More warm days than cold ones, woohoo!

This is a rather chilly Sunday, but did we ever have some SPRING since my last post!  But first we had to have some more winter!  

On Saturday, the 12th, we had snow and wind!  Destiny and Alex were down in Lancaster for a few days because she was working down there over our Spring break, but she couldn't even go to work on Saturday.  The power at Alex's dad's place, where they were staying, was out for several hours.  They were cold and her phone was dying and her car was snow-covered and it was blowing.  Ugh!!  Things did get better later in the day.  

I stayed home all day and got lots of things done, including some pictures from inside!

We had more snow on Sunday and it was FREEZING COLD, but it didn't amount to much.  We had our service at GBRV, then afterward we decided to go to Calvary's 10:45 service for the first time since August!  It was really good to hear Pastor Dan preach in person and to see some friends we haven't seen in quite a while.  And I always enjoy the chance to be led in musical worship by someone else!

Destiny and Alex got home in the evening and we all went to bed at the regular time, but not for long.  

The smoke alarm fiasco

The smoke alarm in our bedroom decided to malfunction.  Between midnight and 3:00 am it went off, and I do mean went off, not just chirped, maybe every 15 minutes or sometimes five times in 15 minutes.  Because all our smoke alarms are connected electrically, if we did not wave something under ours quickly enough to get it to stop, all the smoke alarms would be going off.  We googled, we watched YouTube videos, we considered calling the fire company, we unplugged unnecessary things, we turned off the fuse for the smoke alarms in our breaker box, Dick stood precariously on our step stool and changed the battery in the smoke alarm, we prayed for God's mercy!!  At 3:00 am, after watching another YouTube video, Dick went outside in the snow to get our big, dirty step ladder from the little basement under our house, dragged it through the house to our bedroom, climbed up and disconnected the smoke alarm from the ceiling.  He brought it down, laid it on my dresser, and started collapsing the ladder, and IT WENT OFF AGAIN!!!  I grabbed a piece of clothes to wave under it, but Dick said,  "It's not up there, it's on your dresser."  Sure enough, that dang thing was going off on my dresser!  Dick grabbed it and noticed a button to press, and when he did, we could hear it making a sound like it was dying.  He took out the battery and went to bed.  I tried to go to bed too, but believe me, if that thing would have gone off one more time I was going to throw it out into the snow!!!!  I'm sure it was after 4:00 till I finally went to sleep.  And I get up at 6:15.  GRRRR.  Needless to say, Dick went to buy a new smoke alarm right after work that day!  If that ever happens again we will know that the battery needs to be removed AND the smoke alarm has to be disconnected from electricity.  

On Monday Destiny and Alex took Elizer to the doctor for his 18-month check-up.  He fell asleep on the way there and continued sleeping, even through a poopy diaper change, haha!  She sent me this picture.  I think he looked like we all felt that day!

I napped in the afternoon.  In the evening Destiny and I went for groceries and to Gabe's again.  She got some things there for their own place.  She also found the BEST new toy for Elizer at Walmart - a Baby Shark vacuum cleaner that actually runs and picks up dirt!  He LOVES it!  It has a charger for when it dies.  Look at the dirt it picked up in one day!

Tuesday morning's sunrise signaled the beginning of better days - warmer and longer!

We had gloriously warm weather the rest of the week - until today.  Elizer LOVES being outside! On one of our walks he looked up at the sun and kept saying, "Sunshine, sunshine." 

On Wednesday after Dick got home from work, he and Alex cut down all our tall grasses with the hedge trimmer.  They took at least three truck-fuls to the farm at the end of our street. 

I went to our Lenten service that evening.  When I left the church afterward, this was my view of the sunset!

This was our glorious view from the front porch on Thursday.  

Our crocuses bloomed!!!  I wanted to get down and kiss them!

I spent a lot of Thursday afternoon raking up all the stray grasses that were beginning to blow across the neighborhood.  I even raked them from our neighbors' yards!  But I realized I was also raking up leaves from our flower beds.  We do not have any trees with leaves!  So I guess we all share, haha!  Look how the weeds thrived under all those neighbors' leaves!

I took these pics on Thursday when I was sharing my 12 noon "breakfast" with Elizer.  Almost every day my breakfast consists of an English muffin and an avocado.  And every day I have an adorable little beggar that I need to share it with.  I don't mind a bit!  I'm gonna miss sharing it with him after they move. 

On Saturday we worked outside in the morning.  Elizer had the greatest time!  He loved pushing the cart with the trash bin on it.  Dick pulled him on the sled from the porch to the shed where it will stay till next winter.  Then he decided to start up his John Deere mower to take Elizer for a ride.  That was a huge hit!  The last picture below was taken last evening when Elizer crawled into the little pink wagon and Dick was pushing him back and forth.  My friend Diana dropped that wagon off the other day, filled with Duplo blocks.  He loves it!

Yesterday Lisa took her track and field team to a very important invitational.  They had great weather, unlike the two meets they had at the end of last week in rain and wind.  Sophie did fantastic yesterday!  She won the 100-meter dash by 1/100th of a second, beating last year's state champ. 

She also won the 400, which is a new race for her this year.   I just love hearing the announcers talk about her.  I get tears listening.  I'm just so proud of her.  

In spite of cooler weather, this has been a good Sunday.  I took this picture as people were gathering at GBRV.  This was our first Sunday with masks being optional.  It was nice to be able to better hear the congregation singing behind me.  But I do feel qualms because Pastor Lynn is still being treated for cancer.

At the end of the service today the children came up from children's church with the rhythm instruments they had made.  We sang, "I've Got the Joy, Joy, Joy Down in My Heart" as they accompanied.  It was really fun.  I miss singing songs like that with kids. 

After church we joined a group that was going out for brunch.  We had so much fun!!  But I didn't think of taking any pictures.  

Last time I said we were 99% sure that Destiny and Alex would be moving to their own place, now I think we are 99.5% sure.  So I'm not gonna tell the story yet, but I will give you a little glance!

That's all till next time!