Christmas 08

Christmas 08

We had Christmas 3 times this year, like always. Christmas Eve was at Zeb's parents house, with the whole family there; being silly, having fun with each other, playing games. The pictures speak for themselves, but it is so nice to have everyone together! It wont be that way again for a long time.

Christmas day was at my parents house, and everyone was there for that too, which was crazy, chaotic, noisy, but fun. Baking Christmas cookies with the kids, opening gifts, letting the kids go play with their gifts while the adults have their time of gift exchanging. Stacey and Cody gave my parents a card with a cute little poem in it and ultrasound pictures of their child, my parents 7th grandchild. Took everyone by surprise!

Christmas at Gramma Burrows's house happened the following Saturday. All of my mom's siblings came for Christmas this year. The last time they were all together was at a family reunion in 04. One of my uncles lives in California, and another one lives in North Carolina. This year was a great year for Christmas because all the families were all together which doesnt happen all the time.

Chincoteague Beach

Chincoteague Beach 2008

Levi, Janessa, Zeb, and I went to Chincoteague in mid December for a few days. It was a nice getaway. Although the weather was a little chilly, it was nice to walk along the empty beach and look at the different wildlife and seashells. There were lots of jellyfish, and even a dead, half-eaten dolphin. We really enjoyed it, but then it was time to drive home. It is a 7 hour drive, which turned out to be more like 12 hours. We had just crossed over the border from Virgina into Maryland on the coast side, when the jeep broke down. We sat there for about an hour waiting for the tow truck, and the tow truck towed us all the way to Lancaster, PA. Levi and Janessa left their Jeep at a shop, and Janessa borrowed her parents van (they live in Lititz) and we drove home very slowly because we were having a snowstorm. What an unforgettable trip! :)

Summer

Summer

I did no traveling this summer, except to my sister's in Rochester NY, but I dont really consider that traveling. Summer consisted of kayaking, until about mid August when the creek got too low that we ended up walking and dragging the boats behind us most of the way. Motorcycling was probably my most favorite summer activity. I mostly rode my big bike (the Suzuki V-Strom 650). In fact I took it on a 3 hour trip to NY to visit my sister, Rachel. That was fun!

We had a Hale Family get together on July 4th, except that my parents were in Romania at the time. So us kids got together and had alot of food---too much food. So about mid August we had a belated July 4th picnic at Rachel's house, with the parents this time. The kids had fun playing on the swingset and in the pool. Stacey and I wanted to chicken fight so we chose Wilmer and Cody to be "on the bottom". We fought for quite a long time trying to knock or pull the other one over (Im not sure if that's because we are good or both really bad). Finally Wilmer and Cody got tired and dumped us off. Eventually some got out and layed out in the sun (Wilmer and Cody in their swim trunks and Stacey in her jeans and sweatshirt). Rachel, Emily, and I layed on the rafts in the pool. The sun felt really nice. Emily fell asleep and rolled off the raft. This was quite a rude awakening for her but pretty funny for us.

I had a great summer, considering Zeb not being home. We kept in contact through emails and phone calls. For awhile I could use my land line to call him using an 800 number. This was really nice because it was free for me and he didnt have to use a calling card. Finally he came home on October 28, 8 years to the day after our first date. Thanks for all your prayers.

San Francisco

San Francisco

The day after I came home from Florida, I met a friend of mine in Philadelphia, and she and I flew to San Francisco to sightsee. During our 3 hour layover in Chicago, we met an 87 year old man named Joseph B Scott. If anyone knows baseball from the 30's, you may know Mr. Scott. He played for the New York Black Yankees from 1936-1956. He talked to us for about 30-45 minutes until we had to go catch our plane. He told us stories of his childhood, teenage years, and playing against famous baseball players. I asked for his autograph and a picture with him. He readily agreed. He is a wonderful and friendly man, and in his words, "Noone is a stranger to him." This was an awesome experience, unfortunately cut too short.

We arrived in San Francisco at about 9 PM California time, which was about midnight for us. We were exhausted. After receiving our luggage, we went to the rental car booths to pick up the car we were supposed to have reserved, but they didnt have it. So we ended up with a 2008 Jeep Liberty. I loved it!!! Luckily Sarah had brought a GPS with us so our entire visit in San Francisco was stress free from trying to find our way around. I highly recommend having a GPS on vacation. Our hotel was 15-20 minutes from the airport.

The next day, after getting up late, we hit the beach. It was cold!!! I wore my jeans and sweatshirt the whole time. We didnt stay very long, because we had tickets for a Giants game. (That's baseball; for those of you who dont know) After the game (Giants lost), we drove around the city and looked at the crazy streets. Lots of them were so very steep it was just amazing! I'd never seen anything like it. We saw Chinatown and the Bay Bridge. We went across the Golden Gate bridge and couldnt see much because it was really foggy. The fog in San Francisco(SF) is strange. It will be really foggy in one area of the city and completely clear in another. We were in a cute little town called Sausalito, which is next to SF. There we watched the fog literally rolling down the mountain side and out across the bay. That was cool!

The next few days included driving part of the Pacific Coast Highway, seeing many lookouts and beaches. I remember this one beach that had a trail going down to it and the trail was so steep that there was a rope to hold on to and shimmy down the dirt path. The beaches on that part on California are small because the land juts out into the ocean and cuts off the beach. Then the land just drops off. There are many of these cliffs along the Pacific Coast Highway. Lombard St is known as the "crookedest street in the world". It is one way, steep and made of brick, and has 8 hairpin turns in the space of one block. It was really fun to drive on it--going 10 mph.

Muir Woods was on our list to see. The giant redwoods were....big! :) I think they speak for themselves. The trees you hear about where you can drive a car through it; those were not the ones we saw at Muir Woods. They're somewhere else. While driving around we happened upon Fort Barry; Battery Mendell, a war fort from around 1900. It was foggy and getting dark, so it was a little scary. But we went back during the day and explored it. In fact we found many other war forts that we explored. They were really cool to walk through and try to imagine it back in its prime. We wanted to see the lighthouse but it was closed. We at least got pictures of it. We drove the San Mateo Bridge which we first saw from the air as we were landing. It is 7 miles long and has a $4 toll.

Golden Gate Bridge was one of the biggest highlights for me on this trip. It was impressive and really pretty to see. Everyday we went across it, it was less foggy than the day before so we could see more of it. Then the last day we were there the sun was shining, blue skies, no clouds or fog. It was gorgeous! Needless to say we took many more pictures than necessary. Digital cameras are wonderful, arent they? Combined we came home with 1200 pictures; after going through them I now have about 850 (from our entire trip).

A few things I will always remember about San Francisco in general that I will pass on to anyone who goes... Its always very windy, so its kinda chilly, especially on the beach. The fog rolls in across the bay at times you would not expect (like morning) and it stays the rest of the day. It makes it hard to get good pictures. The landscapes are unusual, and impressive at the same time. There is so much to see; we didnt see nearly everything in the 5 days we were out there. We really wanted to see Alcatraz Island and tour the prison but it didnt work out this time. But needless to say, I really enjoyed this trip and seeing San Francisco. I recommend it to everyone!

Florida

Florida

May 12 I flew down to visit my friend Diana in Cape Coral, Florida, for 5 days. I was a nice time away. Beautiful weather. We relaxed at home and played with Zaiah. One day we went sailing. That is the first time I went on a sail boat and it was a blast. The salty ocean air blowing in my face and through my hair; The warm sun shining down; ahhhh it was glorious!

Home on Leave

Home on Leave

Zeb came home for 15 days in April. It was so nice to have him home, even if it was for a little while. We didn't do anything big, just hung out around home and spent time with family and friends. The pictures show some of the things we did... including of course buying another bike. I still have the smaller one, the Boulevard S40 to ride around all summer and get more comfortable. We bought me a VStrom 650 to match Zeb's bike. Zeb enjoyed some time with his friend, Jeremy, and Levi going night fishing for carp. Zeb snagged a turtle instead, but they had a great time. We went hiking with Levi and Janessa, and hung out with family. It was a really nice 15 days.

California

California

March 5th, I arrived in Los Angelos. My aunt picked me up at the airport. We walked along the beach for a ways and looked at the beach front shops. Then drove up to Malibu and looked around. I saw MacGuyver in person, but I didn't talk to him. I ate the best pulled pork sandwich I have ever tasted in my life! It had shredded cabbage in it! We decided to leave and drive to Temecula where my aunt and uncle live. We wanted to miss the rush hour traffic... We somehow ended up getting lost in LA, so with traffic (which we didn't miss) and getting lost, the one and half hour trip ended up being 4 hours.

The next day while my cousins were in school, my aunt and I ran errands around town, did some window shopping, stopped at a nursery and looked at pretty flowers. That evening we went out to a pottery shop and painted pottery. In the morning of the third day, my uncle took me on a 3 hour motorcycle ride. That was alot of fun. Obviously I couldn't ride in PA in the winter time, so it was great to ride on a bike again. That afternoon we tried to go to an amusement park but by the time we got there they were only open for another 2 hours and then closed to private parties after 6 pm. So we ended up going to a Dinner Theater instead, which was really cool. Saturday we went out to the desert to ride quads. We were driving along and had been in the desert for a good 30+ min already when my Uncle said we had another 20 miles to go!!! We got to where we were going to ride and got all set up and my Aunt, Jennifer, and I set off on the quads. My Uncle doesn't ride. We rode all morning. We could ride for hours and not cross the same path twice. The desert is huge! We rode over sand dunes and marked paths. It was so much fun. I just don't know how to explain it. We went to a place called the Playground. It has really tall and steep sand dunes. Here you can just ride wherever. I posted some pictures but the pictures don't really show how steep it is. People ride 4-wheelers, motorbikes, dune buggies, and even their own personal vehicles out here. We watched some guys jump their pick up truck. Sunday was a relaxing day. Early Monday morning, my Uncle took me to the airport. Left CA at 9 am, got to PA at 10:30 PM. I lost the whole day! But I really enjoyed my vacation. But as much fun as I had, I was nice to be home again.

Montana

Montana

March 1st I left PA after 2 hours of sleep and headed to Montana. My friend Michi picked me up from the airport and went out to dinner at a really good pizza place called MacKenzie River. Best restaurant in all of Montana. The landscape in Montana is so different than Pennsylvania with the Rocky Mountains and just the rock formations and rocky landscape around Billings. It was really neat to see, even though it was all brown in color due to winter. I would love to see it in the summer when there is color on the mountains. Even with my lack of sleep we still stayed up late. The next day we met up with a friend of hers, Nizhoni, and the three of us headed off to see Yellowstone National Park. After 3 hours of driving we entered Yellowstone. It was really neat to see the buffalo (I guess they call them bison, so forgive me if I say buffalo) It was so strange to have these massive creatures walking next to your car (larger than your car) We saw one running towards us and that was scary; we couldn't drive away because we were on ice and the tires were spinning. Luckily he kept on running right by us. They are sometimes inconsiderate because they will walk in the road and hog it and no cars can get around. We sat still and turned the car off for literally 10 min at least because the bison were in the road and we couldnt get around. Other times we would drive next to them as the walked and were no farther away from them then 3-4 feet. They just minded their own business. They were kinda cute. It was a neat experience. There was elk and wolves also. I posted pictures of them. We stayed the night in a hotel there. The next day, scoped out more of Yellowstone, but there was not much to see. There was only one road open through the north part of the Park. The rest of the roads and park was closed for the winter. We were bummed that we couldn't see Old Faithful. We'll have to go back sometime. We did get to see the hot springs though. We left Yellowstone and drove to Bozeman, MT; did some window shopping, played dress up in the stores. :) Found a cool restaurant called the Naked Noodle. Interesting place. It's not just a one culture place, they have food from all kinds of cuisines. It is all pasta though. We could make our own pasta dish. I got the 4 cheese macaroni and cheese, and added 2 more cheeses on top so it was overall 6 cheese macaroni and cheese. We then drove back to Billings. The three of us hung out and relaxed the next day and I left on Wednesday. On to California....

News

Overseas, Zeb is currently doing alright. He is safe. He has access to internet and phones, so whenever he has time, he calls or emails. He doesnt have any real news, so I guess that is good. On the homefront, I am keeping busy. Doing what? I have no idea but I am always on the go. I am going away for 10 days. Visiting a really good friend in Montana. She is on Spring Break. We will visit Yellowstone. Then I will go to southern California to see my Uncle and his family. We will ride 4 wheelers on the sand dunes and have all sorts of fun. They have plans for me that I dont even know about. It appeals to my mysterious and adventurous side! :) Stay tuned for posts and pictures from this excursion.

The Last Zellers Wedding

Dave and Lydia's Wedding

My sister-in-law, Lydia, got married February 16, to David Brose. It was a very beautiful wedding. They were married in Memorial Baptist Church in Williamsport at 10:30am. Maid of Honor, April Frye (adopted sister) and Flower Girl, Allison Bennett were Lydia's attendants. Best Man, Jeremy Brose (brother of Groom) and Ring bearer, Garrett Hagaman were Dave's attendants. Reception was downstairs in the basement of the church. Brownie cake was delicious. We all had a good time, but most of all the day was special for Dave and Lydia.

Grace Heidi Hale

Grace Heidi Hale

My 3rd niece was born on February 7th. Her name as you can see in the title is Grace. She is appropriately named; for God's Grace. I was blessed to be able to be there and see Grace be brought into this world. When she was born she wasn't breathing for about 15 minutes. She was getting oxygen because the doctors were using a CPR mask on her but she didn't want to breathe on her own. In those 15 minutes, prayers were going up on her behalf. Through our tears, we texted family to pray as well as praying ourselves in the delivery room. It was an intensely, scary 15 minutes. Grace is doing very well now. I praise the Lord for another beautiful addition to the family.

Fun

Fun

Sometimes you just need to do something fun and crazy. I have alot of those times. And someone usually always has a camera nearby.

Ladybug Experiment

April and I were up late last night experimenting on ladybugs. After studying one ladybug for the longest time, we discovered with complete surprise and amazement that the bug could free itself from duct tape if it had something to hold on to. (Mom was there taking pictures.) Using a twistie tie, duct tape, a timer, and 10 ladybugs we conducted this uncontrolled experiment. Here are the results:

Ladybug A- succeeded in freeing itself in 49 seconds and 62 milliseconds. Was one of the 2 smallest ladybugs.

Ladybug B- succeeded in freeing itself in 49 seconds and 72 milliseconds. Was the biggest bug and the laziest.

Ladybug C- failed to free itself. It just hung on to the twistie tie and seemed to expect the twistie to pull it off. the other smallest bug of the 10.

Ladybug D- failed to free itself. (this time) This was the first bug we studied before the experiment and it had freed itself several times before. We concluded that it was tired. It gave up at 5 min 55 secs.

Ladybug E- failed to free itself. tried half-heartedly but quit after 32 secs

Ladybug F- failed to free itself. tried for 7 min and 16 secs, but lost its grip twice.

Ladybug G- succeeded in freeing itself in 28 seconds. it was stuck on its side.

Ladybug H- succeeded in freeing itself in 1 min and 3 seconds.

Ladybug I- succeeded in freeing itself in 5 min and 3 seconds. It was super stuck.

Ladybug J- succeeded in freeing itself in 1 min and 4 seconds. it also was stuck on its side.

This was not a controlled experiment. The ladybugs were not all stuck on with the same PSI. Some were stuck more than others. Some had been stuck longer than others. One was more tired out than the others because it was studied prior to the experiment. They were not all stuck to the duct tape at the same place on their bodies, most were stuck on their back, others were on their head or side.

Conclusion: Ladybugs are similar to people. Some are fighters and wont give up until they succeed. Some are lazy. Some are quitters. Some dont care. Some try for a short time and then give up. Some were very strong. Others were weak. Others were dumb and didnt get the concept of freeing themselves. Some try and never succeed. Others expect someone else to do the work for them.

Which Ladybug are you?

Lydia's Bridal Shower

Lydia's Bridal Shower

On Monday, January 21, 2008, we held a bridal shower for my sister-in-law, Lydia. April did an excellent job planning it. One game we played was Toilet Paper Brides. The object was that each group had to dress up someone in their group as a bride using only toilet paper and tape. Then Lydia got to choose which one she liked the best. One can do alot with toilet paper. The next game was pictionary using of course wedding terms. We had some interesting artists. Then everyone played Gift Bingo as Lydia opened her gifts. We had a great time and Lydia enjoyed it.

New Years Eve Ball

New Years Eve

December 31, 2007, Zeb and I attended the second annual New Year's Eve Ball at our church. Beforehand, Dave, Lydia, Jeremy, April, Zeb and I went out for dinner. After attempting 3 restaurant, we finally went to Aungst's Family Restaurant. We first tried Restless Oaks and that was closed. Then we went to OIP (Original Italian Pizza--which serves more than pizza, by the way), which an extremely casual place. After walking past all the customers who were staring at us because we were dressed up fancy, we sat down in a private room. The waitress came back and told us that this room was closed and the restaurant was closing in 10 min. So we left. Ruby Tuesday's had a 45 min to hour wait. So we finally decided to try Aungst's. Success! We all managed NOT to spill any food on our clothing! After eating a nice meal, we stopped by Walmart on our way to the church, to buy me a warm fuzzy shawl. Because it was a little chilly that night, in December. The Walmart greeter was a very friendly, upper aged woman and she was so funny. She asked why we were all dressed up. When we told her that we were going to a ball she saw Zeb dressed in his Army Dress Greens and asked him to dance with her. Then she danced with Jeremy and then Dave. She said she wished she could go with us but, in her words, "Walmart REALLY needs me", and wished us well.

At church we got individual and family pictures, then proceeded upstairs to the "ballroom" aka: sanctuary and gym. We played Musical Chairs with couples. Instead of walking around the chairs we had to dance around the chairs. When the music stops, the couple had to occupy one chair. It was very crowded with twice as many people as chairs. Jeremy and April won that game. We danced some. Mostly the girls danced, and the guys sat at the table and chatted. But Zeb danced with me once. I liked it! Unlike last year, we stayed til midnight. We had a blast and I am looking forward to next year's New Year Eve Ball. (Mostly because Zeb will be home again by that time)