Forty Years + 2

Tippecanoe Place, a positively extravigant mansion built by the Studebakers. This is all Indiana fieldstone. The name comes somewhat from this being the campground of the Miami Indian chief, Tippecanoe; and also from whence came the presidential campaign slogan "Tippecanoe and Tyler too", who was friends with the Studebaker family. Thus, this is Tippecanoe. We had a positively wonderful lunch here and then toured the entire home. On the way to South Bend last Sunday, I asked Chris what South Bend was known for and how it got it's start. Now I know: for the Oliver chilled plows, which revolutionized farming back in the 19th century, and for the Studebaker carriages, wagons and cars, which were all made here, with the motivational slogan "always give more than you promise".

At the Oliver Inn, where we stayed, next door....this "pianist" played during our breakfasts.

And here is another butler who looked after our every need....

THE FIRST DAY OF THE REST OF OUR LIVES TOGETHER....IN SOUTH BEND, IN

This is the magnificent Oliver Inn B&B, one of the two mansions built by the Oliver family back in the 19th centurly. The other one was the museum that we toured today. Do you see the frost on the trees? It was positively beautiful this morning.

This was the beautiful table where we had a breakfast of some special kind of French toast, sausage and fruit. Really nice.

This was the view out the window from our dining room at the frost covered trees, toward the mansion next door, Tippicanoe, which is now a restaurant. Perhaps tomorrow we can see inside. It was closed today. It's huge.

Bunny prints in the frozen frost covered side walk outside the Inn.

The beautiful roses the kids gave us, next to our wedding unity candle (which is about 5 inches shorter than it was 40 years ago) on the mantle in our room at the B & B

Sacred Heart Basilica at Notre Dame University. I wanted to see it, but unfortunately a Mass was in progress inside, offered by the top dog of the University, Fr. Jenkins. It was being offered for the people of Haiti. We did step inside; it was full; It is totally awesome and beautiful, but I could not take any pictures at that point.

Here's a picture that I forgot to post on Saturday night, when Christopher's family came early....for our surprise party, which I had no clue about. The Tooth Fairy had a 2-fer at our house. Josiah and Dakota both lost teeth. Wasn't that time saving for the tooth fairy?

THE BIG "FOUR-O"; THE RUBY ANNIVERSARY

They did it. They all schnookered us! Had NO clue! Apparently the kids had this in the planning for a year or more. We're flabertasted. Everyone who has more than one child knows that it is difficult to get the family orchestrated to move at the same time in the same direction. Our six kids managed the impossible. And even more spectacularly, they all surprised us at Mass. We walked in, looking stupid, because Fr. Dave had seen us there the night before...and we were still clueless. He told me to look over at the other side of the gym (our church is under renovation)...and there was this sea of red waving at us.....
Apparently Fr. Dave was aware of this for a looooooong time. (Wait until I get him!) So, after Mass, we were invited up to renew our vows. (The last time we did that was at 30 yrs in Maui....but we were alone. This is so much more important because all of the people who are the most special people to us in the whole world were there....all except for Ashleigh, Ashley, Brndon and Dawson, gone on a Boy Scout "thing", and little Charolette, sickie today.....5 of the 20 grandkids. But they are in our hearts.) And I again have no clue what I was laughing about here...Chris seemed a bit more "controlled" than me....
Following Mass, the kids had made reservations at my favorite Mexican restaurant.
After dinner, we went to our home, where we were given directions to this wonderful B & B in South Bend, IN.
More to follow about that....cuz we're still here.....

GOD BLESS CHARLIE COMPANY...

About 20 extremely hardy soles gathered a-top a highway overpass in Indiana, to give a send off to the "best & the brightest" our Country has to offer...Charlie Company, Michigan National Guard was headed for Afganistan. They were on the above busses. All of their gear/vehicles are already gone to the war zone.

Here we were gathering and waiting for the buses. We got lots of honks from semi's passing under the bridge. They saw the flags. We luckily had a daughter of one of the troops texting one of our group, telling us their progress (they were following the busses). We got a 15 minute warning, 10 min....and then right over the hill!

The wind was brisk, and this was the sign that we hope they actually saw. We know that they saw all the waving flags, because they flashed their head lights at us and some waved.

When one person joined the group, he said, "We gotta be crazy"....I responded: "Yes....we are. But those guys on the buses are anything but crazy. They deserve us being here...."

The chill factor was way down in the single digits. It was so cold....

January 3, 2010: LAST MASS CELEBRATED AT ST. MICHAEL'S CHURCH BEFORE RESTORATION

Yesterday was a bitter-sweet day for the parish family of St. Michael the Archangel Parish in Waterloo, IN. Our last Mass there was celebrated by Fr. Dave. The restoration of our 90 year old church (130 yr. old parish community) has been long anticipated and longed for. The high altar is topped by the statue of our patron, St. Michael the Archangel.

After the last Mass, Fr. Dave processed out of the church carrying the Eucharist. The parishioners followed him outside, in silence (which is pretty good for our "gabby" parish).

Father stood outside in the bitter cold as the folks passed him and the Eucharist.

A very poignant moment for our church.

Next week we meet at a community center about 5 miles or so away from our beloeved church. We will probably be there for about 6 months to celebrate our Feast.

Now the work begins. We have to empty the church: the statues are going to live with Father (he'll really have a house full of old friends) (the statue of St. Michael atop the altar should be a challange to get down), the benches are to be taken apart and sent to Chicago to be refinished. And then some trailers will pull up outside the church and we'll begin putting the boxes and boxes of "stuff" (ie. music, books, etc.) in those for storage. Then the "destruction" of the inside begins. We are all eager for this....

'Twas the Day After Christmas, and All Through the House.....

Not a creature was stirring.....much less PaPa and GaGa. On December 26, the VanderHorst siblings gathered at our home and had a wonderful dinner, gift exchange and plenty of time to catch up on the happenings, as the kids played, played, and played some more....
Here's some of the candid pics I caught people in....entered here in no particular order. (You already know that I am not good at getting pics put here in a specific order.) Gathering around all the goodies to catch up on "stuff".

The "missing tooth grin" from Charlie....I managed to catch him as he shot through the living room playing with his buds.

Dawson is testing out Josiah 's etch-a-sketch. Ya know....those toys have been around forever. They keep re-appearing every year in a new form. Good old Ohio Arts. And the kids love them.

Siah and Charlie stop for a pose....eaually toothless....

Lincoln & Charlie are engrossed in Josiah's hot wheels.....a hot item this year.

Here is our "polish princess", Jozie. Her Aunt Charolette used to have that title, but I think that Jozie has definitely taken over the title.

Susan & Christopher....of course Chris has to have his usual football shirt on....he has many. This picture was taken before he went outside with Dean to shoot a gun; and he got a kick-back from the gun or something like that.....tore his finger open. Stephanie had to do a few stitches to sew him up....fun day for him.

Jake and Kristen, his girl friend. See one, see them both....She is a sweetie, too.

The youngest of the VanderHorst grandchildren....Kennedy, or otherwise known as "Danger Danger". Don't let her cute looks fool you.....she is a wild child and will be balancing a-top a stairway railing if you don't watch her!

Chris & Susan's youngest, Dakota, shows her beautiful smile and she and her cousins were having a great old time....

Aunt Michelle and Madison smile as Madison shows this cute little angel she received from Michelle.

And again, our "polish princess" who dressed herself that morning, posing in front of my Christmas village.

This is the most wonderful picture of Santa and our second youngest, Charolette. Isn't it a beautiful picture? Really a wonderful moment.

And finally, just 3 days before Christmas, Josiah turned 6...He was just beside himself with excitement. He even got to blow out his candles 3 times!

What a week.....

Breakfast w/ Santa in Ashley, IN

This was how they announced the arrival of the guest of honor at the Breakfast with Santa at the firehouse in Ashley. They drove through town at 8 am and announced over their loud speaker: "ho ho ho, Come to the firehouse to have breakfast with Santa!" Chris thinks that he woke up a few kids.....and even saw one running down the street to get to the fire station before the firetruck. This was such a nice success. The firemen were happy....as were all of the kiddies.

Miss Jozelynn

Isn't this the most beautiful picture??? I just love it....so I thought that I would share it. Dean took Jozie to Chuckie Cheeze today. (A place that I would avoid like the plague!) But, I guess they were the first ones there and it was not chaotic.

Thank you Yvonne ....

I have resumed posting now ONLY because my computer wise little girl,Yvonne, was able to help me find the "error of my ways" with pictures. Inadvertantly the Html editing was clicked and it gave me giberish....but now things are resolved and here are some cool family pics. Here's Josiah posing with his newly lost tooth. Funny thing was that Charlie, his cousin had the same tooth loose and lost his the next day....

Here's a cute picture that was taken at Charolette's "Santa's Open House" last week. Litte Reagan just got so tired with all of her friends all day long that she crawled up on Santa's lap and snuggled down for a "winter's nap".

help!!! I'm getting frustrated!

This may be the end of this blog....cuz it's frustrating me. I have some cool pics to post, (like Josiah's first tooth lost, Josiah in a combine, and Santa!) but it's not letting me. They are only going on as giberish. I've tried every which way to Sunday....and no luck. If anybody has any ideas, please let me know. The alternative is to ditch this one and start another one....hate to do that, though....

HE'S GOT THE BIG BUCK! A 9 POINT!

Is that a happy face??? Jacob's face, I mean....not the deer's face. He just looks dead! The second day of gun season Jacob brought back this deer. Not what one would call a trophy for a mount because one of the tines was broken from fighting. But, like his Grandpa Chris says: the best trophy is meat on the table. And Jake has done that very well. This is his 4th deer since he first started hunting a couple of years ago. Pretty good for a 14 yr. old hunter.
If the back ground looks a bit funky....I tried to clone out the big red truck right behind Jake...not a good back ground for a picture. But I was glad to have one taken in the woods. Thanks Uncle Julio.

FIRST SANTA "GIG" OF THE YEAR

Well....we thought that it was awfully early for a Santa visit....but Kroger was having their annual Holiday open house. They invited us to join it. We jumped at the chance....if nothing else, but to get out their and try on the new Santa suit!
Jozie and Josiah have been sheltered from the fact that PaPa is Santa's helper....they were a bit surprised to see PaPa in Kroger! Their sitter today, with her family came over to get a picture to send to their Dad, in the Reserves in training for Afganistan deployment....and he's gone out west right now.

They have the "T" names(left to right): Ti, Trenton, Santa, Tayden, and Tonie; Trevor is kneeling on left. Tonie....the young lady on the right, was babysitting Jozie and Josiah today. So when the family came to shop at Kroger, J & J just came along..... Aren't they a beautiful family. Daddy leaves for Afganistan after January 1. May God protect him and keep him safe.

HOBO DINNER; OCT 24, 2009

Amidst the misty, damp, cold October weather, the staunch VanderHorst Clan met for a wonderful Hobo Dinner on the Deihl homestead, Waterloo, IN. Never counted, (everybody kept moving too fast), but their had to be about 40 folks there. These pictures are nowhere in order....but the kids sure enjoyed themselves. Dean and Chris are supervising the garbage cans on the fire cooking our Hobo Dinner. They were full of soooooooo much super good food; i.e. sausage, ham hocks, potatoes, hot dogs, cabage, corn, etc. It took about 1.5 hours to do the great job of cooking it to perfection

Many of the kids are from Toledo, not rural area where Andrea and David live. So, when they got the opportunity to collect the eggs from the chicken coupe, they really enjoyed picking up the eggs, and then weighing them (where you get the A, AA size eggs, etc.) Here's Dawson weighing an egg.

While everyone was pitching in to ready the yard for the hobo dinner before the rains came on Thursday, David had the stroke of genius to pick up a large amt. of the dry leaves BEFORE mowing the lawn, putting them in the big barn....so that the kids could play in the huge pile of
leaves.

You can tell that it was a huge success.

Madison enjoying herself.

The smiles tell it all.

Yvonne had the bright idea to get up in the hay loft and get a picture of the kids int he leaf and hay pile.

Jacob and his friend Kristin sitting around the fire....trying to keep warm.

Charolette looked like she was waiting for the rain....but it really never came, although some of the folks thought it would. Mist was the most of it.

Andrea and David beginning the hay ride for the kid and adults.

They stopped off to see the small calves next door, and really enjoyed the touch of farm life.

Everybody took zip locks of left overs home. That was a good thing....meaning we didn't have to eat boiled dinner for the next two weeks. It was such a wonderful day....and exhausting. Everyone pitched in on the clean up....and when I got home I just collapsed in my chair and didn't want to move.! Such good times to remember....