2009 Sniegowski Family Christmas Card, finally done!

We had to wait for someone (not mentioning any names) to get home for the picture! Hopefully I can get them printed tomorrow, print labels and get them in the mail. Better later than never, right?

Marshall's Senior Pictures

I had the chance to do some senior pictures for Marshall, a good friend of our son's. We had a good time that day and these are some of my favorites!

Trevor ♥ Emily

Our son, Trevor and his girlfriend Emily having some fun with the Christmas decorations.Oh, and Max (Emily's dog) too! Thanks for the photo Emily!

Deck The Halls!!! Fa la la la la!!

Well, today is the third day in a row that all classes have been canceled for this area. We've had about a foot of snow and 50 mile an hour winds over the last couple days. We have just been tucked in here with the fireplace crackling, we put up all the decorations, wrapped gifts, watched some Christmas movies and today I think we might bake cookies! It has just been too nasty to go to work at the rental properties, oh shucks, I would rather not anyway. We're having way more fun at home!

Not coming home for Christmas :(

Do you recognize Monica, she is in the front row, left side. Just wanted to give you an update on Monica. She graduated from Air Force Basic Military Training this past June in Lackland, Texas. She then went on to complete Tech School, also at Lackland AFB. Currently she is still in Lackland awaiting to be sent to the next location she will be stationed in Georgia.

She has been told at this point that she will NOT get to come home for Christmas. So, if you have time, please send her a card or drop her a note this hoiday season. I know she would appreciate it and she just might even write back to you, thanks!

AB Sniegowski, Monica E.
PSC # 3, 1320 Truemper St.
unit # 387263
Lackland AFB, TX 78236-5570

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow! Merry Christmas from the Sniegowski's! I had so much fun making it Christmas-y here at my blog !

Hannah & Alex

I had such a fun afternoon with the Wiles family on Sunday! We took family pictures and pictures of each couple. You guys are so cute! Just click on the image to view it larger.

Virginia Beach, Virginia

I love vacation! I got to spend last week seeing the sites in Williamsburg, Virginia with my friend Beth. We spent a day touring colonial Williamsburg, I really enjoy seeing all the old historical homes and businesses and looking at all the shops. One night we went on a "ghost tour", that was interesting. We had lunch at an old taven called Chownings. It's just so cool to think about walking down the same streets our forefathers did, I actually sat in Thomas Jefferson's church pew. I liked the Governor's mansion and the old church.

We also spent some time in Virginia Beach, the picture above is my favorite. More pictures to come .

Trevor, what did you do for you 18th birthday?........I FLEW a helicopter!!!

That's Trevor in there along with flight instructor Tammie. They took the helicopter up this afternoon and Trevor got to fly it. I think he had a blast, so if you see him be sure to ask him about it!

What a cute couple!

Trevor & Emily ♥

In CaseYou Missed It ~ Mr. Sniegowski Had A Birthday!

Happy

48th

Birthday

Todd!

July 9

2009

Because I promised and because these are soooo goooood!!!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Brownies

Here's what you will need:

1 box Betty Crocker Original Supreme brownie mix (with chocolate syrup pouch)

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup water

2 eggs

1 package (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker chocolate chip cookie mix

1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened

1 egg

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray bottom only of 9x13 pan with cooking spray or grease with shortening. Prepare brownie mix as directed on box, using oil, water and 2 eggs. Spread in pan.

2. Prepare cookie mix as directed on package, using butter and 1 egg. Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls evenly onto brownie batter; press down lightly.

3. Bake 35-40 minutes or until toothpick inserted 2 inches from side of pan comes out almost clean. Cool on cooling rack 30 minutes.

4. Frost with Chocolate Ganache (see recipe below)

Chocolate Ganache

12 oz. semi-sweet chocolate morsels

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

6 Tbsp butter

In a small saucepan, heat cream and butter until just before the boiling stage.
Pour over the chocolate morsels.
Let stand about 20 seconds and stir until smooth.
Pour over brownies and let set before cutting

I found this recipe at a really fun website check it out, http://bakerella.blogspot.com/

Consider yourself warned!

These brownies cause extreme satisfaction and may complicate weight loss!

Enjoy!

Mike, Mike & Adam (and Mike's Dad)

Four Handsome Buckeyes! One day these guys came to our house and within just a few hours they had installed all of the kitchen cabinets in 908 7th St. SW. They had just come to Cedar Rapids for the week to help out in any way that they could and we were so lucky to have them! They did an awesome job, the kitchen looks great! Thank you very much!!

Photo Editing Class Online ~ JessicaSprague.com

I have been taking a photo editing class online this past week when the guys were in Pittsburgh (Todd and Trevor went last week on a mission trip). I really enjoy experimenting with digital photography. The class is online at http://www.jessicasprague.com/ It's called Photo Editing Frame-Ups and Special Effects, check it out. I have several other photos in the gallery for that class. Have a great day!

Progress!

Front Porch at 908 7th St. SW

We made a lot of progress last week and I will post more pictures soon. This is my favorite thing from this past week. A new coat of paint for the front door, stained the porch floor, a new light fixture and house numbers! I am loving the color, it's called Lost Atlantis (Sherwin Williams).

Faith United Methodist Church, North Canton, Ohio

The week of July 6-10th, OK I'm a little behind, we had help from an awesome group of BUCKEYES! We had so much fun getting to know this group, especially on Friday. We took a little field trip to the "Do It Best" Hardware store. The kids were fascinated with the fact that everything said "do it" on it. We even got free T-shirts! I guess they probably don't get very many tourists in the hardware store!
We got a lot of work done too. We started on the main floor apartment of 914 7th St. SW, did a lot of framing and drywall work. Thank you so much, it might not seem like much to you but each week gets us a step closer to completion. Thanks for all of your hard work!

Pictured above are, Janice Golden, Matt Partridge, Katie Schirra, Kim Vandervaart, Amy Snyder, Natalie Klco, John Arnold, and Jan Bremer.

Photo Editing

I'm having a little playtime with some photos I took a while back, I'm just taking a little break and doing some fun things while the boys are in Pittsburgh. I know I need to update here, hopefully later today!

Community Church of Glen Rock, New Jersey

These pictures are from the week of June 29th - July 3rd. We had an awesome group of incredibly talented people mainly from New Jersey helping us last week. We made so much progress and had a lot of fun too. We painted the outside of 908 7th St. SW. What do you think of the color? The windows on the main floor are now framed up to look like the old style of the rest of the house, I am totally in awe of the talent, I love the windows, they look great! Also, the entire back porch was gutted and replaced, a new door and window were installed in the porch and the metal soffit pieces under the roof on the front porch were replaced. Oh, they also installed laminate wood flooring, then we had a dance party on it! I hope to post a video of that soon, I am just so new at this whole blogging thing that it takes me a long time to figure out how to do things.

Pictured above, left to right, front to back are: Rich Briggs, Carver Diserens, Elizabeth Gulmy, Karla Diserens, Leigh Ricciardi, Heather Ricciardi, Karen Ricciardi, Matt Flaherty, Marty "Mongo" Moynihan, Peter Chadwick, Gary Montroy, Patrick "Patches" Hughes & Phil Vanderwerker.

I really enjoyed getting to know you all, please keep in touch. I think of you and miss you, thank you so much for all of your hard work. It means so much to us and we will never forget your kindness.

May God bless you, as He has us.

Laurie & Todd

Congratulations Graduates!

We've been so busy I haven't had time to share picures of our two graduates. Our daughter Monica graduated from Air Force Basic Military Training on Friday, June, 12th in San Antonio, Texas at Lackland Air Force Base. Our son Trevor graduated from Prairie High School on Saturday, May 30th. We are so very proud of both of them!

These pictures are from the week of June 21st-27th. We had help from a Mission Camp group, they are from Wisconsin and Minnesota. We all worked so hard and it was really hot but as you can tell from the picture above we made a lot of progress. We got the whole outside of the house primed, the first level painted inside, made a lattice for under the porch, new sump pump installed, framed up the windows outside, met a lot of new friends & HAD A LOT OF FUN!

Pictured above, left to right, front to back are: Amber, Brittany, Jessi, Journee, Roger, Michael, Ben, Dave, Nancy and Lizzy.

Thank you all so much, I miss you!

Laurie

908 7th St. SW ~ Right after the flood ~ June 2008

This picture shows all of the stuff that had to be thrown away because it was exposed to the flood water and ruined. So sad. There were piles like this in front of houses for blocks and blocks.

After the Flood of 08

Well, hello. This is going to be my first attempt at starting a blog. I'm just kind of trying this out to see how it works. I wanted to post some pictures, so some of the people who have been helping us rebuild could see how the houses looked before and also see the progress being made.