Monday, October 22, 2007

Some things we did today.

Glenn: Worked 8 hours as a PCT at Highland Hospital. Got to work on secondaries and enjoy the outdoors some with Sonja and the kids.

Sonja: Home schooled Caleb and Hannah. Went on a picnic in Highland Park. Played "Catch A Leaf". She also made yummy quesidillas for supper.

Caleb: Was schooled by mommy both educationally and in battleship. Played in the park Mom's new "catch a leaf game".

Hannah: Did school. Read her first book in school "Hot". She also played Tic-tac-toe with Caleb and Mommy.

Lydia: Played with Abigail. Visited Daddy's work before the picnic in the park.

Abigail: Played with Lydia met Felix the new baby downstairs. Went on a picnic and whined.


Funny things heard today.
Sonja: Oh, are you guys playing monkey in the middle? (keep away)
Caleb: Yeah, I am the monkey.
Lydia: And I am the Lion, Raaarrrrr!! Raaarrrrr!!

Sonja and I laughed so hard.

Saturday, October 13, 2007

Cooking without Fire

The other night I was making biscuits and gravy. Things were going pretty smooth... I'd browned the sausage, started the biscuits and got them in the oven and I was working on the gravy but it just would not thicken. I added more flour... it still wouldn't get any thicker. I was so confused and frustrated and my family was hungry... what was I to do? I had been standing there stirring the gravy for 15 minutes. It never takes this long. Finally the biscuits were all done and everyone was ready to eat except for the very runny gravy then I looked under the pan... no flame. I'd been breathing fumes but had no fire. It made me think of a verse in 2 Peter 1:3. "seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything we need for life and godliness through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence." God has given me everything that I need, just like I had everything that I needed to make gravy, but I just needed to tap into the source. Lord, light the fire in me.

Sunday, October 07, 2007

Zoo... Laser Show... Corn Maize

This has been a busy week with school. We are learning lots and having fun. The highlight to Caleb's week for school was playing addition war - a game of war that I made up using addition flash cards. Hannah is loving learning how to read new words.

We are loving our Seneca Park Zoo membership and went to the Zoo three times this week. We are getting to know the animals better and learning some of their names from zoo keepers and docents that are around. Cool things from this week include the male cougar jumping on the head of Glenn and the kids when they were in the peaking house, the brother and sister tiger getting into a spat, the arctic wolves howling, getting to see a big frog up close, and getting caught in the rain right by the sea lions so we got to watch Puff and Flounder for a long time. We always go to the zoo on Wednesday before AWANA so we don't have to drive through rush hour traffic on the way to church. We were up north yesterday and stopped by on our way home and we decided to stop in quick after church today. It is so fun to live near a zoo!

On Friday night we went to a Laser light show and fireworks downtown at High Falls. Russ stopped by after dropping Camy off at work and went with us. We can remember going to it once as kids during a Gideon convention. It was fun to stand on the bridge and see the show and all the cool things they could do with the lasers.

Yesterday we wore the kids out. In the morning we went to the Public Market to get some produce and ran into Russ and Camy. Then after a quick stop at the bank to get cash (our ATM card isn't working so we are thankful for shared CU branching!) we were invited to Brian and Christina's house for pancakes. We hung out there until about noon with Brian and Brad and Melissa, another couple from our community group. After leaving Brian's we drove out to Hilton to Zarpentine Farms for their corn maze. They were having a special day for people with Time Warner Community Rewards cards where you could do the maze, get 3 shots with the corn cannon and a cup of cider and a donut all for $1. It would have normally cost over $30 for all of that for us as a family but instead we got it all for $5 for all of us. We don't even have Road Runner anymore but we still have our card that hasn't expired yet. Yeah! Anyway, it was fun but it tired us out. After the Maize (Noah's Ark theme - check out the photo of it from the air) we headed to wander the zoo then got groceries and headed home for a late supper exhausted. Once again, we are so thankful that God has brought us here. We have had a lot of fun since moving to Rochester and are looking forward to another fun week!

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Summer Pictures

Just in case you want to see what we looked like this summer here is a link to a facebook photo album I made.

Pictures of our house will come soon.

Monday, October 01, 2007

Why we like Rochester...

We have been living in Rochester for almost a month now and we just wanted to write down a list of things that we like about living in Rochester.

1. Seneca Park Zoo - This Zoo is just a couple of blocks from our church and we have decided that we are going to visit it every Wednesday before AWANA after we get our school work done because then we don't have to drive through rush hour traffic!! We got a family membership for under $50 and we had SO much fun there on our first visit.
H: There's tigers there and snow wolves and sea lions.
C: My favorite animal is the sea lion.
S: I think that everyone's favorite animals are the sea lions. We made friends with them from underground first when Puff kept chasing Hannah all around and wanting to play with her water bottle. They also performed for us from outside showing off their skills of jumping on the rocks and throwing things on the rocks.

2. Strong Museum of Play. We have heard great things about this place and we had lots of fun there. I think that it will be a great place to go and play when we get cabin fever this winter! We got a membership there too but it was not quite so cheap. We first went last Friday with the Dawleys, some of our friends from Waterloo and the kids had a ton of fun! I can't wait to take Glenn.

3. Highland Library. It is right across the street from Highland Hospital, about a block from our house. We go there every Tuesday to pick out books.

4. EMS Grand Opening. We went to the new EMS store in Pittsford. It was pretty fun and we got a free t-shirt and free BBQ - yum!

5. Highland Park. This is our new playland. It is just across the street and we go out there ever day at 10am for recess. There are so many different kinds of trees and plants and they are all labeled with what they are and when they were planted. It is so cool! There is also a Reservoir with a fountain that we like to walk around and sit by. When we walk around the park you can easily forget that we live in downtown Rochester!

6. Mt. Hope Cemetery. We have driven past this cemetery tons of times over the years but we finally walked to it yesterday (it is a long block from our house). It is so cool! Some of the gravestones and mausoleums are so amazing. There is a really old fountain that still works. I guess that there are 14.5 miles of roads throughout the 197 acre cemetery. It is all "up hills and down dales" and I know that we will go back there to explore a lot! Fredrick Douglass and Susan B Anthony are two of the famous people buried there but we haven't found their graves yet.

7. North Baptist Church. We found our new church on the AWANA website and we are glad that we did. The kids are loving AWANA and their Sunday school and junior church classes and we have really been challenged in the services and community group that we have gotten involved in.

8. 60 Second Science. We went to this free hands on science event at the Rochester Museum and Science Center on Saturday. We made ice cream, disected seeds, looked at stuff under a microscope, made paw prints, played with air and made gases, and did lots of other fun things.

9. Public Market. We had heard raves about this from Russ and Camy and we went with them a couple of weeks ago. It is a huge open market with all kinds of things for sale. The produce was amazing and at such great prices, I can't wait to go back.

10. Christian Medical & Dental Association Quarterly Breakfast. Glenn was invited to this by our friend Matt Mack. He was so glad that he went. He never would have been able to go to it had he not been living in Rochester.

11. Linden Meigs Park. This is our local playground. It is about 5 blocks away. We had a big neighborhood picnic there a couple of weeks ago that was really fun.

Here is just a start. We are so glad that we moved here. We love our apartment and our park and all the activities that we are getting involved in. We are glad that God brought us to this place for this time. We want to take in as much Rochester as we can in these 11 months that we will live here. Keep posted for more fun in Rochester events (hopefully with some pictures) to come!