My First Transiberian Orchestra Experience

This is definitely a must see for any who have not seen it. The experience began by riding to the Pentagon with Dale, Robert and Bobby-O in the Mark's van. That was a first as well Pentagon City Mall. Yes, I know how old am I and how long have I lived in this area to have never been to Pentagon City mall. We grabbed some grub there and then hit the metro to the Verizon Center. We met up with everyone at the Verizon center which included: Jessup Family, Underwoods, Eileen Morgan and the list goes on. It was definitely an experience that I highly recommend and may look into doing next year..

On the Road Again...

This past weekend was  a refreshing weekend to say the least.  It was a nice drive up to Mountville, PA to visit the Garman's.  We arrived up there on Friday around 3pm and did not leave until Sunday at 4pm.  It was a much needed time away and it was a joy to see Colby, Annie and the Girls.  Friday night we enjoyed some live music in downtown Lancaster at the "Building of Character".  It truly did have a lot of character.  Saturday was a trip to the oldest indoor market where Josh and I purchased a lot of goodies like home-made jelly and organic tea, yum!  Saturday also included some rounds of Blokus and Loot, Annie out did herself at both of these games.  However, we caught her cheating the first round of Blokus (not intentional, we think)!  Sunday we went to church and then out to dinner!  Colby decided to take us on a riding tour of the whole entire town of Lancaster, before we got to eat!  Haley was not impressed as she screamed that her, "back was hot" from the back of my car.  We finally arrived at Chille's and enjoyed dinner.  At the end Darcy informed everyone that now she could have a, "tookie".  It was hard to leave, but the time we had was fun.  Thanks to Aunt Snookie for hosting us in her beautiful home.

The Annual

Well it is that time of year again.  The annual day after Thanksgiving, Christmas tree hunt.  Josh and I have done this every year since we have been married.  However, this year we decided to invite Jonathan, Sydney, Kevin Dowker and the girls...  It was fun times, I was of course the last one to find my tree.  I mean you can't choose a tree unless you view everyone they have on the lot!  It was a lot of fun and my mom and dad joined us as they have every other year.  We got a short needled blue spruce this year as opposed to the long needle cheep-o tree we have gotten every other year.  I have to admit that I do like it more than I thought I would.  Well another year has come and gone, we will see how the tradition turns out next year.

Walk down memory lane, 80's...

Well today during my lunch break I got this notion to google 80's stuff. Wow was I surprised how much I had forgotten about, but how much I had also remembered. The reason I started the search is because I had a random memory about a toy I use to play with or doll I should say: Hugga Bunch. I googled it and there they were just like I had remembered. This led to a massive search of everything 80's. A few things that popped up:

Pillow People
Garbage Pail Kids
Alf
Lil Miss Makeup
Popples
Pound Puppies
Pogo Ball
Jewels
Cabbage Patch Dolls
Care Bears
Glo Worms
My Little Pony
Rainbow Brite
She-ra
Teddy Ruxpin
Wuzzles
Gumby
California Raisins
and last but definitely not lease the Pocket Rocker!!!!!

I hope some of you out there can remember a few of these classic items and take the walk down memory lane with me...

Happy Birthday Brittany!

I attended my first crayon party last night  and I have to admit it was interesting.  I definitely had fun, how can you not hanging out with Brittany, Bobby - O, Ben, Stacy and the list can go on!  The object of this party was to dress in all one color, hence the title crayon party!  I was a black crayon and Josh pooped out and did not participate.   Josh was going to be a red crayon but the only red things we could find for him to wear Josh said NO!  I guess wearing a red bathrobe and leggings to Bud and Lisa's house for the first time may be a little much...  The party was fun Brittany celebrated number 19 and got a lot of nice gifts!  

What's wrong with this?

"Working for a pro-life Christian organization affords me at times to keep up with the controversial issues that arise regarding abortion. Today I was handed an article from the Free Lance Star entitled, "It's Doomsday for the pro-life movement". I often laugh at these headings, because they sound so ridiculous. However, this heading did not keep me from reading the content. To sum it up it basically talked about how the advances pro-life organizations and government have made in the past 8 years are basically down the tubes as soon as Obama takes office. It hit on the fact (which I have clung to all along) that pro-life individuals and organizations, "will need to rely not on changing laws - though pro-lifers should still try to do that when they can - but on changing hearts and minds." It encouraged people to get involved in pregnancy center work and ultimately sharing with women that they have other options. It further shared that Obama plans on approving the Freedom of Choice Act. "The Freedom of Choice Act, which Barak Obama says will be the, "first thing" he signs as president." FOCA will nationalize abortion, superseding and overturning abortion restrictions in every state". I hate to keep quoting, but there is too much to not! The next one is in regard to a speech Obama made to Planned Parenthood. "As Obama made clear in that speech, he views abortion - delivery sevices as basic government services - services in support of a woman's "fundamental right" to an abortion. The article later quoted that, "Obama's defenders tried to explain away his votes in Illinois rejecting medical care for newborns who survive abortions." Ok I am done quoting.. However, by the end of the article I felt a nauseating feeling in the pit of my stomach. Then I noticed the article that followed this article.

The article was entitled "Obama won, but so did traditional marriage". The article basically was talking about how California passed a law 52% to 48% in favor of "eliminating the right of same sex couples to marry". Granted this was after 11,000 couples were permitted to marry this past summer! That is beside the point though. What caught my eye and really started turning my wheels was this. The writer of the article started the article out talking about how he had witnessed the civil rights battle of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He went on to explain the movement and extreme effort put up by the late Dr. Martin Luther King and "blacks" as he quoted to overcome racial oppression. He shared how he understands the excitement that African American's are having toward the election of Barak Obama as the nations first African American president. This was the quote that got me though, "It is hard to imagine such racial oppression, or to appreciate the immense effort by blacks for the smallest gains toward the America's ideal that "All men are created equal".

The thought that immediately popped in my head was babies are created, why do they not fall into the "created equal" category. Why is their life not valued, they are being murdered. How can we have an African American man whose own culture/race was being oppressed and I'll go as far as to say murdered trying to legalize the same act. A man whose culture/race fought to have the simple freedoms of sitting wherever they wished on a bus. A culture who as I stated above wanted everyone to know and to believe that, "All men are created equal".

My brain is fried at this point, but I can't help but feel that this is messed up. I also stop and think that the US has come a long way as far as racial prejudice and I am glad for that. However when you really look at it, it has taken almost 60 years to get our country to a point of electing an African America president. I pray it does not take that long for us to see man's views and feelings change and their hearts to be pricked to see the wrong that surrounds killing "created" unborn children.

"There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death."
Proverbs 14:12

3rd Annual Reformation Party

Well we pulled it off! This was the third year that the Bible study group had our pumpkin carving, reformation party. The tradition was held down to the tiniest detail, thanks to the Quann family. We started the evening with the usual delicious Minestrone soup made by Donna Quann. It was delicious. There were other yummy goodies like cookies, caramel apples and some yummy bread made by Kevin Benedict. Good fellowship and good food was had around the dinner tables and then we moved on to the pumpkin carving contest! This was quite a sight. We have increased in numbers and therefore had to have four carving tables this year! It was great to see every one's personalities and talents show through in this activity and every year I am shocked at how many people have never carved a pumpkin. This year the carving techniques spanned from the traditional carving kits and knives, to Beth with her pottery sculpture tools, to Jonathan with his automatic jigsaw (no one was surprised)! The pumpkins ranged in size from huge to very tiny and the carvings ranged from very original to very stenciled!!! (Pictures to come soon) The carving wound down and the judging commenced. The tradition held to Dan and Donna Quann serving as judges and they had a very hard time deciding. When they found out they had to narrow it down to only one pumpkin, it got even tougher. However, they managed to make a timely decision and chose the "Carl's Ice Cream" pumpkin carved by Krissy Hinton... Krissy accepted her prize that consisted of a book on Martin Luther and a coffee mug with a variety of tea's and honey sticks! We ended the night with a group picture and we look forward to next year the 4th Annual Reformation party!