September was full of its own craziness too. Christopher my other son was anxiously waiting to get his drivers license and was scheduled to take his test on the 7th of September. It was a rainy day in fact a unusually rainy day as we noticed the creek up the road had rose very quickly but was still under the bridge, but he didn't care. So we headed to Penn dot and waited patiently for his turn, all the while we heard the news flashes about the heavy rains and the potential flooding. Chris had no choice but to take his test in my huge suburban, and he passed with flying colors! He was so proud of himself and gloated all the way home, that is until we reached that creek again....we were stuck, it was flooded over. We stepped out of the truck to take some pictures and made our way home another route, which was all but covered over too. I'm pretty sure that within minutes of us crossing it was no longer safe for anyone else. It was pretty scary actually. We got home to find several things canceled that evening due to the rain, and then discovered that our yard had a river running through it and over our pool....which no longer looked like a pool but a muddy pond. It caused quite the mess, especially since my husband had just pumped most of the water out and vacuumed it to get it ready to close it. So much for pumping it out. In retrospect that was nothing compared to the thousands of people that suffered for weeks to come. The flooding broke records from back in the 60's. Thousands of people were without a place to live, many lost their homes and everything in it, it was a small isolated Katrina for many. We had planned on leaving for the beach the next day, but it was just to much to see people hurting and think about going away, so we stuck around for a few days to see where we could be used. God plugged us right in. The church was being swamped with calls from every direction, mostly people wanted their basements pumped out...remember that pump we used for the pool well, it burned out helping others to get four and five feet of water out of their homes. So glad we had it.
As it turned out we ended up leaving for the beach on Sunday Night, things had slowed down a bit and we had really needed the vacation, it was a long and busy summer. Plus, some of us were headed down to North Carolina to meet up with Caity and to see Jeffrey graduate from combat training. We enjoyed our time in Ocean City and had fun catching up with our good friend Diane. We also spent an evening with my cousin and her husband who were down for Harley Davidson Week.....crazy week if you've never been. They are a breed of their own, fun, but wild at heart.
Our trip to see Jeffrey was fun; short and sweet but it was so nice to see him one more time before he flew to California for his job training the next few months.
October was just plain too busy. We were working on getting Christopher ready for Peru, between shopping for supplys, proper clothing, and doctors appointments to get all his shots, it was full to the max. I had a couple of weddings a play in November that we were coming down to the wire with lines, costumes, props and sets. Chris left on the 29th and for the next two weeks it would be the quietest it has been in over seventeen years. It was just the girls and Jeff and I. Of course Caity was down at college, Jeff in Cali and Chris in Peru....it was actually kinda lonely. But we got over it.
Novemeber started out quiet due to Chris being away otherwise it was status quo as far as "busy" goes. Saturday the 5th Rebecca and her daddy had a Father/Daughter day through our church. A bunch of dads and their daughters hiked Govener Dick and then came back to the church for a little pampering and the dads making them dinner. It was a sweet day for the two of them for sure. I had a few weddings but certainly the highlight of the month was Thanksgiving. Jeff, Caity and Rebecca ran a 5k race and then Jeff and Chris went to play football at Shenk Park. Jeffrey surprised the guys at the game and finished out the game with them. They all came home and decided to have Jeffrey slip in the door and see if we even notice. I looked at him and thought he was Chris, but thought to myself, boy do you look like your big brother Jeff, when I then realized it was! What a fun day! The next day the kids all took a hike with the dogs and had a blast.
December was a very special month. As always it took me about two weeks to decorate the house, because I like to do something new every year. The transmission went on the suburban and my wonderful hubby decided he was going to fix it himself...that took the rest of the month and part of January. I kept my self in my room wrapping presents when I would get frustrated with that, which caused me to be done before Christmas Eve. I usually wrap all day Christmas Eve. ANYWAY...everyone was home including Jeffrey who got home on the 22nd, what a blessing. We love when Christmas falls on a Sunday too. We all got up had our tea roll for breakfast and headed to church early as we were greeters that day. After church we went to visit Donna, the lady that I care for on Wed. evenings, she is bedridden and paralyzed, we sang to her as usual our wonderful out of tune Christmas Carols then surprised her with a little piano solo from Rachel...it brought her much laughter and believe it or not made her day a little brighter. Thank you Lord. After our performance we headed home. I tortured everyone as usual and made them pose for pictures; why is that so complicated? When that delightful experience was over the kids ran up and changed into their pj's, and planted themselves on the living room floor, anxious to dig into presents. Like always we let the kids exchange with each other, its always fun to see the joy in each of their faces as they give each other their gifts. Lots of hugging going on. After that we had them open their gifts from Jeff and I and then Jeff and I opened the gifts from the kids and from each other. The day really dragged out which we all love!
It was so much fun to have a full dinner table. Rachel's dad and Mick were here for dinner too. The wise cracks were flying and much laughter was had when all was said and done, then we made our way into the living room, after clean up and handed out the stockings, each taking their time to open all the fun morsals and special last little gifts. Rachel then blessed us with almost forty five minutes of Christmas Carols that some of us hummed along too others quietly closes our eyes and took in the beauty of it all. The evening ended with shared stories and a few more wise cracks. All in all it was pretty awesome, thanks Lord!
January started off in a different way then it has for 22 years, we've always spent it together as a family. The girls were at a friends house babysitting and Caity, Jeff and Chris had a party with some of the nicest kids you'd ever want in your home and Jeff and I went to the movies! We saw Sherlock Holmes II, it was wonderful, not only the special date, but the movie. Afterwards we headed home and kept out of site till the kids were all ready to set off fireworks, we joined them for a few snacks and headed to bed. It was a really nice start. Happy New Year!
The month is passing by rather quickly, which is nice as it means we are that much closer to Spring, the days are getting longer and its all going so fast. The Farm Show is always a wonderful reminder of things to come, with all the produce displays. This year Natalie was determined and I mean determined to enter her Snickerdoodles and a Gingerbread house. We worked hard to get all the paper work done for that and the supplies for what she needed. She work hard, and did about 98% of the work, and it paid off as she got first place for her cookies and 3rd place on her Gingerbread house. She was tickled pink when we found that all out! I got an Honorable Mention on my Pineapple upside down cake ! I'm going to enter it in the county fair this summer and see what it can do there. We really enjoy the Farm Show and the special time it is for cousins to come and visit. What a fun tradition.
This year the "extended family Christmas" was at our house on the 14, the last Saturday of the Farm Show...twenty six family member landed here at our house for the day. We had a nice time and enjoyed having a full house.
Jeffrey came home for good on the 19th, its so nice to have him home. I think he will want to go back in about a week, but for now he is enjoying being home. Chris is happy to have him home too, he has missed him dearly, being home with two little girls while the older siblings are away was not fun!
I am looking forward to the year ahead and trusting the Lord for his perfect will...things are brewing.
Now, lets see how long it takes me to blog again.
