The HOUSE

Here are the long awaited photos of our new house! I won't keep you waiting any longer.

The house from the front

front and side

the luscious pears that will be ripe when everyone comes out!

the backyard

Kitchen - angle 1

Kitchen - angle 2

Veiw of the house from dining room

a corner of the living room

looking out from the sunroom door

going up to the second floor

the hallway

Mom and Dad's Room

upstairs bathroom

Here is the somewhat disorderly and incomplete tour of our house! I promise it's much cleaner than it is in these pictures because this was a day or two after the moving was over. Sorry about the sloppy arrangement of photos.

A week of Good Clean FUN!

As I lounged about in the luxurious atmosphere of wolf spiders and dirt that is so frequently found at girls camp, the family slaved away in a similar environment of spiders and dirt. Plus mold, and silver fish, and thousand leggers, and all of those other lovely items one is apt to find in the good old VFMAC house. There was a lot to be done. It was the week before the move AND Dad's Art Auction. It was miraculous occurrence. Providence must have been involved. I don't know what went on or how it was accomplished, but upon my return, on June 27th, the house was pretty much packed up and the downstairs, Mom and Dad's room, and the office were cleared out and paintings were hanging. Of course, such saints as Jane McCarraher and Aunt Beverly were there scrubbing down walls and helping unpack stuff into the new officially purchased home. It is most likely that the success of the move and auction are heavily due to such outside help as the fam received through out that week. Many thanks to all that helped. Honestly, there were a ton of people who helped and all contributed of their time most generously.
The Auction was a huge success. It was incredibly enjoyable for all that attended, and it was no a small number who came. All sorts of people were there to enjoyed (and purchase) Dad's art work and to partake in wonderful conversation and food. We were lucky enough to have Micah with us for a week and he played the guitar for our guests. It was loverly. Quite the social and cultural event of the season, I'd say. And of course, a special thanks must be given to Shana for all she did to make such a grand evening possible. It was a great way to finish off our times at our old home.

Getting the party started

Micah: Live and Unedited
Everyone exhausted

Before

After - wiped out

A Week of Good Dirty Fun

Girls Camp, that noble annual event created for the benefit of young women, is long over and hardly noteworthy, especially to you folks, except for that this was my last, as a youth anyway. It was great. No pictures, which is a good thing. You aren't missing out on anything.

A Work in Progress

So.... over the past few weeks we've working quite extensively on our heavily burdened house in preparation for the looming move. It's been the topic of conversation and action around these here parts, completely consuming our time and thoughts. Yet, because of the magnitude of, to put it nicely, unwanted objects in the household its been a bit of a slow process, in terms of seeing huge results. Through mothers hard work, the attic is practically cleared and we've unloaded an obscene amount of garbage. How do we have so much crap??? Well, no more! Brother and Sister Erekson were kind enough to come and spend the day fixing up the house and cleaning. Such awesome people!
We obviously are not finished, but there's still about one week left. I just thought I'd show some before and after pictures so that you all can be proud of the strides we're making towards the move on June 29th! Well, that mom is making anyway.

Boxes in the Basement

A formitable pile

Much better

Sorting through everything we own

Memorial Day

Our Memorial Day started as it always does: at sunrise in Valley Forge Park. Abe got there at 6:15 a.m. for what he thought was a 28 mile bike ride. It ended up being 47 miles, all the way to the Philadelphia Art Museum and back. Poor kid was pretty worn out, which says something about the ride! The rest of the family got to Wayne's Woods at about 7:30 for an early start on our 5 mile walk. It could not have been a more glorious day. A bit humid perhaps, but what else could be expected for PA weather? We all had a lovely time in the park, both walking and chatting. Our activities at Valley Forge were followed by a fairly laid back cookout at home with Carrie (Mike's sister) as our guest of honor. We celebrated Mommom's birthday (it's this coming Friday) with a carrot cake. Mimi and Doug also brought sparklers and an awesome fire cracker with them. A little unorthodox according to our usual Memorial Day traditions, but rather fun. And in the evening we heard some "unexpected", nevertheless wonderful, news....wink wink, nod nod, say no more, say no more!

Mommy and Abby a mile in

The crowd (yes that's Melissa in the background)
Daddy and AbbyMother gazing imperially at the food
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Our Beast Boggle Game.

Mother won (of course) and Shana wasn't happy (as you can see)

Happy Birthday!

They were really noisy, but really worth it