Project 365, Week 22

After being gone all week, we arrived home last night just in time to unload the car and head off to an engagement party -- where I failed to take even a single photo :/

I did take photos of other things this week though, so here's the weekly round-up for Project 365:

We had a few projects in Indiana this week, and the first one was shooting the video for our presentation. Kyle and Tina did a FABULOUS job with that! Here they're setting up...

Kyle played a talk show host who interviewed us :)  We have a little tweaking to do when we go back next week but mostly it's done. A shout out to Kyle and Tina for all their work!!!

I loved this sign outside a coffee shop in Winona Lake...

Made me want to start talking like I wasn't a white suburban housewife :)

Winona Lake is home of the MasterWorks Festival (which you should really check out if you're anywhere near there, because the concerts are FREE people, FREE!) and in front of Rodeheaver Auditorium are some interesting sculptures cut from old tree stumps, like this one...

It stands about 7 to 8 foot tall with the base, so I guess it was more than just a "stump".

Thursday was our 32nd anniversary! Ivan surprised me with a day/night out in the South Bend area. It was a fun, relaxing time and I enjoyed a little window shopping along the way. I so adore those gorgeous aqua patterned pillows...

...wouldn't they be great for the house in Sta. Rosa!!! Actually I've seen TONS of household items in various shades of the lovely aqua but I fear my suitcases cannot contain all I desire. *sigh*

But my stomach can (and did) contain all the deliciousness we encountered this week. Like this Reuben sandwich we had for lunch on Friday when Jon and Nat took us to McCarthy's...

Ivan ordered this and I ordered a vegetarian sandwich and we went halvsies with them so we both got to try two things. We pretty much always do that when we eat out. Anyone else do that? And I must tell you about our dinner on Thursday! Based on the rave reviews by all our kids, we ate at Corndance in Mishawaka. YUM! Ivan ordered the bison meatloaf stuffed with spinach and fontinella cheese served with a grilled caesar salad and I chose the roasted pear and ricotta cheese stuffed ravioli and nut cream sauce with sun-dried tomatoes, topped with fresh pears and sprinkled with parmesan cheese. Seriously some of the best ravioli I've ever had!

We got to spend some time with our son and his wife on Friday since Jon was setting up his dad's computer (thanks again Jon!) and I took the opportunity to snap some photos of our "granddogs" :)

Aren't they cute?! It cracks me up that Leo is so much bigger than Bailey but they are SUCH good buddies! Watching them play and horse around cracks us up.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, Jon received a call from one of my half brothers who didn't know we were stateside. How was the timing on that call?! We didn't grow up together (same dad, different moms) but Allen's been so good about staying in touch over the years. It turned out he was in Michigan visiting some of the other family so it worked out great for us to meet up for breakfast this morning in a nearby town before he headed back to Missouri.

He brought along some old family photos and we spent time looking at those while he explained who everyone was (I've never met any of my dad's extended family). He's had a very rough time physically over the past few years with both heart and lung issues and I'd appreciate your prayers for him.

Speaking of prayers, this coming week we'll be heading back to Indiana as I return to the specialist I saw right after we arrived in the U.S. I'm pretty excited about trying a new treatment and would also appreciate your prayers as I go through a five day trial period, starting Thursday.

Project 365, Week 21

I was a total SLACKER this week when it came to taking photos for Project 365. We were busy settling into our cute house AND getting ready to start visiting our supporting churches, plus it rained just about ALL WEEK LONG so we didn't get out and do a lot of stuff.

I know... excuses, excuses. I promise to try and do better this coming week!

One of the things I'll do is take photos of our home-for-the-next-six-months. You would not believe what a great church we have! Good friends are letting us use a house they own, and other people in our church loaned everything from a fridge and a bed to a stove and dishware. We arrived last Saturday night and moved right in! And so many have asked what else we need, so an iron and ironing board and then a desk appeared...plus another chair for the living room.

We are sooooooo blessed!

It's been fun to jump back into "family life" at church too, and we're so grateful for these opportunities to catch up with dear friends!

Made some new friends, too, when Rita and Mike came up Thursday and good friends of theirs from the OM days joined us. Lots of story swapping, laughter, and fun. I love meeting other missionaries!!! Dennis and Donna have a heart for the Dalits, a people group in India who are considered so unworthy they're not even part of the caste system. Now that, my friend, is LOW!

But alas, I failed to take even a single photo that day :(

It wasn't until Saturday dawned clear and bright that I even thought to get the camera out of its case. Our town is having it's annual Riverfest celebration so we walked down to check things out. On the way we passed a house with this cool stairs-to-nowhere...only it isn't really to nowhere, because back in the horse and buggy days a carriage could pull right up next to this and the ladies could daintily step out and down the stairs, while the horse could be tethered to the nifty little post.

Modern-day carriages were the stars of Riverfest though...

We had a lot of fun checking out the car show!

My favorite was this absolutely stunning turquoise 1954 Chevy. *SWOON*

And the super nice owner invited me to get in and have my picture taken! Can you see me in there? No, okay, here's a close-up:

Could my grin get any bigger? :)  It was so fun.

We also saw a ton of people we hadn't seen in years...people we'd worked with, or known through various activities. It IS a small town after all!

Project 365, What week is this?

Seriously, I had to go look up to find what weeks I'm covering with this post. It's been a crazy few weeks! I had hoped to get this up last Saturday (and even had the photos picked out) but we were constantly on the go, and never near wifi. This week we've been settling into our lovely house in Jonesville, Michigan, and yesterday the nice people from Comcast came and turned the switch so NOW WE HAVE INTERNET!

Woot!

I briefly considered waiting until this coming weekend but decided doing three weeks worth of pictures might send some folks into a boredom induced coma. So -- before I proceed with ALL THE STUFF that's been happening -- I'm catching up with P365. Hopefully you'll enjoy this excessively random selection of photos :)

At the end we were scrambling for photos we knew we'd need for our video presentation, making mad dashes around town to snap "just a few more". Thought I'd share a few of those. You may think gas is expensive here, but look at what we pay:

That's PER LITER and even when translated from pesos to dollars, it's still way more than we're paying in the U.S.

I'm not sure I've ever shared a photo of a verdulería (vegetable store) before:

We left Argentina on Tuesday, May 3rd, flying over the Andes to our first layover in Santiago, Chile. Ivan went a little crazy taking photos out the window. Our seats were right over a wing, but that didn't stop him from getting some pretty cool shots:

Our son picked us up in Chicago and took us back to his house in Indiana where our car was waiting for us. Our home church, Countryside Bible, provided a lovely little Saturn for us to use! And our daughter and son-in-law went to Michigan the weekend before and brought it back to Jon's. So we transferred luggage and drove on down to Tina and Kyle's. She was pretty excited about watching the baby birds hatch in the nest right outside her craft room window:

In the months since we were here for the wedding, Tina's department moved to a new building on campus. Here she is at her new desk in her new office:

On Mother's Day the Indiana branches of the family came together to celebrate with my MIL. I snapped this photo of mom with the three siblings. Some of you may recognize my SIL, Rita.

Later that day we went to our consuegros to enjoy another meal prepared by the "younguns". Jon smoked a chicken as well as some pork while Kyle made yummy homemade baked beans and this delicious salad...

...and Tina made delectable bacon chocolate chip cookies.

Our daughter's office is right across the street from the headquarters of the mission that my in-laws were with and they have this lovely, peaceful outdoor space...

...as well as an amazing mural painted by one of their missionaries to France. The mural goes all the way around the lobby and I couldn't resist sharing the entire thing, even though it takes four photos to do it :)

The artist/missionary (sorry, I can't remember her name) spent months working on this project. Didn't she do a fabulous job?!

Wednesday, May 11th we headed down to Rita's for the night. Mike was teaching a pottery class at the Red Barn she's mentioned on her blog so we went over to see the studio. VERY impressive! And you know I absolutely luuuuuurved the wall color :)

Then they took us to Ivanhoe's for dinner. The cowabunga burger isn't on the menu but Rita, having written an article about the restaurant a few years ago, knew about it and suggested we get one. GINORMOUS! That's Ivan's large man hand next to it to give you some idea of it's size. Cut in half, it was still the biggest burger I've ever had!

If you live in the Indianapolis area and have never been to Ivanhoe's, you really should go! They have a gazillion different sundaes and shakes too, but we had their infamous strawberry shortcake for dessert -- with both whipped topping AND ice cream. YUM!

Last Saturday, before we headed to Michigan, we went to visit dad and had someone take this photo of us with him and mom. Dad was quite cheerful and alert this particular day and we cherish those times!

We drove straight to a friend's house in order to celebrate; our friend recently finished seminary, graduating magna cum laude! He's done most of the work long distance and didn't attend the graduation (it was several states away) but his wife and kids got him the regalia anyway. Way to go Jim!

Whew! So glad to be caught up at last!

I have lots more to write about, but that will have to wait. I'm just SOOOOOOOOOOO happy to have internet again. *insert sigh of extreme contentment*

I'm baaaaack!

After being without a computer for a whole week (gulp!) I am sooooooo happy to be the proud owner of a new (well, refurbished) Macbook Air!!!

Isn't my baby cute?!

Since my mother-in-law doesn't have internet at her house, we're seeking free wifi hotspots this week. And hoping we can get internet at the house in Michigan.

Which is where we're heading this weekend!

I'm also soooooooo excited to be able to plug back into our home church for a few months!!!

I sort of feel like Dorothy at the end of The Wizard of Oz..."there's no place like home, there's no place like home".  Only in reference to our home church, not our "home".

Because "home" is now Argentina, of course :)

And while we're very happy to be here, and get to see friends and family, we DO miss "home" and our friends there. Too bad we can't instantly transport back and forth.

Anyhoo...
Just wanted to let folks know we arrived safely and we're staying busy...

...and have already started working on the list of foods we can't get back home.
Like breakfast sausage.
And Dr. Pepper.
Which isn't technically a food, but is something we can't get in Argentina.

I'll be back this weekend with updates for Project 365.

Or maybe before, with thoughts on the differences we've noticed in our short time back in the U.S.
Like how spacious public restroom stalls are, and so nicely stocked with toilet paper.
Or the sheer variety of...well, just about everything in the stores.
And how quickly you can get in and out of business or government offices.
Some definite and noticeable differences!
More later, mis amigos.