Dick's birthday week

 Here we go - another week with below average temps.  We'll survive, I guess.  At least last week we had a few really warm days to make up for the cold ones.  The ten-day forecast has us staying in the fifties right into the first week of May.  I hope it's wrong.  

Last Wednesday was Dick's 73rd birthday.  I made a little slide show of highlights from this past year.  It was fun to remember the good times we've had. 

We used a gift card from Sam and Steph and went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner.  I enjoyed steak and salad, he got ribs, a sweet potato, and broccoli.  

And of course he got a Cactus Blossom!

Afterward we went to Sweet Frog and had dessert with Anthony and Lori and the boys - their treat.  Destiny joined us too.  It was a wonderful time!

In the process of figuring out the making of Dick's slide show, I somehow came across a whole bunch of videos in my computer that I didn't even know I had!  They were not in my picture files.  There were quite a few videos from my very last Spring program at Manheim Christian Day School in May 2009!  Oh.  My.  Goodness!!  I was like a kid in a candy store watching the videos.  So far I got just one of them on YouTube and here it is.  My Middle School Chorus!  Grades 6, 7, and 8.  They were SO good with their three and four-part harmony.  I just couldn't stop listening to this!

I had programmed my piano accompaniment into the digital piano so I could conduct, and I had one of my co-workers start each song for us.  There was a bit of a problem getting the first song's accompaniment started, but no problems after that. I do really miss those days. 

On Thursday Hunter had a sore throat and did not go to school, so he was my boy for the day.  He's so easy.  

He felt well enough to play outside in the morning, but in the afternoon he didn't feel as well and ended up taking a nap.

Dick and I had choir practice that evening.  

On Friday I had a very unusual day of being all by myself all day until Dick finished mowing at Anthony's place after work.  I got a lot of laundry folded, both ours and Destiny's, while I watched episodes of "Call the Midwife."  I love it so much!

On Saturday I attended a CPR training at church.  They covered both adult and infant, as well as choking.  It never occurred to me until I took my turn to do compressions on the adult dummy that my right wrist is still too painful from surgery to be able to put that much pressure on it.  So I did not get my certification updated after all.  But we had a lot of fun and got a lot of good, easy-to-remember instruction.  

I was delighted to find these multi-colored tulips in one of my flower beds Saturday afternoon!

On Sunday morning we had a nearly full house again at church.  Till we get into the new building we might need to get out the folding chairs or have two services. A wonderful problem!

Right after church we left for the Lancaster area to attend a Myers family reunion. That is my mother’s family. As I probably said after my Uncle Lloyd’s funeral a few weeks ago, we have just one uncle still living. One out ten!   This is a picture of the cousins who were there. Many more were not there. 

 

Then we took pictures of individual families. You'll recognize my mother’s family in the middle left photo of this collage.  Our only living uncle, Earl Myers, is in the bottom right photo. Isn’t he a handsome 87-year-old?

This is an old photo of the fourteen oldest cousins, probably taken in 1947 before I was born. I checked out the birthdates in our Myers family directory and pretty much figured out who each child is. Except my sister Mary Ellen. She should be the youngest one on this picture, but neither of the two babies look like her. 

After we left the reunion we picked up Elizer then headed toward home.  It was fun to sit in the middle seat beside him. 

 

As we neared Duncannon we decided to check with Sam and Steph about my white coat that I had left at Bianca’s softball practice about a month ago. I have really been missing it!  They said it is in their coat closet, and they had just left Sammy’s flag football game and were on their way home. We told them we would stop by for my coat.  Would you believe we all got to their house at exactly the same time?  It was so funny!

They were glad to see Elizer. The first thing they did was show him a new toy - a money gun!  He LOVED it!  He wanted to do it over and over again, but what a mess every time, picking up all those bills, haha!

The kids wanted to show us their bedrooms. Here’s Sammy at his desk. He’s SO studious - a straight A student.  I think he was looking back at Elizer getting into something when I snapped the picture. 

How about his mathematical bed sheets?

And here’s Bianca in her bedroom. She has the coolest chair!  Of course Elizer found all her stuffed animals irresistible!  

She is very proud of this collection of artificial plants on her chest of drawers. 

It was so fun to see them, even for so short a time!

On our way home I told Elizer that Grandpa had a birthday last week. So we sang Happy Birthday to him. Elizer sang with great gusto. I gotta work on his pitch, lol!!

I also wanted to make a video to send to Destiny at work, but he was so puzzled.  He's used to video calls where you can see the other person, and he couldn't figure out why he saw himself in my phone instead of Mommy.

Here's a beautiful view of the sun shining on the mountains on the way home.  I love that we can get home in the daylight with these longer days.

That's where I'll end this post.  Have a good rest of your week!