Sibling Weekend, part one

This past weekend was AMAZING!!!  I got to spend it with my best friends in the world - my siblings!

We were going to be meeting in Manheim around 3:00  when we would be able to get into our Airbnb.  I left home at 8:30 in the morning and drove (two+ hours without a bathroom stop!!) to Pleasant View Retirement Community in Manheim to visit Grandma Arlene.  I had not seen her since Easter Sunday!  We had a nice visit in her apartment.  I showed her all my pictures from our trip to Florida and of course lots of pictures of Elizer.  We also talked a good bit about her right leg.  She has been struggling with pain and swelling, which they have determined to be lymphodema.  She will likely be getting started with physical therapy soon.  My sister-in-law Faye arrived with some groceries for her, and before we left we prayed over her leg.  It's so hard to see her struggling.  Here's a picture of her from our Easter visit.  Please pray for her when you read this.

When I left Arlene I drove to Ella's Place in Elizabethtown for a late lunch.  I had told Destiny ahead of time that I was on my way and that I would be ordering a BLT.  They had my table and food all ready for me when I arrived!  When Destiny was finished working we went to her place.  They have a puppy!  A Jack Russel/Beagle mix.  He's adorable!  Then we all left and took Alex to work.  After we dropped him off we went to That Fish place to get some things for the puppy.  Elizer was sitting in the cart in a daze.  He was so sleepy!

I took Destiny and Elizer home and then made my way to the Airbnb in Manheim.  

I gotta tell you about this place!  One evening a few months ago Mary Ellen, Doris, and I were texting each other with ideas about a place to stay.  We were looking online at hotels and Airbnb's.  After a while we got too sleepy and decided we would continue our search another time.  About 11 pm we got a text from Doris,  "Look at this house!  I think it's Norman Nauman's house!"  And it was!!  Without even consulting the other sisters I reserved it that night!  

Norman Nauman sold his farm to our parents in 1957 and built a house at the end of the road for him and his wife.   We often visited them.   All these years later that adorable Cape Cod is an Airbnb!  We could look out our second floor bathroom window and see our childhood farm!  

Five of us arrived at the house first - Mary Ellen, Doris, Barb, Rose, and I.  Barb had flown from Idaho the day before and had slept Thursday night at our brother's house.  Rose had flown from Georgia that morning.  Betty was driving from New Hampshire.  We hung out at the house for a while, then Mary Ellen left to go to our brother's house to help them get ready for the evening meal we would be having there.  

When the rest of us decided to head over to their place we realized that it was looking like a storm was coming.  And was it EVER!!  We ran out to Doris's minivan just in time before the wind and rain arrived.  And I mean WIND and RAIN!!!!  It was not safe to leave and it was not safe to go back into the house.  We sat out there in total disbelief.  Sometimes we laughed because we were in this ridiculous situation.  At one point Mary Ellen called and said we should wait because the storm was so bad at our brother's house too.  It was blowing so hard against the side of the van we truly feared that it would blow the van over!!   Like I said, sometimes we laughed - I guess here is proof! 

 

When it finally died down after about half an hour of sitting in the van we headed toward Dick and Nancy's place on the other side of Manheim.  At one point the water was getting so deep we turned off onto a side street and took a different route.  Manheim is notorious for flooding quickly.  

But Then!!!!  What an amazing rainbow!  We were sure it looked like the pot of gold would be right at Dick and Nancy's house, but alas it was not!  

Did we ever have a wonderful evening!   We had planned to eat on their lovely deck, but the rain ended that idea.  Nancy's lovely kitchen table (the very same table we had in our kitchen growing up!) seats all of us just fine.  We had potatoes that Dick had just dug from his garden that morning!  Also delicious corn on the cob and ham.  When he said that the ham was from their grandson Josh's farm I was afraid he was going to say that it had still been growing that morning like the potatoes, hahaha! 

We had fun trying our luck at corn hole after dinner.  Most of us are sadly lacking in athletic skills.  I did not have the streak of luck I'd had two years ago.  While we were playing Betty drove in!  We were so happy to see her!  

Later we gathered around the kitchen table again for pie and ice cream.  Nancy had made a cherry pie and a blueberry pie.  They were scrumptious!!  

Then we sisters headed back to our Airbnb.  It had a big table too.  It became grand central station all weekend long.  We sat around that table talking until well past midnight.

There was plenty of room to sleep when we finally went to bed.  Mary Ellen and I shared a second floor bedroom, Rose slept in the other one.  Betty had the main floor bedroom.  Doris and Barb slept on comfy sofas in the basement family rooms.  The house had central AC and was extremely comfortable.  

On Saturday morning we gradually got awake and hit the kitchen for some coffee.  I made scrambled eggs with fried potatoes, bacon, onions and peppers served with English muffins.  Once again we sat around that table and talked and talked and talked and talked.  Literally for hours.  Our only agenda for the day was that we wanted to go to Hilltop Acres (a very popular country store up the road) before they would close at 4:00.  In addition to my breakfast we had the peanut butter Rice Krispie treats I had brought, the cookies and peanut butter bars Mary Ellen had brought.  

Eventually we got ourselves showered and ready to go.  There were two half baths and one whole bathroom with a shower, so we had to take turns with that.  We remembered having just one bathroom in the house with all us girls.  Poor Dad and brother Dick!

We went up the road to Hilltop Acres.  Surprisingly we saw only a few people we knew.  

After we finished shopping we drove slowly by the farm our parents had owned from 1957 to 1963.  Not very long.  During the time we lived there our dad was ordained to the ministry at our church, and it was too difficult to raise a big family, run a farm, and pastor a church.  So they sold it all, including the dairy cows.  It was a hard time for my parents, but I was too young to really understand it.  

Next we decided to go to Prussian Arcade in downtown Manheim.  This place was a potato chip factory in its previous life!  We took our good old time strolling through all the little shops. 

I was intrigued by this unique use of music pages!  Something for me to do with the hymnals that line my bookshelves - in all my spare time!  The sweater in the lower left photo had been made into a pillow!  

By the time we got to this shop our lack of sleep was showing.  We were laughing way too much, haha!

Outside the arcade was this lovely place to sit in the shade of a big umbrella.  It was a very hot day, but felt lovely here.  Doris read to us a children's book she had bought, "I Hope You Dance."  We loved it.  

From there we decided to drive on some more back roads from the days of our youth.  We reminisced accidents (!!), places people lived, etc.  

At one point I got a text message from Betty's husband Scott, thanking us for our Happy Birthday rendition.  What???  We had no idea what he was talking about.  It WAS his birthday that day, but we had not sent him anything.  We decided he must be fishing for a Happy Birthday, so we made a silly video right then and there and sent it to him.   (Later we found out he had gotten a video from his niece whose name is similar to mine and he thought it had been from me, hahahaha!!)  

One of the places we passed was this house to which we moved in 1963 after our parents sold the farm. Rose, our youngest sister,  was born the year after we moved here.  After our mother died in 1982 Dad invited Doris and her little family to move in with him and Rose.  A year later, when Dad married Mary, they bought their own place and Dad sold this place to Doris and Dale.  So it holds many memories for all of us, especially for Doris and her family.  They sold it a few years ago.

At last we went back to the Airbnb and sat around that table again!  Doris had prepared pulled chicken, complete with cole slaw and potato salad from Hilltop Acres.  And FRUIT!!  Oh, and a wonderful chocolate cake.  

Later that evening we changed locations and went down to the comfy sofa in the basement.  And guess what?  We talked and talked and talked and talked!!  I also read some sister trip stories I had written years ago, and we laughed till our bellies hurt.  We reminisced our oldest sister's life and death and wept.  How we STILL miss her after 17 almost years!  

This was us in 2004, our last sister weekend with Janet.  Unfortunately, Barb was not able to come from Idaho for that weekend.  Janet is on the far left.  This is why we especially cherish our time together!

That's all for this post.  But I've got two more days to write about!!

July 4th weekend

Lots of fun things to share since I posted on Thursday!  Like always, the flowers are blooming away! Especially the lilies this week!

Of course, these are my very favorite lilies each year!

Friday was a happy day here at our house!!  The new heat pump was installed at last, hallelujah!!

It actually was not a hot day, and air conditioning wasn't necessary, but I ran it anyway just because I could, haha!!  It's so much quieter than our old central AC unit was.    We have certainly needed it since, and it's WONDERFUL to be done with humidity inside the house.

On Friday evening I went with Lori and the boys to the arboretum.  They just opened the new pollinator garden that they've been building for the past two years, I believe.  First we went to the children's garden.  Can you believe I tried to crawl up onto that big caterpillar and fell off in the process??   I got dirty, but not hurt.  I won't be trying that again!

Three of these pictures were taken in the pollinator garden.  It is huge!  Lovely walkways, interesting structures that I didn't even get pictures of, and so much potential.  This has followed the science of how  birds, bees, insects, and plants are interdependent.  The plants don't look like much at this point because they're so small, but it will become an amazingly beautiful place.  

Destiny sent me this adorable picture that night - Elizer's favorite new cuddle toy - his basketball, hahaha!!  

On Saturday we drove down to Destiny's place.  I had been talking to Ray and he said he was going to be going to her place.  We had not seen him since Christmas day when I delivered cookies to him!  He has since moved to an apartment complex in York County to be closer to his job.  It was so good to be together again!

Bless Destiny!  She had just gotten home from work when we arrived.  She proceeded to start cooking dinner - butter chicken curry and rice.  I folded some laundry for her and helped her in the kitchen while Dick and Ray talked about hunting and looked at Dick's pictures from his trail cam.  Of course, Elizer was toddling around, getting into everything!  After dinner we went for a walk around the mobile home park.  (You can see the end of Destiny and Alex's house on the bottom right picture above.  It is quite new.) Destiny also made some snicker doodles, which were a big hit!  Even for someone with diabetes!  Oops!

It was a crazy weather day.  Sometimes it poured, sometimes the sun came out and it was HOT!  On the way home that evening we drove through really heavy rain.  It was so loud we could hardly hear each other talk!

Sunday morning was beautiful.  Even more so because Brenna was at church to play flute with me.  She comes once a month.  Here is our prelude, an interesting arrangement of 10,000 Reasons.

After the service at GBRV we decided to go to the service at Calvary for the first time since COVID.  It was not nearly as full as it used to be, probably because they do not have children's classes at the 10:45 service, just the 9:00 service.  Also, there aren't many students in town during the summer.  But it was good to be there and be led in worship by other musicians.  

We invited Anthony and Lori to come over for a cookout in the evening.   We made hamburgers, sausages, and hot dogs over the fire.  I also had made broccoli salad and "doctored up" baked beans.  I forgot to take pictures the whole evening until the boys started launching nerf rockets after we were finished eating.  It was a beautiful evening and so good to be together. 

We drove up to the airport and found a place to park to watch the fireworks - through a fence.  Not the greatest view and certainly not a great place for picture-taking, but we enjoyed it anyway.  There were other fireworks behind us too.  The boys weren't sure which way to look!

Dick had a holiday on Monday.  I did not set an alarm and was so surprised when I did not wake up until 8:00!  That is really late for me!

Hunter came for the day.   I was trying to interest him in doing a puzzle, but he wasn't interested.  So we made a deal - if he did what I wanted for 15 minutes, then I would do what he wanted for 15 minutes.  So we did get the puzzle put together.  During his 15 minutes he wanted me to sit and watch him play a game on his iPad!  I almost fell asleep!  

Nothing interests him more than doing math facts.   He turns everything into math.  Here he was spouting off some of his facts!

He wanted me to blow up balloons.  He told me that the orange balloon was the dad, the pink balloon was the mom, and the magenta balloon was the child.  I asked, "So the biggest one is not the dad?"  He said, "No because the mom is 48 years old and the dad is 21 years old and the child is 3 years old." Wow!!  Hahahahaha!!  Our crazy girls had some fun with that!  Lisa said that mom must have been quite the cougar!  Lori said she probably needs to be locked up since the dad might have been only 17 when the child was conceived!  Toooo funny!  And he said it all so innocently!

Dick grilled steaks and we had them with baked potatoes and broccoli salad on the porch.  Such a yummy meal!  It's our July 4th tradition.  

The next few days are all about getting things ready for the weekend.  It's the annual sibling weekend in Manheim!!  We missed last summer because of COVID, so that makes this year even better.  We have not seen Barb (Idaho), Betty (New Hampshire), or Rose (Georgia) in person since July 2019!   We are READY!!  

Strawberry Festival, Stauffer camp day, birthday party

I have definitely been missing from here the past week-and-a-half!  When I have too many fun, busy days, it takes more days to catch up afterward, and somehow, sitting here to sum it all up gets shoved to the back burner.

Of course, even when I'm missing, the flowers just keep on blooming!  We have had extreme heat.  And just when I thought we must get the hose out and start watering everything on Tuesday evening, a thunderstorm rolled in with plenty of rain.  More of the same on Wednesday.  And today it is much cooler and steadily raining.  So thankful!  Except it is not giving Dick a chance to get any mowing done - here or at Anthony and Lori's.  

On Saturday we had our first annual strawberry festival at church.  It was a great success and lots of fun!  Pastor Lynn found herself a strawberry costume and welcomed people with this sign, hahaha!  How we love her!

Dick and I had a big day ahead on Sunday, so we left the strawberry festival early.  We were all packed up and drove to Destiny's place for the night.  How FUN to be with this little guy!  

Of course, I couldn't help but take lots of videos!  Here's one of our little chat, haha!

And watch him walk all around.  He's always trying to carry things!

Destiny was trying to pick outfits for him to wear on Sunday, and of course he was pulling things out of the drawers!

I love the wall art in her living room.  And her couch and love seat are so pretty and comfortable.  A tax return put to good use!  That night we slept on an air mattress in the living room.  

Sunday morning we were up early.  We had two big events that day!  

First we drove to Camp Hebron above Harrisburg for Stauffer Day!  We have had the tradition of camping there with Dick's family the last weekend of June for many, many years.  As the family grew it became more work than our generation was able to do.  So instead, we rented a multi-purpose facility at the camp for the day.  With day passes we could make use of the pool and lake as well.  

Our day began with a worship service.  Sharing updates, praises, and prayer needs around the circle and then singing together, of course!

One song we did was the Diadem melody of "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name."  Enjoy!!

Then we had lunch - Mexican Pile-up (a tradition), fresh fruit, and cupcakes.  I guess I didn't get any pictures of that part of our gathering.  

We had a short while to get in the pool.  It was a very hot, humid day, so the pool felt glorious!! 

Elizer started to fall asleep in his floaty!  

Then we managed to get ourselves back into our clothes (a HARD thing to do in a little bathroom stall on a hot day when your skin is still damp from being in the pool!!!  I needed HELP, hahaha!!)  

We would have so loved to stay longer and go boating on the lake.  The Stauffers had reserved our building until 5:00 and would be having a finger food meal before wrapping up.  But we had another big event to attend.   It took us about an hour-and-a-half to drive to Frank and Lauren's house in Reading.  I drove part of the way so Dick could catch a nap.  

Alaya's birthday party!  She turned five.  What a girl!  She is the sweetest thing and loves all things glittery and beautiful!

Actually, we were celebrating three things.  Frank had his 42nd birthday this month too.  And Lauren graduated from beauty school!  That was quite a feat this past half year, managing school, home, and her in-home eyelash business!  She is driven!  Add to that, Frank started his own home remodeling business full-time since Christmas and has been working long hours.  Lots of demand for his work! 

Elizer had been sleeping during our drive and took a while to adjust to the wild and crazy household.  He just sat beside me on the couch watching everyone for a long time.  But after he had some hot dogs and rice and beans in his belly, he became quite the charmer!  He warmed up to his Grandpa Frank too.  That was fun to watch.  They haven't had much chance to become acquainted.  

Frank and Lauren's V'anni will turn two in August.  Dick got this cute picture of her playing on the open stairway.  She is a quiet observer and so very precious!  Somehow, I did not get a picture of Jada who will turn 9 in August.  (Actually, you can see her in the black and white striped jumpsuit on one of my collages above.)  

That night we slept at Destiny and Alex's again.  It would have been a very late night if we had driven all the way home. And we had already driven many miles that day!  So Dick took a vacation day on Monday, pre-arranged of course, not spur of the moment!

So Dick was Destiny's taxi ride to work Monday morning!  

We did some work around their place that morning, then we went to Ella's Place for a late lunch.  It was a good way to miss the rush and also to give her a ride home.  

Elizer fell asleep on the way to the restaurant and continued to sleep on Dick's shoulder for a little while.  

When he woke up Destiny had time to walk around and proudly introduce him to some of her regulars.  

Here comes our food, and somebody was READY!!

They told Destiny she could sit down and eat with us!  She had to jump up several times to take care of other tables, but it was fun to eat with her.  

Dick got a California Teryaki Burger, I got a Chicken Caesar Panini, Destiny got salmon and mashed potatoes.  Also French Fries for Elizer and chicken orzo soup.  Wow!  I had never eaten that before.  It was really, really good!  Elizer liked it too.  

Back at their house Dick did some work outside with Destiny and Alex while I got to play with Elizer just a bit more.  Then we said our goodbyes and headed toward home. 

We stopped on our way home to see Sammy and Bianca's new pool at Jenn's house.  Wow!!  We wanted to get IN!  It was so hot and humid.  

Bianca wanted to show us how she and their neighbor girl can do handstands on the trampoline.  Bianca is the one on the right.  Good job, girls!!

We arrived home to complete misery.  We have been surviving this summer so far with one window AC unit in the dining room and a fan to blow the cool air back to our bedroom.  Our living room and bedroom have ceiling fans.  We had turned the window unit off before we left on Saturday afternoon.  It was 92 degrees in here when we arrived!!!  That was probably the hottest night we've had in a long while - ceiling fan running full speed and the oscillating fan blowing directly on us.  I even opened the window before I went to bed because it was 79 degrees outside, but I'm sure our bedroom was still at least 90.  All day Tuesday, even with the window unit running constantly, the dining room/living room  never went lower than 82.  Needless to say, I did not do much of anything in the kitchen that day!  I had a hair appointment and needed groceries, so I took my good old time soaking up the coolness.  

Finally after the storms rolled through Tuesday night and then again Wednesday afternoon,  cooler air has arrived!  Supposedly we are getting a heat pump installed tomorrow.  They had scheduled it for yesterday, but of course, this crazy hot weather has caused emergencies and more work for the HVAC company.  I'm glad I didn't know back in the beginning of May that it would take this long to get things taken care of.  Thank God for homeowner's insurance!  We are paying a good chunk of change out of pocket too because we chose to go with a new heat pump instead of just repairing our old central air unit.  Hopefully a wise choice.  We have electric baseboard heat, which we will use as back up if necessary during extreme cold temps.  

A few more pics from this week.  I snapped this one on my way home from a meeting at church on Tuesday evening.  This was before the storm clouds rolled in.  

Yesterday I was excited to see an envelope in the mail from Sweden.  Something other than junk mail for a change!!  I knew I would find another amazing card inside and did I ever!!  Three dimensional!!  Miki made this, and it came with instructions for setting it up.  Each tiny piece is separate.  Notice the butterflies in the air!!  She would be glad to take orders if anyone wants to buy cards from her.  Sometime I should show each card we have gotten from her this past year or so.  Intricately detailed!

 

And now I'm caught up for this time!  Now I'll try to catch up with all of you!