I stumbled across this Youtube video of Kseniya Simonova, an artist who just won Ukraine’s version of “America’s Got Talent.” She uses a giant light box, dramatic music, imagination and sand painting to interpret Germany’s invasion and occupation of Ukraine during World War II. I just thought you history and art buffs in the family would appreciate this.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Sunday, September 6, 2009
S.D. State Fair Part 1
We spent all day Saturday at the state fair (which just so happens to be in our home town). We were exhausted by the end of the day but it was fun. This is the sign that makes us smile. Huronites are just sure they are Midwesterners but the cowboy boots, bolo ties, cowboy hats, ranches and SIGNS tell us differently.
We went on a wine tasting date at the fair. We got to taste SD wines and lots of tasty cheeses and meat cuts. There was pumpkin wine, raspberry honeywine, blueberry wine, and many more. 
The Horticulture building was one of my favorite places to visit.
These interesting flowers are called Red Velvet Cockscomb.
I really liked the colors in these flowers:
Check out this blue ribbon red cabbage.
This fair entry was listed under the category "Unusual shape vegetable". I should say so. 
We went back to the fair on Sunday evening as volunteers with First Pres. We ushered at a concert featuring The Grassroots and The Guess Who. We were among the youngest attenders. It was mostly people in their 40's and beyond rocking out to their old favorites. More pictures to come.
We went on a wine tasting date at the fair. We got to taste SD wines and lots of tasty cheeses and meat cuts. There was pumpkin wine, raspberry honeywine, blueberry wine, and many more. 
The Horticulture building was one of my favorite places to visit.
These interesting flowers are called Red Velvet Cockscomb.
I really liked the colors in these flowers:
Check out this blue ribbon red cabbage.
This fair entry was listed under the category "Unusual shape vegetable". I should say so. 
We went back to the fair on Sunday evening as volunteers with First Pres. We ushered at a concert featuring The Grassroots and The Guess Who. We were among the youngest attenders. It was mostly people in their 40's and beyond rocking out to their old favorites. More pictures to come.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Big News
This is the house we bid on and the bid has been accepted! We are so excited. Sorry it isn't a bigger picture but this is the biggest picture I could find of it left on the internet. (It is low resolution, the house doesn't really have those black lines!) The Realtor took off most of the photos as soon as the bid was accepted. We are waiting for the inspection now. We are very excited. It is 3 bedroom and 3 bath (1 full, 1 half, 1 3/4). It is more than we need at the moment but we are excited we can have people over from church and the community and our families! And hopefully we will have our own family eventually as well! The basement is finished. It is about half the length of the house. It comes with all the appliances. As long as the inspection goes well this will be our place. God has really blessed us with houseing over the last year and 3 months.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Some of my food creations
Now that we are semi-settled I have happily gotten back to trying new and varied foods. I made a chicken dish that I topped with some of my apple jelly. We have an abundance since I canned my own jelly last fall. It turned out quite tasty. I just put 1-2 Tbsp. apple jelly, sprinkled cinnamon and oregano, and chopped up some red onions for the top. I baked it at 375 for 25 minutes (I think). 
I have also been making homemade pizzas lately. This one is topped with green peppers, red onions, cheese and chopped up "Big Franks". You Crandall's should know about big franks. We have been carting around rusted cans of veggie big franks thanks to Jan Crandall. I was getting tired of packing them on every move (3 so far) so I am using them in just about anything to get through them. :) 
I have also been making homemade pizzas lately. This one is topped with green peppers, red onions, cheese and chopped up "Big Franks". You Crandall's should know about big franks. We have been carting around rusted cans of veggie big franks thanks to Jan Crandall. I was getting tired of packing them on every move (3 so far) so I am using them in just about anything to get through them. :) 
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Power Out
We have had an adventure this weekend. Andrew was running the vacuum and it blew out our fuse. We thought, "oh this isn't too bad, we will just buy a new one". Well, we did buy a new one but the old one won't come out and now is broken and stuck. Luckily our fridge is the only thing working so we didn't lose the food. It has been interesting to take showers with flashlights and figure out how to survive the 90 degree day. Today was a lot cooler so that was nice. Hopefully we can get it fixed tomorrow! I am anxious to be able to have the lights and air conditioning working simultaneously with the fridge! :)
Friday, August 14, 2009
Lucy's Adventures
Okay, the first part isn't about Lucy but I wanted to share it anyway. i love baking and haven't had much of a chance to do it at all recently. I decided I wanted to make a lemon cake. It doesn't look as fun as I'd hoped but it still tasted good! It was just one layer high but I cut that layer in half and filled it so that it tastes like a 2-layer without having too much cake. I shaved chocolate on the top. I guess this was our "welcome to our new home" cake. 
The one having the hardest time getting used to our tiny apartment is Lucy. Do you see her in this picture? She jumped from the floor to the top of this tall bookshelf. I had no idea until I saw her start chomping away at my wedding bouquet.
Here is a picture of her true destructive bored nature :) After the photo I promptly shewed her down with a water bottle. I thought it was funny how she turned her head and only chewed on the fake green parts.
I found out that she loves playing in paper sacks so we keep one around for her to help keep her occupied.
And then she discovered her friend the pigeon. See it's head on the left side of the window peeking in? They kept peeking in at each other for quite some time.
Then they got a little closer. The pigeon fascination helps keep her a little busier. The pigeon kept tapping on the window at her. I thought it was funny. It doesn't seem to be scared of her. We also think it is funny that her ear tilts towards whatever she is interested in at the time.
This week there has not been tons of action. Andrew has been working a lot. (Most of the meetings with lay leaders have to be in the evening when they aren't working) Between days in the office and evenings at VBS and meetings he isn't around much. I went along to VBS the other night so that we could see each other and I could meet some people from the community because our VBS is a tri-church effort. Yesterday a nice lady named Bev, from the church, interviewed us for the church newsletter and than she took me out to see a little more of the area. We stopped off at Ravine Park Lake and walked a little and I got a camel apple ice cream cone. It has a nice little sandy beach that kids can swim in and you can rent paddle boats and go miniature golfing. It seems like a nice place for families in the summer. Bev also took me to see the "mall" here. She said most people were probably too embarrassed of it to show me so that is why i hadn't seen it. It has a K-Mart and 2 other tiny stores but everything else has closed so it is pretty deserted. It looks like it would be a nice place to walk in the winter or when it is hot out though because they keep it a nice temperature and it is obviously not crowded. Well, I think that is all for now.
The one having the hardest time getting used to our tiny apartment is Lucy. Do you see her in this picture? She jumped from the floor to the top of this tall bookshelf. I had no idea until I saw her start chomping away at my wedding bouquet.
Here is a picture of her true destructive bored nature :) After the photo I promptly shewed her down with a water bottle. I thought it was funny how she turned her head and only chewed on the fake green parts.
I found out that she loves playing in paper sacks so we keep one around for her to help keep her occupied.
And then she discovered her friend the pigeon. See it's head on the left side of the window peeking in? They kept peeking in at each other for quite some time.
Then they got a little closer. The pigeon fascination helps keep her a little busier. The pigeon kept tapping on the window at her. I thought it was funny. It doesn't seem to be scared of her. We also think it is funny that her ear tilts towards whatever she is interested in at the time.
This week there has not been tons of action. Andrew has been working a lot. (Most of the meetings with lay leaders have to be in the evening when they aren't working) Between days in the office and evenings at VBS and meetings he isn't around much. I went along to VBS the other night so that we could see each other and I could meet some people from the community because our VBS is a tri-church effort. Yesterday a nice lady named Bev, from the church, interviewed us for the church newsletter and than she took me out to see a little more of the area. We stopped off at Ravine Park Lake and walked a little and I got a camel apple ice cream cone. It has a nice little sandy beach that kids can swim in and you can rent paddle boats and go miniature golfing. It seems like a nice place for families in the summer. Bev also took me to see the "mall" here. She said most people were probably too embarrassed of it to show me so that is why i hadn't seen it. It has a K-Mart and 2 other tiny stores but everything else has closed so it is pretty deserted. It looks like it would be a nice place to walk in the winter or when it is hot out though because they keep it a nice temperature and it is obviously not crowded. Well, I think that is all for now.
Monday, August 10, 2009
Moving Process
I apartment looks a little better than this now (since most of the boxes are gone) but I thought I would share a little of the chaos of the last week. Here is a shot of our kitchen/dining area full of boxes. We don't own a table small enough to fit here so it is not the dining room. We do however have a dishwasher which is a Godsend since we have a small single sink and very little counter space. When the dish washer is running the hot water for our apartment (and I think our building ) does not work because we have very little hot pressure. I have to choose times when I think other apartment dwellers are out of the building to do laundry and do the dishes. 
This is our living room/bedroom. We are glad for the futon which helps transform the space to a usable living room during the day. I will have to admit i don't sleep to well on it but this too shall pass. :) The air conditioner (which I can't reach) up on the left hand corner is very helpful in blocking the street noise as we live downtown. I appreciate the big window plus the other 2 windows in the living room because they are keeping my plants alive so far and make the place much cheerier. the precious tenant left 2 bookshelves (score 2 for Andrew! :) and an entertainment center so we have a place for our books and little t.v. :) We also moved in our other 3 bookshelves so there are bookshelves almost lining the walls. I think it is a dream come true for Andrew, being surrounded in books :). I use 2 of the shelves for pantry/appliances which really helps since there are very few cupboards. 
This is a pile of paper I unpacked from about 1/3 of our boxes. It almost reaches the ceiling! I know that the movers did not want to break anything but this is a little over kill! 
Especially when I went to unpack this box and found that every single one of my spices was packed INDIVIDUALLY! No wonder it took the movers about 11 1/2 hours!!! (I was trying to figure out how they could ever move a family of 4+ in a day if it took this long for a family of 2!) not to mention we had about 1/2 the stuff packed already for them!
I think Lucy was the only one that loved all the paper :) 
I am happy to report that our temporary home is just about in a state of normalcy. Almost all the boxes are out and the paper is all gone. I have to still decide exactly how I want things to be set up but it is very livable now. I will hopefully post some pictures of our apartment in a clean state soon. I have to come to the library to post things now so it will take a little longer than it used to. Hope you all are doing well!
This is our living room/bedroom. We are glad for the futon which helps transform the space to a usable living room during the day. I will have to admit i don't sleep to well on it but this too shall pass. :) The air conditioner (which I can't reach) up on the left hand corner is very helpful in blocking the street noise as we live downtown. I appreciate the big window plus the other 2 windows in the living room because they are keeping my plants alive so far and make the place much cheerier. the precious tenant left 2 bookshelves (score 2 for Andrew! :) and an entertainment center so we have a place for our books and little t.v. :) We also moved in our other 3 bookshelves so there are bookshelves almost lining the walls. I think it is a dream come true for Andrew, being surrounded in books :). I use 2 of the shelves for pantry/appliances which really helps since there are very few cupboards. This is a pile of paper I unpacked from about 1/3 of our boxes. It almost reaches the ceiling! I know that the movers did not want to break anything but this is a little over kill! 
Especially when I went to unpack this box and found that every single one of my spices was packed INDIVIDUALLY! No wonder it took the movers about 11 1/2 hours!!! (I was trying to figure out how they could ever move a family of 4+ in a day if it took this long for a family of 2!) not to mention we had about 1/2 the stuff packed already for them!I think Lucy was the only one that loved all the paper :) 
I am happy to report that our temporary home is just about in a state of normalcy. Almost all the boxes are out and the paper is all gone. I have to still decide exactly how I want things to be set up but it is very livable now. I will hopefully post some pictures of our apartment in a clean state soon. I have to come to the library to post things now so it will take a little longer than it used to. Hope you all are doing well!
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