Amy’s Garden

Christmas

Christmas was a good time with family this year. On Christmas Day we drove across town to Keith’s parents’ house. They hosted a large gathering with 21 people. Gift opening time was a flurry of paper, ribbons, squeals, ribbons, and thank yous. I didn’t quite get a picture of everyone there, but here are a few.

Peggy and Calder are waiting for present time.

Brian, Christian, and Chase chill out on the couch.

Everyone is gathered around. Included in this picture: Peggy, Calder, Ralph, Mason, Lori, Arlene, Laura, Rick, Marna, Sierra, Janice, and Grant.

The next day we were planning to drive to Harrisburg, Illinois to visit my grandma, along with my parents and brother, who were already there. However, Grandma got sick Christmas night and didn’t want to give us her germs. We are sorry to have missed seeing her at Christmas this year.

Mom, Dad, and Dave packed up and drove to our house. That afternoon, Lydia had a large stack of presents to open.

Lydia and her grandpa are posing with Lydia’s gifts.

An important part of the McKinstry Christmas tradition is stockings. Each person has a stocking, and in the evening, each person takes a turn playing Santa Claus, putting stocking stuffers in each one. In the morning everyone opens their stockings. Even though we have a chimney, we hung our stockings on kitchen chairs.

The stockings were hung by the table with care.

Lydia eagerly anticipates opening her stocking.

Lydia with Dave, Shirley, and Wayne.

And to finish the post, here are a few more Lydia pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Merry Christmas!

Something Fun

A few days ago I received an email from Beth with this subject line. It contained a list of questions that she answered about herself and asked several people to do the same.

I have seen lists similar to this one on other blog, and they seem to be called memes. I suppose that’s because it’s all about me! I decided that instead of emailing my answers back to her, I would post them on my blog for all to see. I actually changed a few of the questions, since I am posting on a blog instead of replying in an email. They make more sense that way.

Here we go: 

1.  What time is it?  8:55 pm

2.  What is your name? Amy Elizabeth Tyndall

3.  What are you most afraid of? I am most afraid of losing everything in life that makes me feel secure and stable, but I know God would take care of me even if I did. Jesus said in Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap of store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

4.  What do you drive? For ten years I drove “The Purple Grape,” a 1996 purple Chevy Cavalier. A couple of years ago the car got totaled in the parking lot of the fitness center. It was still driveable though, so I kept the car! Now Keith drives it back and forth to work, and I usually drive our 2006 Toyota Prius. Combine driving the hybrid with the fact that I no longer drive to Morrisville, and our gas consumption has gone way down!

5.  Have you ever seen a ghost? no

6.  Where were you born? Springfield, Illinois

7.  Ever been to Alaska? nope

8.  Ever been toilet papering? No, I’m really pretty tame.

9.  Croutons or Bacon bits? Well, I like both, but I probably eat croutons more often.

10. Favorite day of the week? Definitely Saturday. We usually don’t have to go anywhere and the three of us just hang out at home as a family.

11. Favorite restaurant Panera Bread

12. Favorite Flower Lilacs

13. Favorite sport to watch Baseball has become my favorite sport in recent years. I like the slow pace of a lazy summer afternoon. (Therefore I don’t like watching the World Series. Too cold and too much hype.)

14. Favorite color: Purple. This is one thing that even strangers seem to know about me. In fact, I would be surprised if anyone reading this blog does not already know that I love purple.

15. Favorite TV show. I really don’t watch much TV at all. Before Lydia was born, I got into daytime “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” with Meredith Viera.

16. I just noticed there was no number 16 in Beth’s email!

17. Favorite fast food restaurant I guess Wendy’s. I like the chilli there.

18. What color is your bedroom carpet?  Tan. My bedroom as a child had green shag carpet, but then when I got to redecorate my bedroom, I changed it to …. purple!

19. How many times did you fail your driver’s test? I passed my driver’s test the first time. However, in Illinois at the time your driver’s ed instructor could give you a waiver if you did well in your behind the wheel training. Considering I got into an argument with the instructor during one of our drives (over the fact that I almost ran into a slow truck on the highway), I did not receive a waiver.

20. Before this one, from whom did you get your last e-mail? It was a reply from Keith about our plans for the weekend.

21. Bedtime: Lately around 10:00. I am known in some circles for my early bedtime. I’m usually the first one to leave a party! (Like I said, pretty tame.)

22. Who will be the first person to comment on this post? Keith or Mom

23. Who is least likely to comment on this post? David

24. Who would you like to see put this meme on her blog? Tammy

25. Favorite food Dark Chocolate

26. Ford or Chevy? Chevy

27. What are you listening to right now? I am listening to Keith make a helicoptor sound in Lydia’s ear to keep her calm until it’s time for her to eat.

28. What are your favorite animals? cats

29. How many tattoos do you have? zero

30. Do you have any pets? No, I have not had a pet since I’ve been married, but growing up we always had several. The minute Lydia looks mildly interested in a pet, I’ll be all over it.

31. Which came first the chicken or the egg? The chicken. See Genesis chapter one.

32. What would you like to accomplish before you die? Wow, what a question. Becoming a parent has changed my perspective on this. I would like to be able to say I was the best mom I could be. I would like to know I was completely surrendered to God’s will for my life. I’ll have to give this question some more thought.

33. How many people do you think will comment on this post? I’ll guess about six.

34. What kept you from deleting this? Well, because Beth was so cute with hers and excited to do it, and her enthusiasm rubbed off on me. Also, I have seen several memes on other blogs lately, and thought this one would be fun to answer on my own blog.

35. Where do you live now? Springfield, MO

36. Where was your favorite vacation? Mackinac Island, Michigan. Keith and I took our honeymoon there during the lilac festival. I was swooning! Mackinac Island is a charming little place with no motorized vehicles. People have to walk, bike, or take horses anywhere they go. It was wonderful!

37. What is your favorite memory? The fall colors and crisp weather have been making me think of a retreat I went on several years ago with the singles department at Ridgecrest Baptist Church. We went to Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and took walks in the woods. I found a huge leaf among the fallen foilage that was bigger than my head. I have a picture of myself holding it in front of my face. I thought I was completely hilarious. It was a really fun trip.

39. What is your favorite pastime? Spending time talking with Keith and letting him rub my feet!

40. What was your nickname in high school? I don’t think I had one.

41. What city/state do you call your hometown? Chatham, Illinois

42. Do you have a MY Space account? No, I think I’m a little older than most MY Space users.

43. If you could have one REDO what would it be? Hmm, kind of a personal question, but lots of ideas pop into my head. I probably would have done some things differently in my kindergarten classroom.

44. What is your favorite scripture and why? I love all of God’s word, and I’ve never really had one favorite verse. Lately I have been memorizing Psalm 24 while walking around calming Lydia. I chose it because a few months ago, Psalm 24:1 was the verse our church congregation would say together during worship services.

45. What type of music do you like? On the computer, I have two main playlists. One is called,”Music for Housecleaning.” I put it on whenever I need to get up and motivated. It has a lot of comtemporary Christian music, praise music, some swing and some blues. My other playlist is named “Music for the Harried Woman.” This playlist has lots of soothing instrumental music like Larry Dalton (a pianist), classical music, and Celtic music.

46.  What is one of your “dreams” in life? Someday I would love to have a booth at the local Farmer’s Market and sell homegrown produce.

47.  What area of your life do you always seem to struggle with? I am always stubbing my toes on furniture around the house. I struggle with clutziness!

48.  What is one encouraging thing you can pass on to the rest of us? “Yet to all who received him (Jesus Christ), to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12

Tea Party

As my faithful blog readers know, Keith’s mom Peggy has had a serious lack of females in her family through the years. Since her sons have been getting married, however, she has enjoyed having daughters-in-law.

Over a year ago, there was an article in the Springfield News-Leader about tea rooms in the area. Tea rooms are basically girly places to eat a pricey lunch. Peggy had never had much opportunity to visit girly places before, so she recruited her daughters-in-law to go to each one. We have enjoyed critiquing the food, service, and decor at the restaurants as we make our way through the list.

Tuesday was Lydia’s first opportunity to visit a tea room with the Tyndall ladies. We visited Tea Bar and Bites.

Pictured: Lori (Christian’s mom), Arlene (Lori’s mom), me, Lydia, Peggy, Janice (Mike’s wife), Holly (Lori’s sister), Diana (Brian’s wife)

Lydia wore her Tulip Toes to the tea room. Here are some pictures of Lydia in her new booties taken the day before.

Speaking of cute baby attire, today Lydia wore her blue jeans, given to her by my friend Sarah from college. Sarah couldn’t attend Lydia’s baby shower since she lives across the state, but sent her a trendy outfit anyway.

To view some exciting video footage of Lydia modeling this outfit, click here. Very cute.

The Pink Dress

Keith’s parents were married in November of 1961. That December, Peggy was working in a five and dime store. She bought this pink dress, thinking she would use it someday to bring home a baby girl from the hospital.

Five years later, she was expecting her first baby. She washed and pressed the pink dress so it was ready to go for little Angela Diane. She brought it to the hospital with her, but came home with Brian. The dress went back into storage.

About two years later, she rewashed and repressed the dress, taking it to the hospital for her second baby. Keith came out. Eighteen months later, Rick entered the world. There were no babies who could wear the dress.

A few years later, Peggy was pregnant for the fourth time. Her friends threw her a baby shower and gave her several more pink dresses, because they all knew that this time, she would surely have a girl. Alas, Mike was born. She returned the new pink dresses, but held on to the original dress she had bought so many years before, thinking she would someday have a granddaughter.

Her boys began to grow up and produce grandchildren for her. More specifically, they produced grandsons: Christian, Mason, Calder, and Grant.

Now, 45 years after buying the pink dress, Peggy finally has a baby girl on the way who will wear it. Her name isn’t Angela Diane, but Lydia Rose will be proud to wear the dress for Nana.

Family Reunion

Fried chicken, smoked ham, BBQ pork, potato salad, pasta salad, hashbrown casserole, cole slaw, chicken and noodles, pie, brownies, and ice cream. Now if that’s not a good reason for a pregnant woman to drive to Joplin, tell me what is.

This was the impressive spread at the Johnson-Cunningham family reunion. Keith’s mom was a Johnson, so we spent the afternoon visiting with relatives and playing with cute kids. (Oh, and did I mention we had lunch?)

Here are some shots of various family members in attendance. (Keith has even more shots from this day posted on his web album.)

Left to right: Joyce and Jack, Sharon and Jerry, Peggy and Ralph (Keith’s parents), Janet and her son Johnny

Top Row: Rick, Charlie, Lacey, Jennifer, Mike, Janice, Calder, Amy, Keith, Morgan, Jerel

Bottom Row: Colton, Christian, Grant, Mason, Carlie, Randi, Jennifer

Calder and Grant both enjoyed being swung by Uncle Kiki.

Christian hid behind the couch.

With all the food, family, and fun, poor Grant was left in a wide-eyed stupor.

 What a day!