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!