last month.

1. I started babysitting for a little girl, Emma, once a week. Her Dad works with Brad and so he recommended me to them. (Her Grandma watches her the rest of the week.) So now I have Emma & Braden on Tuesday and Braden on Friday.

2. Aunt Mary passed away On Friday, Sept. 21st. (Grandma Eunice's sister.) She hadn't been well since just before Labor Day, but of course it is never easy when someone dies. Grandma was pretty sad, but she is doing very well now.

3. On Sept. 21 & 22, we went to Mark's 25th high school reunion. His friend Jerry Meadows who now lives in PA came home with us on Friday and spent the night. Friday as a tailgate party at Vally High school and Saturday was a more formal dinner at the fairgrounds in Warsaw.

4.Sept. 28-30th was the Ladies Retreat and always I had an awesome time. The weather was perfect and I even went canoing with Esther on Friday afternoon. We did Beth Moore's Living Well for the retreat theme, it was excellent. On Saturday afternoon the massage school came in and I had 15 minutes on my arms and 15 minutes on my back. Oh, it felt wonderful!

5. I have started another Beth Moore Bible Study, "Breaking Free". Our church has offered it a couple of times before, but I wasn't able to attend, so am really enjoying it now. It will go until the first week in Dec.

6. We have started another season of homeschool bowling, but this time around Adam is unable to bowl because of his work at Martin's Pet & Garden. He really likes his job, so is okay with missing bowling for it. Jared is doing very well and is improving his average considerably over last year.

7. On October 16th, Adam turned 18 years old!! We went to Red Lobster for dinner to celebrate. YUM!

8. On October 18th, Adam got his driver's license!! He is very happy to be driving on his own now and it has been very nice for me not having to take him to work all of the time. He even drove Jared to RUSH Sunday night.

9. On Oct. 21, we had a bunch of family up for a dinner for Adam's birthday. It has been a while since we have had that many people here, but we had a nice time.

So, I guess that is about it...just typical life for us, I guess. I am still scrapping when I have the time, which hasn't been much lately. It is really taking a lot more involvement on my part for Jared's school this year, so I just haven't gotten the time to scrap as much as I would like. Tucker is getting more spoiled every day. HA! He sleeps with Mark and I nearly every night and I can hardly believe that Mark ever allowed it, but I think he enjoys Tucker as much as I do.

Oh, the post below, which seems kind of random for my blog....it was something that I read during Word of Life a few weeks ago for our prayer and share time. It is one of my favorite stories. I was in a huge hurry that night and so I just posted it quick to my blog without any explanation of why it was there. So just in case you wondered...now you know. :D


Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Table for Two

Table for Two
by Kirsten Burgess


He sits by himself at a table for two. The Waiter returns to his side and asks, "Would you like to go ahead and order, sir?" The man has, after all been waiting since seven o'clock --- almost half and hour. "No, thank you," the man smiles. "I'll wait for her a while longer." "How about some more coffee?" "Certainly, sir." The man sits, his clear blue eyes gazing straight through the flowered centerpiece. He fingers his napkin, allowing the sounds of light chatter, tinkling silverware, and mellow music to fill his mind. He is dressed in a sport coat and tie. His dark brown hair is neatly combed, but one stray lock insists on dropping to his forehead. The scent of his cologne adds to his clean-cut image. He is dressed up enough to make a companion feel important, respected, loved. Yet, he is not so formal as to make one uncomfortable. It seems that he has taken every precaution to make others feel as ease with him. Still, he sits alone. The waiter returns to fill the man's coffee cup. "Is there anything else I can get you, sir?" "No, thank you." The waiter remains standing at the table. Something tugs at his curiosity. "I don't mean to pry but..." his voice trails off. This line of conversation could jeopardize his tip. "Go ahead," the man encourages. He is strong, yet sensitive, inviting conversation. "Why do you bother waiting for her?" the waiter finally blurts out. This man has been at the restaurant other evenings, always patiently alone. He says very quietly, "Because she needs me." "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Well, sir, no offense, but assuming that she needs you, she sure isn't acting much like it. She's stood you up three times just this week." The man winces, and looks down at the table. "Yes, I know." "Then why do you still come here and wait?" "Cassie said that she would be here." "She's said that before," the waiter protests. " I wouldn't put up with it. Why do you?" Now the man looks up, smiles at the the waiter, and simply says, "Because I love her." The waiter walks away, wondering how one could love a girl who stands him up three times a week. The man must be crazy, he decides. Across the room, he turns to look at the man again. The man slowly pours cream into his coffee. He twirls his spoon between his fingers a few times before stirring sweetener into his cup. After staring for a moment into the liquid, the man brings the cup to his mouth and sips, silently watching those around him. He doesn't look crazy, the waiter admits. Maybe the girl has qualities that I don't know about. Or maybe the man's love is stronger than most. The waiter shakes himself out of his musing to take an order from a party of five. The man watches the waiter, and wonders if he's ever been stood up. The man has, many times. But he still can't get used to it. Each time, it hurts. He's looked forward to this evening all day. He has many things, exciting things, to tell Cassie. But, more importantly, he wants to hear Cassie's voice. He wants her to tell him all about her day, her triumphs, her defeats...anything, really. He has tried so many times to show Cassie how much he loves her. He'd just like to know that she cares for him, too. He sips sporadically at the coffee, & loses himself in thought, knowing that Cassie is late, but still hoping she'll arrive. The clock says 9:30, then the waiter returns to the man's table, "Is there anything I can get you?" The still empty chair stabs at the man. "No, I think that will be all for tonight. May I have the check please?" "Yes, sir." When the waiter leaves, the man picks up the check. He pulls out his wallet and sighs. He has enough money to have given Cassie a feast. But he takes out only enough to pay for the five cups of coffee and the tip. Why do you do this, Cassie? His mind cries as he gets up from the table. "Good-bye." The waiter says, as the man walks towards the door. "Good-night. Thank-you for your service." "You're welcome, sir." The waiter says softly, for he sees the hurt in the man's eyes that his smile can't hide. The man passes a laughing, young couple on his way out, and his eyes glisten as he thinks of the good times he and Cassie could have had. He stops at the front and makes reservations for tomorrow. Maybe Cassie will be able to make it, he thinks. "Seven o'clock tomorrow for a party of two?" The hostess confirms. "That's right," the man replies. "Do you think she'll come?", Asks the hostess. She doesn't mean to be rude, but she has watched the man many times alone at his table for two. "Someday, yes. And I will be waiting for her." The man buttons his overcoat and walks out of the restaurant, alone. His shoulders are hunched, but through the windows, the hostess can only guess whether they are hunched against the wind or the man's hurt. As the man turns towards home, Cassie turns into bed. She is tired after an evening out with her friends. As she reaches towards her nightstand to set the alarm, she sees the note that she had scribbled to herself last night. "7:00 - Spend some time in prayer," it says. Darn, she thinks. She forgot again. She feels a twinge of guilt but quickly pushes it away. She needed that time with her friends. Now she needs her sleep. She can pray tomorrow night. Jesus will forgive her. And she's sure he doesn't mind.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Where does the time go?



I have no idea how so much time goes by between the times when I am writing here in my blog. I think I will do better "the next time", and before I know it, 2 weeks or more have passed and I haven't written again. Not sure it really matters that much, since there is not much of anyone reading it anyway, (Nathalie and Marica are you out there?), but I do want to at least hit on the highlights just for memory sakes and for the 2 of you when ever you may have time to pop in and see what is going on in our lives.

The biggest news in our lives right now is last Thursday, Sept. 13th, Adam bought his first car!! (I haven't downloaded the photo from the camera yet, but will upload them as soon as I do.) We went out to dinner at Cici's Pizza and afterwards stopped by the mall since they were having a big parking lot used car sale just to look for cars. We didn't really plan on finding one since it appeared that most were way more expensive that what Adam could afford. We talked to one of the salesmen and told him what we were looking for and he found one that Adam really liked and that is what we ended up buying. It still was more than we had originally planned, but we payed for part of it and Adam will pay us back for some too. He bought a metallic turquoise Pontiac Grand Am. It is a really nice car...perfect for a first car for Adam. The only problem is, he still doesn't have his license! He isn't too far from being able to get it, I think just a bit more time behind the wheel and some parallel parking practice and he can go and take the test. He did drive his car to work on Friday and then Jared and I took it to the mall. It drove really nice. It feels so funny to drive a car after driving a van all of these years. I feel like I am sitting on the road.

Lori and I had our last scrapbook show of he year the weekend after Labor Day. It was he Midwest Scrapbook show in Indy and we hosted the crop on Friday night as well. as usual, it was a lot of work, but it turned out to be a good show for us and I made enough money to pay off my laptop, which was perfect! I never would have been able to save up enough to buy this computer if it hadn't of been for these scrapbook shows, so all of the work was worth it, I guess.

We had our first night of Word of Life last Wednesday and it went really well. So far we have 10 teens, 7 girls and 3 boys, but I expect that there will be more as the year goes on. Sunday was the RUSH kick off party and it seems strange to have both boys in RUSH this year. Jared, being a freshman, got initiated with the other freshmen and came home with make up all over his face and weird colored hair with glitter in it. HA! They also played weird Olympics and I guess the games were pretty crazy.

We now have one week of school under our belts and I guess it is going fairly well. There are things that aren't getting done as I would like, but I guess I should have expected that. I have Jared on a more structured schedule this year, which I think will help, but some how he still manages to not get everything done. I guess I am going to have to be more careful in checking to make sure he has done what he said he has done. Last Monday morning both of the boys went to see Josh McDowell at First Baptist church. He came to speak for one of his Bold Truth Seminars. Josh McDowell There was also a parent seminar in the evening and I went with Esther Flora. I was a really a great seminar. I am very glad that I went.

Tonight we started a new Bible Study at church, Beth Moore's Breaking Free.
http://www.lifewaystores.com/lwstore/product.asp?isbn=0767391128
I just love her studies and I all ready know that this will be a great one.

Friday, August 31, 2007

Updated my Slide

I updated my Slide this morning to include all of the layouts that I created for the scrap game as well as some older ones that some how never made it there. Nathalie, make sure you check out the one of Mark and Wonder Woman that was taken when we went to 6 Flags last summer. I have had that layout done for quite a while, but never had it ready for upload.

I am the mom of a college student


Wow, can you believe it... Adam started his first college class yesterday at Bethel College. He is just taking one course this semester....Spanish...and will get high school as well as college credit for it. He said it looks like it will be a good class and he likes his teacher so far. He and Logan are taking it together and Logan will be driving them.

We have a busy weekend coming up. Saturday Brad, my nephew, is getting married to Mallory and after the wedding we are having family photos taken. Sunday right after church we leave for Plymouth and the Blueberry Festival. Can't await for that! Our plans are the same as always....go to the festival on Sunday, picnic and fireworks on Sunday night, spend he night with Mom and Dad Sunday night and then to go the parade Monday morning. Dad is on the Blueberry board this year, so I am guessing we don't be able to spend much time with him. Last Thursday, the 23rd, we drove to Plymouth for the Gator Parade, just like last year. (Remember Nathalie...you got put in the sheriffs car!!) The weather Thursday night was very nasty, even some tornado warnings near Laporte, but even though the clouds looks very threatening, we didn't even get a drop of rain.

Saturday was our kick off party for Word of Life which was a Hawaiian Luau. We had planned on having the party up at Perry's, where they have a trailer up at a campground on a lake in Michigan. Because of the storms earlier in the week, they were without electricity, which means no toilets, plus there were a lot of trees and branches down. So we decided to have it at church instead. They came to our house for a bit to swim and then back to the church. We also had our parents meeting right before the party.

The "So You Think You Can Scrap" game at The Scrapbook Site is over now and of course I didn't win anything. I didn't expect to win, and it was just good to get some different kind of layouts done that I normally wouldn't have done. It was fun, but I am glad to be back to scrapping what ever and however I want.

We had Braden 4 days this week, so that was pretty good money which will help pay off this laptop. I am getting real close to having it paid for and since Lori and I have a show next weekend in Indy, I am sure I will make enough then to have it done. I have still been busy the last few weeks getting our school year planned. I am not sure I have ever spent quite this much time planning school, but it will be so nice having all of the plans ready and in the Homeschool Tracker. I just want to make sure that the next time I need a transcript report that all I have to do is click a button.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

A day to myself


Mark and the boys are off this weekend to the men's retreat at Quaker Haven which means I have the weekend to myself. Such a totally rare occurrence!! With homeschooling I hardly ever get any time alone like this and I am sure if it was a regular occurrence that I wouldn't like it as much, but I have to say that I have been looking forward to this! Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket Last night after they guys left, I took Tucker for a walk and then I went over to Bettie's with a few other ladies to scrap. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket I didn't get much accomplished, but it was fun any way. I got home around midnight, read for a little bit and then fell asleep with tucker at my feet. Today, I think I am just doing to stay home and do what ever I want. I am thinking about maybe taking myself out to eat at Panera, but I may just stay home. I will probably spend most of the day on the computer, reading, watching a movie and just simply enjoying the fact that no one will be demanding anything of me today except for Tucker. HA!

This past week was pretty quiet, which is always nice. Linda started back to school full time so we had Braden 3 full days this week and will have him 3 full days next week as well. He will start going to 5 day preschool after Labor Day and then I will still have him 3 days I think, but not until after preschool is over, which is just before lunch. I think his grandpa will drop him off here. I continued to work on lesson plans for our upcoming school year, and I think that it will be a long process to get everything done and caught up.

Jared and I watched 3 movies together this week, Cars, Hildago, and Jump In, which is a Disney movie. Both Cars and Hildago we watched at night and I fell asleep for just a bit during Cars and Jared slept through half of Hildago. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket Good things we had seen each of those movies more than once.

this week's challenge in the "So you think you can Scrap" game was "Ordinary Objects"
Take pictures of 3 (or more) ordinary objects that you rely on to help you get through your day or make your day complete.



One more week and the game will done. It will be interesting to see how it all comes out. We have no idea how we have been doing as all of the voting has been done in secret and they haven't been telling us any of the results. I am just happy that I have got this far and have created some layout that I never would have taken the time to do. Honestly, this week's layout is one that I really didn't want to do, it just isn't my type of layout all the way around, but I do like how it turned out. One thing about this layout is, I had to take a photo in order to have something to scrap on this topic and I actually printed it out from my new printer. That was pretty cool! I can't see printing photos out at home on a regular basis, but for something like this it was perfect so I didn't have to try to make a special trip to Walmart to pick up one photo.

Friday, August 10, 2007

Falling Behind


I had been so good about writing in my blog, but lately I just can't seem to get back into the swing of it. The last two weeks have been extremely hot, this week was the worst. Both week it has been in the high 80s or 90s most every day, but last week the humidity wasn't bad, but this week it has been very sticky and I just don't tolerate that very well. A couple of days I was pretty miserable. In the evenings I swam to cool down, but it just seems like during the day there wasn't much time for it for one reason or another. There really hasn't been much going on, in fact, I would say that this week has been rather quiet all week which really has been nice. Adam got home from Team Timothy a week ago tonight and so I have been taking him to work again, but that is about all. Actually, on Monday, Mark had to come home from work to take Adam to work because over the weekend, the an got a leak in the gas line and we had to take it in to be fixed and so I didn't have a way to take Adam to work. We have started to look for a car for Adam this week, and haven't really found much yet, but hopefully soon and then he will be more motivated to get his license.

I have really been enjoying my new laptop. I have been making a habit of sitting outside on the patio in the morning during my online time and it is so nice. We have an open field behind our yard and there is a woods on the edge of it. Because of that, our backyard can become quite a bird sanctuary and I just love sitting out here and watching them. They are always more active in the morning and it is a nice way to start my day.

One thing I have been doing the last couple of weeks is starting to pull things together for our next school year. We actually aren't stating school until after Labor Day, but I know if I don't start getting it planned now, it won't get done.

On Wednesday,which is Adam's day off, we were busy getting his application and other documents ready to apply to a local college. He is applying to Bethel College in South Bend for what they call the REACH program which will allow him to take a few college course his senior year in high school and get dual-credit for them. You have to apply just like if you were planing on going there full time, plus write an essay.
We got the application and essay sent off Thursday, but I still need to get his transcript printed off and get it in the mail. It has been quite a production getting it put together. I have an awesome computer program that I used to keep track of all of the boys school work and if everything is put in, than to get a transcript all you have to do is run the report. Unfortunately, I didn't start using the program until part way into his sophomore year, so I had o go back and add a bunch of stuff from before that. At least for Jared I will have it before we start high school in a few weeks and will make sure that I have kept better records.
The program that we use in called Homeschool Tracker

Earlier this week my old printer died and I just can't be without a printer so when we took Adam to work we went looking for one and when I picked him up later, I went and bought one that I had looked at. (Had to get it approved by Mark before I could spend the money!) I really like the one that I got..it is an all in one printer/copier/scanner. Thankfully, I found it for a good deal. I have used it a few time all ready and it works really well and I love how much easier it is to scan in my layouts.

As I mentioned in my last post, about the game I am playing at The Scrapbook Site, the Week 5 Challenge was to use music on a layout and I chose to use the Word of Life song along with some photos from our are TI Competition last March.


This week's challenge was called:
Power of 3
* 3 pictures
* 3 buttons
* 3 different ribbons
* 3 different patterned papers
* 3 word title
* 3 extra embellishments of your choosing
* Journaling

Monday, July 30, 2007

It has been a while....

I don't know where the time has gone and how it has been so long since the last time I wrote on my blog. I guess things have just been kinda busy since we have gotten back from New York, but not that busy. I just haven't made my blog my priority for one reason or another. I never even really finished posting everything that I wanted to say about Word of Life camp, but in a nutshell, it was just awesome. On the way home from New York, we stopped for a few hours a Niagara Falls and wow, what a beautiful place it is there. You just have to see it in person to get the full effect.

Last week, July 20th-July 28th was the Elkhart County fair and that kept us busy for a few days and then just this past weekend, Lori and I had another scrapbook show in Grand Rapids, MI. (On Friday night we went to see "No Reservations" with Katherine Zeta Jones" and it was a great movie!) On the 22nd, we took Adam and Logan to Camp Michawana for 2 weeks at Team Timothy, and they won't be home until Friday. Seems strange here without him for this time, but it has been nice not having to run him back and forth to work all of the time. That boy really needs to get his driver's license!

The boys did well on their 4-H projects, but they didn't get most of the ones they signed up for completed this year. Between vacation, baseball and Word of Life camp things just didn't get done. Hopefully, next year will be better.
Jared took Scrapbooking and got a blue.
Adam took Weather, (a poster about wind) and received a blue/Reserve Champion.
He also took 3 potted herb plants and he got 1 blue, 1 blue/honor and blue/honor/reserve champion.

I don't think I mentioned it, but the day we got back from New York, my laptop arrived so I have had it now for a few weeks and am just loving it. Right now I am sitting on he couch with it in my lap and Tucker curled up beside me, and earlier I was sitting out on the patio with it. It is just so much nicer to be able to sit anywhere I want and still be online.

I am playing a scrapbook game at The Scrapbook Site called, "So You Think You Can Scrap" and each week there is a new challenge which we have a week to complete. I missed he first week since we were still in New York, but they built into i that you can skip a week. The challenges have been just that...challenging...but so far I have managed to get them done and uploaded on time. Until the game ends we aren't supposed to upload them to any other site but The Scrapbook Site gallery and our blogs, so I am going to go ahead and add them to this post, but won't add them to my Slide until later on.

The first challenge was to use an Elsie Flannigan Sketch, at least 3 photos and 2 different patterned paper by two different manufacturers. Elsie's style is definitely not my style, but I made it work. My layout is based on Sketch #7.
Elsie's Sketches


Week 3 was a Lucky 7 challenge, the title had to be something along the lines of 7 Things I am Lucky o have and also had o include, 7 photos, 7 buttons, and 7 journaling strips. This was hard for me since I don't think I could possibly use 7 photos on one layout, so I had to make it 2 pages and had to run to Walmart to get photos printed just to complete this challenge.



The Week 4 challenge was even more of a challenge for me because it focused on journaling which I am definitely not good at. We also were supposed to create a layout about a childhood memory and how it relates to you now. It had to have at least one photo, bu not necessarily a photo taken during your childhood. I was very perplexed about how I was going to do this one, but when I really started to think about it, I know I had to journal about all of my summers that were spent with Grandma and Pa-pa. The photo was going to be hard to come up with though.
I finally remembered that I had a photo of Adam when he was little with Grandma and Pa-pa on one of our Wisconsin vacations. I was a great photo for this layout and when the journaling was all said and done it was two pages long...so another 2 page layout for me.



This weeks challenge is to use music lyrics on a layout, which is once again something a bit out of my comfort zone since I have never done that before, but I think I have a pretty good idea rolling around in my head so we will see how it all comes together.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Wow, where to begin...


We had such a great time in New York at Word of life. I can hardly believe that just a week ago today that Scott, Lori, Mark and I were headed for a day of site seeing to Vermont and Fort Ticonderoga. I really don't even know where to begin in writing about what we did while we were there. Word of Life has an incredible ministry and being able to go to the heart of it and seeing it up close and personal really impacted me. One of the highlights of the week for me what Thursday night when we went to the Island to spend some time with the kids and then stayed for their campfire meeting.

We didn't really want the kids to know that we were there, so we snuck into the campfire area from the side and sat down on the hill at the edge of the woods. Joe Jordan spoke that night and had a powerful message. Then he put forth a challenge/invitation to all of the kids. If they were ready for the first time to commit their lives to Christ or to rededicate their lives to him, they were to come forward and throw a stick on the all ready huge fire. Nearly every teen there came forward, only God knows if they all were sincere, but the site of all of those teens in a circle around that campfire really touched me. After everyone was gathered, they had everyone that wasn't all ready standing to stand and all were to sing. I couldn't even stand as I was so overcome by emotion at that point I just sat there on that hillside taking it all in and was moved to tears. Seriously, it was all that I could do not to sob out loud.

The whole are around Schroon Lake is beautiful. The lake is surrounded by trees and mountains. Monday afternoon we decided to take a hike up Mt. Severance, which is just outside of Schroon Lake. The hike was a bit more than we anticipated, but the view from the top was well worth it. We had a beautiful view the Island where the kids were staying, as well as much of the lake.

That is all I have time for now, I will write more about our trip later!

Friday, June 29, 2007

We are off to WOL Camp!

Just a quick post this morning....it is 6:30 AM and in about 1 hour we will be leaving to head to church to meet the teens so we can leave for New York and Word Of Life Camp. We hope to be on the road by 9AM sharp, but have a few things to do before we leave. We stay in a church overnight tonight in NY and then will arrive at camp Sunday afternoon. We leave camp next Saturday, the 7th, and will stop at Niagara Falls, then staying overnight in a church in Ohio, just past the PA border. We will arrive home Sunday afternoon on the 8th.

Adam and Tucker are staying with the Springers while we are away. It is so nice to know that we have such good friends that will do things like that for us!

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

No More Little League

Last night was Jared's last Little League game...forever! He has no plans on playing next year and he was supposed have one more game on Thursday, but it got canceled. Part of me is relieved and the other part of me is sad. Obviously, he is growing up and this is just one more thing that he is "done" with. Some times Little League can be so frustrating, but on the other hand I enjoy watching him play and interacting with the other families there. It sounds like this may very well be Jill's last year for playing as well, but Austin has quite a few more years so I guess we will just have to go to more of his games next year.

This morning the boys had a dentist appt. and afterwards we dropped Adam off for work. We then went out to lunch with Lori and the kids to Arby's. I feel like Lori and I have barely talked since Mega Meet...we have had bits of time here and there, and that one Friday when we went to Pages in Time and they stayed for dinner, but all and all we haven't had nearly as much time together as normal. It was nice today because after lunch we came back here so the kids could swim and we just sat and talked.

After dinner this evening I took Jared to get his hair cut...it was getting so long because I told him he couldn't get a hair cut until he got his room cleaned up. HA! Since last Friday he finally got it cleaned up, today he got his hair cut and he looks SO much better!

Yesterday Jared and I went to Pages in Time and spent the day there working on pages for his scrapbooking 4-H project. I helped him pick out paper and a few embellishments and he made pretty good progress on it. He still have some things to finish up at home and a couple of more that he just got paper for and so after camp we are going to have to hit it hard and get it finished up.

I completed two more scrapbook layouts the other day and both are now loaded into My Slide. The layout "Ripleys 2" was done for a scraplift challenge at The Scrapbook Site and so it also inspired my design for the first page of this layout too. For the month of July I am going to play a scrapbook game/contest at TSS called, "So you think you can scrap?". I have no aspirations of winning, but I have a feeling that it will pull me out of my scrapbooking comfort zone a bit which can never hurt. Maybe I will even learn something new!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Quiet Day Today....

...which is very nice! I took Adam to work at noon and then came back home to wait for Braden to arrive. Linda is going on vacation tomorrow, so brought Braden here for a while this afternoon so she can get some errands ran as well as get packed.

We leave Friday for New York, so what I should be doing instead of sitting here is doing more laundry! I have all ready done two loads today, but have plenty more to do.

Saturday morning Jared and I dropped Adam off at work and then went to help clean up the church after VBS. Some of the guys made breakfast for us before hand and it was very good...pancakes and sausage! In the afternoon Jared went to see Pirates (again), with some of the kids from church and Mark and Linda came up for a while. They are getting ready to do some landscaping and wanted to go to some of the nice nurseries that we have here in Elkhart. Before they went home we went and picked Adam up at work, so they could see where he is working.

In the evening we had practice for Teen's Involved at church. We left Adam at home and Mark and I stopped at Blimpies for subs and took them to church with us to eat before practice. The practice went really well, but we plan on having them go through all of the entries one more time before they compete again. We are staying Saturday night in a church, (instead of staying in a hotel!), on the way to NY, so they will practice again there.

Yesterday after church RUSH was supposed to go to the dunes for the day, but the day ended up being cooler than was expected and only a few had planned on going so his trip got canceled. It ended up just being a stay at home afternoon for us, but we enjoyed it. Actually, Adam ended up going to the movies with Travis and Aaron and Lori H. picked them up. They went to see Fantastic Four II, and we stayed home and watched Ghost Rider on DVD. Mark and Jared really liked it, but it just wasn't my type of movie...it was okay, but sure not the best movie I have ever seen.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Back to Normal?

Well, our life can go back to normal...what ever that is!! VBS ended tonight and Chloe went home about an hour ago...not that she was much trouble, but it is nice to get back to just Tucker. I think he is totally worn out and right now he is curled up on a pillow in my lap sleeping!

Jared spent all day today cleaning his room, under protest...but he got in trouble last night and Mark said he had to have it cleaned up by the time he got home from work. Amazingly enough, he actually got it clean! It was an unbelievable pit...no kidding, but now it is clean and even swept. AMAZING! Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

The weather has been so nice lately...not too hot and not much humidity. It wasn't even bad when I cleaned the pool this afternoon. However, last weekend with all of the ball games that we had, my shoulders got burned and just being out in the sun this afternoon made them start to peel. Ugh, now they itch!

Before we left for VBS today I started a new layout and earlier I finished up the one I was working on...photos from Six Flags, last summer! I am going to add them to my slide show as soon as I am done here. The ladies from Praisebooking have been talking about Stickles, which kind of like glitter glue, but much easier to use. I realized that I had some that Bettie had bought me a couple of years ago, but hardly ever use them and so they told me I needed to get them out and use them NOW...so I did...I Stickled on both sides of my Six Flags layout....though I am not sure it shows up real well on the scan.

Thursday, June 21, 2007

Adam's SAT Scores are in!

I am pleased...Adam did very well on his SATs! There is room for improvement of course, (especially in the area of the essay), but his scores were good on the other parts.

06/2007SAT Reasoning Test
Critical Reading64087%
Math65086%
Writing52058%
Multiple Choice55 (score range: 20-80)
Essay6 (score range: 2-12)

So, he is bound determined that he isn't going to take the SAT again, but I told him that will be up to his Dad and me. We will see! I think after camp is over, that he and I will sit down and start working on filling out some scholarship information and see how that goes. I know the better scores he gets on his SAT, the better scholarships may be.

VBS has been going well this week, we have had more kids come each night. The weather has been perfect for having the games and snacks outside. We have taken Braden with us to VBS two night, (Monday and Wednesday), and he really seemed to enjoy it.

Yesterday morning I took our van over to Jerry Perry's shop to have it looked at since it hasn't been running right for nearly two months. Lori had to leave to go to Virginia to do a show with Kim this weekend, (the owner of Kellers), so she asked me to take her to the airport, but said we could just take her van and that I could keep it until our van is done. Good thing cause Jerry wanted to keep it over night and I had to take Adam to work today. Actually, Adam had to work yesterday too, (which is normally his day off, but one of the guys that work there badly cut his thumb the other night so is taking a couple of days off.), so we dropped him off on the way to South Bend. Lori took the bus from South Bend to Midway Airport in Chicago and then flew to Virginia.

This morning when we took Adam to work, we brought in both Chloe and Tucker so Sherry, who Adam works with could see both dogs. I don't think I mentioned that we have had Chloe, (Chevalier's Bichon) since last Friday. They are on vacation and so we are taking care of Chloe for a week. After we dropped Adam off at work, Jared and I got lunch at McDs and took the dogs to the park. We got cups of water for them and it was funny to watch them drinking water from the McDs cups. We took them on a walk around Island Park and I think we wore them both out.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

I am getting a laptop!!

I am so excited! Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket Yesterday I ordered a brand new laptop! Mark was able to contact the IT guy at his sister company and he was able to get me a great quote from Dell. So in a few days I will have a brand new Dell Notebook computer! This will be the first brand new computer that we have had since the very first computer, our Gateway, that we bought years ago. All of the computers since then have been put together by Mark Kerk. I am really hoping that it will arrive before we leave for WOL camp on June 29th. I don't even care if we don't have internet there, but it will be nice to be able to back up my photos and do some writing about our time there and then when we get back home I can just copy and paste it into my blog! I got my order acknowledgment yesterday, but am still waiting on my confirmation which will tell me when the ship date will be.
{Update} I am such a dork! I have 3-5 days shipping on my account and I took that to mean that my computer would be shipped within 3-5 days of my ordering it. The only thing that means is that *when the computer is ready* then it will be shipped with in 3-5 days. I just got my confirmation and it won't even be ready to ship until around the middle of July! Bummer! So, now I wait and learn to be patient! So much for having it for the trip to New York!

Last night Vacation Bible School started and I think I like having it in the evening. It is kind of hard with all of the kids that are involved in Little League, but I like the fact that we don't have to get up early to be there. And...the even nicer thing is that each evening they are providing a simple meal for all of the workers. That means that I don't have to make dinner all week!Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket We are all helping with VBS too, so that is nice. Mark is doing games, I am the photographer, (and decorator, but that part is done.), Jared is helping with crafts and Adam is helping with the 5th & 6th grade class.

Sunday was Father's Day and after church we went down and spend the day with Mark and Linda. Adam wasn't able to go though as he had to work concessions stand for he Express, so Anna came to pick him up. Mark & Linda just got some new furniture for the house, two entertainment centers and some twin beds for the spare bedrooms, and they are so nice. All Amish made! I am going to try to talk Mark into ordering a new bed for us from the same guy, but it may take a while to convince him that we need one. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket We got Mark and new ShopVac for Father's Day since his old one broke a few years ago and he keeps borrowing one from the Holmes.

Saturday was busy with ball games. Jared had a ball game in Edwardsburg and Adam had a double header in the afternoon. So, I took Jared to Edwardsburg, (twice because we had to go back and get his cleats since he left them at home! ARG!) and Mark picked Adam up from work and took him to the games. Jared and I met them there after we got back from Michigan. Jared's team lost....the game was probably one of the worst they played all season, but the McCoy team lost the first one and won the second game by quite a bit. After the games, we went with the Jordan's to church to finish up the VBS decorations and ordered pizza for dinner.

Some Random Photos

Tucker


Tucker & Jared sleeping in the tent.


Jared playing baseball for the Titans, (his tournament team).


Adam playing for the church softball team.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Catching Up!



I have gotten a little behind posting here and told myself since I switched things over I would stay on top of things, so it is time to catch up a bit.

This week I have been busy with getting the decorations ready for Bible School. Sunday after church, Veronica & I stayed with the kids do to some more drawing and we also met at the church Tuesday afternoon. We have made good progress and don't have to go back until Saturday after the church softball game. We need Mark and Shawn to help us with a few things.

Jared was supposed to have a in park baseball tournament this week against the other two Concord teams, but the other teams are having trouble getting the boys around to play. I guess they have some injuries and some on vacation so the whole tournament was canceled. It is nice to not have games this week, but I was all ready signed up to work in the concession stand on Monday night so still had to be there for that. I really would rather work in the concession stand when Jared isn't playing anyway because then I am not missing his game. Jared ended up going with me and watching Austin's game and running around with Jill. Afterwards we went to Wendy's and Jared bought each of us a Frosty and fries! Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket We drove over to Oxbow Park to eat it. After we got back home we set up the tent again. This week it is supposed to be nice all week so Jared has been sleeping in there each night and I have slept out there a couple of times too. It is not the most comfortable, but not all that bad since we piled on lots of blankets. :) Tucker has been sleeping out there too and this morning when I woke up I couldn't find him. I finally noticed that there was some tail hair sticking out from under Jared's blankets and Tucker was curled up under there with him! Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

I had my yearly check up on Tuesday morning...fun..fun...and was supposed to have a CE meeting at church that night, but I decided after spending all day at church working on VBS stuff that I was just going to skip it this month. I kinda felt guilty, but I really just needed to be home for a while.

Last night we finally got the pool completely filled up! It took 2 days of running the water to fill it up, but now it is done. It looks so nice with the new paint job. The water, of course, is freezing Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket right now and it is going to take a while for it to warm up even enough for Mark and the boys to swim.

I started a new scrapbook layout yesterday with some more photos that I had developed quite a while ago. They are photos from last summer when we went to Six Flags!! I scrapped some of those photos shortly after our trip, but for some reason just put these aside and did nothing with them. I have been trying to get through some of the photos I have laying around and have been making pretty good progress. Winkflash, my favorite online photo developing place is having a good sale right now, .06 cents for 4x6 prints so I just ordered a bunch of new photos, the most I have ever ordered at one time. I ordered over 170 photos and even with the shipping it still came to just under $20.00! That is a great price! Some of the photos are for Jared to do for his 4-H project, but most of them are for me and so I will have PLENTY to scrap once they arrive. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Ali Edwards Newsletter

I know that I need to update my own life on my blog, but this morning I am trying to catch up on some e-mail and just keep coming across some really great things that I have found online that I want to add here. I just read Ali Edwards newest newsletter and she has a list called: top twenty tips for creating & design. It is such a great list to refer to when scrapping and there are so many of them that I really need to take to heart. You can read the list and the rest of her current newsletters here: Ali Edwards Newsletter
I can especially relate to #1, 8, & 12! Check it out!

Awesome Online Movie

My friend, Lisa, from Praisebooking sent me the link to this movie. She said in the e-mail to make sure you have a tissue near by and she was right.

Enjoy...it is very sweet!

Make a Difference

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Saturday, June 9, 2007

Thursday we spend a good part of the day at church with Veronica and the kids. We are in charge of decorating for VBS which will start in a couple of weeks. We are doing Rescue Zone and all of the decorations are things like fire trucks and police cars. We have to trace the designs on large sheets of paper and then the kids are helping us color them in. In the evening Jared had a baseball game and it was much warmer than it was on Monday, in fact, just as we predicted it was hot! It cooled down later so it wasn't too bad. They played Edwardsburg #3 and they won! It was an exciting game because it came right down to the end and they won by one point.

Friday Adam worked again and then Bradon came over later in the morning. School is done for his mom, but she still needs a few days to get in and clean up her classroom. I am pretty sure I will be babysitting for him off and on through out the summer too, probably just some half days. That is fine with me cause I can always use the money. Last night we had a nice evening. We went out to eat at Applebees with Jay and Julie Lininger. Julie did so much for us to help out with TI in WOL that we wanted to do something nice for her. Jeremy and Joel came over here to have pizza with Adam and Jared and hang out for the evening. Our meal was very nice. I had shrimp and sirloin and it was really good! When we were done with our meal, they came back here for a while and we sat outside and enjoyed the evening.

This morning, once again, Adam had to work so I took him at 8AM and then had to stop by the Little League to pick up fundraiser things. In a little bit we are leaving to go out of town for a wedding. Scott & Lori Hembree's son, (we work with them in WOL), Kyle, is getting married today. The wedding is in Berne, IN, which is south of Ft. Wayne and so it will take about 2-1/2 hours to get there. We will be gone pretty much all day. John Anderson, who works with Adam is going to bring him home after work this evening so we don't have to worry about that.

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

This morning we went to Amy Ford's home, (one of the homeschool moms that I have met through homeschool bowling), to help them clean up the roadside. They have adopted a mile stretch of road and clean up the litter twice a year. It is a good community service for the kids. She fed us monkey bread, (like little cinnamon rolls baked in a pan), for breakfast and made chicken salad for lunch. The kids were going to swim too, but it was a little cool for swimming today even though it was clear and sunny.

We came home mid afternoon and the boys got school done and then Mark came home and
cooked t-bone steaks on the grill for dinner. I made a simple lettuce
salad to go with them. After dinner Jared went off to play and ride his
bike, Adam and Mark went across to the river and fish and I took Tucker
for a walk. I also found some time to scrapbook and started a layout
with a couple of photos of Adam and Brooke from their birthday last
year. The photos aren't really that great so it has been hard for me to
be inspired to scrap them. I came up with some inspiration tonight
though and have it nearly done. I used foam stamps and paint to do the
title so am leaving it to dry overnight and then I hope to finish it up
tomorrow.
I uploaded a new layout last night that I finished a few days ago and
it is also in my slide show here on my blog. It was completed for a
sketch challenge forPraisebooking and were also some older photos that I took of Tucker last August while Nathalie was here.

Jared and I went out a bit ago and set up the tent in the
back yard. It isn't supposed to get too cool tonight and get much
warmer tomorrow so we figured it would be a good time for a camp out.
Jared and I are just about to go out there for the evening...he is
popping some popcorn for us to take out there right now.

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Tuesday, June 5, 2007

Adam had to be to work today at 9AM so I was off and running early today. I took Tucker with me when we went to drop Adam off. He just loves to ride and gets so excited when we ask if he wants to go bye-bye. When I got home, I helped Jared with some math work and then we sat down and watched an episode of "I Love Lucy".

Jared is growing so fast lately that he has all ready outgrown the Vans tennis shoes that he bought the last time, so this afternoon we went to Kohls to buy him new shoes. He was pretty excited to find a really cool pair of Nikes for under $25.00. They are red and white and he is pretty proud of them as they are his first pair of Nikes that haven't been hand me downs from Adam. I found a cute pair of pajamas that were way on clearance too. :) After that we ran over to the mall and went to Hobby Lobby, Bath & Body Works and JC Penneys. I bought a few things at HL and some body wash at BBW since they are having a great sale right now. Neither one of us bought anything at Penney's but we enjoyed looking. We went and picked Adam up from work after that and ran to the bank and the grocery store.

I had dinner at Panera with the ladies from my ABF group this evening and ate my favorite Grilled Chicken Caesar Salad. YUM! I made the guys mac-n-cheese with hot dogs per Jared's request. The ladies were all still there talking when I left, but I had to get home because Mark and I had a phone interview with Dick Beihl this evening. He is the man that is helping our church through the process of choosing an assistant pastor. He is calling several couples in the church to get opinions in certain areas.

The boys have a 4-H meeting tonight so Mark took them there while I was at Panera and Logan will be bring them home any time now. We really need to get them going on their 4-H projects! We say every year that we will get started early and every year they are struggling at the last to get everything finished up. I have a feeling this year will be no exception.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Brrr!!

Jared had a baseball game this evening and it was cold! Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket You wouldn't think that since it is June that it would be so cold, but it is. (currently it is 55F.) I had worn capris and a short sleeved shirt today, but earlier had put on a sweatshirt and by the end of the ball game I had another light jacket on as well as had my legs and feet wrapped in two blankets. It wouldn't have been so bad if the wind hadn't been blowing! I put up the large golf umbrella and leaned it back and that did help block a lot of the wind. The good thing about the night is Jared's team won! Hooray! Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket They played Big League Barbers and beat them 16-5.

Today was our last day of homeschool bowling so it was a pizza party and unlimited bowling. Jared bowled with Jeremy and they played 4 games. Adam ended up having to work this afternoon, so he missed it.

I guess Adam passed his "trial" period at work because this week he went from working 3 day a week (and only 4 hours on 2 of those days), to working 5 days this week with longer hours. He has off only Wednesday this week. That is good for him, but makes a lot of running for me. He is really liking his job at Martin's Pet & Garden and everyone says he is a good worker. I am glad he is enjoying it...it is so important to have a job that you like.

Yesterday after church we finally went to see Pirates of the Caribbean- At World's End. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket It was good, but a bit on the confusing side. I am looking forward to it coming out on DVD so I can watch it again and hopefully that will clear up some of the confusion.

After the movie we came home for a bit and then went back out to go to John Anderson's graduation open house. While we were there, Don & Michele showed up. It was so nice to see them. Since they left McCoy, we rarely see them any more which is really sad to me. We invited them to come over for a while after they were done with the open house and they came and spend nearly 2 hours talking. It was nice to get together with them again. We realized that we hadn't seen them since the Superbowl which would have been early Feb. Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket We really need to take the time to get together with them more often considering how close we were to them a year ago at this time. I really hate how we have drifted apart like this.

Saturday, June 2, 2007

Where did May go?



I can hardly believe that a month ago we were in TN on vacation. It seems like just a few days ago. We left in April and now it is all ready June. I think someone stole May! Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket

Yesterday was a fun day. We had Bradon again and we took him and Tucker and had a picnic at OxBow park with some other homeschoolers. It was a beautiful day, weather wise. When we got to the park, I let Adam drive...one of the days he is actually going to get out on the road and get some real hours behind the wheel. The bigger kids played football and I took Bradon and Joel L. to the playground for a while. When we headed back I took Tucker off of his leash for a while and he bounded across the field. It is so funny to watch him run in the grass because he really doesn't run, he kind of leaps, jumps and flies. I called him back to me and he was going so fast, that he ran right into my legs. HA!

The Springers have been in Florida this week and even though they got home last night they didn't come over yesterday.

In the evening we had a Word of Life party at the Anderson's home. Mark and Marla graciously volunteered to host and end of year party at their home. The kids played games, including catching water balloons in beach towels, ate lots of food including S'Mores, sat and talk and just had a nice time. During the sharing time, it got kind of emotional, as this is a very close group of kids and a lot of them will be moving up to RUSH next year. One thing that I really think is neat with this group is that they are ALL friends, girls and guys, they hang out and just have fun together. I think much of that was/is fostered by Jill & Jared. Since they have been together since birth, it is natural for them to be together and bring all of the others kids along, no matter whether they are girls or guys.

We found out last night that we have a new baby in the church, the Bargerhuffs had their baby... a girl..whom they named Esther Rose.

Today is another busy day. Adam is taking his SAT test right now and Logan came and picked him up since they signed up to take it at the same time. Jared had a game in Edwardsburg, but this game was moved up from next week and no one told the Edwardsburg team so they didn't show up. So, that was kind of a wasted trip, but Jared and I did stop at McDs on the way home from some yogurt and hash browns. Mark was home from work by the time we got home. This afternoon we are going to Sharon Kerk's Open House and then will pick Adam up from work and go to his softball game. (He is supposed to go to work right after he gets done with his SAT. )

Thursday, May 31, 2007

Thursday, May 31st, 2007

Kind of a busy day for me...started out with getting my hair cut and running a few errands, (put gas in the van & run to the grocery store for milk). Also we are babysitting for Bradon today when normally we just have him on Friday. Adam works this afternoon so will run him to work and go to the post office. Mark needs some 2 cent stamps and I was going to buy them at the grocery store this morning, but they were out. I would like to avoid the PO if I can since the line are always so long, so may just try to stop at the Martin's uptown instead. Tonight I have worship team practice and will pick Adam up from work right before I go there. Mark Kerk has been teaching Adam how to run the sound system at church and since he will be with me at worship team tonight he is going to run the sound for us. Mark will come and help him set things up and then Adam will be on his own.

For Mother's Day and my Birthday, Mark and the boys bought me Season 1 & 2 of "I Love Lucy" on DVD. I just love that show and so have been watching one or two episodes most afternoons. It is a nice fun break in the middle of the day. I am going to go and watch it in just a bit while I eat my lunch.

Adam is doing another practice essay for the SAT right now, much to his disappointment, because he would much rather be on the computer playing a game. Oh well!

Photos from Potato Creek


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More Photos from Potato Creek


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