Graduation Day and the trip back home

 

I'll start this post with pictures of our cute little Airbnb.  We LOVED it!!

There were two bedrooms and a full bathroom on the second floor, but I never did take any picture of them. 

Elizer had stayed overnight with us, and we were taking him to preschool Wednesday morning.  

He wanted to take the book we had read the evening before.  Here's a video of him "reading" it.

After dropping him off we went to Walmart for a few things, then back to our little house. 

I hemmed and ironed Destiny's jumpsuit that she would be wearing for her graduation. 

I also finished the cake I had brought along.  I had made a white cake at home and poked holes in it after it came out of the oven.  At the Airbnb I made strawberry jello to pour over it, then made instant vanilla pudding to put on top of it and then whipped topping and blueberries.  It was one of Destiny's favorites when she lived here with us a few years ago.  

Later we went over to Destiny's place.  Ozzy had gotten off work early and picked up Elizer for a haircut.  How cute is he??  He went to the grad with us.

Traffic was CRAZY on the way to grad!  It was rush hour.  So we did not get there in time to get a seat. 

The graduates - ten of them.  Some were cosmetology, some were barber, and other things they teach at the beauty school - can't remember them all.  Destiny studied esthetology.  She passed her state boards last week and is now a licensed esthetician.  

Afterward there was a professional photographer there to take pictures of each grad.  

Look how her outfit matched her hair!!

When we left the school we went to an authentic Mexican restaurant - Ozzy's treat.  His mom was going to have a party for us at her house, but she was sick.  

There was a live band at the restaurant.  It was FUN!!

And it was loud!

Destiny's mom and her friend, Ozzy and Destiny.  Ozzy had to order for us because our server spoke only Spanish. 

How's that for a seafood meal???

After we left the restaurant everyone came to our Airbnb for the cake I had made.  

We had so much fun!  They ended up eating granola and milk too!  It was almost midnight when they left.  

Once again Elizer stayed overnight with us.  The upcoming weekend was when Elizer's daddy was supposed to be getting him, which would have meant a trip to PA for Destiny and Ozzy.  We were able to save them a trip by taking him with us, and besides we could have him at our house for a day or so!

We probably left around 9:30 on Thursday morning, saying goodbye to the speedway, which was very close to our Airbnb. 

Elizer is a really good traveler, playing games on his phone and watching his favorite shows on YT Kids.  And eating snacks.  

We had stopped a few times for bathroom and gas and food.  Then somewhere in Ohio we stopped at a roadside rest stop for Dick to take a nap.  Elizer and I took a walk and then he ran some races.

After that he fell asleep for an hour or two.

This guy did ALL the driving!  His driving makes me nervous sometimes, but I told him that I was SO grateful that he was able to drive - in a new city, on six-lane highways around that city, on the interstate highways.  Because I would no longer be able to do it.  I feel too nervous to drive anywhere that I'm not familiar. 

When we got back to State College we went to the grocery store before going home.

It was about 8 pm when we drove into our driveway and made this video for Destiny. 

Of course he could hardly wait to get inside to his toys!  He also wanted a bath in my big tub.  He played in it for a long time while I got stuff unpacked.  

I think Dick was in bed by 9:00.  Eventually Elizer was settled, and then I hit the sack, deeply satisfied that we had successfully and safely made the trip!  

Trip to Indianapolis, day one

On Tuesday morning, January 28, we packed things into our little SUV and left home around 7:15 for Indianapolis.  It felt like really tight quarters compared to what we've been used to, but we were really thankful for the much better milage!  

Sights along the way.

Indianapolis at last!  The time on this picture says 4:30.  We had stopped a few times for the bathroom and gas, and Dick napped for half an hour at one stop.  He did ALL the driving, God bless him!!

We went to our airbnb first (pictures of that later), then we headed to Destiny's place about six minutes away.  She was on her way home from picking up Elizer from preschool.  As we got near her place and were sitting at a traffic light, she called me and said, "Grandma, I'm looking at you!"  She was sitting at the traffic light too, coming from the other direction.  We cracked up!  

So we followed her into their parking lot. 

I was so happy to see them!!!  Elizer immediately wanted the apple I had brought along.  

I folded some laundry for her while we waited for Ozzy to get home from work.   

She really wanted to take us to see downtown Indianapolis.  Both of our vehicles are small, with a child seat in the back seat. So we went in two vehicles and stayed connected by phone.  She was our tour guide. It was fun!

I took a lot more pictures, but because I was taking them through the windshield, they're not that good.  

We ended up at White Castle Burger.  I cracked up because I had no idea that was a fast food chain.  I thought it was just something that came in boxes in the frozen food aisle of the grocery store!  

After we finished eating we all went back to our airbnb.  I had brought a children's book along I had recently bought - "Brick by Brick."   Each page had both English and Spanish.  We had such a good time reading the book together - I would read the English....

  

.....then Ozzy would read the Spanish.  I loved hearing his fluent Spanish.  I wish I had learned it.  Maybe I still will when I run out of things to do, hahahaha!

Elizer stayed overnight with us.   

More next time. 

Birthdays, concert, winter carnival

I started this post a week ago, so I'm going to finish it now, and then do another post about this past week.  

We are on the road!  Heading west on Route 70 to Indianapolis.  Destiny’s graduation is tomorrow evening. So I will be having lots of pictures to share next week!

But now I need to share about this past week. 

When we cleaned out the two glove compartments in our Toyota Sienna before trading it in, we could not believe how MUCH we had in them.  Here are just some of the things:

5 air fresheners

3 packs of Kleenex

3 tools

4 insect repellent wipes

3 pairs of sunglasses

5 masks

8 CD's

50 napkins

6 packs of salt and pepper

1 magic marker

1 pack of Clorox wipes

4 pre-packaged hand wipes

1 bottle of hand sanitizer

And that does not include the things we transferred to the small glove compartment in our little Kia SUV.  What can I say? We like to be prepared!  

OR we had no idea what was in there, so we added more - just in case, LOL!!  

On Wednesday, January 22, the day after I wrote my last post, I went shopping at Nature's Pantry, our local natural food store.  I hadn't been there in a long time, but I had a purpose.  Destiny had told me that she was hungry for my homemade granola.  I hadn't made it in a few years, so I needed to go shopping for ingredients.  I found everything!

I am so delighted that since I've started using Lactaid milk, I can again eat cereal and milk.  HOW I enjoyed a bowl of my granola!!!

When I picked Hunter up from school that day, I brought him to our house.  Anthony and Lori were going to a woodworking class!  Hunter and I had fun playing UNO.

Lori gave me this scoop.  She had turned that beautiful handle from a block of wood!!!  Of course Anthony had made one too, and they didn't need two of them, lucky for me!

Thursday was laundry and choir day, as usual.  A VERY cold day.  Here's a new song we're working on.  I LOVE it!!  Now that I have listened to it in order to post it here, it will be in my head for the rest of the evening and overnight and tomorrow morning!!  I know that from experience.  I just love it so much.

Friday, the 24th was Sophie's TWENTIETH birthday!!  2005 does not seem that long ago at all!!  I was at school, knowing Lisa was in labor down in Florida, and when my phone rang to tell me that Baby Sophie Grace had arrived, I was also told that George had emailed me a picture.  Remember - no photo sharing on phones in 2005!  So I ran to the computer room at school and pulled up my email and literally screamed with delight when I saw a picture of her.  There was a middle school class in the computer room, and I had completely interrupted their class, but I did not care.  Neither did they, haha!!  

Pray for our Sophie when she comes to your mind.  Being a student athlete comes with so terribly much pressure!

That evening Lori and I went to a concert on campus, a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King.  It ended up being a tribute to Dr. Tony Leach also, the director of Essence 2 who passed away from cancer a few weeks ago.  He of course had helped to plan this concert.  In addition to Essence of Joy, the Penn State Gospel Choir that Tony started in 1994 and continued to direct until he became too ill, there was a high school concert choir from Pittsburgh, a high school madrigal choir from near Philly, and a gospel choir from Delaware.  Each of them was incredible!!  Lori and I were right up there on the second row.  At the end, all the choirs joined for a few songs, including "Total Praise" which was AMAZING!!!!  That's a Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir song that I used for my middle school choir festival song one of the last years I taught.  

Saturday, January 25 was Lisa's birthday.  She was born in the wee hours of the morning 51 years ago, one of the BEST days of my life!  I really wanted a baby girl, and in those days we did not know until they were born.  

She was so darn cute!!  I made this collage for her birthday.  I told her that baby Lisa was looking to see what she was going to be when she grows up, haha!

We had a HUGE event at church that afternoon.  Our first annual Winter Carnival.  Everything was FREE!  Word had gotten around, and we had a LOT of people and a LOT of fun!

Check-in table.

Food corner

Rock painting

Computer corner

Games

PEOPLE!!

Face painting

Card making

Jewelry making

Numbered duckies for a stuffed animal prize

Game table

Hilarious team games

Snowman cut-outs

Corn hole

Beaver Stadium back-drop for photos

We all worked together when it was over to clean up and get everything ready for Sunday morning's service.  

Sunday morning was great, but I think we all felt pretty tired.  The rest of the day I worked on music plans for my sub who would play piano on February 2, and also for all the instruments of our worship band who would play on February 9.  We had travels coming up, and jury duty for me after the travels were over.  It felt good to have all that preparation done.

On Monday I cooked up a storm.  I made meatballs, sauce, and pasta for Lori and Anthony's family.  I made more granola, and I made a cake for Destiny's grad.  My sink looked a MESS!!  

That evening we did some packing and tried to go to bed earlier than usual.  

And that's it for this post.  All about our travels in the next post.