I have worked hard at keeping this day somewhat quiet and unexcitable. I worked in Jeannette, then went to the chiropractor, then to Greensburg. Rege told me about the surprise birthday party their kids hosted for his wife’s birthday, and I told him about the baby shower.

Rege did switch me out cars. The Altima rides and drives very smoothly and has plenty of room. It’s a little tight in the garage but nothing I can’t deal with. I’m always eternally grateful for having these cars provided, so it’s exciting every time I get a different vehicle!

After lunch of home-grown green beans and Smicksburg corn I started laundry and did a few things inside. My neighbor has a few showings on her house this afternoon so the dogs are in my yard. They think they should be able to come inside. I don’t! Milo misses Dottie when she leaves. He can’t stand the separation. He sits at the fence and watches for her. Phoenix sits at the door and watches me type!

I noticed that the sky was dark and cloudy. No rain yet. The side gardens are doing ok. No weeds to speak of and a few late-blooming flowers.

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW August 29th is:

National Lemon Juice Day; According to Hoyle Day (???); National Chop Suey Day; National Sport Sampling Day; International Day against Nuclear Tests.

Aren’t you supposed to wash your face with lemon juice to get rid of freckles? I don’t have freckles. I think I will make potato soup tomorrow. Just a though. God bless….

Today was a big day – lots going on! Kelly and I went to Sunday School for the debut performance of Max (age 6) teaching the Sunday School lesson. He did a great job! He had rehearsed for 3 days (so he confided) and his Mom helped him by holding up the story pictures for each part of the lesson. His attention to detail was amazing, and he told a flawless story about the shepherd boy David and his determination to slay the giant Goliath. “The battle is the Lord’s!”

After class I was asking the kids if they learned anything new from the lesson today. Gracie said she learned that no matter how small or young you are you can accomplish great things for God.

Mary and I gave Max a teaching appreciation certificate that he can take home and put in his Happy Days box, so he’ll always remember the first time he taught a Bible lesson and that he can overcome being nervous to do what God wants him to do. Great job, Maxwell!

After Sunday school, Kelly and I zoomed home and picked up the favors for the shower and headed to Lakeview. Wasn’t I just there last night?

We spent the next hour helping decorate – and that was a chore. A labor of love (no pun intended, and no she did NOT go into labor!). Jen had purchased so many items that we covered every inch of that place. If there were 200 balloons I wouldn’t be surprised. Cookies, a cake, bunches of games, tablecloths, centerpieces, photo ops, gift table, favor table, alphabet blocks — wow. Beautiful!

Perfect setting for photo ops:

Autmn and Noah received so many amazing and thoughtful gifts for that little baby. I think my two favorites were the John Deere bouncy-seat/rider and the owl night light that would show stars through the to onto the ceiling. I want one!

The food was great, the cake delicious, the games cute, seeing people I hadn’t seen in YEARS — all delightful! And Autmn and Noah couldn’t have been sweeter or more appreciative. They were excited over each and every gift, large or small. Thanks to everyone who came or sent gifts and/or cards. Autmn’s friend Alex bought her a bookcase for all the new books that were received, so I have a feeling that Noah will be putting together the bookcase this evening!

Kelly had a picture of their friend Kenzie pushing Peyton around on a dolly. The first picture was taken 8 years ago – they were 9 years old. They recreated the picture today at age 17! That’s a long friendship, and friends are always fun. So glad they could laugh together!

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW August 28th is:

National Thoughtful Day; International Read Comics in Public Day; National Red Wine Day; National Bow Tie Day; National Power Rangers Day; Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day; National Cherry Turnover day.

I will remember when Tazz went over the Rainbow Bridge, and be thoughtful. But I won’t wear a Bow Tie! Have a happy day and God bless…

The cricket is still chirping up a storm. I offered Chase $10 to catch it and put it outside. He doesn’t seem interested. Anyway, I changed and washed sheets this morning, then after breakfast I cut the grass. It was very warm, even at 10am, and no breeze. I was soaked by the time I came inside. I got a shower, dressed, and went to the store for a few grocery items.

THIS JUST IN! Chase found and caught the cricket and put him outside. So now I’m out $10 but free of that annoying cricket! Chase is actually hoping I get another one – he could use another $10!

Kelly, Logan and Chase got here right after I pulled in. I organized my car for tomorrow, and Kelly put the tags on the pretzel favors. I left about 5:15pm to go to my class reunion.

This reunion – our 55th (class of 1968) – was very much different than the other ones. We all seemed a little more laid back and everything took much longer to accomplish! It seemed like we stood forever trying to get a group photo, and it was surprising the number of people who did not respond when their numbers were called for the raffle. Wherever could they have gone?

We had a recording of the Hempfield Band playing the Alma Mater – but it kept skipping and stopping and starting over. So we ditched the music and sang without the band. And only about a dozen people stood up. Why didn’t everyone; because they couldn’t?? I don’t think so. They just didn’t.

Diane and I did not stay for the music – although T-bird was spinning oldies. Most people were just talking anyway. So we snuck out about 8:30! WE are the oldies! We took pictures in the Gazebo before we left.

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW August 27th is:

National Peach Day; National Pots De Creme Day; World Rock Paper Scissors Day; National Cinema Day; National Just Because day.

Tomorrow is Autmn and Noah’s baby shower for little almost-here Cameron James! It’s also the day that Max teaches our Sunday School class. Big day ahead. Have a great week (Just because!) and God bless…

Four months till Christmas day. I’m not at all ready to deal with that (although I do love Christmas!). Today is my cousin Anita’s birthday. Happy birthday Anita — where are you and Perry traveling to NEXT???

It’s pitch black outside (9pm) and Scott is mowing Dottie’s yard. The FOR SALE sign went up this morning, so the house is officially on the market. If you know anyone who is looking for a house, it’s a very nice 3 bedroom/3 full bathroom/3 car garage. The down side is you’d be living next to me! 🙂

It was cool enough to go for a short walk tonight – probably about a mile and a third. Here are some photos from my walk:

I’m sitting here typing and I hear crickets. I know they are outside – except one sounds like it’s in the laundry room. If it jumps at me I’ll probably faint!

Jen and I were talking about RSVP’s for the shower. No one does that anymore! She said next time she was going to add this post script to the invitation:

I was outside a few times this evening and I could hear the Hempfield Band practicing, then again later when the football game started. Also could hear the announcers but not clear enough to know what was going on. Hopefully the Spartans win!

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW August 26th is:

National Women’s Equality Day; National Cherry Popsicle Day; National Webmistress Day; National Dog Day.

Tomorrow is Hempfield Class of 1968 reunion – 55 years. CAN’T be that long! But it IS worth celebrating! God bless…

I worked both stores this morning then ran some errands. You would think I would have tons to write about. Hmmmm.

I stayed in Jeannette a little extra and watched the phones so Sir Regis could run out to grab food. It’s hard when the guys are there by themselves all day so it wasn’t a problem! I sent a ‘happy day’ txt to Chrissy as it was her last first day of school! Senior year!

Joe and I were looking for a form retention sheet and neither of us could find it in our files. So I brought my reference manual home and am going to update it and clean it out. I also rearranged some files that were overflowing.

My friend Kathy from Craftique Corner had called me about flicker bulbs that I was looking for – they got them in! So I stopped there after I left Pinnacle/Greensburg and picked up a few.

From there I went to Barnes & Noble. I wanted to get Cameron A CHILD’S GARDEN OF VERSES by Robert Lewis Stevenson for his library. Can you believe that neither of the clerks had ever heard of the book? The one girl asked me if it was like Bible stories (because of VERSES)! We looked where it was supposed to be but it wasn’t there so apparently they don’t carry it! Just because it was published in like 1885 doesn’t mean it should be out of print! I came home and ordered it on Amazon and it will be here on Saturday.

My next stop was the mall – I needed a cake of scented soap, which I always buy at Barbara Ann’s. I bought Sunflower scented. I had coupons for Bath and Body Works, where I purchased a fall foam hand soap, and a cake of soap called Into the Night. I had a coupon for a free body product so I bought Into the Night shower gel. It ended up to be a pretty good bargain.

Last stop was the Dollar Tree, where I purchased a few cards and some hand soap for Pinnacle’s restrooms. They keep running out! So that took me up to about 2pm, at which point I came home and ate the leftover grilled cheese sandwich for lunch. Now I have lots of time to get in trouble for the rest of the day!

I took a walk around the yard. Flower pictures!

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW August 25th is:

National Whiskey Sour Day; National Kiss And Make Up Day; National Second Hand Wardrobe Day; National Park Service Founders Day; National Banana Split Day.

For me tomorrow is stay home and clean day! That’s a good plan! Have a happy weekend and God bless…

TODAY would have been my Dad’s birthday. He would have been 95. I cannot picture my father at that age. He was so full of life and fun and ideas and friends! Happy birthday Dad – I know you’re still wheelin’ and dealin’!

I woke up to a txt message at 7:02am from Ron. He was going to stick around Georgia for a while, stretch his legs after 14 hours of driving on Tuesday, and start out again tomorrow. He didn’t have to be in a hurry.

Chase slept in, but Kelly and I were up and got a shower and had scones for breakfast. She was working on a few projects, and I took time to sew Chase’s shirt, a pair of my pants, and washed a load of clothes. I looked at the weather forecast, and even though it was not supposed to rain, it was supposed to rain! I cut the grass, pulled some weeds, trimmed some branches, and dug out a weird plant that my phone app identified as Stinkwort. Not sure that’s what it was.

All of a sudden, within a very short span, the Azealia by the deck just up and died. The branches turned BLACK and all the leaves shriveled up and fell off. I didn’t have the best saw to cut the whole thing down without some stress on my part so I just cut all the branches off. Really, I could break them off they were so brittle. Not sure what happened.

Kelly and Chase left about 3pm and headed to Pittsburgh. She needed to pick something up for work. She’ll be back up Saturday evening for the shower on Sunday!

I also cleaned out everything in my car and put it in a clothes basket or in the garage. The only thing left to do tonight except supper is a small amount of ironing. Tomorrow I have a few things to do after work for the shower. Friday I will do Wednesday’s cleaning chores.

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW August 24th is:

National Waffle Day; National Peach Pie Day; National Maryland Day.

Maryland is a nice state. I won’t be going there tomorrow – but it’s a nice state. Have a great day and God bless…

TODAY is Dave Bath’s birthday – that is Nate’s life-long friend and business partner in B&B Window Cleaning. He calls me his second Mom! Happy birthday, Dave!

I started the day with sending Ron off at 7:15am, heading back to Florida. He spent the time here mostly with his brother Paul and Paul’s wife Cheryl. It was a nice visit for him, and I was glad to steal a few minutes of his time during his stay. Seems like he had a good visit.

But first I’ll recap yesterday. I left the house at 7:15am and headed to get gas for the car in town, then picked up Ron where he parked his car for the day. We got to the farm a little before 9am and immediately started husking corn – Uncle Clifford had already been out to the garden and filled this tractor cart with dozens of ears.

Nate got there a few minutes later, and we kept busy the rest of the day. We husked, cleaned, boiled, cooled, scraped, froze, bagged, and stacked corn all day.

There was a little break for lunch, at which we had sandwiches, macaroni salad, chips and corn on the cob. Aunt Joan and I cleaned up while the guys headed back out to the rows of corn to get another batch. We set aside a few for those who wanted to take some corn still on the cob home. Then we set to work again. I think we each (Nate and Kathy) ended up with 64 one cup bags of corn to freeze.

We stopped at Donna’s store on the way home and I picked up a cute little SMICKSBURG sign to put with my picture of the farm that I took last week. Ron got some granola and trail/snack mix for his brother and sister-in-law. We dropped that off on the way home, then grabbed a grilled cheese and were done for the day. It was a long but fun and productive day. Mazie agrees!

Today I started at the dentist at about 7:45am, then worked both stores. By the time I got home Kelly and Chase were already here. We grabbed our supplies to work on party favors for Autmn’s shower, then got Chick-Fil-A for lunch (Chase request). Kelly and I spent the afternoon on that project and cleaning up. I also did a load of laundry.

I think I have to turn my car in on Thursday so I spent an hour or more sweeping, wiping, washing, drying, doing windows, and generally cleaning the car. Tomorrow I will put everything from the car into a big basket so it’s easy to transfer over. And that – other than supper – was the last two days!

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW August 23rd is:

National Sponge Cake Day; National Ride the Wind Day; National Cuban Sandwich Day; Black Ribbon Day.

Tomorrow would have been my Dad’s birthday. Happy birthday, Dad! It will also be cut the grass day. God bless!

I wanted to jump on here to say that I’m not going to post the Word Garden this evening! I will post tomorrow later in the day. It’s been a long but very fun day and I have an early start for tomorrow. Happy Tuesday and God Bless…. 🙂

I had a good nights sleep. Several reasons but I was very glad to feel rested and awake this morning!

Church started at Twin Lakes at 10:30am. I was out there a little early and got settled before worship. It was great singing and worshiping in the sunny morning air.

Todd had a message about meals – how they bring us together as a community. How we feel comfortable and encouraged and motivated by breaking bread together.

Then, after the message and communion, we did exactly that – ate lunch together!

The kids were playing games, hide and seek, and catching softballs. Mostly the adults ate and chatted. Betsy brought her new puppy Wilson. It was a nice time to be together.

Once the picnic broke up, I drove over to the other parking lot and met Ron – his church was having their picnic at a pavilion across the lake. We took a walk around the upper lake, and a friend of his from Maplewood church walked with us. Turns out she’s a friend of someone from HCC! We parted ways with Penny at her car then Ron & I said our goodbyes and each headed out. It was a really nice day.

I came home and made macaroni salad for tomorrow’s ‘corn’ trip to the farm, and got the supplies organized. Kathy stopped over and brought me a cute AUTUMN sign and some chili and applesauce. The horses were on the hill. Now I am finishing up typing and will be done for the evening.

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW August 21st is:

National Spumoni Day; National Senior Citizens Day

So tomorrow is Corn at the Farm day! Autmn and Nate, Ron and I. It’s a small crew but we’ll do our best! So I must get moving and sleep quickly! 🙂 God bless…

I had the car packed last night by 11pm, except that I forgot the bunting! But there was so much stuff we didn’t need it. Then this morning I realized at 8am that I hadn’t iced the cinnamon rolls! I mixed up the icing, spread the rolls out on 3 trays, and went to work. I moved fast and got it all done and the kitchen cleaned up before Ron got here. We left about 9:17am and headed to West Alexander.

There were so many people helping set up! Aunt Kimmie and Uncle Greg, Mark and Drew Hancher, Kelly and her friend Jamie, Ma, Matt, Peyton, Logan, Ron and I. Carrie and Leighann came later and by about 1:30 everything was ready. Jamie and Ron basically set up the photo backdrop – I held the balloons! Red White and Blue theme.

Most of us (family) got a picture taken. I was frustrated when I realized that with my WHOLE FAMILY there I should have had a family picture taken! What a perfect opportunity!

There was so much food! And the centerpieces and backdrops and decorations looked wonderful.

We walked down to see the steers. I don’t know which one belonged to Japheth and which to Peyton. They were entirely indifferent to our presence. Most of the kids were either in the pool or the creek. It was a great day for playing in the water. They had outdoor games, too, and there were a lot of young people. It was so good to see so many there! Chrissy found a snail in the creek bed and there were daisies in the fields.

I hadn’t seen Chrissy for about a week – found out she passed her permit test – and Nate said she drove the whole way home down Route I-70! She also got a job at Subway in New Stanton so she’s all set! We headed back to Greensburg about 5:45 after helping clean up. Peyton’s older friends were having an after party down in the field with a bonfire and ‘real’ food. I’m sure they had a great time. It was a lot of work but Kelly did a wonderful job and everything was perfect!

Ron & I enjoyed spending time together in the country and being with family. Thursday night we were with his family; today, with mine. It’s been a great visit.

Scripture:

Quote:

TOMORROW August 20th is:

National Accessible Air Travel Day; World Mosquito Day; National Radio Day; National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day.

Tomorrow is our church picnic at Twin Lakes. It’s been a while since we’ve done that. I hope to enjoy a walk around the lake afterwards! God bless…