A visit with Mom S.

It's been a hard year on the Schweigert household for Frank's parents. His mom was diagnosed with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's a couple years ago and did well for quite some time. But, the Parkinson's really took a turn for the worse this year and we ended up making the difficult decision of putting her in a nursing home just a few weeks ago. So, we went to Corry the day before Christmas Eve and stopping to visit Mom in her new home, and took Becca's dog Lucy with us. She loves to have Lucy on her lap!

We were able to take Mom "home" on Christmas Eve day to celebrate with the whole family, which made it a very special day.

Time to start again

Well, I've been gone for quite some time, but decided to get this old blog up and going again. Why not? Everyone else is doing it! lol! So, it's almost Christmas, 2011... so much has happened since I last wrote...

Let's see, Becca is now 21 and a Senior in college. One more semester till she graduates! She has to do an internship this summer, but after that, she is done! It's been a long 4 years, but she has done very well and maintains just above a 3.0 average. I'm very proud of the young lady she has become. She has started her own photography business and even has her own website. You can view some of the photo shoots she has done by going here: http://rebeccamariephoto.4ormat.com/
She's done quite a few Senior pictures this year, and even a couple of weddings and family group pictures. In fact, she's doing a family of 15 on Monday! She really hopes to be able to take her photography to a new level once she graduates. She is sooo good :) Just take a look and be the judge yourself.

Jillian is 17, almost 18, and is a Senior in High School. She is still doing fantastic in school and maintains Distinguished Honor Roll each semester. She made National Honor Society this year, and she also was named Senior of the month for October by our local Kiwanis Club. She still twirls like crazy and is on the Varsity Squad for the Competition Majorette Squad. She also competes in solo competitions and takes private lessons weekly. She was accepted at Duquesne University, Westminster College and St. Vincent Colleges and is in the process of deciding which one she wants to attend. She'd like to go for Bioinformatic, which is the study of Genetics.

Frank and I continue to keep busy with work and the usual running. Frank's job keeps him traveling quite a bit, but not as much as it used to. We're still very active in the church and sing in the choir and play in the bell choir.

I think that's it for now! I'm going to do my best to keep this active from now on... we'll so how I do on that ;)

Our 3rd Christmas!

We spent the weekend at my inlaws celebrating our 3rd Christmas for the year! We had a great weekend. We headed out on Friday afternoon and after stopping to eat a little dinner, we arrived by 8:00 p.m. We were up bright and early Saturday morning helping Mom S. wrap the final presents, then spent some time visiting with her sister's family who were all visiting for the weekend as well. I'll post more on that later...

We headed over to Frank's brother's house in the afternoon and enjoyed a day of visiting and eating, then eating some more! We Schweigert's do a really good job of eating! lol! We exchanged our gifts and did some more visiting.

I love spending time with Frank's family! His sister and his brother's wife are good friends, besides being my sisters! The kids had a good time too, and Jillian even put on a little performance for us, re-enacting one of her MS Arts monologue's that she had to do. She truly is a great little actress!

Sunday morning was spent at early church, then out to brunch (to eat again!) with the folks. We all had breakfast and it was delicious! We headed home in the afternoon after Frank helped Dad figure out how to add pictures to the Digital Photo Frame we got mom. I think he has it figured out ;)

We'll head back up next month for another visit! As always, I'm looking forward to it....

Kunkle Christmas...

Yesterday was my family's Christmas at my house. What a great time we had! The highlight of the day of course, was when Hunter finally got there! lol! The girls didn't think he'd ever come! They just love their little cousin!


We ate a great dinner (if I do say so myself! lol!), then opened gifts. The kids were excited to get quite a few gift cards and can't wait to go shopping and spend it! lol! Hunter had more gifts than anyone! Can you see the "tools" that we got him! I couldn't resist the little plush tool box that had his name on it! I have a feeling that little guy is going to be a bit spoiled! lol!

Today is Christmas Eve. Becca and I are both working, but we'll go to church tonight for Christmas Even services, then home to get ready for bed! I'm very anxious for the girls to see what we got them this year... and I have a special surprise for Frank too! It's going to be a great day tomorrow!

Have a very, Merry Christmas everyone! And remember, Jesus is the reason for the season!

Christmas Shopping...

I am actually doing very, very well with my Christmas shopping this year! I'm usually one of those people that waits till the week before Christmas to even start shopping! But this year, I decided to do quite a bit of online ordering and have even purchased a few items at the local store too.

Let's see, I have all the nieces and nephews done except for one.... I have quite a few gifts for the girls purchased and only have one or two more things to get for Becca. I even have a big gift for Frank already! Hee hee!

I think this honestly has to be a record! The hardest part is keeping it quiet as to what I got everyone! Anyone else have that problem?