A Busy Day

 Yesterday we went to see Kensington play softball.  She did well and China was very interested.

 She pitches too!!   
When we arrived it was pouring rain.  As we had no umbrellas we decided to go shopping and stopped in GoodWill.  There were two very beat up dressers in the store for 30 dollars each.  The more we looked at them though we saw how well made they were.  There were even drawer dividers for socks and such.  The big problem?  We have no way to transport them.  Thankfully the grandparents were able to fit one in their car and will pick up the other on Sunday.  They are sleighted to go in our bedroom and be painted black.  It will take a lot of sanding and the drawer pulls will need to be replaced, but I think they will turn out really well.  I'll post pictures soon!

 I took a FREE Craftsy class on pizza dough--one of my favorite foods.  Wow!  The results were amazing!  Come over and I'll make some for you!

Northern Indiana

For all of you who have never had the privilege of traveling to the great state of Indiana, here's what you're missing!  Northern Indiana is pretty flat and there are a lot of soybean and corn fields.  The End.  Next week we'll be going down to Southern Indiana which is very different (much prettier--I grew up there!)

 

Our First Electronic Purchase Is...

..a rice cooker!  After being used to eating massive quantities of rice in China, we decided to invest in a rice cooker here.  We love it!  I've used it to steam squash, cook Basmati rice (still have yet to find a Chinese grocer), and slow cook pork.  Everything has turned out well.  Where did we buy it?  The local Wal-Mart--probably helps that we're in a college town!

Past Students

After reading this post about two ICS Singapore graduates, I was deeply moved.  I admit sometimes I think, "Was our twelve years overseas worth it?  Did we have any impact?"  Although we can't claim a huge role in these girls present success, we were there throughout their middle and high school years.  Matt taught them both science and I taught Spanish one year--Yikes!!  And now they are both doing GREAT things AND have stayed fantastic friends across thousands of miles.  Watch out world!  These international students do Awesome things!  It encourages me today! 

The Indianapolis Zoo

 Today we drove down to Indy and visited the Zoo.  We decided to go ahead and buy a membership as 2 visits is more than the price for a whole year.  The bird houses were new and you could really get close to them! (They are also building a new orangutan building to be finished next year.)

 There was the usual cast of characters--cute baby elephants and fearsome tigers. 

Ana and China enjoyed racing the cheetah--it shows you how quickly it would catch you!  China was obviously slightly faster than Ana!  We enjoyed the dolphin show too, but my camera is too slow to catch pictures of them.  Looking forward to more visits soon!

Wow!

 We have been super excited to find some wild black raspberries down the road and in the neighbor's woods (he gave us permission to pick them).  We had them in smoothies this morning and I have about two cups saved up in the freezer--hopefully I can get to five and make a small cobbler.

My sister in law's cleaning lady had a free sewing machine available.  She showed up with this sewing table and a Brother machine EXACTLY like the one I had.  She's going to stop by and bring the chair later this week.  (I'll probably end of painting the table--yes, I've joined the painting craze!)  I was completely blown away by the generosity of a women I didn't even know.  My machine has always been on a shelf and brought out when I need it--so excited to have a dedicated place for it!

Our Life Right Now...Random!

This is a table we're working on at the moment.  We bought it about 13 years ago and for 12 of that it was in an attic.  It really needs some help.  I always liked the legs on it and it goes perfectly with Matt's cast iron bed (that will probably be in Ana's room--when she has a room to put it in!)

There are two large, black snakes in the tree by the pool.  This disturbs the brothers Matt and Mike greatly.  (Matt wants to shoot them!)

We went to a local farmer's market--got some black raspberry jelly, popcorn, and squash.  An interesting experience in that many of the vendors were Mennonites.

Today we helped Faith Church clean up their new building.  It will be a beautiful when finished!  It will have housing for college students (the apartments were SUPER nice--every bedroom had its own bathroom) a preschool, and a church.  Mostly we swept, mopped, cleaned bathrooms, and dusted the baseboards. 

Matt had his interview at Greenwood Christian today--haven't heard how it went yet!  No news from any of the other interviews--many of them are on vacation.  And so we continue to wait :)