A chance to breathe on a Thursday evening, what??

I got lots of things accomplished this week, and now I have a chance to breathe.  We had Lenten service at Fillmore last evening and the choir sang, so afterward we had practice instead of this evening.  My exercise class after work today was also cancelled since the instructor is away, so this feels like an absolutely leisurely Thursday evening compared to normal.

I also finished up our income tax stuff this week and have that ready for our tax man.  And I got a new song ready for our praise team at Houserville - Lord, I Need You.  Yes, I know I mentioned that song several weeks ago, but at that point I had just gotten it arranged in my computer composer program.  After I do that I print it out in the right key and format for each musician on the team, make personal markings in each, etc.  It's a time consuming process, but I love it.

Dick had a root canal done today with several more to go.  I need to make an appointment for myself and dread hearing the verdict.  I floss religiously every single day, but I know there's at least one problem area.  A thousand dollar's worth of dental insurance per person per year doesn't begin to make a dent these days.  I'm trying not to let it overwhelm me.

I babysat Austin on Tuesday evening.  He was taking his bath and playing with his Star Wars "people," giving me an education about who the bad guys and the good guys are.

This boy's head is filled with numbers - big numbers.  Later during his bath he was "writing" a bunch of 9's on the tile with his wet finger as he was slowly and deliberately saying, "Ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine."  Then he asked,  "What number comes next?"  Without thinking very hard I said, "A million?"  And he said, "No!  What comes after ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred ninety-nine?"  I had listened more closely that time and answered, "One hundred thousand!"  And just like a teacher he said, "Right!"   Last evening Anthony posted a number that Austin had come up with - five thousand, four hundred infinity, hahaha!!

Here's another funny one from the weekend.  He was very tired and extremely upset over something that Anthony and Lori were holding firm about - a line he had crossed after having been warned a few times.  He was sobbing and declaring,  "I will never get what I want. Not even when I'm 41, because I might live in your house and you'll still be in charge."   And then he warned them, "I'm going to wake up at 6:31 tomorrow."  I just cracked up at his choice of numbers!

And now I want to share my Throwback Thursday pictures for this week.  Here are our parents' wedding pictures.

First my parents, Paul and Mabel (Myers) Witmer on October 2, 1943. It was also my mother's 20th  birthday. 

Dick's parents, Howard and Ruth (Brubaker) Stauffer, October 2, 1948.

They celebrated their anniversaries together at our wedding on October 2, 1971.  

Unfortunately, by 1983 Dick and I were the only ones celebrating that date, since both of our mothers died from cancer in their fifties, just a year apart.  

I shared these pictures on FB today.  One of my cousins, whose dad is one of my mom's younger brothers, made an interesting comment.  She said she showed her dad the picture of my parents' wedding, and he remembered that they went to the Pocono Mountains on their honeymoon and when they came back they gave him a Milky Way bar - his first one ever!  I think he would have been about 8 years old at the time.  That must have been a really good piece of candy for him to remember it all these years later!

Most of our snow is now gone.  But guess what is in our forecast for tomorrow?  Several inches of snow!  Oh well, it won't stay around for long.  I have green shoots coming up in my flower beds and I'm so excited to think of flowers!!  We took all the greens and lights down the other weekend, so it's time for some color out there!!

Is the weekend over already??

I can't believe this weekend is over already!  It feels like I just got finished crossing a million things off my list from last week, and now I'm starting it all over again.

On Friday evening we got to Sam and Jenn's shortly after 7:30 pm.  Sam had just arrived home with Destiny.  She had track practice after school and he had waited for her.

Sam and Jenn went out on a date, and Grandpa and I settled in with the kids.  Bianca was acting pretty clingy and weepy until they left, then she was okay.

Destiny wondered if I would help her with her homework.  What????  Wasn't I just helping her to learn her addition facts?  I had NO idea how to help her with this.

At some point when Dick was playing with Bianca on the floor, she started rubbing her face on his flannel shirt sleeve.  He sat with her on the recliner, and in no time she was asleep!

Sammy fell asleep on my lap, but there was no one to take a picture.  I hung out with Sam and Jenn for a while after they got home, watching hilarious video clips.

I slept until 8 on Saturday morning, which is just unheard of for me!  And Dick was still sleeping!  But not this little girl!

Or her big brother.  Trust me, he was not sleeping on this picture.  He just HATES having his picture taken, so as soon as he saw my phone in picture-taking position, he turned his face away just that quick!  Thus I have almost no pictures of him this trip. )-:

I made egg and bacon sandwiches on English muffins for everyone.  We had a gloriously unproductive morning, just playing and laughing at the kids.  At one point when Dick was holding Bianca she fell asleep in this position, which cracked us up.  It looked like she would have fallen asleep mid-conversation, haha!

Bianca is now on the move!  She's learning to crawl, and it is SO CUTE to watch her figure it out!

I had brought chili along, which was heating in the crock pot all morning.  We then had a late lunch of Mexican Pile-up, which is chili with all the fixin's.  It was absolutely yummy, if I do say so myself.  Destiny had offered to help get stuff together, so she chopped tomatoes. 

After lunch we loaded Sammy and Destiny in the car with us for an afternoon of galavanting around. Our first stop was about six miles down the road at Grandma Mary's.  We had not seen her since she returned from her winter stay in Florida.  We had so much catching up to do.  I think Dick caught a little nap on the recliner while we were talking.  The kids played with the big basket of toys.  

Later when we went to the kitchen for some snacks, Destiny brought out a deck of Old Maid cards that she had found and wanted us to play.  She just LOVES playing games and is very persuasive.  So Grandma Mary, Destiny, and I just stood there around the island in the kitchen and played a round of Old Maid!  Destiny had already read all the rules and knew what to do.  We had great fun!

From there we went to Fred and Deb's house to see Bjorn.  He had just returned from a big meal at the very popular Shady Maple Smorgasbord with his bowling team.  So I know he was fighting sleepiness the whole time we sat there talking.   But it was really good to see him again and get caught up a bit on his life in Manheim.   Dick also really enjoyed chatting with his brother Fred. 

Dear Deb was on the floor with the kids and the toys.  Their granddaughter Payton was there, but she was not in the room when I took this picture.  Payton is about six months older than Sammy.  They had a great time, especially with the waffle blocks. 

From there we went to a Goodwill thrift store and K Mart near Sam and Jenn's place to look for some track practice clothes for Destiny.  Sammy was just hilarious.  At K Mart we were in the health and beauty section at one point.  I turned around to see him lifting his cap visor up a bit and trying to brush his hair with the most enormous round brush you ever saw.  Instead of being embarrassed by our laughing, he then proceeded to try more brushes.  What a ham!

Then we went back to Sam and Jenn's, packed up our stuff, and hit the road by 6:30 or so.  Once again, Sam took Destiny home to Reading for us.  It cuts our drive home by half (two hours instead of four) and I just can't thank him enough for it.  I left him some chili, hahahah!

There was heavy fog most of the day.  It got lighter the more we drove.  After an hour or so there was no fog at all.  SO MUCH BETTER than our last two trips!  

  

On the road and no snow!

Finally we are making a quick road trip to Lancaster County with no snow or ice in the forecast!  We just passed our "white-out nightmare" for the first time since Valentines Day.  

Yea, Spring!  We got warmer temps this week, and lots of snow disappeared. My rose bush made an appearance for the first time in quite a while!  

We will be staying at Sam and Jenn's tonight. Can't wait to see Sammy and Bianca!  Sam was picking Destiny up on his way home from work, so she'll be there too.  Tomorrow we plan to see Bjorn for the first time since Christmas and Grandma Mary too.  

Then back home tomorrow night. I can't be away from church two Sundays in a row.  

My next post will be more interesting, I promise!

ErisWomen's Retreat at Camp Hebron

I'm home from the women's retreat, very sleepy, but happy.  My trip there on Friday was uneventful.  I got this picture of the Susquehanna River, mostly frozen over. 

I had bare roads to drive on until I neared Camp Hebron.  There was still a good bit of snow at places, and I was really glad it was still daylight.   This is the retreat center as I approached it.

After I was inside I zoomed in and took this picture of the big slide at the pool where we always have so much fun during Stauffer camping each summer.  

The fire in the big fireplace was burning all weekend.  What ambiance it provided!  This was  my pathetic attempt at taking a selfie by the fire, ha!

This was our view from our meeting room, which had glass on three sides.

And here's our group.

Our speaker for the weekend was Brenda Hollenbach from Hershey, PA (standing to my left.)  What a beautiful woman in every way!  She stirred up our love for the Lord and also stirred up our compassion for women at risk.  She had a huge display of jewelry and other products made by women at risk all over the world that we could buy.  The Women at Risk International brochure that I have here says, "Every $250 in sales sustains a woman for a month in one of our safehouses."  (Our small group this weekend generated enough sales to sustain a woman for THREE months!)  The safehouses rescue women and children from the horror of human trafficking, providing them with holistic treatment, medical care, counseling, education, spiritual care, and job skill training.  Take a look at their website! 

I loved leading these ladies in worship.  So many beautiful voices and hearts!

My roommate was my dear friend Elta Nissley, second from right on the front row.  You may remember that her husband Jay, lifelong friend of Dick's, died after a battle with brain cancer a year-and-a-half ago.   It was good for us to have time to catch up with each other.  We talked way too late last night, especially with the time change!  She's an amazingly strong woman in every way and I'm in awe of all that she handles.  Love you, Elta, my faithful reader and friend!

I got home at 3:30 this afternoon.  Houserville church was again having a fund raiser at Hoss's today, so we joined Anthony and Austin there for dinner.  (Lori is in South Africa until Friday.)  Unfortunately, Austin had had a late nap and had to be wakened, so he was NOT in a good mood at first.  When I tried to get a picture of him and his daddy, this is what I got.

And now I am feeling ready to go to bed.  Too little sleep, too much food all weekend.  Time to hit the reset button!

Have a good week!

Women's Retreat

I'm about to leave the house for the weekend, thanking the Lord that, after all the crazy weather we have had this week, today the sun is shining brightly and there is no precipitation in the forecast.   Whew!!  However, Spring Break starts for Penn State students this weekend, so I am aware that it will probably take me a very long time to get out of this area.  I have some errands to run first, but am hoping to head toward Harrisburg by 3:30 or so.  

I will once again be leading worship at the Erisman Mennonite Church women's retreat held at Camp Hebron.  They hold it there every two years, and I feel honored that they have asked me back for the third time.  The church is in our home area of Manheim in Lancaster County, and I have known some of the women my entire life.  Others I have gotten to know through these retreats.  They are fun, they are real, and they can sing!  I just love leading them, and I'm SO THANKFUL that I do not have laryngitis this time, like I did two years ago!  I was scared after Anthony and I walked in knee-deep snow last Thursday to look inside the barn at their new place.  My feet were soaked!  I changed into dry socks just as soon as I could, but I was really fighting a sore throat that night.  But I won!  Anthony, unfortunately, had wet feet a whole lot longer than I did that day, and he ended up with a chest cold.  Thankfully he's feeling better each day.

I'm hoping there will be a warm fire in this fireplace this evening.

All about Throwback Thursday

This post will be all about Throwback Thursday.  Most of these are pictures I've shared on FB over the past month or so.

First off, at the 2004 Spring Program at Manheim Christian Day School we did the musical Splash Kingdom, a great favorite.  When this picture was taken we were doing the song "Bubbling Joy" complete with bubbles!

The day I posted the above picture I had a question from former student Garrison Witmeyer wondering if I had any pictures from the 90's when he was a student.  The fact is, before digital photography we did not take many pictures of programs.  But on this particular year, Christmas 1993, we did take a couple of pictures.  In this picture, grades 2-5 were crowded onto the small risers we had borrowed as we did the musical "Gettin' Ready for the Miracle."  All the drama took place on the stage while the chorus was on the floor level.  (I'm assuming that one of my readers, Glenda, is in this group somewhere, but it's so difficult to see each face.)

This was the middle school chorus at that same program.

I love this picture of my mom reading to my youngest sister Rose and my niece Lori (probably around 1968).  The girls were just 2 1/2 years apart.  Rose is the only one in this picture that is still here with us.

All seven of us Witmer sisters singing together at a family gathering in March 2001 with our dad looking on and listening with a filled-up heart. 

A few weeks ago, when we were visiting Dick's parents, we spent some time looking through old photo albums. I brought one of them home. Even Dick's dad did not know who the people in these next two photographs were.  

I know for sure this person was related to Dick's mom, possibly her grandmother.  The facial features are so much like those of Dick's mom and her sons and some of her grandchildren.  

This is a beautiful picture of Dick's mom that we had never seen before.  

Just look how much Laura (Fred's daughter) resembles her!

This picture of Virginia's Natural Bridge is in the current issue of the AAA magazine.  It reminded me of pictures I have of our Witmer family trip to Virginia in 1968.  

This is how we sight-see-ers looked!

And last of all, an absolutely wonderful picture of Maggie (whom I introduced in my previous post), her brother Richard, and Jeremy bottle feeding our new lambs.  And yes, that plowed garden in the background would soon be overflowing with peas, green beans, corn, lima beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, green peppers, and potatoes.  We were true country folks. 

Still winter; finding our Maggie AGAIN!

Well, it might be March, but there is no sign of Spring around here!  These are pictures I took when we arrived home from church yesterday. 

Yes, my Christmas lights and greens are still up.  Everything else is so white and blah that I decided that amount of color is the least we can do for now.  I always think I'm going to paint our shutters a different color some day, but so far I haven't found the time for a project like that.

I made this collage of pictures I took throughout our winter months this year.   The funny thing is, December was the one month we had very little snow.  We did not have a white Christmas!  It's hard to imagine no snow.  

A winter breakfast we often had when I was a kid was "mush and puddins" - cornmeal mush that was made in loaf pans, which we would slice and fry, then top with puddins - some kind of ground pork meat that was also fried.  (Don't look up the description of this on Wikipedia!!)  At some point there was scrapple, which was the cornmeal mush with the puddins mixed right in.  Once fried it tastes good with syrup or ketchup.  Well, all that to say that last week my co-worker Kris and her hubby said they were going to an Amish store in Belleville, about 45 minutes from here.  Mel said he likes to go there once in a while to get some scrapple.  I told him to buy a pound for us.  So on Friday evening that's what Dick and I had for dinner.  It was good, but not as delicious as I remembered.  

Look at this adorable picture Jenn posted on Friday - Sammy getting picked up from daycare.    I miss him so much!  It's time for this winter weather to be over so we can make those day trips to Lancaster County more often!  

And now a good "lost and found" story.  This will be a very abbreviated version of it.  On Saturday evening I got a Facebook friend request from a name I did not recognize.  From time to time I get them, discover they are no one I even know, and immediately delete them.  I ALMOST did that!  But as I looked at the pictures in the profile, I started to realize this was our Maggie!  

Maggie, along with her brother Richard, were foster children in our home when she was five and six years old.  They had been with their mother in Reading.  And then their father in Puerto Rico gained custody of them, and we had to say our very tearful goodbyes after 14 months.  This is a picture of Maggie on her 6th birthday.  Remember the teddy bear in her arms - you will see it later. 

We stayed in touch by letter for a few years, but eventually lost touch.  Then ten years later, in 1999,  we were contacted by our foster agency about a 16-year-old girl that was looking for the Stauffers.  She had been back in Reading and we didn't even know it!  I got permission to visit her and that visit was like magic for me and for her.  We just sat and gazed at each other, unable to believe that we were together again.  A couple of weeks later she came to live with us again.

By that time Ray had joined our family.  He and Maggie were just a couple of weeks apart in age!  Their last names were the same, so everyone at Manheim Central assumed they were brother and sister!   They had a typical brother and sister relationship - they had fun and they got on each other's nerves.

Maggie graduated from high school and eventually joined the Army National Guard.  I would be lying if I said that everything in our relationship was roses.  We had some very difficult times.  At the age of 19 she moved to her aunt's in another state.  Again we stayed in touch for a while, but eventually lost touch. 

Then in 2005, right after we had downsized and moved to our smaller house near Lititz, she called and came for a visit - this time with her husband and two adorable little girls.  She was still in the Army at that point, and had been on leave visiting her mom and siblings in Reading.   Still our beautiful Maggie!

The visit was way too short.  And again we lost touch.  With the advent of Facebook I tried so many times to see if I could find her, but her name was far too common.  There must be hundreds of girls with her name on Facebook!  I was never successful.  

And then the friend request on Saturday night!  I've had so much fun looking through her pictures and connecting the dots of all that has taken place over these past ten years.  Here she is last Easter with her husband and four beautiful children.  I do hope at some point to see each other face to face again for more than hour and have time to really catch up with each other.  

In looking for a picture of her from childhood, I found the one I posted above - when we gave her the teddy bear for her 6th birthday.  And I suddenly remembered that that very teddy bear was in my cedar chest!  Here it is!

When Maggie came back to us at the age of 16 she still had this teddy bear.  It had been her connection to us all those years!  

When she moved away again in 2002, she left some things behind.  I found the teddy bear when I was preparing for our move in 2005 and decided to keep it.  When she came to visit us later that year in our new place, we talked about it and I assured her I still had it, but for the life of me, I could not figure out where I had put it!  

In moving again a few years later, I found it again and it's been living in my cedar chest ever since!  Maybe I will send it to her, or maybe I'll keep it till we see each other face to face - I'll let her decide.  

Hooray for Facebook!  Have a good week!