The End of January – Already???

Wow – this month has flown by quickly!  The early part of the month, we had quite a bit of snow but it has melted in the past few days because we’ve had a lot of rain and flooding.  We had a 2 hour delay the first day back at school from the holidays and later that week, we had an early dismissal (should have been a snow day). 

Last Sunday, we had to cancel church because the furnace was broken and it was too cold without it.  John and I went to Gateway where they asked him to preach that morning.  That afternoon we went to Amy’s so I could do some scrapbooking with Amy, Megan, and Abby.  I started scrapbooking the year Megan was born and made quite a few pages for her and for Caity, Emily, and Becca but since that time, I’ve only made a couple pages for Peyton and none for Abby.  Amy got started scrapbooking with some friends in her community and wanted to get Abby’s album started so that’s what we planned to work on.  The girls, of course, wanted to make some pages of their own so I brought some pictures and supplies for them too.

The girls enjoyed “journaling”.  On one of Abby’s pictures, she wrote “DELICIOUS” (with my help)!

I’ve had fun looking through pictures I had stacked up in the guest bedroom closet and I’m amazed at how much the kids have changed in just a few years!

Abby decided she wanted to eat some cereal and Amy told her I like Frosted Flakes so she wanted to keep me from stealing her food! Abby is showing off her new glasses.  These  have butterflies on them – her old ones have Cinderella’s slippers.

One night when I went to play cards with Dorothy, Kathy, and June, I took some yarn and made this scarf.

Christmas, 2009

We had a very enjoyable Christmas this year!  The last day of school for 2009 was Wednesday when we got out about 2 1/2 hours earlier than usual, then Bubba and Sayaka came that evening.  They made a gingerbread house

and Sayaka enjoyed eating the candy off the roof   The kids enjoyed playing the trumpet John found on Craig’s List for Jessica (after they boiled the mouthpieces) then we enjoyed a couple games of Yahtzee. 

Christmas Eve day, I went to the grocery store, while Bubba shoveled our driveway then helped by wrapping presents for me.  Sayaka and I made three kinds of cookies and some fudge then Sayaka showed off her skills at riding John’s unicycle. 

After Jessica and Adam arrived, all six of us piled into the big van so we could all ride together “over the river and through the woods” to Amy’s house. 

After eating supper with Joe, Amy, Megan and Abby, and Joe’s family, we opened presents then played Taboo. (Even though it looks like Abby’s eyes are closed, she was closely watching the timer and would yell, “Time!” when the sand ran out. )

Bubba took Megan and Abby outside to scatter the reindeer food in the yard.

Some highlights:  Bubba’s naughty?, Mary and Joe with Megan and Abby, and Dave and John with Abby’s pajamas on their heads – WHY?

Christmas morning started late for most of us at around 10:00 or later!  Bubba was very surprised at his big present – a set of drums.  When Jeremy, Lois, and Peyton came over, Peyton enjoyed playing drums too. Peyton got a guitar for Christmas and also got his own 4-wheeler.  The only bad part of Christmas day was that the roads were icy so Joe, Amy, and the girls couldn’t come over.  There were just six of us for Christmas dinner, so we had lots of leftovers!  After dinner, we sat around the table and sang for two hours.  John said he should have recorded us because we sounded really good!  After that, we taught John how to play Taboo.  We played boys against girls – John, Adam, and Bubba against Jessica, Sayaka, and me.  The girls won    Some highlights of the day:  Jessica, finding out how rusty she is at playing the trumpet, Jeremy and his “grills”, Adam’s disguises, John and his thumb wrestlers,

and Peyton learning how to play checkers with Uncle Bubba.

Jessica and Adam had to leave early Saturday morning to go visit Adam’s family.  Joe, Amy, and the girls came over around 10:00 a.m. to open presents and eat some leftovers with us.  We played a couple games of Yahtzee and found out Abby had the best luck at rolling the dice!  They stayed until the middle of the afternoon, then Bubba and Sayaka left in the early evening after packing Sayaka’s little Metro full of clothes, presents, and the drum set.  After everything was crammed into the car, Bubba realized he could have put the back seat down and would have had more space to pack things in!  After packing the car full, they put John’s bike rack on the back and took two bikes home with them.  John left about the same time as Bubba and Sayaka to go do bulletins so I had a couple hours by myself – and I just sat and relaxed

Some highlights of the day: reading to Abby (and cuddling!), Joe Cool (Joe, actually posing for me!), Sayaka, Bubba, and Megan.

This afternoon, Jeremy, Lois, and Peyton came over to help us eat more of our leftover food and to watch the Steelers miraculously win their game against the Ravens.  Peyton brought his new guitar and gave us a little concert.  We played dominoes after church tonight and John won.

We’ve had a very busy, very nice weekend, full of good, quality family time spent playing games and talking.

We were planning to go to Toledo this week to see Brian, Michelle, and the girls, but that got canceled because of illness.  Instead, we’ve stayed home relaxing, and enjoying some down time.

Family Thanksgiving

As is our tradition, we went to Toledo last week to celebrate Thanksgiving with Brian and Michelle and the girls.  We ate dinner at Daba’s house and had a nice visit.  We all crowded into the living room and kids sat on the adults’ laps.

We got to meet baby Brandon and everyone took turns holding the sweet, good-natured baby.

On Friday, the kids spent a lot of time playing Rock Band. 

I even sang a few songs with them

It was also nice to spend some time with Adam and Jessica,

and Bubba and Sayaka.

Becca got her own cell phone and received some text messages from Aunt Jessica.

It was a very nice, relaxing weekend spent with our wonderful family (part of our family )

A Country Critter Life

When we lived in Ohio, I never saw mice except when we were at church camp.  Since we’ve lived in Pennsylvania, we’ve had quite a few experiences with varmints!  When we lived in town, we had bats in our house frequently.  We kept a tennis racket handy in our hall closet because we found it was the easiest way to get rid of the bats.

Shortly after we moved to our current house, Jessica and Jonathan came running up the basement steps one day yelling that they had seen a bird.  Jessica wasn’t sure if it was a bat or a bird, but little Jonathan said, “It was a buid – I saw it’s beak!”  John put a screen over our chimney and we haven’t had any more birds in the house.

For years, I’ve known we’ve had mice in the attic in the spring and the fall.  I’d set out d-con and we wouldn’t hear them any more.  I got used to the fact that we had mice and just figured that’s what you get when you live in the country.

A couple years ago, a few days before Christmas, I woke up when I felt something run across my legs – then it happened again.  I quickly turned on the light and saw a squirrel on the woodwork surrounding the bathroom door.  We’ve been fighting squirrels ever since then and HOPE we have all the holes into the house blocked so they won’t come in anymore!

A couple weekends ago, Vocal Accord was going to sing at a chili cook-off.  When Jeff was setting up the quartet equipment, he opened a suitcase containing speaker cords (we call the cords “the snake”).  This particular suitcase had a problem closing and had been stored in our garage.  Jeff started lifting out insulation and decided to take the suitcase outside (luckily).  When he started pulling the snake out, out ran a mouse!  That mouse had traveled an hour with us!!!

It’s Been a Busy Month

I’m very happy to have a weekend to spend at home!  Two weeks ago, we went to Ohio for the family get-together at the nursing home.

Last weekend, we went to Jessica and Adam’s, then went on to West Virginia to Drew and Katie’s wedding. 

Both weekends were very enjoyable, but they left me exhausted afterward.

Two weekends ago, John and I, Amy, Megan, and Abby, and Peyton, left here and drove to Ohio in our big, roomy conversion van.  The kids sat in the back and watched movies while Amy and I sat in the middle seats – also watching a movie.  John was our chauffeur   The kids enjoyed a movie called “Chestnut”, about two orphans who hid a Great Dane from their new family.  We spent the night at my mom’s where Grandpa told the kids a ghost story!

We listened to a nice piano concert the next morning  

As we watched another dvd, Abby said, “There’s the Pickle Man!”  I didn’t know what she meant until she said, “He’s on the pickle jar.”  I realized there was a pelican wearing a blue uniform!

At the nursing home, Pam had some fun craft projects to keep the kids busy. 

We also had a baby shower for Bryan and Danielle’s baby girl-to-be.

Last weekend, John and I, Amy, Megan, and Abby went to Jessica and Adam’s house in time for a delicious supper.  Adam grilled chicken (for chicken salad) in the rain.  He said it always rains when he grills, so I told him to remember that when we have a drought!  Megan and Abby

showed off their Halloween costumes I made them. 

Adam got out his violins and gave us a mini concert. 

Megan decided she was going to sleep on Adam’s sumo sack and  had to fight Sayaka and Grandpa for the opportunity to sleep there.  She won, of course

The next morning, Aunt Jess painted Megan’s nails and the girls made picture frames from a couple kits I’d bought a couple years ago.  I brought a lot of my scrapbooking things to help Jessica make her wedding album.  We got a couple pages ready and then ran out of time.  I left my supplies there for her to use in her spare time ??  Then we drove two hours to Drew and Katie’s wedding.  Katie looked beautiful and the wedding was very nice.  We had a yummy sit-down meal at the reception and got to spend some time with family. 

John was anxious to get home since we had a seven hour drive and he needed to be up early Sunday morning to get ready to preach.

Thursday night, I got crafty and made four of these little pumpkin bags. I filled them with candy and gave three to Dorothy, June, and Kathy at cards last night and  I gave the fourth one to John.  When Jeremy saw it, he said it looks like a Jewish pumpkin!

Peyton dressed up in his Bumble Bee costume and Daddy had to try on the mask too.

First Snowfall of the Year

Well, it’s that time of year again . . .  it’s snowing.

Notice the blue Metro convertible.  John just bought it today to fix up in time to enjoy it next summer. See the nice fall leaves?

Last Saturday, John and I went to Altoona to go shopping.  I found out a yarn shop I thought had closed had actually just moved to a new location – a few hundred yards away from where it used to be!   That evening, we saw a beautiful sunset in Altoona.  (We don’t have that many lanes of traffic around here.)

I took some pictures with my cell phone since I didn’t have my camera with me.  I had to take two pictures to get the whole sunset.

Wow! It’s Been a Month. . .

It’s been more than a month since I’ve written a new posting – oops!  It’s been a busy month, getting back to work, walking with Jill two nights a week, and being sick too.

I went to Megan’s

and Peyton’s

school open houses in the same week then went to Abby’s preschool open house the following week. 

Jessica and Adam came to spend the weekend with us last weekend for the first time since they were married.  Jessica and Adam tried out my new Snuggie John bought me.  When they arrived, I was wearing the Snuggie with my arms up in the air and TRIED to say, “Are you ready to go to the football game?”  I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t say it.  Jessica knew what I was trying to say anyway since she’s seen the silly commercials on TV too!

It is truly one size fits all.

It was big enough that Jessica and Adam could both fit into it at the same time

We celebrated Adam’s birthday with the leftover pieces of the cake Jessica had made for him – after Adam made us delicious omelets.

We went to Jessica’s friend Tonia’s wedding at the park on Saturday, then spent time with her friends at the reception. 

(Lindsy, Tonia, Amberly, and Jessica.)

Adam and Lindsy’s husband, Dan, spent the entire time talking about sports (as far as I know – every time I heard their conversation, that’s what they were talking about!)

Friday night, John and I went to the rehearsal at the park in the pouring rain.  It was difficult to practice holding umbrellas.  We were blessed with gorgeous weather Saturday, except for the wind.  The best moment of the wedding, in my opinion, was after the bridesmaids walked down the aisle.  The girls had arrived at the park in a big black SUV.  When the bridal march began, the SUV sped away and Tonia was standing there!  It was impressive.

Saturday night, we attended the barbershop concert in DuBois.  John has been practicing for this show for a couple months. 

(Unfortunately, I was too far away to get decent pictures of the chorus.)

Sunday afternoon after church, we had a potluck to celebrate Mike’s safe return from Iraq.  After that, we went to Amy’s house where Jessica performed OMM on Amy, Megan, Abby, and me! 

This was the first time she had worked on children so it was good practice on willing patients

Summer is definitely over and Fall is here.  We’ve had a lot of rain today and the temperature is getting colder.  The Weather Channel said we’re supposed to have a mix of rain and SNOW Tuesday!

The End of a Very Nice Summer

It’s Labor Day, the end of summertime fun   Why is it the summer seems to fly by and winter seems so long?  This was an especially busy summer but we accomplished a lot around the house getting ready for the wedding and the family get together afterward.  Jeremy has been trimming and cutting trees and cleaning up the yard for us.

We spent the day today at Larry and Melinda’s house and had a great time.  It was a pool party but not all of us went swimming because it was cool (67 degrees) and rainy.  Jeremy, of course, was the first one in the pool. 

He learned to do a flip from the diving board this summer – he was challenged by a kid at camp, so he had to learn how to do it!  Today, he learned to do a backwards flip and did it several times.

Lois, Peyton, Megan, and Abby all enjoyed the pool,

and Megan and Abby got brave and moved away from the steps.

Megan was kicking her feet and using the little surf board to get from one side of the pool to the other.

Jeremy got Peyton out into the water for a little while and tried to convince him he could touch bottom! 

Abby looks like she’s playing peek-a-boo.

I caught Jeremy playing with this turtle.

Later on, Peyton played with the dogs, Tug and Allie.  Tug is a yellow Lab and Allie is a chocolate Lab.  The dogs had to stay in the basement most of the day because Abby is so afraid of them.

I started working at the high school again last week and am enjoying it for the most part.  I’m running around, upstairs and downstairs, making copies and running errands.  I think I’ll probably start working with kids more this week.  The kids don’t come in for help the first week or so, but I’m sure they’re going to start getting a lot of homework soon.

I haven’t done much knitting this summer, but started making a very simple shawl last week.  I think it would be pretty boring if I was using a solid yarn, but the variegated yarn makes it much more interesting to work on.  It’s also nice to work on because I don’t have to even look at it.  The pattern is very simple – knit 1, yarn over, knit to the end of the row.  Repeat this row until the shawl is as big as you want it!

Happy Birthday, Abby!

Abby turned 5 last Tuesday, August 18th.

(Her daddy’s birthday was Wednesday) 

We celebrated Abby’s birthday Saturday evening with a nice party at her house.  The weather was great, food was great, and we had a nice, relaxing time.  Abby enjoyed playing with her friends

and opening her presents.

Megan enjoyed using her little video camera to record the party.

Uncle Jeremy had fun, too!

Sunday afternoon, John was busy riding bicycles with Pat, so I decided to spend the afternoon with Megan, Abby, and Peyton.  We ate Happy Meals at McDonalds,

went to Walmart, then went to our house to do a project.  Peyton lost his first tooth Sunday morning and Abby lost her second tooth last week and I hadn’t made their tooth fairy pillows yet.   Megan already had hers, so she decorated some fabric and I made her a little pillow for her Webkins. 

Peyton wanted a yellow pillow with a Hummer on it, so he drew it with a fabric marker.

Abby looked through my fabric and chose some leftover flower girl dress fabric for the top, some pink fabric with tutus for the bottom, and some green striped fabric with a white doggie on it for her tooth pocket.

It was colorful!

Then we spent some time in Aunt Jessica’s room that’s being turned into an office.

The kids liked being able to touch the ceiling!

We had a very enjoyable afternoon.  The kids behaved very well and were very appreciative.  Peyton even told me I’m the “best grandma ever”.  Of course, later on his mom told me he said his daddy was the “best daddy ever” – until he wouldn’t give him something he wanted!

Gone Feising

After finally recovering from the weeks of fun and hard work of getting ready for Jessica’s wedding, I went to Toledo last weekend to go to two feises with Michelle and the girls.  The first one, on Saturday, was in Windsor, Ontario.  This was the first time we all had to show our passports to get across the border.  We left the house plenty early, expecting a possibly long wait at customs, and arrived 1 1/2 hours early for the feis.  The girls did well, both getting medals.

After the feis was over, we drove to Lansing, Michigan to spend the night.  This time we had a long wait at customs, but it was all right since we weren’t in a big hurry.  When we got to the hotel, we found they had been overbooked, so they gave us a free room at another hotel   After we got settled, we went out to eat at a nice restaurant that’s housed in an old train depot.  We planned to go swimming in the hotel’s pool later on, but we were too exhausted.

Sunday morning, Michelle fixed the girls’ hair in our motel room, then we went to the feis venue where Michelle, Caity, and Emily were going to volunteer.  Since I had volunteered two years ago, I checked to see if they needed me again.  I got to work in data entry, typing dance results into the computer.  For a little while, I also checked to be sure results were correct (one wasn’t!), then clicked the button to approve the results officially.  It’s interesting work and nice to read some of the judges’ comments to see what type of things they look for when judging the dancers.  The girls danced nicely, and won more medals at this feis.

This picture came from Michelle – I like it because the girls were together.  The feis in Lansing doesn’t allow cameras, so I didn’t even take mine.

Monday, Michelle and I went to the fabric store to buy velcro and ribbon so I could put loops on the waists of the dance costumes so they can add jeweled clasps to hold their identifying numbers for each feis.  Becca’s dress already had a loop, but the velcro was almost gone and her clasp was barely hanging on.  Emily’s dress didn’t have a loop yet, so she seemed happy to get one.

Tuesday and Wednesday, I was at school for video conference classes to fulfill half of my 20 hour requirement for the year.  The classes were interesting for about the first hour of each one, but they got awfully repetitive, lasting for 2 1/2 hours!  The room was warm, and it was really hard to sit there for so long just listening.  I would have liked to knit, and probably wouldn’t have been so tired if I was knitting, but I didn’t think the supervisor would appreciate me knitting while I was supposed to be listening.  I don’t think she would know that I can actually listen better while my hands are busy!  I have to go back next Thursday afternoon and all day Friday – I hope the topics and speakers are interesting.

I found out I’m going back to work at the high school with a couple teachers I really enjoy working with!  I’m not real anxious to get back to work yet, but at least I think I will enjoy the work this year.

Today, I’m trying to go through the house, looking for things that belong to Jessica, so we can take them to her tomorrow, along with her trundle bed and her car.  We plan to look through wedding and honeymoon pictures and hopefully get some nice ones printed so we can frame them.

Adam got creative, and took some nice, artistic pictures on their honeymoon