Wednesday, June 30, 2010

A Small Portion of John Quincy Adams' Address

An 
Oration 
Delivered 
Before the Inhabitants 
of 
the Town of Newburyport, 
at their request, 
on 
the Sixty-First Anniversary 
of 
the Declaration of Independence, 
July 4th, 1837.
By John Quincy Adams.

. . . . . . . Are you then assembled here, my brethren, children of those who declared your National Independence, in sorrow or in joy? In gratitude for blessings enjoyed, or in affliction for blessings lost? In exultation at the energies of your fathers, or in shame and confusion of face at your own degeneracy from their virtues?
Forgive the apparent rudeness of these enquiries: – they are not addressed to you under the influence of a doubt what your answer to them will be. You are not here to unite in echoes of mutual gratulation for the separation of your forefathers from their kindred freemen of the British Islands. You are not here even to commemorate the mere accidental incident, that, in the annual revolution of the earth in her orbit round the sun, this was the birthday of the Nation. 

 You are here, to pause a moment and take breath, in the ceaseless and rapid race of time; – to look back and forward; – to take your point of departure from the ever memorable transactions of the day of which this is the anniversary, and while offering your tribute of thanksgiving to the Creator of all worlds, for the bounties of his Providence lavished upon your fathers and upon you, by the dispensations of that day, and while recording with filial piety upon your memories, the grateful affections of your hearts to the good name, the sufferings, and the services of that age, to turn your final reflections inward upon yourselves, and to say: – These are the glories of a generation past away, – what are the duties which they devolve upon us?


Saturday, June 26, 2010

We've got it bad!


After the convention we had company!  Our long time friends the Kanes came all the way in from PA to attend the convention.  They ALL came.  Sherry & Barry and Evan.  Natalie and her fiance' Chad and Aliza & Jeff and their girlies!  IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!


We've got it bad though.  This is the ONLY picture I took of all of us!  All the rest are the little girls!  Yikes!  Sorry Kanes.  (They didn't get pictures of all of us either.  giggle  We were all having way too much fun being Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, and parents.)  



Here are the little girls.  Celene 3, Alaina 1, and Shelby 2.  Our house was a busy place.  I couldn't believe how well they got along.  And they haven't even been to preschool.  Their parents are just working on obedience and character building!

Gretchen and Aliza you two are fabulous moms. I am so proud of you.  Keep up the good work.



We decided to get some pictures outside.  I thought you'd get a kick out of this sequence.  Aren't they darling? 








 Ahhh well . . . .

I have a few more pix to put up still.  "grin"




Thursday, June 24, 2010

Look At This!

Warning! 

This is a proud Grandma post.   
Do not read further if this kind of thing turns your stomach. 

Look at your own risk.
  
Complaints in the comments are not accepted.  




Look at what Alaina learned to do last time she visited!




YUM!




Sometimes you just gotta use your fingers. 
What a big girl!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Ryan Bruce

Please be praying for our friend Ryan Bruce and his family.  May 22, 2010, 3 pm Ryan (21) was in a serious car crash - a head-on collision.  He was just a few minutes away from home.  His injuries were severe and extensive especially to his head. 

Here's a picture of Ryan and his sister and Mom when they visited a couple of summers ago. 

Please join us as we pray for Ryan.  To find out more and to keep up with their prayer needs go here.

Thank you !

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

More Convention Pictures


Our Beloved Bentz Family.  We call them the "Can Do Team"!


Setting up the ICHE book table.






Elli the tour guide.  She took all the speakers around the building to orient them to everything.



Timothy Botts taught a class about scripture meditation using writing. 

Everyone in the class got to try different ideas and tools.  I wish I could have gone!


Here's George Washington Carver showing many of the products available from peanuts!

David D'Armond taught a hands on class building a DNA model.

We were blessed to have Donna Leland (home school mom) from Moody Radio join us. 

This year for the first time we had Young Entrepreneurs as vendors. . . . . . . .

We are hoping that many more sign up for next year. 






The convention is a team effort!  We team up with the Lord and He meets us there.  smile

Monday, June 21, 2010

Just a Little Update

I took this from Filmweavers' website.  



Progress on "The Penny"


It's been awhile since we last updated you all on "The Penny", so let me fill you in on all the latest... 

Just over a couple of weeks ago Jurgen completed the last bit of work on the original score for the film!  This is a huge accomplishment and marks the end of many hard months of work.  As the director I'm thrilled with what Jurgen's music has added to the film, and can't wait to share it with the rest of you.  Congratulations Jurgen!

With the scoring now complete, Nate is working to put the finishing touches on the sound mix.  From what I've heard so far the enhancements to the audio are really bringing the film even more to life.  Ethan is almost finished with the last few visual effects shots in the film and they're looking great.  Once those are finished Micah will be wrapping up his color grading and bring the project one step closer to completion!



Friday, June 18, 2010

Pizza Power

I discovered the most wonderful pizza tip.  Last weekend Andrew brought some fresh pizzas for dinner.  You pop them into the oven and take out  fresh hot pizza.  Well those pizzas came on parchment paper on top of the cardboard.  Instructions were to slip them into the oven right on the parchment.  They cooked beautifully. The crust was perfect and slightly crispy and there were NO pans to clean! 

Next time we had pizza I whipped out the parchment paper, put the pizza on it and put them directly onto the oven shelf.  The pizza turned out perfectly! 

Maybe the rest of you knew this already?!?  In case you didn't . . . . . . .enjoy easier pizza!

Pre Convention Fun!

Prior to the convention things were humming around here!  We had a wonderful visit with long time friends, the Holmes family.


Calista, Haley and Matthias in front.
Noelle, Erica and Camille middle.
Matthew back.

The kids had a blast together.  We've got to see them more often!  Haley especially was encouraged by their shared vision.

Of course you can't come to our house right before convention with out being roped into some kind of a convention related job. 


The girls are putting together favors for the speakers' dinner. 

They didn't have any trouble finding things to do AND they prepared most of the meals. 



Matthew was a wonderful older brother to his little shadow Matthias.  Smile.



Yep played lots of games.





 Mitch and Michelle
M&M were attending a conference in Chicago (Mitch is a Representative in the Kansas Legislature.) and came back to our place for the last night.   

How can they look absolutely the same as when they moved from here 11 years ago??? Seriously!




We had a wonderful visit.  Sure wish they  lived closer.  Guess we'll have to make a trip to Kansas sometime after tornado season!  "wink"