Friday was a really laid-back day. Mike had to go to work, but Jeremy took the day off to spend more time with us and Lisa. Tasha also had the day off. She works at the Xfinity store.
I made blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.
As I made and served the pancakes, their DC friend Tim, who had spent the night, joined Brennan and Dick and babysitter Clara at the 500-piece puzzle on the table.
At one point things got loud, and when I went to check what was so exciting I saw Lisa coaching Brennan on his jumps. He loved it!
Later Dick, Clara, Tasha, and Brennan went to the bowling alley.
Lisa, Jeremy, and I spent time together, talking and doing some things online.
When Lisa needed readers to do a tedious project for Jeremy, he handed her his readers, and when I grabbed my phone to take a picture she gave me this look, lol!!
It’s very hot and dry here, but this rose bush is still thriving.
Another puzzle finished! 500 pieces! A few pieces missing unfortunately.
We had delicious Indian take-out for dinner. Just family this time, which was nice for a change.
Lily is the sweetest dog ever!! She has no concept of how big she is, and she loves to be held!
Thursday morning started out with Brennan helping me to make baked oatmeal. That’s the recipe I had been searching for last week - in cookbooks, in my files, getting more and more nostalgic, but never finding it - until I searched Google for “Black Rock Retreat’s Baked Oatmeal recipe.” And there it WAS!!
For many years when our children were growing up we went to Black Rock Retreat on Labor Day weekend for Family Music Retreat. Their famous baked oatmeal was always on the breakfast menu.
Brennan’s babysitter, Clara, was at the house. She and Grandpa kept Brennan busy all day with puzzles and bowling. They actually won a ladder ball game with arcade points (Clara had accumulated quite a stash of points), so they had fun with that too.
Meanwhile Lisa and Jeremy went on a 5-mile hike on Angel’s Rest Trail. In the extreme heat we’re having here! The view was worth it.
As dinner time arrived, so did some friends. I had made Ginger Sweet Potato Lentil Stew and served it with Garlic Naan bread. We also pulled out leftover salads from the evening before.
The cutest friend sat right on the table! Cooper was just a tiny baby when we were here a year ago. Now she is a charming almost toddler. Everyone loves her so much. Brennan calls her “my cousin.”
Megan, a long-time friend of Jeremy’s from his Florida days, is her mama. Lisa calls her “my little sister” because Megan was so young when she got the job with Jeremy at Ashley Furniture in Florida, and Lisa and George’s place was a welcoming place for her.
Christy and her dog joined us too. She lives a few blocks away from Jeremy, and Lisa is sleeping at her house while here.
In a little while Marisa and Stuart came too and brought a new game along. It made no sense to me, but I had fun watching them play it.
Then I washed up all the dishes and was ready for bed.
Oh, I forgot to say that a friend from DC arrived while I was washing the dishes! Tim and his wife are very good friends of Jeremy and Mike from their DC days. He is in Portland this weekend to spend the weekend with a group of college friends, but he came here first for the night. It was really fun to have him here.
As you can tell, people love to be here. I’ve said this many times - Jeremy is a gatherer everywhere he goes. I love it!!
Well, we are here in Portland and just had the most incredible surprise. This is Wednesday, and Jeremy said we would be going out for lunch. All of us! Tasha had off work today, Jeremy and Mike took off work at lunch. I was thinking how unusual to be doing this on a Wednesday. Especially when we arrived at this lovely outdoor venue at a dock on the Columbia River. Is was LOVELY!! The weather was perfect. We took our good old time eating appetizers before we ordered. I did notice that there were two more places at the table with menus, and I thought that perhaps the server mistakenly thought we were a party of eight.
Then their friend Christy showed up. How nice! She said she wasn’t sure if anyone else would be coming or not. I thought there seemed to be some commotion behind me so I turned around. There was a family walking in and very closely behind them was…..LISA!!!!!
I was shocked! And happy and overwhelmed! Apparently she and Jeremy hatched these plans just this past weekend! She’ll be here till Sunday. I still can’t believe it.
We’re on our way to Portland! And I have in-flight WiFi access on this flight, so I’m going to try to do a post before I fall asleep.
Our days have been mostly low-key since my last post as we did all the things necessary for being away 11 days in addition to our regular jobs.
One morning I did more than planned. I was looking for something that I was SURE was in my big bathroom cupboard. WELL. I had the most ridiculous accumulation of STUFF in there. Just in case, I guess. I DID find what I was looking for, but I also threw out a trashcanful of stuff. And I organized all the shelves. Whew!! This actually doesn’t look like that much, but trust me - there are layers underneath what you can see!
Just the other week I was going through the linen shelves in search of sheets for each bed in our cabins at KOA. I would need four sets of queen and two sets of twin. It’s been 8 years since we’ve had a full size mattress, but you guessed it - there were full size sheet sets in there! So I got rid of them and organized all the sheet sets. So that feels good too.
I did my toenails!! My poor aching feet. My poor crooked toes. But I got it done. I realized after I finished that it was a brighter red than I like, but oh well…
I got new inserts last week on Amazon for my Brooks, ones that are especially for Plantar Fasciitis and are Amazon’s Choice. Some days I think they are wonderful, other days I’m not so sure. This morning as we dashed through the Detroit airport I decided they are a godsend. But I have so many other issues. Hard callouses that I keep needing to remove, one of them on the ball of my foot and one between my big toes and the next. Now the bone on the outside of my right foot (right before my little toe) hurts like crazy when I wear my Birkies for more than five minutes.
Can you tell that I have plenty of time and nothing else to do, lol?? All these detailed woes about my feet. All the things you never cared to know.
Here’s a picture from Thursday. I came out of the store where I buy bird seed and saw that someone had parked their car like that! Good grief! Of course it was my car. What can I say?
I had been out of bird seed for about a week, and after the feeder was filled it was like Walmart on Black Friday out there!
On Sunday morning the praise band led the music with me. They come just once a month and it’s my favorite Sunday every time. We just fit together so well - piano, flute, cello, guitar, bass, drums. I wanted to make a video of just our prelude to share with you, but the church iPad was at someone else’s house since we would be going away. Here’s a screen shot from the video. I’m that little white head behind the piano.
And now my most recent flower pictures as I said goodbye to them last evening.
So last evening Dick and I went to bed early - he at 6:30 or 7, me at 9ish. We slept a few hours then got up and showered and finished packing and left the house at 2:00 am. Our first flight was out of Harrisburg (a two-hour drive.)
At the airport I saw a group of conservative Mennonite girls. I had a feeling I might be related to them, so I walked over to them and said that I’m interested to see if any of them might be my cousin. We started dropping names and sure enough! Two of them were granddaughters of two of my cousins! We had so much fun exchanging and comparing information. I wish I had gotten a picture with them. But I did take this picture of a few of them at the service desk.
Our first flight took us to Detroit That was a small plane and we were squeezed into the very back seat. On this flight to Portland we have three seats! So we’ve been comfortable and spreading out.
Some guy is snoring pretty loudly from time to time. I keep checking if it’s Dick, but thank goodness it’s not, haha!
I’ll finish this post with two wing pictures - the first was early this morning as we left Harrisburg, the second was taken just now as we are flying over northern Idaho I think.
I want to share some wonderful pictures that I did not take.
While Dick and I had a much-needed quiet weekend here at home, Anthony and Lori and the boys were at the beach! Pretty much any beach is at least five hours from here, so they had never gone before. They drove down Friday and came back Sunday. And they packed their Saturday full of fun in the sun! Hunter declared that it was the best day of his life. He LOVED jumping in the waves. Needless to say, I'm sure they will go again next summer, probably for longer than just a weekend.
Austin went on that crazy ride! He made a $20 bet with Anthony that he wouldn't scream. He did not scream!
Meanwhile in Indiana.... Destiny and Ozzy took Elizer and Ozzy's brother and cousin to an aquarium. They had a great time!
And then Monday morning was Elizer's 5th birthday AND his first day of kindergarten!
In the evening they had birthday cake after the special dinner Destiny had made for him.
Here's a collage of Elizer at each year of his life. I could just eat him up when I look at these pictures!!
Here at home I've been catching up and working ahead at the same time. We're leaving early next Tuesday morning for ten days in Portland.
My flowers are looking really nice just now!
Here's a story I forgot to tell in my post about camping.
When we were packing up for camping I told Destiny to get the electric griddle from the laundry. She carried it to the kitchen saying, "Only you, Grandma - still in the original box!" We laughed, then she said, "I want this when you go." I said, "You'd better put your name on it." So she did!
At camp, when I got the griddle ready to make the pancakes, I said that Destiny had already claimed it when I die. Sammy said, "Well I want your Monopoly game." Bianca tried to think what she would want, then said, "Your aprons! I want you aprons!" We were cracking up and making jokes about it all weekend.
At one point Destiny said, "I want your recipes too." I told her she might need to fight with Jeremy about that, lol!
Today was Sammy and Bianca's first day of school. Sixth grade and eighth grade. Do you think Sammy will keep growing? He's already 6'1".
And yesterday Sophie started her JUNIOR year of college!!! Time is just flying by!!
The past two days our temps have been in the low 70's so I opened the windows and slider. Today, as I sat working on music organization at the dining room table, I heard some commotion. I looked up and saw this!!
