New Experiences

Wow. This week. Has been so. FULL. Here comes the breakdown!

Last Wednesday: The Slacks had us up for a goodbye/thank you party! When we walked in the door, attached to all the beams were pieces of paper with the word "thank you" written in about 15 different languages (my favorite was Zulu lol). For supper we had tamales baked by the Los Ponchos' very own Esparonza herself. That was so nice of Mrs. Slack to get so many tamales for us....and oh do I regret eating 3. Hehe, well, not really. Then Brooke went up on the little "stage" (aka fireplace) and read "the things I love about hickory hill"...that's when Mom started crying. Then Christian read his thing, then Mariah, then Mrs Slack and Mr. Slack. It turned out Jordan had put together a slide show of all of our fun times on the lane. It was done to several songs, but when "I'm takin' you with me" by reliant k started playing...I could have cried...but I had a reputation to hold up :-P. After that we had a time of worship...very good...I was so choked up I could hardly sing. Then we shoved the sofa out of the way...and started the dance party!! LOL. It was great. After that rushed outside with sparklers and looked at the moon and stars...our Creator is so amazing is He not? Then some more dancing...and then it was really late so we had to go!

Thursday: I packed my bags and Jared Snapp and I traded placed for 2 days! Mariah came along too for one night which rocked the house....because we literally had our first band practice! Karina was on piano, Jenn acoustic guitar, Mariah electric, me lead singer and djembae/egg shaker/guitar...when I get better at base I'll play that lol. We did "All in All" and by the end of 2 hours it was pretty rockin sweet! (we jazzed it up alot). Anna--we called you up but I guess you were up in Ithaca or something....but don't worry , your still in our "band". :-)

Friday: We actually had our band practice on Friday....but all well. That evening we had a tennis tournament...Jenn and I totally creamed Beth and Jarred! *winks*...right...so maybe it was the other way around. ;-p After supper we had the female part of the Rawliegh family over to watch...darn, I forget what it was called....umm, it was another one of those Jane Austin movies. It wasn't very good...very confusing. Then we went to bed. Bethany was able to spend the night too! That morning at 8 we got up way to early and had Silent Cry practice for the Community Fair this Saturday. After that we handed out invites to the community fair in the neighborhood around East High school. Then Mom picked me up and we headed home as fast as possible to get ready for some guests of ours, the Bontregers. Dad has known Mr. B for a few years but we struck up a real friendship when we met them at AG Progress Days. So the whole family came out for Labor Day weekend....and this is a really big thing because they are Amish!! That's right, Amish!!!! Amish NEVER leave their communities to come spend a lot of time with non-Amish people but they hired a driver and arrived here around 7:00. But before they arrived we heard a ton of barking and the next thing we know Baily is running towards us with a mouthful of porky pine quills!! That poor poor dog....Andrew and I were able to get out about 15, but there were still 20 more to come out when the Bontregers arrived. My Dad and Mr. Bontreger hoped on top of Baily and Grandpa pulled then out. That poor dog....She was soooooo good though!! Of course she struggled (as to the two men on top of her) but she bite, or bark, or whine or anything. After that ordeal we finally ate supper. And then we had dessert. Mrs. Bonteger had called to see if there was anything she could bring and Mom said it would be a big help if she could bring a few desserts...and boy do Amish know how to cook! She brought 4 pies (2 blueberry and 2 apple) and 4 pumpkin rolls! Once again we were up really late just talking and stuff then the Bontregers headed down to Grandma's where they would sleep.

Sunday: It was such a sight to see the Bontregers round the corner of our driveway that morning. All of them were dressed so spic and span in their cool Amish clothes it was crazy. We had breakfast then set out for our old Mennonite church. (we figured that would be a better experience then Sovereign Grace...they wouldn't know what to think of the worship (they aren't allowed to play instruments). We had dinner with the Slacks and Spanos...and once again ate way to much. The Bontreger kids taught us several new fun games...and everyone stayed till 11:00pm.

Monday: We took the Bontregers and Slacks to see the PA Grand Canyon and hike the Turkey Path...it is about 3 miles round trip (you hike all the way down to the river and then back up. We all played in the waterfall at the bottom and got all cooled off. Most people ended up soaked. Then the long hike back up...had some snacks then said goodbye to the Bontregers. Then we went out to get Chinese with the Slacks. Came back and played with the Efthimious for a few minutes then went up to our house and watched the Bourne Supremacy.

It was such a wonderful experience to have the Bontregers here for a few days. To get a peek at a whole different culture was amazing. Even though we live only 4 hours from each other we live in different worlds.

Have a great day!