Saturday, January 13
For some reason last Saturday seems like a long time ago as I look back through my pictures. I had Austin here Friday night for a sleepover. When he wakes up it's like he's already had ten cups of coffee, so when I finally woke up an hour after he did, he was all ready to play Mancala. What a way to stretch my brain first thing in the morning. Of course I had my coffee too.
But first we took a look outside, and this is what we saw.
He settled for 100-piece puzzles that day and finished two of them.
He also spent time tracing pictures at the window again, and for a while was singing this little ditty over and over again. I took this video to send to Lori when she texted me that it was so quiet over at their house, haha!
In the afternoon Dick took him home when he went over there for his last chance to archery hunt. I stayed home and packed up everything Christmas. I was glad to get my toy corner back again. When we put the Christmas tree in the corner all the toys have to be put in my little den and they're always in my way when I need to get things off my bookshelves, which is often. That's where I have all my music notebooks. By evening we were back to our regular default Fall decor, lol!
Sunday, January 14
On Sunday morning the funniest thing happened. After I was all dressed for church I opened my phone to check Facebook and the first thing I saw was a picture of myself wearing exactly the same thing I had on! For a second i thought I must have had the reverse camera feature open. Then I realized it was an "On This Day" memory on FB from two years ago, hahahaha!! I was wearing the same exact clothes two years later. Thankfully it wasn't a picture from seven or eight years ago!
At church the choir sang an easy, energetic song I loved years ago on Michael W. Smith's worship album, You Are Holy. For the offertory Brenna (my flute player) and I did a really great arrangement of His Eye Is on the Sparrow. That girl can make anything sound good. She is the best flute player I've ever worked with, and I'm so thankful for her.
After church we packed ourselves some things to eat and hit the road. Our first stop a few hours later was at Sam and Jenn's. We had so much fun with the kids. Bianca was in the mood for being a Grandpa's girl.
Look at this amazing doll house Sam and Jenn gave her for Christmas! It's in her huge walk-in bedroom closet/playroom. Is this not every little girl's dream??
Selfie time with Mahna.
Our little girlie is growing up so fast. She melts me.
Sammy loves to show me things in his bedroom. This time we spent a really long time finding places on his globe. I LOVE globes! Wish I had one. They are so much more realistic than a map. By the time Sam came back to Sammy's room to check what we were doing, Sammy could point out United States of America, Russia, China, the North Pole, and Antarctica.
He's growing up so fast too. He had a practice booklet from kindergarten that he showed me. One page had just letters of the alphabet on it, both upper and lower case in random order, and the kids are to practice reading through them at increasingly faster speeds. He read through them all for me without hesitation. I know that is normal for kindergarten, but I was remembering just this past August when they were here for a week, and he made it clear to me that he didn't know letters and he couldn't read and he wasn't interested, hahaha! His word recognition is now amazing! Yea, kindergarten teachers!
Sammy now has his tent set up in his "downtown lounge" in the basement. His own little man cave! I got into it for a while, but then we had to say our goodbyes. (Blurry cell phone pic.)
The purpose for our trip that day was for a Stauffer brother gathering. Dick's brother Bob and his wife Doris were visiting from Minnesota. We only get to see them about once or twice a year. So the brothers and wives and Dad and Grandma Arlene got together at 4:30 at Fred and Deb's place. Unfortunately, Steve's wife Faye had been sick all week and was not able to come. We were really, really sad about that, and I'm sure she was even sadder.
The guys warmed up their conversation in the living room before we even gathered at the table.
Deb had her lovely, long table all ready for us.
We had sloppy joes, salad, chips, cookies, and STORIES and loud laughter and several conversations simultaneously and fantastic connection for several hours. I love belonging to this family. The Stauffer men are quirky, funny, good men. And we women have kept right up with them!
Steve, Dick, Carolyn, and Jim.
Deb, Fred, Dad, Arlene, Doris, Bob.
The crew - minus Faye and me.
The guys: Dick (67), Jim (61), Dad (92), Bob (66), Steve (64), Fred (59). Fred will be joining the 60's in just a couple of weeks. Dad was cracking up about something. I love it. 
The Stauffer Wives Club (minus Faye). Jean, Carolyn, Arlene, Doris, Deb. Our ages are irrelevant, haha!
Dick and I reluctantly pulled ourselves away a little before 8 PM for the long drive home.
Tuesday, January 16
On Tuesday we had more snow. I gladly postponed my dentist appointment! I took this picture from my side porch.
Wednesday, January 17
Wednesday was Austin's 9th birthday. I was telling him the other day about Dick losing his job in 2008 and then finally finding a job in State College and how I gave up my job at Manheim Christian to become his nanny and how I had passed around a picture of me holding him when I informed the staff that I would be leaving and they all looked at that picture and were so happy for me. He said, "I didn't know I was special. I thought I was just a regular kid." I helped him memorize Psalm 139:13, one that Destiny still knows by memory, "For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother's womb." Another day we'll memorize verse 14: "I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know full well."
To celebrate his birthday we did our annual thing (his choice) - bowling. I forgot my camera, so I had to settle for cell phone pics this time.
Austin's got skills even though he only bowls once a year. Last year he beat us all, this year Grandpa got a bit ahead of him.
Hunter's turn! He loved pushing that pink ball. And even more when it came bouncing back into the return. He cracked up every time.
Even Grandma has some skills, lol! I managed a strike or two.
Bowling, pizza, and wings. And cute little boys. Such a great combination.
Playing peek-a-boo.
Fun in the arcade!
Austin was given the choice of Dairy Queen or Sweet Frog, each of them near to the bowling ally. He chose Sweet Frog.
Friday, January 19
Our temperatures finally got above freezing on Thursday and Friday. So I dared to go over to Anthony and Lori's place for the first time in a whole week. I am so afraid of their hill!! His snow plow truck would not start on Tuesday, and they live on the north side of the mountain where the sun does not hit the hill till later in the day. By yesterday afternoon when I took Austin home from school I had no problem.
Look what game Austin discovered on my phone yesterday! My goal - to turn everyone in my family into a Scrabble lover! It all started many years ago when Dick and I were newlyweds with no TV, so we played games in the evenings and became Scrabble fanatics!
That's all, folks! Have a good weekend!
5 comments:
Had to chuckle....another Stauffer scrabble player :)
Enjoyed hearing about your week....it's almost hard to remember the beginning of this week with cold and snow because it's SO much nicer right now!! Although we still have evidence of the snow.
Enjoy your weekend!
I enjoyed all the pics! Miss Bianca really is growing up, and so are the boys. It's amazing to see them learn and grow. I love that you are teaching Austin verses. I may need to do that too.
The Stauffer men are pretty special - and so is the Witmer clan, so I guess that works out!
I always love catching up on your news and seeing your photos! Thank you for allowing us to feel like we are right beside you and your beautiful family!
Jim, Steve and Fred could easily be triplets!! Are they?? I could hardly tell them apart.
No, Anonymous, they are not triplets! I have the ages written about the group picture of the brothers and their dad.
Post a Comment