Adam's installation at Westby

One of the members of Adam's church took these wonderful pictures of today's installation.

How thrilled I am to get them! Thank you Jerry for taking these pictures and burning them on a CD so fast!

The bulletin.

Adam begins the service and we sang a hymn.


Adam and I sang a duet - the first time since 1997, I think.
We sang "Unfailing Love."



Yup, we were singing out!

Pastor Boe from our seminary came to Westby today, presented the message and performed the

Installation Writ.

Adam was asked questions and answered accordingly.

He said "yes" "yes" "yes" and "yes"...

Andrea and the children were invited to come forward.

The members of the congregation were standing.

A closing prayer was offered for Adam and his family.

Pastor Adam Berge and his lovely wife Andrea posed with the cake.

Adam's installation

This morning Adam was officially installed as the Pastor of Bethesda Lutheran Brethren Church in Westby, Wisconsin. Hannah was dressed for the occasion.

I didn't take too many pictures, sorry.

The interior of the church.

Adam and I sang a duet today. That was pretty special for both of us.

Here is the lovely cake the church had for the potluck meal and celebration following the morning service.


A quick view of the church potluck.
It felt so much like our years in the church in Hagen.
A warm fellowship.
.
A good time was had by all.

A little Westby

This weekend Wally and I came to Westby for the first time. We got to see the church that Adam serves and the Parsonage in which they live.

This is the cute little church.

Right next door to the brown church is the large white house that is the parsonage. Andrea has decorated it so lovely!

We drove the short few blocks to downtown and I took a few pictures.
This large Victorian home is a bed and breakfast.

I loved the sign on the window advertising fresh made lefse.

I wanted to go have coffee at Ole & Lena's but they had closed.

I'll have to do it next time.

This will only make sense to Scandinavians.

"uff-da" is an expression that Scandinavians say that sort of means.."good grief!"

.

Need I say that this is very Scandinavian community?

.

Uff-dah.

Ya, sure, ya betcha...

Still waiting...

In case you have been stalking this blog (along with Meghan & Daniel's blog) I thought I'd report that there is no baby yet and no signs of one in the near future...

When I was due with Daniel, the due date was the end of October. But since I had gone early with the other two sons, and, in fact, was SO much larger with Daniel, I told folks I was due "the middle of October."

He was born November 7th. He was 9 lbs 3 oz.

AHH. I think this baby is taking after Daddy.

Happy 13th birthday to Alison!!

This is birthday week for three of my nieces!

And this is one very special birthday - a teenager has arrived!

Alison is 13 today!

Happy birthday dear Ali - I hope to see you in about 2 weeks!

Until then, have a wonderful day!!!!

Happy Birthday Jill!

Happy Birthday today to my dear niece Jill (pictured here with her daughter Courtney at Courtney's first communion). I hope you have a wonderful day today Jill!

I wonder if you will get to share your birthdate with a new first cousin once removed? Doubtful...

Brooklyn's riding lesson

Today was lesson 3 for Brooklyn. I took a little video clip so she could see what she looks like on Pistol, the horse she rides. This part of her lesson was for her to get used to a slightly faster movement of the horse - each week she becomes more confident. She sits up nice and tall in the saddle. Enjoy.

Happy Birthday Stacey!

Happy birthday today to my dear niece Stacey!

If it's too warm in California for you, just hop on a plane and come visit!

We can offer nice cool weather!!!

Have a wonderful day!!

Indoor play

This morning I had little visitors.

Yes, we did children's television for a while... then I wanted to be creative so we got out some rice!

Everyone had their own pan of rice.

It felt funny!

But it sure was fun.

.

There's always a vaccuum.
(Next time I think I'll try elbow macaroni though - it's a bit larger..)

Like father, like son...

Go Vikings!

Little Hands

There were some little hands at play today...

Busy with the farm and

the pumpkins in the puzzle.

They drove the tractor all over...

through the field of carpet and

up over the foothills!

Whose little hands? Mine! says Sean Patrick!

Still sewing...

I've been having such fun sewing these days. I have made quite a number of cute "burp" clothes for babies and some really soft minky baby blankets as well.

I found a pattern for a nursing cover and made one as a practice and then purchased some better fabric for 4 more nursing covers. Here they are hanging up for a picture.

This is what one looks like laying flat.

There is a "boning" in the front that bows away from the body so that the nursing mom can look down to see the baby while maintaining privacy.


On the reverse side I sewed two pockets out of terry cloth.

Here are the fabrics. The one on the left is the "practice" one and the others the higher quality fabric.

I think I"ll make some matching burp clothes with the extra fabric.

Still baking bread..

I'm not sure exactly when I decided to see if I could bake our bread exclusively (i.e. - not purchasing any bread in the store..) - but I'm still at it. I did break down and buy some english muffins, but no loaf bread. Here is one of my favorites: a french bread baked in clay.

It is sooo good!!

Fall fun

This weekend we had a little fun at a local farm that was demonstrating activities from years ago.

There were lots of pumpkins and lots of fall fun!

Sean was enjoying all the pumpkins and gourds!

Brooklyn had some fun feeding a baby goat his bottle.

The sandbox was corn kernels.

There was a small stand of corn one could explore.

On Friday the flags were out in our town because it was

POW/MIA recognition day.

Preston and I took a walk downtown together.

We also had to visit the bakery!

And feed the ducks and geese at Lake Alice.

Last stop was the playground!

We had fun!