Life and Death (part 1)

Daisy turned one year old on Feb. 28. She is such a blessing to me. Thank you God for this little life you entrusted to my womb and also my arms.







by the way, this is Elinor helping me stir the frosting...she liked that part :)

Cabin Fever

Enough already! I've officially had it with winter! We've been getting pretty antsy and cranky all stuffed up in this house for weeks. Elinor has been playing in the sink (just one of the creative things she's found to do in the house). I better go get the mop :)

3 Years Old

A Bunch of Thoughts and Stuff (because i just had some coffee)

First of all, sometimes i feel really isolated here. like we live on some sort of island and it's a big effort to get to the main land. it sure was nice to be in illinois (and Texas too, because i haven't seen some of my lifeway friends since we left chicago). so nice to be with people that know me and that i know...where i can just be "me". it was so nice having the buddy times at the stones (although somehow it's never enough time and i always leave thinking "but wait, i want to talk to val more"). and it was great having coffee with carrie (i miss that so much), and all the reinders family time was really nice. speaking of reinders...here are a couple of photos of them from their photo shoot in november :)


oh, and here is a family picture from Christmas

On the way back to PA we stopped at my grandparents house in Indiana. it was kind of sad. my grandma hasn't been doing that well. it seems to me she's starting to give up. she stopped getting her hair done and wearing her teeth. so it was a little shocking to see her at first. i wasn't used to my grandma being that grandma.


"Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God." Lev. 19:32

There and back again, and there and back again

I've been to Illinois twice and Texas once in the last month. woof. I've cried a lot of tears, most of sadness, but also some of joy. On Dec. 21 my friend jae got married. It was so good to see her again (she's been in Honduras) and I was honored to be a part of her wedding.

I love this photo. I know that some of you have seen it on facebook...but i like it a lot and want to show it off :) (p.s. props to chris padgett--he took it)

Kaiden

We lost our nephew last week. Kaiden was 7 months old in the womb. Kaiden, I can't wait to meet you in heaven. the following was his obituary:



Kaiden Aaron Reinders

December 12, 2008 - December 12, 2008

Loves Park – Kaiden Aaron Reinders, infant, was born into Heaven Friday, December 12, 2008, at Rockford Memorial Hospital. He was an angel baby and is loved very much and will be greatly missed.

Kaiden is lovingly survived by his parents, Aaron and Tiffany (Dowrick) Reinders of Loves Park; grandparents, Michael and Debora Reinders and Thomas and Mary Dowrick, both of Rockford; great-grandparents, Kenneth and Eleanor Reinders, Joann Stemm, Robert and Earlene Dowrick and Philip and Joann Brooks; uncle, Josh (Rachel) Reinders; aunt, Brittany Dowrick; and cousins, Elinor and Daisy Reinders.

Kaiden was predeceased by his great-grandfather, Duane Stemm.

Funeral Information

Service is at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, December 17, 2008, in Genandt Funeral Home, 602 N. Elida St., Winnebago, with the Rev. Ken Schmoyer, pastor of Winnebago Evangelical Fellowship, officiating. Private burial in Middle Creek Cemetery, in Winnebago.

So it's been over a month now

I thought i better post some photos of our vacation before they became obsolete. These were taken from the balcony of our little condo. It overlooked the canal in Lewes, Delaware. We came back one evening to shouts and loud music, looked out the window and saw a parade of boats all lit up for the annual "Coast Days Festival."






hope you're prepared to see lots more boring vacation pics...i took a lot :)

I'm just looking at some recent photos...thought i'd post a couple.

Snow in October???

So, Chris visited the Hastings this last weekend...it was 80 degrees. In other news, it snowed here today.

Cranberry Festival Art Show

My mom took this picture at the Cranberry Festival Art Show about a month ago. It was really nice to see my photos on display. Plus there was a spaghetti dinner and ice cream social in the same building :) That mountain-ey photo in the background is one of the ones that i entered.

Del-a-where?

We got back a couple of days ago from our vacation to exciting Delaware. My plan is to put some photos on the blog of our trip...but i haven't gotten that far yet. So mostly this post is to say, "hey, I'm still here, sorry I haven't written much." Also, i've enjoyed catching up a little bit with my buddies blogs...but sometimes it makes me a little sad to read (and see) what everyone has been doing. I miss you guys a lot, and am really missing hanging out. So when are we going to have buddy time over Christmas? (p.s. click on the title of this post:)

Does This Seem Weird To You?

We got a special "Back To School" section in our newspaper this week. I thought it would be full of what I think back to school stuff is. Like the latest book bag styles, study tips, maybe lunch menus. But it wasn't, it was full of classroom assignments and bus schedules. That means that virtually every school-aged child in the county is listed under his or her classroom/homeroom. Which i thought was kind of strange. But then I kept looking through it. I got to the bus routes, which turned out to be detailed schedules of which bus is where and at what home at a specific time (ie: 7:43 Montgomery farm). So, I don't know...is this normal? Maybe I'm just paranoid, but it seems a little scary to me.

Sorry Sam's Club

I'm sorry Sams's Club and everyone who happened to be shopping at your Butler, PA location yesterday afternoon. Sorry for bringing a tired 2 1/2 year old into your doors, strapping her to your cart and allowing her to unleash her blood-curdling scream. However, in all fairness, we were trapped in the car with it's screaming for well over 30 minutes. So I suppose we got what was coming to us? ok, maybe not.

Costumes

On my way back to PA from IL, I stopped at my parents house. While I was there, my mom gave me two red boxes. Guess what was in them...my costumes! So I got them home and washed them up, and here they are hanging on the clothesline.

If you can tell, they consist of the following:
*one gold dress I wore in "Brigadoon"
*one Scottish-looking dress I wore in "Brigadoon" (which my mom made)
*one green tweed suit which I wore in "The Man Who Came to Dinner". An actual vintage 40's dress we got at a thrift store and my mom altered.
*one silly purple dress which looks like it may have been someones prom dress in the 80's (but makes a good "Gone With the Wind" costume.
*two dresses, vintage 60's yellow and light blue, that belonged to a friends mom (who passed away some years ago).
*one Indian dress (I don't know where that came from, or how I came to possess it)
(oh, and one pair of pants belonging to Elinor that got included in that load of laundry)

Random pictures

Zucchini and stuff

Corn

Lettuce

Tomato (I want to try them fried and green)

Zucchini



Val put her recipe for zucchini crumble on their blog...so i thought i would put some pictures of my zucchini (and some other stuff too) on mine. It's been really fun watching everything grow, but I really can't wait to eat those tomatoes...yummmmm.