Moses and the Jar of Ice

On July 4th, we got together for some good old fashioned family time...eating and hanging out under the trees in the yard.  Moses was intrigued by the crockpot full of ice (my ice bucket is somewhere in Indianapolis...but that's another story).He just couldn't get enough of it and it provided immense entertainment even after all the ice had melted.

 

A Day at the Beach with Alex and Haley

The week before July 4th, my daughter in law's father had a 5 bi-pass heart surgery (he's doing great now).  To help out, we drove up to watch Haley & Alex for a few days.  We messed up the first night by not taking them to the beach to watch the fireworks.  We didn't realize that Monica had told them that day that we would take them until after it was too late to go.  The next day, the kids must have asked us no less than five times if we were going to go watch the fireworks.  Each time, I would look at my hubby and say "We really messed up!" 

We did go to the beach during the day and had a blast with Haley and Alex, but we learned a valuable lesson.  Next year...we're going to the beach and watch the fireworks!! 

Cars2 with Daylen

I love going to movies with kids for the first time.  I think I spend more time watching their expressions and body language than I do in watching the movie.  Here we are at Cars2.

Three of Seven

I think Daylen looks alot like Alfalfa in this photo.  He's such a little Rascal!

Ari is serious much of the time, but when he smiles, he light up your world!

June Bug is such a laid back little lady.  We reminded Joe yesterday that he's going to be busy keeping all the guys from hanging around his door and that time will come sooner than he realizes!

Four Generation Father's Day

On Father's Day this year, I captured this four generation picture...

Emmie Grows Up!

My baby girl is definitely all grown up.  This Spring/Summer, she graduated from college, got married and will be taking her state boards for Nursing this week. 

My Amish Emilie

Here are just a few of my favorite photos from the past twenty two years!

Emilie & Dr. Higgins - I wish everyone could have a doctor who is  half as great as this guy.  He's a one of a kind!  I  think Emilie looks like June Emilia here.

This picture was taken shortly after Emilie cut her own hair  (the first time).  She was contemplating something at the time, but I can't remember what.

Her pie baking began at a very early age!

I love this picture of Emilie & Joe.  We were in Colorado during the wheat harvest and they had actually been playing in the back of the semi on top of the wheat.  It is so typical of how hard they played when they were little, and the dirt on their cute little faces shows that all too well.

Friday Night Live at IWU.  I loved going to watch FNL during Emilie's college years.    I chose this picture because she is so cute and so happy and it has several of her college roommates in it!

This was one of the pictures that I looked at early on and thought to myself, "This guy is the one!"

Emilie goes to Oxford, England for the summer.

I love that Emilie & Logan have so much fun together.  This picture speaks volumes.

You gotta love that Emmie smile!

Oma's Little June Bug

The month of June brought us a new addition to our family. June Emilia Schrock arrived in this world after a relatively short and easy labor.  Mal admitted after the birth that she always thought I had made up my childbirth stories about the ease of the labor and delivery process, but now she knows first hand that it is true.  June has been such an easy going baby.  She is the 3rd granddaughter and the 7th grandchild in our growing family. I think she looks a lot like Daylen did when he was born.  It will be interesting to see who she looks like as she grows into a beautiful young lady! Welcome to our family June Bug!

The Eldest Grandkids

My eldest grandson and eldest granddaughter live a couple of hours from us so our visits are not as often as we like, but very special for sure.  Alex and Haley bring us a lot of joy as you can see by the smiles on our faces. Alex will be 6 in just a few short weeks and we we can hardly wait to get to go up north for his party. By the way, we now have 7 grandchildren under the age of 6.  Pretty cool, eh? We are blessed indeed.

My Momma...My Best Friend

This is my Momma, the woman who gave me life against all odds back in 1956. After my sister was born (1953), my momma was diagnosed with a brain tumor.  It was in her cerebellum and was able to be removed, but my momma had to learn how to walk, and talk, and write, and do so many of the things that we take for granted. My momma told me once that the doctors told her that her hair would probably never grow back and that having any more children would just be too hard on her.  It was in the 50's at the time so brain surgery wasn't perfected by any means.  My momma defied the odds and went ahead and got pregnant and gave birth to me 2 years after her brain surgery. My Grandma Brunner used to tell me that my Momma had me because she missed out on all the important milestones of my sisters infancy... her first words, her first steps and so on... because she was in the hospital for several months for the surgery and rehab. Nevertheless, God was good and he has given her 80 years of additional life.  The last few years have shown some struggles with my momma's health, and her memory is starting to deteriorate.  I think traveling confuses her.  I always knew that the trip back here for Emilie's wedding would more than likely be my folks last trip back to Indiana.  They got here the week before the wedding and my dad insisted on leaving just a few short days after the wedding because he always has to stick to his "schedule" and they were traveling through Nebraska to see relatives on the way back to Arizona.  The day this picture was taken, I was kind of mad at my dad because he wouldn't stay longer, but I kept my mouth shut and didn't tell him how I felt.  I was mad because the reality is I just might not ever see my Momma again.  That is the reality when you live in Indiana and your folks live in Arizona. I was raised in a military family, and went to 9 schools in 12 years.  We moved quite often and I made friends easily, but my momma was, and has always been my very best friend.  When I was first married and having children, I know I neglected her, and that pains my heart when I think about it. We didn't have cell phones back then, and long distance was expensive so letter writing was the best mode of communication. Before cell phones, my momma wrote me a letter every week. I would try to write and even had the kids write her letters, but I'm sure they weren't as often as they should have been. After all, I was busy with my own life, and was raising four kids, or so I told myself. But now I'm older, and I appreciate things from a different vantage point. I'm standing on the platform of the station now and I can see the end of the line...not something I could see in my 20's, that's for sure. Thank goodness for cell phones. Now, I call my momma at least every other day just to check up on her. It's frustrating having her so far from me and it makes me feel helpless that I'm not there to help more. It is clear now through a series of recent events that my folks days of driving a fifth wheel from Arizona to Indiana are over. My folks were really good about coming here every summer when my children were growing up.  Now it's my turn to return the favor.  I love you Momma!  Christmas will be here before we know it and I plan on coming home! See you soon!

Seattle just might be the place to live Gluten Free

It's been a frustrating couple of weeks with my diet, a visit to the ER, feeling bad, a detox gone wrong, and lots and lots of blood tests. Whenever I am feeling bad, I start reading alot of blogs, especially Gluten Free Girl. Tonight I read a posting where they cooked at a farm to gluten free people.  In fact, you can only go there if you or someone close to you is living a gluten free life. It looked and sounded like heaven to me.  I'm beginning to feel that nothing this side of heaven is going to fix me.  Do you think that Paul's problem was gluten?  You know, his thorn in the flesh?  haha!  However, I digress. After reading this article on Dinner at the farm and reading about the restaurants and stores in Seattle, it seems to me that Seattle is the one place on this planet that caters to people with gluten problems.  I'm not sure I would like the whole overcast thing, but I can only dream of visiting there someday and checking out the gluten free community first hand.

DIY Wedding at the Farm

Logan & Emilie Hoffman

Marlin made all the signage for the wedding according to Emilie's specifications.  They were all old boards that we had in the granary.  She tried to incorporate as many home relics as possible.

The Barn by Day



Emilie used old windows for the seating charts.



I spent the year prior to the wedding going from Goodwills to Flea Markets to Rummage Sales all over the state looking for dishes and napkins.  Emilie was going for Shabby Chic and she didn't want the dishes to match. We used Blue Ball Jars (thanks Grandma & Grandpa Hoffman) and old bottles (thanks Barb & Jim!) for vases.  We picked all of the wildflowers that were used. Joe & Emilie got up early and went to Seasecapes (actually now called Garden Gate Greenhouse near Peru, Indiana) to pick flowers while Marlin, Courtney, Colleen and I went to pick the wild ones).

 

 The Schrock aunts and cousins along with Joe & Barb put the flowers in the vases the morning of the wedding and set them all out so they were fresh. I sewed the flags and put a number on the middle flag so people would know which table was theirs.  We used pieces of my grapevine (thanks to the rabbits eating my grapevine at the base last winter I had plenty of grapevine to use) to tie the flags to and inserted them into the jars.

 Emilie said that she wanted her wedding to be about Community and everyone helping together and she certainly achieved that from girl friends helping to set the tables to friends cleaning up the church after the wedding and more friends helping to clean up the barn and load the trailer after the wedding was done.

The tables were set with cream colored tablecloths and oznaburg runners. Grandma Schrock made the runners. She just tore the runners so that the ends were slightly raveled. There was no sewing involved and they looked wonderful!  We folded the napkins in half and placed them under the plate so that they hung down.  All of the napkins were vintage linens that I picked up here and there (thanks again Barb for your help in finding the napkins). My mom, Grandma Schrock, & Barb helped me iron and starch the napkins.  That is definitely a lost art that sometimes I think our generation has lost. It was fun to revive it for this moment.

CD's were set out for the guests to take. We actually made the envelopes by sewing a seam down the side and then gluing a button on the flap. Emilie made flags (see the one in the jar above) that we used to wave instead of using bird seed or rice when the couple was leaving.

The littlest bridesmaid, my Kati Girl

 Emilie made cookies for all the guests to take as a thank you for celebrating their special day. We tied the bag with twine and pinned a cute little button to the twine that she had drawn of her and Logan. I think she did a great job of capturing both their personalities.

 Emilie is known for her pie baking far and wide and wanted pies, not cake, for her wedding dessert.  I told her we were definitely not going to bake the pies ourselves.  When Ben and Joe got married, we bought pies from the Traverse Bay Pie Company and Emilie wanted to carry on the tradition.  Fortunately, the Traverse Bay Pie Company opened up a store in Greenwood, Indiana last year.  They were great to work with and even delivered the pies pipping hot right out of the oven!

The menu consisted of Soup & Salad with an array of cheese & crackers, and homemade biscuits, corn muffins, and rolls. All of the recipes were family recipes and adaptations of recipes that we have found over the years.

The food was served in the little cabin next to the barn. 

Schrockapalooza at the Photobooth

Emilie had this great idea of having a photobooth.  She wanted it to look vintage so she made mustaches, old fashioned glasses and hats and glued them to sticks.  She had a friend of the family take the pictures of people like the ones above of some of our family.  We actually took a picture of the entire Schrock Family and the entire Hoffman Family that were present at the wedding.  It was great fun.

Barn at Night

Emilie was the brains of the operation and had the Do It Yourself vision. We have so many people to thank that helped along the way so forgive me if I have left anyone out. The wedding was everything we had dreamed and hoped for, and the memories will surely last a lifetime. It was a good way to send off my youngest into her new and exciting life with Logan Hoffman.

A Quarter of a Century Already?

Can it be that my baby boy is a quarter of a century old already? Emilie made Joe a Texas Sheet Cake with 25 in chocolate chips. I'm not much into baking these days since I have this crazy problem that has changed my diet drastically. It's a good thing she has taken up the charge so she can take care of her big brother.

This picture was taken at one of the McGrawsville Youth Rummage Sales.  This halloween costume was a bit too small for Joe, but the funniest thing about this picture is that they took this picture with someone else's camera and she didn't see it for months until she finally developed the film.

I was looking at this picture recently and I realized that it is my fault that Joe has done such crazy things to his hair over the years.  He obviously loved his hair when I spiked it up on this day. Curt wasn't too sure about the whole thing.

Friends since birth, Joe & Sam have always been together.  Here we are at a barn party that our church used to have every fall at the little barn directly across from the church.  The barn is gone today, but the memories live on.

My Three Sons

This picture always makes me laugh.  I look like Rosanna Rosanna Danna (I'm telling my age via Saturday Night Live - Remember, it started with my generation!)  This was taken on Mother's Day.  Joe was less than a week old when I took him to church for the first time.  I always said he was my Mother's Day present.

Stent City

May was a happening month for our family. My father-in-law had a stent a couple of weeks before Emilie got married.  Here he is following his stent surgery.  He got along just great.  Next to the elevator, there were masks for people who have the sniffles.  Daylen was fine or so we thought at the time but we put a mask on him just for fun. He looks like he is dressed up for Halloween. I guess it was a good thing we used a mask since he came down with RSV about a week or so after this picture was taken.