Family Visit

Gretchen and Brian arrived on Tuesday for a much anticipated, long awaited visit. We have been having so much fun laughing, playing, eating and just enjoying each others' company.



Yesterday, we made a quick visit to Pennsylvania to visit with family. It was a delightful day and I thought I'd share a few pictures.
Gretchen and Brian posing with Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Dale. Gretchen is so happy to have a chance to visit with her family and Brian is loved by everyone.


Gretchen only gets to see her dear grandmother every two or three years so it was all smiles while they were together.

Our nephew, Derek, was unable to join us, but his wife and children were able to spend time with us.

From left to right, Brian, Gretchen, Anita, Analiese, Alexandra (twins) and in front, Andrew.

Anita, a lovely mother, wife, niece and cousin. Oh yes, daughter-in-law and granddaughter-in-law. We love her.

Say cheese, children.

We had a wonderful day, a yummy dinner and drove home in a blinding rainstorm. We all slept peacefully last night.

~Hippo Hugs~

Horse Whisperer

I received this from my dear friend Sandy Van the other day. I just had to share it with my Bloggie friends, especially, Midlife Mom, who I suspect is a Horse Whisperer herself.

~Hippo Hugs~

Going to the Mountains

If you are a regular reader of my blog then you know about our friends, Bruce and Shelly, their accident in October, and the long and arduous recovery that has faced Bruce.

I remember so vividly the day he moved his big toe and we all cried tears of joy. Well, tomorrow we will be going with them to their summer home in the Adirondack mountains to help them settle in for the rest of the summer.

Bruce will have his physical therapy in Old Forge which is about ten miles from the cabin.

The view of Fourth Lake and the wonderful mountain air should go a long way toward bringing healing to their bodies and souls.

We are so grateful for the progress Bruce has made these past months and are confident that he will continue to go forward in the months to come.

~Hippo Hugs~

Great Day!

For many reasons this was a great day. First of all, the heat has broken. We started out very warm. When I left the house for my "Me Day" at 11 A.M. it was 90 degrees once again. By 2 P.M. the rain was falling and the temperature was a wonderful 75.



I spent this day doing errands, shopping, visiting Florence, having lunch out (all by myself). I accomplished everything I had on my list and came home a happy camper.


Although I'm still struggling with my camera, I finally was able to download the Vacation Bible School pictures that I want to share.


I will do that in just a minute, but first I want to report on our Mission Project. This year, we chose Heifer International for our mission. If you are interested in learning more about Heifer Project, you can go to http://www.heifer.org/. We collected over $1,000 for this organization and are buying:

• A heifer
• A goat
• A sheep
• A pig
• Ducks
• Chickens
• Bees
• Rabbits
• A share of a Water Buffalo

Needless to say, we are very excited about our support of this wonderful organization.

And here are the many faces of VBS.

The Staff without whom VBS would not be possible.

Some of the over 100 children who attended daily.

Such a worthwhile endeavor.

Suffer the little children to come unto me

For such is the Kingdom of Heaven.

Mark 10:13

~Hippo Hugs~

Alive and well in Upstate, NY

What is it about not being able to get back in the swing of things after a long absence? As evidenced by my last post, I've been pretty busy. Well, I had been pretty busy up until Independence Day weekend. Since then, my life has slowed down and is pretty much back to normal.

So, I should have plenty of time to post to my blog, right? And I do. I'm taking life much more slowly now that Vacation Bible School is over. Somehow, though, I just can't seem to talk myself into getting back into blogging.

I love my blog. I love all of my followers. Being connected to all of you is a real joy to me....but I just haven't had much to talk about and no inspiration.

So here I am. My camera is giving me fits. I had some great flower pictures that I wanted to share and they are stuck in the internal memory of my camera, unwilling or unable to be copied to the memory card.

Then there are the really fun pictures that Sarah, our VBS photographer emailed me today. I had a plan to make a VBS collage to share here and on Facebook. Great idea, but NO, my computer says it can't find the file or program or some such thing to transfer the pictures. I'm just plain frustrated. If it's not Blogger giving me grief, it's my camera or computer.

It's really, really hot here. They are saying we are breaking records set in the 1800's. Can you imagine? I look out the window and everything is so beautiful, but I walk out the door and want to turn around and run back to the air conditioning. Honestly, we have been spending most of our time in the house these past five or six days.

We did have a wonderful and relaxing 4th of July weekend. We had a get together with friends at Bruce and Shelly's house. The food was fabulous and the company even better. Bruce is doing really well. It looks like we will be going to the Adirondacks with them next week to help them get settled in their summer home. He walked 100 feet with a cane today. Real progress.

With the pressure of VBS over, I have had time to catch up here at home. Just a lot of little things that I had let go in the past month while preparing for VBS. I feel really great about these accomplishments.

We are getting up really early and walking before it gets so beastly hot. I have also been faithfully going to Curves....it's air conditioned there too. We also saw the movie The A Team yesterday. It was hokey, but fun and brought back lots of memories. The girls really liked that show when they were younger.

Speaking of the girls, it's just three weeks until Gretchen and Brian come for a visit. We are really excited and have lots of plans. The excitement is a little blurred by the fact that Paige can't come too. We would so love to have all our family together for a few days. That happens so rarely.

I feel better now. I've made a step in the right direction by posting tonight. Maybe this will inspire me to post more regularly. I think part of my malaise is that more and more of my bloggie friends are posting less and less. I think FB has had an effect on blogging and it makes me sad.

Okay enough of me for tonight. I hope everyone sleeps well in this heat and wakes up with a joyful spirit tomorrow.

~Hippo Hugs~

P.S. Sorry if this sounds like a downer. I really am quite delighted with life.
~hh~