Our Saturday

We had a fun day of hanging out at home, even though it was without Jeremy.

Katrina has been diligently keeping up with her homework while here in the States. Here Miki was helping her with some of it. Bjorn is such a brainiac, he had all his finished before they left Sweden!

Destiny and Lori worked together on their beadwork and earring kits.

Anthony can usually be found at the computer.

Our quiet street became noisy with a football game. Bjorn would dearly love to play American football - a sport they do not have in Sweden.

This evening we went to my school gym for a potluck supper with whomever it suited from Dick's family and my family. Both sets of grandparents and several others were away for the weekend, but we still had about 35 people.

A day for our family history book!

Yes, Friday was a day for our family history book - just because we had more of our children together than we've had any time since we moved to this little house three years ago!

I had my regular day at school and Dick had another chemo treatment. Jeremy took Miki to get her hair cut by his hairdresser friend Gina. Miki also discovered Fashion Bug, and went crazy with all the clothes she found to buy for herself.

After school Jeremy went with me to Reading to pick up Destiny. She was so surprised to see him. I wish I had had my camera ready when she jumped up into his arms and screamed. We stopped at WalMart on the way home to get meat for the grill.

Eventually more of the gang arrived and the house got even noisier than it's already been this week. The house was a mess, but who cared? Not even me. We had so much fun.

Here's a cute shot of Miki sporting her new haircut.

And here's a typical shot of Bjorn clowning around. He likes to do his "hillbilly" face!!

After we ate we had fun playing Take One with the Scrabble letters. Katrina was the score keeper and Destiny was Jeremy's "taker." Miki was the winner. What is up with that? She doesn't even speak English most of the time.

Jeremy and Lori spent a long time looking through his portfolio. As a college professor she was able to give him lots of good advice about preparing to be accepted into a graduate program. He will be getting his bachelor's in Interior Design next June, then plans to go on to get his masters in Architecture.

Miki and the kids bought Destiny this bead kit. She LOVES stuff like this. It will keep her busy for many hours at a time.

Grandpa and Bjorn hung out on the sofa. I told Bjorn to hold Destiny's Build-a-Bear unicorn, but he declined!

Here's the beginning of my Christmas family picture. I'll just cut the rest of the family members out of other photos and add them to this one!

This morning Jeremy, Dick, and I left the house at 4 AM for the Philly airport. Jeremy's flight back to Tampa was leaving at 6:30 and we were home by 7. I slept a good bit of the way home. Dick went right back to bed and is snoring away! What a wonderful time we had with Jeremy this week. He is so much fun to be with and I miss him already.

Car negotiations

It took some negotiating, but today we managed to go many separate ways with just two vehicles. Dick took me to school, Jeremy visited many different friends, Dick brought Miki and the kids to visit my school at lunch time, Miki met up with her biological dad this evening, Dick worked at Advance Auto Parts, I had a hair appointment after school.... The only thing we couldn't work out was having one of us available to pick me up from the hair dresser at 5:00 and take me home. My dear co-worker Edna heard me talking about my dilemma at lunch time and offered her services. Thank you, Edna!!

Amazingly, after a week of a full house, I ended up being home alone this evening! But gradually they're coming home. The door's still open for Jeremy. But this sleepy mamma will not be waiting up.

Family Day

I took a personal day from school today. Because the Swedes in the household are still adjusting to our time zone, they were awake before I got up at 6 AM. And because Jeremy has to sleep on an air mattress in my office, which has no doors, he was awake early too from our noise! We planned on going shopping, but had to hang around home till it was time for stores to open.

Around 9 AM we headed out for a day of shopping and whatever else we felt like doing. Our first stop was at Secret Sneaker.

I had fun sporting this pair of glitzy boots.

I caught the attention of the local paparazzi!!

From there we went to Barnes and Noble. Jeremy works at Barnes and Noble in Florida, so was able to get books for Miki and the kids at his discount.

Everyone had gotten up and eaten breakfast so early, that by 11:30 we were hungry. Miki had never been to Olive Garden, so that's where we went. It was her treat, since Dick and I will be celebrating our 37th anniversary tomorrow. We had good food, of course, but an even better time back in our corner of the restaurant.

Here's Bjorn, who is quickly becoming as witty as his dad. Look at those blue eyes and that gorgeous red hair.

I wanted a nice picture of Miki and Jeremy, but this is what I got. What's a mother to do?

Now is this a sweet picture, or what?

Our waitress, a very good one, took this picture for us.

After leaving Olive Garden, feeling absolutely stuffed, we went across the street to the mall for a couple of hours. I got myself my first pair of Crocs. I hope they prove to be as comfortable as everyone says they are.

Next we went to downtown Lancaster. Our first stop was to Gallery II, owned by Miki's friend Liz. Was she ever surprised to see Miki walk in! When Miki went to Sweden many years ago on a missions trip, Liz was her team leader. Her artwork is amazing!

From there we walked to Prince Street Cafe, owned by friends of ours. What an awesome place! We forgot to take any pictures, so I got the picture from their website. There was also a cool art gallery upstairs.

Then we drove across town to visit our nephew Joe Stauffer (the one who makes guitars) and his wife Kim and their cute kids. Joe and Jeremy lived in an apartment together seven years ago and became close friends. It was great for them to catch up with each other. Joe and Kim live in a typical 3-story city home which they have done a wonderful job of decorating.

The drive home from Lancaster seemed to take forever. We were so tired of being stuffed in a carload of six people. As we ate my supper of spaghetti, garlic toast, and salad (yes, our second Italian meal in one day!) Bjorn entertained us with a book of crazy questions he had bought. If laughter aids digestion, that meal should be digesting just fine!

And now we're just hanging out. This was a really, really good day.