Another Birthday to Celebrate

Another little person had a birthday last week and she turned 7 this year.  It was finally her turn to spend an overnight with Grammy and PopPop. Amy brought Joanna down on Monday afternoon (saving us a trip up). For some reason, the kids really like to watch movies at our house. And I have been collecting them over the years. I actually still have some videos from when our kids were little: some I had bought for the VCR and some we taped off the tv when we subscribed to the Disney channel (a very long time ago!).

We had never had Joanna by herself so it was fun to have her. She had made a list of things she wanted to do while here. The list was pictures because she doesn't spell yet. Of course, movies was on the list, but so were reading stories, baking a cake, eating ice cream and playing games. 

After dinner we got cozy on the couch to watch the movie she picked out.

"Grammy, don't take my picture!"

It was very hot on Tuesday so we didn't spend a lot of time outside except for a walk to the pond and back. Then after lunch, we all went over to Dawn's so Joanna could play with Kira for a while.

 

  

Too soon it was time to head on back to Lancaster County, returning Joanna to her family. Amy served us a delicious dinner, then Joanna opened her presents. She had waited somewhat patiently all day to find out what was inside the wrappings.

In my reading of Second Forgetting by Dr. Benjamin Mast, I picked up some helpful hints. There is a chapter in Dr. Mast's book on getting people with memory issues to talk about their memories. Usually, short term memory is the first thing that is affected in Alzheimer's but long term memory is much more available to the person. 

One of the things that makes Andy anxious is long drives on the turnpike. So I got the idea (actually, I think the Lord gave me the idea) to take along cd's of Andy and me singing. Years ago I had gone through archived church services and pulled off tapes where Andy and I were singing and had our sound guy make cd's of all our songs. Three cd's with a total of 53 songs. Granted they aren't all duets. There are 3 pieces of Christy playing piano, 1 of a flute solo, several of Dawn and me, and a couple with the whole family. What a trip down memory lane! Also, what a gift that the Lord gave me the opportunity to have this done. It was a treat to listen to them together - it made the trip a lot less stressful as we sang along and reminisced. We cringed at mistakes (they certainly weren't professionally done!) and were blessed by the messages of the songs. 

This was a big success for our trip to Berks County yesterday to spend the July 4th holiday with my brothers and sisters. It's a long trip with a 2 hour ride one way. We stayed long enough to eat lunch and talk to everyone. All my brothers, sisters, their spouses and my mother were there. We hadn't seen them since September. So it was good to catch up and give and receive hugs. We stayed 3 hours, then took the trip back. 

Needless to say, we're pretty tired out today but not stressed! Yeah!

We completed another puzzle. This one was quite challenging and took us about two weeks. 

 I must say I'm enjoying the puzzles and I think they are good brain exercise for Andy. He's a good sport, very patient and tries hard to find the right piece. Finishing is very satisfying.