Pennsylvania sister weekend 2017

Well, it's time to tell all about my sister weekend!  On Saturday morning I was taking my good old time getting things done, because I thought Mary Ellen and Doris would arrive around 11 - 11:30.  I left taking my shower till last.  At 10:25 Doris called and said they were on Rock Road.  I said, "WHAT??? I'm not even decent yet!"  Of course, I didn't really care.  We've all seen each other in our morning pre-shower glory, LOL!!

For lunch I made baked potatoes with the works - bacon, broccoli, shredded cheese, butter, sour cream, and green onions.  And the talking and laughing began.

After lunch we headed to Bellefonte.  This was graduation weekend at Penn State, so we didn't want to go to some of our favorite places in State College because of traffic and crowds.  And the weather was not at all conducive to going to our very favorite place, the arboretum.  It was cold and raining.

In Bellefonte we planned to go to the antique mall, but after we parked the van we had to walk past a few other places that beckoned us before we ever got to the antique mall.  First of all there was a little antique store right where we parked, so we strolled through it, then we walked past the Faith Center Thrift Store.  I had often heard people talk about how they love shopping there, but I had never been there.  So we went inside and could not believe how huge it was.  And the great brand name clothes!  We were there for at least an hour or more.

Each of us found things we really liked.  We took those things to the van then walked to the antique mall.  I had never been there before and didn't know what to expect.

Oh. My. Word.  It was like a never-ending excursion!  You would never know from the front of the building (a picture I took from their FB page) how huge the place is inside.  We were there for several hours and again found things to buy.  Lots of things we wanted to buy, but did not.

Here are some pics Doris took.

I couldn't resist buying an adorable brown baby to add to the other two dolls we have for the grandchildren.  I decided that since we have so much diversity in our family, our doll baby population should have some diversity too, LOL!

We finally pulled ourselves away around 4:00.   Bellefonte is known for its crazy steep hills.  Doris snapped this picture as we drove away, but it really does not show how steep that hill is.

We drove to Anthony and Lori's and from there went over the mountain to our favorite BBQ place, Doan's Bones.  We love that place every time - the food, the atmosphere, and the servers.

Mary Ellen took this picture of the funny sign in the ladies room.

One of these times we will eat there when it is neither too cold nor too hot to eat outside.  They have such a lovely picnic area.  Look who thinks he's all that!!

He loves to walk, but still needs at least one hand to hold on to.  But he's fast!

When we got back home we got ourselves comfortable and settled down for a movie - Florence Foster Jenkins, featuring Meryl Streep and based on a true story.  It was both funny and very tender.  We loved it.

Dick was a very happy camper that evening.  He has been looking for a good deal on a cross bow for a long time.  Last week he found a fantastic deal on Craigslist, and on Saturday afternoon he drove to York, PA to meet the seller to buy it.  His face says it all!

Sunday morning came all too soon!  We went to Fillmore's 8:15 service.  One of my sisters took this picture of our instrumental team - me at the piano, Brenna on flute, Dick on bass, Ross on guitar.  We just love playing together.

Doris and Mary Ellen sang with the choir song, Those Who Wait on the Lord, which has a short  interlude of How Firm a Foundation right in the middle and ends with an absolutely beautiful a cappella phrase, Be still and wait on the Lord.

Then we went to the 10:30 service at Calvary, so good as usual.  Afterward we hung out in the lobby with Anthony and Lori and their friends.

It was so cold outside.  We were glad to get home to our warm house.  I had curried chicken and rice soup in the crock pot and served it with Naan bread.  Of course we had to have a sister photo shoot.  Dick was very patient with us - no easy task!

Mary Ellen was worried that she looked too broad, LOL!  We assured her that we were broader than she is, then Dick sneaked behind us and took this picture.  WELL!!  Not too hard to see who's the broadest, hahahaha!!

The sun was starting to show its face from time to time, so we pretended it was warm and went outside for a porch picture.

I think it was about 3:30 when Doris and Mary Ellen left for their trip back to Lancaster County.  Another great weekend in our memory bank.

Dick and I had a bit of time for naps before we headed over to Anthony and Lori's to babysit.

Dick and Hunter played together in the playpen for a long time.

Lori found this toy claw machine at CVS for 1.99!  Austin was having fun with it, and if it doesn't last long it's no big loss.

Here's a picture of Austin that Anthony posted on Saturday.  He said that Austin had sat on the couch for a few hours with his 4x4 Rubik's Cube and then calmly announced that he had done it!

What a brain he has!  I played Mancala with him on Sunday evening and couldn't believe his ability to think ahead and strategize quickly.  I felt slow and stupid in comparison!

I caught the very end of the beautiful sunrise on Sunday evening.  

I'm looking forward to something very special on Mother's Day.  Anthony seldom performs anywhere for anybody, but on Sunday morning he is coming to our EARLY 8:15 service at Fillmore and will be singing and playing guitar with my choir!!  We're doing the Glenn Campbell song Try a Little Kindness which has a fantastic guitar solo in the middle.  I am a really happy mama!  Here's a YouTube video of Glenn Campbell doing it in 2002. 

Tuesday update, part two (on Saturday)

My sisters are coming , my sisters are coming!  So I want to finish my "Tuesday update" before I have another slew of pictures and stories to post.  

I left off with Dick and I on the way home Saturday in the Penske truck.  We went to Anthony and Lori's first because that's where our car was.  We left the truck there overnight.  No need to park it at our house and start rumors, haha!

Sunday morning came soon enough!  At Fillmore I had the unfortunate surprise of finding out that my flute player was sick and wouldn't be there.  So that called for some quick changes in plans.  The choir did a new (to us) song, Hillsong's God Is Great.  It's an arrangement of the song that I had made for my middle school choir at Manheim Christian the last year I taught.  We did it at the Junior High Choral Festival.  It was not a familiar song to my Fillmore choir, but we've been working on it off and on ever since Christmas.  There were a lot of choir members missing on Sunday and I would never have chosen to do it if I had known that would be the case, but they did a fantastic job!  I decided that these guys can do anything!  We had only one soprano!  But it was okay, because there are a number of places in my arrangement of it where the men have the melody.  So it all worked out.  One of our "fans" - a woman in her 80's told me she loved it, that she and her friend were bouncing in their seats, hahaha!  

Then we went to Calvary for their 10:30 service (always good!), and afterward we went to lunch at Home D Pizzeria with Anthony and Lori.  Here's the difference between these two boys.....

Hunter loves to stuff his face.

Austin would rather assemble a big grasshopper!  It's a smart idea to have something for him to work on so everybody else can eat in peace.

Greek pizza.  YUM !!

After lunch we went to Anthony and Lori's to unload the things they were getting from Jeremy, then we came here to unload our stuff.  

I looked around in dismay wondering how I was ever going to get this place looking decent before my sister weekend.  As it turned out, Dick had an unexpected day off this week when there was a big power outage in our area, so he had more time than expected to do some things like take our old guest room mattress and box spring to the dump, take some things to his shed.  We've saving our old king mattress for a young couple in the area who have twin babies and are moving soon.  Anthony and Dick took that to Anthony's barn temporarily.  

On Monday morning it was warm and I got busy on my annual porch furniture scrubbing/bleaching ordeal.  I had visions of my sisters and I enjoying coffee on the porch, but alas, the weather forecast for this weekend has just gotten more and more sad - cold and rainy.  Same as last year when they were here, also in May!!  What is up with these crazy cold weekends in MAY??  Last weekend it was HOT!!  Oh well, at least my porch looks pretty now.

On Monday afternoon as I was driving over to Anthony and Lori's place with the food I had prepared I was surprised by the thick clouds and strong winds.  I heard on the radio that there were tornado watches!  While I was at their place it seemed to become less windy and dark, so I went to my piano students' home as I usually do on Mondays.  I was about halfway through the second child's lesson when he looked out the window and stopped playing.  It looked like a whiteout!!  The rain was blowing sideways!  There are many trees in their neighborhood, so of course they told me to stay at their house till the storm was past.  As I was on my way home later Dick called me and said he came across a downed tree on his way home and was helping someone to move it aside and also waiting till official help arrived.  So I went home a different way.  

Storms continued throughout the evening.  Half our community lost power, but we were lucky to be in the half that did not!  In fact, the dividing line was our street!  Our side had power, the other side did not.  However, our cable and internet were out.  It was the next day that Dick got to work and found out there was no power and was sent home.  Anthony and Lori were without power until Wednesday!  They also had a downed tree on their private road and couldn't go anywhere till that was removed.  I took this picture of it yesterday, because it was typical of the other pictures and videos I have seen - the tops of trees blown right off!

On Tuesday I had a dentist appointment (of course, they had power - unfortunately, haha), then went to Walmart for a few things afterward.  As I was ready to back out of my parking spot I noticed an elderly woman two spots away also backing out of her space, so I pulled back in and waited while she took forever to back out and leave.  I'm glad she took forever, because just a few minutes later I was driving through an area where there is always a constant flow of traffic, and there in front of me was a downed tree the whole way across the road.   There was an oncoming car stopped on the other side of it.  I think we probably were both thinking the same thing - this tree must have just fallen and we could have been under it!!!  Soon there were cars backed up behind both of us.  There are wide shoulders in that area, so we all began the process of turning around, As I drove away I noticed a policeman approaching with his lights blinking, so I knew it would be taken care of.  I was feeling very, very thankful as I drove home. 

We had heavy rain again yesterday (Friday) morning and again our community has a "lake" where there is usually a lawn!

At least my rosebush is flourishing with all this rain!

Well, I gotta run!!   Mary Ellen and Doris are on their way from Lancaster County.  This is their annual visit to my house.  In July all six of us sisters will get together at my brother's house for a weekend.  Can't wait!!  

Picture perfect weather, trip to DC

Last Wednesday was an absolutely glorious day.  In fact, picture perfect!

On Wednesday evening we had our Houserville/Mt. Nittany combined worship service.  Their praise team leader led this time which meant I could sing harmony with him.  I enjoyed that. One song he led was David Crowder's Come As You Are.  Here's the YouTube video if you'd like to listen to it.

On Thursday morning was the last women's Bible study at Calvary for this spring.  I have so enjoyed it - the worship, the teaching by Sherilyn, and getting to know the other women.  I took this picture during worship.  You can't see it very well, but the one in the middle had her little baby swaddled to herself as she led worship.  He slept through it all!

On Thursday afternoon I cleaned Lori's airbnb room and shopped for some things needed for the room.  In the evening we had choir practice.   Somewhere in there I found time to post this HILARIOUS comic which I so thoroughly could identify with and apparently so could many of my FB friends!  I said, "I don't always cook out of a box, but when I do....."

After choir practice I was so excited to see that Anthony had posted the video of Austin at his school's talent show that evening.  Here's what he said about it:  "So proud of this guy.  His obsession made for a very unique performance at the school talent show.  While other kids did normal singing, dancing, and instrument routines, Austin calmly solved a 2x2 Rubik's cube in under a minute.  For reference, I have tried many times to solve this and have never gotten further than two sides - by accident."

On Friday morning Dick did not go to work.  Instead we packed our bags and drove over to Anthony and Lori's so Anthony could take us to the bus station in town.  I was happy that Lori and the boys were still home and I got a chance to hug Hunter.  

Typical of me and my need to be early for things like bus rides and plane trips, we got to the bus station before they even opened at 9 am!  So we sat outside and waited in the pleasant sunshine.

When they did open at 9 we were told that the bus would be late and that the bus we would be transferring to in Harrisburg would wait for us.  Wow, no pressure!  After our bus arrived we were told that the intended driver had overslept!!  So the driver we had was a substitute.

The bus in Harrisburg did wait for us.  We were not the only ones from State College transferring to the DC bus.  I enjoyed the scenery along the way.  We made stops in York, PA and Baltimore, MD.

Jeremy and Mike were waiting for us at Union Station when we arrived at 3:00, and we walked to their house just two blocks away.  All of us were hungry, so their neighbors across the street, Joe and Lauren, joined us, and we walked to Union Market many blocks away.  It was a beautiful walk.  Walking everywhere is one of the things I have so loved about visiting in DC.

When we sat down in Union Market,  another neighborhood couple walked by, having no idea that we were there, and sat down with us too.  They are the ones at the very front of this picture (I only got part of his face.)  They own the Indian restaurant that is three doors down from Jeremy and Mike's house, and the marvelous fragrance of their food seasons the entire neighborhood!  Jeremy and Mike helped them a lot the first weeks that they opened, and they have been great friends, always treating us like royalty whenever we come to visit.  We had a wonderful, impromptu time together.

This was just to be appetizers, so Dick and I shared a scrumptious crab cake and cole slaw.

Then we walked to a new restaurant to get dinner, but discovered after we made ourselves comfortable in their lovely lounge, that the entire place was reserved for a private event that evening.

So we got an Uber ride to a Mexican place and enjoyed their outdoor eating area.  The weather was totally perfect.  We had such a fun time.

From there we walked for dessert to a place that specializes in pies.  So many choices!  I chose a lemon pie.

We took the street car (trolley) back to their neighborhood.

We all were really sleepy and went to bed by 10 pm that night, knowing we had a huge day ahead.

The house was already quite empty because they had shipped two pods of their belongings to Portland and had sold some things.  And of course it was messy as is always the case when moving.

We had rented a Penske truck from their nearby Home Depot, so we went to Denny's for breakfast and then picked up the truck.  The first order of business was loading everything into the truck that they would be taking to the dump.  Then Dick and Mike left with that load.  I got busy packing up the rest of the things that were in the kitchen cupboards and drawers.

When the guys got back with the truck they first of all loaded the things that we would be taking home - two beds and various other things.  Then they loaded everything else - it would be going to a studio apartment at the home of one of their friends.  We were so glad that their neighbor Joe was there to help carry heavy things down the stairs.  Also their friend Tom from Richmond drove up for the weekend and helped too.

We got their queen size guest room bed to replace our full size guest room bed. 

We also got their much newer king size Tempurpedic mattress to replace our older one.  

This bookshelf, which would go to the studio apartment, was a PAIN to get down the stairs!!  Jeremy said they absolutely had gotten it up the stairs fully assembled, so we knew it could be done, but how??  Look at Jeremy underneath it!!

They just needed some Dick Stauffer ingenuity and they figured it out!

I took this picture out their back door.  This neighborhood has been like a family to them and they all are grieving the loss of Jeremy and Mike.  There would be two farewell parties for them over the weekend. 

After everything was loaded up we went to their friend Audra's house to unload the things going into her studio apartment in the basement.  Everyone was so hot and tired by that time. 

We managed to get the things unloaded and into somewhat of a semblance of order. 

I enjoyed putting the things away in the kitchen.  This little place will be their home away from home. 

And then we went back to the house so Dick could shower, we got our bags, said our goodbyes, and were on our way by 2:30 in the afternoon!  Goodbyes were not too hard, knowing that we will be visiting them in Portland in June.  Jeremy told someone that he softened the blow of telling us they would be moving by immediately telling us that he's flying us out to see them in June.  Very smart boy!  

As we followed our google maps directions we were pleasantly surprised when we turned a corner and were facing the beautiful capital.  What an awe inspiring sight.  I will miss visits to DC.  

We were following directions to a Verizon store to drop off their Verizon equipment, since it was in the general direction we would be going.  I'm so glad we did it for them, because I got to see the Washington National Cathedral for the first time ever!

We took our time going home, stopping twice, once for a late lunch and then for ice cream cones. 

I have more pictures and stories from Sunday and Monday, but this post is too long already, so I'll try to do another post before the weekend.  The weekend!!!  My PA sisters are coming!!  Woohoo!

And by the way, Jeremy and Mike are now in Portland.  They and the dogs flew there last evening. They already had a house rented and the furniture had already been delivered.  One little incident - Watson figured out how to escape from his carrier which was under the seat.  He jumped up onto the lap of the man in the seat in front of Jeremy, completely surprising him, hahaha!!