Just got done with one post and need to start another one. This one will have flower pictures because we have actually had some true summer weather!!!
Last Friday I spent the afternoon at church making Sloppy Joe meat for the Strawberry Festival. There were several other people there cooking as well, and we had to wear gloves and either hats or hairnets. It was fun, but I'm not great at concentrating when I'm having fun, haha!! Hopefully my meat was good. People said it was.
Here are pictures from the festival on Saturday afternoon. First we gathered to pray before it started. The food line was in the sanctuary. They had pushed the chairs front. There's a side door that people entered right where the cafeteria line started.
There were plenty of tables in the social hall for eating and there were tables under canopies outside too. It was hot outside, but a nice breeze under the tarps.
Of course the face painter was a popular person for the kids. Even a few that weren't kids, haha!
All kinds of fun things to do outside.
The piniàta was a big "hit" as always!!
When it was over we began the clean-up and also had a meeting to discuss what went well, what didn't go so well, etc to plan for next year. We were a hot, tired bunch by the time we were finished cleaning up and getting everything in place for church in the morning.
On Sunday morning I walked into the back of the church and there were all the same people that had been doing the clean-up Saturday evening. I said, "Well, here we are again!" And we all laughed.
It was a special service because our beloved district superintendent Brenda is retiring. Her support was so crucial throughout our building process. And she also was the one who asked Jim to come as our pastor because of his prior experience in construction. There were many ways she was honored by all ages.
Afterward we had a chicken a waffles meal - her request. I think it was the best chicken and waffles I'd ever had. We had a great kitchen crew!
Later on Sunday we and Anthony and Lori and the boys went to Whipple Dam to cool off. It was a REALLY HOT day!!
The water was really, really cold since we've had a very cool Spring. But eventually we got in all the way to our necks, haha!! There were a lot of people there, but I think we were the last ones in the water.
This has been a REALLY hot week. Dick has been home the past two days after experiencing extreme exhaustion at work on Tuesday. They do not have AC in the shop. He's feeling much better by this evening and plans to go to work tomorrow. Our temps will be more reasonable for the next few days.
And now more flowers.
My first lily.
The other day I thought I was taking pictures of flowers and only realized when I came inside that my camera was on the reverse setting and I just got a bunch of pictures of my face and the blue sky, hahaha!!
I took this picture after 9 pm one evening. I LOVE June!!!!
This LONG post will be about the events of last Sunday (June 15) through Wednesday (June 18.) As I said in my last post, Sam and Steph came with Sammy and Bianca that Sunday afternoon and left the kids here for a few days. ALWAYS a good time!!
Sorry it looks a bit crazy at places in this post. I made the mistake of using "copy and paste" from a FB post I had made, and that never works well.
It was cloudy, but not raining after Sam and Steph left, and Sammy said we should go to the Penn State Arboretum. As always, it was beautiful and a lot of fun.
To Bianca's delight, we discovered that she is now taller than I am!!
After we came home it was Monopoly time! Fun, fun, fun!
On Monday morning I made us some pancakes, then we went to their very favorite place - the Penn State Library. We always park at the very top level of the parking garage so we can get a selfie up there.
First things first - getting drinks and goodies at the Starbucks in the library. It was almost empty. When we were there in October on their last visit, the entire space was packed with students and we had nowhere to sit. When we gave our order I wondered if perhaps the two women up front would have remembered Destiny, but I didn't ask since I know that personnel changes frequently. But when Bianca's order was ready they asked her if she is Destiny's cousin!! Both of them had worked with Destiny and remembered me! They said how they missed her and were so glad to hear how she's doing. I took a picture of one of them to send to Destiny.
After eating we went to the section of the library called "The Stacks." Four floors of books stacked tightly together, and those ceilings get lower every time we are there, hahaha!! Check out the stairwell below!
In another area of the library we heard piano music! We followed our ears and found this gentleman playing classical pieces perfectly by memory. I had uploaded it to YouTube but they took it down because of copyright laws.
We sat in another lounging area where we could still hear his music in the background. YouTube didn't take this one down.
When we got home we hit the Monopoly board again. I kid you not - we played for FIVE HOURS until the game was over. One time we stopped to grab some food, but we went right back to it. It was raining outside, so it was the perfect activity. As always, we had lots and lots of laughs and boos. Sammy is ruthless. And he won of course.
When Dick got home from work we were discussing Sammy's height. What in the world?? He's not even 14 yet.
On Tuesday morning I went to a 10:00 hair appointment. They were still sleeping when I left. When I got home I made French toast and bacon. They loved it.
It was another rainy day, so this time we decided to go to the All Sports Museum at Beaver Stadium. We had been there before, and they had taken us out into the stadium when we were finished going through the museum. But they are doing major renovations to the stadium and couldn't do that this time. But they did take us down to a lower hallway through which the Penn State football team goes out to the field. We could see the field. We were also shown two big windows on either side of the hall where fans (who have paid BIG money) get to stand and reach out to touch the football players as they make their way to the field. Seriously??? I don't get it. Sorry.
I took these pictures of stories in the museum that were interesting to me. I took the bottom left picture for my friend Leigh Ann whose son is on the Manheim Central volleyball team. They just won the State Championship!!!
Then the kids and I decided we wanted to go to the HUB on the Penn State campus. I had told them about all the eating places there.We picked up Austin because he wanted to play the piano in the HUB.
It was raining hard as I followed my GPS to the HUB parking deck on Shortlidge Rd.It said, “In 500 feet turn left.”I was thinking, “How far is 500 feet?”Then it said, “Turn left.”So I turned left.It looked terribly narrow as I proceeded into what appeared to be a pedestrian walkway. The kids were saying, “This isn’t for cars, Grandma!”But what was I to do?I can’t even back up straight in good weather.I certainly wasn’t going to back up in pouring rain - out onto Shortlidge Road, which seemed quite busy.So I drove very slowly all the way back to the steps that go up to the HUB entrance as the few pedestrians stayed out of my way.I inched my car backward and forward a few times until I was turned around, and then I proceeded out to the street.Thank God I wasn’t driving a big minivan!
Here's a picture from Google Maps of where I turned left (right before the building.)
Then I turned left onto Shortlidge and immediately saw the entrance into the parking deck.As I approached the ticket machine it asked me to scan my ID.My ID??What ID?Then we saw that this entrance was for Penn State students and employees only.Oh dear.This time I DID have to back up in the rain onto Shortlidge. (Another picture from Google Maps.)
I proceeded a bit further, and just past the parking deck was the entrance for regular people like me. (Google Maps photo.)
And here's an overhead view with my ridiculous journey in red.
Finally! I found a parking spot, and then we got soaking wet as we walked to the HUB, joking that we needed to watch out for cars on the walkway.
Once inside the HUB we were disappointed that all the eating places had closed at 3:00.We walked around a bit, and Austin played the piano for a while.
Then we got some snacks at a little store and walked outside in the pouring rain to go to the car.I made sure I had my parking ticket and debit card ready.
But alas, after all our wet bodies were tucked inside my little car I realized I could not find my parking ticket.Anywhere.We got out and searched the car, the hatch, my entire purse at least twice, every pocket…. Sammy and Bianca braved the rain once more and walked to the HUB to see if I had dropped it anywhere.No I had not. We gave up.Sammy said that there is a button to press if you don’t have your ticket, and we decided that’s what we would do.
I got back into my driver’s seat once more, put my debit card into the phone holder pocket on the console beside me, and thought, “I feel like I just did this with my ticket.”I got out again, turned my phone flashlight on, and shined it under my seat.And guess what I saw???Reaching it was another issue, but one of the kids managed to do so.
And we were finally out of there. Whew!!Next time we will know how to do everything correctly!
Anthony and Lori had suggested that we go to Doan's Bones for dinner. We found out they were not open, so we changed our plans and decided on a different favorite BBQ place, Bonfire. Hunter needed to be picked up from summer camp, so in my Tiny Grandma Wagon, already packed with three big kids, I made my way to Park Forest Middle School where summer camp was held. It was raining so hard! I went inside to pick him up (with my umbrella of course), then helped him to get into my back seat with Bianca and Sammy. It was TIGHT!!!
We had a great time at Bonfire. The food was SO good!!!
When we got home we played a quick game of Monopoly, then the kids pulled out Connect Four.
They went to bed late (I have no idea when, because I went to bed first). And they woke up late on Wednesday morning. They wanted French toast again. I was running out of bread, so I used slider rolls. Just as good! They wanted more, so I made more, and then some more!
We got all their belongings packed and had just enough time to go to the new Palmer Museum of Art that has been built right beside the arboretum.
The museum is huge. And so beautiful inside. Here are pictures of some of the art. The kids love art and took a lot of time to look and read. We could have stayed so much longer.
Then it was time to meet Steph halfway. Sometimes it rained, sometimes the sun was bright. Just couldn't decide! We stopped along the way to get gas and some food.
And that was the end of another great time with Sammy and Bianca!
It's been just 9 days since my last post, but I think I've taken 900 pictures since then, hahaha! I will need to do two separate posts.
First off, some pictures from our baking class at church last Wednesday evening. This time we learned to make Chocolate Orange Biscotti. What a process - mix, form into loaves, bake 30 minutes, slice, bake 10 minutes, turn each piece, bake 10 minutes, dunk into your favorite beverage! They were way too good!!!
Last Thursday was a hot, beautiful day!!! I was SO happy, especially because I knew we were heading into days and days of cool, rainy weather.
We had a bird last week that insisted on flying against the window. And then over and over it would perch itself just looking inside.
Do you see the nosey little thing on the right?
Last week grandson Brennan out in Portland had his last day of third grade. Jeremy posted his first day of third and last day of third. He REALLY grew in so many ways this school year.
On Saturday my flute player Brenna got married! She is 36, so has waited a long time. I remember when she said that they had found the perfect venue for the garden wedding she had always wanted. But alas is was a cool, rainy day! But the garden wedding prevailed!
Ross, the guitar player in our church band, and one of Brenna's flute playing friends provided the lovely music.
Oops! My video was taken down on YouTube because it was a copyrighted Michael Buble song.
It was just lightly raining during the beautiful ceremony.
Everything about the wedding was absolutely beautiful!!
Sunday was a big morning at church, not only Father's Day, but also baptism for two young girls.
Sam and Steph and the kids came to our house after church! We had a great time eating and hanging out together.
They are always so fun to be with.
Sam and Steph left for home around 5:30. Do you see the photo bomber on this picture?
The kids were staying until Wednesday. LOTS of fun coming up!
