at the dairy farm

my grandpa is a social butterfly. he knows a lot people in his town and likes to take us on field trips. in the past, we've been to a cricket farm and a training center where golden retrievers are taught to be assist dogs for people with disabilities. but this time, he brought us to a dairy farm.

i need to start with the story of how my grandpa met the owner of the dairy, rob, who is a dutchman just like ben. he is also a Christian and incredibly kind. rob restores old farm equipment. he got his hands on a feed trailer my grandpa built in 1963. he figured it had about a million miles on it. to finish the restoration, rob wanted a "miller built" sign that my grandpa (whose last name is miller) put on all his machines. so he gave my grandpa a call to see if he could have one, and thus began a beautiful friendship.

 my grandpa's sign: "miller built"

the feed trailer my grandpa built in the 1960s. it was huge!

i think it is super cool. anyway, rob showed us around the dairy. did i mention it had 9,000 cows that are milked twice a day? you might be wondering how this is possible. answer: the wheel. cows enter a spot in the wheel and are electronically milked as they go around. the machines monitor the milk and production to make sure everything is okay. then the cows exit back into their holding pens to wait for the next milking. so amazing!

all sorts of cool things happened at this dairy. because the milk is used primarily for cheese, it goes through a filter that removes the water. that water is then reused for the cows to drink, etc. also, through some complicated process i do not understand (but i'm pretty sure my brother did), the manure from the cows was transformed into fuel that could power a truck. yes, that is right. here's an article for those who are interested.

and of course, we got to see the babies, too. they were being fed.

and a shot of hannah and lauren for good measure.

i think i have enough pictures for two more california posts: the orange grove and my grandpa's shop.

thanks for reading! happy new year's eve!

in the land of olive groves

we just got home from our california adventure a few hours ago. although we had a great time, it is always good to be home!

my grandpa is an amazing man. he's a tinkerer, a machinist, an engineer, a welder . . . he doesn't fit into a category. i took some pictures around his shop, and i'll share those in another post. he lives in the san joaquin valley, a really beautiful area that provided many opportunities for picture taking.

up until a few months ago, he owned an olive grove, but he recently sold it to a friend of his. we still were able to visit it on monday morning. here we go!

ben and grandpa bonding over a love of tractors and machines!

of course. :)

this picture looks like lord of the rings to me and ben.

hannah rides with the guys!

see that green stuff? that's mistletoe. it's a parasite. not so romantic, huh?

my mom pointed out that she can see why Jesus went to the mount of olives to pray and to be alone. olive trees grow full and dense and a grove is a private place.

hannah was so good! love that hat.

i took hundreds of pictures, so i'll share some more later this week. thanks for reading!

today's lunch

in-n-out is a true california treat. i had mine with grilled onions. yum!

today was filled with activities such as a peaceful morning walk through my grandpa's old olive grove and a trip to a local 9,000-cow dairy farm. tomorrow we're driving up into the mountains, and then we're traveling home on wednesday. until the future!

en route to fresno

greetings from sunny las vegas, nevada! we're here for a layover—been up since 3:15 this morning and with the help of some caffeine and catnaps, we're still going strong. :)

in Christ alone

merry Christmas!

a few weeks ago, my parents gave us a book named come thou long-expected Jesus—a collection of advent readings. yesterday's reading reminded me that Jesus "tabernacled" with us. he is the "place" where we now commune with God. and Christ Jesus was born a martyr—He came to die. Christmas points to the cross. it was a beautiful reading and helped me remember the weight of what we celebrate this time of year.


our day was filled to the brim with blessing upon blessing. we were able to spend the day with both our families, and it was such a treat. i hope your day was blessed, too!

well, folks, even though it is only 8 p.m., we've got a 6 a.m. flight to catch, which means we're off to bed. we're flying to fresno, california, to visit my grandpa. i hope to share some news from the road, but if not, until the future!

Christmas light date night 2010

hello all! just one week 'til Christmas! :)

last night, ben and i had a date night to eat some pizza, drink some hot beverages, and see some Christmas lights. first, we visited beek's pizza, anxious for some pepperoni deliciousness. this is the THIRD time we've gone to a pizza place and discovered it is take-out or delivery only! you think we'd learn to check the web site ahead of time. :) well, we put in our order, walked across the street to kowalski's for paper plates and napkins, and had a delicious meal in ben's car.

we then proceeded to a special street in a nearby city that shares a name with me (not my real name but one of my many nicknames). with caribou in hand, we drove the streets looking at Christmas lights—but, i admit, i think we did more looking at the actual houses. gorgeous!

all photos have been blurred to protect the innocent! :) :)

it was a great time. we've done this a few times in the past years and it is just one of those fun, low-key, ben-and-amy traditions that i love so much. 

tonight we are going to my parents' Christmas party and tomorrow we celebrate Christmas with ben's family. should be a wonderful weekend.

i thank God

for this man, who not only clears the driveway, but makes sure to check in on me from the kitchen window.

let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

what do you think: will it be the worst minnesota blizzard since halloween of '91?

we don't mind. we've got plenty of food (treats!)! a day at home sounds like a dream after an incredibly busy week at work. i plan to catch up on laundry, make a dessert for tomorrow (chocolate divine!), wrap some Christmas presents, and finish some sewing projects. we might pop in elf, too. can't believe we haven't watched it yet this year.

are you snowed in? what are your plans for the day? if you must go out: be safe!

bedside manner

i finally finished them: two bedside tables/dressers for our master bedroom. each is an ikea rast—a pretty popular item for re-doing, as seen here, here, and here.

the price is great and the quality is pretty good (it is pine). i like the two-tone look that i saw others try, but i didn't want to stain the wood. i wanted the outside to be gray—almost the same as the walls, but just a touch darker. nothing too loud, because the headboard is pretty bold already. after much deliberation, i went with a benjamin moore gray mixed at sherwin williams. the white is just left over from our trim.

with ikea, the toughest part is putting the piece together with the cheapie allen wrench tools.

then it was just sanding, tacking, priming, painting, and varnishing in various repeating stages whenever i could sneak down to the basement in half-hour increments. then, weeks later, i brought them up!

it is nice to have drawers for socks, hand lotion (my hands crack and bleed in the winter! eek!), glasses, and a few choice books. i would have loved to add some special knobs like these or these, but i needed 12, so anything more than a few bucks would get expensive pretty quickly. i ended up with some simple ones from home depot that i bought in a bulk pack. i'm happy, and ben's happy. grrrrreat!

wow, it looks really empty. i need to add some lamps and maybe some accessories to style up the dressers, like in rebecca's post. the interwebs is an endless source of ideas.

the next big project is to sand, stain, and varnish the kitchen table that bert made a new top for! i literally can't wait, but i think i'm going to have to. not much time between now and Christmas for house projects.

stay warm!

a beautiful day

another wonderful Christmas celebration at bethlehem! it is one of my favorite days of the year. kristen and i braved the winter storm to set up our table on friday night (and grab a quick dinner at the good earth afterward! delish.).

you can see our table from last year here. this year, kristen got things rolling with those beautiful blue chargers and the rest came together from there. it's great to team up with her. she's a really gracious table host. very calm under pressure. but the lunch was great—the musical program is always Christ-exalting and creatively done. i like that we get to sing along to some of the carols. such rich theology.

on a side note, my poor canon powershot sd400 is on its deathbed, i believe. but it has served me well for five years (i think it was my college graduation gift)! now it sells used on amazon for 45 bucks. funny. as things currently stand, i would like to find a smaller lens (possibly non-zoom, like this bad boy?) for my canon 50d and a more streamlined bag (that is not too girly, because ben uses it, even though this bag is fabulous!). i'd love to be able to carry it with me more often. but these things are so expensive. plus, i'm slow to make decisions so i gotta save up and mull it over.

after the lunch me, kristen, and my mom headed over to the nicollet mall for some christmas shopping. it's really fun to be downtown around the holidays. it feels a bit old fashioned somehow. man, i miss marshall field's. kristen and i used to go to their eighth floor christmas display each year on a sister date. now i think macy's just repeats the "day in the life of an elf" display every year. quite disappointing.

we capped off the day with a pizza and casino royale viewing at kristen's apartment with a scattering of friends. i think kaylee said it felt a bit like college, and she was right! what a fun day with family and friends celebrating the Christmas season. Christ is why we have Christmas. what a beautiful Savior.

preparing for the bethlehem women's Christmas celebration!

hosting a table again with my sister tomorrow morning. can't wait!