Susquehannock State Park...

Yesterday afternoon, on a beautiful day, one of my "oldest"  (tee-hee) friends and I took an afternoon excursion to Susquehannock State Park.  It's a beautiful park/overlook close to where I grew up in the southern end of Lancaster County.

Disclaimer...rant ahead...

The "southern end" has lots of gems that people who live in the central or northern end of the county have never been to.  I remember as a teenager, many people would say I lived in the "boondox" or "way down there", so far away.  But they didn't know what they were missing.  Ok, enough of my rant...  :)

A bit of background...the Susquehanna River is the longest river on the east coast, and flows through Pennsylvania, draining into the Chesapeake Bay, and then the Atlantic Ocean.

Looking south, if you enlarge the photo you can see the Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant on the west (right) side of the river...

looking north...

You can see Peach Bottom more clearly on this picture.  There were lots of boaters and jet skiiers enjoying the water yesterday...

We took a short "hike" ...

...to another overlook where we could see the Holtwood Hydroelectric Plant below us.  In the distance to the north is the Norman Wood Bridge, which crosses the river to York County...

The wineberries were beginning to ripen...

My friend Sue and I...

She and I grew up together  and I'm glad we've been able to keep in touch.  She's a rockin' school teacher!  I used to always remind her when we were kids, that I was "older" than her.  A whopping 4 months older, but I was a year ahead of her in school because of when our birthdays fell in the year.  Now I'm reminded that I really am older.  Ha!  Love ya, Sue!

Boxwood Tree 2016...

My friend Brenda and I have a fun tradition...if a couple of years counts as that...of making boxwood trees at Christmas time.

I didn't trim our boxwood bushes again this year (oops!) so we had plenty for cutting and making our trees.  We started with several blocks of wet foam and a dish/vase for a base.  (sorry no pictures of this part...we were having too much fun!!)  We then headed out around the house with our clippers and filled containers with snippets of boxwood.  After about 2 1/2 hours, and numerous trips out to the boxwood bushes, we were finally satisfied with the finished products.

Here's my tree last night after I finished decorating it with some of my favorites from my angel collection.  The tree skirt was a score at our local Ten Thousand Villages store a couple of years ago on after Christmas clearance...

Here are some closeups of a couple of favorite ornaments from my collection.  I don't like to put them on our family tree because some of them are rather small and I don't want them to get lost when we undecorate, and go out with the tree!

I bought this one in Heidelberg Germany in 2006 when I took a trip to visit my sister's family...

This tree topping angel/star ornament came from my sister.  I don't remember for sure, but it might have come from her mother in law in Germany...

This one was my latest find at Ten Thousand Villages.  It's made out of tin cans, and is from Burkina Faso...

This one was also a gift, but I don't remember if it was from Germany, or from an estate sale in Chicago!

This pasta angel caroler was made by another sister...

And this one came from Lancaster Central Market in 2008.  It's not a great picture, with the glare from my flash, but it's a Springerle cookie with an angel...

I have other angel ornaments from various people and places, but these are just a few of the ones that had "stories" behind them that "made" the blog today!

Brenda and I had a fun afternoon, creating and reconnecting since our busy lives have gotten in the way!

A Weekend To Remember...

Oh my.  I'm not sure when I've ever been so tired.  Happy, but exhausted.

This has to go down as one of our busiest weekends on record.

Last month, my Mom turned eighty years old young, and we decided to do something special for her to celebrate.  Mom doesn't like surprise parties, so we asked for her input, and came up with the idea for a ladies' luncheon.

Thursday night and all day Friday were spent preparing for the big event. When Saturday morning rolled around, we were blessed with a gorgeous day.  We held the luncheon at the Pheasant Run Farm Bed & Breakfast, and it was catered by my friend Sue...

Sue worked in the food service industry for many years, and is now a high school social studies teacher.  She put in a full week of teaching, and on top of that, spent a lot of time on top of that making a delicious luncheon menu for us!

Mom thoroughly enjoyed herself!  Here is a picture of Mom and the "milkmaids"...

...but only one of us is still a milkmaid!  :)

After the luncheon was over...and after the evening milking was finished...the whole family gathered at my parents' house for the evening.  There was a lot of laughter...

This is classic Mom, Aunt Alice and Uncle Dave...

I just love when they all get together.  They have so much fun!

So...we got home around 11:00...lost an hour of sleep due to the time change...got up and milked...and were out the door for a friends wedding by 8:30 am.  The wedding was 1 1/2 hours away, but the Sunday morning traffic was light, and we made good time.

Our friend Dawn married Bryan during the Sunday morning Church service where she is a pastor.

Congratulations Bryan and Dawn!

One more picture of "the girls".  We've done this at every wedding, and this is the last one!

One of the girls wasn't able to be there, and we're missing another very special member of the group...our friend Glenda, who passed away in September.  It's at times like this especially, that we think of her and miss her so much!

We pulled in the driveway around 7:00 pm, and I was ready to crawl up the steps to bed.  What a wonderful whirlwind of a weekend.  If we oversleep tomorrow, and you hear the cows bawling to be milked...you'll know why!

Happy New Year 2013!

As I've been reflecting over the past year...and life in general...and reading  Facebook posts about New Years resolutions...and blog posts about the same...I've done some thinking about what is important to me...or more importantly what I want to focus on...

After losing a good friend this summer to a bicycle accident...and more recently watching friends lose loved ones, my thoughts have turned more contemplative.

I want to spend more quality time with family...with friends...and spend time building relationships with the people that I rub shoulders with.

Maybe it's taking time to play a game with the kids in the evening, even though I'm tired...(and always get beat soundly in ping pong)   :)...

Maybe it's learning to know the "new" neighbors who moved in a week or so ago better...the potential is there for our families to become good friends...

Maybe I need to finally have that neighborhood ladies' brunch that's been on my mind for only about 10 years...

Maybe I need to spend more time building my good friendships even deeper....not assuming that they'll always be there...

Maybe...

I'm looking forward to the challenge!

Ecola Reunion Weekend...

I haven't been doing much blogging this week, as we've been busy planning for and hosting a reunion this weekend.

Both Jim and I were students 20+ years ago at Ecola Hall Bible School in beautiful Cannon Beach, Oregon.  This weekend, we had some visitors...friends that we both knew from our respective years (who married each other and live in Oregon) came to the east coast for their family vacation.  They stayed with us for the weekend, and today we hosted a potluck at our house with a bunch of other Ecola alumni who live (or did live) in this area.  The turnout was great...50 people, and the weather held out.  It was hot and muggy, but the thunderstorms that were forecast didn't bother us.

Here's the gang, minus the families...

Most still live in the area, but some came from New Jersey and Virginia to join in the fun.

It sure didn't feel like twenty + years have passed!  We are thankful for the wonderful blessing of friendships!