The bright spot in my days!

When Lance was here the other evening, he was interested in my sweeper so I turned it on for him, and he spent quite a while pushing it back and forth, back and forth. I think he would make a good Rainbow representative!




I've never seen a child that likes to work like he does. Tonight he got this brush out of the closet and started working on my floor!

Happy Birthday Valerie!! (a little belated)

From this...my precious newborn

to this!...my precious daughter and friend



I have been very blessed to have you as a daughter Valerie, and it has been a joy to see you grow up and have a family of your own! You have made your daddy and I proud! I love you very, very much, Mom.

Fruits of my labors

On the fourth Sunday of each month, our church has a carry-in dinner, then those that will, go to a nursing home for service from 2-3, then after that, we go to another one from 3-4. I enjoy going, but have been gone or something for the last few months and haven't attended. Anyway, most of Saturday was spent in the kitchen preparing for the dinner. Here's a picture of the desserts I made, though I only took one of each with me.

Company

I forgot to mention that last week, from Tues. to Thurs. I did respite for four children in foster care. There was a girl age 7, a boy 11, a boy 12, and a boy 14. Arthur came over for a while Tues. evening and played ball outside with them, while I fixed supper. They really liked that! I appreciated him taking his time to do it, especially as he had to get up at 2:30 the next morning for work! Kids just love him, they were disappointed he had to leave and were still talking about him the next morning. Wednesday night they went to church with me and were well behaved. They were good kids and I enjoyed having them.

Concert

I found out the Collingsworths, Rex Bullock and Richard Beckham, and some others were going to be in concert Friday night, not to far from St. Louis, so I got tickets and asked Stanley and Zola to go with me. We left around 4:00 and ate in Mid Rivers, before going there. It was a wonderful evening, the music was great and the Lord was there, we were all blessed to be there. We were surprised to see different ones we knew there, and enjoyed visiting with them. We got back to my house at 1:00 a.m.

Another birthday party!

Last night a bunch of us were invited to celebrate Dacia, Colin & Janaes birthday. They are all within a week of each other and so they take one day and celebrate all three. Joanne fixed different Mexican dishes, they were delicious. I missed getting pictures of everyone there, maybe Jo or Dace will have them. After they opened their gifts, some went out and roasted marshmellows at the bonfire. We could have made s'mores, but everyone was too full!

View Album

Get your own

My friend's surprise birthday party.

After getting back from our trip on Monday, I planned to leave Thurs. to go to Independence. That morning I got a call from Justin, saying that Donna's birthday was Sunday and they were having a surprise carry-in dinner for her and would I be able to come. It worked out really well that I could go and it was an enjoyable afternoon! She was totally surprised!

View Album

Get your own

Friday-and the Wedding!

Friday I wanted to rest and just relax, so I told Dacia to take the vehicle for the day. She had her Chiroprator appointment and wanted to see different ones at Penn View. It rained all day. She got back around 5:30, got around and we left for the wedding. It started at 6:30 and we didn't get there with much time to spare. It was a lovely wedding and reception. We got back to our motel around 11:30.

View Album

Get your own

SATURDAY

We got up, got around and drove to Beavertown to pick up some stuff, took some pictures of the area and Dacia showed me a covered bridge.

View Album

Get your own

We then picked up Joe and Martha's wedding presents as they didn't have room and we did. I had made reservations in Indianapolis IN for the night. We got on the highway at 1:30 and made it to the hotel around 11:45. I filled up with gas and paid for a couple nights stay before midnight, we unloaded and hit the sack.

SUNDAY
Sunday morning we went to Frankfort IN for service. I had no idea before leaving home that we would be going there, but making plans for the return trip I looked it up and realized it was close enough to Indianapolis we could go there if we got up and got around, it's about an hour away. We enjoyed the service, and folks were nice and friendly. After the service Sis. Mowery the pastor's wife, asked us down for lunch and we accepted. Another nice lady, whose name escapes me, asked us down also, but we'd already accepted Sis. Mowery's invitation. Their three girls and families were there, plus some other guests, I think around 20 altogether. It was an Excellent meal and we really enjoyed the fellowship and hospitality! We drove back to Indianapolis and three miles from our exit on the freeway, an accident had just occured. Two vehicles were off the road on the right, there was a steep ditch then a line of trees and one vehicle was smashed upside down, and the other was run into the trees, if I remember right. It looked like it was serious, some cars had stopped to help so I figured we weren't needed. We made it back to the hotel and took naps. I called Lucy C. to see what time their church started and they were in Troy! We got the address and Dacia got directions off the internet-but I don't think it was Map Quest. We didn't think we'd know anyone there, but come to find out her second cousin goes to church there! The folks were very friendly and we enjoyed the service.

MONDAY
Monday we got up early-5:30 a.m. We were ready to get home! We were on the road by 7, and had an uneventful drive home, arriving in New Florence around 11:00. Of course we gained an hour somewhere along the way. It was Labor Day, and they were having a cookout and had invited me to stay, so I did! I just thought-why didn't I take some pictures? It was a great meal and I had a great time. I left there around 4:30 and got home around 5:20.

THE END

Our trip-continued

Thursday morning we got up and packed, called for my vehicle and loaded up. We drove to Arlington Cemetery, parked the car, and left at 11:00 on a tour bus for Mt. Vernon. It was most enjoyable but if we had it to do over again, we would have driven ourselves so we would have had more time. We were limited to four hours and that's not enough time. It poured on our way there and sprinkled off and on while we were there, but not bad. We were able to do a lot of our outside walking in the dry.

View Album

Get your own

After getting back to Arlington, we got on the Metro Rail and took it to the Federal Triangle stop, and took off walking for the White House. I think it's after 5:00 by this time and we're already tired and plan on driving back to our hotel in Lewisburg tonight. We also have to get back and get my vehicle before the Cemetery closes at seven, but that shouldn't be a problem. It seemed like we walked a long ways, and when we'd ask we'd be told it was up ahead. Well, we found out we were at the back of the White House but we were too tired to try to walk to the front. We took some pictures and walked back to the MR station, and rode the rails back to Arlington.

View Album

Get your own

As I said before I let Dacia be my navigator, she would pull up where we were going on the computer and copy the directions down. Instead of reversing the directions from our hotel back to Lewisburg, since we were leaving from Arlington Cemetery, she got directions from there. I hadn't eaten but maybe a peach or two for breakfast, and I was glad we were getting a fairly reasonable start. I think we were figuring 3 1/2-4 driving hours, and I was planning on stopping in Frederick, Maryland and eating where we'd stopped before. We left AC at 6:00, had a little difficulty right off with their directions(MapQuest), but finally got lined up with them. We drove, and drove, just going down steets. It seemed odd to me and I remarked it seemed we were going in a big circle and why weren't we on a highway yet? But-we were following the directions!! I have a GPS on my vehicle and I had it on so we could see the streets we were coming up to, but as to setting it, I never have. Billy has always done it for me when I decided to use it. We drove for miles on city streets! After AN HOUR AND 15 MIN.!, Dacia says, "Uh, Aunt Di, we're at the White House!" She points to the GPS screen and sure enough! we were at the White House! We were just sick! We had been on Connecticut St. but it disappeared somewhere and we didn't know where we were. I just kept going, making turns every once in a while. There's really not very many places to just stop and try to figure out anything. We finally stopped at a gas station to get gas. Dacia had been on my laptop but couldn't get connected for any length of time. I got out my atlas but was so bumfuddled, I could hardly think. It was getting dark and starting to sprinkle, I didn't know where we were or hardly where we were going. I just took off again and made the next right, which ended up being Georgetown University. At the guard gate, I just told the woman I was lost. She was very nice and helpful as far as she knew, but she ended up having someone else give us directions. We needed to get on 495 and she told us to go down the hill, turn right, then the next two turns keep left. Ok, did that. Drove and drove. At the second Y, where we turned left, I decided we should have turned right. Turned around, ended back up at the gas station where we'd got gas(there were no other turn around places before that)and retraced the road to the Y, and took the right. Dacia got on the phone with her mom and got GPS downloaded to her cell, we found 495 and got on the highway-I think the time was 8:30. We found out you can't always trust Map Quest!! We did go ahead and stop in Frederick and eat, then got into Lewisburg and our hotel shortly before midnight. That was quite an experience, one I hope I never repeat.

Come On Down To The Farm

You'll want to turn off my music before playing this.

Our trip East

When I got Joe and Martha's wedding invitation, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take my Mom and Dad to Pennsylvania as Mom has been wanting to go there for a long time. On their website it mentioned different sightseeing places that were in the area so I started making plans to go early so we could take in some sightseeing. Mom said she couldn't go as she had to work and didn't want to take off.
I started asking around to see if anyone else wanted to go with me as I didn't want to go by myself. Dacia said she would go as she needed to see her Chiropractor there and had some other unfinished business and also needed to pick up some of Jason's stuff that got left there. SO! Dacia and I left Sunday afternoon, the 24th of August. I had filled up the night before and went to church at Frankfort, IN on the net Sunday morning so I wouldn't use any gas. We left out that evening and drove to her in-laws, Tom and Judy Schwab as they had very graciously said we could stay with them for the night. My computer said I had 34 miles left in the tank when we arrived there, the gauge showed empty. We got in shortly before 11 o'clock. I had a very comfortable bed and slept good. Judy offered to fix breakfast for us the next morning, but we didn't want to take the time-we knew we had a good nine hours at least before arriving at our destination-Lewisburg, PA. Judy also loaned us some story CD's to listen to that we really enjoyed. They are called "Down Gilead Lane" and are put out by CBH Ministeries in Grand Rapids, MI. She had 3 sets, each set consists of 6 CD's. After we finished the 3rd set,we realized that wasn't the end of the story so Dacia had her mom check on the net and we found out there are 10 sets altogether! These are geared for children but she and I both enjoyed them. I had reserved a motel for Monday-Friday as Dacia had her Chiropractor's appointment Wed. afternoon. We got to talking on the way down about what we could do for all those days, and she decided to see if she could change her appointment to Friday so we wouldn't have to stay around there if we didn't want to. She was able to do that, so we started making plans. We got into Lewisburg sometime after 7 o'clock, found our motel and unloaded.

(A note on these slide-shows. You can click 'View album' and look at the slideshow from the website, I think it is better, you can get fullscreen size pictures. Also, you can shut the captions off if they bother you, I know some of them got a little lengthy.)

View Album

Get your own

We were hungry so we drove into town and ate at Perkins. Came back, and went to bed. Tues. morning we got up and finalized our plans-we were going to Washington D.C. for a couple days. Dace got directions off the net, and we took off. She was my navigator. I had wanted to also go to New York to see the Statue of Liberty, but decided we didn't have enough time to do all that. Lo and behold, on the way there we saw the Statue of Liberty! I think it was around Harrisburg, PA.


We also drove through Gettysburg, PA. which brought back a lot of memories of when Daniel and I went there in Oct. of 06. We stopped in Frederick, Maryland and ate, it was about an hour from Washington. We got to our hotel around 4-4:30.

View Album

Get your own

This particular picture is hard to see I know, but it is the best shot I could get. As we were walking back to the hotel from the Metro Rail, we saw on the steps of a church an individual stretched out for the night with covers on, and a very large umbrella covering most of them. They were there every night we went by. You can slightly see their head and their feet.

After unpacking and settling in, we got directions to the Metro Rail and Arlington Cemetery. I'd never rode the Metro Rail or subway before, it was quite an experience! Dacia had been to Washington D.C. before with a group from Penn View so knew more about what to do than I did. She got a MR map and figured out the trains we needed to take and all. I was totally confused so I was happy for her to navigate again for me. We got to Arlington sometime around 5 I think, and got a Tour Tram to take us around. They close at 7:00, we had just finished our tour at closing time. We went back to the hotel, ate, and went to bed.

View Album

Get your own

Wednesday we went to the Holocaust Museum. I don't have words to describe what I saw. It was hard to grasp the reality of it even as you watched it. There are screens everywhere with actual footage of Hitler and his regime and the many atrocities that were committed; it will tear your heart out. You were not allowed to take any photographs. We left there after 3:00 and went to the International Spy Museum. It was quite interesting, but they close at 7:00 and we didn't have time to finish seeing everything before we had to leave. We went back to the hotel, ate, and fell into bed exhausted.

I will try to detail the rest of the week and the big wedding with all the pictures soon!

Last night at Grandma's

Have you ever seen anything more precious?


He grabbed a Kleenex out of the box-he had to blow his nose!


Taking a gander at Grandma's dark, scarry hall with all the animal heads on the wall. You don't want to get too close!


Kissing the sweet baby doll.


Riding off to nowhere-he likes his pony!
I'm going to have to get him one on springs, he's about outgrown this one!

Catching Up

I've got lots of pictures to put on and things to tell you-I'm working on it. I don't know where the time goes.
In the meantime, I missed wishing my Mother a Happy Birthday on Aug. 21st. Well actually I did, just not publicly. Love you very much Mom!!