I'm Back!

After a nice, long break from Mr. Time Sucker, I am happy to say that he is now sucking my time again. These last few months have been crazy busy for me, but thankfully things are slowly, but steadily, starting to slow down.

At the end of August we started back up in school, which was quickly followed by a few breaks due to the Feast of Tabernacles, among other things. In September I started taking voice and piano lessons, which have been rather challenging, but I am thankful for the opportunity to develop in the area of music. It's something I've wanted to do for a while!

For about the last two months I've been working for a lady at a retirement center down the street from our house, for about eight to ten hours a day. When she originally hired me she had recently fallen out of a van and seriously bruised herself, making it hard for her to get around. Thankfully she is now back up and going again, and doing well. While it was a struggle at first to get used to not being at home, I learned to manage the time that I had wisely to get things done when I was.

The whole "job" was rather a large blessing and answer to somewhat of an unspoken prayer. Just the week before my mom was called up about it, a friend and I were talking about how we were in a bit of a hard situation, because while we wanted to earn a little money, we didn't necessarily want to be fast food girls. I mentioned that it would be nice to learn something that I would be able to do close to my home, or if possible, right at home. Then, this temporary caregiver job was dropped in my lap, which in turn has given me the experience to possibly explore the job as one. While I don't think I would choose do a full time job like this, it is a great opportunity to be able to work for an elderly lady once or twice a week, either right down the street, or someplace else.

Something that also took place in November was an Operation Christmas Child party my mom and I put on. About ten girls came with an assortment of moms, and we surpassed our goal of twenty gift boxes by three. We were able to get a few stores to donate money to help with buying the supplies, and the rest were brought by the girls, myself and Grandma. :)

These first few weeks of December have mostly been spent getting back into the roll of things at home. Also, we are currently right in the middle of celebrating the Festival of Lights, which carries the joys of latke making, dreidle playing and gift giving. Yes, it's true. I'm glad to be back!

I'm Sixteen!

Yes, it's true. AND I was given the most thoughtful gift ever for it! For the last few weeks Mother Dear has been working on some "secret project"...

...which turned out to be a quilt with squares from special ladies I have known throughout my entire life. Pen pals, aunts, friends, my kindergarten teacher...

I feel so blessed! Thank you to all who took the time to contribute to it, and especially to my extremely creative and hard-working mother.

Home Sweet Home

Well, we arrived safely, although tiredly, home on Sunday at about four in the afternoon. We had been up since three o'clock in the morning (midnight at our house) driving, waiting, flying, waiting, flying and driving... I can assure you that I'm ready to have a nice non-driving and flying time here at home!

Something that I really enjoyed at the end of our trip was meeting a distant cousin whom I've never met - the last World War One Vet, Frank W. Buckles at the Buckles reunion. For the last three or four months he has been famous in our house... really! Even my six year old brother likes to be at the computer when we see he's the ABC news "person of the week", featured on the Yahoo homepage or mentioned on some other "big" place. I was able to talk to him for a little while, which was really neat, and get a few pictures with him.

I definetly enjoyed our trip! It was most certainly an amazing experience.

Out and About

We are six days into our trip, flying back to Washington tomorrow. Obviously I haven't blogged, due to the fact that every time the laptop is out it's being used by someone else. :)

You can read about our adventures here. I know I'm cheating, but we've got to go now!

East Coast Trip Preparations

This week has started off to be a bit busy! We're getting ready for our trip to the east coast that's starting on Sunday night, cleaning and organizing for family who's coming to stay this same weekend, running every morning to get our miles in for a run the boys are participating in and on top of that doing our usual daily doings! Here's what's on my to do list before we go on our trip:

Tuesday:

Run.

Make list of people to send post cards to. Place in labeled Ziplock bag along with stamps.

Decide which clothes to wear on the trip, and get anything in the laundry that needs to be clean for packing.

Wednesday:

Run.

Do thorough cleaning of kitchen.

Pack purse with books, CD player, etc for flight and car rides.

Wipe down the shoes I'll wear on the trip.

Thursday:

Run.

Sweep and mop living and dining room, hallways and stairs.

Pack clothes, shoes and any toiletry items I won't need for the rest of the week.

Friday:

Run.

Help with the general cleanup of the house.

Get beds and rooms ready for company, set up temporary beds for our family's children.

Make dessert for Bible Study.

Saturday:

Family arrives.

Bible study here at our house at one PM.

Shabbat Shalom!

Sunday:

Pack toothbrush/any other toiletry stuff. Have bags ready to go on porch.

Be with the fam.

Leave for the airport at around three PM.

There's a full schedule for ya! I'm not sure how much I'll be posting until I get back, if at all, but you can always check my sidebar for recommended blogs if you're in need of a good read. :)

Love,

A Chance To Meet *You*?

Guess what? In exactly twelve days I am going on a trip.

"Where to?" you ask?

Washington D.C., my friend!

My grandparents, Mom, Active Boy, Baby MIT and I are going on a week-long trip to Washington, Philadelphia, PA; Cape May, NJ; Williamsburg, VA; Charles Town, WV; and Baltimore, MD. I can't wait!

The main reason we're going is to go to our family reunion in Baltimore. Apparently we (from my grandpa on Mom's side) have a lot of family over there, so my grandparents were interested in meeting them; and in turn invited Mom to go, who decided to take my brother and I for the sake of a good homeschool field trip. :)

Now my question is this: do any of you blogger friends live close enough to those cities that we might be able to meet? I would love to get a chance to see you in person!! Please, please comment and tell me you do! I could give you my email address and we could set something up.

With love,

A Relaxing Retreat

So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, good night, I hate to go and leave this pretty sight. So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehen, adieu, Adieu, adieu, to yieu and yieu and yieu.

This weekend Mother Dear and I get to go on a retreat! We're both pretty excited, as we'll get to see some ladies from our old homeschool group. It's really a mother's retreat, but since I am a MIT (Mother In Training) I have to go along to practice having fun. :) I'm taking the makings for lavender sachets to do with the few other girls that will be there, so I'll have some good pictures to share with you when we get back!

Mom and I, as well as the babe, will be leaving at two o'clock on Friday for Leavenworth (a small Bavarian town), and get back by three on Sunday. A nice retreat if you ask me!

A Shabbat Outing

Here at our house the day is sunny and warm. Of course we had to take advantage of the nice weather, so we packed up some meat loaf sandwiches and headed off to the park.

Looking at the ducks... there were lots today!

Best friends!

Playing...

Eating...

Last year in April we came to the same park and took this picture:

Here we are now!

Mom and Dad got their picture taken too. To see them, look to the right on my sidebar.

Well, the littles are getting up from their naps, so I'd better go. Shabbat Shalom!

A Little Date

Last weekend, Active Boy took me on a walk to this quiet little stream down the street from our house. We had a nice time talking, and doing a little exploring down by the edge of the water. Of course, Active Boy couldn't leave without climbing something, so he had fun climbing the trees over the stream, while I snapped some pictures.

Thanks, Active Boy! I enjoyed our little "date". :)

A Trip to the Fair

Last Friday there was a great deal at the fair - $1 for everyone's admission! Dad and Mother Dear had promised Creative Genius that we would go to the fair for his birthday this year, so they figured this would be the perfect time. So we went!

We looked at the animals...

Me and Baby MIT, baby bjorn-ing...


We played on the tractors...

Enjoyed the children's exhibits...

This little exhibit was really cute. All she did was sit and smile!

We ate some yummy cotton candy (something MIT #2 wasn't quite sure what to do with :)...

The boys went on a couple rides (I decided not to go on any since they didn't seem as exiting as they used to be. And considering the cost, I figured it just wasn't worth it, if you know what I mean :)...

And, the end of the day, trying to keep the two very tired MITs happy :)...

Au Revoir!