One Year Ago

Reflecting. That's what I've been doing a lot of lately. I'm reflecting on last January.

January 19, 2014 -
That's the day we walked through this house for the first time. I had been looking at the listing for months. I'd look at the pictures and marvel at the kitchen. I'd look at the fireplace and think how nice that would be, and the large living room and dining room..... I'd think how nice those spaces would  be for our big family. I wondered where the stairs were because that was not shown.

The listing photo

The price dropped and we decided to go see it. Oh, we loved this house as soon as we walked in the door.....I was sure we would! Christy and I loved the kitchen. We loved the beautiful open staircase. This spacious house was exactly what we had been looking for. It was more than we were looking for!

Corey and Christy put in an offer that day and by weeks end we agreed to the counter offer. Then the waiting began for the home inspections to be completed. That was so stressful! Closing finally happened on April 15, 2014. The house was ours!!

I marvel every single day at this blessing. I will never get over it. I love living here. I love living with our son and his wonderful family. It works for us!

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After a dusting of snow last evening, it's looking beautiful out there today.

I love the lacy look of snow on the screens ♥

Oh what a beautiful morning!

Our other blue door.

Love that one too ♥

It's a good day for more cleaning! Loft/kids playroom, here I come! I'm gonna keep on smiling as I continue reflecting on one year ago. God is SO good!

Snow and a Clean House

Monday it Snowed again.

It was a trying day. I do not like driving in snow.. 

Yes, it's pretty.

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Tuesday the sun was shining and I felt like cleaning! That doesn't happen too often....feeling like it, that is. Our house was in dire need. 

Ahh, coffee break!

I also did some decorating. I'll slowly put away the Winter and replace it with Valentine's decorations.

That's what you call a 'mixed bag'......hearts and Christmas :)

I love fresh flowers. It was about a week or so where we didn't have any on the table. One day Zoe asked me where they are...she missed the flowers! We went to BJ's and carefully chose a big bunch of fresh blooms. Some went on the kitchen table and some on the dining room table. They are so pretty!

I didn't like the white candles on the tall after-Christmas sale candle holders.  But I didn't want to buy new ones. What to do..... I looked through the leftover scrapbook paper I had used for different projects (I never scrap-booked in my life).....chose a sheet, cut it in half, folded up one edge to make it the correct size, wrapped it around the candle and taped the long side to make it stay put. I liked the results!

It works for me! I won't be lighting them :)

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It's Wednesday morning. It's a cold and clear day, yeah! I must take Ellen to work this afternoon. Clear is good, very good! More snow tomorrow and maybe again on Sunday. 

Blessings to you this beautiful Wednesday!

A Birthday and a Show

It was time to celebrate the birthday of Ellen's friend Bri. Bri's mom invited all the girls and their moms to Infinito's Pizza then to Lancaster Bible College to see the musical Fiddler on the Roof. 

The gang's all here!

(Minus Terry, Elizabeth's mom.)

The girls.....

Ellen and Nicole

Marissa and Bri

 Sarenah and Elizabeth

Emily with her mom 

Bri blows out the candle while the girls applaud!

Bri opens her gift from Ellen.....

She looks thrilled! It's a wristlet and a Target gift card :)

Aww!

Bri gives the girls a gift....Nicole and Ellen are thrilled to find Reese's PB cups!

Marissa likes the notebook!

Thank you Bri and Marge! We loved celebrating with you!!

We left the pizza place and headed towards LBC to see the musical. 

We are ready to see Fiddler :)

Elizabeth asked me to sit beside her. I was happy to do that. She was really missing her mom....I told her if she wasn't missing her, we would be worried! She giggled :) Love this girl!!

The show was fantastic!! We loved it, we laughed a lot! 

I say it so often but I'm saying again.... I LOVE this group of friends! They are such an answer to prayer...they have no idea. Blessed every time we are together. 

It was a good day!

A Snowy Afternoon

It's snowing. Here's a few pictures after it started around noon today. 

Looking forward to having my coffee out there someday again. 

I guess It won't be today :)

I wanted to take a yardstick out to a patio table before it got dark but I got busy making dinner and forgot! We have at least 3 inches. Hubby said it's not snowing now....it was a fast moving storm. 

I took Ellen to work this afternoon. It was snowing a lot here but as I drove to the east side of Lancaster, they didn't have much at all. It must have just started there and was snowing much more as I headed home. The highway was ok but the 2 lane roads to our house were slick. I don't drive in this kind of weather unless I must. I. Do. Not. Like. It. For most people this amount if snow isn't a big deal. 

After I got back home, Ellen soon let me know they were only cleaning at one store and would be heading back to the Lancaster store......say what?? I called her Dad to encourage him to leave the job site early to go get her. Ellen needed to wait for a little while. At least the store wasn't closing early and she could wait inside.   

Home was a welcome sight tonight!

Everyone is here except Gina. She works the later shift tonight. 

Dinner was good even though I improvised....A Lot!!

Gluten free chicken pie. 

Doesn't look pretty, but as you can see, it was well received :) If you want some, you would wise to show up soon!

Yes, it's pretty out there!

A Greatest Joy

Life can bring many Joys. For me, one of the best is Grandchildren. I'm so blessed to have them close by and can see them daily (Aidan, Zoe) or at least weekly (Paityn, Brinley, Carson). Then there are the big Grands who are all grown up (Andrew, Laurencia). And I cannot forget the sweet Great-grand, Kaden. I don't see him often enough because of distance but FB keeps me in touch.

A few pictures from Sunday -

Silly kids!

Brinley and Zoe love Carson!

Precious!!

Brinley wanted to hold Carson. She only had him on her lap for a few seconds when she wanted to give him back. She said, He's heavy!! She is such a petite little girl and he is such a big baby boy!



I got a new wreath at Boscov's..... Christmas clearance, 75% off  =)

I added a blue bow.

It has white lights that are on a timer...cool!

It works for post-Christmas winter decor.

I took away the Christmas mat and replaced it with a new one.

The sleds will soon go away.

If it wouldn't be such a pain, I'd change out the bows.

Happy Tuesday to you!

Birds and old Photos

Yesterday Gina and I went shopping at the Outlets. It was getting dark when we decided to stop at the mall. The birds that gather in that area at dusk is something straight out of a Hitchcock movie. I'm not kidding. The sky and trees and roofs at the Mall and surrounding area is filled with birds. 

Every dot is a bird. 

My phone could not capture this amazing/eery sight. But I tried!

It's nuts!

On Thursday my sister posted this old picture on Facebook. I think she said it was taken In 1981. Apparently my parents had a Grandchildren sleepover. (I sorta remember it) Our daughter Kim is at the end of the table. It was so much fun to read all the comments from the kids in this picture.... The comments came from all over the USA and the world because that's where these kids now are! 

My Mom is on the right. Only her arms and a bit of her face is showing.  This is the house we just moved from. My Mother passed away in November 1982 and we moved there a month later. Our kitchen looked like that till just a few years ago :)

Here's another picture she posted that day ....

This was a sister weekend in Gloucester MA 1992.  My sister Betty (in the purple jacket) lived there. I'm in that picture but I'm not saying which one I am :) Barb was not on this trip. 

We had such fun times whenever we were together. Wish.... Yes, I do....wish we could do it again. Janet lives in heaven, how we miss her! The rest of us  live such busy lives in 4 different states and it's hard to get away. We do stay in touch thanks to FB and we do have regular family retreat weekends. That's special....but the fun when we sisters get away from it all, is fun unmeasured!!

Old Stuff

It's not a secret, I love old stuff. We had to dispose of lots of old stuff when we moved in May of last year. That was hard to do...getting rid of stuff, not moving to this new house!! Have I said it lately? I love living here!!

I love old crates and boxes. We kept a few....

1. One crate is used to hold old stuff....Fall decor - an old embroidered doilie, Ritz craker tin (filled with coins!), a not so old glass jar coved in basket reeds made by Hubs mother. I decorated the crate for Christmas, now I put that all away and am deciding what to place there again. Fun!
2. Crate used as an end table. Since this picture was taken, I added a small pie tin beside the lamp to hold my coffee/tea cups.
3. Crate used as storage in our small bathroom. The little shelf above the crate is one that I purchased at the thrift store in the nursing home I worked at. I  used it in my office. I love that little shelf!

These photos are part of a file that didn't load correctly. I have been trying to post them for what seems like forever. I still don't understand the problem but I was able to make a collage and am now able to post it. Also part of the file are loads of pretty trees...but I have lots of pictures of pretty colored leaves from our back yard ♥

Bless you this January Saturday!

Pictures

Pictures -

Where are they?? 

Corey put them all on this new computer last evening.

I see them in Picasa but when I want to include some in a blog post,

 I can't find them. 

Sigh ~

 I have some learning to do....

So I tried again.
I found the pictures I just took....

Decorated the mantle for Winter today

I know the candles are not the same.
I have another one like the one on the left....
Somewhere!
It's probably at the same place
 where everything else is
that I haven't found since moving day in May =

Can't wait to ask our computer guy where all the photos are
that aren't showing up.
Hope he knows!

In with the new

Hubby and I decided we would buy something we needed this year as a joint Christmas gift. We thought it would be a new mattress.....a King size.....a really good king size.....because we are getting older and have some aches and pains that go with our advancing age ;-)

That purchase is put on hold for now. Dental expenses will do that. A laptop computer was the other item on our wishlist. The desktop is older.....still usable of course, but rather old. I have a smartphone which I use a lot. I have a Samsung tablet too. But, Hubby doesn't have either of those. Having a computer to use as we sit comfortably on our recliners seemed rather appealing!

Christmas month was very busy. Our resident computer guy really didn't have time to help us choose. We didn't have time to look. We were absolutely fine to be gift-less on the Big Day.

Whoo-Hoo.....fast forward to this week. Today, in fact. Corey, our resident computer guy, saw a laptop in a circular that was part of the Sunday News. He thought it would meet our needs and I was thrilled with the price. He went to the store after work today, and I'm using that computer right now! LOVE it!!

We'll have some learning to figure it all out. We'll take our time. How nice to have a resident computer guy to help us =)

Friends

Friends are a blessing! On Thursday I had a friend, whom I haven't seen in about 3 years, over for lunch. Elsie worked on my team at the nursing home where I was the Activity Director. She and I connected beyond a boss/employee relationship right from the start. We both eventually moved on from that job. We got together a few times since then and sorta stayed in touch with email for a while. I guess life got busy, I moved, our email address changed, I forgot to save her email address to our new one. Sadly, we lost touch, though she was often in my thoughts. This past Fall, my SIL went back to work to help out at a job she held previously......met Elsie who works there and in conversation about previous jobs made the connection to me. Through the help of my SIL, Elsie and I re-connected. Oh joy!! We had a delightful time catching up. I told her our visit was food for my soul. Yes it was!

Today was spent with more friends....Ellen's group of friends and their Moms. Nicole was going to celebrate her birthday when we were at the beach last September. Plans changed for her and her mom and they couldn't go. Today we celebrated Nicole at her home. All the girls and all their moms were there. Love this group of friends!!

We ate together. 

The Beach theme carried on all the way to snowy January :) The girls ate lunch on beach towels. 

They played Bingo! (On beach towels)

They choose prizes from the basket. 

Of course Ellen chooses PB cups!

Nicole opens her gifts!

 Her gift from Ellen. 

Sweet friends!

Nicole gave the girls a beach themed gift.

 They loved it! 

Love these precious girls!

Happy Birthday to you!

The girls finished their time together by watching a movie and we moms sat in a circle and made plans for more gatherings. This group of friends blesses me tremendously. 

How I thank God for friends!

P.S. My blog friends are amazing too!!