Christmas decorations still up????

Here are a few pictures from my short weekend visit with Frank and Darla, Destiny and J'von.  Darla's children were having a weekend with their dad, so they were not along.  Some of Darla's family were spending the weekend at a family cabin near Lewistown, so Frank and Darla spent Saturday afternoon with them before coming here.  They arrived around 6 PM.  

We went to a Chinese buffet to eat, then came here to relax.  Destiny has a very bad head and chest cold and was completely miserable.  I helped her to get a shower, and then she fell asleep on the living room sofa in no time while Darla and I talked.  

This morning we went to Anthony and Lori's church, and of all Sundays the service lasted longer than ever.  So afterward we hurried home for lunch.  I had made chili yesterday, so I had that in the crock pot, and it didn't take long to pile a bunch of goodies on top of it for a yummy lunch.  

Before I show this picture, let me please say that YES!!  I still have my Christmas tree and decorations up!!  I love them!  I considered taking everything down last weekend, feeling very sad about it, then I made an excuse  for myself that since Frank and Darla were not here for Christmas and had not seen my house decorated for Christmas, I really should leave everything up till their visit is over.   That makes perfect sense, right??

Here you can see how very miserable Destiny felt.  She said she has ulcers in her mouth that hurt when she smiles.  I felt so sorry for her, and it felt like there wasn't enough time to help her get better.

Frank and Darla at the computers this morning.  I was showing her my blog, and suddenly realized I had not yet taken any photos!

A cute shot of J'von and Austin playing together. 

Right after lunch they had to pack up and leave.  Darla needed to pick up her children by 5 or 6.  

Lori and Austin stayed for a while, and Austin provided me with a few laughs.  I'm such a bad grandma, but I just have to show you this adorable picture I took on Friday.  We're starting to put him on the potty after he wakes up, etc.  I always say,  "Can you push out some pee?  Like this?"  And then I make a grunting, pushing noise.  He sits there and pushes and grunts, and then starts to pee.  He just looks so cute, it's all I can do to keep from laughing! 

Meanwhile, down in Florida, Dick's having a great time.  Since we had not been with our Florida kids for Christmas, I decided we would have Dick give Sophie her Christmas gift in person when he's down.  Lisa told me that Sophie just discovered Polly Pockets recently, so I ordered some Polly Pockets and a house for them online last week.  They arrived the day after Dick did, and on Saturday morning when Dick was babysitting her, he gave them to her.  She called me to say "thank-you."  

This morning at Lisa's church the pastor preached a sermon about the importance of "belonging" in the body of Christ.  As part of his sermon they showed a video of the Christmas apartment makeover.  I sat here in tears as I watched it online.  It was so much deeper than the news clip that I posted before, and so beautifully shows Cyndi's story and Lisa's heart.  I hope you have time to watch it.

But there is sad, tragic news from our hometown of Manheim.  During the service at our home church this morning, my dear friend Kati received a call.  Her son, who is a football player for Manheim Central, had been in a car that was following another carload of his buddies.  The carload of his buddies spun out of control, was hit by another car, and all four of his buddies in the other car were KILLED!  They were all football players for Manheim Central.  Kati's son was not involved in the accident, but he witnessed the death of his friends.  Earlier this school year, another MC football player was killed in a car accident as well.  

We have been closely associated with the Manheim Central High School for many, many years, and I cannot remember any tragedy that took so many lives at once.  Life is precious.  Life is fragile.  There is so much else I could say, but right now we just need to cry out to God for comfort for the families and friends of these boys.  

I have continued to get emails from more of you readers. I love it!  So again, feel free to  email me if you'd rather not comment publicly.

Nice treat and a good laugh

What a nice treat today to receive emails from a number of my readers.  Some were complete strangers to me until today.  Others were good friends from previous years.  I know there are a whole lot more I'd enjoy hearing from so here's the link to my  email address once again. 

There were two comments/emails that made me laugh out loud today.  One was when my friend Cheryl, who was the one who introduced me to blogging a long time ago and was my very first and most faithful commenter, wrote, "Here I am, Jean, clocking in at 1:06 PM Friday, January 14, 2011."  She's so obedient, hahahaha!!

The one that really cracked me up  was an email from our son Sam that said, "I read your blog ALMOST everyday via email and I'm glad you do it.    Can't believe you overslept.  Geez, Haven't I taught you anything in all these years about being responsible & waking up on time."

And why was that so funny to me?  Oh my.  When Sam was in high school he was the KING of oversleeping and not hearing alarms and hitting the snooze and begging for ten more minutes. When he and Jenn were here for Christmas we were talking about that.  He reminded me that he used to finally get up, get dressed, then come downstairs and go back to sleep on the sofa till I practically chased him out the door. 

Here's a picture that gives a pretty good idea how he felt about mornings.  This was the first day of school his senior year.  Jeremy and Frank were juniors.  At that point Sam was the only one with a car, so he had to drive and take the other two along.  He probably woke up five minutes before I insisted on taking this picture and he was not a happy camper.  He hated mornings and he hated school even more. 

I can laugh about it now, because Sam is defying all the odds and climbing the ranks in a very successful company.  We're so proud of him, and his email today was typical of his great sense of humor.        

Today in Florida Dick got a complete tour of Sophie's school, Carrollwood Day School.  He had lunch with Jeremy.  Tomorrow he'll be going golfing with George and George's stepdad.  

And I am expecting company this weekend!  If all goes as planned, Frank and Darla, Destiny, and J'von will be coming! 

Dependable wife?

When I went to bed last night I fully intended to wake up at 3:45 in order to call Dick at the hotel and make sure he was up and getting ready to leave for the airport.  But of all times, I had my alarm set for PM instead of AM, so I slept right through 3:45 as well as his text message to me.  What a dependable wife I have become!  

Before noon he was in Florida.  Not warm Florida, however!  I checked the Tampa Accuweather right after he landed.  The temp was 43, feels like 35!!!!   But by Sunday and Monday the temps are to reach the 70's.  Lucky guy!  

I'm curious about something.  According to Sitemeter, I have a lot of people checking my blog each day.  Many times people tell me that they read  my blog regularly, and often times I had no idea that they do.  I realize that leaving a comment in a public place does not feel comfortable to many people.  But I'd love if you'd send me an email. My life is not filled with people from morning to night like it was for years, so I'd enjoy hearing from you!

Pawpaw

Dick had off work today.  The snow was really blowing when it was time for me to pick Austin up from daycare at 11:15, so Dick took me to get him.  He went along in to get Austin, and it was so cute to see Austin's face when he saw his beloved Pawpaw.  As we were getting Austin's coat on, Austin was pointing to everyone's coat and shirt and saying what color they were.  Then he started on body parts, like nose, mouth, etc.  I said,  "Now here's one Pawpaw taught him.  Austin, where's your arm pit?"  Immediately Austin raised his arm and pointed to his arm pit and said, "Armpit"    The daycare workers CRACKED UP!  Chalk one up for Dick, hahahaha!!

Here's a cute little video of Dick and Austin stacking blocks.  Austin just loves the challenge of stacking things. 

Now Dick will be spending the next few days with Sophie in Florida.  He has some vacation days that he has to use or lose, so he's finally going to Florida for the first time in over a year-and-a-half.  He was planning to leave from the very small, very  near-by State College airport at 6 AM tomorrow (Thursday).  But early this evening he got a phone call saying his flight was cancelled, and they didn't have room on any flight out of State College until Friday afternoon.   So instead he is leaving from Harrisburg airport at 6 AM.  He quickly packed and left here around 8:30 PM.  As he drove I found a cheap hotel for him close to the Harrisburg airport.  He's there now and ready to get some sleep before his early departure.  He'll be returning next Tuesday.

Anthony left from the State College airport earlier today.  He's at a huge guitar show in Anaheim, CA.  So Lori and I are going it alone, come hell or high water.  Oh, let's see.  Probably neither of those!  Come snow or ice or wind!!

Austin says, "Let there be light!"

I realized last evening, when I was looking for pictures to update the collage of our grandchildren on my sidebar, that there aren't many recent pictures of Austin's beautiful smile.  He just never stops moving long enough to actually smile right at the camera!  But today I caught him just in the nick of time!

 

Look at his newest feat.  If he stre-e-e-e-etches really, really hard he can flip my light switches on.  He is so pleased with himself.  Sometimes I offer to lift him up a little bit, but he absolutely does not want any help!  So when Austin is here my house is very well lit.  He wants every curtain open, every mini-blind pulled up and every light on! 

We got several inches of snow this afternoon, and the roads were getting pretty slippery by late afternoon, so Lori came here in their Jeep to pick up Austin.  She had his snow pants and boots along, so we went outside in the snow before they left.  Last year at this time Austin was not yet walking, so he's loving this new experience. 

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Annual Family Portrait

Once again I called my entire family together, from the ends of the earth, for the annual family portrait.  They all obliged, as usual, and in a short time we were all finished.  Nobody acted up, nobody was in a bad mood, nobody tried to be funny.  They didn't even compare the size of their heads.  I trained them well, did I not??  And here we are.

As you know, this is  my literal "cut and paste" method.  Maybe someday I'll have Photoshop on my computer.  Or better yet, maybe someday we really will all be together at the same time and place for a family portrait.  I have a feeling that will be a very crazy time.  Even worse than the Stauffer "wit fests" with Dick's family.  

Back in 1995 we went to Olan Mills for a family portrait.  They first of all tried to figure out which one was the mom.  Ahem.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Then they tried to figure out who belonged to whom.  Miki and Krister told her they were husband and wife.  The photographer asked if there were any other couples.  Krister said,  "Well, actually, I'm married to Lisa too.  We're Mormon."  It was all down hill from there! 

Ray had not yet joined our family, and Katrina was the only grandchild at that point.  And my, oh my, Dick and I have aged in these fifteen years.  Oh well, we've weathered some real life since then too! 

Grandma Arlene

I realized when I wrote the date this morning that today was Dick's step mother's birthday. Since I wrote about his mother a few days ago, what better time than on her birthday to introduce you to his step mother?

After I wrote that post a few days ago, I received a beautiful FB message from Mary Martin who used to work with Ruth in the kitchen at Mount Hope Home. That was Ruth's part-time job when she found out she had cancer. She continued to work as long as she was able to, because she had such great co-workers and they had so much fun together. Mary, who wrote to me this week, said that she remembers Ruth telling her that she hopes after she's no longer here, Dad would find a good person to take care of him.

Dad did find a good person. He found Arlene. But before they became husband and wife, their commitment to each other was severely tested. Dad was in a severe motorcycle accident. The majority of their courtship was during Dad's recovery. There were times we were not sure he would be walking by their wedding day, but as you can see here, he was!

Arlene was fifty years old at the time. She had never married before, but was a favorite aunt to her many nieces and nephews. It seemed like she just slid right into her role as wife, mom, and grandma, in addition to her full-time bookkeeping job, without skipping a beat. Maybe she doesn't remember it quite like that, but that's how it felt to us.

For years she has made an effort to do special things with the grandchildren on their birthdays. I remember one time she took all us daughter-in-laws to Willow Valley Resort for an overnight. She still hosts the whole big family at least once a year in their big, long basement. She and Dad still go camping with the whole family - honest-to-goodness camping.

I called her today, and she exclaimed over being 79. She said, "It's just so close to 80, I can't believe it!" Neither can we, Arlene! You don't seem anywhere close to 80. You're just too young at heart. We love you, and we thank you for taking on and loving our whole big family when you married Dad!

Outside my door

How's this for a Christmas tree decorated by God?

Ruth Brubaker Stauffer, my mother-in-law

For the past several months I have been wanting to do a post about Dick's mother, Ruth Brubaker Stauffer. Since viewing the slides on Sunday evening and taking that wonderful, hilarious trip down memory lane with Dick's family, now is the time to introduce her.

First of all, her high school senior picture, probably 1946.

Next is a picture of her at our wedding in October 1971. This is the way we remember her most, except that she usually had a smile.

Ruth was a SUPREME organizer and manager. How else does a woman run a household of five sons, hired workers, plus help on the family farm and celery business? I had the unique privilege of learning from her first hand. When Lisa was a newborn, Dick and I found ourselves in a situation where an apartment we wanted to rent was not available when we needed it. So we stored our belongings and moved in with Dick's family for a month-and-a-half. I learned so much about doing things in quantity, planning ahead, keeping order, how to store things. That may sound like she was strict and inflexible. Not at all!! She was jovial and fun and smart and very, very artistic.

She took oil painting lessons and painted an astonishing number of pictures. Many of them are still hanging in Dick's dad's house. I took pictures of them recently and will post them as a slideshow. Her strong artistic genes have been passed down to the majority of her grandchildren in one form or another.

At the age of 51, just a few years after moving to the dream house in the woods that she and Dad had designed and built, Ruth was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was a horrible blow to the family. For a year-and-a-half she fought it, some of the time with chemo that made her so sick she started becoming nauseated at the very sight of the Lancaster General Hospital. Cancer treatment has come a long way since 1980. This picture was taken in the spring of 1981, just months before she died. Just as she always thought ahead and organized her household, she did the same to prepare us for her absence. She was completely open about what was to come, and we were able to talk about everything before she left, though with breaking hearts. I remember sitting with her in the back yard at Fred and Deb's house as we watched the grandchildren play. I felt so angry that she would not see these children grow up. There are nine more grandchildren in the family who were not yet born at that time. I'm so sad for them that they never knew her.

We were privileged to be in her bedroom when she said, "I give all for Jesus", and then took her last breath. What a precious, holy moment. What a warm, loving, capable woman to have for a mother-in-law. I loved her so very much.

And now, enjoy her artwork!

A FUN first weekend of 2011

On Saturday (New Year's Day) we got a slow start, but eventually got packed up and on the road to Lancaster County.  This time we headed to my sister Doris's house where we were served a delicious supper of chicken corn noodle soup.  During the evening I worked on music preparations for Sunday morning while Dick took Destiny to meet Frank.  We were more than ready to hit the sack in Doris's comfy living room/guest room.

What makes that room extra special is that this is the house we Witmers grew up in, and this living room is where Dick and I dated and actually had our first kiss, hahaha!  

Don't you love this unique clock in Doris's kitchen?

Here's where Doris and Dale relax in the evenings on their recliners in the family room.

 

On Sunday I led worship at our church and we had a beautiful communion service.  Then we met up with Doris and Dale and their youngest daughter Ellen for lunch at  Subway.

Later in the afternoon we went to Dick's parents for a family gathering.  We have had many, many wonderful, fun times with Dick's family over the years, but last evening rates up near the top.  

We started with a meal of Mexican Pile-Up in Grandpa's lo-o-ong basement.  I took a bunch of pictures while people were eating and talking, so there are some less-than-flattering expressions!  I'm going to post a lot of pictures for the sake of family members who were not able to be there. 

Other activities that took place during the evening were:  Austin enjoyed the marble rollers and little school desk,

some of the guys looked at pictures of a hunting trip out west,

the younger set played Rook, 

the ladies discovered an entire cedar chest full of handwork, comforters, dresser scarves, cut patches, etc. that were Mother Stauffer's.  We had no idea those things were still there until Dick's step mother showed them to us.  

But the most spectacular activity of the evening was this:

Several weeks ago when we were sleeping at Dick's parents for the weekend, Destiny discovered boxes of "slides" in a closet.  She wondered what they were.  We explained to her what they were, and also started looking at a few of them.  Dick and I decided they were family treasures that really must be gotten out of that closet!  So last evening, with a somewhat broken slide projector, we viewed those slides, most of them from the seventies.  Talk about FUN!!!!  Any time the Stauffers are together, it becomes a wit fest.  But those slides brought out more wit and belly laughs than anything we've done for a long time.  After I was almost asleep last night I remembered a certain slide and started giggling.  And I still laugh out loud every time I think of last evening.  Anthony is researching the best way for us to get these slides converted to digital pictures.  Any suggestions from anyone who's already done it?

Here are some very special pictures.  Four generations of Stauffers:

Dad Stauffer with his five sons: Dick, Bob, Jim, Steve, and Fred.   Their dear mother had five boys in eight years!!!

The six Stauffer couples:  Dad and Arlene in front, Jim and Carolyn, Dick and I, Steve and Faye, Bob and Doris, Fred and Deb.  

 

What an awesome family to belong to!  I feel blessed to have been the first "daughter" in this family and to remember so much of the family history.

Dick and I slept at my sister's house again last night and drove home this morning.  And now it's a new week, a new month, and a new year.  Time to make some goals and plans.

State College First Night Celebration

Good morning, 2011!!  I just wrote the date for the first time and I thought it was cool - 1/1/11. 

Here are some pictures from the First Night events in downtown State College.  I don't have ice sculpture pictures this year.  They weren't quite as impressive as other years, maybe because of the above-freezing temps.  We tried to take in a few other events and shows, but  some things were already full when we got there, or almost over, or it just took too long to coordinate all the needs for food, drink, potty, buttons for entrance into events, directions to the events, keeping track of the kids, etc.  

We watched a puppet procession,

we spent a lot of time watching and learning all about the reindeer, 

we drank water and  hot chocolate, ate delicious kettle corn made in enormous vats,

we stopped in to watch the end of a reader theater show in a church basement, then rested a while as we listened to a bluegrass group in the sanctuary (trust me - this picture is deceiving.  These three kids, Lori's nephew William, Austin, and Destiny, were not little angels all evening, hahahahaha!)

the kids played in the park where some of the festivities were held, and then, after waiting in a long line, they went down this awesome ice sliding board.

Dick had finally joined us by this time and took care of Austin while Lori and I waited with the other two at the ice slide.  When they were finished with that, Lori was more than ready to take William home and then to take Austin home to bed.  

Dick and Destiny and I went to watch Anthony's gig, held at the same church his previous band played at three years ago on New Year's Eve.  I was sleepy, and my contacts were so dry they were threatening to pop right out of my eyes, but I'm still glad we went.  I know I'm his mom and most likely biased, but let me tell you, Anthony's guitar playing is phenomenal.  He puts more "soul" into a song than I ever knew was possible.  The song that most featured his solo work was Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood, and his playing was so incredible people clapped in the middle of the song.  Okay, now I'll stop before I make you sick, haha!