Our Second Day

We woke up to rain but again it was not that cold nasty stuff Illinois puts out this was warm enough that we could still sit out on the balcony with our coffee watching the waves rolling in. After breakfast at 9:00 am all met at Beth and Greg's condo for church. Her condo was standing room only but no one wanted it to finish. Fedi started the service, Jackie, Tim, John and Dan shared then Fedi finished up around 10:15 am. We hiked over to mom's and turned on the computer to listen in on our church service in Peoria. Technology is amazing. We are sure our condo must be bugged along with Beth and Greg's as that service fit right in with our first service, so much so that the exact verses were read. Kind of spooky! As they were giving the greetings, Bill said, "greetings from Bluffton," then we were all just waiting for Tim to announce over the pulpit greetings from Bluffton but we don't think he did. Hmmm maybe we are not bugged after all.
The volley ball games today were fun and the spectators weren't the cheering section, Diane considered them the jeering section up on mom's balcony. We have the best seats in the house.

 I was trying to figure out what the group below was looking at, but it didn't take long to see what popped out of that hole.

 A very happy puppy!

Sarah was up on the balcony but not cheering or jeering, instead she was reading something funny.

 After volley ball everyone hoses the sand off before heading up to lunch or out to the beach.

 Below is Tom and his young son Luke

 The sun was shining bright when we took our walk on the beach. Nancy and Faith had fun finding shells. Below Faith has found a thick old shell.

 

After our walk and lunch we all headed to Beth's hot tub.

Molly wasn't sure she liked the hot tub after the kids arrived.

Our next job on this hard working vacation was to make supper plans.  Beth and Greg decided to take us to UnderTow which is a bar and grill that for $10.00 plus tax serves all you can eat Royal Red's ( a delicious deep water shrimp) sausage, baked new potatoes, and sweet corn. Tim, Diane, Mom, Beth, Greg and I were the only ones interested in trying that. I don't like shrimp but this was delicious. We all marveled at the mountain of shrimp Tim put away.

We were all invited to Ruth and Fedi's condo for cake and ice cream. Her son Steven turned 18 years old today.

From there the party migrated over to Beth and Greg's condo for board games. What a great second day.
A nice email came in from Rachel the owner of Eliza's filly Tryn. She writes: Thought I'd forward a few pics. Tryn is doing great.  Learning to lunge, and stand pretty. We took advantage of the sunshine today and went for a walk and even found some green grass to munch.

 

Emily called to report Anna's udder is starting to fill up. Anna will be stalled at night and watched carefully during the day.  Ribbon, Jenis, Zalena and Eliza are now back at the Hanna City farm to prepare them for the IL Horse Fair. Valiant was ridden with both Ribbon and Zalena in the arena and kept his attention on Emily. She also reported his canter is dramatically improved. Mike was able to order a new heater for the automatic waterer in the middle paddock and got it going. Mike and Emily took Jenis and Killian out on the trails. Killian was a little up but did behave. All is WELL both here and at home.

Gulf Shores Day 1

Mom and I woke up before sunrise and decided to walk on the beach. The weather was mild but clouds were rolling in from gulf carrying rain. We didn't make it back to the condo before the rain started up. On the way in we ran into John who joined us for breakfast. As mom was cooking the breakfast there was a break in the clouds just enough for us to see the sun rise.

 After breakfast we started the home tour, touring each of the condos. Below a bunch are out on Ruth and Fedi's balcony. Their condo also has an indoor pool with an indoor and outdoor hot tub.

 Nancy sure had fun on the beach. She is staying in Joan and Tim's condo which is a nice roomy 3 bedroom at Spinnaker point. Next we toured Dave and Rachel's condo then headed over to Dan and Susan's.

 Poor Dan and Susan arrived late to find their condo had not been cleaned since the last group of people had stayed there 10 days ago and it held soiled diapers. The sheets and towels had been bunched together for the cleaning lady to launder. Beth came up with some clean sheets last night so they had something to sleep in, then all of us girls along with Dan and Susan made short work of getting it cleaned and ready for the week. It also just happened to be Susan and Levi's birthday. Once the work was done we went over to admire Beth and Greg's new dock, fire-pit, picnic area.

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 Karin was not with us or she would have completed the picture below of us sisters.

Next on the fun schedule was volley ball in the vacant lot next to mom's condo. Karin is serving the ball.

 Poor Jessica hurt her arm snow boarding. Perhaps the sunshine will help heal her arm.

 Hannah and Faith came over to head to the beach but stopped first to talk to grandma.

 Tim brought Mackenson to the beach. All these pictures were taken from mom's balcony as everyone was making their way to the beach.

 Berlica, Bethany, Bill and Sarah had to stop and pay toll to mom by admiring Miss Molly.

 Faith found a seashell to play with while she was waiting for the rest to catch up with her.

 We made our way down the beach to the hot tub at Ruth's condo, it was so relaxing we needed to all go in for our afternoon naps. After lunch Diane, Beth and Ruth came over to play Mexican Train with mom and I. Beth won. We took another walk on the beach then for supper mom cooked lamb chops. AT 7:00 pm we made our way back to Beth and Greg's fire pit where we sang around the fire.

 John gave his testimony then Jacki read out of Job. What a great ending to a relaxing day.

Made it Down

We made it down just a little over 14 hours. We are tired but thrilled to be here. Unfortunately Mom's lamp shades were missing AGAIN! Of course she blamed Beth but Beth was innocent, next she called Rachel and Rachel denied taking them, last she called Ruth but no one is confessing. Dan's carload and Joan's carloads are not yet here but getting close so it couldn't be them.

Above she is calling each of her family members who are currently in Gulf Shores.
We went out onto the balcony to admire her new tall patio set and when we walked back into the condo the lamp shades had miraculously returned. We are all heading to bed after the long trip.

Gulf Shores or Bust

We are leaving in a few minutes for our trip to Gulf Shores, Alabama. Yesterday during the Christmas dinner at Joan's house we were asking what time people were planning on leaving. Diane said 5:00 am, Joan mentioned she was taking off at 4:00 am then Karin came up the stairs and her response was 3:00 am, Ruth decided to leave right after the dinner. Hmmm who do you think will win! It is around 900 miles away. All 11 of us siblings, plus mom and her dog Molly are heading down. It wasn't planned but just happened. Probably will never happen again to have all of us at the same vacation at the same time. SO looking forward to this reunion.

Our Christmas Gift

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.

 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

We celebrated our Lord's birthday with the Sceggel family last night and as the wise men gave gifts so we gave them to each other.

Phil and Anna had prepared a delicious meal we enjoyed before the gift giving. Our day started pretty early. Ben and Taunya stayed at the apartment and the kids came down for breakfast then went out to help grandma with feeding the horses their breakfast. We took a fast golf cart ride around before heading in to warm up. Emily and Karin each trained 2 horses. Emily worked with Valiant and Killian. She reported Valiant is getting his walk to canter departs and his canter is getting so balanced he is finding it easy to canter in the smaller indoor arena. Killian had wallowed in the mud and it is much too cold to bathe. We really need to run him through a car wash! Karin reported Evan was so good that she put him away after a 10 minute work out. Mom walked over to show off Molly's new tutu then mom, Nancy and I took the golf cart over to Joan's to show her off to the Reinhards. Bill and Bethany were getting ready to head home to Bluffton but we will see them soon, they are also going to Gulf Shores.  

Right now the oven is pre-heating to 500 degrees, the prime rib will be roasting shortly for our big Christmas dinner at the Reinhards. We will be leaving soon for church to hear of the wonderful Christmas story and of the greatest gift ever given to all people everywhere. Feeling Thankful!

Shiny Bright A Day of Gifts

Yesterday on the walk this bright shiny ball started to rise out of the eastern sky. The sun finally decided to bless us with it's presence ALL day. We had a beautiful warm sunny day. Unfortunately most of the day was spent working.
Rhoda and Emily pulled out at 8:00 am with Katy. They were delivering her to her new owner up by Chicago. When they arrived, even before she was unloaded, the lady was thrilled.

She is from England and use to play with the Gypsy children just so she could ride their horses. Katy is her best Christmas present ever.
Meanwhile Diane and I were a little worried about having enough help for the Berean day with Rhoda and Emily gone. On the walk we mentioned that to Joan and as a gift to us Joan brought down an amazing crew of helpers. Bill and Bethany were in town for the Meister Christmas and joined us along with Tim, Sarah, Hannah, Joan and Karin from out this way.
When we arrived at Meister's we had 2 children join in the fun, Crystal and Amanda both brought their children in to work and both were more than willing to help out.

Tim Martin called on Monday to give us the bad news that he was not going to be able to deliver the Bibles but the good news that they were all stuffed, wrapped and ready to go at the warehouse in Goodfield. Diane called Spark and he had his son Jacob pick them up. 

That was such a gift, then Eva Jean arrived with MORE gifts.  Sixteen HUNDRED jumbo papers clips! These had been donated to Berean by Angie. They were joined by the hundreds of clips Gail donated! I believe we now have enough paper clips to last us a few years! Diane R. donated more letter openers, while Eva Jean donated more pens. We thought it must be Christmas already.

We couldn't spend much time admiring our shiny clips, openers and pens, work awaited and work we did. Our volunteers started to arrive and Diane started to put everyone to work. In the picture below Tim has 2 helpers and they are getting the labels put on the Bibles. 

 People were piling in all ready for jobs! In the picture below Diane is taking a crew over to the conference room to start them on envelopes and studies while the sitters are already hard at work with letters.

 Lance, our copier repair man showed up. The copier is now running great.

 Lisa dropped off 2 of her boys and everyone worked hard until noon. We were able to finish almost everything by that time. The Bibles were loaded into Diane's van and off we drove to the post office.

 In the picture above Joan is keeping a big group busy and below the Bibles are getting moved from Diane's van up onto the loading dock at the post office.

 Once the van was emptied of boxes it could hold people. We drove to Denny's for a relaxing lunch. Such an amazing amount of work was accomplished by many many hands. A big thank you to everyone who donated time and supplies during this busy Christmas season.

Mom couldn't come today, the last 2 remaining puppies were picked up by their owners. Mom had to confess it was hard to see them go even though she knew they were going to good homes. These fun fluffy friendly Shih Tzu puppies made us all realize Molly MUST have MORE! 

As soon as I arrived home the vegetables were started cooking. Our family was to provide hot and cold vegetables for a hundred people at 6:00 pm.  Well we had MORE than 125 join in the fun at the fellowship hall for the Meister Christmas. No one in the family wants to miss that! I forgot the camera and my phone was dead but Diane took pictures. Hopefully she will share them with us. She rented a bouncy slide for the kids, the food was the best dinner we ever had for this party, the kids all love to perform on the stage with the microphone and of course the reading of the Christmas story is a highlight! Spark didn't read the this time  but gathered the children around and had them help tell the story. Ryan was a good santa claus and by the time the gifts were given out and the lights turned back on we didn't leave for home until much later than MY bed time.