Birthday, reunion, family time, transitions

Last Wednesday we celebrated Dick's 67th birthday by going to his favorite place, Texas Roadhouse. Neither of us was feeling the greatest - me because of having had a tooth extracted the day before and he because he may have had a bit of a stomach bug (not the throwing up variety).  But we still had a nice time together and took half our food home for the next day, which made us happy for the second time!

We're always especially thankful each year that we get to celebrate his birthday, because we have the sad memory of his birthday in 1996 when he had just been told that he would need a biopsy of his hip. They could see that there was something in his socket that had been causing the extreme pain he'd had the past few months.  One possibility of course was that it was something malignant.  We were scared.  And we both admitted later that we had been wondering if that may be his last birthday. As most of you know,  it was malignant and he was treated for Lymphoma over the next six months.  He has needed treatment a number of times since then, but we are rejoicing that it has now been three years since his last treatment and everything is looking good.

On Thursday morning I went to Bible study then went to Anthony and Lori's to clean the apartment for guests that would be arriving that evening.  Later I went to exercise class for the first time in ages!  My friend Peg, who is the instructor, was away on vacation for several weeks, then my trip to Texas came right after she returned, and then I missed again because of my stupid tooth extraction.  It was fun to be back with the girls again.

In the evening we had choir practice.  That is always fun too.  Lots of laughter, but we do get practicing done too.  Sometimes my husband is the worst one to keep in order, hahahaha!

Here are some sky pictures I took out my bedroom window on Friday.  I thought it was going to start raining.

Then I noticed the hole in the clouds where the sun was trying to shine through.  Before long all the dark clouds had moved on and the sun was shining brightly!

I was having a little fun with Destiny on Saturday.  We were texting and she told me how to get those crazy screens from Snapchat.  We were cracking up at these pictures!

Hmmm.  If only my eyes were that big and doe-ey and I was so cute, hahahaha!

On Saturday evening I put pork roast in the crock pot for overnight to make pulled pork for the next day.  Right before I crawled into bed I remembered that I had not taken my meds, so I went to the kitchen to take them.  Guess what I noticed?????  I had NOT plugged the crock pot into the socket, even though I HAD turned it on!  Oh my goodness.  That would have been the worst surprise the next morning.  I thanked the Lord that I had forgotten to take my meds.

I was up early Sunday morning to prep the pork, then we went to Fillmore for our 8:15 service.   Our choir did How Deep the Father's Love, one of my favorites for many years.  We had been planning to sing it at a midweek Lenten service in March, but because of snow the service was cancelled.  I just love that this choir is more and more capable of doing four-part a cappella sections of songs for effect.  That's what we did at the end of this song - But this I know with all my heart, His love has paid my ransom. It was so tender and beautiful.

After the service we hurried home to pack up the pulled pork (wrapped the crock pot in a comforter) and other things we were taking.  We hit the road for Lancaster County for the Myers Reunion - my mother's family.  The event was held at the beautiful headquarters of Mennonite Disaster Service near Lititz.  Since Destiny now lives just ten minutes from there we picked her up to take her along.  She'd been to the Myers Reunion many times before.  I loaded her up with all my stuff!

We had a good turnout this time and needed to set up more tables for all the food and for people to sit at.

These two men, Earl and Lloyd Myers,  are my mother's two youngest brothers, the only ones remaining of ten siblings.  They were just 2 and 4 years old when the mother of the family died.  My mom was 16 and helped to take care of them and the other younger ones.  Earl's wife Irene is on the right.  She has such funny stories to tell of being one of the first non Mennonites in the Myers family when she was dating Earl.

One reason I really did not want to miss this reunion was because my sister Barb and her husband John would be there from Idaho.  His parents are now in a nursing home in Lancaster County, so they try to come to PA twice a year.

There were 22 of us cousins there.  There were 17 missing, and 3 have died.  We lined up in age order from right to left. The oldest is on the back right and the youngest is on the front left.  I'm there in the front between my two boy cousins Earl and Glenn who were closest in age to me.

We took this picture of my sister Barb with cousins Lori and Kathy because we thought they resemble each other.

Destiny and I had a little more fun with the Snapchat screens as we finished up our meal, haha!

When we left the reunion we took her to her friend Ella's house for a birthday party.  Ella's little brother wanted in the picture too.  So cute!

From there we went to my brother's house to hang out with my siblings.  We had the best time just sitting in their living room talking and laughing and looking at pictures.  There were nine of us - Dick and Nancy, Mary Ellen, Dick and I, Doris and Dale, Barb and John.  You'll just have to take my word for it, because I was enjoying myself too much to get up and look for my camera!

Later we all went to Grandma Mary's house.  For the last time.  This past winter she had moved to the cozy apartment at her son Carl's house, and now she has decided she will stay there and sell her house.  She and her sons and wives were there that day sorting and packing.  It looked pretty overwhelming when we stopped in.  We didn't want to be in the way, so we didn't stay long.  

But I did go to the sunroom for a bit and took a picture of the "Holy Corner" where my dad's hospital bed had been and where we sang him into the presence of the Lord on October 1, 2009.  I have never been in that room since without thinking of that night and the holiness of that moment. 

Barb and John posed for a picture with precious Grandma Mary.  Pray for her and her sons and wives as they take walk this transition journey together.  

We went to her back yard for a sibling picture.

And a little fun!

And then we said our goodbyes and were on our way.  Dick and I had one more important stop to make while we were close by - to Sam and Jenn's. 

We couldn't stay long, but we had fun while we did.  Sammy was reading us his "rules"!

Bianca sang for us - after she ignored us for about half an hour.  She is definitely not one to be bribed, begged, or coerced into doing anything!  But when she's ready she really does it!

She came over to me in the midst of all the noisiness and was telling me something.  (I couldn't really hear her, but pretended to.) It was so precious. 

And then it was time to head for home.  We got home a little after 10:30 - a long, full, fun day!

This coming Friday and Saturday we'll be going to DC.  Jeremy and Mike are moving to Portland, Oregon on Monday.  More about that in next week's Tuesday update!

Tuesday Update - our Easter week

Life has continued on since we're back from our trip - a whole week already!

Spring has definitely come to State College at last.  Even the trees are turning green, although I have not gotten a picture of them yet.  My tulips are absolutely profuse.  I should call them Dick's tulips, since he does all the work.  Here are some pics I took last week here and also at Anthony and Lori's.

This flower bed now has yellow and red tulips blooming in addition to the hyacinth.  I remember that I usually have a few variegated ones that I will have to keep an eye out for.

I took this picture today of the rose bush starting to get leaves.  I love to see it come to life each spring. 

I'm getting eager for the rhododendrons to begin blooming.  And for outdoor movies and events at the barn.

Last Tuesday, our first day back from the trip I felt pretty much awful.  I was so afraid I was getting sick.  But I fought it like crazy with my usual remedies, stayed on top of it, and never did come down with anything, thankfully.

I had a normal busy week.  On Wednesday evening we had our last combined Lenten service with Houserville House of Hope and Mt. Nittany UMC.   Our two praise teams are really enjoying working together.  Since Wednesdays are Houserville's regular weekly service and Mt. Nittany does not have a service at which their praise team regularly leads, we are going to continue our Wednesday evenings together.  We're really good together - they have things we don't have and we have things they don't have.

On Thursday I did not have Bible study at Calvary in the morning because they follow the State College School District schedule.  I also missed it the week before because of our trip, so I'm ready to get back.

Friday and Saturday were filled with shopping and food prep.

Our Easter morning had a very early start.  Fillmore had a sunrise service - indoors thankfully, because it was raining some of the time.  The front of the church looked beautiful as always.

The choir opened the service with the old favorite Alive Forevermore.    Later in the service the choir sang Casting Crown's Glorious Day.  I found a choir arrangement of the song.  It was not the easiest song we ever learned, and there were times we felt a bit discouraged with it.  But wow.  The choir did fantastic on Sunday morning, better than any time when we practiced it.  It is such a powerful message!

After the sunrise service there was breakfast served in the basement of the church, then we went home to get the food we would be taking to Anthony and Lori's, then to Calvary's service.  We took our annual Easter morning selfie in Calvary's parking lot.  (Please notice the blouse for me and tie for Dick that I got at Kohl's on Saturday evening.  Do they match ok?  LOL!)

They did something so very powerful at Calvary.  The worship team led us in Big Daddy Weave's song My Story, which includes parts of the chorus from the old hymn Blessed Assurance.  We would sing part of the song, then on the overhead there would be a video of someone from the church telling their story.  Then more of the song, then another story, etc.  Wow, wow, wow!  So many tears, so much heartfelt praise.  Google the lyrics of the song My Story if you are unfamiliar with them.

Nothing had worked out for any of our family to come for Easter, but Lori had invited a family from church to join us for Easter dinner.  We decided to go with a variety of favorites.  She made pulled pork and a big salad.  I made curried chicken soup and Jamaican Rice and Peas and Brown Stew Chicken.  The friend from church brought a beautiful white cake with fluffy frosting and strawberries and blueberries decorating it.  We had such a good time getting to know them and their story.  They have a boy who is two months older than Hunter, and they are expecting twins now!  A boy and a girl.   I did not get any pictures of them, except for this picture of their little boy in the playpen with Hunter.

Here's an Easter picture of Anthony and Lori's family.  It was beginning to rain and we did not have time to get Hunter to laugh, so he's looking a little grumpy.  How do you like the haircut Lori gave Austin?  I think it looks adorable!

I took these gorgeous pictures as we were leaving later in the afternoon.  The sun was out and beautiful by then.  The pond is more beautiful than ever since we saw it completely dry for a while this winter.

It's two years this week since they moved to Stauffer Acres.  So much has taken place since then, especially the addition of Hunter to the family, and so many wonderful improvements have been made.

There are more moves about to take place in our family.  I'll try to do another post before my next Tuesday update about those.

This was my view for a very, very long time today.  Can you guess where I was?  The dentist, of course.  It was a really horrible day and I don't even want to talk about it.

Since I don't want to end on such a down note, let me just show you the picture Jenn sent me today.  They painted over their bright green wall and just got new dining room furniture and a new light above it, which Sam installed.  Does this look good or what???

Austin, Texas - days 5 and 6

Sunday was the day we would fly back home to State College.  We were not scheduled to leave until around 1 pm, but we weren't finished seeing everything yet, so we were up early to pack up.  I used up the last of our eggs and bacon to make our breakfast.  

After we were all packed up we went down to the river.  (Ha!  I can't say those words without singing in my head the Jordan Feliz song by that name.)  The Colorado River flows right through downtown Austin.  There's wonderful park and a wide jogging/walking/dog-walking path.  There were a lot of people getting their morning exercise.  I loved it. 

I wished there were time to sit on that bench and enjoy this lovely view. 

The main attraction for us was this statue of Stevie Ray Vaughan, often known as SRV, a beloved blues guitarist who was Anthony's inspiration.  Anthony's business was originally called Stevie Snacks - learning to play like SRV little bites at a time, I guess!  

Then we headed to the airport.  We were getting notifications of our flight being slightly delayed and when we got to our gate we were told that our plane had not come in yet.  We didn't mind having time to relax and get some lunch from the many different options around us.  

We were excited to show the boys when our plane had arrived. 

After they had unloaded and cleaned up the plane we were finally able to board.  We were pushed away from the gate and facing the direction of the runway, but at that point we just sat.  And sat. And sat. Not a word for the longest time to explain why.  Finally they said there was a problem with the steering and that they would have to turn the plane off while they checked it out.  So no lights or AC.  

Meanwhile they were talking to the girl in front of me who was supposed to catch a flight from Philly to Barcelona, and now it was looking unlikely that she would get to Philly in time for that flight.  Upon further questioning she said that from Barcelona she would be flying home to Israel.  And that she has a 6-month-old baby that she really wanted to get home to.  And also, the next day would be a holiday in Israel and no one would be working to help her make other connections.  She had been at the same conference as Lori and had already been away from her baby for a week.  My heart was breaking for her.  After a while someone came and told her to come with him, he would make sure she got on a flight ASAP.  We cheered and wished her well.  

Eventually we were told that we would be pulling back into the gate and that we would all need to get off.  They were not able to know when the plane might be ready to leave, but they were sure it would be sometime that day.  

So we got off and sat down to discuss what to do.  Lori said she had been in this situation before, hanging around at the airport all day then being told that the flight had been cancelled.  We decided that if we were going to spend another day in Austin we'd rather not spend it in the airport.  Besides, we were closing in on our window of time to catch our flight from Philly to State College.   So she got busy on her phone.  It took a LONG time, and I don't know how she got it accomplished, because we were on three different tickets.  Anthony was booked via his business.  Lori and Hunter were booked via Penn State.  And Dick, Austin, and I were just regular.  But somehow she got all of us on a flight the next day that would take us as far as Harrisburg.  After that was accomplished we remembered that our bags would possibly end up in State College that night if we didn't somehow retrieve them.   So Anthony got busy on that, and our bags were successfully salvaged and we were able to pick them up at baggage claim.  Meanwhile Lori got busy on her airbnb app to find us a place for the night.   She also arranged for another minivan rental.  

As we were leaving the car rental garage Anthony asked if there was a good burger place she would recommend.  The attendant, without hesitation, said,  "Hopdoddy Burger Bar."  So were looked it up and headed that direction.  It was such a great place!  The weather was absolutely perfect for sitting outdoors. 

Just across the way was a frozen yogurt place, so we walked there for our dessert.  

Then we set out to find our home for the night.  Were we ever pleasantly surprised!  The house was amazing!!  We wished we had stayed there all week.  

That fridge had a built-in Kuerig!  I never knew there was such a thing!

The boys loved this bed!

We all slept good that night.  The next morning I made waffles for our breakfast.  The airbnb host had the Aunt Jamima mix, a bowl, a whisk, a measuring pitcher, etc in a cupboard right above the awesome waffle maker.  They were scrumptious. 

Grandpa and Hunter had breakfast on the patio.

Lori had to do some conference calls since she was missing a day at work, so we hung out and I cleaned up.

Then we packed up again, hoping we would actually get home that day.  I know that in the back of our minds was the possibility that something could go wrong again.  

Thankfully there were no problems with our flight that day.  We were there early enough to get some lunch before we left. 

We had a flight change in Charlotte, and not much time at all to go a long distance to our next gate.  Lori had waited for the stroller, which they always checked in right at the gate.  But she was told it had been checked straight through to Harrisburg and they could not get it for her.  The rest of us had gone ahead not knowing this, and she ended up carrying that heavy boy all through the airport to get to our next gate.  We felt HORRIBLE when we realized it.  

But we got on our next flight, probably the last ones.   Dick held Hunter and before long he was asleep.  

The Harrisburg airport was like a ghost town when we arrived.  So few people.  Renting a minivan was a long ordeal.  At one point it seemed we would have to rent two cars instead.  But finally we got a minivan.

Austin pushed Hunter around while we waited.  

We stopped at Sheetz above Harrisburg to get our very late dinner, and for the last time Austin and I crawled into the back seat.  We had been backseat buddies all week. 

This was Hunter laughing at Austin in the rest room.  He thinks his big brother is so funny.

Anthony drove the hour-and-a-half to the University Park Airport where our cars were parked.  We did our best to keep a conversation going so he wouldn't get sleepy.  At the airport we had to transfer our luggage to our own cars, return the rental, and finally drive home.  We were lucky - we live just five minutes or so from there.  But Lori and Anthony had almost a half hour drive to their place.  

It was midnight when Dick and I walked into our house.  It was good to be home.  Even better to be in our own bed!

So many fantastic memories from this trip!  Thank you, Anthony and Lori, for taking us with you!  Our children are so good to us.