A 2-day Post

Yesterday, Samuel and I were the designated breakfast team. Samuel made enough oatmeal to feed an army, and I made the topping. We sauteed sliced bosc pears with butter, brown sugar and vanilla. Needless to say it was a big hit!
This group of four children were reciting poems to me, and showing me the birds they had made to go along with it. Definitely some Grammy entertainment.

More poetry and artwork...

After lunch Amelia and I decided to make a Texas sheet cake for dinner.

Amelia is quite a little baker woman. She did very well at pouring out the batter into the cake pan... then putting it into the oven with Grammy. After baking for 20 minutes, we cooked the frosting and added it to the hot cake. Milly spread it around, then sprinkled the cake with chopped walnuts. (She really liked that part.)

Of course being the cook has it's rewards.

The best part of course is always in the eating, and everyone was eagerly waiting to sample Milly's cooking.

*Baby Report

No baby as yet. The midwife came yesterday and said the baby has dropped much lower into position. Julie is healthy and feeling alright. She is anxious though to get this baby introduced to the world and the family.

There are no photos from today. Today was one of several mishaps...from a spilled pail of mop water dripping through the ceiling onto the furnace and hot water heater, to Grammy slipping on a muddy hill and getting covered with a brown sticky mud. It's one of those days that happens to everyone, and we are all glad it's almost over for tonight. I hope to report that things are happening with our newest baby tomorrow.

Sabbath Sunday

Here it is, Christ Church of Morgantown, with the Pastor and his family. Of course, that is Peter and Julie and their family. I thought you all at home would enjoy seeing the 7th Day Adventist Church where they meet.
What a great Sunday morning worship time we had. The insurance man and I had a wonderful time fellowshipping and renewing acquaintances and making a few new ones. One family new to us was the Bolyard family, which we greatly enjoyed meeting.
We came home to a great ham dinner, then the children got on their snow clothes and we left to go visit the Oldland family, friends at Church. They live about 25 miles out in the country from Morgantown.

The Oldlands have 7 children, so it's always fun when the kids get together. The 8 oldest children all went outside to the sledding hill immediately and spent several hours. I got a photo of several of them making a 'train' of sleds to go down the hill. Sometime, while going down, Calvin got left behind as you can see.

Here they are at the bottom with several of their various snow transports.

Meanwhile, inside several adults got to talk while enjoying the babies, and the little ones played with the toys. Millie actually brushed the teeth of all the babies there.

Here, several of the kids are watching a slide show on the computer of photos taken at the Winter Ball. Samuel, Will and Ben all got to dance with the Oldland girls,and enjoyed seeing themselves on the computer.

We had another really fun day together.

*Baby Update

Yesterday Julie didn't feel well all day, and we were hopeful that baby was on the way. But she woke up this morning feeling much better : ( So, today is an appt. with the midwife, and she will tell us a little more. Please pray for a delivery in the next few days, so we will be here to help and to see the new baby. Thank you!

No baby yet...

Well, day 3 has come and almost gone. Julie is walking on the treadmill again, but nothing in sight. We are looking forward to the Sabbath tomorrow, and hearing Peter preach again. It is Sanctity of Life Sunday, so he will be preaching on abortion.
We did a variety of small things today, keeping it simple. We had a rather late breakfast, then did some chores. Julie and I took the girls grocery shopping, while Papa and Peter took the boys sledding at a fun hill in a nearby park. We all met at home for a lunch of nachos and oranges. Cecily napped after that, while Sam and Ben played outdoors. Julie did a little cooking and a little bit of phonics with two of the boys. Millie, Calvin and I colored and Papa had a wrestling match. We enjoyed a really nice Sabbath dinner tonight, and while we were picking up the table and dishes the girls entertained themselves. Millie read what the picture represented and had Cecily point to it. Cecily eagerly joined right in and repeated after Millie pointing to the picture. I thought it was funny how they did this backwards in the chair.

Eventually they got turned right side around, sort of... but both of them enjoyed the sister time.

Papa and I have got our sleeves rolled up, and are pitching in with the cooking and esp. dishes. There is a never-ending supply around here. I kindly took this photo after the BIG piles were done, and the kitchen almost back to square one. Cooking for ten is an experience. Yesterday I opened up 4 cans of tuna for our sandwiches. It's rather shocking, and takes some expert shopping to accomplish this on a budget. Anyway, that's it from Morgantown for today.

A 2nd day in Morgantown

Another great Grammy & Papa day, here with the Jones family. Overnight we had about 5 inches of snow, with a high temp today of 16-17 degrees. We decided that a trip to the library might help everyone with 'cabin fever', so we packed up the Suburban and headed downtown.

Calvin, Milly and Cecily all played with the toys while the older three boys selected new books. There was a great train set that kept Calvin occupied for a couple of hours. Papa and Peter ran to the store (an almost daily need) while Julie & I oversaw the library fun.

Ben looked for and read some horse books, while Will looked up dragon books to check out. Cecily sat and did every one of this stack of puzzles with Mom, while Milly tried out a variety of toys.

Sam is growing up right before our eyes. He was looking for books in the adult non-fiction section, which is his favorite. He picked out a history book by my favorite history author David McCullough, "Mornings on Horseback" a history of a section of Theodore Roosevelts' life.

After lunch of tuna sandwiches, carrots and bananas...the boys headed outside to play in the snow. The bigger boys went to make snow tunnels in the piles left by the snowplow, and Ben rode his disc down a run they had made at the side of the house.

They stayed out in the cold for several hours, having a grand time!


Meanwhile the girls got on their 'dancing girls' and had a fun time dancing to a new CD of hymns.

Next in line was a batch of chocolate chip cookies to surprise the boys with when they came in from the cold. Millie and Papa are the select bakers.

What dough Millie didn't eat got placed on the cookie sheets and ready for the oven.

The appreciative boys gave them the taste test and pronounced them wonderful. Papa says that although he doubled the recipe, the cookies disappeared really fast! Another very fun and busy day.

*Baby Update

Julie just walked 1/2 mile on her treadmill, and although it put her into a contraction, it is still just the pre-labor kind. It does help her to sleep better though.

More tomorrow.

We've Arrived!

I thought it would be fun to do sort of a daily journal with photos while we are here at Julie's. That way you can see a little of what we are enjoying. Julie can add in a little, as long as the baby hasn't arrived. No sign of the little one as yet... First thing this morning all the kids enjoyed a story from Papa as breakfast was being prepared. We enjoyed fried eggs and toast with apple butter along with wonderful grapefruit halves. No shortage of really good food here!

Grandma Bethel was so tickled with the last photo of Julie that I decided another was in order. This is how she looked, the day AFTER her due date. Baby is happy in there so far.

Millie gave me some cooking lessons later in the miniature kitchen. She really has some great food items. I think my favorite was her apple/peach/strawberry pie. She has grown into the apron I made her last birthday, and really gets into her cooking (she's serious!)

And this afternoon the whole family went to piano lessons for Sam and Will. They played their songs for me before they left and they were very well prepared. Both are enjoying their playing and mostly their practicing. Tonight we had Hungarian ham and cabbage soup with sour dough bread and butter. YUM! We are getting ready to watch a Dickens novel on DVD called 'Little Dorrit', or at least begin it while we eat our popcorn. A great first day, with a nap for Papa and then Grammy along the way. More tomorrow....

Family Fun

Life has taken a turn lately, where it has been just too busy to blog...too busy to read...to busy for much of anything but just getting the needed accomplished. Sometimes it's just like that. January, 2011 is going to be one of those months! I thought I would post a quick photo from our Christmas spent on the coast with the insurance man's brother Cliff and wife Peg. We had a great time, and were so glad we went and spent 3 days over Christmas. It was stormy, but that just makes shopping indoors at the Outlet Center even better, as well as playing LOTS of games.

We are leaving soon to visit Julie at the birth of their 7th child. Since we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet, we are looking forward to getting introduced to our newest family member. I won't be back at blogging until our return in the first part of February. So blessings on our family and faithful readers until then.

Welcome Doris!

Yesterday, in Portland at the Immigration Services Federal Building, our friend Doris was sworn in as a United States Citizen. We were so proud of her as we watched and listened. There were 30 new citizens sworn in, from 17 different countries. It was a fascinating process to walk through with her. It was not without some difficulty, as Doris has to give up something precious to her, in order to take this step. The three of us have agreed to call her a German American.

We have the naturalization certificates for the insurance man's great-grandfather Heinrich Asmussen from Germany in 1897, and my grandparents Frank and Amelia Vernon from England in 1933 and 1954. We got them out and compared them this morning. Not much has changed. People are daily wanting to become citizens of the the U.S. It reminded us anew of the beauty and preciousness we have in being citizens of this great country, and the freedoms we each have.