A picture update

We are way behind on the blogging so here is a quick overview of the highlights.

A trip to the beach to celebrate 12 years!

 Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. Special!

Paige was chosen from McColl Elementary for the Citizenship Award at the yearly Success Banquet. One student is chosen each year, so this was a really special award. If you know our sweet Paige, it's not hard to imagine how she ended up with the nomination. And yeah, we are definitely proud!

And Brooke was also chosen for the citizenship award for her class as well!

 And we can't leave out Hunter. Here is just a snapshot of a everyday thing around here. Crazy!

The loss of a special Great Uncle

A new addition to the collection and one that everybody loves. Even Andrea enjoys shooting!

Will post videos of the kids shooting later

 

Photo Card

Believe In Christmas Religious

Create cute birthday cards, valentines and more at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Catch-up time

I'm not sure why it is, but it seems much harder to find time to blog when I'm at home. A lot has happened around here since my trip to Germany, but we have been slack on the updates. So this will probably be a rather long post ...

One of the big things that we done the Saturday I came home was a 80th B-Day party for my Granny Blackwell. This was a surprise party that my mother -with the help of her brothers and their families- put together. The reason I say Mom done the party was because she came up with most of the crazy ideas. Granny was totally surprised and I think everyone had a great time. I think we should do this every year for Granny's B-Day!!!

The Family

The Kids

The Grandkids

The Great Grandkids

80 - $1 bills all taped together and wrapped in a box. It took her forever to get all these out!

Pin the nose on the clown

A Sack Race

A Cupcake Pinata

Duck - Duck - Goose

Not exactly sure what Jenni is doing here?!?!

And then we had the "accident". I say it like that cause I think Andrea may have done it on purpose ;) Not really but we had been discussing the need for a new van for a while. Our old Dodge had just tripped 230,000 miles, and while it was still running good it was definitely showing it's age. So Andrea finds the biggest bodied deer in Marlboro county and somehow persuades him to jump in front of her. Thankfully, she was not hurt - but I can't say the same for the van! This really was a huge deer. I didn't weigh him but without a doubt he EASILY was 225+. HUGE for this area

So, we finally did get a new van. It was used but new to us. The new Dodge has arrived. I hope it carries us safely to 230,000 miles and beyond!

And then something from myself. I think I posted pics last year of the calico deer I killed. Well, I got him back from the taxidermist and he looks great. The kids can't hardly keep their hands off of him. And for those who don't know, this is a whitetail deer. It is a very rare thing for a deer to have any white on it outside of the normal areas- neck, belly, and tail. Any deer that has any "abnormal" white is considered a calico. Calico's make up about 1% of the deer population. To have one this colored and unusual is very, very rare. I've even considered contacting some big sporting good stores and see how much he is worth. If the price is right, I may have to let him go ;)

Not Fair!

To my lovely wife....
   Posting pictures of home cooked food is banned unless I am in the States to enjoy it! German food isn't bad, but it isn't your good southern cooking!!!

   We actually ate American tonight at a newly opened diner here called Pink Girls. I wish I would have took pictures of the restuarant. Pink and blue leather seats and booths. The waitress -two of which were the owners- wore old timey pink checkered dresses. American classics playing over the speaker - and I mean OLD stuff. One of the cooks even had real "Elvis" sideburns. And the food was super good. I think the onion rings were probably the best I have ever had, including in the States! They had spareribs so I had to check them out. The BBQ sauce was not the best, but it was pretty good. More of a Texas style tangy, sweet but they were still good. The plate was huge so I had to skip desert. I really wanted a milkshake but I was just too full. I think we will visit one more time before we leave. And guess what, they had Ben & Jerry's ice cream! First time I've seen that over here too. One of the owners came over and sat with us a few minutes and talked about their dream of starting that diner. Turns out, they just opened this past Saturday. Rodney and I gave them a true southern US thumbs up!!!

 
  I have to say again that I really enjoy the way the Germans slow down for their evening meals. We sat and talked a long while after we finished the meal and not once did we feel pressured to move on. Matter of fact, you are very likely to strike up conversations with complete strangers in small places like this diner. Super laid back and a wonderful way to enjoy the afternoon. Of course, being by myself -without wife or kids- makes this really seem like a big change for me. But if they were here, I'm sure they would enjoy the change just as well. At least Andrea would  ;)

  The town here of Esslingen has changed a little from my trip earlier this year. The bear looking hills that surround the village are now covered with grape vines. The trees are starting to turn colors. I have a pic from the top of our hotel that shows just how beautiful it is here. I couldn't get outside, so I had to snap shots though the windows. If I can catch the doors open up there I will get some really good shots.

  Rodney and I also took a little jaunt Saturday. We had plans to visit a German castle -the real one that Disney based their princess castle on- but a slight error in programming the GPS got us off coarse. By the time we found out how we got off track, we were closer to Switzerland than the castle. So that is where we ended up. We drove all through the mountains that border Germany and Switzerland. Some of the scenery was truly breath taking. Rodney wasn't feeling well -he gets car sick and those mountain roads we crazy!- so I didn't stop to take pictures. I regret that big time now. Switzerland was super nice and I wish we had more time to spend there.

So that's enough for now. Lots of love to my Baby and my kids! I miss you guys a WHOLE LOT! See you real soon.
DP

Homecoming 10-16-2011

See what you're going to miss! And this is only part of it. Just thought I'd tempt you a little and show you all the foods I made. Who knows, maybe you'd rather have your German cuisine!

grilled smoked sausage

chicken and pastry

deviled eggs

macaroni and cheese

pineapple cake

cheesecake

I have fruit salad too, the picture just wouldn't load.
ADP

September Youth Service

 On the last Wednesday of each month we do something a little different at our church. Instead of our normal worship service, we have what we call Youth Service. As you probably can guess, this service is geared towards the young people of our church. The choir songs is done by the youth. The offering is taken up by the youth. And one of the most anticipated things for the young kids is the object lesson. We generally have a "theme" for the service. The songs and scripture reading -also by the youth- all follow the theme. Normally, Deanna has her camera and takes pics. She didn't have it with her this month and asked me to see what I could get with my phone. The pics are not that great, but the videos turned out pretty good. Take a look below and see if you can figure out this months theme.

The object lesson:  Take a mini Oreo cookie and place it on your forehead. Without the use of your hands, get the Oreo into your mouth. Not an easy task! See below.

So what is the theme?  Any guesses?

Determination! Notice nobody quit the first time the Oreo fell? They picked it back up and tried again. And God will do us the same way if we will just keep trying. When we stumble and fall, He is gracious and loving enough to pick us up, dust us off, and help us continue on in our journey!!! I'm glad I serve such a loving God, aren't you?!?!

DP

October 8, 2011

The day after Daniel left for Germany we celebrated the 25th anniversary of Glenn and Ruth Vollrath. He is going to miss quite a bit this trip. I made the cake, Daniel helped with the leveling before he left :), (Thanks, Deborah for bringing the cake leveler, it worked great!). I was satisfied with the finished product, unfortunately I can't say that every time. The "groom's" cake was one of those instances. After I finished the other one I didn't have a lot of time to work with it. It definitely tasted better than it looked. I appreciate all the nice compliments I received on them! I'm posting some of the pics from that day from my perspective I guess you could say. Deanna gave me the pictures since my own photographer was unavailable:) I figure she'll post the others on her blog. She, along with others, worked very hard on all the decorations and other things.

 A work of art:). Somehow Reuben thinks he should

get credit for this. Go figure.

Delicious, if I do say so myself...

 A very special family:

The kids "hanging" in there. Paige wanted this pose

so of course Brooke and Hunter had to try.

Reuben and Hunter throwing punches:

 Hunter playing football with the big boys.

 He thinks he is a big as they are.

I had to call him in to change clothes so he wouldn't get grass "staings"

ADP