Music practices, zucchini, Sunday fun, my regular work week

Well, it's August 1st.  I can't say I'm enthused about that.  But at least it's still summer and I plan to enjoy every moment of it!

Last week I had a music practice both Thursday and Friday evenings.  Fillmore's Sunday morning service was going to be held at one of the other locations (more about that later), so our band had to get together Thursday evening to figure out where each person would stand, etc.  It was actually the first time the four of us were together since early June!  Every Sunday since then at least one of us was missing!  So it was fun to be all together.

The reason the service was held at a different location is because we're going through an experimental period the next few months.  There are three locations, none of them full on a Sunday morning.  Over winter the cost of heating the three old buildings is ridiculous, and now that there is a drive to raise funds for a new building (the land has been purchased), it will make sense to save money by meeting in one location when cold weather comes.  We'll have an 8:15 service and a 10:45 service with Sunday School at 9:30.   So for now, we're trying that format once a month to work out the "bugs."   I will be pianist/choir director for the 8:15 service, just as I already am.  I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that the new name of the three combined churches is Greater Buffalo Run Valley UMC, GBRV for short.  That just rolls right off the tongue, right?  LOL!!!  At some point I will have to switch from saying Fillmore to GBRV.  So I'm warning you now, haha!

On Friday evening I had another practice with two teens who were doing the special song for the 8:15 service.  They are a brother and sister who attend one of the other locations.  He plays sax and she plays flute.  We did an arrangement of Morning Has Broken.  They play in the band at school but not in church, so it was my delight to give them that opportunity.  

When I came home from that practice I made zucchini bread.  My friend Peg is on a month-long vacation and asked us to pick her tomatoes and zucchini.  There were no tomatoes ripe yet, but the zucchini - OH MY GOODNESS!!   At least TEN huge ones!!  I sliced or shredded two of them and took the rest to the church office for whomever could use them.  On Saturday I made a pan of layered zucchini, which we love.  It's very much like lasagna, except the zucchini replaces the pasta.  So it's really healthy too.  But it makes a whole pan, so we're still eating that!  I found another recipe for zucchini quiche, and of course there's always the delicious chocolate chip zucchini cake.  But who will eat that??  Neither of our waistlines need a pan of sugar, haha!

On Saturday afternoon I had a rather leisurely time shopping for groceries and other things.  I spent too much time at Ross.  I just love that place!!   I tried on a bunch of clothes and shoes, but didn't get any.  Things look so much nicer on the hangers than they do on me.

Saturday evening was delightful, and I sat on the porch to bask in it.  I enjoyed watching the changing  colors of the sky.

I forgot to mention that Dick was helping Anthony to burn scrap wood that afternoon.  They had quite a fire!

On Sunday morning we went to the Valley View church for our 8:15 service.  It was exciting to have people there from the other two locations.  

Lori and the boys were spending the weekend at her parents in New York.  So since we wouldn't be doing anything with them, after church was over Sunday morning we decided to head to Lancaster County to see who we could see.  We hadn't seen Frank's family for a while, so I checked with him as we drove.  They were at J'von's basketball tournament, but would be leaving after the game to go to her mom's for dinner.  However, if they won the game there would be another one at 3.  And they did, and there was!  We were so excited to be getting the chance to see J'von play!  

We had extra time, so we decided to go to the Park City mall outside of Lancaster city.  We reminisced.  Dick was working for a lumber company his first year out of high school, and he remembered delivering lumber to the site where they would be building the mall right in the middle of farmland.   A couple of years later I was working at the retirement home across the street and literally watched it being built before my eyes.  I remember walking over there and seeing the steel skeletons of JC Penney and Watt and Shand.  I went shopping at Penneys the day they opened up.   And a month before our wedding I bought our living room suite at Penneys during my lunch break!

So we in honor of our memories, we went to Penneys!  We don't have a Penneys in our mall here anymore, and I miss it.  I would have loved to walk around more of the mall, but we didn't have that much time.

J'von's tournament was being held at the Thaddeus Stevens Technical School gym.  J'von is the orange #4.  He's good.  The other team was from Maryland.

J'von's team played hard, but the other team won.  J'von's team did come in second in the tournament though, which is great!  But there were no smiles from this player.  He wanted his team to be first!

A cute picture of him with his mom Danielle and little brother Marty.

We were disappointed we missed Frank and Lauren and the girls, however.  Lauren posted this adorable picture taken after the earlier game.  Alaya loves J'von!  He was smiling after that game!

When we left the game we found a parking lot with shade trees and put our seats back for our Sunday naps.

Then we went to Chuck E. Cheese to see our favorite worker.  When we got there Destiny said that she was ready to go around checking all the games and we could follow her around.  They check all the games for malfunctions twice a day and restock the tickets.  How fun is that!  

She challenged Grandpa to play this game with her and she beat him!  Of course, she gets lots more experience!

Unjamming a machine.  It was cute to see all the kids come to her with their questions and problems.  

This cracked me up.  When she was checking the game called Street Hoops she said that some of the balls were missing, that sometimes they get thrown behind the machine.  So she pulled that whole big game front and crawled behind it.  She threw at least four balls out which Dick caught.

Then she climbed out and pushed the game back against the wall again.  She'd obviously done that before!

This was a sketch from one of the photo booths.

When she got off work we took her across the street to Primo to order a sub for her and then took her home.  I'm so happy she has a job this summer, except that it means she can't come up here for a week or two like she always has.  She works five days a week!

From there we went to Manheim where Grandma Mary was at a church picnic.  My sister Mary Ellen had brought her there and we were taking her home.  It was a good way to squeeze in a 30-minute visit with her.  It had been a good weekend for her.  On Saturday she had gone to a picnic at the over-55 community where she used to live.  They were so happy to see her!  They want her to come back to play shuffle board!  The church picnic on Sunday was with the church she had attended for years before she moved to the apartment at her son's place this past winter.  My dad had been the pastor there for many years.  They were happy to see her too.  The ladies were playing a fun game when we got there.  Each person had a paper with 3 things about themselves written on it.  Two were true, one was not.  The others had to guess which one was not true.  Very funny sometimes!

It was too late to stay and visit at her apartment, but we took some pictures. 

Our "goodnight" selfie. 

It was after midnight when we got home.  I drove the last hour so Dick could sleep, since he would have to get up for work in the morning.  

I cooked for Anthony and Lori on Monday and then taught piano lessons.  I was glad to get home and definitely ready to sleep when I went to bed. 

Today I cleaned Anthony and Lori's airbnb studio apartment.  Guests were coming tonight.  I thought it's been a while since I posted any pictures, so here are some I took today.  I can certify that it is CLEAN!  And it is very comfortable to stay there.  We've had many chances to do that.   I'll take you up the steps the way the guests enter it.

The deck at the top of the steps.

There is a fold-out bed in the love seat. 

Queen bed.

And the bathroom.

Have a good rest of the week!