Filled up souls and stuffed bodies!

Like I said on Facebook last evening, this was a weekend of getting our souls filled up and our bodies STUFFED!  

Friday evening we left right from Dick's work, went to Reading to pick up Destiny, then to Manheim to sleep at Grandma Mary's for the night.  

Saturday morning we went to the benefit auction at Manheim Christian, where I used to teach, for the country breakfast.  Their omelets were AMAZING and so was the fun of sitting with my sister Doris's family and talking with many, many former students, their parents, co-workers, and friends.  

Destiny was chomping at the bit to go outside for the children's activities.  It was quite chilly, but at least the sun was out at first.  As the day progressed, even that disappeared, and it became downright cold and miserable.  What a bummer!

But there were always people inside the gym to talk to, and I enjoyed looking at the beautiful quilts displayed on the stage, waiting to be sold later.  Here are a few of them.

And then, look who came!

Unfortunately, his nap and feeding schedules did not coincide well with their time at the auction, so he wasn't his normal smiley self.  He did find out, however, how delicious that milkshake was, and he wanted taste after taste of it!

The candy drop from a helicopter was exciting for lots of kids.  

But we were FREEZING by then, so we said our goodbyes and went on to other things.  

Destiny had saved up her money to get her nails done, so we headed to the mall. 

Her bangs were in her eyes, so after her nails were done, I took her to the hair salon next door to get them trimmed.  But oh my.  The lady did not take enough time to do a good job like the girl at Empire did three weeks ago.  But they'll grow and hopefully we'll get someone that can do a better job next time.  

Dick spent the evening at his parents.  I washed and straightened Destiny's hair at Grandma Mary's.  We watched a Benji movie with her, and Grandma got to see the long and tedious hair-straightening process!  

Sunday morning we went to Grace and saw many of our beloved church family.   Then it was back to Grandma Mary's for a big old fashioned Pennsylvania Dutch Sunday dinner!   Thirteen of us at her stretched-out table.  Ray and Thyda were in Lancaster County for her grandfather's funeral the day before, so we were delighted they could join us.  My sister Mary Ellen was there too, as was my sister Doris, her husband Dale and two of their daughters, Ellen and Gina.  My brother Dick and his wife Nancy were there too.  What a jolly time it was.  Grandma's food is SO delicious that it's almost impossible to resist any of it, not even seconds.   

Mary Ellen wanted a picture of us with Ray and Thyda, so we went outside to find the perfect spot.  It was difficult, however, to make the men cooperate.  

When we packed up and left Grandma Mary's we went to Jenn and Sam's.  Sammy had just woken up and was ready for FUN!  

Sam and Jenn are about to discover the joys of having a baby who can MOVE!  He was trying so hard to get himself going, and all we did was laugh at him.  It was so cute!

He just loves Destiny.  I think he's a flirt already!

Just before it was time for us to leave he got grouchy and tired, so I had the joy of cuddling him as I gave him his bottle and he fell asleep.  I could just eat him up, he's so precious. 

Sam took Destiny home to Reading for us, and we headed back home to State College.  Oh, I forgot to say that Jenn made delicious burritos for us and we finished off with the strawberry pie I had bought at the benefit auction on Saturday.  Can you say STUFFED???  I felt practically lethargic on the way home.  But full of happy memories too.  

Now back to behaving myself again!

Whirlwind week, Benefit Auction weekend coming up

This was a whirlwind week!  At the Fillmore church office I was on my own most of the time and managed to get everything done that I was supposed to do with only a few glitches.  Pastor Duane and techie guru friend Peg came to my rescue a few times. I really do enjoy the job.

It was also a busy week for the Houserville church.  Their building is used for voting on election day, which was Tuesday this week.  The ladies of the church always provide food for people to buy when they come to vote.  So Monday afternoon I spent several hours helping to bake cookies and Tuesday I spent a few hours helping to sell food.  Both times were so much fun.  Here are a few pics of baking day.

Dawn was the molasses cookie and whoopie pie lady.

Heather, with Sabrina's help, was making chocolate cookies with Rolo's in the middle.   I was the chocolate chip lady.  (And I did remember to put them in!!)

Yummmmm.

Sharon, with her son Cade's help, made chicken and rice for everyone.   The men came for dinner.

I'm being really bad, but this picture just cracks me up.  Any near-sighted person past fifty knows that the best way to read small print is with the naked eye.  I caught Ralph doing that as he looked up something on his phone.  Except he noticed me with my camera and looked at me with one eye.  Tooooo funny!  The "Houserville gang" is so much fun to be with.

Dick spend many evening hours in the past week working at Anthony and Lori's.  He's building shelves, etc for better storage in their shed and under the deck steps.  Austin loves to help Grandpa.  Here he was handing him a screw.  There were two different sizes that Dick was using, and Austin knew out of which container to get the one Dick needed each time. 

I'm packing now for the weekend.  It's the big, annual benefit auction at Manheim Christian where I used to teach.  We'll get to see many family and friends.  The weather is not sounding too great for tomorrow.  I'm sure many are praying about that!

The Musical Staff DVD is now available!

I am so happy to announce that my second Music@Home DVD, The Musical Staff,  is now available!  

There are eleven lessons, each about 13 - 18 minutes long, complete with worksheets, flash cards, a game, a few little songs (two of which I wrote for this DVD), and a test for lesson twelve.  I had elementary students in mind as I taught these lessons, but students of ANY age who never learned the letters of the musical staff could benefit from them.  And they will have fun in the process, I promise!    Here again is a short sample from one of the lessons.

Children (or adults, for that matter) who hope to take piano lessons, would be way ahead of the game if they first of all learned about note value and rhythm from my first DVD, Notes, Rests, and Rhythms, and about the musical staff from this second DVD.  

Each DVD is $25 plus shipping.  Save money and get both of them for $40!  They can be purchased from my Music@Home website.   

A day of training; Dick's birthday AGAIN!

On Saturday I went with a carload of people from Houserville House of Hope to a Safe Sanctuaries training at a church about an hour away.  What a fun bunch to spend the day with.  However, the subject of the training was by no means fun - keeping the children in our churches safe while in our care.  Some of the stories we heard were indeed unsettling.  

Here's our gang during lunch - Jeff and his women, as we called ourselves!

This morning I got a text message from Lori that they wanted to take us out to lunch in honor of Dick's birthday. So after church we met them at Hi Way Pizza.  We got their barbecued chicken pizza, which was delicious, but spicy enough for us.  Austin had a hot dog instead.  

He's gotten used to having Carvel ice cream cakes for birthdays, so this evening they came to our house with one of those.  

And for the fourth time this week, Dick had Happy Birthday sung to him!  Boy, how does he rate - it's been his birthday for five days now, hahaha!

And now for a few cute pics of some more grandchildren.  Here's one Jenn posted of Sammy this week.  Do you think he could possibly smile any harder?  Hahahaha!  What a personality!

Sophie is losing teeth and more teeth these days!  Seven years ago we were so excited when those teeth came in, and now she is just as excited as they're coming out!  Lucky her - it looks like she has plenty of room for the new ones.  Oh these babies - they grow up TOO FAST!!!    

On a very depressing note - our weather has turned C.O.L.D!!!!!  We are seriously supposed to get snow tomorrow - April 23rd.  This will be the winter we got snow in October and April, with very little of it in between. 

Celebrating Dick's birthday

Today was Dick's 62nd birthday.  I have no idea how we got this old.  But never fear.  He was still out the door by 6 AM to play basketball at the Y, as he does each Tuesday and Thursday morning.  

This evening we had choir practice, and as usual, Judy had a cake for him.  We sang Happy Birthday to him, then Peg wondered why I didn't take a video for my blog.  So we sang again.  Then we decided we had too many lights off for a good video, so we sang AGAIN!  I'm showing you Take One as well as Take Two.  Even though the first one was dark, it was so funny with Kusty's "Cha-cha-cha"!

On Tuesday evening we went to Texas Roadhouse for his birthday dinner.  A generous co-worker had given him a gift card.  Such AWESOME food!  Their style of honoring a birthday is to put the person in a saddle and yell "Happy Birthday".

Yesterday I did not have to work at the church office, but Austin woke up with a bad cough, so he came here instead of to preschool.  We had a good afternoon together.  Later, when I took him back home, we played outside for a while.  Once again, he was on the lookout for spider webs, and was so delighted to find a bunch of them in his playground set.  Do you need him at your house?

Here's the playground set in their back yard, one that Penn State was getting rid of.   Even I can have fun on that one!

When I walked to the church office this morning I noticed lilac buds.  Last year I took a picture of this tree when it was in all its glory.  It will be fun to watch the progression from day to day.

My head is practically spinning with all the new info I've taken in this week at the job.  And next week Terry will be off to start painting, etc. in their next parsonage.  So hopefully, the myriad of notes I took from her this week will come to my rescue when I can't remember how to do something.  I really do think it's fun.

Fun Sunday, new job

We're having some amazing weather again.  Crazy, actually.  My porch thermometer said 89 degrees late this afternoon!  But apparently we're going back to more normal Spring weather after today.  

Yesterday morning as I sat during the message at Houserville I just had to sneak my camera out of my purse to take this picture of the altar.  Every season the altar and other places in the sanctuary are beautifully decorated by ladies in the church - probably the same creative ladies who were doing the scrapbooking on Saturday.

After church Lori, Anthony, and Austin came for our first cookout of the year - chicken breasts and burgers.

Anthony and Lori went to see The Hunger Games, and Austin took his nap here.  Grandpa and Grandma napped too.  I also had a nice, long phone call with Miki in Sweden.  She makes me so proud every time I talk with her.  It's a year this week that Krister announced his plans to divorce.  There has been nothing easy about Miki's life ever since.  But she is a living example of God's grace, and she's having so many opportunities for ministry.  Like I said, I'm so proud of her.

When Austin woke up, he wanted to go outside.  Guess what was his first order of business?  Looking for spider webs!!  He had a hard time finding any, but when he did, he needed the broom to knock it down!

When Anthony and Lori got here to pick him up, we  hung out for a while.

  

In the evening Dick and I had our monthly praise service at Fillmore.  A beautiful evening in the Lord's presence.

Today was my first day of work at the church office right here in our community.  And I did walk - it's only 3/4 of a mile.  My hours are 10-2, several days a week, plus one evening, which is yet to be determined.  Terry showed me all kinds of things, but there's so much more to learn.  My main project on my own today was to type up the monthly prayer calendar for the three churches.  I think I will really like doing this.

The good, the bad, and the ugly

Here comes a picture-less post.  

This was an interesting week.  On the up side is the news that I am going to be taking on an additional part-time job as secretary for Fillmore UMC and the other two little churches that are in a "charge" together.  Pastor Duane is being moved to a different church in July, and his wife Terry has been the secretary.  Thus the opening for the position.   On Monday I will start working with Terry so she can teach me all that she does.  A lot of it is computer related, so I feel pretty comfortable about it.  And the church office is right here in our community - I could walk to work!  The hours will fit in good with the other things I do.  I'll just need to be more pro-active with time management than I have needed to be recently.  

Another bit of good news is that my second DVD, The Musical Staff, has been ordered and should be arriving this week. I'm sure I will be doing a post about it someday this week.  

But a very hard thing this week was hearing the results of the MRI of my shoulder.  I have pretty much been in denial ever since I injured it, because I could not face what I was afraid was the truth.  The truth is that I have a big tear and that I will definitely need surgery, followed by six weeks in an immobilizer.  My RIGHT arm!!  I cried immediately.  I cried most of Tuesday.  He told me it did not have to be done right away, but he certainly did not want me waiting a year.  So I'm going to try to wait until August.  That way I can learn the duties of my new secretary job before Terry needs to leave, maybe I can get another DVD or two made, and I can attend all the weddings and annual family events we have in June and July.  Before I have to figure out life without a right arm.  I do have pain, but mostly it's just an ache.  I've learned what I can and can't do.  Plus I'm on Valtarin, which was prescribed for my shoulder pain when it first started causing me trouble almost ten years ago.  I've been on it ever since.

This was a good day.  This morning I had my monthly women's prayer breakfast.  I LOVE these women!!  This afternoon we had a practice with guitar player Ross for our monthly praise service at Fillmore tomorrow evening.  From there I went to Houserville where they were having a scrapbooking day.  Amazing!!  I am not a scrapbooker at all, and I just couldn't believe all the stuff they were doing.  

This evening we went to the only Mennonite church in State College for a hymn sing led by Ken Nafziger, music professor at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, VA.  It was different from the traditional hymn sing of my childhood.  There are many songs in the current Mennonite hymnals that I have never heard of.  But I enjoyed them for the most part.  My two favorites were one called Taste and See and I Am the Bread of Life.  It was also fun to talk to people afterward and play "The Mennonite Game".  There were a few people there who also grew up in Lancaster County.

It's raining now, but tomorrow promises to be sunny and 75 degrees. 

A love story

Yesterday on Facebook I saw this picture of Jay and Katrina Barton with their three adult children, Nicole, Krista, and Joseph, between them, taken last weekend.

It reminded me of this picture I have of their family taken twenty years ago.

That was the wonderful day they became a family.  For the year-and-a-half prior to that day, Nicole, Krista, and Joseph had been a part of our family as foster children.    

Yes, go ahead and laugh.  Dick had dark hair, Lisa had big hair!  That's beside the point.  

When these precious little ones became adoptable, and I had to admit that my focus needed to be on my teenagers, and that the little ones needed parents that could focus on just them, God heard the deep cries of my heart.  He brought Jay and Katrina Barton.  I fell in love with them at first sight and knew in my spirit that they were ones God had chosen to be the parents of these three children.   

We stayed in touch with the family through all these years, attended some of the children's weddings, got to enjoy meeting the first grandchild the day he was born, and now enjoy frequent contact via Facebook with Nicole and Krista.   They live all over the United States, but were able to be together for Easter.  Now go back up to that first picture taken last weekend and just enjoy those beautiful smiles and all the love that is so evident.  God bless you, Jay and Katrina!

PICTURES and events of our Holy Week 2012

Here I sit on Sunday evening in a very quiet house.  This is one tired, happy grandma.

In my last post I had just brought Destiny here for the week.  Here, first of all, are a few pics from some fun things we did.  One day we made a dress for one of her Barbies out of a too-small dress of her own.  We also made a Barbie living room out of a shoe box.  

 The shirt she's wearing here is one of the "treasures" I found at the Lancaster Salvation Army on Monday.

She decided. when looking at pictures of herself when she was little, that she looked cuter with bangs.  So she called and got permission from her mom, and I took her to Empire Beauty school to get her some bangs.  She's very pleased with them.

Another day we made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.

That one is actually chocolate chipless.  We didn't notice until we had already baked three dozen of them that we had forgotten to put the chocolate chips into the mix, hahaha!

Every evening we had a function at one church or the other.  

On Friday evening the Fillmore choir presented the cantata The Weeping Tree by Joseph Martin.  I gave Destiny my camera.  Here is the video she took of one of the songs in which Dick and I were in a quartet.  It's a BEAUTIFUL song, but I must warn you - you might enjoy it more if you listen to it without watching it - she was all over the place with that camera!  She quit half way through the song and missed some good parts, but I promise you'll enjoy hearing it.

Afterward we came home and waited eagerly for our "company".  They came bearing an Easter bouquet for me....

 

....and this absolutely charming baby boy!  Who was very enamored by his beautiful girl cousin!  But I'm still sure he loves me best!  He just can't keep his eyes off me!!

 On Saturday the Houserville House of Hope joined together with the MOGS motorcycle club at the Spring Creek Park to do an Easter egg hunt and fund raiser for a seven-year-old girl battling Leukemia.  It was a FANTASTIC event - the park, the weather, the food we served, the musicians that provided background music and entertainment, the many, many people who came (we served food to a continuous line for over two hours!), the family fun, the money we raised.   Enjoy the pics. 

Destiny and my violinist, Ashley, enjoyed the body painting station.  

When we left the park, I brought Ashley along to go shopping for shoes for Destiny to wear with her Easter dress.  They had a blast trying on high heels!

Then it was home for some more fun.  Sammy had fun with Grandpa.

He was fascinated with the violin.

Then he conked out on his daddy's chest. 

The girls painted some Easter eggs, after which Sam and Jenn hid them hard enough for big girls to have problems finding them!

Later in the evening Dick took Ashley home, Sam and Jenn went out, we had some more fun with Sammy, I made some food for Sunday, Destiny modeled her Easter clothes. Look at those cute shoes I found for her at Target. 

Two tired cousins.

This morning we would have had the choice of two different sunrise services to attend, but I was running on too little sleep.  We went to our regular 8:15 service at Fillmore and the 10:30 service at Houserville.  Each one was an especially joyful event.  Celebrating Christ's victory over sin and death is the message of HOPE we Christians have to offer.  

We almost matched!

 

Back at home we finished the preparations for our Easter dinner and played some more while waiting for Anthony and Lori to arrive.   This boy just never tires of standing.  In fact, he locks his knees when you try to sit him down!

 

 Then the next handsome dude arrived!  Look at him saying "cheese" for Grandma!

So our family dinner guests were:  Anthony, Austin, and Lori.....

...Sammy, Jenn, and Sam....

...and funny girl Destiny.

 After dinner I hid the Easter eggs again so Austin could hunt for them. 

Then everybody left.  Sam and Jenn had another dinner at her parents' near Harrisburg.  They took Destiny with them and later took her home to Reading.    It was nap time for Austin, so they went home too.  

Dick and I have been napping and slowly cleaning up.   And  now as I worked on this blog post, I discovered this wonderful picture on Facebook from Florida.  This Easter Sophie is sporting that typical seven-year-old missing-some-teeth-smile! 

And that wraps up our Holy Week 2012.