Not Her Own

Busy Boy

2010-12-18T19:09:00.000-05:00

Thomas is really a busy guy these days. At 10 1/2 months, he moves really fast - pulling up on all the furiture and any willing (or just still) person he can find.
He loves his "DA" as he calls John. They have a lot of fun doing horsy rides, train rides, airplane rides and countless other things that make Thomas laugh.
I continue to have a blast playing with Thomas and watching him grow in his abilities an understanding. He is quite a fun little guy and loves to be involved in anything I am doing! I've been working part time from home for the last couple months during his naps, so time has really been flying by.

He is getting quite confident on his feet, but will still tumble down several times a day. We're wondering how long it will be until he's able to walk alone.

Thomas plays hard, but when he's tired, he loves to be held!

I had a lot of fun watching John take these pictures. John would run to one end of the hall, call Thomas then snap a couple pictures as fast as Thomas raced toward him. Then off John would go to the other end of the hall and start taking pictures again! I love all the different expressions Thomas has in these pictures!

Smiling Thomas

2010-09-22T13:59:00.004-04:00

Fun-loving Thomas is now almost 8 months old!

His preferred method of transportation is crawling on his forearms!

He doesn't pull up very often yet, but does enjoy standing up at times!

He loves a joke and has a big smile that shows off his first two teeth!

Daddy and Thomas are best buddies! Thomas gets so excited when John comes home each day as he knows that now it's time to laugh and play!

Life as a mommy is fun!

Mowing the grass is amazing! (If you're Thomas)

2010-08-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

When John mows the grass, Thomas enjoys sitting at watching every time! Even if he was formerly cranky, he immediately calms down and watched intently as John goes back and forth accross the lawn!

Summer Sun

2010-08-10T22:43:00.000-04:00

The last few days have really felt like summer up here. The sun has been out full force for much of the day and temperatures have been almost 90 (I know this is probably cool compared to what you guys in Alabama are experiencing, but it does feel hot!). Thomas loves being outside!

Yesterday when John came home for lunch, he found us outside. Thomas was enjoying just sitting under a tree. As I couldn't decide which pictures to show, I decided to use them all. It's amazing all the different expressions Thomas can make in just a few minutes as well as how many different ways he sucks his thumb and fingers!

As Thomas enjoys himself in the shade, I've been enjoying using the summer sun to dry our clothes. Since Thomas loves being outside, he's less fussy if I spend time hanging the clothes up and folding them as I take them down then if I were to do that inside. I also like knowing that we're using less energy and thus saving some money by using the great clothes line that came with our house. Hanging clothes is also great if you tend to forget about checking and turning back on the clothes in the dryer. If you forget them on the line, they will just get dryer the longer you wait (as long as it doesn't rain!).

Weekend Camping

2010-07-13T18:24:00.002-04:00

This past weekend, John and I took Thomas camping at Mohican State Park, a beautiful park only about half an hour from our house. Some of the guys John works with had organized a trip, and we enjoyed being a part of the group of eight who came. There had been a lot of rain all day, but everything cleared up as we left for the campsite that evening. We enjoyed some great Chicken Pa Thai that John made us for supper when we got there! We used our new camp stove for the first time as well. It was fun to be outdoors and enjoy a nice fire with some friends.

The cool night air made for perfect sleeping! The camp sites were more primitive than we've typically camped at and didn't have any electricity or water so it was really dark at night!

There is a really pretty stream right across the road from these campsites. It was awesome to hear the water flowing as we fell asleep!

The next morning, Thomas was ready to be awake bright an early so I took him on a nice level trail to the base of the dam. By the time we got back to camp, he had fallen asleep!

Thomas also enjoyed getting to meet a dog that some friends brought.

Overall the trip was perfect! A great time to relax in beautiful surroundings!

Here he is getting flown back to the car for a diaper change :) It was quite an explosion!

Our little boy is getting big!

Grandpas!

2010-06-17T18:38:00.000-04:00

Last weekend, we took a trip to Missouri for John's cousin's wedding. It was fun to be a part of the celebrations and to meet many of John's relatives. Many of them had come to our wedding, but there were also a good number that I had never gotten to meet before. John's parents and siblings came as well and we enjoyed getting to spend time with them!

Another cool part about the trip was getting to have lunch with my own dad who was on his way to Kansas City. To have the opportunity to get caught up with him again was a lot of fun! So Thomas got to see both of his grandpas on the same day!

Before dad left, we took a picture (or two)! In this one, it looks as though Thomas is having fun and eager to tell us about it!

This is his serious - I'm looking at the camera now face.

Finally! Smiles!

When I joined the picture, Thomas just wouldn't take is eyes off me!

Enjoying some Grandpa time!

Dad with his littlest grandson

That night we attended the rehearsal dinner and then gathered after that in the hotel lobby to celebrate Lisa's birthday. By then, Thomas was pretty tired as you can see in these pictures!

He's still curious and was staring fixedly at the camera as his Grandpa held him.

Grandpa tells hims some amazing facts :)

What a joy it was to be with family!

Thomas is 4 months!

2010-06-08T19:21:00.001-04:00

Thomas has developed quite a cute and happy personality. As long as he's not tired or hungry, he is quite a joy! He is quite generous with his smiles these days. We have a lot of fun smiling back and forth at one another.

Thomas also enjoys studying things quite intently. I've begun reading a book to him before each nap and now he will stare at any type of book or magazine that is placed in front of him. I think he's going to be a bookworm!

John has taken so many cute pictures of Thomas that it's hard to know which ones to share!

I love seeing his wide open smile!

Thomas has definitely "found" his feet in the last couple weeks. He has fun pulling them toward his mouth though he usually doesn't manage to get them in. Since his fingers reach is mouth first, he typically get's distracted by his fingers and sucks them, dropping his foot at the same time!

He's been more drooly lately, but so far no teeth. He also loves to roll over from his back to his tummy. He's started rolling over almost every time I put him down in his crib. I guess he never read the medical association recommendation that babies should sleep on their backs. He seems to prefer sleeping on his tummy.

He loves to look at you and stare at things like ceiling fans.

Sometimes the things you say will simply amaze him!

Zoo

2010-05-03T22:17:00.001-04:00

A couple weeks ago, we took Thomas to the Columbus Zoo. It's a large zoo, and we ended up enjoying ourselves immensely. We spent the entire 2 1/2 hours of our visit in the Australia and African Forest side of the zoo. I really enjoyed watching the kangaroos and all the monkeys. One of the monkeys had a 7-week old baby and it was really fun to watch that mommy carrying around and feeding her little one. Of course Thomas is a little young to enjoy the animals, but he enjoyed being outside while John and I looked around!

It's hard to look dangerous when wearing a onesie!

2010-04-13T21:15:00.004-04:00

At nine weeks, Thomas experiments with his dangerous look :)

Five Weeks Already!

2010-03-05T00:37:00.003-05:00

Thomas is now 5 weeks old! He is getting more interactive and enjoying playing with Daddy each day at lunch time and in the evenings. John has been great with Thomas and totally willing to take a turn changing and helping with him when he gets home!
Thomas really looks into John's eyes and seems to try to communicate with him already!

My days go by very quickly and are filled with nap time and feeding this little one. Thomas seems to be a relatively calm little guy. He's definitely all baby though :) He and I are trying to work on some sort of regular schedule - but so far we have some good days/nights and some that are more exhausting! Thankfully Thomas is typically willing to sit in his bouncy chair or swing for a while each morning while I get a few things done or get ready for the day.

Being a mom has been fun so far, and I think it will be even more fun as Thomas becomes more capable of doing things and communicating with us!

Awesome Snow!

2010-02-06T10:17:00.002-05:00

The snow continued to fall last night. Here are some views of the outside world this morning!

Last Profile Pictures - week 38 to 40!

2010-02-05T20:10:00.000-05:00

Ohio Snow Shower!

2010-02-05T18:22:00.004-05:00

My sister Anna was planning to drive up here today, but decided to postpone her trip a day or two when we saw the weather forecast.

That was definitely a good plan as this is the view outside our windows as of an hour ago. Note that we had almost no leftover snow on the ground at 1pm!

The weather didn't bother Thomas as he enjoyed being held by Grandma!

We're hoping that the snow stops by tomorrow as is predicted so that the travel plans of Anna and Grandma aren't affected.

Welcome Thomas Enoch!

2010-02-05T17:39:00.006-05:00

Thomas Enoch was born on Thursday January 28th at 8:41 pm!

He weighed in at a healthy 8 pounds 12 ounces!

He was 20 1/2" long

He was born exactly one week before his due date - for which we're very thankful as I can't imagine trying to push a bigger baby out!

He was born in our home as a planned home birth.

We had the wonderful help of a great midwife and her assistant. The midwife lives only a few miles away and was awesome both in the prenatal appointments, delivery and follow-up visits!

We are so very thankful to God for the way He gave me the strength for the labor and delivery. My time in labor was much shorter than average. My water broke at 7 AM, contractions started a few hours later and got harder and closer together such that by noon I needed my husband home. He more than happily left work to be with me.

John was such an asset in rubbing my back and helping me to relax during the contractions! Though it may not be one of those valentine messages that will ever end up on a little candy heart - I've lovingly called him "my epidural!" I really felt that the pain was much less when he was by my side. The Bradley method classes we took were incredibly helpful for both of us. I knew I needed to relax and focus only on what was happening at that moment and John was a great coach in helping me to do just that!

My contractions continued through the afternoon as we tried to relax through a short bath and then rested and tried to take a nap. By around 5:30pm, I was feeling an incredible urge to push so John called our midwife and she came right over and set up to catch our baby. The next hours seemed long, but were productive as we got closer and closer to the baby's birth. Finally at 8:41 PM, our son was born! John was able to see the baby crown and we both rejoiced as he took in his first breath!

Here we are, admiring our brand new baby boy!

We had a little trouble sleeping that first night. Not really due to the baby waking us up, but because we just couldn't believe he was already here! We had it in our minds that he would for sure not come early, but there he was! We're having a blast with our little guy and loving life as new parents!

Baby Shower!

2010-01-26T21:04:00.003-05:00

The ladies of my church threw a very nice baby shower for us this past weekend! We were able to hold the shower in the basement of our new house which ended up being a lot of fun!We played games like trying to see who could pin a cloth diaper on a baby the fastest in teams - each with one hand. No, my team did not win!

We were given so many nice baby items! What a blessing our church family is to us! Hopefully our baby will come soon and we'll be putting these items to use!
These are the ladies who worked so hard to host this party! Thanks to both of you! You did an awesome job!

Just a Little Longer!

2010-01-14T21:31:00.004-05:00

A lot of changes in the last weeks! It's fun for me to look at all of these pictures at once! Of course it will be more fun to take a final picture holding our baby in my hands instead of in my belly! All still seems to be going well. This baby likes to stretch out it's feet and push against my right side - sometimes it's not the most comfortable feeling so I push it's little feet or knees back into a more comfortable position!

So far I can only complain of typical pregnancy aches, waking up a lot at night, odd dreams, some harder breathing, and a little feet swelling when I don't rest. So, it's been what I would guess is a good pregnancy. We're praying all will continue as normal and that the birth will be without complication.

Not too much longer now - 3 weeks if he or she shows up "on time." But, we're also trying to prepare for the definitely possibility that the baby can't read a calender and maybe would like to stay inside for a little while past our due date! I'm sure by the time that date comes around, we'll be very eager to see our little one!

Swagbucks - extending your fun money!

2010-01-10T16:29:00.003-05:00

In our budget, we have categories we call fun money (one for me and one for John). John tends to use his for camera's and lenses, and so far I've been mostly saving mine for a laptop-though I occasionally use some money to purchase books I'm interested in.

One way in which I've painlessly increased my book fun money has been to use swagbucks as a search engine. It's similar to searching with google - though it seems to take slightly longer and you will receive sponsored links in addition to regular links.

I've been using swagbucks for a few searches each day since about May and have earned $25 in amazon gift cards (one amazon gift card can be redeemed with 45 swagbucks). There are many other prizes as well, but the amazon gift cards tend to give the greatest flexibility in spending them. Some of the bucks can be earned through entering codes given through their searchbar which you can download here after becoming a member. According to one blog I read, this week there will codes in the toolbar each day for a free swagbuck, so now is a good time to join.

If you join using my link, you will help me to earn more swagbucks in addition to receiving 3 free yourself for signing up.

Just click here or on on the banner below to sign up!

A Winter Walk

2010-01-05T17:39:00.001-05:00

After taking not one, but two naps today (!), I was ready for some fresh air and exercise. The temperature is cold, but was not terrible as it did reach the lower 20s today. The above picture is a tree in our front yard. Maybe next year we'll put lights on it so it will look even more like a Christmas tree!
I was nice and bundled up for the walk. The streets were quiet and I enjoyed spending 30 minutes walking through the neighborhood.

We have a small hill on the way out of our neighborhood. It's amazing how walking up even a slight incline makes me so much warmer! We have gotten some snow every day for the last few days. It's fun to see how much accumulates. I'm enjoying living in a place with snow!

Busy Christmas Week!

2009-12-29T10:18:00.006-05:00

Because of our baby due in less than six weeks, John and I had decided this fall that we would stay home for Christmas. We thought this would make the Christmas season less busy and more restful:) Well, we did stay in town, but instead made our Christmas week really busy:

On the Tuesday before Christmas, we closed on a house! The above picture is our first meal in our new house. The house is in great shape and was move-in-ready. The former owners had made everything clean and neat and ready for us. They even left curtains for us - so everything was ready for new occupants. This was a really good thing, because our first night there on Wednesday would find not only us, but 11 members of our family in the house!On Wednesday, with the help of many friends from church and my family who had arrived the night before, we moved everything out of our apartment and into our new house!
We had worked up an appetite by lunch time and had our first big meal with friends in our new house.
By evening, most of the boxes were unpacked, our new table and chairs had been assembled and we were feeling comfortably settled in the house. We enjoyed chili and cornbread for supper and had a nice evening with my family. John's family arrived later that night, so we had a lot of fun Christmas eve with both sides of the family playing our favorite game this year Ticket to Ride (Both US and German on different tables - the German version is even more fun as it has additional ways to earn points!)

After many games, we were ready for some exercise and so headed outside where my sisters had made snow people to represent me and John and our future children! I somehow doubt though that we'll have 15 midget children!

We paused for a group picture before the walk. Some neighbors seeing us all assembled probably wondered how many people had moved into that house!

The walk didn't remain calm for long! Soon almost everyone was involved with a snow ball fight. There was just enough snow along the road to refuel occasionally.

The walk felt really nice!

We sang some Christmas songs that evening and opened our gifts before bed.

Christmas day brought more good food as everyone pitched in to make a wonderful turkey dinner.

On Saturday, my brother Luke and his family arrived to bring even more energy and fun to our gathering. We enjoyed some Indian food prepared by John and his dad for lunch!

Our nieces and nephews are growing up fast so it was great to see them once again!

So, that was our week of Christmas! It was definitely a bit of a whirlwind week. My family had to leave early on Sunday and we spent a lot of time Sunday and Monday sleeping and relaxing. Now, John is back to work and we're enjoying spending a few more days with his family before they have to go back home.

Pregnancy Update!

2009-11-14T06:35:00.003-05:00

All is going well right now with me and the baby. As you can see, this baby must have been doing a lot of growing in the last month or so! I'm suddenly to the point where random strangers in stores are asking me when my baby is due :)

I'm officially in my third trimester already. It's really amazing to think that in 12 weeks, we could be holding our own baby in our hands. What a change that will be! Right now our baby is making him/herself known through plenty of kicking, flipping and punching, but soon we'll be hearing, smelling and seeing our baby!

In life news, I will officially be changing my job from full time design engineer to full time home engineer :) December 11th is my last day at work. I'm looking forward to having time to prepare our home and life for a baby. So far, we really haven't done a lot to get ready. I'll also be getting ready for having my family visit for Christmas. We didn't want to travel this year and are so excited that my family is going to be able to come to see us!

John and I have also had some fun in the last month looking at houses. We're renting right now, but are keeping our eyes open for a good house to buy at some point. It's been fun to see some houses and start to mentally clarify what's most important to us about such a huge purchase.

Life and time are quickly passing. Can you believe it's almost Thanksgiving? We're going to visit John's family over Thanksgiving and just can't wait!

Binder Clip Suspenders

2009-10-15T19:19:00.003-04:00

In fashion news, there has been a breakthrough in the maternity clothing segment! If you are one of those people who can't fit your regular slacks, but have trouble keeping your maternity slacks up, there is hope! It's as close as your desk drawer. . .

Take two medium sized binder clips and clip your undershirt to your pants! It works wonders!

In other news, camping is just around the corner. . . I hope to see many of you at our fall camping trip tomorrow!

Big Blog News!

2009-09-25T18:05:00.004-04:00

It's now time for this fun news to go public! I finally told my office the news today, so it's time for the "blog world" to know. John and I are expecting our first child in early February! Our "official" due date is February 4th, but we'll just have to wait and see when our little one decides to be born. We're not intending to find out our baby's gender, so are just going to have to wait and see.

We're now at 21 weeks, so more than half of this pregnancy has already passed. It's been a lot of fun to feel our active baby move in the last few weeks. Sometimes I'm convinced that this baby is doing flips inside of me! Pregnancy has not been too terrible, but it actually has been harder than I imagined. I feel as though I slept through this summer. I was so tired during the first trimester, that I did little but work and sleep each day. Somewhat regular (mostly evening) vomiting and a uncomfortable stomach also kept us from enjoying food during that time. Thankfully, I now feel much more like myself and have been able to keep food down without problems.

We started a Bradley class nearby a couple weeks ago, and are enjoying learning more about what is to come. With the required tracking of my diet to ensure adequate amounts of protein, I'm eating more and gaining steady weight. We hope to give this baby plenty of nutritution during this time!

It's quite odd to now have such a big belly. I know that what I have is nothing yet, but even so, it's really strange to see it prodruding from my body! I just started wearing maternity clothes and have found them so comfortable. It doesn't look too big yet under my shirt, but it feels big! My friend Barb and my sister-in-law Michele gave and let me borrow a huge amount of clothes! I think I have more options to wear during my pregnancy than I do when I'm not pregnant! What a blessing they have been!

So, now those of you who didn't know thru some other means have a good idea of part of my reasons for not blogging much in the last months!

One Year Ago Today. . .

2009-09-06T11:00:00.000-04:00

One year ago today, John and I exchanged wedding vows in Alabama. To celebrate that wonderful event, we decided to come back to Alabama to visit. Last year, I drove to Alabama a week early and then John flew in a couple days before our wedding. This year, we cooked up a fun surprise. We drove down together, but didn't tell anyone in town that we were coming. What fun we had in surprising everyone and seeing family and friends again!

This year has been so very good. Some of the reading we did before marriage warned of how difficult the first year can be. It almost made me afraid to marry - but not quite! But this year has been good in so many ways. Having John as my husband this past year has been wonderful! To come home from work and have a constant friend to eat with and spend time with each evening is great. Having shared goals, struggles and joys is wonderful. John has been very kind, loving, sensitive and supportive to me. He is way more than I could ever have imagined or deserved. I'm so thankful that God brought us together!

We've done a lot of traveling this past year. Visiting Washington, British Columbia, Illinois, Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Florida and Pennsylvania has kept us busy and more in touch with friends and family than I imagined would be possible. Spending weekends at home relaxing or getting to know friends we've made here has been fun as well. We look forward to the many changes that God will bring us in the next year of marriage!

Baby Faces

2009-07-20T23:11:00.008-04:00

Hello everyone!

This last weekend my wife and I spent the weekend with her brother's family. Their youngest child, less than a month of completing the first year of life, is quite an attraction. I enjoyed the first real opportunity to use my new Canon 40d to photograph a stunning subject other than my wife :)

So, here are a few pics below. They were taken in a very short period of time. Enjoy....

The mind of a one-year old in pictures.

Hi up there, it is hard to look at you. It is kind of bright out here.

Oh!! That is soooo sad! It is sooo terrible!!!

Hey you all! A major, and I mean major crisis is going on here! Are you even noticing?! Come here! Pay attention to me!! I have something to tell all of you!!!

I am not getting the attention I deserve. Oh well! I guess I am a bit tired, after all.

But hey! What is this? Something interesting is going on here! I must see what it is!

Hmm. That is really interesting.

So that is how that works!

I'll observe that one more time! I am watching closely!

Ahh! I got it! Now, I'll download this memory to my permanent hard-drive of memories. This knowledge might be important for a future occasion.

Fun Date with John!

2009-06-29T19:26:00.003-04:00

On Friday evening, John and I met at Mohican Adventures for a date-night! It's a convenient 30 minute drive from Mount Vernon and on my way home from work. The weather was comfortable - lower 80's I think. After a busy work week, taking time to have fun is great!

John is a good consistent golfer (and very handsome too!). He was ahead of me most of the game. I would barely catch up just to have him pass me once again. It was a bit perturbing to see how he so exactly could aim for the right place and usually hit is mark!

Though I'm also and engineer and should be just as exacting, I tend to be a pit more impetuous. Thankfully, I also had a bit of luck and ended up with two holes in one! We took this picture after the first one. I posed with one thumb up just like Grandma and little Elijah did in Arkansas when he was about 1 or 2 and they both got a hole in one on the same hole!

Well, it ended up that I got my second hole in one on the very last hole! That hole in one tied our scores so we ended the game with a tie! As we're tied in marriage, we figured that was perfect!

The golf was fun, the weather was perfect and the company was great! We capped off our evening with a great dinner at a local pizza place. Going on dates with your spouse is awesome!

What Makes us Tick?

2009-06-20T09:00:00.002-04:00

Get Rich Slowly, one of the financial blogs that I have been enjoying, had a post toda y linking to this humorous video about the stock market. John and I enjoyed watching it and I hope you do too.

Women like to talk

2009-05-31T08:40:00.003-04:00

Hey Everyone,

View this video to find out how soon women become so talkative.

Trip to South Carolina - Part 1

2009-05-30T10:15:00.010-04:00

This is a first part in a series of posts about our recent trip to South Carolina. For me (John is writing), this was a bit of a homecoming. When I first met Miriam on eHarmony, I was set to leave the Greenville area, where I had lived for 2 years and 9 months. Indeed Greenville became my "second home." Of course, Illinois is my "first home" because it is my home state.

I was a bit disappointed to be leaving Greenville as I met Miriam, because I had made some very good friends there and was quite eager to introduce Miriam to them. However, the most important people to introduce Miriam to at that time was my family in Illinois. Hence my friends in Greenville have not had much time to meet Miriam.

I was actually hoping to meet a nice girl in Greenville area as it is an area with a good Christian influence, especially with Bob Jones University being in the area. But it was not to be, and the Good Lord led me by faith to get to know Miriam. So it was a victorious feeling being married to Miriam this time for my trip there.

It is my hope that for those of you reading this and looking at these pictures, that you will realize that I was pretty much in the same situation, with good church and friends, as Miriam was in Alabama when I first got to know her.

The trip along the way was very nice. We started after work on Thursday, stayed halfway in Kentucky that night, and arrived in Greenville on Friday. We took US23 from Columbus, which is four lanes all the way into Tennessee, where it joins Interstate 26, which heads directly towards Greenville. The above picture is Norton, Virginia, where we stopped for lunch at a Japanese place. I love accents, and the Southern accent does not disappoint. I loved the way my waitress pronounced Pepsi (Pee-ip-si).

As we crossed into North Carolina (30 miles above Asheville), we stopped at a rest place to take in these nice views.

Flowers and Mountains, my favorite scenery.

We arrived in Greenville and then drove up along with Odell and his wife and son to the camp site. Miriam and Odell work to set up the tent.

Dinner at camp. It was nice to finally sit down and have some food to eat. Odell's wife, Beth, did a great job of preparing the food.

Miriam and Josh Summer made friends instantly. Miriam delighted Josh with the glow sticks, making caps out of them. Soon it was time for bed.

We got up the next day and had some breakfast. Then we headed to Table Rock State Park, for a hike 7.2 mile round trip hike up the mountain and back.

We finally got up to the top. The pathway really climbs the whole way up. At the top, you are standing above 3000 ft. This is the grand view you get.

Half way down the mountain, one will walk over the surface of this huge rock that is part of the mountain.

I really liked the views. Lydia, this is only 1.5 hours east of Toccoa Falls.

Another view.

Walking and hiking is an activity that I really enjoy doing with Miriam. Believe it or not, I am actually and outdoors person in the heart. I just haven't done as much "outdoorsy" things. Miriam is the perfect person to enjoy the outdoors with.

Don't get to close to the edge of that rock.

For those of you who attended our wedding, you may remember one of my groomsmen, Odell Summer. He became my closest friend while I was living in Greenville. I spent a lot of time with Odell and his son Josh. Odell came from an unsettled background. After landing a short time in jail for repeat speeding violations, he gave his heart to the Lord. He came to Greenville to study the Bible at the Evangelical Institute of Greenville. Shortly after I met Miriam on eHarmony, Odell was encouraged to try eHarmony as well. He met Beth shortly thereafter. I never recognized this, but apparently Beth was matched to me as well. However, it is clear that Beth is perfect for Odell. Once you met Odell, there is no question that you are around someone who desires to serve the Lord with a whole heart. They are going to The Master's Mission in North Carolina this fall.

Odell, showing off his romantic side with Beth. Their dog, Lady, takes in the scent of the flowers.
Below, Miriam and Josh. Miriam's energy and enthusiam for children certainly wins over kids like Josh.

Josh loves to make friends and then have a friendly fight.

Josh being a character.

These type of flowers were the predominant flower of the area. They are white like this when they are not exposed to sunlight. The flowers below are exposed to sunlight, hence their pinkish color.

Other wonderful scenery. :-)

We finally finished our hike. Lady was tired.

There is no such thing as camping without a camp fire.

Have you ever used Winkflash?

2009-05-07T06:37:00.003-04:00

I found what seems to be a great deal for printed scrabooks at winkflash. They have a deal for flatrate books (all you pay is supposedly the cost of the 20 page book with no additional charge for pages 21-100). So, since I have a lot of pictures from this past year that have not been printed yet, I have started the process of uploading pictures and making a book.

I used Shutterfly for our wedding album and was extreemly happy with the book. I'm hoping that the quality of winkflash is just as good.

Have you used winkflash? What did you think of it?

Is Miriam Hiding?

2009-05-05T20:18:00.003-04:00

Way too much time has passed since I have posted on this blog. My resolutions to post on a regular basis have fallen by the wayside. One might think that I have been extremely busy or stressed out, but, that's not the case.

Sure, life has been passing quickly, but it's also felt like a somewhat relaxed and fun spring. As you saw in our last post, the weather here is absolutely beautiful. I'm enjoying living in here where the springs are mild, and temperature is cool.

I have simply not been posting for no good reason. I've been reading many blogs. Typically I read blogs over lunch, but can't comment because for some reason the pages with comments are typically blocked at work. In the same way, the posting page for this blog is blocked. So, I've become a media consumer instead of a producer for the past months.

Will it change? Possibly. I do have a couple ideas for blog posts right now. But, it could well be that time will pass quickly to quickly for me to post as much as I would like since John and I are busy at work and church and enjoying life together. The evenings pass by too quickly in normal life. Having dinner, talking, reading and walking together - this is a good life!

Visit to Hocking Hills State Park

2009-04-25T21:45:00.007-04:00

It is finally warming up here in Ohio. Last Saturday the temperature rose to a balmy
70 F. Miriam and I were up for a Saturday adventure, so we decided to visit Hocking Hills State Park, about 1.5 hours south of us. Ohio is a state where the Great Plains meets with the foothills of the Appalachians. By the time you drive you drive 1.5 hours south of here, there are more hills everywhere.

We would love visitors. Should you come, we would like to take you to see a few nice areas around here. Here are some pictures of the park. There are some nice waterfalls and caves. One tiny little stream suddenly makes a dive for what seems to be 200ft.
The waterfalls tend to dry up as summer comes, so now is a great time to visit.

This is the first waterfall that we saw
Another small 2-stage waterfall.
Old Man's Cave. For those of you who know my old man charactor, yes this is the true name of the place.
Another picture. The cave overhang is really large. The scale of people to objects gives you an idea of the enormous size of the cave and overhang.
Looking back at the small stream near the cave and the walking bridge to cross the stream.
Another picture that gives you a view from the bottom at the stream to the top of the cave. You can walk to the very edge on top. But be careful.
Miriam loves to climb rocks at the park. Hey Lydia, we know were to take you when you visit

Another beautiful waterfall. People enjoy playing in the water in the shallow stream area fed by the waterfall. Waterfall, zoomed in picture.
A lot of people came from different places to enjoy the weather.
Ash Cave, look down into it. Look at the small people below. You can see the waterfall. It is a little stream that runs over the cliff.

Having gone down all of the steps to get to bottom, here is what the view upwards looks like.
There is Miriam, at the bottom. Feeling the temperature of the water. We went to Dairy Queen afterwards. Miriam got a chocolate blizzard and I got a Starkiss. I love those.

Things I Love about my Husband!

2009-04-09T20:03:00.005-04:00

I hope you enjoyed reading John's post describing what a wife looks like. He made many good points in his kind post. I would like to touch upon some of the things he brought up and close with a list of things I love about my husband.

Having a husband like John is something that I do wish for all my unmarried friends and sisters. John is much more than another handsome guy (though he is that!). He more than fit the basic requirements for a potential husband: a growing Christian, one who enjoys people and children, a hard worker, and one who can lead me.

He also has a depth of care for me that touches me deep inside. At times I feel so unworthy of his love and don't know how I can possibly love him enough in return.

I think John was right in his post about how a wife perceives herself. Her husband does indeed have a huge impact on her perception. I have been blessed with a husband who not only understands this, but who is quick to compliment me. He lets me know that he likes how I look and more importantly how he perceives my heart. His acceptance and delight in who I am definitely has a positive impact on how I see myself.

I don't feel that I am as good at communicating the depth of my love to John. I have trouble putting my love into words without tearing up and crying. I don't like emotions and have worked all my life to keep my emotions in check. So if I start to cry, I am apt to discount my emotions or tell John that he's going to have to ignore me for a bit so I can get over it. He is so understanding and holds me and tells me that he loves me and is glad that I'm his wife. Before we married, he read that wives will cry sometimes and so is simply accepting of my weaknesses. He will laugh along with me and even tears up himself if I cry.

I hope that as time continues to pass in our marriage that I will get better at expressing my love to John in words. That's not my natural "love language" to use in showing someone how I care for them. I think I tend more to like to be with someone or do something for someone. For example - I like to make lunches, ensure dinner is on the table, wash the clothes or do other chores for John because of my love for him. But I want to learn to express love the way that John hears it best (one of which I think might be in words of affirmation).

I have so enjoyed sharing my life with my husband John. We spend many hours of our days separately at work, but enjoy spending our evenings and weekends together eating dinner, enjoying the outside, working on taxes, having guests for dinner, going to church, spending time with friends, traveling somewhere to visit friends or families, or just spending time with each other. John is very easy-going and willing to drop his plans to enjoy the outside or go somewhere with me. As I have a tendency to get very focused on whatever task I have decided must be done, his fun-loving side helps me to find my own!

This post is somewhat rambling, but I will finish with my own list which contain just a few of the many things I love about my husband!

In John I see one who:
1) Loves Christ
2) Is growing in Christ
3) Is dedicated to a church that believes the Bible
4) Loves children
5) Has a good sense of humor
6) Is responsible
7) Treasures me
8) Can lead me
9) Enjoys some of the things I enjoy and is more than happy for me to pursue things that he might not even totally enjoy (like riding roller coasters)
10) Has goals in life that I want to spend my life supporting
11) I can laugh with
12) Likes to talk (especially good for me since sometimes I a bit too quiet)
13) Takes good pictures (great for scrapbooking or as memories)
14) Can be serious about important matters
15) Works hard
16) Loves his family
17) Enjoys helping people
18) Likes to be around friends
19) Is willing to save and be fiscally responsible
20) Loves me!

I am so very thankful for my wonderful husband!

What does a wife look like?

2009-04-02T19:34:00.016-04:00

April fools day has recently past, and I wanted to do something that surprised my wife in a nice way. Since my wife is here most of the time when I am, it is not so easy to write a blog on your own wife's website without getting noticed. She was at a Tupperware party when I started this article.

Before I get started with the contents of this article, I would like to suggest a new name for April Fools Day. May I suggest "April Surprise Day." Most of what happens in honor of April fools day amount to surprises anyway. I think that surprises of a nice nature are better than a surprise of a mean nature that could offend and hurt someone.

As Miriam knows, I love to surprise!

Okay, now on to the real topic. What does a wife look like? Okay, some of you at this point are saying, "why is this the topic of discussion?" How about the topic, "how does a husband look?" Well, I can try to give you a picture of how I look. Here is one.
So how do you like it? :-) I think I really look nice in this picture. I am smiling nicely. I actually think I look handsome!!!! (I have been told that a lot more lately :-) I am a good person. But if I would stop here and look at you with the expectation that you should agree with my self assessment of myself and agree that my self assessment is perfectly without bias, I think you would look at me with a funny expression on your face. I think if you kept looking at me, you would start to think that I looked like a hot-air balloon at 2000 ft in the air. The point is that self assessment is not always accurate. This fact becomes even more true when you get married. Your faults will get noticed. An if one expects that in marriage that your weaknesses should never ever be pointed out, I think marriage will be disappointing for the one with that expectation.

So, due to my inability to give an un-biased opinion of how I look, I am going to discuss "What does a wife look like?".

Well, there are two answers to this question: (1) there is the wife's perception about how she looks, and (2), the husbands perception of how she looks. Since I am the husband, I can only answer part (2). I do think that an honest and thoughtful answer to (2) will give the wife the ability to have a more accurate assessment of question (1). I wonder if it must be difficult for some married women to understand what you look like when you cannot see yourself without a mirror. However, I believe that if the husband is even half-way good at communicating, he will be able to help his wife understand what she looks like.

If giving an honest assessment is the goal, communication is not the starting point. One needs to understand the true condition of human kind. We are all sinners in need of a Saviour. For those of us who have invited Jesus into our lives as Lord, we are counted as "righteous towards God through Christ's atoning work of death at the cross and resurrection in place of our sins." However, we, in of ourselves, are not perfect.

I think that as Christians, we like to get to the point where we dub ourselves as spiritually mature. We've made it. We are now perfect. I never do anything wrong and never will need to confess any sin to God or anyone ever again. This type of attitude will render one to be completely incapable of giving an accurate assessment of how his wife (or her husband) really looks. I can tell you that what has made our marriage already stronger are those moments after we have done wrong against

each other when we repent of those wrongs to our spouse and ask forgiveness.

I have heard a lot of people say, "you will never totally understand your husband", or "you will never totally understand your wife." This is true, yes. But, I think this is not necessarily a helpful thing to say, because it encourages people to think negatively, "you will never understand your husband", or "you will never understand your wife." Never, you say?

I don't think that is true. There is truly much that can be understand about your wife. There is truly much that can be understand about your husband. If one acknowledges the true condition of the human heart, it will allow you to understand much about your husband, and your wife.

So what does understanding your wife have to do with conveying to her how she looks? Everything. I have always believed that a persons physical looks are due to two things: (1) a persons outward, physical looks, and (2) the inner person inside. I truly believe that (2) has a lot of influence over (1). I have always believed that "overall looks" is heavily influenced by who a person is inside.

My family liked to go to the mall every so often when I was a younger. I remember that me and my brother would sit down on a bench in the mall when we ran out of things to do and others were not finished shopping. My brother and I used to look at the girls going by. We would observe different girls going by and rate their looks on a scale of 1 to 10.

I truly felt that girls who appeared to be kind hearted truly looked physically better than those who looked mean spirited. You girls reading this article are probably starting to feel that you are being picked on. I will try to make up by saying this is also true for men too. When I first noticed one of my now best of friends, I spotted him in my refrigeration class at University of Illinois. I suspected he was a Christian, and later on, got to introduce myself at a extra-curricular Christian college group.

A true understanding of who you are in the Lord, coupled with a Christlike love for people around you, will cause people to notice your looks. "Let your light so shine..", as Jesus said. The end of that verse concludes, "so that they may give glory to God in heaven." If people see that type of light in you, they are going trust you more when you tell a person how they look. I need to have That Light, so that I can truly help my wife understand more fully who she is, in Christ.

So John, you ask, how have you been enabled to see how your new wife Miriam looks? Well, when I first saw her pictures, I felt that she was a fun loving person with a very genuine personality. I soon learned that whenever I wrote a letter to her, she would always write back. I felt that she was a good looking girl when I first visited her in Alabama. After that first visit, I drove back to Illinois with a particular word in my mind that I thought is well descriptive of Miriam. "Dedicated." I enjoyed discovering how important her family and church friends were to her, and how she was dedicated in using her time to serve them. At work she also was dedicated to helping her company succeed. My appreciation of her grew to the point where I couldn't imagine anyone else to be my wife. God lead from that point, and now, here we are today.

And now, I get to see what a wife really looks like. There have been many times when I have come home to an empty home. But now I have so much. Miriam is a real girl, and a real wife. All men should aspire to marry a woman like Miriam. And all woman should aspire to be a wife like her as well. That is my truly un-biased opinion. It is fun having a wife like Miriam.

Having a beautiful girl with a good heart as a wife has been a real treat these seven months. I now understand why my Dad took so many pictures of my Mom. During our engagement, I wanted more than ever to have a good camera to take great pictures of Miriam.

As you know, a picture is worth a thousand words. So my camera is a handy tool. Here are some pictures of "what does a wife look like?"

Miriam, at the zoo. She looks most natural with a backpack strapped on.

Miriam, smiling very nicely for the camera while John tries to get her to smile by saying words like "chocolate", or "roller coaster". I think she is really thinking that I am being funny.
Miriam, smiling really nicely as she rolls out rotis at camping. She is sporting her skills at smiling, plus she loves me taking pictures of her, plus we are at camping, which she really likes.Miriam eating something chocolate.

Miriam showing her "dedicated" look. I think that some would try to point out that she is simply looking "focused". But I would say that it is a "dedicated focus."

Miriam, looking cute when fiddling with her sowing machine.If you are looking around for Miriam and can't find her, then maybe try looking up. You just might find her climbing up a tree.

Miriam has a passion for children. Any quality girl will have a passion for children. She just happened to marry someone with an equal passion for children as well. Just ask people in my church.

Miriam shopping and looking for the most ounces per cents. It is a blessing to have a wife who is diligent with money. If you unmarried guys find a girl like this, marry her.

Spring Camping 2009

2009-03-21T22:20:00.001-04:00

We had a great camping trip last weekend! Being back in Alabama and seeing so many friends and spending time with my family was a wonderful vacation. We did enjoy some warmer weather, but it was also a very wet weekend with rain from Friday night until Monday with only a couple of breaks.

Ever since our fall camping trip, John wanted to make a camping meal. So, we packed up some ingredients in our suitcase and made an Indian meal for our group. Everyone seemed to enjoy the food!

John and I enjoyed camping together once again! This was John's 3rd time camping (and all have been with us in Alabama). I've gone camping probably for 25 years with my family. The last 13 years have mostly been with this same group of people in Alabama. We hope to go camping in South Carolina with some of John's friends in May and do some Ohio camping this summer as well. I'm quite thankful that John enjoys the outdoors as I do! Its a wonderful way to spend time with each other and our friends without the distraction of work or computers :)

The wet weather did change our camping weekend a bit. We didn't get to take any hikes on Saturday, and our typical endless games of volley ball were nowhere to be found. There were a lot fewer people this time, but those who came did enjoy themselves.

Friday night we had only a little bit of rain, but by Saturday afternoon, the ground was saturated. Several tents had been completely soaked and most of the rest of them were getting damp. So, everyone except my parents(!) decided to move into the convenient buildings. We spread out camping style all over the floors and had a nice dry night camping inside.

This camping trip was characterized by a lot of inside games: card games, ping pong, pool, Foosball, group games and more! I think this was one of our most unique camping trips thus far and will definitely be remembered for some time!

Going to Alabama for camping trips has been a lot of fun!

For those of you seeing this on facebook: Elijah showed me how to import my blog posts to facebook. I know that many of you are both blog readers and facebook people so just ignore one or the other. Some of my facebook friends don't check my blog so I want to try sharing it both ways for a while.

Spring Camping Trip This Weekend!

2009-03-12T19:56:00.006-04:00

Early tomorrow morning, John and I will fly to Alabama for our spring camping trip. The weather looks rather bad this year, but I do see a glimer of hope. Just this afternoon, the rain forecast has decreased 10% on Saturday (now it's only 70% instead of 80% and only 30% on Friday and Sunday). The friends we camp with are pretty tough so there will have to be a lot of rain to keep them away. So far, a camping trip has never been called off due to weather. We'll see what happens this time.

Here are some memories from Fall 2008:

A Superb Evening!

2009-03-11T22:06:00.000-04:00

Back on January 1st (when we visited Alabama), we spent the day with one set of friends and then headed over to see our friends, the Pace family that evening.

We enjoyed a game of crazy way skip-bo. The rules of which are crazy indeed. My sister and I made it up way back when I was 10 or 12. Being able to exchange skip-bos, pick the number that matches your pile and discard all your cards each turn makes the game a lot of fun.

She's not sure if she should show off her octopus. . .

While her brother is glad to do so!

After the younger children went upstairs, us "older kids" had a wonderful dinner together. We enjoyed ourselves with some great conversation.

I have been so blessed to have a great friendship with this family over the years. They were so gracious to share their anniversary evening with us. We had a wonderful time together!

(This picture is just for fun - I guess you can tell which ones are the engineers who aren't any good at looking at the camera before we're told to smile!)

Our first Christmas and New Years together as a married couple was spent with many friends and family members. We definitely had a great time with everyone we had a chance to see!

The Blood Song

2009-03-11T21:17:00.002-04:00

Susie sent me this cute video - what a voice on a three-year old girl. Watching the video made John and I laugh this evening as we are packing a bit for our camping trip in Alabama this weekend. I hope you enjoy the video!

Six Month Anniversary!

2009-03-06T12:07:00.010-05:00

Six months ago today . . .

Surrounded by so many wonderful friends and family members. . . .

My dad gave me away . . .

I became one with John . . .

Our parents blessed us. . .

Our Pastors challenged us. . .

We had our first kiss ever. . .

And left that ceremony as husband and wife!

I am so thankful that by God's grace, we met and have been married now for 6 months! We often think back and are amazed at all that has happened. It was only 2 years ago this month that we were matched on eharmony. I had already determined to only correspond with a guy who showed initiative and leadership by initiating contact. John had determined to only contact girls that were of the type he thought he might one day marry. Thankfully, I was of that type! We were engaged about a year later and now we're a married couple.

John is such a blessing to my life. He's changed just about all the external things about me - my name, my titles, where I live, where I work, where I go to church. Along the way, we've experienced so many new things together. We're endeavoring to learn each other. I'm finding that (shockingly!) John doesn't think and act like I would in every situation. Of course, we're also finding that in many areas we think and act a lot alike. John is very sweet and kind and encouraging. I am so thankful to be married to such a wonderful man!

So far we have celebrated our 1/12, 1/6, 1/4, 1/3, 5/12 and now our 1/2 anniversary in various ways: For our 1/6th, John surprised me by putting a card and a big chocolate kiss in my car the night before and I found it when I was leaving for work that morning. For our 1/3, I gave John some candy and a card and he took me out to a nearby italian restaurant. For our 5/12, we went out to the Cheescake Factory for a fun dinner. Celebrating for any little reason is a lot of fun!

Today, I think we will celebrate as we prepare for our weekend guests! John's family is driving out to visit us this weekend. We are definitely looking forward to their arrival. I think we will be doing some cooking this evening as they drive so we won't have as much to do once they are here.

Drive home

2009-03-04T18:34:00.005-05:00

It always feels great to drive home at the end of a work day. For those of you who know I love cameras, I got a small pocket sized camera (Leica D LUX 2) used on eBay recently.

This afternoon I went to the chiropractor who is in Utica, about 8 miles south of Mount Vernon.
It is a beautiful drive. I really like the Ohio landscape that is in the area that we live. There are nice rolling hills all around. Below are some pictures that I took at a few points along the way home from Utica.

Also a nice scene is my beautiful wife waiting at the door as I park in the driveway. The days of
coming home to an empty apartment are over! Miriam has definitely been worth the 30 year wait to get married.

Don't be like Miriam

2009-03-01T08:49:00.000-05:00

Numbers 12
1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite. 2 "Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?" they asked. "Hasn't he also spoken through us?" And the LORD heard this.

9 The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them. 10 When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam—leprous, like snow.

13 So Moses cried out to the LORD, "O God, please heal her!" 14 The LORD replied to Moses, "If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back." 15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.

It seems that Miriam was jealous for recognition. She felt that Moses had done something wrong by marrying a Cushite (possibly Zipporah). Maybe she felt that his wife was beneath his social standing. Maybe it was that she and Aaron were no longer able to influence Moses as they had before his wife was around. There are many theories about why they spoke against him because of his wife.

What we do know is that they were not happy and that Miriam felt somehow slighted. She felt that Moses had done something wrong and wanted to play judge.

God didn't look at it this way. He judged Miriam with leprosy for her comments. Thankfully he was also merciful to her and she was healed after one week.

What can we learn from this story?

1) That we shouldn't look for recognition beyond that which God gives
2) God doesn't look with favor on jealousy
3) God answers prayer and is merciful
4) We shouldn't feel superior as Miriam did because of the supposed sin of others. Let God be the judge

I'm sure there's more to be gleaned from these verses. Is there anything else you see?

Saturday Morning Walk

2009-02-28T12:07:00.004-05:00

Saturday mornings are wonderful! Often we get a lot of extra sleep (like last Saturday when we were asleep until almost 11!). Today we did sleep in until almost 9, but then it was time to move. I have a brand new awesome pedometer that John gave me for Christmas. I've been using it for almost 2 weeks and love it. As I enjoy exercise that gives me constant feedback, wearing a pedometer is my favorite way to encourage myself to move. So, as I'm endeavoring to get 10,000 steps a day 6 days a week, I was eager to get up and run outside.

It has been warmer here (up in the 50s for a couple days), but this morning as I got ready to go, the temperature was 21 and "felt like 9." So, I added my coat to my clothes and decided to walk fast instead of jogging (it's annoying to run with a coat on). John told me he wanted to sleep longer and that he felt it was too cold to walk outside so I headed over to check out a path I've seen near our house.

To my surprise, as I drew near to the path about a mile from our house, I saw John crossing the street in front of me! He had planned to get in front of me and take a picture without me knowing he was there - come back here and post it on my blog while I walked! Boy would I have been shocked!

But as he was spotted, he decided to walk some with me. That path was short - just to a park and then it joined a street. So, we enjoyed a nice walk through a park and some neighborhoods.

I'm looking forward to weather that's above freezing in the mornings so I can more fully enjoy the outdoors. We have a wonderful trail only a mile away that would be perfect for running and walking. We are also next to a track that I could use if I want to see how fast I can run. I'm enjoying getting back into running once again. It's been eight months since I was consistent in exercising and a few pounds have been creeping onto my frame.

John's Gator Bowl (or Football Miriam's Style)

2009-02-26T21:07:00.000-05:00

I did not grow up in a football family. The closest I ever came to watching football was the occasional youth group Super Bowl parties. I think I remember playing games in another room during the ones that I went to in high school.

So having a husband who not only likes the game, but knows the teams and watches certain favorite ones whenever he can is something unfamiliar to me. Of course we are not inundated with football since we don't get any tv, but there is plenty of statistics and highlights on websites that I have never felt the need to visit.

So, when we ended up being at my parents house on the day of the Gator Bowl, we found that they did not get the right channel. Never fear! We quickly made a call and were on our way to visit our friends!

The weather was perfect!

We enjoyed spending some time outside.

The zip line was loads of fun!

Kevin even showed us some tricks!

What fun we had!

Zip lines can even be ridden in a very dainty way :)

The dog was being crazy poking his nose into the ground. We weren't sure why.

The kids had a blast climbing all over John. This is one of my favorite pictures that day!

There was plenty of food.

And enough smiles to go around . . .

with some funny faces thrown in for good measure

Now you may ask . . . Did anyone actually watch football?

Indeed! John actually did watch most of the game. I even watched the last few minutes as well. If I remember correctly, those last few minutes were more exciting than the rest of the game.

All in all it was a fun day. John enjoyed the football and friends and I enjoyed the fun with friends!

The Spirit

2009-02-26T06:15:00.001-05:00

Yesterday morning I read Numbers 11 where the people are complaining because they didn't have any meat to eat. Moses cried out and complains to God for putting him over all these burdensome people. He even asked that he be put to death now if this is how God is going to treat him. I've read about this before, but did not remember God's response.

16 The LORD said to Moses: "Bring me seventy of Israel's elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. 17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.

At that time, God's spirit was not on everyone. In order to help Moses, there needed to be others on whom the spirit of God dwelt. So, he gave his spirit to 70 people at once. It is said later that they all prophesied once, but not again. I'm planning to read the next chapters carefully to see if I see any other mention of what these spirit filled leaders do.

Our churches should be full of spirit filled Christians and thus lesson the burden on the church leadership.

My Blog's Personality

2009-02-25T12:43:00.002-05:00

What is your blog's personality profile? Does it have your personality?

Now there is a site that will tell you! According to typealyzer the personality of my blog or writing style is:

ISFP - The Artists

The gentle and compassionate type. They are especially attuned their inner values and what other people need. They are not friends of many words and tend to take the worries of the world on their shoulders. They tend to follow the path of least resistance and have to look out not to be taken advantage of. They often prefer working quietly, behind the scene as a part of a team. They tend to value their friends and family above what they do for a living.

Hmm - follow the path of least resistance? That doesn't sound great. But, I do often try to do things the easy way. I don't know if it's really accurate. I typically score ISTJ myself when taking the profile from a list of questions such as this website. In checking out many other blogs, I didn't find any that came out with an ISTJ profile. I wonder how the site decides what the writers personality style is.

So - check out your own blog's personality here - Is it what you expected?

Game Night

2009-02-22T18:15:00.001-05:00

Mom had organized a game night the evening after we got to Alabama so we could have some fun and catch up with several of our game-loving friends. It was a lot of fun!

Much of what I did was to just "be sociable" and talked with so many people. I tend to think that I'm not very personable at times so it was fun to just enjoy hanging out with my friends. Here Lori is showing us some pictures from the last camping trip.

Of course our wedding album had to come out once again and we had some fun looking over the pictures from what seems like quite a while ago now (we've almost been married for 6 months!).

Everyone brought so much good food! And it was just the right height for Sara Kate!

Some of the kids headed straight for the Foosball table. As so many kids have grown up at my parents house and due to keeping toys around for grand kids, there are still plenty of toys to play with.

Boys being boys!

I'm so cute - how could I ever cause anyone trouble :)

Another group of more serious game players played what sounded to be an exciting game of balderdash!

Look at that intense concentration!

Of course some people just have to keep having fun :) This is a great picture of Lori and Anna!

Kevin looking very studious

Eventually we all did play "the name game" together. It was a large group of people and there were a lot of laughs over the crazy names that many had made up. I'm looking forward to seeing many of these good friends (and others too) next month when we go down south once again for our annual spring camping trip!

Beauty of Sunsets

2009-02-20T19:00:00.002-05:00

To compliment Anna's recent post on the beauty of sunrises, I thought I would post these pictures of sunsets that I have taken. The verse that comes to mind is one that we memorized as a family when I was young.

Psalm 113:3: From the rising of the sun to its settingthe name of the LORD is to be praised!
This photo was taken on the plane on the way back from camping in Alabama last fall.
This photo was taken recently overlooking Mount Vernon from the Wal-Mart parking lot. The
parking lot is at the highest point of Mount Vernon. This makes for a nice view.

Valentines Day

2009-02-19T18:48:00.009-05:00

This article about Valentine's Day is written by Miriam's Valentine :-)

Most of the Valentine's Days that have come and gone have meant very little to me. At least compared to the last two Valentine's Days. Valentine's Day 2008 was certainly special. I visited then my girlfriend, Miriam, and we both attended a church Valentine's party hosted by some very close friends of Miriam's. The atmosphere of that event was very nice, the food was excellent, and there was much fun in fellowship.

This Valentine's Day was the most special yet, being now married. I knew Miriam was up to something in getting me a gift. So I knew had to give a gift too. So what do you give Miriam as a gift when it is Valentines Day? Any guesses? Well, there is only one answer -- chocolate!
I thought about those big heart shaped chocolate boxes. So running to the Valentines section in Wal-Mart, I found a good selection. I bought the biggest box this year. I might not buy this big all the time, but certainly this is a special time of life - being newly married - so only the best and biggest would do. I enjoyed presenting the suprise to Miriam when I got home!
Miriam and chocolate -- the two go together!

Look at all of that chocolate!! Dark chocolate for Miriam, and lighter chocolate for John. John and Miriam at a recent church Valentine's banquet. We hosted a session of the
Not-So-Newlywed game that Miriam's church did at their banquet last year. It was a hit!

Miriam's passion

2009-02-19T18:17:00.008-05:00

One of the joys of life has been getting to know Miriam as much as some of the readers of this blogspot. The following pictures are worth a thousand words. They were taken at Cedar Point Roller Coaster Park in Sandusky, Ohio, on the shores of Lake Erie. Besides me :-) , this may be the second greatest benefit of Miriam's moving from Alabama to Ohio.

As you know, Miriam loves roller coasters (I like to call them carnival rides, this effectively annoyes her). If you do as well, I am sure Miriam would love nothing more than to take you here should you come to visit us here in central Ohio. If you are a Miriam fan, you should definitely add these timeless pictures to your collection.

New Years with Miriam's Family

2009-02-17T19:32:00.000-05:00

After Christmas, we went down to Alabama to visit my family. When we got there, John immediately got out his camera to record our normal family life.

Jubilee was busy reading a book (but John caught a picture of her by surprise)!

Anna was busy making pasties (a family favorite)!

Lydia was helping out and hanging out with everyone.

As soon as the pasties were in the oven (shown cooked here), there was enough time for a game.

We begin with take-2 - a great, much faster alternative game to play with your scrabble pieces. John enjoys the game though he has had to learn a little humility as the girls typically with fast games like this.

(What are they looking at?)

Soon the game was over and it was time for some supper!

Fun with Family

2009-02-16T21:01:00.000-05:00

We enjoyed our time together with family over Christmas. We ate a lot of good Indian food!

I don't remember if everyone was trying to ignore the camera but me during this picture or if I had just eaten fast and was telling a story while everyone else was finishing their food.

Anita and I

Lisa and I enjoy the Apple Crunch

Hiding behind a book!

Suri during family devotions. Each evening ended with a reading from the Bible and prayer.

Christmas with John's Family

2009-02-16T12:18:00.000-05:00

I know that Christmas is long gone, but as I haven't yet blogged my Christmas picutres, here they come! We were able to spend Christmas in Southern Illinois with John's family which we enjoyed immensly.

Wrapping the last few presents.

Anita precisely (and beautifully) wrapping a gift. She has great style and a love of detail that comes through even in the gift wrap.

John illustrating the family tradition of pickout presents and delivering them to their recipient (at which point the recipient does the same thing).

Once all the gifts are delivered, then the unwrapping begins.

Lisa ensures that we're not without music!

We enjoyed a few walks in the 'warmer' weather with our family.

John was eager to be of service when I needed a footrest!

First Visit from Family

2009-02-13T12:15:00.001-05:00

It's been some time since I've updated this blog. Somehow the days keep slipping away. The outside world no longer has its layer of snow as the temperatures reached the 50s last weekend and melted it all away.

This past weekend my parents and sister were able to come for their first visit to see us in Ohio. After a short night of rest due to getting here really late on Saturday night, we had a "sibling-breakfast type" breakfast. Of course we were missing five of my siblings (and John's three siblings as well)! Then we were off to church.

Some church friends invited us all over for dinner after church which was really nice! My family enjoyed the opportunity to get more acquainted with some of our Ohio church family.

That day quickly passed and on Monday John and I had to be at work so my family took the opportunity to visit our workplaces and see the products being manufactured.

We enjoyed a quick supper of chicken curry which I had made and frozen some time ago.

I received this bowl with side containers as a wedding gift and have found that it's perfect for all the curry fixings.

After dinner we had some fun learning a new card game from Jubilee, playing ping pong and . . .

having John show off his speakers with some good classical music!

Soon the night was getting late and we had to head to bed. It was a nice visit!

Beautiful Fun Snow

2009-01-29T06:30:00.000-05:00

We enjoyed going out in the cold for a few minutes last night. John was glad to take pictures while I . . .

Made a snow angel!

(how are you supposed to get up without making boot prints in it?)

This is the best snow angel I've ever made! In Alabama and Arkansas, they always have leaves and stuff in them since the snow is so shallow.

We did get about 4" or so of snow yesterday.

This snow was in addition to the several inches we already had on the ground (we haven't seen the ground since the beginning of January). We also got icy rain on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning so there was a nice crunchy layer of ice between the snow!

The view from our bedroom window!

Shoveling snow using a shovel we borrowed from a nice neighbor as we don't yet have one!

I can't remember ever shoveling snow before either!

If it's just a little (as it was last night), it's not bad at all. I can imagine it gets tiresome when there is a lot to do. A snow plow cleared most of our parking area - there was just a bump to clear away in front of where we park.

I had plans of making a snow man, but this snow wasn't packing the way it should have. Sometime before this winter weather is over we'll get a snowman or two made!

Food, Perspectives and Advice

2009-01-27T06:42:00.004-05:00

Here are some of my thoughts from the last couple days readings in Exodus:

Exodus 12:16 On the first day hold a sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat—that is all you may do.

-Things I noticed from this verse:

- God was very practical here- he said that for the passover you couldn't work except to make food :)

- God is by context agreeing that it is work to prepare food!

Exodus 16:2 In the desert the whole community grumbled against Moses and Aaron. 3 The Israelites said to them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death."

-Our perspective changes with time. Being slaves in Egypt was not that easy, but that's all they remembered when they were hungry.

Exodus 18:14 When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, "What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?" 15 Moses answered him, "Because the people come to me to seek God's will. 16 Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God's decrees and laws." 17 Moses' father-in-law replied, "What you are doing is not good. 18 You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone. 19 Listen now to me and I will give you some advice, and may God be with you. You must be the people's representative before God and bring their disputes to him.

-Often we need the advice of "outsiders" (such as visiting parents as in this case) who can see the bigger picture without getting bogged down in the details. When given advice, it's hard to accept it at times since we're sure we know best. But like Moses, we should consider advice and if the advice is good, we should apply it.

Snowy Home Pictures

2009-01-22T19:57:00.005-05:00

We took this picture outside our house a couple weeks ago. We have nice homey apartment with a red door!

Our apartment is on the end of the building so we have an extra window in our living room and kitchen. So far, the curtains have been closed most of the time we're here, but I'm glad we have the extra windows nonetheless.

A couple days later, John took this picture as he was leaving the house. We are extremely thankful to have a covered area for our cars. It's right outside our kitchen door and big enough to fit both vehicles underneath. Not having to scrape the windows is wonderful! I'm glad it so close as on some of the coldest days this week I've let the car warm up for a few minutes while making lunches before work.

The view down the street from our apartment.

The view looking towards our apartment from the road.

The winter snow makes the area look great!

Cold Weather First

2009-01-21T12:14:00.003-05:00

The other day when I got gas, I had something happen that had never happend in Alabama. My fuel door wouldn't open. Upon examining it, I realized that it had iced itself shut. With a little persuasion chipping out the ice with my keys and a gentle whack for good measure, the door soon opened up just fine.

In case you were wondering - it's cold here! With highs tending to reach around 20 and lows often below 10 (and even -24 one day last week!), the weather is like nothing I've ever known. But, so far I'm not minding it too much. I just don't spend much time outside. The last time I was outside for more than a couple minutes was sledding a couple weeks ago now.

The same family is planning a night sledding this Friday night. I'm not sure - the high is 33 that day and the low 21, so it's definitely warmer than its been. They're going to have a bonfire and I'm sure it will be fun. We just have to decide if we're up to the cold.

Sledding!

2009-01-12T12:27:00.003-05:00

This weekend, we were able to enjoy the first good snow of the season with style! Some friends from our Church invited many people over to their traditional sledding party and were were thrilled to be included!

From 2009-01-10 Sledding!

The day wasn't too cold. There was even a light drizzle of rain for much of the time. Maybe that helped to make the hill faster?

There were many different types of sleds to try!

We had a blast going down!

Pulling the sleds up the hill and giving people a push to get started was a great workout! My arms are still reminding me that I used them this weekend.

When walking was too much, we were glad to have a ride!

Scott brought his snowmobiles and John enjoyed riding! I haven't ridden yet - maybe next time?

Soon the warmth of a fire was calling my name!

We relaxed after the snow with some hot chocolate and some delicious food as well! We even played a few games before returning home.

It was a great day! If you have to have cold weather, at least it does snow - sledding does somewhat make up for the cold :)

If you haven't yet seen these pictures on facebook, you can see all of them by clicking here.

Reading the Bible

2009-01-09T21:00:00.001-05:00

I've recently begin reading the bible a new way using google reader. I know that at least 15 people read my blog through google reader so I thought that you (and possibly others) may be interesting in subscribing to the Bible. I just started yesterday and chose to "catch up" the reading from the beginning of the year. But you don't have to do that as the reader will give out the same passages each day of the year. If you're interested, visit Bible Gateway's site here. As I don't want to be stuck using the computer if I'm traveling, I also printed out the same schedule in daily for at Bible Year here.

So far, I'm enjoying the idea. I hope that reading on the computer will make it more likely that I do simple research about the things that I read. Maybe it will even make it more likely that I share "new" things I learn here on my blog.

For example, this morning as I caught up on my reading, I noticed for the first time how God called himself a reward in Genesis 15:1

After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward. "

Do I think of the Lord as my very great reward? He is and I must align my thinking with His revealed word.

Winter Weather

2009-01-09T12:27:00.004-05:00

Before coming to Ohio, I never really considered what it would be like to live in an area where winter weather is of any concern. Sure, we had little scares occasionally in Alabama where there would be dusting of snow, school would be cancelled and all the milk and bread would be sold out. But honestly, during the 14 years I lived there, the roads were never really bad.

Sure I heard about places with snow, but how bad could it really get? I didn't think about how often it actually snowed and how driving could be affected by the weather. Rain may make driving difficult, but it's nothing like snow - especially when it's icy sleet or falling really fast.

According to the locals, we don't yet have really cold winter days. As I look at the ten day forecast, I wonder what real winter will look like. Already it's rare to go more than a couple days without seeing some snow falling. True, it does occasionally get warm (now defined in my brain as above 30!), and the snow has yet to accumulate, but how cold will it get?

As I learn about winter weather, I still think it somewhat fun to see the snow falling down. Weather up hear is more interesting - you never know when it will affect your drive home. Staying home due to the weather is something new that will sometimes give you an extra evening home. I've learned that snowplows and salt are wonderful and that the drive to work is typically not bad. I've also learned the term "two-hour delay" which happens whenever the roads are a little icy and schools open late. I don't like the feeling of my car sliding on the road, but so far have not had any major problems. We haven't yet had more than a few inches fall at once. Tonight, we supposed to get 1-3 inches of snow. I haven't yet made a snowman but maybe this weekend? . . Stay tuned!

More Highly than You Ought

2009-01-08T12:37:00.005-05:00

At times it's easy for me to think of myself more highly than I ought (Romans 12:3) and yet to not even realize that I'm doing it. Recently, my job has revealed this subtle problem to me again.

At my job, we make new drawings and changes to drawings to match customer orders. When I first begin this job almost three months ago, I didn't yet have a computer and had no product knowledge. So for the first few weeks, I spent almost the entire time checking other people's work.

Checking is not fun, but it is necessary since it's so easy to make a mistake or think you changed something that you didn't. But there is a fun side to checking that can encourage pride in your thinking. Finding a mistake is actually somewhat fun. When this happens, my sinful nature thoughts come to my mind like: "You're so smart, smarter than the guy who drew this, I bet no one else would have caught that, how could someone be so dumb as to do that wrong, you're new and you caught that one."

After several weeks of these thoughts, I began to finally get jobs of my own to do. Soon, I was the one making the stupid mistakes that anyone should have caught. Some of them I could excuse, but others were obvious (once pointed out to me). By now I should have learned, but it's still tough. Pride still sneaks up instead of a humble spirit.

When I received a list of mistakes this morning in my email, my first thought was that the guy sending the email was wrong, that the guy who checked my work should have been more careful, that it's someone else's fault that I made a mistake.

In reality, I have to realize that God in his infinite wisdom has made me prone to error. I need the help of others to point out my mistakes and accept it with humility. I need to be careful not to think of myself as better than another. Through seeing my own mistakes in black and white at work, I am reminded that our sins though not often so obvious to others are clearly seen by God. If we confess our sins he will forgive us.

Lessons learned at work are good for life!

It's a New Year!

2009-01-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

Happy New Years! How did 2009 come so fast? I guess time seems to speed up when a lot of exciting events happen in sequence! This has been the most momentous year of my life. Becoming engaged to John in April, moving to Ohio in August, getting married in September, and starting a new job in October, moving to a new apartment in November and traveling a lot in between has made for a great year! Who knows what this next year will bring? Thankfully we can trust in the God of the Bible who will bring us through the future!

Christmas is almost here!

2008-12-20T10:47:00.002-05:00

In just a few days, Christmas will be here! We only have two more days of work in 2008 - it's really hard to believe that time has gone that fast. I am looking forward to spending time with our families and friends. Life has been busy and when time is at minimum, blogging is usually the first thing to go. But I do have a few minutes for a short random update right now.

We had fun going Christmas caroling last night with our church. It has been really cold so it was nice to jump back into a warm car after each house/nursing home that we went to. Christmas has kinda snuck up on me this year. It's always a busy time, but this year has been exceptionally so as we've moved, spent 2 weekends in other states, had friends over 5 times and more in just the last 5 weeks! So our plan today is to go shopping for Christmas presents! I'm sure we're not the only ones with this plan today and I'm looking forward to hopefully finding gifts for each family member on our list. Sunday will be busy with Church in the morning where John is playing an arrangement on his violin with 3 flutes and the piano. Then on Sunday night we have a family Christmas service where many families will be singing songs together. We're singing with the Lanhams as we've pretty much been 'adopted' into their family here. John is also accompanying a couple families on the piano.

So that's a bit about our life. Time passes by so quickly and often I think of many of you who read this blog and wonder what's going on in your lives. I hope that in this Christmas busyness that you are able to pause and remember our Savior Jesus Christ.

Fun Snow

2008-12-12T15:05:00.003-05:00

Having been in Ohio for a few months now, I've seen more than in my entire 14 years in Alabama - no, make that more than my 28 years in Alabama, Arkansas and Africa! That may be a slight overstatement, but not by much! I'm sure by the end of winter here, it will be genuine fact!
This afternoon as I drove home from work, we had what I'll term fun snow. It just started and has not done too much yet as you can see from the picture. The weather is not too cold (ONLY 28º) so the snow is still melting on one's windshield. The snow is beautiful as is slowly comes down. It's not coming too fast and doesn't interfere with driving. So, to me it is fun to watch as you drive.

I'm home early as we're soon leaving for Illinois. Both Lisa and Anita (John's sisters) are graduating on Saturday so we're using that as an excuse to visit. I'm looking forward to the trip! The snow seems somewhat localized. I think it will stop once we get past Cincinnati. We shall see. . .

Unexpected Guests!

2008-12-10T12:25:00.001-05:00

The Saturday after Thanksgiving, I received a most welcome call from my friend Ivory letting me know that they were driving through this area later that day! What wonderful news! We had before us a lazy Saturday without much planned so we were very glad to hear they would come for the night!

As I did a little cooking that afternoon, John put together our new ping pong table so we could break it in with Chris and Ivory.

The table fit perfectly in our basement and we enjoyed some friendly competition!

"The ball was on his side"

Having guests is a joy!

Thanksgiving in Ohio

2008-11-30T16:41:00.001-05:00

John and I had a great Thanksgiving meal and day with our good friends here in Ohio. The long weekend did not quite turn out as we had initially planned. John's family had planned to come stay with us, but were unable to do so because of sickness (thankfully his parents are doing well now). We definitely missed being with our families this thanksgiving, but were so thankful to share the day with our friends.

"John - another picture?"

Our friend Scott's classic grin :)

Busy cooking (not everything turned out - gravy doesn't work too well if you double the milk!).

It's almost time to eat! Rhonda did an amazing job on all the entire dinner!

We had smoked turkey. It was delicious!

After dinner, we enjoyed playing corn hole outside and then played a couple games inside and watched football. Rather, I napped and pretended to be interested in the game while the guys bemoaned the fact that their team lost :)

Homeschooled

2008-11-26T21:52:00.002-05:00

I thought this video was well worth watching! Each homeschool stereotype was taken to it's extreme :) As a homeschooler myself, I find this to be fun - enjoy!

Weekend Guests

2008-11-25T12:53:00.005-05:00

From 2008-11-Weekend Guests

Since we are now in a larger apartment, we decided that it was past time for us to invite some people over. So, this past Friday we had a houseful of guests!

We invited a great family with 8 kids over. They were very gracious and played with the few toys we had.

I think they considered our piano to be the very best toy!

Of course John enjoyed taking pictures.

We played the name game which was a big hit!

Overall the evening was a success. We successfully made enough food and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

As the house was already clean, we had some other church friends over for a Sunday lunch of spaghetti.

Dan and Barb have a cute little baby girl whom we all enjoyed holding.

After lunch we had time to talk a while. It was so nice to spend time with our friends in our new apartment!

When the Lows are the Highs

2008-11-20T12:46:00.002-05:00

I recently added Deatsville weather to my home page. It was interesting to note this morning that the temperatures here in Ohio and down in Alabama were almost exactly the same at 34º +/- 1º.

The funny thing was that my temperature is only going up by 1º while Alabama will gain more than 20º. Welcome to Ohio!

One thing I haven't yet gotten used to is seeing snow in the forecast as normal. We have gotten snow already here - so far not more than an inch or so, but it has been bad driving weather a couple times.

The day to day cold hasn't gotten to me yet. I guess when one is indoors all the time, the outside temperature (at these highs) doesn't make a huge difference. We'll see how bad it gets in a month or two.

We've been spending our evenings unpacking/arranging and preparing our house for guests. We have friends coming for dinner on Friday and John's family coming for Thanksgiving next week. It's going to be fun to be the one hosting. I tend to think in lists of things that need to be done. Poor John, he got to hear my list of chores for the evening before he was fully awake! But we will work through the necessities tonight. If everything is not perfectly clean, I'm sure we will still have fun.

Moving Pictures

2008-11-18T12:30:00.005-05:00

From 2008-11-moving

As I mentioned in my last moving post, we loaded the trailer in the rain.

From 2008-11-moving

This wasn't a drenching Alabama type rain, but just a constant COLD drizzle.

From 2008-11-moving

The guys were cheerful - and thought it funny that I kept taking pictures!

From 2008-11-moving

If you want to take a look at the album (and comment on any particular picture), feel free to click this link.

From 2008-11-moving

This is Scott's awesome trailer - everything fit and stayed dry!

From 2008-11-moving

Amos was a big help as he quickly carried boxes to the trailer.

From 2008-11-moving

Nathaniel carried our Christmas tree - can you believe it's almost time for Christmas!

From 2008-11-moving

The men each brought either a trailer or a truck. However, due to the rain, we just used the covered trailer.

From 2008-11-moving

The fun soon begin again as we unloaded.

Our bedrooms are upstairs.

We have a great carport and can fit both of the cars underneath (which has been awesome as it has snowed the last two nights).

Our first (and only) injury.

Moving is easy :) It actually is not hard when you have this much help!

Scot demonstrates his funny face while filling the tires.

Amos tries to make Scott's face!

After all that hard work - the guys enjoyed some much deserved refreshments.

Later, I'll be posting a few pictures of us organizing as well as some "finished" or "current state" pictures.

Moving Weekend!

2008-11-17T12:20:00.002-05:00

We are now settled in our new apartment! We moved on Saturday, which was actually one of the worst weather days for moving. It was cold and raining the entire day! But, thankfully we had a lot of people helping us. Scott had a trailer that he uses for snow mobiles which fit all of our furniture and boxes! Scott and Bob (his father-in-law) got to our apartment about 8:30 and begin getting set up. Bob quickly took apart our bed and disconnected the washer and dryer. By the time we were ready to begin packing, two more families arrived. With the boys carrying boxes and the older guys carrying all the furniture, we soon (in less than an hour) had everything loaded in the trailer.

The unloading went very fast - within another hour, everything had been unloaded and located in the correct rooms!

The second stage would soon begin. They guys left and Scott's wife and daughter (Rhonda and Taylin) soon arrived to begin the unpacking and organizing phase. I would never have thought it possible, but in 3 hours the kitchen and living room had been unpacked and after another couple hours, the upstairs was done as well! I thought unpacking would take me at least a week. What a blessing to have their amazing help! We were exhausted by the days end, but were totally settled and comfortable in our new place.

I have a lot of pictures to add to this post, so check back tonight or tomorrow for the picture version! We have a few things to buy tonight - hopefully a shelf for the kitchen and some curtains for the other rooms. Eventualy we'll start hanging pictures and unpacking the last couple random item boxes. We have a little ways to go, but already feel at home here in our new place!

We have the keys!

2008-11-11T12:05:00.002-05:00

John was able to pick up the keys to our new aparment yesterday! We actually didn't get to go there yet since we were busy last night. I attended a church ladies meeting and John cooked some Indian food for the first time (it turned out great - though since we finished so late, we'll eat it for supper tonight).

This evening we will be able to start bringing things over to our new place. It's a joy to be this close to moving - of course I'm sure the greater joy will be to have finished moving and unpacking!

The Plane is Done!

2008-11-10T07:00:00.000-05:00

Last week as I cut up pears for the sauce, John finished the plane!

It was a fun gift - just the thing for an airplane loving engineer :)

John's classic picture!

Pearsauce

2008-11-09T08:00:00.000-05:00

My parents have a pear tree. It produces pears that are terribly hard and not fun to eat. After trying them once, I decided that I only liked store-bought pears and never tried them again. My dad enjoys them (or at least eats them in order not to let them waste), but typically no one does much with them. A few weeks ago, Joyce gave me a few pears which I made into a pie that tasted surprisingly good!

After seeing Joyce can pear-pie in a jar last week, she mentioned that I could make the same thing and freeze it as I don't have canning equipment. On Sunday, she had a full bucket of pears for me to take which I took while wondering how a person could eat that much pie.

During church, I thought about making pear sauce. It couldn't be too hard could it? I found some recipe's online and begin that afternoon.

This bucket was full - so I took about 2/3 of a kitty litter bucket of pears - basically I did as many as I felt like doing!

Next, peal and chop them until you're tired.

Place them in your biggest pot and add 1 or 2 cups of water. I added 2 cups, but should have added less as I boiled off a lot of water.

Cover and boil - after they have been boiling for a while, the liquid will rise up to cover the pears which will soon be soft. At this point, I added the rest of the ingredients:

3 T Lemon juice

2 C sugar

2 t. cinnamon

1 t. nutmeg

Boil uncovered for a while longer until the pears are very soft and there is not so much liquid.

When the pears are rather soft and you're tired of watching it boil, turn it off and get out your mixer.

Mix it up to whatever your desired consistency is - I left in a few lumps.

The pearsauce was good! If I were doing it again, I might put in about half as much sugar as it was very sweet. I didn't can it, but I did freeze one container for later and gave one away. Now I know two things that we could have been doing all those years with the pears from that tree!

A Moving Update

2008-11-08T07:51:00.001-05:00

We are actually NOT moving this Saturday. Our apartment wasn't quite ready, so we had to postpone our move date until next weekend. The guy cleaning it up and doing minor maintenance has a few things left to do. Hopefully everything will be ready next Saturday!

This week has gone quickly. I did get my computer at work on Monday! And I've enjoyed doing a little drawing now with both solidworks and an AutoCAD like program that came with it called DWGeditor (you can download a free 30 day trial version of DWGeditor here - it's perfect if you want to try out a 2D drafting program).

The drive has flown by as I finished listening to the audio book "In His Steps." I downloaded it free from christianaudio.com a couple months ago. If you sign up, they give out one free book each month, and I've enjoyed the books.

This Saturday John is at a church men's breakfast and then we plan to drive to Columbus to do a little shopping. I do have a little bit more packing to do and some other things as well this morning.

Ohio Friends!

2008-11-07T19:38:00.002-05:00

Last week we were able to spend the evening with some of our Ohio friends.
We enjoyed dinner and a desert pizza. Taylyn couldn't believe how many pictures John was taking!

The men enjoyed the desert too!

Four Generations of family were there that night!

Taylyn and I helped out with dishes after the meal.

Taylyn's grandma Joyce was busy in the kitchen. She had invited us over so I could learn how they can pears.

Most of the work had already been done that day. She canned about a dozen jars of pear pie in a jar! The canning process doesn't seem very hard - it's the preparing of the fruit that takes a lot of time.
Relaxing after a long day!

We enjoyed the evening with our friends who feel like our family in Ohio!

Dangerous Chocolate Cake-in-a-Mug

2008-11-03T07:00:00.001-05:00

This recipe is perfect for the singles and couples with no kids, or for anyone who needs just a little bit of chocolate to satisfy a craving! I had no idea you could make a chocolate cake in a mug in your microwave.

I received this recipe after signing up for free chocolate from Haydee Chocolatier. I haven't received them yet, but did get this in an email from them soon after.
1 - coffee mug (microwave-safe)
4 T. - cake flour (plain, not self-rising)
4 T. - sugar
2 T. - cocoa
1 - egg
3 T. - milk
3 T. - oil
1 - splash of vanilla
3 T. - chocolate chips (Optional-or use 4 chocolate kisses Like I did!)

Add dry ingredients to the mug; mix well with a fork. Add egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in milk, oil, and vanilla, and mix well. Add chips, if using.
Put mug in the microwave, and cook for three minutes at 1,000 watts. Cake will rise over the top of the mug -- do not be alarmed. When finished, carefully remove mug from microwave and allow to cool a little. Tip onto a small plate prior to serving, if desired. Yields one generous serving or two "more virtuous" servings.

It's not the best chocolate cake, but it is good. It's perfect if you're craving a little chocolate, but don't want to make a whole cake! Let me know if you try it!

Sending Saturday Packing

2008-11-02T16:20:00.007-05:00

To "Send Packing" means to "dismiss abruptly." We didn't exactly dismiss Saturday abruptly, but rather we utilized it fully and said goodbye to it feeling like we had done a lot of packing!

We got a little extra sleep (which felt great after a week of work!) and then finally roused ourselves and went to the YMCA for some exercise.

Upon returning home, John did a little organizing and sorted out his CD collection.

Soon we had a quick lunch of bacon sandwiches, and then got to work. We plan to move to move into our new apartment next Saturday. Some of the guys from church are going to help us move after the men's breakfast. As we want to productively use their time, we have to be packed by then.

So, we needed a place to put all the boxes. Our first order of business was to clear a space - goodbye table!

Within a couple hours, the boxes were piling up! We labeled each box with the room it will go in (as well as contents for things we don't want to loose)!

As the afternoon wore on, the stacks became taller.

By the evening, we had packed up most of what we won't use this week and were good and tired of boxing things.

We enjoyed some dinner and then John washed up the dishes (Thanks John!) while I did a little more sorting. . .

and cleaned up the bathroom :) This picture reminds me of PCC white glove!

Soon we were on our way to Ruby Tuesdays to enjoy a nice date eating a chocolate tallcake desert! Of course, John would say that we really went in order to watch football games - where else can you watch 2 or 3 games at one time a couple times a month, and enjoy some food at less than the cost of cable? We enjoyed the evening and feel that we will be ready to move next Saturday morning! I'm looking forward to having more space. We'll be ready to have more visitors, so make your plans now!

Happy Birthday Rob!

2008-10-24T21:44:00.005-04:00

I hope you had a wonderful 40th Birthday Rob!

Trisha threw a surprise birthday party last weekend!

Rob had no idea about the Birthday plans! When his girls put on his hat and he begin to realize this was for his birthday, he looked at his watch to check the date (since it was a week early)!

We had to pull Rob away from an involved game of volley ball. It was hard to do as Rob didn't see the need for a break!

Rob enjoys games and is someone you would always want on your team!

He makes the games fun. It's intense!

Rarely, Rob will miss the Frisbee.

But more often than not, if you're looking for Rob, just look for the action!

What a catch! (Note- you know he's thinking hard, when he's got his tongue stuck out!)

This is a great picture - Rob's got it!

Rob and his family have made camping so much fun over the years! Thanks for camping and I hope you have another wonderful year!

Time Flies When You're . . . at Work!

2008-10-24T18:22:00.005-04:00

This week feels like it has gone by very quickly. I haven't posted anything since starting my job, and I haven't even posted camping pictures yet! John took some really great pictures, especially of the ultimate Frisbee games. I hope to post them sometime this weekend.

So, one week in a new job has passed. I think I'll reflect a bit on what it has been like. I've been on the "other side" of hiring many times, but barely remember what it's like to not know anyone or anything about a job. Realizing that I'm the least knowledgeable person in our engineering group about this product is a bit humbling to say the least! It takes time to get familiar with a product. The parts, terminology, typical values and more are things that I am used to knowing and now get to learn about in a new field.

My position is design engineer and will soon involve drawing using AutoCAD and SolidWorks. So far, I have not drawn at all since my computer and software have not yet come in. Thankfully I have been able to use a friendly coworker's laptop for some basic office functions.

Thus far I've been slightly useful in back checking work that has already been done. Often it takes a second set of eyes to make certain that changes have been correctly made. Checking seems like it should be an easy job, but it's somewhat of a battle to say make oneself concentrate on checking every dimension on a print to make sure the millimeter dimension (including tolerances) is within the inch tolerances.

That project took about a day, but I was very glad to do it! I definitely enjoy feeling useful by doing achievable and visible work. I'm realizing how hard it is for new folks to know when to ask for more work or to know if they're doing things right. I guess I'm gaining more empathy for new employees now that I am one again! I have spent some time looking at the product and meeting a lot of people. Eventually I will get to know more of the names and faces. I'm not great with remembering either which makes this a bit difficult. But all that will come.

I guess starting a new job makes me very thankful for the time I had at my last one. Learning not just about a product or area of engineering, but learning about people's lives is also a part of a new job. I tend to focus to a huge degree on work which is good though I want to strive to be a friend to my coworkers too.

I am very thankful to be working again and feel that I will enjoy this position and company. I do enjoy challenges and think I will experience some interesting and challenging work here. I have also been enjoying my 45 minute drive. The only time it's annoying is due to having to try leave early (7 am) in order to be there by 8 am. I've been spoiled by getting used to sleeping until 7 or so for the last few months and now I get up at 6am. Of course that's really a minor thing. I'm enjoying getting back to routine - I've even finding time to read my Bible and other books for a few minutes each morning while getting ready for work.

I have definitely been enjoying listening to CDs on my new CD player. I've listened to almost all of Dave Ramsey's lectures this week! It's almost too much too fast even though I've enjoyed it. It's gotten ingrained into my head this week (not that it's ever too far away as I'm a "nerd" when it comes to money) . The other day, when John left me a message saying he decided to eat out with the guys for lunch and spend about $5.00, I immediately calculated that if he saved $25 a month for the next 30 years, we would have over $25,000 (based on 6% interest with a contribution of $9,000). Needless to say, John wasn't exactly thrilled with my calculation when I brought it up :) I guess there are better things to talk about over dinner! It's not that one should never spend money, but I guess my Dave Ramsey infusion is possibly a little too much too fast!

Well, check back more this weekend. I intend to post a bit more as time permits!

A Three Month Vacation is Over

2008-10-20T21:52:00.002-04:00

Tomorrow morning I will start a new job! I'm excited about the position and eager to get to work again. My "vacation" since resigning from my previous engineering position in Alabama and starting this job has been full of change. Moving 700 miles, living with a family, enjoying my engagement with John, driving back to Alabama, getting married, enjoying our honeymoon in Washington, settling into a new apartment as a married woman, interviewing a couple paces, finding another apartment, flying down to Alabama, camping and flying back. (Now, that's a long sentence!) I guess all the action is part of the reason I still haven't accomplished too many other huge projects during all these months.

The months have sped past, and now I have another new beginning. It's been over six years since I started a job at a new company. This will be the 4th business I've worked at, but only the 2nd one since graduation. I start this job with the anticipation of learning a lot and the hope that I will be an asset to the company and an encouragement to the people that I will get to know.

Camping Today!

2008-10-17T05:32:00.000-04:00

We are T-28 minutes until we leave for Alabama and camping! I can't wait to see everyone and am looking forward to enjoying an outdoor weekend with friends and family! If you're from Fountain of Grace church (or if you're local through some other group!), I would love to see you out there this weekend. No, you don't HAVE to camp (although you know the invitation is always open!). You can come out for the afternoon or day on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Just bring yourself and be ready to have some fun!

It Takes An Engineer (No Two!) to . . . .

2008-10-15T16:18:00.008-04:00

I've often been told something like, "You're an engineer, so [fill in the blank]." Somehow I always tend to cringe when I hear that beginning line. Often what follows deals with something that I feel like I ought to know or understand better than I do. Now, the things in this post don't really take an engineer, but they are "engineer type" things!

One area in which I've always been a little nervous about is trying to do any sort of car repair by myself. In the past, I was very fortunate to live near my dad who is a great mechanic. I've spent many evenings watching and "helping" my dad as he did something to my car. Now that I'm 700 miles away, we're faced with either trying things ourselves or paying repair shops.

Ever since I purchased my honda accord, I've had trouble with the CD player. It worked only for about the first month and was sporadic about playing CDs (at best). Since my new job involves some driving and starts on Tuesday, I was wishing to be able to listen to CDs and mp3s. Well, after pricing a cd player and finding cool instructions that didn't look too intimidating online, we decided to take the plunge! Well, we ended up using my Honda repair book, the online instructions, the new cd players instructions as well as the adapter kit instructions! Even with all those, it did take a little time, but it worked! I'm sure those who are used to repairing cars would say this is not a big repair, but we were quite happy to find out that after a few hours, everything went back together and plays CDs perfectly!

Another thing we've had some fun with is John's birthday airplane!

We've spent two days and probably three or more hours on it so far and just have the wings left! I've utilized my organizational skills sorting and finding parts as John was the chief builder. It is a big plane! I don't know if we'll finish it before we go camping - just two days from now!

Believe in Jesus Christ

2008-10-14T09:44:00.002-04:00

I've been getting some visits from new people recently. My posts tend to focus on my daily activities instead of solely on the Savior and salvation so when I saw this blog post today, I thought it would be a perfect thing to post.

If you don't know Jesus Christ, seek Him. Ask me questions about Jesus. Read the Bible. Pray that God would reveal Himself to you. Knowing Christ is the very most important thing you can do during your life. Leaving this life without the knowledge of Christ is not something I want for anyone. Come to Christ while you have have a chance.

New Job!

2008-10-09T14:07:00.002-04:00

I have a new job! Thanks for your prayers for me to find a job! The job is in Hayesville and I plan to start on Tuesday, October 21st. We decided to wait until after the camping trip to start. I'm excited about the position. It seems like a similar environment to my previous position. I'll be able to use Solidworks and do design and different types of projects in a small-company atmosphere.

Now, I ask that you would pray that we find the right place to live. I've called several places today and this evening we're planning to look at four places (one apartment, a duplex, a house in town and another in the country). These places are all somewhere between the towns we work in. I'm hoping that we will find something this week so I can start packing! Having lived in four different houses in the last few months, I'm ready to move for the last time in a while.

Home Organization: Engineering Style

2008-10-07T16:00:00.000-04:00

John and I received some awesome tools at a surprise wedding shower from Morrow Bible Church here in Ohio. It was great to get so many useful items that I may end up using as much as John! Since we're both engineers, I've probably had more experience with tools than the average girl.

Well, as both an engineer and someone who has organized stockrooms and areas at work with bins, my first thought at trying to organize these items was to use stocking bins! I found some online and with some wedding gift money I ordered 25 (more than I thought I would need). I intended to organize not only the tools, but also my bathroom items.
I thought I would stack bins in this closet with these bathroom items, but ended up placing most of the bins under the sink - freeing up an entire shelf!
I guess it's strange to post a picture under your sink, but now you know where to find extra tp if you need it:)

I put the tools in our pantry area in the kitchen. My before picture didn't wasn't zoomed out enough as I ended up using more shelf space than I thought!

I enjoy organizing. Now for the hard part - keeping it organized!

We had a good weekend looking for apartments and then visiting Doug and Lori in Sandusky where she was visiting her mom. That was a lot of fun - eventually we may post some pictures from that visit.

I've been busy finishing up a wedding photo album on shutterfly. I just hit the order button and it feels awesome to have that done. I'm hoping it will arrive before the camping trip so I can bring it with me are share it with anyone who's not tired of those pictures yet! I made it the maximum size (101 pages!) and had fun organizing all the pictures from friends through our honeymoon. Since I've been going strong on wedding pictures for so long, I may wait a bit before posting any more here.

Early Monday morning I had an odd experience waking up with terrible back pain. It was so nice to have John right there with me to talk with - what a blessing not to have to face things alone! My back has been hurting some for the last several days, but not that bad. I think I pulled a muscle and maybe the bed is a little soft for a sore back. I finally fell back to sleep on the floor. Last night we slept on a little firmer mattress (the sofa bed) which was fine. I'm hoping that after a few days my back will be back to normal.

Wedding Pictures: The Kids

2008-10-02T16:45:00.005-04:00

Weddings are a lot of fun when you have cute kids in them! Having children in your wedding gives everyone the chance to have the unexpected happen. While it might have been funny to have something go wrong, I was thankful to have such cute well-behaved children (my nieces Sara and Lisa Beth and nephew Zach).

They did their assigned tasks beautifully!

Soon I hope to finish posting these staged photos and begin to post pictures from the actual ceremony itself. It's going to be fun to tell the story of the wedding with pictures. Anna's done a great job telling the story on her blog Maidens of Worth. Mine may take several posts and a little more time.

I've had a busy (and fun) day. It started with an hour or so at the DMV waiting in line and then taking (and passing!) the written test in order to get an Ohio drivers license. I've now changed my name on my license and will be able to fly down in a couple weeks for camping with no problem. Yes, we are going camping with the group in Alabama. I just didn't want to pass it up!

After getting my license, I started to create a wedding album using shutterfly online. It's been a lot of fun. Many thanks to Maria for creating a shutterfly book with our dating pictures. I don't think I would have seriously thought about making a wedding album otherwise. So far I've arranged 28 pages with just the posed pictures before the ceremony! It's going to be a long book-but it will be worth it.

Now I need to end this post since I'm supposed to leave in 8 minutes to play soccer with John and some people from his work. It's a bit chilly outside (in the 50's!) so I need to find some warmer clothes to wear.

I have a second interview at the first place I interviewed (in Hayesville) tomorrow at 10AM. Please pray that I would get this job if it is God's will.

Happy Birthday John!

2008-10-01T11:26:00.003-04:00

Yesterday we celebrated John's 30th Birthday! On his birthday last year, John had only been in Ohio for a little while and didn't have anyone around to celebrate his birthday with him. We weren't dating at that time. However, I did write in my journal last year questioning whether or not I would ever see John again. I wrote that I was wondering what I would be doing on that day the next year. Considering all the questions I had at that time, it was a joy to be here and celebrate John's birthday last night!

I did a very non-typically-Miriam type thing and took out the nice things Trisha gave me in the "date night" basket shower gift and set up a "fancy dinner." She gave me the table cloth, place mates, napkins, glasses, candles, and candle holder as well as the sparkling apple cider. The dishes were given to me by another lady from my church (Marjie). It's a set of two that she was given when she got married and thought it might be fun for us to have. I actually had some fun setting up everything in order to make the birthday meal more special and to surprise John!

I even dressed up! Those of you who know me know that all this fancy stuff is not the normal Miriam! Natalie should be very proud:) I actually did have fun trying to think of all the non-Miriam stuff I could do to make the evening special.

John had fun opening his presents! John loves airplanes and Legos so I anticipate that we will enjoy spending some time putting together this plane that has over 1000 pieces!

Wedding Pictures: The Guys

2008-09-30T16:00:00.002-04:00

What a sharp-looking group of guys!

Of course, boys will have some fun!

John and Suri!

John and Ben - a good friend from college.

John and Odell - good friend from South Carolina. The fifth time John and I spent time together, we went to Odell's wedding in SC so it was special to have Odell and his family here for our wedding.

John and his brother Suri, his best man!

Wedding Pictures: The Girls

2008-09-30T12:00:00.000-04:00

Nicely framed by the candles!

Miriam and the girls #1

Miriam and the girls #2

Miriam and the girls #3

John and all the girls!

All of us girls!

Lydia, my sister and maid-of-honor. She's two days less than five years younger than I. When I was a child, I always wished I had a twin - I guess Lydia was my twin five years later as several people have mistaken us for twins! She is in her junior year at Toccoa Falls College.

My bridesmaid Tamra, one of my best friends. We met in Calculus and Chemistry class in college and then became room-mates and suite-mates for several years. She majored in Pre-med so we had only a few classes together, but we were able to spend a lot of our "free time" and meals sharing a lot of fun. Now she's a doctor (married to another doctor!) and has two precious little boys!

My bridesmaid Ivory, another one of my best friends. We were two of the three female engineering majors in our graduating class at PCC. Unfortunately the third girl (Julie) wasn't able to come to my wedding. We got to have almost every class together which made college a lot of fun. It's great to have wonderful friends with you who share your struggles and made college work a lot more fun.

Wedding Pictures: The Wedding Party

2008-09-30T08:00:00.002-04:00

We had a great looking group (if I do say so myself!). My sister Anna made all the bridesmaid and flower girls dresses as well as adding sleeves to my dress. She did an absolutely wonderful job!

Wonderful background - all the decorating was done by Natalie and Susie - two wonderful ladies from my church!

Keep Smiling!

Wedding Pictures: John and Miriam

2008-09-29T22:00:00.000-04:00

Admiring my flowers :)

Watching for John!

What a long train!

Miriam and John

These pictures were some of the first ones we took.

I like this picture - it seems to illustrate the start of our life journey together (wasn't that romantic!)

The pictures outside behind the church turned out really nice.

Thanks to Trisha for arranging our poses and all the people.

This is one of my favorites! Thank you Kevin and Karen for taken our pictures!

It was a beautiful day!

The new deck was perfect for pictures.

Family Wedding Pictures Part 2

2008-09-29T19:00:00.000-04:00

Our Parents

Many relatives from John's mother's side came to celebrate the day with us!

Many of my mom's relatives were able to come! They came from Texas, Oklahoma and Florida. It was great to have so many come!

My mom and her sisters.

My cousin Sarah represented relatives on my dad's side. It was so nice to have Sarah share this even with us!

The Heavenly Man - God is at Work in China

2008-09-29T16:00:00.000-04:00

I just finished reading The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun It is indeed a remarkable story of a living Christian Pastor and his life of persecution and witness in China. This story describes the incredible persecution that Brother Yun and many others in China still suffer because of their belief in the Jesus Christ of the Bible. It details the growth of the home churches in China and their impact on the lives of those who come to Christ.

I was amazed to read of the many miracles that Jesus did to show his power in Brother Yun's life. Just because we here in America don't see miracles doesn't mean that they are not occurring around the world. Jesus is the same (Heb 13:8) and is all powerful. He delights to answer prayer and through that answer to bring glory to himself.

I was also convicted to read how Brother Yun describes his experience in prison and how we should pray for persecuted Christians.

"The first time I went to prison I struggled, wondering why God had allowed it. Slowly I began to understand he had a deeper purpose for me than just working for him. He wanted to know me, and I to know him, deeply and intimately. He knew the best way to get my attention for a while was to give me rest behind bars.

Whenever I hear a house church Christian has been imprisoned for Christ in China I don't advise people to pray for his or her release unless the Lord clearly reveals we should pray this way. . . .

There is always a purpose behind why God allows his children to go to prison. Perhaps it's so they can witness to the other prisoners, or perhaps God wants to develop more character in their lives. But if we use our own efforts to get them out of prison earlier than God intended we can thwart his plans, and the believers may come out not as fully formed as God wanted them to be.

I'm often asked about the rights of pastors in China. A pastor has no rights, except the rights of a slave! Everyone in this world is a slave. They're either slaves to sin, or slaves of Christ. Our "rights" are in the hands of Jesus. We must fall on our knees in complete dependence on him...

The World can do nothing to a Christian who has no fear of man."

This book is very interesting and well worth the read. Get The Heavenly Man: The Remarkable True Story of Chinese Christian Brother Yun today and enjoy!

Family Wedding Pictures Part 1

2008-09-29T12:03:00.008-04:00

John and I were so thankful to have our families at our wedding!

John and I with our parents and siblings.

With parents, siblings and niblings (4 nieces and 4 nephews)

John's Family

Miriam's Family #1

Miriam's Family #2

Miriam's Family #3

Somehow taking a picture of 20 people and having everyone look perfect is quite difficult. I couldn't decide which of these three family pictures was best. What do you think?