Catch up time!

March was a busy month! I know we've posted about the trip (to an extent), but I haven't yet posted anything about the church camp retreat, Cadet Leadership School, the bridal shower, the cleaning day, or the actual trip to Florida. But, today is a Day To Get Stuff Done, so here we go.

Chronologically, the first thing that I haven't yet blogged about is the church retreat we went to. I put all my pictures up on google+, and honestly, I think most of the people who would be interested in seeing them have seen them, so I won't put them up again. However, if you are one of the few who want to see them, let me know and I'll email you the link (I think I'd rather do that than put the link out here on my blog. Cause of all the creepy criminals and stuff who stalk me, ya know). Anyhow, our entire family went to Camp LiLoLi with our friends and their church group. Another family we're friends with went as well which was fun. We girls again got to sleep in the loft above the chapel, which means that we definitely did stay up late talking. Just like last year, we had church services, played lots of games, went sledding, helped out in the kitchen, talked, and played even more games.

Cadet Leadership School was the last weekend in February (I think?). I was on public affairs and admin staff, and Hosanna was in Foxtrot flight.

Jessica's bridal shower was the first Saturday in March. Because of her work schedule, she didn't get here til Friday evening and left on Sunday, and since Kevin was working, he wasn't able to come up with her. But his sisters Christina, Lisa, and Catherine came up. We had a birthday party for Joanna and her little friend Megan Friday evening.






Later that evening, the older kids (Jess, Christina, Lisa, Annetta, Lydia, Hosanna, Joanna, Catherine, Logan, Jordan, Duncan, Megan, and I) went down to the church to set up for the bridal shower! As you can see, it was lovely and purple. (photo credits go to Jess)

The bridal shower was the next day, and it  went well! We had perhaps 60 ladies attend to bless Jess with a nice shower. We played some games (MC'd by yours truly), had a short devotional from Mrs. F, and ate some snacks put on by the ladies of our church. Jess got a lot of gifts as well.

That evening, a representative from Mary Kay came to give Jess and 10 of her friends a lip and facial treatment because Jess had won some sort of prize from David's Bridal.

The second weekend of March was the day that we had a cleaning party at my Grandpa's house. We had a huge dumpster...we started with it empty and ended with it stuffed full. We took a trip to the dump, also. Logan did tall person work on the wall over the stairway, and the rest of us found random jobs hauling stuff out to the dumpster, cleaning, and moving and organizing stuff. (Photo credits from the cleaning go to Clayton.)

After we cleaned, we came up to our house for a pizza supper. We made great progress on the house...we're very appreciative of the people who came out and worked! There's still a ways to go, but Annetta and I went down this evening and did some stuff...we have vacuuming and setting up of furniture (hey, if anyone knows of anyone who's getting rid of beds/mattresses, let us know!), but the vast majority of the interior work is done.

Okeydoke...that's all for this post! Thanks for reading!

Day Eight - almost there!

I can already hear the screams as you've realized I have posted again..

(Whether they're happy screams or screams of horror, I prefer not to think about.)

I actually have two days to tell you about because, yesterday, we went to the mall and I know how much any guy who happens to be reading this would want to hear about our shopping trip. ;)

(To clear up confusion, I'm skipping a few days. We may as well pretend they didn't happen, because you don't get to hear about them. However, if you're inclined, fill in the blank with whatever exciting adventures you like - a hostile takeover of the house by raging terrorists, a small tornado that for some reason only targeted this house, or maybe the animals from the nearby zoo decided to live here for a while...
It all feels true...)

I digress. Anyway, yesterday was a great day. Why? I found a cute shirt at a bargain price at JCPenney's. (The guys are allowed to groan; girls are expected to squeal.) And guess what? I wasn't herding around two little kids because they were playing at Bounce-a-lot. (My dad got to watch them. He is a superhero.)

Bounce-a-lot is something some clever person came up with after tripping over the little kids at the mall who are running around in circles because their mom is taking forever to pick out the perfect outfit/perfume/shoes. Basically it is a giant bounce house. And they charge an outrageous price because they know you'll pay it. They had fun, though, and so did I.

Then we went to Wal-Mart. I took Katrina to get cat food and conditioner and Josh went with daddy to get groceries. Katrina and I went in the right door - there was a taffy vendor outside the main entrance and he happened to be giving out free samples to anyone wearing green pants. (Katrina was wearing green pants.) Things like that restore my faith in mankind. :) 

I have to get up and make lunch, so I'm going to fast forward to this morning.

Yay for bath day. Who knew it was possible to bargain  with a six year old? (I prefer the term bargain over bribe.) Apparently bath time isn't as much fun now-a-days as it was when I was little. Ah well. She's clean now, so that's what counts...

Oaky, the natives are getting restless..
 This could be my last post for a while, people, so *sniff* farewell! 

-Cinderella

Day Four: At A Friend's House

Day Four: Annetta reporting.

Today, Josh, Katrina, and I drove over to a friend's house to spend the night. We arrived at 11 o'clock, and ate lunch; and it is currently 4:21 p.m. 

I know how much you all wanted to hear from me, so I've graciously decided to blog for my fans again... (You may laugh as derisively as you like, I can't hear you.)

I have my two friends, Kim and Rachel with me, and they are co-writing, just to give credit where credit is due. :) I apologize in advance for all the pictures. If you don't like pictures, close your eyes; this post isn't for you.

Do you know how much luggage is necessary to pack even for an overnight trip? To give you an idea, below is *gasp* a picture! This is only some of it...  

(Hosanna, that is NOT your backpack. I would never steal it. Never. It only looks like your backpack , 'k?)

the girl's luggage

 Me being the wonderful babysitter that I am, I forgot to comb Katrina's hair...since Sunday. I know. So, fortunately, Rachel was able to do something with it. No tears either!

Katrina's cool hair

 Okay, people, now I can introduce Kimberlynne and Rachel. Kim is on the the far left, I'm in the middle with Katrina, and Rachel is on the right. Oh, and notice the pretty pink walls! They just finished painting and redecorating their room, and I have to admit I love the way it looks! (No jealousy here, folks, none at all... :P)

this is one of the "nice" pictures; I can't vouch for the rest...

 Four girls taking pictures...you know what that means. Silly faces. Get used to it; we've got more coming right up...

 Here's a picture of our lovely nails...we should open a salon, don't you think? Try to guess which is which, if you dare.

 We dug out the accessories at this point. :) Notice the flowers...the picture is a little dark.

 More accessories...hey, we're girls. Don't judge. Hat and scarf time!

 Individual pictures...

 Here is where you can be jealous. We got cookies. :) They were delicious, by the way!

Katrina apparently likes cookies :)

Maybe some of you are wondering where Josh is in all of this...

Kim and Rachel have six younger brothers, so Joshua has been in good hands! In a couple of hours, we'll be eating supper, and then the girls have a chick flick to watch. No boys allowed!

Now that we're done regaling you with our adventures, it's time for you to comment and tell us about your normal/wonderful/exhilarating/humdrum/awesome/or whatever-the-case-may-be lives. 

Four (almost) down, six to go!

Cinderella signing off.

From the Travelers

We are currently in Port Wentworth, Georgia, preparing to depart for our last 6 hours of driving before we get to Highland Hammocks. We left Friday afternoon around 2:15 and drove to MD, stopping in Philipsburg for supper (Philipsburg and Ridgway are my two favorite PA towns). We got to Jess's place around 9 pm and sat around talking and eating cake with Mr. and Mrs. D, Ardee, Christina, Lisa, Andrew, Jess, and Kevin. My mom, Lydia, Hosanna, and Joanna went to bed around 10:30 or 11, but Andrew and I had a project to work on. We're making a photo guest book for the wedding, and we made good headway on it. Ardee and Christina watched a movie in the livingroom too, and Jess and a sleeping Kevin were in a corner of the living room, so we had a nice little party. Around 1:30, my brain's capacity for coherent thought and speech had decreased to a point where Andrew and I decided that actually, we could finish this via screen share, and Jess and I walked over to the grandmother's house where she stays, and we went to bed.

We left around 8 o'clock the next morning after breakfast and drove to Raleigh, NC, where we had lunch with Stephen's family. We had a good time, eating and roaming around their creek/woods area behind their house. Then it was off again to this hotel. We got here around 10 last night. And we should be leaving soon. By the time we get to the campground, Aunt Joanne, Uncle Victor, Julia, Grandpa Bob, and Grandma Suzy should be there, and we'll set up our tents and eat supper and stuff. And hopefully it will be very warm (I'm having vivid flashbacks to a frigid Texas).

I do have some pictures, but I forgot my USB cord so they're not on my computer. 

Day One: Check

Hacking Erika's blog is painfully easy.

Anyway, this is Annetta. As quite a few of you are aware, the rest of my family (minus, Josh, Katrina, and my dad) are enjoying warm, sunshiny weather right now and for the next nine days. I promised I would write an update while they're gone, and I'm bored right now, so you get to hear all about my life! (Cheering would be appropriate.)

Yesterday, the travelers managed to get underway around two in the afternoon. We threw a small party.

(Ok, that last part may or may not be entirely true. It might be slightly more accurate to say that I cleaned and made supper. And I made Josh and Katrina clean too. That was sorta fun... *evil snicker*)

Anyway, the angelic pair have not yet burned down the house or created any (more) holes in the walls or ceiling, so we're off to a good start. ;)

Today (Day TWO) Josh has a birthday party to attend, so Katrina and I have the run of the house. (Read: we have laundry and cooking. Josh failed to mention his lack of clean clothes before the party, so it's sort of a belated effort. Oh well. If I do laundry today, he'll have no excuse not to look sharp tomorrow for church. HA.)

As far as the cooking goes, the lasagna is in the oven and it smells promising, as long as I remember not to burn it. Our smoke detectors have been acting a little weird lately, and I don't know how to shut them off. That's strong motivation not to burn anything. It's also one of the reasons babysitters love sandwiches.
  
Well, I have stack of dishes calling for me, and remember that laundry I mentioned? I've found out that my mental powers don't extend to telekinesis; I actually have to get up and physically work to get it done.

To sum up; things are going fairly smoothly. Josh has been extremely helpful, taking on the responsibility of watering the plants and feeding the fish. Katrina has been helping me with cooking, and we're planning on chocolate chip cookies this afternoon. One day down, nine to go...wish me luck.

Oh, and call me Cinderella. ;)  

I'm bored

So, our printer is kinda slow. And I'm sitting here waiting for it to print off 50 copies of a bridal shower game we're playing tomorrow, so I figured I might as well blog while waiting. Yeah...it's a 40 second wait between each copy, and it just did copy number 22. So lemme pull out my math skills and say...it will be about another 17 minutes before they're done! Whee!

Sooo...I think I'm tired of talking about college, besides, I don't think anything has changed on that front. I was officially accepted to Houghton College, and I am planning to go there this fall. The idea will be to attend 4 semesters there (2 years) and then graduate, so that would be2015, I think.

But right now, what's really on the brain is the bridal shower. Jessica and Christina, Lisa, and Catherine (Kevin's sisters) drove up today for the shower. As far as I know, they'll be headed back on Sunday. Aaand...the bridal shower is tomorrow afternoon. A bunch of friends came with us this evening to set up and decorate, and it looks fabulous. I mean, Annetta, Rachel, and I bought the tablecloths and table stuff a month or 2 ago, and we have random decorating stuff at the church and at the house of a lady in our church who does really well with decorating, but I was really impressed with how well it came together. So much purple!

I  just thought of something funny. Our printer is putting the time each one was printed n the bottom. Which means that I can hand them out in numerical order based on when they were printed. I doubt I will...wonder if anyone will notice or be annoyed if I don't hand them out in order...

Oh yay...it's done printing!

Semesters and Randomness

Hmm, it's been a tad bit of a while since I posted last... The spring semester started on Monday, so today marks the end of the first week of class. I'm only taking 4 classes this semester, which makes my weekly schedule quite a bit different. Last semester, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday were my longest days, with 4 classes...my first class was at 8 am, and my last one ended a little before 3. Then I had a Tuesday class, and a Tues/Thurs class. This semester, however, I only have one class on MWF, and it's in the afternoon. Bonus is, I can sleep in...as late as I want! Downside is...I have to park in the far parking lot, and it's been blustery and chilly these past few days. Tuesday and Thursday are my longest days...I have 3 classes, with the first one starting at 9:30, second one starting at 11, and third one starting at 12:30 (and ending at 1:50). I don't love having to be in class during lunchtime, but I have been surviving just fine...and if anyone has any easy, packable, non-refrigerated lunch ideas, share away :) Also, last semester, most of my classes were also with Jordan, meaning I could drive him both ways. This time, however, we only have 2 of the same classes, so I only end up driving him one way.

Speaking of driving...that's a good bridge into talking about the weather! So, Wednesday, it was an awesome 60 degrees. I went to bed with my window opened a but so I could hear the peepers (!!!!) squeaking away in their little ponds. The wind was very howly that night, and the next morning I woke up to a layer of ice and snow. And then it sort of blizzarded all day Thursday, rendering driving very scary. I did manage to get Jordan home, but then I decided that driving in white out conditions up our somewhat un-plowed back roads to get home did not sound like a smart thing to do. When the weather cleared a bit, our neighbor drove down and picked me up in his large truck. And then, about 5 minutes after I got home, I looked out the window, and I could barely see our porch posts because of the snow and the wind. Whew! It's still snowing and blowing today, but it's not as bad. Crazy weather :P (See what you're missing, Jess :P)

Let's see...what else have we been doing.. Ah yes...wedding planning! haha. Last Saturday, Rachel and Elizabeth came up and we ate cookies and made the invitations. Then I took the invitations to the post office, but they crazily changed the post office hours to like something ridiculous like only being open in the morning. So the invitations have not yet been mailed, but maybe between my mom and me driving hither and yon, we can get them mailed in the next couple of days.

The other big project that we've been working on is cleaning my grandpa's house. We did quite a bit with it last spring, but that was mostly just cleaning, not, like, getting rid of tons of stuff. Now, I'm trying to do a major overhaul...it needs to be done eventually, and since we're planning on housing the groomsmen down there for the wedding, it might as well get done by then. So we (read: Hosanna and me, primarily) have been dragging stuff out of the the upstairs cubby space so that my dad and his brother (Uncle Bill) can look at it and either relocate it or get rid of it. We also are planning to get a dumpster (excuse me...trash disposal container) so that we can, well, ahem, GET RID OF ALL OF THE THINGS!!! Or at least as much as they let me ;) Nah, there's some cool stuff down there. But with that said...if any of you find yourselves desperately bored some day...well then...hehehe...I bet I could find a way to un-bored you :) I actually may organize a massive hauling-stuff-out-to-the-dumpster-when-it-comes party, but we'll see. A lot of the cleaning has to be done a little at a time, because it has to be sorted.

Well, I think I've rambled enough. I think you can consider yourself caught up on my life now :P Do leave me a comment to tell me how your life is going!

Grandpa...Heaven just got closer

On Jan 17th, I posted about Grandpa, and how he had suddenly taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Over the past months, I've posted updates about him (here, here, here, here, and here). Since he was released from the nursing home on May 29th, he'd been living at our home. We have a downstairs bedroom that had been a schoolroom, but we stuck a bed and a chair and so forth in it and he lived there. Starting this past Monday evening, he started not doing very well. Tuesday (yep, Christmas Day), he slept for a very long time in the morning, which is not typical...usually he'd be up by 7:30 or 8. But he slept til almost noon, didn't feel like eating, and was generally out of it. He got worse that way until Friday afternoon, we finally got a nurse to come and she recommended he go to a hospital. An ambulance came (actually, 3...and one got stuck in the snow in our yard) and took him to Brooks Memorial. They found that he had pneumonia and a urinary tract infection and began treating him for that. However, Sunday afternoon around 1 pm, he left us for bigger and better things. No longer is he hampered by arthritis...I imagine he's quite happy about that. I also like to imagine that Grandma Snell (his wife who died some 25 or 30 years ago) met him with a chainsaw for him to play with.

My uncle Bill was with him when he passed away. (He called my dad, but by the time my dad got there, Grandpa had already died.) Uncle Bill said that Grandpa had been struggling to breathe, but then he relaxed, started breathing easier, and then stopped.

I have so many memories of him...
-Him reading to Jess and me as we sat on his lap...him reading to the younger ones as they sat on his lap (that Dr Seuss book about the guy who could put spots on anything...that other book about Mack and the truck and the girl who could hammer anything)...
-that awkward memory of him coming up to babysit Jess and me. I was just little and went to the bathroom but couldn't wipe myself, so I went out to the living room where he was sitting and asked him to wipe me...he said he would if I brought him tissue, so I did and he wiped my lil butt for me (man...now THAT'S awkward...I'm cringing just thinking about it! I must have been like 3 or 4).
-Doing chores with him...he bought calves one year, but he was too crippled up to do all the chores himself, so he would drive up in his red, very loud and un-muffled car and Jess and I took turns every morning going up and feeding calves with him. Sometimes in the winter his hands got so cold he'd go into the milkhouse and take off his gloves and cup them around the lightbulb. Running a chainsaw I guess destroys your circulation.
-In the fall he'd get apples from his old schoolteacher who had an apple orchard and he'd make the best apple crisp. Sometimes he made cookies, and I mean no disrespect, but his pies and crisps were a whole lot better. He always had ice cream...Snells always love ice cream...so if one found his cake or cookies or whatever to be dubious looking, there was ice cream to munch on instead :)
-Up until this past year, he'd hop on his tractor and go out back and cut wood or cut down brush. And he'd make hay every year. Up until a couple years ago, anyone who got stuck in snow in the wintertime near our house could count on him helping to pull them out. And even when Grandpa was hallucinating this past year, he'd see people stuck in the ditch and want us to go help them.
-Within the past couple years, when he'd be out back cutting brush and whatnot, I'd conveniently take walks out back and double around and check on him and chat a bit I don't really know what we talked about, but I'm glad we did. Once he had me move the tractor, and I awkwardly couldn't figure out how to turn it off or put it in park, so I was sitting there holding the clutch down frantically pushing and pulling buttons. I uh figured it out finally. Red button. Pull it. Yeah.
-Once I was helping him him hay in the field behind our house, and that was when the local bee guy had beehives back there, and the honey bees didn't like the tractor noise, so they came zooming over. A couple of them got stuck in my hair, and I was a little scared and went over to Grandpa on the tractor and asked him to get the bee. He just squished it with his thumb. It probably stung him, cause it didn't sting me.
-oh yeah...this last one's going to make me cry. It made a really big impression on me at the time...I forget if I blogged about it when it happened...I don't think so. Anyhow...Grandpa baled the Old Home field in round bales, and then wanted me to help him gather the bales up and transport them to behind our house so we could use them. I drove the red International with the hay wagon attached behind, and he drove the John Deere loader. He'd poke a round bale, stick it on my wagon, repeat a bunch of times, and then we'd drive over to where we were unloading them and he'd unload. Repeat many times. The International is an old tractor with a tendency to spew oil...actually, it gushed oil, and i mean that in the most literal sense. It was kinda scary to drive...I was scared the duct tape would fall off and it would fall apart :P To make it worse, he informed me that this tractor also had a tendency to stall when going up steep hills while pulling large loads. Cough. The field we were in does indeed have a very steep hill...and haybales make for a heavy load. Nervous? Me? Haha. We gathered up all the bales at the top of the hill, and then moved downwards. Typically, Grandpa would load my wagon and then drive off in front of me to the unloading place. However, when we got to the bales at the bottom-ish of the hill and we were ready to drive off to unload, I suddenly noticed like halfway up the hill that he wasn't in front of me, or beside. I glanced over my shoulder, and he was driving behind me. We had a couple more loads at the bottom of the hill, and every time I had to drive up the hill with a full load, he drove behind me. Now, I have no idea what he thought he could do if I started stalling and rolling backwards...but it made me think quite a bit...just seeing him on his little tractor behind my huge load, ready to protect me if there had been any problems.

Well anyhow. Visitation is at the Morse Funeral Home in Brocton from 4 to 7 this Thursday. There's a funeral service in the Family Life Center at 10 am Friday morning, followed by the actual burying thing in the cemetery, and then lunch at church.

 I have a great new game idea. It's called Guess the Blog Post, and I just post pictures and you try to guess what they are!! Just kidding ;) I thought I'd post about the past couple of days/week in our house. For starters, last week was finals week at SUNY Fredonia, meaning Jordan and I have successfully completed our first entire on-campus semester of college work. This plugs me at something like 36 credits, which means I'm a sophomore. I think the cut off typically is 30 credits per year, depending where you go...most colleges have the cut-off between sophomore and junior being 60 credit hours, so I'm over a quarter of the way done with the credits for a normal bachelor's degree. Yay.

Moving on. Last weekend (as in...the 15th), Jess and Kevin drove up for Christmas break, and we went to see the Hobbit in theater with them and a bunch of friends (happy birthday to Annetta!). It was a great movie that involved a lot of violence, a lot of bashing and hacking and goriness, plus a very nice moose for a few seconds at the beginning. I hope the moose reappears in the next one too...

Wedding planning has also been being done. Things like a guest list, decorations ideas, type of reception...et cetera. Also, dress shopping! Which is where we get to the picture part of this post. last...Saturday (I think?), a lot of us went to the Erie mall and went bridesmaid dress shopping.

 Well, first we went to David's Bridal to look at the dress Jess discovered. And yes there are pics and no you may not see them unless you have special permission from Jessica herself :)

 Anyhow, we then went to Macy's (where the van proceeded to die...oh well...thankfully we just got Triple A for the Texas Trip, so we called them and then shopped for umpteen hours waiting for them to come) and tried on bridesmaid dresses. Lovely, eh? Two have been purchased, and the rest will be purchased very shortly. There may have been a small fiasco later that night/the next day involving discovering that the dress is not made in certain sizes needed by some members of the party, but with the sewing expertise of certain others, a crisis was avoided and life as we know it cruises smoothly onward.

 Ah right...the jewelry! Charming Charlie's is a charming little jewelry store (women's boutique I think is the correct terminology). Annetta, Elizabeth, Jennifer, Rachel, and I had a lot of fun picking out and trying on jewelry and hair things while Jess and Kevin talked to people at David's Bridal. We photographed it so we could show it to Jess later and then come back and possibly purchase some after getting the dresses (yes...the pics are out of order...David's Bridal, then Charming Charlie's...then we met up at Macy's...).

 (I like how the chandelier makes Elizabeth look like she's wearing a tiara...)

 Above, Rachel and Elizabeth have a very technical and complicated conversation about earrings and making the earrings that come with the necklaces clip ons instead of the um...poky kind. I lost track of their convo about 3 sentences in (ok...2), but they got it figured out.

 Okay...so then we went to Macy's...found the dresses...and Jenn and Rachel bought theirs. And since the tow truck still wasn't here, we went back to Charming Charlie's and selected and purchased the bridesmaid jewelry.

 Then we had supper...it was delicious.

 And the tow truck came! He towed our van all the way to our mechanic, and then our neighbor came and picked us up from there.

 So that was a fun, adventuresome, productive day!

Moving on to Christmas: It is truly a Christmas miracle...my Christmas cactus bloomed for the first time since I got it several years ago.

 And my Texas Cactus has a cute lil "baby bump" on the very top...it's alive and growing!

 And we have these owl decorations on our tree. They're slightly disturbing.

 My dad got our cats a Christmas present too...they loved it very much.

I hope you all are having a lovely Christmas vacation!