A Legacy

The above photos were taken by Rick's cousin Liz a few years ago. The images are of Albert and Rosemary Amstutz.

This weekend we drove home to attend a beautiful funeral. I loved being a part of the celebration of a life well-lived. Rosemary Amstutz's life was a testimony of the love of Jesus Christ to everyone she knew. The weekend was packed full of stories from her children and grandchildren's fond memories of growing up on the farm.

Rick has often talked of the times that he, Jimmy, and Liz spent running wild on the hundreds of acres the family owned. He also remembers the entire family spending Sunday afternoon meals crowded around a small dining room table enjoying the most heavenly meals known to man.

Over and over at the funeral friends and family spoke of Rosemary's ability to welcome and entertain in her home. She was an amazing cook, host, wife, mother, grandmother, and woman of God. Her life paralelled the Proverbs 31 woman.

She was brimming with wit and words of wisdom. In fact, her humorous answer to the question, "Grandma, what does our last name mean?" inspired the name of her grandson's graphic design studio years later. She joked that Amstutz is everything from A to Z, and Jeff proudly talks about his grandmother to clients who inquire about the name A to Z design. What a cool story!

More than anything I was moved by the memories the family has of Rosemary because she was a true follower of Jesus Christ. She radiated His love to everyone she knew. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that Rosemary joined Albert in heaven this week.

She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:

"Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

One Month?!?

I can't believe we've been here four weeks already! Since then our world has completely changed! We've become Illinois-ans in nearly every way... don't try to sound that our phonetically. We've got a new home, drivers licenses, license plates (yes, two, grumble), jobs, a church, and we're beginning to make friends.

I'm currently working at an elementary school as an assistant teacher, and also part-time at one of the thousands of new Starbucks in this area. I have already worked at, and quit, Bed, Bath, and Beyond (great place, but Starbucks was hard to say no to).

Rick is working about 10 hrs a week at the undergrad student center supervising pool tables and the weight room. He is in his second week of classes, and loving it. He is excited about already knowing the biblical Hebrew letters! In addition to his 15 credit hours he is fulfilling a cross-cultural field education requirement by meeting once a week with a gentleman who ministers to Jewish people in the area.

Surprisingly, we are beginning to get to know our neighbors. It is very difficult to connect with others here because of hectic schedules (class, jobs, children, language and cultural barriers), but we have gotten to meet and hang out with at least 3 sets of neighbors.

Another way we have run into other students is at a local church. A Sunday School class began this week that has several young married couples, and we are excited about the opportunity to be mentored by a group and a church that loves and ministers to Trinity students.

How could we have ever doubted that God would pull through for us? He has blessed us so much since this journey began back in February... except that it was in His timing and not ours. That was the hardest lesson.

Who Needs Panera?

Next time I spend nearly ten dollars on a meal of soup and lettuce at a Panera Bread I will remind myself of the totally amazing baked potato soup I made in my own kitchen tonight.

Ok, so that's a little harsh because I am a big fan of the restaurant, but you can save yourself a lot of money by using a good recipe at home. :)

Here's a good one:

4 large baked potatoes
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup flour
6 cups 2% or whole milk
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
4 green onions, chopped
12 slices of bacon, fried and crumbled
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup sour cream

1. Cut potatoes in half. Scoop our pulp and put in small bowl.
2. Melt butter in large kettle. Add flour. Gradually stir in milk. Continue to stir until smooth, thickened, and bubbly (don't give up-this takes awhile).
3. Stir in potato pulp, salt, pepper, and three-quarters of the onions, bacon, and cheese. Cook until heated. Stir in sour cream.
4. Transfer to slow cooker and set on Low. Top w/ remaining onions, bacon, and cheese. Take to a potluck or serve straight from the cooker.

(Taken from the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook Feasting with your Slow-Cooker pg 62) Check it Out Here

Ok, I wonder if that violates some sort of copyright law...

That is the original recipe, but I used quite a few of my own substitutes. I used a sweet onion instead of green (simply bc the store didn't have green onions), only about 6 slices of turkey bacon instead of 12 of real bacon, only about 1 cup of cheese, and omitted the sour cream because it tasted fine already and I didn't want to gain a pant size after consuming my soup. Also, unless you are cooking for 10, I would recommend halfing the recipe!

A Little News From Home

While searching for things to do in the area I began reading a few articles on the Chicago Sun Times website. I came across this random article.

Amish embrace wind, solar power near Fort Wayne, Ind.

A Much Needed Pick-Me-Up

Since leaving TUFW I have been terribly innactive. First of all, I no longer walk all over campus to classes and such, and second, the FREE weight room is no longer conveniently located next door. But mostly, I have spent the last year becoming a tumor wedged between the center of my couch and my laptop computer. Between student teaching assignments and my full-time job of filling out online job apps all summer I became increasingly lazy. (forget the fact that we trained for the Indy-Mini this spring, then BOTH got strep-throat the week of the race) As a result, my energy level has decreased significantly over the past year.


I LOVE Reader's Digest magazine. We have been getting them for awhile and I always read them from cover to cover. Anyway, this article suggests some simple massage techniques that you can do on YOURSELF to help boost your energy level throughout the day.

Click Here - Learn the Art of Self-Massage!

Best Darn BBQ in the State of Alabama

If anyone can name that movie I'll be amazed.

Last night Rick and I attended a BBQ for all grad students on campus, and we met some more of our neighbors that we didn't know even existed! It was surreal to sit at a picnic table on the back lawn of "the Mansion" with 4 other couples who come from all over the country, but are essentially in the same boat we are.

Another wonderful thing about this campus is the abundance of children! We found out that there are about 80 kids (average age of 4) living on this campus. Just outside our building is a bike rack that is literally one big heap of children's bikes and trikes. It is so cool to see kids of all nationalities running around together.

We attended a Missionary church yesterday in Gurnee. Numerous people were referring us to this church before we even came up here, so we decided to check it out asap. The pastor, Todd Habeggar, originally from the Berne area, attended both TUFW and Trinity! He is also somehow related to Hal Lehman through marriage. I never cease to be amazed at how all roads lead back to B-town somehow.

As for a job update... I think I'll wait until everything is finalized before I go blabbing our plans on a public blog for anybody to see. By this weekend we should hopefully have all the answers!

p.s. thanks for Joe and Jeremy for being the only ones to post comments :) I also find it hard to believe that Joe is the only one with a blog out there.

Breathe a Sigh of Relief

Most of the schools around here start next week, and I was hoping to be a part of that. Way to feel like a loser... So I've finally decided to apply for subbing. I am realizing I should have taken care of this weeks ago because the districts around here like to interview their subs before they'll even consider them (not to mention a million other qualifiers in the form of paper). You'd think that having gone through 4 years of college for education and obtaining a nearly impossible-to-get Illinois license I'd be good to go. I have a lot of work to do.

On a happy note (sort of) I found my large packet of official documents I had been missing. Last week I discovered that I could not find my manilla folder full of teaching licenses, test score info, originals of student teaching evaluations, and other important info that is necessary for any bit of income at the current moment. Imagine having that feeling. Sadly I am out more than a few dollars because I quickly jumped on the website to re-order them... stupid papers... To top it all off they were in the same filing cabinet drawer I tore apart last week while in pursuit of them. =D