Latest Happenings

June 22nd - Wednesday - 87 degrees - humid - showers this am

As usual has been a busy couple of weeks. Noell and Wyatt were home for a couple of week and Shawn and Maegan hosted a family picnic for all of us at their house, so Lou and I made a quick stop there after our Laurel Square Dance. We had a really good picnic and the weather changed quickly while we were there, it had been really hot and humid and a cold front passed through making all of wish we had brought along jackets. Lou and I even turned the heater on in the car for the short trip home.

The next week we had various doctors appointments locally and out of town. We also dropped off the RV at Camping World in Bath and are waiting for a phone call to go and pick it up. We had several issues that needed to be addressed before we can take it out for our next outing for the fourth of July holiday week.

I had to include a picture of the summer cactus in bloom. Michelle started this from a tiny slip when she was in grade school and the poor thing has been abused many times and re-potted after these many mishaps and this year it really strutted its stuff. It was beautiful and still is blooming.

Father's Day was very meaningful this year for many reasons, Janet and Brion called and asked if we could meet them in Manfield for lunch. They came up from Camp Hill to visit with Brion's father to cut his grass and to have lunch with Janet's dad and cut his grass and then back home that evening. Talk about a day dedicated to fathers! Lou had beautiful cards and phone calls from all of his kids and Janet and Brion always remember him with a Hess collector's item, this year a helicopter to add to his collection.

Krista went into labor on Saturday while at a funeral for the child of one of her girl friends so she spent the majority of Father's Day in the hospital; however, they sent her home for a few hours and in that time when she was at home, she, Steve and Michelle came down with cards for Lou for Father's Day. They even got a card for Estee to give to Lou, how cute is that? Michelle's card was the card that brought tears to Lou's eyes and also to Michelle's. Michelle was very close to her "Pa" before he died, but Michelle accepted Lou a little at a time and she wrote in this very special card a very special note just for Lou that would break your heart, if all of us could accept people as they are and for what they are wouldn't we all be happier? It made all of us proud to be a family.

The final joy of our Father's Day, Krista had a C-Section around 8:15 pm and delivered Matthew Steven - 9 pounds 4 oz. All is well, and they are home today. Praise God for a healthy baby boy.

Today our landscapers came so we have been edged and mulched, now I need to get the bushes trimmed, irises trimmed, and some thinning out done. The list goes on doesn't it???

Busy Update

June 7th - Tuesday Sunny and warm 85 degrees

After several long distant phone calls from family and friends to check on us Lou and I thought we had better get a post to the blog. We are indeed alright, just busy.

We have had four days in a row without rain and we have taken full advantage of those four days. Prior to those days, we have worked outside between the showers. We have had tornadoes very close to us, in fact, one evening, I grabbed Lou's hand and said we are going to Krista's house and going to her cellar, and he thought I was being a little over cautious; however, I have been through three tornadoes and have a great deal of respect for them, so he humored me and we took Estee and we were off. We were safe at that point, the storm has passed over us and we just experienced an evening without power and gave thanks that we did not experience the damage that many of our neighbors had.

Lou's daughter that lives in Owego has extensive damage to her home and her daughter lost her car from fallen trees. Thankfully no one was injured.

The pictures that I have posted shows some of the things that we have been up to since our return from Florida. We have had to make repairs to our fence and in fact we took part of it down, to make mowing much easier for all of us. We have our herb garden planted and finally were able to get the rest of our garden planted and our plants set out. We are still trying to get our yard back into shape and that is going to take several more cuttings before it will look good again. We still need to thatch and roll it, and we have the men scheduled to to the edging and mulching in mid-June and then things should look as they should.

The first rose bloomed today and I still don't have all of them fertilized, so guess I will wait now until after they bloom. The Japanese Iris are just beginning to bloom and are very full and beautiful. I was able to get the sidewalks and both decks stained before it started to rain again.

Lou and I attended a birthday party for his sister, Lenore that turned 80 on Saturday, all of her children were able to be there with the exception of one son, I had to leave early to attend Krista's baby shower of which was also attended well. She received so many lovely presents and we all had a good time.

Yesterday Lou and I spent the afternoon at our friends Lew and Joanne's house helping them restore order to their blueberry house. Lew has COPD and has difficulty doing things of that nature and my Lou was delighted to be able to help him, as Lew had helped him with so many things when he was caring for his wife prior to her death. A great way to repay favors. After the work was done we sat and had refreshments and chatted away the rest of the afternoon.

The next two weeks promise to be very busy as we have many appointments lined up and our square dance group has many things planned, busy with church groups and several family things and also we are expecting that new grandchild any day now.

Good to be Home

May 21 st - Saturday - Bright Blue Sky - No Rain!!

Can you believe it, it has not rained yet today; however, we have a pond of water in our back yard and can not cut the grass, but at least today we can get out and work outside. Krista and Steve cut the grass one time this spring and that is all that it has been cut. It is hard to believe just how much rain has fallen in this area. The poor farmers are really suffering, as may the rest of us when it comes to purchasing fresh produce this summer.

I went with Krista to Elmira to her doctors appointment on Tuesday and what an experience that was. Her doctor did an ultrasound in the office and pointed out to Michelle and myself all of the vital organs and then did an echo of the baby's heart and pointed out to us the abnormalities of the heart rhythm although on Tuesday it was much better than it had been and Krista does not have to go back until next Tuesday. Things certainly have changed since I had my babies 40 years ago. I certainly was impressed.

It was a fun day for all of us, after the doctors appointment we ran some errands for me and then we had lunch at The Olive Garden, as we all enjoy the soup and salad and then on to our favorite shopping experience at "Sally Annes" and what a deal I found. I have always loved Pfaltzgraff's Village, even though I have the collector set America. I have picked up assorted pieces of Village as I have found them and Krista has bought pieces for me as she has come across them and after Lou and I got married we ordered enough dinner plates to complete a full service for eight. Much to our dismay when they arrived from the company we found they were made in China and that ended that quest, I have not ordered any more pieces and vowed I would pick up pieces when I found them.

Last year when Lou, Preston and I were at a SMART campout we stumbled

into a flea market of sorts and I found a complete canister set and some odd pieces, so slowly but surely I was getting a full set. Well, at Sally Annes I found the jackpot!! I purchased casseroles, lunch plates, dinner plates, soup bowls and a couple of spare cups. I was delighted. Each piece was less than $.99. Good buy?? While we were away, Krista found the top of a butter dish, so if I could find the bottom someplace. The tea pot in the picture that contains flowers from our garden was also one of my finds.

All in all it was a wonderful day. It was good to catch up on all of the news of the winter with Michelle and Krista. Even though we talked every day or so, it was good to talk in person. Kris and Steve did a good job keeping everything here at home going for us right down to taking care of frozen pipes and getting them repaired.

House is cleaned up again and laundry caught up so it is time to hit the outside and see what can be done there.

Home Again - Spring Again In Pennsylvania

It was a long day, we started home at 8:45 this morning, and arrived here in our driveway at 6:00 pm this afternoon.

We did stop twice to fill with gas and once for lunch and for potty breaks, but other than that Lou drove, however, it was a nice day to drive. It was cloudy for the most of the day with some rain, but the closer we got to home the nicer the weather was. The temperature was a constant 65 degrees.

We really did not unpack much when we got here. Steve saw us when we drove up and quickly come down to help us get backed in. We had stopped at the church to unhook the car to make the transition easier. Our yard was a welcome sight. We certainly have to thank Krista and Steve, they had kept the grass cut and everything under control while we were away. We usually have mountains of mail; however, Steve had gathered it daily and Krista had sorted it and sent on what we needed and discarded all of the junk mail, so it was so much easier this year. They even harvested our asparagus and had it prepared for our dinner. Another welcome sight was Michelle at our front door several hours after we were home, our door was her first stop on her way home from college, we had missed her also.

Lou and I were surprised when we saw Krista, as she only has a month to go with her pregnancy and she has lost weight, she knows her baby weighs 7 1/2 pounds and she is seeing her specialist twice weekly now and so far every thing seems stable. Baby still has SVT and must be monitored but we are all hopeful and cautious.

Estee was also glad to be home and she had to make her rounds to make sure everything was under control.

For some reason we do not have a working land line telephone, so we can not telephone anyone, we will have to report the problem and then we can call the rest of the family and let them know we have returned home.

Our next SMART camp out is next weekend, perhaps we will have time to get unpacked in time for that!!!