Grandma Minnie

This was within the first few years of me meeting Grandma. Nate's Mom is wearing the dress she wore to our wedding. 

Before my time, but oh so precious. 

At Carla's wedding 

Out for dinner with Aunt Ruth and some of the older cousins.  

my baby shower 

 Shortly after we returned from Grenada. Spoiling the children with a whole box of gummies.  It felt so extravagant to me.  A whole box.  She just gave them all they wanted. 

She was super happy this night. She had just started dating Micheal and we could not have been happier for her.  

Oh here they are. So sweet.  

After her stroke. 

They made the trip to see us in Grenada. It meant so much to us that Grandma would come.  They were lucky to arrive on this day because when the plane landed in Barbados or some such island, they got off and headed in to use the bathroom. Left everything on the plane.  Those continuing to Grenada were supposed to stay on the plane. We were so glad to see them.  

 Stuart looked like Grandpa Reuben when he was born.  For the first few days we wished we would have named him Reuben. They were exclaiming, "Oh, I see Pop!" It was darling. 

With Step Grandpa Micheal at Stuart's first birthday party. 

 Bridal shower at Grandma's house. This was the last time we were with Grandpa before he passed away. 

 The very long viewing. 

 Sunday lunch

Nate going over his songs before the Funeral

2 cousins missing... not bad! 

Grandpa Reuben had collected all sizes of shovels before he died. Planning for his grandchildren to use them to shovel dirt on his grave. They were out again. This time, great grands using them. 

So nice to have Jana and Tessa home for the week. 

Stuart taking his turn. 

Last Thursday

Last Thursday.

I realized that Harley should really see the vet for her shots and it should be soon.  So I called vet first thing in the morning. Not open yet. Ok… next up was get children off to school and toddlers dressed for the pool. I decided to try to teach Olive and Henry to swim before the school year is over. I rented my friends indoor pool and had my Mom meet me there. I was glad it worked for Mom to come as Hank was not scared to jump in the pool but he would just freeze instead of kicking and keeping himself above water. I had to resort to putting floaties on his arms as well.  His swimming lesson felt like a fail. Oh well, he is still 2. Olive did much better than I expected. I was back home by 9:30 and I gave the children snacks… 

then I called the vet again where I miraculously got an appointment for that day at noon.  I despise taking the dogs to the vet. It’s my fault. I did not train them to act better out in public. I called Nate just to make sure that he couldn’t make it home for the noon appointment and to also make sure it wasn’t terrible to take our dear Harley to the vet without a bath. I know what I’ll do, I’ll brush the dog. That seemed to help. Harley loved it she was rolling onto her back asking for more. I got the children dressed, combed my wet hair, found the leash, switched one of the car seats in the station wagon, made sure the station wagon had gas, got the toddlers strapped into the station wagon. Put my credit card in my skirt pocket so I would not have to dig for that with my crazy dog on her leash at the check out counter. This was a production!  When I opened the back door for Harley I realized she was not able to jump in. She had put on too much weight.  I left her in at the backseat where she went stumbling across Olive’s legs and I had to smack her butt lovingly to get her to jump up over into the back section. We were on our way,  it was drizzling. Did I mention that Hank had diarrhea. I was changing him pretty regular. Harley was dripping blood as she’s in heat. We got to the appointment early enough to just chill. I wasn’t going to go in until the last minute. We watched the shoppers at Hornings. 

My untrained dog.

I mean, Harley just goes nuts… sniffing the flower bed, straining at the leash. There was a lady sitting on each end of the waiting room with a dog. The side that I chose had a very lovely weimaraner who was perched on one of the chairs beside it’s master.  I was on the floor hugging Harley’s head. This was a new low for me as I’ve never been in the waiting room with other dogs. I spoke soothing words to my pet and occasionally she would obey me and lay down. Hyperventilating all the time.

My children were pretty much on automatic and thankfully they were doing ok. Until Hank found the X ray reader light switch. On and Off it went. Time and time again. I must say the staff was unbelievably kind. Harley was deemed to be healthy and she is now up to date on all of her shots.

Back to the parking lot we went. I left Harley in first this time… that seemed to work better. Everyone was strapped in and when I tried to leave the wagon wouldn’t start. No. no, no no no nononono…..
Called Nate. Voicemail. Saw he was in Palmyra so no help. Called Dad. He was on the road almost home and he said he’d gladly come to rescue me… Did I have jumper cables? I said no. He had to go home and find his. We both felt puzzled that I had a dead battery for no reason but I knew the battery is pretty weak. While waiting on Dad realized I had left my lights on. So I’m really feeling like a hero.
By now people are coming out of office with their dogs.  People that I had just shared the waiting room with and there I sit with 2 children and a dog in a pitiful looking station wagon, windows down.   There was some shame. Fed children a Lara bar. Olive didn’t like it.  She is the only one in the family that does not love coconut. She was freaking out about why we weren’t leaving so we were watching the road for Grandpa when I saw Dad drive past. He forgot where he was going because he was thinking to himself, “This is almost the whole way in Myerstown” so he was mindlessly driving the whole way to Myerstown. He saved the day though. Second time now that he rescued us in the wagon.

Got home, fed Olive, she was crazy for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and I wasn’t arguing. She only wanted a quarter. Around this time she discovered she had FART POOP. She was in the bathroom exclaiming loudly about this. (I’m so sorry, it’s what she calls it).  She was now down for the count in the flu department. And yes I thanked the Lord that she did not have an experience while we waited in the parking lot with a dead battery and all of that.

Nap time
School children came home.
Headed to Dutch way for milk and a few groceries.
Hank screamed most of the way there.
At the checkout I did not have my Dutch Way card on me so I asked if I could punch my phone number in the keypad. The lady told me that it would be faster for me to tell her my number and then she made a mistake and I had to repeat it. Immediately following this I heard the customer in the check out to my back use my number. My cashier looked at me and said, “Did that guy just use your number?” to which I replied, yeah...?  Then I had to follow him out of the store, he never said anything... guess he figured he'd get some deals, I don't know it was strange. 

Ran the 3 oldest to piano.

Went to bank. 

Olive flipped out when I asked for two lollipops she was screaming in the back that she did not want a lollipop (definitely not feeling well).
Teller told me to have a good day, she was overly friendly, trying to make up for the long wait perhaps. Nothing. She forgot to send the canister back.
Brought the groceries and toddlers home. I wanted to go for a bike ride because the weather was beautiful but I was too busy with my children and their bathroom and feverish needs. So I got supper started.... went back to piano lessons to pick up the children.
Nate was soon home to tell me that....
Whoops, I did have jumpers in the station wagon.


Sorry Dad.

Teenager

Being the oldest in a family is tough. I know. Here she is making us the parents of a teenager.  

Nate's Aunt Eva had us for a snowman party. 

While helping to houseclean the cabin. 

Went to visit these guys and the newest cutest nephew. 

Make sure you get to Sight and Sound this year to see "Jesus" it was so good. We gave the girls tickets for Christmas. 

These 4 all had the flu at the same time. 

Sketchy Pants

Happy Birthday Nate. He got socks and a big stack of combs. He hates when there are no combs in the bathroom. 

Instagram Photographer from Grenada that I follow.

My friend Becky has skills. So in love with this sketchy watercolor she did. 

Check out her Etsy Shop.

 Sheri sent this to Nate on his birthday. Said she has always looked up to him. 

My Mom's group had a play date at a gymnastics gym.  Super fun. An hour was kind of short. 

Have I mentioned before the time that we lived in Grenada and I sent Nate to the store to get a "green vegetable" for supper. I was cooking for the staff that night. He brought back some icy, frozen brussels sprouts. His Mother made them, fresh ones I believe, at holidays and she still does. I seriously think of this every time though. That horror of a bag of frozen sprouts. I bought these myself.  Fresh ones from Aldi. Roasted in the oven.

I went with some of these during the big game and Nate looked at me suspiciously a few times. When I said, "Unbelievable" Nate thought I was quoting his Dad. When I said, "You only had one job" Nate wasn't sure what I was quoting.... so I wasn't exactly pulling it off... but I had missed the memo on the bottom where it mentions walking away.  That would have helped. I was pretty nervous to use "They have to establish their running game" as I was pretty sure they had... I was on a roll though and it was the last one I had to use... so when the got the ball again in the 4th quarter I said it and Nate said, "they do have a running game" to which I replied, yeah, I thought so. 

There was a day last week when Nate took the van to Schafferstown to use their new car wash. He was going to put gas in it as well. I got a call at 4PM just shortly after he had left. He was acting very strange and I was immediately concerned for his health because he was not able to articulate his thoughts in full sentences. (he felt really bad)  It turned out he was all the way in the next town and out of gas and also had forgotten his wallet. He had Mia with him. We were to meet his family for supper at 5.  Because he had Mia with him, I could not leave the kids home alone. So after putting shoes on the kids and myself, rounding up my wallet and his, strapping them into the station wagon... I backed around and realized the wagon was below E. No, no no.  Strapped kids in the pick up truck. This is no small feat. The front seats are a bear and do not flip down and It's very hard to reach into the back.  Actually, I usually have Mia do this for me. The truck had less than a quarter tank but we did make it. So while this was all very frustrating it worked and we made it and maybe we have too many vehicles. It was a shame he had not taken Ellie with him, as just before Nate called me she had  found a $20 bill in her boot that she was wearing. 

The girls played at a school function the other night. Nate and I were not there to see how this went for them, but I had them play for us Sunday morning before church...