Father Daughter Retreat

I thought you would like to see some pictures from Vision Forum Ministries' Father and Daughter retreat that we went to!

Azaleas
Callaway gardens

The azalea trail

After the tea
A picnic on the lawn
Father Daughter games

The villa we stayed in


Butterflies in a huge glass enclosed conservatory

Happy Birthday Dad!

Yesterday was Dad's birthday.

Happy Birthday Dad!

If you'd like to wish Dad a happy birthday, please feel free to post a comment.

Surprise!!!

Thanks Hills for the ride!

Well, it wasn't easy to keep quiet, but we did and the surprise was surprisingly successful. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of the surprise, as the surprised were surprised and the surprisers didn't have a camera.

Last Wednesday we received an email from a family we know saying that they had just decided to take a trip down to Florida, had a couple of open seats in the van and would be happy to take a couple of us along for the ride and drop us off in Montgomery, Alabama for a visit Nathan & Jeanine. Almost immediately we decided that if it did work out for a couple of us to go, we wouldn't tell N&J about it and just show up. And that's exactly what happened. Although Mom was quite sure that something would come up and she wouldn't be able to go, on Saturday afternoon she and Josiah were at the Hill's home leaving for Alabama.

Sunday morning as Nathan and Jeanine prepared to leave for church (and Corrine was napping), they were surprised to hear their doorbell ring. Reportedly, they both nearly collapsed from a very pleasant sort of heart failure when they opened the door and saw who was standing there! When Corrine woke up, they sent Josiah in to get her out of bed. As he walked out of the bedroom carrying her, she was just staring at him - but soon smiled and wouldn't go to anyone else or let him put her down for half-an-hour! They are all having a great time and look forward to spending all week together.

This weekend most of the rest of us (minus Jonathan & Joseph) are headed down to Georgia for an event that some of us are attending and Josh is recording. On our way back, we'll stop at N&J's, pick up Mom and Josiah, and drop off Jessica who will be staying with them for most of the month of April before heading home.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Happy 18th Birthday to you, Jonathan! Have a great one!

Two Reasons We Smile A Lot

Alabama and Update

Well they made it! Nathan, Jeanine, and Corrine are now finally moved down to the very warm state of Alabama. Various friends and acquaintances down there have begun assisting them with "correcting" their pronounciation. We miss them terribly, and are already planning times and ways to exchange visits! Nathan's first week of work on his new job seems to be going well thus far. May it continue so!

Josh and I (Jessica), helped them move down and more or less enjoyed a week of weather in the 80's that even made it up to the low 90's one day! Today, we are back home in Illinois watching a lovely (and fairly heavy at the moment) snowfall turn the world outside our windows bright white. :-)

This Saturday we'll be having a Liberty Day meeting to wrap-up 2006 and discuss our plans for 2007! If you have any thoughts on the past or suggestions for the future of Liberty Day, now's the time to send us an email. Speaking of Liberty Day, there are also now a whole bunch of pictures on the Liberty Day site for those of you that are interested!

Look Who's 13!!!

Happy Birthday, Joanna!

Also of note is that today is Jeanine's birthday, too!!!

A very Happy Birthday to you both! We love you and thank God for each of you! Have a wonderful day!

Liberty Day & Conference

What a great way to spend a Saturday! We'll get a full report and more pictures up when we get the pictures from our photographer. In the mean time, be it known that it was absolutely fantastic!


The conference was great and Dr. Jehle was wonderful. Starting with Genesis 1:1, he moved forward from there discussing principles of government, the constitution, and history articulately - educating and inspiring young and old alike. For those of you who weren't there, I'll add that Josh did record the sessions and you really ought to hear it!


Then came the evening. Despite a handful of glitches that had certain ones of us holding our breaths, it was again a fabulous time! It was our 8th annual Liberty Day celebration and, from reports we hear, better than ever! It's always hard to judge just how it went when one knows every little thing that didn't go exactly like it was supposed to. But still, it was a very fun evening and the eloquence of Dr. Jehle and Patrick Henry stand as complimentary rivals for the status of "highlight of the evening."

The room was packed! The chairs were full, and the back and sides of the room were lined with additional attendees! In addition to the 450 who attended the conference during the day, another 100 or so showed up just for the evening!

Those of you who were unable to join us, we wish you could have been there! You missed a really wonderful day. Some small comfort may be found for you in a quick email to Josh who also recorded certain items from the evening...

Those who were there - we'd love to hear what you thought! Leave a comment here, or here, or you can email us, too!

Cousins & Home News

Last night we had the privilege of hosting the world's two sweetest little girls - and their parents, of course. We enjoyed the simple pleasure of sitting around with family chatting, eating, talking, having ice cream, laughing, and enjoying our chief amusements - the little girls!



Other news from the home front:

*Nathan finished the bar exam! He, Jeanine, and Corrine are living with us for the next week until they move into their new home.

*Jonathan took second place in the annual Chandler Starr Miller Scholarship Competition.

*Final preparations for Liberty Day and the conference associated with this year's celebration will keep us busy this week! We have already had a large number of registrations come in, but there's still room for you! Drop us an email if you'd like to come. So far we have attendees coming from Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio! It looks to be an interesting day and an exciting evening! Lots of work, laughter, study, and practice has gone into this year's performances for the evening celebration. I can't wait to see how it all comes together!

Nathan

One day down, two to go. Nathan is currently in the midst of taking the Bar exam in Sacramento, California. Three full days of various forms of testing, the California bar exam is long and grueling and has only about a 50% passing rate. On Thursday night, after finishing the exam, begins the long wait... he won't find out if he has passed or not until June! So, please pray for Nathan this week!

Mama 'n' Babies

Packing up... again!

We have been blessed with a loving church family that continually surrounds us with love, support, and practical assistance! Today, once again, we were the beneficiaries of their love.

Having lived in the same home for nearly a year, Nathan & Jeanine are once again moving from their cozy apartment. This time, unfortunately for us, their move is taking them further away from us. But today, while Nathan put in a final preparation for the upcoming bar exam in California (this Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday), in Milwaukee we had a packing day. Mrs. VonHolten and Anna, and Megan Carlson, joined Jeanine, Joanna and Jessica in boxing up all the non-essential belongings in Nathan & Jeanine's apartment. Many hands makes light work and by early afternoon we had finished up! Having finished early, we took advantage of the time and spent it enjoying Greendale's shops and famous Kopp's custard!


Mrs. VonHolten packing up the kitchen

Megan, Anna & Joanna packing

Spending the day with Grandpa & Grandma Erber, Corrine explored new territory: The Stairs!

The Mother/Daughter Weekend

As our guys were down in Oklahoma, we chose this past weekend to host a Mother/Daughter retreat for the ladies in our church as well as a few friends. We ended up with around 45 ladies in our home on Friday about 25 spending the night and then somewhere just above 30 here on Saturday. It was, of course, a lot of fun and FULL of variety! Here are some pictures - and commentary!


Richard Carlson was the only young man present for the weekend. He didn't seem to mind.

Mrs. Strand spoke to us after lunch on Friday on the meal table being an expression of love to our families.
Rebecca Knottnerus gave us some tips on singing, led us through some vocal exercises, and then divided us into sections and taught us a song of praise with harmonies and a descant.
Later on Friday afternoon Mrs. Miller demonstrated preparing sauerkraut and told us all the wonderful health benefits of the food and others like it!|
Mrs. VanDellen led our time following dinner on Friday and encouraged us to hold tightly to the Anchor of our Souls - Jesus Christ.


After breakfast on Saturday, Mrs. VonHolten talked with us about prayer in the life of a woman.

Saturday's mid-morning activity was learning to bone (or is it debone?) raw chicken. Megan Carlson demonstrated the tricks to the trade for us, and then we cooked up the chickens for lunch!







Saturday afternoon as we realized everyone was leaving, someone pointed out that we hadn't taken a group photo. So, here is a group photo - of about half of us!

It's been a year!

Happy Birthday to us! This blog has officially been around for one year now!

Tonight...

Tonight Dad, Josh, and Jonathan are in Oklahoma; Nathan is at home finishing up his preparations for the Bar exam; Jeanine and Corrine are here; and Jeremy, Sara, & Caroline joined us for dinner! Of course, with the two sweetest girls in the world in our home, we couldn't resist taking pictures...

Erber Update

I'm afraid our lives have been fairly boring of late - at least, too boring to be of general interest. We had the Canchola family over last Saturday; Luke VonHolten also spent the day with us; Jessica accompanied Rebecca K. at her recital; N,J & C have been here again; we've had rehearsals for different parts of the upcoming Liberty Day Celebration; music lessons - of course; one of Nathan's friends from law school came over to study with Nathan this past weekend; N&J went to a concert of the Elgin Symphony Orchestra (which means we babysat Corrine!!); the guys visited the VonHolten family for a church guys basketball night (though they also played football); Jessica arranged a piece for a harp/violin duet for Liberty Day; Raeanne C. and Aaron E. both spent a day+ with us over this past weekend to prepare for Liberty Day; Dad and Mom went to a concert at the Coronado Theater in Rockford; registrations for the upcoming constitution conference have been coming in; J,S&C have spent the last couple of weeks taking turns at not feeling well; hmmm, that might pretty well cover the events of this past week.

Now this week should be much more interesting. This weekend will see Dad and most of the Erber guys in Oklahoma City - marking the official beginning of a busy 2006 conference season for Josh and Resounding Voice.

Back home, us ladies will be using their absence as an opportunity to host a Mother Daughter retreat for the ladies in our church and a few other friends. It looks like we're going to have quite a houseful, and I'm sure we'll have a bunch of fun!