Of Weddings and New Years

 Hello my dear blog readers!!

I must say, that the holidays are certainly the most buzzing time of year... ESPECIALLY for big families... and even MORE especially for big families with a wedding on New Years Eve!!  But these are all good things... After all, we celebrate the Advent, and the birth, of Christ, and we celebrate the beginning of a new year - a new start!  And on top of this we celebrate a marriage... the bringing together of two godly people who partake of a covenant more holy and sacred than most imagine.  It is the imitation—nay, the foreshadow, of the great marriage of Christ to his purified and beautiful bride.  What a beautiful season!! We have the snow, which reflects God in its beauty, and though cold, lays on the hard earth a soft blanket which transforms nature from bleak and hard to displaying a soft splendor unmatched in its beauty by any other element of nature.  I say, we have the snow, and we have the birth of Christ, and we have the joy of a new start, and in the midst of all these joyous times we have a marriage!  How incredibly beautiful!  How much more breathtaking can it get!

So these are the things that have been taking up my time.  My brother was married, and I now have a sister-in-law.  We had a wonderful time with extended families... We hosted the rehearsal dinner at our house, of which I will post pictures. :).... Oh, and I suppose you'd like to see pictures of the wedding, wouldn't you?! Well, what I have, I will post. :)

Preparation for a VERY special cookie... :D

Voila! Duncan created this... the base is a heartshorne cookie, baked in the shape of a heart.  He then baked a gingerbread boy and girl.  He used icing, and sprinkles for most of it.  The tuxedo is made of shredded dark chocolate. :)

We moved the furniture out of our dining room and living room, and replaced them with big long tables and chairs.  We entertained about 40 people.... It was a great blessing to have Mrs. Neubecker's invaluable and immeasurable (I have two people telling me what adjective to use) help and expertise for this celebration.  We are immensely grateful for her, and for the Marino family, the help of whom was vital to the success of the occasion.  We made green salad with creamy dressing, chicken curry with raita, roasted sweet potatoes and warm fresh pitas for dinner... For dessert we had little bowls of mint chocolate chip ice-cream with a little sugar cookie.  It was very pleasant. :)

The tables started in the dining room, went into the living room, turned and went to the end of the living room.  It was quite an arrangement. :D

Peter and the best man... and a blurry mother. :D

This is... Oh, this is me... yes... a short-haired me. :D

And old-fashioned girl at 6 AM ready to go to the Blair Center to get ready for the wedding with her sisters!

The Best Man shines Peter's shoes. :D I think Peter looks just a little excited...

Mrs. Willeke puts the veil on her daughter.  If you can, click on this picture to see Mrs. W's face.  It's so sweet and loving. 

The Flower Girls. Notice Olivia's face.

Two sisters, a sister-to-be, and the sister-to-be's sister... the Maid of Honor. :)

This was where the ceremony was held.

The new family.

Silly faces.

The send off.

These last few pictures are courtesy of Peter Serven, a groomsman in the wedding... but he was able to snap a few pictures. :)

I PROMISE I will have more pictures of the ceremony.  Right now this is all I have... Because most of our family was in the wedding, we couldn't take pictures, and the people who did didn't have a very good view... Anyhow, we will get some up here soon. :)

Cemeteries of Hickville

Today Rachel, Gabriel, Asher and I went on a confused ramble with the ultimate point of getting to an old graveyard. With every quarter mile or so we decided to change the direction we were taking. But we finally got there, after all. It wasn't even a cemetery, as you can see... Just a few graves scattered here and there, battered, old, unreadable, and probably forgotten by most people. They drifted from early 1800's to the 1900's. Gabriel immediately sobered down and observed, "It seems like we're being watched." Of course this was rather absurd, but we got that kind of feeling. I guess it was because we were on the top of a hill, surrounded by old barren trees, a bunch of dark clouds coming together, and the wind blowing ever so hard. But we did have fun after all, AND GUESS WHAT?! On the way home, it started raining really hard... And we weren't anywhere near the house at all. We got soaked, obviously. But that was really fun. :)

Gabriel meandering thoughtfully around with Asher "for protection against the ghosts" he said.

Okay okay... Gabriels the only one who really LOOKS like he's crying... Rachel and I don't really have a general idea of what we're trying to accomplish. :P

Explanation needed? Well... I was trying to fix my hair... Only place to hold my hat was... there. Gabriel thought maybe sitting on Asher would be fun. But he didn't end up doing it after all, despite of the picture.

"FINE RACHEL! BE THAT WAY!"

Little boy on a country road.

Just finishing telling Rachel what sort of place this really feels like.

Couldn't catch the full name, but this was our favorite grave. The poem underneath read:

"An obedient child,

A Sister dear

A faithful wife

Is slumbering here."

Studying the graves... Trying to read the dates, but this one was so weatherbeaten it was almost just a blank stone.

"Guys... Is this place haunted?"

Good ol' Asher.

He's straying from the straight and narrow path....

Rachel and I.

I really like this picture. She was laughing at... *cough*... Gabriel. He gave us enough to laugh at. :P

No comment.

"Oh, no, I'm not related to him at all. Really... I'm not." :P My wonderful brother...

I get really happy in the country.

We didn't plan that.

"Hi kids!"

Happy Birthday Rachel!!!

(Because, you know, today IS her 14th birthday!)

Ice-Skating

Thursday afternoon, the Clarkes homeschool group went ice-skating in Wheeling at Oglebay park. :D Sooo... Here's some pictures from that most enjoyable afternoon. :) (I'm kind of in a smiley-face mood... As you'll see below...)

This is Tabitha Simpson, the little sister of the Simpson girls (obviously) who I know. :) You gotta love babies... I do.

Me and Rachel on skates. Surprisingly, there aren't very many good pictures of us. But that just figures when neither one of us looks that great. :P

Beautiful Olivia, :)

Jack. He's actually a really good skater. But then he's also a boy, and boys are good at almost anything. :)

All us girls!! L to R, Emma, Olivia, Me, Jordan, Allison, Rachel.

Me Olivia and Allison. I really like Olivia's hat.

Me and Olivia dear.

Aww, Jordan!

The skating rink. It was actually a pretty good size, and there weren't tons of people there, so it was nice. I love ice-skating.

Emma and me. Ya know, I don't know why there are so many pictures of me and people. Rachel uploaded them all for me while I was playing card games with Mr. Clarke and Jack. :P

Wow, that just looks dumb. :)

And Mrs. Clarke and Catherine will end this beautiful little post. :D

I Can't Think of A Title... How Droll

Okay.... So the past few days have been pretty hectic... Well, maybe the past week. On Saturday the Howard's had a huge yard sale, from eight AM to one PM. So Olivia (see here and here) and I got up at five thirty AM and made berry coffee cake for breakfast, then helped set up. Around eleven fifteen, I told Emma that I was going to go lie down for fifteen minutes. The next thing I know Olivia comes in the room and says, "Hey Ruby you might want to wake up... You've been asleep for four hours."

:P

Then on Sunday I took a two hour nap in the library... and on Monday I didn't have a nap because we went to Cabelas! Yay! :) That was so exciting. I'll have pictures up later, but I seriously was impressed, and their fudge is soooooooo wonderful!

That night we also went to Oglebay (I was corrected and told it is pronounced O-GAL-BEE ;) lol) Park. We got tons and tons of pictures by the pond, and Emma and I had loads and loads of fun rolling down this HUGE hill! I tell ya, if you haven't done that yet, do it, even though you might be 58 years old!!!!!! But the second time down, Emma got stung by a bee on her neck. Olivia got stung four or five times on her hip, and I rolled over a few roots of a tree on my way down the hill, which resulted in a huge black and blue and red bruise. Yuck.

Tuesday we went school supply shopping. I can't believe that season is almost here! You see, I stopped math this past Spring in the middle of a math problem and lesson. :P Bad me... But I am excited, because I want to go shop for binders and notebooks, etc., etc.. Yay! *excited*

Today was nothing eventful... We went on our daily walk (we've been walking 1-4 miles every day--no hyperboly) and took care of the kids and did the dishes, and made dishcloths, and then the Howard's dropped me off here! (At the Clarkes). Tomorrow morning I'll travel to Solon with Mr. Clarke, and my family will pick me up there at Mr. Clarke's office probably around lunchtime! I am so excited! But I thoroughly enjoyed my time here, and I think it was very good for me. :)

I will definitely be getting some pictures up for those of you who care... :P

~Ruby Jean

To See What Has Been Happening Around Here....

Visit: The Howard Family Blog

And: Olivia's Blog