October 8, 2005

Dads & Laura w/ Carolina Sue. Carolina Sue turned 16 months on Sunday.  My group and I went in and had the service at the jail first then back out to church for the rest of the service.  We had communion services at Barnwell this morning.  Gary Hege preached on "God's Love" and Dad Strite had the feetwashing meditation.  I feel double thankful this morning.  First of all, for what Jesus was willing to go through for me, and secondly, for my brothers and sisters that God has given me in the church.  We have so much to be thankful for!  Dad, Mom & Laura dropped in during the afternoon for a visit but headed home in time for us to leave for our supper appointment.  We enjoyed a really nice evening together at Linford & Rosetta Oberholtzers with their children and with Mark Hochstetlers.  Rosetta fixed a delicious meal of grilled chicken, noodles, corn, cucumber/tomato salad, and pineapple upside-down cake.  We got word from Suzanne Stanbrook today that her father passed away this morning.  Our deepest sympathies are with her and the rest of his family.
A Monday morning sunrise. Monday was a very busy day.  I spent quite a bit of the day on the phone with Puerto Rico calls.  Also, trying to juggle calls from customers is a continuous struggle...  Ina Sue stayed busy with washing, ironing, cleaning out the car, packing up clothes and taking care of Carolina.  We had chorus practice tonight so I picked up subs on my way out of town and met Ina Sue & Carolina at church to eat our supper there before chorus.  Carolina acted like a troll for her babysitters at chorus so it was a little hard to concentrate on the singing.
Keith, Jeanne & Sara Lynn Martin I had planned to go to work early on Tuesday but was able to work it out so that I could help Ina Sue get everything ready for her trip today.  She left around 9:00 and picked up Brenda & Meredith Groff for their trip to Harrisonburg.  The babies didn't sleep hardly at all on the trip so they were pretty tired by the time they got there.  Ina Sue quickly got Carolina Sue fed & bathed and in bed then went to a bible study with a group of her friends.  I spent a very hectic day at work and stayed late to get some accounting done.  Came home and worked on getting things together for my PRMC meeting on Thursday.  After 1:00 before I got to bed....
Aunt Marsha models her new wardrobe... Wednesday morning Ina Sue & Carolina went to see all her old friends at Valley Structures.  In the afternoon they went with Mother to Costco & Sharp Shopper to do our Virginia grocery shopping.  Ina Sue, Carolina, Mother Showalter & Marsha all left around 6:30 and drove up to Maryland to spend the night with Jeanne.  They are planning to all go shopping in Lancaster tomorrow.  I had yet another horribly busy day at work.  Worked late but was able to go to bed before midnight.

 

PRMC Meeting in Jonesville, NC I grudgingly hauled myself out of bed at 5:00 Thursday morning.  Got everything together and drove up to Columbia to meet my brother Kent.  He drove us on up to Jonesville, NC for our quarterly Puerto Rico meeting.  We got in a pretty bad traffic jam in Charlotte and just barely made it there in time.  The meeting started at 10:00 and lasted until around 4:00.  I rode back up to Virginia with the other VA. brethren and they dropped me off at the Showalters around 7:00.
Luray Caverns in Luray, Va. Ina Sue and the others still weren't back from their shopping expedition.  They had left Jeanne's at 6:00 in the morning and driven up to Lancaster.  Carolina spent the day with Elsa Wenger and her five young boys.  The rest of the ladies spent the day shopping at all the good Mennonite stores there in Lancaster.  For lunch they met a group of their friends (the Hoovers) at Yoders Restaurant.  They finally got back to Harrisonburg around 10:00.
Steve plays peek-a-boo with Carolina Friday was a rainy day.  We both slept in for a little then Robert and Lori brought their new baby (Adrien Michael) over for us to see.  Visited with them for a while then left around 12:30 to meet my cousin, friend & business partner, Steve Brubaker at Luray Cavern.  Steve's whole family came along and we all had a good time touring the cavern.  This was by far the biggest and most magnificent cavern I've ever been in.  We were hoping to spend some time trying out their garden maze but it was closed due to the rain.  We did spend a little time going through their buggy & antique car museum then we headed up the road to Front Royal.  We spent about an hour looking for and driving around town to find our motel only to realize that we had been only about two blocks away from it when we had started our search.  We had to laugh at ourselves!  We checked in at our motel then went out looking for a good place to eat.  Ended up at "The Mill" restaurant.  Good food but noisy atmosphere.  Then back to the motel for popcorn and Pepsi over conversation.
Saturday morning business meeting. Steve and I started out business meeting at 8:00 on Saturday morning.  We made good time and I was really glad for his input.  We broke for a brunch at 10:30 which we ate at the local IHOP.  From there we drove up to Winchester so the ladies and children could window shop while we finished out meeting.  Carolina Sue went to sleep in her car seat on the way up there so Steve and I just stayed with her in the van and had our meeting there.  We wound things up soon after 2:00 and spent just a little time with the others in the mall.  Then we said our goodbyes and we headed back to Harrisonburg.  We got there around 4:00 and had enough time for a short nap before a big pizza supper/get together at Uncle Lee's in honor of Julia's birthday.  We had a delicious supper with special mention going to a Thai pasta dish that Aunt Mary brought.  I'll have to get her recipe. 

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