Family – Page 2 – The Rottman Family Adventures

Mississippi

November 18, 2013 by Beth 1 Comment

In July, Clara and I were able to go back to Mississippi to visit family while Jeff went to California for a visit with Steven and work training. Jeff is officially part of the Rotation program now as the rest of his class joined him in training and began work in July. Clara and I spent our first day in Jackson with the Rottmans/Shirleys. Clara and Tucker are only a few months apart and were both so different from the last time they were together.

Mary Frances arrived back in MS after a semester in Spain. It was so much fun to welcome her home! While our parents were off at a high school reunion, Mary Frances, Stephen, Clara, and I headed to Petal to visit the Kolvites who just moved back to MS. Sibling road trip! We haven’t been all together like that in a long time… Clara and I met our newest cousin/niece for the first time. Anna Ruth is a cutie and content just hanging out. It was great to finally meet her. We were even able to celebrate both Clara’s birthday and my birthday.

We spent the rest of our time at Nana and Pop’s just hanging out, picking blueberries, going fishing, and doing other fun things that you do in Mississippi. I was awed by all of the green during this trip. It’s beautiful! I think I miss green even more now after moving to Phoenix. We are mostly back in MS during the winter, so it was really fun to see everything green for a change. Clara was not a huge fan of the grass, but she did enjoy just being outside on the swing or in the pool or slip’n slide.

Thanks to Pops and his fishing wisdom, I caught the biggest fish that I ever have (or at least that I can remember). Since moving from Mississippi over six years ago, the fish in our lake have gotten HUGE. This one was over 5 lbs.

In my mind, Pops knows all about fishing. I still love going out to our land and spending time with him as we fish– even when we aren’t very successful. Our family has some great memories out on our lake! I am excited for Pops to teach Clara and share his love for fishing with her.

All of the kids (minus Jeff- missed you!) cooked an anniversary dinner for Nana and Pops. 35 years!! Love you both!

Madrid

May 29, 2013 by Beth Leave a Comment

We went to Spain! We had an incredible opportunity to visit España again (this time with Clara) and travel with my family. We decided to go for it! Clara did amazingly well. We left on a Thursday evening and arrived in Madrid Friday night. We checked into our little apartment in the city and found a place to eat. The two pictures below are from our first dinner in Madrid at Mano a Mano. Paella, yum! Clara slept only a few hours in total on the way over and was ready to go to bed that night. Jeff and I were right there too with maybe 2 hours of sleep between us. Our apartment was on the ground floor and open to the courtyard but had little natural light. We went to bed around midnight, and Jeff and I woke up at 3:30 the next day. At that point, we woke Clara. What? Guess we all needed some sleep.

After waking up Saturday afternoon, we headed to the Reina Sofia museum. Luckily, Spain time is much later and the museum was open until 9. A highlight was seeing Picasso’s Guernica, a city in Northern Spain in the heart of the Basque Country that was bombed in the 1930’s. The bombing was actually carried out by Hitler in cahoots with the Nationalist leader at the time, Franco, during the Spanish Civil War. We later went through the town of Guernica during our tour of the Basque Country. Clara slept through most of our museum tour but her favorite part was by far this hallway with sculptures of heads. She squealed at them as if they were real and was hoping they would talk back to her.

Sunday was our 6th wedding anniversary and my first official Mother’s Day. What a way to celebrate in Spain! We grabbed breakfast at a cute cafe just down the street from our apartment and headed to the infamous Bernabéu. In case you aren’t familiar, this is the home of Real Madrid, Jeff’s favorite soccer team. Unfortunately, they were playing out of town while we were in Madrid. The second best thing was a tour of the stadium.

This was a big moment for Jeff…

View from the President’s balcony

We were even able to see the players’ dressing rooms, tunnel, and sit in the benches.

After all of the touring, we relaxed in a square in the heart of Madrid, Plaza Mayor. We drank café con leche and mojitos and people watched. Clara learned to just eat on the go wherever we happened to be.

So this thing was hilarious and creepy at the same time… It’s a street performer dressed as maybe a llama? The mouth is wooden and made a click noise as it opened and closed, and he had a bell between his antlers. Needless to say, he attracted any children nearby. We watched as kids braved getting close enough to toss a coin in the jar in front of him which caused him to break out in a dance. Clara was pretty entertained.

The rest of the family arrived in Madrid late that night, and we enjoyed dinner together at an Indian restaurant. It was so fun to see everyone! Clara made friends wherever we went, and the waiters at this place were no exception. As we left, they gave us a local bottle of wine and a bottle of pineapple juice for Clara. I’m telling you, she has fans already!

Christmas 2012

March 3, 2013 by Jeff 1 Comment

We were able to spend just over a month back in MS before heading to Phoenix to start my new job. It was great to get such an extended period with family and to let them get to know Clara better. Since we are so behind at posting we are just going to summarize this Christmas in pictures. Hope you like it…

Clara’s Homecoming

July 31, 2012 by Jeff Leave a Comment

Sorry for the delay in getting this up, but we’ve been a little busy the past 2 days.

Clara Frances Rottman made her arrival on Saturday, July 28, 2012 at 3:17pm. She was perfectly healthy and weighed in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. and 19 1/4 inches long. It was a fairly long labor: Beth started her first contraction on Thursday evening around 9pm and after a pretty good night’s sleep, she had steady contractions all throughout Friday. We tried to keep busy and let Beth rest as much as possible, and we had an appointment at the Birth Center at 4pm. At the appointment they told us that they’d most likely be seeing us this evening or tomorrow so to try to go home and get as much sleep as possible. Well, that was a bit of wishful thinking. After running to the consignment sale to pick up some more clothing and toys for Clara, we headed to bed. I think Beth only got about an hour of sleep and I only got about 2-3. By 5am, the contractions were close and steady, so we were just waiting as long as we felt comfortable. We called the Birth Center around 6am and headed in around 7. Beth had progressed nicely so we were expecting about a noon birth. It ended up being a bit longer, but Beth was amazing. She never got discouraged, just more determined. I was so proud of her. When Clara arrived, it was great to be able to just relax with her and enjoy watching her. We are so thankful for the Birth Center and how they handled things. We ended up staying overnight and headed home the next morning. Thanks to everyone for all of your thoughts and prayers throughout the past 9 months and especially this past weekend. We hope to catch up with all of you soon.

Beth’s Baby Shower

July 5, 2012 by Jeff 1 Comment

Some women in our church threw a wonderful Baby Shower for Beth a few weeks ago. I don’t have too much to say about it (since I wasn’t there), but I know that Beth really enjoyed it. Thanks to all of you who were involved in the planning and execution of this celebration. Beth felt very loved. Click here to see all the pictures over on our Photos page. Thanks to Heather over at Small Beginnings for the great photos!

While we were gone…

May 3, 2012 by Jeff Leave a Comment

So a lot has been happening in the Rottman household over the last few months. In no way do I use this as an excuse for my blogging delinquency, however, I’ll do my best to catch you up…

Mississippi Christmas

We’re Expecting!!!

We announced to our families by giving our Moms custom-made bibs. It was a great time (both times)!!

Winter San Carlos Trip

MLS in Tucson

Announcement Party: It’s a Girl!!!!!

We had a great announcement party with friends and family. We filled the cupcakes with pink icing and had the big reveal right after this picture. (Ryan didn’t want to wait)

The Maranto’s Visit

The destruction of my fingers

I dropped a railroad tie on my right hand and almost severed the tips of my index and middle fingers. I required a fair amount of stitches, but they seem to be healing nicely. Maybe I’ll put up some more pictures soon for those with strong stomachs.

Our Barcelona and Lisbon Trip

Day 4 – Construction

August 4, 2011 by Jeff 1 Comment

Day 4 of construction was a little different as we had a medical clinic going as well as a few people off sorting ministry supplies at the Pettengills, we left Ross and Phil at the dorm to help with demolition of some concrete forms and the rest of us went to work at the house. The morning was again pretty hot. I thought I had outsmarted it by freezing my water bottle last night, however it melted within an hour of getting to the site. We continued the block work and started adding dirt to the first 2 rows of block to prep for the floor. There was a man digging the septic tank out back (where we got most of the dirt). He was amazing, he worked like a machine and by the time we left he had an 8-10 ft diameter, 4 foot deep hole. It took most of our team just to keep up with the dirt he was shoveling out. Below are some pictures of Crystal, Greg and me mixing some “mescla”, Beth laying down the mortar for the next layer of block and Jon and Greg dumping yet another wheelbarrow full of rocks into the front porch.

After lunch, Scott decided he’d like to go back and help Santos (Armenia Bonito community president and construction manager for the Pettengills) finish up for the day. Phil, Crystal and I decided to tag along and jumped back in for 2 extra hours of blockwork and wheelbarrows. A few of us stopped by a little later to check the finished work for the week. Remember, when we arrived it was flat ground with only the footers, all the blocks you see and all the dirt filling those rooms was done by our team.

We then headed back to join the rest of the group who was hanging out with all the kids on the soccer field. Crystal had brought a parachute that the kids were overjoyed about.

Jon, Greg, Phil and I also got some quality time juggling the soccer ball with 2 drug dealers and 4 more “waiting for their chance” (Mike Pettengill). It’s tragic to see the kids end up in that life, but it is difficult to escape for most. Drugs offer a decent income and often a pseudo-family life that many do not have.

Thursday is usually especially hard as it is the last day we spent out in Armenia. It is always sad to have to say goodbye to all of the sweet little kids who you grow to adore over the course of the week. Please pray for them all, pray that God will touch them and open their eyes to the true happiness and true freedom found in Christ alone.

We left Armenia and headed to dinner. After dinner and a quick stop over at the dorms to change, we headed to the indoor soccer court to play some games. My team included Miguel, Phil, Beth, Mackensie and Joseph. We sat out the first game, then came in and dominated. Three back-to-back-to-back victories! Lots of fun and you sweated a ton.

Headed back to the dorm and played a couple quick rounds of Mafia before heading to bed. Hopefully next time we play Beth won’t knock me off in the first round. She’s way too good at that game.

San Francisco Day 3

July 13, 2011 by Jeff 1 Comment

Today was another traveling day with the morning starting with a trip over to Muir Woods after watching an exciting finish to the US women’s Wold Cup game against Brazil (one of the best soccer games I’ve ever watched). After Muir Woods we made a quick stop by Sonoma for a short wine tasting before heading over to Napa.

Strangely enough, Liam and Natalie, two of our great friends from Tucson, happened to be coming through San Francisco from Lake Tahoe so they met us in Napa. We ate a quick lunch at a barbeque place. I’m always a little wary of barbeque outside of the south, but this place was impressive.

We started out wine tastings at a vineyard called Frog’s Leap, a suggestion from Ben Hoffman. It was exactly what we were expecting in a beautiful Napa Valley Winery. An amazing house with a wrap-around back porch where we sat and enjoyed some wine. It was a perfect temperature, mid-70s with a slight breeze.

We then headed to another winery, not nearly as grand as Frog’s Leap, but it had a lighter, little more commercial feel. Most of the wine I wasn’t that impressed with, except for the 12-year Port that we finished with. It was exquisite: a much smoother feel than the aroma suggested, with a sweet and crisp finish. The lady helping us suggested that it would only get better with age and that the biggest change would happen between 10 and 20 years. Liam and Natalie got a bottle and hopefully we can get back together in 2020 and crack it open. Imagine how different our lives will be by then.

We finished with a trip to a small, up-and-coming winery called Tember Bey. We had a complementary tasting which was nice, but the owner was pouring and we were the only one’s in there so we just hung out and discussed how he got into the business. He then broke out the 2009 lines which they haven’t released yet (he had opened them to test how the wine was developing) and gave us a taste of the newest vintage of the wines we had already tasted. We ended up buying a bottle of his Cabernet Sauvignon and can’t wait to have a good occasion to break it open. It was the perfect end to a fun and relaxing day in Napa. We drove back to San Francisco and had a great (again, late) Thai dinner near AT&T Park.

San Francisco Day 2

July 13, 2011 by Jeff Leave a Comment

Beth and I decided to take it easy and just take a long drive around the bay area. We headed down to Palo Alto and toured around the Stanford campus. The campus is gorgeous with some amazing architecture, definitely a cool place to hang out.

We then headed over to Hwy 1 to slowly make our way back to San Francisco. We stopped by a cool little produce stand and got some really juicy and sweet strawberries. We then got to stop at Half Moon Bay to get some beautiful pictures and get to watch some surfers and enjoy the ocean.

We took the meandering drive back into San Francisco and headed back to Berkeley to meet up with Steven for a late dinner around 8:45, which has by this point become the norm. We went to a place called Summer Kitchen which provides dishes made with ingredients from local farms. Beth got a lasagna with various vegetables like squash, zuchhini, eggplant, grape tomatoes. And since we were the last people of the night, they gave us a free sampler platter of their desserts. What a way to end the day!

San Francisco Day 1

July 9, 2011 by Jeff 3 Comments

Beth and I arrived last night in San Francisco to visit Steven and tour around a bit before Beth’s job starts, etc… We did mostly “touristy” things today: walking around downtown, a visit to Lombard Street, some great food and a visit to the Golden Gate bridge.

We ate lunch at Calzone’s in North Beach and then made our way to AT&T park to try to catch a Giants game, but it was sold out and the scalpers were way to expensive.

Now to get some rest before heading out again tomorrow. Hope you enjoy the pictures!