To Texas We Go {Again}!

 

Our sweet friends Sarah and Rose gifted us a trip to visit them in central Texas recently in September and we had so much fun just being together after three years apart. :)


Jessica and I enjoyed our flight and Jess had fun taking pictures of all the clouds from the plane (last time it was too thick of clouds to get good pictures).

Texas is a second home to us, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing the land again. It's so welcoming, and big, and wide-open compared to the busy city area's up north.





 We enjoyed catching up with Sarah and Rose {and our Texas Mom} at Chili's. Jessica and I shared the baked potato soup I'd been dreaming of since the last visit, and a plate of assorted taco fixings. Yummy!

Running errands and on the hour drive to their house we were covered by not just one, but TWO beautiful rainbows of promise. It was as if all of creation wanted us to feel at home and welcomed to Texas! :D

 This trip was mainly about spending time doing normal things together: living so far away from one another, we can't hang out or go on a sporadic shopping trip, or help each other with little projects, or even meet the other people in our lives (you know, besides our family). ;) Last visit we traveled all over Texas from Fort Worth down to San Antonio and it was a blast, but this one felt more personal and special to see what Sarah and Rose do every day and see the things they talk about on the phone.

Taking walks on the dirt road, sewing and beading, playing games and watching the new Cinderella and Beyond the Mask, laughing, talking, spa nights...treasured moments.

This visit we volunteered at a few of the Holman's regular ministries. The first was Shephard's Heart, a ministry offering free food to families in need that the Holman's have been involved in for a number of years now.

The bags are made up the day before and placed on large carts to hand out. We arrived early on Saturday and sorted out all the boxes of fresh fruits, vegetables, and bread items, then they are set out on tables. Jessica was able to help sort and lift and carry - she was a big help! I have carpal tunnel, so they made sure I didn't lift anything heavy (but I snuck in and helped when they weren't looking where I could). ;) The second time I was able to help check people in at the computers with Rose and Sarah!

The second ministry we volunteered at was the Austin Disaster Relief Center and Thrift Store [top and bottom right photos]. I could finally put my OCD skills to good work - AhHa! Jessica and I worked about 3 hours each week organizing, sorting, labeling and relabeling. Then we'd sit in the back (reading and using the Wifi) where there is a big warehouse for storing the clothes, and offices for the call center and employees. I think I found my calling in that thrift store. ;) lol.

~ * ~

We met lot's of people this trip! Texas is such a friendly state that you feel at home and welcomed by everyone you meet with. Of course this gave us plenty of opportunities to let go of our "northern "coldness" and be friendly ourselves!

One of the day's Sarah's writing group from Waco, Tx drove down to spend the  afternoon with us. We ate lunch and delicious chocolate cupcakes and pink lemonade. Then we chatted and filled up water balloons and had a water balloon fight!!

All the girls are writer's in some form. Not all are published, but they enjoy books and the passion of writing down their stories. Kelsey's stories are the only books of whose I'd read before (and it's absolutely lovely!).

 

The Waco Contingent, The Holman's, and Us!

It was such fun to meet such godly young women with various likes and things that make them each unique. 

The Holman's introduced us to their new friends and adopted brothers, the Larkin's{Left to right: Michael, Scott, Ian, and Drew}. Ian, the oldest, had volunteered and visited at the house a couple times, but we hadn't met the others so we met up first at Walmart and talked in front of the ice... ;) And then we moved to Dunkin Donuts and stayed out late talking (and eating donuts of course). They are such fun and made Jessica and I miss our two brothers just a little more. :) Scott (the one photo bombing in the back) works at Chick-fil-A just like our brother Nathan, so it was fun to swap a few stories.

The best part was meeting up with longtime friend Emily and her mother. We were able to spend a week with the last visit and I was so happy they could come spend time with us again. We met up at Schlotzky's (they

 have the BEST sandwiches!). It was wonderful to catch up and visit together again.

* * * * *

A day at the Texas Capitol!! We really looked forward to visiting at the Texas capitol again. It's such a beautiful building, and it's a perfect spot for picture taking! ;)

Sarah photo-bombing our sister shot. ;)

It's amazing all the detailing that was put into the Capitol building. Stars are everywhere you look, and there are even details on the elevator doors, windows, floors, and the door HINGES!! :O When asked, our friends said, "Why not? It's Texas." ;) If you've not heard, they have a lot of state pride. *cough* ;)

Senator Larry Gonzales gave us a private tour! 

AND, we were able to go out on the house floor...so neat!

Meet Pablo and Antonio...our pet longhorns. ;) 

I had one last visit and Jessica bought one this visit.

~ * ~

It's always nice to have some great friendship pictures, so Mikayla sweetly took these pictures for us (though I think she had fun using our Nikon camera, so that helped). ;) She's a great little photographer - thanks KK, you're the best!

{Laughter}

As much fun as it was to visit our dear friends/sisters, it has been great to be home again. :) It was a wonderful trip full of wonderful memories of being together.

Thank you Sarah & Rose!

*All pictures were taken by Jessica P. and Mikayla H. 

Please do not copy.

The Ice Cream Craze, Mother's Day, & a Room Makeover

I just looked at the last entry I wrote for this blog...and it was all the way back in January (a lifetime in blog time). ;) Sorry for being absent, but I've been getting some much needed R&R with my family and adjusting to the changes that have come for us.

My mom has a new job at a local library and she's enjoying it quite a lot. With her job it means we've been doing a little better financially, but it also means my sister, youngest brother and I have to "pick-up-the-slack" at home more; cooking and making meals, cleaning and chores, and making sure the rest of the family can get out the door on time everyday! Whew! That's busy work some days. :)


Jessica and I enjoyed very nice birthday's this spring. Some friends of ours nicely sent us movie tickets to go see the new Cinderella movie *in theaters*!! It was exciting, as we haven't been out to a movie in years. And we really loved the movie, too, in fact. ;)

Sadly our large freezer in the basement had some problems around Jessica's birthday and we had a mad-craze to finish up ALL the ice cream left from her birthday the previous day before it all melted! :O {There was a sale on ice cream...otherwise there would never be THIS much ice cream in our house all at once. *wink*}

 ***

Meanwhile life has been good, and I finally feel ready for some new challenges and changes that I feel God calling us to... well perhaps. *sigh* Change is hard.
One of those smaller changes was rearranging the room Jessica and I share together. She's a writer and that means a great deal of time at her desk, which means I need to find something quiet to do in the room, or go elsewhere. ;) Thus, she and Dad had this great idea for bringing up a desk I had meant for sewing in the basement, but haven't used in years.

 Tada! Now I have my very OWN workspace to write blog posts and emails, work on some crafts, and have my devotions without being disturbed.

*Oh, what a blessing it is!*

 We moved my bookcase over near the doorway. It's nice not to pile my little note papers and such on my pretty bookcase anymore!





This is Jessica's desk, now all her own and she doesn't have to share it with me. She's been very dedicated to her writing the past few weeks, so it's been nice for her to sit here and work. Each of us tries to create our own spaces within our shared room that express our own, unique personalities. :) And I have to say I love that about sharing a room with my sis. Everywhere you look you'll see inspiration of what touches us or what God is teaching us.

 As you can see, I love pretty florals in happy colors (pink and yellow! and sunflowers!), pictures of my friends and family...and I'm currently cross stitching a display of teapots for that green picture frame there (on the bottom right). It's been lovely to have more wall space in our room at last and a place to hang up all my favorite quotes (I've added a bunch more since I took this picture)!
 

***

 We wanted to surprise Mom with a lovely Mother's Day this year, so I made a pretty "M.O.M." banner (of which I forgot to take a picture of. :/) and made sure to have some nice things ready for her.

We started the day with some yummy French Toast Roll-Up's! Jessica and I worked together to get breakfast ready. We made cream cheese 'n' strawberry filled, nutella filled, and pumpkin pie 'n' spice filled. Our favorite was the nutella, of course. ;) The pumpkin ones would have been tastier with pumpkin pie spice actually in the cinnamon-sugar mixture on the outside, as well as inside. :/ I also cut up some apples and drizzled them with fresh lemon juice to serve...mmm.

I ended up not feeling well, so Jessica and I stayed home while the family went on a walk at Winterthur gardens. Here are a few pictures Mom took:

Azalea's

 

Rhododendron

Lilac

 Quarry Garden

Peony

 I made mommy a little bear and sunflower cross stitch framed piece. She loves bears, and I love sunflowers - so I thought it was only fitting. :)

Daddy bought mommy some tasty-looking Godiva Strawberry Cheesecake chocolate. (I'm going to have to get me some now. ;) Yum!).

I made the cake and frosting, and Jessica decorated it. Then we had it with some ice cream.

*cough* ;)








We had an exciting surprise in the evening when we were having dessert - a lovely FULL rainbow in the sky! It certainly made a glorious ending to a lovely day for all of us, but especially for a lovely lady we were celebrating and so thankful for.

 Blessings in Christ, and I pray to be able to have more lovely posts to share with you all in the nearer future this time. :)

Day-in-the-Life #4: January at a Glance {with Pictures!}

This past weekend we finally took down all the Christmas decorations: the tree, the ornaments were packed carefully, the snowglobes and teddy bears and wreathes and stockings packed away in their respective boxes. Usually I feel a sadness when the decorations are put away, but this year I felt a freedom and newness as when your house is tidy after a good spring cleaning. There is a sense that for us 2015 is going to bring about a freshness and newness to our lives and I'm excited to see what God will bring about. I feel ready to say goodbye to the valley, and welcome a new season of my life.

* * *

It's kind of sad to just have all the pictures from Christmas sitting lonely on my computer with no one to look at them...so I thought I'd let a few of them see the light and give you all another glimpse into our home (since I know you can't come visit me).

I spent a good deal during the holiday's with one illness of a sort after another. Thanksgiving while staying with our grandmother I got a nasty cold. Then I got a stomach virus a few weeks later leading up to just 3 days before Christmas, and an infection I've been fighting off in the weeks since then. Fun stuff. :P My poor friends received very belated Christmas gifts this year, sadly. However I still managed to be well enough to eat up the Christmas cookies with gusto, and enjoy Christmas week with my family. I'm so thankful for that, as I need those moments to soak up and enjoy just being together.

Christmas cookie decorating...while listening to Bing, Frank, and all our favorite Christmas groups. ;)

 Jessica, painstakingly decorating the gingerbread man and woman.

 {Christmas Morning}

 My siblings are the best...this guy keeps me laughing all the time. <3

Every year we wake up, eat a large pancake breakfast, and then open our few gifts while Andy Williams plays in the background. Later we play games and eat some of the delicious Christmas goodies we baked up during the week. My family can *barely* wait till Christmas day to enjoy the treats. Lol. This year we spent many a night eating a few cookies with hot cocoa or tea and talking and laughing and watching all our favorite holiday movies with Nan.

 When visiting our Nan over Thanksgiving Jessica and I realized her family photo collection was sadly lacking some pictures from our part of the family from recent years...so we gifted her a picture of us more "grown-up" grandkids. I love how important family is to my sweet grandma. She's so special to us too! {She turned 93 in December!! God is so good!}

Jessica drew everyone character-inspired pictures, mom drew word-art bookmarks for everyone then laminated them, and mom and I cross stitched ornaments for the family as we do every year.

 I've loved elephants since I was a little girl, so Winnie-the-Pooh's "Lumpy" character is my favorite.

 "I've never had a best friend before, so I can't be sure....but I think it feels more like this, I do. I think I feel more like myself when I'm with you."

We visited with my little second cousin and my aunt and uncle a couple times as they dropped or picked up Nan from our house and it was so cute to watch the little guy opening his new stocking I made him (another family tradition, started by my grandma!) and the few little things my mom had gotten him. He always cracks us up, he's just too cute (and he knows it too! Lol). We're excited to help him celebrate his 1st birthday coming up soon! :)

Our local fire department gave us quite a surprise Christmas week. There I was baking cookies when fire sirens go off coming down our road. Now, in our neighborhood this is at least a weekly occurrence having fire trucks and police sirens going off up and down the road outside our house...there is always some kind of “excitement” going on in our neighborhood or around us (we live only a few minutes outside the city). So when my brother shouted out, “Hey, it's Santa Claus in a boat” everyone in our house rushed to the windows and door. Sure enough, it wasn't an emergency for once, they just wanted to spread some Christmas cheer!

Some of the workers were handing out candy canes door-to-door all up and down our street! We came out and of course I had to take pictures. We told the lady who came to our door, “It's so nice to see you for once when there's no trouble!” We heard them for awhile afterward going around the other neighborhoods around us.

Modeling some of my new sweaters - bought with Christmas money.

These two are soft, warm, and they have pockets to keep my cold carpal-tunnel hands in! I also bought two knit-look sweaters, one pink (you can see a photo or two later of me in it) and a gray one.

We didn't have a lot this Christmas, but we had the love of family and friends, and a few things to celebrate this special day. Jessica blessed me with a very special gift though this Christmas. She is always so thoughtful. It's been a few years since we've been able to see friends of ours who live far away, so she collected some photos and put them in a nice frame for our room. I love my friends, and friendship is a precious gift to me – my dearest friends become as sisters and I treat all girls that way, for sisters in Christ they are indeed. :) I couldn't help but get emotional, I miss them so much, and it means the world to me to have dear “sisters” in my life who pray for me, encourage me, and who accept me just as I am. Now I have their pictures on my wall to remind me to pray for them and where I can see their love shining, and keep them close to me even when I miss them from so far away.

Every year some friends from Texas send us up a lovely big box full of gifts for our family. They are so thoughtful, and it's special that they include gifts not just for Jessica and I but for all of us to enjoy. This year they made us key chains (for the boys) and necklaces (for the girls).  

They have an Etsy shop called Five Little Women if you're interested in buying some of their lovely items. ;) [sorry for the blurry photos here!]

 

W.R.I.T.E!

Now I saved the best for last.... We went to the...

Downton Abbey Exhibit!

{Artwork of Downton Abbey. Smile everyone!}

Over this past year, Winterthur our favorite museum and gardens hosted the Downton Abbey exhibit of costumes from the show! I'm not a fan of the show but I certainly know when I see well designed costumes, and I wasn't about to miss this. ;)

It wasn't an overly large exhibit, but it was a hugely popular one in our area – Winterthur was the only place in the USA to have the rights to host the Downton Abbey exhibit so far! Us, little old Delaware got to be the first!! EEK!!!

Every time we've visited the museum, even if just to walk the gardens, there have been numerous tour buses, and during Christmas everything was completely sold out because of the wildly popular Downton exhibit along with their annual Yuletide Christmas house tours. 

{Mr. Henry Dupont's suit and luggage}: Because the museum was a home during the same time period as Downton Abbey, the Winterthur museum was able to include a few of the costumes and historical background of the Dupont family amongst the Downton stuff. :) It was more than about the tv show, or even the costumes, but included what maid service of a large household would be like, etc. and artifacts of the time period. So it was kind of an inside glimpse of the period and a behind-the-scenes tour all at once!

{servants attire from the show}

{Mathew's Suit}

{Grandmother's Dress}

 Jessica's creative photography
{Do you see my new pink sweater?}

{Hunting Attire}

{Kitchen Staff}

 I was amazed by the detailing of the Downton costumes. I knew they were well-made and designed, but I had no idea that they had used actual period embroidery and fabrics for the costumes! 

 

 {The Wedding}

 

 

{Edith's Wedding Gown}

 

The famous pants outfit worn by Sybil on the series has pieces of beaded fabrics from a woven tapestry of some kind. Up close these material's are very fragile, I have no idea how they stayed together for someone to actually wear them on the show!

 And this dress on the show apparently had to be resewn and “new” pieces of the old fabrics and beading reattached between scenes because of the fragile period fabrics used. Amazing!

Jessica was taking most of the pictures, as she usually does for us, and just happened to capture this moment on the scene they had playing in the background. ;) {They had it playing on a loop and you could watch Matthew propose over and over again. Lol.}

This dress is so gorgeous! 
I love all the tiers!

~

This is my favorite costume on the show – can I have one for myself, pretty please?

 Care to take a survey? Lol. She is my favorite actress on the show...I love the older women from the BBC programs who don't mind saying exactly what they think. ;)

They had a very small store set up after the exhibit and we tried on hats.

Doesn't Jessica look sweet? <3

We really wanted to buy daddy this hat - he looks so handsome!
Who knew beret's were his style? ;)

I found an ornament to love....

...and this one too! :D

**Because the Downton exhibit was so popular (Uh, yeah, of course!!) here in the states, now they have decided to allow it shown elsewhere in the USA in the future! You're welcome! ;) Even if you're not a fan of the show, as I am not, it's a wonderful exhibit and well worth seeing if it comes to your area in the future. The costumes and the history are stunning and such a fun once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.**

* * *

I've felt very off-track the last few months, as if I'm running behind in my normal routine this time of year, but now that Christmas is over, the decorations are down, and I'm finally getting well again I feel like I can settle in at last. I've been quite “lazy” these last months, resting around and trying to get healthy again, and feel ready to get to work on some project or other...though I'm not sure what that will be yet. I do have some writing idea's but I've not had inspiration lately for that. I did have a new quilt I wanted to get to but my sewing machine partially died on me – just a cord problem but I can't afford the new cord right now, so that's out for the time being.

So it's reading more WWII books I guess for now. :) My dad found this great set of dvd's at the thrift store a few weeks ago narrated by Laurence Olivier on WWII and it's been filled with information I never see covered well in most school textbooks and such. Like for instance, Russia we know was in the war, but I never knew the extent of their suffering, mostly on their own, against Germany and the bitter cold winters with the starvation they endured, amongst other things. The pictures are mostly in black-and-white footage that I suppose was filmed during WWII, but there are many first-hand accounts that truly add great depth to this series. It's amazing all that they've captured on film from this time and some of the shots are right in the action on the front lines! And it's mostly clean...though with a few quick spots we forwarded through. Overall though it's been the best in aiding me with WWII knowledge, and it keeps it all in historical order which is a huge help to my poor scattered brain (keeping a war on two fronts for the US and almost 3-4 different ways for the British can be so confusing! There's so much going on at once!).

Instead of sewing or writing, I've been listening to audio books and working on some knitting. I find knitting so relaxing. I don't strain my eyes as with other projects, and usually I pick an uncomplicated pattern that I can sit back and knit away on without too much referring back and forth to a pattern. I've had this purple yarn (Vanna's Choice from Lion Brand) tucked away with a partially worked on fan pattern held together with a large safety pin in my project bag. I kept meaning to look up the pattern when I'm online or search for the pattern book when at the library, but would always forget (out of sight, out of mind). I was lucky enough to find the book on the first try last week and managed to find the correct row to start from again and so have been enjoying finishing up this scarf for springtime! Which, by the way, does anyone else have a serious case of early spring fever yet, because I sure do!! :)

Overall I'm excited and content right now – there is still lot's of work left for our family to do as we pray and seek God's will in our next steps for our future. Nathan's hours have been cut to 30 hrs. a week because of Obamacare, but mom is getting a job at a local library for a part-time job she'll enjoy, so God is still providing. I am not the girl I was 10 years ago, of course, and I'm so much happier inside because of how much more He's drawn me closer to Him. It's a bit easier to trust Him now that I've been tested and found Him faithful. I'm nowhere near perfect and that's okay with me. :) And I'm happy with the woman God's helping me grow to be. And now I feel finally ready to move forward and face a few new challenges and go around a few new curves with this experience in hand. So, here we come 2015!