Cousin visit

Thursday, March 4th I met Frank and Mabel Brucknack and their daughter Kathy Morgan-Thompson in Pineville and we had a wonderful lunch at Pine Mountain State Park. The Mountain View Restaurant has beautiful views of the mountain tops.

There are bird feeders next to the windows with trees & bushes close by for the birds to perch in. We thought this one might be a purple finch or a redpoll.

Kathy got a lot of nice pictures of the all the birds, they came up close to the windows and filled the branches.

After lunch we all enjoyed a tour of Red Bird Mission given by Tim Crawford that I work with. I had not been on an official tour so even I learned some new things about RBM. We enjoyed a relaxing evening together visiting. Fri Kathy, Mabel and I took a trip to the craft store and then drove up to the Beverly Church, Senior Center, and site of the original campus. It was so good to have family visit and share meals.

Valentines Weekend in TN

After returning from my holiday visit to NY it was back to work Jan 4th and little time off working on the new accounting software system, closing out 2009, board meeting preparations. This winter has been much colder and snowier than is normal. Valentine's weekend I had a wonderful time visiting my friend Patti Fox in Kingsport, TN. Kingsport is only 2 hr from Beverly and I was lucky to get dry roads both ways. I have know Patti since we were children and she lived in NJ and our families visited each other during the summers. Patti is newly retired from her carrier in the air force and bought a home in TN this fall. Patti and I enjoyed dinner out Fri night and then went back to her home to watch the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. We had such a wonderful relaxing Sat morning just hanging out in our PJ's, watching Olympics and catching up. We headed out for some antique shops, a fun hot dog lunch, and getting some things purchased on my shopping list. We went out for dinner and watched some more Olympics. Sun we relaxed again in the morning and then I made us omelets for brunch. Thanks so much to Patti for the very relaxing weekend that I was in great need of. "Old" friends are such a blessing when you can reconnect and enjoy each others company. I am looking forward to living near to Patti and hope we can spend time together often.

Thanks Patti for a wonderful weekend!

New Years *#~*&^

Home to snowy Newark Valley for New Years Eve and our Christmas celebrations.This year we spent New Year's Eve and New Year's Day celebrating.

Joan and Audrey in wonderful hats cooking molton chocolate puddings as a midnight treat. Ike and Jewel - hats and noisemakersSeveral hand of Shanghi Rummy were played - Nana knows the rules by heart.Audrey likes Faiths new American Girl new doll.
Eric and Ike relaxing Mom, Deb, and Karla - it was so good to see everyone for the holidays.

SNOW & Christmas

Fri, Dec 18 it started to snow with the biggest flakes I think I have ever seen. RBM Christmas party was cancelled so I went home and started to decorate my tree. I was putting on the third string of lights when the lights went out!

I lit a group of candles and kept on decorating the tree. Chris & Karen Klimecko stopped over with to check in and see the tree in the candle light. I went to bed in hopes that the electric would be back on in the morning. Morning came with and I finished the tree and wrapped some gifts (no electricity needed). In the afternoon spent a little time in a travel trailer with a group getting warm. Plans for the night were made to go to an unoccupied house on campus that had a fireplace. Ten of us slept in the house for the night - most of us on the living room floor - I fed the fire for the night. Sun Karen K and her Mom (visiting from San Antonio) went to Lexington for a hotel room and shopping. Chris & went to stores in London looking for anything to heat with. We found & purchased a small bottled gas generator. When we got back to campus the electric was still not on so I packed a bag and headed back to Manchester to the BEST Western for the longest hot shower and the heat turned way up - after a wonderful nights sleep and another show I headed back to campus. The generator for what use to be the hospital was working now and the rooms were filling up. Hospital rooms of old have been turned into guest rooms for people to use when dropping things off at the mission - now were home for two nights. Computer room became my office with my laptop and jump drive with work files on it. Learned a new card game hand & foot. The electric came on for half of campus (we are split down the middle using two companies - end the line for both??) so I went back to the office to work. Electric had been on during part of the day at my apartment and then went back off around 5. The girls dorm had electricity so we moved to the girls dorm - moved in - had another group meal - the electric came back on that evening but most of us watched a little TV together, waited to see if it would stay on, and gave our homes a while to warm back up. After FIVE days the electricity was back on and we all went home. Spending this time together with RBM employees and their families was a time of getting to know each other better, eating together, and playing games together.

Christmas Eve candle light service a lovely and a group came over to my home for a glass of wine. Christmas we joined together again for a festive meal at the girls dorm.

December 12th Christmas Celebration in MD

The weekend of December 12th I traveled to Elkton MD with the Red Bird Mission Craft program to a show at the UMC of Elkton. I spent Sat afternoon with the kids - Sarah, Eric, Doug, and Catherine. We had a good burger lunch, walked around Elkton, and then traveled to Chesapeake City MD where these pictures were taken.
We watched a beautiful sunset on the waters edge and then walked around town. The little village had lots of antique & unique shops - a Christmas celebration was going on while we strolled and shopped with carolers in Victorian period dress, horse drawn carriage rides, and every building was decorated for the holiday. It was so wonderful to spend part of a day with my family during the Christmas season!