Just a note...not all the pictures loaded in the order I wanted them, and the last time I blogged I could move them around to change the order in which they appeared. But today it doesn't work that way. G-R-R!!
On Wednesday, January 27, we left at 3:30 am for Georgia to see John Mark and his family. We enjoyed our time there SO MUCH. They had a "To-Do List" for John (not really), so he enjoyed doing a few little odd jobs around the house. He installed an outside light by their entrance door, painted the trim around the door and several of the windows, and started painting their door. He gave it two coats of a beautiful Williamsburg red, then before he could give it the final coat, it began to rain. It rained up until time for us to leave, so John Mark will have to finish it. I was waiting to take pictures until after it was done, so ... no pictures!! We also painted the dining room wall under the chair rail the same color as the outside door -- it turned out very nice, but alas, no pictures of that.
The new light and house numbers
Kit Kat (male) and Khloe (female)
They are so identical the only way to tell them apart is to look under the tail.
Father and Son
Painting the trim
John as he stands on a 5-gallon bucket.
On Sunday, Jan. 31, we left John Mark's and drove to Orlando, Florida. We checked into our timeshare at Bonnet Creek and used that as our home base as we visited
family and friends who live nearby.
We visited John's uncle Jim Gingrich in Lakeland.
We spent some time with Curtis and Pam (John's twin brother's son)Connor enjoys his toys in the back yard.
Curt just got a new job with State Farm in PA, so they
will be moving this week. We were their last Florida visitors.
Caden is so pleasant and has a ready smile.
Curt planted an orange tree, and it is just about ready to
begin bearing fruit. Now he'll be leaving it behind
for someone else to enjoy.
We also visited Raymond and Doris Jodon in Brooksville.
They are "snowbirds" who attend our church when they are north for the remaining nine months of the year.
Jennifer and Justin (my brother Mark's daughter) met usfor lunch on their way to Hobe Sound.
We spent a day at Camp Freedom in St. Petersburg. These people
are parents (and an aunt) of a couple who attend our church. They live in PA and were vacationing in FL.
Clara Ritchey giving advice to Grand-daughter Gwen Tolley ??!!
Fay Horning
Scott and Ruth Ritchey go to our church and are the camp cooks.
You know you'll get good meals with them doing the cooking!!
The following pictures are of our timeshare at Bonnet Creek in Orlando. It was lovely and had a grand kitchen complete with granite countertops.
On Friday, February 5, we headed for Hobe Sound, where we attended the Hobe Sound Bible College/Academy 50th anniversary. It was a great time of re-living a lot of memories, seeing friends and family. The weather was cooler than we had hoped for, but it certainly beat the cold we've had in PA for the past couple of months.
Alumni breakfast at Steve Addison's house.
Carrie and Rick Grubbs, Doug Kline, John Keefer
Honoring Mrs. Dorothy Herron, Dr. Whitaker and wife Joe Ann,
Dr. Connie Palm, Joyce and Jim Olsen
Alumni picnic -- we ate with Dr. Phil and Marianne Brown
(Marianne is my brother Mark's daughter.)
Stephen had eaten a cookie -- can't you tell how yummy it was??
Sonja Vernon, George Vernon, Jose Cancio
Jose Cancio, Tara Hickman, Kayla Martin,
Kim Neuenswander, Brent Vernon
We visited Jonathan and Tanya Slagenweit at their beautiful home. Jonathan is my brother Mark's son and is the youth pastor at Hobe Sound Bible Church.
When we lived in Hobe Sound John worked for Richard Flora -- his son-in-law Pete Wilson was John's foreman. We stopped in to see Pete and Ellen one afternoon and reminisced for an hour or so.
One of our dear friends, Allana Martian, invited us to their house for home-made apple pie.
Her parents were also there, so we enjoyed sharing the time with them. Allana and Rob have such a special family and the children made us feel right at home.
James and Nate
John Keefer, Carl Kready, Rebecca Martian, Flo Kready, Eli Martian
Allana, James, Rob and Zachary Martian
The house we bought after John graduated. We lived in it from
Thanksgiving 1991 until June 1993. Driving by made me wish I still lived there.
Our hostess and host -- Betty and Lyndell Predmore
I worked with Betty in the FEA office and we've remained close friends over the years since then. We always enjoy our times with them and stayed up way too late each night reminscing, laughing and sharing together.
Allana (Kready) Martian, Angela (Cancio) Perez, Jose Cancio, John Keefer
We had heard weather forecasts for the north, and hoped that we would get home before the storm hit. We got as far as Fredrick MD before the snow began. The roads were a bit treacherous, then the snow stopped by the time we got to Harrisburg. In Juniata County it began snowing again -- we were glad to get home!!
A WELCOME SIGN!!!
NOTE: I have had issues with posting...it's putting spaces where I don't want them and deleting spaces I've put in other places. I've gone back in several times to edit/correct it -- only to have it delete several pictures. So I'm going to post is "As-Is" and accept the fact that it isn't appearing as I want. In the future, I will probably only post to facebook and forget trying to blog. So instead of blogging every 8 months, it will probably be 8 years. ;o)
Ethan
