Tidbits

Well, we are now less than one month from the wedding day! As you might guess, wedding plans and preparations are the most consuming topic at our home right now. Last Saturday our church hosted a lovely shower for Josh and Abbey. I don't have many pictures from the day, so you'll just have to trust me that the ladies who hosted it put a lot of work and love into making the place beautiful, the food delicious, and our time together delightful! This weekend there are two more bridal showers for Abbey, and then next Saturday is yet another! It's a most wonderful thing to watch as God continues to knit Josh and Abbey together and we all are eagerly looking forward to the Big Day!

(Caroline and Maggie - two of the cute flower girls!)

In other news...
**It is 15 degrees below zero as I sit here typing this. Yeah, kind of chilly. But we've been having mostly sub-zero weather for about a week now. Interestingly, the first week of January was near zero, the second near 70, the third (and now fourth) back near (or below) zero. Oh, and then by this weekend we're supposed to be back up near 40 degrees with rain. It certainly is no wonder we that had tornadoes - or that the populace seems to have been swept with the plague around here. It did actually warm up enough to snow a couple of days ago, and I guess closer to The Lake there is supposed to be a bunch more snow today (BTW, "The Lake" is Lake Michigan as surely as "The City" is Chicago - for those of you who aren't from the area).


(For any of you southern folk who haven't seen temperatures that low, I thought I'd stick this photo in so you can know what it looks like. 'Course I didn't think of taking the picture until it was up to only 10 below, so just imagine that little blue line a little lower... Oh, it also looks like this.)




**Unsurprisingly, the wedding isn't the only project we're working on these days. Liberty Day is coming up quickly on the heels of the wedding, and that info has to get out ASAP. Last week we drove down to Medinah Baptist Church and think you all will find it a very comfortable facility for this year's conference and celebration. If you haven't already checked out the Liberty Day site, you might want to do that and note that the day to save is March 29. Hopefully, we'll have it updated with some more of the interesting details soon. We're just waiting to get a couple of emails/phone calls returned. We are excited to have Dr. Marshall Foster as our guest speaker this year, and also to be welcoming The Fiddler's Three from South Dakota to help educate and entertain us! It should be - once again - a full and fun day and evening! Hope to see you there!

**Hmmm. Dare I bring up politics? Well, let's just say that despite the presidential primary coming up in just a couple of weeks, you'd never guess this was a big election year around here. Yard signs for any presidential candidate are virtually non-existent, and I haven't seen any at all for the two main democratic candidates, both of whom hail from our great state. There are plenty of political signs out, though. There are lots of signs for our local rep (who is running unopposed), and there seems to be a hot race for State's Attorney and County Board. But then, Chicago is the only city that matters when it comes to national elections, so I guess we just don't get much electioneering out here. Win The City and you've got the state. "It's a simple matter of mathematics," as Nat Bowditch would say.

**I don't know that there's much else to report on. The wedding, Liberty Day, and staying warm and healthy are our top priorities around here. Other than that, it's just normal life going on - school, church, the never-ending music lessons, family stuff... The good life!

Girls

It's so much fun to be an auntie!

New Year's Eve Fun

New Year's Eve - Thanks to some last minute planning and some flexible friends, we had a lot of fun during the last few hours of 2007 and first few of 2008.
This snow storm kept a few from attending our little shindig, but most made it! I can't describe all the games we played and the fun we had, but here are a few pictures that might give an idea... though, probably not!

After some games, relays and snacking (yummmm!), we did try our hand (or feet, I suppose) at a few dances, which were a lot of fun. You can see video of that over on Dawn's blog.

Significant. Do I hear a dog barking??


Humpty Dumpty.


Also significant... (Yes, we know there are few typos on the names.)


Lined up for relays - to test your coordination.

Say that again?


Just sittin' and chattin'


Can you do the bottle (aka punch-cup) dance?


Other fun - cards, ping-pong, etc.

After ringing in the new year, we had a time of prayer and hymn singing. Then some sat around and talked, others tried a new dance, others went back for more food! :-) We partied for a couple more hours before we started to clean up and head back out into the snow for the drive home. I had a few other pics to post here - maybe I'll be able to add them later! But it was a very fun evening with lots of variety and some great people to share it with. And, while certainly not rushing it, we look forward to next January 1, and remembering and rejoicing in all God does in 2008!

We're okay!

Friends - apparently the storms in our little hometown last night have made national news this morning. Thanks to the many of you who have called or emailed to check in on us! We're okay!

Unlike some other natural disasters, tornadoes either hit you or they don't. In this case, we are just a couple of miles from the nearest damage, but didn't sustain any damage ourselves - not even a branch down from any of our trees. We just got very heavy rain, and lost power for about 10 minutes. Others are not so well off, and - though we haven't gone out and seen much of it personally, yet - the pictures we have seen of some of the damage are quite incredible. Several homes were completely destroyed and a nearby orchard that used to look like this now looks like this. Oh, and this interesting picture was taken in town.

We're really just beyond the north end of "tornado alley" and almost never have any sort of tornado threat - and in January it is especially unheard of. But, we also soared 8 degrees above our record high for the day with temperatures in the mid-60's. So I guess it was in all a very unseasonable day! But we're all just fine, and there is snow in the forecast for tonight, so I guess winter is coming back.

I have a couple of posts started to wrap up our December events (New Years Eve, etc.), but I've been having some computer/internet/Blogger issues. Hopefully they'll be up here soon!

In the meantime, have a great day!

Who has more fun?

One of the wonderful blessings of motherhood
is watching your little one blossom.
And Camille has just started laughing! What fun!

So, is Camille entertaining Jeanine. . .
or is Jeanine entertaining Camille??