After the party was over we braved the COLD (yes, I said cold), packed gifts and leftover food, etc. into the car, and went home. The birthday girl was put into her p.j.'s and then opened her gifts. She exclaimed profusely over every one of them.

Then it was time for Jeremy to take me to the airport, so I tried to get the usual family picture, but somebody decided not to smile.

Next it was her "funny face"!!

And finally, silliness took over! I said my goodbyes once again and was soon at the airport, feeling VERY SLEEPY. My two short nights in a row were taking their toll.

I fell asleep before the plane even left the gate (9:20 PM) and I slept the whole way to Baltimore, except for the time it took me to drink a tiny glass of ice water, and the two times the pilot LOUDLY announced the score of the football playoff game! (Was he up there watching the game??!!)

Sam was waiting for me at the airport and we had a nice time talking on the way home, arriving here about 1:30 AM. I was wide awake by then, so I loaded and looked at all my pictures and caught up on some blog reading before I crawled into bed with Dick.

And now, praise God, I have a day off school to "switch gears" again! I'm so glad I went down there for this short little weekend trip. Such good memories.

Just a couple of pictures

Lisa and I had a great time at the community theatre production of Mame this evening. Above is one scene - Jeremy is the guy in the middle of course. And below is Lisa, Jeremy, and me afterward.

A weekend of work in one evening

I've been trying to get an entire weekend of work done in one evening. I think I'm about ready to pack now. Dick will be driving me to the Baltimore Airport this time (we'll leave around 7:30 AM.) I'm just too chicken to drive home alone Sunday night after only arriving in Baltimore at 11:30 PM. Sam said today that he has off work on Monday, so he'll come to pick me up. I feel better now. I just hated that I was making Dick pick me up at that hour of the night, then an hour-and-a-half drive home, with him having to be at work at 7 AM.

I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures to post when I return.

Getting things done

This was another very long day. I had kept Destiny overnight so I first of all took her to her school in Lancaster before I went to my school. This afternoon we loaded grades 3, 4, and 5 onto a bus and went to sing for the 3rd grade teacher who is recovering from knee surgery. That was a lot of fun and quite touching, but of course I forgot my camera. I took a few pictures with my cell phone, but unfortunately they got blurry.

It had started to snow around noon, and as the afternoon progressed it was REALLY snowing. When I brushed my car off after school I did one half of it, then went to the other side to do the other half, and already the first half was almost covered with snow! I had my regular 6-week hair appointment after school. (Does anybody remember that 6 weeks ago it was snowing the day I had my hair appointment and I had Dick drive me there? We have had very little snow since then. What is up with that, ha, ha!) By the time my appointment was over the snow was turning to rain so I went to the gym before I came home. I didn't have any trouble driving on any roads until I got into our community, which is hilly, and had not had one thing done to the streets. They had better do something overnight or I'm going to be scared to drive down the hill to the main road. I always imagine starting to slide down the hill right into the traffic.

Now I must quit reading and writing blogs because I still have work to do on Sunday's music for the youth worship team at church. They'll be leading worship this Sunday, because - remember? I am GOING TO FLORIDA! Jeremy called today and said he worked until 11:30 last night redoing the set for the musical. He said, "My interior design eye just was not satisfied with the way it was." They must be so glad for him. He can design and build sets, then sing, act, and dance like nobody's business. I know - I'm his mom and I'm biased. But I am so excited to see him in action Saturday night.

Too tired to write

This was a very big, long day, and I'm too tired to write about it. So once again, I will just direct you to Lisa's blog for more entertainment. I think Sophie is heading to Broadway!

A must-see

You really must go over to Lisa's blog and see her video of Sophie singing with her guitar. She says she wants to play guitar with Uncle Anthony!!

God's still moving mountains!

There are two people that I know who are going through major medical procedures. One is a teacher from our school. Edna, who was diagnosed a few years ago with Multiple Myeloma. She has been off this entire school year, knowing that she would be undergoing a bone marrow transplant. But it seems to be more than that. It's a procedure that is Johns Hopkin's first time doing it! A few months ago they harvested her stem cells, and there's something about T cells. Anyway, she and her husband are there this week. They have put her new stem cells back in, she has had some pretty heavy duty chemo, and at some point they'll put T cells back in too. Almost every day for the last few weeks we have received email updates from her husband. God has been doing some REALLY COOL stuff in all of this, and every day we look forward to hearing from them. If this procedure works, there is a strong possibility she would be CURED from the disease!

The other person is my stepbrother's wife, Crystal. She has been struggling with lupus and other things for years, and was in DESPERATE need of a kidney transplant. Since she had already had one transplant (her husband's) she was not very high on the "needs" list - they were told it could be five or six YEARS!! When Dick and I talked with her in September at my stepmother's 80th birthday party, we were just amazed at the direness of her health situation and yet her utter trust in the Lord. Last Saturday at 3:30 AM they received a phone call from Hershey Medical Center that there was a kidney for her. It was from an 18-year-old boy from Iowa, was sent to Chicago for someone there who was not in good enough health for the transplant, and Crystal's name came up on the national database search! Crystal received that kidney Saturday night, and has been doing well since surgery. She might even go home tomorrow! Wow! Talk about God moving mountains!!

Are you a "baked potato"?

Today I got another laugh from a student. Our school is in the process of having a new furnace installed, so there was a period of time today that the heat wasn't working. Right after lunch when first grade came to my room, I said to their teacher, "I just can't get warm today." She agreed that she was feeling chilly too. Then she said to one of the little girls, "But you don't mind it, do you? You're always hot and wear short sleeves all year, don't you?" The little girl immediately quipped, "Yeah, I'm a baked potato." Of course we teachers laughed. I thought maybe that's a good description for the hot flash phase of life - we feel like baked potatoes sometimes!

Our Sunday

This morning at church a mime team did a dramatic and very touching presentation. A teenage girl from our church has been involved with this team for several years, and now she's leading a younger team as well. Between the two teams they did a total of seven songs. They do not sing or speak, but act out the message of the songs, and they are very, very good.

This afternoon after my nap I got caught up with paper grading. Report card time is coming up, but I also am going to Florida next weekend, so I have got to keep up.

Sam was home this weekend. Yesterday he and I helped Destiny to make this guitar, an idea she saw in an old Highlights magazine. It's made with a graham cracker box, a paper towel roll, and rubber bands, and painted with pink paint leftover from her bedroom.

She likes her harmonica too. We have a children's harmonica songbook that shows numbered circles for each syllable of each word, filled in for blowing out and not filled in for drawing in.

This afternoon Dick and Sam took Destiny to Chuck E. Cheese while they waited for Sam's car to have tires put on at Pep Boys. This evening we took her home again. (If she ever comes to your mind, please pray for her. There are so many desperate situations in both her mommy and her daddy's lives.)

And another week begins.

Middle of the day diversion!

For the most part, this was a normal stay-at-home-and-catch-up Saturday. But in the middle of the day Dick and I went to the church for the delivery of the Yamaha digital piano, actually called a clavinova. Oh my word! If you all could only hear it. The grand piano voice and the touch of the keys are just a total thrill for me. I wish it were right here in my house, but then I probably wouldn't be getting any catching up done if it were!

And here it is. Too bad I spoiled the picture by having my monitor speaker sitting there. But that's how I hear the rest of the worship team.

Congratulations, Lindsey!

I want to congratulate our neice, Lindsey Stauffer, for the honor of having one of her paintings accepted into the American Watercolor Society, an honor that many more experienced artists are still waiting and hoping for. I went to the American Watercolor Society's website, and sure enough, there was her name listed with the 2008 exhibitors. I have Lindsey's gallery website listed with the links on my sidebar, so pay her a visit and enjoy.

I have two "out of the mouth of babes" quotes to share today. The first one is funny and the second is sweet. Yesterday I gave the one kindergarten class a worksheet to do. Most of the children were capable of doing it independently, but one little boy usually needs a lot of coaching, so I was sticking right by his side. As he was beginning to really "get it" I was saying things like, "That's GREAT! See you can do it." At one point he looked around at the others and told them how far he was on the paper. One of the other boys said, "We're already finished." I quickly jumped in and said that "J" is not finished yet, but he's really doing a great job. Then "J" said, "Yeah, I'm so great my brain is sweaty." I just cracked up and he loved it.

As I said last week, I introduced the Casting Crowns song, Who Am I to each class. By now they know it really well and sing it with a lot of emotion. Yesterday when fourth grade finished singing it, one of the girls said, "That is my favorite song of my whole life. When we're singing that song I just feel something."

This afternoon I met with my middle school worship team for the second time. In order to get to know each other better we took time to share. I had them go around the circle (seventeen kids) and each share, first of all, something really hard they have experienced, then something really good they have experienced. What a neat time, even some tears. I can just tell this is a really special group this year, and I'm so excited to see how the Lord is going to use them.

My new Yamaha toy!

I am smiling all the time this evening. Last week I got a letter from a local music store informing me that they would be having a special 3-day piano sale of slightly used Yamaha pianos they had rented to Peabody Institute. If interested one should call for an appointment. I showed the letter to our pastor on Sunday because we had been talking for a couple of years about the possibility of switching to a digital. He told me to go ahead and make an appointment. The first appointments were for this evening, and when I called they said the only time slot still available was 5:00. Pastor Denny and I met there at 5:00. Half an hour later we had bought an amazing digital piano at an amazing 30% off the original price. It will be delivered Saturday morning. I have a Technics digital at home, a Roland digital at school, but this Yamaha is the best yet. It sounds like the grandest grand piano, or the richest pipe organ, or the most soul-stirring strings, or the jazziest sax, vibrato and all. I can hardly wait to get my hands on it. I have a feeling I'll be spending more time at church in the weeks to come! And just like mine at school, I can record directly into it, as many as 16 tracks, or have it play songs I've arranged on my computer, only this one uses a zip drive instead of the outdated floppy disk. I know - I'm going on and on, but I'm just so excited. Pastor Dennis and I could hardly believe we got such an early appointment. Then the man said, "I think there was a cancellation." Wow, was that God, or what?

Thanks, but no thanks!

Well, the sun most certainly was not shining this morning when I got to my classroom. Instead it was darker than usual and raining. Later, when the sun did come out, it showed that there actually were streaks on my newly washed windows. Oh well, they're still better than before. And thanks for all the offers of windows to wash, but no thanks! The only one I was tempted to follow up on was Lynne's offer to fly me to Atlanta to wash hers. I was thinking, "Hey, a free trip to Atlanta. I could visit my sister Rose and my dear "B" Club friend, Dianne!" Ha, ha! But I guess not, Lynne. I'm really not looking for a side job besides the two jobs I already have!

In Middle School Chorus we are beginning to work on songs for the Jr. High Choral Festival we will participate in in May. Besides the songs we will sing with the other schools, we will also sing one song by ourselves. I have chosen the song In the Light of that City, done by The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir. It's one of those songs that puts me right into the presence of the Lord. Today in chorus we worked on it for the first time and got some beautiful three part harmony going already. It gave me the chills.

Warm weather and window washing

I have been thinking lately that if we ever get one of those amazingly warm winter days, I am going to wash my classroom windows. I don't think that job is part of our janitor's job description. In fact, I don't think it is part of anybody's job description, except maybe volunteer patrons who clean the school each August. I just couldn't stand looking out my windows on sunny days anymore. So when I heard what the temp was to be today, I knew what I would do after school. When I left home this morning I was armed with a bucket, rags, white vinegar, Windex, and paper towels. After washing them this afternoon, I was so happy with the results that I couldn't bear to pull the screens down. When we walk in that room tomorrow morning for staff devotions I hope the sun is shining and it will look like there is no glass in those windows!!

Before

After

Did I move?

Do I still live in the same state as I did last week? Or did I already move to Florida??? Just a few days after we had those temps in the teens accompanied by unmerciful winds, we now had at least 60 degrees today with the promise of heading toward 70 tomorrow!! And it's really, really nice, but I know it will be short lived.

We had staff meeting after school today, then I had some errands to do, then I had a good, hard workout at the gym. When I picked up my mail I was disappointed to see that my annual letter which I had sent to my dear Liberian friend in Philadelphia was returned to me undeliverable. I have not heard from her since July. I spent the entire evening looking things up on the internet to see if I could find anything about her. Some Saturday I will tell the story of how I met her almost ten years ago at orientation at East Stroudsburg University. What a woman, and what a story she had!

A true day of rest

This was a true day of rest for us. It was the first Sunday since the beginning of October that we didn't have anything planned besides the morning service.

Our morning service was a great place to be today because the Lord was there. There was a sense of expectancy that you could just feel. I just love when things happen that show His awesome timing. There's been a song in my heart for about five months that I've been wanting to introduce to the church, but I never had the time to get it ready for the worship team. Finally today we had it ready, and we introduced it. This afternoon I got a phone call from one of my dear friends. She said, "Right before you introduced the new song this morning, I was moved to pray that our entire household would love and serve and worship the Lord. And right after that you introduced the new song. It was such a God thing."

As For Me
by Michael Neale

As for me and my house, we will serve You, Lord.
Bowing down our hearts in worship
For Your grace and love outpours.
As for me and my house we will serve You, Lord.
Lifting holy hands in worship,
for your grace and love outpours.

Our firm foundation, our only hope,
We fix our eyes on You, on You alone.
Complete surrender to You our King,
This is our one desire, our offering.
Well, You deserve all honor and all praise!

As for me and my house, we will serve You, Lord.
Bowing down our hearts in worship
For Your grace and love outpours.
As for me and my house we will serve You, Lord.
Lifting holy hands in worship,
for your grace and love outpours.

You deserve all honor, You deserve all praise,
Lord, we've come to glorify your name!

As for me and my house, we will serve You, Lord.
Bowing down our hearts in worship
For Your grace and love outpours.
As for me and my house we will serve You, Lord.
Lifting holy hands in worship,
for your grace and love outpours.

2007 Integrity's Praise! Music

Cleaning up Christmas

Today we cleaned up and put away all evidence of the Christmas season. We had a very ambitious little helper in Destiny. First she helped take everything off the trees, then she wanted to vacuum up all the pine needles that had fallen off the tree. She spent at least half an hour doing that, then went on to vacuum the sofa, chair, and ottoman! If she gets much better at cleaning, I'll have to start paying her!

And even though Lisa now has her own blog, I just can't let her have exclusive rights to posting pictures of Sophie! Isn't that little face just too precious? If you haven't read Lisa's post about Sophie's names for some of her body parts, you need to go right over and do so!

Another cold, but good day

(This post will say Saturday at the top, but to me it's still Friday because I didn't go to bed yet.)

Another freezing cold day in PA. The outdoor temp on my car dash this morning said 13 degrees. I got a call from Jeremy saying it got down into the 20's overnight in Florida. Wow! That's crazy. But oh joy, oh delight, on the seven-day forecast this evening I saw the number 60 next week. That will feel like an absolute heat wave after this!

I had a great day at school. I introduced the Intermediate Chorus (grades 3 - 5) to the musical they will be doing in the Spring Program in May. They absolutely loved it. I also met with my new worship team for the first time - 17 middle schoolers. I always spend the first practice explaining what our goal is as a worship team, giving time for the kids to write and examine their own hearts regarding their relationship with the Lord, their purpose for joining the worship team, etc. I can tell already that this is going to be a special group, one that I will be very sad to part with at the end of the season.

I'm also excited because just today Southwest Airlines began offering some reduced online rates for flights in January. Jeremy is now practicing with a community theatre group who is doing the musical Mame. He has a pretty big role. So I am going down for a VERY short, sweet visit, just Saturday and Sunday, January 19 and 20. To make the visit that much sweeter, there is a birthday party for Sophie that Sunday. So I'm accomplishing two fun things in one short visit. I'll be getting back very, very late that Sunday night, but we have off school that Monday for Martin Luther King Day, so I'll sleep in. The reason I'm not waiting to come home until Monday is because the reduced rates are not available that day.

Well, I took a 30-minute nap and drank a cup of coffee this evening because I had work I wanted to do around here, but I was dreadfully sleepy. So guess what? I did get some of that cleaning up and organizing and throwing away accomplished, but now it's way late and I'm not a bit sleepy. Hmmm, I could play the piano or vacuum, but Dick and Destiny probably wouldn't appreciate being awakened at this hour. Guess I'll just go get in my bed. If I can't sleep, at least I can pray.

Interesting news bite

I heard something really interesting on the radio this morning. Google has reported that the most frequent "Who is.." question they received in 2007 was, Who is God? And the most frequent "What is..." question was, What is love? That's profound, if it's true. I hope somebody didn't just make that up.

I'm introducing the song Who Am I to each class this week. I get such a thrill discussing the lyrics with the kids. What a tremendous thing to help them understand that while we are absolutely small and insignificant in comparison to the awesomeness of the Lord of all the earth, He cares so intimately and deeply for us and even tells us that we are His. I wrote the lyrics on one of my posts in September, but I'm going to write them here again because my heart is so full of their truth.

Who Am I by Mark Hall

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name,
Would care to feel my hurt?
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wand'ring heart?
And not because of who I am,
But because of what You've done,
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who You are!

I am a flower quickly fading,
Here today and gone tomorrow,
A wave tossed in the ocean,
A vapor in the wind.
Still You hear me when I'm calling,
Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,
And You've told me who I am.
I am Yours, I am Yours.

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin,
Would look on me with love
And watch me rise again?
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea,
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me?
And not because of who I am,
But because of what You've done,
Not because of what I've done,
But because of who You are!

Cold in PA

This was a bitterly cold, windy day in PA, but I was so glad to be back at school. I realized today how much more I walk in the course of the day when I'm there than when I'm at home. My classroom is on the lower level, but the staff room, staff restroom, and office are on the upper level. I'm also excited to be starting all new songs with each chorus and I'll have a middle school worship team again. That's my favorite thing of all.

After school I went to the gym and got really warm for the first time all day! And now I'm going to crawl under a mound of blankets and comforters and I'm going to sleep good.

(By the way, I added Anthony's band's website, Holy Smoke Blues, to the links on my sidebar. If you want to hear their music, click on "music" and there are four really good demo tracks to listen to.)

New Years Eve in State College

Yesterday we drove to State College (about 2 hour's drive) for their First Night Celebration. There were many, many events taking place all over town, including Anthony's band, Holy Smoke Blues. Did they ever SMOKE!! Their show is absolutely energizing to the audience, and probably exhausting for the band. It was good, clean, feel-good, fun music, and I LOVED it. Of course I love the lead guy quite a lot, so I could be biased a bit, but it surely sounded like the packed audience was having fun and loving it too.

Here's my boy, lead guitar PRO, vocalist, and songwriter. Those fingers move, other times they make that guitar cry.

The other members of the band, each one EXCELLENT on his instrument:

Doug on the keyboard

Darryl on the guitar

Bennett on the drums

and Kevin on the bass.

After the show the band tore down all their stuff and we helped them take it all back to Anthony's basement studio. By then Anthony said his "hunger demon" was after him, and we all know we don't want to be around him long when that is happening (!!), so we went to Perkins. Destiny was delighted to be our photographer. She does a pretty good job, doesn't she?

Boy, what is UP with those cheeks?? I look like I gained 10 pounds this week. I feel like I did too. (Thank God the scales says it was only 3.)

Aren't they one GOOD-looking couple?

Hamming it up!

After eating we went to downtown State College to look at all the ice sculptures. They were AMAZING! It was a lot of fun, but it was nearly midnight, and the temp had REALLY dropped.

How about these "blue and white" Penn State Christmas decorations?!!

The first sculpture we saw was this little reindeer. That hand belongs to my naughty son Anthony!

That had to be one cold tractor seat!!

Thyda, I took the picture of this ocean liner for you!

Doesn't this look cool?

The wishing well - there was actually a place to put coins into it!

One last thrill before we all froze to death - Destiny went down the ice slide!

We were driving back to their house when the clock struck 12, so we didn't get to see the ball drop in NYC. But we joined the many other people who were using their cell phones to wish family members a happy new year. Some of our text messages and calls would not go through in those first few minutes after midnight!

This morning we had a wonderful brunch with Anthony and Lori at the Waffle House in State College. Anthony convinced us to try the Iowa Corn Pancakes. UMMMM. Were they ever good. I have got to make some.

Here's a glimpse of some of the work Anthony and Lori have been doing - besides tearing out walls and putting in bamboo flooring throughout the main floor, they have gotten new kitchen cabinets, countertops, and appliances. There are many finishing touches before it's done, but it is going to be gorgeous.

We left for home around 2:00. As we neared home we noticed an accident, and from there all the way home there were no lights on in anybody's houses. We got home to no electricity. And we had had our heat turned back to 55 while we were gone! Needless to say, we kept our coats and gloves on and lit a bunch of candles. Dick was getting the never-yet-used kerosene heater ready for action (we were to wait an hour while the wick soaked!), but the the electric returned and we didn't need it. We took Destiny home early in the evening and I've been catching up on emails and blogs and trying out my "new" laptop. It was Lori's Penn State computer until they got new laptops for employees. Lori was able to buy the old one at a great price and we bought it from her at that price. So I've had fun learning to use it.

Tomorrow I go back to school, back to routine, and back to the gym. And I am ready.