Another wonderful Sunday (all but the last hour!)

Another wonderful Sunday yesterday (except the end of it, which you'll have to read all the way to the end to find out about!)

The choir at Fillmore did a new song, Hear Our Prayer.  Quite a few of our choir members were missing yesterday, but we still pulled it off.  We also heard some very faith-building reports of healings that have taken place for people we have been praying for.  God still does miracles!  Even doctors agree, as we heard yesterday.

At Houserville I played a piano duet, a simple version of Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee, with little Sabrina, one of my piano students.  She did such a nice job - her first time!  Last Sunday I did a piano, sax duet with 11-year-old Tommy.  We barely had time to practice together, and he's just a beginner, but we pulled it off.  I LOVE giving kids a chance to use their talents and am so glad to have the chance to do that again.  I also love it when people who haven't played their instrument for years decide to give it another try, as is the case with Amy, who recently joined our team with her flute.  I also have two teen girls, Ashley and Maggie,  playing their violins with the team.  Then there are the pros - Renee on her trumpet, Eric on drums, Wes and Kael on guitar, of course Dick on bass.  There are at least six vocalists, in addition to myself, who take turns.  This team is a worship leader's dream come true!   Last week after our regular practice, we turned ourselves into a choir and pretty much learned a new song in less than an hour.   I am having so much fun! God has truly heard my cries.

As I said in my previous post, after church we drove to Lancaster County.  It was a BEAUTIFUL sunny day after our snowstorm!  First of all some snow pics, as promised.

This is how we found Sammy when we arrived at 2:30 yesterday afternoon.  He is already a firm believer in Sunday afternoon naps!  If I have any hopes of playing and talking with him, I've got to find another time of the week!  

He did actually stay awake for a little while, especially when Grandpa held him.

I think he was watching TV here.  He's also gotten used to the fact that Sunday afternoons are for watching football.

But the minute he would get into Grandma's arms, it was off to dreamland for Sammy.   He must like my soft, cushiony body!!  Ah, I just love feeling his soft head against my neck.

I just love babies.  I seriously would love to start all over with having babies!

I probably kissed him a thousand times yesterday.

Daddy's becoming quite an expert diaper changer. But look - Sammy's twisting around to watch TV, hahahaha!

Destiny spent the afternoon with us too.  Sam went to Reading to get her, since they were planning to bring her along up here for the weekend (before the snowstorm changed those plans.)  She had fun in the snow.  I found that amazingly awesome coat for her for $3.99 at Salvation Army.  Just in time!

Family picture time again.  Sam made sure Sammy was waving for the camera!

We said our goodbyes around 7 PM.  Frank had come to pick up Destiny.  We stopped at Dick's parents for a short visit before heading back to  State College.  Dick was enjoying the Eagles/Cowboys game on the radio as long as we could get that station.  

It was 10:30 when we got home, and we were more than ready to go right to bed.  But alas, both our smoke alarms were chirping.  FIRST TIME EVER!!  We have lived here now for fifteen months and did not even know that our smoke alarms are electric with battery back-up, which means they will not stop chirping even if you remove the battery.  We had just one 9-volt battery in the house, which got the one in the living room to shut up.  Oh, and by the way, our smoke alarms are at the highest part of our ceilings, and we have no step stool or step ladder, so we pulled the cedar chest over for Dick to stand on to reach the one in the living room.  In the bedroom he stood on his night stand and still could barely reach!  That is when we discovered that just removing the battery did not make it stop chirping.  So guess what Dick was doing after 11 PM?  Driving to buy a 9-volt battery!  Now please understand, we live in RURAL State College, and it's at least 7 or 8 miles to the nearest gas station or store in any direction.  

Sometime before midnight we finally had that alarm in our bedroom pacified with a new battery, and we tried to pacify our tired bodies and brains to sleep! 

Austin, snow, Sammy

On Friday evening I had the fun of keeping Austin overnight. Here's a cute video I took as we were having Corn Chex for our bedtime snack. Lately he is often humming or singing a tune as he plays, and apparently also as he eats, as you will see here. Of course, any singing he does just tickles this grandma to pieces!

Our weekend plans were changed by SNOW! Sam and Jenn, and of course Sammy, were going to come up for the weekend, but yesterday turned out to be an October Nor'easter, especially in Lancaster County. I'll share some pics next post when I get back to my computer.

Right now I'm posting from my phone as we drive, on this beautifully sunny Sunday afternoon. If Sammy couldn't come to us, we're going to him!

A case of nostalgia - our first home

When I wrote the date this morning, I suddenly became nostalgic.  And I have just spent a few hours looking through and scanning old pictures.  Is that a waste of time?  Part of me feels like it is, part of me feels like it's not.  

Thirty-three years ago Dick and I woke up for the first time in our own home, 6109 Main Street, East Petersburg, PA.   We were married seven years, had two children, Lisa (4 1/2) and Anthony (2), and we felt on top of the world that we had been able to purchase a huge old house for $32,000!  Believe me, it was no prize, as these pictures show.

 But we were young, very young, (27 and 28!), with lots of vision and energy.  This was our first evening at home and I remember it vividly.

During our eight-and-a-half years in that house we added lots of children to our family, but only two came to stay - Jeremy as a newborn and Miki as a teenager. 

We were ALWAYS working on the house.  It was so huge, and by the time we sold it we had done every room and the outside trim as well, and built a fifth bedroom in the attic. 

We LOVED tearing down walls!

 

And scraping wallpaper and painting.  I think the kids thought it was fun for about five minutes!

In each room we would let the kids draw and write on the walls before we painted or papered over them.  

It really was a great house, but in a very bad location.  For one thing, it was right up against Main Street with its heavy traffic.  Two doors down was a bar and two doors up was a Pentecostal church.  Some nights we couldn't tell if the rambunctious noise outside was from people coming out of the bar or the church (were they drunk with wine or the Holy Spirit??)!!  Behind us was the firehouse, which blew its siren any hour of the day or night whenever there was an emergency.  There was also a park behind us that eventually became a hangout for teens, also very loud and rambunctious.  So in May 1987 we said goodbye to our first home and all its noise and memories....

...and moved to an even bigger old farmhouse in the country, where there was not as much noise, but we were soon to learn there were FLIES and SMELLS that we did not like at all!   But many  memories to be made. 

And that's a story for another nostalgic day!

Things that have brought me joy.

Things that have brought me joy this week:

My sunny breakfast nook.

The tree outside my kitchen window, showing off its beauty.

Playing with Austin last evening.  Sorry about the blurry picture and sober face.  He really was more fun than a barrel of monkeys, just talking NON-STOP!!

The beauty of the earth and sky as I walked today.  

Getting this picture texted to me from Sam this evening.  I think he's ready to break into a big, old grin, don't you?

Celebrating forty years together

Dick and I finally celebrated our 40th anniversary today - three weeks late!  But hey, so what?  Now we're married 40 years and 3 weeks.  That's even better, right??

Yesterday Dick saw an ad on TV about a Fall Foliage train ride from Bellefonte to Lock Haven taking place this afternoon.  Since fall foliage was such a big part of our wedding colors, our honeymoon in the Poconos, and many trips there since, I thought, "That would be a cool thing to do for our anniversary."  We knew nothing more about it, so after we got home from church I looked it up on line and called.  They said they had just found a couple of more tickets to sell.  Three hundred had already been sold!  So we grabbed some sandwiches, changed clothes and headed for that beautiful park in Bellefonte where the historic train station is.  It was a beautiful, sunny day!

We were a big deal as we traveled through mountain country.  People were out waving and taking pictures of us.  Passenger trains no longer travel on these tracks, so a train with 300 people on board was quite a sensation!  We were particularly amused by a guy in a red jeep who seemed to be at every crossing taking pictures of us.  At times we would see him racing on the road next to the train track, trying to get to the next crossing before the train.  We asked one of the hosts about him.  His answer:  "He's a train nut.  I would be doing the same thing if I weren't on here." Wow.  I had no idea.

The trip was supposed to take three hours round trip.  However, when we got to Lock Haven we were informed that a 100-car coal train was going to be coming through, and we could not return to Bellefonte until it had.  We would be held up about an hour.  There was really nothing to do but get to know the other people.  We could not get off the train.  Water and popcorn had already been served.  Thank God there was a restroom in each car, such as it was.  But people were friendly, and it really wasn't so bad.   

At last we could hear a whistle and then feel the rumble.  The coal train was coming through.

All one hundred cars passed right beside us.  And at last we could make the return trip.

It was around 6:00 when we got back to Bellefonte, and we were HUNGRY.  Those quick sandwiches at lunch seemed like a long time ago.  We decided to continue our anniversary celebration by going to our favorite steak place - Outback.  Their food is always yummy, but especially so when you're hungry.

What a good day.  It does not seem at all like forty years since we enjoyed the waterfalls and fall foliage in the Pocono Mountains on our honeymoon.  I vividly recall sitting along the trail of Bushkill Falls and discussing our dreams.  The main thing I remember is that the top thing on his list was getting a twelve-string guitar and the top thing on mine was getting a piano.  I guess we haven't strayed too far from our dreams!