Ellie's 8th Birthday Par-TAY!

Ellie's birthday breakfast request was chocolate chip pancakes... we didn't have chocolate chips but we did have m&m's.  That's an "E" and a smiley face that Nathan put on an eight-shaped pancake.

Lunch after VBS was happy meals at Mickey D's and time in the Playplace...

Then, while the boys bought the supplies for the evening cook-out, Ellie fulfilled a long-time wish to have her nails done, including the fancy little flowers painted on just like Marilyn's.

We went next door to the nail salon and Ellie got a hair cut.  She kept telling the hairdresser over and over, "I'm getting my first makeover!"  I was glad she was so happy (and that the experience was only $17 between the two activities!).  She won't soon forget it!

And below, an amazing surprise in her happy meal... a bird with flapping wings, absolutely perfect for our bird-loving girl.

All done!  And yes, that's the same dress pictured in her 6th birthday photo... her birthday falls on Flag Day, so we like to dress patriotically...

Later in the evening we were able host a party like I remember having at her age... complete with extended family present.

Nathan grilled out on our little camping stove...

(below) Ellie and Reni with their 'favorite' Waggoner cousin, Elisha.

Gift opening was a little chaotic.  And I think Ellie scored more gifts than ever.  Reni got really into it too.

And for her third straight birthday, lanterns... I got them super cheap the winter Tangled was in the theaters.  Then they shot up in price.  We've been releasing a few per year and I have a couple more left.  Now rumor has it the EPA may be outlawing them...

What a special day! Nathan and I marveled at the crowded room of family surrounding Ellie with love. I think she had a really, really good day and we couldn't ask for much more than that.  What a privilege to raise this little girl and call her ours!  What a gift!

Summer 2013 Newsletter

We recently sent out our Summer newsletter via snail-mail, but if you can't wait for a printed version or if you just want to see the pictures a little bigger, you can check out our digital versions below.

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What We Do For Fun on the Prairie

 Vacation Bible School was always the highlight of my summer as a child.  We didn't do vacations.  We didn't have a pool pass. And living in the country, well, having friends over for a visit was a special occasion too.  When we saw on our schedule that we would be around for Delavan's community-wide Bible school (sponsored by three different churches), we volunteered to assist since we wanted Ellie and Reni to attend and get this experience before we leave for Albania.

We were given the Kindergarten class which, shall we say, is about the opposite end of the student age spectrum from college students (our comfort level) as you can get, but fortunately Mark and Eszti were in town and Kindergarten is Eszti's absolute favorite age.  Eszti graciously took on the role of leader of our teaching team and the rest of us fell into other roles, with Mark and Nathan taking turns accompanying Ellie in her class. We asked Reni his favorite part of Vacation Bible School?  The "making part."  [i.e. crafts]

(Below: Mark leads the kids on a crawl away from the evil Pharoah).

Because Mark and Eszti were not familiar with our part of the country, we made sure to save an afternoon after VBS for a trip to Springfield.  We packed a lunch which we ate in the car while we drove about an hour south to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library.  Probably my favorite museum ever.

They have a variety of theaters (we've only been in one, but the show had visual effects we couldn't explain to Ellie because we weren't quite sure ourselves how they did them). You also enter the museum halls by walking into replicas of Lincoln's boyhood log cabin in Kentucky or the White House.  All throughout there are wax figures in life-size vignettes to help give context to the exhibits of artifacts and information.  I snagged a few pictures before I saw the "no cameras" sign.  Oops!

'Above Right (top):  A scene from New Salem (which we visited last fall), (bottom) son Eddie's tombstone, which was particularly sobering upon calculating that he was within a few days of Reni's current age when Eddie died of TB.

A rare picture indeed:  Ellie and Reni both have their eyes closed!  At the entrance they gave us a clip-board with questions to answer from the information posted in each era of Lincoln's life. It was for Ellie, but it kept us grown-ups engaged in the information, particularly in parts we may have overlooked.  But really, it can stand on its own.

There is a great children's play area (where you can take photos) with all sorts of hands-on activities.  Reni loved, loved, loved the Lincoln logs (which, free fact, were invented by the son of Frank Lloyd Wright).  I thought the doll house replica of Lincoln's Home was a great thing for the kids to see before we toured it next.

Even the grown-ups had fun in the kids area!

We drove a few blocks down the street and visited Lincoln's Home.  This is a free tour (who doesn't love free?), you just have to pick up tickets in advance for your designated tour time.

Everything in the home is pretty close to the way it was when the Lincoln's lived there, except it was air conditioned.  And nobody was protesting that!

The guide pointed out something stored under the bed.  Loved how all the kids immediately had to look and see.  Right, Lincoln's desk. No room for a laptop!

I hope I'm not giving anything away too prematurely, but the next afternoon after VBS we did a quick photo shoot for Mark and Eszti's new prayer card (they are headed to Hungary as missionaries).  Here's one that was in our top three...

Then, before they left, we did another little photo shoot on the big tractor (NOT for their prayer card, wink).

Mark had on his Albania team jersey, so the kids requested to wear theirs to match.  I apologize for the tummy Ellie is showing.  She's obviously growing!

And that's what we do for fun on the prairie!

A Different Kind of Drive-in

8 Days. 3 States.

As we stumbled in the door around 9:30 last night Nathan and I both looked at each other and asked, "Has it only been a week?"

Here's a photo from the many June pics I just dumped to the computer.  Reni might just be a little OCD.  He cannot enjoy a video without lining up each and every wheeled toy he has on the coffee table in front of the TV for a little 'drive-in' of their own.  I dare not even start the previews until his job is completed (which can take about ten minutes).  Gotta love it!

Much to share!  I hope to get caught up here soon!  Yeah, like son like mother.  I won't rest until all my cars er, photos are in a line too.

Test Run in the New Stubbies

I'm up to my eyeballs in photos to cull and edit from the past 2+ weeks.  In the mean time, enjoy this little video of Reni trying out his new stubbies!  (It's only 18 seconds long, but gives you the idea of his mobility in them). This was at the rough fit on Monday.  Wednesday morning we were able to pick up the finished legs as we left Kentucky, on our way up to Indiana!  Check out my Instagram feed in the right hand margin for a sneak peak at the cool "Cars" design Chris (the prosthetist) applied!  According to Reni, they're like "tattoos".

I can't wait to see how this impacts his ability to run around outside, on pavement, gravel, mulch and other hard or bumpy surfaces!  YAY!!!

Scratching an itch

Ever have that itch on your back between your shoulder blades you can't reach?

That's kind of how I feel about not finding time to get a post written since who knows how long.  And to get some temporary relief, I'm going to throw up a quick update.  Dad, don't be too mad for too long that it doesn't have a photo.  I'll try to make up for it later...

VBS was great!  Time with Mark and Eszti was special!  Ellie's birthday was one of her best yet!  And now we are in Kentucky (for like 72 hours)!

Yesterday we were able to be back at our home church, First Alliance, for the first time since October (?).  It was so, so nice to reconnect with our church family there!

The balance of our time here is filled with appointments for all of us (dentist, Ellie's 8-year check-up, meeting some potential tenants for the duplex, supper with some supporters, and a gathering back at church), then we're on our way up to Marion, Indiana for the rest of the week!

Happy be-lated Father's Day to our wonderful dads and to my husband, Nathan, who goes above and beyond!

For all you lovers of blogs...

Shortly after Nathan and I were married, we got a visit from a vacuum cleaner salesman.  He actually lived right behind us and was studying at the seminary in town.  To make a long story short, we needed a vacuum, he was selling one, we were flush with wedding cash and were quite impressed with his demonstration.

We loved that vacuum.  We told everyone we knew about our new vacuum.  We even took our vacuum with us to our parents' homes at Christmas (no joke) to show them.  At that point, we realized what a good fit we were in the student center ministry, where we could share exciting ministry opportunities with folks who were looking for a place to serve.  Our personalities were/are the kind that if we find something we like, we like to tell others about it. Quite enthusiastically. Don't be mistaken.  We are NOT sales people.  But we might be that testimonial that sales people like to use.

This is not a deep post.  In fact, it may not be up on the blog for very long BUT it does serve a purpose.

I have been an AVID fan of Google Reader.  Over the years between adoption networks, missions connections, professional development sites, friends and family, etc., I could have never managed to stay on top of everyone's news (I can only bookmark so many pages, people).  I've tried to encourage everyone I know who reads blogs to use Google Reader (and I've converted a few) or I suggested at the least that they subscribe to them via e-mail, if possible.  Sadly, Google Reader goes away at the end of the month, so if you're looking for a replacement, read on.  If not, feel free to keep reading because if you read blogs (after all, you are reading ours), you might find this helpful and time saving! 

I've been in denial for several months. My Google Reader page is the first thing I open in the morning after my e-mail.  I read it before I go to bed at night and many times in between, if I have time.  I do so much of my life with Google that I was more than a little annoyed that to continue managing my blog feeds, I would have to learn something new and have yet one more website user id and password to remember.

Right now I'm trying Bloglovin'. 

The Pros:

 There were a few things I liked right away about it.  The interface is a lot more attractive and intuitive than Google Reader.  I have a ways to go in organizing 5+ years of blog feeds (241!), but I was able to import my feeds from Google and start putting them in categories.  ... deleting a lot of inactive blogs, as well as blogs that aren't relevant to me anymore.  I know sorting blogs into categories was something I could have done in Reader, but it wasn't obvious, so I never took the time to do it.

I like that I can see the first image and opening sentences of each blog post to make sure I don't miss anything that might be time sensitive or important.  If I don't want to read the post, I just click "mark as read".  But when I do want to go deeper, it pulls up the blog's page, so you can see it with all the design features of the author's site itself (and not just post content only) like the author's Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram feeds, if they've installed those widgets. There are a variety of reasons why this is nice, but one reason why blog writers might like Bloglovin' is that it registers that visit as a legitimate hit to the page (for statistical purposes).

Finally, I receive an e-mail each morning with a list of new blog posts published by my feeds in the previous 24 hours.  So if I was too busy to visit Bloglovin' the day before, I can see what I missed.  Not a big deal, but nice on days when life is hectic and I'm not in the office.

The Cons:

When we're at the farm house (like now), we get our internet via a mifi connection (i.e. we have a limited amount of data to use in a month, not to mention, it's slower than DSL or cable internet).  To load an entire blog page is S-L-O-W, esp. when most of the time, I just want to read the latest post and move on to the next one (imagine loading a new news site for each story you needed to read).  I've found, though, that if I check Bloglovin' on the iPad, it loads the mobile version, which is essentially a no frills,  'content only' way to read a post, with much, much, less waiting.

When you DO click through to read a post in its entirety, visiting the author's site, it appears in a quasi-Bloglovin' browser, so the URL is disguised, which makes it frustrating if I want to copy and paste the link for any reason.

The preview format which is so attractive also means more clicking to read what I want to read.  Lazy, I know.

If you use Bloglovin' and I've overlooked something you particularly like about it, feel free to comment.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.  If you are a Feedly user, let me know your likes/dislikes -- I am trying that next!

Okay -- off to prep for VBS!

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

The Guest Room is Occupied!

Yes!  The Winnie is doubling as our guestroom these days.  Our friends Mark and Eszti are with us!  They have recently returned to the States from Hungary.

While they're with us, Nathan and Mark have been tackling some projects on the farm, like painting the machine shed roof (x2)!  (I think Mark was a little busier than he looks in the photo below -- maybe I posed this to get them both in the same shot?  I can't remember.).

The kids are really enjoying having Eszti around.  The other day Reni shouted down the stairs, "Eszti!  Eszti!  I need you!!!"

Remember my last post inquiring for an envelope licker?  Little did I know that would be Eszti.  My idea of using a sponge just didn't pan out.  She promised the envelopes tasted just like butterscotch.  If so, I don't know that I'll try butterscotch in Hungary... : )

Off to the post office on Friday!

Then, to show what kind of hostess I am, I gave Eszti a couple of opportunities to practice public speaking, by taking her to share at two events, one for junior high and another for senior high.

Common Ground is hosting a summer of activities for the family in Delavan, revolving around a study of the book of Ephesians.  The first chapter discusses the subject of adoption, so Eszti and I shared with the youth from our personal experience of adoption (I as a parent, her as a sister) and many of the ways in which it is analogous to our spiritual adoptions into God's family.

Eszti has been a huge help around the house, kindly making desserts for our meals and including the kids in the efforts.  They love to 'help'!

We're trying some new recipes!  This is fun, but I'm wondering how in the world I'm going to entertain in Albania without wonderful things like 'cream of mushroom soup' or my Kitchen Aid stand mixer!

The guys have now started replacing Hannah's flooring.  It's reminiscent of another wood floor project these two undertook three winters ago...

But we're trying to make sure they have some fun too!

So happy to have friends here with us!