Snatches from our week

Time to catch up here before I head into another full week.

After we got home last Sunday from taking Sammy home, I kept finding things we had forgotten in our haste to leave for church that morning.  His favorite pillow, his favorite movies, his sippy cup, his tooth brush and paste, his bath soap.  Oh dear.  

So I put it all into a box and mailed it.  I knew he could survive and they could get replacements for the essential things, but it made me happy to think of him opening a box and finding his things in it.   Later in the week Sam texted me the pics.  

He sent me this one too.  The more I'm with Sammy the more I miss him when I'm not. 

We finally had a Sunday afternoon with Austin yesterday.  He could hardly wait to go to the nearby park after our naps.  Cold blustery weather does not bother him in the least.   But alas, we found out that the main reason he wanted to go there was because there were wonderful puddles after Saturday's big rain, and he wanted to walk through them.  Unfortunately, he had come here right from church and had no rain boots.  We decided we'll have to get a pair of rain boots to keep here at our house, since there will certainly be many more puddles to splash through in the coming months.  

So it was playing with the little Dollar General Store train set.  He loves to create challenges for the engine and gets quite creative!

Sophie had another Daddy/Daughter dance this week.  Look at that beautiful smile!  What a blessed little girl she is to have a dad who cherishes her!

Yesterday at Fillmore I had the men from the choir sing a rousing rendition of I'll Fly Away, complete with a harmonica interlude, played by Dick.  They did such a great job and almost got a standing ovation!  

At  Houserville I took this lovely picture.  I so enjoy the seasonal decor, thanks to my friends Sharon and Amy.  It was such a cold, raw, windy day yesterday, even some flying snowflakes, but this made me feel like Spring. 

Last evening our friends Yvonne and Robert came to spend the night.  She had a medical appointment here in State College early this morning.  We had a good time catching up.  The older we get, the more our conversations turn to health related topics!  I did not think of taking a picture, but here's one I stole from Yvonne's FB profile.  

And a parting picture to laugh at - here's what I posted for Throwback Thursday this week.  When Dick and I got married, our first home was a very small mobile home.  Dick was a pack rat and brought with him a lot of "stuff", and I soon decided we needed to go through it and get rid of some of it.   Dick's remedy for keeping me from throwing out some of his treasures was to put them on, layer upon layer!  

I think we will actually be getting some Spring weather this week, and I can hardly wait!!!

Another fun Sunday

We had such a fun Sunday.  Sammy was a trooper, going with us to both church services.  At Fillmore he just sat on Dick's lap near the front and watched me play the piano.  Dick said he clapped at the end of each song!  At the end of the opening songs and scriptures, he said aloud,  "All done!"  Not quite, buddy - just another 45 minutes to go!

At Houserville he sat on the piano bench with me during practice.  Oh my word, he was too cute!  He played lightly on the high keys and sang his own songs while we sang ours.  His were about "I love my daddy".  I thought, "Yes, that's pretty much what we're singing about too!"  He also sang about loving his mommy too.  Just adorable.  

They told me to just let him sit with me at the piano during the opening songs of the service.  We're a small group and quite informal.  I wasn't too sure about that, but decided to try it.  Our first song was Matt Redman's 10,000 Reasons and we sing it with all our hearts.  Well, so did he!  The louder we sang the harder he pounded on the high keys of the piano and the louder he sang.  He even tried to get my right hand out of his way!  So that wasn't going to work, but it was fun while it lasted.  

He was in the nursery for part of the service, then at the end of the service Dick had him sitting on his stool.  During the last song Dick let him "help" to play his bass guitar.  Sammy hammed it up and enjoyed every minute of it.  Definitely a performer in the making!

After church we went to Hoss's for lunch.  Anthony and Lori joined us there.

And then we hit the road to take our boy home.  We had fun hanging out for a couple of hours.  Ray was there too.  

I caught this precious pic of Jenn and Sammy reading a book.  It was so sweet listening to them.

We got home around 9 pm and I was READY for my bed!  I found this funny picture on Facebook, and it describes perfectly how I felt!  Doesn't help any that it's 14 degrees this morning. 

Our weekend with Sammy

Another busy week has gone by again - a week filled with cooking (here and at Anthony and Lori's), church office work, church music prep, practices, and services.  I did get most of our tax stuff ready for filing; now I just need to find time to show everything to our tax guy.

All week I looked forward to a weekend with Sammy.  It seems so long since he was here.  I went to pick him up yesterday, and he was so excited to see me.   Sam said he's been talking about coming to "Mahna's" house all week.  That name he invented for me still cracks me up.

Some pictures from last evening:

Learning to use the remote control car.

He loves to cook.

Popsicle time.

He went to sleep almost as soon as he lay down and slept through the night.  This morning he had some oatmeal for breakfast. 

We lazed around and played for a long time this morning, but I needed to shower and was trying to figure out what to do with him (Dick was at work).  He just loves to play with the red candles I keep on my coffee table, so he brought them to my bedroom and held them while watching a show on Sprout TV.  Simple pleasures!

Lori and I had agreed that we would do lunch at Chik Fil-A with the boys today.  However, both our boys fell asleep on the way there!  So we spent some time in the parking lot letting them get some sleep first!   We were there a long time and had fun.

From there I went to Weis for groceries.  Sammy toddled along behind me getting lots of attention, as usual!  He fell asleep after we left there and got his second half hour nap of the day.

After we got home he "helped" Grandpa in his shed for a while, then they went to a nearby playground.  Here's a selfie that Dick took!

Anthony, Lori, and Austin stopped in for a while this evening and we had some more fun. 

As you can see, our snow is gone.  But not our cold weather.  But at least it's the end of March and we know warm weather WILL come!  And I'm loving the lighter evenings.

Tomorrow will be a really big day again, with both church services, eating lunch at Hoss's (a fund raiser that Houserville is doing for a family with medical needs), and then taking Sammy home, so it's time for us to be getting ready for bed.  

Right now he's doing a piano recital for me.  He insisted he needed a song book!  He accidentally hit the pipe organ setting, which surprised him.  He said, "I hate that sound!"  Hahahaha!!

Nothing interesting here, so sharing others' news!

I feel like I have nothing interesting at all to share.  This was just a regular week, nothing exciting, nothing to even take pictures of.  What I really need to be doing right now is getting our tax stuff together, but I'd rather write.  

So I'll just write about other people and share their pictures!

As I said a few weeks ago, my sister Rose became a grandma.  Now she's become a grandma again this week!!  A few weeks ago her daughter Christy gave birth to Eli.  This week her daughter Katie gave birth to Will!  Here are some pics of them.

This is Eli with his mommy and daddy - Christy and Nathan.  They had gone to a wedding, thus the reason for being all dressed up.

Isn't this picture adorable?

My sister Mary Ellen took vacation this week and was visiting with Rose and family in Atlanta.  Here are Rose and Mary Ellen, matching!!  They said they were surprised when they each walked into the living room on Sunday morning and saw each other.  How funny is that?

So while Mary Ellen was there visiting, Rose's daughter Katie - in far away Hawaii - had Will.  He weighed in at 10 pounds 7 ounces!!

Proud dad Matthew. 

Matthew is in the Navy and is stationed in Hawaii.  I love this (pre-baby) pic of Katie and Matthew at a Navy ball.

Rose is my sister who graduated from college in May.  She's teaching kindergarten this year and now became a new grandma twice in one month.  Nothing like doing everything in one year, haha!

Down in Florida Lisa has been in her glory, working like a man.  She LOVES to be hot and she loves to do landscaping.  Here's a picture of one beautiful corner she worked on.  

In Idaho my sister Barb's son Eric got married to Madison two weeks ago.  Now all four of Barb's kids are married.  Here are Barb and John with their four children - Eric, Andrea, Jill, and Michael.

These are from the photographer's website.

Lori, Anthony, and Austin are away this weekend, so I should be getting so much accomplished - no trip to Lancaster County, no grandchildren here.  Gotta motivate myself!

I did help out at the Mommy Shoppe at Houserville for a few hours today.  There were a LOT of people shopping today, but no babies that needed to be rocked this time.  (-:

And now to the tax stuff.  )-:

J'von's basketball game

We had such a great Sunday.  First of all we had good music at both churches.  Our regular guitar player at Fillmore was away on vacation, so for one song with very easy chords Dick played his twelve string - first time in three years, I think.  In case you missed my previous post - arthritis in some fingers on his right hand have kept him from playing it.  But he tried last evening and found that he was able to manage the easy G, C, D, and Em chords in this particular song.  At Houserville he plays bass guitar each Sunday.  The fingering for that is not nearly as difficult or painful.  

When we left Houserville we headed for Columbia in Lancaster County.  Frank's son J'von was playing in a basketball play-off, and Frank was bringing Destiny with him to watch the game.  We have never seen him play.  What a TREAT it was!!  That little guy is really, really good!  His mother said that his team won 16 games in a row and J'von often makes 15 points per game.  The team they played today was a challenge, but they were neck and neck right up to the very end, when the other team got a basket that won them the game.  J'von played the entire game - was not taken out once!  I forgot how much I love watching basketball games.  It was just really fun.  Here are some pictures of him.  I wish I had taken a video.

We love that he's number 20 - Frank's number in high school.  

After the game we went to a nearby diner to eat.  We weren't at all impressed with the diner, but the food wasn't bad and we had fun together. 

WHY did I not think to take a picture of J'von with his basketball playing grandpa???  Frank, Anthony, and Ray all played basketball in high school too.  I think it's time for a family game. 

We got home at 9:15.  Time to get started on plans for a new week.

Throwback Thursday photos; ready for DAYLIGHT!!

This was a very normal, uneventful week.  The big pain is that my right ear is closed.  Drives. Me. Crazy!!  I know from past experience that all the home remedies in the world, including the ear drops, warm compresses, etc do not work for me.  I always end up needing to go to the doctor to have my ears flushed out.  I, of course, always hope that THIS time will be the exception.  But alas, I guess it is not.  I despise taking the time and money to go for such a simple procedure.  Seems like I should be able to do it myself.  

I enjoy posting pictures from the past on Throwback Thursdays on Facebook.  So today I'll post on here the ones I've shared lately.

The Witmer Trio and our guitar player in 1975:  me, Barb, and Doris with Dick.  That 12-string guitar was our first major purchase after we got married.  He can no longer play it due to the arthritis in some of his right-hand fingers.  He is thinking of teaching himself to play it left-handed.  I say, "Go for it!"  I love the sound of this guitar. 

Our family, Christmas 1990.  Miki was part of our family by then, but was in Sweden on a missions trip that year. How about Lisa's big hair?  How about Dick's hair?  I think he was looking pretty darned handsome on here, all of 40 years old!

Same year, different pose!

Mass Chorus (entire school) at Manheim Christian, Christmas 2001. This picture, as well as the next, gets bigger when you click on it - if you want to see the faces more clearly.

Primary Chorus (K-4 to 2nd grade), Spring 2002.

Anthony and Jeremy playing "ice hockey" in the playroom.

The nightgown I made for Lisa's 8th birthday.  She LOVED it.  I saved it in my cedar chest for years, but when I dug through the chest to find it for Sophie the other summer, it was GONE!  I can't believe I ever threw it away.  I still think I'm going to find it somewhere, but Sophie would have outgrown it by now. )-;

My first grade picture - back when I was "Thelma Jean".  It's the last cute picture.  In second grade I got glasses, increasingly stronger each year.  That makes for some pretty painful childhood pictures.  To this day my glasses prescription is stronger than anyone else's that I know.  Thankfully they now can make strong lenses thinner than in the old days.   

I took all the way one picture this week.  When I was driving home from Lori and Anthony's house late Wednesday afternoon the sun was setting behind the mountain across the snowy fields.  By the time I had pulled my camera out of my purse it had almost slipped away.

I don't think we had any snow all week long!  Woohoo!!!!!!  Still very, very cold some days, but yesterday was sunny and in the high 30's and it felt WONDERFUL!  And tonight we'll turn our clocks ahead an hour and our daylight evenings will commence.  A bigger woohoo!!!!!  They were saying all these scary things on TV about how daylight savings has devastating effects.  Good grief.  We've been observing daylight savings as long as I can remember and I never heard of any of these devastating things before.  I, for one, am GLAD for daylight savings.