Painting, music prep, flowery fabric, and tiny new flowers

It's a beautiful, cold sunny Saturday morning.  Sunshine has been a rare commodity this week, but at least we haven't had any snow!!  On Sunday when I saw on FB that our Lancaster County family and friends were experiencing snow while we were having bright sunshine, I had to take a picture and rub it in a bit, lol!

This morning I sneaked out the side door in my robe and my bedhead to check out my flowers in front of the house.  Of course, I had my camera.  Wouldn't you know, just as I was stooping over to get a close shot of the crocuses, I heard car doors and realized that the neighbors right across the street, who always park their car facing the street, were apparently able to watch me in all my ridiculousness.  But I did get some pictures!  We've had so few warm days, so the daffodils and crocuses are being very slow to bloom.

Last Saturday after I was finished updating this blog I geared up for our first painting spree in many years - the master bath.  No time to get fancy, so I just donned one of Dick's hats to cover up my unruly hair.  Not a pretty sight, but that was not the goal.  When I posted this picture on FB, one of my former students said she has worn some of her MCDS Worship Team shirts to paint as well, haha!  Another one said she still has all her MCDS Worship Team shirts.  That blessed my heart so much.

I got started painting edges in preparation for Dick to do the rolling.  When he got here he painted some of the edges that I could not reach.  We can't find our step ladder anywhere.  A mystery still to be solved.

By day's end we were finished and had all the hardware, the mirror, the electrical plates, the curtain, the picture, etc back in place.  I was very happy with the end result.  I'm actually pretty tired of my shower curtain and other decor in this bathroom.  But figuring out a whole new look is not high on my list of important things to do or to spend money on.

On Sunday after going to both GBRV and Calvary worship services we brought Austin and Hunter here for the afternoon.  It was a lazy afternoon and I took NO pictures!!  I'm slipping!  Austin has a new iPad and was playing games on that while Hunter napped.  Dick and I both napped too, all of us right in the living room.

We met Anthony and Lori around 7:00 to give the boys back and then Dick and I went to Harrison's Wine Grill for dinner.  We don't usually do fancy stuff like that, but it was a fund raiser for Ten Thousand Villages of Central PA.  20% of our ticket was going to support their mission of getting a store started here in State College.

It was a delightful setting next to the lobby of Hilton Garden Inn.  Our friends Andy and Lindsey, with their adorable kids, were eating at the next table, so we got to catch up with them a bit too.

I stole this adorable picture Lindsey took of her kids.  Precious!!!

Monday was the most spring-like day of the whole week.  I actually had my kitchen window open a bit when I was cooking.  SO REFRESHING!!!  I was sure it probably even made the food taste better!

On Tuesday morning there was a beautiful sunrise, but the weather turned much colder.

I spent all day working on music prep.  Five worship services this week and at least four musician's notebooks to get music into.  

On Wednesday evening we were at Houserville for our every-other-week midweek "Refuel" service.  

Thursday evening was Maundy Thursday service with communion at GBRV, followed by choir practice.  

Friday evening was the Good Friday service at GBRV, and on Sunday there will be a sunrise service at 7 AM, followed by breakfast and then our regular 9 AM service.   

Weeks like this is when I am SO THANKFUL I no longer work in the church office.  I would be making bulletins for all these services and working on a newsletter on top of all this music prep.  I honestly don't know how I fit it all in those four-and-a-half years I did it.

On Thursday I updated the 19 choir books, taking out songs we've done, adding things we will be doing, making copies of some that I did not have enough of.  My dining room table and floor looked like a complete mess, but there was a method to my madness.  There was a purpose for everything being where it was, I promise!

By end of day everything was put away and it looked like a dining room again.  Hey, notice that picture on the far wall?

My friend Amy Ritter from Houserville has found a new passion this past year - painting.  Never painted before and now she just can't stop!  Recently she posted pictures of ones she's been experimenting with - painting wispy flowers around these beautiful words by L. R. Knost.

I decided I had to have one of those.  So I sent her a picture of my living room/dining room to give her an idea of the colors.  On Wednesday evening she presented me with this and said if these colors aren't right let her know and she'd do another one.

I came home from church, looked around, and found the perfect spot for it!  I love it so much!!  If you'd like one too, let me know!

On Thursday when I was finished with all the choir book mess, I had about an hour to run to Kohl's to look for something new to wear for Easter.  Sam and Jenn had given me a gift card for Christmas that I still had not used.  I went there thinking I'd look for something bright, especially something bright yellow or bright orange or bright green.  Maybe something with color blocking or geometric design.  

WELL.  I soon realized there are no such things this year!  I was greeted by the awfullest shades of pink and green I have ever seen.  Pastel isn't even the right word to describe them.  Just drab.  And then huge flowers everywhere!!  I snapped this picture and posted it on FB along with my apparent disgust, only to find that a lot of people liked it, hahaha!

Suddenly it occurred to me that it looked just like the flowers on the dress that our Nicole wore on her first grade picture in 1991!!  Nicole was our little girl along with her two siblings for a year-and-a-half before they were adopted into their forever family.  Nicole was just posting a bunch of old pictures on FB this week, including this one.  How adorable was she????  I actually got her this dress for Miki's wedding in July 1991.  

So I guess the flowers of the early 90's are back, and I ended up succumbing to the trend.  But not until I found something with a brighter pink in it!

One last picture.  I have been passing this old house at least weekly for the past eight years.  It is at the intersection of Houserville Road and Rock Road.  All these years it has been needing a lot of TLC.  Then it was for sale for a long time.  In our early years it was the kind of house we would have bought.  Eventually someone bought it, and before long windows were taken out and it looked like they would be tearing it down.

But apparently not!  There is scaffolding all around it, and now it looks like someone is living in a camper.  A lot of old trees have been cut down too.  I decided I'm going to take pictures of the progress!

Oops,  one MORE picture.  I post this every Good Friday because to me it says what Jesus did for us on the cross more profoundly than anything I have ever seen.

Have a wonderful Easter Day!  And how about that it's on April Fool's Day?  Like someone said, Jesus' empty tomb was the greatest April Fool's joke ever!  

Sammy and Bianca weekend, Nor'easter, entertainment, a few comedies

Warning!!  This is a very picture-ful post!!

I did not expect to have time to sit here and blog this Saturday morning.  My Lancaster County sisters, Mary Ellen and Doris,  were supposed to be here for the weekend.  BUT SNOW and frigid weather caused us to change our plans until May.  We actually had cold weather and light snow when they were here in May a few years ago, so who knows?  We'll take our chances.  We so want to go to the arboretum when they come.  Haven't been able to do that the past two times they were here due to cold, snowy, rainy weather.

But I did spy a hopeful sign yesterday!  Woohoo!  Dick already had to apply the anti-rabbit spray, because there was evidence that hungry rabbits were helping themselves to the chutes coming up.

We have rabbits!!!!  They can't hide their activity when we have snow like we did this week, haha!

Now, back to last weekend.  Lots and lots of great pictures!  Sam and Jenn went with friends to Boston for St. Patrick's Day weekend.  They actually met on St. Patrick's Day back in '07 (I think).  He didn't tell me about Jenn for quite a while after he met her.  When he did tell me about her he said, "But I don't really want you to meet her because I know you'll really like her and then you'll be putting pressure on me."  Hahahahaha!!  He was so right!

The kids were at Jenn's parents place near Harrisburg for Thursday and Friday.  On Saturday morning I drove to their place to pick them up.  It's about an hour-and-a-half drive, but Sammy thought it was a really long drive.  He was telling me about all his favorite places in State College, and they mostly all involved warm weather - camping, parks, pool, etc! 

Thankfully, one of his favorite things did not depend upon the weather and that was my piano.  He went straight to it when we got here.

Actually, he could hardly stay away from it whenever we were here in the house.  He would play with something else for a bit, then he'd have to go get his piano fix.  He plays so nicely, making up melodies with his right hand, adding in single notes here and there with his left hand.

The first thing Bianca did when we arrived was ask, "Do you have any tomatoes?"  Hahahaha!  What 3-year-old girl asks that?  But I was prepared!

She's a nester.  She made herself a little fort on the sofa with a bunch of pillows and and stuffed animals and watched The Little Mermaid II.  I called her Queen of the Couch.

When Grandpa came home from work around 1:00 he challenged Sammy to some Four Square.  I think they got creative with the rules.

Later in the afternoon we decided to go check out the new Discovery Space location. WOW!!!  So much bigger and better than the other one and with free parking!!  We had so much fun.

Lori had been at an event on campus with Austin and came to Discovery Space about half an hour before they closed.  We both decided to get an annual membership.  For $65/year (the Grandparents/Grandchildren category) Dick and I can go as often as we want with however many grandchildren we have along with us!

They closed at 5.  We stopped at the grocery store on our way home for a few things and Anthony and Lori and the boys came to our house for the evening.  Somehow I did not remember to take any pictures.  Guess I was busy making sure everyone was happy and had something to eat.

Anthony took Austin and Sammy down to the little playground behind our house and took a few pictures. As you can see, it was cold!  But at least not dark!

After they left it was bath time for Sammy and Bianca in my big tub.

This was actually the first time Bianca slept here overnight without her mommy and daddy.   No problem at all.  We gave her the guest room bed, and this is what I found in the morning, hahaha!  She was very weepy when I woke her up for church.  I asked her what was wrong and she said she was tired.  So I covered her up and told her I would give her ten more minutes.  I said to Dick, "Does that sound familiar or what???"  We both laughed, remembering the days of trying to wake teenage Sam up for school in the mornings.  He always wanted ten more minutes.  Thankfully Bianca was a happy girl ten minutes later.

I also wasn't sure how it would go with two of them along to church when Dick and I are involved with all the music.  But Sammy felt like an old pro at this church stuff, and he took good care of his little sister.  He often sat with his arm around her and made sure she stood up when everybody else did for the singing.  One time I looked over at them from the piano and I could have just slid right off my piano bench.  There they stood, his arm around her and his eyes closed.   

We took this selfie for mommy and daddy.

Here they are with the other kids and pastor Calvin, finishing up the story time and prayer.

My friend Deb, sitting behind us, said she took several pictures of them during church to send to her older brother, because they reminded her so much of when she and her brother were kids and the way he would take care of her.

I almost forgot to say that before church started, while everyone was busy talking and laughing and greeting each other, Sammy wanted to play the piano.  So I said he could.  He sat there for the longest time playing the gentle melodies he makes up.  A lot of people told him later that they really liked the way he played and some thanked him for the beautiful prelude.

We were planning to go to Calvary afterward like we usually do, but I found out that Sam and Jenn were planning to arrive at her parents around 3, and we decided our schedule would be too tight.  So we came home for some chill time and some lunch.    We put Toy Story 3 on and, as always, Bianca watched it with all her might from her fort on the couch.

Sammy was mixing drinks for us, haha!  Orange Mango juice, root beer, and Fresca.  Not bad at all!  Who knew?

As we loaded up to take them back to Jenn's parents I made sure to snap a picture of my front door.  Complete with an Easter decoration!  Jenn's mom is the ULTIMATE decorator.  Their place is so fun, no matter the holiday or season, it is decked out!  Sammy feels bad that I don't decorate like that, so he got me an Easter bunny at Dollar Tree for my front door so I would have at least one Easter decoration.  I guess I should work on that.  It's just not an interest that comes naturally to me.

The sun was shining brightly, so we decided to make a stop at the airport park on our way out, since that was one of the favorite things in State College that Sammy had mentioned the day before.  It was cold and a bit windy, but the sun was wonderful.  (I discovered at the end of the day that there had been a smudge on my camera lens, so unfortunately every picture I took has a blurry spot in the middle.)

 We found a Happy Valley rock!

When we left the park we drove past the airport so the kids could see a real control tower.   Later as we drove down the scenic Rock Road and along the lovely Spring Creek, Sammy made us laugh with this:  

"I'm going to watch a movie on my tablet.  If you would be rich you could have a TV in your car and we could all watch a movie together. Well, not Grandpa, 'cause he's driving.  So maybe we shouldn't be rich after all.  Or else if we do get rich we should remember that it's not a good idea to have a TV in the car or else we might all crash into the water!"

We arrived at Jenn's parents exactly at the same time as Sam and Jenn! It was so cute to hear Bianca yell, "Mommy!" as she ran up the sidewalk to her.

We hung out for a while, catching Sam and Jenn up on our time with the kids, hearing a bit about their trip, and then we said our goodbyes and headed back home.  I got this beautiful shot of the Susquehanna River as we crossed the bridge.

We were in touch with Anthony and Lori on our way back.  Austin wanted to build a fire, so we went to their place and had our first campfire of the year.

I hung out in the house with Hunter while they built the fire.

Can you tell we are all so ready for warm weather and parties on this patio?

But not yet!  On Tuesday and Wednesday we were on the edge of that Nor'easter.  We did not get slammed like Lancaster County did because we are further west.  It really was beautiful, and again well-behaved, not laying on the roads.

Our snow had pretty much disappeared by Friday, but not Anthony and Lori's!  As I drove up their private road it was like entering a different world.

I did some special things this week.  Because we had choir practice on Wednesday evening right after our Lenten service, I had Thursday evening open. Rare indeed.  My 11th grade piano student, Davis, was performing at State Theater in downtown State College with some classmates in a Shakespeare drama, The Comedy of Errors, and I went to see it.  It was hilarious, and they did an incredible job!  I realized afterward that it was the senior project of the girl who directed it.  She should get an A+++ on that project!  I finally got to experience being in a room where I was not the first and loudest laugher.  There was actually a man behind me who got that prize.  First time ever.  

How appropriate that I would end up with my own comedy of errors that evening.  I had ordered my ticket online and wanted to get there early to pick it up and get a good seat.  I realized when I did so that I was way early and had half an hour to kill before the doors would open.  So I walked down the street to The Corner Room and went in for a cup of coffee and a grilled sticky bun.  I'd never had one, but have heard how yummy they are, so this was my chance.  I kept my eyes on my watch, because I wanted to get to State Theater a bit before they would open the doors.  I also needed to use a restroom, so I decided I would do that at the restaurant.  I got up and looked around and discovered that you had to go to the second floor for the restroom.  I couldn't even see any stairway.  So I asked and was directed to the stairs.  I used the restroom, came down the steps and realized there was a door to the street right at the bottom of the stairs, so I went right out and got to State Theater just before they let us in.  It was about midnight, just before I crawled into bed that it suddenly dawned on me that I had never paid for that coffee and sticky bun!!!  I could not believe it!  So on Friday I made another trip downtown to confess my sin and pay up.  I could just imagine surveillance camera footage of me walking out the door, hahahaha!!  But they did not seem to be aware of my error, and my bill was only $5.00 anyway, so I guess they weren't going to come after me.

Friday evening we did another fun thing.  Since my sisters were not coming after all, my schedule was open to go to Park Forest Middle School where my 7th grade piano student Elena was performing in the musical My Son Pinocchio Jr.  I was hoping to take Austin with me, but he declined.  Not his cup of tea I guess!  So Dick went with me.  It was AWESOME!!!  I absolutely loved everything about it - the story line, the acting, the dancing, the singing.  It made me miss working with middle schoolers.  

I sneaked a few pictures, not sure if I was allowed to. 

And now it's a Saturday with no sisters here.  I've been gradually gathering the supplies I need to start painting walls.  Most people would have painted these white walls long ago, but I was just happy to have walls without cracks or wallpaper.  I'm not planning to do anything wild or crazy or adventurous.  Just a cream color instead of white.  At some point if we ever sell this house I don't want people to decide against it because of colors they don't like.  So we'll see how this goes.  Haven't painted much of anything indoors for a long time except at Jeremy's DC house a few years ago.  

Have a good rest of the weekend!