RSS
 

Archive for the ‘Food’ Category

My solo trip to New York

15 Aug

A couple weeks ago I had the chance to go visit NY for 2 weeks! Josh had to stay back and work so I made the trip solo. :( It was a  great trip with a lot packed into it! Here are some of the highlights from the 2 weeks.

I drove to NY with my in-laws church on their way back home from Youth Conference.  The ride was surprisingly enjoyable and fast! The teens boys were very well behaved the entire trip. :) I discovered  flat bagel sandwiches at the rest stop where we ate lunch and I must say, I am a huge fan of them now! If only I knew of a place to get them around here!

When We got back to my parent’s home my mom gave me a much needed hair cut, we talked for a while and I enjoyed a great home-cooked meal that I didn’t cook! Hannah also gave James is new favorite shirt. She got it from “Weesa” and Josh’s house far, far away. :)

The first week I was there we did a lot of family things. We had a picnic at the beach one night, a family game night another night, we also went swimming in a beautiful in-ground pool which we had all to ourselves! After we swam in the pool for a while Hannah, Frankie, and I went down to the lake (the house we were at had stairs in the backyard going down to their own private part of lake Erie!) and body surfed in the huge waves that where coming it. It was a lot of fun!

One of the Broughton girls favorite pastimes is shopping! We went shopping a lot! Hannah and I has a special “Hannah and Lisa” day where we went out shopping for hours. It was a lot for fun and we found lots of great deals! :)

We had Tim’s graduation party while I was home. We spent a lot of the week getting ready for it. I made the cake (which I was told tasted great!), my mom and family made tons of food and we cleaned the house inside and out! About an hour before the party started we started up the grills to cook all of the chicken and burgers. However, someone (we won’t name names :) ) forgot to close the propane tanks that were under the one grill! They filled the grill with coal and light it up. Once the coal heated up the propane tanks started hissing and eventually caught on fire! The propane made a huge noise when it caught on fire and it started a nearby bush on fire. Tim put out the fire quickly but we still had to call the fire department to help us get rid of the tanks of propane! It was actually a pretty  scary experience but a great story to tell at the party! Thankfully we got all of the meat cooked on the mini grill and stove! :)

One of my old bus kids was staying with my good friend, Bek, while I was there, so they decided to have an all girl party. :) We played lots of game, including twister, made a pizza on a grill (the oven wasn’t working :( ), got all bit up by mosquitoes and  had lots of laughs.

The boys from FBBC make rockets out of paper towel tubes every summer and then have a big show at the end of July  to show them all off. James was in it for the first time and he was ecstatic about his rocket! It took it everywhere with him and talked about it all the time. Frankie was also in it; he is great at making the rockets! My Dad made a rocket out of Styrofoam cups and it actually flew excellent! It was a great show to watch.

We squeezed blueberry picking into our busy week and I’m glad we did! The blueberries were delicious and it was priceless watching James pick them! He kept finding, “giant ones like spaceships!”  and sang all about berry pickin’ while we chowed down on berry after berry. :)

The second week I was in NY I was actually in PA. :) I went with the FBBC teens to Common-ground Baptist Camp in Butler, Pa.  It was a great week!  I enjoyed every part: from playing “chubby bunny” on  the bus (I was the winner!) to dunking my head in a tote of freezing water to counseling with girls at the alter to giggling with the girls at night. I especially enjoyed being a counselor to the girls that came and getting to know them all better. The Lord worked in many hearts during the week through the amazing preaching. My team was the “Son’s of the Prophets”. We ended up being the smallest team on camp. We held our own in games and memory verse but the bigger teams still beat us. :( Our flag came in second place, but our team came in 7th (out of 12) over all.

We  got back to my parents Friday evening, I wash my clothes, packed up my stuff, slept for a few hours and then got up at 4:30am to go to the airport for my flight back home. I landed in Chicago at 8am and couldn’t have been happier to see my Joshua! :)

 

4th of July Weekend

06 Jul

Our 4th of July weekend was a lot of  fun! We are so thankful that we live in such a wonderful and free country!

We watched our nephews, Tony and Vinny, Friday evening until Saturday afternoon. We had tons of fun with them! We played with trains and play dough, made a wooden car that just fell apart, and ate lots of junk food! :) We went to the park a couple times, Vinny loved the swings and Tony was great at climbing up the ropes! Fridayevening we went to watch fireworks. They closed the road down so we had to walk over a mile to get to the park! It was a long walk but the fireworks were worth it!

On Saturday evening we went out with our friends, Scott and Kristi Mercer. We walked around a festival for a little while. Scott bought all of us Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen, which were delicious . He was dumbfounded that we never had one before. :) After Dairy Queen we went to a park and watched fireworks.

Sunday was a fun and busy day at church! First Baptist Church hosted a Family Fun Festival for the holiday. There was classic cars, motorcycles, music, bounce houses, and lots of food! We had an outdoor service in the evening followed by a fireworks display. We sat on top of the Administrative Office Building with some of our friends and the Schaap family. It was an amazing view of the surrounding towns! You could see dozens and dozens of firework displays  going on all over the horizon!

Our first 4th of July in Indiana and as a married couple was filled with great memories; we are so thankful for our country!

 

Spring Fun!

23 Apr

The past few weeks have been a lot of fun for us as we are enjoying the spring time. With beautiful weather, great health, tasty food, and a wonderful God, we have much to be thankful for.

We were able to attend a the last regular season game for the Chicago Wolves a hockey team in the AHL. Our Sunday School class had a group of people going and at the last minute we were given free tickets to go!  It was the first hockey game that we have ever gone to and it was a lot of fun! The home team dominated and eventually won. :) It was fun to see all of the extra things they did in between playing time too. They had a blimp dropping coupons, a mascot randomly appearing in the crowd, a buffalo wing eating contest (gross), and much more.

We also attended the Hyles-Anderson College Basketball Championship. Though we didn’t really personally know any of the guys playing it was fun to watch them play. It was a close game all the way up to the end but in the last few minutes the winning team gave it all and came out with a pretty good lead. Dr. Hooker, senior vice president of the college, tried to make a shot from the middle of the court while standing backwards…he didn’t succeed, but it was funny to watch him try!  :)

Lisa really enjoyed the time she spent with  her sisters-in-law Elisabeth, Summer, and our nephews Tony & Vinny at the Albanese Candy factory. They saw a huge chocolate fountain (much like in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory :) ), watched the workers though windows make all kinds of candy, and watch a video on how they make their “world famous”  gummy bears  (which come in many more shapes than just bears).The best part, however, was picking out candy from the huge candy store and then eating it! Tony bought a huge gummy snake that was almost as long as him! Lisa and Elisabeth tasted their first chocolate covered gummy bears and are now hooked.

This past Saturday we had the opportunity to take 3 teen aged girls out soul-winning. It was a awesome to see their zeal for winning  their friends to the Lord and how unashamed or afraid they were to do so. We saw 6 saved that day! It was such a blessing to see! We hope several of them will start to come to church and activities through RUSA, a ministry for public schooled teenagers.

We look forward to many more enjoyable days as school is starting to come to an end and the weather is continuing to be more and more pleasant! You are in our prayers! Enjoy your day!

 

Pictures from our Food Cookoff

01 Oct