Tuesday, August 26, 2008

I Guess It's Official....



I guess it's official, because it will be going in the paper!

"Rachel Marie Hamberg and David Andrew Schwartz were united in marriage on May 31st, 2008 by the Rev. Dr. Daniel Gillette, at Dimnent Memorial Chapel in Holland, MI. Parents of the couple are Scott and Jean Hamberg of Holland and Alec and Joanne McC. Schwartz of Conifer, Colorado. Katie Hamberg was the Maid of Honor and Christopher Sisco served as Best Man. Also attending the couple were bridesmaids Mealea Chhong, Dana Taylor and Jamie Vandenbrink and groomsmen Christopher Gall, Michael Powell and Christopher Waco. The flower girl was Macey Burgess, and the ring bearer was Jacob Adrian. Assisting as ushers were Keith Hollenkamp and Dan Nykerk. Also assisting the couple as mistresses of ceremony were Brenda Hollenkamp and Rachel Nykerk. Music was provided by Deb Koopmans. Following the ceremony, a reception was held at AlpenRose in Holland. The couple honeymooned in Spain. The bride is a graduate of Holland High School and Western Michigan University and is employed at Avenue A/Razorfish marketing agency in Chicago. The groom is a graduate of Oak Park & River Forest High School, the University of Minnesota and the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, and is employed at Orbitz Worldwide in Chicago."

By the way, to now reach Rachel at work, her "new" email address is:

rachel.schwartz@avenuea-razorfish.com

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Time To Catch Up....

This is my dear friend, Lynne - We went for manicures (at "Smooch" in Holland) - for her birthday. Girls! It's a fun place - we should all go! In this pic, we're having dinner at Alpen Rose - that brought back wonderful memories for both of us, as our Rachel and her Katie both had their wedding receptions there within three weeks of each other!

How's everyone? Summer is flying by - I've been negligent in posting lately, so really can't even remember what I've told you recently. A couple of weeks ago I had a bridal shower at our house for my niece Megan, who is getting married in a couple of weeks. (Ahhhh, I think a few of you heard the stories about that one....) Anyway, it turned out really well, and Megan seemed pleased. Below are a couple of pictures.

Last weekend we were in Chicago for an art fair in Oak Park (Dave's hometown), while he was actually up north with some of his friends at a cottage. So it was us and the girls - as "per normal" we totally enjoyed the weekend and spending some time with them. Scott sold one of his original paintings (the one he called "Cottage Row" - based on a picture he had taken when we were at cousin Dave & Mary's cottage for one of our Nykerk reunions). So that was very nice! Speaking of Dave, he is in town again - he called me last night and is going to try to arrange another get together at the cottage for a week night sometime in the next couple of weeks. I think they have use of the cottage until the end of August. So stay tuned on that one....

He is interested in having Scott paint a picture of their cottage, so we'll see how that goes.

When we were in Chicago we were delighted to see Katie's new apartment! The Katie Kat has done well for herself - her place is beautiful! She is now in the process of decorating, unpacking, etc. Scott left for home on Sunday morning (we took two vehicles), and Rachel had work to do, so Katie and I had a fun day together going to IKEA to pick up a few things for her apartment. She called me later that night to let me know that she had already put together a red metal stand that we bought for her kitchen. Carol - she called to get your address last night and will be mailing you a key to her apartment in the next day or two (Carol will be spending the night there when she arrives in Chicago in Sept - meanwhile, we'll all be in Holland at Megan's wedding).

We've been lucky lately to see the kids quite a lot. In fact, the girls and Ally are driving home tonight because they are both standing up for Jamie (remember her as one of Rachel's bridesmaids?) at her wedding this weekend. It's in Ludington, but they'll be spending the night here tonight and driving up there tomorrow (and Dave will join them on Saturday).

OK, that's enough for now. I'm thinking of all of you - REALLY looking forward to our trip up North!
See below for a few pics of "this and that" from the last few weeks.....(I CAN'T believe I forgot to take pics of Katie's new apartment! Kate - you'll have to post some...)
At the bridal shower - Megan and her mom, Shelley (Scott's sister)

My sister-in-law, Julie, her daughter Amanda, Megan and Me

A couple of pics from the Block Party at First Church - look at these beauties!

Look at this little doll. She's saying, "where's all the candy?" (Cool shoes, Mace!)


How about this get-up that we saw at Art in the Park? Check out the doggies and their matching sweaters. Ha Ha.

Monday, August 4, 2008

Weekend: Art in the Park = Good; Tigers = Bad



All in all, it was a lovely weekend. Picture-perfect weather for Art in the Park, and as usual, it was fun to be there and visit with lots of people that we don't often see. Sales were also pretty good, especially considering the economy. Many people ask us if we have a website, and I have to confess, "my bad" (that's the current lingo, right?), in that I haven't gotten around to doing that yet (I promised Scott I would). We want to be able to post new artwork and let people know about shows we're doing, etc. We also may eventually try to sell online, or maybe put a link in our site to http://www.etsy.com/, the site where tons of people sell their homemade wares online. You can set up a site there for free. I think Carol is thinking of selling some of her crafts on etsy.com, too - right, sis?

Rachel and Katie made a "pitstop" at home late Saturday night. They had been in Kazoo for a bachelorette party, and then had a bridal shower in Zeeland on Sunday, so they spent the night at our house. It's always so great to see them! Rachel N. was nice enough to drop Dad off at our house after church (we had "skipped" to spend some time with the girls in the am), and so he had blueberry pancakes with us and was able to see the girls for a little bit before they had to leave.

I'm already looking forward to Carol's visit! She will be arriving in Chicago on Saturday, Sept. 13 and will spend the night in Katie's new apartment. The kids will all be Holland that day for my niece Megan's wedding. We'll drive back to Chicago (I'll take my own car) and then I'll spend a day or two in Chicago with Carol prior to driving back to Holland. We'll be attending the "Renegade Handmade Craft Fair" on Sunday, located right around the corner from Dave and Rachel's condo. http://www.renegadecraft.com/# Carol will be staying for about a month, so that ROCKS!

Do I REALLY need to say anything about the Tigers? I think not.