Beautiful snow and Christmas program

Well, I said I would post a picture of the beautiful landscape here after it snows, so here goes.....










These last two are in our pastor's back yard.....very quaint!

Our Kids Club Choir did "Angel Alert" last Sunday evening. I must say, I was very pleased with how it turned out. God is so good! I had lots of help getting costumes together and getting the stage set up.....two things I was not prepared for! I had no idea how involved these things could be.
The kids did a great job singing and acting. With such a wide range of ages (3-12), I usually have no idea what to expect. I had my usually little "mishaps" with some of the younger ones, but for the most part, they did great! And they SANG OUT! I was so excited!!! Usually, I have to beg them to sing loud, but they were really getting into it and did fantastic! Here are a few pictures from the performance. I wish I had more, but I was a little busy.....


John, the wiseguy....I mean wiseman. :-)




Some of the kiddos....

I'll talk to you later.....lots of love!

Update

Hey everyone,

Well, lets see.....I have a monster cold, it is monstrously cold outside, John is almost done with school for the semester and if we can make it through December 14, we'll be doing GREAT!

Tonight, my kids choir got to sing at a Christmas dinner for international students at IUP. I was extremely proud of them. This choir ranges in age from 3 to 12, so sometimes it is hard to keep everyones attention and get things accomplished, but they are doing so well. We will have our Christmas program (its called Angel Alert) on Sunday night December 14. I think they are going to do a really good job and I hope everything comes together as planned.

John is on the homestretch for this semester. I am really proud of him. He has worked hard and done very well, even though most of the things he is learning are really hard for him. I have had more opportunities to help him this year than last year....we make quite a team! Its funny, but all of the training in notebooks and essay writing that I had at CHA have really come in handy! We are both looking forward to the Christmas break. :-)

As I mentioned before, I have a horrible cold. Its been a while since I've had one and trust me when I say, I am not enjoying it! At least I don't have a sinus headache, which is usually the case.......then I would be absolutely miserable!

We are in for quite the weekend weather wise. It didn't get out of the 20's today and is not supposed to warm up for a few days. We are also supposed to have snow, but so far, not much. I'll try to get some pictures whenever the snow does come....it really is pretty here when it snows.

Well, thats it....have a great weekend!

A Great Thanksgiving!

Well, what can I say.....we had a great Thanksgiving! John and I travelled into Pittsburgh Wednesday night to John's parents and awaited the arrival of the rest of the family. Thursday was a busy day of cooking and eating and catching up. We enjoyed hearing about Julie and Brian's new house and all that they are doing with it and it is always great to see Jim. We had the added bonus of having Brian's brother Lance with us this year. Also, Jim's girlfriend Lisa was able to make it down from Detroit on Friday.....we had a full house! The only downside for me was I had to go to work on Friday. So, I made the trip back to Indiana Thursday night, worked Friday and drove back into Pittsburgh after work. We met up at the movie theatre to watch James Bond....that was fun!
Saturday was really just a day of relaxation. Some went into downtown to explore Pittsburgh a little bit, but John and I decided to stay at the house....we've seen Pittsburgh from about every angle. :-) We were able to celebrate John's birthday Saturday night and all watched Kung Fu Panda together. That is a great movie....I laugh every time. :-) After that I was graciously allowed to watch the very end of the OU/OSU game....BOOMER SOONER! John and I travelled back to Indiana early Sunday morning so we could make it to church.......and pretty much crashed for the rest of the day. It was a long, but very good, weekend.



Jim and Julie



John blowing out the birthday candles! Yes, there were 28 of them. :-)


Mom, Jim, Lisa and John

Hmmmm....what to say...

Not much is going on here. A fairly non exciting few weeks. John is plugging along in school, I'm plugging along at work. It has been unseasonably warm this week for the first of November, but we have been promised a brutal December, January and February by some guy that apparently always has an accurate winter forecast. The election was a bit of a downer, but nothing I was surprised at.....I was just hoping. :-) We are trying to gear up for the holidays. We'll spend Thanksgiving at John's parents and I think they are coming to us for Christmas. That should be fun!

Today, we have nothing planned, which is unusual. Usually our Saturdays are pretty full, but this is one of those rare weekends when we can just relax and stay at home. So, I'm wondering what to do with my day so that it won't be a completely lazy day. Cleaning is always an option, but we all know how much I love to do that. :-) I have to go to the grocery store, but that's about the only thing that has to get done. I'm pretty sure that if OU is playing today, it won't be on TV, so I won't get to watch my team. I guess I'll have to settle for the other Oklahoma team and hope they can beat Texas Tech....although I won't be openly rooting for them.

Okay, that is enough rambling for now....

Love to all!

Fall Foliage

Here are some pictures of a beautiful PA fall day! Enjoy!

Hello, my name is Becky and I'm terrible at blogging regularly....

So, life in PA is.....well, at times it just is. However, today has been a busy and fun day. I should sleep very well.

My day started by waking up and madly cleaning the house before John's parents came over. I am not the housekeeper my sisters are, so there is usually a lot of clutter. Not dirty, just clutter. So, John and I got busy for about thirty minutes and got things picked up. Then, I drove to Greensburg, about an hour away, to pick up a Christmas musical for the kids at church. I am really excited about doing this. I've never directed a musical on my own, so this should be interesting. But, I think it will be fun and the kids will enjoy it....and I love Christmas, so its right up my alley. :-)

John's parents got here a little before noon. We had decided to eat lunch out, but have dinner in.....but we needed to go to the grocery store. So, we all headed to the grocery store to get food to put in the crock pot. I made beef stoganoff...it turned out really good! Anyhow, we finally got to eat lunch and then headed to the homecoming football game for IUP. Now mind you, this is not the kind of college football game that I am accustomed to. No huge stadium......no $70 tickets....no walking for miles from somebodies muddy yard to see your favorite team play. It was actually a BEAUTIFUL day, we parked in a parking lot that wasn't a bad walk from the stadium....and our tickets were $13. Life is so unfair....

It ended up being a really good game. IUP tied it in the last minute of regulation to take it to overtime and won in double overtime with an interception on the final play. Quite exciting! I was just laughing because John was yelling for all he was worth on one side of me, and Phyllis was jumping up and down on the other side of me. It was humorous. :-) But, we did have a great time.....and came back for yummy beef stroganoff and chocolate fondue!

Now, I am trying to get things ready for tomorrow's children's choir practice. I have scheduled try outs for parts for Wednesday night....I think I might be a little out of my head to attempt to do this in two and a half months time.

And John.....is waiting not-so-patiently for the Nebraska/Missouri game to come on. :-) Okay, its on now.....life can go on.....

It's Been A While....

Sorry I haven't posted in so long. I have been working feverishly on a certain quilt for a certain sister and am almost done with it. :-) Besides, there is nothing too exciting going on in our little corner of the world.....

John finishes his first block tonight with a buffet at school. Since it is in the evening, I will get to go, so I am really excited about that! I'm sure it will be great. I'll post pictures later. :-)

Work is going well. Not much to it....its pretty much just a job, but, I can't complain. My boss has a garden and she has been bringing in cucumbers, pepper and tomatoes for the past two months. I made some salsa with the tomatoes....yummy! It has been really nice to have fresh produce from the garden.

We have endured a weekend of rain and more rain.....although Sunday was pretty nice. It has been very humid, which I wasn't expecting. It has been so cool here all summer and the humidity has been fairly low.....but it decided to rear its ugly head this weekend. But, this morning it is pretty cool and it is supposed to stay that way for the rest of the week, I think.

I will be starting a women's Bible study soon. It is in the evening's, which is nice. The first one is tonight, but I won't be able to attend because of John's buffet. However, I think I am really going to enjoy it. The topic is friendship and the lady who is teaching is someone I really respect, so I am looking forward to it. We are also going to be going to a couple's Bible study on Friday nights. Should be a good time of fellowship and growth for us. There aren't a lot of young couples in our church.....and we are one of two couples without children.....so it will be nice to continue to get to know people in our age group.

Please continue to pray for us as we are still in limbo, technically, on where we will go when John finishes school. Until January, nothing is official with the Broadmoor in CO Springs, and if there is not an opening, we will have to look elsewhere. However, I am learning to trust.....seems like this is always the case.....and trying not to worry about the future. God is in control and I know He will put us where He wants us. We just need to continue to seek Him!

Love to all.....

Back from Vacation....

Well, we had a great time in NYC and Washington DC. We had gorgeous mid 70's weather all week and, despite having really bad sunburns most of the week, really enjoyed walking around both cities.
The first night we were there, we were able to meet Julie and Brian and Brian's family in Times Square for supper. We ate at Hard Rock Cafe and enjoyed a good visit with them. John and I were staying in the Bronx, so we headed back on the subway at around 12:30am. We got a little lost trying to find our hotel.....wondering around the Bronx at 1:00 in the morning was not my idea of fun. We finally just got a taxi and he took us right to our hotel. We NEVER would have found it! Besides the one incident, the Bronx wasn't so bad. A totally different world than I am used to, but not as scary as one might think....at least where we were.
The Yankees game was AWESOME!!! We had bleacher seats, weren't close to anything, were in the full sun (without sunscreen!), and I couldn't take my camera in.....but it was great! They put on a show for us by hitting four homeruns and winning 15-6! It was a great birthday present for me. :-)


The new stadium!

We spent Monday waiting to get out to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. It was worth it! It is such a peaceful place with a great view of the city skyline. It is a very moving experience to see not only Lady Liberty, but all of the different nationalities of people that are there to view her. I can't tell you how many languages I heard! It amazed me what this symbol of freedom means to so many. Very cool! We could have gone to Ellis Island and toured the buildings where so many imigrants first set foot on American soil, but we were running out of time before it closed and decided to skip it.


Notice the lovely skyline....and the lovely sunburn. :-)


The lovely Lady herself!

We went back to Times Square for a spectacular meal at a restaurant called Keene's Chophouse. Wonderful porterhouse steak!!! That was the highlight of the day for John. :-)



Tuesday, we headed out to Long Island to a town called Riverhead. I think this was the most relaxing time we spent on our whole trip. We went to a great water park there called Splish Splash and enjoyed a few hours of fun in the sun.....kind of. I was really sunburned from the game, so I tried to stay lotioned up and in the shade as much as possible. We still had a great time!
Wednesday, we headed to Gaithersburg, Maryland, via Baltimore. We stopped in Baltimore at the National Aquarium. This was a cool place to go and the wharf was absolutely beautiful! We were glad to get to Julie and Brian's house and so glad to spend some time with them. Even though they worked during the day, our evenings were spent in great company!


A boat at the wharf in Baltimore...it was a beautiful day!

Thursday was my birthday and I chose to spend it at Mt. Vernon, home of George and Martha Washington. I think this might be one of my favorite places to go. It is so peaceful and takes you back to a simpler time and through the mind of one of my heroes, George Washington. Did you know he was an innovative farmer who expanded his lands to 8,000 acres during his time of ownership......while he lead the Revolutionary War and served as our countries first president? Amazing! I truly enjoyed walking around the grounds they have preserved and learning about the life of the Washingtons.


Washington's 16-sided barn designed and built for threshing wheat.

Mt. Vernon from the Potomac River.

Me and John in the garden.

Friday, we went to the Holocaust museum in Washington DC. This was a truly moving experience for me. I had never been to a Holocaust museum, but am glad for the experience. Very moving....very emotional. I don't think I can even put it into words. After that, we would have liked to gone up Washington Monument, but the tickets were gone for the day, so we kind of wandered around for a little while. I was pooped, so we really didn't do much for the rest of the day. We had both been to DC before, so there wasn't anything I really wanted to see. John would have like to have seen more museums, but we decided against it........we were very tired of sightseeing. :-)



These two speak for themselves. :-)

We spent a good Saturday morning with Julie and Brian and then headed home. Whew!! I think that about covers it. :-) We had a wonderful time and felt ready to come home and tackle this fall semester!
If you made it all the way to the end.....thanks for reading!

New York, New York

Well, we are headed to New York City tomorrow! I am super excited about this trip! We will go to a Yankees games Sunday, see the sights on Monday, go to a water park Tuesday (this was John's idea....), and in general have a great time. :-)
We will head down to the DC area on Wednesday to spend a few days with John's sister Julie and her husband Brian. We are really looking forward to this. :-) Funny thing is, they will be in New York City the same time we are, so we may get together with them there also.

Here are a few pictures of John's toque day ceremony. I was so extremely proud of him! His perseverance is inspiring to me and God has been so gracious to give him success. Enjoy!







We'll talk to you when we get back!

Well.....

Not much going on here at the moment. John finished his summer semester today!!! He will have his toque ceremony Saturday. That is when he will get his big hat. :-) I am so proud of him!! He has made it through the year that he didn't particularly want to do to get to the one that will get him where he wants to be. Does that make sense?

We are preparing to go to New York City in a couple of weeks and then down to the DC area to visit John's sister, Julie and her husband Brian. Really looking forward to this trip! My birthday present is a Yankees game, so, of course, I am extremely excited about that. I also can't wait to see the Statue of Liberty and some of the other sites around the city. We will do some sightseeing in DC, too, but we have both been there before, so not quite the same as seeing something brand new.

Other than that, not much happening in our neck of the woods.

Congrats to my brother and soon-to-be sister! I am so proud of Britt and extremely happy for he and Lauren. I am also extremely glad Britt didn't misplace the ring before he got it on Lauren's finger. :-) Shout out to my honey on that one!

Love you guys, Becky

Vacation Bible School

Well, we've had a fun filled week of VBS at our church this week. We brought in a couple from Alpha Omega Institute to do "Discover Creation". They were really good. LOTS of information about Creation vs. Evolution. John and I were in charge of Recreation time. I have to say, the hit for the week was the Dinosaur Dig. We had a little plastic swimming pool filled with sand and buried "dinosaur eggs" in it. These eggs were made from Plaster of Paris and had little plastic dinosaurs inside. The kids loved it! However, the people that made the eggs made them a little thick and they were hard to crack open. You were supposed to be able to do it with your hands, but we had to use mallots and some kids resorted to just throwing them on the cement floor in the basement to open them! What a mess! But, it was fun and the kids really enjoyed it.

So, we have had an extremely busy week and I am looking forward to the weekend so we can rest up and get some things done around the house. John is in his last block for the summer...........YEA!!!!! He will officially be finished with his first year of culinary school in two weeks! I can hardly believe we have been gone for a year, but next week will be one year since we moved to Pennsylvania. I can honestly say it has been a very hard year for growing pains, but I know it will be worth it we are where we know God wants us to be.

Love to all, Becky

A Busy Week

Well, Mom, Dad and Bryce were here this last week. It was great to have them! They arrived July 3rd and we were supposed to go camping with John's folks at a place called Ohiopyle for the weekend. However, the rain had different ideas. We ended up meeting at John's parents house and spending the weekend in Pittsburgh. We had a great time! We really didn't do a whole lot on the 4th until the evening. We decided to go downtown for the fireworks show....assuming that it wasn't raining. The rain decided not to come down, and we enjoyed a SPECTACULAR fire works show on the banks of the Monongahela River. It was the best I have ever seen! We really enjoyed it. We even enjoyed the 45 minute wait to get out of the parking lot....what a blessing. :-)

Saturday, we headed to the Carnegie Science Museum in downtown Pittsburgh. That was a lot of fun! They have some really cool things to do and look at. We got to tour a submarine, walk through a miniature train village, play some video games, look at anemones in tanks (we actually saw Dora and Nemo), and watch a frog get disected. That was interesting. :-) Bryce loved it! After this, we took the fam up the incline of Mt. Washington for a beautiful view of downtown Pittsburgh. We had a great time with John's parents! They are great hosts!

Mom and Dad spent the next two days with us. We got to take them to church and they got to go eat at John's school. That was really enjoyable for them, especially since John got to eat with them. Tuesday, they headed out to Philadelphia and then back through Gettysburg. It turned out to be a good thing that they were gone because I got sick and am still struggling with a sore throat and no voice. They enjoyed all of the sightseeing that they were able to do, especially Independence Hall. I'm so glad they were able to do all of that! I think it was worth it for them.

They returned to us Thursday afternoon. Mom and I headed out to Smicksburg, PA, an Amish community about 45 minutes from us, to do some shopping. We had fun looking in the little shops and buying some little things. Mom found a cookbook for John...."The Ultimate Potato Cookbook". Anyone who know John knows of his love of potatoes, so she thought this would be the perfect gift for him. :-) I bought mom a "Blessing Star" to put on their house. This is a 5 pointed metal star displayed on the outside of your house (although we have ours inside). These are common in PA, and symbolize blessings on the home. The 5 points represent God, Father, Mother, sister and brother. I didn't know this last part until John's mom told me yesterday.
Pretty cool! Mom and Dad took us out to eat for dinner Thursday and then we went home and watched the movie "Gettysburg". :-)

So, Mom, Dad and Bryce left yesterday. I absolutely loved having them here and hated to say goodbye. I miss them so much! Hopefully I can post some pictures soon.....but we all know how good I am about that. :-)

Talk to you later!

10 Random things...

I was reading Lauren's blog and she listed 10 random things about herself. I got to thinking.....I don't know if I could do that. Not too much about me that is random...I'm actually pretty boring. So, even though I wasn't tagged, "sniff, sniff", :-), I am going to try.

1. I love thunderstorms. They used to scare me when I was little, but they are actually really fascinating. I was a little sad this spring when we didn't have any thunderstorms here, only to find out they come later in the year. We have had one almost every night this week!

2. Burping is my BIGGEST pet peave. You can ask my sister, Beth, or my husband about this. Actually, anyone that knows me very well will testify to this fact.

3. I am a junk food junkie. I LOVE junk food. I have to really make a concerted effort not to eat it most days, but I am doing much better and am very proud of myself for this fact.

4. I love music. Now, I know you are thinking, DUH! But seriously, everything about music fascinates me. I love to figure out the different harmony parts in songs and can seriously sing every part of the "Hallelujah Chorus". I think if I had some help, I could really be a good song writer, but I don't have the technical "know how". Maybe someday....

5. I am extremely silly. I think most people think I am really kind of serious, but not so much. Just ask Debra and Charlanne.....or any child that I have taught in children's choir....

6. I love to punch buttons. Seriously, typing this out is a blast. I have always loved punching buttons, especially if I have long fingernails. I love the clacking noise it makes!

7. Money fascinates me. When I was a teller, the Fed was always sending out fliers on the new money that was coming out and its different features. I loved reading those and then examining the money to see all the different aspects of it. I don't know about the newer bills, but the older bills had teeny tiny print on the collar of all the Presidents that read "The United States of America". Just really cool how they can print it that small. You can't even tell it is words at all! On a side note, we just rented "Mad Money". Really cute movie....and that really does happen. They actually shred ugly money. Money is actually very disgusting.....probably shouldn't be so fascinated by it.......

8. I turn into a pumpkin around 9:30.....I am not a night person AT ALL!

9. Quilting is one of the things I love to do and don't have enough time to do. I love to put the colors and patterns together and see the final product. I am getting better at the actual quilting part and hope my Granny would be proud. :-)

10. I actually hate math.....so the fact that I work with numbers every day and am very good at it, is nothing short of a miracle. God really does have a sense of humor!

YEA!!! I made it through ten things.....and it wasn't that hard!

Have a great one!

Update

Sorry its been a while. There really is not much going on around here. Julie was with us last weekend, which was good. We had a great time having her in our home. We are making plans for Mom and Dad and Bryce to come up the first week of July. I'm really looking forward to that.

John is doing well in school. His blocks are now only 10 days long instead of 15 and he is in the kitchen for the whole time. Much more hands on, which I think he enjoys. It has been nice because I don't have to make him a lunch half the time!

We are also planning a trip to New York City the week of my birthday. I was able to get tickets to a Yankees game on Aug. 17, which is a Sunday. I went ahead and took the entire week off since it was available, so we are going to try and make a trip out of it. However, lodging, as you can imagine, is very expensive. We would like to camp if we can find a campground that is not too far out from the city. We'll see. We are also hoping to get to go down to Brian and Julie's later that week and spend a little time with them in Maryland. So, things are coming together for that. :-)

This is turning out to be a busy summer, which I think is good. I am finding myself a little discontented with my job. I enjoy the work, but it doesn't keep me busy all day and I get incredibly bored in the afternoon. I hate that feeling and it tends to drag on me quite a bit in the attitude department. I am considering looking for something else, but since I am going to be here for less than a year, don't want to get into a "hard to fill" position. So pray that something will either open up that I can apply for without feeling guilty or that my bosses will find more for me to do!

Here are a couple of pitures from our recent trip to OK! I need to get Beth and Mom some copies.....maybe I'll get those in the mail this week. :-)








Here are a couple from our trip to Gettysburg!





Have a great week!

A Pennsylvania Spring

So, as you know, we were in Oklahoma for a week. It was nice and hot and sunny. No rain. Good swimming weather. We came home to PA and the temperatures had still not gotten out of the 70's on a consistent basis. This is great since we have no air conditioning. We were just hanging out with the windows open, and at times, in the evenings, it would get a little chilly.

That was last week. This week, although the temperature has not been too high, the humidity is stifling. For those of you who know me, I don't do well when I am hot and sticky all the time. But this is unreal. I knew it was different here. When we moved in August, the humidity was unbelievable, but apparently it starts now and ends sometime in September. So, John and I are going to have to figure out some sort of cooling system for our apartment. Either a window unit for the bedroom and fans downstairs or fans in every corner. SOMETHING!

The upside to all of this is the flowers. I love flowers and the ones blooming here are gorgeous. The rotodendren (sp?) bushes are particularly lovely. They just all of the sudden opened up one day last week and the world was a maze of the most gorgeous lavenders and pinks I have seen in a long time. Very nice. I have noticed some other plants, but I don't know their names. The colors are so cheerful. It makes me happy!

We are doing really well. John is in the kitchen all day now. They have been preparing various buffets and are in preparation to open the school's restaurant soon. I think he is enjoying it, but he is tired when he comes home. Last night, he came in, ate dinner, and went to take a 30 minute nap before we went to Bible study. And he is sawing logs as we speak. :-)I am doing well at work. I got nominated by one of the regional managers for a service award for my help in helping branches with their tickets. That was really nice. I don't think I'll win, but it was a nice gesture on his part and I appreciate it.

Today will be an exciting day. We are going to do LAUNDRY! I can't hardly wait. ;-)I also hope to get started on figuring out a cooling system. I really can't wait for that. Right now, we have a fairly cool morning, but it won't last long, so I'm going to enjoy it while I can. :-)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Welp...

We had a great time in Oklahoma. It was so nice to be home and see family and friends. Brooke's graduation was, of course, the highlight of the trip. I am so proud of her and her accomplishments. She accompanied the choir beautifully and her smile was priceless. :-)

John was able to take the train down to Ft. Worth to visit Barry...which was the highlight of his trip! He had a great time catching up and visiting Barry's church. I am so glad he was able to do this. I had fun shopping with Mom and Beth, helping with Brianna and Nathan, and hanging out with the fam. I was also really glad to finally meet Lauren! Had a great time getting to know her a little bit.

Life is back to normal in Indiana, PA. John is back in school and I am back at work. I am looking forward to returning to our church tonight. I missed it while we were gone. John and I celebrated 2 years of marriage yesterday! He bought me some beautiful roses and I made him an apple pie. We also took a trip to Gettysburg before we left for Oklahoma, which was a lot of fun. If you ever have an opportunity to go, I highly recommend it!

Hope everyone has a great day!

Home

Well, here we are in Indiana, PA, and I can't help but be thankful for how God has truly blessed us. We leave Friday for a little anniversary trip to Gettysburg and then Monday we fly into Oklahoma! I am so excited!!! I can't wait to hug my mom and dad and laugh with my brothers and sisters. I can't wait to see friends and catch up on all the news. But, I had a realization last night. Someone at church asked if I was going to come back home to Indiana. :-) I knew she was only kidding me, but I can honestly say, though I know I will hate saying goodbye, that I will enjoy come back "home". God has really blessed us here. He has blessed us by having John accepted to school here and provided for our needs. He blessed us while I was looking for a job for FOUR MONTHS! He has given us a GREAT church family who love and support us and are going to miss us while we are gone. It has been wonderful to be close to John's family. We have so enjoyed being able to spend time with them and I have loved getting to know them better. God has provided for every need that we have had with an over-abundance. I mean, His "riches in glory" are something else!!!

I guess I say all of this to say that, while nothing will ever be like "home" with all of my family and friends around that I have known for years, God's grace and love are shown to me where I am at. He gives me strength to get through the toughest of times and then fills me up with more. I can't thank Him enough for that. My true home is not here on this earth, but He has allowed me to be planted in one spot for most of my life. I can't wait to get back there for a great visit. But, for now, He has transplanted me and it has been a great growing experience. I know He has lots more to teach me, so I'm ready for that. I'm not so sure I could have said the same thing a year ago.

I'm rambling a little, but I hope you can see my heart. God is SO GOOD to us all of the time. I am so thankful for this!

Update

Nothing new to speak of here. John has two more days of school and then he is done for 3 weeks. He is really excited about that.
We took a mini road trip this weekend. We drove about 30 minutes west to Johnstown for breakfast and then decided to drive to Greensburg...which is another hour in the opposite direction. Greensburg is a larger town that has some actual stores you can shop in, so we went hunting for a new computer. We didn't buy anything, but we are hopeful of getting one soon. :-)We also ate at Texas Roadhouse!!! That was the first one I have seen in PA, so I was excited to eat some good ribs and get to listen to really loud country music. :-) We had a great day to drive and enjoyed ourselves immensely.
We are officially counting down to our trip back to Oklahoma!!! I can't wait and would leave today if I could....however, that is not possible, so I'll settle for May 19th. :-)

Talk to you later!

New York, New York

Well, John got to go to New York City with his class this weekend. He had a great time and got to go to a really cool Brazilian restaurant...which was basically the whole purpose for the trip. He is currently fighting a cold, which is no fun, but I think in spite of that, he had a great time! He even brought me back a Yankees ball cap.......even though he doesn't like them. :-)

I spent the weekend in Pittsburgh with the rest of the Henderson clan. Julie was in town, so it was good to see her. We went to the big car show in downtown Pittsburgh, which was great! I've actually never been to a car show, unless you count the one at the fair...which I don't...doesn't even compare. There were some awesome cars there...none of which I can afford and most of which I wouldn't drive anyways. :-) There was a classic Maserati there, which was really cool. And can I just say...I do not understand the fascination with the metallic burnt orange color for all of the sports cars. The people choosing must be Texas fans! It seemed like there were a lot of sports cars in that color. I couldn't believe it! What happened to good old red! Anyhow, I think my favorite car was a little red Cadillac. Julie, Phyllis and I all drooled over it. :-)

We are still waiting to hear from the places that John interviewed with. We hope to have some news soon! We'll let you know as soon as we do.

Love to all....

A Nice Weekend

John and I had a very nice weekend...if only it could have lasted longer. :-)

Friday night, we decided to splurge on dinner and a movie. We haven't done this in a while, and since we got our tax return, I told John he was taking me out on a date! So we drove the hour into Pittsburgh Mills, ate dinner at Chili's and watched "Leatherheads". Highly recommended for all OU fans...they play a great fight song at one of the games!!! I was honestly singing "Boomer, Sooner" in the middle of a packed theatre...but just loud enough for John to hear me. :-)It was a great movie...George Clooney is just hillarious! Reminiscent of his "O Brother, Where Art Thou" days.

Saturday, John had a fund raiser he was helping with in Punxy, so I went up with him. I went for moral support only. I drove around and put change in everyone's little buckets. I also got my hair cut, which was badly needed. It felt so good to get it all chopped off! Then we drove back home, picked up some sandwiches at a local sub shop, and spent the rest of the day at home.

Sunday was, of course, a great day. I filled in for the lady who normally does children's church, and that was fun. To top it all off, we had some sunny weather and almost 60 degree temps most of the weekend. So, hopefully, spring is here to stay. Wouldn't that be marvelous!

Nothing else too exciting....John had a good interview with The Broadmoor, located in Colorado Springs. He has two more coming up this week with a place in Williamsburg, VA and the Marco Island Marriott in Florida. Pray that those go well also.

Love you guys, Becky

Decisions, Decisions

There is not much going on here right now. John has started a new block this week, which has significantly less homework than his other ones have. We are grateful for that at this point in the semester. This particular block has him interviewing with properties for his externship. Because he is doing the baking and pastry arts, he will not go on his externship until summer 2009, but he has to interview right now. AAHH!!! He's kind of been pulling his hair out over this. We both feel it is a little early to be making a decision on where we will be going over a year from now, and these interviews are by no means final, but the school wants him to have a place lined up ASAP. So, we have some decisions to make pretty soon that will affect us in a major way. I think the biggest thing is, neither of us feels like making a huge move again anytime real soon, so even thinking about it is a little stressful. But, we know that God has a plan, and we are willing to follow it....we're just not quite sure what the next step is. :-) Please pray for wisdom in choosing the next step.

Other than that, we are doing fine. I wish it would warm up....I'm jealous of the 70-80 degree weather in my beloved Oklahoma. I've had to scrape windows more often than not this week...its a real blessing. :-)

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon....Becky

Ummmm.....

It snowed last night. In what way is it right for it to snow on the weekend of Easter??? Unless you are in Alaska....Seriously....
John and I are doing well. He is about finished with this block and then he only has two left!!! This next block will consist of having interviews with some properties for his externship. He won't go on externship until summer of 09, but these interviews will be really important in making connections with a future employer. I think he is really looking forward to it. I am hanging in there. :-) I am really ready to visit home. We will be in Oklahoma for the week of Brooke's graduation, so hopefully we will be able to see a lot of friends and family.
We enjoyed a nice spring break for John last week. His brother Jim and his girlfriend Lisa were here, so we enjoyed spending time with them. John got some much needed rest and relaxation....and I worked. :-)
I experienced my firt Maunday service Thursday of this week. Easter is celebrated very differently up here. I guess it is because a lot of the population is Catholic. I got half a day off of work yesterday for Good Friday. The Maunday service was just to commermorate the Last Supper and the beginning of Jesus' trial. Our pastor and another man in our church portrayed James and John, the Sons of Thunder, as they remembered the events of the passion week. It was a great way to start off the celebration of our Lord's resurrection. I am really looking forward to Sunday!
I hope everyone has a great week ahead.

Later, Becky

P.S.: BOOMER, SOONER for their win last night in the NCAA tourney!

I'm Ready for Spring.....

....I think. I can tell it is coming because my eyes have started itching and I'm getting headaches more often. Isn't that wonderful! But, it is pretty much a sure sign that spring is on the way. I'm just hoping that it will be half-way warm for Easter!!!!

John is on spring break this week and will be enjoying some much deserved time off. He has worked really hard this semester and will continue to do so...but he is ready for a break. His brother Jim will be in town this week, so we are looking forward to spending time with him and his friend who is with him. I think they are going to spend Wednesday night with us and then we will be going into Pittsburgh Friday.

We haven't really been up to much lately. We helped some people move into their new house Saturday, which was fun. I have their kids in choir and we have prayed every week since we have been at this church for their new house to be built quickly. They were really excited to be moving in and it was fun to see answered prayer.

I have to get ready for work, so that is all for now. Have a great week!

Nemacolin

SO, John and I got the opportunity to go to Nemacolin, a 5 Star 5 Diamond resort about 2 hours south of us here in PA. We went as a field trip with his class last Sunday and had a great time. This place is amazing! And the food....oh my goodness! Of course, that was the whole reason we were there. The Executive Chef for the entire resort is an IUP Culinary grad and he was great to us!



We took this because we thought it was really funny. John is currently in a wine, spirits and beers class that he has to do tasting for. Don't worry, he spits it out and doesn't swallow. :-)

They put on quite a spread for us. This was a yummy flourless chocolate cake.


Shrimp and Crab legs. Yummy!

This is John's class. Can you find John???

There he is!!!

Hope you enjoy!

Good News!

We learned yesterday that John has been accepted into the second year Baking and Pastry Arts program at his school. We are very excited about this as it will help us tremendously in decision making in the near future. I was actually at the school when he got his letter....my heart was pounding and I was more than a little nervous. :-) But God is faithful and we feel this is what He called us here to accomplish, so Praise the Lord!
I had yesterday off for President's Day, so John arranged it so that I could observe some of the classes at the academy. It was really interesting! I watched one class decorated sculpted fruit with food colored gels. That was pretty cool. And I tasted duck liver...probably won't ever eat it again, but it didn't kill me. :-) It was neat to see what John works on all day and I enjoyed talking with some of his chefs.
We spent the weekend in Pittsburgh. John's sister Julie was in town, so we went to visit her. We had a relaxing time of playing games and watching movies.....and I did laundry. Really that is a blessing because it is expensive to use the laundromats and they don't clean or dry nearly as well. All in all, a great weekend!
And our Valentine's Day was nice, too. We didn't do anything special, but I did get flowers and we rented a movie. Friday night we had some friends over for dinner and watched a Brian Regan comedy video. If you haven't seen this guy, he is absolutely hilarious...and his comedy is clean, which is a nice change.
I think that is about it. We do have one request....John would like to know which pastry (bread, cake, pie, muffin, etc.) you would most like for him to learn to make. He says if you want to taste it, he will have to learn how to make it. :-) I must say, it is a wonder we both haven't gained 50 pounds yet. He makes some pretty tasty stuff. Yesterday, they were preparing to make a chocolate ganache cake....YUMMMY!!
Love to all...

Alive and Well in the great state of PA

I haven't posted in a while. Not much different is going on. John finished his first block of school on a high note and we are both very glad that he is back in the kitchen again. He is in his baking block right now, so that probably means I'll have a bunch of extra food around for a while. He has turned in his application for the Baking and Pastry Arts class next year. We are really praying that he will be accepted, but if not, we have several options to consider. We should know in a couple of weeks if he is accepted or not.

I am doing well in my job. I actually got a raise that I wasn't expecting, so that was nice. It makes me feel good to know my work is appreciated. :-) Other than that, I haven't been up to too much. I am still enjoying working with the Kid's Choir at church. The little kids have started coming in to sing with us, which is a lot of fun. They sing with such gusto! And they are really cute, too!

We have made some plans for our anniversary, which I am really excited about. We figured since we want to open a bed and breakfast someday, we should actually go stay at one and see what it is like. :-) We are also planning a trip to Oklahoma in May to see my sister, Brooke, graduate. I'm really excited about that. I found out I can't just take three days off from work. I have to take a whole week, so we'll be there a little longer than we had planned, hopefully.

I hope everything is going well with everyone out there. We would love to hear from you, so just drop us on email (hendersonhome2006@yahoo.com) or something sometime!

Talk to you later

A Good Weekend and a Busy Week

Well, it is officially VERY COLD here. We had been having some really nice weather for January, but over the weekend it turned bitterly cold with single digit temps and then yesterday it started snowing off and on all day. Not so much fun since I had to drive up to Punxy for dinner with John. But, we made it...more about that later.

We had a really good weekend. Saturday, we went to Monroeville, which is about an hour SW of Indiana. We were pleasantly surprised to find a really good mall there as well as some really nice restaurants. There are not a whole lot of places to shop or sit down restaurants in Indiana so it was nice to spend the day wandering around. We actually went there to go to Sam's, which is John's favorite store :-), and we ended up having a really great little road trip. We walked around the mall, which actually has an Orange Julius, Chick-fil-a and a Kirklands....all of which I associate with mall shopping. Our mall in Indiana does not have these things, so now we know where to go to get our Chick-fil-a fix. :-) We went to lunch and Office Max and then headed home. Sunday was a nice and relaxing day. We had over one of John's classmates for dinner. She lives right up the street from us and she and John are going to carpool to school. This is a great answer to prayer as it will save on gas money and wear and tear on the car. We were both off Monday for a holiday and just spent the day working around the house and getting John more organized for school.

Yesterday, we both headed off to school and work anticipating a great day. And it was a great day....but it started snowing. Now, those of you who know me well know that I do not enjoy driving in snowy conditions. This would not have been a big deal except that I was supposed to make the 45 minute drive to Punxutawney, where John is in school, to enjoy a fine dining experience with he and some of his classmates. I had really been looking forward to this so that I could meet some of his classmates.....but it started snowing....So, I watched the snow fall off and on all day yesterday. It wasn't too bad, and I was determined to get to Punxy. The road were really slushy. Some of them were cleared pretty well, some of them were not. I went about 40 mph the whole way. It took me almost an hour to get there, but I made it and didn't hit any deer or skid off the road, so I felt good about that. We enjoyed a really good dinner at "Mary's Place" and then made the return journey. I followed John the whole way home, so that was a little easier. :-) It ended up being a really nice evening and we had some great food!

We have a busy week ahead of us with school and work. Pray for John. He is not in the kitchen this block and his classes are very challenging. If he can make it through the next two weeks, I think he'll fly through the rest of the semester! I'll talk to you later...

Back to the Old Grind

Well, school has started again for John. And with school has come the snow. We have had a very mild two weeks with temperatures in the 50's and 60's. It has just been beautiful. But of course, now that John has to drive 40 minutes up to Punxy in the early morning, it has started to snow again. :-) But, that's life here in PA I guess.

We have seen God move in so many ways since our move. He has provided for every need and blessed us beyond measure the past few months. It is almost hard to get back into a "normal" routine. We both feel as if we have really settled in and are beginning to enjoy life here instead of feeling like outsiders. We are really excited about what God is doing in our church and hope to be able to join a couples Bible study in February. We have really missed our Sunday School class in OK and the encouragement we received for our marriage and hope this Bible study will provide that encouragement again. And, we are still going to the YMCA on a regular basis and its half way through January!!! We really are enjoying it and are taking it slowly. This is for my benefit more than John's. :-)

John is set for a very busy and challenging semester. I think he came home a little overwhelmed yesterday, but I'm praying that he will just take things one day at a time and learn as much as he can this spring. It will make his summer semester so much better! We will have some pretty big decisions to make in preparation for next year. There are several options John could explore that could possibly be more beneficial than continuing on with Baking and Pastry Arts (too complicated to try to explain here), but for now, that is still our plan. Please pray that we will continue to seek the Lord about these decisions and recognize His will for us. We have nothing to fear because we know the One who is in control, so we just need to be willing to follow where He leads us.

We love and miss you all! Have a great week!

Update.....

There is not much going on around here. The most exciting thing that happened was I got my first paycheck last Friday. Yea for payroll!!! Other than that, John is enjoying his last week of break and I am having a better week at work. Last week was a little rough with end of the year stuff, but I got through it. John and I are enjoying going to the Y together. I was a little sore after the first day we weightlifted, but it really is fun to go and workout together. No other news to report, so have a great week!

Happy New Year!

I don't usually get too excited about New Year's. Other than my friend Charlanne having a birthday, I don't usually think it is that big of a deal. But, I am really looking forward to the new year. God has done so much for John and I this year and I am looking forward to what He has in store for us this year. I know it will be a year filled with different challenges, but I know there will be some great victories for us, too!
One thing I am really looking forward to is taking advantage of our new membership to the YMCA in town. We decided to spend some of our Christmas money on a membership and can't wait to get started. We are making an effort to be more health conscious this year and I think it will be fun for us to do this together. It is also very important for us to stay focussed this year. This is especially true for John. We are here for one purpose....to get John through culinary school. While we have gotten involved in church, John especially has had to sacrifice some activities that he enjoys in order to stay on task with school. I am very proud of him and expect he will only do better in school as he works toward his goal of becoming a pastry chef. I think we both understand that a few sacrifices now will be worth it in the end. God has richly blessed us and I look forward to His new blessings this year!