Our Little Chicago Trip For Lydia's Birthday

We took a little trip to Chicago this week for Lydia's birthday. We had a great time visiting the Shedd as well as her family. Here is a little picture of the the skyline taken from the toll road leading into Chicago. I cannot believe that a city can charge $2.50 just to ride in on the quickest route to downtown. Amazing!

Here is the Sears tower. I have nothing more to say about that.
We got to the Shedd and went right to the dolphin show. It was not very exciting, but the kids thought that it was something fun. I cannot believe that someone would want to get paid money for teaching giant fish-like things to jump and look cute. Not my idea of a calling.
Here are the things flipping around in the oceanarium. Notice Lake Michigan right outside of the windows. I was more amazed with the number of tall ships that moved along the lake. I am also amazed that there are no notable cities on OUR side of Lake Michigan.
Here is the birthday girl with her two little ones.
Here is Anna and Owen looking at the Coral reef. There are some AMAZING fish in this area.
Here we posed in front of the super classy fountain that welcomes visitors from around the world to the Shedd. They call it 'the world's aquarium'.
We went to Lydia's parents house to meet them for dinner. We went to a Bohemian restaurant and I had Moravian duck. We had a great discussion about Jan Hus, the Reformer from Prague. He is still a national hero there.

When we left we took Peaches the family bird of 14 years. Our little friend Sydney B. has been saving her money for a bird and we knew that Peaches would be happy with her.

Some more notable things:

• Today is Lydia's birthday.
• We have not done much to celebrate.
• Justin and Marion are liars.
• Little Stuart is being baptized this Lord's Day.
• People keep asking Lydia if she is having twins and commenting on her ginormous belly.
  

Anna's Creepy Art Work

As you may know, artsy-farsty is in the blood of Union Avenue. I am not sure from whence it came, but it is here and it effects the way that my mind works. Unka Shawn and I talked about this as we were cruising through the Catskills last week. We decided that the tension is good as long as logic is used as well.

I believe that this syndrome has been passed to both of our children. Owen walks around all day singing and seems to be obsessed with music. I am not sure if Anna is as musical as Owen may prove to be, but she does have the tendencies for artsy-farstiness.

Today, while moving pictures onto CDs I found these two portraits that she took of her Barbies. If these were in the Detroit Institute of Art people would label them quality post-modern art.

Weekend Visit to Elkhart, IN

This past weekend I preached at the RPCNA of Elkhart in Elkhart, Indiana. It was the first time that we had ever been there and we did not know what to expect from the town or the people. We were impressed the congregation there and found them to be very friendly and wanting to please the Lord in many areas that Reformed people fall short on!

Anna and Owen could not wait to leave for our little get-away. They sat in the yard for some time reading and playing. Anna kept asking questions about Indiana and what it had to do with Anna? "I am Anna, what is Indi-anna?"
We spent the afternoon with a wonderful family that shared a lot of church planting stories as well as other things of the Lord. Ritva is a master level gardener and by the looks of her landscape, church planting is not the only thing that she and her husband are successful at planting. It was the most beautiful landscaping that I have ever seen, complete with espalier. It was a great place to spend a Sunday afternoon.
Johannes is 7 years old. He was very sweet and gentle. Anna has been talking about him since we left. She claims that she is going to marry him and she even picked flowers out of my garden and described how she wants a ribbon tied around them so that she can save them for her wedding. Wow!

When we got home I downloaded the pictures from our trip... notice the angle on this one... yep. I did not take it! Anna snuck in a picture of Johannes before she left.

Joke's Over

Hey Maggie. The joke's over now. Yep, really funny. You can come home now and stop pretending that you live in Eastern Michigan and attend Southfield. Truth is that you live in Grand Rapids and go to the church here. Yep. Funny. Come home, please?

Sing Us A Song You're the Piano Man

Here is Anna and Owen the morning the new addition to our home arrived. This baby grand piano now being loved and cared for by the Eshelman family. Anna already wants to learn to play it; and Owen has to be told to leave it alone! It is not a drum!

Klompen Dancing through Tulip Time

The Eshelman's proper, came up from Pennsylvania for a variety of reasons. One of the things that they wanted to do was to go to Holland and visit Tulip Time. They had never done this, and frankly, Pella Iowa's Tulip Time is much more ethnocentric. Holland had NO Dutch food that we could try and most of the stores displayed racist signs on the doors that read, "NO WOODEN SHOES". When will the racism end against the humble Dutch?
Here Anna was helping to weed their gardens. I informed her that they wanted those tulips there. She was wanting to replace them with edelweiss, but I reminded her that our Reformed heritage honors the TULIP and we should be nice to the Dutch for their silly ways of remembering the doctrines of Grace. Owen was showing me all of the various parts of the tulip. "Papa, that is the stamen", "that is the ovary", "that is the anther and filament", "that is the receptacle and pedicel"!

Ummm... okay Owen... whatever.

And here we have the famous Holland Klompen Dancers. 1400 women dressed as men and women on Saturday and on the Sabbath day dressed as the gender that God intended them to be.

We had a great time!

Mulcha! Mulcha! Mulcha!

This past week I began the never-ending ritual of summer called gardening. I love it! My precious neighbor, Mr. Birn, asked me why I bother... it is dominion. The Lord has said to take dominion, and I am doing it.
This is what 10 yards of mulch looks like. Generally it takes all day to lay this much mulch. This year it took from 9-5. Not all day in gardening terms. My other neighbor, Jeff, helped me out a lot. I was so happy because it really is a lot of work to do.

Here is the backyard and my trusting garden chariot. It is not a wheel barrow. It is quite different because it has two wheels instead of one. Owen has one like it that is his size. He was busy working away as well. We also planted 10-15 more Hostas this year. I traded them with Emily Vedra for some pink phlox. I think I won- phlox and I are sick of seeing each other. I have removed quite a bit of it from the gardens this year. Steve and Janna have some, Mrs. Jurries has some, randoms from around Alger Heights stopped and got some. I was pleased to share the pinkness.

Here is Owen showing off his new Hibiscus. We just repotted this one for his mother. It is blooming like mad with very nice pink blooms. We gave Oma one when she visited this weekend. I am sure that the summer will be filled with gardening pics, so if you like it, stay tuned!

Semester's End

I will be back May 12th. I have a lot to do to wrap this semester up. See you then!

Anna Meets John Calvin

Anna got to experience what research and scholarship is recently. We went to the Henry Meeter Center For Calvin Studies to do some research. She was very interested in everything and asked a lot of questions. She got to see some of the rarest books in the world including a first edition of the Institutes of the Christian Religion and Calvin's liturgy and Catechism. She also got to see 'the Calvin chair' and numerous coins and stamps depicting his image. We spend some time compiling a bibliography on Calvin and the Holy Spirit and then we moved on to other things. It was nice that Polly Pocket was able to go with us.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to Aaron and Lisa Bishop on their first born child!

Norah Ann was born on April 16, 2007 at 3:59 AM. Her birth weight is 6 lbs, 10 oz. She is 18 1/4" long.

God is faithful from one generation to the next!

A 4am Rambling Story About Maggie, Stainless Steel, and Calico Brownies.

A few weeks ago (or longer) we had Maggie and B over for dinner. We were sitting in the family room chatting away about the joys of being a Christian and we forgot about the potatoes on the stove-top. They boiled over. They actually boiled the pan dry.

Then our oven did not work. Hmmm. There is a connection. Water fried out our electrical panel in the range. (I know, I know, buy gas- blah, blah, blah. But this oven was in the house when we bought it.)

So as the weeks are passing, Lydia and I continue a discussion about what to do. Do we replace the range? Do we have it fixed? What to do? Now, we have a really nice built in range with stainless top, etc. Very nice. At least $1200 to replace it. We could get a junky thing for about $500, but it would not look as nice. What to do?

Lydia calls a service person to come and look at while I am at work. She emails me about it. The whole thing is fried. It will cost way more to fix than to buy a new one. Okay.

So as the weeks are passing, I am not thrilled with replacing what we have (OCD...maybe). I do not want to replace it with lower quality. That is very annoying.

I call Apex on Plainfield. We talk. Then I call again. "Cathy, its Nate again..."

We decide on having one of her service people come and look. That is a $69 fee just for having them come to the house. I am not impressed, but we will see what it can be. They decide that it is one of two parts.

One part- $140

The other part $375

Labor and service call included.. you got yourself the junky range.

I decide to have it fixed. Bob the builder, as Owen calls him comes to the house and decides that is AT LEAST the $140 part. He says we have to replace that one first to decided if we ALSO need the $375 part. Okay Bob.

Murphy's law would tell you that this story is going to end with me paying $42,500 to have a $1200 range fixed; but you would be wrong. We got the old girl back on her feet for $250. I am ecstatic. So happy that Anna and I made Calico brownies before work today.

See, there is such a thing as a happy ending... now I think that the goat cheese pizza party can be hosted by our good ol' oven in honor of Maggie graduating! Any takers?

Meet the Baby!

Meet the third Eshelman baby. We have been praying quite a bit for this little person. We have been praying that this baby, as well as Anna and Owen, love the Lord Jesus Christ from infancy. John the Baptizer was said to have leaped in the womb at the hearing of the name of Jesus. May all of our children be used for the glory of God and the advancement of Christ's Kingdom.

Tante Heidi and a Tuesday Visit

Aunt Heidi came to visit us this week. It seems that her place of employment has left the Chicago area and she is between jobs. This gave us the benefit of seeing her since we are always so busy and our paths rarely cross. We were glad she could come up. We took her to Meijer Gardens to see the butterflies before they are all dead. We also took her for dinner at Johnny Carino's across from the Gardens. Good times!
Here Anna is smelling the Orchids. She knows that Orchid walls are a great part of Malysa tradition. It is alleged that Oma has an Orchid wall in Naples. We have yet to see it, but that is the story. Anna loves Orchids and she claims that the tiny ones are the prettiest.
Owen thought that smelling them would get him some attention as well. He is cute, but does not look like he is really in the Orchid spirit.

Here Lydia and Anna were snuggling at the Michigan Farm. Anna received this new pink monkey from Tante Heidi. The poor thing has the unfortunate name of Jungle Love... we will call him the pink monkey in our house.
Here Tante Heidi and the kids were playing in the hay. The Gardens has a great barn that was built in 1910 and then moved to the Gardens to be placed at the Farm. I had to share a story of throwing hay onto the bailer at grandpa's farm. When you do that for an afternoon your arms are as cut as a teenage girl on Lifetime.

The koi pond was pretty, but there was only a half dozen koi in the whole thing. Last summer we at lunch at it and there were well over 100! Where are all the fish?
Here is one of Anna's notorious power hugs. They look cute, but Owen hates it! It is unfortunate when ones face turns blue.

Thanks for coming Tante Heidi! Too bad about the Italian butter container getting broken at Carino's though. It was fun to watch that little guy clean it up for 40 minutes though. Good thing we tip well!

My Boys

Today the boys got a chance to bond a little. They wrestled and bit each other. It is quite a blast to watch. Of course, Samson, the step-dog, was not allowed to play with us.

Home Again, Home Again, Jitterty Jig

I am home from presbytery. It went very well. A full report may follow.

American Fiesta

There is a new Broadway play that will premiere next month. American Fiesta is about a collector of Fiesta Ware and how fiesta relates to both 'blue and red' states. Blue and Red were original colors when Fiesta was introduced in the 1930s.

The spin on the play is that homosexuality has to be brought in. I am not sure if it is because it is trendy to talk about homosex or because Fiesta has become so popular amongst this population of people (well, the men anyway). It is a shame that a great play about an American Icon has to be ruined with same-sex trash. Straight men can collect Fiesta too (I hope)!

Columbus, Indiana? Where?

Next week I will be in Columbus, Indiana for presbytery. I have only been through Indiana other than stopping to fuel my car.

Columbus Reformed Presbyterian Church will be hosting this event. I am travelling with Rev. Lanning and Mr. Sikma who are going on business concerning our local congregation.

The fall meeting held at Southfield was a really great experience. I have enjoyed getting to know the ministers in the RPCNA. I hope that this meeting will go equally as well. I know some of the issues that will be discussed with me and I am looking forward to seeing how the Lord's hand will work all of this out.

Quilts for Soldiers

Our friends, Shane and Toni Dunmire, have a son, Zac, that is in the Marines. He is being deployed to Iraq in July. Toni has a special request and I hope that some of you would be compelled to help. Here is a letter I got from Toni this week:

I am making it my mission to make Rag Quilts for all the guys in Zac's platoon (about 60). Their deployment to Iraq has been moved up to July. If you would like to help me in this quest, you can send me masculine flannel fabric, cotton batting or money for me to buy it or pay for postage to send them. I will send a copy of the receipt so you know where your money went. Please do not feel obligated in any way!! This is something I want to do, I just thought if any of you ever wanted to do something for our troops, but didn't know what, this would give you the opportunity. I spoke with Zac and he said he knows the guys would appreciate it.

Thanks for your time! And thanks for your help!

Toni Dunmire
20620 Welch Hill Rd.
Corry, PA 16407

I hope that some of you would be glad to help out. Zac is a really neat kid and has shown a lot of courage by signing up service in such a time as this!

Butterflies are in bloom

We got to go to the Meijer Gardens for the first time of the new season. We love to kick off Spring with the butterflies at the Gardens. They have a really cool clear butterfly this year.
Lydia enjoyed the sun...for one minute.

This butterfly was really pretty. It was blue-green and the texture looked like velvet.
There were a lot of this one. They seemed to fly in groups. Click on the picture and you can read his expression, "I've got two weeks to live and I have to be on display for you!"
I edited a paper while we walked to the 'Michigan Farm". This year they have added a lot of great sculptures to the farm.

Here is Anna in the backyard garden. It smelled great in there- tons of bulbs in full bloom!
Here is on of the sculptures at the farm. Owen tried to feed it grass. He was not interested in eating.
Here is the famous Alexander Calder mobile that my dad tried to spin. I laugh every time I walk by it. I have never seen so many security guards! And the sirens! Wow!

I would suggest getting a membership this year if you have not in the past. Remember that the Tuesday night music series is coming up in August! What a great place to visit!

So, is this the real thing?

There are many signs that Spring is in the air. Today we have our windows open and the smell is so nice. The kids are excited and we are hoping that the season is ready to burst forth. There is always so much gardening to do around here and we are all looking forward to getting things back how they belong. Owen and Anna want to be outside all of the time now. Today I think we may go play at the Gardens and see the butterflies for the first time this season. I hope that they have that blue butterfly that is the size of a hand again this year.
Sunday was the beginning of all of this goodness. Here is Mrs. Lanning stealing some sun before we entered the chapel. When we were there Anna wanted to walk over to Dr. Beeke's house so that she could see him. We walked over (but he was at the MacArthur conference in California). She then wanted to run through the woods behind the seminary. Of course, I would not allow her to do that since that is where all the wild and crazy seminary drop-outs are forced to spend the rest of their existence.
However, the greatest sign that Spring is just around the corner is the fact that the Crocus are coming up all over the place! They are in full bloom. The tulips and other bulbs are coming up, but the Crocus are already singing the praises of Springtime.

Can't Say

I would tell you what we are doing, but I have been asked not to. I guess that the pictures are going to have to tell a story that only history will reveal. It takes a lot of work to do the job of an historiographer. Just ask Lydia how much of the last 4 months have been spent on 5 typed pages.