Ready, Set, 2017!

Christmas has come and gone and once again it was full of special memories! Colleen and Michelle both had to work on December 25th so we postponed our immediate family Christmas celebration  until January. We actually celebrated on the weekend of the Feast of the Epiphany ( I love that word!). We picked Elle up at the airport on Friday Jan 6 and Colleen on Saturday Jan 7. On Saturday I had this idea that we would make homemade pizzas and play games and that's exactly what we did. Each of the kids made their own version of pizza and it was interesting to see the differences. Colleen took pictures of each of them. After eating we brought out the games. Clue, Uno Attack and Rumikub kept us busy until about 12:30 am. I was exhausted but I wouldn't have given up a minute of that special time together.
On Sunday Granny and Papa came down and we made a baked chicken dinner with mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, stuffing, gravy, steamed green beans and pumpkin pie (made by Granny) for dessert. After dinner we all sat around the table and talked and laughed...one of my favorite things in the world to do! Granny and Papa took off to get home before dark. Colleen and Dad watched some TV, Elle got a call from Hillary and the boys went off to do their own thing. I put on an audio book and cleaned up the kitchen. I enjoyed the time to reflect on the week end and all the special moments. In the evening the girls and I watched the move Storks that I had stumbled on at the library. It was cute and we all enjoyed the main character.The remainder of the time the girls spent visiting with friends and Elle and Gary bought a car! After much thought she ended up buying a new Honda CRV. Soooo Gary will be making a trip out to Kansas in her new car, flying home and then she will drive it to Lewiston Idaho where she will start her 1st traveling nurse position on January 30! Another adventure begins....ready....set....GO!

Fall Fun at the Falls

Finally and Fall

I have been trying to get on my blog for about a month.
It finally occurred to me today to try using a different browser and voila!

So...catching up...

It has been a beautiful autumn.

This month I have been at the library for one year! Last month, I began a 2nd job working as Co-coordinator for PSR and Youth Formation programs at Resurrection. At first I resisted but when it became apparent that there was no one coming forward to take Sherry's place Melissa asked to consider sharing the position. We met and discussed how we would do this and it seemed like we can make it work. So far, so good.

Thomas celebrated his 17th birthday on a beautiful September Sunday.

 

And John left the teen age years behind with another family celebration on a beautiful October Sunday!

 

 

 

 

Thomas has adjusted well to his junior year fall schedule. With 4 classes (3 of them advanced) at Lexington and 2 at Ashland he is definitely being challenged. He was asked to join the Mock Trial team as a witness so he is adding that to piano and karate as his outside activities.

Super proud moment last week...Thomas was inducted into the Lexington National Honor Society! 

So I think that is enough for one post. Hopefully I can find time to put together another post on my time at Cuyahoga Valley National Park this fall...twice!

Junior Year

I can hardly believe this handsome guy is going to be a junior!

This year will certainly challenge Thomas as he attends Lexington High School in the morning and Ashland University in the afternoon. He also wants to continue with piano, karate and Leo's Club. May God bless you and watch over you this year my precious son.

Fishigan 2016

It would be hard to describe the memories made in Michigan this year. As much as I treasure the memories of small children in my arms, chasing toddlers,  and watching the antics of young children there is a joy in sitting with our 4 nearly grown children, talking, laughing, and enjoying the beauty of God's creation with no regard for a clock! 

A keeper bass!

Lunch stop at Tawas City on the drive to pick Elle up at the airport in Saginaw.

Grandpa and Blazer

                          Morning view from inside the camper.

Helping grandpa close the cabin for the year...not sure how he does it all by himself

This is a simple, real, and natural scene of a quiet moment frozen in time

Every summer I buy a new composition notebook and fill it with ideas, plans, and dreams for the summer. I start out with a list of what I'd like to do and then break it down first by month and then by week. I try to get ideas from the rest of the family as to what they envision for the summer.Thomas had said he wanted to visit Art Museums and we decided to try and visit one each month. He also wanted to do at least one college visit. Tuesday we were able to do one of each.  We got up early and drove to Cincinnati to visit their Art Museum. The museum is located in an area of Cincinnati called Mt. Adams.

 It's hard to describe the feeling when I walked in this room. It is quite impressive. What was breathtaking was what you could see in the doorway at the other end. In this first photo you get a glimpse.

This!

I didn't take a picture of the explanation and I couldn't remember anything so I had to look it up and was able to find this on the museums website:

Altarpiece with scenes from the Old and New Testaments
Artist Jan van Hemessen and Katharina van Hemessen
Date: 1550's
Place: Flanders/Europe
Medium: Oil on Panel

                                                                     and a side view

Right off to the side was this chapel. I tend to take too many pictures but this day I did not take enough. I especially wish I would have taken more photos of the signs that explained/ told the stories behind the paintings. I am grateful we bought a book with some of the highlights of the collection so I can reference ones like this.
Title: Falconer
Medium: Fresco transferred to canvas
Date 1125-1150

                                                           

How can it be that I did not take a picture of the painting by Childe Hassam from Massachusetts in the late 1800's I do remember standing there reading this and being deeply touched by the last line:

This is a simple, real, and natural scene of a quiet moment frozen in time.

I read that and just stood there contemplating that thought. Isn't that what attracts me to art and photos and even this blog. Trying to capture the moment and treasure it. 

This also moved me. The title of the sculpture is Eve Disconsolate. 

                                                                       and up close

The artist Hiram Powers was from Cincinnati and his companion sculpture Eve Tempted is on exhibit at the Smithsonian in Washington DC. 

On the way out of Mount Adams, (which reminded both Thomas and I a bit of San Francisco), we made a quick stop at the Krohn's Conservatory, picked up some Chik-Fil-A and were off to Oxford, Ohio to take a first look at Miami University. We had to deal with a downpour as we left Cincinnati and just as the GPS stated we had arrived at Miami U it was a real "gully-washer".

 Fortunately, the rain stopped, we found Admissions easily, met up with a Professor in the Art Department, were taken on a brief tour, received some information on an Art History major, talked to a lovely lady at the college's art museum, had lunch and Graeter's ice cream in downtown Oxford and were back safely home at 8:30.

 It was a wonderful day of discovering new things and enjoying the company of my youngest son. Thank you God!

Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real 2 Days in Houston

It was a whirlwind 2 days in Houston. I flew out of Columbus on the 4th of July. The flight was through Chicago for the best chance of making it to Houston on standby. Flying out of Columbus was a breeze. I have come to appreciate the Columbus airport. It is clean, easy to maneuver, and you can get something to eat without breaking the bank. Stepping off the plan in Chicago I immediately felt the craziness that was to come. My flight was scheduled out in about 45 minutes but as I watched my United App, the number of seats went down and the number of passengers on standby went up. Not surprisingly I did not make it out on that flight, or the next one that was an hour later. That left one more flight out at 7:30 pm. At this point I had to make some choices. I talked to the United Agent at the gate. He looked things over and said there wasn't much chance I would make the next flight. I think I was #15 on the standby list with about 10 seats. He suggested I fly to Dallas and get out of Dallas to Houston first thing in the morning as he said it did not look good for getting out of Chicago in the morning either. 
I walked around a bit thinking and praying about what to do. I stopped and asked at the information booth about flying back to Columbus that evening. This lady suggested I fly to San Antonio and rent a car and make the 2 hour drive to Houston so,  arrive at 10:30pm, try to rent a car, and drive in the dark from one big city to another in an area I don't know....ahhh no thank you...not an option. At this point I called Gary and he suggested I see about buying the ticket. I did... $509...also not an option. When I went up to see about buying a ticket this third lady I talked to was pretty much like, "what were you thinking trying to get to Houston" She shared she didn't think anyone should try standby unless there were a good 20 seats open. I was reminded that life sometimes involves taking chances.

Pretty much all the flights, Dallas, Denver (another place to fly into and spend the night), Columbus, and of course the last one to Houston were right about 7:30. The whole time I was talking to God and was at peace with whatever would happen. I would be disappointed if I didn't make it but knew it was God's plan. It was strange because I had pretty much made up my mind that it made sense to just go back to Columbus when all of the sudden I was energized and the thought in my head was I had made it this far and I wasn't giving up, even if I had to sleep in the airport, even if I ended up flying back to Columbus the next day. I called Gary, put some relaxing music on my kindle, opened up my kindle book, and settled in for the wait. About  45 minutes before boarding time I went to the gate and started the wait. Right before boarding time they started calling people up for standby. I believe 5 seats were taken and then they kept calling names and no one stepped forward. Finally they called my name. I was almost in tears I was so happy. I texted Colleen right away and let her know I was on my way. And so at about 10:40 pm I arrived at the George Bush International Airport and there stood my sweet Colleen. I felt bad since she had flown in at 7 and had to wait for me but she was a good sport about it. By the time we got back to her neck of the woods, we were hungry but everything was closed so we went back to her apartment, made oatmeal, and called it a day.

  

Flight Attendants

                                Watching Colleen pin on Hannah's wings was a special moment!
                                   I still can't believe these two young ladies are flight attendants.

"Pining Hannah is her cousin Flight Attendant Colleen Korte based out of Houston"

I am grateful that I got to spend an extra night with Colleen. 

We decided to go to the Woodlands Mall and have dinner at the Cheesecake Factory and then walked down along the Woodlands Waterway. It was a fun way to spend the evening. As it turned out Columbus natives, 21 Pilots were playing a concert at the amphitheater and you could hear the music in the park. We had fun watching all the people and listening to the warm up band but by the time it was time for 21 Pilots we were hot and in need of hydration and so had to leave. I believe it was still about 90 degrees at 8 pm.  

I decided we needed a selfie while we sat and chatted

Boaters enjoying the concert

Along the Waterway...getting ready to head back.

Woodlands Amphitheater 

Sunset on the Waterway

The first night while I was sleeping I felt this tapping on my back. I opened my eyes to see Rafiki, Colleen's cat looking at me like "hey, wake up, let's play!"

Rafiki