Valentine's day and Florida

Nathan and I went to Florida over Valentine's Day and his birthday (which happen to be the same day) so, we decided to celebrate both early.  We chose the 9th at random.     Things didn't really go as planned that day. I picked up Buffalo Wild Wings for supper and realized once I got home, that they had given me someone else's order.  I had ordered a cake for Nathan from the lady who made our wedding cake, and I got there too late and she wasn't there. 

So, after supper, I stuck a candle in a Little Debbie fancy cake. 

Happy Birthday Nathan... lol

Later that evening we got the real cake. :)

Nathan did good for Valentine's.  I may have hinted that Kroger had chocolate and flowers, but hey, I like them anyway.

:)

I didn't get to enjoy them very long because on Thursday, we packed up and left for Florida after work.  Three of Nathan's siblings, Steven, Josh, and Anna, came with us. The van was loaded down with blankets, pillows, luggage, books, candy, and the suchlike.   We drove through the night and made pretty good time.  We made it to Elda, Vera, and Mary's (Nathan's three aunts) house by 1:00 and spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool.

:) much needed sunshine

Steven and Josh quickly began lizard hunting.

Steven caught a green one...

supposedly they are rare...?

Feet.

The water was a little cold, so we mostly enjoyed the sun.  I pulled out my coloring book.

It's so pretty. 

planning Ticket to Ride in the evening.

Saturday was my favorite day.  We headed out to the beach early and spent most of the day there. 

blue and sand...

Siesta Key Beach

Nathan and I built a sand castle.

The back.

Notice the door leading to the keep.

The front.

Check out my awesome bridge. 

I thought it was a pretty cool castle, but I guess it impressed a lot of people.   People commented as the walked by and multiple times through the day they'd stop and take pictures of it.

Steven, Anna, and Josh dug a big hole.

 The little boy on the left showed up and helped.  Once they were done, many children enjoyed the hole the rest of the day. 

Anna's creation.

We went out to eat at Der Dutchmen for supper.  It's an Amish run buffet restaurant. They serve typical meat, potatoes, and veggies. I've been there before when I've been in Sarasota, and I'm not impressed.  But, it seems to be a favorite amongst the older crowd. 

Sunday, we went to church in Sarasota.  And got a nice picture of all of us.

Mary, Josh, Steven, Elda, Anna, Vera, Me, and Nathan

After church the aunts took us out for ice cream and gave us valentine's chocolates and sang happy birthday to Nathan.

We went to the surf and racket resort on Siesta Beach. We had met a couple in church who gave us their room number so that we could get in. 

pool and palm trees

We stayed on the beach late enough to watch the sun set.

a terrible attempt at a sunset selfie.

Monday,  we slept in, packed up and headed out to Legoland.  It was grey and threatening to rain all day so it wasn't horrible to be away from the beach. 

Nathan and his siblings

Me and Nathan

Legoland is basically a Lego themed amusement park for kids.  There were roller coasters, shops, Lego minitures, and overpriced food.  The roller coasters were geared towards kids and were much smaller and slower than some you'd find at Six Flags.  Legoland is built on what used to be Cyprus Gardens, so some of the gardens were left, which was cool. 

completely made of Lego

The world

Inside the gardens

An awesome tree

I would like to plant one of these trees in our yard.

the lady to the right is made of Legos

Flowers:)

The gardens were my favorite part.  The mini area was pretty cool though too.

Lego Washington

Lego city

San Francisco, I believe.

Golden Gate Bridge

Pirate ships and a port city

this pirate ship was awesome.

Star Wars

Darth somebody... 

We went on a few rides, but not many.  Steven was mainly there for the Lego's and Josh and Anna were a little nervous. 

I didn't get a very good picture. But, Nathan, Steven, Josh, and Anna are on this one. 

Anna and I went on a water ride.  It was near the end of the day a pretty cold, so we were the only two on our boat.  The boats wind there way, back and forth, through waterfalls and sprayers while people on the outside shoot water guns at you.  We got completely soaked. 

The water ride.

You can't really tell but we are wet from head to foot. 

They had these super cool things:

These are human sized dryers. (picture from google)

  They blow hot air and have bright lights that warm and dry you really quick.

We were still damp, despite the dryers, but we managed to survive the rest of the day. 

Anna with life size lego-ed lego girls. 

And then...the highlight of the day...for the guys that is.

Pick a brick wall.

you can fill a cup with any kind or color of lego bricks your heart desires. 

We left Legoland about 5 minutes before it closed. I was pretty ready to be done.  It was cool, but not my favorite day. 

We drove to Tampa for supper and ate at Carrabba's.  It's one of my favorite restaurants. :) 

mmm.

We left Carrabba's and headed home.  It was a short trip and, not exactly my ideal trip. but it was fun all the same.  I got to know Nathan's aunts much better and spend time with his siblings. Which, doesn't happen much with our busy lives.   The aunts are quite hilarious.  I don't even know how to begin to explain...:)  And, the weather and the beach is just so much better than here. 

We made it home by 4:30 pm on Tuesday. Complete with a bottle of lizards that Steven had captured. :) We survived but 18 hours of driving is a long time. 

In Christ

~Michelle

Skiing

February started out much like January had gone- slow and quiet.  That did not last.

I spent the evening with this cute little dude the other night. :)

Thursday, Nathan and I bought a van. 

Yes, a van. We'd been needing a second vehicle and my Grandparents were wanting to sell.  We don't really need a van and we probably won't need one for a long time, but we decided that since we are always borrowing larger vehicles for things, it might be nice to have something bigger. 

So, now I'll look like a soccer mom driving my clients around :)

Friday, I took the title in and got all the paperwork done.

Saturday, we took our new van on it's first adventure.  A few of us went up to Cascade Mountain in Wisconsin skiing. 

Nathan and I :)

He did pretty good for his first time skiing.

:)

One of my favorite winter activities.

what a view.

Kirk, me, and Kayla on the lift

Nathan and I had just gotten to a ski lift when I heard "Michelle!" In a very familiar voice.  Tristan and Larissa were also at cascade for the day! :) and the whole Gramm family. We didn't get to see too much of them since we stuck to the easier slopes, but I did get to ride the lift with them a few times.

Also, right when we were going to our first slope, a snowmobile with the medical sled flew by. A girl was on the sled with an oxygen mask on her face. A medic was kneeling over her on the sled as it whizzed by. For about 30 minutes while I coached Nathan how to ski on the bunny hill, they had her behind blankets, with an awaiting ambulance. We joked that For Nathan first skiing venture, of course something crazy would happen like that. Sadly, we later learned that the girl had died... Not really a joking matter.

The weather was perfect and made fore a fun day on the slopes. I think I skied all the slopes except the black diamonds. I'm getting too old for those. 

Sunday evening, we went over to Fred and Di's for Tate's birthday party.

William was the center of attention.

He is showing his support for the super bowl...hehe.

The plans for this week include cleaning and packing for our upcoming Florida trip. :)

In Christ
~Michelle

Turkey in January

The  past couple weeks have, again, been quiet.  

 On the 21st,  we went to the Virkler's studio to record for the Zion's Harp CDs.  It was fun as usual. I love being able to sing with a group of good singers that enjoy putting emotion in to the music. 

That Friday, we went to Layne and Heather's for potluck. It was a good evening.  We had plenty of discussions that led to a soap box or two. :) 

Last Saturday, we had Nathan's friends over in the afternoon and evening for a very belated Thanksgiving.  They were going to have it closer to the actual date, but obviously, it got postponed. We cleaned the house in the morning and finally got our picture hung. We've been in our house for a year and a half, and it was about time to get something on the wall.

We took the picture in Acadia last summer. 

The tables set for dinner. 

I went skating at Ron and Kary's in the early afternoon. I'm super out of shape and an hours worth really wiped me out. 

It was great to be back on the ice. 

Nathan and I had never cooked a Turkey before, but It went pretty well. 

It's it pretty?

I think it tasted pretty good for our first attempt. :)

Everyone sitting around for dinner

Food :)

The aftermath... Lots and lots of dishes

It was actually kind of nice to have a Thanksgiving dinner away from all of the other holidays.   And, it was a lot of fun to host a more formal dinner. I got to pull out my china, which is always a plus. :)

Last Sunday, we went with my parents, Jenny, Cecily, and Troy to the Peoria Symphony Orchestra.  It was a family concert and they encouraged costumes. Cecily was dressed like Elsa. 

Posing with Elsa. 

The Orchestra. 

Ned came up from Champaign and was playing in the orchestra.  He came over to our house afterwords and spent the evening with us. It was fun :) I enjoy having him around.

We've been spending the rest of our evening working here and there on the basement project. We finished the shelving in the basement and have started cleaning and organizing all of our junk. 

February is going to be a lot busier than January was, so I'm glad we had some time at home to work on projects before the craziness hits. 

In Christ

~Michelle

Hibernation

Well, January is almost over. 

The past two weeks have been quiet.
On January 10th we finally had the Schlipf Christmas, since the power outage had canceled it before. 

cold fields

My one picture of the evening.

  We have barely had any evening plans until recently.  We've mainly spent our time working on building shelving in the basement and the chair seats.

Nathan building the shelves. 

We tried a third time to stain them in the kitchen. Which worked better, I think because it was warmer, but the varnish still pulled the stain out. 

So, after yet another trip to Menards, we are now trying Danish Oil finish.  I like how it goes on so much better than stain and varnish and it has a really nice look to it. The problem is you have to wait 24-48 hours between coats. I think I have the final coat on two of the seats so the end is near.

On Friday evening we went to my cousin's play "The Hound of the Clackervilles" a spoof on a Sherlock Holmes mystery. It was hilarious. Mainly because I knew half of the kids in it. :)

On Saturday, Nathan had some coworkers over to pay games. They are engineers, so there should be no surprise that they enjoy playing games. :) 

Sunday evening, we hosted Wyss Cousin's night.  It was fun. We played a game or two, ate pizza, and I pulled out the cotton candy maker again. 

cousins

on their phones... tsk tsk.

Other than that, I've been curling up on the couch with a good book, waiting for my chair seats to dry, trying to hibernate until winter is over. 

In Christ
~Michelle

New Year

Happy New Year! 
Nothing like being a week late :)


Due to the power outages, our New Year's Eve plans switched up a bit and instead of being at Daniel and Wendi's, we hosted.  Troy and Ellie and Adam and Rhea came as well.  

We spent New Year's Day working on our latest project: kitchen chairs. 

We got these chairs from Tristan. 

I liked the bones of these better than our current chairs. They were pretty dinged up and I didn't like the color of the seat. 

Nathan sanded down the seats

I spray painted

What the finished product will look like.

We are having problems figuring out how to varnish the seats, I don't want them to been too shiney and we are struggling to keep the varnish from bubbling. It may take another trip to Menards. 

Saturday, I went to Wendi's for brunch with Kendra and Ellie and our moms. It was fun. :)  We used to spend so much together and with eachother's moms. It was great to sit down together again. 

Saturday evening, Nathan and I went to Tristan and Larissa's rehearsal dinner. (Nathan was an usher in their wedding.) 

The dinner was at the restaurant Two 25 

My food :) 

It was good.

I'm so glad I got snuck into the rehearsal dinner with Nathan. :)  We got to sit with Greg and Diana, Fred, Jason and Rebekah, and Kyle and Heather.  Since I've known both Larissa and Tristan, it was so much fun to be with their families and friends. 

We took a quick picture by the court house before we headed home.

Sunday, we spent the day in Peoria for the wedding. It was beautiful ans very sweet. Favorite quote of the day "Tristan, it's usually the bride that cries."

gorgeous cake and decor

the happy couple.

Congratulations Tristan and Larissa!

This week has been pretty quiet. Work has been slowing down. The budget cuts have been affecting how many clients we've been getting.  Our parolee clients have been affected the most. The Department of Juvenile Justice doesn't have enough money to keep them on parole for very long. Some of our clients have been given less than two weeks notice that they are being discharged from our program.  And, just a reminder, the reason they are in our program is that they have no where else to go. It's hard not to get too frustrated that some of these kids are going to be homeless purely because the state can't afford to help them transition. 

Anyway...I could write an entire post purely on my frustrations with the state budget issues :)

This past year has been wonderful. It's been full of ups and downs with plenty of opportunities for growing. 

In Christ

~Michelle