!!!!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

Hi and welcome to my Daily Diary. Here is where we will be posting interesting things that we have been doing and also cool pictures of the places that we have been.

Click to jump the month of your choice

January February March April May June July August September October November December

January

We celebrated New Years with a wonderful hot dog and sauerkraut lunch and then enjoyed snacks later on. It was a nice quiet day. We watched the Rose Bowl Parade on HGTV. It was the best. No commercial interruptions. I hope that they do it again next year. We also started really planning our trip to Florida. We are also looking forward to our new arrival. We are thankful for the blessed 2001 that God bestowed on us and we ask for His blessing for 2002.
Our new arrival was delivered on Jan 9. We named him Little Eggbert (Eggy for short).
Bob, Margaret, Dorothy, Tom, Carol, Karen, and I went to the International Championship Rodeo that was held in the Trenton Arena on the weekend of January 12th. We had ringside seats to the action. It was a great time and we enjoyed ourselves. Click here for the pictures of the action.
We motored to Florida again on vacation. The weather was perfect. Rob was our guest for a few days. We took in The Holy Land Experience and Capone's Dinner Theatre. We went to St. Pete's and Tampa Bay. Click here for pictures from our journey.

Back to the Top

February

The first weekend of February, Amwell Church of the Brethren heads out to Camp Swatara for a family retreat weekend. We have a wonderful time at camp with group study session and free time to enjoy the area. On Saturday evening, we have skits that prove that Christians can have a lot of fun. After the skits, we have a time of sharing around the roaring camp fire in the large stone fireplace. Each year this is a very moving time full of tears as we each share with each other and it ends with lots of hugs. Click here for pictures from this wonderful weekend.
Welcome to our new website. We have moved the website to our own domain and new improved hosting site. Please update your bookmarks to point to the new home of our website: http://www.steveloveskaren.net
We spent a wonderful weekend at Amwell attending the Couples Retreat Seminar. It started Friday night with a dress up dinner at church where we played that age-old game "The Nearly Newlywed Game". Karen and I are going to be married 14 years come March, but we are still put into the game. Everyone had a lot of fun, and we learned some stuff that we probably did not want to know about each other.... Saturday was an all day seminar. We started out with bagels, etc for a continental breakfast. The morning session was on the 7 things that a wife wants her husband to know. After the delicious lunch we had the 7 things that a husband want his wife to know. It was a wonderful seminar and I think that everyone there learned some things to make for a better marriage. Click here for pictures from the weekend. Karen and I made it a special weekend by staying at the Courtyard in Princeton.
We welcomed the opening of the Jackson Shop Rite Super Market. It is a wonderful, bright, clean store and we are enjoying our shopping experiences there.
Karen made me a wonderful Valentine's Day Dinner. She made Beef Wellington with all the trimmings. It was a delicious meal and we both enjoyed it.
We processed our taxes again with the Tax-Act program with electronic filing. With the refund we are starting to work on remodeling the bathroom.
We have created a new domain for the church website. Now it can be found at www.amwell.org. Please stop by to see our new and expanding site.

Back to the Top

March

Pastor Frank Cosby spoke at church on the third. He gave a wonderful sermon on the meaning of the Cross. Karen and Gary had a wonderful duet and Lachell played for the offertory. Check out the service for March 3rd to hear all the wonderful blessings of that service.
Karen and I celebrated 14 years on the 5th by going out to dinner at the Buttonwood Manor. We had a beautiful view of the lake and lingered over dinner for over two and a half hours. Karen enjoyed Veal Oscar while I enjoyed the Veal Marsala.
We saw "The Time Machine" on opening day. I took off Friday to celebrate our anniversary by having a three day weekend with Karen. We also picked out more items for the bathroom remodeling. We can't wait to have the bath completed.
The bathroom renovation is complete. Here are the pictures of the work and the beautiful outcome of our new bath.
We celebrated Christ's Resurrection with a sunrise service at Amwell. Following the service, breakfast was served in the annex. Here are pictures of the children in their Easter finery.

Back to the Top

April

Karen and I had both battled the sick bug. We missed our opening weekend game with the thunder due to my illness. Thankfully we have both recovered and are doing fine.
We are enjoying the study of the book of Revelations in the Wednesday night Bible Study at Amwell. We are both learning lots of new insights.
Out second Friday night game was rained out on our part. We were traveling out I195 when we hit a horrible storm front with winds, rain, lighting and thunder that shook the car. We turned around and came back to Jackson were we enjoyed a nice meal at the Jackson China Buffet. It turns out that by game time, the rain had cleared out so we could have watched the game, but we had a nice dinner and were able to get to bed early for our trip to Washington DC.
We took a quick trip to see Lou, Sami, Dustin, and Cody on the weekend. It was to celebrate Cody's Birthday. We all had a really nice visit. We miss them and are looking forward to seeing them again real soon.
Remembering this month that it has been 1 year since Mary was called to be with the Lord. We miss her but we are glad that see is walking the streets of gold with Jesus. We love you and will always miss you, but we know that you are in a much better place.

Back to the Top

May

Celebrated The Nation Day of Prayer with a wonderful service at Amwell. Click here to see the service and hear the speakers.
The Woman's Banquet was the first Saturday of May. It is a chance for the women of Amwell to get together for a nice meal and a time of fellowship. They had a men's quartette from the Little Swatara Church of the Brethren along with a speaker. Everyone that saw the program was entertained. Karen and I did not stay for the program. We had been at the church since 12:30 helping John and Lorraine prepare the meal. I want to thank Karen for her help in getting the meal prepared. It was delicious as always and thanks also to John and Lorraine, and all the other helpers that came and helped bring the whole evening together.
Congratulations to Max who celebrated his 1st Communion at the Catholic Church/School that he attends. Due to the conflict with the Women's Banquet, Karen and I were unable to attend but from what we heard, everyone had a good time in celebrating with Max.
Over Mother's Day weekend, we went to PA to visit our folks. We had a nice trip and good weather mostly. We were able to visit Karen's Mom and Dad on Saturday for lunch, and we saw my Dad for supper on Saturday afternoon/evening. On Sunday we were back to Karen's Mom and Dad were we were able to spend some more time, and have lunch with Barb, Kevin, and Brooke.
Our church activities are keeping us very busy. Karen has Praise Team practice on Tuesday's, Bible Study is Wednesday, and I have trustee meeting the third Wednesday of May. We love our ministry at Amwell and look forward to serving the Lord to the best of our ability.
Karen has been working on her studies with the Family Radio School of the Bible. She just got back here 1st semester Greek Language test. I am proud to announce that she got a 100 on the test. She is studying the next part of Greek now and I am sure that she is hoping that this lesson is it for Greek.
We went opening weekend to see the latest Star Wars movie. Attack of the Clones was a fun movie, and we are looking forward to seeing the third installment of the Star Wars saga. Also on the same day, we decided to have a double feature date, so we went to see The Scorpion King. It was a fun movie with lots of action and staring The Rock of WWF fame. We finished off our double feature date with a nice dinner at Marco Polo in Freehold.
We started looking for Pella replacement windows for the Condo as well as finishing up the next issue of the Amwell newsletter. I took the 24th off to have a long Memorial Day weekend with Karen, so we have been doing a lot of running around to finish up some things and I am looking forward to enjoying the 4 day weekend with Karen.

Back to the Top

June

We enjoyed watching the Trenton Thunder defeat the Altoona Curve in AA baseball.
We were approved for the Pella replacement windows by the Convents Committee. We have ordered the replacement windows and they should be delivered and installed in the middle of July.
Karen is preparing to teach Vacation Bible School at Amwell. She will once again be working with the Teen Group (High School).
Continued being library volunteers for delivering books to shut-ins.
We saw Undercover Brother. It was fun if you lived through 70s.

Back to the Top

July

I celebrated the 4th of July by taking the whole week off from work. Karen and I enjoyed going to lunch everyday, helped paint scenery for Vacation Bible School.
Karen and I enjoyed watching the Trenton Thunder play on the 3rd. It was a hot night, the temperature stayed in the 90s for the entire game. The fireworks were spectacular after the game.
We watched Men in Black II on the 4th. It was not as good as the original, but we enjoyed ourselves.
We finished up shopping for Vacation Bible School so that Karen is ready to teach.
Karen taught Vacation Bible School for the weeks of the 8th and 15th. There were about 90+ children at VBS. Karen had about a dozen in her class. The closing program was on the 19th. Click here to see the photos from VBS 2002 at Amwell.
We attended the Sunday School Picnic at the Bushkill Park, Easton, PA. Click here for the pictures of fun.
We saw Stewart Little 2. It was a cute movie to while away a Friday afternoon.
We had the windows installed and they are wonderful. The installers did a nice job and we look forward to many, many years of service. We then had to get everything painted and new blinds up, and the curtains again. It made for a busy weekend, but it looks really nice.
We saw Austin Powers 3. It was fun but there were to many references that children should not have seen. Of course there were a bunch of children that there parents brought to see the movie. I guess they could not get a sitter, but that is my opinion.
We tried the Freehold China Buffet. The food was nice, but I still like Marco Polo better and the Jackson China Buffet is still nice for me (and close to home).

Back to the Top

August

We had Trenton Thunder tickets for August 5 and August 9. The 5th tickets were freebies that we got when they had parking problems earlier in the season. The 9th was our last TGIF package tickets. Since the 5th was way to hot to enjoy the game, we decided to skip the game. The weather mellowed out by the Friday and we had a wonderful evening at the ball park.
We enjoyed some nice cooler weather for a bit, and enjoyed using the new windows as the temps got down into the 60s overnight.
I am working away. Very glad to still have a job at Lucent. I hope that the economy recovers and the job situation stabilizes for the better. Our prayers go out daily for those that have lost their jobs due to the current economic climate, and that they found new positions and can move forward in their careers.
We had Andy, Jackie, and Alex up for dinner and a visit. Karen made home made bread from the King Author Flour bag and BBQ chicken. We had sweet potato fries, broccoli with cheese, and glazed carrots to round out the meal. We had a nice time visiting and playing with Alex.
We had a great visit with Gary, Nicole, Ethan, and Jordanna. The twins have grown and were a lot of fun to play with. We went to Chili's for lunch and then to Jersey Freeze for ice cream. It was a wonderful afternoon and we look forward to their next visit. According to the doctor, at the twin's 2 year checkup, they are above normal in development for full term babies. Since they were over a month early, that is wonderful news.
On the 24th we had a beautiful day together. We went to breakfast at the Victory Diner in Toms River and then went shopping at the Kohl's store in Howell. Kohl's was have some really great sales and we had fun out together. I am looking forward to enjoying the new feather mattress topper we picked up as well as the nice shirts for work. Karen got some nice clothes as well to enjoy. We really are glad that Kohl's opened their stores in our area.
For dinner on Saturday, we went for a nice drive toward the shore and ate at the Circus Drive-in in Wall. That is a wonderful place to enjoy the fine weather we were having and reliving our youth. The food is great and the prices are very reasonable. We had a great time together and would suggest that if you are in the area, that the Circus Drive-in is a great place to eat.

Back to the Top

September

We enjoyed a wonderful relaxing Labor Day Weekend together. We BBQ hotdogs and burgers and enjoyed the wonderful fresh Jersey produce that we get from a farm stand just down from church. We had the best corn, watermelon, and cantaloupe of the season.
We had a long weekend celebrating Karen's Birthday by going to Cooperstown, NY to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Fennimore Art Museum. We traveled through North West New Jersey, into the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania and then through the wonderful rolling hills of New York state. We stayed at the Best Western outside of Cooperstown. It must be a very new Hotel. It was clean, friendly and definitely a place to stay again. We would recommend it as the place to stay to our fellow travelers. We had dinner at Nicoletta's Italian Cafe at 95 Main Street- (607) 5477499. Karen and I shared the most wonderful meal there. We enjoyed the meal and the very attentive service. The food was delicious and we want to go back to enjoy another dinner at this fine Italian Cafe. The town of Cooperstown is a wonderful example of small town America. There is one stop light in town and all of the small shops, restaurants and even the Hall of Fame itself is made to blend in together. There were no loud neon signs and the people were so friendly that they even stopped to let people cross the street. We so enjoyed the Hall of Fame. The main gallery with all of the inductees filled us with a sense of history of the game of baseball. We enjoyed the various exhibits that outlined the beginning of the game, from early equipment and teams, through the latest uniform changes and the current stats of the game. We enjoyed strolling around seeing the memorabilia and remembering the players that we grew up with. We will definitely be back in a few years. It was a grand time and we enjoyed seeing the past and present of the game. I expanded my postcard collection by getting the complete set of postcards that contain the plaques of all of the inductees. It will make a wonderful addition to my collection while helping us remember our walk the gallery of heroes. Click here for the pictures that we took during our visit.
The Fennimore Art Museum was another wonderful stop during our trip to Cooperstown. We strolled through the various galleries and enjoyed various exhibits that were on display. We enjoyed a scrumptious lunch dining at the bistro on the terrace that overlooked the lake and mountains. The clerk at the hotel had called it a "Million Dollar View" and it was. The food was flavorful and we enjoyed the breeze and the afternoon sun. It was a wonderful place to lunch and I want to repeat the experience the next time we are in the area.
Andy & Jackie had us down for a BBQ on the deck they had put in. The menu was grilled chicken and Broccoli with cheese. Karen baked bread and an Apple Streusel. Jackie had picked up a chocolate-cherry cake. We had a great meal and a nice visit. Alex was walking a lot better then when they were over for dinner.

Back to the Top

October

We are getting ready to go on vacation to Treasure Lake. We are really hoping that the drive in is still open and that something good is playing. We also found a train ride to see the fall foliage that sounds really nice.
In other activities, we are child watching at church on Saturday night. The deacons are setting up a couples ministry and Karen is watching the children and I get to help her. We are planning on baking brownies/cookies and watching a Disney tape or two and coloring pages round out the plans.
We had a great time with the kids at church. They were well behaved and enjoyed making and eating the snack cake.
We have been going to Papa Tony's Restaurant in Freehold. The food is delicious and the prices very reasonable.
The day before we left for Treasure Lake, Bob & Margaret joined us for dinner to celebrate my birthday.
I managed to catch a cold/ear infection prior to us leaving on vacation. Luckily, I was able to get to the doctors for medicine before we left. I am feeling better now and Karen who picked up the sore throat and running nose is doing much better now.
We made it to Treasure Lake after lots of rain, and traffic tie-ups on I-80. We lost over an hour of travel time due to people causing traffic to come to a halt at the constructions zones. Traffic was stopped off and on for about 10 miles before the construction. We were able to stop at J & R's Smokehouse for lunch on the way through the Pocono Mountains.
We went to the moonlight drive-in theater and saw The Tuxedo. It fun being under the stars (such as there were with the overcast skies) with the moon roof open.
We spent a quiet Sunday for my Birthday. Yes... I hit the big 40.... and I am surviving.....We went out for brunch and just spent the day enjoying each other.
We had a lot of rain during our stay, but it did not put a damper on our great time. We enjoyed fires in the fireplace; tried out the new A&W Root Beer stand; finally tried and liked the Italian Oven; and had our first ever Quizno's experience.
Due to the weather and our colds, we postponed the trip to the Football Hall of Fame until next year. Maybe we will also check out the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame then too...
We are feeling better and came back home to enjoy the rest of the week in Jersey....
Thanks to all for the wonderful Birthday Greetings. 40 is not bad to me so far....
We just returned from Papa Tony's. I had the Penne in Vodka sauce. It was divine.... It will definitely be on the "I will have that again list". If you like Vodka sauce, you have to try Papa Tony's version.
Karen surprised me with a birthday luncheon after church. It was in honor of my 40th birthday. We all had a wonderful time with great food and fellowship. Thanks to Lorraine, Susie, Barb, and Margaret (the sneaky sisters of the brethren church) for helping Karen pull this off. Photos are available here.

Back to the Top

November

Karen and I watched the kids during the couples encounter again at church. We had 2 more kids than last time. Everyone had fun baking cookies, watching videos, and coloring. I was able to create a "Welcome to Amwell" presentation for Sunday mornings. The presentation was received very well. We are looking forward to improving it in the coming weeks.
On Thursday the 7th, I was told that my job at Lucent was being deleted. I am on the payroll until January 5. So I am starting a new job search and asking God to reveal to me His plan for my future. I am going to miss the people that I worked with at Lucent. It was wonderful to know that God will take care of us and He has a plan for our future.
Since I no longer have to report to work, I was able to setup a Sermon Notes presentation to show on the wall the answers to the Sermon Notes in the Sunday bulletin. It worked pretty well and we have to just make sure we get all the answers right the first time :)
Regarding the job loss: I am sad because I really liked the team and the project we were working on. I hope that Lucent will be able to turn the corner soon and the layoffs can stop and the company recover.
I ask for your prayers for God to reveal to me where I am to go in my career.
My current resume is available by email. If you may be interested in hiring me, please drop an email. I will respond with my resume and we can schedule some time to meet. Thanks....
Dad came out for a Thanksgiving visit. His train was delayed so we were unable to make the Thanksgiving Eve Service at Amwell, but we were able to enjoy a nice dinner at the Golden Gate Diner.
Karen baked pies... a delicious pumpkin pie with a pecan crust as well as a toasted coconut crust for a coconut cream pie along with homemade white bread and a Grape Nut bread. We roasted a turkey and made all the trimmings for a delicious Thanksgiving meal. We were able to watch the parades and the football games on Thursday. We have so much to be Thankful to God for this year. God has blessed us and we Thank Him for all of our Blessings here on earth.
Black Friday, we skipped the malls and went down to see Donna and her family. We had a really nice time visiting with Donna, Gary, Heidi, Art, Heather, and Kristin. Heather came back up with us for the night. On the way home, we stopped off at the Six Flags Great Adventure Holiday Light Show. The animated lights were beautiful and we enjoyed them more than the PNC lights from last year. Heidi, Art, and Kristin came up Saturday for a visit and to pick up Heather. We had a good time chatting and we shared dinner out at the Jackson China Buffet. Sunday, we relaxed over a nice breakfast together at the house before heading off to church. Karen had finished the latest newsletter and we had to make the copies before Sunday School. We were blessed with the Worship Service and Pastor Bob's message. We stopped off for lunch at HI Rib in Pennington before dropping off Dad at the train station for his trip back to PA. We all had a great time this weekend and look forward to our next time together. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!!!

Back to the Top

December

Karen and I did a lot of baking for the holidays including cookies, cakes, and breads.
We traveled to Pennsylvania to celebrate Christmas with our families. We have a great dinner with Kenton, Dave & Tracie, Rick & Bonnie with 2 of the grand-daughters, and Zane. We had a great time with Cork & Inez. We visited, played cards, ate, and exchanged gifts. It was a wonderful time and the weather was great for traveling.
We went to see Star Trek Nemesis on opening day at the AMC 24. The movie was awesome. Great special effects. The Next Generation cast is starting to look a bit old, but the action and story line held together nicely.
We also enjoyed lunch at the new Pizzeria Uno's that opened up near the AMC 24.
We saw Santa Clause 2 on Christmas Eve. It was a silly story, but it was a fun movie to view for Christmas.
We made a trip to the Philadelphia Airport for the first time. We dropped off friends as they were heading out to visit family for the Holidays. The airport was really nice and simple to get to. I think that we will check out leaving from there on our next trip. The time to get there was about what it takes us to get to Newark, but the airport was much easier to get to.
On the new job front, I am still submitting resumes and getting a few nibbles. I know that God has a plan for me and I look forward to seeing where my next job takes me.
We spent a quiet Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve at home reflecting over the past year and looking forward to what 2003 will bring.

Back to the Top

Of course there are no guarantees that this will be updated on a daily basis... Monthly will be more like it. Today's update is as of January 15, 2003.

If you have comments or suggestions, e-mail me at steve@steveloveskaren.net
Return to our home page