Movie Project: June Recap

Due to beautiful summer weather and lots of time out with friends and family we only managed to enjoy three movies this month. Our June movies were: Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Midnight Cowboy (1969), and Crash (2005).

We only have twenty something Academy Award winners left to see before our project is finished! Some nights, during the long movies we say that we can't wait for this self imposed project to be finished and then other nights we just enjoy being together, phones off, seeing little glimpses of the world through film.

Father's Day #2

We headed down to the cabin for Father's Day with my Dad. Friday night we gifted Dad with Mark's homemade BBQ rubs and sauces and some homemade Snickerdoodle cookies. We spent Saturday out on the lake, antiquing, and enjoyed a wonderful dinner of BBQ Chicken and Mama's homemade macaroni and cheese. We ended the daylight hours with a pontoon boat ride that ended too soon when the boat broke down. Thank goodness for some neighbors who were kind and patient enough to tow us home! We played UNO late into the night and then headed to bed so we could wake up for some early morning canoing. Sunday was spent at Lincoln's Boyhood Home and eating ice cream at the Zip and Sip in Oakland City. It was SO wonderful to be home and to have a whole weekend with my family! This week we thank God for our Fathers.

Father's Day #1

Last night we had Brian, Kristi, and Luke over to celebrate Father's Day with them. (We will be going home to my family for Father's Day weekend so we wanted to visit with Brian before then) Mark cooked a wonderful meal: BBQ Ribs (with his homemade rub and BBQ sauce), grilled asparagus, homemade mashed potatoes, rolls, and I made pecan pie bars for dessert.

I grew up in a family that loves to grill out and thanks to 23 years of dinners with the Vukovich family I love big gatherings of family and friends. We're so excited to have the house and yard this summer. We love to cook and we love you so please come visit!!

Reminders of God's Amazing Love

This weekend has served as a wonderful reminder of God's AMAZING love.

Saturday:
- We drove to Columbus to celebrate the marriage of Luke and Katie Otte! May God bless you as you begin your life as Mr and Mrs.
- Thanks to the Otte's well timed ceremony and reception we had lots of extra time to go to Lakview! We enjoyed seeing lots of good friends and BIG hugs! We really enjoyed a long visit with John, Karen, and the new Mrs. Stair!
- Brian, Kristi, and Luke returned from their trip to South Dakota to visit Matt, Jenn, and the girls so we also enjoyed lots of pictures and stories about our beautiful nieces!

Sunday:
- We spent the day at Southeastway Park celebrating Erik's graduation! God's blessings on his new adventures in the Air Force!

Thank you God for the blessing of Christian marriage, wonderful friends, and new beginnings!

Move Project: May Recap

Our May movies were: It Happened One Night (1934), Gigi (1958), A Man For All Seasons (1966), One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Ghandi (1982), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), American Beauty (1999), Million Dollar Baby (2004), and Slumdog Millionare (2008).

Many of this month's movies discussed issues of equality and social justice. Please pray for the people of the world and that God would use our actions and words to display peace to the world and for peace to enter the hearts of those who feel so much hate.

ONE

This past weekend we celebrated our FIRST wedding anniversary! We spent the weekend at Clifty Falls State Park at the Clifty Inn. We enjoyed some wonderful, early morning hiking. We were up early enough to avoid the heat and to be the first ones on the trail. We saw many beautiful creatures including a millipede as well as some playful chipmunks and groundhogs! We also spent a good deal of time in historic Madison, IN. I have to say that there was a alot to do and we're already planning a trip back next fall to see more!

As far as travel recommendations, I encourage everyone to visit Franco's in Downtown Madison. It's a little, family owned Italian restaurant where we enjoyed homemade pasta, sauces, and dessert. It was amazing! We always joke that our names and heritage are German-Irish but our stomachs are Italian. Good thing our loves match!

One Year. One Love. All thanks to the One God.

So a funny thing happened at work...

We work at a strange place. I mean a really strange place. People who work at stores or schools are always trying to tell us that they have a strange/difficult job and while I'm sure they do...we usually win the best story from work award though.

This past Monday I was out with the nurse on TB Rounds. This task involves going back into the cell blocks and either giving or reading TB tests. We are two of ten women that these inmates ever see. Nurse Nancy is a beautiful lady, but is also in her 50's, so I attract the (UNWANTED) attention of quite a few inmates. Nancy finds this to be hilarious and always says, "Amy, your boyfriend is waving hello." One such 'boyfriend' is housed in our maximum security blocks and has been winking at me since last fall. I ignore him. This week though he happened to tell an officer that he wanted me to call him. His mistake, he picked Officer Riley.

Oh the joys of working in corrections...

As this is my first blog about work I will also take this moment to ask you all to be praying for the millions of incarcerated people and their families in the United States. We are constantly frustrated by their repeated mistakes and failure to follow the law and so we pray for our inmates daily. Without God's help they will not ever reform their ways. Please also pray for the thousands of individuals who work in law enforcement and corrections. Pray with thanks for the many sacrifices that they make, the families they rarely see, the horrors they see on the job, and for their protection and safety.