Tuesday, October 7, 2008

More than a century

Can you imagine turning 101 years old? Well, Nana (Larry's grandmother) is today.


Happy Birthday Nana!

Maria and Joshua had a blast making pictures for Nana. They soon figured out painting themselves was just as fun as the paper, and Joshua enjoyed tasting the paint, don't worry it was non-toxic!
Joshua enjoyed the Chinese food!
We were able to celebrate with her on Saturday in Carmel. She is her normal self with a few bumps and bruises, due to a fall last week, that has her in the nursing care side of the housing she lives in for at least a couple more days. It is wonderful to be able to allow Maria to get to know her, and make some fun memories with her.

We have plenty to praise God for; a healthy 101 year old Nana.

Think about what the world was like 101 years ago?

  • The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.
  • Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.
  • Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
  • A three minute call from Denver to New York cost eleven dollars.
  • There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles of paved roads.
  • The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
  • Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa and Tennessee were each more populated than California.
  • With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the union.
  • The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower.
  • The average wage in the U.S. was .22 cents per hour.
  • The average U.S. worker made between $200. and $400. per year.
  • A competent accountant could expect to earn $2,000. per year, a dentist, $2,500 per year, a Veterinarian between $1,500. and $4,000. per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000. per year.
  • More than 95 percent of all births took place at home.
  • Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had no college education, instead they attended a so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and by the government as "substandard."
  • Sugar cost four cents a pound.
  • Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
  • Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
  • Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
  • Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
  • Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were
  1. Pneumonia
  2. Tuberculosis
  3. Diarrhea
  4. Heart Disease
  5. Stroke
  • The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii and Alaska hadn't been admitted to the union yet.
  • The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was only 30!
  • Crossword puzzles, canned beer and ice tea had not been invented yet.
  • There was no Mother's or Father's day.
  • Two out of every ten adults could not read or write.
  • Only six percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
  • Marijuana, heroin and morphine were all available over the counter at local corner drugstores.
  • Back then the pharmacist said, "Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind and regulated the stomach and bowels and is, in fact a perfect guardian to health."
  • Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least one full time servant or domestic help.
  • There were about 230 reported murders in the entire U.S

Ah, the good old days!

Monday, October 6, 2008

Belated Birthday Wishes

Michele(6) and me (7 mo.)
Ryan(3 days old) and me (10) (our dog Patches looks on)

Well, I did get a phone call to my sister and brother on their respective birthdays, Saturday and Sunday, but wanted to post a flashback photo of them to celebrate their special days. They are great siblings and I am blessed to have both of them. Oh, and even though their birthdays are just a day apart they are 15 years apart!


We have plenty to praise God for; siblings.

fun mail


I am sure you enjoy getting most mail about as much as I do, but when you get this iPod in the mail, what's not fun about that! Especially when you get it free from a contest you entered on the Cars For Girls website. Can't beat that.

We have plenty to praise God for; free stuff!

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

for the birds

Yep, I was at it again last night...and after sewing the bottom brown stripe on wrong, and pinning the sleeves on wrong, I called it a night. So I finished the dress while Maria napped today and she models it for you. So my two retired shirts became this dress. Now I need to focus on some summer wear for next year. I realized she doesn't have much in 2T warm weather...so my project list just grew.

She decided she wanted to sit down to pose.


This is a close-up of the felt bird I stitched on to the front to give it a bit of character.


We have plenty to praise God for; naptime to get things done!

Monday, September 29, 2008

So you really think you can dance?

We think we have found their next competitor.

We have plenty to praise God for; our energetic daughter.

Thursday, September 25, 2008

artsy fartsy

That's what my sister says I am...well, I guess I would have to plead guilty. Last night I decided to try out a tutorial for swiffer duster covers that I had bookmarked. You make them out of microfiber cloths, and then you can rewash them instead of buying the disposable ones. Then this morning I decided to change a too small t-shirt of mine into a dress for Maria. I was pretty happy with the results. I have a whole pile of things I am going to try to reconstruct.

We have plenty to praise God for; talents He blesses us with.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

On Location

My sister and her husband were in Jamaica for the last week, for his son's wedding. So I was on location in Greencastle to watch my nephew, Trey. He is in school so he needed to be there at home. It was a nice getaway for me. The front porch view from the swing...ah, the life!
Maria just adored Trey and had a great time playing with him. Trey gave Maria a ride on the big wheel...she did like it despite her rather bored look.
Trey at football...he is the kid to the right of the coach. Saturday morning we got up pretty early to take Trey to his football game. This is the first year he has been able to tackle. The team lost, but he did have a hand in tackling a guy.
Maria liked the look of Trey's cowboy hat...I even taught her to say YeeHaw!

Maria decided to give Trey a wagon ride...he had already given her one. Slave labor, that's what we decided it was.
We have plenty to praise God for; fun times with cousins!

Friday, September 19, 2008

Destination: Camping

Maria and Joshua chatting by the cooler!
Maria helping Joshua put on a hat...even if he doesn't really want it.
Aunt Emily and cousin Joshua on the teeter-totter.
Maria "helping" fold up the tarp.

Uncle Justin and cousin Joshua on the beach.
Grandma Saunders and Maria
Dunes
Larry, Jessica and Maria
Story Hour with Aunt Emily

Part of the washed away beachEmily with Joshua and Larry with Maria
More Dunes
The parking lot-well, what used to be the parking lot

Lake Michigan- look closely and you can see Chicago across the way.

Maria and Joshua had a ball playing with the cooler, especially the handles.


We took off after church on Sunday to head up to NW Indiana to the Indiana Dunes State Park...unfortunately we encountered a bit of flooding near Valparaiso, so after a couple of detours, we made it. Check out Jen's post with some local pictures and here is her link to pictures of the flooding in Munster area. I even heard about the Munster, Indiana flooding on The Weather Channel yesterday. To make things even crazier one of the parking lots of the State Park, the one by the bathhouse, collapsed due to high water from the Dunes Creek. We met up with Larry's parents, and sister, brother-in-law and nephew. Luckily the rain had mostly stopped. It did sprinkle a few showers on us during the night, but daytime was pretty nice and clear....albeit a bit cold, but we packed many layers for all.

Unfortunately we also dealt with our share of sickness. Maria and I were, and still are getting over a cold we got from a lovely sharing mom and child at the library story hour, gotta love that! To top off the cold, Maria and Larry both caught the flu bug that our nephew had been dealing with recently. So, it made for a long, interesting, messy night in the tent, and one episode on the ride home....needless to say the car seat cover hit the washer soon after we made it home. I thought she was pretty much done with it, but yesterday, the sicko bug made it appearance, ah, parenthood, poop and puke, who knew it would be so glamorous.

We enjoyed campfires, hikes, s'mores, pudgie pies(for all those ex-Girl Scouts who know what those are), and sand...it was everywhere, hence the dunes name! This was our first official family camping trip, and Maria did really well. We broke in our new tent, sleeping mats, and my sleeping bag, all courtesy of Larry's parents, two Christmas's ago.

We have plenty to praise God for; the rains let up and we were able to enjoy some great quality family time.

Saturday, September 13, 2008

like it?

and it wasn't even on purpose...it just happened to look like that after washing her hair!

We have plenty to praise God for; fun bathtimes!

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Road Trip and a birthday shout out!

Katie the first summer I watched her...about 10 years ago!
Katie, Maria and I last summer-2007
One of my best friends, Mindy, always tries to take a road trip to visit at least once a year. She used to bring my little "sister" Katie, whose birthday is today by the way, Happy Birthday Katie, 17! I can't believe it. But since Katie is in school she couldn't come.

Mindy with Zane, Laura and I...Maria was taking the picture ;) I mean napping!


Laura and I then-2001

Anyway, this time Mindy brought Laura, who is her niece now, by marriage. But Mindy and I knew her back when she was just a girl we knew from the Harlan Christian Youth Center, where we volunteered and spent practically all our lives, until we met boys, and then had babies! So, it was good to see them both. Laura is getting married in a month, and I just kept thinking about the shy girl who hardly talked at all when I would give her and her sisters rides to the center...she's getting married, yippee for her, Richard is one lucky guy.


Some of these pictures are my attempt at showing you pre-digital stuff, by taking a digital pic of a photo...sorry it's not the best quality.


We have plenty to praise God for; a best friend that makes road trips to see her lonely friend and brings along babies and other friends.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Boiler Up!

Bistro 501
This weekend we were able to get away and go on an actual date, which hasn't happened in a while, due to moving, etc. We went to Lafayette, so Maria could stay with grandparents while we went out. We ate at Bistro 501, it was excellent. It is a French cuisine restaurant. We both had a fish dish, mine was so wonderful...Pecan Crusted Trout, yummy. It had a great sauce on it that made it almost taste like dessert! Larry had the Halibut special, which he enjoyed. After dinner we just walked around downtown; since the weather was so nice, had a sweet treat at a chocolate shop, and then headed home. We should have taken a picture since it has been so long since we went out, but oops, too late.
We were also in Lafayette because on Saturday we met up with some friends and went to the Purdue/N. Colorado game. It was a sunny day, and we got a bit too much sun, but otherwise we had fun. These were friends from the church back in Fort Wayne that Larry served at. We were in a small group Bible study with them. Three couples came, although on of the husbands was a wee bit busy during the game being one of the officials for the game, (that's how we all got the free tickets!..Thanks Brian!). We enjoyed seeing them and catching up on their lives.

look closely, our friend is the referee with the striped shirt on, ;) No seriously he has on a black hat and he is in the center of the picture.

We have plenty to praise God for; good friends who still keep in touch after three years being gone.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

same blog time, same blog channel

Yep, you are still at the same blog channel...just fine tuned a bit...I got tired of looking at the pink, maybe you did too!!

We have plenty to praise God for; free pictures for the blog.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Happy Blogging Anniversary

Yep, it's been a year that you have been thrilled and delighted by the everyday chronicles of the Saunders family...I know you just can't imagine how you ever survived without it! Hey leave us a comment to know you are out there, we are curious who checks in with whats going on here. Just click on comments and if you don't have an account just post as anonymous and tell us who you are in the comment.

Hope the next year is just as thrilling!

We have plenty to praise God for; faithful friends(suckers) who read about our ohsoexciting lives!

Monday, September 1, 2008

Thomas in real life








It's not really Larry's birthday yet (not till the 14th), but we wanted to take him on a special trip and today was the day. In North Judson, Indiana there is the Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum where you can take a trip on a train and tour some trains they have there. Since Larry has always been fascinated by trains and had a model set as a kid we thought this would be a great present. Maria liked the ride, but was a little unsure of the whistle, but we did teach her to say "choo, choo". Don't you like her engineer overalls, she fit right in.



We have plenty to praise God for; another birthday to celebrate for mi querido.