What a fun weekend!!

Another wonderful weekend to write about!  I suddenly can hardly keep up with my life!  Not really.  It just feels good to have things to plan and look forward to and reminisce about. 

But first some things around the house that are making me happy.  My indoor plants at the front kitchen window are just amazing me.   My secret sister at church gave me an amaryllis bulb and a Christmas cactus at Thanksgiving.  The bulb lay completely dormant until recently.  And now it is shooting up so fast I'm sure I could see it grow if I sat and watched it!  The Christmas cactus also decided to bloom now too,  and the peace Lily is sending up new shoots as well.  I'm amazed and delighted!

Of course things are blooming outside as well.  Here's my first hyacinth and a few daffodils.  

On Friday I got the house all ready for guests, cooked a big pot of chili and prepped the things to go with it (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sour cream, Fritos, shredded cheese), took some of it over to Anthony and Lori for their dinner, went to Ollie's to get some fun books and activities, then met Dick at work at 5:00 when he got finished.  We went to pick up Sammy and Bianca for the weekend.  We were all SO excited!! They had not been here since Mother's Day weekend last year!  

I had bought a book at Ollie's that gave a lot of trivia about each of the 50 states, and as we drove Sammy was reading a lot of things to us, making us guess state capitals, birds, flowers, etc.  We were so rusty!!  

We stopped at an Arby's on the way home.  We had the place almost entirely to ourselves and we had the greatest time.

When we got here the kids were absolutely ecstatic!  You would have thought they had arrived at Disney.  They went from place to place in the house to see if things were still the same.  They were exclaiming things like:  The kitchen!  I love this kitchen!  Is this still the cereal cupboard?  Oh, your tub!  The cot!  I love sleeping on this cot!  Do you still have that little toy guitar? Oh I'm so happy I think I'm going to cry!  The funniest thing was in our bedroom Sammy said, "Remember when I used to sleep on the cot at the end of your bed and your and grandpa's feet were almost in my face?"  And he acted like that was a such a good memory, hahaha!!

Bianca got right to work on the rock painting kit I had gotten at Ollie's.

Sammy could hardly wait to play some of his favorite oldies YouTube songs.  We loved it!  A favorite was "We Are the World" from 1985.  It was so fun to see singers and musicians when they were younger.  We didn't have a TV back then.  He was glad to show it to someone who wasn't already tired of it.  Apparently he plays it a lot, haha!  I'm not sure who was singing when I snapped this picture.  Sammy was lost in the music.

We all stayed up way too late, but it was Friday night and no one had to get up for any reason in the morning.  

But guess who was already up when I came to the living room before 8 AM??  The kids, of course!  They were playing with the marble roller.  We had a very laid back morning.  I made pancakes and sausages for breakfast.  

Bianca painted more rocks, and Sammy painted one of them.  Then she got interested in the coloring books I had bought. 

Sammy was addicted to Connect Four.  He was ecstatic the first time he beat Grandpa!

They each took a turn in our jetted tub.  Crazy time of day for a bath, but they were so excited to get in it. 

We spent the afternoon at two different parks.  First the one nearby that we call Airport Park.

Sammy used to fit into this, hahaha!  Did I say that he is 4'10"??  That's just two inches shorter than I am!!

I just decided to look for a photo of him in that ride at the park when he was little, and I found one!  He was a year-and-a-half old - May 2013!  He used to be a chubby little blond!

From there we went across town to Tudek Park.  I had told them about the horses we had seen the weekend before with Destiny and Alex, so that was the first place they wanted to go when we arrived. 

They had the greatest time feeding grass to a horse. 

Bianca was cracking up because it had snorted right into her hand.  

We were at the park for a long time, because the kids were having such a great time playing with a few other kids at each of the playground areas.  They made up games and had so much fun.  When we left Bianca was really sad that she probably would not see those kids again.  She said, "I wish I would see them at school."

When we got home Dick started a fire and we roasted hot dogs and made s'mores.  

When we came inside the kids showered and washed their hair so they wouldn't smell like campfire in church the next morning.  Then we watched a movie and snacked on popcorn.  Well, some of us did.  Bianca snacked on tomatoes.  I kid you not.  She loves tomatoes, and I had gotten a container of a variety of different colors of cherry tomatoes.  She ate them like candy!  

They got some more Connect Four in before bed.  When Bianca beat Sammy he said, "Just imagine - Bianca beat the person that beat Grandpa!" 

Sunday morning was exciting!  We were having in-person church, and the kids were dressed for it!  There were a number of children there, and they had children's church downstairs.  

One of the things Sammy was so eager to do this weekend was play Monopoly.   I had said we would do that on Sunday, since it was going to rain.  So as soon as we were in the door after church, the kids were calling for Monopoly.  They didn't want to change clothes first either!

It was the craziest game.  I was banker, and I kept getting my personal dealings and the bank dealings confused, so I think I ended up with more money than I should have.  Sammy was gung ho to buy as many properties and houses as possible, but then ended up with almost no cash.  So Bianca, who normally is not a super generous person, was feeling very charitable and kept giving Sammy some of her cash.  We were laughing so much.  

Then we ate a late lunch of chili and all the fixin's and cleaned up and packed all their stuff.  We had root beer floats before we left to take them back home.    What a WONDERFUL time we had with them!  They're at a really fun age.

I need to get to bed.  Two more pictures before I go.  One from Destiny when she had Elizer dressed all cute before they left for an appointment. 

And this evening's beautiful pink sunset.

Weeping with the Jon Stauffer family

I have a wonderful weekend of pictures to share here, and I already started that post last evening.  But I'm going to post this first, because I know that some of you readers and church friends were concerned and praying for our nephew Jonathan Stauffer's wife in northwest Minnesota.   In the middle of January it was discovered Jenny had stage four pancreatic cancer.  Monday afternoon she passed away.  

This beautiful picture has been the header of her CaringBridge page. 

Since January she had been home and receiving chemo treatments weekly and doing quite well.  This past weekend was going to be a week off from chemo and they were looking forward to doing some fun things as a family.  They were also looking forward to CT scans later this week to find out how the cancer has been responding to the chemo treatments.

But this past Thursday she started running a high fever, so they went to the ER.  She was admitted.  Her oxygen levels were very low, and they found blood clots in her lungs, and by Saturday a big blood clot in her leg, as well as an infection in her lungs.  She was taken to a hospital in Fargo.  On Sunday afternoon things took a serious turn for the worse.   Jon's dad and mother (Dick's brother Bob and wife Doris) took Jon and Jenny's four children to Fargo to see their mamma and to say their goodbyes.  Later this heartbreaking picture was posted on the CaringBridge page.   She passed away the next afternoon.

Jon has shared regularly on the CaringBridge page with transparency and profound trust in God throughout this journey.  I wish I could give him and those precious children a big hug, but I know others will do that.   

In his own words: "I know you all will, but I'm going to ask anyway to please pray for the children and I as we take our first steps as a family without mama present.  I know God will give us the grace to do so, but it looks very daunting.  We have faith, but that mustard seed is tiny."  

More fun days - the park, a cookout, a basketball game

Two blog posts in a row this evening!  That's what happens when I have a lot of fun, and my life gets too busy to keep up.  Haven't had those problems in a long while!

On Sunday morning Dick and I got up early and sneaked out of the house for our 9:00 worship service at GBRV - essential personnel only.  FOR THE LAST TIME!  Next Sunday we will be in person again, hallelujah!

When we got home from church, the rest of the crew was awake.  Dick had fun feeding and playing with Elizer.  I made bacon, scrambled eggs with hash browns, and pancakes for the rest of us.  

Elizer loves to watch his Baby Einstein videos. 

Destiny played with LEGO's every little chance she got.  She said her goal was to use every piece.  I don't think she had enough time to accomplish that, but she had fun trying!

Around 3:00 we decided to go to Tudek Park, one of our favorite parks in State College.  It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon, and I think we must have walked about two miles. 

I got some great pictures of their beautiful little family. 

After we came home, Dick started a fire, I got some stuff together, and we had our first cookout of the season.  

As we were finishing up, Anthony and Lori and the boys stopped by to see Elizer for the first time.  That was so fun!

On Monday morning Dick went to work till noon.  Here at home we were packing things up.   Elizer was having more fun playing on the floor.  He LOVED our doll baby!  He didn't completely get the crawling action down while they were here, but he most definitely can get wherever he wants to go!

When Dick got home from work at 12:30 we packed up the van and hit the road around 1:30.  Everything was going great, Elizer was sleeping, and THEN:

Traffic came to a halt and there was dark smoke right ahead of us.  A pickup truck was on fire!  There were no emergency vehicles there yet, so we had to sit and sit and sit.  Of course, Elizer woke up.  And he HATES being in his car seat.  So the rest of the trip was not too much fun.  Sometimes he would drink a little from his bottle, and sometimes he would watch his favorite videos on Destiny's phone, but sometimes he was just angry and crying.  

When we got closer to Alex's dad's place (where they live), we stopped at a Burger King.  There were not many other people there, so we had a nice, relaxing time eating.  Elizer was as happy as a lark.  

At Alex's dad's place we unloaded everything and had some time to relax.  Then Dick, Destiny, and I headed to Lancaster Catholic High School for her brother J'von's next playoff game.  Alex stayed home with Elizer.

It was a really fun evening.  Frank was there with Jada and Alaya as well as Lauren's daughter Nicayla.  But I didn't get any pictures of them because I was doing a live video of the game for Alex to watch.  

That's J'von shooting the ball.

It was a REALLY fast, exciting game!  At the end of the fourth quarter the score was tied and they went into overtime.  The place was WILD!!  But during overtime, the other team made more points and won the game.  So that ended the season for J'von's team.  It was a sad bunch of boys that came out of the locker room later.  J'von is a junior, so he has another year of high school basketball.  Again, I didn't get any pictures afterward.  I don't know where my brain was!

We said our goodbyes to Destiny then because her dad was going to be taking her home.  We stopped to get ourselves some coffee and hit the road for home.  It was probably 11:30 pm when we got here.  

Boy, did I REALLY miss seeing Elizer's face the next morning!  He is just SO precious!

This weekend I'll have Sammy and Bianca here for the first time since Mother's Day!  That is guaranteed to be a great time!

Catching up on all the fun stuff around here!

We've been having FUN!!  It will probably be impossible to catch up here in one post, because we've been doing stuff and I've been taking so many pictures.  

Before I get to the fun part of last week, here are a few things that happened first.  After about five or six weeks, Dick finally finished his 1000-piece puzzle.  Would you believe, there was a piece missing??  If you look closely in the row of green trees, you will see a little area of our red table showing through. 

Do you remember the crazy saga of my messed-up Crocs order last fall?  For my newer friends here - I had seen an ad on Facebook for brightly colored Crocs, and since that is what I wear around the house, I decided to order a pair of orange and blue ones.  They were so cute!  Turns out it was not an order from the official Crocs company, but a place in China.  It took weeks for them to arrive, and when they did, they were brown, one shoe was size 8, the other was size 9!!!  So of course I complained, and the seller offered a tiny percentage off if I would keep them.  WHY would I want to keep them??  I started a PayPal dispute that went on and on and on.  I even got an email from the seller one day saying that her ex had just broken into her house and stole all her money and beat her children, so could I please keep the shoes because she needed the money.  In the end PayPal said I would get my money back, BUT I had to return them to the sender.  I checked, and it would cost me $27.50 for the postage to return them!  PayPal said they would reimburse me for the postage.  So I returned them.  I did get back the $46-something that I originally paid for the Crocs, but PayPal never did reimburse me for the postage.  AND LAST WEEK THOSE CRAZY CROCS CAME BACK TO ME IN THE MAIL!!!!  I had had it and threw them in the trash.  Needless to say, I no longer order things from places I know nothing about!  

I have two Bible studies going right now.  One is Wednesday afternoons at 2:00 online with Pastor Lynn.  We have been doing the book by Adam Hamilton, "Final Words from the Cross."  I have really been enjoying both the book and our online discussions.  

Last Thursday morning I went to the Abide women's Bible study at Calvary for the first time since COVID brought it to a halt last March.  It is being done both online and in person, Thursday mornings and evenings.  Since I have both of my vaccines now, I decided to do the Thursday morning in person.  There might have been 15-20 women there, and masks were required.  No snacks and coffee like before.    We are doing Beth and Melissa Moore's new Bible study on Galatians.  It will be good.

I left right from the Bible study last Thursday to go to Lancaster to pick up Destiny, Alex, and Elizer.  I was not at all excited about the rainy forecast, but it was not heavy on the way down.  It WAS heavy on the way home, and windy too, but at least I had company.  Elizer HATES being in his car seat, but thankfully he slept a good part of the trip to our house.   

I had a surprise when we got home.  Our water cooler in the kitchen, which is at least 16 years old, had sprung a leak and there was a mini flood on the kitchen floor.  So I ran for the beach towels.    

THEN I could finally focus on getting our poor neglected toys out for Elizer.  He loved the chance to be on the floor and check out all the new stuff.   I also had fun feeding him.  Our baby booster seat finally had a new occupant!  He was seven months old that day!

Destiny, always up for a new craft or project,  had ordered a kit for making gummy sushi!  They were so cute, and actually tasted pretty good!  

Elizer had gotten some baby shots that morning and was running a fever.  They had enough baby Tylenol for one dose, but Destiny and I decided to make a run to Walmart to get more.  While we were there I also bought another water cooler, since Dick had declared ours too old to fix a rusted water line.  Dick and Destiny got the new one set up after we got home. 

On Friday morning Dick went to work, I had fun with Elizer and cooked dinner for Anthony and Lori, Destiny played with LEGO's, Elizer worked on learning to crawl while Alex watched him.  

Destiny's project that day was applying acrylic leather paint to the worn spots on Dick's recliner.  The fake leather was "shedding" at certain places, and I was getting so tired of the little brown pieces of litter on the carpet all the time.  So I googled and found this temporary solution.  It'll keep us from needing to buy a new recliner for a while, hopefully.    

Look at that boy in the air!  He LOVES when his daddy puts him up there.

Later we took dinner over to Anthony and Lori, then went to Wegmans for groceries.  

Before we even got home from the store, Destiny's brother J'von's basketball championship play-off game was starting down in Lancaster.   We had so much fun watching it together online.  They won the game!  Destiny celebrated by making herself some fancy iced coffee!

Then she gave Elizer a bath.  Ahhhh.  Nothing so delicious as a newly bathed baby!

Destiny also had ordered a foot treatment kit for us to do together.  First we soaked our feet in the tub, then put booties on that were full of stuff to soften hard skin.  We had to keep them on for a long time.  I couldn't stay awake long enough, so I cheated and took mine off sooner than I was supposed to. 

On Saturday morning Destiny brought Elizer out to me when he woke up and I had him all to myself for a while.  Dick had left for a hair cut appointment.  Elizer was so happy and delightful!!

Later Destiny and I left for an appointment at The Mommy Shoppe at Houserville House of Hope. (Shoppers are by appointment only due to COVID.)  She was able to get a big paper grocery bag full of baby clothes FREE!.  There were so many choices!!  If she had wanted more than would fit in the bag,  they would have been garage sale prices.  What a WONDERFUL ministry this is!  

After we got back home it wasn't long till it was time to take Destiny to a hair appointment.  This girl has THICK hair and it had gotten so long.  She decided that it was time to make it more manageable for her mommy life.    

After she was all settled in, I went back home to take care of Elizer.  Dick and Alex had a big project to do - cut down all our tall grasses.   They were thankful for the electric hedge trimmer that Dick and Sam had bought last year when they were tackling that job.  They took the grasses to the community grass clippings trailer and filled it to overflowing.  Alex had to stand on top and stomp it down!

Elizer and I took a short walk.

I also made baked chicken thighs and mashed potatoes (rice for Alex) for our dinner later.  Then I went to pick up Destiny.  It had taken a LONG time to cut and color her hair.  Destiny's butt was tired and the beautician's feet were tired!  

Here's a close-up before-and-after collage. She was very happy with it.

We ate dinner and just hung out the rest of the evening.  As you can see, Elizer gave us no end of delightful moments!  We're hopelessly in love with him!

I'll finish this post now and start a new one to share our Sunday and Monday pictures.  There are so many good ones, so don't miss it!