Spring in the air, Tree cutting day

Spring is in the air!!  Even though today was still very cool, the sun was bright.  Sunshine - it does a body good!

So I wrote last week's blog from Anthony's computer because I was staying over at their place while Lori was on her work trip.  Austin was still sick, but getting better on Friday and spent the day with me.  We had a relaxing evening because the next day was Saturday and early bed time wasn't necessary.  I got these adorable videos of Dick and Hunter writing the alphabet.  Hunter is the smartest, sweetest little guy!

On Saturday morning I took Hunter home with me for the day.  Besides chasing around after the cats and taking a good nap, he again was entranced with the piano.  In addition to the pre-programed harpsichord song, he decided he also really liked the one done with strings.  He sat there like this, just playing one, then the other again and again.  He's pretty easy to entertain!

Later in the afternoon we went to Sam's Club and the mall.  We weren't in a hurry, so it was really fun to have him along.

Then we took him home and watched some of the wrestling championships with Anthony.  When we left we knew Lori would be home soon.  

On Sunday we went to services at GBRV and Calvary, then we went home without any boys.  I napped and got some groceries and worked on music for the Lenten service and next Sunday.  Dick went over to check his trail cams at Anthony's and did some more hiking in their woods.  I also went for a walk hoping to find some signs of Spring.  Not very successfully!  I thought MAYBE there were new green shoots on the trees.  What do you think?

I did find my first crocus blooming when I got back home!

This was an interesting day!  Some of you may remember that last fall the house next to us was moved out.  I was sure that at some point there will be a new house taking its place.  We also knew that the big evergreen on the property would be cut down sometime.  It's the very tall one right outside my sink window.  Well, this morning the big truck arrived and I knew I'd better keep my camera ready!  First I took a picture before they did anything. This is actually taken from my dining room window. 

A guy was in a bucket with a chain saw, cutting branches off up high.  I was not expecting the entire top of the tree to be cut down so soon.  I was hoping to get a video of that part.  But suddenly I saw it go and GREAT was the crash thereof!!  It went toward the street thankfully, not toward our house!  Our grandcats must have been at their food area in the kitchen, and when that tree crashed it scared them SO BAD!!  They went racing to the living room, scattering their food and spilling their water in the process!  I didn't see anything of them for a while after that.

And there's the topless tree!

That's the tree top lying on the ground. 

Then they cut more branches off the lower half of the tree.  It was really fun to watch.

And then there was nothing but a bare trunk.  I thought that would be some view if they left it like that!

But they got that cut down too and I guess they cut some more branches off the big top of the tree that was lying on the ground.  So now it looks like this! I can mind the whole neighborhood's business right from my sink window, lol!!  I'm so thankful for the row of arborvitae which will grown and thicken.   I just need a little privacy!

Well, that's all for this week!

Weekend with Sammy and Bianca, week days with Hunter and Austin

Last Thursday evening we added something special to our choir practice - a baby shower!  Our friends Peg and Bill will soon be traveling across the country in their RV to their daughter Shan and her husband who are expecting a baby in April.  We are all so excited for Shan and Carl.  And for Peg and Bill too!  So we threw a baby shower!  Of course all those gifts will be taking the cross country trip in the RV!   But we took care of the cupcakes!

On Friday Hunter had a cold and a fever and couldn't go to daycare, so he came to my house.   When he was at the piano he turned on one of the pre-programed songs.  When it was finished he pointed to our family picture above the piano and said he wants "THAT" song next.  I had no idea what song he meant!  So I pressed one of the buttons, but he emphatically said, "NO!  Not that song!"  So I tried another one.  Same answer.  I tried a third one, and that time he excitedly exclaimed, "YES!!  That's the right one!"  When it was finished he wanted it again and again and again.  It was a classical song played with the harpsichord voice.  He called it our family song!  I finally showed him the tiny letters above the button - "HARPS" so he could start the song himself.  I'm sure we listened to it 50 times that day!

We also had to watch the video of the Shark song that my friend Cheryl had on her blog.  Several times!  It really is cute!

On Friday evening Jenn and the kids arrived for the weekend.  They needed some cat therapy, haha!!

It didn't take long till Bianca needed a snack.  She said this is the snack house!

Sammy and I had some silly selfie time!

He became very interested in one of my coffee table books.  I have never looked inside the book!!  Until that evening.  We went through the whole book discussing the various great people of the 20th century!  He is the top reader in his first grade class, which does not surprise me at all.  And he has such an interest in history!  What a kid!

On Saturday morning I made bacon and eggs for breakfast.  Jenn went to a hair appointment at the mall, and when she came back we all went to Discovery Space for a couple of hours. 

When we left there we went shopping at Target for a few things, and by that time we were hungry since we had not had lunch.  Jenn wanted to treat us for taking care of the cats.  Bianca wanted SHRIMP, haha!!  We ended up at our very favorite place - Texas Roadhouse.  We had a great time, and when we left, we were GLAD we had gone early.  Oh my goodness!!  It was so crowded with people waiting to be seated we could hardly squeeze through to the door!

There was one thing on the children's mind when we got back home.  Bath time!

On Sunday morning we went to our service at GBRV.  The kids had to sit quite a long time because there was a time for people to share about the various ministries of the church.  I gave each of the kids paper and pen, and they were quite creative. 

Our choir song was a spiritual - "Woke Up This Morning."  They told me afterward that Bianca was dancing up a storm during the song!  And I missed it because she was behind me.

I love when the kids pray with the pastor after his story.  They repeat each phrase after him.  Bianca didn't used to participate in that, but she has really loosened up since going to preschool this year.  I noticed she was repeating each phrase right along with the others this time.  So cute!

After church we had a few hours to play and eat a lunch of chili and all the fixin's. 

We played Chutes and Ladders, then Sammy wanted to play Trivia with me.  First he asked me 15 questions about himself, and I had to write the answers down.  I got most of them correct, but not all.  Then I asked him questions about myself.  That was a bit harder since I have known him since he was born, but he has known me for just seven years.  At some point it occurred to him that I had lived a long time before he knew me, haha!  What an old soul he is!  I just love being with him.

Meanwhile Bianca was doing a puzzle.  This is the best pose I could get out of her!

The kids had fun with the cats too.  They were threading some of the cards we had taken on our Florida trip last summer when Cocoa decided to get in on the action.

About mid afternoon we had to say our goodbyes till the next time.  

Of course it was St. Patrick's Day, so we had had a little fun with JibJab.  Here's a screen shot from one of the videos.  Grandpa and some of the kids!

This week is a different one.  Hunter was still coughing a lot on Sunday night, so we decided he would stay with me on Monday instead of going to daycare.  

On Tuesday he was able to go back to daycare.  

Lori left on a work trip Wednesday morning, and by that time Austin was coughing and had a fever.  So that day he stayed at my house.  Later in the afternoon we left to pick up Hunter from daycare and headed over to their place.  Dick came there too for dinner.  Later he went home for the night, but I stayed at Anthony and Lori's overnight so I would be here to help with the boys in the morning.  It was the first day of Spring, and we had a gorgeous sunset over Stauffer Acres.  When I saw the orange glow on the trees outside the sink window I knew I had to go outside for more views.

This morning Austin was still sick, so Anthony stayed in the house with him while I took Hunter to daycare and then went to my Bible study at Calvary.  This afternoon Austin went home with me while I got some things done at my house, then we all came here to Anthony and Lori's this evening.  It was a cold, rainy day, and I was glad to be indoors to stay when I got here.  

I'm almost falling asleep here at their computer, so just one more video.  Lori took this from the dining room window on Tuesday evening.  I have never seen deer play like this!!  

Have a good weekend!

A birthday, the Globetrotters, and a memorial service

We are going to get a real taste of Spring the next couple of days!  Going up into the 60's, they say.  Wow, are we ever going to get spoiled!

Last Thursday Hunter came here to stay with me.  It was Penn State's Spring Break, and his daycare was also closed.  He is such a JOY to have around.  I think as of last week he is officially finished with diapers and pull-ups!  

I got this short video of him singing with one of my books.  So CUTE!!!

Another cute thing he did was pretend the clothes tree from the doll house was a trumpet.  I remembered Bianca doing that one time, and when I looked for the picture of her I discovered that it was the week she turned 3 back in August 2017.  And this was the day before Hunter would turn 3!!  How funny is that?  I made this adorable collage of the two of them.  

When Lori picked him up that afternoon we were looking at pictures of the day he was born, and we were smitten all over again.  

So his third birthday was on Friday.  That evening we went to see the Harlem Globetrotters at the Bryce Jordan Center on campus.  What a fun night!  So many hilarious antics.

 During a break Anthony and Austin went down to buy a basketball.  That's a special one!

Hunter talked and talked about this antic afterward!  When they told him to get down he said he was too scared (kidding of course!)  He actually went down through the hoop!  But Hunter was sure he really was scared, and he felt sorry for him!

Besides the ball, Austin also left with some of the confetti strings they had thrown at the end of the game.  He was a happy boy!

Afterward we went to Dairy Queen for a little birthday celebration.  

The first time Lori lit the candle he blew it out instantly.  So we explained to him that we're going to sing to him first and THEN he can blow it out.  She lit it again.  He was so excited, but he managed to wait till we were finished singing.

We had a nice relaxing time eating our ice cream, watching him open some gifts, and watching a video from the night he was born.  Friday birthdays are the best!  

On Saturday I was home the entire day!  I hemmed a pair of dress pants that I first of all needed to cut some off the bottom (short people problems!)  Then I decided I had hemmed them too short, so I redid the hem.  I still didn't like the way they hung afterward, but I did wear them on Sunday.  I also cleaned my house that day.

On Sunday after our service at GBRV we went to Lancaster County.  Dick's aunt Helen Keiper had passed away a few weeks ago.  She was Dad Stauffer's only sister.  Her private burial, which we were invited to, was the day of Bjorn's wedding.  We of course could not go.  But on Sunday they had a memorial service at Elizabethtown Mennonite Church. 

First of all we picked up Destiny and had a quick lunch with her at Joe's Steak and Grill in Columbia.   We had a great time together catching up with all that's new in her life - new job, new school.  

We took her home and then went to the memorial service.  It was so good to hear what an impact Aunt Helen had had on her family and her church.  Our paths didn't cross a lot, and we hadn't seen her children (Dick's cousins) often either.   Helen had five children, and when the oldest ones were teenagers, Helen's husband was killed in a farm accident.  I didn't know her at that time, so it was really touching to hear how she handled that, how important her children were to her then and have been all through her life.  She loved music and had planned her funeral service, complete with many of her favorite hymns, all the verses of every one!  I loved it!  And Dick got to sing bass to his heart's content!

This is a picture of Aunt Helen the last time we saw her at a Stauffer reunion in August 2017.  She had already been fighting cancer at that time, and was doing much better than she had.  We were so happy for her.  She always had a feisty sense of humor, a lot like her brother Howard, Dick's dad!

These are Helen's five children, across the top:  Lois, Don, Phyllis, and across the bottom:  Dave and Dale.  

Helen and Howard also had a brother Clarence who passed away in 2015.  Two of his children, Dave and Nancy and her husband Ivan, were there too.  Of course, Dick's parents and some of his brothers were there too.  Unfortunately I didn't think of taking any pictures until after some of them had left.  I was so disappointed!!  It would have been a great opportunity to get some cousin group pictures.  

At least I got this one.  Dick and his cousin Dave Stauffer.  They were born only 11 days apart and grew up at the same church.  Sometimes people thought they were twins.  Because their names were so similar people sometimes got them confused.  It was fun to see him again.  

And here is someone I did not expect to see!  I forgot that Aunt Helen had nieces and nephews on her husband's side, and this guy was one of those.  Jerry Keener (here with his wife Donna) was a classmate of mine at Lancaster Mennonite High.  He remembered helping me with chemistry.  I think I blocked that memory because chemistry was so overwhelming to me.  We also were in several choirs together - the school's select chorus, Campus Chorale, which did some traveling, and then Choraleers, which did a lot of traveling.  We were on two teams together, one that went to Jamaica and the other to Tampa.   We had so much fun reminiscing!  A lot of good laughs.  Jerry and Donna spent a number of years in New York City and then in Vietnam.  Now they and their two daughters live in Lancaster County and he is the newly elected president of Eastern Mennonite Missions.  

There was a meal provided after the service, which gave lots of time to talk with people.  We could have stayed longer.  There were so many people we knew and hadn't seen for years.  But again, we had a long drive home.  

When we stopped for gas we also went to the McDonald's drive-thru.  I got my very first shamrock shake.  It was good, but I was glad I got just a small one.  It was a lot of mint!

This week in addition to my regular cooking and music jobs, I also have been working on getting our income tax information ready.  Fun times!

The cats provide never ending entertainment and occasional aggravation!  So I'll end this with a cat collage.  The bottom right photo shows Cookie camped out at the stove as I was making sweet and sour chicken today.  The aroma was almost more than he could stand.  I was afraid he would jump up right into the hot frying pan!  

Have a good rest of the week!