Holiday "Sales"

I learned a lesson in "sale" advertisements in the newspaper today.
Today was what I thought to be my last opportunity to finish my Christmas shopping since the weather will likely be bad for the rest of the week. I was pretty much done except for Jonathan's gift. I've been watching the ads, waiting for the best "sale" price to pop up on what I was looking for. Well, this Sunday's ads weren't the best but I had put it off for too long and it was now or never. I looked in other stores last week for their advertised prices, but never seemed to find the advertised "sale" price on the shelf. I would then walk out of the store frustrated because I couldn't finish my shopping. It seemed all the stores were advertising the same item for about the same price, but the item never seemed to be available when I got there.
This weeks ads had only one store advertising what I wanted and thankfully for the same price as the other stores from last weeks ads. Since I know the husband will read this post, I will need to leave the item and the certain office store anonymous. So, I made sure to hit the store today, Monday, to make sure they would still be in stock. I made sure to take the ad with me this time and thankfully I did because the store did not have their ad sitting out for people to browse.
I proceeded to search the store for the item I was looking for. Just as I was about to give up and ask for help, I found what I was looking for. I compared the item numbers to make sure they matched up to the ad I had in my hand. I then noticed that the store did not have the sale price marked next to the item in the store. In fact, the item was marked in the store $100 more then then ad. I looked up and noticed that there was a sign next to the model that said "out of stock". I was crushed and nearly had a meltdown right there in the store. I had waited too long for the best price and now I couldn't afford any of the others that were not on sale.
I continued to stand there and ponder a plan B but couldn't come up with anything else. I then looked at the item again and saw that even though the item showed as "out of stock", there were still tags left to be pulled for the item. So.....I pulled a tag. I began to plan how I was going to handle this when I took my tag to the counter for my "out of stock" item. I was preparing myself to play dumb when they would tell me that it was out of stock and then I would ask for a rain check for my item at the sale price. I thought it was pretty silly that they would be "out of stock" of an item they were just advertising the day before which is why I thought a rain check would be fare.
So I stepped up to the counter and just when she was about to take my tag, the phone rang. The girl took the call to help another customer. As she was on the phone, I began to sweat. I was nervous! I was starting to think I was going to crack under the pressure. After what seemed like forever, the girl got off the phone and took my tag and said,"hold on a minute". She went to the back counter to talk to someone with my tag in her hand. They both looked at me and then I heard her say "well...she has an ad with her". The other person nodded and then my checkout girl went to a back room and came out with the "out of stock" item in her hand. Once I got over the relief I felt for not having to put on the act, I started to feel a little manipulated by the "out of stock" sign they had by the item when I first saw it in the store. And of course I had to show the girl the ad in order for me to get the sale price. Then I said "oh wait a minute, I have a coupon". Her jaw dropped as I gave her my 10% off coupon. If I could have read her mind right then, I know she was thinking "I just took $100 off this thing, now she wants another 10% off? the nerve!" Yes folks, I had the nerve!
I then paid for my item and wished the girl a Merry Christmas.

Shopping lesson for the day: Never assume the signs in the store are correct AND always take the ad with you. Sometimes you just have to get the nerve!

You Are More

As I was on the road tonight, I heard this song on the radio. A song I've heard many other times, but for some reason, I was listening more closely to the lyrics tonight.
So often I find myself wondering how it's possible that God can still love me knowing my past sins. This song reminds me that I cannot define myself by my past mistakes because I have been remade. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)

You Are More by Tenth Avenue North

There's a girl in the corner
With tear stains on her eyes
From the places she's wandered
And the shame she can't hide

She says, "How did I get here?
I'm not who I once was.
And I'm crippled by the fear
That I've fallen too far to love"

But don't you know who you are,
What's been done for you?
Yeah don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

Well she tries to believe it
That she's been given new life
But she can't shake the feeling
That it's not true tonight

She knows all the answers
And she's rehearsed all the lines
And so she'll try to do better
But then she's too weak to try

But don't you know who you are?

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

'Cause this is not about what you've done,
But what's been done for you.
This is not about where you've been,
But where your brokenness brings you to

This is not about what you feel,
But what He felt to forgive you,
And what He felt to make you loved.

You are more than the choices that you've made,
You are more than the sum of your past mistakes,
You are more than the problems you create,
You've been remade.

Clifton Mill 2010

This year for Christmas, we got to do one of our favorite things, we visited Clifton Mill in Clifton, Ohio. If you have never experienced Clifton Mill, you MUST add it to your list. If you are feeling a bit sluggish this Christmas season, this is the place to go to put yourself in the Christmas spirit. Thankfully it was only cold and not super cold and this is likely to be the only decent night of the weekend before the weather moves in to keep us all indoors. Needless to say, this place was paaaaacked! But as packed as it was, people still maintained the Christmas spirit.

The first Clifton Mill light show was in 1988 which started with only 100,000 lights. They have now expanded to over 3.6 Million lights and ever since the beginning, it has become a favorite for both of our families. We don't go every year, but when we do, there is always something new that's been added. This year was no different.
The 2 of us in front of The Water Wheel of Lights. After trying to take our own pictures of the 2 of us, someone offered to take it for us. LOVE this picture!

That's me.

These are the lights on the covered bridge. Since we were here 2 years ago, they have since added "The Covered Bridge Light Show". A motion light show done to the Trans Siberian Orchestra classic song, Christmas in Sarajevo. On the weekends they do this show every half hour. All the lights go out through the whole mill and the show begins on the bridge. Very awesome.

This is "The Waterfall of Lights".

A picture of the 7 story mill all lit up.

Part of the animated miniature village of Clifton. This is a miniature version of the Clifton Mill at Christmas.

This is also something new that has been added since the last time we were here. This is part of the miniature village. A moving Ohio State game! You can see the team in the back playing the game and the band in the front spelling out O-H-I-O, complete with a little man popping up to dot the I.

Great times at The Clifton Mill.

Old Fashioned Chicken N Dumplings

Two years ago, I was introduced to Old Fashioned Chicken N Dumplings at Thanksgiving Dinner with Jonathan's brother and family. As soon as we got home that weekend I became obsessed with mastering the old fashioned dumpling. My previous tasting of Chicken N Dumplings consisted of a batter like dough that was dolloped and steamed on top of a chicken stew. Don't get me wrong, I still love this version of Chicken N Dumplings (especially when Carol makes it), but I was determined to learn how to make an old fashioned rolled Dumpling.
So my obsession began this time, 2 years ago. I was able to get the recipe for the dumplings from Steve's family and I was able to use a traditional chicken stock recipe for the broth. In the last 2 years, I have made this recipe enough and manipulated it enough now to say that I have mastered it to what I think is a GREAT Old Fashioned Chicken N Dumplings. I am now officially ready to debut my recipe with the hopes that someone else may have their interest peaked enough to give it a try. Keep in mind that everything in the broth can be modified to your taste but the dumplings should be made to the recipe. The key to this recipe is to have a very flavorful broth and to roll the Dumplings to just the right thickness. Do not be intimidated by the wordiness of my recipe, it really is quite simple. Below is the recipe and the finished product that was made tonight.
Old Fashioned Chicken N Dumplings
Stock------
3-4 lbs. of chicken parts or 1 whole chicken, rinsed thoroughly.
4 Celery tops with leaves, rinsed (the leaves have the most flavor)
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thirds
1- Med. Onion, peeled and cut in half
1/2 tsp minced Garlic
2 Bay Leaves
3 Tbsp SALTED Butter
1 tsp pepper
1-tsp salt
2-tsp Chicken bullion Granules (optional for those watching salt intake)

Put Chicken in large stock pot and fill pot with cold water until water comes about 1" over chicken. Add all other Stock ingredients except Chicken Granules.
Bring stock to a rolling boil on high, then reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. Remove pot from heat then remove chicken to cool for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, strain all other ingredients from the broth and discard, leaving only broth. Add Chicken Granules to broth and stir to dissolve. Taste broth at this point to test the salt and pepper. Continue to season to taste if necessary. When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove and discard all skin and bones and begin to pull chicken meat apart with hands into bite size pieces. Add pulled chicken back to broth.

Dumplings-----
2 cups All-Purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp SALTED butter
1 cup milk

Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add cold butter and cut in with a pastry blender until small crumbs form (cutting the butter in with 2 knives will also work).
Add milk and stir with a fork until a sticky dough ball forms. Turn dough out on to a wide floured surface. Lightly flour the top of the dough ball and a rolling pin.
Begin to roll out dough, and adding only enough flour as you go to keep from sticking to rolling pin and counter. Roll dough to about 1/8" thick (when dough cooks, it will plump to about 1/4").
Take a pizza cutter and begin to cut dough into long 3/4" wide strips and place on a cookie sheet covered with wax paper. Add a second layer of wax paper if necessary for a second layer of dough strips. When dough is all on cookie sheet, place in freezer to firm.
This can all be done while the broth is simmering.

When the chicken has been added back to the pot, return pot back to burner and bring to a boil. As soon as the broth starts to boil, the dumplings can now be added. Pull dumplings from freezer and begin snapping each strip 1 at a time into 1 1/2"-2" pieces and adding 1 piece at a time to the broth. Stir lightly. Once all pieces are added, reduce heat to a light simmer and cover pot. Continue to simmer for 20 minutes. Old Fashioned Chicken N Dumplings is now ready to serve!
Hopefully this VERY inexpensive comfort food will keep your family warm on a cold winter day.

Merry Christmas!

Good Bye ol' Ranger Boy

A few months ago, Jonathan stated that he was now interested in selling his 1988 Ranger Hot Rod. It really surprised me because I know how much time and money he has put into the thing. He drove it home in 1992 to his parents house as a 4 cylinder and after about a year it ended up with a V8 engine that sounded pretty mean. With lots of help from family and friends over the years he was able to do quite a bit of work on the truck .
My memories of this truck start in August of 2003 when Jonathan pulled up to my parents house to pick me up for our first date. I remember looking out my window wondering what all the racket was. I think my dad was a little bit impressed when he eventually heard what all he had done to the truck. Jonathan whisked me off for Pizza and a cruise through the Taylorsville Dam. It was definitely a rough but fun ride and of course as guys do, he had to show off a bit...LOL! It has made many skid marks through the years and created lots of late night noise.

A few weeks ago, one of Jonathan's connections called him and said that a guy was looking for an older Ranger to fix up. Jonathan jumped on it. He sold the truck tonight. Below is a picture of the truck loaded up.
I forgot to mention that we did keep the most important parts of the truck. The heart (motor) and Transmission were pulled this week before it was loaded up. Maybe one day we will get to transplant these items to a new body and bring a another car to life.

And here it is being driven off. We had to keep watching as he drove down the road out of sight. A small tear came to my eye as I began to think of the movie Herbie. A rough looking truck that may one day be turned into a race truck. The new owner has promised to stop by after he has it all fixed up and maybe we will get to post some new pictures one day. Hopefully we will get to see him at the track on a Saturday night in all his new glory.

Garden Check 2010

We are now about 2/3 the way through our garden season. Over all I would say this year has been good so far but VERY weedy. I have also had to do a lot of watering this year since it has been so dry. The rain we had earlier last week was a God send. I am just hoping now that the forcasted rain for this week holds true, otherwise it's another long week of watering.
Above is my corn. We opted for the Silver Queen this year rather then our usual Chubby Checker from the last 2 years. We should have our first round ready to come off at the end of this week.

And this is my Watermelon patch. this is only 3 plants (hills). I am a bit nervous on these. I'm not sure what to expect when. The plants are getting huge but I have not seen any melons starting yet. We have seen the blooms for the past 3 weeks, but not much more then that. I am hoping we see a little more action by the end of this week (fingers crossed).

And these are my 2 Zucchini plants. I was certain that since the plants were pretty small, we would not see anything on them this year. Boy was I wrong. There were many blooms on both plants. We went from 0 to suddenly 2 were ready to pick after last weeks soaking rain. I am certain there are many more to come.

And here they are!!

And this is what I made with the small one today. Baked Zucchini Chips. Not to bad, but I think I prefer them cooked on the grill. Maybe next weekend we will get around to that.

I am now going through my recipes trying to find my Grandmothers Zucchini Cookie recipe that are definitely on the cooking agenda for this year.

The 5th of July with the Kiddos

This past weekend I guess you could say that Jonathan and I were pretty low key or uneventful. Jonathan was not feeling well at all last week, so this weekend was a much needed rest for the 2 of us. He is slowly starting to feel a bit normal, but it's very hard to ever feel fully rested when you work third shift.
We spent this afternoon at Dad and Carol's house for our 4th of July cookout with the family (only we celebrated on the 5th). It was a great day and VERY hot! We managed to find some shade to relax in while we rotated Corn Hole and Hillbilly Golf games.
This is Max and his Momma Betsy. Max is getting sooo big! He turns 2 next month.

And here is Master Zander waiting for his lunch and as you can see, he most always has a smile on his face. He turns 1 next month also, the day before Max's Birthday. They are 364 days apart!

Max with his new lawn mower. All the kids took there turn doing there share of the mowing and had fun. Hmmmm maybe we should remind them of this in about 15 years or so.

Max also has this thing for weed wacking. He will pick up one of his toys at random and hold it like a weed wacker and act like he is wacking away, complete with sound effects and a sweeping motion! LOL! This was completely hilarious and of course I did not have my camera with me.

I came out onto the back deck to see 3 of the kids attempting to figure out the Hillbilly Golf. This was pretty darn cute.

You can see above Jeremy who is turning 3 next month also and Abby who is 4.

Yes that's right folks, we had a 1, 2, 3 and a 4 year old all together in the same house.

This is one of my attempts to get the kids together for a picture.

Max, Zander and Abby here. Notice Abby trying to keep her baby brother on the couch. So cute.

And this one is Jeremy, Zander and Abby.

And this is the last and final attempt to get them all together.

"Great idea Aunt Sommer". Carol compared this to herding cats! LOL!!

Notice every one's expression. These will be pictures to laugh about later on down the road.

And this is Max and his daddy saying goodbye after a long hot day of playing with his cousins.

This was a great, much needed family day. As usual, the house was filled with madness and mayhem, but I wouldn't want it any other way.

Hopefully we get to do this in a few more weeks as all of these birthdays roll around.

Abe S. Yoder Sr. family reunion

This past weekend, I finally got to attend my very first Yoder reunion. The last one was only 3 weeks before Jonathan and I got married, which was not a good time for us to be traveling so far. I had to wait another 3 years before the next reunion would roll around, which meant I was more then eager to go this time. It was a weekend for all who attended to remember. It was a record year for attendance of at least 219 people on Saturday (this is only counting the people that signed the register).
Our weekend started on Thursday afternoon. I only worked a half day and then we were on he road by 130pm with Jonathan's parents. Since we needed to be in Chambersburg, PA early on Friday, we opted to only drive half way on Thursday and stayed the night in Washington , PA. We were up and out the door by 730am on friday and arrived in Chambersburg at 1130am. There we met Jonathan's Aunts, Uncles and Grandmother who had a nice chicken supper prepared for us all. Grandma had been wanting to cook us all supper for some time and this was the first opportunity she has had in a very long time. We also got to see her new apartment since she has relocated to Chambersburg. When supper and visiting was done, we hopped in the car and drove another 2 hours to Belleville, PA. For those who have followed my blog from the beginning, you know how much I just love going to Big Valley (where Belleville is located). Friday evening we went to the Mennonite High School for a bit of visiting and a "few snacks" with some of the Yoders already in town.
Saturday we arrived to the Home Farm at 9am. The home farm is the place where Jonathan's Great Grandfather, Abraham S Yoder Sr. and his wife lived and raised there 13 children. Jonathan's Grandfather , Abe Jr, was #5. I really cannot describe how AMAZING this day was without the pictures I have posted below:

This is a picture of only part of their garden facing the horse pasture. I have developed a great love of gardens lately and Belleville certainly has many beautiful gardens to drive by. As we were driving, it was all I could do to keep from jumping out of the car and run up to every ones door to ask about their garden. (I decided it was best to restrain myself)

This is a picture of the 2 houses on the property. Both houses are huge. The house closest in the picture is the main house. The house in the back is the grandparents house ( Dawdi Haus). A separate house where the Grandparents move into (sometimes straight from the main house) where they can be tended closely by there children and grandchildren.

A beautiful horse that Jonathan made friends with.

Cutting the fresh bread for the bean soup later for lunch.

Some of the women gathering to make the 250'ish Half Moon Pies. This is a pie crust rolled flat with apple butter spread over, folded in half and sealed. Kinda like a pie pocket. You can see some of them above that are already assembled. There were about 5-6 women working on these in the room.

Getting the Apple Pies ready to put in the Hearth by basting them with Buttermilk.

Lining up with the pies as they are putting them in the OLD outdoor oven one at a time. It seems i forgot to put in the pictures of the pies as they came out of the oven, but believe me when I tell you they were beautiful. It only took them about 5 minutes to cook in the oven since the oven was so hot. All of the pies were great accept for the one that got forgotten and stayed in a tad bit longer and ended up pretty dark and crisp.

They also put the Half Moon Pies in the Hearth oven also. These were also cooked quickly and came out just perfect.

This is a picture of the Amish Peanut butter that was made and the Smear Kase- a homemade spreadable cheese that tastes similar to Mozzarella cheese and is commonly spread on the Half Moon Pies. Both were DE-LISH!! I also forgot the pics of the Amish Bean soup which was yummy also. It wasn't at all what I expected but still very yummy. Also served was Lebanan Bologna and cheese tray with homemade rolls, Church Pickles, Olives, Apple Pie, Moon Pies...... Oh my! I miss it already.

This is a picture of the barn that we did most of the visiting/eating/singing in.

Auction Time! This year and the previous reunion, they did an auction fund raiser to apply to the reunion fund. These are items that the family donates, most are hand crafted or heirloom items from generations of family. Many books, crafts, baked goods, woodwork, quilts, afghans. Someone even donated a week at there vacation home in the mountains of Franklin, Tennessee. Furnished with a pool! Unfortunately we did not bring that kind of cash with us :(

Some of the money was also donated to the families of elder Yoder's that were in the hospital and could not make it to the reunion.
You can see above my crossed stitch Roly Poly Snowmen Coasters on the Auction block.

Below is the one auction item we bought. a 4 pack of Whoopie Pies!! we went crazy and bought them for $15.00. There were only 3 packs of Whoopie pies up for auction and we got the one that was ALL Chocolate! People got a good chuckle over the bidding war that ensued. I'm not sure who I was bidding against but I was determined to keep my hand up! Jonathan and I are savoring every morsel.

Man, I gotta learn how to make them myself! This will be one of my goals this summer....

Milking Time! This is a working dairy farm.

A brand new Calf just born sometime during this day with Momma standing by. Sadly, momma is whisked away shortly after giving birth and the calf becomes bottle/bucket fed.

Sigh........ such is farm life.

This is a picture of the fly over. I'm not sure if this was a family member or a neighbor doing this but it was sooo much fun. He did several fly overs dropping bags of candy for the kids. He ended up buzzing the barn with his last circle round.

This is a picture of the kids scrambling for the candy as it hit the ground. HEADS UP!

The last part of the evening was the talent show/ singing. Above is Jonathan's uncle Titus playing a hymn on his harmonica. He was Amazing!

I feel terrible on this one... I'm not sure who these people were but they were GREAT! They sang a great Folk style song that had everyone smiling.

Alumni from the BMS (Belleville Mennonite School) singing once again!

Jonathan's great Uncle Ben reciting a poem.

The Shetterly girls singing an Irish Blessing for us all just before we left for the evening.

The once quartet is now a trio. Jonathan's dad singing with his brothers, which is always a treat. We definitely missed Grandpa Abe.

I got to hear many new hymns that night, one of which was God is Love. Everyone was singing in english and just when we thought the song was over, half of the crowd continued singing the song in German, 'Gott ist die Liebe". I think it brought a tear to most everyone that was unable to continue singing.

They ended up getting each family together representing each child of Abe Yoder Sr.

This is a picture of 4 generations of the Abe Yoder Jr Family that came to the reunion.

Hopefully I managed to get all my facts right with my story and I do apologize for any spelling errors. I do welcome any fact corrections as I am still learning about my new family.

WOW! what an amazing weekend. Due to a voted change, I now only have to wait another 2 more years for my next Yoder reunion!

Back up!!

After about a month and a half of being down from my blog, we are back up and running!
We were putting up with a sloooooow computer that wouldn't load any of our applications properly. I finally had enough yesterday and broke down and called Time Warner. I was certain they would give us a hard time and say they couldn't help us, but they didn't! As it turned out, our router was bad. They ran a few tests for us and told us how to fix it. Yay for Time Warner! They got the gold star for the month.
We have sooo much coming up this summer and hope to do a bit more blogging once things kick into gear.
At the moment we are spending time in the yard getting some new flowerbeds ready along with prepping the garden (Jonathan is at least). Jonathan usually does the early grunt work of prepping the garden, while I usually maintain it through the season: watering, weeding etc.(he helps sometimes too). This year we are planning to grow our usual Corn and with the extra 4 feet added this year, I am looking forward to trying my hand at Water Melon and Zucchini. If all goes well, we should have plenty to share.
I will keep everyone posted on our progress. Hoping to have pictures of the new flower beds just as soon as we get them filled and planted.

Lot's of love to all our family and friends :) We miss you all dearly and can't wait to share this exciting summer with you.

From Snow to Pre-Spring

This picture above is the first day of our snow storm on Friday 2/5/10. My work let us leave early that day and this picture was taken just after I got home.

And this is Saturday morning. A 5' drift on our front walk and nearly up against the garage door.

I am 5'3". This is how tall the drift was.

This is one of our neighbors across the street. He is standing ON TOP of the snow drift trying to dig his way to his front door.

And here is my snow man. Hard at work doing our driveway. Once he was done, he ventured out to many of our neighbors. He went out 3 different days and loved every minute of it. He even had to pull someone out of the ditch with his truck just across the road in this picture.

And this is Pepper the cat discovering snow for the first time. Eventually he started batting it back and forth and even managed a few good mouth fulls.

And now we flash forward to today. We had one very beautiful pre-spring weekend. The sun was out all weekend with warming temperatures. Today we stopped at DQ and headed down to the Englewood Reserve and take in a bit of nature and sunshine. Any other day this would not be an impressive picture, but today the scenery was quite uplifting. There was still ice on much of the water, but that certainly did not seem to bother any of the ducks and geese.

And here is the sunshine shot. Yes, the shine on our glasses is the sun. We sat for about half an hour on a park bench by the water just letting the warmth of the sun hit our faces. After dealing with a nearly depressing winter, it's hard to believe something so basic can be so rejuvenating and provide us with so much hope.

Yes God IS good.