Central PA Flood of 2011

This past Wednesday, our tiny town was sandwiched between a tropical storm and a hurricane, causing tons of rain and, as a result of the rain, flooding.  This is Mahoning Creek.  It is supposed to be (and usually is) a little creek that runs next to the middle school.

This is Ashley's school.  The school was probably under four feet of water this morning.  By the time I took the picture it was down a foot or two.  She left her flute in her locker.  Luckily, though, that is about the only thing we lost in this flood, where many have lost everything.  We feel very fortunate.

There is supposed to be a highway in between the store to the right and the school. 

First Day of School 2011

Blogger is giving me a lot of problems!  Actually, it's probably more my computer than anything, but I'm struggling to be able to publish lately.  Anyway, my three oldest started up school again this last week, and here are the traditional first day of school "it's way too early for pictures, Mom" pictures.

Rachel's Baptism

Rachel was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last Saturday. It was a wonderful day with lots of family.

Here she is with all of her cousins who were able to come. I'm not sure what the sunglasses are all about, but it's funny. Believe it our not, for three days, all of these kids and their parents, my parents, Jason's mom and brother all stayed with us in our house during a record-setting heat wave, and with only one shower. That's how the best memories are made!

Eggs!!!

After waiting 20+ weeks, we finally got our first egg from our chickens! We have gotten two more since.

This is the third egg compared to a store-bought egg. It's the darkest brown of the three. The fun has begun!

Our Last 4th in PA

We have enjoyed our Independance Day celebrations while living here in Pennsylvania. The small town celebrations are always the best. We meet at a park right next to the Susquehanna river, have a picnic dinner, play games and listen to a local band play patriotic tunes until it's dark enough to watch the fireworks. The fireworks are always very impressive here, too. They did a full 30 minutes of them this year and all of my girls loved every minute.

From My Students

I admit, teaching piano is not always fun for me. It takes way too much time away from my kids. While other families are out swimming every day during the summer, I'm stuck at home three days a week teaching 16 kids how to play piano, and most of them hate every minute of it. What I do love, though, is when they find a song that thy love and can't get enough of and they practice until they have it memorized. I love it when they "catch the fever" and practice so regularly that they sail through 3 levels in one year. I also have to admit, the money is not only necessary, but great. And yes--I love it when I get gifts. This week I had a brother and sister return from a month in Japan where they were visiting family, as the do every year, and they brought me the neatest gift!! Inside this cute little bag, wrapped in beautiful pink rice paper was a box of Japanese sugar candies made from wasanbon, a fine grained Japanese sugar.

I don't know if I'll be able to bring myself to eat them. They are too pretty. My kids are dying to try them, though, so maybe I won't have a choice.

Rachel Turns Eight!

Rachel turned 8 years-old last week! Her baptism will be at the end of July and she couldn't be more excited.

She got a cute new Webkins seahorse and a giant Hershey bar. Yes, she asked for that. She is my kid, after all.

On the top of her wish list was a Madame Alexander doll. She was so excited to get this! She also got some camping accessories for it and now she and Melissa can make S'mores with their dolls.

Her cake had to be brown because she wanted chocolate frosting. Sounds good to me! It tasted good, too. Happy Birthday, my Rach!!