On Saturday Jeremy called to tell me he was doing something not at all in keeping with the "Stauffer tradition". He was decorating and putting up his tree WEEKS before Christmas. Having grown up with a music teacher for a mom, he was used to last minute decorations and trees - except for the years Lisa did it for me. Where are my gifted decorators when I need them? In Florida, of course. Guess I'll just have to move down there if I want help with my tree!

On Saturday Dick weathered the cold dampness and finished our ramp and a temporary handrail. Lori wondered last weekend if we're expecting to grow old here. I said not really, but I wanted our house to be more easily accessible for my neice Marcy and my dad and the older ladies at church. Now I just have to have time to have them over!!

What is THIS???

Okay, what is this outside my door this morning???

Day of rest???

This was not a day of rest for us, that's for sure! After church this morning the families of the children who are in the Christmas musical had lunch together. We had our rehearsal immediately after lunch until 2:30.

Dick, Destiny, and I came home, I put the 10 pounds of sloppy joe meat I had made yesterday in the oven to reheat it, I took a 30 minute nap, then we were off to my family's get together at Doris's church.

This was our last time with Barb and John for a while. They are leaving early tomorrow morning to return to Idaho. We had a good time together, including some singing. Doris, Barb, and I sang as a trio for years, so of course whenever Barb comes to PA we need to do some of our songs together. It always feels like we never stopped - our voices just blend so well. The only thing is, now it's harder for all three of us to look off the same piece of music - everything looks so much smaller and more blurry than it used to!!

After we left there we took Destiny back home, and now my head and my eyes are telling me to take them to bed. I'll post pictures tomorrow.

The Case of the Missing Coffee Mug

My story today is not from my childhood, nor is it from my early adulthood or parenting years. It is from YESTERDAY!

THE CASE OF THE MISSING COFFEE MUG

I constantly get a myriad of catalogs containing musical merchandise. Each one has a section of cute items with musical themes. Last year I was in need of a new coffee mug for school as well as a thermal mug for my ice water. I decided to order one of each from one of my catalogs. In our staff lounge we have a cupboard shelf or two full of mugs, most of them fair game for whomever. But I like to have my very own, so I assumed that by getting ones with notes and piano keyboards on them, everyone would know they are mine and mine alone.

However, a couple of weeks ago I could not find my coffee mug anywhere. So at the beginning of this week I posted a note on the frig asking if anyone had seen it. There was no response for two days. As I stood at the sink in the staff lounge on Wednesday I had a vague memory of dropping and breaking a coffee mug. How silly, I thought! I had broken my mug, most likely on a Friday, and had forgotten about it already by the following Monday. So I took the note down. But I had a nagging feeling that it was not just a few weeks ago that I had broken a mug. It seemed much longer ago. However, I just chalked it up to having had a lot on my mind when it happened.

That afternoon as I walked to my car carrying my thermal water mug, one of the teachers drove by and said, "So you found your mug?" I said, "No, this is my water mug. But I think I know what happened to my coffee mug - I broke it and then forgot all about it!" Well, we both screamed laughing. Again I thought that I can't believe that it was just two weeks ago that I broke that mug.

Thursday morning there was a gift bag on my desk when I arrived. In it was a beautiful musical themed coffee mug. Of course I went straight to the teacher to whom I had confessed my mistake. She said that right after she had left school the day before she went to a local meat and cheese store. She turned around and there was this mug. She just had to buy it for me. How sweet!

Friday morning during staff devotions, as I sat there drinking coffee out of my beautiful new mug, I told the staff they didn't need to worry about looking for my lost coffee mug anymore. I told them my story, and everyone laughed and laughed. Once again, as I told the story I was thinking that it seems like much longer ago than two weeks since I broke that mug. But it seemed like the only possible reason why my mug was missing, and it did make a good story. So again I assumed I must have had a lot on my mind the day I broke the mug and it had barely registered on my radar!

WELL!!! At the end of the day yesterday I went to the staff lounge to collect my lunch containers. UNBELIEVABLE!!! There in the dish drainer was the missing coffee mug, and it wasn't broken either! My first inclination was to take it home and never say another word about it! But then I thought, "Somebody just returned this and he/she knows it's not broken." So I showed it to a few staff members and everyone just screamed laughing again!!

Indeed I did break a musical coffee mug one time. But it wasn't this one, and it wasn't just two weeks ago. It was last school year, and it was a mug one of my students had given me for a gift. That's why I needed to order a new one! So SOMEBODY knows where this mug has been the past two weeks, and I will be waiting to hear!

But hey, the new one Melissa got me is much, much nicer. It has a lovely curved, thin lip that makes coffee taste so much better, and it's prettier too. So all's well that ends well (but this hasn't ended yet, has it??!!)

I was tagged

The other day I was tagged by Cheryl at Profbaugh's Blog. I am to give seven random, weird facts about myself and then tag seven other people. So I'll try to think of seven things you might not know, and probably could care less about!

1. I am absolutely obsessed with my facial hair! Every morning before I put my contacts in I get my tweezers and my 10X mirror out, I closely examine my face and pull those little buggers out. I even keep a tweezers in my purse just in case I find one when I'm not at home.

2. It drives me crazy when I hear people, even newscasters, say things like "It's Deja vu all over again, or "2 AM in the morning." Isn't that like saying the same thing two times in a row?

3. I wipe down every drop of water off my shower walls with my bath towel when I'm finished showering. I don't want to ever again have built-up soap scum to scrub off.

4. I was a die-hard mother earth type - natural childbirth, even at home, La Leche League leader, huge garden, canning, freezing, cleaning my own chickens, whole wheat everything....

5. I am totally anal about budgeting and book keeping. When I die you will be able to look back and see what was done with every paycheck since 1978. My children still tease me that they remember that every Saturday morning I was sitting at the kitchen table in my housecoat and glasses pouring over my budget book and paying the bills. I still do - only now I'm at the computer.

6. I am very outgoing and friendly, but sometimes I choose not to be. I seldom talk to anybody when I'm at the gym. I just don't feel like it.

7. I drink a cup of hot Celestial Seasonings Candy Cane Lane decaf green tea first thing every morning, even before my coffee. I'm convinced that that is why I never get sick!

I'm afraid I'm not much of a rule follower, so instead of tagging 7 people (a lot of you were tagged with this already), I'll just say that if any of you readers would like to play along, go for it and then let me know so I can read about you!

Today my middle school drama club presented our three skits for the rest of the middle school. They did a super job and it was a lot of fun. Here we are after we were finished.

Pictures and more pictures!

This week I have received so many pictures from family members that I decided I'm doing a post of pictures tonight.

First of all are some of my grandchildren.

Here's our lovely Swedish belle - 14-going-on-18-year-old Katrina. She recently had her long hair cut for the first time, and decided she really likes it.

This is our Swedish grandson Bjorn sporting his cool glasses and red hair, cuddling with Jackie, their beloved dog.

And here's Sophie as pleased as punch over her first written word - "Hi"! Lisa said she also knows how to write the letter O, but she didn't think it would look as good having her picture taken beside the word "Ho"!!

This picture just cracks me up. Sophie never took any interest in riding her tricycle, but now she has a bike with training wheels and she LOVES it. She also rides entirely too fast, Lisa says! Hmmm. Hopefully that's not a sign of things to come!

Next are pictures of extended family.

This is Corbin Peifer from California - my nephew Scott's son. I hope Janet knows what a sweetie pie grandson she has.

And here's my neice Marcy's little Paityn Lilly, growing so fast and smiling at her Grandma Doris.

This is my sister Betty from New Hampshire with her children Isaiah and Merida. Her husband sent this picture taken at her 50th birthday celebration.

And here's my sister Rose's lovely daughter Katie with her boyfriend at his Marine Corp Ball at Auburn, GA.

And last - our colored leaves. Because we had such a warm fall, we weren't sure if our leaves would be as brilliant as usual. But in the past week I have been noticing the most beautiful trees everywhere I go. Today as I approached the rec center I decided I was not going to wait for pictures anymore. So I pulled out my cell phone and took the ones below. Keep in mind that these are cell phone pictures, but nevertheless, aren't the leaves just gorgeous?

I'm home alone this evening and I need to GET TO WORK on music arrangements for my instrumentalists.

Oh, by the way, pray for my daughter Lisa. Today when she was putting Sophie to bed, Sophie jumped up and her head hit Lisa square on the nose. After profuse bleeding and a lot of pain George took her for xrays and it's broken! So next will be a visit to an ENT specialist to see how badly it's broken and if she'll need surgery. She said, "My nose always did point a little to the left, now it points even further to the left. If only she'd hit it from the other side, maybe it would have centered it." I couldn't help but laugh. I'm afraid she's going to end up with black and blue eyes too. Oh, the rewards of parenting!

More family time

After a too-short night of sleep we sisters went our separate ways this morning. Barb came along with me to school and stayed for my first two classes.

After school I went to Lancaster to pick up Destiny, then to the gym. I only got in half a work out, because their alarm system went off and everyone had to get out of the building.

This evening we went to my dad's house because Barb's husband John flew in from Idaho today and we wanted to see him. There were a number of other family members there too, including my mom's youngest brother Lloyd, who grew up like an older brother in our family after my grandparents died.

John and Barb.

Aunt Shirley and Uncle Lloyd with my stepmother.

Everyone talked at once - it was pretty noisy!

It was a long trip taking Destiny back home after leaving my dad's. But I needed to check what all my blogging buddies have been doing all day, and now I posted this and I'm GOING TO BED!!!

Sister Sleepover

Tonight my sisters Barb (from Idaho) and Doris and Mary Ellen and I ate dinner at a local restaurant. We all decided to get chicken croquets, because it's been a long time since any of us have had them, and that is something we remember having as kids at home. After a good meal we came to my house to digest it all with lots and lots and lots of good belly laughs! It is now midnight and we must go to bed, but first I am teaching my sisters how to blog!!! Goodnight!

Left to right - Doris, Mary Ellen, Jean, Barb

In memory

In memory of Janet (Witmer) Peifer. I still desperately miss her.

More about the anniversary dinner

A highlight of the 25th anniverary dinner yesterday was when Dick's family sang together. Our absolute favorite is the hymn Great God of Wonders, which has an awesome rolling bass line. Just like my family, the Stauffers used to give programs in churches. The four part harmony is hard to beat.

Here is the youngest great grandchild with his grandpa Steve. He looks SO much like his dad Joe!

I do not have time to post more of the pictures, but if you click on the family snapshots on my sidebar, it will take you to my web album. Click on "Jean's public gallery" and you'll see where to click for the album of pictures from yesterday. They will be of particular interest to our family who weren't there, but who will know most of the people on the pictures.

I have been living with a most unwelcome, intense headache yesterday and today. Tylenol and ibuprofen do not seem to make any difference. I am praying it will be gone by tomorrow, because I have a very special evening planned with my sisters. Barb is flying from Idaho right now. Tomorrow evening she, Mary Ellen, Doris, and I will eat out together and then spend the night here. It would be better yet if Rose from Atlanta and Betty from New Hampshire could be here. Tomorrow it will be 3 years since we received the shocking news that our sister Janet died while she was sleeping. The phone call from my dad that Saturday morning is one that will never be forgotten.

Twenty-five years

Immediately after church today we headed to the place where we were having a 25th anniversary dinner for Dick's dad and step-mother. (I have many more pictures to post, but I'm too sleepy to do it tonight.) Earlier this week I posted about my mother's death 25 years ago on Sunday morning, November 7. Believe it or not, in that one week Dick and I and our young children went from that experience on Sunday to her funeral in the middle of the week to a WEDDING for Dick's dad on Saturday the 13th! Talk about the extremes of emotion! We had lost Dick's mother to cancer the year before, and the entire family was so happy for the wonderful woman Dad was marrying. She had never been married before, but she had been the beloved single aunt to many neices and nephews. Becoming a mom and grandma was like second nature to her. Most of the grandchildren in the family never knew their biological grandma, but because of Arlene they never felt the least deprived. We have been SO BLESSED!

Dick and I went right from the anniversary celebration to my Christmas rehearsal at church. This evening we took Destiny back home and got some much needed groceries on the way home. This has been a rich, full, family-filled weekend. This coming week will be more of the same. My sister Barb is coming from Idaho for the first time since our oldest sister Janet's funeral in 2004. You'll be hearing more about our planned events as the week progresses.

Meanwhile, I need SLEEP and time to get music ready for all my eager-beaver middle school instrumentalists. Sometimes I feel like I need 8 days per week!

Special guests

We are so happy that Anthony and Lori had time to come here this weekend! They have been so busy with a huge remodelling project at their house that we haven't seen them since July! They went to a furniture store in Harrisburg today that is going out of business and came here afterward. They're staying overnight and will spend the day with us tomorrow. Destiny loved having Lori to play a game with this evening.

The ramp

The ramp from our deck to the new walk is slowly, but surely becoming reality. A few weeks ago Dick dug ten holes for posts.

Last Saturday Dick and Sam cemented posts into the holes and started the framework.

Today they built the frame...

...and started screwing down the boards. Next week they should be able to finish it and put up a temporary handrail.

You can see the difference in temperature from last Saturday to this Saturday by the clothes they're wearing! Destiny had fun using scrap pieces of wood to build crosses today. She was putting them in my flower beds. Sam said it's starting to look like a pet cemetary around here!

Only by His blood

The past few weeks I have been teaching each class the song Christmas Offering by Paul Baloche. Sometimes, in order to help the kids to better understand the message of the lyrics, I recite them, phrase by phrase, with a lot of emotion and emphasis, and have the kids repeat them after me. As I was doing that the other day with this song, and at the same time showing the motions they were to do, I was almost overwhelmed again by the truth of these words:

No mortal man would dare
To stand before your throne,
Before the Holy One of heaven.
It's only by Your blood,
And it's only through your mercy,
Lord I come!

I had the kids almost hang their heads as they said the first two lines, then we looked up almost timidly on the third line. We extended our hands to the right on line four, to the left on line five, and then JOYFULLY raised our hands on line six.

We then discussed why at first we're saying that we would not DARE to stand before Him, but a few lines later we're eagerly saying, "Lord, I come!" I let the kids discover for themselves that it was His blood and His mercy that made the difference. I said, "And THAT'S why He came down to earth as a baby at Christmas. He KNEW He was coming down to be put to death on the cross. He WANTED to do it, because He loved us so much." As I shared this in second grade, one precious little girl said wistfully, "Oh, I just LOVE God."

She made my day. If my students eventually forget all the fundamentals of music, the instruments and their sounds, the great composers, the programs, etc. that's okay. (I guess!) But I hope they never forget the Cross. When life makes no sense at all, when even God seems to make no sense at all, the Cross will be something they can hang onto, something they can stand on, something that will remind them of His deep, deep love.

Birthday # 56 and Sam's 30th

Wow, when did I get that old? Today a second grade boy made my day when I told them it was my 56th birthday. He said, "I thought you were only in your thirties!" He knows already how to win a woman's heart!! Tonight I got a really funny e-card from my sister Doris. The first page says you should never ask a woman how old she is. Then on the next page it says, "So how much do you weigh?" I got a good laugh out of that!

So this evening Dick had to work at Advance Auto Parts, as he ususally does on Thursday evenings. (That's why we celebrated my birthday the other evening.) Our son Sam, who lives in West Chester, about an hour or so from here, will have his birthday tomorrow. Each year we do something together to celebrate our birthdays. He's taking a vacation day from work tomorrow in honor of "turning thirty", so he came home after work today and we ate a wonderful meal at The Cat's Meow. We had lots of fun talking and reminiscing about "the old days" when he was in high school and college and catching up on our current events. He's sleeping here tonight. If you want to learn more about him and how he became our son, click on the Sam label on my sidebar.

God moved that mountain (we're pretty sure, anyway!)

My heart is feeling lighter tonight. Ray called this evening and said they got to pick their orders today. The procedure is that they show all the available orders and the class gets to choose their orders according to their GPA. The person with the highest GPA picks first, etc. Ray is third in his class. There were a number of orders for Texas and Jacksonville, Florida among others. We had already decided last night that Jacksonville wouldn't be too bad because he and Thyda could at least fly to see each other on occasional weekends. But there was ONE order for Oceana, VA (16 miles from Norfolk!) and of course Ray picked it. According to Ray there is still a chance that a petty officer with higher rank could possibly get those orders instead of Ray. There is a website he must keep checking to see when it's absolutely final that HE is the one going there. So I will still be praying. But I do believe God moved that mountain (see my post from last night).

This whole experience has cost Ray some of his dignity. Because he has been transparent with those above him about his desperation and despair, he had to experience a humiliating meeting today during which he was strongly reprimanded for his lack of loyalty to the Navy. He said, "We were told from the beginning that if we're struggling we can always talk things over with our officers, mentors, etc., but I guess not." I have a feeling this is just like schools and colleges - to get people they say all kinds of pie-in-the-sky things, but reality is not quite the same as the hype they use to "sell" what they have to offer.

Just saying "hi" from Busch Gardens

Am I loving this, or what??

Twenty-five years

Today I began to think about what we were doing twenty-five years ago. My mother was nearing the end of her short battle with cancer and our family began gathering at the hospital on Saturday, November 6th. Most of us stayed the entire night. When she was still lingering as morning arrived, some of us went home to help our families get ready for church, expecting to go back to the hospital, wanting to be there when she left. But it was while we were home that she took her last breath. My dad and oldest sister Janet were there.

Twenty-five years have passed here on earth. I wonder what those twenty-five years have been like for her. What is twenty-five years anyway, in light of eternity?

A romantic evening at home

This evening Dick and I spent a romantic evening at home to celebrate my birthday (two days early because that's when it worked best into our schedules.) We ate dinner by candlelight with Kenny G playing in the background. I subscribe to Rhapsody online, and Dick wondered if they have Floyd Cramer (favorite piano music from our teen years.) Sure enough, I found several of his albums. Then while I was in the mood for oldies I even found albums by The Association, including "our" song, Never My Love. After dinner we watched a movie, Safe Harbour, a really good story.

Ray still has not received his orders, but he says he was told that there are no orders for Norfolk for his class. Now we are praying that he will at least get a chance to see Thyda before he's sent somewhere else. I'm still praying something will open up in Norfolk. Every time I sing the song Mighty to Save with the kids at school and we get to the line, He can move the mountains, I think of this situation.

Praying for Ray

Tonight I am asking for my readers to pray. As most of you know, our son Ray and his wife are both in the Navy. He has a few more weeks of training in Pensacola, she is already stationed in Norfolk, VA. Since she left for the Navy in April they have only spent ONE WEEKEND together. She is experiencing some health issues that Ray desperately wishes he could be there for, but that is impossible. On top of that, he is expecting to get his orders for his next placement any day now, and he is praying DESPERATELY that he gets sent to Norfolk. Please pray for him. He is experiencing the depths of despair. What does a mother say to her son in a situation like this? I could only tell him to hang on to God for all he was worth, which I believe he is doing - he has no other choice. I also told him we would pray and I would ask others to pray, because I believe the prayers of God's people become wings that carry us in desperate times.

Our son Anthony has started a few more websites, including a new blog called No Longer Driven. He's been writing a good bit lately and it's good, thought-provoking, honest stuff. Check it out.

My Explorer and the Mysterious Vandal

Before I write my story today I need to make one thing perfectly clear. When I mention the words Puerto Rican in my story I am not demeaning them or their culture. We have three dearly loved sons who are of Puerto Rican descent, our precious granddaughter Destiny is as well, and we have had other children of Puerto Rican descent whom we have dearly loved when they were in our home. I have become involved in some of their biological families and feel quite at home and accepted among them. In fact, my husband Dick, with his curly hair and distinctive features, has been assumed to be Puerto Rican by some who did not know that those sons were not born to us! Now let me get on with my story for this week.

My Explorer and the Mysterious Vandal

When we bought our Explorer a number of years ago we were teased by Dick's co-workers that apparently it was previously owned by Puerto Ricans because it had so much extra chrome on it. If that was the case, I was glad they owned it previously because I liked all that extra chrome.

However, in the spring of 2004 I wasn't so sure about that. Our son Jeremy owned a house in Lancaster City that he was planning to sell in preparation for his move to Florida. Dick and I spent many evenings helping him with painting, etc. before he sold it. I would go home from school, prepare a meal which I would take along to Jeremy's, Dick would go to Jeremy's house straight from work, we would eat together and get busy working. Many evenings our son Frank was there to help as well.

The very first evening we were there to help him (sometime in March) I stayed later than Dick did. When I walked to my car (the Explorer), which I had parked at the Wachovia Bank parking lot nearby, I was stunned to realize that the passenger window behind the driver's seat had been smashed in. As we waited for the police to arrive (which I don't think they ever did because they were too involved in a murder that had just happened) we realized that my digital camera had been stolen. Stupid me - I had brought it along to take "before" pictures of Jeremy's house, but had forgotten to take it in and had left it right on the seat behind me.

A few weeks later, when Dick and I walked out to that same bank parking lot after an evening's work, we were stunned and disgusted again to discover that a back tire on my Explorer and a back tire on his pick-up truck had been slashed. We were parked next to each other, and it was our back tires that were facing each other that were slashed. We began to wonder if we had some enemies that we were unaware of. Once again we reported it to the police.

At the beginning of June, on the last evening that I was painting, right before the sale of his house, I walked out to my Explorer, again in that bank parking lot. Unbelievably, my window was smashed in and my stereo had been ripped out of the dash. Jeremy was so mad, because in the two years he had lived there, every one of his friends had parked there and no one had ever experienced vandalism. He and I drove it down to the police station as they told us to do. This time the policeman tried to get some finger prints. As he worked we discussed the mystery of it. He told us, just as we had been told before, that they NEVER got calls about vandalism in that parking lot. It was well lit, with major streets on both sides of it. The policeman asked (again) if we had someone that was mad at us for something. We assured him we could think of absolutely nobody. He said, "Maybe someone thinks that the car belongs to somebody else. It DOES look like a pimp wagon." Well, Jeremy and I just CRACKED UP!!

The mystery was never solved. Our son Frank tried to persuade me to park there again just so he could hide somewhere and catch them in the act. But I was afraid he was a little to eager to become a hero!!

For another year I, the good Christian grandma worship leader, continued to drive that pimp wagon until I graduated to a more appropriate old lady's Buick and left the pimp wagon driving to my husband!!

Monte Carlo night

This was another Friday packed from beginning to end. My schedule is so full at school on Fridays. When I left I went to the bank, then for gas, then to Lancaster to pick up Destiny, then home (think traffic, traffic, traffic). After putting a frozen pizza in the oven, getting Destiny outfitted with warm clothes, and touching myself up a bit, I hit the road again. Our staff had a game night tonight at our Principal's new home about 20 miles from here. (Once again think traffic, traffic, traffic.) Dick took Destiny to a football game.

The game night was FUN!! There were sixteen of us playing Monte Carlo. It's a game played with a deck of cards, four tables of four people playing in pairs. At the end of each round the two losers stay at the table, the two winners move up to the next table. I have always loved games that involve words - like Scrabble. In fact I have never played a game with a regular deck of cards. But because I used to play Rook as a teenager, I was able to catch on to this game much more quickly than I expected. In fact I LOVED it! I only wished Dick had come with me. He would have had such a great time. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures to prove how much fun we were having.

A picture to brighten your day

Good morning, everyone! I'm just popping in to warm my grandma's heart, and maybe I can brighten your day a bit as well.

Good Old Maxine

My stepmother emailed this to me this evening. Thought I'd share the goodness of the Lord with you - according to Maxine!

After starting a new diet I altered my drive to work to avoid passing my favorite bakery. I accidentally drove by the bakery this morning, and as I approached, there in the window were a host of goodies. I felt this was no accident, so I prayed ... "Lord, it's up to you, if you want me to have any of those delicious goodies, create a parking place for me directly in front of the bakery." And sure enough, on the eighth time around the block, there it was!
God is so Good!