Our last week of February

We're about to enter March - unfortunately the month that seems to last forever in this part of the country.  But I AM thankful that we're going in the right direction - all the warm weather is still ahead of us instead of behind us!  

As usual I'll start with the one sunrise picture I took since my last post.  It was spectacular!

This was a sunset at the end of a very cold, windy day - last Saturday.

Last Friday, February 18, Elizer turned 18 months old.  A year-and-a-half!  Before Destiny left for work she said, "Dress him in something cute!"  I knew we couldn't go wrong with red.  Alex took these pictures.  His many expressions, melt my heart!

That afternoon on my way to deliver Anthony and Lori's food I passed the Bryce Jordan Center like I always do.  But this day was different.  Have you heard of Penn State's "Thon"?  A long-held tradition of raising money for children with cancer.  People dance to raise money, starting Friday evening until Sunday afternoon.  Every aspect of the event is student-run.  In the twelve years we've lived here I never before passed the BJC on the Friday afternoon of Thon.  It was so cold and windy, but students were gathering from every direction waiting for the doors to open.  I had tears as I sat in traffic watching them.  

I was especially moved because my cousin's 12-year-old granddaughter has been fighting cancer for three years, and I have been following her journey.  I knew that she was going to be coming to this event.  I learned later that she met two of her Hershey Medical Center nurses and was treated like a celebrity, just as all the children were.  I heard later that over 13,000,000 dollars were raised!

Meanwhile at our house that evening Dick was repairing the door to our tub "motor."  Elizer loved the sound of that drill! 

On Sunday Destiny had off work until evening, so after church we took Elizer to Discovery Space.  He had fun.  Actually, the most fun he had was watching the other children!  Under the one display he noticed that there was a computer.  You better believe he was down there checking it out!

Destiny was delighted to play with LEGOS for a change while I kept Elizer occupied elsewhere.   We discovered that there are "micro" LEGOS.  The picture on the left shows them, but you really can't tell how incredibly tiny those pieces are. 

After we came home Elizer conked out on the couch with me. 

Meanwhile Destiny made a really scrumptious pasta dinner. 

My Valentine roses were still beautiful over a week later. 

We watched the closing ceremonies at the Olympics that evening.  Most of us sat down to watch, but of course Elizer did not, haha!

Monday was an amazingly warm, beautiful day!!  I think we may have hit sixty degrees!  Here are a few pics from that day.  Elizer wanted his boots on as soon as he got up in the morning, so I put them on him right over his pajama feet.  The bird feeder was really busy that day.  In the afternoon Destiny and I took Elizer for a walk on his leash.  It was just awesome!!!  When we got back to the porch Elizer saw the sled and insisted on a sled ride.  Of course that didn't go too well since all our snow had disappeared. 

Tuesday was the famous Twosday!  Some pics from that day - it was a rainy day and Elizer sacked out on the couch for three hours that afternoon.  I got our taxes ready to go during his nap!  In the evening I introduced him to a crayon for the first time.  He immediately tried to do eye make-up with it, hahaha!!  I'm afraid he's watched his great grandma and his mamma more than a few times.  He put a paper bowl on top of his head after he and Destiny ate some grapes.  Then I put it on top of my head and decided it looked like the head covering I used to wear in my younger Mennonite days. 

Here are a few pictures from Wednesday.  I love watching Alex and Elizer together.  They are truly best buddies.   In the evening I took the picture of him trying to ride his motorcycle while wearing a pair of my Birkies.  It did not go well! 

The best part about Wednesday was that I could FINALLY  take the food I had cooked for Anthony and Lori's family all the way to their house - for the first time in WEEKS!!  Their private road is in the woods and faces the north side of the mountain, so it stays snowy and icy long after other roads are bare.  Dick is able to navigate it with his four-wheel-drive pick up truck, so three times a week I take their food to his truck at work, and he takes it to them.  I have missed seeing them so very, very much!!  So with the warmer weather we finally had I was able to take the food there myself.  I had Elizer along with me, and he had a great time with Hunter while Lori and Anthony and I sat down and caught up.  I couldn't get over how tall and handsome Austin was looking with his new haircut.  I had such a wonderful time being there that I didn't think of taking even one picture!!  Ugh!!  

Next are some pictures from Thursday.  We watched a play-off basketball game in the evening, and J'von's team won.  So they will be playing in Hershey next Saturday, and we are going!!  

That night we got freezing rain and snow.  What a MESS!!  Dick took Destiny to work in his truck.  Look how she was dressed in green!  Penn State is celebrating State Patty's weekend, a tradition begun years ago because St. Patrick's Day is usually during Spring Break.  The Auntie Anne's staff is dressing in green this weekend.  Isn't she adorable?

Alex did some shoveling, but the snow was ridiculously heavy.  Elizer had fun watching him.  

Obviously, with that kind of weather I had to take Anthony and Lori's food to Dick's truck at work again.  Ugh!!  I'm SO over cold weather and ice and snow.   But I really don't want to complain.  We have a very warm house and plenty of food.  Of course I'm thinking about the dear people in Ukraine this evening.  What a sad, sad situation.

Friday evening was the first track and field event for Calvary Christian High School in Clearwater, Florida where daughter Lisa is coach and granddaughter Sophie is the fastest runner.  I was watching the live stream here on my computer.  This is Sophie's 400-meter-dash.  I love hearing the announcer talk about her on this video I took.  

Just a few more pics.  My "Christmas" cactus has a second bloom, even prettier than the first one.  I'm not sure why it doesn't have more this year. 

Here's a picture of my "new" van, complete with my front license plate.  Musicaljean has been my gmail address for years, so that's what I decided on.  Destiny thought it should say something about "grandma."  But music has defined my life for many more years than being a grandma has, believe it or not!  

I'm saving the best picture for last.  After eleven days in the hospital in Philadelpia, in a room with NO windows, and with some setbacks and huge obstacles to overcome, our niece Christy CAME HOME yesterday!!!  They set up a hospital bed in their dining room facing those marvelous windows overlooking the woods behind the house.  It was daughter Zoe's 12th birthday yesterday, so it was even more special that Christy could come home!  Good things have happened in her recovery this week, and Christy's attitude is incredible, but there are many reasons to KEEP PRAYING!!!

Bless you if you stayed with me through this long update!  That's it till next time!

A week of special days

Time to catch up here!  This has been a very rainy Thursday.  Much warmer than usual, but the rain.  Yesterday was sunny and in the 40's I think.  It felt absolutely glorious!  I felt like I had an extra "spring" in my step when I was out and about doing errands in the afternoon.

Here are two of the sunrises I captured this week.

 

We had a fun day on Saturday.  We were invited to Bjorn and Jess's gender reveal at her parents' place in Manheim.  On our way we stopped in Duncannon to pick up Sammy and Bianca at Jenn's house and then met Sam after he got off work at 1:00 for lunch at Zeiderelli's.  We had such a great time with them, and the food was really good too.

Sammy really wanted me to see an antique store near Sam's place, and we decided we had enough time to do that.  Wow, what a place!  I wished we had a lot more time to browse.  Looks like Bianca had found something she wanted to show me when I took this pic!  

I saw this Good's Potato Chip can, and it brought such good memories to me.  When I was a kid we grew  acres of potatoes on our farm.  We would pick them into baskets, load the baskets onto a big truck and take them to Good's Potato Chip factory to sell them.  We always bought a can of freshly made chips and ate some of them on the way home - still warm!  Scrumptious!!

Saying our goodbyes before we headed down the road.  I love them so much!

It was a busy place at Jess's parents' house.  Lots of family, food being set out, prep for the big reveal.  Bjorn is the sweetest guy, and sat next to me to catch up. 

The gender reveal was outside.  The two dogs were involved!  One had a pink tutu on, the other a blue tuxedo.  Jess's brother was the one who knew the gender, and at just the right time he had to release one of the dogs.  It was such a fun time!  They were so excited to find out they will be having a baby boy!

On Sunday Destiny and Alex wanted to do something special for Valentines.  Something fun, not just eating somewhere.  They found a roller rink that was open till 4:30 in Lewistown, about 50 minutes from here, so they were off.  They had a good time, and then got Taco Bell afterward. 

We were beginning to watch the Super Bowl when they got home, but Elizer conked out on Dick's lap before it ever started!  Dick sang to him and he was soon out!

Earlier I had read to him.  The book in this video is one that was made for Destiny by her babysitter when she was Elizer's age!

Monday was Valentine's Day.  Here I am with my first and only Valentine!!

Destiny had off work on Monday also.  We went to Walmart for some groceries and some gifts. Destiny loves to give gifts.  That is obviously her love language. 

Here's Elizer with his gift - an adorable stuffed dinosaur.

She gave me these beautiful roses!!  Now I'm REALLY ready for summer and my roses!!

We made a pasta and shrimp recipe for dinner.  It was really delicious.  

Tuesday was Jeremy's 42nd birthday.  Wow, 42 years since that wonderful home birth.  The picture in the collage is the last we saw him as we were saying our goodbyes at the Portland airport in October.  He calls me on the phone often, and I love it.  

Of course we had to make a Happy Birthday video.

On Tuesday Destiny had off again. (Her 12 -13 hour days the rest of the week make up for the days off!)  In the afternoon we decided to go to the mall to walk around with Elizer and see what's there.  I hadn't been there for two years, and I know there are fewer and fewer stores remaining.  But we were pleasantly surprised to find a pet store and an inflatables place for kids.  We ended up having a really fun time!

Is he not the cutest bus driver you've ever seen?

On Wednesday morning Elizer was in our bedroom as I sorted our laundry.  He sat on the rocker holding a baby wrapped in one of our pillow cases!  He also crawled under our covers - for one minute maybe!  

The picture on the left was taken after he had totally cracked me up.  He had come out to the kitchen where I was working and said, "'SUP?"  As in, what's up?  He's getting more and more comical and learning new words every day.

His obsession with walking around in big shoes has not diminished at all, haha!

My heart and thoughts and prayers have been for our niece Christy this week.  She is my sister Doris's beloved daughter-in-law.  Christy has a number of challenging health issues, and on top of those she has a rare form of cancer in her bladder and GI tract.  On Monday she had surgery at PENN in Philadelphia, and since then they are working to regulate her too-low blood pressure.  Christy and Corey have three children, ages 6 - 13.  My sister Doris and her husband and daughter Ellen live together with Corey's family, so they are there with the children while Corey is in Philadelphia this week with Christy.  If they come to your mind, could you lift up prayers to the Lord for all of them?

Time for bed!  Goodnight!

Snow and ice and cold, but getting closer to Spring!

Almost the end of the week!  Getting closer to Spring, hallelujah!!

As usual I'll start with my sky pictures from this week.  As you can see, we still have snow on the ground.  We have had snow, then ice, then more snow.  It's been quite a while since we've seen bare ground.  But snow is prettier.  I'm just tired of cold, and especially ice.

I took these pictures this morning.  

I loved the pink wispy clouds on Monday morning. 

On Friday we got our "new" van.  I took this picture of the new and the old, or should I say, the old and the older when we got home that day.

I'm adjusting.  There were things about the interior of the older one that I really, really liked better.  It felt roomier with nothing between the driver's seat and the front passenger seat.  But I'll get used to this.  

And of course, always pictures of Elizer.  There seem to be no end of picture moments with him!

He loves to put blankets or adult shirts around his shoulders. 

Reading a book to Great grandpa.

On Sunday morning he got into our bathroom when we were at church!  I decided to let him play with that old curling brush.  I never use it anyway.  He mainly walks around with it looking for a place to plug it in, but alas, every receptacle has a cover.  Thank goodness!

Always, always putting on adult shoes and boots.  This time he was "vacuuming" with his corn popper while wearing some boots, hahaha!  That corn popper is by far his favorite toy.  He truly uses it like a vacuum cleaner.  

There is no door between the living room and the den, so we put a gate there.  I have too many things in the den that he likes to get into, like shelves of music, photo albums, etc.  Our computer.  It's too much of a pain opening the gate, so we just "hurdle" it!  I decided this is a good way for us older folks to keep our hip flexors in good shape!  Unfortunately, Elizer has already managed to hurdle it once or twice.  Ugh.  We'll probably get a better one.  This was the cheapest one at Walmart. 

The day after I took that video I caught Elizer doing "yoga stretches." 

And then I needed the step stool for something.  I let him go up and down and up and down the steps for a while.  I decided we have our own homemade gym around here, haha!

One evening Dick got out the tunnel.  Elizer rarely goes though it, but would much rather shake it and shake it and shake it.

Dick and I saw this at Walmart on Saturday!

Well, that's it for this time.  Not much time to write!