It's too late to start a post tonight, but I'll just post some pictures from nature.
This tree was announcing its presence outside my doctor's office on Tuesday with its amazing fragrance.
I was at the doctor for an EMG of my arms and wrists. I was diagnosed with mild carpal tunnel on my right hand and moderate carpal tunnel on my left hand. I have an appointment with an orthopedic hand doctor next week.
I love this one multicolor tulip that we have. I'd like to plant more of them this fall.
We had new birds this week. My sister-in-law identified them as barn swallows. I thought perhaps they were setting up housekeeping in the birdhouse. But I didn't see much of them today, so I'm not sure. It was so horrendously windy today, maybe they were just sitting inside!
You probably can't see what that is in the neighbor's grass. It was a rabbit. It stayed around for at least an hour this morning, definitely helping itself to the few flowers they have planted. GRRR. Dick keeps Rabbit and Deer Repellent on the front porch, so I sprayed my hosta before that rabbit decided the neighbors didn't have enough to eat!
That's all for this time. Tomorrow morning I'll be practicing with my flute player, then I'm going to pick up Sammy and Bianca for overnight. We have a reservation at Discovery Space tomorrow afternoon! We haven't been there in over a year. They recently just opened to the public again, but by reservation only.
Have a great weekend!
Oops! One more picture! This little guy is getting around! He crawls and pulls himself up at things and holds on with just one hand! I took these when we were Facetiming the other day.
On Sunday morning Dick and I were up early and off to church by 8:30. Doris and Mary Ellen stayed home and watched their own respective church services.
We were back home by 10:30. I made burritos for our lunch. We were delighted that the rain had come overnight, and we were looking at another fairly warm day - around 60 degrees.
So we headed off to Bellefonte about five miles away. Tallyrand Park is so beautiful!
We were so fascinated with a little cafe nearby. We want to go there next time.
When we came back home we roped Dick into doing our annual front porch photo shoot. We didn't know he was already snapping pictures before we were ready, hahahaha!!
We sat around the little kitchen table and snacked and shared pictures and giggled some more.
And then, all too soon, the girls were off. How can weekends that we look forward to for so long be over so quickly???? Already we're talking about next time. Actually, next time will be in July with all the sisters at an airbnb in Manheim. There's a whole story about that, but another time!
We got a really slow start on Saturday, which was wonderful. I think the temp was barely 50 degrees, but the sunshine was so bright on the side porch that we just had to take our coffee out there. We couldn't believe how warm it actually felt without any wind. We lallygagged with our coffee for the longest time as the bacon in the frying pan was getting a slow start in the kitchen. This is one of our favorite traditions.
Then we went inside to get our breakfast ready and decided to eat that on the porch too, since it felt so surprisingly good out there. I texted Pastor Lynn (who had never met my sisters) and asked if she wanted to join us. I didn't even check my phone after that, so I was pleasantly surprised when she drove in. I discovered later that she had both texted me and left a voice mail. Oh well, we just got the fourth chair from the front porch and got her some coffee and breakfast and had so much fun. It was probably close to noon before we ever went inside to get ourselves "decent"!
There was a bird sitting on top of an arborvitae behind us, and I got this picture through the lattice!
After we were showered and dressed and our breakfast had had time to digest, we went to a favorite spot for a late lunch - Sowers Harvest Cafe. We sisters each got a salad (they're big!), and Lynn got a second breakfast - French toast. We were so delighted that there still was no rain!
When we were leaving we got a good laugh. Parking is rather tight there. As I was backing out of my spot I had to be careful I didn't nip the back end of the car beside me, but I also couldn't go back too far because of the van (that white one that you can see over my shoulder, lol!) that was parked behind me. And then there was a group of female students walking through, and they had to stand there and wait for me to get out of their way. I guess I had a look of complete concentration on my face, probably leaning front somewhat. Lynn and Mary Ellen started laughing as we drove away. They said that one of the girls standing there looked at me and appeared to be saying, "Awwww!" Like she pitied this little old lady trying to back her van around in such tight quarters. WHAT???? I might be little, but I'm not old and pitiful, hahahaha!
Lynn needed to go home, so we took her back, then went to Calvary Harvest Fields to do some walking. That is the other church Dick and I go to, although we haven't been there in person yet since last March. There are acres and acres of nature there. The sun wasn't shining, so the pictures aren't that great, but it was wonderful to walk off some of our food!
I didn't even get a picture of the church building, but I did get this picture of the beautiful lodge on the hill behind the church where the offices are. The Thursday morning Bible study that I attend is held in the lodge this semester since it's a much smaller group than before COVID.
We decided to stop at Ollie's on the way home. The girls said it's the biggest one they'd ever seen. I guess we're really fortunate to have it. And it's right near the grocery store I often go to. We browsed for a long time. Mary Ellen found some rug runners like the ones she has. Doris found this pillow, lol!! You gotta read the small print at the bottom - "I laugh because there's nothing you can do about it!"
Then we went home and I made our dinner - curried chicken thighs, baked sweet potatoes, and green beans with browned butter. I think Mary Ellen took this picture, and I'm just going to humble myself and post it. I hate my big behind, but there it is!
Those beautiful flowers were given to Mary Ellen on Secretary's Day last week, and she decided to bring them along so we could enjoy them with her!
It was probably 7:30 when we sat down at the dining room table to eat.
We had some wine with our dinner and were feeling really sleepy by the time everything was put away. I got all my music ready for Sunday morning, practiced a bit, then we laughed ourselves silly over some of the pictures we had taken that day as we airdropped them to each other. Bed felt really good that night!
It's almost 6 pm and I think I'm starting to recover from my big weekend. Good grief! I felt like an old, old woman today!
We had such a wonderful sister weekend! We call this the PA sister weekend, since we are the three sisters that live in Pennsylvania and can thus get together more often than the whole crew of sisters.
Mary Ellen and Doris arrived here (from Lancaster County) right around lunch time on Friday. What good guests! They brought lunch! So we first of all sat down and had a delicious lunch of chicken salad sandwiches with chips, olives, and bread and butter pickles. Also Mary Ellen's homemade applesauce and Doris's gluten-free chocolate cupcakes. All absolutely scrumptious!
Then we went to the arboretum. We were so glad to visit when the tulips were blooming.
Anyone know what the upside down yellow flower is? I see I have it two of these collages. We were so fascinated by them, but did not see any sign that said what they were.
We took pictures of some old ladies taking pictures of the tulips, hahahaha!! And checking out each others' shoes, I guess.
When we left the arboretum we went to the nearby Penn State Berkey Creamery. There was no indoor dining, so we had to take our ice cream outside to the patio, but it was starting to feel really cold. So we didn't manage to take any pictures of that very special tradition.
After we came home Dick started a fire in the fire pit, and we had hamburgers and hot dogs. We were expecting rain on Saturday, so we were trying to do as many outdoor things as we could on Friday. It was NOT warm anymore at that time of day, so the fire felt really good. We weren't proud of the way we looked, wearing any old coat I could find that would keep us warm.
That evening we watched a movie and laughed ourselves silly - another tradition, haha!!
Day two coming up as soon as I can find a few minutes! Hopefully I'll also find the time to catch up with some of you blogger friends. That did not happen last week at all.
Today was Dick's birthday - 71 years old! He's been through cancer treatments quite a few times since 1996 and also dangerously high blood sugar and A1C numbers before he was diagnosed with diabetes last year. But he's a strong man! Still works full time in a physically demanding job, and has recently started going again to the Y two mornings a week before work.
Here's a collage of pictures from this past year that I put together today.
We went to his favorite restaurant for dinner this evening - Texas Roadhouse. First time we've been there in over a year. Believe it or not, we did not have any of those scrumptious dinner rolls! Dick had steak, I had salmon.
Today I did the annual scrubbing of my porch furniture. My sisters and I love to sit on this side porch to drink coffee when they come to my house. Unfortunately, it might be too cold to sit out there this weekend. We keep hoping and praying the forecast will change.
I also put primer on the cinder block wall that's on the side of the house where this porch is. But I didn't take any pictures.
Another weekend has passed! Here are some pretty sky pics I'll share first. On Thursday evening the sun was so bright against these trees. What a beautiful sight from my kitchen window.
The sky was lovely on Friday morning too.
On Saturday morning Dick and I once again drove to Lancaster County, this time to attend an estate auction near Manheim, our hometown. Our sister-in-law Carolyn Stauffer lost her dad, Harold Geib, to COVID complications this past winter. Her mother, Erma, had passed away in 2015. When I was growing up they attended the same church our family did, and I remember when Carolyn's parents got married and when they bought the little farmette that was next to our farm and when they had their two children. I did not want to miss this auction, even though we didn't intend to buy a thing. I knew we would see lots of family and friends.
There were so many things to sell! Everything that had accumulated through the decades! The seven-acre farmette was also sold.
How about this '55 Pontiac? A guy came all the way from Pittsburgh with a rollback to buy it! I remember a picture of Harold and his new bride standing next to this car!
I stood in the driveway and took this picture of the farm where our family had lived when I was a child.
A beautiful farm in the other direction.
When the sale was over around 1:30 we picked up Destiny and Elizer and went to Longs Park near Lancaster. Elizer fell asleep on the way there and we didn't have his stroller, so we just parked and enjoyed some interesting animals. Dick took a nap.
When Elizer woke up we went to That Fish Place and walked around looking at all the fish and other pets, some that I had no interest in looking at, hahaha! Can you guess? I should have taken more pictures. There are sea horses in this tank.
I don't think he could decide if he wanted to laugh or cry!
He does already like to see his own face in the reverse camera mode of the phone!
We said our good byes and headed home. I was hoping to stop in Duncannon to see Sammy and Bianca, but they were spending the night with some cousins.
The sky was so beautiful as we drove toward the sunset.
This was an interesting sight at a gas station on the way home! Amish at a gas tank! I suppose they were filling a gas can for a generator or something of that nature.
This morning we had our worship service at GBRV then we came home and tuned in to Calvary's service online. We got some projects done. Our hot water heater has not been doing a good enough job for the last while, so today Dick drained the hot water heater and replaced the elements. We went for some groceries. I got my summer porch pillows stitched to my rockers. We hung in our hallway the framed pictures of the grandchildren that I'd been working on this week. Dick mowed our grass as well as our neighbor's grass.
Meanwhile, look who turned eight months old today! Looking more like a year old if you ask me! This boy EATS!! He likes everything, even spicy food! And he's so mobile! He can stand up straight holding on with just one hand. And his dark hair is really growing too.
He also discovered this week that his toes are good for sucking on, haha!
Well, that's it for tonight! Like I said last time, my sisters Doris and Mary Ellen are coming this weekend, and I must get READY!! So I don't know if I'll have time to blog again till next Sunday evening!
Where did our Spring temps go? Supposedly it is 50 degrees, but the wind is blowing, and it's not hard at all to imagine snowflakes flying. We've been so spoiled this Spring with the unusually warm days we've had. My sister Mary Ellen did think of one possible advantage to this cool weather - perhaps it will keep the tulips looking beautiful longer. She and Doris are planning to come here next weekend, and we are so hoping the tulips will be in full bloom at the arboretum.
My tulips in front of the house have really been showing off this week. I love red, but when I see all the different colors of tulips that Jeremy grows I realize that I would like to have a variety of colors too. But each fall I forget about getting and planting more bulbs. Maybe this year??
Now catching up on all that's been happening since my last post. On Friday afternoon Calvary Christian High School in Clearwater, FL, where Lisa teaches and coaches and Sophie attends, had their last regular season track meet. I was on the road running errands during the first half of the meet. I did catch Sophie running the 100-meter dash when I was in our bank parking lot. She came in first, of course.
After I was home, Dick and I watched her run the 200-meter dash. However, there was no sound with the live video! The only thing we could hear was when they would call for the events that would be coming up, and occasionally giving the scores of events. So while we knew that Sophie would be running the 200, we didn't know for sure which heat she would be in, so this video I took has no narration except Dick and me trying to figure out if she was running or not. Lisa thought it was hilarious. She told us to keep our day jobs, hahaha!! Again, Sophie came in first.
The next day I realized that I had missed her 4x100 relay, probably while I was driving. Lisa posted this. That's Sophie taking the baton for the last leg of the relay. Look at her face! And the muscles in her arm!! She is just incredible!
Also on Friday, I saw a picnic table offered for sale on Facebook Marketplace. I sent the link to Dick at work and he told me to get it. A man in Lock Haven, about 45 minutes from here, makes these tables as a retirement project. He even delivered it to us Saturday morning for a fair price. It is so well made and absolutely beautifully finished. We are so happy with it.
Saturday was a work day around here. We weeded and cleaned out old leaves from all the flower beds. Dick thinned out some of the tall grasses and yucca plants and took some things to Lori because she wanted them. At one point I was emptying out some potted plants behind the side porch. I threw the first empty pot up over the porch railing because I intended to put it in the garbage can up there.
Then I threw the second one up over the railing and it landed right inside the first one!! I was all by myself, but I cracked up! I am the least athletically gifted person ever, and I was pretty proud of myself!
When I posted the picture on Facebook, my sister Mary Ellen reminded me that I had been good at corn hole the other summer when we siblings were together. I told her I had thought of that too. It was the craziest thing! There we were, playing corn hole at my brother's place, and I was having my normal bad luck, and then I suddenly had a streak where I was getting the bean bag into the hole time after time after time. We were just dying laughing, because it was so unexpected and unusual for me, haha!
When I was finished with the flowerbeds on Saturday I started my next project. Our modular house has a low basement under the back part of the house, not high enough to stand up, but good for storing some things. There is a cinder block wall around it that had never been painted. A couple of years ago I had primed and painted the wall on the back side of the house, but I hadn't ever done any more since then. The flowers get so big and thick that it has to be done either in the early spring or late fall. I decided to tackle it again before the flowers get too big. I got the priming done on the one side of the house.
The daffodils really were too big already, and I wondered how I was going to paint behind them. Dick had a great idea that worked well. He got a thin piece of plywood out of his shed. I held the plywood between the wall and the flowers and leaned in over the plywood to paint the lower part of the wall. There are no pictures of that process, trust me. It was not a pretty sight!!
Dick got some mulching done while I was doing the painting. We were tired puppies by evening, but were satisfied with our accomplishments.
We ended the day with a campfire and some roasted sausages. It was so nice to have a picnic table on which to put my stuff instead of needing to drag a card table outside.
While we sat at the fire (it was getting rather cool), the next door neighbor man came over to show us his vaccine card. Then he sat down at the end of the picnic table bench and we continued chatting. After a while the lady that lives behind us came up the little hill and joined in the conversation too. Before long she sat down on the other side of the picnic table! They both stayed for quite a while.
I wanted to take a picture for the Front Yard Missions FB group that we belong to, but I decided that would be weird. We had been talking lately in the group about the book "The Turquoise Table." Look up the book if you're curious. Anyway, the leader of our FB group offered to pay for turquoise paint if anyone wants to paint their table. I told the group that apparently it doesn't have to be turquoise to draw the neighbors in, haha! Dick said there's no way we're painting ours turquoise. Maybe I'll compromise and get a turquoise tablecloth for it.
Look at this amaryllis!! It was getting so top heavy we had to tie it to a dowel rod on Saturday. Three beautiful blooms. It sat completely dormant for over three months after my secret sister at church gave me the bulb at Thanksgiving. And then some green popped out of the bulb and it just shot up in no time!
Sunday was an interesting day, weather wise - rain, warm sunshine, extreme thunderstorms. It rained in the morning and was very overcast. I took the picture on the top left (below) from our car in the church parking lot.
When we got home from church I said, "I don't feel like staying home all day." Dick's always ready for a drive. So after we had watched Calvary's service online, and had the YouTube video of our GBRV service uploaded and put on the church's Facebook page, we hit the road for Lancaster County.
The pictures above were taken as we were driving that afternoon near Alex's dad's place. I was imagining what Anne of Green Gables would have called the road if she had driven on it.
I was hoping that maybe we could see Bjorn and Jess's house that they recently bought. Sunday was his 25th birthday. But they had other plans and would not be home. That's what I get for being such a spur of the moment person.
Then I thought perhaps we could meet Alex's grandma who was visiting from Puerto Rico. But she was doing something else with Alex's sister that afternoon. So we hung out with Destiny and Alex and Elizer at his dad's place where they live. Then we got an idea. They had been sleeping on a full size mattress on top of a queen size frame, and it had been giving me fits because it was a safety hazard. Destiny had a queen mattress and box spring in her storage unit, they just needed a way to make the switch. So we found a U Haul place that was open and we rented a pickup truck. We got the full size set taken to the storage unit and the queen size set brought to the apartment. I was a happy grandma, getting rid of that safety hazard! Trust me, I did not do any of the carrying! I was the babysitter!
Look at this boy in the car seat and then in his daddy's arms!! His personality and physical strength and coordination are just growing by leaps and bounds!
Here's a picture I took while we were FaceTiming this week. He had no interest in looking at my face. He just wanted to touch Destiny's phone and press buttons until he had hung up on me, hahahaha!! Not intentionally, of course. Little stinker!
On Tuesday I got the tan paint done over the part I had primed. I was satisfied when I was finished.
I was not, however, satisfied with this part! At one point, in trying to step over a stump of cut-off grasses, I stumbled, and both I and the paint can went for a sprawl. I scooped up as much of the spilled paint as I could with my paint brush. Dick said it will grow out.
Actually, Tuesday was not a good day. I was doing laundry, and for the first time ever my washer leaked. I did not know it until the load was finished and there was water all over my laundry floor and in the two laundry closets and on the bathroom floor that is next to the laundry. So with many towels everything got wiped up. But then there were many wet towels and I couldn't put them in the washer. And I couldn't finish the loads of laundry that were in piles on our bedroom floor. That evening Dick did manage to fix the problem and before I went to bed the wet towels were washed and spun out with no more leaking. Whew!
What made everything worse was the issues I've been having with my left hand. I think I probably have carpal tunnel issues. I've been to the family doctor and have other appointments coming up. My hand and arm tingle absolutely all the time, and at night I have a good bit of pain. On Tuesday my wrist and fingers were so painful, I felt like a one-armed paper hanger when I was trying to paint. So the laundry problems seemed so much bigger than they normally would.
I'm going to add here that in sharing this I'm not really asking for advice. Like I said, I have been to my doctor, I am taking/doing some things she advised, and I'm waiting for some scans and an appointment with an orthopedist.
I've been wanting to tell you about this Bible study I'm doing with the Abide group at Calvary. Beth and Melissa Moore's study of Galatians. We meet on Thursday mornings and watch that week's video, then there are five days of homework to do between Thursdays. This past week I have managed to do each day's homework. Oh. My. Goodness!!!! I have never taken a Beth Moore Bible study before, and I had no idea how incredibly GOOD and interesting and challenging it would be. Studying with her is like including every reference in a cross reference Bible. Back and forth between the Old and New Testaments and other books in the New Testament. And so much more as she brings in profound thoughts and stories from other writers. If you ever have a chance to be part of this Galatians Bible study, I highly recommend it and encourage you to do it!
