November

November was a great month. Full of wonderful things. Here is a little recap:

I will back up a bit to the end of October when Lisa and I went to Virginia.

It was the week before Storm Sandy hit and the weather was perfect....70's and 80's. The leaves were gorgeous. Every road was a tunnel of color......I couldn't get enough of it.

The purpose of the trip was to see about some job opportunities that Lisa was looking into. She felt that the trip was real beneficial and is continuing to pray for the Lord leading. Anyway, I was along for the ride.... She is a very good guide and had the whole trip planned out. We had lots of fun and saw lots of sights while accomplishing the purpose.

We stayed in a lovely home. The people were very nice and there was a hot breakfast each morning before we headed out for the day.

The Shirley Plantation

 

Lisa sent her Resume to this Historical Museum. It is actually still a working plantation and very interesting. It was fun to see the cotton right there on the side of the road ready to be picked. You can kind of see the house in the back ground in the trees.

This mansion was a freebie that Lisa found. It was a great tour and beautiful house. If she ends up in that area, we will be visiting this again in the future!

We enjoyed Williamsburg on our last day

Now onto November....................

Of course the reunion, (previous post), was the first part of the month. The thing that I didn't mention was that, being on the reunion committee, I was able to go the week before and made a little vacation out of it and even did some Christmas shopping.





The very next weekend was our Ladies Christmas Retreat. Much of the work needed to be done before I left for the reunion, but it all came together and was a really fun time. We started this last year and had 40. This year we had 75. The place was decorated beautifully, thanks to Holly and Lisa. We got started with the decorations around the first of November. A little early even for Canadians, but to have it done by the retreat, we needed to get started. We will enjoy it for the rest of the season!

Last year we had a Christmas Tea for the noon meal on Saturday. This year we decided to have each table decorated and set differently. This was a great idea when we thought that it was only 6 tables. We ended up with 10 tables but it was still a success. We opened the doors 15 minutes early for lunch so the ladies could take a little "table tour".

 

Our Chef did a wonderful job with the food.

We called this a Truffle Tree. Truffles and different kinds of bark were abundant the whole weekend!

The speaker was fantastic as well as the Worship leader. We had crafts available and a Truffle demonstration by Holly Weisel assisted by Lisa Morrish. There was even a self administered foot massage available which was a favorite.

Thanksgiving day was our last nice day before the rain came so Ken and the girls set out to put the lights up around the house!

I enjoyed myself immensely in my kitchen.

This is getting to be our traditional Thanksgiving group. Katie's friend Danielle has been with us for four years now.

 

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving Day!



November 30 brought our first ground-covering snow. It was so pretty but was gone before I could take a picture. We have spring-like temperatures this week......go figure!

On to decking the halls...............

I hope your Christmas Season is happy and bright

Friesen Family Reunion

Most of you who are looking at this post, are in the picture, but for those few who are not Friesens, here is a look at the 130 family members who were present at the Reunion November 6-9 At Eagle Crest Resort near Redmond, Oregon.

Four Generations!

Heres the whole group

The "Original Nine"

The Original Nine with Spouses

Their kids, my siblings and first Cousins. Steve Ewert is the oldest at 60, Matt Miller is the youngest at 24. There were only three not able to come.

Their Kids, Lisa and Katie's Cousins and second Cousins. Andrea Lunde is the oldest at 32ish, Isaiah Brown at four months. 

Their Kids, with their Grandparents. The youngest is about 3 weeks old.

This picture was awfully cute. We attempted to take the children by themselves but since there were so many small ones, it was pretty difficult. The Grandparents saved the day!

Bonnie's Crew We are missing Steve and LaNea's Kids and Ken.

The Traditional "Sisters Pose"

The Guy Cousins outnumber the girls so we thought that we would strike our own pose. 

It was so good to see everyone, but the time was way too short. The plan is to do it all again in 

Three years. 

Chester

 

Remember Chester?

 He came to us in August of 2010 and was part of our family for 18 months.

 

We were raising him for the National Service Dog Organization for Autism.

 

 

 

 

We still have reminders of Chester....... kitchen towels with the corner shredded, buttons missing, (we could never figure out how he got the buttons off without tearing the fabric. Intelligence maybe), and, unfortunately, some woodwork that needs to be patched and painted.

 

 

 

It was a good experience for all of us. Especially knowing that he would one day, be going to help someone with Autism. Katie did a report on Autism her last year of High School and took Chester to class with her. He was still in puppy mode at the time, but was well behaved while she gave her presentation. He loved all the attention.

 

 

 

Chester left our home in January to go to a "finishing home" and then back to the kennel for his official training.

 

 

 

 

We are proud to announced that Chester Graduated from his training and is now taking care of a 7 year old boy named Max!

Chester is the one in the middle!

 

 

 

 

We actually got an invitation. There were speeches and presentations and even some tears.

Katie and I were not able to go, but Ken went, (which was appropriate since he was the one who walked Chester the most). He met Max's Mother and was able to pat Chester on the head and say "Good Boy" one last time

October 8, 2012

October 8th is always a special day at our house, but this year all of Canada celebrated with us as it was also Thanksgiving! 

We were able to celebrate Ken in Buffalo with Katie on Sunday before Ken went out of town for a few days. It is so nice that she is close enough to drive the hour to meet us. It is also so nice that Lisa is here to get in on birthday celebrations too!

    

Because it was Thanksgiving, everything was closed up and folks were, well..........., 

"Celebrating Thanksgiving". 

We have decided to wait and have our celebration in November when Katie is home but, we had a day off and it was so beautiful out, that Lisa and I decided to have a little outing. 

We packed our lunch and drove out to the country to go for a walk.

The trail took us past lots of farm land and across a river and some streams.

 A picture of Lisa, taking a picture 

For more photos of our day, visit Lisa. We are co-blogging!

We thought that since it was "Thanksgiving", we should at least have some pumpkin pie, so we stopped on our way home and picked up a couple of slices from Swiss Chalet.

A perfect ending! The only thing that would have made it better would have been to have Ken and Katie with us.

Now it's October

The end of September brought our "Young at Heart" Conference.

Ken and I had the privilege of hosting it again this year and, once again, found ourselves being blessed by our guests in many ways. It is so neat to realize that some of these folks have been walking with the Lord for 70 and 80 years, (some even longer). On Thursday we enjoyed an outing to a Mennonite Farm. Our guide took us on back roads and we enjoyed the beautiful colors of fall. We also drove by a couple of  Mennonite schools before ending up at the farm for Lunch which, by the way, was wonderful! Homemade everything - right down to the Vanilla pie and 7-day pickles. Vine Ripe Tomatoes "just-picked" that morning. The weather was perfect and the guests had a memorable time as did Ken and I. This Seniors week is always one of our favorites.

The Fall also means more time for some home improvement! I wanted to give some attention to our living room which has been left "undecorated" for 3 years. There may be a few "gasps" as you look at the next two pictures, but trust me, the fireplace mantle looks much better. 

Before

After

I also asked Holly to paint a couple of pictures for us. She does a great job and it added some color to a pretty dull room.

There is still much to be done, but we have a start now.

 New Pillows

October is also "Birthday Month" for most of our staff. We celebrated once again at the "Symposium". The picture is a little blurry, but I wanted to enlarge it so you can get the full effect of the cake! 

Pete - October 1,

Tom - October 1,

Ken - October 8,

and Holly - October 10

Hope you are enjoying the change of season as much as we are. I will try and include some fall "colour" next time.

Is it September already?

 We have had a week to catch our breath since camp ended.

The summer went by too fast.......again....

 

 

 Katie - Packing for College, (well kind of), Year #2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been so fun having Lisa with us. We are enjoying every

moment because we just don't know when that phone call will

come to offer her a job.

She has been very diligent  in her Search. 

Go here to see what Lisa has been up to.

 "Oh the Places you'll go!"

 

 

 

 

 

We got Katie to school and somewhat settled in.

She is living with 3 other ladies this year.

 



 

Lovely Sisters

 

 



 



 



Heres what's been going on this summer

 I had the opportunity to go to Oregon in June to see Lisa and to attend her Roommate, Heather's Wedding. I know it isn't a recognized title, but I was proud to be "The Mother of the Maid-of-Honor". Lisa did a great job helping Heather get ready for their big day!

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful Wedding

This is the Church that we went to when I was born. Mom and Bill attend there now.

I was able to spend time with some of my family too, and I cherish those times!

Katie spent the last four weeks as a Day Camp Counsellor. We had between 5-10 campers each week. Along with their fearless leader, Holly, Katie and Eric did a great job keeping the campers busy. Between swimming, field games, crafts, Fountain Time, (Bible time), taking care of Gideon the goat, and lots of other activities, the kids had a great time. I'm pretty sure the staff did too!

The Water slide is always a hit!

Thats Katie!

Karl came to visit..............with his camera!

Katie flew to Oregon to go on a Road Trip with Lisa on Wednesday and will be gone on her Birthday so we celebrated before she left.

We have a great staff and they all have a lot of fun together. We have about 10 more coming this week to help us through the rest of the summer.

(A little blurry, a new camera is on my Christmas list)

We have about 4 more weeks of camp and then we will say good bye to our summer staff and head into a little slower pace. About this time in the summer I start to really look forward to a quieter time at camp, the fall temperatures and catching up on things at home, (like blogging and keeping in touch with loved ones). 

Hope you are enjoying your summer............Thank you for checking in!

Summer

I don't really have time to do a new post but I had to do something with my blog. I can't believe that it has been a whole month. At least I can say that I have now gone from "Spring" to "Summer". Most of you know that I go "Dark" during the summer as camp consumes much of my time, but I do have some things to share, so stay tuned. I will post in the next few days!

Spring

It's Spring!

The days are warm, and the rain and sunshine have caused everything to wake up and GROW!

Dandelions are a big problem here, because there isn't anything you can buy, (legally), to kill them. 

I don't mind dandelions so much. They remind me of a thoughtful little girl with big brown eyes holding a "bouquet" in her dirty little hands just for me........... Wasn't that just yesterday?  

That same little girl just finished her first year of College!!

Katie's Home!!

This year we were determined to get our bikes out and "tuned up". We had heard of some great trails in the area and thought that we would see for our selves.  

 This ride was on a beautiful Sunday afternoon before Katie came home. It is called the "Kissing Bridge Trail" The Kissing Bridge is an old covered bridge out in the country. Why it is called the Kissing Bridge, I do not know. The trail itself is about 45 K, but we only went 10 on this day.  Considering it had been several years since we had been on our bikes, it was far enough! The Covered Bridge is about half way and will be a good goal to shoot for in the future. 

  

Another bike ride on Mothers day. This time with Katie and along the river.

We stopped in at MacDonald's for $1 fountain drinks before riding home to BBQ.

A phone call from Lisa and a phone call to my Mom.

It was a great day!