Pella Love: Proximity

proximity, n., The state, quality, sense, or fact of being near or next; closeness

 

One of the things that we love about Pella, and especially about where we live, is how close we are to things.  In this post I'll attempt to tell you just how close we are to a variety of places and things in town...

 

Within a block:

- The Royal Amsterdam Hotel

- Monarch's Restaurant

- The Molengracht

- The Hospice Comfort House

- A couple of churches

 

Within two blocks:

- A multitude of businesses, including our insurance agent, chiropractor, and a nail salon

- The Windmill and Historic Village

- The Library

- The Police Station

- Our church

- A ball field

- A theater

- More restaurants

 

Within three blocks:

- Many more businesses, including Smokey Row

 

And... the list goes on... after that, we have Central Park, the bakery, parks, daycare, the post office, our bank...

 

All within walking distance.

 

Adam walks to work every day; sometimes he bikes.  About the only time he drives is when it is raining.  Pella Corp is within a mile for him.

 

The hospital where I gave birth to my two children... seven blocks.  The clinic?  Eight.  A college?  Six blocks.  Grocery stores and Wal-Mart within two miles...

 

It's hard to deny that we live in a really great location.  (You hear that, house buyers?  Buy our house!)  We realize that moving to a bigger city means things are further and further away.  We have always remarked on our fortune in regards to our location, and hopefully we will find that we did not take it for granted.  And, maybe... just maybe, we'll find something else just as great.  :)

 

erin

Christmas Program

Tonight was our annual Christmas program at church for the 3-and-4-year-old through 2nd grade classes in Sunday School (known here as Discovery Time).  Wouldn't you know, Julia is OLD ENOUGH now to be in the class (she has been in the class since September) and was in the Christmas program this year.

 

Our program was titled "A Bunch of Gifts", and the kids sang about seven songs interspersed with narration and acting of the 2nd graders.  It was a lot of fun!

 

I was very proud of Julia... we started out Sunday School rough this year... she didn't want to go/stay in class... but she has blossomed and did beautifully during both practices, and also did great tonight!  YAY!  (Extra big surprise as mommy was involved this year too and I was sure she would want to come down and be by me... guess my girlie is growing up!)

 

Hopefully you can find Julia in the group shot... then I tried to get a close of up her during "Jingle for Joy"... then a shot of Julia with her pal Lucas, and then a few shots of the girls at home tonight.  Hard to believe Christmas is only 13 days away... and it was so fun to dress the girls up (well, Adam got to do THAT part) for the program tonight.  (I enjoyed SEEING them dressed up!)

 

erin

More Reading

Have you figured out it is picture night? 

 

The girls enjoyed hanging out Thursday morning and reading books together on the little couch... I had dressed them both in the "rooster" (owl) jammies... I had bought these jammies last Christmas but of course Raven was too tiny... Julia was wearing Raven's jammies last Christmas and now Julia fits in the bigger size and Raven fits in the smaller.  Fun!

Books

Raven finally loves books.  She wants to read books all the time now.  It is so fabulous!  She even enjoys looking at them by herself.  My guess is that we weren't diligent enough to read to her when she was younger like we did with Julia... *whine whine* two kids is harder than one.  Ha.  But she's really into it now and it is a joy to behold!

Daredevil

I have been a post slacker the last few days... I have been much busier the last couple of weeks than I would have guessed, and the news of Siebel combined with a few other things have left me less time than I would have expected.  But, here's hoping things settle out a bit?  How many times have I said that over the last... years?

As mentioned in a previous post, Raven can go up AND down the stairs now, and she likes to do it BY HERSELF.  Here is a picture of a regular occurrence in our house... Raven standing at the top of the basement stairs, readying to come down... yes, my heart often leaps into my throat.  Heh.

Coincidence

I'm pooped tonight so this will be a short post.

 

How coincidental...

 

Exactly 52 weeks ago last night, Julia had a 105.5 fever and I took her to the emergency room because I could not get it to go down.  (Mainly because I could not get my child to take any medicine... completely listless one second, but shove that dropper in her mouth and she was a writhing fool.)  She ended up staying home with Daddy the next day so that I could go to my Donatech Holiday Lunch.  According to Adam, she was fine by about 9:30 AM that morning and bouncing off the walls the rest of the day.  We also ended missing going to Springfield, IL, to meet up with my friend Wanda because I didn't know if Julia had the Llama Flu or not or what the deal was.

 

Around 11:30 pm last night, I heard irregular breathing through the baby monitor, and I found Julia struggling to breathe regularly (she was breathing, but it was obviously labored) and pretty much she freaked me out.  I took her temperature and it was something like 103.5.  I asked her if she would take some medicine for Mommy, and she said yes.  (!!!)  I gave her some Tylenol and brought her to my bed so I could keep an eye on her for the night.  Thankfully she was feeling much better this morning, but since she had a slight fever this morning, we stayed home.  This year I did miss my holiday party (oh, well).  And, sure enough, by 9:00 am, her fever was gone.  She has been doing great the rest of the day!

 

Thanks to Wanda for reminding me it was exactly a year ago last night... heh.

 

erin

Back to School

Okay, okay.  There was a really, really, really good reason for me missing my second blog post yesterday that I promised.

 

See, right around 10:30 am, Adam received a phone call from Siebel Institute of Technology.  And, that created a bit of a vortex in my brain for the remainder of the day.  Maybe a black hole.  I'm not brushed up on my theoretical physics.

 

Back story... when Adam separated from Pella Corp, we discussed whether he should sign up for the WBA International Diploma Program (a 12-week brewing technology course) through Siebel since he'd be without a job... perfect time to go back to school, right?  However, when he contacted Siebel for the readiness assessment, he was told that he could certainly apply for the waiting list, however, typically people did not get into the class once they were on the waiting list.

So to receive the phone call but no know why... it was a test in patience yesterday.  Early afternoon, Adam finally made contact with Siebel and found that a spot had opened and that he was accepted into the program.  (Hence, my "black hole"... I was vacillating between being excited for Adam and having panic attacks... ha!)

 

Suddenly yesterday became a whirlwind of "can we still make this work?", "do I still want to do this?", and "why wouldn't he do this?"  After much discussion, Adam responded that he would take the spot.

 

The WBA IDP program begins February 7 and runs through April 29, 2011.  For the first seven weeks of the program, Adam will be taking brewing and brewing technology classes in Chicago.  From there, he will fly to Munich, GERMANY, and spend five weeks in Munich taking classes and touring Europe.

 

We are both very excited for him for this opportunity, of course, but as with anything big like this, there is much to take care of.  For instance, Adam will be gone for 12 weeks, but out of the country for 5 of those weeks.  We have discussed how often we can visit each other while we he is in Chicago, and have also discussed Skype-ing so that he is able to see me and his two beautiful girls.  We are also responsible for his lodging and food expenses while he is in both Chicago and Munich, so there are a number of "pre" things that need to be taken care of in the next two months.  And, beyond that, I will need to learn how to be a "single parent" while also trying to work as many hours as are available to me so that I'm able to support our family.

 

I would ask that you be excited for Adam... this is truly one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities for him and I'm so glad that he'll be able to do this.  I also would ask that you pray for our family... so that we can stay a cohesive unit even though we will be missing our hub, and pray for me and the girls so that we are able to survive the 12 weeks together without Adam.

Yesterday

I completely forgot a post yesterday.  It was intentional.  I worked on our Christmas letter yesterday, and in doing so, I somehow had convinced my brain that I had written a blog post... especially since my blog address is at the top of the letter!  Whoops!

So a note on Christmas cards... ours obviously aren't out yet... but hardly any one's are!  It is December 8th and we have yet to receive a Christmas card from anyone we know.  (We have received Christmas cards from Adam's chiropractor and our Sunday paper carrier.)  I am a little surprised... I mean, I can't say much, as mine aren't out yet, but it is for good reason (I wanted to order them AFTER our family pictures, which were November 26th, and hopefully the cards will be here this week yet.)  How about you?  Have you received a bunch or does it seem that Christmas card sending is less and less of a priority for people?  Or, maybe we aren't on people's lists this year... hmm.  Food for thought.

I love a good Christmas card.  There are some I absolutely look forward to receiving every year... it's a little added spice to our holiday season.  I also love sending them, and I seem to send more and more each year, but it's a fun and endearing way to let people know what has happened in our lives.  I recently heard of a great tradition from a good friend of mine that I hope to start carrying out... ever since her children were small, she has placed a letter and photo in an album, and the kids are able to look back and see pictures of their family as it has grown over the years, and also reread the letter about what they've done that year.  What a great idea!

 

Do you have any Christmas card traditions?  I hope you all are having a beautiful holiday season!

love,

erin

 

ps.  I'll be back with another "make-up" post later!

Tradition

The famous Schroeder and Rischette family COUCH PICTURES!!!  This year, instead of all of the cousins, we had Grandma and (for the first time together ever) ALL of her GREAT-grandchildren!  And, the Rischette side picture... all the cousins.  Love you all!

erin

Happy Girl

Have you seen a happier girl?

We went to Wisconsin... "home"... for a long Thanksgiving the 20th through 28th of November.  We were excited to spend time with both my and Adam's family while we were there. 

 

The first day we arrived we spent with my parents, sister, and nieces.  What a great time it was!  We had seen Laila and Hannah in September, but it was fun to have the whole family together.

 

We had "Christmas" for the girls as we knew we wouldn't be coming back to Wisconsin at Christmas.  Above is the gift Julia received from her cousins... she was so excited.  Ariel has been loved pretty well over the last two weeks, and she is already missing a shoe and needs a good hair combing.  But, it is glorious fun to see Julia love on her doll so much.  The girl loves her dollies. 

 

erin

(I need to go to bed.  Heh.)