Pictures from Paulette's place!

More than a week later, I'm finally getting this post finished.  :)  We all had such a wonderful time of fellowship in Paulette's home, complete with uplifting messages from God's word; tasty food; and fun and games....

 

I traveled to Miranda G's house after work that Thursday and enjoyed an evening of devotions and visiting.  Two of her brothers were cleaning their rifles in preparation for the 1 day Project Appleseed shoot being held in Minot that Saturday (Andrew was a co-teacher), so it was fun visiting with them about Appleseeds and shooting...

 

Shawna and Krista T. were also there, so the G's house was pretty full.  We spent the night in the girl's room, then Moses helped us pack the suburban with all of our supplies/luggage in the morning (Miranda's car just wasn't quite large enough!).  :)

 

We stopped at Dwight Duke's greenhouse/farm for some vegetables on the way, so it was AMAZING to see his setup!!!!!!   I wish I'd had my camera unpacked then to get pictures.

 

The 5 of us (Miranda, her sister Morgan, Shawn, Krista and I) stopped in Bottineau at Subways to get some lunch so as not to arrive at Paulette's house hungry.  Miranda did all of the driving and we talked to her to keep her awake.  Ha ha ha

 

At last, we made it up Paulette's hilly, very muddy driveway and Miranda parked the suburban.  The Minnesota girls/ladies were there before us, so we had a warm welcome.  :) 

 

After getting unloaded and somewhat settled in, several of us bundled up and went for a walk.  Just shortly after we got out to the main road, the last vehicle full of girls pulled in, so we turned around and headed back. 

 

Not too long after this, Mrs. Bartlett and their Andrew came over and brought several gallons of delicious farm-fresh milk for our weekend.  It was nice to see them, if only for a few minutes!

 

We'd asked Paulette if there was anything we could help her with---any large chore that seemed daunting to one person.  The only thing she came up with was to wash off all of the doors/closet doors in the house and to polish them, as she heats with wood and the smoke leaves a slight sooty film on the wood that needs to be washed off occasionally.  With 16 young ladies scrubbing and polishing, the job was finished in about an hours time.  

 

That evening, Paulette talked about herbs and midwifery somewhat, then we had a devotional in her living room area... 

 

Later, all of the young ladies gathered in one of the bedrooms and had some heart-to-heart talking time (things about standards in dating/courtship; marriage/etc...).

It was hard for everyone to decide where to sleep, as Paulette has so many cute rooms...  I ended up being in Paulette's room (she slept on the couch and gave her room to we girls) with Maria U.; Morgan G. and Krista T....   We surprisingly didn't talk too late once we went to bed, but that was never before 1:00am and sometimes was a bit after that.

The next morning, after sleeping in slightly and taking turns in the showers (there were 3 bathrooms, but it still took quite some time to get everyone through), we had some quiet time before brunch.  This is Emily B.... 

Throughout the weekend, several of the young ladies made joyful melodies on the piano.  This is Hayley R...

Paulette's home is so beautiful!  This is her sunny kitchen...

Miranda, hard at work...

Another Bible study/music time....  We did a lot of singing.  :)

Most of us took a walk every day too.  I didn't have my camera along during those times though. 

Saturday afternoon was partially spent in playing games... 

I love this picture of my friends!   Miranda (left) and Paulette (right) work together quite a bit and it was fun to see how the related to each other...

Some of you may know that red-head in braids sitting beside Miranda?  ;) 

Maria U. and Jordan B. looking at the photo album I had along...

This chair was SO cute!  Pansies are my favorite flower, so I thought it was especially sweet--for obvious reasons...

This game was called "Last word" I believe.  That night, we played Dutch Blitz until 10:30ish, then had devotions and talked and talked and....

Here's a picture of the snow and the mud...  There are so many trees up there that it's hard to believe we were still in ND.  :)

The matching ladies---Krista and Miranda...

Dutch Blitz---hooray! 

Sunday morning...

Miranda and Shawna were the main planners of our get-together.  (Thank you SOOO much, ladies!!!!)  They organized who did which meals and presented most of the devotions/Bible studies...

Music time!

A new friend, Marie L. came with the MN ladies.  We all enjoyed her very much!

I don't have many pictures of myself as, well, I was taking the pictures with my camera, but one of the girls did snap this one for me.  :)   This is Emily B., Lydia U., and myself...

This is kind of a funny picture!  Do you know what Paulette and Miranda are doing?  Well, Miranda is shaving off some bees wax and Paulette is digging out some propolis for the herbal salve we/she made that day...

While most of the girls were out walking, Paulette, Miranda and I decorated the table for our dress-up formal evening...

My faithful friend, getting in on the fun...

We had SO much fun!  The T. girls are talented at doing makeup, so they dolled the rest of us up.  :)

 

"Hmmmmm, which one should I use....?"

Shawna and Anna U...

Lovely Anna...

Lovely Hannah...

It was amusing to have so many young ladies there with similar sounding names:  Anna and Hannah; Krystal and Krista; Marie and Maria; Clara and Cora....

Several of the young ladies helped each other with fancy hair styles.  Here Krystal M. is pinning up Gwendolyn H.'s hair...

Hayley R...

Shawna and Jordan...

Anna doing her sister, Clara's hair...

Hannah in her pretty outfit...

Maria taking notes of the things she'd learned already....

Shawna and Lydia...

Krystal doing Hayley's hair...

Hannah's stunning red hair....  I just love it!

Shawna and Miranda...

The lovely Marie and Maria ladies...

It's a good thing that we started with hair/makeup/clothes at 3:30, or our supper would have been even later than 7:00.  ;)

Lovely Gwen...

 

Jordan's (in the middle of the picture) hair is so long and Marie put it up so beautifully.  We all agreed that she could have been an actress in Pride and Prejudice.  :)

Awwww....

We're ready!

More lovely ladies!  Miranda and Paulette...

They really do get along very well!

...with the T. ladies....

...I wore my "Cornelli lace" dress...  :)

Pictures time!   l-to-r:  Morgan, Anna, Lydia, Emily and Krystal

Marie L. and Paulette...

My dear Miranda friend....

Marie, Krista, Hayley, Hannah and Maria...

"Shall we dine?"

Miranda and Maria U...

Paulette and Shawna...

That evening, Paulette's 2 grandchildren came over to stay for the rest of the time we were there.  Here Hayley's playing a game with them...

Anna U. did my hair (and I did hers in return).  Didn't she do an amazing job?  :) 

After our meal was finished and the dishes were done, the coffee-table and rug were moved and the music was turned on for at least an hours worth of Virginia Reeling...  :)  Some of the young ladies there weren't familiar with the waltz either, so those of us who knew it, taught the others...

The Virginia Reel....

It was so fun, although a wee bit crowded!

Paulette strained the herbs out of the salve and poured the liquid into a bunch of tiny jars.  Some of us helped her go down in the cellar to get even more jars, then washed and dried them.  She gave each of us a jar of salve to take home...

 Then, even though it was late, we took pictures galore...  Here we all are (all except for Paulette and Maria)...
l-to-r:  Marie, Hannah, Lydia, Cora (me), Jordan, Hayley, Morgan, Shawna, Clara, Krystal, Emily (above Krystal), Miranda, Anna, Gwen, and Krista

 We were the ladies dressed in blue...  Miranda, Marie, Shawna and I

 The white-skirt ladies...  Jordan, Lydia, Emily and Clara

 The brown/peachy colored ladies...   Anna, Hayley, and Maria

 :)

 The black/grey/blue/? colored clothes...  Shawna, Hannah, Clara, Morgan, Jordan, Krista, and Krystal

 Hayley, coming up the spiral wooden staircase...

 Sisters~

It was sad knowing that was our last evening together....

The next day, we had brunch/singing/devotions, then started saying our goodbyes.   After everyone else had left, Miranda, Morgan, Shawn, Krista and I helped Paulette with some cleaning up---vacuuming/sweeping/bedding change/general tidying up.  We ate a light lunch with Paulette, then said our goodbyes to her as well and headed for Minot.  We dropped Shawna and Krista off at their married sister's home; stopped again at Dwight Duke's greenhouse for more vegetables; made it to the Geiger's home safely; I transferred my pictures to Miranda's computer; I gratefully accepted the fruit smoothy Mrs. G made me; then I headed for home.  I made it home just in time to change into yicky barn clothes and go out to help bed down the pole barn a bit and tube-feed one of my calves.  I slept so well that night!

The parts of 5 days that I was gone seem to be a dream now.  It was all so wonderful and refreshing, even though I'm afraid I was draggy for a couple of days afterwards, so it seems strange that it was tiring and refreshing at the same time, but it was.  :)

It's late now and I haven't proof-read this yet, but I'm just going to post it anyway and ask you to forgive the typos...  Good night everyone.    I hope the Lord will soon send you all an encouraging time spent with loved ones too!