Last weekend was really busy. I made a cake on Saturday so we could take it with us on Sunday when we celebrated Andy's mom's birthday. His brother, Dan, had a party for her at his house in PA, so we drove over there after church on Sunday and spent some time there.

When we got home, there was enough daylight left so we thought we'd better mow the lawn before we got more rain. And because of all the rain we've had this summer, the grass is growing like crazy. It was so high that it looks like we could have made hay with all that was cut.

I only worked 4 hours on Monday, then spent the afternoon grocery shopping and making cookies. Andy had a meeting at church that evening, and so did I - separate meetings. I took the cookies along to my meeting - a hit! I had brought them to the last meeting we had and then was nominated to bring them again to this one.

We thought it was going to take all day Tuesday for Andy to finish his sidewalk project. But he received a nice surprise when a couple who like to bike with him brought over their 16 year old son to help him. He had done other brickwork with his dad and was actually very good at making the cuts on the wet saw. So he and Andy were able to finish by 10:30 Tuesday morning.

Zach making cuts

Working together

filling the cracks with sand

Mr. Strong Man

The finished product

After finishing the work in such good time, we decided to spend the rest of the day having fun. So we drove up to see Amy and her family, and took her birthday present with us. I also took the remainder of the cookies along, then left them for Ricky. Mothers-in-law have to make points anyway they can.

Last week when Amy and her kids were down, Joanna seemed to be afraid of Andy and wouldn't go to him and hardly even looked at him. But this time (only a week later), she went to him as soon as she saw him and let him hold her and play with her the whole time.
We went out to eat together before coming back home.

Our solar power installation is progressing. They say they'll have us hooked up tomorrow. I'll post pictures when the panels are up. I'm excited to watch the electric meter run backwards!

Lots coming up:
1. Dawn coming down again on Saturday with Kira?
2. Dinner at church on Sunday
3. Small group at our house Sunday evening
4. Bike ride to the shore on Tuesday? (Andy - not me, I'll need to drive the car down to bring him back)

One last picture: our tomatoes are very prolific. It's amazing how much you can get from one tiny seed. We are enjoying fresh ripe red tomatoes on our salad, and also had a cucumber from our garden tonight, as well.

Happy Birthday, Amiable Amy

28 years ago, Amy entered our family. She brought us lots of joy and happiness through the years. She is fun and fun-loving, friendly and easy going. We love you, Amy. Happy birthday.
She has grown into a beautiful young woman with children of her own now.

Kids Say The Funniest Things

Andy and I were cleaning out some files in the basement file cabinet the other day, and I came across files I kept on each of the girls when they were growing up. So there are swimming lessons certificates, report cards, and other kinds of mementos in those files. I also came across some of their funny sayings that I wrote down, otherwise they would have been lost forever.

I'll start with Amy, the youngest.
She had a few funny words when she was little; she called a Toyota - a coyote. She called a suitcase a soupcase, and I don't know if I can spell how she pronounced a hamburger, but it was something like - hangaber. When she was 5 years old, she told her Aunt Judy: "the moon's a night light for all the dead people."

And then there was an exchange she had with Christy when she was 6 years old:

Christy: "Amy, stop chewing, you sound like a cow!"
Amy: "moo."

Later ~
Christy said again: "Amy, stop chewing, you sound awful."
Amy said: "Christy, we've been over this before."

Then there was Dawn:
When she was 4, she said: "I know what Jesus' other name is ~ God Wallin."
When I asked her to forgive me, she said, "Ok, I will, but just a little."
Dawn & Christy were in the bath tub. Dawn gave a testimony when Christy baptized her: "I just have this friend at preschool and she just helped me praise God and in the Son."
After explaining to Dawn that Grandma and Grandpa Wallin couldn't come see us because they had to pay a $4,500 tax bill, Dawn told her preschool teacher: "Grandma is so sorry she has to pay taxes."

Then there was the time Dawn wrote an encouragement card to Andy and me. Here is what she wrote:

Dear Mom and Dad,
I must say that you probably must have had a hard time raising us. So that's why I am writing this encouragement card to you. Keep going. Keep trying, you won't fail if you try hard enough. And one more thing...can we have ice cream tonight? Please! Signed, your beloved Dawn

I didn't write down anything for Christy, but I well remember one discussion we had when she was 12.She was expressing her opinion that she didn't see why she couldn't drive because she was sure she would be good at it. When I explained to her that she was only 12 and the law said you had to be 17 to drive, she started giving reasons why she could do it: she could reach the gas pedal, etc., etc., etc. I thought, why am I arguing about this. She was persuaded she was ready to drive and I was not going to convince her otherwise.

Another time, Andy and I must have told her she couldn't do something, and we ended up having a heated "discussion" about it. We were not giving in, and finally in frustration, Christy blurted out: "rules are for fools." We all burst out laughing and the ice was broken!

The good old days, right???

In looking through pictures to post, I found this one of the girls in dress up costumes I made for them one year. Captain Hook, Peter Pan & Tinker Bell. Fond memories.

Little Visitors & Sidewalk Progress

We had a little visitor who ventured out with her Mommy last Saturday. Dawn was experiencing some cabin fever because of Tommy working so much and she needing to stay in the house to recuperate and protect Kira from germs. So she invited herself over to our house, arriving around 12:00 noon. It was a delight to have her.We took a 2 mile walk, planned meals for our vacation, and just had fun being together. She stayed for dinner. Can anyone guess what I made for her???

Then yesterday we had some more little visitors. Amy with her 2 kiddos came down. She has a friend who lives in Ohio, but came east to visit with her family for a week. Amy wanted to see her, so she came down yesterday, stayed all afternoon and overnight, then went to visit her friend today. Chase & Joanna are little charmers and fun to have here. Chase loves to be read to and play with all the little cars and trucks I have in the toy box for him. Joanna follows him around and looks cute.

It was such a hot day, so after the kids' naps, we walked over to a neighbor's to swim in their pool. It pays to be nice to your neighbors, especially the ones who have beautiful pools. Chase didn't want to walk, so Andy carried him, plus the pool toys.It's not all play with the kids, though. Andy has been continuing his work on the sidewalk. He got the sand in, then bought the pavers and started laying them. It's going to look nice when completed. Doesn't he do lovely work?!
And our solar power is being installed. Electricians were here last week to dig the trench from the panels to the house. I think the panels will be installed soon.
The liriope is blooming. I was given these plants by my sister. They are doing well where I planted them. Thanks, Toot.

Mother's 81st birthday

Mother was 81 on Saturday - a spry, chipper 81! We, her children, didn't do a very special celebration for her 80th last year, so thought it would be fun to surprise her this year. And she WAS surprised!
I'm sorry the picture is so blurry, but I was so excited, I must have been shaking too much. I got an even better picture of her surprised expression, but unfortunately, it was even blurrier. Grrr.

We treated her to a meal at Moselem Springs Inn in Fleetwood, PA. All of my brothers and sisters were there, all our spouses, and three grandchildren (and 2 of them were with their spouses) and even one great grandchild for a little while.

After the meal was over, my brothers, sisters and I got out our instruments and sang 3 songs about Mother to her. I hope she was blessed by it. Our voices are "old" and not what they used to be. Wendell had made a practice CD so we could practice the songs, but had never played together before yesterday. It went surprisingly well.

Andy and I are not the best at photographing and videographing, but we did capture some moments.

Mother and daughters

Mother and all 5 children

Mother, all 5 children with their wives and husbands

Ok...so Andy videotaped our performance of the 3 songs, I edited them so they would be somewhat fit for publication...our first attempt at anything this technical. I admit I had a little help from Beth Anne. So here is one of them (don't laugh too hard!):


It was really a pleasure to honor our Mother in this way. I hope she was blessed.

More of Kira, Andy's current project & upstairs tenants

Because of Andy being in Maine last week, he hadn't been able to see much of Kira. In fact, he only got to see her in the hospital when she was but a few minutes old. So on Sunday after church, the two of us drove over to spend the afternoon with Dawn and Kira. (Tommy is very busy right now and not around much.) Kira is growing nicely, I could tell by looking at her she had gained some weight. She's even getting a double chin!
On Monday, I worked till noon, then drove over to take Dawn to the OB-GYN for a check up. There was a mix-up, though, and her appointment was actually at a different clinic than the one we went to, so she didn't have her check up after all. Oh well, at least we got out and then had to stop at Starbucks since we were driving right by! Dawn bought me a smoothie, um-yum!

On Tuesday afternoon I went back over, this time to take Dawn and Kira to the pediatrician for Kira's 2 week checkup. She is 2 ounces over her birth weight. I thought she would be. She really looks good - growing nicely. On the way back from that appointment, we happened to drive by another Starbucks, so another smoothie! It's quite rewarding to drive over to spend time taxi-ing Dawn around!

It was so hot and humid yesterday. I was thankful I could clean my house in air conditioned comfort. I was quite productive, in fact, and happy with what I was able to accomplish.

Andy, on the other hand, spent the day outside on his current project - the sidewalk from the front porch to the driveway. He had already dug out where the walkway was going, then yesterday put down the landscape fabric and the sub-base. He also bought the brick pavers, but will be putting those down another day.On Sunday morning, August 2, our upstairs tenant for the summer, Daniel, left to go back to college. We miss having him join us for dinner. His conversations were always stimulating and interesting. On that same Sunday, but in the evening, our niece Sarah, arrived to live upstairs. She will be attending the community college and getting a job. She wanted to be here close to family and has already been spending lots of time with her cousins. They seem to be having a good time together.

So they come and they go. It's never dull around here.

Fishing in Maine

Andy got back last night from a fishing trip to Maine with his dad and brother-in-law, Rich. Rich and Dad left for Maine Thursday a week ago, but Andy couldn't leave that early because of work responsibilities. He flew up on Sunday morning, then came back with them on Thursday.

He said they had great fishing luck, perfect weather and lots of fun. They really enjoyed eating the Salmon and Lake Trout that they caught.
Moosehead Lake is absolutely beautiful and he got some good pictures of the lake.

Hiking to the top of Mt. Kineo.

The view from the top

It was actually good timing for Andy to be away, because I could concentrate on helping Dawn while she was recuperating from having her baby. I went over on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons and stayed to make dinner and clean up. What fun! That little Kira is a darling. Here are some more pictures of our 8th grandchild.

4 generations

Beautiful Baby

Babies are the Best

One of the best things in all of life has to be holding a new born baby. I've been in the next best thing to heaven the last couple of days. On Sunday after church, I drove over to D & T's to visit and hold my new grandchild. My mother, her great grandma, was also there. Tommy's mom and stepdad stopped in, too. No one stayed really long, and I stayed long enough to make supper for them.

Kira yawns.

On Monday morning, I went to work for about 2 hours, then took off again for another day with little Miss Precious! Dawn is looking better and better every day. We even went for a little walk yesterday for some exercise and to get Kira out in the fresh air. It was a beautiful day. I made dinner again for the family, barbeque chicken pizza and a fresh salad. I had to hurry on out as soon as dinner was over because I had a meeting at the church at 7:00. Unfortunately, I ran into traffic on the way home and got to the meeting 20 minutes late. Oh well, what's more important: holding your grandchild or going to a meeting???? Duh!
This morning I had my yearly dentist appointment, then I hurried on over to spend time with Dawn and the baby again. We took another walk and I made dinner again (baked ziti). I hung around long enough to hope the traffic wouldn't be a problem and got home around 8:00.

I don't have my camera because Andy has it in Maine. Hopefully, he is taking some good pictures and is not dropping it in the river. He is fishing with his dad and brother-in-law - some father/son time.

I persuaded Tommy to send me some pictures that Dawn took with her camera today. What a sweet baby she is. She sleeps and eats and messes her diapers. She rarely cries and seems to be very alert to her surroundings when she is awake. Dawn was reading to her from a Bible story book she was given, and also sang to her at one point to wake her up. She is a very good mommy!

Eyes open - kind of!

I like this picture. She was all curled up like this in the fetal position on my lap this afternoon for about a 3 hour nap. It was so fun just sitting there watching her little expressions and hearing her little sounds from time to time. Sigh! Do I have to go back to work tomorrow?

Someone made this bib for Kira before they checked on the spelling of her name. But isn't it cute!