German

The kids at Alair's school have been learning German this year.  The teacher from CVLHS comes over twice a week.  They are doing great. CVLHS has a German Fest every fall with great food and a church service. This year Alair's school mates participated by saying the common table prayer in German and introduced themselves in German. They were fed a different meal,though. The traditional German food was wonderful. This is Mrs. Cram, Mrs. Bill and the students in Alair's school.

Thanksgiving 2012

Since Aubrey and Troy have been dating, it's hard to get everyone together. We usually do Thanksgiving on Saturday or Sunday and the kids can go to the inlaws on Thursday. Alec has the girls from Wed. to Friday. We  this year we also have Troy's kids to schedule around. I decided to have dinner here on Saturday and invited Troy's parents and his sister and family. Ruth, his mom, said sure as long as we had dinner at their house on Thursday. It was fun, but quiet, as most of the kids were gone. Here are a couple pictures from Saturday.

Travis and Dannie

These young men are our newest grandchildren. Top is Travis, born to Andy and Christine on November 1st.  Bottom is Dannie, born to Allison and Chris on November 20th.  That makes 9 in all.

Catching up

I can see I haven't posted for 2 months. A lot has happened. This may take a while.  First, after I made the chasuble, Kim made a prie-dieu for our church.  It turned out very nice.  The church also voted to pay me for materials to make a purple chasuble. I will start that in January. I am so happy about this as I think it adds to the service and Pastor wants to wear them.

Blue Chasuble

This is the blue chasuble I made. I made a red one a couple years ago. I want to make a green one and purple one too, but the fabric is expensive, so it won't happen too soon.

Saturday Supper

I decided to have Saturday Supper instead of Sunday Dinner last week as we wanted to go to a church dinner on Sunday.  Ashley had found a recipe in one of my cookbooks so I thought now would be a good time to make it. It called for hot dogs, refried beans, cheese, salsa verde and tortillas. I didn't think everyone would like them, so I added a few things....chili, hotdog buns, rice, relish, cheese sauce, sour kraut, fried onions, ketchup, mustards,sandwich sauces, chips, salsa and apple slices. We also had apple pie and ice cream for dessert. It was great. Andy's mom, Marty was here too. It was nice to see her again.

1st Annual Woodcutters Barbeque and Potluck

On Sept. 29th, the sons and sons-in-law came to help Kim cut wood. They cut all day and then in the evening we celebrated Evelyn, Mila and Corine's birthdays at a pizza place. It was a lot of fun.  The next day, Chris roasted a whole pig in his spit. It was so good. The weather was quite warm, so we didn't have the competitions as we had planned. Hopefully next year will be a little cooler. It was a great weekend! Here are some pictures. The top picture is out of order. It's also farther down. Ignore it.

Aubrey's Latest Dress

This is the latest dress I sewed for Aubrey. 

Bible Study Ladies of Southern Minnesota

This is the name of the Bible Study I belong to. My daughter,Emily, named us that when she sent a thank you to the group for a shower gift. We started as 6 women who either had known each other for years or had kids that were friends or were neighbors. We belonged to different churches and different faiths. We take turns hosting it at our homes. We are a support group and very much personal friends, invited to weddings and graduations and barbeques  and what not. We talk about issues in our families both good and bad. Women that know about us have asked to join and we have mostly said they could visit. I like our small size. We are now 9. One of our members invites others to come and I know it shouldn't bother me, and it wouldn't if we were just a Bible Study. We aren't. I don't like talking about personal things with people I don't know, no matter how nice they are.  I am not a hugger either and when someone comes up to me that I don't know and wants a hug,I am uncomfortable. This is the latest invitee. Also, the more I learn about the LCMS, the more I am not sure about staying. There are times I just want to shake some sense into some! They don't get the infant baptism. Infants can't have faith and you can't speak for them. They don't understand what baptism is to us. To them it is about them....they decide to be baptized and accept Christ. They don't understand where whole households were baptized. That means whole households....not just of a certain age.  They still have to dedicate. There has to be some ceremony. But there again it's something they do...they bring their child to God...they dedicate it.  God takes our child and makes it His in baptism. Infants have faith. One of the blogs I read talks about a study done that proves it.  Also all infants were baptized in all churches until fairly recently, when people decided it couldn't be right. One of the ladies actually said she had never heard of baptism being a means to salvation. They don't understand closed communion. I do. I don't want to take communion in a church where they don't believe in the real presence. I wouldn't think they would want to take communion in our church either. I like the liturgy. It is comforting to know what to expect  and that you can go to most LCMS churches and feel at home. I don't like praise bands. I want to hear law and gospel. I don't need a coffee shop. I feel comfort in the aroma of coffee brewing in the basement. I don't need a stage and huge tv monitors. I need hymns and an altar to worship at. I want a communion railing to kneel at and receive forgiveness. To be able to look at Jesus looking back at me and feel peace. I want to keep these women as friends desperately. I'm just not sure I can keep going to the Bible Study. I feel we aren't in the same place. I'm not sure what to do. The church doesn't have a women's Bible study and the one the Pastor leads, is at 6:30am. I am getting Alair ready for school at that time. I know it will all work out some how.

Change

I got the guys here to move the cook stove back  up into the kitchen. I also decorated the house for autumn. The stove weighs like 500 lbs. No exaggeration. Son in law Andy asked how long it would be until I decided I was tired of the stove.....Son Erik said it didn't matter.  Yeah....that's kind of what I figured.

Huh!

It has been several days since the incident and I still have a hard time dealing with it. I won't go into detail, but I was hurt to the core and humiliated. I still want to cry and have a hard time getting anything done. Of course no one would know it by looking at me. I can put on a good front. There was an apology, but I just don't think the other party gets it. Eventually I will get over it. I just wish I could feel happier.

Trip to Indiana, Steele County Fair, Alair's birthday and th 1st day of school.

Pictures

Cigdem and girls at a dinner for her.

Cigdem and Kimberly

Labor Day

So it's Labor Day. Alair starts school tomorrow. She will be in second grade. I don't know where the time has gone. It seems like just yesterday she was a tiny infant we were fighting to adopt. Now she is seven and full of opinions and ideas. Claire will be starting kindergarten tomorrow at the same school Alair is attending. Aubrey will take her there and she will ride the bus here with Alair in the afternoons. The summer has just flown by. With the wedding and trips and exchange students,it has been the shortest summer ever for me.That's ok,I don't tolerate heat and autumn is my favorite season. I love the fall colors, but I guess there won't be many this year because of the dry, hot summer. Aubrey and I went shopping and got her pattern and fabric for a new dress. I will start tomorrow after the opening chapel service at Alair's school. I am looking forward to new projects and trying new things. I also think I will buy fabric to make another chasuble for our church. Hopefully blue and ready for the advent season. The first one I made was red and ready for confirmation. I want to make all colors if possible. So today we are invited to Swedberg's for a spitted lamb. I has become kind of tradition. I am making bread to take. I told Alair we would go swimming tonight and get her stuff ready for school. Hope she gets to bed at a decent time.

Two Weeks

Well HyeIn left, Cigdem came and left, Alair turned 7 and now there are two weeks left of summer. I feel like I haven't even had summer yet. But now onto fall. My favorite season. I will be sewing Aubrey a dress and getting Christmas crafts done hopefully. Alair will go back to school and we will have a real schedule again. I hope. I should be able to relax again...some...until the next big thing...Another wedding,perhaps?

Time Flies

I really can't believe it's August already. I don't know where the summer has gone. After the wedding, we went to Indiana with Aubrey and her girls and Emily, Andy and their girls. It was fun, but hot. We walked around Notre Dame and saw Touch Down Jesus and went up to St. Joseph, Michigan and walked in Lake Michigan. We also went to Shipshewanna and shopped at Amish stores. HyeIn has been here over two weeks already. She goes home next Wednesday and is sad to leave. She has been doing a lot of visiting with all the kids she met here. Two days after she leaves, we pick up Cigdem at the airport. She was here 11 years ago, and this is her first time back. We're very excited to see her again. This brings up another thought. I sit here and start to reflect on my life. It has really been amazing. I think back to when I was a teenager and all the stupid things I did. No need to go into them. Let's just say there are times I am surprised I am here. Kim and I have been given the responsibility of raising 5 kids and they all turned out great. I'm not totally sure how that happened, except God had a lot to do with it. There are times I just can't believe how blessed my life has been. We have gotten to know 11 kids and 1 teacher from other countries and stay in contact with them. We have been foster parents to several kids and now get to raise Alair. Back when Kim and I were first married,I never even thought about all the possibilities we could experience. Now I know the sky is the limit. It's a lesson learned later in life, but that's ok. I probably wouldn't have gotten it earlier. My mom and dad lived through the depression and I think that made them always very careful about getting too happy. Your world would be crashed if you enjoyed it too much. I know you shouldn't boast or take things for granted or just get cocky, but God gave man the world to enjoy and I feel very joyful and thankful for my life. I pray God continues to bless us with experiences and new people. I will no doubt have more to say about this at a later date.

More wedding pics

 Emily, Andy, Carly and Corinne.
The wedding cake and cupcakes.
The bride and groom.
Chris, Allison, Mila and Evelyn.

Wedding Pics

 These are our 4 daughters. Just lovely!
 Me and Kim....34 years.
Andy, Christine, and Brandon. Also next grandson.
 Aubrey, Claire, and Natalie.