Full Circle Anniversary

 For our 22nd anniversary we went back to where we began: the chapel where we were married and then the site of our wedding reception -- Tara. Life comes full circle sometimes.

(And since circle is the theme, we've been married 22 years and we knew each other for 7 before that, and 22 / 7 is pi, so there's that....)

Janna comes to visit

 One of Pete's former students, a young woman we've kept in touch with over the years, drove all the way up from Raleigh to visit us for the weekend - we were so honored!

She is a big world traveler so we weren't sure we would have much to offer her, but she said she just wanted to enjoy life in a small town, so that we did.

We introduced her to Amish donuts (donuts is her jam), went to the orchard and the park, walked around town and the college, and went to Keystone Safari.  Good ol' small town fun!

Some of the reasons I'm gaining weight these days

 

First Trip to Emmett's

 Ever since we moved here we've been hearing about the local apple orchard, but it's only open in September and October, so we had a while to wait before checking it out.  At last we had an opportunity to go over and check it out -- and we brought the Clarks with us.

Such a peaceful and beautiful place!

This was just he first of many, many trips to the orchard!

Bunnies on Broad Street

 While the Clarks were here I finally got the opportunity to get out our copy of "Bunnies on Broad," a book that a local has written about the little bunny statutes that are all over town.  I read it to the kids and then we went out on a hunt to find all of the little sculptures.  

Afterwards I took them to the chocolate shop for a little treat.  I told them to wait outside until I found out if they could come in without masks on.... 

They waited patiently until the owner told them they could come in, and then they were like, well, kids in a candy store.  :)

Fun afternoon!

The Clarks Come For a Visit!

 We finally had a break in the Covid restrictions so that the Clarks could travel up to see us.  We had SUCH a fun time  -- but it would be impossible not to with 6 super-enthusiastic Clarks.  They loooove everything!

Some of the highlights ended up surrounding food -- Amish donuts, Dunkin Donuts, Subway sandwiches, and regular meals here. But we did get out and do a few other non-food things, like hiking at Wolf Creek Narrows, playing around on the campus, walking through town, and even going to a church service.  (This have been few and far between these days, so it was a real treat to get together with other believers for worship.)

One night as we walked through the college we came across a "Creeking," which looked and sounded more ominous than it ever is, of course.  We explained to the kids that one of the male students must have gotten engaged because now his friends were carrying him down to throw him in the creek.  I don't think it deterred our boys from ever wanting to get engaged... good thing it's only done for the guys, though.

We all had a great time together and look forward to them coming back -- or moving here -- soon!

Conversations with middle school boys

Conversations with my boys as I picked each up after their first day of classes (outside the home -- at "real" schools)....

Picking up the first boy:

Me:  Hi!!  So how was it?

Boy: It was good! 

Me:  Did you --

Boy: It turns out it's in this huge room and we all have to sit where there are dots and it took me a little while to find a dot and we all get computers and I'm not sure if we'll have homework on them and the class sounds really fun because we have to come up with these inventions and the teachers are co-teaching it, there are two of them.

Me:  Wow, well is there --

Boy: And I forgot to tell you that there's this competition at the end and they used to work in groups but since of Covid we're just going to work on our own so it will mean more work but I think I will like it because I like coming up with ideas and then we have to present about them and I like doing presentations and they coach you on how to do the marketing so that will be fun, right? Oh, and I have to get my email address figured out so I can get my password so I can login to my computer, do you know how to get that? I talked to the lady in the office and she gave me this piece of paper but I don't think it has everything I need so we need to talk to someone.  Oh, and before my next class do you think you can talk to Dad about getting gas for the mower so I can mow on Thursday?

Me: Um.... yeah.

Picking up the second boy:

Me: Hi!! So how was it?

Boy: Fine.

Me: Did you learn anything?

Boy: I guess.

Me: Who was the teacher?  How many kids are in the class?

Boy:  Mom!  Why do you have to ask me so many questions???!  It was a class, I learned stuff, and it was fine!

*****

The funny thing is that these conversations could easily have been reversed, as the second boy is usually much more verbose and the first can sometimes be moody.

That's the thing about middle school boys-- you never are quite sure what to expect!