Ruby's Rambilngs

Dearest Ruby, what can one say she truly is a precious jewel.  She always has a smile on her face and can help you bring one to yours.  She is now 5 years old and loves to do schoolwork.  Her reading has improved a lot this year and she often asks her Dad if she can read the Bible with him.  She tries her best to sound out all the words without getting discouraged.  Her math skills are unbelievable to me, so glad at least a few children of mine like math, it always seems to be a battleground subject if you don't like it.

Ruby has had a year of firsts, she learned to ride a two wheeler, tie her shoes (she just did this the other night during devotions, we had been working on it from time to time, but suddenly it clicked), and she learned from the dentist a week ago that her bottom teeth are wiggly so now she's waiting to lose that first tooth.

Ruby with her usual group of buddies Mal, Ruby, Stephen, & Nate

The oldest and youngest all prepared for the big day

At the Creation Musuem

Doing school like the big kids/model of the earth's layers

Painting at Kara's house

As you can see Ruby does pretty much whatever everyone else is doing, age segregation is not in her vocabulary for the most part.  She is close buddies with cousin Nate next door, they are usually paired up
in the yard playing together, while Stephen & Mal are together.  He is like a second big brother to her, always looking after her and just being kind, it's very sweet to witness.

Stephen's Section

My attempt at a football cake! it's triangular!!

My attempt at a helmet cake

Stephen turned 8 in July just two days before we headed out for our trip to Tennessee.  This year I thought it was appropriate to have a boys birthday party (plus Ruby).  So we had a football theme and played games related to football!  This was quite different for me, as I'm used to doing pink princess parties! but I think it went well.

Stephen does so enjoy sports, both playing and watching.  Hockey seems to be a mainstay so rollerblading is an everyday occurence when the ground is dry, unfortunately in August this resulted in a broken arm.

This is smile is the result of realizing he wouldn't be able to write when school started!

Stephen is in 3rd grade and seems to enjoy school, his favorite subject is math.  His favorite book so far this year was ,"When We Were Very Young" by A.A. Milne which is a collection of poems about Winnie the Pooh.  He enjoyed our year end game of  "Jeopardy" which was filled with questions based on our history studies and science. It was a riot when we were studying the Jazz Period a few mos. back, Stephen listened to the samples of music we played and decided he really liked Louis Armstrong, so now when we hear him in the store or on the radio he gets this big smile on his face, it's very cute.

Here Miss Barb is teaching Stephen how to dive while on vacation in TN

Here beside Ruby as Ring Bearer in the wedding

This was taken after the Resurrection Day Service at Pleasantview Baptist Church in MD

Stephen and Ruby are very close, they still share a room, although it has been offered for Ruby to move across the hall with Emma, at this point she's staying put and he's not complaining, which is nice to see, I'm not sure that this will last too much longer.

Here's Stephen in his Charlie Chaplin getup for a film festival we had with Tapestry of Grace Co-op

 

 

on to Emma!

One of Emma's Oil Paintings

Emma's rendition of the Titanic

Oil Pastels, a copy of "The Scream"

Emma was a junior bridesmaid in the wedding

As you can see Emma still loves art.  So this year when Ellen quit taking piano lessons and no one else in the house was interested in continuing with music, we figured it was time to let Emma begin some Art lessons.  The top oil painting was done at the Norwin Art League under the direction of Pat Vaughn the same teacher that taught me when I was 11 years old.  Pat says she has quite a few children of previous students these days.   Emma also took some fun childrens classes there this summer in acrylic painting.  She had previously done some classes with Young Rembrandts and the teacher mentioned that if she was ever interested in further teaching she'd be available.  So this fall we started having her over to our home twice a mos. and then once or twice a mos. we meet with her on Tues. afternoons with a few others.  She's done oil pastels, sketching, and sculpey clay.  Stephen has joined in on a few occasions as well.


Besides art Emma has become addicted to a series of books called "Warriors" that her best friend Emily introduced her to. These are books about cats and are very long, yet she devours them as soon as Emily brings them over. 

Emma is in 6th grade this year and is doing very well.  She likes hands on learning and has enjoyed all the movies we have been viewing on WWI and WWII this year.  So if we can find a project to go with whatever we are studying Emma will be much happier! Although for some reason Emma is intrigued with ancient history and this summer re-read most all of our books on Egypt, so she is happy that next fall we get to go through that time period again.  Also in March a local CMA Church will be hosting a "Visit Egypt" program, so she is counting the days to that, we attended their program on Rome and we all enjoyed it immensely (Steve & I included).

I think Emma likes the cold better than the heat, she seems to want to be outside more in the winter than the summer? go figure, she doesn't get this from me!  She'll be turning 12 in February.

I asked her what her favorite thing was about our trip to Tennessee this past summer and she said, "Probably the 2 seminars at the "Defending the Faith Conference", one on evolution and one by Bill Jack called Counterfit Reality" and "Oh yes, Dollywood and all the coasters there!"

When asked what she was looking forward to in 2011 she said summer and being able to go to Deep Creek and going water skiing! She was able to get up and stay up this past year, so I'm glad to hear she still wants to do that, she kind of tapered off at the end of the year and was content to watch others.

Aimer, Kate, Amy Kate, or just Amy....

Wiffle ball

Tube Tug a game everyone can really get into! 

Spike that ball Amy!

Amy is nearly 15, as her birthday is coming up rapidly on Jan. 15th, she is in 9th grade this year.  I guess I'd describe Amy as a social butterfly and this is one of the main reasons we organized our Summer Family Fellowship Time, we all benefited greatly but know that Amy especially enjoyed these times.She would help organize game ideas and plans for the night twice a mos. May through August.  Have no idea where she gets this social side to her personality? go figure...LOL

What else can I say about Amy, well I'm not sure that's why I asked her to write her own post like Ellen did but she said, "Nah, that's ok."  So what else can I tell you, she loves to spend time at Deep Creek and go canoeing with Ellen and Zeb. She likes to talk on facebook, a lot! (social network, what else would you expect from a social butterfly). 

It's been exciting to see her grow in her faith this year and begin to apply it.  One night during a very in depth discussion where there was a lot of burden for someone on her heart I came to find her crying, just as I was in the other room.  She then freely shared with her Dad and I scriptures that came to mind when thinking about the situation and Steve stopped and said, "Mom, I think our little girl is growing up!".  It was a very exciting moment for us. 

While school is seen as a necessary evil for the most part, there are aspects she has enjoyed this year.  Unfortunately they are not science and foreign language.  But she did enjoy an economics discussion at our co-op and could often be heard discussing the material with her Dad after dinner. 

She also discovered she likes to bake chocolate chip cookies and can eat just about all she bakes as long as she has a few friends to share them with, which she's been able to do at a few sleepovers the past few months. 

Amy does hope to join Ellen at Worldview Academy in July, but currently is a long way from saving up for that event, she's pretty much given up you could say, but I haven't. 

She has done some babysitting this year which she seems to really enjoy.  On her very first job she was watching 5 kiddos and wouldn't you know someone got hurt in the first 30 min. but she handled it very well and nothing was seriously wrong, but it was an experience she won't forget from her first real outside job.  I know she enjoys these children and their family as she went along roller skating with them on a Sat. afternoon, she came back having a hard time moving her arm for a few days following as her partner was much shorter, this was so cute! 

Well that all said she is looking forward to turning 15 and has already informed me she has different thoughts of a party for her 16th than her two older sisters, so she is planning ahead. 

Ellen Marie Update

Hello! This is Ellen typing. Mom asked me to write my own post this year. So here I am.
I am 17 years old. And this year has been the best year of my life.
Not only did I graduate high school, but I also just completed my first semester as a full time student at Westmoreland County Community College with a 4.0 GPA!

Now I will go back to the beginning of the year. I attended WEC again for my senior year of high school. And I must say, the class of 2010 rocks! I started tutoring some of my friends, which was a fantastic experience. Mostly in math and science.

In February, Kara, Derrick and I went to the Mellon Arena to see Casting Crowns, Kutless, and Caleb in concert. It was so much fun, and also the first concert I've been to.

I had an MRI earlier on this year, and was declared to have perfect ventricles. :) And in October, I reached the 2 year mark of being hydrocephalus free! Thanks God!

In April, I was a bridesmaid in Kara's wedding. It was so fun being in her bridal party being able to celebrate her big day with her. Although, I stepped on my dress going up the stairs and then proceeded to get my heel caught in the crack in the stage, it was a blast. And I made the blooper video.

Which you can see here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOnEi_bLMkI

In May, I had a traumatic experience when I wrecked and totaled my car. But God has gotten me through it.

When I graduated in June, I took my final piano lesson from Mr. Jalosky. He is a fantastic teacher and I wish I could have continued longer, but my schedule thought otherwise. I love playing the piano and I always enjoy finding new sheet music online to play. My favorites are by Casting Crowns and Switchfoot. Who also happen to be my favorite bands.

My graduation party was awesome. Thanks to all of you who came out to support me!

I attended Worldview Academy for the second time this summer. It was so awesome! I had so much fun with my small group and learned so much! My favorite lecture was called "How to Study the Wise Man's Book" or how to study the Bible. It was such a fantastic and needed lecture.  I learned to much from Worldview this year, that sometimes I think my head is going to explode. Haha. Oh, and I got to spend that week with Ashley and Bethany. Two of my awesome friends. And here is my small group.

Then we went to Tennessee!! It was awesome! I got to ride in a zorb ball 3 times! Here's a picture of me rolling down the hill.

And me and Amy stayed in the same room. So we did some weird things.

After Kara got married, I spent the summer working for Eichelberger & Sons, Heating & Air Conditioning as Secretary. (which was her position) And on the weekends, my favorite place to be was at Deep Creek. It was so nice to not have to think about school anymore, and I could just relax and enjoy summer. And that is exactly what I did.

I bought a car in August...with my own money. It's had some problems like stalling...and neither the air conditioning or the heat works, but it gets me where I need to go. The stalling was fixed though, thank God! Now I just have to suffer through the cold going to and from school. This is going to be a freezing winter...and a life changing experience.

I also bought a kayak this summer...but I didn't receive it until October, so I didn't get to try it out yet.

I started community college in August in the Mulitmedia and Photography Associates Degree Program. I was nervous about going of to school by myself. I knew a few of my friends were going there, but I actually have only seen one of them this whole semester. God blessed me that first day of school. I sat beside a girl who I found out was homeschooled the whole way through, just like me. And she was a Christian. Her name is Sarah and we have become great friends. I also found out that there was another homeschooler right after I had met Sarah. Her name is Rebecca. And then I met Courtney. She wasn't homeschooled, but she caught my eye the second day of school. We've all become best friends and I'm going to miss them very much over break.

This is Rebecca and Courtney

 And this is Sarah

Yeah we have a lot of fun. :)

Throughout my senior year, I was taking online classes at WCCC. And I got involved with one of the clubs there called the ReachOut Christian Club. They had some get together's that I went to, and some fundraisers that I was a part of. The president of the club, Jordan, was about to resign from his presidential position in the ReachOut Club to be the president of the Student Government (which I must say he does a fantastic job at!). And needless to say, the ReachOut Club needed a president. I was elected at the beginning of this fall semester to be President of the club, and it has been an awesome experience. My vice president Hannah and I came up with the idea to have a prayer meeting every thursday at school. And we started that the first week of October. We've had such a great response to it this semester with about 6-9 people showing up to pray every week. I've met a lot of people through these prayer meetings who will be my friends forever. God has been so good to me.

One thing every club has to do each semester is a service project. And this semester the ReachOut club participated in Operation Christmas Child. Which is where you collect shoeboxes and fill them with toys and hygiene items to send to children around the world. We were able to collect enough money to send off 15 boxes! It was an awesome project and we are hoping to do it again next year.

Needless to say, the ReachOut Club has taken up a lot of my time, but I absolutely love it! And during Christmas break, I am leading a Bible study on saturdays. So if anyone is interested please contact me! :) I'd love to have you join me/us.

Since I am a photography major, I needed to get a DSLR camera. And I got my baby (Canon 50D) about 2 months ago. You can see some of my pictures at: bloomsbyellen.blogspot.com
And if you ever have any photographic needs, let me know. I'm happy to take pictures, or teach you how to use your camera.

So that's been most of my year! I hope you enjoyed reading about me!

Update #2, on Steve and his escapades....

Hunting Opening Day

Well it's that time of year...hunting season.  Steve was successful this year along with three of his hunting companions, he's out again this weekend trying to bag that big buck! This year at least it's a bit colder and there is a little snow on the ground but not much.   He looks forward to hunting season so much and it comes and goes very quickly, at least for him!  Stephen got to go out before the weather changed in October, I'm not too keen on his joining his Dad on opening day yet.  But he seems to have the same drive built into his blood as his Dad, he helped track a deer that was shot and was difficult to find, so that was quite an exciting time.

When it's not hunting season Steve is busy at work and doing a variety of other activities.  This was his first year of not playing softball, over a year ago he had tendonitis in his arm and it still pays frequent visits, one he was not interested in having due to irritating that problem.  So this year over the summer he led the Wed. evening couples Bible study here at the house, and twice a mos. rotated on Thursdays over the summer to teach at our family fellowship nights.  He still attends a Wed. morning Bible Study as he has for many years and joined another group on Tues. a.m. at 5:30 that has been on going for 2 yrs. now.  Then beginning in October he said the time had come for us to open up our home on Sun. mornings as well.  So for about 6 weeks we've been having a home church.  During the mos. of Sept. and Oct. men met each week to pray about this opportunity.  We've had as many as 25 people here on a Sun. and we share a meal together after, so our extra large dining table is getting a lot of use these days.  So if you're in the area Sun. morning around 10 AM stop in, you'll be most welcome.  God is good and we are seeking His will for what is next.

Steve is still active in the Norwin Chamber of Commerce where he has completed his second year as Chairman of the Board.  He enjoys being involved in the community and getting to know new folks.  There's plenty of opportunity for that at the monthly mixers that different businesses offer each month.  He does take me along to some of these, I enjoy them as well as I've gotten to know many of the people and look forward to the events, the Christmas one this past week was very well attended, I'm guessing over 125 folks or so.

The business is doing well and it is such a blessing to have Ellen working answering the phone, scheduling, and taking care of customers.  Truly a family business.  We're looking forward to more family joining in years to come.

It's December 1st and I'm ready to begin a running post and update on our family.

As I did last year in place of mailing Christmas Cards and Pictures out (except to a few folks) I'm going to do a virtual newsletter update on our family.  About once a week or so I'll do a posting and update you all on each person in our family. I'll start with the one I know best, me!!

2010 has been a year of emotional highs and lows!! From the excitement of planning for Kara and Derrick's April wedding, to having Ellen graduate from high school.

In January we kicked into high gear for our wedding planning, finishing up all the odds and ends like ordering a cake, which turned out to be an interesting event, but ended beautifully.  We had 3 blessed bridal showers, two here locally and 1 in Milan, PA (5 hrs. from here).  We just wanted to share our joy with all that we could and we knew that was not going to be entirely possible due to budget constraints, I don't think you can quite understand until you have to plan a wedding.  But God blessed this day with every heavenly blessing and showered down his love and care over every detail from the weather to the honeymoon.  We are so thankful for all those that took time out of their lives to come and share in the joy of the day, helping us watch our dear daughter move on to begin her new life as a wife.

 Then came our next big event of the year, Ellen's Graduation Party.  We scheduled this for June and had a very hot, but gorgeous day to celebrate.  We were blessed by the many friends and family members that came out to celebrate Ellen's accomplishment. Will share more on Ellen in her post coming up soon.

 Then in July we headed to Tennesee with the our friends the Balega Family and attended a family conference sponsered by Answers in Genesis.  While there we took in as many of the sites and activities that we could, it was a fast paced week that was a lot of fun!

The cabin on top of a mountain we rented, secluded we wanted, secluded we got!

The Awesome Titanic Museum, spent 3 hours there, could have spent more.

Some of our party wanted to go Zorbing! riding inside a giant ball down a hill!

Most of the gang on day 1 at Dollywood when it was about 102 deg, the next day it was 106 deg.

This is just one of the many switchbacks we took up and down the mountain 2x a day to the cabin, in our 12 pass. van nonetheless! talk about excitement!!

This was actually our first outing,  River Rage Tubing, tons of fun but not without a little danger.

On our way home we stopped at the Creation Museum, this is in the lovely gardens outside!

 

 

 

 

  We kept busy all summer by hosting a couple's Bible study called "Visionary Parenting" where we had 6 families come out for 8 weeks on Wed. nights, the older girls helped keep all the little ones busy, there were sometimes as many as 25 children in our basement!  We also hosted a twice a month fellowship night where Steve and our dear friend Angelo Terranella taught from the book of Daniel, this was after a few hours of fun activities that families had together i.e. wiffleball, volleyball, water games, water night, and always lots of snacks. 

Volleyball

Laura ready for Bible Study

Sack Races

Inner tube, tarp, soap, + water = fun

Even the little ones join in.

 Summer flew by as usual, we spent most weekends enjoying the lake house (as Derrick calls it) and our church family at Pleasantview Baptist each Sunday, we even were blessed to spend Resurrection Sunday with them this year, it was 90 degrees in April this year!! an unbelievable weekend that allowed the opening up of  the windows there so early.  Then in October we closed up a week early as we were making a trip up to help Kara and Derrick move into their new home.  It was a great trip and we all did not want to leave, even my van  tried to get us to stay, it took a few trips to the repair shop to coax it home.

Everyone worked really hard helping get the house ready to move in.

The livingroom looked great after everything was moved in.

The dining room getting painted, Derrick needs no stepladder.

We celebrated Kara's 21st birthday with her while we were there.

 

 

So not too much has happened since October.  We've been busy with our homeschooling and our one co-op. We did not return to the enrichment classes that I had directed for so long, so it's been nice to enjoy our Fridays at home for the first in over 14 yrs.

Kara and Derrick were able to spend Thanksgiving with us which was absolutely wonderful!!! it was very hard to see them go on Sunday, Ruby didn't want to let go of Kara's neck and everyone had sad puppy eyes as they pulled out of the driveway.  Lord willing they'll be back for New Years, but with new jobs for both of them it'll be a short weekend visit, it'll be time for us to make a trip back up to see them I think.

So I'll stop there and get some posts up on each member of our home so you can keep up to date with our lives,be sure and drop us a line and let us know how you are doing, we'd love to pray for your family, please remember us as well, pray that we may seek the Lord, continue in His will for our lives, and see His Kingdom grow.