My Trip to PA

Sorry it took a little longer to write on my blog.  My daughter had not been feeling well and was taken to the hospital.  She was having a lot of trouble breathing and it turns out she actually had a mild heart attack.  I left last Monday to go up to help her out because she is to be resting.  Isabella always gets excited when she sees me with my suitcase because she knows we are going to have a sleep over.  She is getting so big and we have a lot of fun doing crafts together.  She will spend hours doing crafts, I think she is going to be the next Martha Stewart. 

Isabella

 

Since I have seen Raymond at Christmas his personally has really blossomed.  He just smiles and really interacts with everyone.  I love to watch him and Isabella together, he just loves his big sister.   When Chris gets home from work and lays on the floor, Raymond gets so excited.  He will go over to Chris and climb over him. He is pulling himself up at the sofa, it'll be nice when he can walk.

Raymond helping with the Laundry

I really miss grocery shopping at Wegmans so we made a trip for me to get some things to take home.  There is a Home Goods store in the same shopping center so we went in to check it out.  If you haven't been to a Home Goods store its worth checking it out.  It snowed twice while I was visiting, Isabella wanted to know where my snow boots were.  Thank goodness Greg thought to put the ice scraper in my car before I left home.  I'm home for now but it's only a few more weeks till our Granddaughter is born.  Can't wait to drive back to PA to see her.   Till next time....

Love,
Jennifer

Chili Cook-off

Saturday we went to the Christian Church in Richlands.  They had their first chili cook off and gospel fest.  It was $5 to get in for the day.  There were seven stands that made chili and six gospel groups singing throughout the day.  You received a ballot at entry and when you were done sampling chili you voted for the one you liked the best.  The first stand we tried we really liked.  Two of the stands the chili was to much like soup.  The next one had to many hot peppers in for me.  The next stand made their chili with sausage, I don't care for sausage so I did not care for this one at all.  After trying all seven I picked the one I liked the best but Greg couldn't decide between two.   We went back for him to sample the two again.  One of the samples he added sour cream and cheese which he said it made it better.  Now at a chili cook off the chili should taste great by itself without adding something extra.  The extras should be a bonus to a great chili.  He agreed and finally picked a winner.  It turned out that the one we liked was the winner.  The church had a sportscaster from the local TV station come out and judge.  We had a nice day, maybe next year we will make some chili...........

Till next time.......
Love,
Jennifer

Snow in the South

Now when my husband ask me if I wanted to move south he told me it only snowed every few years.  When I first moved here everyone was telling me they had a bad winter last year because it snowed three inches. Well we had 5 inches of snow on Monday.  Greg's school has been closed Monday, Tuesday and tomorrow.   What's funny to me is that up north we drive in a foot of snow and it takes close to two feet of snow for the malls to even start thinking about closing.  Now if your reading this and from the south, I know what your going to say.  The roads are not treated consistently here so that makes the roads slippery.  To you I would say I could understand that, but what I don't understand is when I go to the store the next day after the snow and the roads were clear, what's up with closing things the following day.  I guess it's something I will need to adjust too...maybe.

Guess we can't go swimming?

Our back yard

Our deck

Looking out the front door

I'm glad it snowed (even if I was the only one in the entire town that thought so) because I think it's so pretty.  Maybe next time I'll build a snowman.

Till next time....
Love,
Jennifer

Christmas Travel

I know it's been some time since I've posted.  We were doing some traveling and I have been sick for a week. So this is going to be pretty long.

  Christmas eve we spent a nice evening with Greg's family having dinner and opening presents.  Greg's mother bought us a Wii and we are having so much fun with it.  Hopefully Greg's bowling will improve since he has been practicing on Wii, I guess we will find out on Thursday night. 
We opened our presents Christmas eve since the next day we were heading to Pa.  The weather was calling for snow Christmas night so we got up at 5am and left the house by 6 to start driving to Pa.  Christmas day is a hard time to travel with not to many places open.  We did find a Waffle house opened to stop for breakfast, I guess they were the only place open because the place was very busy.  Once we got into Virginia we could count on Sheetz to be open to stop for gas and a snack.

We arrived at Erica's around 3 in the afternoon.  Erica warmed up some leftovers for us from their Christmas lunch.  It was so nice to see Isabella and Raymond and they were excited to get their presents.  Now that Raymond is sitting up it's nice to see him really get into things.  He sure did like opening his presents.

Isabella & her bucket of Glitter Glue

Isabella loves to make crafts so her and Grandpa made a special jewlery box together.

The next day we got together with my family for our annual Christmas get together.  It sure is nice that we still do this because it gives us a chance to see everyone that we may not see much of throughout the year.  My niece Ashley had a baby girl and I finally had a chance to see her.  She is two months old and so very cute.

I remember when my kids were little and running around at Christmas now they have little ones and all my nieces and nephews are having kids.  It's really nice to see that next generation of kids running around enjoying Christmas. 

We packed up the car on Tuesday morning and headed to Allentown.  We went to the local Diner to meet some friends for coffee.  It was so nice to get to see everyone and visit for a while.  Greg then dropped me off a the hair salon to get my hair cut.  He then went to check on getting my oil changed but they were too busy so he came back and read his book till I was finished.  He really likes his book reader and carries it everywhere so if I see a store I want to stop at he reads while I shop. 

We then headed to West Virginia to visit with our grandson Alexander.  He has just turned 5 and is at a fun age for Christmas.  We did arrive late due to some pretty slow traffic around the Harrisburg area.  So this took us an extra hour to get there.  He was so excited when we finally arrived and could not wait to open his presents.  We had bought Alex some really cute kits at Lowes for him and Grandpa to build together. He really had fun putting them together.  These are great kits and easy to put together.

Alex & Grandpa working together

Pirate Ship

 

 

Football Game

The next day we headed to Walmart to exchange some legos that we got him for Christmas.  It was a box full of extra pieces but I did not know they came in different sizes.  Alex actually found a star wars lego set he did not have and it was on clearance so we exchanged it for him.  Then he had $10 to spend so we headed to the game section for him to look for a game for his DS.  Walmart was pretty much out of stock on most of the games so we headed to Game Stop to see what they had.  He found the game he wanted so he used his money and we put the rest to it for him. He was so excited to get home to try it out.  Actually grandma had fun playing it with him.

Alex is really into writing stories which is really wonderful at his age to have that imagination. I really hope his parents keep encouraging him to write a little each night.  You never know he could have the next Harry Potter story in his head.  He would ask me how to spell a word and as I called out the letters he would write them down. I sure am proud of him.

Thursday we packed up again and started to head home.  We made a stop in Virginia to visit with our friends Michael and Bobbie.  We went to the Central Park area in Fredericksburg.  If you are ever in Virginia and want to go shopping this is the place.  I have never seen a shopping center this big, there are stores and restaurants everywhere.  But of course that comes with lots of traffic, I think Virginia ranks up there with the most traffic I have seen in one state.  We ate at a really good Chinese buffet.  We then went back to their house to visit for awhile.  After some time we decided it was time to go since it was getting late.  We got home around 12:30 unpacked the car and headed to bed.  I think I fell asleep in about 2 seconds.

New Year's eve we always try to have some seafood for dinner.  We went looking for crab legs and ended up at three different stores till we found some.  So we had crab legs for dinner and watched some movies.  I could not stay awake till midnight.  Greg said people were shooting off fireworks in the neighborhood.   I starting taking down the Christmas decorations New Years Day.   Christmas seems so long to the next year but sure goes by quickly when it gets here.  It was a very busy time traveling but so worth getting to spend time with family and friends.  And there is nothing better then getting to see the grand-kids.  Eight more weeks and we will have a new Granddaughter, can't wait to see her. 

Till next time.....
Love,
Jennifer