Dordt Defender Days

A couple weekends back we headed to Iowa to visit our favorite college student.
This is her.  Isn't she the sweetest thing you've ever seen?

These are our suitcases....before I started packing.  Between the four pairs of very big men's shoes I had bought for Jonathan and his roommate, a Christmas present for my sister, and my mom's purse that she had gifted me and then asked for back; there wasn't a lot of room for clothes.
Good thing for us, John is not the only gifted packer in the family.

We got into Sioux Falls about 10:30 at night and Holly was at the airport to pick us up IN HER NEW CAR.  Actually, it's not a new car and it's technically not hers yet but it was still exciting!
I should have taken a picture of Holly and her new-to-her car.
The next morning John got up early for a business connections breakfast and then met Holly for her 8:00 class.  I got up a little later and joined them there.
Holly and Rachel who is her nursing buddy who and also just so happens to be her cousin.

At one point in the class, they had to work through some sort of medical-related things.  My sister-in-law Janet (who is Rachel's mom) just sat in the back and made fun of them.

After class we all went to chapel which is amazing now.  I definitely would have attended chapel more when I was at Dordt if we had had chapels like that.  We met up with the Beltman family, Uncle Mike (Rachel's dad), and Gary and Sally there.  Gary and Sally had made Sioux Center part of their Midwest trip.  It was so fun to have them there!  We had lunch at Culvers.  I got my Butterburger and custard fix.

And then we headed to Walmart to stock Holly up again on all things needed (and a lot of things not needed) for college life.

She eats a lot of eggs because someone told her they are a good, cheap source of protein.
That night we were invited to Uncle Vern's (Susie's brother-in-law and one of Holly's most favorite people on Dordt's campus) for a delicious steak supper.

Hannah did Holly's hair.

And then we headed to the band, orchestra and choir concert.
Holly was the best violinist there.

It was super strange to see Mr. Smit up there directing the Dordt choir.  Dordt has stolen like fifty of our teachers from Lydnen now...I would be really mad if I didn't love this college so much.
Here she is after the concert with some of her roomies.

After the concert we were invited to Jordan and Rachel's new house.  They recently moved from Sioux Falls to Sioux Center which made Holly very happy.  She's been over there a couple times for a home cooked meal, free laundry, and a distraction-free place to study.

The next morning we went to a breakfast where I ran into a gal I hug around with a lot my freshman year at Dordt.  We hadn't seen each other for over 25 years.  She said I hadn't changed a bit.  She obviously learned to lie in those 25 years. :)

When I got back to my folk's place my mom had been going through pictures (not much to do in a hotel room obviously) and had found this one of when I had brought Jodi home with me one weekend.

I have no idea why I am standing like that but I love those big bangs.
All day Saturday we just hung out with Holly.  She really didn't have any major homework to get done so we just spent time together.

 We went to some sporting events.  There is a story behid this shirt.

We took a walk through Dordt's prairie.

Holly's apartment is on the right  She'll live in the one to the left of that next year.

This is the new prayer garden but Holly says it's a really good spot to hang your hammock.

We checked out the game room where she works.

Here's some pics of her apartment.

Her living area.

Shower supplies for seven girls.

The kitchen.

The pantry.

The two bedrooms.

Holly's room.  Her bed is the highest one.  Falling out of her loft freshman year doesn't stop her from still liking the top bunk...notice she does have a rail though!

The closet...luckily two of her roommates live nearby so they don't need to keep much stuff here.

Her desk.

That night we went to John's 25th class reunion.  A few of his roommates were there too.  SO much fun to catch up with them!

On Sunday we took Holly to church and then to her favorite Chinese Buffet for lunch.

We took one last picture by the Dordt sign before Holly brought us back to Sioux Falls.

We visited with Grandma for a while and then headed to my uncle's place for pizza.

The next day was John's birthday.  Him and my Uncle Glen went golfing in the morning and then my folks and I met up with them at a Mexican restaurant for lunch.

Happy Birthday to John!

Our plane left at 5:30 that night and we were home by 10:30 that night.  

Another Defender Days in the books.  Sigh.  Saying goodbye to my Holly is getting easier but I still miss her lots.  

Only 41 days until Christmas break!

this, that and then some

Before I get to our weekend at Dordt, a little this, that and then some.
This.
Holly spent her tri-state break with my folks in Sioux Falls.  My mom and dad recently moved into a long-stay hotel for a month (getting too cold in the RV) so they are living it up with maid service, fancy breakfasts, and evening cocktails.
While Holly was there they went to my nephew's marching band competition and took in a show downtown.

I was a little jealous so I got tickets for a show as well.  John, Katie and I went to see "The Addams Family Musical" at our little theater in Lynden.  It was super good!

That.
Katie gave Sam a black eye.  It was a trampoline collision between his eye and Katie's extremely hard head.  I think it hurt his pride more than his body.

And then some.
Carly did a pretty good job of staying out of the way when we were painting the house but she did get a little paint on her ears.  It is very slowly wearing off.

I found this gem at the thrift store.  Don't be jealous.

Katie's soccer team finally won a game!  Their coach took them to Edaleen to celebrate.

Sam dressed up as a kissing booth for his youth group's Halloween party.  He won first place!

And John took these on his way home from work.

Always a project

I haven't blogged about the Hiemstra Hide-a-way for awhile.  It's still a work in progress.  It's coming up on three years ago that we bought the place and we still have LOADS we want to do.  I get a little discouraged sometimes so it's good to remember how far we've come instead of all we have left to do.  This place has taught me a lot about patience, compromise and it's forcing me to squelch my perfectionist nature which are all good things.  Another good thing is how happy this place makes my hubby.  John loves a project and there is always a project going on here.  If we won the lottery which we never will because we never play; he would quit his job and work on the Hide-a-way full time.
This summer our goal was to clean up the yard.  A huge part of that was getting rid of the huge debris pile left over from when we took all the trees down.  We did it!  It took a while but we burned and we chipped and we sawed and we stacked and we disposed of stumps in an environmentally friendly manner and we finally finished....except for one stump.  An especially large stump that could not be moved with John's little tractor.  Enter a good friend with a big tractor.

Goodbye big, ugly stump.  You will not be missed.

Then one weekend we decided to paint the house.  Another good friend loaned us his sprayer.  It took about three days to mask everything off and about three hours to spray the entire house.  We just did the stucco, the trim will come later (I don't even want to think about that project).

I think it had been awhile since those shutters came down!

Just a little bit of fading had occurred!  We sampled many colors but decided to stick with the original yellow.  

A lot of people have asked John if he has a problem going up ladders since his big fall.  The answer is no.  He is more careful though.  He tied himself off to his tractor whenever he was up high.

Some "after" pictures.

Much better!  I love a project where you can tell a big difference when your done.
Septic tanks do not fit that description.
Here in Washington septic tanks need to be inspected every three years.  If you take a class (which John did), you can do it yourself.  So, it was time.  And the covers to the tanks (we have two by the house and one by the cottage) were buried.

So, my handy hubby located them, unburied them, inspected them and then put risers on them so every three years we don't have to dig them up.

I'll spare you the pictures he took with the lids off.  You're welcome.

And then there is the "party barn" project.
We have a dilapidated old horse barn in our woods.  Since it is really close to the creek, we can never build anything there so John thought we better start repairing it before it falls down.  In typical "Hiemstra project" fashion, a little repair job has turned into a complete overhaul.  When we had the shop built, we had them run electricity and water out here.

John and his brother put on a new galvanized steel roof.

And the plan is to cover it with cedar "skins" we got when we had some trees milled.

I'm not exactly sure what we are planning to use it for when it's done but at some point a bar was mentioned so now our dilapidated horse barn has been re-named "the party barn".  

The inside of the house still needs some work done too but were waiting awhile...I'm still recovering from all the decisions I had to make two years ago.  We are getting a gas insert for our fireplace though.  It's one thing we really miss about our old house and although we have an endless supply of wood, we just aren't the wood burning fireplace type.
Here's my bookshelves by the fireplace all decorated for Halloween.

And just so this post isn't all project pictures, here's my sweet college girl that we got to visit last weekend.  I'll blog about that in a couple of days!