Busy June 2010

My sister's children and I planned a surprise 60th birthday party for my sister, Jill.


There were about 24 of us. Lots of good food and time with good friends we had not seen in a long time.

This is a picture of Morgan and I, a sweet young lady from our church, whom I have watched grow from an infant to a lovely young lady. She's very special.

My sister doing her best with the candles.

My sister and her very special group of girlfriends.

Jill and her husband, Barry.

From left to right: my daughter, Michelle, me, Lee,Jill,Nigel, Jill's son, in front of Nigel is Brooke, Jill's daughter, next we have Ashley, Jill's daughter and behind her Barry, Jill's husband and on the end my brother, Graham.

For 12 years we have had a red Cabrio convertible. We really wanted to find something a little more versatile since this is our only car. We can actually haul some stuff around in this vehicle. If you've ever seen these hard tops you know the two front panels pop out easily or you can remove the entire top. It's a 2008 and it only had 15,000 miles on it. It's a 6 speed manual transmission and lots of fun to drive.

Jim and Tracy Tull and their grandson, Alex, have been at the Hershey TT campground for the last 3 weeks so we have all spend some time together. Alex loved playing with Nicky.

Jim and Tracy were at the Hershey campground on June 2o, when the tornado touched down in the campground. They along with many others lost their awning. Check out Tracy's pictures of the storm on facebook.

Jim and Tracy will be spending the week of July 2 and the week of July 24 at our place. As a matter of fact they will stay here and dog sit for us the last week of July while our family has a reunion at Myrtle Beach.

Tracy and Alex enjoyed fishing in our pond.

We all went to Gettysburg one day and toured the battle field with an audio self-guided tour.

We had a lovely lunch in the town of Gettysburg. We had battlefield fries and they were awesome. They are cooked in peanut oil and fresh cut. I don't normally care much about French fries but these were delicious.

A few shots taken on the battlefield.

The next big happening in the month of June was my 50th high school reunion. In the collage below are pictures taken at a brunch at the home of Carol Brightbill on the Sunday following the reunion dinner.
My very good friend, Nancy Helms is in the picture at the bottom left hand corner. Nancy just lost her husband in May and did not feel up to the big event but was able to join us at the smaller gathering on Sunday. We were so glad to see her.

What is unique about our class is that the majority of us grew up together. Many of us were together from 1st thru 12th grades.Our class was under 100 and we all knew each other. I loved my high school years and had some really good times to remember.

These pictures were taken the night of the dinner. For those of you who live locally, we had this event at the Sheridan off of Union Deposit Rd. and they did an excellent job. The food was tremendous and they were very helpful.

Two of our high school teachers are featured above. How special that they could join us for the reunion. I'm standing next to my Biology teacher. Above and center is my English teacher. I want to be like them when I grow up!!!

This is a picture of all the class members who were able to attend that night.

Marsha Gerber and I

The week prior to the reunion Lee and I were busy replacing the carpet in this room with tile. It turned out really well. We call this Judy's room. It is loaded with family pictures, all the porcelain dolls I have made and every thing else in the room is beach. I love the ocean. In the far corner sits the elliptical machine which I absolutely love. I have been working out on one of these since they first came out. I started saving to buy one for home about a year ago and Costco had a really good deal on one when we returned from Florida. I hop on that in the morning and it gets everything moving.

We have also been busy helping our eldest son and his family move to Pittsburg, PA. They now live 4 1/2 hours away instead of 40 minutes. I will miss the spontaneous get to gethers we could have when they lived closer. On the bright side---Pittsburg is a fun place to visit.

We have 2 more floors to lay before we are done with our inside projects and then I'd like to do some day trips from here.

May and June at home 2010

It was hard to leave the beautiful sunsets on the Outer Banks and head home. On the way home we did stop on Hatteras Island to visit the Hatteras Island light house with Jim and Tracy Tull. Lee and I had been on the Outer Banks the year they were moving it and it was really something to watch. This is the tallest brick light house in America and moving it made world wide history.

Now that's my size city. Easy to get around in and plenty to do. It was good to get home. We have decided that Pennsylvania is a darn good place to live. Pennsylvania is only second to Florida in senior citizen population. Of course, all those seniors are in Florida for the winter.

Nicky was glad to get home to his big yard and play some Frisbee.

Our neighbor, Donna, is pictured here with the 5 dogs. They have 4 and we have one so it's like dogie kindergarten.

Our first couple of weeks home were spent cleaning up the the yard and outside of the house after a hard and windy winter. I was busy getting the house back in shape and getting the windows and screens cleaned and the flower beds cleaned up and planted.

Lee and I have a small office cleaning business so we are also back to working at that.

We've also been to the eye doctors, dentists, and skin doctors. So we're getting all caught up with medical appointments.

My good friend took Lee and I out to dinner for my birthday. It was a lovely dinner at one of our favorite Italian restaurants.

Above is our eldest daughter, Suzanne, her son, Keenen, and her husband, David. Keenan just graduated from high school on May 27,2010. He will be attending Long Island University in the fall. For Jane's information Keenan was able to get a pretty nice soccer scholarship.
For the next three years in a row we will have one of the grand children grauating from High school.

Our eldest son, David, and family will be moving to Pittsburgh, PA in June. They now live about 40 min. away,this move will make it about 4 hours away for us. I really like Pittsburgh so visiting them will be fun but I'll miss having them close enough that we can just spontaneously do things. In the picture above we are out for a Mexican lunch after packing boxes for the move all morning. Pictured above: Dave, our son, Garrett, Dave's son, Suzanne, our daughter, Hollyn, Suzanne's daughter, Isabella, Dave and Erica's daughter, and Erica, Dave's wife and the greatest daughter-in-law anyone could have.

The gardens are now in order and it's down to maintenance. The humming birds are already coming to the feeders.

The window boxes have not filled out that much yet.

Below are Donna and Davis Perry our next door neighbors. Donna is my good friend who takes care of our mail when we're gone.

Below is a picture of my brother, Graham , and his wife Esmeralda. Graham lives nexr door to us so we spend a lot of time together. It's wonderful to have family so close.

Below is a picture of Lee and I . We are all dressed up for the wedding of the young couple who live on the farm.

Below is a picture of Joslyn and her father as she walks down the aisle.

The ceremony was held outside at Fort Hunter Park along the Susquehanna river and God was good ---no rain.

Joslyn and Mark have been a joy to have around and we have so enjoyed seeing them grow as a couple.

Joslyn was a beautiful bride and Mark a very handsome groom.

Jane, you would have loved this cake. It had a fairy on top and toad stools and acorns and flowers. It was incredible.

Meet Mr. and Mrs. Mark Mckenzie.


Next week I'm busy with a 60th birthday party for my sister and the week after that my 50th high school reunion!!!

Ocracoke, NC 2010

WHAT ON EARTH IS HE THINKING? HE SEEMS SO DEEP IN THOUGHT!!OCRACOKE BEACH WAS VOTED #1 BEACH IN AMERICA SEVERAL YEARS NOW. NOT HARD TO UNDERSTAND WHY IS IT?

During our week here the weather was great and the water was warm, which is unusual for this early in the year. Nicky had several nice days at the beach.

Look at this lone fisherman watching the morning fog roll in.

This troller out in the fog looked awesome too!!

This is one of our favorite roads in Ocracoke. It is called Howard's Lane and there are several nice shoppes down there.

We are still traveling with Jim and Tracy Tull. They have been a lot of fun to travel with and Nicky loves their company.

A picture of mom and Dad for our children so they remember what we look like.

This is on a preserve called Spencer's Point. It is a nice hike through the trees to the water.

THE OCRACOKE LIGHTHOUSE

This is a place on the island called the Jackson flats. There are a lot of lovely homes in this area and it's a nice place to bike or Rollerblade. I was delighted to find out that the National Park service put in a nice 3 1/2 mile bike/Rollerblade trail along the main road.

We will be heading home on Monday and I must say I am anxious to see the children and catch up with each family.