Catching up on all the fun stuff around here!

We've been having FUN!!  It will probably be impossible to catch up here in one post, because we've been doing stuff and I've been taking so many pictures.  

Before I get to the fun part of last week, here are a few things that happened first.  After about five or six weeks, Dick finally finished his 1000-piece puzzle.  Would you believe, there was a piece missing??  If you look closely in the row of green trees, you will see a little area of our red table showing through. 

Do you remember the crazy saga of my messed-up Crocs order last fall?  For my newer friends here - I had seen an ad on Facebook for brightly colored Crocs, and since that is what I wear around the house, I decided to order a pair of orange and blue ones.  They were so cute!  Turns out it was not an order from the official Crocs company, but a place in China.  It took weeks for them to arrive, and when they did, they were brown, one shoe was size 8, the other was size 9!!!  So of course I complained, and the seller offered a tiny percentage off if I would keep them.  WHY would I want to keep them??  I started a PayPal dispute that went on and on and on.  I even got an email from the seller one day saying that her ex had just broken into her house and stole all her money and beat her children, so could I please keep the shoes because she needed the money.  In the end PayPal said I would get my money back, BUT I had to return them to the sender.  I checked, and it would cost me $27.50 for the postage to return them!  PayPal said they would reimburse me for the postage.  So I returned them.  I did get back the $46-something that I originally paid for the Crocs, but PayPal never did reimburse me for the postage.  AND LAST WEEK THOSE CRAZY CROCS CAME BACK TO ME IN THE MAIL!!!!  I had had it and threw them in the trash.  Needless to say, I no longer order things from places I know nothing about!  

I have two Bible studies going right now.  One is Wednesday afternoons at 2:00 online with Pastor Lynn.  We have been doing the book by Adam Hamilton, "Final Words from the Cross."  I have really been enjoying both the book and our online discussions.  

Last Thursday morning I went to the Abide women's Bible study at Calvary for the first time since COVID brought it to a halt last March.  It is being done both online and in person, Thursday mornings and evenings.  Since I have both of my vaccines now, I decided to do the Thursday morning in person.  There might have been 15-20 women there, and masks were required.  No snacks and coffee like before.    We are doing Beth and Melissa Moore's new Bible study on Galatians.  It will be good.

I left right from the Bible study last Thursday to go to Lancaster to pick up Destiny, Alex, and Elizer.  I was not at all excited about the rainy forecast, but it was not heavy on the way down.  It WAS heavy on the way home, and windy too, but at least I had company.  Elizer HATES being in his car seat, but thankfully he slept a good part of the trip to our house.   

I had a surprise when we got home.  Our water cooler in the kitchen, which is at least 16 years old, had sprung a leak and there was a mini flood on the kitchen floor.  So I ran for the beach towels.    

THEN I could finally focus on getting our poor neglected toys out for Elizer.  He loved the chance to be on the floor and check out all the new stuff.   I also had fun feeding him.  Our baby booster seat finally had a new occupant!  He was seven months old that day!

Destiny, always up for a new craft or project,  had ordered a kit for making gummy sushi!  They were so cute, and actually tasted pretty good!  

Elizer had gotten some baby shots that morning and was running a fever.  They had enough baby Tylenol for one dose, but Destiny and I decided to make a run to Walmart to get more.  While we were there I also bought another water cooler, since Dick had declared ours too old to fix a rusted water line.  Dick and Destiny got the new one set up after we got home. 

On Friday morning Dick went to work, I had fun with Elizer and cooked dinner for Anthony and Lori, Destiny played with LEGO's, Elizer worked on learning to crawl while Alex watched him.  

Destiny's project that day was applying acrylic leather paint to the worn spots on Dick's recliner.  The fake leather was "shedding" at certain places, and I was getting so tired of the little brown pieces of litter on the carpet all the time.  So I googled and found this temporary solution.  It'll keep us from needing to buy a new recliner for a while, hopefully.    

Look at that boy in the air!  He LOVES when his daddy puts him up there.

Later we took dinner over to Anthony and Lori, then went to Wegmans for groceries.  

Before we even got home from the store, Destiny's brother J'von's basketball championship play-off game was starting down in Lancaster.   We had so much fun watching it together online.  They won the game!  Destiny celebrated by making herself some fancy iced coffee!

Then she gave Elizer a bath.  Ahhhh.  Nothing so delicious as a newly bathed baby!

Destiny also had ordered a foot treatment kit for us to do together.  First we soaked our feet in the tub, then put booties on that were full of stuff to soften hard skin.  We had to keep them on for a long time.  I couldn't stay awake long enough, so I cheated and took mine off sooner than I was supposed to. 

On Saturday morning Destiny brought Elizer out to me when he woke up and I had him all to myself for a while.  Dick had left for a hair cut appointment.  Elizer was so happy and delightful!!

Later Destiny and I left for an appointment at The Mommy Shoppe at Houserville House of Hope. (Shoppers are by appointment only due to COVID.)  She was able to get a big paper grocery bag full of baby clothes FREE!.  There were so many choices!!  If she had wanted more than would fit in the bag,  they would have been garage sale prices.  What a WONDERFUL ministry this is!  

After we got back home it wasn't long till it was time to take Destiny to a hair appointment.  This girl has THICK hair and it had gotten so long.  She decided that it was time to make it more manageable for her mommy life.    

After she was all settled in, I went back home to take care of Elizer.  Dick and Alex had a big project to do - cut down all our tall grasses.   They were thankful for the electric hedge trimmer that Dick and Sam had bought last year when they were tackling that job.  They took the grasses to the community grass clippings trailer and filled it to overflowing.  Alex had to stand on top and stomp it down!

Elizer and I took a short walk.

I also made baked chicken thighs and mashed potatoes (rice for Alex) for our dinner later.  Then I went to pick up Destiny.  It had taken a LONG time to cut and color her hair.  Destiny's butt was tired and the beautician's feet were tired!  

Here's a close-up before-and-after collage. She was very happy with it.

We ate dinner and just hung out the rest of the evening.  As you can see, Elizer gave us no end of delightful moments!  We're hopelessly in love with him!

I'll finish this post now and start a new one to share our Sunday and Monday pictures.  There are so many good ones, so don't miss it!

Sunshine and beautiful places

I really should try to post more often so I don't end up with such long posts and so many pictures/videos each time.  Just grab some tea and hang out here for a bit!  

You know I can't resist taking pictures of beautiful skies, so here's a collage from the past few days.  Three of them are sunrises, one is a sunset.  We've had lots of contrails in our morning skies lately.  

As I mentioned last time, we had a busy Thursday evening attending several sporting events - from our computer of course!  There was a huge track meet in Florida.  It was even more huge because a year ago Lisa's team was all pumped and primed and raring to go to this big meet when, just hours before starting time, everything was shut down due to COVID.  And that was the sudden end of the track season, Lisa's first year of her new job teaching and coaching at Calvary Christian High School, and Sophie's first year attending there.  A very bitter disappointment.  

Here's the one video I took on Thursday of the 4x100 relay, Sophie's team coming in first.  As I've probably said before, Haag is pronounced "Hay with a G" at the end, but most announcers get it wrong.  This time it was Hag, rhyming with rag.  

There was a really nice write-up about Sophie the next day in an article about the meet.  What a girl!!

Also that evening we were watching J'von's basketball team from La Academia Charter School in Lancaster play for the district 3 championship against Conestoga Christian School.  They won the game and are now going to play in a states competition on Friday!  The story of their team is so impressive.  This is just the second year that the school has had a basketball team, and it's the first year that they are members in the PIAA.  So they are making quite an impression!  

This video is from last Tuesday's game, the one where J'von broke the tie at the end of the game with his 3-point shot.  I love the way the place went wild after that shot!

Here are some great collages from other family members.  On Friday Jeremy took the kids to the coast, which is about an hour-and-a-half from Portland, to give Mike a break. He's the one that's home all day every day with the kids in on-line school, and then Jeremy had been on a work trip for three days at the beginning of the week.  It was in the low 50's on Friday, but they had a blast!  Daniel had never seen the ocean before. 

Also on Friday, Lori took the boys to a State park about an hour-and-a-half from here.  It was a gorgeous day for hiking. 

On Sunday afternoon Dick and I took a drive to the Stauffer cabin in Juniata County about an hour south of here.  We have some of Dad Stauffer's pictures here that Dick's brother Fred would like to have, so we took them to the cabin.  Being there is so nostalgic for Dick.  So many memories of being there with his dad over the years.  It's a such a lovely setting. 

We had our first crocus bloom yesterday!!  I was so happy to see it!

Of course I've had several FaceTime calls with Destiny, and I always capture the cutest pictures of Elizer.  I hope you don't get tired of them, because I probably won't stop taking and posting them, haha!

Guess what??  They're coming to Grandma's house later this week for several days!  Now that we've had our second vaccine and they already had COVID last month, we're good to go.  They are the last ones I've had in our house - the first weekend of October!  I'm so excited!  And I'm hoping it will work out for Sammy and Bianca to come the next weekend after that for Palm Sunday.  That will be our first Sunday of in-person at GBRV since the end of November.  The kids were here before for Palm Sunday and loved it.  I'm so thankful for the vaccine!

And now I have to end with this crazy story.  Yesterday I had agreed to read Pastor Lynn's sermon for her.  She has been taking off the Sunday after her chemo treatments, and different people have been taking turns reading her sermon.  Of course, I'm also the pianist, so I had a lot on my mind and a lot to prepare for yesterday morning.  So right out of the gate I had one of those senior moments when I was trying to say my friend Glenda's name and drew a complete blank.  Then as I launched into reading the sermon Glenda reminded me that I had not read the scripture that was to precede the sermon.  Rats!!  I had intended to print it out in big print and had completely forgotten.  What followed was one of those "this can't be happening" giggling fits.  The other two ladies who were there to run the Google Meets and the Powerpoint were bent over laughing.  Dick was trying to be helpful from his position behind the video camera.  Here's the video of that part of the service. 

After church Pastor Lynn called and said, "You're FIRED!"  Oh, how we laughed and laughed.  She said, "I couldn't believe it when you said, 'Is there a Bible here somewhere?'  I was thinking, 'Jean, this is a church, there had better be a Bible there somewhere!'"  

It reminded me of times when we sisters used to sing together and get fits of giggling.  Once we were singing at a rescue mission in Philly when that happened.  We kept trying to start the song again and again, but we would just dissolve into giggles every time.  The men we were singing to just LOVED it! These little Mennonite girls just couldn't stop giggling, hahahaha!

Well, that's all for this time.  Have a good week!

Lots of good stuff

We have been having the most incredible Spring weather!  In the 60's!!  I know it's not here to stay yet, but I'm enjoying it while it's here.  Here's a beautiful sunrise on Tuesday morning, announcing the arrival of the lovely weather!

Most of the snow is gone, and the spring flowers are popping through the soil everywhere.  

Lots of pictures since I last posted on Saturday morning!  At that point I still wasn't feeling too bad from my 2nd vaccine the day before, but a bit later I started to shiver and my joints were hurting.  I decided not to be heroic.  I made myself comfortable on the loveseat, covered myself with a heavy comforter, and there I pretty much stayed the rest of the day.  My temp was close to 101, so I took a Tylenol a couple of times. 

In the evening I remembered that we were missing the annual Zimwit gathering.  (Zimwit = Zimmermans and Witmers, the combination of my stepmother's and my dad's families since they married in 1983.)  We did not intend to go this year, but I had told them that we would call so we could hear all the noise.  Of course, I wasn't feeling up to that, but I did text Mae, my stepbrother Carl's wife, to tell her that we were thinking about them and missing being there.  Well, bless her heart!!  She walked around with her phone taking videos of family members saying "hi" to me.  It made me cry!!  So sweet!  Here are screen shots of my six stepbrothers and some of the wives.   Of course, this would have been the first year that Grandma Mary was missing, and that is really, really sad.  

On Sunday morning, before I even crawled out of bed, I could tell that I was feeling better.  And I WAS!  Absolutely 100% better!  I was quite relieved, since I had not made any arrangements for anyone to play piano for me at our GBRV service!  

Here's a video of the prelude Pastor Lynn and I played.  It was a lovely medley of Seek Ye First and Canon in D.  

On Sunday afternoon I made chocolate chip peanut blossoms, again not for us.  Hunter's 5th birthday would be on Monday, and I wanted to give him cookies along with his gift.  Dick and I did each eat one. 

At 5:00 I joined a Zoom sibling chat.  We had the most wonderful time together again.  It's always hard to finish up because it's so precious to be together.  But finally around 6:40 we said our goodbyes.  

Then Dick and I went over to Anthony and Lori's to take the cookies and Hunter's birthday gifts.  

Austin wanted to show me a unique ball he had.  I thought I was taking a video, but discovered afterward that I had been taking pictures instead.  

Of course Monday was really his birthday, so that evening they had us and some of their closest friends who have children Hunter's age together via Zoom.  Lori's mom and sister joined on another device via WhatsApp.  It was a lot of fun.  We sang Happy Birthday and watched him blow out his candles.

Here's a collage I made of each birthday.  He has brought so much joy!!!  And now he sends me text messages from his iPad and it's so much fun!  

On Tuesday evening we had so much fun watching another basketball game here on the computer.  Our grandson J'von's team from La Academia Charter School went into this playoff game against Mt. Calvary Christian School, who had been undefeated this entire season!   The game was fast and furious!!  At half time Mt. Calvary was at least ten or more points ahead.  But La Academia pulled ahead and then it was back and forth, finally tied at 57-57 as time was running out.  And then J'von made a three-point shot that won the game.  The place went wild!!!  His team will now be going to districts.  Here's a great picture of J'von playing, but I don't think it was taken last evening.  He's #1.  We're so proud of him!

Tomorrow afternoon I will be watching Sophie's track meet in Florida and then another basketball game in the evening!

And now for some cuteness overload!!   Destiny and I Facetimed several times this week, and I'm always snapping pictures as we talk.  On Monday she was feeding him and it reminded me of a picture of me feeding her around the same age.  

I think you can tell they're related, right?

On Tuesday it was nice and warm, and she took him outside on the trampoline.  He acted like he might start crawling!  He's really getting the knee action.

Today we talked again while she was feeding him.  He LOVES to eat!

One of these times I'm just gonna eat him up, he's so stinkin' CUTE!!

On Monday Jeremy had to leave for a three-day work trip.  The boys really didn't want him to leave.

But they have Face-timed a lot, and he's on his way back home tonight, arriving in Portland around 11:30 pm. He Face-timed me from the Minneapolis airport this evening and we had some good laughs.  He was worrying about his baggy eyes when he knew I was taking a picture!   He's so eager to get back home.

One last picture tonight.  I'm not sure how many weeks ago Dick started this 1000 piece puzzle, but he is beginning to see the end!  What a work of patience and persistence!!

Happy days

Yesterday was a happy day for us.  It started with a gorgeous sunrise.

We drove to the Geisinger hospital in Lewistown (about 45 minutes from here) and got our second vaccine.  Once again, easy peasy.  They have a big tent set up outside the hospital, and it all works like a well-oiled machine.  Everyone was so friendly and upbeat.  BLESS THEM!! 

Afterward we browsed an Aldi nearby, a discount grocery store we do not yet have in State College.  They say we'll be getting two of them here at some point.  Then we saw a JCPenney store.  I was so excited!  Ours closed a number of years ago.  So we browsed there, and I actually found an Easter dress!  I love black and yellow together, and I found a black dress with a shear black and yellow jacket. Of course, on me it is longer than this picture since I'm so short. 

Last evening we watched the new movie "Coming to America 2" on Amazon Prime.  I had always really loved the first one, and I had heard that this one would not disappoint, but unfortunately it did.  I wouldn't feel like watching it again.  

We really slept in this morning!  Very unusual for us.  I do feel body aches, and my shoulder really hurts, but I don't think I have a fever, thankfully.  Dick is barely noticing anything.  Has anyone heard that blood type could be a factor in how a person handles the vaccine?  Jeremy had heard that type A handles it harder than type O, which is true in their case and ours.  Jeremy and I are both type A, and we are having more symptoms than Dick or Mike, who are both type O.  

Here are some beautiful sights along the way yesterday.

We've been having really cold weather and wind since Wednesday.  Winter dies hard in this part of PA.  On Thursday morning it looked like it would be warm and sunny outside, but it really was 23 degrees, feels like 12!!  Thankfully our house is easy to keep warm. 

I enjoyed pictures from Destiny this week.  She got a new walker for Elizer that he really enjoys. 

I had found some Baby Einstein videos on Ebay that he really enjoys.  This is the Old McDonald video. Austin and Hunter also really loved this one. 

They are staying at her uncle Steven's apartment in Lancaster City while he is in the hospital.  His 14-year-old son lives there with him and of course could not be alone.  Today her grandpa is supposed to go home from the hospital, so that is very, very good news!  

On Thursday evening we watched a play-off basketball game on our computer, which our grandson J'von's team won.  

It's hard to get clear pictures, but that's him!

While I was watching that I was also on a SnapChat call with Sammy.  His picture was sideways and stretched out and he couldn't figure out how to fix it, haha!  I took this picture and sent it to him afterward so he could see how funny they looked.  I don't know whose glasses he had on.  

I'll end with this lovely view on my way over to Anthony and Lori's place on Thursday late afternoon.  

Actually, I'll end with this picture of the chicken tikka masala I made for them that day.  Pretty darn delicious, if I do say so myself!  And a tad spicy!

Have a great weekend!

Lots of good things

A whole week with no snow!!  On Sunday we had rain almost all day long, a cold and dreary rain.  I was trying to decide if I actually wished it were snow instead!  On Monday it was clear and warmer, but SO windy!  Today was a gorgeous day in the low fifties and sunshine!  I enjoyed another walk this afternoon and sitting on the porch for a while afterward. 

Yesterday morning I was in the kitchen making Dick's omelet and suddenly spied this!

When Dick came to the kitchen I said, "Look out that window!"  He stood there looking at our vehicles and wondered what he was supposed to see.  I couldn't believe it!

On Saturday I got some cleaning done.  Dick vacuumed our ceiling lights and fans.  When he stood on my side of the bed he said, "I'm standing on your memory."  (Yes, we have a memory foam mattress, haha!)  

On Sunday after our two church services I worked on scanning old pictures most of the day since it was so dreary outside.  So much fun!  I'll just share this one here - some of the Witmer sisters in 1964: Betty, Doris, Barb, and me.  Not sure why I didn't have a cute purse.

I was so blessed on Monday when our son in law George sent me a link to their school newsletter in which the track team was featured.  I am so very proud of Lisa!  And of course of Sophie too.  I copied two of the paragraphs that were my favorites:

“CCHS Track: Breaking Records Right Out of the Gate”

 

The CCHS track program is on its way to a record- breaking season. Calvary has over 100 track and field athletes, the most CCHS has ever had on the team. Under the enthusiastic leadership of Coach Lisa Haag, it is no wonder so many students have come to The Rock to compete this season. She is just the right combination of cheerleader, motivator, technician, and expert. She motivates athletes to push themselves further than they think they can go while at the same time making sure they are safe and performing their events intelligently. She and her assistant coaches have practice running like a fine-tuned machine with three different start times to make sure each athlete gets the proper coaching and attention with safety and COVID-19 rules in mind.

 

On the track, nationally ranked in the 100 and 200 meters, Sophie Haag continues to break school records. She is the current school record holder in the 100m.

 

These pictures were part of the article. 

That evening we were able to watch a live track meet here on our computer.  Sophie came in first place in both the 100 and the 200 meter dash.  She beat her own record in the 200:  25:33 seconds!  I got this video.

On Tuesday evening we watched J'von's basketball game from our computer!  It was a very action-packed game and so fun to watch.  Here's a video that shows him running the ball.  He's the red #1.  He's really good, and they keep him in the game almost all the time. 

I got to see my favorite little man this evening on FaceTime.  

Destiny's other grandpa is still in the hospital.  Her uncle Steven had come home for a few days, but had to be admitted to the hospital again.  They both have very severe pneumonia since having COVID. 

Dick and I will get our second shot on Friday, and we're looking forward to it even if we don't feel great afterward for a day or two.  

Today I got another card in the mail, intricately designed and made by our dear daughter Miki in Sweden.  Her talent blows me away, and getting a card in the mail all the way from Sweden in this day and age of technology is really, really special!!  The song is Holy, Holy, Holy in Swedish.  I offered to sing it to our online Bible study this afternoon, but they just laughed.  So did I, haha!  

Have a good rest of the week!