Saturday

Saturday was busy and very varied for our family. But I just had to start out with a picture from earlier in the week... Have I mentioned that Winston loves playing in the pool?? :-)

As long as we're on the topic, here are a few other pictures from the week:




We had a window crack during some of the sub-zero weather we had last winter, and finally got around to replacing it! :-)

But to get back to Saturday's events, it started bright and early as Joanna and I headed out the door for a bridal shower for long-time friend Rebecca Knottnerus. Many other ladies from church were there as well, so we had lots of fun!

It was our first time to meet the groom, and we look forward to witnessing their wedding in just a few weeks!

Since Rebecca is a "hat" person, while she opened gifts, they made hats from all the bows, and then had "pictures with the bride" at the end! Blessings on you Rebecca and Paul as you prepare for your life together!

Hurrying home from the shower, we were soon en route to meet up with the rest of the family at the Strand's home to celebrate two birthdays - one (rather belated) for Grant Strand and one for Anna VonHolten. Grant's party had been long anticipated by himself and most of the guys in our church. They spent the afternoon and evening painting each other - uh, yes, using paint ball guns. They even skipped out on dessert to get back to the guns! :)

The ladies spent the day indoors celebrating Anna's 21st birthday by just having fun together, enjoying yummy chocolate cheesecake, signing 'souvenier' t-shirts, and watching a movie together. Thanks, Strands, for hosting us all!

The guys had both camera's outside with them most of the day, so we don't have any of the girl pictures, but a bunch of paintball pics! :-)

Help Wanted

Wanted: A Good Man (or two)

Yes, we're serious. This is actually a wanted ad, and this is a great
employment opportunity. Read on:

North Country Interiors, LLC, has plenty of work and needs a bigger crew. Right now everyone is putting in lots of extra hours and their families are protesting - as are the men themselves! So, if you are looking for some steady work and are willing to work with your hands in commercial, residential and historic settings in northern Illinois, this may be the job for you!

Position Description:
- Crew member working on hardwood, tile, and resilient flooring installation
- All skill levels acceptable, necessary training will be provided
- Primary markets served are Rockford and Chicago with occasional projects in Milwaukee, WI.
- Full-time during the summer months, will consider part-time during fall/winter for college students
- Pay starts at $12/hour, but is commensurate with experience.
- Opportunities for advancement based on merit and experience. Our goal is to provide our crew members with income sufficient to sustain a family.

Employee Requirements:
- Experience operating basic power tools
- Ability to conduct basic construction math
- Capable of lifting 75 lbs
- at least 18 years of age
- Self-motivation and good work ethic

Some more info:
- While a longer-term commitment is desired, NCI is open to discussing short-term opportunities
- Must be prepared to bring to the job site a full supply of common sense each day
- Crew members get to have an Erber as their boss and have their pay checks signed by an attorney

For more info give Nathan a call: 815-914-6397 or nathan@northcountryinteriors.biz

Alive, but...

Yes, we're alive, and yes, we're at home. However we've been hit by some sort of flu bug that somebody brought home from somewhere. So we've been laying low this week! The biggest news items come from the day before the bug struck.

Last Saturday morning Nathan & Jeanine moved into their new home! It's only a short little drive for us and we're so glad to have them settling in close by... especially with less than two months before baby #3 arrives.

Last Saturday afternoon saw us helping our neighbors with an anniversary party for their parents. The catering we did for that event included making nearly 10 dozen deviled eggs. If anyone needs some tips on cooking/peeling/filling that many eggs, just drop me a line. :D

Last Saturday evening after the anniversary party we headed over to the park to meet with a few other families from church for a softball game. We had everyone on the field (except a couple of moms), and it was a lot of fun - aside from one casualty. Josh stepped in to pitch in relief for his sister... and his first pitch came right back at him, and he caught it. BUT, he caught it directly in front of his nose - as in he hardly got his glove up in time... so we had an injury delay and he had to leave the game. He hasn't been feeling too good, looking pretty or breathing well since, although the report from the road is that he's doing much better now. Yes, by Monday morning, he and the RV crew managed to load up and hit the road west all the same. They are finishing up at the Arizona convention today and despite the black nose/eye/face and a bought with the fever/flu thing they've survived thus far and hope to be home safe and sound early next week.

Aside from all that excitement, we've just been enjoying each other's company (and that certainly includes the grandkids!), doing house work, building a deck out back, and trying to get everyone healthy again!

Cousins

4 Little Cousins... getting bigger!!


4 sets of toeses...


...and 4 little noses!


William and Caroline

Winston and Corrine

Slumber Party!!

Saturday night we had a slumber party at our house!! Nathan, Jeanine, Jeremy and Sara had a wedding to attend, and so WE got the grandkids! The boys were soon bedded down for the night quietly - one in the boys room, one in Grandpa and Grandma's room. But, in the girls room... all was NOT quiet! One little girl had been put down in the crib, Auntie Joanna was in the trundle bed, and the other little girl was with Auntie Jess in the big bed. It didn't last long!

The little girl in the crib got a little jealous of the little girl in the big bed, so soon both little girls were in the big bed with Auntie Jess. It started out okay - for a minute or two... but then, after peeking to see if Auntie Jess was watching, the giggling, the tickling, the playing, the kicking and poking started!! Our little girls are not so little anymore and they would have loved to have played the night away - but after allowing some play time, their old auntie started hushing them and telling them to lay still.

Finally, all was quiet, but all was not still. From the far side of the bed, Caroline had apparently fallen asleep, but Corrine was still restless and roaming. Snuggling up to Auntie Jess - with her arm around her neck and face pressed against face - and then turning sideways, pulling the covers up to her neck, and then kicking them off, and then groaning and moaning... finally Auntie Jess asked her if she wanted to go back into the crib, and she replied with her standard answer, "Sure." So Auntie Jess moved her into the crib where the little girl quickly fell peacefully asleep, and with a sigh of relief the old auntie climbed back into the big bed ready to sleep...

But no sooner had her head touched the pillow then she heard a small voice ask, "Now shall *I* sleep by you?" Caroline had been quiet - but wasn't asleep. So once again, a small arm wrapped around Auntie Jessica's neck...

Some time later Grandma came in to check on the girls and found niece and auntie sharing about 6 inches of bed space - but sound asleep, at last.

Catch up time!

Well, it has been a week and a half since there has been any action here! So what have we been up to? Well, less than 40 hours after arriving home from Jamestown, most of us were packed up again and on the road for Ohio and the CHEO convention. We worked for Resounding Voice and Vision Forum that weekend and got home in the wee hours of Sunday morning ready for a week of sleep and catch-up from the preceding couple of weeks of busyness. But, no. That was not to be!

Sunday was time for church and - a birthday celebration! It was Sara's birthday and we finally got in a celebration of William's first birthday. He was all excitement!

Over the weekend while most of us were gone, N, J, C&W moved into our home temporarily. And so this week has been spent catching up on work for both RV and NCI, along with packing up N&J's old apartment and moving everything one more time!

Of course, we managed to schedule the move on one of the hotest days so far this year! But thankfully, the deluge of rain that hit Chicago that day didn't extend across the WI border. We are all VERY happy with this move as Nathan and Jeanine will now be only about 15 minutes from us!

At present, however, N&J are still living with us as their new home isn't quite habitable yet. So in between, before and after all the other work already mentioned above, we've been texturing, wallpapering, painting, tiling, and etc, at their new home, and cleaning and grabbing the last items at the old house. They do have a couple of rooms unpacked (baby's room, pantry, etc), but most everything else is just waiting until more painting/fixing is done. So we get to keep them here a few more days! Oh, and we've had a few visits from the other C&W and their mama as well - which makes for more noise, and more fun!!

Many, many thanks to the dear friends in our church who have lent such needed helping hands this way this week. The help, the food, the shared laughter and encouragement from you all has been greatly enjoyed and, as always, means so much to us!! We are truly blessed by you all!

Oh yes, and we've taken just a few moments this week to relax as well! Winston LOVES swimming - Corrine does NOT.

Oops, we missed it!

On June 8th, this year, we rejoiced over a very special event: William turned 1! Happy belated Birthday, big guy!

Jamestown Journey

So, where have we been this last week and a half since our last post??? Celebrating 400 years of American history in Jamestown, Virginia! If you want to take a peek, check out this blog that we created for our week away. More later!

Busy Bees are Happy Bees

I'm afraid that there's really not much to update the world on this week regarding life in the Erber household. We've been doing a lot of cooking and freezing lately and our refrigerators and freezers are about to burst! Our chickens were butchered this week and have also been laid to rest in the freezer...

Other busyness has included the typical: haircuts, laundry, packing for next week's trip, taking care of nieces/nephews/grandchildren (yay!), lawn work (between thunderstorms), music practice (always), piano lessons, church meetings, correspondence, order filling, office work, school work, working for North Country Interiors on various projects, oh yes, and somebody has a birthday coming up!

We have a lot of in and out and here and there coming up, so I don't know that we'll be really good about updating this blog over the next couple of weeks. But we'll try to check in every so often!

Conventions, again

I've been meaning to update this blog for several days now, but for one reason or another haven't been able to get to it. Last weekend, Jonathan and I attended the ICHE convention to run a book table for our friends down at Vision Forum. It was odd to attend that conference as vendors, but it was good to touch base again with some families that we haven't seen in a couple of years. We enjoyed many conversations with the attendees - many of whom are 'old friends' that we've made at the convention over the years - and sold a bunch of books, and CD's... and pop guns, and water balloon launchers, and other fun stuff!

This weekend, Josh is off and away again! This time the Resounding Voice crew is out in New York for their homeschool convention. Back at home, Jonathan's out working on a flooring job with Jeremy, we're taking care of William while Sara runs errands, and planning and preparing for the next trips...

California

Although we were in California for "business", we enjoyed wonderful times of conversation with new friends.


Our hosts in California treated us sooooo well! On Sunday night we enjoyed delicious Swedish pancakes expertly created by Nathan, our chef for the night.

A wholehearted thank-you also goes to Janet who made us feel so welcome, and was a wonderful hostess.

BTW - We ended up bringing home fabulous strawberries, cherries, and apricots - they're soooo yummy! The best ever!

Nathan & Janet served asparagus along with the last meal we had at their house. It was absolutely the best asparagus I've ever had. Now, I usually eat asparagus just because it's something different to serve once in a while... but, this was amazing, it was actually delicious. I'm going to look into growing our own asparagus. (Anyone have any tips about growing asparagus?)

California sure has its perks!



We also enjoyed a delightful afternoon relaxing with friends.
Thank you, Eric & Heather!


Rog & I stayed an extra day so we could take in Yosemite... definitely worth the winding roads to get up there... :-/


How great Thou art! How majestic are Thy works, oh Lord.



Then it was time to head home. Our flight was delayed because, as the pilot stated, " Chicago has two seasons - winter and construction."

Because of our delay, we missed our train, and had to wait an hour for the next one...

We waited...




. . . and waited!

Did you know that quite a few rabbits live on and around the train tracks in Chicago??? "Wildlife Chicago style" at 10:30pm!

Food, fun and fellowship

So that we didn't get bored while Dad and Mom were gone, the Strand family invited us over for the evening on Saturday to celebrate Stuart's 12th birthday! Happy birthday, Stuart, and thanks for having us over!! The guys got out their BB guns and did some "target practice" shooting at vanilla wafers lined up on a log in the middle of a yet-unplanted corn field.



Then, lest we have too much time unsupervised, the VonHolten family invited us over to join them and some other families from church for a relaxed afternoon at their place on Sunday. Again, we found ourselves enjoying ourselves with some of the great people that God has placed into our lives. We didn't get any pictures of Sunday, but the VHS did! :)

Thanks to you all for hosting us this past weekend! We are so grateful to the Lord for your families!

San Francisco

In the early morning hours of this past Wednesday, Dad and Mom left our home for a church business/pleasure trip, and by the time the lunch hour rolled around, they were sitting along the Pacific coast in sight of the Golden Gate Bridge enjoying their lunch and the view! They've been meeting with other church leaders - and taking some time to do a little sight seeing as well! Today they'll be visiting Yosemite. We look forward to their return to the Midwest early next week... can't wait to hear all about it!

Mothers Day!

Mother's Day was an absolutely beautiful Sunday around us this year! So we had Grandpa and Grandma, Aunt Jill and Uncle Don, N&J, J&S and C2 & W2. Of course, the only pictures we took were of C2 and W2.

We had a very relaxing and enjoyable visit together. Aunt Jill brought a bunch of goodies for the younger ones, which were greatly enjoyed! The lilacs were in bloom and so very fragrant! The grass was green, the skies were blue... And we had a few of the world's greatest mothers at our table! What more could we ask for?

Friday Night Volleyball

Isn't she sweet?


Since the weather has been so beautiful around here during the last week, on Friday night the Hill family invited our family and the VonHoltens over for a cookout, volleyball, and some 'round the campfire visiting.


Yes, the fire was very hot! But that was good as the temperature dropped as the sun set.

Thanks, Hills, for having us over for such a fun evening!

Michigan

Last weekend was a conference weekend, one of many such weekends that we will experience this year. Thankfully, this one was 'close to home' - just across The Lake. Of course, it was still a several hour drive, but compared to other conference destinations it was right next door.

The INCH Convention was the event that called us over there. Josh and crew ran Resounding Voice, as pictured above, in the front near corner of the vendor hall, and as far away as possible - in the far back corner of the hall - was the book table that Dad and Jessica were 'manning' for Vision Forum. Quite honestly, I think we are getting rather used to these trips and are taking less pictures than we have the last couple of years! It's just another conference... and yet we are grateful for that conference and the opportunities and discussions that it brought into our lives and the resources and discussions that we were able to share with others. God in His goodness, has given to us work and ministry that we enjoy. But He sure has given us plenty of it to fill and over fill the next 6 weeks! We'll try to keep you up to date on who is where as we have some unique and exciting events coming up.

58 years!

From the Daily Herald Archives, printed on May 13, 1949:

The wedding vows of Miss Ethel K. and Roger Erber were repeated last Saturday [May 7] at the Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran church, Des Plaines. Rev. A.H. Fedder officiated...

The church was decorated with palms and flowers on the altar and candles and white ribbon lined the aisles. During the ceremony Miss Lois Carlson sang "Beautiful Savior" and "The Lord's Prayer. While the couple repeated their vows, Prof. T. Lams played "Because" on the organ.

Miss K. entered the church on the arm of her father who gave her in marriage. Her gown was of ivory satin and styled with a fitted bodice, having a sweetheart neckline and botton back to teh scalloped waistline, and a full skirt ending in a long train. She wore a full length veil, which fell from a peral headpiece, that had originally been worn by the bride's mother. The bride's flowers consisted of a cascade bouquet of white roses and lilies-of-the-valley.

A couple of paragraphs followed, listing the bridesmaids, and minutely describing their dresses, hats and flowers, which happened to be lilacs from the bride's yard. It also mentions the fact that Miss Amelia Goebbert had sewn the gowns for both the bride and her attendants. The paragraph on the groomsmen simply lists the names of the best man and ushers, and then the announcement closed with the following paragraph:

Three hundred and fifty guests attended the reception which was held at Elk Grove Inn immediately following the ceremony. After a short honeymoon Mr. & Mrs. Erber will be at home with the bride's parents until their new home in Des Plaines is completed.

That house in Des Plaines was soon completed, and they have lived there happily for 58 years now. They have been blessed with two children, 8 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren - so far.

Happy Anniversary Grandpa & Grandma! We love you!!

'Twas blind, but now...

The newest news on the home front is that as of this past weekend, Jonathan and Joseph are wearing glasses! It's taken a few days for them to look natural with glasses, and Jonathan still doesn't quite, but they both are amazed at how much they can see now.

Of the two, Joseph definitely needs them most. Apparently his eyes haven't been able to keep up with the immense amount of growing he has done this past year. But Jonathan has found that improved vision has its ups and downs. He claims that dandelions growing along the road now give him headaches ("because you can see each one of them...") but on the other hand, he is greatly enjoying the help they give with playing the piano as he can now read the music without having to look at each note.

No, those aren't the glasses that either of our guys are wearing! They're just an old "dress-up" pair that somebody found...

Last week Josh and crew made it back safe and sound from their trip to New Mexico, and this week they are preparing for another business trip - though not quite such a distant one. Just across the lake, this time!

Over the weekend we've had some really nice weather up here - although today is a little too warm. But that has meant that we've finally pulled out the mowers and are cutting the lawn for the first time of the year! It's been less than three weeks since the last major snowfall, but I think Spring might finally be here to stay.

Josiah's wonderful cello teacher is switching to a studio that is both more prestigious, and closer to her home, which means that the music academy is looking for a new cello teacher. This past Saturday, Josiah was chosen as the student to have a 'sample lesson' with a teacher who is being considered for the job. So not only did the 'ones in charge' get to observe this teacher, but Mom and Josiah also got to see what this teacher is like and if they want to stay for lessons or go elsewhere. Having witnessed Josiah play at a recent "cello showcase," the director of the music academy described him as having "...quite a mature sound and approach to the instrument. He is a bright and eager student." Keep up the good work, Josiah!

Yesterday after church we had several families back to our house and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon visiting, playing croquet, enjoying the rope swing, jumping rope, playing football and volleyball - including a parents vs. kids volleyball game that many participated in. Now that was an enjoyable game (or rather series of games) to watch. Some pretty sharp looking volleys, as well as some pretty not-sharp-looking-but-still-rather-impressive volleys to witness! :-) We'll have to do it again...