Third week of August

 

So after the house no longer had children in it last Monday afternoon, at least there were flowers! 

And we got this cute picture of Lisa, George, and Sophie flying to Arizona University where Sophie will be doing her masters program and will also be running.  

Meanwhile her car with some of her things in it, was being transported from Florida.  It finally just arrived today - a week later!!  Her classes were starting today too.  Definitely frustrating!

On my way home from taking a stirfry to Anthony and Lori's that day I saw that my friend Cleo's farm still was selling sweet corn at the end of their lane.  I was so afraid I had missed it.  So I stopped and got four dozen beautiful ears of corn.  

On Tuesday morning Dick and I husked and blanched and cut off and put into freezer boxes and took them to our chest freezer in our little basement.  It will taste so good in baked corn and chicken corn soup and tortilla soup.  

Tuesday was Elizer's 6th birthday.  Destiny took a picture of him at school.  I used it to make this collage.  So adorable at every age!

On Tuesday evening Frank was working at Anthony and Lori's basement and came here overnight, then worked on Wednesday.  I took some food over and took a look at the project.  

I was admiring those nice walls!  Ozzy did a good job with the dry wall.  Frank and his co-worker did a beautiful job with the paint. 

After I left there I went to Ollie's to get some coffee pods.  I looked in my mirror before I got out of the car and was shocked to see that I had forgotten to do any makeup!  Thankfully I keep eyebrow pencil and lipstick in my purse, hahaha!! 

Out in Indianapolis Elizer had his first swim class at the Y after school.

On Friday night our grandniece Natalia stayed here.  She is Steve and Faye Stauffer's granddaughter.  She had come up here to attend the Great Grange Fair, an epic event in this area each August.  It was so fun to catch up with her and hear all about her life as a young adult.  She LOVES animals and farming.  Last year she spent several months in Estes, Colorado working at a horse ranch!

On Saturday Frank was working at Anthony and Lori's again.  He came here overnight and went to church with us Sunday morning.  I can't believe I didn't even get a picture of him in his nice clothes.  We had pizza at Sam's Club after church, then he went back to Anthony and Lori's to get some more work done.  

This week I'm back to my regular jobs of music prep and cooking.  And visiting my flowers.  I keep breathing "Thank you, Lord" as I look around at all the beauty.

We had people here overnight every night but two the first three weeks of August!  It's physically exhausting, but so emotionally fullfilling!!  The quiet after all the fun is both nice and sad at the same time.  

Today I made Jamaican burgers for Anthony and Lori.  They were at a New Jersey beach last week.  Now I'm going to make fried eggplant sandwiches for Dick and me.  He works till 8 pm, so we eat late.  But our mornings are nice and slow. 

And now I'm finally caught up here for now!

An extra visit!

As I said at the end of my last post, Destiny, Ozzy, and the kids arrived here from Indianapolis at 2:00 AM on Thursday morning.  In case you missed that, here's the reason:  Destiny's dad, our son Frank is doing the renovation project in Anthony and Lori's basement - turning the former playroom into a studio apartment for Lori's 22-year-old nephew William who has been living with them since his mother passed away in May.  Frank's regular drywall guys weren't able to come up here from Reading, so he offered the job to Ozzy.  Ozzy planned to bring his co-worker with him to do it, but he couldn't come, so Destiny and the children came with him.  I had no qualms with that!!

We had the sweetest Thursday morning!

 

Later Destiny and I and the kids made a shopping trip to Walmart.  Back at home again Destiny made dinner.  Some kind of Puerto Rican corned beef and corn and rice dish that was very tasty.  Ozzy was planning to work late, so we took some food over to him.  Elizer had fun there.  Anthony and Lori and the boys were not there because they were at a New Jersey beach for several days.  

Another sweet morning on Friday.  

Dick took Elizer with him to go to Bellefonte KOA where we had been earlier in the month.  We had accidentally brought two knives home with us and Dick was returning them.  Then he took Elizer to Rural King, a place I used to take him on rainy days to see the baby chicks and to eat their delicious free freshly made popcorn. 

Later I took Elizer down to the playground at the entrance to our community for a while.  It was SO HOT we didn't last long.  But he needed to prove that he can still make it the whole way across the monkey bars.  

Swinging cooled him off, but I was pushing him, so I certainly was not cooling off!

He even decided to run the bases on the little league field.  

Back at the house we did some of his puzzles that he used to love.  

Destiny was making our dinner - her delicious sushi bake this time. 

On Saturday morning Dick took Elizer to a different playground.  

When they came back I got this precious sibling picture.  She looks almost as big as him! 

I had some snuggle time with them.  She just LOVES Mickey Mouse, and we were watching that.   Of course nothing like snuggle time lasts very long, hahaha!

We went for groceries, then came home and made eggplant lasagna.  That was a project!  We tried to get Elizer interested in play doh, but he wanted Destiny to play with him.  After we put the lasagna in the oven, she did.  

It was scrumptious!!

On Sunday morning Elizer went to church with us.  Lots of people were so glad to see him.  Emily, who loves to take care of him because Dick and I have music responsibilities, was liturgist that morning.  He went right up on the stage with her!  Just like he used to always go up with her onto the choir risers.  

After church he begged for her to come to our house.  She did!  They had so much fun playing together, first with these molded safari animals, then with the kitchen set and doll house in the corner - things he hasn't played with at all the last few times he was here.  

Later I was on the love seat with the kids for some more snuggle time.  

We worked on his letters for a bit, but he wasn't interested.  I'm concerned that he's not ready for first grade, but I guess that's not my problem.  

Destiny wanted to make cookies!  I had all the ingredients for peanut blossoms.  No Hershey Kisses, but plenty of chocolate bars leftover from camping.  Destiny and Elizer and I made them.

While we waited for Ozzy to get here from working at Anthony and Lori's place, she decided to take out all the teeny tiny braids in her hair.  I helped her and it took a LONG time!!!  

After Ozzy got here and they both had cleaned up,  he and Destiny went out to eat at one of her favorite little restaurants in downtown State College, then we met them at the theatre to see the new Spiderman movie.  That was Ozzy's gift to us, something he really wanted to do.  

It was POURING raining when we had to go out to the car with the children, but thankfully, by the time we got to the theatre it had stopped.  I don't think I have ever gone to the movies at 10 pm on a Sunday evening, but that's what we did!!  Not many others there!  We settled down with our popcorn and drinks.  Ketsi slept the whole time, Dick did part of the time, haha!  It was actually fun to do something out of the ordinary! 

We all slept in on Monday morning.  One more morning with this sweetheart rolling and crawling around on our living room floor.  

Destiny and I made eggs, home fries, and bacon for breakfast.  It was more like our lunch by the time we ate it!  Ketsi LOVED the eggs!

They packed up all their things and left at 12:20.  It was a surprise extra visit that I will cherish in my memories.  

Our wonderful days with Jeremy and the kids

 

First night in two weeks that we've been sleeping without others in the house or cabin.  You would think I would sleep soundly and long.  But nooooo.  Wide awake at 2:30 AM.  This is happening several times a week.  For years I used Tylenol PM and melatonin daily, but in the last year or so I weaned myself off them for fear of the possibility they could lead to dementia.  But maybe lack of sleep could lead to dementia too, so I don't know which is worse.  

Anyway, I decided to use the extra hours this morning to do another post here.  

I finished the last post with getting home from our weekend at KOA and Jeremy and the kids staying here.

We had a WONDERFUL few days with them!  Jeremy is a natural care-giver, even to his mother.  I felt very cared for those few days.  He's also a wonderful dad to Brennan and Tasha, even with their special needs.  I have never admired him more.

On Monday morning Brennan discovered a box of Tales, the Family Version.  He proceeded to read us questions.  We had such a good time answering them, and we were so proud of his reading skills. 

Our mission for the day was the piles and piles of laundry - clothes and sheets and towels.   Jeremy had decided that we would just take everything to a laundromat.  When we arrived it was POURING raining!  There was a CVS store right next to the laundromat, so Jeremy ran in to buy a couple of umbrellas.  Then we proceeded to carry our heavy bags and baskets of laundry into the laundromat while trying to carry an umbrella too, haha!!  

We filled up FOUR of the huge washers!  We hung out there until they were finished and we put everything into dryers.  He generously paid for all of it.  NOT CHEAP!!  

While those things were drying we went to a nearby bowling alley.  Anthony brought Hunter to join us.  We had the BEST TIME!!  Even I got a strike and a few spares.  Couldn't believe it!  I think Jeremy was the winner.  Everybody was a good sport.     

We were really hungry after that.  So we went to the laundromat to bag up our dry laundry, then we went to Burger King and filled our bellies.

Tasha was very eager to make dinner.  When we were in Portland in March we made my Jamaican Rice and Peas and Curried Chicken.  They were a huge hit.  So she has made it several times since and wanted to make it at my house.  We were going to be having Anthony and Lori and the boys over too, so we needed a lot of chicken thighs.  

After Burger King we went to Weis Markets.  Jeremy and Brennan stayed in the car while Tasha and I went in to find the things we would need.  As we were leaving the store I remembered that we had gotten a few grocery store selfies when we were in Portland in March, so we stopped at the door for another one!  Grocery shopping and cooking - our favorite things to do together!  

Back at home again, Jeremy worked on separating and folding the laundry while Tasha and I cooked dinner.  The curried chicken requires a long list of seasonings and spices.  As Tasha was assembling them she said, "I made a mistake.  The first ingredient is 3 teaspoons of curry powder, but I used cinnamon instead."  Down the list it calls for 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, hahaha!!  She had already added other things to the mix.  Jeremy tried to remove some of the cinnamon, but it was impossible.  So we went ahead anyway and laughed about it!  

Turns out we all LOVED it that way!!  Anthony declared it "restaurant quality!"  From now on we will both be adding extra cinnamon to that recipe, hahaha!!

Brennan and Hunter had a really good evening together.  They get along so well.

We adults thoroughly enjoyed our evening together.  Eating dinner at the long dining room table (sorry, no picture of that), sitting and talking in the livingroom, some doing a puzzle on the coffee table.  I love babies and little children with all my heart, but sometimes it's nice without them.  

I am very thankful for and proud of our two sons in this photo.  

Tuesday morning started out with Brennan reading Tales questions again as we ate breakfast. 

Then we played a round of Blokus.  Jeremy used every one of his tiles!   I absolutely love that game!

  

Meanwhile Dick was outside fixing the belt on our lawn mower.  I got this attractive picture of him

We decided to go to the Boalsburg Farmer's Market.  Lori's nephew William, who now lives with them since his mother died in May, works for Taproot Kitchen.  They have a stand there.  That is William in the green shirt.  We bought a delicious focaccia bread that he had baked just that morning!  

We bought a lot of fresh produce.  Also some pizza to fill our hungry bellies. 

Then we went to Sam's Club to visit Grandpa!  

Jeremy also bought a Steelers blanket for Brennan and Penn State sweat shirts for himself and Tasha.  Mike grew up in Pittsburgh, so they are huge Steelers fans.

As soon as we got home we started watching a movie Jeremy wanted me to see, "The Choral." It was really good.

We made BLTs for dinner with the fresh tomatoes we had gotten at the farmer's market.  

After dinner we settled in to watch "Remarkably Bright Creatures."  They had not seen it yet, and I knew they would love it.  They indeed did!  And so did I, my third time watching it!  

I guess no pictures from that evening. 

Wednesday morning they began packing up to leave.  While Jeremy got all their things organized, Tasha kept Brennan occupied with games of TIC TAK TOE, coloring, and puzzles.  

We went over to Anthony and Lori's.  Jeremy wanted to see the basement project.  I probably said before that Anthony has hired Frank to remodel their basement playroom into a studio apartment for William.  

We also enjoyed looking at Lori's gardens.  

She has quite a container garden on their deck.  We saw a baby cantelope, long pole beans, tasted a sugar pea.  

Jeremy and Lori were exchanging ideas and tips about gardening. I thought, "Wow, we had a huge half-acre vegetable garden for years when our kids were growing up, and I didn't know half the stuff they were mentioning.  It's a wonder we had any success!"  But we DID!!  Hahaha!

I said my goodbyes to Jeremy and the kids then.  They were heading to Reading to visit Jeremy's long-time friend Daryl.  They would be going to Hershey Park with him the next day, and Lori and the boys were going to be meeting them there.  

I think I sacked out on the couch for a nap when I got home.  Then I took a walk around the house to check on my flowers. 

I spent the evening cleaning the house.  Dick helped me when he got home from work after 8 pm.  We would be having overnight guests again!

As I said, Frank is doing the remodeling project at Anthony and Lori's basement.  Frank has guys who do the dry walling for him, but none of them could make the 3-hour-trip from Reading to State College to do that.  SO he offered to hire Ozzy to do the job!  That is what Ozzy does for a job, and he's very good.  He was going to bring a co-worker with him, but that guy couldn't make the trip.  So Destiny and the kids came along instead! 

They left Wednesday afternoon.  

We went to bed with everything ready for them.  They arrived at 2 AM.  I never heard them!

We had this to wake up to in the morning!

More about our days with them in the next post.