Thursday, April 18, 2013

April 18th

On this date in history the following has occurred:

In 1521:


In 1906: the Great San Francisco Earthquake

In 1955: Albert Einstein died

In 1997: I give birth to my second child, a second daughter, just four days before David's call service.

In 2013: We celebrate Ellie's sixteenth birthday (more on that in another post), and upon having yet more winter weather (another several inches of snow has fallen upon us over the course of the day), David said for the first time ever, "I'm over this cold weather and winter and ready to even think about moving someplace south and warm."

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Excitement!

I just placed the order for our APT tickets this sumer.

What?  You don't know of APT?  You've never been?

Well, get thee over to their website.  (click on these words)

It is truly an amazing experience and a wonderful time.  I had friends (her and her, just to name two) who told me about it over and over and over.  I saw their blogposts, heard their acclamations, and ignored them.  Until two years ago.  David and I took Hannah and Ellie to see The Taming of the Shrew (my favorite Shakespeare play).  It was all they had said and more.

We decided to go back every year.  And then promptly failed that oath by not going last year.

But it is a new year!  New plays! And we are going!  Yippee!  This time, though, we are not taking Hannah and Ellie, but our good friends Andrew and Mindy.  Andrew, an English teacher,  has a favorite Shakespeare play.  Guess which one.

Yes,  you guessed right!  It is Hamlet.  Since he and Mindy have never been to APT but have heard us talk about it, we thought it would be great fun to go with them to see Hamlet "Up-the-Hill." And to make it even more interesting we are all going to Hamlet in a couple of weeks as presented by Bethany Lutheran College.  What fun it will be to see it twice!

If you hurry you can get a discount on your tickets if you order before April 12th.  Do not delay!  You won't be disappointed!

If you are, just blame me, I'm okay with that.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Easter 2013




We had a wonderful Easter.  Sunrise service at 6:00 a.m., Youth Pancake Breakfast afterwards, a second Divine Festival Service at 9:00 a.m. Then home for a couple of pictures and finding of Easter baskets before changing clothes, putting together the fruit pizzas and the berry sauce for the cheesecakes, then leaving for Matt and Michele's.  A wonderfully scrumptious ham dinner we enjoyed with family before some sat and watched basketball games, others played games, others chatted, others napped, and all continued snitching yummy leftovers.

Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Reading Challenge - Finished!



I finished the Reading Challenge my friend Jane began.  The last of the 10 was A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens.  That was a booger of a book for me to get through.  I stopped it twice and read other things before going back to see if I could finish.  I did not enjoy it at all the first part, but I did enjoy it much better the second half.

On the sidebar I've noted what dates I finished reading the 10 books.  In between I often read other things as well.  I updated my Reading page tab with all the books I have read, in case you're so inclined to want to know.

In my original reading challenge post, I listed 5 alternatives, of which I have read 3.  I still plan to read the last two which are The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander and Great Expectations by Dickens.  Although having just struggled to finish one Dickens novel, I'm a bit gun-shy to start another too soon.  Even though I loved Oliver Twist, I'm fearful now that Great Expectations will be more like A Tale of Two Cities than Oliver Twist.  I think I'll wait awhile and read more Dickens this summer or fall.

I currently have The Book of Three checked out from the library and will read it when I'm done with my current Vince Flynn novel.  I found that I absolutely love the novels by Vince Flynn, as does David.  He reads one and then I read it.  They are so addicting to me and I tend to do nothing but sit and read it that I had to establish a personal rule that I must read some other book in between the Mitch Rapp books.  I'm also slowly collecting all 14 of Vince Flynn's novels.

This challenge was fun for me.  Thanks Jane for posting it.  It has given me confidence to try other challenges, even if they are only ones I make up for myself.

Another Teenager

Our third child and firstborn son turned 13 in March.  That makes us the parents of 3 teenagers. It is true, you will ask yourself, "How did this happen?"

Nathan's requests:

Breakfast: cinnamon rolls


Lunch: Homemade pizza
Chicken Bacon Ranch on the left, Sausage and onions on the right


Dinner: Chicken Quesadillas (sorry, no picture)

Instead of cake he requested fruit pizza.
The birthday boy in his new cap and holding his new pistol.


We celebrated at lunchtime with Grandpa, Uncle Matt, Aunt Michele, cousins Maddie, Ali, and Emmy, and friends Andrew, Mindy, Aiden, and Aria.

Gifts:
From Hannah and Ellie: a pull-up bar
From Abby and Sam: a new Twins cap
From Dad and Mom: Pringles and an air soft pistol

And if you haven't already, go read this beautiful post written by his sister.