Sammy's party; time with Hernleys; dinner with Frank's family

On Saturday afternoon we drove down to Sam and Jenn's for a very important birthday party.  Sammy turned three!  Jenn's family was there, and he was having a wonderful time with all his boy cousins.  I managed to get him to stand still long enough to take a look at the cupcakes!

 The carport was the perfect place for a party.  The weather was amazing!!  We ate the delicious food Sam had gotten from a local barbecue truck, the kids painted pumpkins, Jenn's mom was doing some kind of a handicraft, and...

…..we held the baby!

Sammy was excited to blow out his candles after we sang "Happy Birthday", which he helped to sing, of course!

Then he tore into the gifts.  A drum set!

A piggy bank and some coins to put into it.

A bicycle!!

At some point in the afternoon we started the Bianca fashion show.  She has so many cute dresses, and so few chances to wear them, so she endured several wardrobe changes for all her crazy grandmas, aunts, and cousins!  The first outfit was this yellow and black one, but I did not get a good picture of it.

Outfit number two.

Outfit number three.

And our absolute favorite, outfit number four!  We kept her in it the rest of the day and took many, many, many pictures of her in it.  We just couldn't get enough of her cuteness!

I caught this beautiful moment.  This little girl adores her daddy.  She just lay there drinking her bottle and looking up into his eyes.  Gives me tears.

The biggest excitement of the whole day was when an ambulance parked in the athletic field behind their house, followed by a helicopter landing beside it.  They apparently transferred somebody from one to the other.  We were joking that they really know how to do a kid's birthday party - a helicopter for entertainment!

And then it was time to clean up and say our goodbyes.  Dick and I went to Grandma Mary's for the night and had a great time with her before we went to bed and again over breakfast in the morning.  We love hearing her funny shuffleboard stories.  I think she's a pretty popular lady in that retirement community!

From her place we went to nearby United Zion Campgrove for the worship service with Hernley Mennonite Church.  I led some praise and worship songs and shared some of the stories of God's faithfulness to us over the years.  It was fun to sing with my former student Hillary Snavely.  How I wish I had gotten a picture of her as well as Trisha Weaver, another former student.  Absolutely beautiful young women.  

Afterward we had a delicious potluck lunch.  Dick and I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with a lot of people who have been so meaningful to us over the years.  One unexpected thing was having my dear friend Elta Nissley there.  I don't think I have seen her since her husband Jay's funeral a year ago.  Oh, it was so GOOD to sit down with her and catch up.  In fact, I was so busy catching up with everyone, I did not take one picture the entire time.  I'm disappointed. 

We then went to Grandma Mary's, took short naps, packed up and left for Reading.  Destiny was spending the weekend with Frank and Lauren.  We hung out at their place for a bit, then went to the Malibu restaurant in the Reading Airport for dinner.  Lauren works as a server there.  It's such an absolutely beautiful setting, and the food was really delicious.

Destiny (sporting her new hipster glasses!), Nikayla (Lauren's daughter), Lauren, Jada, and Frank.  I was disappointed that J'von wasn't there.  

And then it was time to head home.  We got into a huge back up of traffic on Route 78 due to construction.  That added at least half an hour or more to our trip.   But we did get quite a sunset show!

I really had a headache for the first half of the day today.  Apparently it affected my vision, haha!  I noticed when I got home this evening that I had worn two different earrings!!!  I intended to take the back off the little white one and use it for the partner of the orange one, but apparently I just put the white one in without thinking and never noticed all day!  Luckily I was at Anthony and Lori's most of the day doing food prep.  But of course, I went to Giant too.  They know to expect anything from me by now.  

I snapped this picture this evening when I went to close my sliding door.  I thought the red leaves of the bushes right outside the door and the geraniums on the stump where the evergreen used to be looked beautiful. 

Our week, here and there

Just a quick post here this Friday morning.  Sounds like we're almost getting a return of summer weather for this weekend!   Now that I've gotten fall clothes in my closet!

I know everyone posts pictures of amazing skyscapes, but they never get old to me.  Here is one I took last week.  I used it for my header photo.

I also took this one.  I like the way this bowl, part of a set given to us for a wedding gift 43 years ago, matches my apples!

Earlier this week Dick was seen at the kitchen table like this.

The odometer in my car did not show up on the dash.  He learned via a YouTube video what the problem was and how to fix it, so at Radio Shack he bought a pack of four tiny things (??) that he soldered onto just the right place on this thing that he took out of my dash.  How's that for a technical explanation??  If he were here I would ask him for the right words to use, but he's at work doing other things I don't understand.  Anyway, he said he saved us $150.00 by doing it himself, and he wondered what he could go buy with that $150.  Haha!  If only it worked like that!  There is very little that he does not know how to fix himself.  I'm sure he has saved us many thousands over the years.

Once again we will not be going to Bjorn's game this evening.  It is not a home game, so we do not have reserved seats and tickets for it.  We'll keep track of the game online again.  Last week they won 44-0, the week before 42-6.  Wow!  What a team!  I'm so happy for him.

Today is Sammy's 3rd birthday!  So we WILL be going down tomorrow for his birthday party.  That will be fun.  I enjoy being with Jenn's family.  Look at this precious picture Jenn posted this week, which she titled "best friends".   She said he entertained Bianca while she was cooking dinner.  Looks like he was singing!

We will be staying down for Sunday.  I was asked to share about God's faithfulness to us and lead worship at the church that I grew up in, which my brother and his wife still attend - Hernley Mennonite.  It will be held at United Zion Campgrove.  That will be sweet.  Some of the people I have known my entire life.  Then we're hoping to spend some time with Frank and his children Sunday afternoon.  I can't believe I haven't seen Destiny since the middle of August.  But we do keep in close touch.

I need to also share these great pics from Sophie's gymnastics meet last weekend.  She got a first place for the first time!

Last weekend for Anthony's birthday, Anthony, Lori, and Austin went to Lancaster County.  Anthony wanted to go to the Apple store, which we do not have here in State College, for his birthday.  They also got ice cream at the very best place in Manheim - the Twin Kiss.  

I have not seen this boy awake for almost two weeks!  Occasionally I'm still at their house when they get home late afternoon, but he's always sleeping!  Adjusting to all-day kindergarten with no rest or nap time is proving to be a challenge.  Otherwise, he's doing just great, which makes for a very happy mommy and daddy!

Gotta run!  Have a great weekend!

Time with Sammy and Bianca; class reunion

On Saturday I met Dick at his shop at 12 noon and we headed first of all to Sam and Jenn's.  Two weeks is a long time in a tiny baby's life, because they grow so fast at that stage!  Sam was giving her a bottle when we arrived, but he kindly handed her over to me.  Sammy woke up from his nap shortly afterward, and he came and sat beside me.  One of the first things he said was,  "Mahna, I want to get in your car and go to your house."  Whew, that boy knows how to melt a grandma's heart!!

Here's Jenn with Bianca.  She already looks so much bigger in Jenn's arms at 6 weeks of age.

Sammy LOVES the pumpkins they got recently.  He was putting the small one on top of the larger one as he sang, "Do you want to build a snowman?"

He was also having the greatest time rearranging the pumpkins in the flower bed.

Bianca's favorite person is Sammy.  He sings to her, of course!

Here I got a very short clip of him singing "Let It Go" to her.  Melt my heart some more!

And now some Bianca close-ups.  I'm sure if I had had time to stay longer I would have coaxed a smile out her of.  She was so close!

Dick and I got ourselves ready for my class reunion, and all too soon we needed to leave. 

It was a fun evening.  I saw people I had not seen for a very long time.  There was a door prize for the person that came the farthest.  I, by no means, qualified for that.  One classmate came from California!  I also know that another one, the only one I have for a Facebook friend, came from Minnesota - Betty (Moyer) Wirt.  She and I have known each other our entire lives.  We were neighbors, Sunday School classmates, elementary school classmates, and carpool mates to Lancaster Mennonite. 

We had a good meal, we told funny stories from our high school days at Lancaster Mennonite, we remembered the eight classmates who are no longer living, we took a group picture, and we ended the evening singing "606" -  Festival Doxology.  It was amazing!!  We might be in our sixties now, but we haven't lost an ounce of our musical ability and expertise!  

I'm sure I would have had time to reconnect with more people if we had hung around longer, but we had a two-and-one-half hour drive home.  

Here's our group picture that Dick took with my camera.  Hopefully the official one was situated to get everyone's face.  Some are hidden behind others on my photo.

This is us on graduation day in 1969!  I think this might be just half the group, and I can't find the picture of the other half.  I'm not even on this one. 

One of the ridiculous memories that I shared was this:  

A choir that I sang with, Choraleers, was leaving on a five-day tour the very afternoon of graduation (grad was on a Friday morning).  In fact, we had a program that evening in Belleville, PA, not too far from State College!  I had decided that I wanted to have tan legs for the tour, and I don't know if there was anything like self-tanning lotion or spray back then.  My sister Mary Ellen had a sun lamp to treat her acne, and I had heard that sun lamps can also be used for tanning.  So I decided the day before graduation to tan my legs.  First I did the front of my legs, then I laid on my stomach to do the back of my legs.  And, yes, I fell asleep!!!  And you know the rest of the sad story - I had BURNED the back of my legs, especially the very tender skin at the back of my knees.  

An absolute part of our garb for graduation was pantihose, and our graduation service was long and hot in an outdoor tent, and we stood up and sat down over and over and over and over again.  Just as I would be almost forgetting how much pain I had, we would need to change positions, and it was absolute agony.  

And that is about the only thing I remember from my grad, except the speaker saying,  "In conclusion" and then going through several more pages of his notes.  I was counting!  

Have a good week!

Friday this and that

Friday morning already!  No trip to a football game tonight.  The Manheim Central Barons have an away game, and I'm sure we will once again be keeping close tabs on the game via the live blog.  

We will, however, be traveling to Lancaster County tomorrow after Dick gets off work at noon.  I have my Lancaster Mennonite High School 45th class reunion.  I haven't been to a reunion in 15 years, and in the mean time I have lost touch with everyone in my class except for one!  I'm not quite sure how that happened in this age of FB!  

We had fun yesterday when I posted my senior picture from the yearbook on FB.  Lisa said that she loves to tease Jeremy about being a hipster, but she sees he inherited it from me, haha!  So I made a collage of Dick and I in our big glasses of that era and Jeremy in his big glasses of this era.  Not too much different!  I think I may possibly still have those glasses somewhere around here!  I should take them along tomorrow!

Speaking of Jeremy - remember that unique lighting fixture he came up with for a restaurant he has been designing?  Well, here's a view of the inside - Driftwood Kitchen.  I'm sure we'll get to eat there sometime.  He does such good work, but I hate how stressful and demanding his jobs are.  

The other night I messaged Sam and Jenn that I was dying for a picture of Bianca.  Immediately I got this one from Jenn.

Followed by this one from Sam, haha!

They're so funny!  Then they obliged me and sent me some more. 

I'm so eager to see and hold and kiss her!  Maybe we can squeeze in a little time before my reunion tomorrow. 

Here are some cool sky pictures I took this week.

So many times I post things on FB that never make it to this blog - just because it takes longer to post here.  But here are a few that I'll just copy and paste if I can.

So this is how we "old" people start rumors. The other day I saw a taxi sitting in front of our neighbor's house. I said, "Hmmmm. I wonder if there's something wrong with Rick's car." Dick wondered why, and I told him about the taxi. Shortly afterward I said, "I guess it picked him up, because there it goes." This morning Dick said, "I saw Rick outside last evening." I wondered what's so unusual about that. He answered, "Well, you said he left in an ambulance the other day."

This very sore cut on my thumb constantly reminds me of the ridiculous situation I was in a few days ago. I decided to check out Chicos - never been there before. I felt terribly frumpy, but I happened to notice that the store was in a strip mall close to my bank, so why not stop in after going to the bank? No one would know me anyway. It was raining steadily, so I grabbed one of the umbrellas in my car and went in. I was immediately greeted by a sales associate, and I listened to her little speech, all the while trying to collapse that umbrella. It absolutely refused to stay collapsed, and in the process of trying to force it into submission, I felt a really painful jab on my thumb. Well, forget it! I decided to take the stupid umbrella out to the car and run back in in the rain. But just as I got out there the rain started coming down really hard. So I grabbed my other umbrella and went back in again. I had barely looked at anything when a sales associate asked if she could help me. I started asking about the sizing when I looked at my stinging thumb and realized there was blood all over it!! As the sweet girl explained the sizing I was desperately looking in my purse for something, ANYTHING I could use, and pulled out my grocery list and wrapped it around my thumb!! When she ended by saying that they carry no petite sizes in the store, I politely made my exit. I don't think I was supposed to shop there anyway.

At Fillmore UMC we are starting up the choir season after a summer break. I decided that to get off to an easy start we would use some echo-style songs that require very little harmony learning. One of those is an old scripture chorus, "Unto Thee, O Lord." After going through it successfully last evening at practice, a certain man in the choir named J Richard Stauffer, always the funny guy, said, "I see this song was written in 1972. I was wondering if we could update it a little and instead of saying,'Oh my God' we'd say, 'OMG'." Hahahahahaha!! Can you imagine? "OMG! I trust in Thee!" It even rhymes! Did we ever have a little fun with that! Can you believe that husband of mine??


Have a great weekend!