Eckman Ramblings

some snow

2008-02-22T14:30:00.004-02:00

My attempts at the lunar eclipse

2008-02-21T02:08:00.013-02:00

These are in progression for the short time I took pictures. I didn't get any of the beginning or the very end. Just mostly middle pictures. :)

This one looks weird because it was a thirty second exposure, but I thought the "trails" were cool.

Chinatown

2008-02-18T01:21:00.038-02:00

We had a fun time today in Chinatown. We missed the parade because they had it earlier in the morning, but we still got to see the dragons go up and down the street warding off evil spirits so that the businesses will have a prosperous year. :)
The firecrackers were VERY loud!

These guys followed the dragons and played their drums and cymbals constantly--another way to ward off evil spirits.

Chris was wishing he had some matches. :)

I thought this little girl's outfit was really cute. :)

Each business that wanted the dragons to come to their store had a string of firecrackers hanging outside their door. At the top of the string there was lettuce which the black dragon "ate" after all the firecrackers went off.

Lots of little red papers everywhere!

We ate at a Thai restaurant and ordered the non-spicy dishes. :) It was very good.

We got a kick out of this phone booth.

2008 Travel log

2008-02-16T19:39:00.001-02:00

This may be ancient history, but I am posting some photos of our travels.

Our weekend in Punxsutawney

2008-02-03T22:51:00.000-02:00

Nothing says small town like an Elvis marionette...this was at the community center where we also watched "Groundhog Day"

One of the locals...

Punxsutawney has many of these fiber glass groundhogs throughout the town and they're all painted/decorated with different themes.

Gobbler's Knob at 3:17am--these people were all there before us!

They kept us entertained for four hours with music, games and general silliness. Several couples got engaged on stage as well. Here's the first:

this is the second couple:

and the third. All the girls said yes.

No, it wasn't a revival--this is thousands of people doing the YMCA song :) Gotta stay warm somehow!

fireworks at 6:30am

The Inner Circle of the Groundhog Club

And here's Phil being woken up at 7:30am

The president chatting with Phil

The only one happy to hear we're getting six more weeks of winter

Proof that we survived over four hours at Gobbler's Knob :)

Back in town that morning

Our highlight of the morning :) Us and Phil

Don't you just love Chris's hat?? He wanted a picture with some of the Inner Circle guys

the back of Chris's hat :)

This sign was in Du Bois...it made us laugh a lot

When we left on Sunday, we saw all the trees covered in ice, so we pulled over so I could get some pictures.

we got snow today!!

2008-01-18T00:58:00.001-02:00

Our next door neighbors made a snowman. :)

I got some pictures with my lensbaby.

sad article

2008-01-07T16:29:00.000-02:00

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/01/04/argentina.beef.ap/index.html

Florida

2008-01-07T00:50:00.001-02:00

Fort Lauderdale beach--it was VERY cold--not t-shirt weather at all!

Our night out New Year's Eve--one of Chris's brothers is missing (he was at the hotel with the baby.)

Chris holding Jay Elise at the beach.

Some of the critters at the Miami Seaquarium.

Some pretty talented dolphins at the Seaquarium.

Lolita :)

There were some little fish in a very big aquarium at the Seaquarium...

and a very big fish in the aquarium, too.

This is about as much sun as we saw on Thursday. But it made for a pretty picture. : )

The everglades--I thought they were beautiful.

We were going pretty fast on our boat. :)

The first alligator we saw--and that's all we saw of him.

The second one...
and he kept coming closer...

and closer...

: )

I made a friend :)

Got ice?

2007-12-14T15:32:00.001-03:00

I took family pictures of my friend Pam and her family. I put them on my website if you're interested. :)

Sale and website

2007-12-01T21:57:00.001-03:00

Well, I made some money today, which was my goal, so I guess I met my goal. :) I had to put in about $65 to be at this holiday sale, and I sold $171 worth of pictures. It was actually pretty slow at times. But it was nice to hear total strangers tell me that I do good work. :) Not that I didn't believe you, but you're my family--you're supposed to say those things. :)
The website is: www.lovelacephotography.net

Sam's headed back south

2007-11-26T12:55:00.001-03:00

We had a great time with Sam! He's so funny. I got him to his bus this morning along with his possessions. We had a false start this morning when we got up an hour earlier than we needed to, but that meant that we got to go back to bed for another hour. : )
We had a great time in NY. Everyone seems to be doing well. Bethany is going to be in France next semester and Nicole is thinking of moving to Cleveland for six months to try a dance company. Joanna is taking night classes in accounting. Uncle Lee got a ten-point buck while he was hunting. That seems to be about it for the big news. : )
Grandpa seems to be doing ok. He told me he had had a hernia operation earlier this year and thinks he has another hernia on the other side. So he was lamenting the fact that he hasn't been able to get stuff done around the farm!
The one of two funniest moments was when Uncle Mark made the observation that we really had 14 people eating at Grandpa's not 13 (the rest were at Aunt Joyce's house), since someone was eating for two. Aunt Jan then explained to Kim that Julie is expecting. Sam said, "Oh, I thought he was talking about Matt." I've never heard Uncle Mark laugh so much! Ironically, both Matt and Chris thought Uncle Mark was talking about Matt, too. : )
The second funny moment was while I was playing cards with Uncle Mark, Kim and Nick. The rest were watching Willow (has lots of little people, in case you haven't seen it). Uncle Mark seriously asked, "Is this the second big hit for the little people after The Wizard of Oz?" If I hadn't been sitting already, I would have fallen over I was laughing so hard.
And, of course, Chris and Nick were practically a stand up comedy act the rest of the night. They just feed off each other. Chris likes it when Nick's there because he feels he has someone that understands him. : )
I told Grandpa he throws good parties. : )
EDIT: I also found out Candace is working at Marshall's and is engaged to get married in July. She's engaged to the friend of her former fiancé. His name is Jay (or at least that's how he was introduced) and we met him on Friday.
SECOND EDIT: I started learning Russian. I'm meeting with Olga Lowe (she's Russian and went to Northland). Of course, I do have lots of help at home. :) Sam's hands look almost like new! They do look tons better than when he got here. We got him all the lotions the Dr. prescribed and recommended, and he's been good at using them. Now if we can just get him a new job on campus...

Clarks in Argentina

2007-11-19T20:01:00.000-03:00

The choir is the one Mom sings in, although she wasn't able to sing with them that night.
Dad picked up an early birthday cake. It had a cool candle that went off like fireworks. Jared loved it! Carolina's little boys are Tobias (age 2) and Marcos (age 2.5 months)
CORRECTION: Dad bought the leather cowboy hat for Jason at the "regionales" store on San Juan. Jason is pretty thrilled with it. :)

Ana came to the asado at church on Saturday night with her family, for the estreno of the new kitchen.

This is Mariano's wife Romina with Juan Ignacio (age 2.5 months).

This is the crowd that came for the asado. In the back row, standing between Jason and me, are the plumber that did the work for the kitchen (Carlos) and his wife (Ana). They seemed delighted to be there, and it was an answer to prayer for the church, who were praying that some of the men who worked on the kitchen would come to church.

Life is rough

2007-09-28T13:26:00.001-03:00

The kids are complaining this morning that, as if it weren't bad enough that they have to clean up the trash when the bear gets into the dumpster (which it has done twice this week), the bear leaves piles of poop behind, too. Horror upon horror...Does anybody else have bear poop in their front yard?

Update

2007-09-26T14:54:00.001-03:00

In the interest of equal access, BJ's drama team will be here tomorrow night. :-) (Northland's drama team was here at the beginning of the summer.) We're looking forward to having them here.

Elianna's temperature gauge

2007-09-26T10:47:00.000-03:00

Last night, Elianna wasn't working on eating her supper very quickly. When we prompted her to start eating, she wrapped her arms around herself and started complaining, "I so cold! I just so cold!" So, to expedite matters, I picked up her fork and started feeding her, to the tune of, "I need to get down. I very, very cold. I need get pants on. I need my light jacket." With my helping her, though, she was soon finished with her food. Noticing that her siblings had ice cream for dessert, she asked if she could have some, too. As she dug into the scoop of ice cream, I asked her, "Elianna, aren't you cold?"

She looked up, uncomprehending. Her exact words, with a hysterical look of utter disbelief, were, "Huh? Cold? I not cold, Mom."

Micah's 5th birthday

2007-09-24T13:40:00.000-03:00

I just realized that Micah is wearing the same shirt in these photos as he was the last time I posted pictures of him! He does have more than one shirt...The second photo shows Micah with his present from Grandpa & Grandma. Do you think he liked it? :D

It's raining today, and raining hard. That's unusual for around here, especially as it's been raining since yesterday. Last night, someone said that the rain is supposed to turn into snow tonight. In September! That's one thing we never dealt with in Wisconsin. :)

Fall in the Mountains

2007-09-24T13:39:00.000-03:00

College freshman?

2007-08-28T11:13:00.000-03:00

College careers run in this family.

I can hardly believe it myself...

2007-08-27T20:30:00.000-03:00

Two of them...and they're finished!

Pictures

2007-08-26T22:39:00.000-03:00

BJ's cemetery in their entrance...there's spots for the living presidents and their wives. How morbid is that?!!

Where Sam will be working.

He's officially a student now!!

I've lost 43 pounds

2007-08-26T16:31:00.000-03:00

Five more pounds, and I'll weigh less than Jason! :D

Micah starts kindergarten

2007-08-26T16:28:00.000-03:00

Andrea turns 10

2007-08-26T16:27:00.000-03:00

Jared turns 8

2007-08-26T16:26:00.000-03:00

Summer Skies in Steamboat

2007-08-26T16:24:00.000-03:00

The Latest

2007-08-08T11:41:00.001-03:00

* I'm almost done with school. One more paper to finish (a 30 page one) and I'll be done. YEAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
* I'm looking for a job. Preferrably something part time that will pay me a million dollars a month. Though I'd take less if they really, really begged me.
* I'm looking forward to seeing Sam in a few days.
* Kim survived my ever-so-wonderful-previous-employer-still-her-employer laying off 8 people.
* Kim actually got a better position out of it, though she won't get a raise for 2 months due to legal requirements when laying off a significant chunk of people (apparently there's a whole bunch of hoops to jump through, which I didn't know).
* My FaceBook application is coming along, the database should be done this week, which was a major hurdle.
* My business idea is coming along too. See www.schoolsandjobs.com for the first salvo in my business empire :). (well, empire may be a stretch. hobby that pays for my gas???)

Steamboat Springs and vicinities

2007-08-02T01:27:00.001-03:00

pictures!

2007-07-31T23:15:00.001-03:00

Andrea's home from camp...

2007-07-13T23:45:00.000-03:00

...and all excited. :-) She had a great time. One sweet moment, when she arrived home, happened as Elianna was watching for her out the front door, and asked me, "Is that my Andrea sister coming home?" Then she held her arms out toward Andrea and said, "Do you want to give me a hug?" :-) It was pretty sweet to watch her.

Over supper, Andrea was saying that there was a preaching contest. Anyway, after she explained that it was a contest about preparing messages and preaching, Jared jumped up and asked, "Did you win?" :-D

P.S. I have some pictures of Jared's birthday, but I'll probably wait until after Andrea's birthday on Sunday to post the pictures. If you get impatient, you can go back and look at the pictures from Elianna's birthday. :-)

Elianna turned 3

2007-07-09T20:14:00.001-03:00

Hot Air Balloon Rodeo

2007-07-09T20:07:00.000-03:00

Last Saturday, we got up early to see the balloons launch for the annual air balloon rodeo. It was pretty cool!

Continental Divide

2007-07-09T19:12:00.000-03:00

Lessons learned while driving across the Rockies: 1) Driving up so high, with no guardrail next to you, is very scary. 2) It is very cold when you're 14000 feet up in the air. Bring a jacket.

Parades

2007-07-09T17:09:00.000-03:00

I bet our 4th of July parade was better than yours. We had belly dancers and a camel...how about you?

P.S. After the parade, we also had a free concert by the Boulder Brass ensemble. It was excellent!

We have lots of visitors here

2007-07-09T16:46:00.000-03:00

Last week, Liz's friend Kristi Colas and her family stayed in the church's trailer for several days. On Thursday night (while we were in the basement watching Bridge to Terabithia--can't say I recommend it, by the way), the Colas family saw this bear digging in the dumpster near our house. The car to the right is Jodie's (it was parked in front of our house) and the pine tree in the background is right in front of the girls' window. Kristi told us that they yelled at the bear, who had grabbed a bag of trash out of the dumpster, and he dropped the bag and escaped by running across our lawn and down the hill.

Liz wondered if we could line up the bear to come visit while we were here, so I told her I'd see about leaving raw meat outside every night until they arrive...

2007-07-08T22:51:00.000-03:00

Ironically, I broke my flexible glasses this morning while I was cleaning them. So...I found a LensCrafters this afternoon, but to only find out that my new eye-care insurance doesn't use LensCrafters. I was able to get the eye exam done there, but didn't buy anything. At least I had my sunglasses which are prescription to not be totally blind today.
I found a place near here where I can use my insurance, so I'll go there first thing in the morning.

We had a good service today--Chris did SS and preached in the morning. :) He did a great job. His brother, TJ, was there as well as Matt and Kim. Afterwards we went to our favorite Brazilian buffet and ate lots. :)

Hope you had a good day!

Us at the wedding

2007-07-02T23:21:00.001-03:00

Dieting

2007-06-24T16:08:00.000-03:00

How are our dieters doing? Dad hasn't weighed himself, but he appears to be losing weight. Anyone else?

Weight loss report

2007-06-18T20:47:00.000-03:00

It's been 11 weeks, and I've lost 24 pounds. :) Yay!!!

After my nine weeks on a diet...

2007-06-04T22:05:00.000-03:00

21 pounds!

After 9 weeks

2007-06-01T23:00:00.000-03:00

I've lost 25 pounds.

Get your signatures now, folks!

2007-05-31T00:31:00.000-03:00

He's becoming famous!

Happy Birthday, Matt!!

2007-05-29T10:16:00.000-03:00

Why it pays to live on the east coast...

2007-05-25T11:04:00.001-03:00

New furniture!

2007-05-24T23:36:00.000-03:00

At least for us. :) We bought this from Donna's parents who moved to an apartment. I love it!

Matt and I were a tad worried that it wouldn't make it to Sumneytown from Allentown, but it made it and didn't fall off the truck. :)

I love Weight Watchers!

2007-05-22T10:44:00.001-03:00

Even with the weekend parties, I was able to lose 2 pounds last week. I'm down a total of 17.2 pounds (7.8 kilos)! I guess all that cleaning paid off. :)
Thanks for being supportive!

Chris's installment service

2007-05-20T23:27:00.000-03:00

I don't have too many pictures, but it was a nice service. We had a little time of fellowship afterwards. Pastor was able to move the service to today since Leigh was here. It was nice of him to do that. It wasn't an ordination--I think that'll happen later on.

Chris's Graduation

2007-05-19T18:55:00.001-03:00

We had the lunch in the youth room at Calvary because it was a little cold and there was a chance of rain. Thanks for praying for the weather though. It wasn't too bad, and I'm sure others that had parties outside appreciated the prayers. :)

(By the way, those are his Batman cuflinks he's wearing.)

I can't believe it

2007-05-16T17:36:00.000-03:00

I can't believe that I was able to post something yesterday. For weeks the blogger baron wouldn't let me blog. It said I wasn't a team member!!!!
So ... now that I'm in, there's not much news here! Dad and I are here and not much exciting has happened recently. Monday, we had a lunch meeting about "Fundamentalismo" with the Harrises and Howells. Later in the afternoon, we went for a ride to Santa Clara; but it was pretty much a ghost town (since we are in winter) . Yesterday, Dad took the combi to a mechanic and will pick it up tomorrow. I am cleaning and re-organizing.

Still Alive in Colorado

2007-05-15T14:55:00.000-03:00

Hello from Sumneytown

2007-05-02T09:37:00.000-03:00

The weather has been nice, with the occassional thunderstorm--which is the best part of summer!
I went for an hour-long walk yesterday and discovered a new trail in our park. I'm planning on bringing my camera today when I go again. There's a lot of spring wild flowers out. :) I'm a sucker for flowers.
Most of the graduation announcements are out, so expect those in the mail. Wish you all could be there (Matt, you BETTER be there!) :)
Chris's mom will be coming out for it. It'll be good to see her.
Chris is working hard on his projects for his two classes. His last day of class is the 14th.
I've lost 9.2 pounds so far. :) That's pretty good for four weeks, I think.
Work has been pretty quiet for me recently. I'm waiting to see if it doesn't pick up much, I might try to find a more full-time position within the department. I get too bored, otherwise.
I've been feeling better, although still feel tired off and on. Yesterday was one of those days.
I trust everyone is doing fine and dandy! :D

2007-04-27T13:10:00.000-03:00

14!

That's how many pounds I've lost so far.

Why it's good to be healthy

2007-04-21T22:54:00.000-03:00

Because when you've started eating salads with every lunch and dinner and you have run out of lettuce and need to run into the grocery store to buy some lettuce, you might find out you're the instant winner of a 2nd generation iPod shuffle. (See how small it is!)

A sunny April day...

2007-04-21T17:20:00.000-03:00

try, try again

2007-04-10T15:30:00.000-03:00

Well, I haven't been able to post anything since that one cry of "I'm in!" We are fine. Our Easter was enjoyable. We hosted the "Sunrise" service. There were over 50 people, mostly from the Harrises' church. The choir from their church sang and the men from our church (Dad, Sam, Omar, Pablo, Nito and Luis Riquelmes) sang. Dad preached a good sermon. Liliana and I cleaned the church on Saturday and prepared the breakfast. Carolina went to B.A. with Tobias to visit her grandmother. Alicia and Jorge came. They are on vacation in Brazil this week. Antolin Velasquez has been having nightmares again and sleeps late in the morning. In the evening we had a movie on the resurrection based on a novel by John MacArthur. There were 8 of us. Juan Efren Vera came in the morning and evening. It has been a long time since he last visited.

Sam takes his ACT this Saturday morning. Dad called Jose Nuñez to ask if Sam could stay there overnight Friday. Please pray for him.

Am I alone?

2007-04-09T21:36:00.000-03:00

Hope everyone else is alive out there.

We had an interesting Easter. We had a brunch at church in the morning, to which I took my very slavic looking Easter eggs. :) I was quite proud of them.
I picked up these plastic sleeves for eggs at a Russian store we were at. And once the eggs are cooked you just slip them on and dip them back in hot water.

Matt came over for lunch which consisted of borscht and Matt's world-renown chicken. It was quite good!

Our church didn't have an evening service, so we went with Jody, Pearl and Matt to another church that was having a play/cantata thing. It was quite interesting, and moving (it's hard not to be moved when you get to see someone being "crucified"...yes, with cross and loin cloth and all. I bet no one else saw that Sunday! :D)

We then ate dinner at Jody and Pearl's house.

Well, after my first week of Weight Watchers, I've lost 4.4 pounds. :) It is my first week, so I'm not expecting to lose that much every week. I do feel better about how I'm eating, though. And I've yet to start exercising! Hopefully, I'll have enough energy this week to do some walking.

Hello

2007-04-03T10:20:00.000-03:00

Just saying hi.
I shipped my stupid heart monitor back yesterday!!! Despite it being Monday, it was a pretty good day. :) Although I still have red marks where the electrode pads used to be. : b
My department started a two-month contest yesterday to see who can lose the most weight (figured on percentage lost). Donna wanted to go to Weight Watchers, but since she didn't want to go alone, she offered to pay my membership if I would go with her. So last night was our first meeting, and we went for a walk before-hand. We'll go walking every day after work, too.
Let me know if you'd like me to share any tips from the book I got. It's actually pretty helpful. There's a plan called the Core Plan where you can eat all you want from a certain list of healthy foods. The other is the plan where you add points of what you eat. I don't think that'll work for me.
We saw "Meet the Robinsons" in 3D on Saturday. I love 3D movies--they're too cool! Of course, all the other adults in the theatre had kids with them. Matt, Chris and I didn't, but we're used to that by now.
Ok, I'll go back to work now. Chau!

Picture session for church

2007-03-26T09:43:00.000-03:00

Yesterday I took pictures of church people for our church tract. Since it was going to be outside, I bought a diffuser and a reflector on Saturday. I'm so glad I did!

Here's an example of what using a reflector does. (Ignore the fact that it's slightly out of focus.) :)

This was the result of many attempts by others trying to take our picture. I've always thought that my camera was easy to use, but it took three different people trying to get this. :)

Thankful for cable

2007-03-25T23:15:00.000-03:00

I'm not usually glad we have cable, but this show makes me glad we have it. It's been amazing!

Chris's Birthday

2007-03-18T22:42:00.000-03:00

We went to a Russian restaurant for lunch today. Chris enjoyed his borscht.

Matt was there, too.

Chris and I had lamb chops. (No, I'm not trying a new comb-over hairdo. It was a weird hair day today.)

The teens surprised Chris with pizza during youth group tonight and gave him a card with a gift certificate to a restaurant! I thought that was sweet...until they covered us in silly string, that is! Chris is planning his come back! : )

I took a cake to Sunday School (there's usually coffee and some kind of snack), and I put candles on it and we sang "Happy Birthday" to Chris. I don't have a picture of that because when I pulled out my camera it didn't have a memory card and I couldn't find one in my bag. Later I realized I was looking in the wrong pocket! (I felt very "blonde".) Anyway, since I wanted to take pictures at the restaurant, we stopped in at a Circuit City (which I found because I took a wrong turn.) To make a long story short, I was able to buy two 1G memory cards for my camera at a pretty good price. God allowed me to not find my memory cards so that I could get some better ones. : )

Anyway, we've had a good weekend. Chris got to talk in Russian some and buy some of his cherry juice.

Crazy weather...

2007-03-16T12:52:00.000-03:00

Three days ago it was 70 degrees outside...today we're supposed to get an inch of ICE. Not snow, mind you, but ice. And, since I stayed home, I can see that that's truly what we're getting. It's sleeting little round icey thingies.
It should be fun driving in this later since I'm going to Pottstown to pick up Andrew.

Update: Our evening with Matt and Andrew is cancelled. The ice and snow are supposed to keep coming all evening long. So, instead of Hibachi tonight, it'll be a casero stir-fry. : )

Argentina in the news...

2007-03-14T12:47:00.000-03:00

on a more happy note!

I´m in

2007-03-13T15:34:00.000-03:00

I´m in, I'm in, I'm in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow. I´m a member again of the Eckman Family. Whee-hee!

Installation Service

2007-03-12T23:28:00.000-03:00

The other three couples are ones who helped to fill the pulpit while the church was without a pastor. On the left is Pastor Glatz, who specifically helped the church line up candidates--namely, Jason!

The trustee, Ed Dietrich, sharing a testimony about the church's perspective on the pastoral search. Another member, Sherry Carter, also shared a testimony. Cass Sisto played an offertory.

Pastor Glatz asked Jason a series of questions/vows regarding his desire to serve the Lord as pastor of this church.

He then asked the members to stand and asked them to commit themselves to some vows. (Jason had found and prepared the vows.)

These are Kristi Colas' parents (Liz's friend).

Sherry Carter was excited about the cake. :-) We still have lots left! Come see us, and we'll be happy to give you a piece.

Fun times...almost

2007-03-12T22:59:00.000-03:00

That's Elianna way up at the top of the "Bunny Hill," riding down between Nadine's knees. We were glad the pros were there to help us!

Micah's riding up the lift.

The "Magic Carpet"

Jason enjoyed himself.

Elianna was, as always, a daredevil.

We went skiing today--hope fulfilled for the kids! :) The pictures tell the story, all except the part where Jared wiped out and cut a gash in the back of his head with a ski. He ended up with 4 staples after a trip to the ER.

With us are T.J. & Nadine Sisto and their boys. T.J. is the head deacon at church. The "Magic Carpet" that you see in one of the pictures is basically a conveyor belt that the younger children could ride up and then practice coming down a slight incline on their skiis. Great idea!

Out and about

2007-03-10T19:48:00.000-03:00

I'm at Dave Gouge's today. The weather is nice here in Virginia, I'm thinking of moving :). I got here last night and we're taking it easy. I got up and did a little homework, then we hung around, went to a park, went to see a house they're looking at, and then I took a nap. Now we're going to have supper. Life is rough.
Wed and Thu I was in Penn State with Andrew. That was fun. We also took it easy (he had class), and then we drove back together and I dropped him off at his grandma's house.
Not much else. Back to work and school on Monday.

A lunchtime "hello"

2007-03-09T14:09:00.000-03:00

Just thought I'd drop a note in here. Life is pretty routine-like these days. Chris goes to class on Mondays and deals with his job the rest of the week. He then proceeds to do homework at night and over the weekend. He's recently started to teach himself German. I talked to someone at work that could probably help him out a little. We have plenty of Germans where I work. : )
I have been fighting some sort of virus this whole week. I haven't been so sick that I had to stay home, although I did sleep in two different days this week and went in late to work. There's been a nasty stomach virus going around, and I think I got some form of that. Although, I haven't actually been "sick", I've just felt "blah" and tired.
On to happier things, a co-worker told me of an Argentine restaurant yesterday. It's about an hour away from us, but it's worth the hike. It's called Café con Leche. If I feel up to it, we might try to get there this weekend.
We had some snow two nights ago, but I didn't get a chance to take pictures. We're supposed to get rain and 50 degree weather this weekend. Doubt we'll see too much snow the rest of the winter (all two weeks of it.) : )
Matt's out in State College. I guess he went out to spend a couple days with Andrew, and then he's bringing Andrew back here to his grandmother's for his spring break. So, that probably means we'll see him again in the next week or so.
Another fun thing: I just had a co-worker tell me that she recommended me as a wedding photographer to someone else who works here! Not sure if I would take it, although I would have to start somewhere. I'm scared of doing someone's wedding right now because I know how important it is. I guess I could buy some lighting equipment and learn how to use it. Not sure when this wedding would be, but I don't think it's soon.
Well, I think that's all for my lunchtime musings.
Love you.

Finally!

2007-02-19T11:33:00.000-03:00

I've been trying to make a post, but I haven't been able to sign on. Google owns Blogger now, and they were in the process of switching it to use Google accounts. But today I was able to sign on. Booyah!

Well, life is coming along. Last week I had to deal with way too much math for my Modeling & Forecasting class. The prof gave us the option of redoing our old assignments to gain some points, so I did three assignments from scratch. Then we had an in-class assignment (test) on Thursday. It was painful. But it's done, and I don't have an assignment this week! And in 2 more weeks the class will be done!

Other then that not much is going on. I'm doing another job for EDU, and I'm hoping to get some independent work analyzing websites. Still hanging out at bookstores whenever I have a little downtime.

Translation???

2007-02-12T11:44:00.000-03:00

Here's what happens when you translate English into Chinese, and then translate the Chinese back into English.

P.S. I do apologize. All the screen shots hadn't loaded when I put the link on the blog. After I went back to the other window, I noticed that a few of the screen shots had swear words. Just read a fwe of the first ones; they're not bad. But if you keep reading through the whole list, be advised that a few of them (maybe 3 or 4) have swear words.

Word of the Day

2007-02-09T10:57:00.000-03:00

At breakfast, Micah said, "The word of the day is 'scrumptious.' This doughnut is 'scrumptious.'"

He was the only one sitting at the table, so that wasn't prompted by his siblings.

:)

Hi

2007-01-31T18:27:00.001-03:00

Is it cold enough yet?

2007-01-26T10:31:00.000-03:00

At least the sun is shining!

This is what I did last weekend

2007-01-19T22:03:00.000-03:00

This made me laugh

2007-01-18T14:17:00.000-03:00

Isabel Perón arrested

2007-01-13T22:57:00.000-03:00

Think she'll actually go to jail?

Can Tango solve the world's problems?

2007-01-01T23:58:00.000-03:00

This article seems to be saying that. To think that all these years, so many conflicts could have been spared if someone had discovered this sooner!

Happy New Year!

2006-12-31T23:48:00.000-03:00

I was telling Chris earlier that New Year's Eve doesn't seem like New Year's Eve when I'm not in Argentina. I'm sure others out there feel the same way. Christmas Eve, in fact, doesn't seem like Christmas Eve either. Fireworks are fireworks. I miss them. : (
Well, we're off to bed...no partying for us. We have some lunch plans tomorrow though.
Hope everyone's weekend went well.

I'm not as quick as Liz

2006-12-30T14:38:00.000-03:00

The kids found Matt to be a great source of entertainment.

Ben was fun to hang around with.

Liz came prepared with all kinds of fun up her sleeve, including homemade bouncy balls. The kids thought that was great!

The boys loved Andrea's gift.
And Ben & Betsy loved the gift for the boys.

We thought the adorable gnomes from Matt were great. Mine has a place of honor in my living room, and it makes me smile every time I see it.
This was a lot of people in the same room at the same time!

Elianna was having attitudinal issues.
What a cute bunch!

I just remembered a funny line from last weekend

2006-12-28T14:10:00.000-03:00

Meli, commenting on Elianna's stuborness: She gets it from her dad.

2006-12-28T11:46:00.000-03:00

Well, my cold is turning into a chest cold... : b Hopefully, I'll get through today and tomorrow. Year-end here at Draeger is nuts.
Here's another picture I personally like.

This weekend

2006-12-27T00:37:00.000-03:00

Marbles followed the twins around looking for crumbs.

Unlce Matt was the jungle gym.

There was some great cooking and strategizing going on in the kitchen.

There was general chaos in the living room.

There were many smiles!!

This weekend 2

2006-12-26T00:53:00.000-03:00

We had lots of great food! The person you might not recognize, is Ryan from the seminary there. He was a "Christmas orphan" whom Ben and Betsy took in for the day.

I'm sure the neighbors could hear us laughing all the time!

There were a couple games of Monopoly that weekend, as well as a Risk game and a game of Rook. Ben almost got clobbered during the game of Risk but was able to finish the game with just losing his troups--not his life. :)

The best part

2006-12-21T23:11:00.000-03:00

Here's the part of the Christmas program that wasn't included in the first post. Check out those moves!

Aint that the truth!!

2006-12-20T11:38:00.000-03:00

Our weekend

2006-12-19T11:28:00.000-03:00

We're back in town, for a few days anyway. Our trip to IN went well. I had a great time with my friends and Chris had a great time with his friends. We saw his family, and I got to know them a little better.
We're planning on seeing Jodie Clark on Thursday. She's in the area visiting her grandmother, and she'll come over on to eat on Th. So, between now and Sat. I need to cook, clean, shop, do laundry, and have people over. : )

Latest

2006-12-18T13:06:00.000-03:00

Just wanted to let you all know the latest. I got my grades for the semester, and I got five A's and one B-. My best semester yet in my academic career. It helps that the program is easier then seminary.

Still keeping busy. Last week I was sick for several days (mostly just weak and sleeping 15-17 hours a day, with no appetite), so they let me postpone my statistics test until Wednesday. Which was a blessing. That's my major news for the week, cause I have no life.

Other than that things are going well. Kim was sick last week too, but is better. Work is going well for her. There are a lot of changes at work for her, so I get to hear second hand how things are at my old stomping grounds. We're both looking forward to being at Ben's for Christmas. She's only going to stay for a day, and leave Sunday evening, so she can be with her family for Christmas.

" "

2006-12-18T01:33:00.000-03:00

The B Team

2006-12-13T13:26:00.000-03:00

Micah's Wisdom

2006-12-13T01:08:00.000-03:00

When I arrived home from a staff meeting tonight, Micah came running up to me: "Mom, I want to give you a hug, because I just need to." Who can argue with that?

He was running around today, playing with a sword, destroying bad guys, and he assured me, "Mom, I'm not going to kill you. Because you would give me a big spanking." Glad he realizes that.

Leftovers

2006-12-11T22:44:00.000-03:00

How do you tell a venus fly trap that it has to eat everything on its "plate" when you wouldn't eat its leftovers either?

Weekend productivity

2006-12-11T12:27:00.000-03:00

Chris and I played hookie from church yesterday, but we got lots done otherwise. We didn't have an evening service, and Chris had several things he had to finish for seminary this week...so we stayed home. I felt really good about myself, though, because I got lots done (including five loads of laundry and washing my car.)
The costarican girl we met at Kim's grandparents' house told me about a grocery store in Philly that had some Argentine food. I wanted to stop in before Christmas and yesterday was the only day that I could drive down to check it out.
I was surprised by what I found, and very happy. : ) I also stopped by the Brazilian section of Philly to get some Guaraná. So we now have Guaraná and Paso de los Toros Pomelo sitting on our floor because we don't have any room for it anywhere else.
I got a stash of Cerealitas crackers, of which I'm very happy (they're the best crackers ever!) They had mate, but of course I have enough, so I didn't get any. Seeing Exquisita cake mixes made me laugh, for some reason. I was very happy to also get La Salteña ravioles and empanada discs (Chris loves empanadas). They also had pascualina discs (for a lack of a better word), but I didn´t get any because I don´t have a pan I could cook them in. I´ll have to work on that. There´s also some Terrabusi products in our apartment now. : ) I´ll have to hit the gym every day for the next month, I think.
Anyway, it was a strange weekend for us, but a good one. Chris only has one more sermon to finish this week and he´s done with projects! He technically won´t be done with his requirements for his MDiv until next year when he does his senior sermon in chapel, though. But after his one sermon this week (just needs to be prepared, not presented), and a Hebrew final, he´ll be done with his immediate requirements for his MDiv!!!
He´ll probably start on his ThM next semester--he does have to hand in the application first. : )

My weekend productivity

2006-12-09T15:56:00.000-03:00

I forgot to post this a few weeks ago: I made this dress for Elianna one Sunday afternoon.

Some of the things we learned on this trip

2006-12-08T00:36:00.000-03:00

~It's not a good idea to try to return books to the library before a trip, if there's a blizzard dumping snow on your town.
~Plow trucks are helpful when you've tried to return books to the library during a blizzard...especially if you've managed to straddle the curb in the process of being a good library patron.
~In Iowa, bigger silos mean you're about to reenter civilization.
~Nebraska has lots of cows.
~Driving through the Rockies while it's snowing, with warnings of ice on the road, is very stressful.
~Your ears pop when you drive through the Rockies.
~Most states list the city's population on city limit signs. In Colorado, signs announcing city limits show the elevation of the city.
~Steamboat Springs is at an elevation of 7,000 feet. Your ears pop there, too.
~In Steamboat Springs, the McDonald's has free wi-fi. Do you know of any McDonald's like that?
~When you leave after church on Wed., to drive from Colorado to Wyoming, people warn you to beware of elk crossing the road.
~Mount Rushmore is impressive.
~There's no cell phone reception in the Black Hills National Forest.
~Crazy Horse costs more to see than Mount Rushmore, and it's not even finished.
~Twenty-two hours of driving each way means lots of Dora the Explorer...

States we drove through on this trip

2006-12-08T00:34:00.000-03:00

Mount Rushmore

2006-12-08T00:27:00.000-03:00

Steamboat Springs

2006-12-06T17:29:00.000-03:00

These are pictures from the church and the parsonage. I don't have time to post much more right now. (We are enjoying the free wi-fi at McDonald's. Yes, that would be free wi-fi at McDonald's. Tells you how ritzy this area is.) One picture I took as we drove through the bigger mountains, west of Denver; most of the pictures I took from the car were too blurred. The picture of Jared is in the snow fort he and Andrea built next to the parsonage. One picture shows the kids in the foreground, with a house in the background. The house is the parsonage; the picture was taken from the porch of the "guest house," where we stayed.

Tired but happy

2006-12-06T13:53:00.000-03:00

Chris and I went to see "Phantom of the Opera" last night in Philadelphia. We had fourth row seats--it was sweet!! We went with Donna and Alyssa (my supervisor and her daughter.)
I think we're all paying for it today, because we're all exhausted!

It was worth it!

2006-12-03T22:10:00.000-03:00

Here's a closer picture of Bryan's smile.

It was worth the sore back, headaches, miles, hours, money, and everything else, just to see these little faces in person! :)

Lunch with Andrew

2006-11-24T19:05:00.000-03:00

We had such a good time with Andrew today! He's just as funny as he ever was. We had a good time listening to him talk about what he and Sam did when he was in Argentina. He talked to Sam a bit on the phone, which just revived his memory. Anyway, we had a good time. I got to meet Aunt Carol's mom and sister and Andrew confirmed that they all really do look a like. : )

Gotta love Peanuts!

2006-11-09T11:29:00.000-03:00

:-)

2006-11-06T18:22:00.000-03:00

Need a smile? Click "play" on the page that will open.