Happenings...

HI! Just thought I'd take a minute and share what's been happening here in the past couple of weeks.

Chris and I went to our first regular youth activity last Friday night! We had a great time. I've missed going on youth activities and hanging out with teenagers. This particular youth activity was a great one for being the first... it was very informal, and there was really no scheduled activity, so we just hung out with the teens and got to know them better. It was "March Madness," so we went to a place called Mr. Gatti's. It's a pizza buffet (kind of like CiCi's) with an arcade and special party rooms. We had a room with a big screen TV, ate, and then spent some time in the arcade. It was great to get to know some of the teens outside of our SS class (9th&10th grade).

Our Easter was wonderful... we had great services, and on the way home on the bus, we stopped so that all of our bus kids could have an Easter egg hunt. It was fun. Then, for our Easter evening service, it was basically a musical service with a 10-15 minute challenge from Pastor at the end. The choir sang 4 special numbers, and then we had 6 other specials, plus a bit of narration, and the orchestra joined the choir for two of the songs, I think. It was wonderful!

I LOVE our church's music... not "contemporary," but very meaningful and a wide range of musical styles. I was pleasantly surprised by this, since we attend a fundamental, independent Baptist church. No offense intended, but it seems like most of the churches I've attended have one, maybe two styles of music that they sing constantly. For instance, one of the churches only used Ron Hamilton songs and songs from the Wilds. I have NO problem with that music... in fact, I LOVE the songs, but a steady diet of that is a little much! :-)

ANYWAY... it also snowed on Easter. What a blessing that was (*can you sense the sarcasm*?) It was a little shocking since we had a beautiful sunny 70 degree day on Friday!After church Easter night, we went to Steak-N-Shake with two other couples and their kids. We had a great time of fellowship with them! I only wish our evening services were earlier so that we didn't have to stay out so late!

This week has been a pretty regular week. I broke my sunglasses last Friday (I'd had them since I was in college), and Chris surprised me on Wed. by telling me I could go to Sunglass Hut and pick out some polarized sunglasses. WOW - what a difference they make compared to my $15 pair that I've had for ages! I was expecting him to let me get a $20 pair at Walmart, not an expensive pair from Sunglass Hut! But I am so thankful, and my eyes are thanking me every time I wear them! My eyes are incredibly sensitive to the sun, so it's nice to put on sunglasses and not have to squint... even if you DO have sunglasses on!

Yesterday I went to a Pampered Chef show... the third one in the last month and 1/2! I don't buy anything, I just go for the fellowship! It was a lot of fun! And since Chris doesn't usually get home until late, it's a great way to pass the time that he's not here!

I've also gotten a couple of free gifts of stamping stuff recently. That always makes my day! My sis-in-law sent me a bunch of stuff that was passed on to her from a friend of hers that was cleaning out her craft room. Then a friend of mine offered to let me use her hostess benefits from hosting a Stampin' Up party! That was SO sweet of her! I'll have to do some more stamping. I've been tired recently, and have been reading a lot, so I haven't been doing much stamping unless it's out of necessity! I'm going to try to remedy that in the next few days, though!

Well, that's about it for now. D - the little boy that I take care of for work - is going to Cincinnati for testing this coming week (Sun - Thurs.) Please pray that he is cleared for the throat reconstruction surgery that he so desperately needs! Thanks!

Oh, yes... one more WONDERFUL thing... after 5&1/2 months, we FINALLY got our insurance reimbursement check for our FIRST IVF cycle! It is almost enough to pay off the credit card, and we should be able to do that with our paychecks! Hallelujah... that is a HUGE load off our backs! God is good! I'm also thankful that the insurance company screwed up initially, since they paid out much more than they SHOULD have according to our policy. Yeah!

Easter Weekend part 3

*** I'll try to sum this up, rather than giving all the details!***

Saturday morning, we all slept in a little. We ended up all getting together for lunch, and then celebrated Mom's 60th birthday. She was thrilled with her digital camera that all of us kids got together and bought for her. I hope she learns how to use it well, and likes it a lot! She is not so technologically saavy, but she is willing to learn, so that helps! After Mom's birthday party, Mom brought out presents for all of us. We kind of celebrated Christmas in April.

The rest of the day we just chilled out. We were planning time at the beach, but the temperature was only in the 50-60's and it was a little chilly for the beach. I was kind of bummed about that, but I would have been freezing had we gone, so I'm thankful, too. Most of us were tired, so several people took naps here and there, did some shopping, etc. We also spent some time at the church gym with the boys playing basketball and the girls playing beachball volleyball over tables as a net.

Sunday Steve's church had an Easter drama presentation. They did a tremendous job. Kathryn did some of the make-up for the actors, sang in the choir, and sang a solo in one of the songs. She did a great job. Steve was a Roman centurion and got to be the mean soldier. The people in the church kept making comments about how they just couldn't believe that he could be that mean. I just kept thinking, "Obviously, YOU didn't grow up with him!" :-) Of course, he's not at all like he was when we were growing up...

We ate wild boar for Sunday dinner... Greg actually shot it on Tuesday before we got there. It was really good. We all got a laugh out of the fact that Steve told a man on visitation that we were having pork for Easter dinner, to which the man replied, "Well, we aren't eating PORK, we're having ham!" Uhhh... OK... here's your sign!

Chris and I flew out Sunday afternoon and missed the Easter egg hunt. We got home late Sunday night, and were glad to be sleeping in our own bed! We had a wonderful weekend, though, and were very thankful for the opportunity to go and spend time with my family.

Chromy Family Easter Pictures

Sorry, I didn't get a good picture of Nathan and Caroline together. Caroline's sister was in town, so Caroline was splitting her time between her family and ours. I'll get some good ones of them to post on June 30th... their wedding day. :-) I'm so excited... I get to see my whole family together twice within 3 months! :-)

Easter Pictures 1

Easter Pictures 2 - the candy fight

Easter Pictures 3 -Mom's 60th Birthday

Easter Weekend part 2

One of the nice things about our weekend is that Chris and I actually got to spend some time together! I really enjoyed the time spent with him.

When we arrived in Jax, my sister-in-law Kathryn, came to pick us up. Steve & Kathryn were busy during the weekend with an Easter Drama that they did both on Friday night, then on Easter morning at their church. (more on that later.) Anyway, Kathryn was able to squeeze in some time to pick us up before she had to do the makeup on "Jesus" for the drama. We were able to visit Steve as he was doing the 3pm-6pm afternoon radio show on the radio station that is run by their church. Steve showed us how he does the programing for the it, which is really cool.

After Kathryn left for her duties as make-up artist, Chris and I "chilled out" at their house until Steve rushed in at 6:15pm. He had to be back at the church at 6:30pm for the drama. That left us with nothing pressing to do for the rest of the evening until they came home. Between Kathryn leaving and Steve coming home, Chris and I were able to spend time together, and ended up falling asleep on Steve & Kathryn's HUGE recliner chair. It was so comfortable, and 2 people can fit in it easily! As a matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that there were two people sitting in that chair all weekend! (Different people rotating in and out of the chair, I mean!) After Steve left, Chris and I took a walk down to Sonic for supper. It is about a mile down the road, but I needed to get my 4th day of exercise in for the week! We enjoyed the walk, though it seemed a lot longer than a mile to get there. It was almost like a date night for us, which we both appreciated! Right next door to the Sonic was a SportClips men's hair cutting place. Chris had some free coupons for hair cuts there, and was going to get a haircut before we left but didn't have time, so he went there and got his hair cut.

On the walk back to the house, we stopped at Walmart to buy some new sandals for me. The ones that I was wearing had the cover of the inner sole wearing out, and they were hurting my feet (especially after walking for over a mile!) We also bought some Peeps - Chris loves them - pure sugar! I usually try to buy Chris Easter candy every year because some of his types of favorite candy are: Peeps, Jelly Belly jellybeans, and Cadbury creme eggs. These I can usually only find at Easter time.

When we finally got back to the house, we ended up watching National Treasure. Steve & Kathryn got home a little after 10pm, but had to go clean the house nearby where some of us were staying. Nathan and Caroline arrived from Pensacola around 11:15pm, and Greg, Rachael, Aksana, and Mom came in around 1am. After that, we all went to bed. I think Heidi and her family got there around 2:30-3:00am, but we weren't waiting up for that! :-)

Easter Weekend part 1 - the plane rides

We had a wonderful Easter weekend! We flew down to Jacksonville, Florida, and met up with ALL of my family at my brother Steve's house. It was SO fun to see everyone together again... it's been almost 2 years since that has happened. I'm going to split up telling about parts of our trip, just because there is so much that I want to say, and pictures to show you as well.

The first thing I'd like to share is our plane trip down there. It was very uneventful as far as the actual plane trip goes, but there were some really neat things that happened. We flew from Louisville to Charlotte, NC, then to Jax. On our flight from Louisville to Charlotte, we were entertained by a flight attendant with a GREAT personality. As I boarded the plane, the flight attendant (Patrick), gasped as if I was a long lost friend that he hadn't seen in forever, and then said, "Welcome Aboard!" That started it... Chris and I sat in the second row, so we were able to clearly see and hear everything that Patrick did. As more passengers were boarding, one man came onto the plane and said, "I want some of whatever he's (Patrick) is on!" Of course, all of us who heard that comment started laughing, and the man said, "Did I really say it that loud?"

Then it came time for the usually boring safety announcements. Patrick picked up the phone to do the announcements and said this, "Welcome aboard US Airways flight 7757 (or whatever the number was... I can't remember) with service to... Cancun... oh, I'm sorry, we don't have enough gas to get us to Cancun, so we will be going to Charlotte today." As he continued going through the safety speech, he added so much personality that we were all listening! He talked about how to buckle and tighten the seat belt, then said, "Let me demonstrate" in a long drawn out voice. He then proceeded to "demonstrate" in slow motion. We were laughing so hard!

As we were taxiing down the runway, he picked up his little phone and told us this, "Due to the rising fuel costs and the increase in travel for this holiday weekend, we are driving part way to Charlotte today. This is the driving part, but if you'll wait just a few minutes, we'll be taking off shortly."

There are many other things that he did that were incredibly funny, but typing the story just doesn't seem to do it justice. I'll just let it suffice to say that it made that part of our flight a lot faster, and we got our dose of laughter for the day!

One our second flight from Charlotte to Jax, we had two Air Force soldiers on board that were returning to the States from service in Afghanistan. We had a conversation with the man, and he ended up being assigned to the seat right behind me. After everyone had boarded the plane and the flight attendants were getting ready for takeoff, one of the flight attendants came back to the soldier and told him that they were upgrading him to first class. He said, "Are you sure? You don't have to do that." To which the flight attendant responded, "Yes, we do... we take care of our military!" Both of the soldiers were moved up to first class. I thought that was really cool!

When we arrived at the airport in Jax, the USO there had a bunch of people ready with a reception for those soldiers. We were not able to stay to see them come off the plane and the reception there, but we did get some pics of the banners and such. Here they are:

HE IS ALIVE!

He is ALIVE! Praise the Lord we serve a RISEN Savior! The God that I know and believe is not buried somewhere in some cold, dark tomb, but is in Heaven at the right hand of the Father, waiting to welcome me home! Hallelujah!

I LOVE EASTER! I don't think it has ever meant as much to me as it has this year, for some reason. Maybe it is because I sing in choir now and thinking so much more about the words I'm singing makes it come more alive in my mind. Anyway, on Sunday night we sang a song in choir called "It Was For Me." The words and message of that song are moving enough, but then our pastor got up and asked our choir director to have us sing another song. Pastor had heard us rehearsing it right before church with the orchestra to sing NEXT Sunday, and wanted us to sing it that night. So, we sang it (which I was thankful for because I love the song, and I'm not going to be in our church on Sunday to sing it!) The title is, "He is Alive." I don't remember all of the words to the verses, but I just couldn't help smiling while singing through the chorus. This song was one of those that sends tingles and makes me get goosebumps. Here are the words:

He is alive... No grave could hold my Lord
He is alive... new life He gives
He is alive... He rose upon that Easter morn
He is alive... my Savior lives!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter weekend, and celebrate a GLORIOUS RESURRECTION DAY! HE IS ALIVE!