Results tagged “family”

Tomorrow my Grandma, Irene Orndorff, will turn 90 years old. Yesterday, our family celebrated her birthday in Strasburg, VA. Over 200 invitations were sent out. I didn't count how many people where there, but as you can see in this photo (which doesn't include everyone), there was a very good turn-out.

Of course, what else would you expect when you are celebrating the birthday of a woman who has spent 90 years in the same community, living, loving, and helping those around her. My grandmother has 7 children, 5 boys and 2 girls, all of who are still alive and kicking. She has 16 grandchildren if my count is right. And I couldn't begin to tell you how many great-grandchildren, and I think there may be one or two great, great-grandchildren.

Birthdays are special. I know some people don't care to make a big deal out of them for one reason or another, but just think about it. Our birthdays celebrate the day we came into this world! And each of us has an affect on others that we have met during our lifetime. That's a pretty amazing thing to celebrate each year. So in our house, we tend to go all out for birthdays. In fact, I would rather do more of a present thing for a birthday than for Christmas, just seems right to me.

When the kids were little, I was known as the party queen. I would put together the most amazing and fun birthday parties. One year we had great fun with a pokemon party. Another year, Katrina had a jungle party that we are still talking about. But as the kids grow older, the fun themed parties are falling by the wayside. This year Jack's idea of an awesome birthday party was playing Halo with his brothers, his dad, and some friends. And there was pizza, ice cream, and a movie involved too. Last year, Katrina had a sleepover at the church. We had so much fun - making crafts, baking cookies, playing hide-n-seek in the dark.

Yep, here we are, getting down to the wire. In about 39 hours, we will begin our flight which will take us from Lynchburg, VA to Atlanta, GA to Los Angeles, CA and then to Sydney Australia. When we arrive in Sydney, it will be Saturday morning there and Friday evening here on the East Coast.

Tomorrow, our calendar is cleared so that we can pack. I don't think we will need the whole day to pack, but it is good to have that time for the unexpected...hopefully there will be less of the unexpected tomorrow than there was today.

We were up and left here at 8 am as Jack had an orthodontist appointment. On the way there, we dropped trash at the dumpster. Jack's appointment took a little longer because one of his brackets had come loose last week and so that had to be replaced. Then we headed to Lowe's to return some of the things I had purchased that we ended up not needing (extra floor tile, unopened box of nails, one piece of quarter round). Meanwhile, Daniel was at home in case the plumbers came to finish the work we had originally called them about (air in the lines - they are waiting for parts to arrive). Next we went to Joann's as I needed more green felt for the napkin rings the youth group is making for a craft sale. I was very pleased to find it was 50% off!

The last ten days have been busy as we have been tying up loose ends to get ready to go to Australia. The plumbing disaster was threw a bit of a monkey wrench into things as it added a bit more stress (house rearranged due to stuff having to be moved out of bathroom and laundry room, having to be here to meet the people coming to do the work, the five day of having machines here to dry everything out. Four people and only one bathroom, but as all things, it really wasn't that horrible and we muddled through. We even managed to pull off a successful family cookout on the 6th of September with one bathroom and one of the exits to our home blocked.

But, here we are, three days before we head out, and most things are back to normal. We have new tile in the bathroom and laundry room. The machines are gone. There is quarter round in both rooms that makes it look very nice, The washer and dryer are hooked back up and I am knee deep in laundry now. The leak has been fixed. Jack and Katrina's shower, which hasn't worked for years, has been repaired. The plumbers still have a couple of things to do (the reason we called them to begin with before we realized we had a leak), we have problems with air in our water and they have ordered parts to fix that, but they are slow in coming. The insulation hasn't been returned under the house either. The friend that was going to do it, decided he really didn't want to crawl around in the crawl space with insulation. I can't blame him, but I don't think we are going to be able to have that dealt with now before we leave. Hope the insurance people are going to be okay with that.

In the not so distant past, whenever Jack and Katrina would take a shower, our bathroom floor would resemble a big puddle. Water would be splashed about and the bathmat would be soaked. But finally they got the hang of drying off inside the shower/tub before stepping out and the wet floors dried up. Thank goodness!

Well, then about a month ago, the wet mats started again. This was right after Daniel had come back from Bloomington and I thought maybe he had gotten out of the habit of drying off in the shower. I didn't say anything for awhile (contrary to popular belief, fussing at hubby is not a favorite pastime for me). So...I didn't say anything, just kept changing the mats out and fussing under my breath.

Then we went to Chicago and when we came back, the first person to take a shower was Daniel and the rug was soaking wet. So I confronted him. Turns out, he had dried off in the shower and was surprised when he stepped out on damp floor...the plot thickens...he had been the only one in there. So then we got to poking around and come to realize that the water was coming up under our floor boards! There was a leak under there! Uh oh....

Well, this past week was another busy one, but busy at home getting odds and ends done.

Things like mowing the lawn. I actually really enjoyed that. There are benefits to only mowing once a month. My grass is greener than most of my neighbors. Also, when I mow, I can really tell that the yard looks mowed and it looks sooooo nice! That's because some of the weeds were two and three feet tall, then in other places were only a few inches tall. That's because our yard is a hodgepodge of really good grass and some really happy weeds!

I also managed to finish making signs for the youth group bake sale we are having on September 5th from 7-12 at Lancer Mart at the corner of 24 and 122. Come by and get some yummy goods and say hi!

I am up to my final year in my video to DVD project. I am glad to see the light at the end of that tunnel. It has been fun watching the videos, but it has also been very time consuming.

Well, time has sped by again and I have been busy filling every minute of it. When last I left you, gentle reader (I have been reading Stephen King's newest endeavor: UR)... I had spent the first Friday evening of August with Charles, and later Bruce and Ryan as a celebration of my birthday. Things have continued to move along since.

I have spent pretty much every spare minute working on my video copying project. Last week I finished transferring the home movies on VHS to DVDs. Now I am transferring video from DVD RAM camcorder that we had from 2002-2006. Then I will still have 7 disks to copy that I have made in the last year on our DVD camcorder. While the VHS copying was time consuming, I am having to teach myself a whole new skill set so I can set up segments, chapters, whatever you want to call them of these videos. It has definitely been an experience.

The weekend of the 8th and 9th were pretty quiet. We did some more work on Daniel's office. And I took care of some Youth Fundraising and 4-H items that I needed to work on. I also read some, watched some movies and went to church. These are the things I remember...of course it was a whole week ago, so what do you expect?????

The last week has flown by.

My 43rd birthday was last Friday. My hubby and children sang Happy Birthday to You at midnight while we were driving from Illinois to Virginia. I slept for a couple of hours that morning, but there were birthday calls to attend to and I have a hard time sleeping during the day. So I opened loads of lovely cards that had come in the mail, enjoyed reading birthday messages on Facebook, and began the unpacking process. Katrina and I got most of the stuff unloaded from the truck, but the lock on the u-haul had become jammed during the drive here. We ended up having to get bolt cutters to deal with that particular situation.

Jack and Katrina each had a gift for me that they had sneakily won at the fair. Jack presented me with a Wonder Woman doll and Katrina gave me a cute stuffed bunny and dog. Katrina also presented me with breakfast in bed and made some toll house cookies and put a candle in one for my birthday.

Friday night, we were in bed pretty early...all tuckered out!

Saturday was movie watching day. We began watching the miniseries Taken. This is the Spielberg extravaganza from about 7 years ago. I didn't get to watch all of it when it first came out because I was too dang busy with a 6 year old and a 2 year old. So, we bought it on disk and started watching. There are 10 2-hour episodes. We finally finished watching it today. I found it very intriguing but the ending left me unsatisfied. I wanted answers. Ironically the point of the whole thing was that we are all searching for answers and that is part of life.

Sunday, we attended church in the morning, did some unpacking in the afternoon, then headed to Roanoke to meet Bruce, Ryan, Charles and Joann. Daniel took us all to the Outback Steak House in honor of my birthday. It was most yummy and Bruce gave me the beginnings of a trollbead bracelet. I hadn't heard of troll beads, but Bruce said they are the big thing in jewelry right now. If you haven't heard from them, think a new take on charm bracelets. I like these a little better though as the charms don't hang down and get caught on things. He bought me a bracelet and a two beads - one a blue bead with a gold stripe in it and the other is a lion (I am a Leo). I spent about an hour yesterday perusing their site and making a wish list of the other beads I would like to have. The guys are happy to have this help when it come to gift time!)

After we ate dinner, Charles told me he wanted to take me to see a movie on Friday and we would talk later in the week about it.

On July 19th, 2009, we had an amazing day of sadness and joy. Our pastor, who has pastored our church for 18 years, was giving his last sermon at our church. Pastor Tim also teaches my Sunday School class. We were able to get through the class without anyone being sad.

The service however, was a bit more difficult. Deanna presented Pastor Tim with a plaque for 18 years of service and they were both a bit wet-eyed. Then our choir director had handed out the words to the song Friends by Michael W. Smith.

The congregation sang this song for Pastor Tim and his wife Ruby while different members took the opportunity to walk up to them and give them a hug. This was a very teary and special moment.

After Tim's sermon (1 Corinthians 13) which was full of our love for one another and reminiscences, we had a baptism. There were 5 children baptized. One young man, had been baptized when he was younger, but he told Tim that he didn't really feel like he knew what he was doing at the time and he wanted to be baptized again. The other four children, including Jack, had at some point or another asked Jesus into their hearts, but for one reason or another had not gotten baptized yet.

Jack receives his bible and certificate.
Jack gets baptized.

After the service, we had a farewell meal for Ruby and Tim. They will be sorely missed. We are all looking forward to seeing what God has in store next for us and for them.

No lazy summer days here...though we are fitting in tons of summer fun:) Since coming back from the beach, we have been doing school work (trying to get ahead to make up for when we go to Australia in the fall).

Jack spent five days at Go Tell Camp with other youth from church. He came back happy, tired, and full of stories about the inspirational messages he heard while he was there.

While Jack was at camp, Katrina's friend, Kaley, spent most of that time with us (and many days thereafter). The girls have been taking full advantage of summer and enjoying being able to visit and play as much as they want to. One day while Jack was at camp, we met some 4-H friends and went swimming at Miller Park Pool.

For the 4th of July, we planned to go on a cool hike that is held every year here in Bedford County. It is a sunset hike up to the top of Sharp Top Mountain. . Normally there are two ways to get to the top of Sharp Top. Ride a bus that lets you off near the top or hike up from the bottom. I have never ridden the bus, we have always hiked. On the 4th of July, they let people walk up the road to the top. Once at the top, you can see fireworks displays from a multitude of surrounding communities. However, the weather deterioriated and we weren't looking forward to driving an hour only to be told the hike was cancelled or worse, get on the top of the mountain in a Thunderstorm...so we stayed home and lit up our own fireworks. We did fireworks for an hour and had a blast. One of the benefits of living on a country road!

We had a lovely visit with Daniel's family this weekend. His mom and stepfather are up from Florida visiting and we had a cookout so everyone could get together and visit. Our guests included my sister-in-law and her family, our two oldest sons and their significant others, Daniel's uncle and aunt, and our next door neighbor. Everyone began arriving around 1 and some stayed as late as 9.

We always are happy when we get to spend these times with Tess and Johnny. None of us are getting any younger and we count each time we are able to see them, a blessing. Their age makes us more aware of their mortality, but you know the same is true for anyone of us that was there. It is so important for us to appreciated the moments we have with those we love, because there are no guarantees that there will be another. Just think how different the world would be if we all thought about that when we were dealing with family, friends, neighbors, and strangers. I think the world would be a nicer place.

My husband and I are looking into other routes to income to support our family. He has been away for the last 18 months. We do see him every other weekend and we did spend a good part of the summer with him last year, but it is just not enough. We want to find someway that he can make a decent income and do it from home. So we have started creating microsites. I will be sharing links to them from time to time here. Stop by, or not, it is up to you. We are trying to choose topics where we can provide useful information to others and possibly pick up some of the advertising dollars that are floating around out there at the same time.

One of the sites we have created is What is Diabetes?. This one held a lot of appeal to me because it is something I needed to learn more about. My great-grandmother had diabetes and one of my father's brothers has diabetes. I have the additional risk factor of being overweight and I have a sweet tooth that won't shut up. So researching the information for the What is Diabetes website made me feel more informed and is prodding me to do something about those pesky risk factors. Stop by if you are so inclined to see why I haven't had as much time to blog as I used to.

..okay, you can stop laughing...really, you can...cause it's true and it's sad and well...it's funny too. You are probably wondering what the story is, so here we go.

We have been on Hughes Net satellite Internet for a few years now. We live where there is no cable, no DSL, and we occasionally find cows wandering through our yard. For awhile we had a T1 line, but that was in the pre dotcom failure days when we could afford to have our very own T1 line. Ahhh...those were the days. But I digress...

So Hughes Net comes with its problems. One is it is affected easily by weather and things such as trees (did I mention we live in the woods). But the main frustration is their fair use policy. Hughes Net has sold satellite space to so many users, that they have to decrease the amount of download that a user can have today. We had the basic package (which hubby swears started of with us have 500 MB of download available a day), but now it only has 200 MB of download available today. We are a family of four. We each have our own computer. 200 is nothing in the grand scheme of web surfing and uploads.

We have a satellite set up for our office which is across the street. We have the mother of all dishes up there and 1250 MB a day. We decided that it was time to switch the two, seems simple enough, right?

Ginger got neutered last week and after a very long 10 days of having her under our feet, she is now back outside with Plato (thank goodness!)

I took my first Family Law test Wednesday. I was worried about it, but I am pretty sure I got an A.

The kids got all of their school work done this week.

We are making good progress with their science projects, Art Show projects and 4H Photo Projects.

I took the Xterra today for its yearly inspection and there was nothing wrong with it (hey, it doesn't get much better than that!)

Battlestar Glactica is awesome.

Last week I signed up for Facebook after several of my highschool classmates invited me. Since then, I have reconnected with about 3 dozen high school classmates, a dozen college friends, a babysitter from when I was a youngster, and a couple of co-workers.

Tonight I finished a 5 1/2 hour game of Civilization with Jack. Jack loves playing Civilization. And he knows all the tricks. His strategy is pretty much to rule the world. My strategy is to build all I can and be friends with everyone and win a diplomatic victory. So tonight, I was ahead by about 500 points. I was getting all the wonders built, some just turns before Jack, so he started sending in spies to infiltrate my cities and destroy my advances. Then, he got really frustrated and just decided to bomb me. And since each of my cities only had a couple of military personnel in them, I was falling quickly. So I did the only thing I could in such a situation. I gave all of my cities to Frederick of the Germans....(showed him, didn't I)? LOL!

Before we went trick or treating on Friday, we had a photo session Friday morning. A gentleman in our church has a photography business and I thought it would be fun for the kids to have their pictures taken in a photo shoot:) We had tried to get together before the leaves had all fallen from the trees, but between inclement weather and busy schedules, we missed some of the prettier days. But in the end, we got some great shots. You can check them out at my flickr account

Friday night, we got home about 9 from trick or treating and went to bed around 10:30. We were up at 7:30 to head to my mom's church for the Holiday Bazaar. It was amazing!

My children have gone to Awanas for several years now and it is a highlight of their life. Not only do they learn a lot of bible verses and ways to get along with others, but they play fun games and enjoy crafts and they spend time with Christian adults who are kind enough to volunteer their time every week to spend with them.

Tonight, there was a special event at Awanas. We had a Fall Festival. The weather was perfect and we all had fun. We are very blessed to attend a church that has members with such a heart for children.

So without further ado...some photos...

Sorry, I have been away, but life is busy with homeschool, home activities, social activities, class, church, fundraisers, field trips and visitors. I think that about covers it!

Let's see...Homeschooling is going pretty well. We have gotten through about 6 chapters of Story of the World. Jack is learning about the Human Genome and Katrina is studying about classifying living and non-living things. We are learning grammar, spelling, and of course, lovely math. Piano is going well and they are getting back in the groove of things after not having practiced as much as they should over the summer.

We are busy doing some odds and ends around the house. As you saw in photos last week. This week, the appliance repair man came. Parts are on order to fix the freezer. The cost of the dryer repairs was almost as much as a new dryer, so we got a new dryer. Our old one had a computer 'board' on it and I wanted to get away from that. It was 14 years old and for the extra 26 dollars we paid for the brand new dryer, I am happy. I also purchased a small outside storage shed (but I can't tell you why just yet). We are also expecting a lot of packages coming in the mail in the near future. But again, can't share about that just yet. All of those calls and ordering and researching take up time.

A couple of days ago, Jack found the Lego website. He has actually been there before and ever since we bought our first Legos about 11 years ago, he has been getting Lego magazine in the mail. But for whatever reason, he got to really exploring the website this week.

And there is a lot to explore. There are games. There are movies. You can sign up for the newsletter. There is a gallery where you can see other fantastic creations and submit your own for others to see.

The thing that I think is the coolest is the Lego Factory. Go to main page, click on 'play' button, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on 'factory' button. In the Lego Factory, you can download a program onto your computer. Then you can go in and make your own Lego creations on the screen. And you can save them. And the really, really cool part is after your child designs something, it is possible to buy the Lego bricks to make their creation at home. I just think that is sooooo cool.

And being able to make creations on the computer has other added advantages. No more trying to pull the bricks apart with your teeth (not advised if you wear braces). No more stepping on stray legos on the floor. And if you are in the middle of a project, no more having your mom tell you that it has to be put away because there is simply no room for it in the house!

I just went and played one of the games...let me tell you, it was fun! So if you and your children haven't been there to check out the website, I suggest you go check it out. I think you will have fun (you might want to check it out first and you know....test it some...before telling the kids about it... after all you want to make sure that it's a good site for them, you shouldn't just take my word for it!) Happy Legoing!

Back in the late 1970s, a friend and co-worker of my fathers purchased land in northern Bedford County. At first he went in on the property with another gentleman, but eventually, Bob Donovan purchased the complete property for a total of 51 acres backed up to National Forest.

Bob and Dad frequently went hunting together and Bob and his family enjoyed times spent at the cabin. Bob was eventually transferred first to Ohio, then to Canada and then to ABB in Connecticut. In 1994 he was named President of ABB. During this time, Bob still found time to come back and visit his land in Sedalia to hunt. Sometimes alone, sometimes with his family, because even though he left the area, that land meant a lot to him.