Happy Anniversary!

Today my parents are celebrating their 26th anniversary of their wedding! Awww! Such a lot has happened since that hot June day in Southern California as a father gave his daughter to a man from Oregon. We praise God for being the Head of that union!

We love you both!

Workin' on the house and going to the farm

Lots has been accomplished since our last house post. Gracie was on the porch roof sweeping off debris after Grandpa and Taylor finished up the soffets. Unfortunately, I (Kelly) was not looking and twice stepped under the roof while Gracie swept all that "stuff" down upon me. Grandpa even got in the way one time, yikes!

Grandpa helping Grandma get into the lift for a ride! Notice the glee on his face?

There they are, flying high!!!!

See the beautiful soffet work ALL done!!! Grandpa and Taylor worked extremely hard to get that all done, all 3 stories worth. The picture shows the porch soffets, the second story and the dormer one. The lift came in very handy, but their arms and legs did most of the work! Good job guys!



Grandpa after a long, hard, hot day, but he finished the work!!! He's been truly amazing to watch work.




Ben and Ben on to something else.

David drilling holes for the electrical wire. He was working VERY hard not to make the funny face he usually does when concentrating because he now cares how he looks, right Keslie???



Isn't a library supposed to house books, not lumber???

Grandpa cut all the trim for the outside windows, you should of seen the pile of dust that looked just like snow.

The one window is not in so that the drywallers can bring the drywall in through it.



Marc and David working on the electrical, they got a lot done yesterday.


A friend, Jennifer, brought her neices and nephews over to run through the house and then we went to the neighbors dairy farm and enjoyed the animals. This is Micah looking at the chickens, a certain breed of them had no feathers on their necks, wow, ugly.

Benjamin had one twin on his back and I had the other on mine for the long walk. It was a fun day.

4 new blog posts!

I tried to make these post go in order but they didn't so here is the order they are supposed to be in. Clicking on them from top to bottom will show them in order! Sorry about that!

1. One Big announcement!

2. First Week!

3. Second Week!

4. The Weekend!

Oh, I wanted to make sure everyone knew that Sarah J did a long blog post about my trip as well. To see more pictures go HERE!

The Weekend!

Friday evening we took everyone to the house for dinner. Almost all the windows are in! Some were put up today with a lift. Grandpa's porch is done as is the back mudroom porch. Its wonderful seeing such wonderful progress!

While I was gone the family brought home 2 Border Collie puppies! Jake, our old Collie/ black lab is having a wonderful time with our newest darling additions to our yard! Bowdrie, on the left, and Bandit on the right. They are SO cute and sweet!

Bowdrie

Why are we eating breakfast in the kitchen? I don't remember!



All ready for church!



Yep, even they are too!

"Hurry everyone!"

Just leave it to Lydia to get everyone in the car!

Mom and Dad right before church!

Guess who!

Then Sunday there were more goodbyes to be said! Boohoo! Kami and Keslie were able to eat hamburgers with us before they had to leave. It was such a fun weekend even though I was trying to get caught up on sleep and feel somewhat normal!

I brought Ben and Lydia Dutch hats back. Ben loves his and poor Lydia is a little too small for hers but at least she will fit it one day! It kept falling over her eyes!

"Come on, smile!"

I guess it took too long to get these photos! They fell asleep on me! Haha! I brought Gracie and Sarah some beautiful handkerchiefs!

Second Week

Then a week after I arrived in IL, the Moellers drove me half way to meet the Jantzen family. It was a sweet reunion after having been apart for a year and a half! Hugs were given and tears flowed! Then after saying goodbye for a time to Amber and her brother, the Jantzens and I headed to see the Amish in the area. It was so interesting to see the Amish for me because it was my first time ever! There is just something intriguing about seeing a horse and buggy going down the road or tied to a hitching rail outside a store!

Sarah and I!

Sarah and Rebecca looking as pretty as ever!

I caught this boy just as he was waving to Mr.J

Sarah and I took a walk and saw some flowers along the J's road.

Then we caught sight of this funny sign!

On the way back Becca and their dog Gracie came to meet us.

Friday night we had a Homeschool Alumni party at the J's home. It was so fun to meet people I had met online and others who I've heard about from Sarah. It was a lovely day! Earlier that day I had received news that David had proposed to Keslie. For a while that night I was having a hard time staying awake, that is until I drank some energy, aka coffee! That worked great!

Me and another friend of mine named Amber! I'm Another Amber and she is the Other Amber! It was SO wonderful to finally meet her in person!

Then there was dancing! It was much to humid outside to dance in the yard so we moved the furniture and danced in the family room!

Sarah and I with some sweet new friends! Those girls were so fun!

This is Grace who I met on HSA as well. She is such a dear and it was a great pleasure to meet her in person! I just wish we had more time to just sit and talk with these fun people! But the evening was much too short!

On the way to church Sunday night we stopped by an old very small village and took some pictures! This was in front of an old school house.

It was hard to get a picture of Sarah straight on because this is what she was doing most of the time! It's such great fun taking pictures!

There was a covered bridge where we took some pictures too. Look! We're all in blue!

Running out of a covered bridge is just plain fun!

Monday the Jantzen ladies took me into their town to look around and do a little shopping. There is a river with a dam which was very pretty. These swans looks so elegant swimming around!

Sarah and I .

Becca on the dam.

Then after our outing to town we went to the place where Mr. J works and he gave us a tour of the publishing company.

The warehouse where they keep all the books in stock! It was amazing in there! Wow!

Then we were honored to go into their archives room and browse almost all the books their company had published. These ones above were written by Benjamin Breckenridge (B.B.) Warfield who we named our Benjamin after. There were others books by him as well. It was fun to see some authors I knew.

There was another covered bridge in the area so we had to get more pictures!

Becca

Then on Tuesday the J ladies took me on another tour to see more Amish and the lovely Michigan countryside! This Amish family must have lots of children!

Diapers!

The Jantzens home! It was now time to say good-bye to it because Wednesday was my last day there and we were headed to meet the Moellers again so I could fly home.

But on the way back to IL we stopped by a Dutch village. Look at all those shoes!

We couldn't go there without trying on the shoes and hats!

The shoes makers bench.

We even got to watch a lady carve candles! Wow, that was amazing! We got to watch her dip the candle as well before she began carving it.

This is a bridge that was built in the Netherlands, taken a part and brought to this town and re-constructed! Of course we had to get a picture on it!

I got one picture of a Dutch lady! She was so cute!

Then we stopped by Lake Michigan! It was my first time ever seeing a great lake! It was missing the salty smell that I'm used to at the beach!

Becca enjoyed the lovely day as well!

All the Jantzen family besides Michael. See how nice and calm the water was! We brought a picnic and ate it on the beach. It was so fun!

Here's a picture of Sarah!

One must go barefoot at the beach. Here are the trusted sandals left behind!

So after tearful good-byes and many hugs I said farewell for a time to the Jantzens. Knowing we will see them this summer made this parting not as bitter as it could have been. It was still so hard to say good-bye!

More goodbyes....at the Moellers I once again said farwell's to my dear friends. Mrs. Moeller is so kind and loving, it was so hard to say good-bye and Amber was ever so good to me. I shall never forget this precious time I sent with her, getting to know her in person and being encouraged by her. Thank you Amber for the wonderful time and delightful memories!

I love you, Mrs. Moeller!

Then after take off I took this picture for the kids knowing they would love to see what I was seeing!

Chicago at night!

Well, I wasn't supposed to be leaving Chicago at night....It's a long story! Whew! You might have heard about the storms raging Iowa and Illinois recently. Well, one of those storms caused my flight to be 5 and 1/2 hours delayed! I was supposed to leave around 7 but we didn't leave until after 11pm! I was in the Chicago airport for over 7 hours, alone! I could only read so much, and all the walking was giving me a blister and my phone was dying! Urg! I finally dug through my carry on and found the charger! Whew! It was getting so late and I was exhausted to start off with so I was very ready to be home. Then when on the plane and just about ready for take off the pilot announced that because of the storm we were going to be flying all the way down into Texas and back up to Oregon! The flight was over 5 hours rather than the 3 and a half that it took us to get there before. Ahhhh! Mom and Heather were already near the airport waiting to pick me up! They were able to get to a friends house nearby! Whew! When the plane finally landed and I was able to get off I saw my mom and Heather! Then after several weary hugs and laughs I was saw some girls who looked familiar! They looked like Keslie and Kami! Then after looking closer I realized it WAS them! WOW! To top off a long eventful trip home I was greeted by more smiling faces and a delightful weekend! We arrived home at 5 am! The sun was rising and the birds chirping and I went to sleep! Boy, was I tired, we all were! It is so good to be home again after being gone over 2 weeks. It was such a happy and wonderful time.

I want to thank everyone involved for making this a memorable time! Thank you!