How to say goodbye?

 How do you say goodbye to a church? Not just any church but the one that you grew up in. You were baptized there. Confirmed there. Blessed before your graduation and trip to college. As of January 31st my church will close it's doors forever. While I no longer attend this church...Obviously as we live in Jordan...it is still my home and my heart. Nothing has ever felt the same as attending this church with my family while growing up. So again I ask how do you say goodbye? Well today I went on a quest to take pictures of the building. I want to remember the building and the memories. I must admit that it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. It's just a building right? Taking pictures should be a breeze right ( I wish I would have done this while I still had our Nikon with me)? I guess I was just unprepared for the emotions that would go along with being there. Maybe it is the recent loss of my dad, who knows but it was much more emotional that I thought it would be. Memories flooded back. The great times, the ok times, the great sermons, and the down right scary Easter Sunday one that really turned me off a certain pastor. I enjoyed watching Little Lady as she experienced the church building. She wandered the rooms, sat in the pews, admired the windows, and read the hymnal, while singing. Her choice in song was Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and while I am fairly certain that song is not in there, she knew what the hymnal was for. On Sunday my church will hear it's last sermon after 162 years. It will be a remembrance and a goodbye. The service is set to be a burial and a farewell. It will see it's last smiles, last tears, last families, and last memories. The end of an era. I will miss this church probably more than I know right now. Farewell to you Marine City United Methodist Church. Farewell!

( I apologize for the screwy picture formatting. I cannot get them to be organized right.)

 

The center aisle. My parents and both of my brothers were married in this church and walked down this aisle.

I walked down this aisle as the flower girl at my Brother Rob's wedding.

LL giving her best sermon.

She asked me if she could "help you?"

Mommy you have to "ssshhhhhh"

The front of the church

My Dad made this plaque for the church.

He also made this one of Jesus. I love that it is positioned next to the flag.

The baptismal font.

the view to the rear of the church.

The stain glass window at the rear of the church.

The ceiling

LL checking out the Hymnal

Practicing for the service on Sunday

Singing

The pipes for the organ.

The piano

Another window

ON the wall there are pictures of Pastors past.

Little Lady had to try out every pew

SOrry the pictures are loading out of order and I cannot get them to move. UUGGHHH

This is the room that I went to for Sunday School.

Rainy Saturday activity

 Well Saturday was going to be our get out of the house and do something outside day. It was predicted to be in the 40's. A regular heat wave after the below zero temps of the week before. Unfortunately, the rain came and it continued to rain all day. Flooding began. It was a mess. So what to do? Paint??? Yeah...no. Instead Great Aunt JoAnn came over and a gingerbread house was made. I had bought the house with the intention to make it before Christmas. I mean that is when you make those sorts of things right? Well we just plain were way to busy. So it made for a great rainy day activity. Though I have to admit. I did not read the directions before we started. I was relying on the experience of my mom and aunt who I figured had to have done this sort of thing hundreds of times. WRONG!! Apparently they have never made gingerbread houses either. So we opened the box and sorta read the directions. It said to make the house and wait for a few hours to harden. Well that was not an option. I had already promised LL that she would get to make a gingerbread house. So we held it together for a few minutes and used lots and lots of frosting. It worked. Then we just kinda winged it in terms of sticking stuff on. In all reality. LL decided she was the queen of the candy. Grandma and Aunt JoAnn were the workers and they were only allowed the candy she did not want to eat. She handed out the colors she wanted them to use and other than a few choice moments, was content to eat the candy and watch them work. She would shout an order every now and then. Then they were all done. Aunt JoAnn had to go home and my mom and I worked to get rid of LL's sugar buzz so she could take a nap. Everyone had a great nap. I even had one!! WOOOHOO for rainy days. Then we grilled some steaks and made awesome baked potatoes for dinner! After dinner we pulled out wonder horse from the basement. He was given to my brother when he was 3 months old. SO this horse is 49 and still going! She played for a while then went to bed. Where she woke up a few times screaming to ride her horsey. First thing this morning she got her hat on and said she was going for a ride. This girl is starting to get a thing for horses.

Getting started

You want me to what?

Here is for you

And you

Working hard

Considering all the options

Eventually we remembered there was a backside to the house

and what made you think you were going to do that?

I did it!

Actually putting something on the house

Tah Dah!

It is beautiful. Isn't it?

The back

Snowman side

Dinner!

Everyone had to go for a ride. Elmo first

Then duck

Then Tigger

Next was Baby

Even her Minnie chapstick had to go for a ride

Waking up this morning. She declared she was ready to ride after she donned her riding hat!

Passing the snowy/ cold days away.

Well it is cold as cold can be here. I know everyone is talking about the snow and the cold. It is all the news is talking about. In fact it is kinda annoying. We get it. It is cold. Stay inside. If you didn't plan to stay inside, 2 seconds after you open the door you regret all decisions that lead to that point and will return inside immediately. 

LL was rather impressed with the snow

The snow over the night

The snow in the morning

 

My mom's magnolia tree.

So in honor of our we are not leaving this house / I am no longer cut out for this weather we are in full on try something new and entertain the toddler mode. Here is what we were up to yesterday while the snow fell all day and today where it was just too cold to think.

Yesterday we started the day with lots of coloring and stickers.

Trying on her hat before decorating it

There are never enough stickers for this Little Lady

  Spent lots of time torturing the kitties

 Painted a bird house

 

I Did it!

You know just taking a moment to paint myself

Isn't it beautiful?

 Had a great nap (well LL did. I redid the caulking in the bathroom upstairs) and spent lots of time playing with Christmas toys. After LL went to bed I spent the night finding great recipes online and slowly working on building a 2 month menu.

Today: We used some of the recipes I found yesterday!!

 We started out with making snow cream at 10:30 am. ( there is nothing wrong with this right? lol) The resulting sugar buzz was intense. My mom and I actually felt sick from how sweet it was and immediately had to have lunch to try to counter act the sugar. My mom eventually gave up and had a nap to get rid of the headache. LL loved the sugar buzz and was running around insane. Then she crashed about 45 minutes later into a sobbing mess on the floor for no reason. She then had lunch and took an awesome nap!

Mixing the sugar, vanilla, and milk

Mix mix mix

Adding the snow

Stir stir stir

Tasting the finished product

YUMMY!

After it melted too much for spoon use we added a straw. You cannot waist this goodness!

 LL PEED ON THE POTTY!!! 

She asked to use it and did. WooHoo!!

During her nap I tore out the caulking in the shower in the basement. Yay for being stuck at home and working on small projects. I kinda miss having the fun of working on our house. 

Yeah I just said that. lol

LL woke up and we made the 5 minute cheesecake recipe I found yesterday. It really did take 5 minutes and it was yummy. Not the same texture of a cheesecake. Really really smooth and creamy.  A lot lighter on the stomach too. It is perfect for satisfying that craving for cheesecake without all the time and effort that goes into making one. I will definitely make this again!

 Laundry was done and lots and lots of pretend kitchen play was had by all.

Who needs the kitchen actually set up?

LL is enjoying the fact that it is too cold to take her toys to the post office to mail home. Look at all those bags and boxes waiting! Good Luck S and the DPO!

 LL went to bed an hour early. She was just too excited from our busy day. I finished removing the old caulk in the shower and am now relaxing. I guess I should start finding ideas for tomorrow's entertainment. Any suggestions???

Here is my snow cream recipe (Edited for the over sugar): 8 cups of snow, 1 cup of milk, 1/4 cup of sugar and 1/2 tsp of vanilla.

Mix milk, sugar, and vanilla

Add snow until you get the consistancy you want.

ENJOY!

Here is the link to the 5 minute Cheesecake recipe. :

5 minute cheesecake

Keeping up with us. Even I can't do it.

Well yet again it has been months. In fact it is now a new year and I have yet to write anything on here in a long time. As we have been meeting with friends and family over this amazing holiday season I was reminded / asked/ and just plain told that I need to get back to writing. People actually like to read it! That is that shocker right there. Someone other than me and my mom read this thing. Ok so I think we will start with a whirl wind review of things...

October was a tough tough month. With my Dad's passing and hurried trips home/ airline trouble/ and just drama it was a long month that needed to end. Little Lady and I arrived back in Jordan just in time for Halloween and it was a fun time to be back and look to a new month.

November: S had his birthday and we celebrated with friends by going out for Sushi. It was a nice night out and even more special because we left the Little Lady at home and had a meal and conversation in peace. We went camping in Ajloun Forest with some friends and their daughter. We only stayed one night because we were not sure how it would go with the two little ones but it was awesome. I should say it was camping "light". We had cabins with beds/ electricity/ fridges/ couches. We cooked over the fire though and that was where are challenge was. Over Thanksgiving we decided to visit Aqaba. We made the 4 hour long trek with minimal damage. LL was actually a pretty darn good passenger even though she did not really sleep very much. We enjoyed a practically empty hotel, heated pool, and beautiful views of the Red Sea. We took a "submarine" ride out to look at the coral reefs. It was a cool little boat with a glass bottom hull that you climb down in and look at the fish. S and I thought it would be a great trip for LL but turns out she was not as into it as we thought she would be. It was a very very choppy day and the water was very cloudy so I think she lost interest pretty quick.

December: What I can I say. December is a crazy month every year. We returned from Aqaba and I went into full on birthday party mode. LL turned 2 and we had an Elmo themed party. We invited 4 of LL's friends over and their parents along with a few friends of ours to celebrate. We ate pizza and watched the little girls all play. It was a fun evening, even if my guests did not bring big enough appetites! The fridge was full and we had left overs for a week. We attended an ugly sweater brunch that was delicious at Joe and Hilary's house and that same evening we went to an Ugly sweater party at Ben and Katie's. Amazingly enough we did all of this by Taxi as our car was having major difficulties and was at the mechanics. The next week was my birthday and in true birthday fashion it kinda flopped. Last year we had a great brunch with friends and kinda relaxed but then LL ended up in the hospital really really sick and we were very worried about it. It was my second year in a row in the hospital for her on my birthday. Yuck! Glad to say we broke that tradition this year. Instead We were snowed in! Yep. Breakfast with Santa was cancelled due to the snow. That trip to the grocery store cancelled due to snow. Date day/ seeing a movie (the first one since LL was 2 months old)/ Last minute Christmas shopping (which was not done the week before as planned due to the lack of car)/ amazing dinner out at Cantaloupe without the baby all cancelled due to snow. IN fact we were starting to question making it to our flight that was for Monday morning as it was days that things were closed. 5 days seemed to be the worst. It slowly got better over time. LL and I made our flight and were on our way back to the states on the 16th by the 20th S was able to start getting delivery again for food (there was none in the house due to the snow and then we were planning to leave so why shop). Too bad he left on the 21st! lol He was able to scrounge up a lot of soup and random pasta/ salad dressing meals to get him through. As I said LL and I made it to the US on the 16th. We started getting settled in and did some shopping to start the holiday season off right. This time around she likes the family a bit better and is remembering a lot of things from when we were home in October. We went with my father in law and picked S up from the airport and LL was very happy to have daddy here with us. We had a birthday party with my family for LL on the 22nd. She was a regular ham and loved all the attention (Shocker I know). She thoroughly enjoyed her spaghetti dinner and opening presents. The 23rd. We went to Greenfield village with S's side of the family for their Village nights. It was cold but we had a lot of fun and even with LL in tow we stayed until 10 for the fireworks. She had a great time and so did we. The 24th was Christmas Eve festivities with S's side. We went to Henry Ford museum in the morning for the traditional visit with Santa. That did not go well. Then we returned to S's parents house for a fun afternoon of preparing for the evening celebration. It was great seeing everyone and getting to relive the holiday memories of present games and pageants past. Christmas morning we woke up to discover Santa came to visit and LL wanted nothing to do with her presents. In fact it took us 3 days to get her to open them. She loved the ones from Grandma and Grandpa  but something about the blue santa paper was just not up to snuff for her I guess. Then we high tailed it to my Mom's house for Christmas fun with my family. Another fun evening with my family and LL loved all the attention. She is the littlest kid by far in my family. Her closest cousin in age is 21 so it has been a while since there were little kids to entertain and spoil. So She was spoiled. She felt she was the star of the show and loved it. We let her be the present girl, distributing the presents to everyone, and then she got to open hers. Like I said she is one lucky little lady and very spoiled by both sides of the family. I am planning to start the shipping of boxes process this week and I can only imagine how many boxes we will have. Look out S and the DPO! The 26th we went back to S's family for Zoo Lights at the Detroit Zoo. We all walked around the zoo and saw a beautiful display of lights and enjoyed being together. The 27th we went to the zoo in the day time so we could see the animals. LL loves animals and was happy to get out of the house. The weather was pretty warm (in the 40's) and she ran around like a crazy person with her cousins Eve and Elsa. We then returned to S's parents to prepared for the December Birthday Celebration. There are 6 birthdays in the month of December on S's side so it was a large party. We went to Mongolian BBQ for dinner which was yummy for all but S's Dad who ended up with food poisoning. :( Then returned t his parent's house for cake and presents. Again LL was spoiled by the generosity of her family and had a blast opening such great gifts. We then attempted a cousin bath. Trying to get Karson (who is almost 2 month younger than LL) and LL clean from the cake. At first they were confused why they were sharing. Then Karson found it to be very entertaining to dump water on LL. She was ok with it. Not happy but not particularly upset either. Then the splashing began and the bathroom looked like a tidal wave hit it. Finally after Karson started to settle. LL decided it was her turn to take to dumping water on him. Eventually we had to end the party because Karson committed tub crimes and peed in the water. Long story short we ended up with 2 somewhat clean kids/ a soaked bathroom/ and lots of laughs. The 28th we took a brief opportunity to hit some stores and grab jimmy johns (oh how we have missed you) and then went to Julie and Itu's for a nice dinner with the family. Monday the 29th we went with all the cousins (except Nikole. we missed you!) to the Ann Arbor Hand's on Museum. It was lots of fun. Very crowded because of the holiday but lots of fun for all the kids. We had lunch at Red Robin (yep missed it too!) and returned in time for a date night. My in law's braved staying with LL so that S and I could have an early anniversary out. They took her to shopping at Target and according to them had a great time with her until bed time when she was not amused with going to bed without Mommy and Daddy home. IN the morning when she only wanted to scream at them and was in no way planning to be near them we are not so sure. lol We know she had a great time and they all survived but she was determined not to be left alone with Grandma and Grandpa again. lol We loaded up the car, headed to the mall to enjoy a day out shopping. Had a great lunch and then went to Matt and Vickies for our New years eve fun. The kids played and then were in bed by 8! YAY!!!! We then stayed up playing board games until Midnight. YAY We made it to Midnight!!! It was a fun evening even if Matt won all the games.
January: We then got up on New years day to snow and more snow. Made the tricky drive back to my mom's and plunked down in the living room to do nothing. The next day we braved the snow storm and ran errands that had to be done before S left. The roads were ok but the stores were empty so it was totally worth it. Then we came back to relax and enjoy the evening. We watched Man of Steel and had chips and salsa for snack. yum! On the 3rd we woke up to lots of snow. So we bundled up LL and headed outside to play. She was not happy about it at all but once we put her on the sled she changed her tune. There were tons of squeals of laughter and lots more  screams of " more Daddy" and "Again" It was a great time. We then packed the car and headed to S's parents place for dinner. We had a nice dinner and took S to the airport. He was heading home. LL and I made a very long drive home as the temperatures starting dropping rapidly and black ice was everywhere. Freeways were shut down. It was a mess. We then just plunked ourselves down for the night and that was it. Yesterday was the 4th. LL asked about her daddy a few times but is content with the answer that he went to check on Downy and Dusty at our house for now. LL and I met up with Holly for lunch and enjoyed the opportunity to catch up with her. Then I ventured to Michaels for some activities for this new snow/ super cold storm that has come in so we wont have to go out for a few days. No frostbite in 5 minutes for us! I went to the mall with the purpose of getting my ring inspected (the whole reason for going to hall road) and discovered that the jewelry store is not there anymore even though when I checked that morning the website still has it listed. So I will have to find another location. oh well. After shopping and fun. We returned to my mom's, had a nap, and then finished taking down the Christmas Decorations. LL had a long bath and went to bed pretty happy, Has slept through the night and now I find myself awake in the middle of night...well morning now (thank you prednisone) typing all this fun stuff out for you on my Anniversary. Happy 6 Years Babe! It has been fun and I cannot wait to see what another 6 will look like.