The Visit to David Kline

I know, I know this is a long overdue post. David Kline is an Amish man who is the author of two books, Scratching the Woodchuck and Great Possessions. The visit to David's place was amazing! I learned a lot and enjoyed the time being with him at his house. It was just cool to listen to him talk with his German accent. He talked about nature and Anabaptist history with my dad. We mostly listened, but Emily brought up her favorite quote of his "a faint tinge of skunk," and he knew exactly what she was talking about. He even went on to tell us that it sometimes is fox when it is just a faint tinge. He had his wood stove going and his wife came in and had a rack for clothes close by and hung up the wash and turned a heat powered fan toward them! He has a chest full of books and a closet filled with books and two whole bookshelves full of books! I like to read, but that is a lot of books. Reading his book and then seeing him in person was cool. Plus, I think reading the book made me enjoy the visit a lot more. It was funny, because our Sunday School teacher said you have to remember to tell your dad that field trips are for you and Emily too not just him, but I think I liked it almost as much as he did (actually liking it as much as him is pretty hard to match.) David was a very kind and easy to talk to person (although I didn't talk to him as much.)

Christmas Break

For Christmas this year we stayed home for Christmas Day. Then we went to Ohio (my mom's side) on the 26th and stayed there for about 3 days. We got to go snowmobiling in the field! I love to go by myself and fast. When your the driver the wind is blocked by the wind shield, but when you are the passenger you get all the wind in your face! Emily rode with me and she likes to be in control so she wanted me to go really slow.... Boring! We also got to go to a pool with a game room! I beat my mom in Air Hockey (7 to 6) and if you know my mom and me (we are both very competitive) that was huge accomplishment for me... she will never hear the end of that. We left for Indiana (Dad's side) in Grandpa and Grandma Helmuth's van, because we wanted some space and our Honda does not give that to us. We had the best meals....... Michigan Meatballs, Pork Loin, Pancakes, etc. We had Christmas the day we got there. We all had Barnes 'n Noble gift cards so we went to Barnes 'n Noble and got books then we got some Annie Anne's pretzels! Our cousins have a video camera so we did a talk show ( I wasn't in it much because I'm not a good actress!) The four oldest slept down in the basement which was awesome because we can pretty much stay up as long as we want to. We went to Ohio for the night so we wouldn't have to travel the whole way in one day. We got home yesterday at 4:00. Now we settle in for 4 days then Emily, Anya, Dad and I are going to Ohio for a week, while my G-ma and G-pa H. are going on Mennonite Disaster Service Project.

Port Isobel

Oh, what can I say it was so much fun! Well Dad drove the bus that we were going in with a bunch of AP Biology students to a town called Chrisfield. Then we got on a boat called the Loni Carol 2 (we don't know what happened to Loni Carol 1)the captain's name was Captain Charles. We went on a 45 min. ride over to Port Isobel a neighboring island to Tangier Island. We stayed in a building called the Snow Goose. There was also a building called the Bakery which we hung out in and ate in. Then we had an introduction meeting to learn names and introduce rules. The first thing we did was set the crab pots out(well it was unpack.) Then we went back to land and we ate Lunch and Supper. The students made our food, it was good. The students went on a night hike, but we were too tired. The next day we started off the day with a hot breakfast. Then we went Marsh Mucking! Most of the people were covered in marsh muck from head to toe. I got covered from toe to knee. Then we came back and had some free time and snacks. Then we headed out to Tangier Island. The little island has a big heart! Everybody was so friendly there wasn't a person that went by that didn't wave. I got to experience my first crab cake, YUM! They had a history museum that we went to with lots of cool facts. Then we got back to Port Isobel. Next we got our crab pots. We got a total of 28 good crabs. One of our leaders and Captain Charles caught some striped bass for supper! We had bass and a little bit of crab for supper. Then we went on a short night hike into a forest of bamboo. The next morning we had a closing meeting and had to clean up the Bakery and the Snow Goose. Then it was back to the bus for a long ride home! It was a great experience, Thanks CBF.

Hatching Chicks

On Monday the 16th we got a call from our neighbor (Carmen) that one of their eggs had a little hole in it and that we could come over anytime to see it. Anya didn't have to be at school for about a half hour. So,when she was ready we went over and watched. The hole didn't get bigger, we waited and we heard some chirps and and the egg shake. Other than that nothing happened for a long time. So time passed and Anya had to go to school so Dad took her to school and we stayed and we were going to walk back as soon as it hatched. Well we waited and it didn't much of anything, so Dad got back and it still hadn't hatched! We were getting impatient so we got some paper and pencil. Clint made the stages of the egg hatching even though he had only seen one. Ginny did an ocean and Emily and I just kinda doodled. So we ended up staying there the whole day! When we left it still hadn't hatched. Later that night at 11:30pm it hatched! That chick wasn't very healthy but they now have 2 other that hatched later.

!!!!!!Grandparents!!!!!!

This week our grandparents came! So we got to slack off a little :):):):)! Well we did lot of other things instead of what we normally did. They brought down two desks and a dresser and a chest of drawers. The desks were from a discount place at Sauder and the dresser and chest of drawers were from an estate sale. The desks were for Emily and I and Anya got my old desk. the dresser and drawers were for my mom and dad. We had to put together the desks so Grandpa helped us. We did the first one (Emily's) in about maybe 4 or 5 hours and the second one(mine) in a little less than 2 hours!!!! WOW! We went really quickly the second time because me and Emily knew what we were doing. Grandpa knew what he was doing both times so he helped more on the second one!!!!! My grandma worked in the kitchen a lot she made applesauce and dried apples (Grandpa helped her some.) We went disc golfing with grandpa. Then Emily and I did interviews with our grandma and grandpa. I did Grandpa and Emily did Grandma. I think we learned a lot from it. We each did essays on our interviews. I thought it was fun to get to know more about him and hear the different stories.

Crickets Chirping

Here is my poem I wrote in Pennslyvania:

Crickets Chirping

The crickets are chirping,

The birds are singing,

Thunderous cars interupt,

The wind starts to blow,

The cars and wind stop,

The chirps and sweet songs come back,

All is Peaceful.

By: Kate Kauffman

Pennsylvania

We have been at my Aunt's house for just about two days. Here strengths are in music, reading, art, other languages and cooking. All of which my dad does not, well except reading. So the past days we've been liveing in town which is a big change for me and Emily. We are liking city life. ha. We are each taking a turn doing our meals Emily's day was today we had pea soup. yum. We are practicing our harmonizing. Em sings Soprano some and Alto some I sing mostly Alto. Our aunt is sweet and our uncle is funny a great mixture! We have also been learning some Portuguese like oi, bom dia, and ate amanha! It is so cool to know another language not really but close! Today we made cards out of dried flowers. Kandace's were way better than mine!