This will be my second post in one day! If you did not see my earlier one about our trip to Indianapolis over Labor Day, I hope you go back and see it!
Of course, as soon as we returned home I was eager to see how our flowers had survived while we were away. I was delighted to be greeted by this big orange rose!!
What fun to have a FaceTime visit with this sweetie a few days after we were back home! I want to kiss her so bad!!
Sunday morning was so good. There was a welcome-back party for the kids during the service, so a lot of my choir members were involved with that. So my friend Melanie (who plays cello when the band is there) sang a special. She chose the song "Blessings" by Laura Story. It could not have fit more perfectly with Pastor Jim's message. My soul was filled up by both.
After church Dick and I drove to Manheim (about 2.5 hour drive) to visit Grandma Arlene, Dick's stepmother. She recently moved from her apartment at Pleasant View Retirement Community to a lovely room in Personal Care. She's still getting over how odd it feels to welcome people right into her bedroom. Bless her heart. The view from her large window is spectacular - so much better than from her apartment. We are so very happy for her.
We had a really fun time visiting with her. 94 years old!! So amazing!!
Then we drove the few miles to Bjorn and Jess's house. That little Linnea is growing up so fast already!! And she looks SO much like Bjorn did as a baby! I could just eat her up!!
The boys are a very lively duo! Charlie goes to preschool two days a week now. Little Louie is really a handful, but thankfully very gentle with his baby sister.
Enjoy!!! We just couldn't stop taking pictures of her!!
What a good day!!
Monday was Destiny's 26th birthday. I was at her birth, coaching her mommy. That's me holding her afterward in that middle picture.
This week's flowers.
Over the weekend Anthony and Lori and her nephew William got things put into place in his little studio apartment in their basement.
First I'm showing you old pictures of that space being used as a playroom.
Here's a picture during the renovations.
And here is the picture I took yesterday. Unfortunately you can't see his little kitchen very well. In his bathroom the toilet is usable, but Frank still needs to install the sink and maybe a shower if they decide there is enough room. It's so nice for William to have his own space. There is a door that opens right out to their outdoor patio. William has been sleeping on their living room sofa ever since his mother died in early May! So it's nice for them to have their space back as well.
I have a LOT of choir work as I get ready for a new season and also the Christmas cantata. We're actually redoing one from 2018, so it won't be as hard as learning a new one like we did last year.
I'm ba-a-a-a-ck!! It's been two weeks since I posted here. I just can't keep up with my life anymore! Well, I can still keep up with my life, just not writing about it, I guess!
On Thursday before Labor Day we left for Indianapolis. It had rained and stormed overnight and was still not finished when we left. Finally after about an hour we got beyond it. Dick drove the entire trip, as usual. At one point he was going to let me drive for a while, but we were going to be getting into the Columbus, Ohio area, and I knew it would be more congested, so we opted to drive into a shopping center so he could take a nap. There's so much construction a lot of places, which completely unnerves me!
Since we weren't making it by 5:00 as we had expected, Destiny told us to drive right to the hair salon where she would be getting her hair cut. We got there before she did! It was so fun to see them again. We hung out with the kids.
I'm sure she cooked dinner when we got home from the hair salon, but I can't remember what it was that evening. When Ozzy got home from work we had fun showing him a video of Anthony and Lori's basement so he could see how far it had come since he did the dry wall there in August.
On Friday morning when we woke up, Dick was getting his feet washed by Kobe the cat, hahaha! We went with Destiny to take Elizer to school, then came home and had fun with Ketsi.
Destiny's birthday would be coming up, and we have a tradition of taking her for Chinese on her birthday, but this time we went instead to a Korean place where we each had our own broth to cook things in and a pan in the middle of the table to fry things in. It was fun, but not my favorite food. She said Ozzy doesn't like go there because he says if he goes out to eat he doesn't want to have to cook his own food, hahaha!!
Afterward we picked up Elizer from school, then on our way to the YMCA we got rear-ended! Not badly, but enough that we and the person behind us pulled over to exchange information. Bless his heart, he was a young med student who could not risk his insurance finding out due to a prior accident. He Venmoed me $600 on the spot and said he would send us the rest as soon as we got an estimate. Even his mother called us to vouch for that! Destiny was sure they were giving us a story. We did call the police and he came and took all our information. But we told the young man that we would not contact his insurance unless we did not get the rest of the money after we got the estimate. The rest of the story is that we got an estimate after we came back home the next week, and he immediately sent us the rest of the money via Venmo. I looked him up on social media, and he really is a remarkable young man with great academic success and accolades. I'm glad we believed him.
Then we went to the YMCA where they have an outdoor pool!! It was a wonderful way to spend a very warm evening!
I wish I could remember what Destiny made for dinner when we got home. If I don't take pictures, I don't remember. She is an amazing cook and always wants to have a good meal ready for Ozzy after work.
On Saturday morning Destiny put Ketsi down outside her bedroom door and she made a beeline toward Elizer's room! There are stairs with no gate, so Elizer went to meet her. They are so sweet together!
Saturday was a different kind of day. Ozzy went to work, Grandpa and Elizer stayed home, Destiny, Ketsi and I went to check out a potential salon. She has been renting a suite in a very expensive salon, but it's been hard to have enough client appointments to afford that rent. This one would have been less money with potentially more exposure, but there were definite drawbacks. We had lots of discussion in the car about the pros and cons. Later she had a client. I went along to appointment so I could see her current suite. I played with Ketsi while Destiny worked. She's such an easy baby.
When we got home around 8:30 pm Destiny got busy with meal prep! This time I got a few pictures.
On Sunday morning Elizer crawled into bed with me, and we had fun doing Snapchat filters!
Destiny got busy cooking again! She made their favorite stuffed waffles in the "Stuffler" that Ozzy had given her for Christmas. We loved them!!
More pictures from Sunday morning. Finally a day off work for Ozzy. He and Ketsi are so precious together.
That afternoon we had a major project! Cleaning out and re-organizing Elizer's big closet! It was a joint effort between Destiny, Dick, and me. Elizer wasn't a whole lot of help as he tried to keep us from getting rid of things, haha! But we got it accomplished! We had a whole lot of things to donate after we were finished.
Late afternoon we all left the house thinking we might go fishing, something they love to do. But we ended up going to Ozzy's grandparents' house. His mom and younger brother Ruben have an apartment in their basement. We had a wonderful time with them!! They don't speak English, and we don't speak Spanish, but Ozzy and Destiny did a wonderful job of interpreting. Ozzy's grandmother is a Princess House and Tupperware dealer, thus all those things on shelves. I ended up buying a teapot from her! They served us a delicious meal in his mom's apartment. Elizer and Ruben were busy playing outside, so I didn't get pictures of them. It was an evening we will cherish the memory of.
Our Monday morning sunshine!!! Seriously, she is such an absolute delight!!! I can hardly stand to look at the pictures and not be able to kiss her.
After we got ourselves ready we piled in Destiny's minivan for a day of fun. Unfortunately Ozzy was working again. Elizer and I were having fun with Snapchat filters again.
First we went to Goodwill to drop off all the things we had cleaned out of Elizer's closet. Then we went inside the store and had the greatest time discovering stuff. From there we walked to Burlington and had more fun discovering stuff. We bought things both places. Then it was Walmart for more stuff and more fun. I didn't take pictures of us in any of the stores, so I hope I can remember all the fun we were having.
Then we went to Ozzy's aunt's house where they were having a Labor Day gathering. Again, everyone was so welcoming whether they could speak English or not. They have a fabulous back yard for an event like that. It was a truly wonderful evening. We were sad that Ozzy was missing it.
This right here was the best part of the evening. Listen to this baby girl's giggles!!
Dick and I left for home at 6:30 AM Tuesday morning. Sammy had texted us that he would be at a cross country meet very close to State College, and we really wanted to be there for that.
We made it in time!!
I think there were four schools there. They ran three miles which included a lot of hills, and it was a very hot day!
When we got home that evening I hung the little motto I had found at Goodwill under the other things I've collected here and there. I love what it says. So very, very true!
Stay tuned! More fun grandchildren in the next post!
So much to share, so little time to do it! We’re on our way home today after spending Labor Day weekend in Indianapolis with Destiny and family. But first I have a few things to share from the weeks prior to that.
As I’ve said several times, our son Frank has been doing the basement renovations at Anthony and Lori’s. On Wednesday, August 26 his 3-year-old RaeLynn was along and she came to our house for a few hours. It was fun to have the chance to have one-on-one time with her for the first time ever.
Of course that was the first week of school for a lot of our grandchildren. Austin is a senior this year! That first week of school State College High did special events with the seniors each morning. One morning they arranged all the seniors into the letters SC and the numbers 27 on the football field. Then they had cold treats for them - it was a VERY hot week. I looked through all the pictures looking for Austin and found him - circled in red.
Other than that I mostly have pictures of my flowers. My favorite rose bush has really been showing off!!
Well, this is enough of trying to blog on my phone. Ugh!! I will have lots of pictures in my next post!
