Family Getaway
The Kush family is not known for being spontaneous. Last week, however, we stepped out and were just that! Dave had a few days off and we were going to hang around and do a couple of day trips....that turned in to a whirlwind trip to Cleveland and back with a couple of stops to and from.
Our first stop was with Dave's sister in Charlotte, N.C. where it was brief - a few hours sleep and a delicious breakfast. We always look forward to time spent with the Davis'! Hospitality central:)
We arrived at Dave's dad's house Wednesday evening where Grandpa was waiting with a dinner spread prepared solely by him - borscht and stew - a very special treat!
Below are a few pictures of some of the other friends & family we were able to catch up with after years of being apart...
We enjoyed a day at Cedar Point with our long time friends from Cleveland, the Foldesy's. Here we are waiting in line for the craziest coaster ride I've ever experienced - The Raptor!
We made a visit to Dave's side of the family at his Aunt Lucy's house in Lakewood. Here we are with his cousin's family who are missionaries and are preparing to leave for the Philippines in August.
Our last stop in Cuyahoga County was in Bay Village to meet up with Dave's childhood friend and best man, Bryan Koorey. He and his wife happened to be in town for a wedding and his parents blessed us with an out of this world breakfast spread before we started our way back to Florida.
Eight hours later we arrived in Northeastern Tennessee where our dear friends, the Gregory's and Durrua's call "home base". They travel most of the time but are blessed to now have homes in the foothills of the Smokey Mountains. Two words - FUN & BEAUTIFUL! Here are our three families' children (minus Beau & Allie).
...and the parents of those adorable kids!!
Labels: family, friends, vacation
Fit2Run 4-miler
This morning I finished my first ever organized race! My two girlfriends, Lisa & Kerri, were my supportive companions. We started together, stayed together & finished together. It was fun seeing people we knew and chatting with them before the race. My parents & Dave were even there to cheer us! Once we crossed the finish line we guzzled down some much needed water and grabbed some fruit to replenish our tired bodies. It was hard, but it was fun & I'm certain this is just the first of many to come.
Labels: friends, running
5 Obsessions...
I got tagged by my sister-in-law,
Penny, to reveal five obsessions. Well, here they are and in no particular order, as anyone who has self-professed, undiagnosed, mild OCD will tell you, they are all equally important!
1. my hair (I incessantly pull on it, twirl it and pick at it!)
2. cleaning
3. organizing
4. reading
5. photography
I'm tagging
Sarah,
Chad, &
Kim. Can't wait to see what other obsessions are lurking out there!
Labels: friends, fun facts
Last night was our 5th annual Life Group White Elephant Christmas Party. We filled our stomachs with delectable food, enjoyed fun conversation and had a rip-roaring gift exchange. Our Life Group is an extension of our family and I can't imagine celebrating Christmas without these, my dearest friends! Here are a few candids from the evening...
Labels: church, friends
Family Photo Time!
On Monday I had about 30 minutes to pull off some shots of our Duvall Family friends. Here are a few of my favorites.
Labels: friends, photography
Some of my favorite people in the world....
As was previously mentioned in an earlier post, I recently had my 40th birthday. Thankfully, Dave and my family honored my request to NOT give me a blowout party. They kindly arranged a wonderful birthday dinner at my parents with just the family (adopted family included!). It was perfect!
But for a few of my girlfriends, that would not do! They arranged a girls night out to Cheesecake Factory at CityPlace and I can't begin to tell you how much fun it was! We had plenty of laughs and I believe we were a terrible distraction for the other patrons who were "fortunate" enough to be out on the patio with us. Here are a couple of pictures (thank you Weezie!) of some of my favorite people in the world...
Labels: family, friends
My friend, Weezie!
One of my very best friends in the world, Lisa, just started a blog called
Life According to Weezie. She has a heart and passion for ministry with a remarkable gift of public speaking. She's funny, fashionable and full of life....check out her blog and fall in love with the Weezie that's near and dear to my heart!
Labels: friends
Summer's Here!
Summer is gearing up. Here's what the next couple of weeks look like for our family...
Our dear Wiggins-family friends are on a trip to New York until Sunday with their oldest daughter. We are enjoying the week hosting their two younger girls while they're away. Mollie and Benjamin are happy to oblige entertaining their long time buddies, Mandy and MaryBeth!
Andrew is currently in St. Petersburg attending a
leadership academy program for Sea Cadets. He left at 8 a.m. Sunday morning, hitching a ride with our treasured friends, the Virelles', whose son is also attending. If you click on the above link (leadership academy) you can see photos of each days events.
Tomorrow, Mollie is going with her best girl Mandy, to Islands of Adventure with my brother's youth group, Calvary Chapel Jupiter. They leave at 1:30 p.m. and return Friday night around 9:30. Drop off and pick up is at Independence Middle School in Jupiter...about a 40 minute drive.
Saturday morning, very early, we load up the whole crew, including Grannie and Grampy, to attend Andrew's graduation from Leadership Academy and bring him and his buddy Alden home to West Palm. That's about a 4 1/2 hour drive each way. Graduation is at 10 a.m.--do the math and you'll see what I mean by leaving "very early" .
Sunday the Wiggin's girls go home and the Kush family starts packing again!
Andrew flies out of Miami Thursday morning, July 3rd, for our church's New York mission trip. We have to have him at the church before sunup for the 5:30 a.m. departure. We're so excited for him to experience his very first mission trip! I'll be sure to post details on that as I get them. Please keep him and his group in prayer!
Saturday morning we load up again with more bags packed to drive Mollie and Benjamin to Ft. Lauderdale where they will take their first flight to the sky alone. They are going to Tennessee where Mollie is attending
Long View Ranch christian camp with her adored friend, Rachel. Her mother, my beloved Debbie, will be playing mom to Benjamin for the week while he enjoys a little time with their youngest son, James.
Andrew returns on the 11th, Mollie and Ben on the 12th.....what will I do with a whole week with no children, you ask??? Well, I'll just have to save that for a later post!
Labels: family, friends
Hillbilly Golf, Anyone?
Monday night we went to our dear friends' house, the Duvall's, for their daughter Addy's 3rd birthday. Several close friends were there to celebrate the a Cinco de Mayo themed party and, as usual, we had a wonderful time. Besides savoring the delicious mexican food and a relishing a little hysteria over Addy's typical 3-year-old exploits, we had great fun watching the guys competing with some "Hillbilly Golf". Here are a few shots displaying their athletic prowess. I'm not sure, but I think James may have pulled a hamstring in his horse shoe style attempt to wrap his golf balls around the top rung!
Labels: friends
A Few Photos from a Memorable Weekend...
The Happy Family
Carlin Park - Celebration for Roman & Jadon....many friends and family members joined in this great time of fellowship as they were introduced to the ones they'd prayed so long for!
Chris and Penny giving their public dedication to the Lord of Roman & Jadon - Pastor Dan Plourde
Proud family members looking on with great joy!
Labels: adoption, family, friends
Another Busy Weekend...
I can't believe a week has gone by since my last post! As I'm sure you've figured out by now, it's been quite busy around here. Here's what we've been up to...
We had some precious people over for dinner Friday night, the three Muelenberg kids. I say kids, they are in their twenty's and they certainly don't act like "kids", but they are quite a lot younger than us, thus the title! They are from Holland and are currently working at various ministry positions at our church. We were hypnotized by their testimonies. I love hearing people's stories, but theirs was for the record books... they grew up with their parents using an ice cream truck to smuggle Bible's into Macedonia...I'd say that takes the cake!
So we had a wonderful time getting to know them. Our kids loved being with them as Michal, Ephraim, and Reuben took such an interest in each of them. We will be having them over again, I can tell you that!
I had another event to work at the church this weekend which consumed most all of my weekend. It was a pastor's reception and included about 45 people on Saturday night and 21 on Sunday afternoon. It was dissimilar to any event we've done in the past. The main differences being size and setting. Normally we do very large events, hosting 200-500. We also used real table settings, not paper or plastic, and we actually plated the food and served individually, no buffet.
Friday we had a team of about six help with setting up the room and tables. Saturday another friend and I spent from 10:30 to 3 p.m. making the flower arrangements and settling some finishing touches. We had just enough time to go home, shower, change and be back at the church at 4:30 to meet the rest of the team and go over last minute details.
After the reception we had to reset the tables for the next day so we all arrived home late that night and returned Sunday morning at 10:30. Sunday was a repeat, except for when the reception was over we had to box up all of the rented tableware and put all the decor items away. I got home around 3 o'clock.
At 4:30 we had small group bible study so I had just enough time to change, take a 15 minute nap and head out one more time!
All in all it was a great weekend. A little overbooked, but it turned out fine. I can breathe now for a couple of weeks!
Labels: church, friends
Senior Pictures!
I got to do my very first High School Senior Picture shoot today! I've know this beautiful young lady since she was in diapers...she probably would like me to spare you the details, though! It was tough to choose my favorites, but here they are. Let me know what you think!
Labels: friends, photography
Through the Bible in a Year
You'll notice I changed my links around so they're easier to identify and I've also added a couple of new ones. One in particular I'd like you to make note of is under Ministries -
Calvary PSL Women.
My PSL friend, Stacy, is married to the brilliant and wonderful Mike who happens to be the pastor of their church,
Calvary Chapel Port St. Lucie. The women's group at CCPSL is exploding and Stacy has decided to add the world wide web to their m.o. in reaching out to and connecting with these ladies. I'm very excited about the new blog they've launched and have decided to jump in on the fun a bit!
They are currently going through the
Chronological Bible in a year. The blog is a terrific way to keep the women motivated and give them tools for further study. It' s a great format for discussion, questions and staying connected. I hope you
join me as
I join these ladies in committing to read through the Bible this New Year!
Labels: church, friends
HAPPY NEW YEAR - 2008!
I thought I'd start the New Year off with a new look for my blog and a few quotes for a chuckle. Enjoy!
Youth is when you're allowed to stay up late on New Year's Eve. Middle age is when you're forced to. ~Bill Vaughn
People are so worried about what they eat between Christmas and the New Year, but they really should be worried about what they eat between the New Year and Christmas. ~Author Unknown
Never tell your resolution beforehand, or it's twice as onerous a duty. ~John Selden
New Year's Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.
James Agate
A New Year's resolution is something that goes in one year and out the other. ~Author Unknown
Labels: friends, fun facts
FISHFLIX?
I'm sad to say that we are not movie rental enthusiasts in the Kush household. We have way too many network television shows that we are addicted to - House, Lost, CSI, Heroes, The Office - you get the picture, one for every night of the week! Besides getting nailed with one too many late fees from our local movie rental center, due to the hectic nature of our weeknights, we've had more than our share of movie rentals returned unwatched!
That said, a couple of our friends have started using Netflix, making movie watching much more feasible due to it's front-door delivery and pick up as well as the convenience of ordering online. You never have to leave your house - just a short walk to your mailbox and tah-dah! You're requested movie is at your fingertips!
As you can probably guess, this option has started to sound a bit appealing and caused me to consider trying this not-so-new modern convenience. I've not decided anything. I haven't even discussed it with my husband. I'm just tossing it around in my head.
Now, my PSL girlfriend and homeschool mentor lands this one on me. Fishflix. You got it. Same idea as Netflix, but a Christian based and family centered entertainment resource. Their motto..."edify, encourage and entertain." Intrigued yet? You can check them out
here. They have everything from well-loved movie classics to documentary's and bible teaching.
More for me to process! Anyway, I'm thinking about it...why don't you?
Labels: friends, fun facts, tv
I'm Back!
I'm sure I have no need for explanation, but I feel the urge to express my reason for a lack of posting this past week. Notwithstanding the fact that it's the week before Christmas, we've had our dear friends, the Gregory's staying with us (and had a blast, by the way!) and they just left Wednesday morning. That pushed blogging further down on my list of priorities. We were able to go bowling with the kids - who are actually better bowlers than the adults! The grown-ups even had a chance for dinner out at a favorite spot, The River House, one evening. Besides that most of our time was spent staying up late and getting caught up on the events of one another's lives.
We were sad to see them leave, but grateful for the time given us. It's always a joy when our families are together!
Labels: friends
Company's Coming!
We are very excited today in the Kush household! Our dear friends, the Gregory's, are coming into town tonight and will be staying with us for a few nights. We don't have any special plans other than staying up late, sipping on coffee and catching up on life!
This morning I made my way to Walmart for groceries. I then made a quick stop to drop off a special delivery for a couple of special people who serve us at our Royal Palm campus. While I was there I unloaded some toys our 4-H club had collected for the church's ministry to families in Belle Glade this Christmas.
Now I'm home, the groceries are unpacked and Harry Connick, Jr. is serenading me with some of his special Christmas tunes. It's time to get this house ready for our precious guests!
Labels: friends
Yet another picture day...
Friday afternoon I set aside some time to do beach pictures for a few staff families at our church. We all met up at
Coral Cove Park on Jupiter Island. This peaceful and alluring spot is the epitome of south Florida beauty that pictures struggle to capture. Three out of the four families have just moved here from various parts of the country so the setting was perfect for this years Christmas cards.
I thought I'd share a few of my favorites with you....
Labels: friends, photography
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend!
I hope all of our friends and family had a joyful & gluttonous four-day Thanksgiving weekend with all the trimmings!
The Kush's & the Goeppner's enjoyed a fabulous affair with tremendous amounts of eating and laughing with our Wiggins & Genrich family friends as well as the better half of the Batista family.
Of course shopping was involved on several fronts beginning with online bargains and ending with strip mall sales, excluding todays trip to Walmart for more Christmas lights. We also squeezed in a mexican dinner and a movie (
August Rush--excellent family movie!) with the Duvall's, a series of football games (sorry about the 'canes, Chris!), some marshmallow roasting over a bonfire, and a Christmas Vacation & Santa Claus III viewing on the new "big boy"! I dare not say I can imagine cramming one more activity into our four day recess from every day life.
I thought my far-away readers might appreciate a few photos of our holiday...
Wiggins & Kush Kids Pyramid
Trampoline Fun
Grampy & Dave on "flame control" duty
Labels: family, food, friends
