You know how the advertisement at the top of the site (for those of who haven’t gone premium even after 747 – that’s a big number – days of xanga) has something to do with the content of your posts? Well, mine is talking about my crushes. I have 2 crushes and someone has a crush on me. What is up with that? Since when have I been talking about crushes???

Ahhhh….maybe they think my house is kind of like a Budget ad that we keep joking about. Seeking single  Mennonite lady. Must have horse house. Please send picture of house.

Speaking of the house, we manage to slap 5+ gallons paint inside today. Much more to get slapped up next week. Here is the outside:

‘something else bizarre pops up on your radar screen. Every once-in-occasionally
I do a search for amish and mennonite on ebay, just to see what’s for sale. Where
once was lots of “amish-made” furniture there are now also quite a few auctions
for cape dresses and prayer caps. Not to mention cookbooks and quilts. The other
day I found an auction for prayer caps and included was a picture of 3 mennonite
girls. It looked like a tourist snapshot and I was going to put a link here for
you to see it. I wonder if they had any idea they were on ebay? Ach my, the auction
is ended and I forgot save the link.

Several years ago my SIL did a search for mennonites and found an auction for a
log cabin to be built at Lake Grace, described as “in a mennonite farming community”
and had my co-worker’s place pictured. Hello. Only a few of the mennonites here
have farmed, and it’s been quite a number of years since those few have been farming.

We were in getting the paint for the house mixed and noticed packets of concentrated
air freshener to add to the paint. It boasted of giving off scent for up to 6 months.
If a person gets tired of the scent before the 6 months are up, does that mean they
would have to paint over it? No thanks!

We are getting ready to make one last move home. We’ve been house-sitting for the
last 6 weeks and it’s been great, but we’re really, really ready for our own house.
We are currently taking care of a dog that has to be the oddest attention-seeking
dog I have ever seen. She is a golden retriever and does she ever retrieve things!
I’ve never before seen a dog empty a water bucket and move it halfway across the
yard. Well, I didn’t actually see it happen, just witnessed the evidence. If there
are any shoes within reach in the garage she will take them out and set them just
a few yards outside. The other day I was packing for the campout, and had near my
car an ice chest with 3 large cans of cream soups and a 1 lb. box of butter. I left
to get some more things and when I came back to finish packing the ice chest, I
couldn’t find the butter. I checked the refrigerators again and couldn’t find it.
I then had the brilliant idea to check the yard and sure enough, there was my box
of butter with a few teeth marks and lots of sand on it. Is there any doubt to why
I am a cat lover instead?!?

Now if only they could invent a machine to wash, dry and iron the clothes, I’d buy
that.

Yours ’til spaghetti doesn’t double in volume.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Some pics from the archives:

 

And Christy, some pics taken with my new cheap thrifty lens. Just like you, anything within sight is a possible subject.  Low lighting room but no flash, no editing except for border.

If a person was bored, it had to be a personal problem! The weekend was full of fun and leisure. Other components of the weekend included:

Laughter         Blitz             Candy               Volleyball Tournament

Rook Tournament                Great Food             Apples to Apples

Feasting Together          Great Singing             Kids Games

Tag Football           Campfire Talks              Cold Nights and Beautiful Days

Warm Fellowship            Relaxation                Discussions

 

The campground was a new one for us and there were a few things that could’ve been better about the facilities, but the good definitely outweighed the inconveniences.

I think the thing I like best about such a weekend is that you get to know each other in a way that regular church interaction doesn’t usually give. It makes you more of a family, spending 2+ days together. You have time to care for each other. You usually put aside differences at a time like this, because how can you truly care for a person, and yet refuse to get along with them?

I was intrigued by a comment Craig (new Choice Books employee) made on Sunday morning: Times like this make the house of God a friendlier place.

 

We (Daddy, Mama, Lois and I) made a quick trip to PA for CAM’s open house. We always enjoy going to Lancaster and being typical tourists: staring at the amish, shopping at places like Kings Homestead, Good’s Variety Store, eating soft pretzels in Intercourse, and eating at Shady Maple. We stayed with Dave and Gina, as usual enjoying their wonderful hospitality!

My BIL Gary was at the open house to represent Liberia, thus the reason for our making the 12+ hour drive to PA. We had fun shopping with Laura while Gary attended meetings. We went to the Friday evening slide presentation along with about 2,795 other mennonites. I knew approximately .75% of them, a benefit of not being from “the greater mennonite world.”  I did find a few people I knew, including Bethanie and Jennifer. It’s been several years since I’ve seen them and it was great having a chance to talk with them again.

I met Beth for supper at Panera Bread, finding out about her life in Lancaster, and telling her news from home. I had a Caramel Apple Spice drink at Starbucks on the way home, using up the last of the gift card she had given me before she moved to PA. It seemed that both places (Panera Bread and Starbucks) were a proper part of the Lancaster non-tourist experience. Clarita, I see why you’re a big fan of Panera Bread. Their food is awesome.

On the way up we stopped for supper just before going through D.C. We called Linda and Freda just to let them know we were close by. Linda met us for supper. Freda was on her way to help friends pack but we got to see her at CAM.

On the way home we saw an accident happen right in front of us. A mid-sized car (traveling in the left lane) went off the side of the road on the left, swerved back onto the road, they must’ve overcorrected because they spun around in the road and went off into the grass, rolling 1.5 times. This all happened within about 10 seconds. There wasn’t really heavy traffic there but there was enough cars around them that it’s amazing they didn’t hit anyone else. The car landed on it’s top and both occupants crawled out about right away, with no injuries other than a sore arm. Emergency personnel arrived within about 5 minutes and we were on our way again in about 10 minutes. We saw the results of 2 or 3 more accidents on the way home. Yikes!

This weekend is the 3^rd annual church campout. Looking forward to spending time relaxing and hanging out with my church family.

Painting on the house should start sometime next week. Looking forward to it and dreading it all at the same time. My patience with painting usually ends after the second or third day.

More sporadic posts to come. Possibly some pics to come too. All the touristy ones from Lancaster.

Building our own house has been interesting to say the least. No, nothing dramatic has happened and our house is sailing along. The framers did have to come back and add some extra supports that have recently been added to requirements in construction to help the building withstand winds up to 100 mph.

To give you an idea of what’s been happening with it the last few weeks:

Sept. 26

 

 

Oct. 15

 

The siding is now finished the roofing will be finished by tomorrow. For now I’ll give you a picture of our front door and let you give us opinions on what color the front door should be. The colors are a little hard to see. Somehow I usually am at the house in either the early sunlight hours or late sunlight hours so I have a hard time getting a good color capture.

The siding is green, the shutters black, trim white and shingles dark charcoal gray. The front door has wrought iron in it which is hard to see in this picture. I’ll try to get a better picture to put up.

Being involved with the construction is educational, as well as a chance to rub shoulders with interesting people! Not wildly colorful but interesting nonetheless. Yeah, Wes, I’m talking about you! Just kidding! No, I haven’t forgotten about the cheesecake yet!!

The last few weeks have been busier than I should’ve let them get (according to my sis! ). This past week has seen me at home several nights which is a good thing. It is a hard thing to think up a fun or “giving” activity only to have to say “no, I’ve got to have some down time.” So a few highlights of the last couple of weeks.

• Helping Reggie’s move to their new house. They built one lot up the road from us. We’re also right around the corner from Wes & Ginny.
• Weekend in Antrim with friends. A fast and furious trip. 24 hours on the road, 48 hours there. Shopping in “Homes Konty”. Lunch with friends there.
• Making decisions about house things and writing lots of checks!
• An evening with Ginny, Crysta and Lois on Wes’ overnight run night.
• Memorable photo shoot on Jekyll with no-see-ems and biting flies causing us all to nearly lose it! So sad, God gave us a beautiful sunset but the bugs made it almost impossible to enjoy it on the beach. Off didn’t begin to deter them. Enjoyed supper at a Mexican restaurant later.
• My brother Henry came over for Daddy’s birthday, his 71st b.d.
• Erin & Freida came last weekend. I didn’t get to spend as much time with them as I would’ve liked. Freida and I did do lunch at Stories on Monday.
• Monday evening had Carol Yoder and Loretta Fisher from Fairplay girls camp here overnight. They were on their way home from a supplies drop-off to a group of girls on a canoeing trip on the Suwannee River.

This weekend some cousin from SC are coming for the weekend. We are very excited about pulling this off, after talking about it for a long time.

This post feels a little disjointed but I’ve gotta keep moving. A few pictures from “homes konty”.