Life with the Abels

A New Little Puppy!!!

2008-03-21T11:57:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true the Abel's got a puppy. Marshall, our little Labradoodle, is about 8 weeks old and is great. As you can see he is pretty small right now, but don't worry he'll get bigger.

This is his new little dish and few toys.
Just a little guy!!

O Christmas Tree...

2007-12-18T18:38:00.000-08:00

This is our Christmas Tree at our new house. It makes our home feel warm and Christmas-y.
This pic was taken after Amber and I went to go see "The Nutcraker", always a Christmas favorite.

Hope the holidays are grand for you all and that you enjoy celebrating the birth of our Savior this season!!

Love to All,
Steve

Creative Christmas

2007-12-18T15:50:00.000-08:00

The Above is a picture of the stage, well, as much as I could fit. The big glowing thing is a large LED screen and the things off to the sides are trusses with 2-4 intelligent lights on them. There were three "thrusts" coming off the stage. You can see the center one in this picture. The band was split on the left and right of the center thrust.
This is where I lived for the majority of the show. I played two keyboards and piano. The three electric guitars and drums and bass were on my side. The other had the brass, strings and 3 other piano/keyboard set-ups like mine.
This pic is of me singing one of my two solos. It's pretty dark but its the right thrust. You can see my stand light over on the left.

These are my three guitarists. The guy on the left is one year younger than me and plays like Lincoln Brewster (if you know who that is). The man in the middle is my shredder, and the right most is my Clapton guy. A great bunch of guys.

Creative Christmas was a success and was a main reason this wasn't updated too much. Hopefully we'll do more in the future. (wink)

Love Ya All,
Steve

Main Floor

2007-10-29T18:28:00.000-07:00

So here it is...the first floor. First you see the entryway given an update of paint by the famous Dave Abel. Then we have the living room with the beautiful piano focal point, and original artwork by Amber on the wall. The single brown wall is a nice accent to the wood floors and TV (no flat screen yet...yet...). The dining room complete with counter-height black table that folds out to a square that will seat eight (but we only have 6 chairs at the moment, which we will remedy at some point). Finally the kitchen which is not too exciting aside from the nice dishwasher, which is a HUGE blessing.

As stated before, there are many rooms and plenty of space so stop on by (just call first) and we would love to hang with ya.

More Later,
Steve and Amber Abel

We Love Paint!!

2007-10-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

Well, you can see the transformation of the dining room. Tan to Cubbies Blue. Crazy I know, but when you see the final product it looks pretty sweet.

The other photos are from when Thad (new friend here) and I decided to put in a shower door since our shower would let out a flow that makes the Mississippi jealous. As we put up the side rail we realized that the window sill was in the way. So what else to do but grab your friendly circular saw and drop cut in the sill till you remove what you need. Making sure to wear sweet protective eyeware of course. The last installment will have the main floor of the house, in a very close to completed form....the suspense...

House Work

2007-10-29T18:11:00.000-07:00

Well, sorry for the delay, but there was a lot of work to be done on the house. The pictures show the progression of stripping and staining the hardwood floors. After this we coated them with poly (a good number of coats). The next post will show more "finished product". The most drastic transformation would be the living room. But it is beginning to feel a lot like home...

Steve

more road trip photos

2007-09-29T23:39:00.000-07:00

highlights.... multanomah falls, oregon, space needle, first ever starbucks in pikes market, seattle

Road trip!

2007-09-29T23:19:00.000-07:00

So me (amber) and my best friend amanda south decided to go on a road trip. so we went 1400 miles from san franscico, ca to seattle, wa. we took windy highway 1 up the coast and we camped in the redwoods, we experienced the trendy,green, liberal city of portland, we froze our buts off at 6000 ft on crater lake in oregon, and ended up the space needle in seattle. and sleeping in a mustang convertible is not so comfortable even if it was a free upgrade because of our good looks! it was a sweet trip!! thanks for the great times southside!

what a day for a cubs game

2007-09-20T13:32:00.001-07:00

Cubs game with Steve's brother, Dave and his wife Greta. What a fun game but they lost. But they're still in the running for first place. Go cubs!

More House

2007-09-10T18:09:00.000-07:00

Back yard, dining room, kitchen, living room, sun room. Furniture is not ours this is just pics from the selling website. Enjoy looking!

--Steve

New House!!!!

2007-09-10T17:55:00.000-07:00

Hey All--

Take a look at the Abels new abode...yes we own a house...well kinda we hope to close on the 28th of this month (September for you late readers).

Amber and I looked, and looked, and looked for houses. But finally Ambers dad found ths place on the internet and we (on the way to make an offer on a another house) stopped by this one and both said, "This is it!". A few hours later we wrote an offer and then a few hours after that they accepted!!!

The joys of homeownership and the money that it takes is quite overwhelming, but there is something about it being yours that is difficult to describe. We love it and pray that it will be used as a safe place for whomever and a place of love. If your in the area let us know and you can stay for a night (it has 4 bedrooms...plently of room).

I, Steve, also had my first day at work at Heritage today, well half of it was at our home inspection but they gave me grace... I am so very excited to step into this next peice of life that God has for me.

Amber is gearing up for a trip to CA later this month for a time of roadtripping fun with one of her good friends.

So as you can see, plenty is going on and life is flying by. I am reminded to stop and thank God for all that HE has blessed us with, we pray that we can be a blessing to others.

Hey to all of you Sidney-ites, love you and miss you all! Make sure you comment!

Steve

Long Time....a whole lot going on...

2007-08-17T13:15:00.000-07:00

Well for those of you who check back here now and again...I hope you enjoyed the pictures of our snowstorm. Life has taken a drastically different turn that changes everything for us right now...

No, we are not pregnant.

I, Steve, have accepted a new job as the Worship Pastor at Heritage Wesleyan Church in Rock Island, IL.

The process was a long one, about 6 months, but was good. When we were approached to send in my resume and information, we were a bit hesitant. The church at Sidney has been so good to us and we have some great friends, who felt more like family. We were not sure what to do. In the end we decided to walk this path as long as God decided to take us. For the first four months we had no idea where were would go if the opportunity presented itself.

Fast forward through three visits, leading two weekends worth of services they offered me the job and I accepted.

My final date at Sidney, OH is August 26th. Then shortly thereafter we will be moving into the sweet basement of Dale and Marie (Amber's Parents) as we look for houses and such.

I start at Heritage on September 10th. It's pretty exciting, we really pumped to be closer to family.

Hopefully with this move our blogging will increase as our need to keep communication and pictures flowing back to Sidney. So be looking for more postings from the Abels!!

Love You All,
Steve

Blizzard '07

2007-03-04T15:46:00.003-08:00

Sorry it's sideways but I am not the best at setting it all up. You can see that the snow came up to my knees and you couldn't see where our street was. It was just a flat sheet of snow. This is out our front door becasue I couldn't get out of the back door becasue the drift stopping the door from opening.

Now it's 50 degrees outside. Gotta Love the Midwest!!

Steve

The New Addition

2007-03-04T15:46:00.002-08:00

Hey everyone- Sorry for the lax-ness in the updating but I have no excuse.

Above you get to see a gift from God. This is our new car that was given to us. A fellow Christian knew that we had a need and God told him to buy us a car. So we went at the end of December (like I said long time no update), we went and got this little beauty. At the time it had 11,000 miles and is an '05. Pretty unheard of, but when God wants to do something He really does it.

The story gets better, when I called Amber to tell her about the news, she was a little quiet. She informed me that God had been telling her to give our car to girl at her school who didn't have one and needed to rely on the government for a taxi and that service was ending soon. She said to herself "we can't do this unless we get a new car", then I called her and told her we got one.

God works in mysterious ways. So we cleaned up the blue bomber (steve's old buick) and gave it to her and her little daughter. It was a really, really cool day.

God moves and God blesses so that we can be blessings to others. All Glory to Him!!

You can also see the huge amount of snow in one of the pictures, that was when we had a blizzard and were stuck in our house for two days before we got dug out. THe pictures are obviously after we were dug out. I'll put a few others pics on of the big snow.

Steve

2007-03-04T15:46:00.001-08:00

Okay, so really.. what's going on with the Abels?
Steve's still loving his job and I (Amber) am almost done with Beauty School! Yeah! I have 220 hours left, out of 1800! I should graduate the first or second weekend of April! then it's off to visit the family in Illinois. I am missing my little Seth so bad! And then I'm making Steve take me on a graduation trip to Flordia sometime in May! I am interning at a salon right now, but do not now where I want to work when I am done. I have some options but no guidance to where I should go. so pray for me. I cant think of much more now, so see ya later

2007-03-04T15:46:00.000-08:00

I just wrote to tell everyone how much I love my sister and brother-in-law!! And since I don't want to go crazy hearing them talk about my unupdated blog, I am writing this little ditty. Love you sis!

Marathon Finisher's

2006-11-20T12:33:00.000-08:00

Well after the long wait for many of you I am posting the results of the marathon so you may see if you are correct in your votes!!

First Place - Steve, 3:50:26 finishing 8732 out of 33,633 participants. 8:47 average mile pace.
Second Place - Dave, 4:19:27 finshing 16392 out of 33,633 participants. 9:53 avarge mile pace.

This photo was before the race started, we didn't look so happy at the end.

It was one of the greatest, and longest, expeirences of my life. It gives a whole new meaning to the scripture, run the race as to win. I have never been so tired, but at the same time had a weird feeling. This large huge thing that I have trained for so such a long amount of time was now at an end. i was warned about this but you never think you will feel this way, post-marathon depression. So the cure.....? run another race of course.

Dave, Greta, Amber, and I are running in a "Turkey Trot" 5K on Thanksgiving day. This gives me an oppurtunity to use the peak condition of my body for another race before winter hibernation.

The other question that I get asked a lot is, "So are you going to do another one?" The answer at this point is yes, I would like to really run one real hard and see if I could qualify for Boston (3:10:00). This race was all about expeireince and being able to run with my brother. I was so pround of him. He's a little older and has alittle more going on in life with a baby and stuff, but he did it and did it well.

After the next marathon and Boston if I qualify, Dave and I really want to look into Triathelons. The ironman would be cool but I don't think we're anyway near that right now.

Right now, Amber and I are on vacation (allowing for this rather large post) for Thanksgiving and hanging out with all our family. It will be a great time.

Enjoy your Turkey or choice of festive bird and we pray you are all doing well!!

Steve

2006-10-16T07:06:00.000-07:00

Our other adorable nephew, Wesley!! What a cutie! He loves his aunt amber and uncle steve!!

2006-10-16T07:02:00.000-07:00

Seth is Adorable!!!

Half Way There

2006-10-11T06:05:00.000-07:00

Yeah the pics are a little small but they get the point across. The 1/2 marathon was great. I placed 81st out of 1507 people, not too bad I guess. The Marathon is approaching quickly (OCT.22!!). So Sunday morning when you in church sitting in your comfortable seat/pew/whatever toss a quick prayer up for Steve and Dave.

More Later>Abel

The Running Man

2006-09-21T08:02:00.000-07:00

Well, I continue to run even though the days are getting a little colder. The picture is from a 5K that I ran in our town. I finished 2nd overall in a time of 18 min. 5k is about 3.3 miles for those unclear on metric conversion. The people in the picture are all people from my church. The two on the ends won the men's and women's walk. The guy behind me won his age group (even though after they age graded it he ran a faster time than me). If you look closely you will find that the slower people got bigger trophies than the faster people. Life's Crazy....

This past weekend I ran a Half-Marathon which is 13+ miles. I ran that in an hour and a half, which I was pretty happy with. (Dave ran it in 2 hours 10 min.) So if any of you want to change predictions you may.;)

Seriously though it was a great experience to run that race. Everyone is so encouraging and supportive and the food afterward is great. I see why people get hooked on this. It's an expensive hobby but a great one. After the marathon I am going to look into Triathelons. Could be fun, but probably only to us weird people who enjoy beating up our bodies.

Hope all of you are doing well and life is treating you great.

--Steve

More Adventures!!

2006-08-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

Adventures in Camping!

2006-08-21T15:58:00.000-07:00

Steve and I had a blast camping! We had a teeny, tiny tent, borrowed camp fire wood, burnt bacon, and the possibility of a tornado. It was a blast!!!!

2006-08-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

Seth as a duck after I gave him a bath!!

It All Comes Out in the Wash....ington DC....

2006-07-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

Here's a few photos of the trip to Washington. For those of you who don't know. The pictures include Seth, Heather, and Scott Karl, Marie Howard (Amber's Mom). The Lincoln Memorial (go Illinois!!)

Also, incase you don't get it, a picture of Uranus and few other...um....behinds (Scott and Steve's to be exact).

Their may be other pictures added in the future but that's what I got for now. Hope you all are well.

Steve and Amber