Sunny in Philadelphia

Although Brian and I spent a couple of days in Philadelphia for a wedding last year, neither one of us got to really see the city as much as we wanted. We decided to take advantage of our close proximity to this historical gold mine (we're only an hour away) and had a great weekend soaking up the beautiful weather while learning about the beginning of our nation.

It was incredible to see, over and over again, the very clear objectives of our godly forefathers. Nearly every decision they made in regard to their vision of America was inspired by Scripture. Truth is inscribed all over the city - 

- from the inscription on the Liberty Bell ("Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. - Lev. 25:10") 

- to the burial stone marking the graves of seven Declaration signers ("... with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence") 

- to the Declaration of Independence ("that all men... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...") 

America truly is a country unlike any other - there is no other civilization on this planet that was created by Christians for religious freedom. Although the US may have strayed from our forefathers' original intentions, it is still an immeasurable blessing to be a citizen of this great nation.

Below I've put a few highlights of our trip into a slideshow - if you click on it, you can view the pictures at a larger size. One of our favorite finds was the Reading Terminal Market, where we stumbled upon a live cooking demonstration by Adam Gertler, who was a finalist in the most recent season of The Next Food Network Star. He was making Mexican breakfast burritos and we were able to sample them - yum! We also got to run in Rocky's footsteps up the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Another favorite moment was standing in the very room that the Declaration of Independence was signed in - it was pretty surreal. And of course, we were very excited to eat an authentic Philly cheesesteak at Jim's Steaks.

On another note, please say a prayer for our friends Patrick and Holly Briscoe and their new baby girl, Addison. Holly was almost 28 weeks when they packed up their home in Kansas City to move to Longview, TX last week. When they arrived in Longview on Friday, Holly went into the doctor because Addison wasn't moving, and they ended up finding low amniotic fluid so they had to rush her to labor and delivery. Addison was born via c-section a few hours later at 1 lb. 11 oz. and 13.5 inches long. She and Holly are doing fine, but as you can imagine, they will both be weathering some obstacles these next few months.

Welcome to Scranton

You might want to skip the last part of this entry if you're not an Office fan.

For our first Saturday in the area, Brian and I got up early and headed to the Lancaster Central Market, which is recognized as the oldest farmers' market in the country. Housed in an old red brick building that was built in 1889, it has more than 60 vendors selling fresh fruits and vegetables, meats and tons of yummy Amish baked goodies! We got fresh sweet corn, peaches, broccoli and a couple of incredible donuts. I'm planning on shopping there as much as I can, because not only is the food fresh and delicious, its also pretty cheap!

The market is located down the block from the corporate headquarters of Auntie Anne's pretzels (which started in Lancaster). Brian made me stop to take a picture because I LOVE their pretzels!

Saturday afternoon, we decided to head north to Scranton, which is where The Office is fictionally based. It's about 2.5 hours from here, so a little bit of a trek, but we figured it was worth it because we will probably never have the chance to go again. Secretly, I think we were both hoping to run into Jim and Pam, or even better, Dwight.

Getting closer...

They recently took the original "Welcome to Scranton" sign down and put this one up it its place. The original one is now on display at the Steamtown Mall (yes, we went to see it, keep reading).

Here's the original sign on display at the mall!

At the mall, we discovered that we had JUST missed seeing Kelly Kapoor in person! She had been at the mall promoting the show and the city's "fun run" that was that morning - she left less than an hour before we arrived! We were so bummed!

Huge Office display in the center of the mall. Note the Dwight bobble head on the elevator.

So, although we didn't get to meet Jim and Pam, we did walk out of the mall with Gamestop's last copy of MarioKart for Wii, which we have been searching for since we got our Wii last month. As one of Wii's most popular games, it's pretty tough to find. We were very excited to find a copy in Scranton of all places! After leaving the mall, we drove around downtown Scranton and saw some of the other buildings that are shown in the opening credits. All in all, a great day!

We're heading to Philadelphia this weekend, so stay tuned for some more pictures!

Life in Lancaster

I am quickly learning how dangerous it is to get behind in my blog - somehow a month has already passed, and now I don't know quite where to start! After logging 1,300 miles on the Jetta odometer while getting to see the landscape of 7 different states, we are finally residents of Lancaster, PA! But let's rewind life just a little before I bring you up to date.

The last weekend of June (and my last weekend in KC), my great friend Valerie Bailes and I were privileged to host 10 of our friends at Val's house in Liberty, MO for our fifth annual Girls Weekend. These yearly get-togethers of sorority sisters are always full of laughter and fun, and this year was no exception. Activities centered around a theme of "our favorite things" and included everything from picking blueberries to making lip balm. Below are a couple of pictures of the group - click here if you want to see more (beware, there are hundreds)!

Nelson Art Museum (yes, that's right, Kelly and I are matching)

Sporting our sashes with this year's patches

After Girls Weekend, I hurried home to help Brian finish packing up our little home. We rented a 26 foot long U-haul to transport everything back to Wichita, and it's a good thing we chose that size (the biggest they offer). Somehow we filled the entire thing, which neither of us was expecting! Some of our Bible Study friends came to help us and were such a huge blessing - the guys helped Brian load the heavy stuff and the girls were so sweet and helped me vacuum and clean before we left. What servant-hearted friends! Thanks yall! We miss you!!!!

Girls (minus Camille Potchad)

Guys (minus Mike Potchad)

Before we pulled away at midnight, we stood in our dark house and thanked the Lord, through quite a few tears, for all of the ways He had blessed us there. Looking back, we were once again reminded of His faithfulness, which greatly encouraged us toward the road ahead. Brian bravely maneuvered the U-haul (and its trailer which held my Jeep) down I-35 and we made it to Wichita safe and sound. We were there a couple of weeks, during which time we got to see my sister, Lesley, my brother, Austin, who we hadn't seen since Christmas, and Brian's sister, Abby, and her husband, Adam. Brian also got to work for his dad for a week, which gave him a great taste of what he will be doing once we move back to Wichita this fall. 

The morning of July 16, we absolutely crammed the Jetta full of stuff and hit the road again (after my tearful goodbye to Stryder. I have never been away from him this long since I brought him home). And when I say cram, I mean CRAM.

The road trip was thankfully pretty uneventful, except for a traffic jam outside of Indianapolis that cost us 3 hours. After waiting in a standstill for 1.5 hours at 11:30 p.m., we had had enough and put the Garmin to good use and found another route. My favorite part of the drive was through West Virginia - wow. Crossing the state line from Ohio, we drove over a beautiful old bridge through a huge gorge and it was absolutely breathtaking. The rest of the time we were in the state, the highway was full of twists and turns, streams, bridges and mountains. I am so grateful for the opportunity to see a part of God's creation, and my country, that I had never seen before.

Our apartment is great - we're renting all of our furniture, so it was really nice to move into a place that was already ready to be lived in. The complex is in the middle of Amish farmland, although we're also about a quarter of a mile from the city's main highway. Lancaster is certainly an interesting dichotomy of old-world Amish and modern day America. Tonight we walked a trail that encircles our apartments and got to see an Amish man plowing his field behind a horse. We have quickly developed a great respect for these people - they are humble, hard-working and extremely disciplined. I know that just observing them could teach me a lot.

I have already written way too much so I'll wrap it up for now with a picture of our apartment building, but all you Office fans need to check back soon because we went to SCRANTON today! I'll post pics and stories soon!