Thanksgiving

Ben, Christy and Maddie arrived the Saturday before Thanksgiving and stayed until Wednesday. We had a wonderful time visiting with them and seeing how much Maddie has grown. It was so fun to have conversations with her and understand most of what she said to us!  We celebrated her 2nd birthday, went to the zoo, played with the boys’ old Fisher price toys (the barn, Main Street, zoo, western town and airport), sang, danced, shopped, ate, laughed, watched children’s videos and hung out together.

We started out celebrating Maddie’s 2nd birthday with cupcakes and presents. Unfortunately I didn’t discover my camera card wasn’t accepting pictures for the first day or so even though it showed it had space.  But I don’t think I’ll forget her eating her birthday cupcake on Grandpa’s lap. A grandfather’s love overlooks the crumbs and frosting all over his shirt front, sleeves and collar from all the hugs and laughs while eating cupcakes together. And what fun it was to watch her open her birthday gifts from us.

Thanks Ben, Christy and Maddie for making a true “round” trip (around Lake Erie) to visit us for a few days! We loved having you at the BK Bed and Breakfast and hope you had as much fun as Grandma and Grandpa did.  

Bumblebees and Butterflies

We were able to see our two beautiful granddaughters on Halloween this year and bring them candy from Grandma and Grandpa! What a special treat for us!!!!

Bumblee Annika

 

   

  
Butterfly Maddie

Ordination

October 30, 2012, what a special day. We were able to witness Phil be ordained as a Lutheran minister.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy a group of family and friends were there to witness this holy celebration.  Bob and I were so proud and honored to not only witness this but to be a part of the service. Bob read the New Testament reading and I was able to help with the communion. What an awesome experience to have our son, a newly ordained minister’s first act of service be to serve us communion.

We are so proud of Phillip and the hard work he has put toward this achievement and proud of Rachel and Annika for their support.  It was great see Rachel put Phillip’s stole around him and to see Annika’s precious little hand rest on her Papa’s shoulder.  Rev. Neil Kattermann spoke a beautiful personal message to Phil and his brother-in-law and grandfather-in-law were able to take part along with  Bishop Jerge who was there to officiate.

It was an unforgettable evening.

 

 

 

Published!

Many months ago Christy showed me this website where you could have your blog published in book form. Being technology challenged I put it off. But for my birthday they gave me a coupon for that website.  I finally took the time to look into it and now I have a book form of my blog from our time in Australia!

I was able to pick out the dates to be included, the cover design, the photo for the front and back covers and I was also able to include a dedication. So I spent some time working on the dedication. After finishing, I was disappointed to find that I was restricted to 150 characters so I had to work and work on editing it to include what I wanted to convey. I had to cut out a lot. So I decided to print the full dedication here in my blog.

 

Living Upsidedown   - a blog about being displaced on the other side of the world

This is about an empty-nest housewife and her adventures on being transplanted to Australia for a few months while her husband was on a temporary work assignment for his company.

To my husband Bob, I could never have imagined the wonderful journey we would share together when we began our life together over thirty-three years ago.  It has been an amazing one of laughter and tears, ups and downs, joys and sorrows.  We have traveled near and now far and it has been a wonderful life. I appreciate your love for me and our family, your hard work to support us, and your character to be true to the God you love. Bob, you are my love.

I thank Ben, Phillip, Christy, Rachel, Maddie and Annika for your love and support. Rachel and Phil, thank you for your help in getting my blog started. Ben and Christy thank you for your help in getting my blog in book form. Thank you Maddie and Annika for your love, laughter and the joy you have brought to my life.

Thank you to all who followed and encouraged me on my daily journey. It felt like you all were there with me every step of the way!

Collecting Quarters

In 1999 the state quarters were launched.  Bob, Ben and Phillip bought me a coin holder for all 50 quarters. Ten years seemed a long time to be looking and collecting quarters but I slowly began. Not only did I collect quarters for myself, I thought it would be nice to collect a set for Ben and Phillip. So the quarter hunt began. Every time we received quarters in change we looked at them to see if it was one we needed or one that could be spent elsewhere.

Once Phillip started college and we made 13 trips back and forth to get him to college we started collecting quarters for another reason, the tolls to and from college. At the time, the tolls were in dollar and/or fifty cent increments, so it was natural to use quarters for the small amounts we paid at each toll booth. Years ago I learned that a 35mm film canister holds exactly $7.00 in quarters, so we kept our quarters for the trip in a film canister. We would check each quarter to see if it was for the state quarter collection or the toll booth collection. Toll prices increased little by little and we added a second film canister for quarters. And so the years went by.

After college graduation, we continued to collect for the state quarters and for tolls back to New York but we added another quarter collection.  Once we purchased our new car, we now take it to a self-wash car wash instead of the drive through to keep it from getting scratches, waxing film build up on the windshield and the door locks from freezing. All problems we faced with our old car from going through the drive through car wash. Believe me it is not fun to have to get in the back seat of a Daewoo in Sunday clothes with your long winter coat on, climb over the seat (with headrests) to get to the driver seat and start the car. Then you would either have to stay in the car, or climb back out and back in again to let the car warm up so hopefully you wouldn’t have to repeat the process in the church parking lot. Not a real graceful way to arrive at church.

Naturally with Hawaii being the last state, we were seeing the end of the hunt when excitedly we found the last Hawaiian quarter. We were at our usual car wash where Bob had put $5 in to get change and replenish our change supply when he happily announced he had a Hawaiian quarter.

Excitedly I went home and put my last quarter in, and was thrilled I had completed not only my collection but the boys’ collections as well. Or so I thought.  When looking at the boys’ collection, I discovered that I was short one Oklahoma quarter and had recently discarded one I had thinking I was all set. So the hunt began again.

Finally after not just ten years but fourteen years I have completed all three state quarter collections.  I’m not sure what will happen to mine since the boys will each have their own set, but it was a fun hobby.

The funny thing is I still find myself looking at quarters when I receive change. I understand they are doing quarters for some of the national parks. Another collection maybe.....no, I think I will try a new hobby.