June, here we come!

This has been a week of catching up and looking ahead.  June 1st is tomorrow.  I love June!!  I think it comes from years of teaching and the relief that came with June.  It was always the month that was the longest away from the beginning of the next school year.  And now the part I like the most is that it's the lightest month of the year.  I can wake up so early with no problem because of how light it is.  

This June will be one for the books if all goes as planned.  A week from today our daughter Miki and her new husband will be here from Sweden.  We have not seen her in person since she visited with her children in 2008!  I am very, very eager to have them here.  

In two weeks, on the weekend of June 14 and 15, we will be getting all seven of our children and their families together for the first time since Lisa's wedding in 1998.  Sometimes when Miki visited us, Lisa and George got tickets for them to Florida for part of the visit.  Another time Miki and Lisa were both visiting us at the same time, but some of our boys couldn't make it.  So I PRAY that everything works out for everybody, and we will really and truly have them all together.  We'll be going to Lancaster County for that weekend to make it easier for everyone.  I wish we could afford some great vacation spot for this event, but I know we'll have a good time anyway.  

This is the crew,  not in order of age, but in the order in which they came to our family.  I could sit and look at this collage for hours.  Aren't they a great bunch of kids?

As you can probably tell, Lisa, Anthony, and Jeremy were born to us.  They have that distinctive Stauffer look.  The other four came to us as teenagers.   We have funny stories about that.  

Miki is just fifteen years younger than me, and we got such a kick out of the new birth certificate that arrived in the mail after we adopted her.  It listed her father as Richard Stauffer, age 16, and her mother as Jean Witmer, age 15.  I said, "Boy, our descendants will have fun with that tidbit of information some day!"   One time when she was visiting I had her come to school to talk to the kids about Sweden.  When I introduced her to our middle school I said,  "This is my daughter Miki.  I was 15 when she was born."  And I paused.  The look on their faces was too funny.  Then I said, "But I didn't get to meet her until she was 14."  

The big joke was that some people just assumed that the boys were our biological sons because Dick, with his dark curly hair, could have passed for another ethnicity when he was younger.  The funniest story is from his basketball-playing days at the Lititz Rec (after the boys were grown up).  From time to time one of the boys would go with him to play when they were home.  One evening several of them joined him, and they all ended up on the same team.  One of the boys mentioned that all the Stauffers were on one team.  Another player looked at him and said, "Is he yours too, Dick?"  Dick said that he was, to which the guy said, "Man, Stauffer, you were ALL over town!"  We have cracked up over that so many times since then!

One interesting fact:  Sam, Frank, and Ray never lived in our home at the same time as Miki.  She married and moved to Sweden in 1991, Sam and Frank did not come to us until 1994, and then Ray came in 1996.  But during some of Miki's extended visits they became well acquainted.  

Many other children and teens joined our family for periods of time, but we've lost touch with all of them except a very special sibling group, Nicole, Krista, and Joseph, who were adopted by a wonderful couple.  Thanks to Facebook, we are able to be more in touch with them than we've ever been in the 22 years since they left our family.  

If I ever had the time, I could write a book that would make me a millionaire, hahaha!

Memorial Day Weekend, part three

It was nice to wake up Monday morning at Sam and Jenn's with nowhere to go.   We had a wonderful, laid back day at their place.  And the weather was just PERFECT!!!  

Dick was an eager beaver first thing in the morning.  He found a screen panel to replace the glass in the front door.  Then he replaced the torn screen in the sliding glass door.  He had some help with that!

Then he made some adjustments to the mower and proceeded to mow some of the lawn and blew the maple "wings" off the blacktop.  He loves that mower!

When Sam and Ray discovered all that he had already gotten done that morning, one of them asked,  "What is Dad ON??"  I couldn't help myself and jokingly answered, "CHEMO!!"  

Later he took his turn to relax.  Here he and Sammy were watching Sam do some of the mowing.

Somewhere along the line I found my phone like this.  These BOYS!!  They said they were staging an intervention to help me get over my snake phobia.  I was dismayed to hear that San has already found a few snakes (non-poisonous) around their place.  GRRRRR.  

Then we were getting hungry.  Ray was the grill man and he did a great job.

As we ate I wanted pictures.  I love this one.  Jenn has her "pregnant glow," doesn't she?  Their baby girl is due the beginning of August.  We can't wait!!!  

Getting a picture of us was not as easy.  My husband just wasn't cooperating.  

I thought we got a good one, but Sam said, "Uh, Mom, I don't think you'll want to use this one."  Oh dear.  I didn't know that piece of cheese was hanging out of his mouth.

OK, next try.  Look at that hat.  What am I gonna do with this man?

I guess this one will do!

Meanwhile Ray was chillin' in the sun.

And where was Sammy?  Right there in the carport sleeping in his wagon.  For a couple of hours!  

He woke up just in time for our skpe session with Thyda.

We had a lot of fun talking with her.  Ray even took her on a tour of the house!  I love technology!  And I miss Thyda, but this helped.

We even got to see sweet Leo.

Then Sam got Sammy's Jeep out.  Oh my goodness!!  I was just cracking up watching him.  His body language on these pictures is just hysterical!

After a while he got tired of trying to steer properly, and he slid over onto the passenger seat and wanted Sam to get into the driver's seat.  He's such a funny boy!

And so adorable!  His shirt says,  "I'm the big brother."  He'll be a wonderful, gentle big brother. 

Later Frank came with Lauren and Jada.  He has been working on fixing Sam and Jenn's air conditioning and came on Monday to "calibrate" it, whatever that means.  But he knows his stuff, that's for sure.  

Cute cousins!

That wagon is such a wonderful, multi-purpose item.  

I love this picture of our "boys".

We left for home shortly after 6:30.  Such a full, wonderful weekend.  

Two things missing though.  Grandma Mary had been away with some of her boys at a cabin for most of the weekend.  I was so torn as we left Sam and Jenn's on Monday, because we practically passed her house on the way to the turnpike.  I really wanted to stop in, but I really wanted to get home.   This time home won out.  The other thing missing was time with Destiny.  She made some poor choices last week and was grounded. That made me sad on several levels.  

And where was Austin all weekend?  In New York with his other grandma.  Here's a picture Lori sent me from the beach.  I saw him yesterday and he is BROWN!!  Lucky boy with that beautiful skin.

I'm still trying to catch up with so many things.  Gotta run!

Memorial Day Weekend - Part Two

On Sunday morning, after having a fun time playing with Sammy, we went to our home church, Grace Community Fellowship.   SO MANY dear friends!  It was just amazing.  Three college-age girls, Steph, Karlee, and Hannah, whom  we have loved dearly from childhood on up were also home for the holiday.   It's a totally rare occasion that any of us are there on the same Sunday.  It was hard to get a chance to talk with everyone, and there are some that I long to have extended time with.  Maybe someday.  

We went to Dick's parents' for lunch.  What a precious time we had with them!  There's such a sense of peace in their quiet house surrounded by the beautiful woods.  After lunch we napped.  When I woke up I looked out the kitchen window and this is what I saw.

We love them so much.   Here are more pics from our time with them.

Dad dared us to find a weed in his gardens.  He said they don't stand a chance.

After we said our goodbyes to them we went a few miles away to say goodbye to my home place.  This is the house my family moved to when I was eleven years old.  Years later, after my mother passed away and my dad married Mary, they bought a smaller house, and my sister Doris and her husband bought this house.  And now they have recently moved to big, beautiful home with their son and family and will be selling this old homestead in June.  I did a walk-through, but so many years have passed since I moved out of that house (almost 43!) I really didn't have a lot of sentimental feelings in saying goodbye to it.

From there we went to East Petersburg to see my sister Mary Ellen.  She was having a cookout with some friends.  They were such a fun bunch of ladies.

From there we went to see my sister Doris's new, BEAUTIFUL home.  She gave us the grand tour.  Oh my goodness!!!!  I just love everything about it, and I'm so happy for her and her son's family to have found this wonderful place.

And then we headed back to Sam and Jenn's where we had more fun playing with Sammy and hanging out with Sam, Jenn, and Ray.  After Sammy went to bed we watched the movie Captain Phillips, which some had not seen before.  It wasn't quite as intense as the first time I watched it, but still intense enough.  When Ray was deployed his ship had had a part in one of the Somali pirate tragedies, so it was interesting to watch it with him.  

Stay tuned for part three.  LOTS of fun pictures from Monday.  

Memorial Day Weekend, Part One

We're back after a wonderful Memorial Day weekend in Lancaster County.  We saw so many people, and I have so many great pictures, that I'll have to post about the weekend in segments.

First of all I want to share the pictures I took on Friday as I was distributing church bulletins.  One of the churches sits on a hill, and I absolutely had to get my camera out and take pictures.  There was such beauty everywhere I looked.

Here's another cool picture I took - our irises bloomed last week.  I'm sure our neighbors think I'm crazy when they see me squat down to take these pictures.

On Saturday morning we packed up the car and headed first of all to Sam and Jenn's.

It was a gorgeous drive, indicative of the perfect weather we would have the entire weekend.

We had several hours to hang out, catch up, have fun with Sammy, and get ready for the wedding.  Ray was there too, which always adds to the fun.  Dick took this picture when he was sitting on the deck with Sammy.

We left their house shortly after 3:00 and headed toward Gap, PA (about an hour's drive) where the wedding was to be held on (I think) an Amish farm.  We had fun reminiscing all along the way.

Getting married was Hannah Metzler, a former student of mine, to Garrett Derr.   I had Hannah in my music classes all the way from kindergarten to eighth grade.  Sweetest girl EVER!!  In eighth grade she blew everyone away when she landed the solo for "He Never Failed Me" at the middle school choral festival.  Excuse me while I go back to May 2008.  I was just so proud of her that night.  If only our cell phones had had the capability of recording.

Now, back to 2014.  As we sat waiting for the wedding to begin, I was amused by the outhouse up front!

There she is, on her dad's arm.

The most touching moment was when both sets of parents joined them for prayer.  Garrett's dad prayed a prayer that, I think, brought tears to everyone's eyes.  His parents are on the left next to Hannah, her parents (my dear friend Kim Metzler and her hubby Mark) are on the right next to Garrett.  And in case you think you're seeing double - Garrett has an identical twin brother who served as best man (far right).

Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Garrett Derr.

As we waited for the reception to start in the barn, the weather and the setting were just perfect for chatting with old friends.

Here's my friend Wendy Harley (Kim's sister) with three of her daughters, Heather, Kelsey, and Mackenzie.  Her fourth daughter, Megan, was in the bridal party.  I was amused by their story of coming out of their rooms that morning and discovering that they matched!  Such a typical Wendy story.  Oh, I MISS these people.

When the bridal party entered, Hannah and Garrett had their first dance.  They were beautiful in front of the light coming in the barn door.

We sat at the MCDS table and had such a great time catching up with old friends and hearing about what's new at the school.

When we got back to Sam and Jenn's, I was delighted that Sammy was still awake.  He had helped to set up our air mattress in the baby room and could hardly wait to show it to us.

And to jump on it.

He LOVES the rhyme Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed.

Oh, he is so much fun!  I'll finish off this post with the beautiful sight that greeted my eyes Sunday morning from their deck.   I'll do my Sunday segment sometime later.  Gotta get ready for work now.