Don't Judge a Book By Its Cover~

Well, here it is...Steve's thesis...thank you, Lord for this blessing!  

The title, in case it's hard to read, is Synthetic Studies of (+)- Nodulisporic Acid A:  Development of an Efficient Route to the Eastern Hemisphere Sub-Targets.  I only have a faint idea of what that means.  But to me, this picture means the end of our time as a graduate school family...it's an ending to a very hard, very difficult journey.  But even though the journey was way harder than we ever thought it would be, it has been one of the best experiences of our lives...and that is because our Lord walked with us through the dark and difficult times, brought friends and family along side of us who ministered to us and continue to do so, showed us more of Himself than we could imagine, and grew us in ways that have been wonderful.  We are changed because of coming to Philadelphia, going through graduate school, being part of Covenant Fellowship Church, and the amazing family and friends God has used and brought into our lives.    

The handsome PhD~

We picked up his bound copies this week...what a great feeling.  There's not really much more to say other than we are so very thankful that the work required for his PhD is completely done...done, done, done!

And, in true family historian fashion, I had the camera to capture this moment.

A week or so ago we drove into an interesting (read: keep the doors locked) part of Philly to this old warehouse to drop off the copies of Steve's thesis with the bookbinder.  

Warehouse in Philadelphia~

Old warehouse~

The bookbinder~

Copies of Steve's thesis...ready to be bound~

On Monday, we got to pick them up...exciting times!

One happy man!

We know that it is only by the grace of God that Steve finished this achievement...thank you, Lord~

Hoping you know His grace on your life~
Rach

Bear Bottom~

Our sweet Baby Gray is 6 months old...

...What?!...


I know, I know...I don't know how it happened either :)

She is an amazing baby girl and we are so thankful for her...


...so I thought I'd simply share some recent pics...

...of her bear bottom...

This outfit just cracks me up!  

She is very close to being mobile...she can push up, do the plank, roll, rock, pivot on her tummy...it's a funny and slow process, but she can make her way across a room :)

Wow...how blessed are we?  She is such a gift!

By far...one of my favorite pics of her!

Add caption

Baby Gray...almost mobile~

Have a blessed day~
Rachel

A Thankful Heart~

I pray you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This is our last Thanksgiving in Pennsylvania...another bittersweet mix of emotions, but we are thankful for how God is leading us.

Our Thanksgivings in PA have been small and quiet.  I think we did travel down to NC for one Thanksgiving since we've lived here, but we have stayed put for the others.  Steve always invites any fellow grad students who don't have holiday plans to come over to our place for Thanksgiving...a very nice offer, but no one ever took him up on it...so it was usually just us. 

Can I confess that I loved having those small, quiet Thanksgivings?  Obviously, it would have been great to share with friends and/or family, but that's just not how it usually worked out.  And every year Thanksgiving became a small reprieve for our family...a rare four days off of work for Steve.  We cook a small turkey and a mix of sides, enjoy our fabulous meal, and take a walk.  We listen to Christmas music and play games with our kids.  We Skype with our families.  It's been nice having Thanksgiving in PA.


Steve has learned to enjoy it...but truth be told, he would rather be part of a big family gathering.  Big turkey, everyone bringing a side and having too many to choose from, Aunt Kathy's pies, kids playing with their cousins, parades and football on the TV, and maybe a nap.  That's how it was for him growing up...the big family all gathered together.  Our Thanksgivings spent in Albuquerque have been just that...and they are fun!

But they are very different from the Thanksgivings my family had.  My dad was in the Air Force when I was growing up, so we lived all over the U.S. and even in Saudi Arabia when I was young.  I never lived close enough to family to gather with them for holidays...it was always just my parents, my brother, and me...and we always had a great Thanksgiving.  We also never had turkey...my mom always cooked cornish game hens (you get your own baby turkey, she used to say) or a pork roast...and they were YUMMY!  I very fondly remember our Thanksgivings...thank you, Mom and Dad!

So, as you can read, Steve and I came from very different Thanksgiving experiences and traditions...it's been fairly easy for us to compromise and learn to enjoy each other's preferences.  Our kids have been very flexible with our eclectic mix of Thanksgiving experiences...big family gatherings in NM, smaller Thanksgivings spent in NC, and our quiet, tiny Thanksgivings spent in PA...we have much to be thankful for!

Here's a glimpse of what our Thanksgiving was like this year~


The girls helped make the cranberry sauce the night before...

Ta da!  Good job, girls...it was so yummy!

Steve took the cooking lead...I'm usually the sous chef for bigger dinners.  We enjoyed turkey, stuffing, baked butternut squash, sauteed green beans, and fresh-baked rosemary bread.  While Steve and I prepared dinner, the girls got the table ready.  Our white dishes are packed, so we were setting the table with our everyday stuff.  But the girls still wanted to make the table fancy...I just let them work on decorating it however they wanted...they asked us not to look at it til it was time to eat. Steve and I were even escorted to the table by Bella and Sophia...it was so fun.  Here's what they came up...I'd say it's fairly creative considering their limited resources.  Our cloth napkins and tablecloth are packed...apparently you can do a lot with dish towels, crochet hand towels, and hot pads :)

The feast is ready!

Gracia enjoyed her first taste of baby food (other than rice cereal)...peas...and she did pretty well :)

Thanksgiving peas~

She also giggled a lot...caught some on video...her older sisters sure do know how to make her smile and laugh :)



And we enjoyed a nice walk...the weather was beautiful~ 

Thanksgiving walk~

Lord, thank you so much for the wonderful Thanksgivings we've had in PA...and we thank you for our future Thanksgivings in TX.


I hope your Thanksgiving was wonderful too~
Rach







 

Guitar Hero~

***Another post loaded with pics...you've been warned :) ***

Steve is now the proud owner of a Martin HD-28...the guitar he received as a graduation gift from his dad.  

The man, the myth, the legend!

Can I confess...I LOVE how this photo turned out :)

She's a pretty one~

He was so very excited about the guitar that he wanted to see where it was made...which just happens to be a little over an hour from our home in Nazareth, PA.  So the whole family took a fabulous field trip when Steve was off for a few days after his defense. 

Yep, the C.F. Martin & Co. Guitar Factory is pretty much "down the road" from us...and they give FREE tours.  It was a field trip match made in heaven for this cheap home school mom and her guitar enthusiast husband...yes, a match made in heaven, my friends :) 

We arrived just after lunch time...just in time for the next tour...perfecto!  We got to wear headsets to hear our tour guide because parts of the factory can be a little loud.  Our guide walked us through the entire factory...and while we walked, we learned about guitar making from beginning to end and watched a lot of guitar making in progress.  We also learned a lot about C.F. Martin (the founder) and the history of guitars and his company.  It was fascinating!

We watched craftsmen and artists at work.  We watched robots and machines at work too.  I found the factory to be a fascinating mix of "old world" craftsmanship and modern-day machines.  Steve and I have slightly different takes on the guitar making we saw that day;  Steve was somewhat sad to see how much of the process is now done by machines while I was amazed at how much of the process is still done by hand.  All the fine details and actual constructing are still mostly done by hand...it really was very interesting to learn about the process and see it in action.

Wonder how many guitars this guy has shaped?

 How many guitars has he helped make?

This robot is buffing a guitar on a cotton wheel~

The girls want me to include this short video clip of the robot because they thought it was SO COOL...it was definitely one of their favorite parts! 



My favorite part of the guitar building was the rim assembly.  To assemble the rim, you have to glue kerfing (don't I sound like I know what I'm writing about? :) to the inside of the guitar body so the top, sides, and back can be joined.  The kerfing has to be kept in place while the glue dries.  Guess what they use to hold it steady?  Clothespins!  That's right, clothespins and carpenter's clamps...very high tech :)

Rim assembly~

I also loved learning how inlay work is done...wow, what art!  It is so beautiful.  This was one of Sophia's favorite parts too.   

Learning about pearl inlay~

Hand carved, hand cut...wow!

Another of Bella's favorite parts was how lasers are used in guitar making.  Look at the right side of the next picture...see the bright light?  It's cutting a guitar top from this piece of wood.
The second picture is also of a laser cutting holes for guitars that will have electronics.

Lasers are cool!

After the factory tour, we toured the museum.  It's a small, but very nice museum.  It focused on the history of the Martin company, but also included general guitar and music history.  I was just in awe of how beautiful the instruments were and the artistry that goes into them.  

Signature series guitars~

Beautiful mandolin~

Gracia is excited to find something her size...ukeleles!

We also saw some pretty spectacular guitars that were made to commemorate special times in Martin's history.  

Martin's 500,000th and 750,000th commemorative guitars~

This one was made to commemorate Martin's 500,000th guitar.  All the detail is hand carved, cut, and inlaid~

This Peacock Guitar was made to commemorate Martin's 750,000th guitar.  Again, all hand done~

The decorated front of the 750,000th Peacock Guitar~

Here's a video clip of the over-the-top guitar that was made to commemorate Martin's 1 millionth guitar...it is so ornate and not quite my "style", but I still very much appreciate it's artistry.  It's not the best video quality, but you get the idea.  

 
After the museum, we spent a bit of time in the Pickin' Parlor.  This was Steve's favorite part of the day...he got to play lots of really nice guitars.  Here he is strumming on an Eric Clapton signature model...

Steve may already be picking out his next Martin~

Serenade~

Music lovers~

The girls got to try out a Martin too~

My beautiful girls!

I think Gracia had a nice time too...she liked learning about guitars even though she did fall asleep during part of the tour.  However, for her, the most fascinating thing seemed to be her fingers :)

Baby Gracia...sweet dreams!

Hope I didn't miss much of the tour~

This Pickin' Parlor is cool...but check out my fingers~

My fingers are fascinating!

We ended our time in Nazareth with a romp in the open area by the parking lot before buckling up for the drive home.

Sweet sisters~

Daddy and his princesses!

Oh look, a picture with me in it :)

This is definitely one of the best field trips we've ever been on.  All our local friends need to head up to Nazareth for a visit to the Martin & Co. guitar factory...pronto!


Here are two slideshows of more pics...the first one is made of pictures from the factory tour and the second one is of our time in the museum...enjoy~ 


Hope you make a trip to Nazareth soon~
Rach