Not my normal week, but a fun one!

So much has happened and I've taken so many pictures since I posted just last Monday!  That seems like a long time ago!  

We have had a whole lot of rainy weather since then with a beautiful weekend right in the middle.  Can't complain about that!  And we're very fortunate to live high enough to not ever need to worry about flooding.

Lori was away for work the first couple of days last week, so we spent our evenings over there with Anthony and the boys.  I also slept there in the guest apartment.  Dick sleeps better in our bed at home.

One evening they were FaceTiming with Lori and I got this video.  Just so stinkin' cute!!  Being a mom of boys is not for the dainty, lol!

I love sitting on their screened in porch SO MUCH - daytime or night time.  Both evenings, after the boys were in bed I sat out there in the dark with just the ambiance of the string of lights, and listened to the sounds of the rain and the forest.  A holy place, I'm telling you.

On Thursday I gave my house a quick cleaning because company was coming!!  Sometime in the afternoon our daughter Miki and her friend Christel (nicknamed Kicki - rhymes with Key-key) arrived.  This was Kicki's third visit to the states with Miki, and she is like family to us.  Both her parents, as well as two of her three sisters have passed away, so she has adopted the whole extended Stauffer family!  

I had decided to leave out the puzzle that Austin had again started the previous Sunday, just in case they would enjoy working on it.  Would they???  This was them pretty much the rest of Thursday!

We had chicken enchiladas that day for dinner.

On Friday I made chili and rice and all the fixin's to take over to Anthony and Lori's and told the girls that they were welcome to go with me when I left around 2:00.  But they were addicted to that puzzle and said they'd come over later.  Within an hour I got a picture of the completed puzzle!  I could not believe it!  That puzzle has been started at least four times, but there has never been enough time to finish it before needing to move it.  I sent a picture of it to Destiny right away.  She's the one who picked it out at Goodwill last fall and has put the most effort into it on several different occasions.  Isn't it beautiful?  And look at these edges!!

There was one piece missing, so Miki made a piece out of cardboard and colored it.  If you're really a sleuth you might be able to see where that piece is!

That evening I couldn't wait to watch the movie Wonder with them.  Such. A. Good. Movie!!!!  As always, I needed the tissues.

On Saturday morning we went to Sowers Harvest Cafe in downtown State College for brunch.  We had great food (as always), the sweetest service (as always), and a really nice time.  The staff were so interested in the fact that they were from Sweden.  We sat at a high top right next to the kitchen area.

They make the best smoothies!

We were planning to go to the arboretum after that, but accidentally passed Michaels, so you know the rest of the story.  Both of them are hopeless crafters.  I spent some of the time taking a nap in my car, because I am not a hopeless crafter!  A few hours later we went home without stopping at the arboretum.

Miki couldn't wait to get started on making some cards with her new stamps.

I did find something at Michaels that I really liked.  Thankfully I did not have to make it before I could hang it in my kitchen!

Dick had been mowing over at Anthony and Lori's, and later in the afternoon we grabbed a change of clothes for him and headed over to their place.  Dick showered and changed in the guest apartment.  While we waited for everyone to get ready to go, we ladies had fun with Hunter on the porch.  He loves to color.

He was so friendly with Miki and Kicki, trying to get the right name for each.  He does know Bjorn, so I told him that Miki is Bjorn's mommy.  So he pointed to her and said, "Bjorn's mommy."  Then he looked at Kicki for a bit and asked, "Bjorn's daddy?"  Oh my goodness.  We laughed and laughed and laughed.  It was just so cute!!  I told Kicki that I was not going to be able to sit next to her at dinner because we would never be able to stop laughing.

When everyone was ready we headed over the mountain to Doan's Bones BBQ.  It was full this time, but they had room for us by pushing two tables together in the middle.  I know I've said it so many times before, but we LOVE THAT PLACE!!  They treat us like family, and we noticed that they treat everyone else like that too.  It is such a fun, feel-good, happy place to eat.

And that food!!!!

Isn't it such a cute place?

Lori took this AWESOME picture outside.  I just can't love it enough!!  Hunter totally looks like a little Stauffer on this picture!  Those eyes!!!!

Afterward we went down to the nearby Whipple Dam.  It was actually feeling a bit cool without sweaters!

Hunter and Austin were in our car with Dick and I and Kicki on the way back home.  Hunter just kept  pointing to each one of us in the car and saying our names, then he'd point to their car in front of us and say Daddy, Mommy, and Miki.  When we pulled up to their garage and Anthony, Lori, and Miki were getting out of the car, Hunter excitedly raised his arms and yelled, "MIKI!!!!"  like she was a celebrity!!  Oh my goodness, he is just at the cutest stage right now.  

On Sunday morning we went to our two churches.  At GBRV Miki and I sang a song that we've done together a couple of times before, I Bless Your Name.  I love that she likes to sing with me.

She also really enjoyed the praise and worship and Pastor Dan's message at Calvary.  It was a really good morning. 

I had put a venison roast, onion soup mix, carrots, and potatoes into the crock pot before we left for church, and when we got home at 1:00 it was perfection.

Lori was taking Austin to a car show downtown that afternoon.  Kicki LOVES old cars.  So she and Dick went too.  Miki and I took naps and lazed around. 

Later in the afternoon Miki and I played Scrabble.  She beat me the last time we played, but this time I did.  We're a pretty good match!

Meanwhile Dick was grilling chicken breasts outside that window.  The weather was so perfect we decided to eat on our tiny side porch.  Oh did we have fun.  There is something about these girls that just brings out the silliest part of me.  

I have no idea......   Such craziness!

On Monday I made enough fried rice and sweet and sour chicken for everybody.  Anthony and Lori and the boys came over here for dinner.  We also had watermelon and blueberries and Swedish chocolates for dessert.  

Anthony and Lori had been over in Sweden twice before they had kids, so they all had fun reminiscing about those trips.  We also looked through the scrapbook of pictures I had made after my trip to Sweden with 20-month-old Destiny in 2002.  

I forgot to take any pictures till the end of the meal, so Anthony and Austin were no longer at the table.

I have no idea what Lori was talking about here, but it must have been dramatic!!

Austin was having fun adding my little dinosaur collection to his larger ones.   Of course they are always attacking each other!

After they had gone home I brought out my folder of old Christmas form letters.  I started with the one from 1981 (the year Miki joined our family), and from each letter I read the paragraph I had written about her.   From some of the letters I read more.  The memories from these letters were just incredible.  

Occasionally when we saw the date of the letter we would start talking about something we remembered, and then as I read from it, sure enough I had mentioned it in the letter!!  Like the fact that Bjorn had actually been conceived during their visit to our place in 1995.  Miki was telling me that, and then sure enough, at the end of that letter I added that Miki had just told us she was pregnant and that this baby was "made in America!"  Oh how we laughed.  No wonder Bjorn feels so at home here in the States, hahahahaha!!

Another letter was from 1987 when she was dating a guy from New York.  It was actually a letter I had written to my sisters about my Christmas vacation that year.  So many crazy things happened during that week that we absolutely would have thought it was somebody's bad dream if it had not been written down in that letter.  We were just screaming laughing.  Here's a collage of pictures Dick took.  What a fantastic, fun evening together!!

Today the girls went back to Lancaster County for the rest of their stay here in the States.  They have a couple of dinner invitations with some of the extended Stauffer family down there.  And a mother-of-the groom dress shopping date with Jess.  (Bjorn and Jess's wedding will be in February, by the way.)   We'll be seeing them again this weekend.  

Have a good rest of the week!

Black and White Memories

My friend Terri over at Your Friend from Florida did a Black and White Memories post today and invited anyone who wishes to join her.  I thought that was a fun idea.   So here are a few of mine.  I have probably shared them before for Throwback Thursday. 

This is a picture of me (tallest) with my three sisters next in line.  Actually, Barb is standing next to me here, but she's actually a year younger than Doris.  People often wondered if they were twins.  Betty is the youngest of us four.   I think this may have been Easter Sunday.  

Here's what we looked like a few years later as tourists at Natural Bridges in VA!  Our mother was on the left.  Dad was carrying Rosie, our youngest sister.  I think that's probably Barb and Doris (or maybe Mary Ellen) in the middle.

This picture makes me happy and sad.  Our oldest sister Janet is sitting in the middle holding her little daughter Lori (first grandchild in the family).  Surrounding her are Betty and Barb on the left, Doris and Rosie on the right.  Janet passed away suddenly at age 59 due to arterial dissection.  Her daughter Lori passed away ten years later after a long battle with colon cancer.  Both of them were AMAZING, beautiful women and we miss them desperately.  

Here's one that always makes me happy.  My dad and me.

If I remember to do so, maybe I will post more old black and white memories next Wednesday!

My very picture-ful week!

I'll start this post off with a picture of our house and gardens.  When I link my blog post to Facebook it always displays the first picture, so I like to make sure it's something really nice, haha!

At the end of my last post I mentioned that Jenn was away on a work trip and I was going to be staying at Sam's with the kids for a few days after our weekend at Refreshing Mountain.  Dick came there too from camp to catch a nap and then he drove home.  We had spaghetti and garlic toast for dinner and enjoyed it on the porch.  The kids hammed it up as usual!

And guess what?  I did not cook this meal!  Sam did.  He does not know I took this picture.  I might be in trouble now, haha!

Ray dropped in with his friend Ashley and her son RJ.  It was a fun, very relaxing evening.

On Monday morning Sam went off to a hot day of mail delivery.  The kids and I hung out at home in the morning.

In the afternoon we went to the movies to see Incredibles 2.  There were just four other people watching it!  Sammy's commentaries and laughter were impossible for him to keep inside, so those other people got it all, hahaha!

After the movie we went grocery shopping.  What a hoot!  Bianca was watching the live lobsters and when we had to walk away from them she turned around and waved and said, "Good bye!  I'll never see you again!"  A young guy that had just passed us turned around, thinking she was talking to him!  As if that wasn't funny enough, Sammy said, "That guy works at A&M!  We know him!"  Hahahahaha!!

Back at home I got busy cooking chili for dinner.  Sammy found a book I had brought along (one that I had taken on our Florida trip, but we never really used it) called Hidden Pictures.  He absolutely could not get enough of doing those pages of hidden pictures!  He spent the rest of the day in that book and did them all!!

Bianca zonked out on the sofa for a while.

That gave her the energy she needed to be a little firecracker for the rest of the evening!

Sammy, still working on those hidden pictures!

They were so happy when Sam finally got home from work.

I took so many pictures of her holding this cat (it's either Cookie or Cocoa - I can't ever remember which cat is which.)  But she wanted me to take one more before she went to bed.

On Tuesday morning it rained.  It started out with just rain, but later turned into thunder and lightning.  Before it got to that point the kids had fun dancing in the rain!

We worked at puzzles for a while that morning as it stormed outside.

After lunch we made a trip to the grocery store again and then browsed the Goodwill next door.   Sammy could hardly wait to show me the aisles of home goods separated by color.  There was a green aisle, a blue aisle, a pink aisle, a red aisle, etc.  There was something about that that delighted his senses!  And this was the toy section, of course.

We stopped at Turkey Hill on our way home, hoping to see my niece Gina (Doris's daughter) who works there, but she had just left.  So we "settled" for slushies, lol!

Back home Sammy started washing all the coins he could find in the rain water he had collected off the edge of the carport roof that morning.   He declared that rain water was the absolute secret to getting clean, shiny coins!

We had a phone call from Jenn in beautiful Colorado where she was on her work trip, and we all talked with her for a while.

As I was making barbecued hot dogs and roasted garlic potatoes for dinner, Sammy started reading to me the dates on the coins he had washed and asking what happened in each of those years.  Did that ever lead to a very interesting discussion!!  Some were from the years that family members were born or married or graduated, etc.  Some of them led us into discussions about foster care and adoption.  He had so many questions about that and about how our family came to be.  One coin was 2001.  I started to tell him about 9/11.  He had already heard that story from Jenn, who had been about to graduate from basic training on that fateful day.  He insisted that I had to text her and tell her about this coin.  So I did and she replied how cool that was.  Later he found a coin from 2011, the year he was born.  So again he insisted that we text her.  He kept saying that he never knew you could learn so much history from coins!  What an old soul he is!!

Of course, the reason we could have that discussion was because this little dynamo was snoozing away in the living room!

After Sam came home from work that evening and we had eaten dinner, he and I were invited to the Water Science for Kids show.  (Except we were adults, lol!)

At the end of the show we had fun dumping all that water out onto the driveway and they had one more chance to get wet!

The next day Sam had off work, so I packed up my things and headed for home.  It had been a delightful few days!  I stopped at Turkey Hill on my way out of town and got to see niece Gina at work.  

When I got home I rustled up a meal with whatever I could find in my kitchen.  It actually wasn't too bad - sausage, peppers, and rice in a bit of tomato base.  As I was leaving to go over to Anthony and Lori's I took this picture from my car.

And then I took this one at the end of the street that leads into our community.  I enjoy seeing these flowers every time I go in and out.

Over at Anthony and Lori's I sat a while in the screened in porch and enjoyed the serenity.  Isn't summer such a wonderful gift from God?  I just want it to stay and stay and stay and stay!!!

That evening Anthony and Lori were going out to eat with some old friends and we stayed with the boys.

Practicing to give Grandpa some competition some day!

Beautiful sunset that evening.

On Friday when I was at their place I noticed how big her potted plants were getting at her front door.  So beautiful!

In this little area beside the front door she is starting a water garden.  I said, "And you sit out here every morning and leisurely drink your tea, right?"  We both laughed.  Someday!

When I got home that evening I decided to take a picture tour around our little house.

So these tall things growing between the hosta are in full white bloom now.  Dick says he thinks he brought them here from the flower garden outside Lori's kitchen window last year.  

Out front we now have tiger lilies in bloom.  In front of them are the impatiens.  So far they are struggling to take off.  Hopefully they will eventually be full and beautiful like they were the past two years.  

Surrounded by lilies.

Even the shed!

Our grasses are  getting huge.

On Thursday our daughter Miki and her friend Kicki (who has traveled to the States twice before with her, or maybe three times) arrived at the Newark, NJ airport around 3 pm.  They rented a car and drove to Dick's brother Fred's place in Manheim.  They will be staying there for a week, then coming to our place.  Times like this are when I feel sad that we no longer live in our home area.

I didn't want to wait that long to see her, so on Saturday I decided to drive down.  The forecast looked like there might be rain around 4 pm, but it didn't look too bad.  Well.  I got into rain about half way there.  Not too heavy though.  I picked her up from Fred and Deb's place and we ventured out.  We both agreed that we wanted to go somewhere that people did not know us.  We didn't feel like having our precious time together constantly interrupted by people who had not seen us in forever, haha!  

We had the best time catching up.  For three hours we sat in that booth at Plaza Azteca near Lancaster and talked and talked and laughed and shed some tears and ate scrumptious Mexican food.  It was just what we both needed.  Then I took her back to Fred and Deb's and headed back home.  It was not a fun drive.  Very heavy rain most of the two-and-a-half hour drive.  If I had known it would be like that I may have decided to stay home, but I'm glad I didn't know.  I was happy to arrive home around 7:15 pm.  

While I was doing that Dick spent the afternoon at Stauffer Acres with his dad's chain saw.  They cut down a big dead tree.  Anthony took some great pictures and videos, but I'm finishing up this blog at a different computer and I can't access those pictures right now . 

On Sunday after church we brought the boys home with us.  They both looked so handsome in their "church" clothes.  I actually took these pics after we took them back home in the evening.

After naps at our house we went to Pizza Hut for dinner.  That's a meal we all love.

Oops.  I guess Austin and I weren't quite ready for the camera, hahaha!!  Now I realize how lovely I look when I'm cleaning food off my teeth, lol!!

We're getting a lot of rain in PA.  Lori had to leave on a work trip this afternoon.  I was wondering if her flight would be able to leave, but apparently it did.

Wow, this got to be a terribly long post again!  Just too many good things to take pictures of, and this wasn't even all of them.  

Have a great week, everyone!