It seems as though Faron's got projects lined up for around the house just about every weekend.  Of course, the wedding and receptions really bit into that schedule!   But he's catching up, with Jason's much appreciated help.

Tiana took some exams for a new certification at work on Monday and Tuesday,so she needed to cram a bit over the weekend.  Hence, Jason was at a loose-end and available for one of Faron's projects.  Actually, it was fitting that Jason help with this one, since it was at his instigation that it was nagging at Faron to do it.

After the new porch was built and the new set of steps was put in, it became obvious that the old front door and steps had been off-center to the house itself, making the sidewalk and the steps down to the mailbox off-center to the new steps and front doors.  Jason mentioned it to his dad sometime around the wedding and Faron's fussed about it ever since.

This past weekend, they went after the problem.

Jason arrived around 9 am and I was watching a movie so I didn't go out to join them until a bit after 10.  By that time, here's what they had going:

See, the working plan was to dig up the sod on either side of the old sidewalk, and then fill in the space with "screening," a mixture of very fine gravel and sand, after lining the new areas with weed-barrier cloth.  After coming outdoors to watch, I became the cloth cutter.

Here they are, finishing up with the first load of screening.  The place where they get it is only a mile or so down the road so they were happy to do it that way.  Faron's plan was just to put the screening on either side of the walk.  Jason and I didn't like that.  Jason dropped increasingly more stone on the sidewalk, as it happens, and eventually Faron saw the error of his ways.

They had some problems with stones getting caught between the tailgate and the truck itself, so they decided to take it off.

They swept the truck clean, then Faron went off to get more stone while Jason kept smoothing and tamping.

The 2nd load of stones:

Oh - they had to replace the tailgate, of course, before Faron left for more stone.  And take it off again when he returned.

They had seemingly endless patience for taking that thing off, putting it on, taking it off, and back on again. I can think of a dozen tasks (most often ones I've asked him to do) where Faron's patience wouldn't have lasted half so long.  Imagine that!  This is real Man Stuff, I suppose. 

They carried on with their work.

The tamper as Faron had it originally was that blackish bit at the end of the pole Jason's using while his dad rakes.  But it was, as you can see, quite small.  The two MacGuyvers put their heads together and came up with a way to attatch a 10" square of plywood from the jumk wood pile Faron's kept since the house projects began.  A drill bit gave its "life" in the effort to drill holes through that thing, but eventually, they were successful and tamping went off at a great pace!

The entire time they worked, there was a snappy little robin bopping and flitting around, chattering at the men.

She never strayed far from the sidewalk area.  Her route was from the back of one of the rocking chairs on the porch, skimming out under the railing and under the truck, then up on to the mailbox and over to this stump. She quite literally paced the road at the end of the walk, like a copper with  night stick.  I finally said something to the guys about how they were keeping this poor momma from her babies. 

How do you know its a her? 

No hesitation, I answered, "Because she's not bright!"

Darned tootin' she's not bright! 

Here are a couple of photos I took this morning when I got the mail.  Here's the view from the porch:

The dampish white spots are where Faron's poured salt on the weeds to kill them.  The rain, we're told, will make this like cement.  it's fairly firm now, so ceeement would be good.

Here's the view from the mailbox:

We hope to put a kind of edging in along both sides before winter.  We just can't quite agree on which type. 

I think it looks quite nice.  Definitely nicer than the goofy old walk that was cockeyed to the house!

Next weekend, I'm not sure.  Tiana's kicked Jason out for several days in a row while she takes hold of the mess that is their apartment, post wedding gifts.  Much more stuff than space!  I know the guys have plans, but I'm just not sure what they are.

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Happy Birthday, my dearest, bestestest friend in the whole world!

 

She's the one standing up. 

I love you, dear Lois, for reasons too numerous to list exhaustively (and besides, we'd all BE exhausted!) but I'll name a few.

I love that you make me laugh.  We always have so much to talk about, and always, always, I can be sure of at least one good laugh, even in a brief phone call, or even in a chat.  We just understand one another so well, it doesn't take much to set me off.  I'm sure everyone else thinks we're insane (do you think they're right??  Naaaaaaaaaah!)

I love that you make me think.  Often, you see things from just that much of a different perspective that I can't assume you'll endorse my every thought or position.  I need to be able to argue it out with you, or I don't stand a chance of convincing you of my (the right!!) way of seeing things.

I love that we have such a long history - 20, no, nearly 30 years now. Despite the fact that you keep moving further away from us, we've managed to maintain this wonderful friendship for longer than I have with any other friend since my adulthood.  I have other dear friends, of course, and some are just no longer around, but you have been around, and have been deeply in my heart, for a very long time. I like that kind of history.

I love that we share our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  Even more, I love that we share a Reformed perspective.  I know others may wonder why that's important, but I know you know.  I love that. 

I could go on.  For almost everything that we've shared over the years, I could come up with an "I love you," but that'd probably get boring. So, I'll just finish by saying, "I love you, and I thank God for you, over and over and over again!"

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How sweet is that? 

For those of you who don't frequent her blog, I must relate this one story she told.  She says that Derek has gotten into the habit of waking Jared up when he's taking a nap, just to say hi.  When Amy goes to find out what he's doing, Derek says "Shhh!" to her.  What a sweetie! 

I love these guys so much!

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Happy 2nd Birthday, Derek Joseph!

What a joy you are to all who love you!

Sunday, Jason, Tiana & Faron and I drove to see Derek and his family for the day.  It's about a 4 hour drive, and was made much more comfortable by going it J's & T's VW Jetta! 

Derek's remembering us now, right away, without any real "lag time," as before.  So that's great fun. 

He loves mail now, mostly due to "Blue's Clues," and to the fact that when we talk on the phone, he and I sing the "Mail Call," song together. And 'Ma Cindy sends mail at least once a week.  So I got the idea that he needs his own mailbox.  And of course, so did Jared, although he doesn't particularly care...

 

The "room numbers" are their birthdates, and now I'll address mail to them using these numbers, and their personal mail person (Amy) will see that the red flags go up to show they got mail.    The panels on the front are polymer clay.  There has been some discussion about where these will live eventually, but for now, Derek likes playing with his.  They have a nifty pony wall surrounding their basement steps which are in the back entryway.  That may become the future "post office." 

A few photos of the day...

Derek's new thing is to shout, "Cheese!!" when he sees you're about to take his photo.  Thing is, it ends up looking more like a grimace than a smile.  Cracks Joe up. 

It took a few moments for Derek to realize there was already mail in his box, including a pack of stickers, and some other bits and pieces from 'Ma.

We painted the outsides of the mailboxes with chalkboard paint, just to give them some "play-ability."  Jason and Tiana got him a package of this really cool 3-D chalk made by Crayola.  Jason discovered that the letters I'd made with polymer clay, especially the oranges and reds, have 3-D properties.  Derek noticed it as soon as he was shown, but I think it kind of freaked him out.  He didn't put the glasses back on while we were there.

Tiana had really chalked up the mailbox, getting her hands quite chalky in the process.  Here shes checkin' out her 3-D hands, lookin' a bit stoned as she does it.  Haha!

Another "Cheese-grimace," with Daddy trying hard to get him to smile more naturally.  Oh, we all had a try at wearing the 3-D glasses and looking at Derek's overalls, with their orange & yellow lizards. Those colors work quite well, too. 

Jared obligingly slept for more than an hour after we arrived, giving us time to lavish all our attention on the birthday boy.  And even when he got awake, he was just as happy to play on the floor with his "gym." 

Those "boppy" pillows are terrific for getting small babies propped up and comfy on the floor. 

Somewhere along the way, Derek had to see if he qualified as "mail."

When he caught me taking a photo, I got another "Cheese!"

He really was having fun! 

We got a cake (Tiana's favorite, from Wegman's, with buttercream frosting and Bavarian cream filling) and brought it along, since Amy'd already baked a very cute train cake while her parents and two of her sisters were there, and would be doing another this weekend for her other sister's visit. 

He was quite successful at blowing out his candles, although I was at entirely the wrong angle to get a good photo.  I should point out that cake followed a fantastic meal of real Maryland lump crab meat crab cakes, some fancy oven fries and a luscious salad Amy'd found a recipe for.  The crab cakes were beyond delicious, and HUGE!  Nearly filled our whole plates.  We're still talking about them 4 days later.  Soooo good!  So while there was ice cream, most of us (barring Derek) passed on that and settled for a modest piece of cake. 

Joe and Derek, like most daddy's and their sons, have a few rough play things they like to do.  Here is one:

After all the fun, food and being the center of attention, while I was holding Jared, Derek asked for his "B and balala," signaling that he needed some downtime.  He crawled under Jared's little gym thing (which is really just cloth) and fell almost immediately asleep!  I hear he slept for 3 hours, and still slept all night that night.

Jared then got some undivided attention and a bit more time in front of Grandma's camera:

Joe was trying to get him to smile for the camera, but he is much more obliging about blowing raspberries. 

Finally, Joe put him on the floor and they had a "chat."  That got our wee lad smiling!

Both of the babies just light up when they see their daddy.  Both Amy & Joe are terrific parents, and the boys are happy and healthy and Derek, while having the run of the house, isn't at all a brat. We're very proud of them.  And thankful to be their "grandparents." 

Oh, Derek has just learned a new word last week, "Silly," after someone called him, "silly Derek."  Somehow, and I really have no idea how it could be, as calm and sane and rational as I am, Derek has begun calling me "Silly 'Ma."  I've spoken with him on the phone 2 times since we were there on Sunday and he seems to be sticking with it.  I knew he'd work out his own ways to designate all the grandmas in his life!  At least he didn't call me, as my niece Robin called my mother, "Big Gram," which eventually spread to all of my mother's grandchildren.  Mom wasn't all that big, but Robin's other grandmother was very tiny - not even 5' tall.  I'll be happy no matter what he calls me, but "Silly 'Ma" is definitely better than "Big Gram."

All in all we had a wonderful day, and as I said, Derek is such a joy, so much fun, and so bright and learning things faster than we can take note of them.  Every time I talk to him on the phone, he has more and more conversational ability.  And Joe and Amy are shocked constantly with the things he's learning.  Colors, counting, shapes - it's all happening at the speed of light, it seems.  Kids are so much fun!

Things are going well here.  After about 10 days of some of the worst pain I've had in years, Dercum's disease made itself visible in a blob of new tumors on my hip.  I'm very "curvy."     But at least the nasty pain is gone! (For now.)  Faron & Jason are constantly thinking up new projects to be done with the tractor, much to Tiana's amusement.  This weekend, they're widening the front walkway.  Which means they have to remove sod and transport it to some patchy areas down in the field.  With the tractor.  Of course.

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I'm FIFTY - get it?  FIVE OH - years old now - as of Friday.  And there were a variety of celebrations.  Here's the run down, complete with photos of each. 

First, but without photos, but just as appreciated, were the dozens of emails and Facebook messages and forum messages wishing me birthday felicitations.  So much fun to read and respond to - I have so many friends and so much family.  It's wonderful!  I don't need an angel to show me how great my life is - I already know and I'm very very thankful. 

Friday evening was for The Sisters. First, we went to Sam's Club to see Rachel's debut with the Williamsport High School's marching band.  She plays clarinet and is now officially a freshman member of the band.  (Rachel's in high school!!!! Aaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!)  I knew that they were only doing a few songs (she'd practiced here) and that if I was uncomfortable, it would only be for a short time.  Turned out there was a chair brought out Sam's Club employees who were serving hot dogs and drinks to the kids (and selling them to others.)  So I was able to sit where I was able to see Rachel from the side and kind of behind.  Robin and Hazel used my camera to get shots from the front.

That's our Rachel, tall and straight, just about in the center of the photo, with her clarinet.  She's the one with her hair skinned back and with black high-tops. 

She said it went really well - there were only two of the four songs where she wasn't sure about her play - there's a whole new octave she's working with now.  Considering she's only been practicing with them for a month or so, not too bad. 

At rest - the director is speaking. 

This was my view.  It was pouring rain, and I was under the roof part, so I wasn't complaining. 

The video is of the last song, from my view.  "On Wisconsin."  What is cute is watching the heels of the band members, including Rachel - they're already learning how to keep time in preparation for the actual marching.  Just caught my fancy. 

Then we went to Orlando's in Muncy, since we were already in that end of the county.  (Muncy's about 20 miles from us, and that's where the mall and Sam's Club and such are located.) We've tried unsuccessfully to go there for a few birthdays in recent years.  I guess we've had a few Monday birthdays, since they're always closed then!  

We had a very tasty meal (Scampi for me, filet mignon for Kim and Haz) and got giggly over nothing and wonderful desserts.  (Well, Haz and I did.)  Here are the obligatory sister photos:

Good shots of both Hazel and Kim.

I'd had one of Kim where she was making a dopey face, but I'm being a good girl...

And me, with my oh-so-delish-dessert:

Banana cake with chocolate chips, and rich - RICH - chocolate frosting.  Those rosettes on top were like eating a Hershey's Kiss.  And ain't complainin'!

Haz gave me a nice surprise:

It's actually a five and a twenty. 

And Kim got me a very um...well, you be the judge!.. card:

And here's the inside:

That's one birthday wish fulfilled!

Saturday Jason and Tiana took Faron and me to the "Chili Poblano" restaurant (it's not really called that, but it's Tiana's favorite thing and the other Mexican place doesn't have them on the menu.) We had a great meal and a fun time.  Before we left, they gave me this beautiful potted plant for the porch:

Isn't it gorgeous?  It's HUGE!

And then we came back here to eat the apple dumplings they'd gotten Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market downtown.  Warmed up and topped with vanilla bean ice cream.  Mmmmmmm...

(Faron had gotten me a Pepperidge Farm Coconut cake, in lieu of the one I love from Rosencrans that's not available after Memorial Day.  We indulged ourselves with that, just the two of us, whenever we weren't partying with someone else. )

And Sunday afternoon, Robin, Ethan, Rachel, Stacy, Magaly, Zoe, along with the newest family-import, Caitlyn (granddaughter of Dcotor Cooper, whom Hazel cares for, and who was hospitalized on Friday) and Terri, Duke & Darla came with lots of goodies and gifts and we had a lively party on the porch. 

Maggie delivered these beautiful wildflowers that she and Zoe and Caitlyn (along with Stacy,  I'm sure) had picked that afternoon.

Blowing out the representative five candles.  I was to blow out another set on the dessert Robin brought (these were Darla's delish brownies) but Rachel baked a dump cake, and it was fresh out of the oven.  The candles Ethan was shoving into it were melting into nothingness from their wicks having been lit and being shoved into a very hot cake! So that didn't work out so well. And in typical Xanga contrariness, I uploaded a photo of the drooping, flaming candles three times and it was never visible, so, sorry about that.  The look on Ethan's and Rachel's faces as they watch Robin fish out the candles was adorable. 

There's the two desserts - the hot one, sans candles. Both were yummy!

Robin and the kids got me a little book called, "young at heart," by Tom Burns, "keeping a youthful sense of fun."  It's one of those books with pics of various animals and funny captions.  Robin left a sappy note in the front, but then went through and made comments throughout the book where she thought they might apply.  For instance: "Old age is 15 years older than I am." Rob's comment: "See you are old enough to have Jason for a son!" 

She passed it around and had everyone sign a page at least, or make a few pithy comments.  The book is a hoot, and is now priceless. 

Here's Terri lookin' it over for her spots:

And here are the two grandpas on the other end of the porch, rockin' away...

Finally, here's Ethan, getting a drink:

And that's Caitlyn, beside him on the porch, seated.  She's a sweetie. 

Is it necessary for me to add that Ethan would "gleek" those sips of water from the porch roof after he captured them?  And do you need an explanation for "gleeking"?  I do hope not. 

We had a great time.  I am so blessed with friends and family - I know I started with saying that but it's so true and I so appreciated it, Lord! 

Today is cleaning day.  Kelly's here doing her thing.  "Kelly Cleans," is her mantra, although she's learning to cook, "Kelly Cooks," is going to be added.   She just helped me to empty my suitcase, as it's not really something I can do alone. This was my major task for the day, so finally it's done.  Hopefully tomorrow I can get back to the Minnesota trip and document the reception there.

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We went to Minnesota, of course, for the "family and friends of Tiana's family," reception, but we were there for 3 days.    We actually did some touristy stuff, starting with the Runestone Museum, in Alexandria. 

This is a neat little museum, basically a county effort to preserve the history of the Kensington Runestone, a large runestone found near Kensington, MN in the late 19th century, and the fascinating story of not only the Vikings who so incredibly sailed across the Atlantic and through the Great Lakes to Minnesota in the 14th (yes!) century but of the man who, with his children, found the stone on his farm long before the true significance of such finds was understood.  We enjoyed that visit very much.  The museum also preserves the history of the first settlers to the area, with a small church, general store and school, among the several other buildings which have been moved to the site from other locations in the county. 

Faron was excited to see this among the early pieces of farm equipment:

 

Know what it is?  It's a potato digger - a piece of equipment Faron and Peter are going to wish they had once the half-acre of potatoes they put in comes ready!

Also, here's the local's tribute to the Vikings who visited the area so long ago:

We'd planned to snap pics of each of us standing in front of Olie, but by the time we dragged ourselves out of the museum, I was hot and tired and ready to take a nap, and Faron had heard that Fred was home from work, and he could think of nothing but hooking up with him so they could "play," so we contented ourselves with this shot through the car window. 

So, we went up the road and registered at the motel and Faron got directions to Tiana's folks' house, while I got comfy for a nap.  A nice long one!  When I got awake Faron was there to take me back to have dinner with Fred, Alaine, Jason & Tiana, on their beautiful patio.  Lovely evening. Don't know why I didn't take any photos, but I didn't.  But you'll see it all in the account of the reception...

Another entry!

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For the rest of my life, I know that's what I'll think of when I hear the name of Tiana's home state!  Minnesota - at least from our house to the motel where we stayed, is 18.5 hours when driven straight through, as we did on the way out.  That's a lot of riding.  I was made aware of every lump in my backside, including a few I hadn't realized were there before last Thursday! 

All in all though, it wasn't bad.  But we were very happy to see this sign:

 

It was about 6 their time when we saw it.  A few hours more took us through the Twin Cities, and up into the real deal of the  Midwestern prairie country.  We were amazed to see these flashing lights off in the distance, just as it started to get dark.

Ignore the light tracings, although I think they're kinda cool - it's the sky you should notice.  At first, we thought maybe it was airport lights.  Then we thought maybe it was fireworks.  By the time it was full dark, we knew what it was.

But despite several attempts, and really funky tracings from lights on cars and along the road, I never managed to really capture lightning with my camera.  There was cloud to cloud and cloud to ground lightning, but we couldn't hear any thunder.  We drove toward the storm for more than an hour, fascinated the whole time.  I eventually took some video.  We had the radio on, so you'll hear that in the background.  Sorry about that - but focus on the pictures.  We found it so amazing!

The background song to this video is very ironic...

Pretty cool, huh?

We finally made it to Brandon, Minnesota about 12:00 am our time, after leaving home at 5:10 am.  Looooooooooong day.  That's where we had reservations.  Thankfully, we'd driven by a larger town 12 miles before that had many hotels and motels, because when we got to the motel where our reservations were made for Friday and Saturday nights, it was closed.  It wasn't as though we'd been expected.  So we got back on I-94 and went back to "Alec," as it's called and stayed in the first place we tried.  Turned out it was quite a bit more than the place we'd stay up the road a bit, but hey, we were too tired to care!

Next entry, I'll tell you what we did until we could hook up with Jason and Tiana and her family.  And maybe about them, too.

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Kael was up the other day with his Mommy and Grandma, and Hazel came later. We had a good visit.  That kid is so sweet! 

He's also the silliest wee thing!  In this video he WANTS something, and his way of expressing that is so funny!  Stick it out, please.  The kicker is at the end.

We leave for Minnesota on Thursday.  We're very much looking forward to visiting with our new relatives, and getting to know more. 

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My computer is behaving very badly when it gets warm and today's not quite warm enough to have our A/C kick on, I guess.  I keep stopping and fanning the computer every now and then, but I can't do one of my long entries like that! 

Anyway, Amy just posted this on Facebook.

Doesn't Jared look like he must have tied one on last night?  Poor kid.  But I love the photo - too cute!

Maybe it's because I love the boys so much?  Perhaps.  You can't really see it, but Derek has a nasty scrape and bruse on his right cheek, which is actually the combination of injuries from two separate booboos.  Poor little toddler guy!

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Finally, a photo that adequately represents, "Derek the Wonderboy,"....

He was getting ready to get in the pool, of course. 

And don't you think this is demonstration of genius? He's REACHING for a toy!  At 12 weeks!!

Not the greatest of photos, though, so here's the other one she posted:

Looks like he boogered up his nose again with his own fingernails. I think he'd have to have mittens to keep him from doing that. 

It's not even two weeks since I've seen 'em and I miss 'em so much!  I got used to having them around last month.  Hopefully we can go and visit soon.

Cellulitis is nearly all gone, and my foot is healing nicely.  Good thing - we leave for Minnesota 2 weeks from today (Thursday.) 

Thanks for praying!

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