A Long Picture Post - (Cheer!)

Picture taken by Emily A.

Picture taken by Emily A.

Picture taken by Emily A.

Picture taken by Emily A.

Emily on the Johnstown lake's dock, while on a bike ride with Jason.

Jase and Em love to go on bike-rides as much of the year as possible!

Janet and girls have been babysitting a few children each Thursday while their mommies have Bible study.  Here's a picture of "circle time", in which we read books and sing songs together.

Two little babysitting girls.

Lego time!

Picture taken by Emily A.

One thing we really enjoy on Sundays and on weekday evenings (as opportunities come up) is video-chatting with our grand-children.  We do get to "Skype" more often with Charissa than with Quil and Micah.

She loves to smile at us on video-chat!  We have seen her do her roll-over tricks while chatting too!

Janet's special sewing project for Randy and Joy's baby boy.  The bear is appliqued onto the green fabric, and the backing "I Love Grandma" fabric is just wrapped around the bear for the picture.

Another Grandma sewing project--a log cabin quilt in the works!

Jeff's friend Amit took this picture of him at God's Bible School yesterday.

Beth and Linc reading a book together earlier this month.

Picture taken by Emily A.  Check out more wonderful pictures here.

This was the Palm Sunday crowd at our Federal Heights Sunday School.  We have been running 5-10 kids a week otherwise, but the Lord's been helping us every week, for which we are thankful.

Janet's fluffy hair today!

It sure has deep waves!

Janet, Karla, and Linda are three moms in Home Educators Fellowship who have survived cancer.  They each got to share their stories and testimonies of the Lord's goodness to them at Mom's Night Out this month.

Janet, Linda, Sue, and Karla.  Sue is the leader of HEF and Mom's Night Out.

Lincoln with our flower mound.  (You'll notice the saturation difference between this picture and the next.)

 

On April 4th, the Kauses came over for the evening.  Here's Randy, baby Luther, and Rowen visiting.

Janet and Kelly

Jeffrey and Harry

Jason and Quentin

Beth and LeighAnna.  Em was the photographer, and we didn't get any pictures of her playing with L, but she did. =)

Last year our tulips and daffodils weren't blooming until right around Janet's surgery (April 28th), but this year spring came early.  We've really enjoyed all the blossoming trees and, of course all the flowers.

 

Jason and Emily love to play their strings together.  One evening found them on the deck practicing.

Lilac header picture

Spring has been so beautiful, and early, here in Johnstown! Our lilacs are about as full and beautiful as they have ever been. We're supposed to get another touch of winter weather this weekend, so we don't know how much longer the lilacs will look so good.

Spring Break with Jeffrey here

We have enjoyed having Jeffrey home since last Thursday; he will be flying away Easter morning. Late morning on Wednesday, we took off and went to the mountains so that Jeffrey could have some mountain time before heading back to Ohio, and then to Missouri for the summer. We had Lincoln Brown with us, which was a very unusual situation. He usually is babysat at our house or his house; this was the first time we ever took him with us to the mountains. He seemed to have a good time, and we did too.
We ate our picnic lunch at Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park, and spent some time there enjoying the day.




These next two pictures of Lincoln were taken to mimic the pictures of Quil and Micah from last June at the same location! Click here to see one of those pictures. I guess I didn't blog the one of Quil and Micah in the window.


Later we drove up past Drake on Glen Haven Road and turned off on Dunraven Glade Road and hiked awhile on the Dunraven Trail. We ended up at this stream where Jason walked across the log and Emily and Lincoln really wanted to...

but we got him stopped in time!

It was just a little chilly with the breeze, so I wore a hat.

It was a gorgeous day and we were so glad to do something special with Jeffrey. He has spent a lot of time on his spring break studying.

Book Review: Eyes of Justice

Eyes of Justice (by Lis Wiehl with April Henry) was a different kind of book for me. I have read mysteries and murder mysteries, but usually they have been more outspokenly Christian. This book had some “Christian” content, but not enough to really satisfy me. I like Christians to be more separated from the world, and not drink alcoholic beverages. That being said, this is a very enjoyable book, in a terrorizing sort of way. It is a book that I raced through to find out “who dun it” and I want to read it again, more leisurely next time.

Cassidy, Allison, and Nicole went to high school together, but didn’t connect until their ten year reunion when they discovered they had something in common. Cassidy covered crime on TV; Allison prosecuted crime for the federal government; and Nicole investigated crime for the FBI. In the following six years, they became closest friends and allies in pursuit of justice. During that time, they made enemies of the folks who were “put away” by their efforts. Until Cassidy was murdered, they hadn’t dealt with the possibility of there being real danger in their lives. Allison and Nicole are desperate to find out who killed their friend, and the authorities don’t want them involved in the investigation. The truth was not at all obvious, and then they discovered their lives were also in danger!

I enjoyed the wording of this book. For example: “When I got in my car to come here it was like getting into a blazing oven. A blazing oven that was on fire. Inside a volcano.” (p. 10) There were places like this that made me chuckle, even while I was ‘scared to death’ about what was happening. The characters were natural and real in their conversations, and I enjoyed knowing them.

I don’t want to spoil this book by giving anything away. If you like “Who dun it?” type books, you will enjoy this book.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Carmen Cruz and Michael Durkee's wedding March 24, 2012

Today two of our favorite people married each other. We have known both of them for many years, and we are delighted that they decided they belonged together. Here are some snapshots from the wedding.
Alan and Betty Durkee, parents of the groom.

Eladio and Sherolyn Cruz, with the bride Carmen.

Three bridesmaids, Emily Albertson, Esther Troyer and Mary Cruz, sisters of the bride

One of the kisses!

Michael and Carmen

With the beautiful cakes

With the attendants, minus one of the groomsmen

The Cruz family

The Durkee family

Emily and Janet with the happy couple. Mike has been one of our "adopted" sons. We are happy to have our 4th adopted son married. We prayed for each of them to find a good wife and they all have!

Emily looking sweet!

I had the privilege of making the bridesmaid dresses. This is when I was laying out the pattern for the matching slips that I made for each girl.

This week when I had finished the dresses! So thankful for the Lord's help! I had to have it, especially with two of the girls far away and unable to try on the dresses. I held my breath until I saw that they fit nicely! :)

We pray for God's blessings on this new Christian home.
I want to say also that I appreciated the modesty of the bride and her attendants. It was a beautiful God-honoring wedding.

Pictures from Emily's birthday

The big surprise for Emily was being given the Block of the Month Quilt for her birthday. She had no idea I had even gotten it bound, because it was a secret project I did while she was spending the afternoon with a friend!

The special guests for Emily's birthday meal were the Strubhars, who live in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We met them at a Christmas party in 2010, and then they had us over on Christmas Day that year. Emily is great friends with Ivanna, so we invited her family to spend part of Emily's birthday with us. Besides eating and visiting, we enjoyed playing instruments and singing together.

Grace, Emily, Ivanna, Faith, and Beth at the girls' table.

Grace and Ivanna with their accordions and Emily with her violin. Faith played her violin, Jason the cello, and Beth and I played pianos. Everybody else sang.