Oh where is my hairbrush? (As quoted by Larry)

Or 


Less than THREE weeks until Nate comes home!


  I bet you're all wondering where I've been!  Well.  I didn't really want to post until I had something post-worthy.  And some pictures.  Well, I can't show you those pictures.  I think you'd all be scarred for life.  Let's just say that mud masks makes you look less like yourself! Haha!  Well, Nate and I are both twenty-five years old now, and other than the fact that we are now able to rent a car, not a whole lot of difference!  We are still 3000 miles apart, so the beginning of being twenty-five is rather lonely.  But not for much longer!
 Something that I should've posted about but I haven't yet, is that my father's mother was in the hospital for some time and is now in rehab.  No, not THAT kind of rehab!  Let me start from the beginning:


Beginning of November, on a Saturday before Halloween, I'm pretty sure, because my parents and I had just been visiting them that very afternoon, my grandparents were out eating Popeye's.  As they were coming home, Grandma got a sudden pain in her chest.  She thought she was having a heart attack and told Grandpa to go straight to the hospital.  Miraculously, they were less than ten minutes from the hospital and not at home, which would've taken longer.  They went straight to the emergency room and they gave her a CT scan and they weren't really sure what was wrong at first.  The doctors were puzzled, though, because her blood pressure was unusually low.  They later find out that the main artery coming out of her heart, the aorta, had a tear in it, but wasn't a complete tear so she wasn't leaking blood.  If her blood pressure had been high, the tear might've been complete and she would've died within minutes! Another miracle!  
She was in pretty rough shape for a while.  She was on pain medication for about a week and on a breathing apparatus that helped push the air into her lungs. They were also giving her lots of drugs to keep her blood pressure down, hoping that would allow her aorta to heal on its own.  They gave her another CT scan on Wednesday, and by Thursday she was sitting up on her own, and she looked better in general.  My dad was visiting her that evening when the doctor came in and said without warning that she needed surgery right NOW.  She didn't have much of a choice, and Dad encouraged her to do it.  She was taken away within minutes after signing the consent papers.  About 8:15pm on November 3rd, my grandma was having open-heart surgery.  And we found out they got her there just in time.  The tear in her aorta was leaking blood into the pericardium (the lining around her heart) and if they had waited for even ten or twenty minutes longer, her heart would've been strangled and she would've died that night.  Miracle #3! Most of Uncle Kevin's family was there, Uncle Dan was there, grandpa was there, my mom and dad were there, and even Grandma's sister, Sandi, and her husband, Alan, from Illinois, were there in the surgery waiting room.  We were there till after one in the morning, when we heard that the surgery was successful.  Mom and I went home exhausted, but thankful to have Grandma around for a little while longer.  
Grandma was in ICU for another week and on my birthday she moved out of ICU and was put in a nursing home with a rehabilitation center where she could work on getting her strength up.  And that is where she is at right now.  They thought she would be out in a week, but she is not very motivated to work on her rehab, so they projected her not to get out until the 16th of December.  We all hope she will get out of there soon!  It's not a happy place to be at all.


So that, is my grandmother's story, and we've all been doing what we can to help.  


  Three weeks ago, Nate's aunt Lynette had a baby girl.  Her name is Hannah.  Nate's mom and I decided that we should go and help.  She went up the first week, and I went up the second week to help.  Lynette and Wayne have a cute little house near Roanoke.  Lots of room to run around, and not to far from the interstate if they needed to get anywhere.  They have another little girl, named Grace, and she is about twenty months old and is the life of the party.  She is talking and expressing herself and being the cutest thing ever.  While I was there, we became good friends.  I hope she'll remember me when we meet again. I was there basically to help with laundry, feeding, and general cleaning.  Although Lynette would protest, I was more than happy to do these things for her, because I know one day she might repay the favor- haha!  No, that's not really why I did it.  I knew that I was always going to be busy with something, and my week went by so fast being there.  Something new to do everyday!  I got to play with -well, more of just holding- the new baby, I would watch movies with Grace, I would try to translate Grace language, and I would pick up after Grace.  I realized that some of these things I was doing for Lynette were things that she probably wouldn't be able to do if I hadn't been there.  At least not all in a week.  Over the span of many weekends, maybe, because a lot of these things needed multiple adults supervising the situations.  Someone needed to nurse baby Hannah, while somebody else needed to get Grace in her high chair to feed her, and also someone needed to make lunch ALL AT THE SAME TIME!!!  I take my hats off to Mothers everywhere.  I don't know how they get it done!  It made me appreciate what my parents did for my sisters and me even more.  It also makes me think that maybe I am able to raise children someday.  

-Erin

West Virginia, Mountain Mama, Take me home...

or 


Forty-six days until Nate comes home!


So I've been quite truant since I last wrote.  Very unintentional.  I needed to upload pictures, but I was slow to do so.  I was also thinking that I would take more pictures this past weekend so I thought I'd wait until after that, but that was just procrastination.  So here is what's new:


Still no job.  After applying to a few more places, I decided that maybe this is the time for me to just get used to being useful on the home-front.  Become a Becky-home-ecky of sorts.  I decided to break things into blocks, a breakfast block, a bible-reading block, an exercising block, et cetera, et cetera...  So I clean some part of my parent's house, and I cook for them when they put a recipe in front of me.  I also have a craft block where I do something CRAFTY.  My latest project has been this:

It may not look like anything, but it is actually half of an afghan.  No, not a "native or national of Afghanistan, or a person of Afghan descent" but a "woolen blanket (or shawl), typically one knitted or crocheted in strips or squares (Thanks, Dictionary!)."  Pretty easy to make once you get the pattern for the granny square.  So that is my fun craft.  

So last weekend and two weekends before that, I went over to "Wild and Wonderful" West Virginia, to see my in-laws.  I have very wonderful, supportive in-laws.  If you don't have in-laws, or you don't like your in-laws, I am very sad for you.  I watched this tv show on A&E called "Monster-in-laws" the other night... You should be thankful your in-laws are not that bad! So anyways, I went because Nate's younger brother, Abe, his girlfriend, Rebecca, and long-time friend, Jesse, were in town and I knew that would be a good distraction for the weekend.  It was!  We went to this place called "Ram's Horn" and it's the third time I've been up there, but the first time I've actually seen a view!  If only I had pictures from the first two times I was up there, what a contrast!  So here are some pictures for your enjoyment:

This is before we left, Jesse was going to take his bike, but then he couldn't get it started...

So we all piled into the truck.  Then we told Jesse he needed to keep the branches from scratching up the truck, so we stuck him in the back.  He was being very silly.

After driving on trails for a few miles, we found a pleasant parking space in the middle of nowhere.  Rebecca feels this is the perfect pose to strike before arriving at our final destination. Hahaha.

Jesse is checking for a cell phone signal.  You actually can't get one in Pocahontas county, but we're out of the valley enough that he did get a bar.  Not strong enough to send a text, though.  

Found my Christmas tree!

We came right before the peak of fall, but you can see that there is an abundance of evergreens as well.

We made it!

That white thing in the center of the picture is the Green Bank Telescope.  It looks quite small in the grand scheme of things...   

My attempt at artistic beauty

Another artistic attempt...

Yes well, you just can't grasp the full beauty and splendor of things until you visit yourself.  

Very lovely time, and I wish Nate could've been there to enjoy my "birthday present" with me.  All in all, I was glad I went.  Came home Tuesday, after helping out with outdoor school at Brethren Woods.  Lots of fun running around with those little ankle-biters!  Two weeks later, Ben comes home, bringing his girlfriend, Shannon, and his room mate, Steven.  I decide I will come along and "supervise" haha.  Abe decides he will come along, too, and bring Rebecca along.  Good times all around.  Very happy to be there.  Nate's parents are still trying to get internet at their house, it's been three weeks since the first attempt.  Hopefully they will get it soon.  Everyone's keeping busy.  Nate is in and out of classes all day. He's really enjoying himself.  Very good, indeed.

-Erin

Finally, a little bit of sun!

(Or sixty-eight days till Nate comes home!)


It has been so rainy and gloomy here in Fredericksburg, I thought November had moved in and not October!  But today, the sun is out, and it's a few degrees away from 70.  Very blessed to have a nice windy, sunny day!  Sounds like England is having unusually warm weather.  Nate said that the past few days have broken 200-year old records for warmest days in England- somebody forgot to turn down the thermostat!  Nate's been enjoying himself, learning to play rugby, teaching others how to play football, punting down the river, getting to hear John Lennox lecture!, and finding mennonite books in the Oxford Library... what a busy boy!  And a very accurate description it is. Sounds like from 8am to 10pm his mind is constantly being fed information.  I think this pleases him greatly.  And that pleases me to hear him being stimulated.  Sounds like RZIM is serious about getting information into those students' heads!
While Nate is busy learning, I've had to find someway to get through the days.  As tempting as reading non-stop sounds, I know that I should do more productive things while waiting for jobs to arise.  I've applied to... maybe seven different places with no word on the outcome.  From what I have heard, things are not looking to bright on some job prospects.  I decided that in the meantime, I need to be productive with my time.  I created a schedule for myself so that I have things "to do" and will make the day go faster.  I've only been on it for two days.  I'm on my "lunch" break right now after my exercise block.  I have a cleaning block, a craft block, a piano practice block, and a few others so my day is action-packed!  This could be a good thing.  Let's hope I can keep it up!


That is all I have to say, but I will leave you all a picture from when Mom and I dropped Nate off at the airport:

-Erin

75 days to go...

Nate's been gone since Friday.  Things haven't been too bad.  I really feel like he should be the one blogging and not me, though.  I'm not the exciting one.  I'm the one counting down the days, and he's the one who's living in OXFORD.  But since he's the one who actually has a life, it's up to me to fill in the gaps of what's been going on. So here goes!


My mother and I drove Nate up to Dulles and dropped Nate off.  I wasn't sad enough or upset enough to not be able to drive home, so I did.  We ran into lots of traffic, but we weren't in a rush to get anywhere, so we just tried to play it safe and get home safely.  Nate sent me an email at six o' clock in the morning, which was... eleven o' clock there, and he crashed for four hours.  He didn't get much sleep and he walked a couple blocks with a suitcase, a hiking back-pack, a forty-eight pound bike box, and a regular back-pack.  I think he had the right to be a little worn out!  There's a five-hour difference between us, which is weird for me to think about.  Right now, it's 10:30 in the morning here, and it's 3:30 in the afternoon over there.  His day's almost over!  Mine's just beginning!  He's so far away!  
Anyways, he's been meeting his fellow scholars, and I think it's been very encouraging for him.  He attended three church services at St. Ebbe's on Sunday.  Sounds like they have a large young adult group over there, which is very surprising, but I think we'll be blessed by having a group of young believers in the area we're living in.  Today, I think, is his first day of classes, or it's the day he gets his class assignments...?  I'm not sure.  He said he had to report to the RZIM building at nine o' clock this morning.  He didn't know why for sure.
I've been getting all my information from him by Skype.  If you have a webcam, you can download skype and talk computer-to-computer for free.  So every evening, he's been calling and we chat for a bit, and then I send him off to bed, because while it's only six o'clock here, it's... can you figure it out?  Well, if you'd rather me tell you, it's eleven o'clock there.  And he doesn't need to be up that late when he's been running around all day.  So our conversations are pretty brief.  Especially when my side only consists of applying for jobs and waiting to hear back.  
But actually today and tomorrow are pretty exciting for me.  I'm going to Harrisonburg tonight so I can go to Bible Study with the DMC young adults and then tomorrow I'm helping Brethren Woods with their outdoor school.  I have a few errands to run in town and then I can come back home.  Dayton Days are also this weekend, but I haven't decided what my plans are.  Aimee and Jamie are letting me stay with them tonight, so that'll be good time with them as well.
It would be good for me to find a job of some sort.  Sitting around all day puts me in a damper of a mood.  If I can't find a job soon, I'll probably do some traveling.  It would be good to go and see people and help out in whatever way I can. Look for me in a town near you! Be ready to give me chores to keep me busy!  Will work for room and board! -Erin

Five... four... three... two... one...

So, Nate's last day.  He leaves tomorrow... But we don't talk about it!!!!  


Last weekend was when Nate should have left, but due to classes starting later than we thought, he stayed a week longer.  It actually made things better for me, because I had two weeks to run around with Nate as opposed to just one.  
Last Thursday, we decided that we would do some GVS- Ginder Volunteer Service!  We packed up our house into our two cars and headed for Pennsylvania.  Pennsylvania got slammed by hurricane leftovers and had some flooding in very unusual areas.  Nate's grandparents live miles from a river, but the water table was so high that water seeped into their basement.  Their carpet soaked up the water, but none of the furniture had any real damage.  Some of Nate's aunts and cousins helped take out the carpet and laid it out to dry, so when we got there, all we had to do was put it back in and arrange the furniture to how it was before.  We got that all done on Friday, much to everyone (but Nate)'s surprise.  He had spent Thursday evening fixing their coal stove and I designated myself head fire-starter of the Ginder household for the rest of the weekend.  Saturday, Nate decided that the back room in the basement had paneling that needed replacement and that there was time for yard work after that.  He helped patch the roof up, and we declared that weekend a productive one, indeed!
Sunday we went to Chiques with Nate's grandparents and afterwards ate some delicious hamloaf (a Pennsylvania Dutch special) and potatoes.  We said our good-byes and drove for Green Bank, WV.  In West Virginia, we tried to get some reading done and find ones that Nate needed for class.  We packed up his bags and tried to get some good West Virginia cooking in him, before he left.  We were able to see one of Nate's aunts and her baby girl before we left and that was a real treat. He also got to shoot a couple squirrels and decided to sell his Dodge Stratus!  Sadness.  That car was with us when we were seniors in college!  It's been a good car for us, and it even passed inspection in July, so you know it's good!  But anyways, we passed it on to Nate's uncle, who will put it to better use than Nate did these summer months.  
Nate said good-bye to his parents for the fall, and we headed for Fredericksburg.  We stopped in Harrisonburg and did a few last-minute things before we kept going. We arrived at my parents house in a downpour Wednesday evening.  Mom made chicken-pot pie and Nate and I planned out our schedule for the next day.  We stayed up late watching TV, something we haven't done in months, and went to bed.  Nate got up this morning and changed the oil in the focus- first thing this morning!  I tried getting a hold of my grandma so we could do some genealogy, but she never answered.  We'll have to try it another time.  The rest of the day, we tried to find some good brown shoes for Nate to have overseas... and you wouldn't think that would be too hard, but you'd be surprised.  The stores always have everything but what you want in stock.  So we did some hunting... Found some and ran away!  We stopped by the bike shop and said hello/good-bye, and looked at Nate's bike in a box.  The box with everything in it, weighed less than 50lbs!  A miracle!  I took Nate to a park-not just any park, THE PARK- where I was caught by cops trespassing, and was forced to go to court because we had no drugs to show to the officers who were putting us in the Catch-22 ("...Show us were the drugs are and we'll let you go." "We don't have any drugs." "Then you're going to court!").  It was funny to be there for the first time in a long time.  It was so muggy and buggy out there, we left after a bit and went to Red Lobster for dinner.  We got their early enough we beat the mad rush and had a very enjoyable (expensive!) dinner, all on Grandma and Grandpa Rittenhouse!  They gave us some gift cards a while back, and we were more than happy to put them to use, although, we wish they would have been around to join us!  We came back to the house and tried to watch tv around our bulging tummies!  
Nate just has a few things in the laundry and then... he'll be all ready to leave tomorrow!  His plane leaves at 6:40pm, so Mom was willing to take the afternoon off and drive up to the airport with us, to see Nate off.  It just seems so unreal.  Nate will be leaving for England tomorrow evening!  He'll be gone until December!  I still can't wrap my mind around it!  I think he's pretty excited and quite ready for this adventure.  I'm just hoping to get a job while he's gone so I can keep busy.  I've applied a few places.  We're waiting to hear back.  That's as far as I want to think about it.  I'm hoping that Nate will actually use this after he gets there, so we all know what to expect from the British!  My brain's fried from all the tv.  Off to bed for me! -Erin

Weekend Whirlwind!

Here are some fun pictures of us over in West Virginia last Saturday.  The picture above was taken while we were still fresh and excited about the wonderful weather!

And here we are at the top!  Only a mile and a half hike, but it was a steep climb! We got to the top and back down in an hour and a half.  A perfect day for a hike, and a fun husband to be with.  Who could ask for anything more?

Before that, we were in West Virginia to hear Nate's dad preach at Shiloh Church of the Brethren.  It was a good reminder to be obedient to what Christ wants us to do.  Sunday, we went to Dayton Mennonite and said our good-byes, just in case we don't make it next weekend.  We will really miss our church family when we're gone!  They are such a big part of our lives!  After church, Nate and his brother-in-law, Jamie, decided it would be a good idea to bike over to Fredericksburg instead of driving over so we could visit my family before he left the country.  The trip from Dayton to my grandparent's house was about 90 miles.  They managed to get there in 4 and a half hours!  That's biking an average of 19.4 miles an hour!  They made it just in time for supper!  Needless to say, I was very impressed.  Still am.  And, Nate wakes up this morning, not sore, but famished!  There was much eating to be done today to get some fat back on his bones.  They crazy part is, we did get some eating done!  Brethren Woods staff were doing some cook-out planning for lunch, and we were invited.  We ate, and ate, and ate!  Then after all the clean up, Nate and I layed down for some rest.  We woke up with a jolt, got up and then drove into Harrisonburg, to be fed by Herman and Mary Reitz, lovely older couple in the church that have taken a strong interest in Nate's coming and goings.  They promise to pray for us as we head off on this journey.  It's nice to know people are interceding on our behalf.  With all the prayers, we know that God's plan will prevail!  The next few days will be devoted to book reading, cleaning, and job hunting.  We are planning on going up to Pennsylvania so that we can help Nate's grandparents with their basement.  All the rain we've had from hurricaines caused some flooding in their basement and they had to remove their carpet and clean it.  We'll go up there and help them put it back in.  That's the plan, anyway. -Erin

changes!

So what's been going on? I'll tell ya what's been going on! Nate and I have been wrackin' our brains nonstop about how to get around this little problem we've been having (refer to last entry, if you don't know what I'm talking about).  A small ray of hope has since shined upon us, a potential volunteer position!  And it's at the place we're renting from, no less!  We're still waiting for them to respond and let us know the scoop, but it's so encouraging for me- just what I needed to hear!  I know lots of people have been praying for us and look how much it's been helping out!  That's been a true blessing for sure!  If all works out, I can be over there with Nate by October or early November.  If it doesn't.  I'll just have to wait until beginning of December.  Either way, things don't look so bad anymore.  Nate also found out his book list- now let me tell ya, it's a doozy!  He has three books he needs to read BEFORE he gets to his classes.  That should make you wonder how many books he'll have to read after he starts his classes.  I'm sure he'll be fine, and so happy to read these mind-stimulating books. I'll stick to joy-reading, if it's alright with everybody... We also found out that his classes don't start until the 28th, which is a week later than what we thought.  How have we gone so long not knowing this (Crazy British!  Leading us astray! Okay, I'm sure that's not actually the case at all)?  What this means, is that, unfortunately, Nate will have to cancel and reschedule his flight for the next week, which will cost us a bit.  Fortunately, he's here with me a week longer!  Hurray!  And if I can get a visa by then, we can fly together.  That would make me so happy! So much to figure out until then!  We'll keep you updated! -Erin 

Getting underway

We're not far off from the day we set off for England, and sometimes things feel frustrating.  Nate was informed that UK border might not let me into the country because they couldn't be sure that I would leave after six months.  The people Nate's been corresponding with suggested that his spouse (ME) should come the last six months so border will be more likely to let me in, because I'll be leaving when Nate leaves.  Sadness.  I am not about to let Nate go on an adventure without me!  Nate feels pretty confident that I'll be able to find something once we're there, so we're just praying and pushing forward with our plans.  All this uncertainty makes me nervous, so I am just going to keep packing things and rearranging things like everything will work out.  On good notes, Nate has his Stratus working (a rolling miracle, really), and other things seem to be falling into place.  So, this seems to be a sign that we're still moving in the right direction.  If nothing else, we'll be packed and ready for traveling, no matter where we end up! 

This is a test

This is our initial/test blog entry. This account has been created both as a way for us to preserve our daily thoughts and to allow our friends and family to keep up to date with our adventures. ~ Nate

This is pretty exciting stuff!  The possibilities are endless!  I'm so excited about moving to England!  As you can tell, I've decided to write in italics to show that another voice is on the blog.  I thought it was pretty clever.  So whenever you see the italic writing, you can assume it's not Nate, but me, Erin, the traveling buddy-extraordinare!  We're a couple of weeks from departure and have lots to do in the mean time.  Instead of doing the important things, we felt that this was a stress free way to spend our Sunday evening.  Lots of stuff to do!  Three weeks away!