service project at church yesterday, finally got my directories put together…we left for church at 8:00am had to sing at early and late, we got home last night at 7:00pm! marathon session….only had a couple of our confirmation kids that helped, i should have recruited more help, but mike and i stayed the distance and got it done:) finally!
then we came home and got to talk with shel and james for quite a while and get some of our many questions answered,
part way through shel got up and went and got something to eat and i teased her about eating in front of other people!
it will be good when they are in korea, that we will be able to see them and talk, hopefully eliza will see us on the screen and recognize us when she comes back!
II corinthians 5:7 for we walk by faith, not by sight
one of the gifts steph gave me for christmas was a box of scripture tea……………..
boy this is an appropriate verse for the day, sitting here thinking of shel, james and eliza, and having a break down!
i knew it was coming! hard to see the keyboard through the tears:)
just got done composing an email to james and it brought back all the feeling i had when UA left the first time for africa…………. will i see him again, will he be ok, is he safe, the things just going through my head and satan trying to creep in..finally i knew…….i knew what i had to do…………..just put him in God’ s hands and let HIM take care of him, and that is what i did, and let me tell you, after submitting, i had such a peace about what UA was about to experience and knowing he was going over there to be HIS servant, made me put things in perspective and in the end it is all God’s plan.
james serving our country, taking shel and eliza with him, has got me back to thinking the same thoughts i had when UA left, scared, uncertainty, so many questions flood my mind and once again i know what i have to do!
“God they are yours” there, i said it!
it doesn’t make it easy, of course i will be sad at times, but the way shel is with her journaling, like a friend of mine said to me “i have never even seen eliza and i feel like i know her, and am watching her grow up”….hoping that will make the time go quick
that will help the days pass, hopefully they get a couple of leaves and maybe just maybe mike and i can use our passports:)
it’s been snowing down here all day, the plows just went by again. …are there such things as……… the lazy days of winter???? cause i just experienced the best one:)
woke up to my coffee made for me……………just like every day:)
about 5 pm……i took my “morning” shower and got into a clean pair of flannel pj’s:)
i love my honey’s sense of humor:) he just came down from upstairs where he has been on the computer all day and said “honey i’m home! and safe”…to which i replied “that staircase can be pretty dangerous, i am glad you made it safe”
hope you are all staying warm and able to enjoy ………………….the lazy, snowy days of winter!
i worked all day… and it took all day! mike said i have tooooo many huge bins of decorations..but all of my Christmas stuff is put away for another year…………… i did get rid of one box of stuff for goodwill.
now we are heading out to go to an epiphany party tonight.
got this pic from peg, whit’s mom, thought it was good, i got one of enola and whit too, but for some reason it won’t let me copy??? so i thought i would at least share this one. (i’m starting to see david in her a little more)
david started his new job this week! definately a new year for their family!
i am so happy for david, i know he has wanted to do this and needed to do this:) God has a plan for them and it is great to see them following it!
jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
You don’t need to see the way if you follow the ONE that is the
WAY.
got home from church today and had an email from ronda, inviting us to come downtown to dt kirbys to watch the bears game with them…. you know mike and i couldn’t turn down a chance to have a good time:) so we headed down there and met up and buckets of beers later we are back home:) thanks mike and ronda for a good time….i am sure, everyone enjoyed hearing the four of us sing “bear down chicago bears”!!!
dt kirbys is a bar that opened up on main street across the street from the lafayette theater, the guy that opened it up is from chicago south side, plays the bears games and gets a full house.
here’s a pic of us there……..great time had by all:) that is…. after we got the really drunk guy out of the pic! it was just like being at soldiers field..with random drunk guys!!!
we got to spend the last days of 2009 with luke and tammy and kids:) we do feel so blessed and enjoy our times together at the “Popsicle house” a name given to this old house by the girls….since emma and evia were little… whenever they would come to visit they would take baths in our tub here in lafayette, and we would give them popsicles hence….”popsicle house” so yesterday we went out and got in the hot tub and enjoyed popsicles together:)
today papa got online for directions and started making party hats for the kids to bring in the new year! ok martin stewart!!!
he did a pretty good job and was really getting into making them festive:)…..levi was tired and really didn’t want to pose… i think he thought we were laughing at him, he is very sensitive at times, we weren’t laughing at him… it was papa we were laughing at:)
…….seriously he has so much fun with the kids, i can’t imagine what it would be like to have a papa like him!!! i had one grandpa, and i just remember getting yelled at for slamming the door at the cottage, while he sat and listened to wgn and the cubs, maybe that’s why i don’t like the cubs!!!…….i don’t have a whole lot of other memories of “gramp”…..kind of sad when you think about it, i mean i loved him but really don’t remember very many “fun times” maybe the older grandkids do, but i don’t
levi had fun with the different trains, this one pic is for tammy…. look at puppy on the floor:)
i love making memories for these sweet little souls……God has really blessed our family and we give all praise and thanksgiving to HIM
One must always maintain one’s connection to the past and yet
ceaselessly pull away from it.
— Gaston Bachelard
we had lunch yesterday up in st. john at northwoods with a friend from the past:)
we brought my mom with to see her, i couldn’t even make it look like her! and she said “oh, i would know you two right away!”
she had not seen her in 42 years! we caught up on her life and her on ours, steph had been in touch over facebook so they had been talking for a bit and decided they wanted to all get together……it was very fun and insightful to talk with someone from your past……far past!
christine gall was a girl that grew up on our block in evergreen just down about 4 houses from us. her mom ruth was eddies godmother! it was so wierd to hear her keep saying “eddie”, she brought more pictures of eddie… she had mailed me some earlier. she is alone now, her mom, dad and brother bill have all gone on before her…. so sad to think bill died at such a young age, he was chris’ age, i’m pretty sure.
we decided we want to get together again and i am sure we will!
thanks christine for the great memories
notice mom has a cane and not her walker!
oh i and i was going to mention, her house was the one we ran down to and went in the basement, when the tornado hit in 1967………………(our house didn’t have a basement)
the last week has been a whirl wind, as i am sure all of you have experienced! i felt pretty bad for james and shel and eliza with all the miles they had under their belts! a trip from georgia, here with us, up to hebron for the vanderbrandt get together, back down here, over to westpoint with some of his family, back here for church, down to frankfort for more of his family, back here, up to hebron, for some of shels extended family, over to laporte with sibs then next day to other side of laporte for our side, then down to dav and whits on their trip home! i’m tired just thinking about all the miles they had to do!!! and james’ comment was…. i just get in the car and shel tells me where we need to be! and he said it so sincere and wasn’t sarcastic at all about it, he then said… if this is what we need to do to be with family, i will do it:) james, it was so hard to say goodbye to you, not really knowing if we will see you again before you ship out……..God be with you, stay safe, we love you.
not to mention ua and a, but they are used to traveling the world over:) and dav and whit too! how did we all get so spread out!?! give them wings……and they fly!
before church on Christmas eve
we again attended st. james for the candlelight service and filled up 2 pews with our family and adrienne’s family, and james brother dustin and new fiance.
these were taken at st. james, Christmas eve night,
the new mr and mrs vandercar
mr. and mrs rockhill and eliza
mr and mrs vandercar and enola
the girls all dressed up for church in their christmas dresses
got home at 1 oclock in the morning and papa read the night before christmas for the new babies…..
it was hysterical and fun, if you want to see the movie check out papas place………enola kept looking up at him and then eliza started crying and enola then joined in:) when papa gave the team a whistle…it suddenly got quiet……… we were all cracking up, it made Christmas having the little ones here…. got up and did the whole vandercar thing then on to luke and tammys and did the whole thing over again and then up in the morning and over to chris and pegs and did the whole elser thing, we enjoyed being with family, but i do have to admit, i think all of this is getting to be tooooooo much, i think a vacation for christmas sounds like a wonderful idea for me:) not sure if i could get papa to agree?????
we need a trip to minnesota for the forgotten stockings for UA and A…i was so mad at myself for not being able to remember everything!!!!
i am exhausted, i will leave you with a few pics, it was wonderful having joshua and adrienne with us for their first Christmas together as husband and wife:)
everyone enjoyed holding the babies
this is the older girls in their pjs in laporte the night of Christmas…………………….sister chicks!
all the kids got new pjs, heres a pic of whit and enola and shel and eliza
i didn’t get to get a pic of luke and tammys kids in their new christmas pjs, i was really wanting a pic of all 5 of the grandbabies in their pjs and no pics of emma and evia and levi in their Christmas outfits…………..
my camera didn’t get brought out when they were dressed up, cause we weren’t with them all dressed up!… you’ll have to check out the pics on my old blog for them at their church the week before……in fact i don’t have pics of their family together, and the only pic i have of luke is at stephs playing with “shoot the moon”
here is a pic of me reading to emma and evia
levi opening presents
JOSHUA I NEED HELP I CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO GET MY PICS ON HERE SMALLER!!!
