Family events

My side of the family always seems to have big events and lots of things to work out. Last weekend was one of those weekends. Of course with people living out of the country that always puts a twist on things.

So last weekend we all traveled out to Boston. My brother was graduating from a highschool out there. So we had his party to plan and attend his graduation. And May was the month of my parent's 25th anniversary. So with my aunts and sisters, we planned a party for them. Of course none of us planning any of this actually live in Boston. But we do have great family friends that live there and helped out so much.

So my whole family, even Juli and Scott this time, were together. It had been a year since we had all gotten together. Someone from the church there let us all stay at their house so we could all be together. That had to have been the best part of the whole weekend.

So Friday night we had a party for my parents. Not as many people as we were planning for came, but it was still nice and I think my parents still enjoyed it. Of course we had tons of food left over too.

Then Sat, was Jeff's graduation party. And once again, we ad so much food left over. WE were eating party food the rest of the weekend. (Richard was really sick of little sandwhiches, and we even had to bring some home. :-)) He got a lot of good gifts.

Sunday was his actual graduation at night. There were 11 in his class. Its so fun that he has graduated. Good Job, Jeff!

And of course we had to take pictures of the family, and the new baby. I bet there won't be this many pics of any of the other grandchildren. Besides the fact that he is perfect, and now all of our kids will always been compared to him, "Daniel never cried like that, Daniel always smiled at me, Daniel never cried when I held him, Why can't he be more like Daniel was. " I can just hear all the comments now. :-) But we love him to death!!!

Memorial Day Weekend.

Memorial Day weekend was so much fun. I was looking forward to it so much. My parents flew to the states on that Friday night. The Kurty Family (a.k.a. the baby family) was coming up too. So Jerelyn and her family got here about 10 P.M. that Friday night. My parents were supposed to fly into Newark NJ (about 2 hours from us) at midnight but their flight got delayed until 2A.M!!! So Richard and I hopped in the car at midnight and drove to Newark to pick them up. All their luggage came which was so nice. By the time we picked them up and drove home, it was 5 A.M. the sun was rising!!! (by the way, here in NEPA the sun starts rising at 4:30 A.M. ) So we kinda missed that night. But the clincher to this whole story is that my dad didn't know that the Kurtys were going to be here. So he was so surprised and happy that he was going to get to see his first grandson a whole week earlier than he thought. We kept it a secret too. So of course we got home really early in the morning, but when the baby got up at 7, we all had to too, because we love that baby so much and had to see my dad's reaction to seeing him. It was so nice to surprise him.

I had meals planned for that weekend and it was so much fun planning and cooking. Richard helped me a ton. I made one of our favorite meals (Cajun chicken pasta), Roasted chicken, and a french toast cassarole. . . Oh man, it was so much fun finding all these recipes and planning for a group of people.

There were a couple people that live close that knew my parents, but hadn't seen them in a long time that wanted to visit with them. So we had even more people in our tiny apartment. But it worked. Its a good thing my family isn't picky.

Sunday night we all went and played mini golf, which was really fun. But I must say the highlight of the whole weekend was being with the baby of the family. He is so cute. A perfect baby, happy, easy to put to sleep, easy to feed, always content no matter what. When babies are like that, it makes it so fun to be with them. It was very stressless with the baby here.

Monday we had a cook out for Memorial Day. Richard made hamburgers, I made a very good macaroni and cheese. It was just very fun.

I love entertaining and cooking, so that was just a very enjoyable weekend for me. Besides the fact that we had a day off of work, and we were with family. (minus Juli and Scott :-( )

What a fun Weekend!

Its so wonderful to finally have events to go to with friends from our church that we have been attending. We had a fun packed weekend with people. On Sat morning Richard went out and played golf with one of the husband's of the new couples we are friends with. He had a great time because it was his first time out on the course. Meanwhile, I went with the wife and her two kids yard sale-ing and stuff like that. We had a great time.

I had the afternoon to fix my food for the big evening event. We have been attending a young married Sunday School class, ( that is where all of our friends have come from) and that class had a planned Wii bowling night. All the couples were supposed to dress up like a team together. We supposed to bring finger foods and desserts. So I took Emerill's tortilla roll Pin wheel things, and then lemon cream cheese cup cakes (from Kraft foods). Both were very good. So we went and there were about 13 couples which is a good amount of couples. We had a great time on two big screens playing the Wii. Its so nice to have events to go to. I love thinking of foods to make, and planning in my head and looking forward to social things like this.

Sunday we went to church like normal and of course I enjoyed our Sunday School class and the fellowship that we have. (I feel like we have not had christian fellowship with young couples for so long that it is soooooooo refreshing for us).

We had been attending a marriage seminary on Sunday nights. We were watching the movie imarriage by Andy Stanley. It was very good. There was a great variety of couples in the class and we really had a great time of discussion and fellowship. It was a 6 week long seminary (meeting every sunday night for 6 weeks) and then this past sunday was like a big cookout. We were invited to one of the couples house (which by the way was beautiful and big and so much land and amazing). We all had to take a salad or dessert, so again I enjoyed thoroughly planning and making something for that. I made a double chocolate strawberry cake thing. It looked and tasted very good. Again the fellowship was so refreshing. If anyone knows me, they know that I love people and doing things, so I am so happy that finally we have people in our lives who we can do things with. Slowly we are meeting other people from the church too so that is very encouraging.

I know we are going to enjoy this summer of being here and meeting and getting to know the people that are around us.

Now we are here, my brother (thank the LORD) has found a perfect job. He is working for someone landscaping. This guy is a christian and has connections to BBC. It worked out so good for Jeff. He was nervous about working his first real job. But this is a perfect job for a hard working young man, on his way to college. God truly does answer prayers.

This coming weekend is another one to look forward to. I will have to post about it after the weekend, but a sneak peak is that my parents will be here from Ecuador and Jerelyn with the baby is coming up here too!!! Yay!. I have had so much fun planning the food and the events to do. Its going to be so nice to have them all here. :-) I will try to take pics and write about it after the weekend is over. Until Then . . .

Spring Update

Tons has happened since the last time I wrote. We have finished the soccer session last night and didn't do too good, but we still had fun. Another session starts right up.

Today is Richard's Birthday. I would love to make it a big deal and spend tons of money. But we went earlier this month to see Brian Regan live for his birthday. That was kinda expensive and we had a nice dinner so today we are keeping pretty low key. I baked him cupcakes to take to work like he is in kindergarten but its still something special. :-) I got him coffee in bed and had two books to give him, so I think he is having a good day. I love spending these special days together married.

April 12th we had a retreat with our new sunday school class. Only 4 couples total attended but it was a very nice time for us to get to know these couples better and we enjoyed the whole fun packed day thoroughly. Here are some pictures of our new friends at the event. :-)

April is also the month that my brother is coming to live with us for the summer. He arrives in Newark NJ tomorrow. So we have been working on getting our spare room set up like a bedroom. Our new friends graciously gave us a futon for Jeff to sleep on so that was very very generous of them. I'm excited to get to know my brother again. I feel like I haven't even spent that much time with him for almost 7 years (except for a little blip in there right before my wedding). So I'm looking forward to this time to get reaquainted with him. From what I hear he is a grown young man now. YIKES! He does need a job for the summer and then he will be going to NBBC in the Fall.

Richard has 2 weeks left of his first semester at Seminary. We will both be ecstatic when it is all over and we have the summer to enjoy together (of course not without my brother though :-)). Richard has been very diligent in getting his work done but it still seems endless. He has applied himself thoroughly and has gleaned so much from this semester so I'm happy for that. I will be even happier when he has some free time to spend with me though. :-)

As I look to the month of May I get so excited. Lots of stuff going on. My brother's graduation in Boston. My parents 25th anniversary party in Boston. Our entire family being together again for them both (the last time we were together was a year ago and now we have a baby to add YEAH!). Spending Memorial day weekend with my family. A trip to DC to see Wes and Katie Kouba. There is so much to look forward too. And no stress of school or those school bills. YEAH!

As you can tell I am very very happy about that! And of course I have to post a picture of the newest member of our family. :-)

Soccer

I love playing soccer. I haven't played very much since my college days. I try to do something with it in every new place we have moved to. In Grand Junction I coached 10-11 year old girls. That was really fun and a good experience.

Now here at this place I figured there had to be something I could do. So my friend from work knew of a place in scranton that has soccer programs so she gave me the website. I wrote them an email just asking for information and what leagues they have, if they have coed, if they do indoor, when the seasons start, you know basic information questions. Next thing I know I got a call from a guy. He plays on the recreational indoor league and needed a player for his team. He wanted to know if I was interested. I said yes, but as the time got closer to our game I started getting nervous. I knew there were no girls on our team so that was nerve wracking and I had never met anyone. So I show up and play with all boys against all boys. I guess they are men anywhere from 20-40. Slowly I've gotten to know my team more and they are so nice to me and keep wanting me to come back and play. :-) I love it and have so much fun with it. I even scored a goal with my head last night. We play once a week. The season is ending soon though.
It only gets a little interesting when the men get all competitive and a little angry at each other. Then I just lay low and play my game without talkign to anyone. Its so much fun.

All this to say, I've learned that even when I'm very hesitant to do things because I don't know people or I'm scared, I need to just do it because in the end I'm always glad I did.

Pictures from the parade

An old Friend

This last week I had a wonderful friend come to visit me. It was just what I needed this week. Good ol' roommate Helaine Rozelle came all the way from Dunbar WI to visit me while she was on spring break. I can't even tell you how nice it was to have a friend that I feel so comfortable with. We lived with each other for 1 year at Northland and the level of comfortableness that you develop with your friends from college especially your roommates is unexplainable. The odd thing is, you will never be in a situation that will prompt that kind of friend ship again. It was great to have that christian fellowship too.

We spent a day in New Jersey shopping with another friend. I loved having her in the kitchen while I cooked and cleaned up. Staying up late talking about nothing in particular. I loved have a shopping buddy who happens to have the same sort of habits and ideas about shopping.

Its funny how you can enjoy your time so much with someone and you don't even have to do anything in particular.

On Sat we went to the famous Scranton St. Patrick's Day Parade. It was so much fun. I do like to do stuff like that. I guess it has a reputation of being a pretty roudy parade but it wasn't too bad where we were. And guess who else showed up for the parade. The famous Hillary Clinton. She came so close to us and we got some very funny pictures of her. :-)

On saturday we sadly had to go and take Helaine back to her ride. I'm so glad that she gave up her break to come and cheer me up as Helaine can always do to any room she walks into. :-) I love her to death and I will miss her company in this Scranton PA.