Sweet Home Pennsylvania

Sisters

2008-11-16T17:18:00.010-05:00

Angie and Eva also came out for a visit while Melanie was still here. It was so nice to have the three of us together again. Angie was able to lived out her dream of visiting Amish country.

We also visited Narnia

2008-11-16T17:13:00.003-05:00

We heard this lion roaring from a few hundred yards away and it did it again while we were watching it-by far my favorite zoo experience!

National Zoo

2008-11-16T16:37:00.002-05:00

The National Zoo is a part of the Smithsonian and was completely free. It was great, there were animals there that none of us had ever seen before- including the famous pandas.

This snapping turtle fell in love with Melanie

Washington DC with Mom and Melanie

2008-11-16T16:14:00.004-05:00

Last month my Mom and Melanie flew into DC for a visit. We stayed overnight at a great little hotel in Alexandria, VA, just across the river from DC. It was so beautiful with all the fall colors-wish I would have taken some pictures of the foliage. We went up to the top of the Washington Memorial- the view was awesome!

The White House

On the Metro

Waiting for the Metro

No idea where this picture was taken.

Outside our hotel in Alexandria

Happy Halloween

2008-11-16T16:02:00.004-05:00

School ParadeSchool Party

Jackie had the idea for the gourd ears for her puppy pumpkin.

2008-11-16T16:00:00.000-05:00

Elijah was 'Bellaire's Best'- aka-student of the month for September.

2008-11-16T15:27:00.000-05:00

Elijah's new haircut

1st Day of School

2008-09-01T10:50:00.002-04:00

Fun on the farm!

2008-08-07T17:56:00.001-04:00

Jackie & Her Cousins - Elijah & His Fish

2008-08-07T17:47:00.002-04:00

On our visit to Salt Lake City Jackie loved playing with her cousins!!

Elijah would have nothing to do with the 'babies'!

But he had tons of fun fishing with Grandpa!

Amish Country

2008-08-07T17:38:00.004-04:00

For my birthday this year I wanted to visit Amish Country. We drove one of the many covered bridges loops in Lancaster County, took a Buggie ride and did some shopping in some of the fun little towns.

New Videos

2008-05-22T13:04:00.002-04:00

Go to Jason's blog, gettinschooled.blogspot.com to see new pics of the kids' Awana awards and video of Jackie's ballet performance, with audiance participation on my part!

We are headed to Amish country on Saturday, the drive-in on Sunday, and BBQ's on Monday, I'm sooo looking forward to a long weekend!

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!!

Our Day at the Park

2008-04-29T21:04:00.003-04:00

You'll never guess what I was doing.

You'll never guess what Jason was doing.

Our Day at the Park

2008-04-29T20:59:00.004-04:00

Jackie and her neighbor friend, Aalyah

I told him Grandpa Mel would be proud!

Springtime in Pennsylvania

2008-04-29T20:45:00.003-04:00

My Great Grandmothers Cook Stove

Can you imagine an entire tree......

of these!

Horray Spring!

2008-04-17T13:00:00.002-04:00

It is finally warmin up here. We did not have a bad winter, it only snowed a few times but it was in the 30s for a long time. It's around 70 today and all the trees are blooming. The magnolia trees are georgeous and they smell sooo good. I will try to post some pictures soon.
Tonight I start teaching my second knitting class. It filled up right away and they had to start turning ladies down.

Jackie starts softball tonight. She is still enjoying ballet and we will be going to see Cinderella in Harrisburg next weekend.

Elijah is enjoying his birthday scooter and being able to play outside.

Jason completed his first breif and oral argument. That is a releif for him but now he has to start studying for finals.

For those of you who don't know, he was given a summer fellowship by the Alliance Defence Fund. He will be placed in Harrisburg, the capitol city, which is only about half an hour away.

The kids and I will be coming out for a visit the middle to end of July. We are excited to see everyone!

Christ is Risen!

2008-03-23T19:43:00.003-04:00

Happy Easter everyone!

Spring Break

2008-03-17T18:23:00.002-04:00

Last week was Jason's Spring Break. He spent the entire time reading, studying and creating outlines. How fun. For more of an update on him visit his blog site, the link is in the upper right hand corner.

The Kids

2008-03-17T18:06:00.004-04:00

Guess who got a haircut! It was about time, although it is so different that he almost looks bald. Elijah is still enjoying school and I am repeatedly told by his teachers that he is such a good kid!

Jackie has earned a scholarship to the Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet for a beginning dance class. This is a serious ballet company compared with the New York Ballet. She is really enjoying it. She goes Tuesday and Wednesday from 4:30 to 5:30. She is also starting softball next month, which I had already signed her up for before she received the scholarship. We'll see how it all works out. Busy, Busy.

Hi There!

2008-03-17T17:49:00.002-04:00

Hello everyone, sorry it's been so long. I will get you all up to date. David, Jason's brother was at the National Firefighter's Academy in Emmitsburg, Maryland, about a 40 minute drive. We had dinner a few times and he was able to come up and stay a night with us. We had a great time! We visited Gettysburg and Jason met him down in DC for a couple of days.

My Class

2008-03-17T17:18:00.006-04:00

I have started teaching a Aran Afghan class at the local yarn store http://yarngardenpa.com/ or you can go to http://yarngardencarlisle.blogspot.com/ to see some pictures. The afghan is made up of 12x12 squares of different Aran knit patterns. I have also posted pictures of a sweater I made for my friend Truleigh's baby girl. I will try to put up pictures of the things I am working on. Especially for you Angie.

Happy New Year!!

2008-01-01T01:36:00.000-05:00

We went to some friends' house for dinner and games then went over to the annual 'Pickle Drop' in Dillsburg, PA where they drop a giant pickle man at midnight, then had fireworks. It was crazy fun.

Here is the Pickle Man himself (from the back), please don't confuse him with the Planters Peanut man.

Happy New Year!!

2008-01-01T01:12:00.000-05:00

Christmas Day

2007-12-28T16:12:00.001-05:00

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas as we celebrated the birth of our Savior!

Jackie looked just like this after she opened each present.

Elijah poses by his 'scared man' he created out of sticky foam.

Two big hits were Transformers and Littlest Pets and the kids loved their new pj's from Grandma Madeline.

My Sweet Nieces

2007-12-28T15:53:00.000-05:00

This is my new little niece, Prisca, born on November 14th. Is she tiny or what?! This was a photo shoot for the Pregnancy Resource Center's January fundraiser. The money was thoroughly washed beforehand!

And this is her big sister, on the right (isn't she so cute!), who is 1 year and 5 days older than her. Whoa! Angie and Brady sure have their hands full right now but I'm sure these little girls will be the best of friends and a big help to their mom when they are older.

Elijah's Christmas Program

2007-12-08T16:25:00.000-05:00

Elijah had his school Christmas Program last Tuesday. He was a donkey. There is a really cute, short video on Jason's blog = http://gettinschooled.blogspot.com. When we got to the car he said "Were you impressed?"

The Persaudmata's

2007-12-08T10:18:00.000-05:00

My sister, Melanie, and her new husband, Christian, came for a visit from Hawaii. It was soooo good to see them. They took us on some fun adventures: a trip to the Marine base in Quantico, VA, a visit to the Hershey Chocolate World, and on a beautiful drive through Amish country. We were very sad to see them leave and are hoping they will be back very soon!

The kids had been drawing pictures and making cards weeks before they met their new uncle. They loved him from the very start!

We saw the IMAX movie in Chocolate World. We had 3-D glasses and the chairs shook, it snowed and we were splashed on and it felt like things were hitting our legs. This was our first experience in this kind of theater and Elijah was NOT impressed. The rest of us thought it was great!

We saw a cannery, candle making, hand-made furniture and lots of fun shops in Amish country.

We just happened to come across this covered bridge, one of the things I love about Central PA.

2007-12-08T10:08:00.000-05:00

On Thanksgiving morning the kids got up, dressed themselves and made this beautiful Thanksgiving Banner. They both helped me in the kitchen and dad got to relax and watch some football.

Elijah is the ultimate yam-peeler!

Grandma's Visit

2007-12-07T21:45:00.000-05:00

Mom came to visit over Jackie's Birthday. We had tons of fun, I had to work but she walked down every day when I got off and we went to lucnh, coffee or shopping! She took us to the Children's Museum in Baltimore on her last day. They had tons of great exhibits, the kids had a great time, we all had a great time! THANKS MOM!!

Washington DC

2007-10-25T22:54:00.000-04:00

Our pastor and his wife took us to DC back in October. (Man, I'm bad about keeping this up to date!) It was so cool to see all the stuff you grow up seeing in the movies. And, everything was free, amazing!

The Lincoln Memorial

The Smithsonian (one of them)

The Jefferson Memorial

Pastor Sandy and his wife Michelle

Elijah & Isaiah

2007-10-25T22:21:00.001-04:00

This is Elijah's best friend, Isaiah, from school. He came over to play today after school. Are they cute or what!!

DINING ROOM & LIVING ROOM

2007-10-25T22:07:00.000-04:00

Chicago

2007-10-19T19:30:00.000-04:00

The picture of Chicago is from our move. We stayed with our pastor who married us, Chris Vlachos and his wife, Patty. They took us on a wonderful one day tour of the city, it was great!

HOWDY STRANGERS!

2007-10-18T22:56:00.000-04:00

It's been a month, I guess this is about as often as I will actually do a new post. I have been really enjoying my new job but I'm finding that it's taking up more of my time than I thought. I'm sure I will get used to it and get adjusted to the schedule. Well, we've had our first visitors, Jason's grandmother, Madeline Mau and her niece Nancy. It turns out Jason has relatives actually from this area. His great, great, grandfather is buried just down the road from where we go to church. Isn't that crazy! Madeline was adopted and so she has been doing some research on her birth family. We took the kids to Hershey, PA, about an hour drive, to the Hershey Chocolate Factory. We had a great visit. After that we were off to Mertyl Beach. Jason's parents and aunt & uncle were down there in a condo so we made the 9 hour drive for the weekend. It was worth it! We had a great time on the beach and visiting with family. Jackie was a maniac on the boogie board, that's her in the last picture. Thanks again Bruce, Cindy, Jim & Celia!

Don't worry, It's not as deep as it looks!

More job info.

2007-09-13T21:38:00.000-04:00

I realized I didn't tell you much about my new job. I will be the receptionist for a law firm. There are 2 lawyers, a husband an wife, so there will just be the three of us. They are gone most of the time I will be there so I'm not sure exactly what I will be doing. I do know I will be learning more and more about law procedures as time goes on. It is a general practice which includes court appointed criminal defense, a little scary but a great learning opportunity. The office is located on the main street of downtown. My favorite coffee shop is just around the corner, all the fun shops (including the yarn shop) are on the next block and the courthouse is just across the street. I am so excited to be in this area, it is exactly where I wanted to be! And I have to buy new clothes!

Our new pets.

2007-09-12T21:27:00.000-04:00

This little creature is a 'House Centipede'. I find them curled up on the basement floor every once in a while and then the other day I was making my bed and one scurried across the throw pillow. AAAHHHHHHH! It was about 2 inches long and 1/2 an inch wide and faster than Speedy Gonzales. I had to hunt it out from under the bed and finally got it, to your relief I'm sure. I looked on line and found the name and some pictures. I guess they are completely harmless and eat smaller more dangerous bugs so they don't suggest you even try to get rid of them. I'll have to think about that.

I GOT THE JOB!

2007-09-11T22:29:00.000-04:00

I start Monday and will work Mon thru Fri 9-2. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

New Job Interview

2007-09-05T10:49:00.000-04:00

I had another interview last week at a law office, of all places! Please pray that God's will would be done because I'd really like to find something soon and again, this seems like it would be a very good job. I should know in a few days.

School has started!

2007-09-02T22:51:00.000-04:00

We have been having problems with our internet so sorry these pictures are late for those of you who have been anxiously awaiting them.

Everyone started school Monday the 27th. Elijah and I walked Jackie to school and then we drove to his preschool. The walk is beautiful, big trees, gorgeous homes and families everywhere walking their children to school.

Jackie has had a great first week. She has made a new 'best friend', Hailee.

Elijah is really enjoys his time there but is a little apprehensive in the morning. I think he will soon grow out of this.

Jason has had a very busy week although I don't think it was as tough as he thought it would be. He has more info on his blog.

We are enjoying our weekend. Saturday morning I walked to the farmers market, which I do every Saturday, with Liz our law school friend who joined us at the beach. Then we went to the McClain Celtic Festival. It was awesome! There was tons of live music, shopping, dancing, sheep dog demonstrations and kids games, or game I should say. It was held on the grounds of a beautiful old historic home, the Two Mile House. It was like being in Ireland for the day and then you walk to the front of the house, cross the street and you're in the K-Mart parking lot. It's crazy. It's like that everywhere here, I guess because of all the foliage. Monday we might visit a Mennonite farm where they make a lot of wonderful cheese including goat and sheep which Elijah can have. We are missing you all!!

more beach pics

2007-08-15T17:26:00.000-04:00

No Job 4 Me

2007-08-15T16:04:00.000-04:00

God must have a better job out there for me because I didn't get this one.

But....., we took the kids to the beach for the first time! In NJ we found Island Beach State Park. It was great! About 3 1/2 hours away, not very crowded and very clean. We had a blast! We went with a couple other incoming law students that we've met, Chris & Liz(and her dog Cody). We packed a lunch and spent all day on the beach. The State Park is actually a barrier reef so on one side is the Atlantic Ocean and on the other is the Barnegat Bay, it was awesome. We had such a good time playing with the kids and spending time with our new friends.

Hooray, The Ocean!

Look at the size of that sea shell!

Ooohhhh, a real live surfer.

Jackie & mom's sand castle

Interview Update

2007-08-10T17:42:00.000-04:00

Well, the interview went very well. It sounds like the perfect job for me. They had a few more people to interview and I was hoping to hear back by today. I guess I'll have to wait till next week:(

Kids & Bikes

2007-08-06T11:02:00.000-04:00

this is the alley behind our house

this is taken from our backyard

out front, our house is to the right

the trees down there are so big it's almost like covered parking. that's our new, little red car

Job Interview

2007-08-06T10:42:00.000-04:00

Hello All, It's Monday morning and Jackie is off to Child Evangelism Fellowship Day Camp. This is the organization that my sister and brother-in-law are the directors of in Utah.
She was excited to see some of the other kids from our church there as well.
Jason rode his bike out to the law school and back this morning to find the best route and time himself. It only took about 30 minutes and he found a safe route, avoiding the pike. He was very happy. The Dickinson Law building here in town, actually just 2 blocks away, is under renovation so they have a satellite location just out of town on the PA turnpike.
Elijah is downstairs playing and I have my first job interview today at 2:30. It's at Dickinson College, the undergraduate college that shares the name with Penn State Dickinson Law School, in Conferences and Special Events as a staff assistant. It is just a few blocks away and has the most beautiful campus! I'll let you know how it goes. http://www.dickinson.edu/

Bedroom

2007-08-02T10:51:00.000-04:00

I have had this vision for months now. It's so fun to see it put together. And yes, we still have our log bed. It just would have taken up so much room in here that we decided to try something new.

Is this light fixture cool or what!!

Jason's Blog

2007-08-01T09:37:00.000-04:00

I had Jason's address wrong. Sorry if you tried and couldn't find it. It's fixed now.

2007-07-31T20:50:00.001-04:00

For those of you who don't know, Cara Jo is my sweet friend and was my neighbor in Cortez. She's a little upset at us for leaving.

Basement

2007-07-31T10:39:00.001-04:00

one of the designers on HGTV's 'Design Star' used this rug,

she was the first one kicked off!
the couch was a thrift store find and the table & chairs were here

washer & dryer and lots of storeage on the other side of the basement

Kitchen After

2007-07-31T09:53:00.001-04:00

Much Better

Kitchen Before

2007-07-31T09:11:00.000-04:00

Kitchen & pantry before:

this is of previous tenant

we had a lot of cleaning to do

Jason's Study

2007-07-31T00:54:00.000-04:00

Jason's study was the next room done. He was happy to have a place to put up all his baseball memorabilia. He'll probably be living in this room for the next 3 years.

This also happens to be where I pay bills.

Kids Room

2007-07-31T00:30:00.000-04:00

Here are some before & after pics of the kids' room. It was the first room we fininshed. I still need to paint the trim white but for now it's done.

so dark
the sunshine closet
interresting!

(saving it for you Robyne)
How bright and cheery!
And yes, there is a new light fixture.

2007-07-30T23:51:00.000-04:00

Jason also has a blog and probably different stories and pictures at gettinschooled.blogspot.com

Hello from Pennsylvania!

2007-07-30T22:39:00.000-04:00

Our new home!

Well, we've been here for a month now. We are almost finished painting and unpacking. Three of our neighbors brought us welcome gifts within the first few weeks, how nice! We feel very comfortable and safe in our neighborhood. I will post pictures as fast as I can to give you all an idea of what our new life looks like. Please leave comments or email me!!!

A few of the things we have done so far:
*Visited Gettysburg. Elijah calls it Gettysbooger and the memorial statues- statuwas. We drove through the battlefield to find the kids favorite memorial, The New York Celtic Cross, and ate at an underground tavern that was a stop on the underground railroad.
*Drove through Amish country. The main Amish communities are a couple of hours away and we went on a Sunday so most everything was closed. We did see a lot of horse and buggies and discovered a lot of things to go back and do when some of you all come out for a visit!
*Spent a day at Laurel Lake. A friend from church invited us to go to the lake today. The kids had a blast! There was a really nice sand beach but it still had the feel of the mountainous lake surrounded by trees and picnic tables. We found some nice camping sites and all of this is only about half an hour away.