Weekend down home

We had a most wonderful weekend!  Dick took off work on Friday, and we left at noon for an appointment in Lancaster County.  After the appointment we reminisced on some country roads and ended up at my brother's car repair business where my sister Mary Ellen is office manager.  Unfortunately, we had a sad reason for stopping there.  The beautiful farm across the field had had a fire that morning in one of their barns.  No animals were lost, but equipment was burned.  This is my picture of that farm when we were at my brother's house in December.

Unfortunately, this is what it looked like this past Friday.  This farm was actually where Anthony had his first job working with pigs when he was 14.  Every job since then has seemed easy in comparison!

From there we went to Dick's parents for dinner.  We had a delicious Pennsylvania Dutch meal and a nice time together, but we left feeling a bit heavy-hearted.  It was more obvious than usual that Dad is feeling his age (92).

Then we went to Sam and Jenn's and babysat while they went out on a date.

Now take a look at what I was wearing.  A medium brown shirt with a jeans jacket and a pair of jeans.  I had added the necklace and earrings to give it some pizzazz.  I didn't think I looked too bad.  But when we got to their place and Sammy came running out to greet us as he always does, he took one look at me and said, "Mahna!  You don't wear things like that!"  I said, "Well, is it ok if I do?"  He answered, "Well, you don't look great like you usually do!"  I just cracked up!!   I guess I don't usually wear denim.  So now Sammy is not only my home decor advisor, he's my fashion advisor as well!!  What a boy!

The next morning I made a scrumptious breakfast.  Jenn had left early for drill, but the rest of us had a slow start.  Why do we always pick Jenn's drill weekend to go to their place for the weekend???  I need to start planning better.

Once again we went our separate ways.  I went to Reading to spend some time with Destiny.  We went to the mall for our Chinese food and to get our puppy fix in the pet store.  We fell in love with this sweet little Schipperke.  I could have kept him, except I would have had to pay for him.  And one other little problem - we're not allowed to have dogs in this community.  Stupid rule, I know. 

There was an old car show in the mall.  Dick would have enjoyed that.

However, he and Sam and the kids were having fun hiking at Mount Gretna.  There is a trail and a tower called Governor Dick that we remember from our childhood.  The trail is now much nicer than it was then, and the tower is much safer to be on top of.  I used to be afraid to stand up straight when I got to the top!

When I was looking at the pictures I asked Sammy if the sun had been shining in his eyes on this one.  He said, "No, I was just trying to look awesome."  Hahahaha!

I brought Destiny back to Sam and Jenn's for the evening.   Ray came over too and we had a fun evening.

We had kind of a hodgepodge of food.  Sloppy joes that I had brought from home, subs, and sushi.  The sushi was Destiny's, but Ray wasn't going to let her have it all, lol!

They also had fun with a clown wig.

There was time for a small puzzle before we had to take Destiny back to Reading.

Our goodbye selfie when we dropped her off.  She was holding her phone up on flashlight mode while I was taking the picture with mine!

On Sunday morning Dick and I left at 9:00 to go pick up Grandma Mary.  She lives just 20 minutes from Sam and Jenn's place.  She doesn't very often get to go to Manheim Mennonite Church, where my dad had been pastor, since she lives further away from Manheim and doesn't drive anymore, so that's where we took her to church.  It occurred to me that the last time I had been there was in the summer of 2009 when we had gotten bad news about Dad's health and they had an anointing service for him.  Oh the memories.   Here's a picture I had taken that morning. Dad giving his testimony before asking for anointing.  Gives me tears. 

Everyone was so glad to see Grandma Mary on Sunday morning.  It was like a reunion for her.  It was for us too.  We have known most of the people for many, many years.  It was hard to leave after church was over, so many people to catch up with.

From there we went to Dutch Country Kitchen for lunch.  Mary Ellen and Dick and Nancy met us there and we had a wonderful time together.  My sister Doris would have loved to join us, but she had other plans already made.

I wanted a picture with Mary, so Nancy snapped a few with my camera.  I had to laugh when I saw this one.  Looks like she's scolding me and I'm laughing at her.  How rude!!

There!  That's more like it!  I have realized that she's been my mom more years than my own mother was.  I was 31 when my mom died.  Now Mary has been my mom for 35 years.  Time marches on!  I love her so very, very much.

From there Mary Ellen took Grandma Mary to her son Gary's house near Manheim.  Dick and I went back to Sam and Jenn's and hung out for a while.  Dick took a good nap.  Around 4:00 they left to go watch Jenn's niece's hockey game and we left for home.   My soul was all filled up after spending time with so many of our families.

On Monday evening Anthony and Lori attended our local Pregnancy Resource Center banquet and we babysat the boys at their house.  I had made spaghetti and meatballs, one of Austin's favorite meals.  I have a meatball recipe that we really like.

It had started snowing in the afternoon, but not really sticking to anything.  But it was a very different story when I got up to their place.  This was our view from the kitchen table!

And the view from the screened-in porch.  Hopefully the last view like that for this year.  But it really is beautiful!

Hunter is cute no matter what he does!

Austin was making origami stars that evening.

The news from Florida is that Carrollwood Day School has had a very successful track and field season under Lisa's leadership.  She is head coach and in these two years has done miracles!!  I am so very proud of her.  Many of the team are now going on to the regionals meet.

Including this amazing 7th grader, my favorite one on the team, of course!

We are really looking forward to the warm temps we will be getting the next few days.  Unfortunately, it will get cold again next week, but we will take every warm day we can get and enjoy it to the max!

Have a great rest of the week!