It's been almost a year since my last blog post.  Life just seems to come at me fast all the time.  October is the beginning of wedding "season" here in amish country.  I think we should call it just that wedding season and not fall since the weddings are what define fall in Amish country.  Driving for the weddings kept me quite busy through December.  Larry also started working day shift in October of last year.  Losing him as a back up driver really kept me super busy.  November, of course, brought Thanksgiving.  We hosted a young lady from Spain for the long holiday weekend.  She arrived Thanksgiving morning and was with us through the weekend.  Black Friday brought the beginning of the Christmas shopping season and continued till Christmas Eve.  We had a lot of people to buy for since we Jonathan's girlfriend and her 2 children would be joining us.  Christmas was wonderful and it was great to have little ones around the tree again.  We went to the movies on Christmas night to see Benjamin Button.  Going to the movies on Christmas night has become a tradition.  We had company over for New Year's Eve and if I remember we had a very quiet New Year's Day.  The year got off to a good start and was a busy one.  Jonathan's girlfriend is a single mom and found herself with out somewhere to live in early March.  She was looking at either having to live on the street or in a shelter with her two precious babies.  We talked it over as a family and they moved in with  us.  Michelle is 25, Angelina is 3 and Nathan is 2.  Jonathan graciously gave up his bedroom so Michelle and the kids could have a bedroom.  He has been sleeping in the family room on the couch since March.  I kept busy through the spring and summer with driving amish.  School started the end of August and this year I am driving 5 amish school teachers and 16 amish kids to school. 
Fall 2009 has arrived once again and the amish wedding season with it.  The first weddings start today and the last ones won't be till the second week in December.  The leaves are changing and are so very colorful.  Larry and I celebrate 25 yrs of marriage next week and will be leaving Friday for a long weekend away at "The Victorian Cottage".  We went back and forth where to go and decided to stay close to home so we didn't have a long travel time and also so we could rest and not feel we had to go sightseeing.  We both need a rest and are looking forward to the weekend very much.  I think we will be spending most of it relaxing in the hot tub,lol. 
I am going to TRY and start blogging again so stay tuned.

We are all well and hanging in there.  We had a very busy summer and are enjoying the fall weather we have been having here in PA.

Nicole had a car accident 2 weeks ago this Tuesday.  She fell asleep at the wheel and hit a telephone pole head on.  We are very thankful she walked away without injury.  Here is a link to the accident if you are interested.
http://www.whitehorsefire.org/index.cfm?fs=news.newsView&News_ID=164  

Both of our children that still live at home are dating and we will most likely be hearing wedding bells in the spring for JOnathan our middle "child".  He is dating a young lady with 2 children so we will become instant gandparents. 

We moved last weekend and right now spend most of our time at the new house, but have to go back to the old one to sleep as we haven't gotten our occupancy permit (brnad new house) yet, but hope to this week.  We are in a much smaller home than we had been and I really had to downsize for which I was glad since I am not a pack rat.  The house is perfect for us as our kids are getting to the ages of moving out.

The Amish business is keeping me VERY busy and also the rest of the family.  On occasion I don't have enough drivers to go around.  Wedding season starts later this month and runs through mid December so we will be very busy on Tuesdays and Thursdays the days the Amish have there weddings.  This summer also found me as an "ambulance" driver on occasion.  Just in the last few months I have taken 2 ladies to have babies (one of them was this afternoon) also have taken a boy to get his arm checked.  He was helping build a new tabocco shed and fell 10ft or so to the ground.  Just this past Tuesday I took another boy to the ER as he cut off his finger hitching up work horses in the dark.  They were trying to get the rest of the hay in and he was using his finger to find the hole for the pin and the horses jerked forward cutting off his finger.  Last month I took a lady to the hospital ER with kidney stones. In May I was out on a run and got and emergency call to take a young boys parents to the hospital in DE.  There 4yo son had fallen 27 ft down a chimmney shaft (they were building a new home) to the concrete on the basement floor.  I spent all but a week driving them and other family memebers back and forth to DE to the hospital.  Believe it or not he survived and has no lasting injuries or problems.  He was in the hospital for 6 days Thankfully each of these people are all fine.  I am now driving workers, teachers and of course my amish school kids to school daily.  My morning starts when the alarm goes off at 5am and I am on the road from about 5:20am till 6:15am then again from 6:50am till about 8:15am.  Usually my days fill in and I am on the road most of the time inbetween driving the teachers and kids in the morning till I drive them again in the afternoon starting at 3:15pm.

Larry has been working night shift since February and just went on days this past Monday at the same job.  He works in Honey Brook at Zook's Molasses.  He works with all sorts of different food items.  One of the things he packages is pretzel dough mix for Aunt Aunties pretzels. 

Well, I know this was a quick update, but it should at least bring you all up to speed.

Debbie

Wow, Sunday night already and I feel like its the end of the week instead of the beginning.  I am totally exhausted.  Our adventurous weekend began on Thursday and never stopped,lol. 

Our company began arriving on Thursday around noon with the arrival of my brother and his wife.  I don't remember much about that day, but I do remember they rode along with me on a run on Thursday night.  Friday morning brought the arrival of my sister, her husband, step daughter and her step-daughter's friend.  I had a run in the morning and afternoon.  We did all manage to go to the Strasburg Railroad and rode the old steam train.  Jonathan and Nicole even went so we had a really nice time.  While out on my afternoon run I got a phone call from one of our regular people saying they had an emergency at Sam Fisher's could we come right away.  Well, i was out so I quickly called Larry and sent him.  The Fisher's are building a new house so they were working on it and someone got hurt.  Not until they called back to make sure I got Larry did I find out who.  I assumed it was one of the men, but I was wrong.  It was Henry there 4yr old son.  They all had been in the attic sweeping up and he had taken a couple steps backward and fell down the chimney shaft clear to the basement floor landing on the concrete.  He fell 27ft.  He was life flighted to a hospital in DE and Larry drove his parents.  About 45 mins later his grandparents called and I drove them.  After the stabalized Henry he was transferred to Dupont Children's Hospital in Wilmington.  I waited an we finally headed home around 10:30pm with the grandparents.  Believe it or not Henry had NO broken bones.  He does have a head injury, but not a serious one.  He is in ICU, but is alert and responsive.  Everyone is amazed he is even alive.

Saturday morning brought soraing temps and the day to prepare for the 50th anniversary picnic for my parents.  Of all day for our central air NOT to work.  It was miserable.  It was all hustle and bustle getting the food and all ready and trying to figure out how to cool the house.  We got an Amish call around 10:45am to take the Henry's grandparents to the hospital to see him.  They knew we had the party and tried other drivers and no one could take them so Larry did.  He got home in perfect timing to grill the chicken.  We finally got out an old window a/c unit we had and put that in the living room and went and bought one at Wal Mart for the dining room.  Thankfully, just after the guests started arriving my bil got the central air working and its been great. 

The party was a great time and my parents were so suprised.  Everyone hid in the basement and came up one at a time.  My SIL came up first (she had not been east with her hubby in 12 yrs) then i think her brother and his wife came up, then my cousin and his wife.  Bringing up the end were Glenn and Sarah.  Glenn was my father's best man.  We tried to find an address for my mom's maid of honor but had no luck and didn't want to ask my mom.  I have not seen my mom smile or laugh like that in many years.  I really thought she was going to cry. 

Saturday night we just kinda crashed.  We did get a call to take a run to the hospital this morning and decided to do that instead of going to church.  Airy (one of the grandmothers) said she did try someone near her, but they said they don't drive on Sunday's.  Normally we don't either especailly if its going to interfere with church.  Due to the circumstances though we did today.  Considering the circumstances it was a nice day.  We were able to sit in the family room with our Amish frineds the whole time and visit with them, we even went back to see Henry.  I took him a coloring book and crayons and his eyes seemed to cheer up when he saw them.  He is in a neck brace and it does hurt for him to talk from having the ventilator on for a couple days.  He didn't smile or say anything but his eyes followed where I put the things and he waved to say thank you.  The family invited us to eat lunch with them.  Sam's mom, brother and brother's wife had brough along a hot lunch right from the garden.  We feasted on new potatoes, fresh peas, beets, picked eggs and beets, salad, strawberries and amish pudding.  After lunch we sat and visited some more. It amazes me everyday how blessed we are to be so involved with the lives of our amish neighbors.  We arrived home again around 4 and took a nap then grilled burgers for supper.  Larry is off to work now and I am soon off to bed.

Tomorrow will prove to be a busy day starting when my alarm goes off at 5am to rise and shine.  I will drive my amish workers to work @ 5:30am and get back home about 6:20am.  Then its out the door again at 7:00am for a run to the hospital.  Back home by 1pm and out the door again for an appt for Larry and I at 2pm and for a dentist appt for me at 3:40pm.  We have 4 Amish runs tomorrow evening. One at 5:10pm which Jonathan will do, one at 6pm which Larry will do and somewhere in there I will make another trip to the hospital and then at 10pm I have to go back and pickup the 6pm run.  It's going to be a long day and the start of a long week I think.  I am sure we will have numerous runs to the hospital to see Henry.