Christmas 2011

Christmas is full of traditions,  some of them you don't realize are that until you notice that you are doing them again every year.  Luckily, some of them get refined a bit more each year until they work correctly.  This year was the first one in ages that Andrew was home, and with Theresa as our new daughter in law.  It was great to have them here, and we are lucky to have Theresa to be part of our family. 
This year started on Christmas Eve with the candlelight service at church.  Nicole sings in the choir and they had an outstanding group of songs, and the rest of the service was great as well.  Then we made the ill advised decision to eat out since we hadn't eaten before church.  Of course nothing was open, so we ended up at Burger King.  Actually, since it was one of the few places in Derby there were a fair number of people coming in.  There were only two crew people on duty and they were kept busy.  We all spent a few moments feeling guilty for being the reason they had to work on Christmas Eve.  We decided than, that we would set up hors d'ouvers before we leave for church next year and eat that when we get home.
On Christmas day, we don't open any gifts until the Blomberg's get here after their morning Christmas at their house.  We all went to church at ten and it was a fantastic service.  If possible the music was better than the night before and the message was just as good.
Theresa is a fantastic baker, she made baklava from scratch as well and a flan cake and other treats for the day.  I ate as much as I could yesterday and still wanted more.  The rest of the family came over after church and we ate brunch and opened presents.  Wyatt had something of a melt down, (I am understating here), but he calmed down enough to participate in the rest of the day.
After that we went down to Wellington and picked up Jaunita and we all went out to Chris and Phil's for dinner.  I bought all the little kids fleece throws this year and they seemed to like that.  I felt more creative than just giving the money like I usually do.  There was lots of food and a lot of fun with my family.  We were all glad to have Jaunita with us.  I miss my Dad so much and I didn't realize how Jaunita is the closing living human tie left to my father. 
My wish to all of you is for the same love and blessings to you that we are able to share here in this family.

Future Plumber

I caught Andrea in this pose a while back.  The first thought I had was that she had a future in plumbing.  She didn't understand why I thought the picture was so funny.

Breakfast with Santa

We went to the Y on Saturday with the kids for Breakfast with Santa.  We had gone last year and enjoyed it.  The gymnastic teams perform and there is stuff like face painting for the kids to do.  We also have our annual attempt at getting a good photo with Santa.  This year was better than last year, but we have a ways to go till we hit perfection.

Danny's Wedding

My nephew Danny Gerdes married Carey Giebler on Saturday December 17th.  It was a Christmas  wedding and now that I think about it, I haven't been to may Christmas weddings.  They do have a lot of possibilities for decorating that you don't have the rest of the year.  It was a very nice wedding, and I think everyone enjoyed themselves.  I know my sister in law is glad it is over.  She and my brother paid for the wedding and Cathy had been stressing over getting everything done.  As usual, it feels odd to go to a wedding and not be responsible for the photos.  I took a few, but made myself walk away often to not interfere with the photographer.  It is just a habit with me now.  I do love photographing weddings.  Best wishes to Danny and Carey.

I have no idea....

Why the header photo is so big.  I am looking but I cannot find where to control the size.  Maybe later.  I didn't realize that Andrew looked almost asleep, but hey!  The grand kids were on their way to melt down, so I had no expectations there.

Halloween 2011

Since I am playing catch up here, I am posting pictures of Wyatt and Andrea at Halloween.  Wyatt was a spider.  Nicole made his costume and I have to say it was pretty neat.  I think he looks as spooky as a six year old can and should.  Andrea was a "cute" witch.  I am pretty certain the emphasis was on the cute.  Both of them cleaned up on the candy.  I am just grateful that it wasn't around this house to tempt me.

Work in progress

Here is a picture of the house and some of the work in progress so far.

Good Grief Lynette

 The carpet had all been ripped up before the house was put on the market.  The living room now has bamboo on the floor, tile in the entry, kitchen and dining area.  All the trim has been painted white.

 We are still working on the kitchen.  The floor has been tiled and I am working on refinishing the cabinets.  New counter top has been ordered and we will be tiling the walls under the cabinets.

 This bathtub has been resurfaced and the entire bathroom redone.  It now looks great.

 We even had to replace the front door. The work on the the basement will start on Monday.  All the sheet rock was removed to prove there was no mold.  But the whole place was pretty grim, so it is being redone and the third bathroom in the basement will be roughed into be finished later.

It has been almost two months since I posted anything here.  Life has been busy and I haven't been doing any of my normal things.  Andrew and Theresa are still living with us, but we are hoping they will be in their own place before Christmas.  If not, during Christmas week.  We bought a house several blocks from here.  It had been foreclosed on and we were able to get it for a very good price.  It needed a lot of work which we have been doing.  It still has a way to go, but it doesn't look like it used to.  I will post a few before pictures, but we don't have a lot of finished after pictures yet.  We are still in the great messy stage.

First Presbyterian Fall Festival

We all went out to Lana and A J Schlegel's place this afternoon for the annual FPC Fall Festival.  Lana and AJ have a beautiful place with a small lake and an island.  We have hot dogs, make S'Mores and go on a hay rack ride.  Everything is there that you need to start the fall season. 
It is so nice to have Andrew and Theresa with us now.  I have always missed him while he was on active duty, but it is so much nicer to see him here and happy with Theresa.  We are so lucky they found each other..

Theresa;s Birthday

We took Theresa out to Olive Garden for dinner for her birthday last night.  I hope it was a fun evening for her.  We are so glad to have Andrew and Theresa with us now.  The Picture of the two of them is amazing in that this is the first time since he was maybe fourteen that Andrew has voluntarily worn something that was not black and funky to say the least.  I want to make a beg deal of it, but I don't want to irritate Andrew.  He isn't all that fond of regular clothes.

Adios to Valdosta

Last week was spent in Valdosta with Andrew and Theresa helping them pack up and move back here to Haysville.  I took these pictures as bookends to Andrew's stay in Georgia.  He is leaving Valdosta with about twice as much stuff and he came there with, and  now he is also married to Theresa.  It wasn't a bad move, Theresa's Mother had access to lots of boxes and the Basset Hound puppies are excellent travelers.  Everyone will be staying with us until things get settled and organized here.  Pray for the house in Georgia to sell soon.  It is in move in condition.
Ray and I will miss going to Valdosta at Christmas.  It has been a good winter vacation for us for the last three years.  I guess we will just have to find something else.

Big Girl

Andi's hair is long enough for ponytails now.  I got her to sit still long enough to take a couple of pictures.   It was something of a shock to realize that she really isn't a baby anymore.  She is really a pretty little girl now.  It makes me glad and sad at the same time. She is also finally potty trained.  That was a long haul, but she finally decided that using the toilet is less trouble.  We are all pleased about that.