Easter Activities

No time for many captions, so here goes: Good Friday after church Karissa with Uncle Larry who is home from Michigan for the holdiay.

Mom in her new outfit.

Easter Sunday morning joyful trumpets!

Chimes (see me back there??:)

Sunday lunch at John and Sue's. The Special K's with one of John and Sue's 6 baby goats.

4 square

Caleb and Safia

Kirsten with her new camera!

Aunt Sue reading to her nieces

Dennis and Zach

Tyler and Zach photographing Josh

Phil points out the invincible candles on Dad's birthday cake

Dad quenches the candles!

Franklin Institute

On Good Friday, I went with Garry, Kirsten, and Larry to the Franklin Institute in Philly to see--among other things--the Narnia exhibit. It was a really fun day. Say hi to Ben here!:)

Garry and Larry had too much fun trying out all the hands on activities!

We all did the little boomerang things. Actually, maybe they weren't boomerangs. Little paper twirly birds that flitted about depending upon the little breezes shooting up.

Larry's navigating the Wright brothers' airplane.:)

In the parking garage we saw this sign. Talk about LOW!!:)

Spring Walk

Palm Sunday afternoon was a beautiful day, so I decided to go walking. First I visited the back yard to get a picture of this forsythia blooming away.

Then on out to Daryl's pond where he is growing some bamboo on the edges.

Speaking of Daryl, there he is, across the pond accompanied by his little pomapoo, Kaya.

That dog is simply TOO CUTE!!

She loves to retrieve sticks, stones, whatever you throw. Even if it means swimming in the pond to get it!

Well, I've just walked around an entire country block and am returning home this way. I had to get a shot or two of the neighbors' forsythias.

Looking over the the farm from the road.

Back to home and Rice Greenhouses.

Walking behind the barn up toward the old chicken house where years ago we kids gathered eggs from about 6,000 chickens twice a day.

Looking in toward the house from the chicken house.

Dad's dog Sparky. I took him for a walk after my own walk, and boy is he strong. He almost had more control than me, especially when we scared up a deer in the woods above the chicken house!

Daffodils at the edge of the house.

It was a great walk!

Of Blogs and Jobs and Trips

I haven't done any blogs in quite some time. I find that I am less motivated to run off somewhere to use the internet, thus the more sporadic postings. If you continue reading after this post, however, you will find a few new posts to help catch you up on a few events in my life.

Regarding a job, if you haven't already heard, I was laid off from Harriet Carter the end of January, went serious job hunting for two weeks, and "finally" got hired by McDonald's. I have never had a real desire to work in fast food, but I have gained a great deal of respect for those who do this job.

Multi-tasking and speed are high priorities there, and I am not strong in either aspect. Let me restock or clean or do other behind the scenes work, but do a gazillion things at the same time while keeping everyone's orders straight has not proved to be an area of gifting for me.

I am grateful that God has provided me with a source of income while at the same time hoping He has another job lined up for me before too much longer. One that capitalizes on my strengths.:) I am also grateful that my co-workers and supervisors are very patient and encouraging.

The final piece of this update regards an upcoming trip in July. I am THRILLED to have been asked to be one of two delegates from my church to go to Mennonite World Conference in Paraguay this coming July. I didn't expect to be doing any long distance traveling for a long time, but God is providing this opportunity, and I am excitedly anticipating participation in this event.

I think that about does it for now. You have all the basic news in my life. Feel free to leave comments or email me. I love hearing from you.

Puzzling...

It truly is puzzling how doing a thousand-piece puzzle as bland as this one can keep a person--me at least--plugging away for WEEKS till the puzzle is finally completed. I was always happy when drop-in visitors helped me out a bit, and at one point I was so ready to be done with the thing that I thought the first thing I'd do after placing the last piece would be to immediately tear up the puzzle with gusto.

However once I did place that last piece, it felt necessary to show it off to a few people before returning it to the box from whence it came. I've had enough of puzzles for now, though!

Signs of Spring

I LOVE spring. One of the first signs we had at the farm were these crocuses growing up all o ver one section of the yard in front of the house.

Family Events

Wow, Dad and I got to "go bowling" via the wii a few weeks back. What fun! Garry and Kirsten invited Mom, Dad, and I over one Sunday afternoon, and Garry showed us how to use the wii--a first for both Dad and me.:)

While I scored MUCH better than I do in real life, I still didn't score all that well. Ah well, such is life!

Last Sunday evening the family was invited to Phil and Renee's to celebrate Katrina's 12th birthday. Just one more year till they have their first teenager!

The cousins had quite a pillow fight going on for a little while.

I like Caleb's shirt! He loves drawing roads, so we had fun pretending the stripes on his shirt were roads to travel up, down, and around.

Karissa with Aunt Brenda:)

PS I don't know why the pictures decided to position themselves where they did--they just did and I don't know how to fix it.:)