We have a house!

We have a house! The roof is there, the garage has a roof! Yeah! These guys are great! My posting hasn't been about Amish/English lately, but today I will talk about the house I grew up in.

I was born in a single story home, at least a hundred year old house. I was the 6th child and this house had only 2 bedrooms with a little room at the end of the house used for storage, without heat too. I was going to school, I am guessing 1st grade, my dad had a frolic and put the 2nd story on the house. They work during the day and I was in school when it happened, it was a big surprise when I came home from school, and the 2nd story was framed in.

Pictures you can see out and about from Amish having frolics look awesome. I don't know how many men were at our house that day, some ladies come to help in the house with the noon meal, they eat well too. We are paying for the construction of our house, not a frolic, but its so much fun to watch the house getting built, they are all workers and every day we see what they get done. Soon they'll start working on the inside, but they'll still be working hard.

When we were in PA we bought them donuts for 2 days.

Its fun building this house, more fun then I could ever imagine!!!

New House

Ed and I took a quick trip to PA to celebrate his sister Sharon's 75th birthday this week. We also got to see our house you can see posted here.

These men start working before 8:00 a.m., so while there we treated them to donuts, which made them happy.

Two semi trucks arrived with the house. My brother in law told us, here's your house!

Can you tell we are excited? Yeah! I am sure you'll be hearing from me more often now that the house is really happening!

Happy New Year 2011

Time keeps moving, it doesn't stop for anything or anyone! Our house has started in PA. We're going to see if we can build living 5 states away. The basement should be brought to the house site Friday.

We are driving to PA to celebrate Sharon's 75th birthday. The party will be given by her daughter Candy flying to PA from AZ. Ed & I are driving Sunday & Monday, hopefully arriving early Monday afternoon.

We are going to leave my car in PA so Josh can drive back & forth taking care of business. I need to remember when anything comes up to take a deep breath and not stress out. Hopefully we'll get enough pictures to remember.

I am sure this winter will go fast for both Ed and I. We are still driving to Watertown every Sunday serving as interim pastor.

Now that the house is getting built I can believe God for the next step in our lives.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had family (Brent, Tracy & Andrie, Ernie & Dodie Blok, Al & Ellen Wanek),and friends to share our meal. We had a wonderful day sharing with family & friends.

I have much to thank God for this year. We hoped to have moved to PA by now, but we are still in Wisconsin. Winter has started, its in the 20's this weekend. Today the sun is shining so the will be good. Both Ed & I are healthy and stay busy. We are interim pastors at Watertown Assembly, a great group of people given to hospitality.

Several things are highlighted for me this year. 1) I worked at the Compassion Clinic Praise Fellowship hosted again. 2) My husband is an executive board member for Teen Challenge in Milwaukee, they invited our former president George W. Bush to be our speaker for their fund raiser banquet this month. Ed & I had our picture taken with the president!!! The entire evening was one I will forever remember!!!

God has been good to me. Growing up Amish and Thanksgiving meals with my family. We raised turkeys on our small farm for several years.

Our customers came from nearby cities. They would place their orders and mom, along with my older sisters would butcher these turkeys for Thanksgiving mostly. The most I remember was having an order for 100 turkeys for one day. Mom asked a neighbor to come and help. I went to school so escaped lots of work!!! My job was to feed them daily which I mostly enjoyed. (Of course I am sure I did lots of grumbling too!!)

Christmas 2010

Its hard to believe Christmas will soon be here! I promised my family that I would post my Christmas list. I don't have many needs so its hard to get a list together. There are several things that might be nice.

1) Victoria Secret gift certificate
2) Pizza Stone
3) 6 qt over the sink colander (oval)
4) Microwave Bacon Plate (really want this!)
5) Marcus Movie gift certificate
6) Good smelling candle
7) JJill gift certificate
8) Measuring cups (with straight sides)
9) Flannel PJ bottom (any color - size L or M?)

That's all for now.

If anything more comes to mind I'll let you know.

Family Together Again!

Family - its so important! My family is planning to spend a long weekend together in Sheboygan. We have 3 children and 3 grandchildren, yeah! (5 children!) Growing up, after we left home and would come home for a visit, my mom would always cook our favorite meals and look forward to spending time with us. I would notice that mom would slave over the hot grill, etc. So one day I had a wonderful idea that would give mom time to spend with her family. Our family started buying chicken and chip in to help pay for the meat. My family continues this practice to this day.

I have a cute picture of us together at Steve's house, with mom in the background enjoying all of us playing together. Will that be my future? :-) I continue to tell my sisters that I am not old!!! :-)

Now as I am getting older, yes, I am getting older every year!!! I am the one in the back ground watching our children sharing family together and playing, chatting together. I will love this week with our grand children and children!!! Several years ago when Chris & Holly came to Sheboygan, we didn't think ahead and ask Josh to come home. So we plan to take a family photo, hopefully on the shore of Lake Michigan. This should be a great memory maker with the lake as the back ground.

Check back if I'm not too tired I'll blog about how our family spent time together and interesting events that took place. Did I say it already? I can't wait until tomorrow!!!

Holiday Celebrations

Growing up we didn't celebrate many holidays. I don't remember ever acknowledging Father's day or Mother's day. I love both Father's day and Mother's day celebrations which I have always enjoyed since becoming a parent. I have a birthday in April and Mother's day in May so these 2 special days in my life sometimes feel like they run together, but that's OK too.

Growing up Amish, as a family we had a big meal for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Easter is a Church event; I don't ever remember eating a big Easter dinner. The Amish have a special membership day in the spring and fall, which sorta takes in Easter.

Before the Amish have their fall membership, teens around 17 - 18 years of age take a membership class during the summer, then join church in the fall when the church serves communion. The people get water baptized (they pour a half cup water over their head while kneeling; the bishops wife holds the girls cap and helps put it back on her head.) I was always fascinated by all of this, and never got to participate because my parents left the Amish before I became of age.

The membership take communion in the spring and fall. The members fast the Saturday before this service for the first half of the day before participating in communion. A regular church service is 4 hours long, when they serve communion the service lasts at least 5 hours if not longer. Its a long day as I remember it. The entire service is orderly and very religious!

The girls before they become members wear a white cape and apron, along with a black pleated cap. After the girls become members, they start wearing a white cap. The men are supposed to start growing their beard, which they continue to trim with scissors until they get married.