From snow to summer to rain, cute boys, scarf issues

Hello from WET PA!!  I am so ready for sunny skies!  We've been all over the place weather-wise this week.

Sunday morning we woke up to snow, but not enough to cancel church.  It was actually quite beautiful.

Monday turned a bit warmer, and then Tuesday and Wednesday were WARM!!!  I'm talking 70's warm!  But look at this crazy forecast we had on Wednesday.  A 40 degree drop in one day!!

Thankfully we did not have that little bit of ice on Thursday, but rain and more rain.  Sometimes really heavy rain.  It makes me feel sleepy and unmotivated.

Ok, enough about the crazy weather!


On Sunday we again brought the boys home from church with us.  We stopped at McDonald's on the way home to get a bunch of chicken nuggets and fries.  At the drive through, right after we put in our order, the car in front of us slammed into the car in front of him, which caused that car to bump into the car in front of it.  The woman in the front car got out of her car YELLING!!!  A young guy got out of the car in front of us and as she screamed at him, he said loudly, "I'm so sorry!  My foot just slipped!"  She continued to scream at him, and I honestly felt really sorry for him.  I said to Dick, "I really hope she didn't just come from Calvary!"  We were held up quite a while until they decided to pull into the parking lot to handle the exchange of info, etc.  Meanwhile Hunter had fallen asleep, which I did not want!  I wanted a nap too, and I was afraid he would have slept just long enough when we arrived at home that he would then wake up.  But he stayed sleeping, thankfully, when I laid him on the love seat.  And I did get my nap!

Austin wanted to look up origami videos on YouTube.  I gave him paper and he proceeded to work on his projects all afternoon.  He would sit at the computer and watch a video and then make what was demonstrated.  That day it was stars of varying shapes and numbers of points that he was working on.

Some of his creations that afternoon!

Hunter slept about an hour-and-a-half.  Then it was his lunch time.  He is such a ham!

He has found a new "voice" - a low, growly voice.  He was even singing with that voice on Sunday.  Listen!

Here he was watching what Austin was doing.  

He's so cute when he sits at the piano.  He gets distracted by all those family pictures up there and ends up sitting there mesmerized by them!

Lori and Anthony came later in the afternoon.  Lori had a dinner to go to and Anthony stayed here for a while.  He did some necessary trouble shooting on my computer and printer.

Later we piled into our van to take him and the boys home.   We saw deer tracks EVERYWHERE as we drove up their road.  In fact, these were right next to the patio area.  I told Anthony I think the deer were having a dance party while they were away!

This week Lori was on a work trip for a few days, so I was helping Anthony out with child transportation, etc.  Austin slept here for two nights.  When I was over there on Wednesday evening Hunter cracked us up.  He grabbed one of Austin's hats, put it on his head backward, and sat down to play with his toys.  

I also saw another of Austin's creations while I was there that evening. 

Here's something I saw late one night before I went to bed.  I thought it was absolutely hilarious and so did my choir when I told them about it last evening at practice. 

In my post two weeks ago I mentioned my love/hate relationship with scarves.  I discovered since then that I had two infinity scarves in my closet that I'd never worn.  I tried them on and discovered why.  They just had way too much fabric.  They looked bigger than my head!  So I cut about half the width off of them and then turned under and stitched the raw edge.  Much better.  I managed to wear this one for about half the day on Monday.  I wanted to wear it when I was teaching piano lessons - for obvious reasons, lol!

And one more funny thing from FB.  Last week everyone was doing the thing to see what they would look like as the opposite gender.  I was curious.  What came up was a guy that had some distinct features like my dad's.  Right down to those signature teeth that I inherited from him and from his mother, my Grandma Witmer!

Well, that's all for this week.  Have a great weekend, even if it rains!

Fun-filled weekend, crazy weather changes, living it up this week!

Once again, this will be a really "picture-ful" post!  I wanted to do a post right after the weekend, but there was no time in my schedule until now.

We are having the craziest see-sawing weather.  We still had plenty of snow on the ground at the beginning of the week.  Then on Wednesday it got amazingly warm, even sunny!  I had almost forgotten what it was like to have mild temperatures AND sunshine at the same time!!

Yesterday we had rain, sometimes really hard rain overnight.  So today the entrance to our community had a lake where there normally is grass.  As you can see, no snow at all anymore.

But not for long!  We are supposedly getting snow tomorrow evening, but then very warm temperatures next week!

So now to the stories and pictures from last weekend.  We left after Dick got off work and went to Sam and Jenn's.  As always, when we arrived we were pulled in every direction.  We had catching up to do with Sam and Jenn, Sammy wanted to show me his latest additions to his basement hangout area, Bianca wanted to show me her bedroom.  And we wanted to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics!  Somehow we managed to do a little of everything, but especially tried to convince the kids how exciting the Olympics are, hahaha!!

On Saturday Jenn left early in the morning for drill.  I made some pancakes for the others and then left for a brunch date with my sisters.  We met at a cute little cafe in Rohrerstown, Ida's Cafe.  I had never been there before, but it was obviously very popular.

Doris, Mary Ellen, and I had a wonderful time eating and catching up with each other for the next two hours.  I love me some sister time!  The food was good too.

Meanwhile Dick and Sam took the kids to Cabela's.  They had a great time and a good lunch there too.

These two!  Always being adorable!

After I left my sisters I went to kidnap Destiny for the afternoon.

She was at her other grandma's house in Lancaster, so we decided to go to Park City Mall.  What a great mall!  I didn't realize how much I missed it.  Ours here is so terribly dead.  So many empty stores, hardly any shoppers.  Park City is beautiful and busy and alive.

We first of all got our favorite Chinese food, then we did some shopping.  I had a gift card for Gap, and she found a sweater in the clearance section.  Good grief, their prices are ridiculous!  Too high for us thrift shoppers!  We also found a work shirt for her at Penneys.  Then we went back to the food court for ice cream cones and some more hanging out together.

Of course we had to get our bathroom selfie - always!  We had so much fun together.  I just love her so much.

While I was driving back to Lebanon I was on the phone with Dick.  He and Sam were at the grocery store and I was telling them what to get for the cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese on rye sandwiches we would be having for dinner.

I had plenty of help!  Jenn made the sandwiches and Bianca helped me with the soup.  She even taste-tested it for me!

She loves tomatoes and tomato soup too!

Haha!! Jenn posed for this picture, because we have a running joke about me always taking pictures just as she's stuffing her face!

Sammy and I played several different games that evening.

Grandpa was coloring!  Of course we were watching the Olympics too.

On Sunday morning Jenn had to go to drill again (she does one weekend a month with the Army National Guard).  Sammy is a Cub Scout, and Sunday was Boy Scout Sunday at the church that sponsors his troop.  So the rest of us went to church.  I was eager to go because it was a United Methodist Church, and I enjoy visiting other places.  Sammy helped the other cub scouts to hand out the bulletins.  (Apparently they do not get uniforms until first grade, so he just has a tee shirt.)

At one point in the service their troop leader gave a presentation about the cub scouts, and others chimed in as well.  One older man said that he is an Eagle Scout, his son and grandson are as well, and another grandson is working toward becoming one.  That is the highest honor as a Boy Scout.  

They also did their Boy Scout pledge. 

I have a funny story.  We had not brought anything along for the kids to do during church, and there was no children's church for them to go to.  I started digging through my purse to find some post-it notes for them to write on.  I opened the one zipper compartment and, to my surprise, found the packet of apple slices that had disappeared a week earlier when I had gotten a salad at Sheetz on the way to the Hershey hockey game.  The salad came with little packets of raisins, nuts, apples, etc to add in.  I could never figure out what had become of my apples, hahaha!!  WELL, that packet of apples was swollen with fermented gases and ready to POP!   I quickly shoved them back into the zipper compartment, but Bianca had recognized the package and said above a whisper, "Apples!  I want apples!"  I tried to whisper that they were old and spoiled, but she was not convinced.  Thankfully, right about then somebody handed each of the kids an activity bag and she forgot about the apples.  When I got it out of my purse at their place later and opened it, whew!!!  I was really glad it had not popped open in church.  They were really fermented, hahahaha!!  

We had leftovers for lunch.  I had brought sloppy joes along on Friday that we had not yet eaten, so we had those and the leftover tomato soup.  Of course, Bianca was again my helper. 

We lazed around watching the Olympics and snoozing.  After Jenn got home later in the afternoon we packed up our things and said our goodbyes.  We had two other stops to make.

Our niece Judi (Dick's brother Bob's daughter) lives with her family in Wisconsin, and they were in PA.  She had told us we could stop in to see them at her uncle Cerwin and Aunt Doris's house that afternoon, and we did.  Judi and Reuben are the biggest-hearted people I have ever known.  They have three adopted children, each of them with an amazing God story.  The youngest was brain damaged during birth, and there are many medical concerns and frequent emergencies.  But she is loved lavishly by this precious family.  I realized after we left that I had gotten pictures of Reuben and the children, but none of Judi.  So I stole one from her FB and made this collage, including the pictures I had taken.  By the way, their cute little guy is Bianca's twin!

After we left there we went to a Sheetz gas station to have coffee with Ray before he left for his night shift at work.  It was really nice to get to see him and catch up a bit. 

My heart felt full and happy as we traveled home that evening.  So many good memories from our weekend.

Monday was a regular full day of cooking (chicken enchiladas), piano lessons, and music prep for Wednesday and Sunday services at GBRV.  Instead of picking up Austin that day I picked up Hunter from daycare and met Lori before going to my piano lessons.  I was so glad to see him for the first time in over a week.  And he was really excited to see me when I picked him up.  But I didn't take any picture.  )-:

On Tuesday I had a hair appointment, then I went to Sowers Harvest Cafe to get my free soft pretzel. I had won it because of commenting on a picture they had posted on FB!  Wow!!  It was HUGE!!  And delicious.  Actually, that strawberry mango smoothie was even better!

That evening after exercise class we ladies went out to eat.  One of our ladies just experienced the death of her mother (after suffering a massive stroke) while they were vacationing together in Florida.  She missed weeks of exercise class because of it.  So we were celebrating having us all back together again.  We had a wonderful time together.  I had a salad for dinner - after having had that heavy, high-carb lunch!

On Wednesday I made Curried Chicken and Rice Soup for Anthony and Lori and picked up Austin after school.  I finally went to their place then for the first time since the Super Bowl!  There was still snow around, but not on their hill!   In the evening we had an Ash Wednesday service at GBRV and then choir practice afterward.  

So that meant that we had Thursday evening open!  That is indeed rare for us, because we always have choir practice on Thursday evenings.  The choir had given me a gift card for Texas Roadhouse at Christmas, but we had never used it.  So we decided this was our chance.  Wow!  Was I living it up this week, or what??  It was also Jeremy's birthday, so I sent him this picture and told him that we were eating out for his birthday and we were sorry they couldn't make it, haha!

Speaking of Jeremy's birthday, I probably share this picture every year, but I love it so much I'm going to share it again.  His birth at home is one of my most treasured memories. 

After we got home we posed for this picture so I could show the choir that I was thinking of them on their night off.  Not only had we eaten out with the gift card they had given me for Christmas, we also came home and had some of the peanut butter meltaways they had given me for Valentines.  And as we ate them we were enjoying the remaining beauty of the arrangement they had given me for Christmas, hahaha!!  They are the best choir ever!  (Too bad it looks like we were picking our teeth instead of eating candy, lol!)

Late last evening our house guest arrived - my former student Allyson Balmer.  She is student teaching this semester, but there are numerous things she and her classmates need to come back to campus for.  This time it was for mock interviews today.  She was dressed for success this morning!  We had a bit of time for catching up as we ate French toast for breakfast.  She'll be back a few more times before her grad in May.  

Today I made lasagna and garlic bread for Anthony and Lori and also for us.  And sitting here blogging this evening wraps this week up. 

Have a good weekend!

PS.  I almost forgot to add that the unspeakable high school tragedy in Florida the other day has brought me so much sadness.  Answers seem so hard to come by these days.  So many differing opinions, so much loss and suffering.