Vacation...Day Four

Friday started out with a quick grab of breakfast as we headed out the door to Dawn's church to set up for the reception. When we got there we found, much to our surprise, that the room had not been readied for us. So, we searched around for extra tables and got it all set up. It took a lot of effort, but we were able to get things all set up and the reception area looks beautiful!

After setting up the reception we headed downtown to the "Tipsy Teahouse" for a ladies' luncheon. The teahouse was a little cluttered and not quite the right atmosphere for a tea party, but the food was out of this world! I had a fruity and aromatic tea named Casa Blanca. To eat we had a fresh fruit tray, warm scones with clotted cream and raspberry preserves, and amazing little cucumber sandwiches. Deana and I asked for the recipe from the shop owner. Since we were both from out of town she gave it to us. It's such a tasty recipe that I think I'll have to have a tea party before the summer is over just so that I can make them! And for dessert we had an assortment of baked goodies- brownies, raspberry bars, fudges, etc. It was a lovely break in the busy day.

After the tea I headed back to Dawn's place for a little bit. I took a quick cat nap for about 30 minutes before getting ready for the rehearsal. I was glad I did! The rehearsal was quite stressful! I am a person that doesn't enjoy conflict and I had lots of people telling me that I was doing things wrong. I did things the way that Dawn had asked me to, but others seemed to think I was trying to do it all my way, which was not the case at all. I came home just emotionally exhausted from so many people being upset with me. I wanted to fall straight into bed, but then someone called and needed help at the church with unloading some food, so I went with a few others to do that.

When we returned form that I was able to visit with others a bit and then head to bed at a fairly decent hour. Saturday is the wedding day! I'll let you know how it all turns out!

Vacation...Day Three

Day Three was spent working on wedding details....and having a little fun! We (Dawn, Deana, and me) started the day by going to the salon to get Dawn's nails done and then we headed to the mall to update the bridal registry, return some things, get her ring cleaned, have lunch, etc... Then we went home and Dawn and I worked out some wedding ceremony details so that I know what to tell people at the rehearsal on Friday night. Then we ran to Sam's Club to get the sandwich buns. On the way home from Sam's we went to Sonic for a Cherry Limeade! I LOVE those drinks, so it was a highlight for me - I'm going to try to get one each day that I'm in town! :) When we got home Deana and I cut the sandwich buns and then got the welcome bags for the out of town guests ready. Then the real fun began...

Dawn's bachelorette party! A group of us went to Moe's for dinner. It's a tex mex type of restaurant. It has very 90's named menu items...it had things like "Ugly Naked Guy", "Close Talker", "Art Vandalay", and "Fun Bobby" - all references to tv shows like "Friends" and "Seinfeld". The food was ok, but the company was awesome! Dawn received some fun lingerie from the gals - which we made her open at the restaurant! Then we went to the Bowling Alley where we bowled two games. I bowled an 86 and a 115 - pretty normal scores for me. After bowling, the married gal went home and the rest of us headed back to Dawn's place - but first we went to see if the guys were still at the bachelor party. They were...and their cars were unattended, so we decided to decorate Rick's car a bit! We went to the CVS across the street and bought some supplies. With the group of us working we were able to decorate it quick and get away fast! On the way back to Dawn's we decided to go over to her friend, Carrie's, to swim for a bit. We ended up hanging out in the pool having some "girl talk" time until about 12:00 or so. We came home exhausted, but having had a great time!

A photo of Dawn with one of her presents from the night!

Vacation...Day 2

Day two of my vacation was spent mainly on the road. I left Cincinnati at 8:30 AM and arrived at Dawn's in Greenville at 8:30 PM. It was a beautiful drive - the mountains were gorgeous! I ran into some pretty heavy rain at two points and that was pretty nerve racking, but other than that it was uneventful.

Upon arriving at Dawn's I was greeted with huge hugs from all of Dawn's family - her, her mom -Diane, and her sister - Deana, and her Aunt Beverly. I told her fiance Rick that he'd have to know me more than 5 minutes to get a big hug, so he just got a handshake. I think he was fine with that. :)

Dawn and I stayed up late talking in her room. I was reminiscent of the old days when she used to stay overnight at my place when I lived in the little white house on Main Street. I'm so glad that I am able to be out here to be a part of all the wedding fun with her!

Vacation...Day 1

I am on vacation. Not just vacation from my RD job, but vacation from life in Goshen! I am in Cincinnati visiting my Uncle Jack. Today after my morning shift in ITS Media, my mom and I drove down here. We had a great time - good conversation, ruckus laughter, and comfortable silence. We stopped and ate at a Cracker Barrel. I decided to break out of my routine and got something other than my regular of biscuits and gravy. Bad decision. The chicken and dumpling weren't nearly as flavorful as my Aunt Margie's...I guess it just makes me that much more excited about eating some of hers later in the trip!

Uncle Jack's wife - Shelley - has a dog. I don't know what kind of dog...small, black & white, kinda cute, and extremely excitable! His/her (I'm not sure which) name is Tuttles. It seems to be very fond of me. Those of you that know me well are certainly aware that I am not reciprocating the feelings! It keeps jumping on, crawling over, snuggling with, and licking me. I don't want to hurt Shelley's feelings, so I let it. I really just can't wait to take a long shower tonight and wash all the dog spit off me! It's not that I don't like this dog....it's actually kinda cute and a bit endearing when it cuddles with me...but I really just don't like any dogs...especially those that lick me! I know, that makes me a bad person to some people...maybe even some of you, but I just can't stand them to lick me! ewww gross! OK, now that I've alienated my friends with dogs I will close. (Please still love me even if I don't love your dogs!)

I'll try to write again tomorrow when I arrive at stop #2 on Susie's vacation route!

Love wedding

Monkey and Love wed!

Well, my dear young friends, Daniel and Kassidy (or Love and Monkey as I like to call them) got married today! These two are GC grads that lived in my building for a period of their college experience and also attended LifeSpring with me. They are wonderful people and I'm so glad that they made the move from "student" to "friend" in my life! It was fun to see many familiar faces at the wedding - many church people were involved and lots of special folks from the college were there too!

I catered the reception. It was a lot of work, but certainly a labor of love for these two very special people. It would have been so much more work without the assistance of Amanda and Haly - they have no idea how thankful I am that they were willing to lend a hand!

Monkey and Me!

Father's Day

Today is Father's Day. This is the 3rd Father's Day without my dad. It was certainly easier that the first 2, but still quite difficult at points throughout the day. My friend - Rob - preached about fathers this morning at church. I spent much of the message reflecting on the special memories that I have of my dad. I am so thankful for those last six months of his life - knowing that he was dying helped most of us kids make those last days special and filled with memories that bring us comfort.

My favorite memory from those last six months is of Dad and I going to Wal Mart. He was having a difficult time walking very far, so we'd pull up to the curb and he'd shuffle in and get on one of the motorized shopping carts while I parked the car. We'd go shopping for items I needed to feed my hungry brood of college students. He would become like a kid again when he got on that thing - buzzing around corners, trying to beat me to the end of the aisle, almost running over little old ladies! It was fun to see him smile and enjoy himself. I'm sure that the loss of so many of his capabilities was incredibly frustrating. I don't doubt the opportunity to be "behind the wheel" again after not driving for over 10 years was a bit exhilarating! He was always supportive of me being at Goshen College and this was a way he could share in my ministry to students and spend time with me. How I wish he was still here.

One of my favorite childhood memories is our ritual of Sunday morning "Sack me up" moments. I wore lots of dresses to church in those days and had little cable knit tights of every color. Mom would be busy doing her hair and I'd try to get my tights on, but had mostly elephant ankles and the crotch was at my knees. I'd go into where Dad was reading & drinking his coffee and say,"Sack me up Daddy" He'd lift up my dress and grab my tights on either of my little hips and lift me in the air. I'd fall into my tights and the elephant ankles would be gone! He'd give me a hug, then I'd run off and find a book to read until it was time to leave. I think that memory stands out because Mom took care of me most of the time and while I loved my Dad, she was the one I usually went to for help, but for this one thing I always went to him.

I watched the video from Dad's funeral this afternoon. It made me cry...as usual, but in a way it felt like I spent a little time with him today. I'm so thankful that he was my Dad and I look forward to seeing him again someday in heaven.

A pleasant week

This week has been lovely. I haven't had a ton of stuff planned, but each day has been good. My house guest, Amanda, has been a delight to have around. She and I have enjoyed planning menus and cooking together. We had a picnic lunch in my front yard on Tuesday and spent a couple hours reading magazines out in the sun. I had lunch with friends on Wednesday and today. My home group helped do some projects at the church on Wednesday evening and went to the Chief when we were done....it was my first visit of the year...I had that Friday Crunch Sundae - vanilla ice cream with strawberries, chocolate syrup, and pieces of waffle cone...yummmm! I've also been working on some sorting of "stuff" for the garage sale that Mom is going to have later this summer. I'm trying to be realistic about what I might actually wear again and what I'm just hanging on to for nostalgic reasons. I'd love to simplify my wardrobe and all the junk in my guest room!

Amanda and I are hosting several groups this weekend for meals/games/fun, so I should hopefully have some good stories and/or photos to share with you next week. Until later...

Angela & Kathy graduate!

Mom and Kathy

Angela and me

Saturday afternoon was my twin nieces' graduation open house. It was a wonderful afternoon full of food, fun, and fellowship. I spent most of the afternoon refilling the punch bowl and the dessert trays (this was the open house that I made all those brownie bites & mini cheesecakes for) This was a good place for me, since I am used to being the woman behind the food at church and school functions. It also saved me from having to make awkward conversation with people I don't know.

It was fun to work with Angela's boyfriend's mom for a bit - the kids will probably end up getting married, so it was nice to know that she is involved with a guy from such a nice family. And talking to Kathy's boyfriend was a lot of fun - as usual.

Almost all of my family showed up -which was a feat all it's own! I saw aunts & uncles and nieces & nephews that I haven't' seen in quite some time. That was wonderful. I wish I would've had more time to visit with them, but the punch kept running out...oh well, I enjoyed the time I did get to spend with them.

A hard part of the day was the obvious absence of my brother Carl - who passed away 12-31-04. These were his twin daughters that we were celebrating with. Carl would've been bursting with pride over them if he was still living. I thought the girl's did a great job of including lots of photos of their dad in their various displays of photos and memorabilia. It's hard to believe that he has been gone almost 2 1/2 years already. Time just keeps marching on.

Baking Bonanza!

Tonight I had 5 wonderful women over for dinner. I made my favorite go-to company meal - Texas 2 Step Chicken with rice. I used medium salsa this time and it was kinda kicky, but not so much that we didn't eat it. It was weird to entertain only women after a school year of feeding both genders...no one took seconds!...at least I hope that was a gender thing and not a reflection on the meal! :)

After dinner these amazingl women spent the evening helping me bake yummy treats for my twin nieces' high school graduation open house. I agreed to make 24 dozen tuxedo brownie cups and another 24 dozen mini cheesecakes for their open house. It took about 6 hours to get it all made - though around 10:00 the crowd started to dwindle. Amanda stayed until about 12:30 - even helping me do dishes after it was all done! It feels good to have all the baking done. And the food looks great!

Here are some photos from the fun!

Sarah filling the muffin tins with brownie mix.

Denise taking the stems off the strawberries.

Kassidy hamming it up while filling the muffin tins.

Deanna was at the Kitchen Aid most of the evening mixing things.

Amanda showing off the tuxedo brownies at the end of the night!

Registering for classes!

Well, I registered for classes this week. It's feeling more and more real that I am actually going to go to grad school. I'm totally excited and totally freaked out about it! I am eager to start learning and to meet my new classmates. I am terrified that I will not be able to handle the work load or that I'm just not smart enough to do it. The eagerness and excitement are much more prevalent in my emotions, but the others creep in on a somewhat regular basis. This is what I'll be taking this fall....

Hermeneutics - 3 credit hours
Student's ability to use scripture in personal spiritual formation and in ministry is improved by focusing attention on the several critical tasks involved in biblical interpretation. The course will emphasize inductive interpretation of scripture in a variety of contexts. Students will increase their hermeneutical skills by doing interpretive work on passages important to their ministry.

Theories and Principles of Counseling - 3 credit hours
This course provides an examination of several of the major counseling theories with an emphasis on techniques and principles common to each theory. Theories will be evaluated against biblical and theological truth to determine which theories are compatible and which theories are at tension with a Christian view of humanity.

I'll let you know when my list of books to read comes in July - maybe you'll want to read along with me...HA!

What a great weekend!

This weekend was so wonderful! I was going to take some photos and post them for you all to see. So, I checked out a camera from ITS Media (where I work this summer). When I went to take a photo at one point, the camera wouldn't turn on....I was like what's wrong with thing?! So, I opened up the bottom of it and saw that I forgot to put a battery in the thing! Argh! Not my brightest moment! :( So, here's my weekend without photos!

Friday night I went shopping and out to eat with Denise. She had a meeting to go to on the west side of town, so she dropped me off at Kohl's to look for a wedding gift while she went to the meeting. I pulled up the registry and found of the dozen or so items left on the list, most were either too expensive or not in stock. So, I walked down to Target to check out that registry. There were a few more items on that list, but again, most were either too expensive or didn't really go together to make a nice gift....like a lawn chair, a silverware tray, and a candle....it'd be too much of a hodge podge. They did have several DVDs on the list, so I ended up getting all of them (Hitch, King Kong, and Shrek). I also then added a box of microwave popcorn to complete the gift. I was pleased with the final gift (I think Deanna was too - she entrusted me to pick up the gift for us since she's been out of town the past week or so.) I guess that's what I get for waiting until the day before the wedding to buy the gift!

Denise and I went to Panera for dinner. I LOVE that place! I had the cheesy broccoli soup...my fav...and tried the new "Chicken Pomodoro" panini. The soup was delicious, as always. The sandwich was a big disappointment. It is described like this, "Smoked, pulled white-meat chicken, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil & vine-ripened Pomodoro sauce grilled hot on our Sesame Semolina." The mozzarella and fresh basil were clear flavors that I enjoyed, the chicken was ok - nothing special, but the sesame semolina bread was flavorless and the pomodoro sauce was too much like spaghetti sauce. I was bummed, but at least I tried it and will know not to get it again.

Saturday was spent almost exclusively on Jason and Melanie's wedding...getting ready, traveling to, attending, and driving home from it. It was so worth it though! Jason and Melanie are two of my former students - Mel was on my staff during the 2003-2004 school year. We have remained close since then. The got married at Jason's home church in Toledo, Ohio. It was a beautiful and fun event. Her dress was so adorable - it was strapless and a little shorter than tea length. It was white with little sparkles in it. Her hair was done in a fancy updo with a little veil in the back. Her bridesmaids dresses were a limey green. The flowers were in shades of orange and yellow - roses, lilys and gerber daisy's. The reception was outside under a big white tent. I sat with a group of other faculty/staff from the college. I think there were probably about 30 other former students there. It was really good to catch up with them. It was a lovely day from start to finish!

And today was church! I went early (as usual) to do the Living Room. Someone else baked this week, so I appreciated not having that responsibility, especially in light of being gone all day on Saturday. I was walking up to the sanctuary, when I passed the Toddler Room and saw Kassidy in there. I stopped to chat with her a bit and ended up spending the entire service in there chatting with the ladies working in there and playing with the kids. After church we had a baptism party. Some neighbors of the Buller's have a pool, so we used their backyard for our party! They had a graduation party the night before and had left the tent up for us...it's a good thing they did because it rained most of the afternoon! It stopped raining a bit - just long enough for us to do that baptisms- and then it poured the rest of the time. It wasn't lightening, just rain, so the kids played in the pool in the rain. I stayed under the tent and organized the food (as usual :))

Four people got baptized. Two college students that have grown up at our church. They've been away from home and have realized their faith is their own and not just what their parent's fed them They are now ready to boldly declare before others that this is what they want their life to be about! The other two were a mother daughter pair who have come from a really hard place - lots of poor life choices and pain in their lives - they've come to know the Lord and are living for him and wanted to take this next step in living for him. It was a wonderful thing to be a part of! I love baptism days - such joy and hope permeates these events!

I came home after the church thing and took a 3 1/2 hour nap! The rain was pattering on my roof, so it was easy to just keep sleeping! Tonight is the season premiere of "The Next Food Network Star" I'm looking forward to watching it. My students and some of my friends say that I should try to be on it, but I don't think I'd like the pressure of cooking/creating on tv. I'm just happy to watch others do it. btw...I saw the winner of last season when he was in town filming a segment on a local diner this spring. I think that's a plenty long enough entry for today! :)