Back to The Old Stomping Grounds

Although I still basically live in my old stomping grounds (AKA Mediapolis), Matt and I got to spend a little over a week at my Mom and Dad's house with my brothers while our parents went on vacation to the Dominican Republic. They left Saturday the 14th and returned home Sunday the 22nd. Everything went fairly smoothly, and it was nice to spend a little more quality time than usual with my brothers!

Even in her absence, Mom did not forget us on Valentines day! She left us a delicious meringue dessert along with individual boxes of candy!

Yum! 

The week went fairly quickly...

Saturday night: Taffy pull at Steiner home
Sunday night: Singing at Fellowship Center
Tuesday - Saturday: Johnny at State Wrestling
Wednesday: No School
Other Afternoons and Evenings: Misc. Practices, Games, and Activities
Friday: Casey's Pizza + Our Own Homemade Donuts!
Saturday: Cleaning House, Bathroom Projects, Singing at Aunt Janette's
Sunday: Presentation at Fellowship Center

I have always wanted to try making homemade donuts, but couldn't ever do it for just Matt and I, so we made them Friday evening. They were a fun treat for all of us and turned out really well! So delicious!

Homemade donuts!

Is anyone seeing a pattern that all of the pictures in this post thus far are centered around food? 

On Saturday I went to a baby shower while Matt and the boys spent the morning cleaning the house for Mom and Dad's arrival home. In the afternoon, he started in on replacing the ceiling fan in their bathroom, along with unclogging the sink. These projects and their cleanup lasted until 11:30.

The middle of the project was a huge mess - with insulation falling everywhere! Good thing Mom didn't have to see this. She was happy with the final product, though! 

After church on Sunday, we took the boys to the airport to decorate Mom and Dad's car. :) They returned from their trip about a half hour after we got home from the fellowship center. We still need to hear all about their trip, but it sounded like they had a wonderful and relaxing time!

As always, it was great to finally sleep in our own bed again when we got home! I spent Monday evening getting caught up from being gone, Tuesday getting started with my week (and ice skating in the evening), and this afternoon catching up on sleep. :) Church was cancelled tonight due to accumulating snow, so hopefully we will be able to get out of our lane tomorrow! If not, we thankfully have a plow to help us out now...

Hope you've all had a great February! Can you believe March is right around the corner? In my world, March means almost April and therefore almost spring...there are still so many things I was hoping to get done this winter, so I'd better get on them!

Saga of the Month-End

Around the last week of January, things started to get rather blurry in our minds until we woke up over a week later and realized we were already several days into February!

The month of January resumed with Matt's coworker's wedding in Davenport - a very lovely and joy-filled day with the happy couple! Unfortunately, there was only one photo on my camera of this event and it is not very descriptive, to say the least.

Umm...this might have been the cutting of the cake, but I am really not sure. 

The following week was a bit of a whirlwind, starting with me getting a quick flu bug on Tuesday. I felt fine by the next day, but ended up missing work both days. When I got back to work on Thursday, I found that my coworkers had also caught my bug, so I was kind of on my own for the last two days of the week and worked several extra hours.

Thursday morning when I arrived back to work, I learned of the passing of Matt's Aunt Beth from Lester who has been battling cancer for about five months, as well as the death of my relative, Tom, who also had a long battle with cancer. The next day, we learned that my Uncle Mark from Morris had passed away suddenly. It was quite unusual that so much tragedy should strike at once.

But before we got too far into mourning, we spent Saturday butchering two of Phil and Kelli's hogs at Seth and Brenda's. It was my second butchering experience (first being chickens at Steiners a few months ago). I meant to bring my camera, but neglected to remember that detail.

Phil & Kelli, Seth & Brenda, and Matt & I ended up leaving Saturday evening for Lester in the midst of a raging snowstorm. The roads were not very good, but thankfully the Lord blessed us with safety during the trip and we had no recordable incidents. We arrived at our hosts' home at 3:15am on Sunday.

Morning church was cancelled in Lester on Sunday, but we were thankful for a few extra hours of sleep. We spent Sunday afternoon with the family and spent the evening at Aunt Beth's visitation. We were also thankful for the opportunity to finally visit with our hosts, Jerome and Jana, Sunday evening.

We said our final farewells to Aunt Beth Monday morning and were thankful for the time to be together with the family. After the noon meal, Matt & I departed on the AC Express for Morris in time to spend the evening at Uncle Mark's visitation. This time, Matt's cousin Derek and Annie invited us to stay with them overnight, so we had a good time catching up with them too.

Tuesday it started snowing just in time for Uncle Mark's funeral, as it seems a Morris funeral is never complete without a blizzard. The service was very nice and we were very encouraged by the last couple weeks of  Uncle Mark's life when he surrendered himself to God.

Both the families of Aunt Beth and Uncle Mark will be in need of prayers in the coming weeks and months as they move forward without their loved ones. It is always a rough road that we hope will eventually bring us closer to God.

"Sittin' On the Far Side Banks of Jordan"

A few from Uncle Mark's family sang this song before his visitation.

Snowy roads did not seem to slow us down too much on the ride home with my parents as we made it home by eleven. A lane filled with eight inches of snow welcomed us home, so Matt had to plow us in. It is not very often that we are "snowed out" of our house!

This sequence of events was followed by a full day of work to catch up on Wednesday, and then an entire afternoon/evening/night of me napping and/or sleeping on Thursday. I was rather exhausted and felt well-rested by Friday morning. The house finally got some much-needed attention on Friday.

Saturday we got quite a bit done around the house, and Sunday we went to Mediapolis church to help my mom serve lunch.

Once again, my blog posts have been constrained by a lack of Internet service, as we ran out of data a week before the billing month ended. We got hooked back up yesterday, and I am back at it again!

As it feels fitting after writing so many words with no pictures to show for them, THE END.