June Photos

Finally our Internet is back up -- whew -- the poor AT&T man was here today from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm driving around Upland trying to figure out what was wrong with the cables. Apparently there was some construction, and well, you get the idea. As much trouble as we've had with our AT&T service, it was true customer service that the guy was here that long on a holiday! 

Anyways, here's some photos to go with our June Whirlwind....

A gorgeous sunrise -- thankfully my brother Ben was up early to catch this shot -- I definitely was not awake! 

The fam minus Luke & Logan....we missed them! 

Rob and I went back to the spot he proposed to me two years ago! Amazing. 

Can you tell we're excited to be there? 

My parents on their way to a wedding Saturday after the beach. Such a nice looking couple! 

Our one year wedding anniversary was Monday, but we were still in PA at Hershey so we ate our cake Wednesday night. The inside was still good, but the outer icing tasted like the freezer and was quite hard. I still thought it was pretty cool we saved it for a year! 

The Whirlwind that was June

I read another friend's blog yesterday and she commented about how June is perhaps the busiest month of the year. I'm sure it only gets worse when you have children and have to do things like buy teacher gifts and attend graduation parties, but even without children our June has been full! Hence the lack of blog posts too. :)

I wish I had some photos to put up here about our trip east to Ocean City, New Jersey, but unfortunately our internet at home is broken so I'm writing this from work and alas, no photos.

We did have a great time though hanging out with my family for a week despite some very weird cloudy days in OC. It was the strangest thing -- four days of clouds hanging out over the ocean while it was bright and sunny just a few miles inland. We made the most of it though and relaxed, read, and played games as a family. As always, it went too fast. This year though Rob and I took two extra days off work to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary on Monday. It is crazy to us that we have been married a year already! It honestly seems like yesterday we were doing all our plans and so excited to do life together. It has been such a great year and we're excited for many more to come.

For our anniversary we bought a hotel package that came with two tickets to Hershey Park. I grew up going to Hershey, but Rob had never been so we made a day of it Monday and had a blast. It wasn't very crowded so we were able to ride all my favorite roller coasters, some several times. It was a really fun day of hanging out and having some good time together.

So here we are and now it's July already. Why is it that summer always goes so much faster than months like February and March? I think it's a conspiracy designed by the cruel winter...

I'll try to get some photos up here soon!

Strawberry Jam

My Aunt Tut makes the best strawberry jam. I don't even like strawberries, (I know, gasp like everyone else who does when I say that....it's a texture thing ok?) but even I love her jam. White bread is transformed by this jam, I'm telling you. If possible, Rob loves this jam even more than I do or anyone else in our extended family for that matter. He could eat the stuff by the spoonful.  

Like a kid waiting for Christmas he has been waiting for the Upland Strawberry Festival so we can make jam. See, you can't make this jam with just any strawberries. They have to be the- straight-from-the-garden-fresh strawberries. The thing about this jam is that it's basically crushed strawberries, pure white sugar, and a pectin substance that gives it the jelly texture. That's all. 

So Saturday rolled around and we headed off to the Strawberry Festival in "downtown" Upland. Besides the strawberries it is a fun little festival with craft tents, people selling local honey, strawberry shortcakes, and of course the delicious (note sarcasm there) fair food such as deep fried vegetables. Does anyone else see an oxymoron there? 

We had the great priviledge of hosting our dear friends Noel & Ashley this weekend so they accompanied us to the festival with their delightful dog, Hagrid. 

Here we are on our way to the festival. Ash is planning to conquer the strawberry world as you can tell. 

On our way home from the festival with our strawberry loot. 

Ash carrying the cherry tomato plants I bought 

We got home and began the jam process. Thank goodness Ash was there to take pictures -- our hands were messy! It was a great, fun morning and as you can see, we made quite a lot of jam.

Strawberries waiting to be turned into yummy jam 

Ta-da! The finished product and one very happy Rob

We even had enough strawberries left for Rob to decide to make more jam on his morning off today. I came home to three more jars and a clean kitchen. What a husband! He has decided we must make it last as long as possible, so if you want your own jar....well, you might have to fight Rob for it, or go make your own. 

Oh and over the weekend we also went to Cincy for Rob's cousin Ross' high graduation party...Congrats Ross! 

Ben Yoder Comes To Town

This past weekend my younger brother Ben flew from Pennsylvania to visit us. He had been living in Argentina since August so we really had not seen him since our wedding in June. He had been great about keeping up with us through email and phone calls while he was gone, but being together in person was so much better. We had a great time having him here until Sunda morning when we all went up to Fort Wayne where our other brother Luke is living for the summer. Ben stayed there until Tuesday and then flew home. 

The cool thing about Ben living abroad for 9 months was that he really grew up. And I can say, as an older sister you know, that when I freely admit that my little brother has grown up, well, that's saying something I guess. So he is still the Ben we knew before, only better and cooler and older. There's just this maturity about him and a different outlook on life that is great and I was glad to see. Cheers to you Benja. 

And here's some pictures of the fun stuff we did over the weekend: 

Ben (before he cut his Argentinean hair on Saturday) brought us a bottle of wine actually called Benjamin. He had backpacked this wine all the way from Argentina for us! It was excellent too. 

On Sunday Rob and I went to the wedding of Rachel Dodge & Eric Peterson in this beautiful bridal glen in Fort Wayne. (Not kidding, it was actually called a "bridal glen.") It was a beautiful ceremony. Rachel is the person we give credit to for introducing us so it was great to see her marry her soul mate too. 

The kiss! 

The reception was at a restored train station in downtown Fort Wayne. Rob joined the striped tie club there with Matt & Ben. 

Rob and I with the happy couple

So after the wedding, Logan (Luke's girlfriend) had her graduation party (thankfully also in Fort Wayne) so we got to spend some time with them later. All of the sibs (plus two additions!) together again at last

Clearly some people were a little partied out. Looks like Sunday afternoon nap time....

Dinner time at the B-Haus

Tonight for dinner we made a new dish that called for sauteing onions for a bit. Typically onions don't bother me, but they really bother Rob. I offered to do this part, but he was insistent and here is what we ended up with....

...Rob wearing his racquetball goggles while sauteing the onions.

Just another dinner at the B-haus residence. Goofiness served up for dinner as well as food. I love this innovative goofball. 

A Camry Milestone

For a few weeks now Rob and I have been watching the miles on my Camry creep closer and closer to 200,000. It's a pretty big milestone in the life of a car so Rob and I planned if at all possible to be together for the big event and take pictures. 

On Thursday night it was after 10 and I was brushing my teeth and very excited about going to bed when Rob asked me how close the miles were to 200,000. I hadn't been watching so I guessed we had about 50 miles to go. Rob went out to check and came back in declaring (with great exclamation) that we only had 8 miles to go! So I put on my glasses and decided that we had to drive to the next town over, Matthews, and experience the blessed event together. 

So off we went and ended up driving around, up and down the same street three times at one point, until the 199,999 rolled over to 200,000 miles like a new baby. We got really excited and pulled over to take a few photos. 

Then we got home and realized we didn't take any photos of the two of us celebrating....so we went to bed. I'll let you know when we hit 300,000. :) 

The Orchestra and Living to Be 90

Friday night Rob and I went with my boss and his wife to the Marion Philharmonic Orchestra "Salute to Big Bands" show. Another organization in town gave us four free tickets and my boss treated us to dinner so it was a great free date for us. :) 

We had just settled into our seats at the orchestra when the little old lady next to me leaned over and whispered, "are you wearing a diamond ring?" Rather startled I looked at her and said, "yes, I am." She held up her own ring and said, "I've never been in a place where the lights make diamonds sparkle so much." And she was right, the brilliant lights high above made our diamonds display a thousand beautiful colors inside the small stone. 

We struck up a conversation when, after admiring our diamonds, I asked her how long she'd been married. She said her husband had passed away in 2000, but they had been married for 60 years when he died. I also found out that she was 90 years old, that she had season tickets to the MPO, that she still drives (not sure if I should be scared about that one...), and that she had so many grandchildren and great-grandchildren she'd lost count. 

At intermission we kept talking and I asked more about her grandchildren. She looked up at me with her eyes sparkling and said, "do you want to see pictures?" Now, I've learned that when an older person asks if you want to see photos of their precious kiddos, you definitely say yes because how could you say no to a sweet 90 year old woman? You can't. It's rude. So of course I said yes, and as she was pulling them out of her purse she said, "well, when I was rushing around getting ready to come here tonight I thought, should I bring these? And I decided that yes I should, and now here you are asking about to see them. I think the angels tell us things like that sometimes." I smiled and agreed and admired the pictures of her really precious looking little ones. 

Later I asked her how one lives to be 90. What are her secrets? Here is what she said, as verbatim as I can tell it: "First, I thank God everyday for this life. Secondly, I eat a lot of raw vegetables. They're very good for you. Then, third, a long time ago I read this book about a doctor who found a town in New Hampshire or Vermont, I forget, where the people lived a very long time, much longer than people in surrounding towns. The one common denominator was that most of the people drank a glass of hot water with a tablespoon of cider vinegar and a tablespoon of honey in it every morning. It sounds very strange, but it's really not so bad. So I drink that every morning." 

So there you have it folks. A hot water, cider vinegar, and honey drink everyday = living to be 90. I am pretty sure Jesus will come back or I'll die from my hereditary high cholesterol before I get to 90, but if that's one of your life goals, well, take it from Julia. 

Oh and the show was very good -- very 1930s/1940s swing type music, but my favorite part was meeting and talking with Julia. You really don't meet people like her everyday, but when you do, it's really great.