Five Years--a glimpse of what's been happening!

It's been such a long time since I've blogged anything! I don't know yet if I'm coming back to this, but I do feel like I should update it a bit. I have no idea if people even keep up with this or wonder about what's happened in the last 5 years. What's the best way to update what feels like a lifetime? Here's my attempt...

2009

September

My parents celebrate 25 years of marriage and take a trip to where they honeymooned. While they are gone my siblings and I plot a surprise party for them with family and church. They were duly surprised. :-)

December

My Aunt Donna went home to be with the Lord.

2010

I take on a full time management position at work.

March

We have a baby kitten born on our porch, she gets named Puzzle and we keep her. 

May

Youngest brother Andrew graduates from high school, ending our years as a home schooling family.

June

We go on probably our last family vacation/graduation trip. Head to Massachusetts. Had a great trip. We got to see John Q. Adams house, explore Lexington, see the house of Louisa May Alcott (book loving me loved it!), see Plymouth, visit Cape Cod, and stop in Pennsylvania for a trip to Sight and Sounds. Was a great trip!

September

My sister Sarah heads to Spain for an eight month adventure as a teacher assistant. See her blog for the full scope of that adventure! (http://fromthevalleytothebasin.blogspot.com/)

Fall-Winter

Stressful time for me dealing with the stress of full time retail.

2011

March

I step down out of full time management and go back to part time. Life becomes much better!

I head to Spain to visit Sarah. First visit overseas for me! Spend a couple days in Spain and then head to Paris with Sarah. Great trip, but very crazy! Think lost luggage times 10 in weirdness. I have a post on her blog about that trip. You can read two long posts about it here:

http://fromthevalleytothebasin.blogspot.com/2011/04/semana-blancaaka-semana-amanda.html

 http://fromthevalleytothebasin.blogspot.com/2011/05/well-always-have-paris-amandas.html

April

Life at our local church undergoes some major changes.

June

I head back overseas and meet up with Sarah in London. We spend almost three weeks touring the UK. Get to see a lot of England and a few days in Scotland. BEST TRIP EVER!!!!!!!

Highlights--Attending Charles Spurgeon's former church for a service, seeing amazing historical museums etc. Stonehenge. Bath--I loved Bath. Jane Austen fans must go there! Was my favorite part of England. We get to see a Hamlet production, loved that too! Sleepy town called Woodstock, such a great place after the hectic London world. Chatsworth house--where they filmed the most recent version of Pride and Prejudice. Such a great place! We get to see the Bronte house, and get an unplanned walking tour group. Great time! Funny story involving an older gentleman taking us right up to the house because we were so concerned about missing it. Yorkshire--sorry, very lame and touristy, we should have skipped that! A couple of days in Edinburgh. Cool castle, fun Highlands tour and get to see the Loch Ness. Adventures of Sarah leaving her purse, but no worries, no one took it! That is a really surface view of our time in England. It was such a great time!

Sarah returns home with me, life goes back to normal in our household. :-)

Fall

Mom's sister Susan, has a return of cancer.

Parents take a trip with Mom's sisters and their spouses to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

Dad retires from the fire house!

Sarah and I take a trip down to see our friend in South Carolina.

2012

June

My siblings and I take a trip to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit our Aunt and Uncle. Fun trip with our first real exposure to the western part of the US!

August

I am diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis--a two year journey which involves a blog or several posts of its own!

2013

April

 Parents, Sarah, and I take a trip down to South Carolina to celebrate our friend's 30th birthday!

June

Mom's sister Susan passes away.

Most of the year

Life gets hard for me, I'm trying a diet called SCD to help with the UC. Losing a lot of weight and getting very sick. I stay with some friends in Nov/Dec to try to help. A stomach virus on Thanksgiving day puts me down to 92 pounds! Scary times. 

December

Doctor is urging me to go to surgery

2014

January

Cold times in Ohio!

I finally get in to see another doctor, who is in to functional medicine.

He suggests just doing gluten and dairy free diet. Within 4 weeks I gain 14 pounds! Praise the Lord!! Since then, I have only continued to progress and am still amazed at the Lord's provision and care for me! A short snippet doesn't do justice to what has happened in the last year of my life!

March

I start getting into gardening

June

We get a new kitten and name her Ellie.
July
Our church gets to host a joint service for the first time with several local small churches joining us for an evening service. Great time of fellowship!

August

Sarah and I take a day trip with a friend to Lexington, Kentucky. Fun times exploring the Horse Park, seeing Mary Todd Lincoln's house, and eating at a place called Shakespeare & Company.

Sarah and I take a trip down to South Carolina to visit friends.

I know I'm probably missing some things, but that's a pretty good summary of the last 5 years. Dad is preaching more at our local church. I am still at our local craft store, 6 years coming up soon! I still hope for an Administrative job someday. We currently have three cats and one dog. 2014 has brought a lot of new friendships into my life and I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for 2015!

Life is busy, but good, and God is GREAT!

Thanks for reading!

2008 Family Newsletter

Merry Christmas to all my readers, friends and family! I'm putting our family newsletter here for your perusal. :-) I've taken out our last name for sake of privacy. :-)

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year!!

~Amanda~

2008 Family Newsletter

-Amanda & Sarah

Season’s Greetings from our family! It has been quite a year for our family, but we shall strive to keep this under two pages. :-) In May, we took a family vacation/Josh's senior trip to Pennsylvania. We visited Gettysburg, Lancaster, and also Hershey for a brief time (long enough to take a tour and complain about expensive candy :-) ). Gettysburg was historically enlightening (in a good way), and we had a personalized tour of the Amish area in Lancaster by a Mennonite tour guide who rode with us in the van. It was a bit strange at first, but we learned many more interesting tidbits that way. The highlight of the trip, however, was seeing a production of “Daniel and the Lions’ Den” in the Sight and Sound Theatre in Lancaster. We all had a good time together, but it was our first time leaving our dog Penny for a week, and the kennel had to keep calling us because she wouldn't eat! However, she was ecstatic to be home with us afterwards and ate her fill then. :-)

Also, Amanda and Josh attended a New Attitude conference in May with some youth from church. They enjoyed hearing from speakers such as Josh Harris, John Piper, Al Mohler, and C.J. Mahaney. Josh even got John Piper's autograph (Amanda, on the other hand, had no desire to stand in long lines :-))! In August, Amanda and Sarah also had a great time visiting their friend Susannah in North Carolina for about two weeks. While down there, all three of them went to the State Museum and saw an exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which was very well done. This friend, whom some of you know, just had her first baby (a girl named Katherine) on December 10th. Hopefully some (or all) of us can see this new addition sometime in 2009 (once her high-pitched scream thing dies down a bit :-)).

Dad & Mom—celebrated 24 years of marriage in September and are hoping to do something special next year (such as a trip somewhere) to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Dad celebrated 26 years at the firehouse in August and anticipates retirement in a few years. He also studied for his last Lieutenant’s exam of his career. His hobbies include chess and tennis, and he is still serving as an Elder at church as well as teaching a Sunday School class on Grudem’s Systematic Theology. Mom enjoys reading and has been involved in the ladies’ ministry at church. She is also happy to retire the 24-year-old artificial Christmas tree, for we now have a new one (it still isn’t her ideal one, but at least it isn’t…old! :-)).

Amanda—turned 23 in September. She had her college graduation ceremony in June and had a pleasant surprise by being one of the marshals and receiving a special award. Her job in Fairfield ended in April, and she is looking for full-time employment in the administrative field. In the meantime, she started a part-time seasonal job at Michael's and is enjoying it—but finding that she has much less free time (thus the later-than-usual newsletter). :-) However, when time permits, she still enjoys reading, selling stuff online, crafts, playing the piano, and her newest hobby—blogging! If you enjoy book reviews, you can find her blog at: http://christian-bibliophile-reviewsandmore.blogspot.com/

Sarah—turned 21 in August. She is a senior at NKU and enjoys upper-division Spanish and Latin American classes. She had a good but intense semester and is looking forward to some time off. She tutored Spanish (and Astronomy for one day. Bad idea. :-)) on campus for the past two semesters but will be ending that to give her more time to look into other forms of employment in the future. She had a wonderful experience studying abroad in Morelia, Mexico in June and will be graduating in May 2009. She loves spending time with pets, promoting correct grammar, playing the piano, and being involved with a campus Bible study.

Josh—will be 19 in January. He graduated from high school in May and also got his driver's license this year. In August, he stopped taking piano lessons so he could have more time to concentrate on school and work (and no, he really doesn’t play on his own :-)). He is a freshman Chemistry major at Raymond Walters College and works part-time at Sam’s Club (electronics department). He also experienced the joy of getting his wisdom teeth out this past week. :-) Josh likes video games, playing with Penny, playing tennis with Dad and Andrew, and explaining weird science stuff to people. :-)

Andrew—will be 17 in March and is in 11th grade. He is busy with school and at times feels like an “only child” when his siblings are off on their various escapades. He is officially now the only homeschooler, non-driver, and non-voter in the family. Of course, all that will change in a little over a year! He enjoys reading, playing tennis, activities at church, getting out of school, video games, biff-bopping Penny (swatting her “gently” with gloved hands. She loves it.), and doing things with Dad and Josh.

The Menagerie

Shortly after Sarah got back from Mexico, it became apparent that Meeko the cat had to be put to sleep because of a tumor around her heart (there was much sniffling by the females that weekend!). Meeko was about 13 years old, and we were glad that Sarah was able to be home. However, our pet dynamics in the family have changed somewhat, and Meeko is still missed—especially by Mom.
Penny continues to be the only dog in the house, and yes, she is quite spoiled (except by Amanda :-)). Her favorite people are Dad and Sarah, and she still enjoys chasing and terrorizing Jonah. Cocoa, our fat cat, has taken over some of Meeko’s old habits—such as sleeping in Penny’s cage. She is very affectionate and loves to try to sneak outside and eat grass (which usually results in disgusting consequences. Enough said. :-)). Jonah, our skinny cat, strangely enough, has been coming downstairs a lot more since Meeko has been gone. His latest hobby is drinking any leftover water from the bathtub, and he still takes demented pleasure in scaring Patches. Patches, our indoor/outdoor cat (depending on her mood and the weather), loves to curl up on Andrew’s bed when it’s cold and has been stealing Mom’s seat on the couch as well. Snorkel, our “stray” cat, is still here and enjoys a good relationship with Penny. She likes to eat and look cute. :-) We get occasional visits from P.C. the cat (short for Peaches and Cream), but those never last long with Penny around! Another year has passed without adding any more pets (P.C. doesn’t really count :-)), and several of us are wishing for a kitten; however, Dad claims that another cat has to die before this happens. But if one shows up at our doorstep… :-)

First Day of Work

Hello all! I know a few of you are curious about my first day of work. (mostly for the benefit of my family and friends. I figure the average reader who doesn't know me, is probably wondering why I'm doing this post... :-)) So, I thought I'd give you a little update. :-)

First of all, I survived! I am also very tired right now. :-) So if this sounds scattered or strange, you are warned! :-)

I worked from 9-4 and I work that same shift tomorrow, I don't know about the rest of the week yet. Mondays the "truck" comes in, so after I filled out paperwork and watched some videos for two hours, I helped open boxes and stock shelves. Mostly in the framing department.

I met a few of my co-workers but not many. I did not have to learn the register yet, which I think I'm glad about. It was a little awkward for me to have customers ask me questions, and I had to explain that I was new. :-) They seemed very understanding though, one gentleman thought it was funny that he got "the rookie" and informed his wife about how he always asks questions to the new workers. :-) She didn't seem as amused. :-) I was able to find other workers to help customers though.

Oh yes, some of you know that I have to wear a dress code for the job. This means khaki pants and black shirts. I haven't worn pants in a little over 10 years, so this is something of an adjustment for me. :-) I did survive in them, and it would be pretty impractical to wear a skirt, I was bending/squatting/on the floor so much it would have been awkward. I did learn that you can wear khaki skirts, something they didn't tell me at first. However, I think I will just stick with pants. :-)

Anyway, I think those are the highlights! Hopefully you enjoyed it! I'd appreciate your prayers as I continue to learn the job! Especially tomorrow, it is a holiday and I'm expecting it to be a little crazy. Have a great day!

21 Years Ago Today!

Hello all! Well, another day went by without a book review. Sorry! Maybe next week! :-) (our Internet was down for awhile. My brother was busy installing a "router" and didn't have time to finish before leaving for work. Despite this temporary inconvenience, the results are worth it!)

Anyway, so, since I still seemed to be swamped with other things, I thought I'd take the time to give you some family trivia. :-)

21 years ago today we moved into our present house! That's right, I've been living in the same place since I was a little over two years old, and my sister was only a few months old. :-) (no, I don't remember the apartment we used to be in at all, in case you wondered :-) )

Anyway, I just thought I'd share that bit of trivia with you.

On another note, today is "Reformation Day" I thought I'd give you two links to read more about it if you are interested.

http://thereformeddoug.blogspot.com/

http://teampyro.blogspot.com/2008/10/bedrock-of-reformation.html

Have a great weekend!

Happy Anniversary!

Just wanted to post a quick note and let you know that my parents are celebrating 24 years of marriage today! (Dad is working today, so they will probably do something special later this week :-) ) One of these days maybe I will write more about my parents and how they met, until then...

Happy Anniversary Dad & Mom!!