Our 25th Wedding Anniversary

Tuesday, 04 October 2011

• Our 25th Wedding Anniversary

  Dave & I are now married for a quarter of a century as of today at 2:00 PM!  Seems like yesterday in some ways, but also seems like I have always known him.  So very much has happened in 25 years and we have had many happy times, many sad times.  We have experienced many thrilling times, many scary times.  We have felt many secure and confident times, many insecure and inferior times.  But one thing remains and that is the fact that we stuck together through all those times and I look forward to staying glued to this man who God knew I needed all those years ago.   Kelsey and my mom put their heads together and planned a surprise celebration for us to take place this past Sunday.  It was beautiful and we really enjoyed seeing people we haven't seen for awhile and fellowshipping with our friends and family that came to honor us.  We were blessed!!
  I thought it would be fun to do a pictorial comparison from our wedding to our 25th anniversary.
  
  We were married at my home, back in the woods.  It was a nice day, but the threat of rain kept some of us looking heavenward a few times....
  

  

  
  1986 - Wedding
  

  

  
  25 years later
  
  From 2 to 11
  

  

  
  Bridal Party
  

  

  

  
  
  Bridal party transportation to reception
  

  

  
  Weidenhammer family transportation
  

  

  
  Wedding cake
  

  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  Anniversary cake
  

  

  
  
  
  
  

  

  
  
  Our parents at wedding
  
  
  

  

  
  Will add a recent picture when I get one..
  Grandparents - they are all deceased now
  

  

  
  waiters and waitresses
  

  

  
  The rest of the pictures were taken at anniversary party
  

  

  

  

  

  

  
    
  My sister-in-law, Mary did the decorating and it was so pretty and romantic.  My sister, Karen, was the photographer and I look forward to receiving the memory book she is putting together.  Much planning, work, and trying to keep secrets was put into the celebration and we are extremely honored.  Thanks so much to everyone who was involved.
  
  I just had to share the saying from the card from Dave's mom & dad.....
  "I'll love you for heifer!" he said without shame.  "I'll give you my heart and I'll give you my name."  She batted her eyes and blushed with a shudder as she felt the blood rush from one end to the udder.  From that moment forward, he stayed true to his word.  And together they raised one sizable herd!
  
  Until next time..............

Oakley Turns 2

Monday, 03 October 2011

• Oakley Turns 2!

  Today is the birthday of the sweetest little person - Oakley Paige!  She is now 2 years old and she don't miss a thing.  She loves life and we all love being around her.  She is more impressed with Poppop than grammy and has named all the men on every piece of paper money "Poppop".  You didn't know that I have a famous hubby with his picture on the $1, 5, 10 & 20 $ bills?      Happy Birthday to Oakley!
  
  Until next time......................

Summer Activities

Monday, 26 September 2011

• Summer Activities

  It is now Autumn, and it will soon be Spring!  No, really, as fast as time is moving along, it will soon be Spring!  Would anyone else be happy to just skip over Winter?  Me, too, so I find comfort in saying that Spring is coming soon!
  It has been an odd kind of Summer.  First, no rain for weeks, then lots of rain for weeks, and we are still running our air conditioners.  Usually we have several cookouts during the nice weather season, but this year I think we have had only two.  We love sitting by the fire, making hamburgers and sleeping in the pop-up.......
    
  
  
  We had signed up for the program Kids Bowl Free where the kids bowl free (yep, you guessed it) during the summer months.  We were able to go one time and the boys did great!
  
  Of course, we had hay making times when the weather was just right.....
  
  
  My kale did beautifully, even during the dry season and soaker season (think I need to pick it more often?)
  
  After the rains started coming, our grass grew so fast and so tall that our lawn mower could hardly handle it.  It was decided to fence in part of our yard and let the heifers "mow" it.  How hickish is that?   They did a great job, and the boys were happy to leave that part for them.
  
  So far we have put away 8 1/2  bushels of green beans, with 3 more to go in the next week or two.  I would like to can some more tomatoes and then bunches of applesauce.  Lack of motivation seems to be an issue this year, so we are only doing necessities, no more.
  
  We started attending MEC (Myerstown Enrichment Center) last week.  This is a homeschool co-op that meets every Monday.  Georgie has gym, history, science, art & robotics.  Uriah & Oliver have beginning instruments, health, science, gym, and PA history.  It is very organized and structured and has been an answer to prayer for our family.
  My thyroid has been obnoxious, so I finally am seeing a specialist.  Hopefully his expertise will bring long awaited relief.  Not fun!  Not fun at all!!
  
  Dave has been super busy with masonry jobs and he found hired help, which has been a blessing.  Ben & George are holding down the farm, which has been a blessing.  Solomon is with Wolfe House Movers, which has been a blessing.  Many blessings!  However, our family is in deep need of some quiet away-from-the-farm blessings.  Life gets so busy with committments, obligations, and needs.  Sometimes it looks appealing to live in the boonies somewhere in a cabin with a big porch, containing a creaky rocking chair, located next to a rippling brook.  A place where when asked what we needed to do that day, we would be able to say "nuthin".  And best of all, the mailman wouldn't be able to find us to deliver those never ceasing bills!  We are attempting to make some changes in our lives. However, our continued prayer is to be in the Lord's will, to be where He wants us to be, doing what He wants us to do.  Surrendering is the hard part......
  
  And we are LOVIN' our granddaughters!  They bring so much fun and joy to our lives.  We are so grateful that they now live only two miles away and we get to see them more often.  Oakley has to have eye surgery on the 11th of October, so if you think of it, please pray for her, that it would go smoothly and that she would not need a second surgery.  I don't know the official name, but her eye muscles prevent her eyes from lining up correctly, so the Dr. will tighten and loosen the muscles in both eyes to correct the problem.
  
  Keep pressing on, my friends!  Spring is soon here! 
  Until next time..............

Georgie's 12th B.D.

Monday, 20 September 2010

• Georgie's 12th B.D.

  Georgie turned 12 on Thursday, the 16th.  One more year and he will be a teenager!  When I reminisce of my pregnancy with him, it is full of bittersweet memories.  My father was diagnosed with cancer the year before, had gone through treatment and had a few months where he seemed to be doing good.  However, he soon began to feel poorly again and the Dr's said that he could go through a second round of treatments, but it would only extend his life for a short time.  He refused.   In this time period I became pregnant, after about 3 years of believing that God had planned for us to have only 3 children.  Due to having difficult and high risk pregnancies, Dave & I decided that I would be anointed with oil at the beginning of this pregnancy.  What a privilege it was that my dad was still well enough to perform that anointing service on me!  (He was an elder in our church)  We decided that if we had a son, we would name him "George" after my father, in honor of him.  He cried when we told him.  Well, he passed away 2 1/2 months before I had our baby - a boy whom we named George Forest.  Oh, how I struggled with calling him that after his birth!  When looking at his sweet little face, it was hard to think of him as a George, for George was a grown man's name - my father's and grandfather's name.  Plus, I was still grieving over my dad's death and the name George made me sad.  What were we thinking to commit to that name months before?  Oh, I wept, and thought and could not sign that birth certificate until 3 days after he was born.  Dave decided that we would give him a middle name that we really like and call him by that if I could not call him "George".  So we changed Forest to Caleb.  But you know, he was our "little man" Georgie and we soon realized that it was the perfect name for him and we loved it!  Still do!  It means farmer, too, so he is living up to his name.  My mom and I have said more than once that he is even built like my dad and walks like him, too.  Bittersweet memories!  The death of my dad - the birth of our son......
  Ben took Georgie for an ice-cream cone and his hunting license to celebrate his birthday......
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

  
  Until next time.........

Another Teenager!

Saturday, 17 September 2011

• Another Teenager!

  Oh, what is happening to our little boys? Aren't they suppose to stay little longer?  George turned 13 yesterday!  Already!  We did not plan a party in the evening, for we wanted to go to East End Days in Myerstown.  2 of his cousins came in the afternoon and to stay overnight and they brought pizza for supper (what a treat! Thanks Brent!).  So instead of birthday cake, we had birthday pizza!
  
  

  

  
  
  George and Hunter entered into the rope pulling contest.  Their team lost both times.
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  
  George had a huge growing spurt this summer and is now as tall as his big brothers, which he, but not them, thinks is pretty cool.
  
  

   

  
  

  
  Happy 13th Birthday, George, and welcome to the teen years!  We love you bunches!
  Until next time.....................

She is 21!

Monday, 12 September 2011

• She Is 21!!

  21 years ago today we welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our lives!  We named her Kelsey Brook and what a blessing she has been!  Yesterday we celebrated her day by going to a local park with some other families for a picnic.  The children rode bike, played tennis, basketball, threw football and us adults had a good time visiting.  It was a good day!
  
  

  

  
  Happy Birthday, Kels!  We are so proud of you!  You are a great daughter, wife and mommy!
  

  

  
  Until next time...............

Entertainment Technology

Tuesday, 16 August 2011

• Technology of Entertainment

  Technology is far from being a new word, or new thing.  It is constantly upgrading and has brought much wonderful change to our world.  However, I have been wondering if it isn't all this techie stuff that is being the demise of our youth.  Oh, I know I am stepping out on a limb addressing this issue, for it hits hard not only to the youth, but to us adults as well.  But, please keep your chainsaws in their cases, hear me out, and if afterwards you still want to saw off my branch and make it into mulch, you are free to do so, just let me jump off first. : )
  
  I am extremely thankful for the advances in the medical technology and in other areas as well.  The area that I have a red flag waving over is more the technology of entertainment.  When I was young, we did not have TV, video, computer nor cell phones.  We had no idea what texting meant or what a digital camera was.  If we wanted to listen to music, we had records, the radio or a cassette tapeplayer.  In our vehicles, we had the radio, 8 track player or cassette players.  If you wanted to talk to someone, you picked up the telephone (with a cord attached), dialed the number and had a live conversation.  Facebook?  Huh?  Is that a  book on all the different faces in the world?  Gotta be!  Yes, it sounds quite hickish, doesn't it?  How on earth did we survive?   Us young folks would spend our weekends playing baseball, volleyball, rook, dutch blitz, eating ice-cream - having fellowship in the physical presence of each other and we somehow managed without the techie gadgets.
  
  It is so different these days and I wonder what it will look like in 10, or even 5 more years.  Now when I look around I see people in the presence of other people, but in their own little world.  They are holding these little techie gadgets in their hands, either "talking" to someone else, or checking their emails, facebook, the weather or whatever else.  You can go to the Farm Show, to a restaurant, to the park, to the store, wherever, and you will find people who are to be in attendance to their family, or friends, but instead feel a need to "be" with someone else in the cyber world.  Vehicle accidents have increased, not due to drunk drivers, but due to the driver not having the patience to wait til they arrive at their destination, or to pull over, to respond to a text they receive.  And what was the message?  "yo, whr r u?" or something like that.  And what about the movies that are out there?  Are they edifying us?  Or are they hardening us to the realities of immorality and senseless, fickle living? The big question is . . . . what effect is all this having on our society?  What effect is all this having in the home?  In the church?  In the schools?  Is it too late to lock up the brakes and leave black tire marks down this road that is taking us to . . . . where?  What is the destination anyway?   Oh, please don't think I am excluding myself in this issue.  Although I hate talking on a cell phone, hate texting, hate the horrible video games that are available, I LOVE being on the computer!  I LOVE checking facebook! I LOVE watching movies!  and I am uncomfortable with those facts!  I see how it effects our home and our relationships.  What am I doing when the boys need me?  Am I checking my cyber world when I should be tucking them into bed?  Do they have to get lunch themselves because mom is on the computer?  Are my priorities a wee off balance?   How can I discourage my children against addictions, when I have them myself?  How can I teach my children self discipline, when I lack it myself?  How can I teach them to be uncompromising in their faith, when we allow to them to watch and hear things in a movie that we wouldn't allow them to do?   I think of all the things I could do with our boys instead of being on the computer . . . . reading books (the kind that you actually hold and flip the pages), pitch baseball, play "pig" with the basketball, go on a hike, sit by the campfire, build a go-cart, and on and on.  We could have deep, thought provoking conversations instead of watching movies.  What are our children learning by sitting in front of a computer playing mindless games?  Or texting useless messages where proper grammar and spelling is unheard of?  Or constantly emailing, which are void of tone of voice and emotions?  What is being learned by having the latest state of the art cell phone or ipod, or mp3 player?  Is our society being improved upon with this technology?  Is is promoting our youth to reach out to the boy or girl who is being bullied?  or to the elderly neighbor or the fatherless child?  Is it teaching self discipline, self denial - selfless living?  Or is it teaching discontentment and unrealism?   What do we really think about all this and are we willing to be truthful about it?  When I am around my amish and mennonite clients (who have not excepted all this technology, although they have been forced to accept a little of it), I am pulled to the simplicity and innocence of their lifestyle. Maybe we have lost more than we realize.
  
  Am I saying that it is all wrong and useless?  No.  I am so thankful for my friends on fb and have thoroughly enjoyed keeping in touch.  We have gained so much knowledge through the computer and the cell phone comes in mighty handy when we are on the road.  We use this modern technology, but somewhere there is a line.  Trying to find it is the difficult thing.   I believe that satan is using all these gadgets as distractions and caution needs to be used.
  
  I guess I have reached the end of my branch and it is bowing quite abit.  If you feel a need to rev up that chainsaw, you are now free to do so.  I know I have asked alot of questions, questions that I am also seeking the answers for.  If anyone has found the answers, please, please share them!
  
  Until next time............