Memorial Day Weekend

This past holiday weekend Brian and I traveled to Chardon, Ohio just outside Cleveland for Brian's college roommate, Larry's ordination. It was a really special occasion. Larry's family hosted us and as always their hospitality was exceptional. We also had the pleasure of meeting Larry's new fiance, Eden, who he met in Colorado. She seems like a truly special person and a great match for Larry. I just hope we didn't bore her with too many Concordia stories. Brian delivered the message at the ordination which, in my opinion, was very good. After the Saturday service Roy and Linda traveled back with us to Michigan where we did more outside work and spent some great time together. Occasions, such as this weekend, and visits certainly make being away from friends and family much easier to handle. Consider that an open invitation to all! I will close now as we are just about to leave for the airport to catch our flight to Albany, where Brian is preaching at Michael Libutti and Jamie Irving's wedding--update to follow.

A Little Bit Country

We have been doing a lot of work on the parsonage property lately. I am actually taking a time out as I've developed an allergic reaction from one of the many renegade vines we've been clearing from the property. Plus I'm avoiding the two foot long snake we've sighted in one of our beds! Brian, however, was part of a major project. We had some dead trees that needed to be removed. Thankfully, an expert in whatever area needed can be found among the people at St. Peter. Yesterday four members, one of whom owns a tree service, took down four of our dying trees. For two city kids the idea of doing this on your own is really bizarre, but these four guys were cool as cucumbers- throwing back miller lites, revving chain saws, predicting the place of landing for the tree, and sitting idly by as the tree fell a few yards from their feet. In the video below of one falling, notice Duane Betcher sitting coolly on the stump as their latest conquest bites the dust. Thanks guys!
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

The Confirmation Crawl

This weekend was confirmation at St. Peter. There were about sixty-five 8th graders that took part. There were 5 services that the students could get confirmed at and Brian was busy preaching, helping, and taking many group pictures throughout the weekend. Bri was able to establish some great relationships with the kids and really enjoyed teaching them. On Saturday night and Sunday afternoon we were able to stop at about 7 parties which were all very nice but collectively pretty overwhelming. For me it is especially tricky because everyone knows Brian, and through Brian, me. However, I am generally not nearly as comfortable with names and faces as Brian. I don't have the daily or even monthly contact with members that Brian does because St. Peter is such a large church. Thus, I have developed a catch-all phrase for those tricky introductions where you are not certain if this is the first time you have met someone or a repeat. I'm pretty proud of it as it took many awkward meetings to get it down. "Good to see you." Not "good to see you again", not "good to meet you", just "good to see you". It takes a lot of discipline to stop just after the "see you" but I have found it very effective. I suggest its use should the awkward occasion arise. I was able to use my "good to see you" line a good deal this weekend. The confirmation parties were individually very nice. It was great to see people in their homes, with their family, and in their element. We'll see how we approach the confirmation party crawl next year, but for year one we didn't too bad.

HGTV Cindy-Style

To continue our MI tradition of being out of town, Brian spent all of last week in Juarez Mexico on a mission trip. He went with people from church and they built from the ground-up a small home for a family of 4. It was an awesome experience. While he was gone my Mom came and stayed with me. Neither my mom nor I are ones to let the grass grow under our feet so we decided to tackle the big job of the landscaping around the parsonage. The landscaping had not been tended to in many years and was in serious need of an overhaul. Every time I walked outside and looked at it I was overwhelmed.

My Mom and I are often quite ambitious in our projects, and we especially like the opportunity for a big reveal when all our work is done (I guess it's from too much reality TV.) When I was in high school my Mom and I painted our entire Chicago bungalow while my Dad, Katie, and Mike were in Canada fishing. With Brian gone we had great motivation to finish before he returned. My Mom was awesome! She has such a knack for gardening and is so resourceful. We pretty much went non-stop for the week, and are very happy with the finished product. In fact, my Mom and I were finishing things up right until our company arrived on Saturday. Brian was truly impressed, and he and I are so excited to have a neat looking outside. We are so appreciative of her help. To cap off the weekend my Dad and Katie joined us for a surprise visit for Mother's Day. It was all just great!

Graduates!

Another weekend past and another spent outside the state of Michigan! This weekend my sister Katie graduated from Concordia University of Chicago, and I was able to travel and celebrate with my family. We also celebrated with Michael who is graduating from Illinois State University next weekend. They are both majoring in education, Katie in Math and Michael in English. Go figure, three teachers in one family. It was a nice ceremony, and we had an excellent celebration dinner at an old Bundalo family favorite Sabatino's. It has great Italian food and is so old-school the menus and pictures on the wall haven't changed since my Mom worked there 25 years ago. My parents are very excited to have all three of us done with college. We will continue the celebration at their dual graduation party June 9th and in a family trip planned for this summer. Congratulations on the hard work Katie and Mike!

Flickr Pictures

I have uploaded our digital pictures from the Party to our flickr site. They are pretty much the same as the photobucket pictures, but if you wanted another possibly easier format to view them, they're up there. It was such fun, and it is so nice to have some pictures to have captured parts of the evening.
Wa's Party Pictures, Click Here!

Wa's Surprise Party

On Thursday Brian and I flew to NY to help celebrate his Dad's Surprise Birthday. Linda and Cheryl worked very hard at putting the details of the party together and it was a major success. Roy or Wa as we have fondly nick-named him was totally surprised. It took him a while to realize he wasn't at Brian Strauss's birthday like the previous month's subterfuge had suggested but his own 60th birthday party. The night and weekend itself was such fun. We got to catch up and celebrate with so many great people. Wa's brother, sister, and their spouses came from DC, and Brian and I tremendously enjoyed catching up with them. Linda and Wa had friends come from Pennsylvania and Virginia who made the evening special of course for Wa but also for Brian, Linda, Cheryl, Danny, and myself. At the party we were able to catch up with all the fantastic Delmar/NY area natives who we miss seeing on a more regular basis. Not to mention, we had fun enjoying the company of our nieces Jenna and Michaela whom we can never get enough of. The only downside of the evening was that it had to end! If we could have kept everyone around for 48 hours straight that might have been enough time. It really couldn't have been a more perfect night or weekend. Happy Birthday Wa and thanks for the great night in your honor.