Our Thanksgiving week

 When I last updated on Sunday, November 20 I was talking about how freezing cold it was.  But, wow, it got worse!!  On the Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week Destiny had to work 7:00 am to 3:30 pm.  So each of those mornings I went over to her place to pick up Elizer at 6:15, and one of those mornings it was 18 degrees!!  

Elizer really cried when I dropped him off at preschool that Monday and Tuesday morning.  So completely different from his eagerness the previous two weeks.  But his teachers said he got happy quickly after I left, so that was good, but wow, it felt horrible to leave him crying.  

This was us that cold Monday evening, each of us a bit sleepy and Dick not feeling great because of trying to adjust to his new dentures while his gums were still healing.  I think it's ridiculous how they push to wear dentures right away.  

I took no pictures and made no FB post that Tuesday, so I'm trying to remember what I did that day besides take Elizer to preschool and pick him up later.  I think I worked a lot on church music and bulletins.  

On Wednesday Elizer's preschool was closed.  Since we had to have such an early start due to Destiny's work schedule, I did our Thanksgiving grocery shopping in the morning.  There's one sure way to get lots of positive attention in the store - have Elizer along, haha!  

At 12 noon I picked up Hunter at a nearby sports center where he was having a class.   The boys were happy to be together.  During lunch Hunter told me he is 6.75 years old, haha!  Then I overheard this conversation: 

Hunter: "Elizer, you are two."

Elizer: "I'm Elizer."

Hunter: "You are two."

Elizer: "No, I'm Elizer." 

Things kind of went down hill after lunch.  Elizer desperately needed a nap, but was too excited to be able to go to sleep.  Hunter was getting quite unhappy about Elizer's lack of cooperation.  About the time Elizer was finally sleeping and I could have given Hunter some undivided attention, Anthony got there to pick him up after an appointment he'd had. 

That evening I made an apple pie and got my turkey ready to put into the oven overnight.  I roasted it at 400 degrees for one hour, then at 225 degrees for at least then hours, breast down.  This makes very moist meat.  But if you like to have a perfectly browned turkey on the Thanksgiving table, this is not the way to do it.  

All the while I was doing the pie and the turkey prep I was on a text message chat with my sisters as we gabbed about our Thanksgiving prep and plans, recipes, old cookbooks they came from, etc.  It was like we were all in the same room working together, haha!  I love my sisters so much!

On Thursday morning I stretched out the dining room table and put the basic things on it before I started the rest of the food prep.  I got a paper table cloth and put crayons on the table.

I deboned the turkey, made sweet potato casserole, baked corn, stuffing, cranberry applesauce, gravy, and roasted green beans and bacon.  I had bought a pumpkin pie.  Meanwhile Lori was making garlic mashed potatoes and apple crisp, and Anthony was smoking a pork shoulder.  

Destiny came in time for Elizer to take his nap here.  She had her childhood friend Mariah along too.

 When Elizer woke up just before we ate, she put him into his new outfit.  I had taken the waist in, as we need to do to all his pants, and I saw the T.J.Maxx tag on the outfit.  I told Dick, "Oh she must have gone to T.J.Maxx to get it."  How we laughed that evening when Destiny said it had been a birthday gift at his birthday party this summer from someone, she wasn't sure who.  I suddenly remembered that I had gotten him an outfit or two at T.J.Maxx, and this was one of them.  Anyway, he was just as adorable as could be that evening!

I gave up on fancy a long time ago.  Especially because I wanted to have crayons on the table, we had no room to put all the food on it.  So we had food lined up on both counters and the stovetop and did cafeteria style.  Please notice Anthony's pork shoulder on the bottom picture.  It was perfect.  He pulled that bone out of it perfectly clean!  It smelled just like Doan's Bones, our favorite BBQ place.  

After dinner we played two games - The Game of Things and Candy Land.  Of course Austin was doing some origami at the same time.  Dick and Anthony were working off their meal as they reclined, haha!

Later that evening Ray and his girlfriend Leiana arrived from Maryland.  I didn't get many pictures of them!  None at all Thanksgiving evening.  Ugh!

Not much better on Friday.  Dick had a vacation day, so it was perfect timing for Ray to help him to cut down the tall grasses.  Dick also got some new icicle lights and hung them up on the front porch.  Ray and Leiana helped us out with all our Thanksgiving leftovers, and then they snoozed for a long time on the couch - in a food coma, haha!  I got our laundry started and mostly done. 

Friday evening Dick and I drove to meet Alex about halfway to give him Elizer for the weekend.  We met Sam at the same place to get Sammy and Bianca from him for the weekend.  It was nice to be able to coordinate both meetings at the same time and place.  

The top picture was taken Friday evening after Ray and Ashley had left to head home to Maryland.  

The bottom pictures were taken Saturday morning.  I made pancakes and bacon for the kids for breakfast.  The kids spent a lot of time at the piano.  

Then we went to Bernel Road Park, or as we have always called it - airport park.  We had the greatest time there.  It was so nice and sunny.  

There was a new feature we had never seen before.  Listen to the music in the park!!

We walked around the nice blacktopped trail, and relaxed at the rest stop, pretending we were sunning ourselves at the beach!

After leaving the park we went to Wegmans to shop for some food and also some gingerbread house kits.  Then we went home and had some pulled pork sandwiches, thanks to Anthony's delicious leftover pork.  

Bianca organized the marbles by color, always an eye for the artistic.

  

Sammy and I had been practicing "Ode to Joy" from his band music.  He plays in the percussion section  of the middle school band.  We recorded our duet.

They each took a long bubble bath that evening, and then we finished out the evening in our pajamas as we watched some interesting YouTube videos about the tricks of advertisement photography.  

Dick had spent hours hunting in Anthony's woods on Saturday.  He did hit a deer, and he and Anthony tracked it for a long distance until they no longer could see any blood trail and had to give up.  We almost had venison.  He was a very tired guy that evening and went to bed early.  

On Sunday morning I first of all took a picture of my Christmas (Thanksgiving?) cactus on my sink window.  I just love it, even though it's small compared to many I have seen on my friends' pictures.  We had our Hanging of the Greens service at church Sunday morning.  Sammy and Bianca got to hang some Chrismons on the tree and helped to put some of the manger scene figurines under the tree.  

After church we went to Perkins for a good lunch. 

In the afternoon Dick left for his brothers' hunting cabin, and the kids and I went to church for our gingerbread house decorating party.  Lori and the boys came too.  Some of the kits we bought were a bit more complicated than we were expecting, especially with just one adult per two kids, so we got creative and came up with repurposed gingerbread creations.  With candy decorations, how can you go wrong anyway??

This is a replica of our new church building which will be built in 2023!   The gingerbread version of it will be entered into a contest at a local Victorian Christmas this coming weekend.  

When we got home from the party, the kids and I watched the movie "Soul," complete with popcorn.  Then we played LIFE until the kids got too interested in all the questions they had for me about our family, and we ended up making a family tree and looking up info on my Ancestry app.   What fun!  They were sure they had never known that my first name is Thelma, haha!!  The other thing they could not believe was that on Dick's mother's side I had tracked grandfathers all the way back to one that was born in 1710!!  Sammy now wants a membership on ancestry.com!  

We took the kids home on Monday and got Elizer back on the same trip, but that's a story for the next post.  Let's just say for now - car trouble. When Dick was at the hunting cabin, of course. 

Funny boy, not funny snow, and other not funny things

Baby, it's COLD outside!!!!  We've been in the 20's all day!  When I stepped outside this morning to take this picture (in my bright pink terry cloth robe that I throw on after my shower) it was a very breezy 22, feels like 10!  Good grief!!  As you can see, we have snow, but that's another story.  I am not a very happy camper. 

On Monday evening Elizer was here.  Have I ever said that his "tractor" is his favorite toy?  

He spends a lot of time just riding it around the house.  On Monday evening he was looking at one of the tires and saying it was broken.  I told him he'll need to fix it.  He went into the toy corner and came out carrying this tool box, hahaha!  He worked and worked at fixing his tractor.  He kept saying, "I has figger OUT."  (I have to figure it out.)  And when he was finished he cleaned up his tools!!  

On Tuesday he went to preschool.  I knew they were calling for a bit of snow in the afternoon, but I wasn't too worried as I sat here at the computer working on church stuff.  I had been checking an app on my phone.  But after a while I looked outside and thought, "This is NOT what the app is telling me!!"  It was really laying on the street.  And it was really coming down!  I checked Accuweather, and they had another story compared to the app I'd been watching.  I do not have four wheel drive on my van.  I texted Dick and he said he'd take off work a bit early and come home to take me to pick up Elizer.  

Thank God he did!!  This storm must have taken everyone by surprise, because NOTHING had been done to any of the roads.  It was absolutely treacherous and rush hour traffic at that!!  It took us a long time to get there and even longer to get back home. I took the lower pictures on our way home.  At one point someone coming the other direction could not make it up the hill.  We have LOTS of hills around here.  I was SO thankful to finally be home!  

The snow stopped during the evening and roads were plowed.  Dick took a drive around to check things out before it was time for Destiny to leave work at 9:30.  He told her they were good.  She had no trouble getting here or getting home to her place after picking up Elizer. 

The next morning I took the picture of our evergreen tree thinking what a nice Christmas tree it would be if we could ever string lights on it!  And of course we had snow on our pumpkins, haha!

On Wednesday after I brought Elizer here from preschool he found our basket of gloves, masks, neck gaiters, etc at the front door.  He put one of the neck gaiters on his head.  He was at the dining room table getting ready to use crayons when Dick got home from work.  He thought that was the cutest thing ever, hahaha!!  I took pictures and couldn't stop laughing. 

Then Dick put one on his head too, and they sat there like that playing with the play doh, haha!!

On Thursday evening we had choir practice at church.  Destiny was at work, of course, and this time her next door neighbor, who has two little girls, said Elizer could stay at their place while we were at practice.  After practice I picked him up and stayed with him at Destiny's place until she got home from work.  We had fun playing in his room.  

On Friday morning Dick had all his top teeth extracted.  I don't know if I have ever mentioned here that he was going to be having it done.  The dentist said there were cavities in teeth that had already been crowned.  Removing the crowns, filling the teeth and putting new crowns on would have been $6000!!  Getting all his teeth out and a denture would be $2000.  Good grief.  And that is with dental insurance through his job.  So he decided on the "cheaper" route.  

He's been on soft food all weekend and is not at all ready for anything else yet.  He has a good bit of pain when the denture is in, and now he has a black eye too.  He is on an antibiotic, thank goodness.  He  did have an appointment to have everything checked on Saturday.  They shaved a place on the denture that was hurting him, and that made it better.  But today he had more pain than yesterday.  Prayers would be appreciated.

 

I will also ask you to pray for my brother-in-law Elvin Peifer -  my sister Janet's husband.  Janet passed away in 2004, and Elvin has married Pauline, a widow who was a very good friend of Janet's.  Elvin and Pauline live part of the year in Pennsylvania and part of the year in California with his son's family.  We found out yesterday from his son Scott that Elvin has been sick with a fever and respiratory issues for weeks.  He had been hospitalized, but had gone home when he was getting better.  But at home he was getting weaker and having more trouble breathing, so he is now back in the hospital in ICU and on oxygen.  He also tested positive for COVID yesterday.  Please pray that his lungs will heal!  Here's a happy picture of Elvin and Pauline that I took at their lovely lake house in 2017. 

That's all for this time!  Happy Thanksgiving week!

This was a big week!!

 Last Sunday (Nov. 6) was a gorgeous day, so in the afternoon Dick and I decided to take a walk in Anthony’s woods.  We took it nice and slow, and except for my ever-present fear of seeing a snake, it was delightful.  We did not see any snake, by the way!

This is the lovely view from their house!

The clouds were spectacular as we drove back home. 

On Monday it was 40 years that we said a sad goodbye to my mother.  She had a three-month battle with pancreatic cancer and turned 59 a month before she passed away.  It was a REALLY hard time in the Witmer family.  Here are some favorite pictures I have of her.  On top left she was talking with baby Jeremy and on bottom left she was holding newborn Lisa the day she came home from the hospital.  Some of my sisters were surrounding her.  My mom LOVED babies!

On Monday morning I met Destiny at Target Optical and entertained Elizer while she got her eye exam and picked out new glasses.  He is such an attention grabber!  Our cashier said, "He needs his own show! I would definitely watch it!"

He was here with me for the rest of the day after she went to work.  He LOVES tractors!  I noticed he was taking this one around and around and around the coffee table. 

Tuesday was a big day!!  His first day at St. Pauls Christian Preschool in downtown State College!!  It was such an amazing answer to prayer that any place had an opening.  After Destiny found out she would be eligible for a childcare subsidy she called so many places and they all had long waiting lists.  St. Pauls is wonderful!  Hunter had gone there for a few months, and Lori is very familiar with it, having done some of her research there. 

Here he is, ready to go!  His backpack had his sleeping mat in it, so it was very heavy and bulky, haha! 

When we visited the previous week the kids had been playing outside, down those steps on the left.  He was not happy Tuesday morning that we weren't going right down there to play!  Inside his classroom he cautiously checked things out.  The teacher said that he was a bit weepy for Mommy after we left and also at nap-time, but otherwise he did great.  He napped over two hours and had no problems playing with the other kids.  Whew!!  Big relief for Destiny and me!

That happened to be my birthday.  As I said in my previous post, Dick and I had gone to our favorite Texas Roadhouse the previous Friday evening when we were child-free.  After Destiny and I dropped Elizer off at St. Pauls on Tuesday we had time for her to take me out to lunch before going to work.  We went to Rey Azteca.  We both love that place so much!!  We had a nice time and the food was scrumptious as always.

When I picked up Elizer later the kids were playing outside.  He had missed the first outdoor playtime because we got him there too late.  So he was NOT HAPPY that I came to pick him up!!  

Since he had missed Mommy that first day at preschool Dick and I took him to see her at work that evening.  How sweet are they???

Wednesday was another BIG day in our family!  Our granddaughter Sophie signed her letter of intention for Miami University, which was her first pick of the three Florida universities to which she had had official visits. We prayed and prayed that Miami would come through with a good offer for her, and they DID!!  Thank you, Lord!!

How quickly these grandchildren grow up!!  I love high school senior Sophie, but I also miss this curly-haired cutie!

Wednesday and Thursday were really good days for Elizer.  He got to preschool early enough for the first outdoor playtime, so he wasn't at all upset when I got there to pick him up.  He loves riding in the little "cars."  His teacher said they discovered a way for him to be willing to go inside at the end of playtime - he puts his car to bed, hahaha!!   The teacher posts pictures throughout the day for us to view.  We LOVE seeing them!!!  He'll be going three days a week, Tuesday through Thursday.  Destiny always works a very late shift on Mondays and has off on Fridays.  

Playing with Grandpa one evening.  

Always happy to see Mommy when she gets done working.  He's really into saying, "I lub you."  It's so precious!!

On Friday evening my birthday celebration continued!!  Lori, Anthony, and the boys brought me a cake and a beautiful planter!  We had cake and ice cream.  A carrot cake, my absolute favorite!!  And vanilla ice cream, which I always get.  But also coffee ice cream, also my absolute favorite!!  As always, we had some fun with singing "Happy Birthday."  We four adults love to harmonize.  I told them before they started singing that if they all start harmonizing I'm going to jump in on the melody and sing to myself, which is exactly what I had to do on the last part, haha!!  I told Dick he looked like he was worshiping, lol!!

Friday was a RAINY, windy day - our experience with the remnants of hurricane Nicole.  Before I went to bed that night I heard a roar in our valley.  I checked to make sure there was no tornado warning.  There was not, but it was really blowing out there.  I didn't capture the big gust right before I started this video.

On Saturday Dick and I drove to Lancaster for my cousin Jeff Myers's memorial service.  It was so good to see cousins.  It was even better to get a glimpse of the wonderful man Jeff was.  You may remember when I posted that he had been killed in a head-on collision with a drunk driver.  All his siblings shared their memories of him, as did his wife Barb and his daughter Michelle and a man from their small group at Worship Center.  So many tears and so much laughter as they shared.  I wish I had not missed seeing him at our last Myers family gathering in April to which we were unable to go.  The pictures below are ones I took during the slide show.  The middle left picture was taken at that Myers reunion.  It is Jeff with his siblings and in-laws.  They are such a wonderful family.  Their dad Paul was my mother's younger brother. 

There was a meal provided afterward which gave a lot of time for conversation.  I'm so glad we were able to go.

Look at these beautiful flowers at our church Sunday morning.  The bouquet on top was in honor of a 65th wedding anniversary, and the one on the bottom was in honor of a 60th wedding anniversary.  

On Sunday afternoon Dick and I drove to meet Alex at our usual half-way point to pick up Elizer from him.  Destiny had taken him there on Friday when she went to Lancaster for an appointment.   

The weather has changed!!  It was really cold on Sunday and is going to stay cold this whole week.  In fact they mention the "S" word in the weather forecast this morning.  I can't even think about it.  

I took these pictures as we drove yesterday.  

The sun on Mount Nittany.

The view as we head away from State College. 

Cold, winter clouds. 

All buckled in for the ride in the dark, boohoohoo!  Dark by 5:00.  But he was fine.  He's such a good traveler.  

He was cute and funny as always last evening and of course delighted to see Mommy when she got home from work.  But somehow I never thought to take any pictures.  

And now I gotta get on with my day and my week!  Have a good one!

Warm first week of November

What???  I might have two posts in one week?  

I ended my previous post with our meeting up with Alex to get Elizer on Sunday while Destiny was at work.

  When we got here he immediately wanted to go for a walk.  A lot of people had raked their leaved into piles for pickup, so I had to try to keep him from messing up those wonderful piles!  Oh they were so tempting!!

We went to the playground behind our house too and on the way back to our house we spied a neighbor's cat sitting under our tall grasses.  Of course it walked away when Elizer approached it.  Too bad.

Later I got some pictures of Dick and Elizer hiding under a "tent."

On Monday Elizer started having a runny nose and a cough.  Of course it was Halloween, and we had that adorable kangaroo outfit to wear on him.  He didn't seem to lack any energy, so we put enough clothes and a jacket under his outfit.  Besides, the weather was quite mild.  Dick took him around the neighborhood while I stayed here to hand out candy to the other trick-or-treaters.  Destiny was sad to miss it - her Monday schedule is 2:30 - 11:00 pm.  

Lori and Austin joined Dick and Elizer too.  Unfortunately, Hunter was sick and stayed home with Anthony.   Below are their costumes.  Lori's was a stick figure, hahaha!  Austin is on the right, Hunter on the bottom.  His picture was taken at an earlier event over the weekend. 

After they finished our neighborhood we all went to our church's Trunk or Treat event.   I took these pictures of our little kangaroo there.  

Destiny's boss told her that it would be fine for us to bring Elizer to Starbucks for some candy too.  So the library on campus was our last stop of the night.  And I didn't take any pictures!  It was so fun for Destiny to get to see him at work!

There was a thing going around on the internet where people could make fake Halloween costume packages.  When I saw them I got an idea for mine.  Dick took a picture of me, Lisa helped me to get it on the package, and I added the words, including the "HOLY" to cover up the scary-looking figure that was above the word "Spirit."  We got a good laugh out of it!

On Tuesday Elizer's nose was an ever-running fountain, and he started coughing more too.  But he was as happy and almost as energetic as usual.  He definitely wanted to go for a walk after his nap.  

Look what we saw!

Dick got home while we were still outside, and he took Elizer for a ride around the block.  The weather was pretty mild, but I had him dressed really warm because of his cold.

That evening he was doing something so cute.  Dick said, "We have our own personal Door Dash!"  I just had to take a video!

On Wednesday morning I had an appointment at Orthopedics with my hand surgeon.  My right hand has been waking me up several times a night with pain and extreme tingling and numbness.  I had had a cortisone shot in April before we went to Portland, and it made a world of difference for quite a few months.  I do wear a brace on both wrists every night ever since I had my left carpal tunnel surgery in August 2021.  

I was so hoping he would be willing to give me another injection, since my life seems to make the possibility of carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand unthinkable right now.  And thankfully, he was willing to do that.  He is such a nice man, always seems so understanding of my "real life" situations.  He called himself a "wholistic hand surgeon."

After my appointment I was planning to get Elizer, but Destiny said he had coughed a lot and tossed and turned all night.  She was allowed to take a sick day from work.  Getting anyone to see Elizer was another thing altogether!  No available appointment with his doctor until Friday!  And urgent care said they were filled up and she could put him on a wait list over the phone.  So she did, and they told her it would be 6:30 pm!!  

So we took him to urgent care at 6:30, and still it was after 7:00 till they saw him.  They tested him for RSV and other things.  The doctor there said we should take him outside since the indoor air is dry.  Of course, getting him to go outside is no problem!

Something unusual happened on Wednesday.  I was cooking a meal for Anthony and Lori's family here in my kitchen when there was a knock at my door.  That almost never happens, and my first thought was, "Oh dear, what happened?"  I somewhat gingerly opened my front door and there stood Dick's cousin Suzanne and her husband from Lancaster County!  They are big time hikers and were doing some hiking in our area and decided to look us up!  Suzanne's dad was a brother to Dick's mother.  In that Brubaker family Suzanne was the only girl cousin - all the rest were boys!  It was fun to catch up with them, but I never thought of taking a picture.  When they left here they went to Dick's shop to see him.  Later I saw that Suzanne had posted this cousin picture! 

Destiny's car was having issues this week, so on Thursday morning she dropped it off at Dick's workplace.  I met her there and took her home to get ready for work.  While we waited I took Elizer outside.  The weather was so beautiful!  And he was definitely feeling better. 

We had so much fun with his little tee ball set.

We're always excited when airplanes go overhead.  Destiny's house seems to be in the flight path for landing at University Park Airport. 

We went for a walk on the path behind her community.

Of course we had fun shuffling in the leaves.

And then he played at the playground for a while. 

Then we took Destiny to work.  Her Tuesday/Thursday schedule is 1:00 to 9:30 pm.  We pray for a better schedule!  She did get word that Elizer had tested positive for RSV.  But the worst was definitely past.  His nose was not running much, and he was coughing less.  

On our walk that afternoon I got this picture.  He was so fascinated by the little moon we could see up there. 

I gave him a bath and washed his hair that evening.  For whatever reason, he HATES bath time!  I reminded him how much he loved being in the pool this summer, but for some reason he is terrified of getting his hair washed.  After he was all dry he was ready to snuggle with Grandpa while they watched the Phillies. 

 

Then we picked Destiny up from work and took her to pick up her car at the shop.

On Friday we had a gorgeous sunrise!

My first mission of the morning was to meet Destiny at Elizer's doctor for a follow-up appointment.  However, Destiny could not stay for the appointment because she had another one at a daycare that has a spot for him.  So I took care of the doctor appointment and met her later at the daycare.  

It has been another tremendous answer to prayer for there to be an available spot.  So many places she called, since she found out she is eligible for daycare assistance, had long waiting lines.  And then this one at St. Paul's UMC in downtown State College, had room!  Hunter had actually gone there for a few months, so we are familiar with it.  I think Elizer can start this coming week, Tuesday through Thursday.  Don't worry, I'll still be seeing him since Destiny's work schedule goes way later than daycare hours.

After that appointment Destiny and Elizer left for Lancaster County.  It was her day off and she was going to be taking her mom out to eat as a belated birthday treat and then taking Elizer to Alex for the weekend.  

I got groceries and on my way home drove past this BRIGHT yellow tree!!

  

Our sunset was even more glorious than our sunrise on Friday!!

Dick had gone hunting at Anthony's after work and took this picture from his hunting shack.  The lights are in their house, the big light behind the trees was the moon!

My birthday is next Tuesday, but we decided we should probably eat my birthday meal at Texas Roadhouse while Elizer is away for the weekend.  I could go there just for the rolls.  Dick would go for the Cactus Blossom.  But of course, the steaks are amazing too!  We each got a side salad, I got a baked potato, he got a sweet potato.  And we each brought half our dinner home, and they tasted good today!  

Almost 71.

Look what I did this morning!  Oops, wrong microwave, hahahaha!

This was another warm day!  In fact, right now at almost 9:30 pm it is still 70 degrees!  I sat on the porch for a while and breathed in the sights and sounds.  Lawn mowers on November 5th! 

 

And tonight we get an extra hour.  But tomorrow evening it will get dark WAY too early.  I am trying to find ways to encourage myself.  I looked ahead and saw that by mid-December we start adding a minute of daylight every few days.  Small encouragement, I guess!  

Have a happy Sunday!  I'm looking forward to having my flute player at church tomorrow morning. And the choir will be singing "Taste and See" after Communion.