Presidents Day Weekend trip to DC

We had another great, although VERY COLD, weekend in DC.  As planned, Dick and I left as soon as he got off work at 5:30 Friday evening.  It was  not the most pleasant trip.  First it drizzled, then it poured, then it changed to slushy snow, then back to rain.  We were so glad to finally arrive at Jeremy's place about 9:45.  Jeremy and his friends Mike, Rob, and Kim had just gotten back from celebrating Jeremy's birthday at a French restaurant.  But waiting for our arrival were two birthday cakes and ice cream.  

After dessert it was time for the Molly show!  She NEVER tires of playing catch and gave us many laughs.

That swirl on the lower right hand corner of the pic is Molly in action.

Saturday morning I made some home fries with plenty of onions, peppers, mushrooms, and eggs folded in.   It was a such a cold day!  And Jeremy's house is old and not well-insulated.  Add the open stairway with lots of heat rising to the second floor, and you see why wrapping up in blankets was essential when sitting down!

By noon there was plenty of action in the house.  Lori and Austin arrived!  Austin is obsessed with Molly, so there was lots of doggy chasing.

He's also obsessed with trains, so we took the Metro and went to the American History museum to see the trains.  Lori and Jeremy had to pose when they saw my camera.

Austin admiring himself in the window of the train.

This is the only picture I have of the capital this time.  I had to hurry across the street and couldn't stop traffic to get a good picture.

Austin was somewhat impressed with the big trains, but was looking for the toys.

We went to the Natural History Museum next door, thinking maybe he'd be impressed with dinosaurs, but no such luck.  He wanted to go home and play with Molly!  So we admired the architecture instead!

Walking on the walls was much more fun!

And then we went home for the Austin and Molly Show.  

  
Lori and Jeremy walked to pick up our dinner - Indian for some and pizza for others.  Ray and Thyda arrived form Virginia Beach around 8 pm.  Things were pretty much crazy for the rest of the evening.  I was in the kitchen cooking my Middle Eastern stew for our Sunday lunch, so no more pictures of the evening.

On Sunday morning we went to Capital Hill United Methodist Church and thoroughly enjoyed the service.  There were lots of young adults and children there.  The choir was aMAZing!!   The stew had been in the crock pot all morning and was ready for our cold bodies when we got home.  Saturday had been cold, but Sunday was BITTERLY cold.  

After lunch Ray and Thyda and Lori and Austin had to leave.  Dick took a vacation day for Monday, so we were able to stay over.  

Austin waited till the bitter end to eat some lunch so he could have a piece of that carrot birthday cake. 

Lori said he was asleep about ten minutes after they left and slept all the way to Harrisburg!  I guess Molly wore  him out, haha!

I have a ton more pictures to show of home improvement projects Dick and Jeremy worked on and of the setups Jeremy did at his most recent store, but that will have to be another post.  To bed I go!

Snow, engagement, birthday, trip to DC

Just a quick update!  First of all, some night-time snow pics from a sudden, heavy snowfall we had on Wednesday evening. 

The next morning my mountain (outside our bedroom window was bright and shiny!

A VERY exciting Valentine's event in our family was Sam and Jenn's official engagement!!  At last!!

Here's one of my favorite pictures of them with Sammy.  We are SO happy for them!

We are heading to DC tonight to spend the weekend with Jeremy.  Thirty-three years ago today he was this tiny baby in my bed.  He was born at home - on purpose.  It was such a very happy night for our little family.  Anthony was 3, Lisa almost 6, and they saw him just minutes after he was born.  

Happy Birthday, Jeremy!  

Gotta run!

A "new" old lady Buick

I've mentioned a number of times that my "old lady Buick" is dying a slow death.  Gradually things quit working that are too expensive to fix the right way, so Dick either rigs some kind of fix (the heat/AC controls), or we just do without that feature (cruise control).  A few weeks ago I began praying that a car we can afford would come across our path.  Of course, I preferred that someone would give us one (haha!), but I didn't make that stipulation!  Last week Dick was working on another old lady Buick and found out that the woman who had owned it had died recently, and her son was getting it ready to sell.  It was a few years newer than mine (still older than most people drive) and in much better condition.  We bought that car yesterday.  Now I will be able to control the heat and AC the right way, I will have cruise control, shifting on the floor instead of the column (better for my shoulder), and I can open that sun roof on a sunny day!  Here are the old and the "new".  Today I will give the dear old one a thorough vacuuming for the prospective buyers that Dick's boss already has lined up for it.  

 

But, oh dear!  I have gotten used to looking for that black vinyl roof in a parking lot.  I'm afraid there may be more dark green cars than silver-gray/black-roofed ones.  I have been known to get a little mixed up in the car recognition department.  Here's an old story from my Story Saturday files.  My newer readers may not have heard this one before.

 

OUR "NEW" CAR

As we raised our many children the most practical means of transportation was big Ford vans, which we would drive for many years. As the children became drivers we added VW Rabbits to our driveway. It was never hard to find our vehicles in a parking lot, because they didn't look like anybody else's.

That is, until 1995 when we got a gray Mercury Sable which looked amazingly like many other cars on the road. I was not known to be much of a car noticer, so I was in for a challenge!

One particular Saturday morning Dick and I had been to a doctor appointment and got finished just before twelve noon. I wanted to to go to the bank before they closed so we hurried to the nearest Fulton Bank which was in a little K-Mart strip mall. He pulled up to the curb in front of the bank, I jumped out and made a mad rush for the door, getting inside the door just before they locked it.

A few minutes later I came out of the bank and quickly jumped into the car that was at the curb where Dick had let me out. I was completely SHOCKED as I heard a strange man's voice saying, "Wrong car, Hon!"

"Oh my goodness, I am SO SORRY!" I exclaimed profusely as I even more quickly jumped back out of that car without as much as a glance at the man who had spoken. I turned around and saw Dick sitting in our car in a parking space facing the bank, with the BIGGEST grin in town. He had watched the whole thing with greatest amusement. I sheepishly walked over and got into our car, still without looking at the man in the wrong car. Dick told me it was an older man who had probably enjoyed having a younger woman hopping into his car! (I hate to admit it, but the wrong car was not a Mercury Sable; in fact, it wasn't even gray - it was brown.)

Our weekend; grandchildren pictures

On Friday we waited to see what Winter Storm Nemo had in store for us.  At one point it seemed to really mean business as huge snow flakes came down.  It was beautiful.

But about the time I posted this pic on Facebook, it stopped, and we had very little snow after that.  Certainly not the case for my sister Betty and family up in New Hampshire.  She said it was the kind of day that our mom would have been making homemade donuts - lots of snow outside and all events cancelled.  

We were remembering our dad that day.  It would have been his 90th birthday.  Grandma Mary is spending her last week in Sarasota, Florida, then coming back to PA.  She's been having a wonderful time, but she told me on the phone last week that it's still hard sometimes being around other happy couples when she so wishes Grandpa were there with her.   I made this collage on Friday - pictures of my dad with each of our biological children and grandchildren.  Such wonderful memories.

Meanwhile, also in Florida, a certain little girl was more than a little excited to be going to a Father-Daughter dance at her school on Friday evening!  How she loved those one-inch heels on her shoes, hahaha!

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On Saturday we left at noon to drive to Pottsville.  It was a brilliant, sunny day.  We were fascinated by the frozen waterfalls along the railway near Harrisburg.  

When we got to Frank's place we went to the mall with him and Destiny.  He had to buy her some shirts for school.  She no longer has to wear school uniforms, but she must have collars on her shirts.  We found some cute ones on clearance at Boscovs.  

I had brought chili and all the fixin's for dinner.  It was delicious, if I must say so myself!  Then we took some pictures.

Guess who's as tall as Grandma now?

This morning I subbed for Judy at the piano at Fillmore, then led the praise team at Houserville.  It's good both places have strong, enthusiastic singers, because my voice is not at all better, probably worse.  My throat doesn't hurt, I don't have any sinus trouble or coughing, just a very raspy voice. Ugh.

Austin came here as usual for his Sunday nap.  He always looks so handsome on Sundays in his dress shirts, so I tried to get a picture with him.  

Another weekend has gone by without seeing Sammy.  We need to fix that one of these times!!  Are you reading this, Sam and Jenn???  I'll end this post with this great picture.  Jenn says Sammy was showing Sam how to be cool, hahaha!!

Change of plans, some bright spots

This week hasn't turned out to be what I expected.  For weeks I've been prepping and planning to shoot my next video this Wednesday and Friday (the days I don't work at the church office).  But those "frogs" in my throat that I mentioned on Sunday forced me to give up my plans for now.  I do not have a cold.  But there are definite issues with my voice - some notes just do not produce a sound unless I force them.    And I've learned from past experience that if I do that, things will only get worse.  So for the time being, I need to take it easy.  Sigh.  My schedule for February and March is really full, so I'm  disappointed and wondering how I'll be able to do it till April.  On the positive side, Anthony will be set up in a new and bigger studio by then.  And on a personal note, maybe I can lose some of these holiday pounds by then.

Last evening, before our praise team practice at Houserville, I took dinner to Anthony and Lori (since I had all that unexpected extra time yesterday).  When I arrived it was obvious Lori wasn't home yet, but it seemed that nobody was home.  The house was dark.  Then I heard Austin out back.  Anthony and Austin were having a blast on the gym set.  Then they wanted to show me how they can go sledding right in their yard.  Sure enough, even though most of the back yard was bare of snow, the hill on the shady side of the house still had enough for sledding.  Over and over and over they walked up that hill and slid down, sitting, lying on their bellies, lying on their backs, always with a dramatic ending on the bare grass, which Austin just loved.  

There was another bright spot to my day as well.  Recently the decision was made for Destiny to move from her mom's place in Reading to her dad's place in Pottsville.  That took place this past weekend.  I talked with Destiny on Tuesday evening after her first day of school, and she was very happy with how the day had gone and that people were friendly to her.  Last week at her school in Reading Destiny had placed a book order.  One of her teachers, who lives near Pottsville, had said that if she had a phone number to contact her, she would see that Destiny gets the books when they arrive.  So Destiny gave me the teacher's email address so I could send her Frank's phone number.  I emailed the teacher yesterday, and when I got her reply, these short sentences brought me to tears:  "Destiny is a very kind-hearted young lady.  I miss her, and so do her classmates."    That just blesses my heart more than I can express here on a blog.

Early this morning I caught this sight outside my dining room window.  I love a country sunrise in a blah winter week.

 

  

Here at home and around the country

Another Sunday already!  Before I go any further, I want to share a picture from last Saturday that I apparently forgot to use the last time I posted.  As we were driving along the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, I snapped this one.  Some of the river on the other side was covered with ice.  I thought it looked so majestic.

It seemed there wasn't a whole lot to post about this week.  Besides all my normal music / church secretary responsibilities and activities, my main focus has been on getting all my lesson plans and worksheets ready to shoot my next set of Music@Home video classes - The Musical Scale.  Of all times, when I'm planning a video that will require more singing than any of the others, my voice has some "frogs" in it.  And in practicing for the video, my shoulder is complaining bitterly from doing the scale hand signs and writing on the board.  I think I'm just going to have to become a lefty.  It's very discouraging, actually maddening.  Prayers would be greatly appreciated.

How many of you were taught the Kodaly hand signs for the scale?  Kids think they're fun.  I'm excited that I was even able to get a very reasonably-priced license from the company that owns the rights to Rogers and Hammerstein's music to teach the Do-Re-Mi song from Sound of Music.  I used to teach that to every kindergarten class, and they LOVED it.

The weather was all over the place this week.  On the one or two days that the temps went above 50 degrees we had rain.  On Thursday morning cold temps were ushered back in with blasts of crazy wind and alternating sun-snow-sun-snow-sun-snow-sun-snow.  It all depended what time you looked out the window. I took this picture of the sun trying to peak from behind the wind clouds Thursday morning.

And it's been snowing lightly pretty  much ever since.  It does look beautiful - better than brown.  I took this picture as we were leaving for church this morning.

And this one on our way home.  I think it snowed at least another inch during church.  

Austin was here a couple of times this week - Friday evening and this afternoon.  He is CRAZY over M&M's.  I usually have some in a trail mix, but recently Dick got a couple of these, probably left over from Christmas.  It's a big M&M tin with two little serving-size packs of M&M's inside.  So he gets one pack when he comes.  On Friday evening he discovered that the empty tin was excellent for spinning.  Remember how he used to spin everything?  Still does, I guess!

Sorry this is so blurry.  But I think you can still see that look of delight on his face!

He's always been such a picky eater, but lately he's really been expanding his tastes.  He amazed me today when he asked for lettuce, hahaha!!  So Dick pulled out the Spring Mix he uses for his lunch, and he and Austin munched away - no dressing or anything!  Here's the proof!

He got mad at me though when I wouldn't let him have a second pack of M&M's.  I said we'll save them for the next time.  He claimed that he's never coming to my house again, and if he does, he's not eating any M&M's.  Little drama king!  

This week I made another collage.  Jeremy has been busy doing home improvements since he moved from a sleek, new condo into an old house last Fall.   I was amazed enough when he made his own curtains, but when he sent me a picture of the over-range microwave he had installed, I was really impressed.  So was Dick!  He said, with a good bit of satisfaction in his voice,  "Maybe some of my mechanical genes DID rub off!"   Here's my before/after collage.

Dick also had another proud moment.  Anthony was in Anaheim, CA for the NAMM Show (National Association of Music Merchants) last week.  Dick was listening to Gov. Mike Huckabee's radio show and heard him say that he too is at the NAMM Show and would be doing his radio show from there.  Dick texted Anthony and told him to look him up.  (Dick LOVES Mike Huckabee.)   Late that night Dick received a text, this picture with Anthony's caption, "Found him!"  

And while I'm going around the country, showing what our kids are up to, here's some bragging about Lisa.  As you know, she's a YOGA instructor.  Last week she was invited to be on a segment of a local TV talk  show.  The segment was about fashionable exercise attire, but in addition to showing her attire, Lisa also got the chance to show how she does a YOGA pose.  It's just AMAZING how flexible she is!!  If you don't  have time/care to watch the entire segment, Lisa's portion starts at 2:50 - about two minutes long. 

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(By the way, this link will not work on a mobile device, but it should work on your computer.) 

This week Sophie's school had International Day.  She makes a pretty cute little Austrian girl, doesn't she?

Look what Sammy figured out how to do.  Oh, the possibilities!!

Boy, I really should post more than once a week!  This has gotten LONG!  Congratulations if you made it all the way through!