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!

You've Got Mail

...coming to your post box soon!

Here's a sneak peak of what I'm doing in my spare moments...

It's that time again!  Time to send a little love and the message that we appreciate all of our friends and family, many of which have jumped behind us generously to support our family and the Kingdom work in Albania.

We send monthly updates via e-mail, we blog, we Faceb**k, we tweet, but there's nothing like the tangible feel of cardstock and smell of ink. 

I must confess I had some fun putting together this little accordion-folded card, sharing the highlights of the past 9 or so months since our last newsletter. 

Missionaries wear a lot of different hats and I'm thankful for the many fulfilling responsibilities entrusted to us, but I am also grateful for times like this when we get to be journalist, photographer, graphic designer, editor and envelope licker.  Well, maybe not so much that last one...  any takers?

Anything you can do, I can do...

The Sunday afternoon before Memorial Day, we stayed with Steve and Rachel's kids so they could attend the local high school commencement ceremonies.  After much cajoling, Reni agreed to show his cousins his 'tricks', as he calls them. 

Um, don't ask me about that unusual hurdle set up in the dining room behind Reni.  Rachel, they assured me the bench foot had been broken off before Josh knocked it over.

Of course, it didn't take any time before everyone else was demonstrating his or her own gymnastic ability...

Did we wear them out?

Travelogue: Bluegrass Visit

I'm finally getting around to sharing photos from the last week of our northeast road trip!  We have so many wonderful friends in central Kentucky, sadly we didn't get to see everyone we would have liked, but we were grateful for the ones we did... dear friends, all.

First up was the "D" family!  Phyllis and Dan facilitated the young marrieds Sunday school class that Nathan and I attended at church as newlyweds in the fall of 1999.  Later on, their youngest daughter "C" and Ellie became fast friends in Sunday school, growing up together in the church nursery!  They're just three months apart in age.  While Ellie has been doing very well with transitions, there were real tears when it came time to say goodbye at the end of the evening.

Sunday morning (Mother's Day) we were privileged to share at five different Sunday school classes at Northeast Christian Church as guests of our friends, Kevin and Amy.  We were hopping, but the challenge was fun and it was neat to engage with such a different variety of folks in each setting! Thank you, thank you, Amy for setting all of that up for us!

We were then treated to lunch afterwards with Amy's extended family (I think there were 22 of us in the group??).  During this visit as well as during our visit back in January, we were pleased to reconnect with Amy's parents whom we hadn't seen since college days!  If you can't tell, Reni conked out during lunch and had no interest in smiling nicely for a photo!

Sunday evening we got to have dinner with our friends, Mark and Carrie and their two children.  Several years ago (way before kids) our church offered something called Summer Supper Sixes where you could sign up to be matched with two other couples in the church.  Each month during the summer a different couple would host supper at their home.  That's how we got to know Mark and Carrie, as well as Mike and Becky (Becky is in a photo down below).  Mark and Carrie's oldest (who somehow escaped getting photographed) is the same age as Ellie.  I guess dressing up like a princess wasn't his idea of 'fun.'  Ellie and M changed their clothes at least half a dozen times!

Look!  We got a house call!  To the RV!  Only a special doctor makes housecalls anymore.  You guessed it, our favorite pediatrician in the whole-wide-world, Dr. Taylor.  We met for lunch and afterwards Ellie asked for some special attention to a splinter in her finger, unfortunately Dr T didn't have the right tools for a splinter, but she could check out Ellie's heart and lungs!

We also got to see our friend and Reni's former PT, Ms. LeeAnn!  And our dear WGM missionary colleagues, Larry and Joy (retirees from East Africa).

We were thrilled that our visit overlapped with the monthly gathering of Wilmore adoptive families.  I was having so much fun talking I missed a ton of folks with my camera.

Then, when our visit to Kentucky got extended an extra day while we waited for Shriners to get something needed in Reni's size before they could cast him, we were pleased to enjoy lunch on a beautiful May afternoon with our friends, the Gouges.  Such happy memories.

Before we knew it, we were back on the road again, a place that these kids are very well accustomed to now.  Just today Ellie asked, "Did we meet the WHOLE world in our RV?"