A cold, but good week!

As I said last week, we had choir practice on Wednesday because of the very important (to us) Orange Bowl game between Penn State and Notre Dame on Thursday evening.  

What a game!!!  They were SO close the whole way through it and we hated to go to bed before it was over.  So we went to bed with the game on the bedroom TV, which we rarely use.  It was so CLOSE!!!  I think it was around 11:15 when Notre Dame won the game.  UGH!!  We stayed awake late for that, haha!!

Also on Thursday I watched the entire Jimmy Carter funeral service and was SO blessed by it.  The Lord and the scriptures were lifted high throughout the service.  I wish I could find the pictures we have of the time Dick's dad and brother Steve participated in a Jimmy Carter work week for Habitat for Humanity.  There was a group picture at the end of the week of the whole work crew, including Jimmy.  

On Friday we did a something we've never done before.  We bought a car that's only two years old.  We have always bought older cars because we knew that Dick could fix them.  But Lisa, Anthony, and Jeremy said they are no longer comfortable with that, considering Dick's age.  So they helped us financially, and we bought a 2023 Kia Seltos.  The kids warned me that I won't be able to take "the whole family" with me anymore.  It's a 5-passenger instead of a 7-passenger.  I confess I feel really sad about that.  But we feel REALLY BLESSED to have something so reliable and warm, and much lower gas mileage too.  

 

Lots of bells and whistles, and I haven't figured all of them out yet. 

That evening Destiny and Ozzy left Indianapolis to come here.  It was snowing a bit when they left.  We were hoping to be able to meet Alex's dad to get Elizer that evening, but they wanted to wait till Saturday.  I was disappointed. 

I woke up at 4:22 AM Saturday and checked Destiny's location, fully expecting to see that she was in our house.  But alas, it showed Columbus, Ohio!  Yikes!  It looked like they were in a hotel parking lot.  I texted her, but she didn't reply.  She had said they would pull over if they got sleepy, but my mind went everywhere.  Did they freeze to death??  

I went back to bed, turned my phone volume on, and prayed for them.  I actually did go to sleep and was wakened by the ding of a text message.  She said they had stopped to take a nap, but slept longer than planned.  They were again on their way.  They arrived here late Saturday morning and went right to bed.  

Later we got Elizer.  He fell asleep too.

When we got home Destiny and Ozzy were up, and Destiny and I cooked up some Italian sausages and peppers and onions for hoagies.  Yumm!

This was Elizer's pose for the camera!

Then it was bath time.  As usual, after his bath I sat him on the counter to trim his nails.  I remembered that in my FB memories that day I had after-bath pictures of him from the two previous Januarys.  (Is that how you spell the plural of January?? It looks weird!)  So I took a picture of him again and later made this collage.  I miss that sweet baby face, but I love the four-year-old stage.  So much easier!!

On Sunday morning he went to church with us.  Everyone was so happy to see him.  It was second Sunday, and instead of the kids' classes they stay in the worship service,  and Pastor Jim does a lesson with them.  

 

We ate "dippy eggs" and toast for lunch.  Then we hit the puzzles.  I helped Elizer to do some of his favorites and Dick helped Destiny to do a 500-piece puzzle from her childhood. 

Look closely to see the silly thing Dick did right before I took the picture, haha!

Elizer had so much fun playing with all his toys he hadn't seen in six weeks.  I think he played with EVERYTHING!  And all the pieces of everything were mixed together.  I told Destiny it looked like a toy salad around here, haha!!  But I didn't care.  They were here for such a short time. 

And then they were on their way.  

Destiny will graduate from beauty school on Wednesday, January 29.  Dick and I are going to Indianapolis from Tuesday to Thursday.  We booked an Airbnb.  It will be nice to have a car that gets good gas mileage!  We're praying for good weather, of course!

After they left I put that tablecloth over these puzzles.  Destiny will finish hers next time, whenever that will be. 

No one knows!

Yesterday (Monday) I picked up Hunter from school and took him and the stirfry I had made for them to their house.  But Hunter really wanted to come to our house, so Lori said she'd come for him later. 

We played Scrabble after we had eaten dinner.

We weren't finished when Lori arrived, but he didn't mind because he had just pulled ahead of my score with that triple-word YARN at the top of the board. 

And that's it till next time!  Stay warm!  

Christmas is over and it's COLD!!!

I'm sitting here trying to remember what I've done lately.  If I don't take pictures I can't remember much!

But I do remember that last Thursday I worked all day on music.  Suddenly the Christmas season was over and I hadn't really planned for what the choir would be doing beyond January 5th.  So on top of getting some choir songs ready, I also had a lot of things to get ready for the instrumental ensemble.  They play one Sunday per month.  

We had both choir practice and ensemble practice Thursday evening.  

On Friday morning I had to go for groceries.  Winter was making its presence known, but the heat in my van did not care.  We've been having issues with it, and Dick keeps doctoring it along, but that morning it did not work at all.  Dick said he's afraid we need a new head gasket or new engine or something.  It would not be cheap, and it would be an enormous job for him to do.  We were feeling quite discouraged.  I have not driven since.  We have really been in a deeeeep freeze.  

On Saturday I caught up on our bookwork and started un-decorating.  That's actually quite early for me, but if I was home anyway I figured I might as well get it done. 

Sunday morning was great.  I just love when I have lots of instruments to play piano with.  Here's the arrangement of "In the Garden" I prepared for the prelude. 

Melanie, the cellist, just started playing cello during COVID!  She is multi-talented.  She goes to another church, but loves to sing and play at our church whenever she can.  

When we were getting set up for the service I looked up from the piano and noticed how she coordinated with the altar flowers.  We cracked up!!

In the afternoon we had a fun reunion of the Fillmore Choir.  That's where we went to church the first 7 years after we moved to this house.   These people were our first friends up here.  It was a fun afternoon at Peg and Bill's house. 

When we came home from there we had a fun video call with our bio kids.  They were helping us to think through some car options.  Lisa would strangle me for posting this picture, hahaha!  She doesn't even know I took it, and she doesn't read my blog, so I think I'm safe, lol!!

One day this week I came across this picture from their childhood.  We had gone to DC for the day.

I decided to make a collage of pictures from this past year.  Each of them is so gifted in their area of expertise that Dick and I wonder how they're even related to us, haha!

We've been having snow for days it seems, not that it's amounted to much.  But it is SOOOO COLD!!!  Destiny said they had at least 8 inches in Indianapolis yesterday.

I was working on another choir song today.  We'll be having practice Wednesday evening instead of Thursday this week BECAUSE there's a very important football game on Thursday evening.  The Orange Bowl - Penn State vs Notre Dame.  WE ARE!!  

That's all till next time!

PS:  Last week I took the time to update the pictures on my sidebar.  It had been a while.  If you get the chance to check them out, I think you'll enjoy them.  You gotta see that little Louie!

Our Family Fondue

Last week Dick took his last two paid vacation days of 2024 on Thursday and Friday.  That was so helpful in getting ready for the family fondue. 

We have been doing this fondue for probably 36 years! The location has changed from time to time, and the last few years we held it at our home church in Lancaster County because it was closer for some of the family. 

But this year that was not available, and we considered having it at our new church. But we weren’t sure how many would come, so we decided to have it here at our house.

 Dick and I pushed furniture here and there and everywhere, put the six boards into my mom‘s dining room table (which has been mine for many years,) and added a plastic table at one end. And we had a long table!  Our open floor plan is such a blessing at times like this. 

On Friday afternoon we went food shopping for hours!  We weren't providing all the food.  Sam was bringing the chicken nuggets and Li'l Smokies.  Anthony was bringing the beef.  Frank was bringing the sodas. 

We had a great day on Saturday. We had a total of 18 people!  

I felt like I didn't know how to organize the cafeteria line.  It was so much easier at Grace Community Fellowship.   

So on one side we had the food for the oil and the drinks.

The beef had not yet arrived when Dick took this picture. 

On the other side we had the chocolate station.

And on the kitchen table we had the cheese station. 

UNO!!

The kids had so much fun playing and hiding from each other and running around and playing the piano.   Hunter was so excited to get to play with cousins he seldom sees.  

I took pictures when people were ready to leave.

Frank's son J'von and his girlfriend Lesley. Aren't they adorable???

Time for Sam's family picture, but these two had to be silly first!  They're SO much fun!!

Sam and Steph with Sammy and Bianca.

Oops! Hunter got into the wrong family photo!  He was feeling so upset that people were leaving.

Here Hunter is with the right family, but in a sad mood. Austin was not here, preferring to stay home by himself. I was disappointed because I wanted everybody to hear him play piano. But really, the noise level would have been overwhelming to him.  The kids kind of had the run of the house, including the two bedrooms, and I don't know where Austin would have gone to get away from it all.  

Anthony, Lori, and Hunter.

Frank's daughter RaeLynn with her mommy (Lisa) and sister Lani.

Frank with his daughters, RaeLynn, V'anni, Alaya, and Jada.

Of course Destiny, Ozzy and Elizer weren't able to come since they had just made the trip from Indianapolis the weekend before.  Bjorn, Jess, and their adorable little boys weren't able to come because her parents had given her a ticket to a show at Fulton Opera House for her Christmas present, and it was that day!  We were all disappointed about that.  And Miki and Katrina are too far away in Sweden.  And Ray... the last I heard from him was on his birthday on December 4, and he did not respond to any of my messages about the fondue.  I'm not sure what's up with him.  

By the way, if anyone can't figure out who all these people in our family are, I have them pictured and named on my side bar.  

On Sunday afternoon Dick and I put everything back in place. Like I said, our open floor plan is really a blessing because we can be so flexible.

On Monday evening we drove the 5 miles to Bellefonte to see this amazing house before the season is over. It is my absolute favorite!

I stayed up till midnight on New Year’s Eve. It felt sad to not go to the New Year’s Eve festivities and ice sculptures in downtown State College. But it was a damp rainy evening, and it would have been miserable anyway. I am REALLY missing Elizer and Destiny. 

I’ve got pork in the oven.  We'll be having our traditional pork and sauerkraut and mashed potatoes for dinner.  We LOVE it!!

Happy New Year!