Observations from today...

This week has gone nothing like I thought it would. And when I get the Erin Condren planner all decked out with folor coded notes and washi tape, I bet you can guess how I feel about crossing it out or editing it. But today-- the most scribbled on day of the week-- turned out to be a good day in spite of its upheaval. 

A few observations:

1.  If you plan to be on the road for, say, a funeral...and need to be to Lewistown by 2:00, 12:45 is pushing it for departure time. A lot. When you're running late, the most logical choice is to stop at Subway because hungry travelling is trouble. 

2.  Every ounce of my willpower was required to keep me from stopping at the pretzel nugget place in Mifflinburg. The struggle is real. 

3.  I cry at every funeral I go to. Or watch on tv. Or hear about through a friend. All of the tributes to my Grandma Shirley's husband, Bill, were beautiful. Bill certainly had a place in my life, but our relationship was not super close. But the tears came anyway.  

4. There are three people, tops, who reaf this blog. I saw them today and they told me I have been absent too long. Hence this post about not too much of anything of substance. 

5.  Today's highlight was surprising Brooke and Hayden (and frankly Lib and Zig too) by stopping on my way past to hear about Brooke's first day of first grade. Loved their hugs. 

6.  Getting to talk to a dear friend all the way home was a real treat. And why would a new iphone get service where and old one didn't?  Huge blessing that it did!

7.  We survived night one of puppy kindergarten with Toby. He was a bit excitabke but did ok. He ate approximately 84 lb of treats and I bet my boots he will barf tomorrow.  But he is learning some good pup behaviors. A plus for sure. 

Cousins Day

Two years ago, our family lost its anchor--- the person who taught all of us to love family, to prioritize time together above all else, to love music and home made ice cream, to love Poe Valley.  Last year, to mark the anniversary of Pap's passing on August 9th, we planned a special camping trip to Poe Valley and had a great time.  And so it has become a Richard family tradition for my generation.  This past weekend we returned to Poe Valley for the 2nd anniversary of Pap's death, and had the most special weekend together.

 

We had a little excitement prior to leaving.  The camper had a bent jack on the front and was stuck in our front yard. After 24 frustrating hours of trying to find someone to do the repair for us at the house, Jason found someone who was willing to come here, disassemble the jack and then haul the camper to their shop to install the new one.  We were lucky and grateful that the repair was able to be completed and we were able to get the camper packed up and ready to go.  It was a bit of a long night on Thursday night, but by 9:30 Friday morning, we were rolling en route to  Poe Valley.

 

Poe Valley is one of my happy places- probably because of the wealth of good, happy memories that I have of it as a child.  My family always seemed happy there- not just because of the "anything goes when you're camping" rule that we adhered to (whoopie pies for breakfast, anyone?), but because it was their happy place too.  There was always music at Poe Valley-- guitars around the campfire and silly songs my Pap was always making up (he was ALWAYS singing something).  There was always laughter at Poe Valley- usually because my Uncle Butch and my Dad were at their silliest there.  Regardless of why, the happiness just seems to seep out of everything there.  And I can't possibly be there without all of that coming rushing back to me.  I absolutely love that.

 

 

As Friday wore on, more and more cousins started to fill the park.  Stacie and Noah arrived with their new pop-up, and Danaca and Carrie arrived and set up their tent.  Mom and Dad came to spend some time with us, too.  Things were going wonderfully....until...

 

Do you happen to  see that thing slithering underneath Noah and Stacie's camper?  Trust me when I tell you that it was an approximately 4' long rattlesnake that crawled right past Noah.  My Dad had seen it coming, and made sure all the kids were accounted for.  Noah somehow managed to remain calm and stay perfectly still and quiet.  Then the guys tracked it through the weeds until Jason returned with the park rangers who caught it and bagged it for relocation.  Frankly, I would have preferred that they chop it into 8 million tiny pieces.  But I suppose this was good enough.  We all sat with one eye on the woods behind our campsite for the remainder of the weekend-- especially after learning that this was the 4th one that was captured that week in the campground.  Another campsite found one and killed it on Saturday afternoon.  That was certainly excitement we could have done without.

 

Friday night and Saturday were spent with all of the cousins together mostly at our campsite.  We ate too much, laughed a whole bunch and spent time together that you can only do when you're camping.  We were filthy, sweaty and so very happy.  It was amazing.  We took the kids swimming at the lake on Saturday afternoon and they all had a blast.

 

 

After supper, we all took a little trip to what used to be Pap's home/camp.  The P. Duck sign used  to say F. Duck (for Fred)...but just about every other minute detail about the camp remains the same.  It was exactly how we had left it.  As cousins, this was the place we went to after Pap's funeral to deliver the roses that we had been given during the service.  We had laid them on the swing on the porch where every single one of us had spent hours sitting and swinging with Pap, all of us sure that we were his absolute favorite.  He could make you feel that way anytime you were with him.  

 

The goal of the weekend was to be together, to cherish all of the memories that we have of our Pap, and to make new ones that will be the tie that binds OUR children together someday.  I hope we  succeeded.  One thing is for sure--- Pap was smiling as he watched us and I am pretty sure our laughter made it all the way to Heaven's gates to meet him.  Can't wait until next year.

Richard Reunion

I have always loved being a Richard, and although our children don't carry the legacy of the official name, they're Richards too. 

You know what I will never get tired of?

This. This sweet girl who tests me and pushes me and makes me pray a lot every day. 

The way the kids come down the steps in the morning, fresh from their rest, full of anticipation for whatever the day's fun is going to be...and the way they come to me first, before anything else for their hug and snuggle. 

The simple joys of summer-- when late bedtimes and too much ice cream takes the place of the normally (probably too) rigid schedule.  Where we run outside in the yard catching lightning bugs in our pajamas because I took the time to notice them. I can tell that I am not spontaneous enough based on the surprise in the kids' eyes when I called them outside at 9:00 to run around with me. 

Walks to the beloved "orange playground" where the kids had an epic Nerf gun battle on Tuesday night. Although hot, it was worth it for a walk with Toby and some adventure for the kids. 

We are really trying to enjoy what is left of the summer-- as I can feel it slipping out of my hands.  The planner page is turning to August all too soon with its list of back to school tasks that require our attention and I am just not ready. 

When Daddy is away...

It is Day #2 of Jason's trip to Chicago. There have been trips of his that I have dreaded, some thst have left me feeling lonely and sad and others that made me feel exhilarated by the challenge. So far, this one hasn't been bad. But it is a completely different animal than when we are juggling school schedules and non-flexible morning departure times. Last night the kids and I had a pancake party for supper (a tradition when it is just us during Daddy's trips) with bacon...of course. And then we had lots of snuggle time on the couch before bed. 

Today was a bit more hectic.  We had to all be up and out this morning in time to get Josh to basketball clinics. We then took the girls to Weis to pick out a donut for breakfast. They always think thst is a special girls' treat, but I can only do it with them when Josh is otherwise occupied due to his allergy. They were thrilled because they got to ride in the "cart cart"  (that's Mara for the 'car carts' at Weis).  I was, on the other hand, heartbroken because the two of them barely could squeeze in there together.  It seems like five minutes ago that I was needing to tighten the buckles in the seats to keep them from rattling around in there. Grandma was arriving later than normal so that I could work a little longer than usual with a 5:00 appointment in Mifflinburg. Which was plenty of excitement for me until we got the announcement that a fellow State Farm Agent had passed away and his viewing would be held tonight. And so, on top of the day's work, and late appointment, I needed a babysitter and to stay in my work clothes for an extra three hours to attend the services for Jack. It made for a bit of a wild ride today. But here I am, at the end of it, grateful for the day and all its challenges, and prayerful that tomorrow will be another opportunity to do it all over again. 

It was like climbing Mt Everest.

I can't let the summer go by without a post summarizing our week at VBS. This is always a tricky week for us just based on scheduling and logistics, but I have to say that this year the kids had an absolutely fantastic time.  Our church family went all out again this year with decorations that helped all of us to get into the spirit of this year's theme-- Mt Everest!  I am always amazed and so thankful for the people in our church who spend so much time and energy to make this week special for the kids. 

There were close to 150 kids who attended during the week. And whatever poor attitude I may have had going into it was quickly resolved when Ingot the opportunity to man my station in the Kid Vid cinema where we watched a real life story that helped to drive home the message from the evening. I soent my week with the preschoolers- 40+ of them. They were an energetic bunch, but made my heart so happy as we all learned together about all of the things God is powerful enough to do. I love how He works-- providing growth and learning for the adults as well as the kiddos.

One of the daily joys I had was watching these two sweet little spunky girls dancing and singing their hearts out to the music each night during opening and closing. And all the way there and all the way home. And everywhere we have gone in the car since then. For goodness sake...

We had the joy of bringing our friend from up the street, Katelyn, with us each night. She and Lauren got to be in the same group and seemed to have a fun time together. 

After the long week, I think I may have been the only one ready for it all to be over with.  But I guess that's a good thing- we all got to know Jesus better that week, and even earlier bedtimes and fewer cranky morning are worth that. 

Squeezing it all in...

I feel like such a broken record.  Can't find time to blog.  Can't seem to keep my head above water with  most things right now.  Can't believe that I am staring at the page in the planner that says August at the top of it, or the list along the side of all of the back to school jobs that need to be completed as soon as I turn that page.  Can't seem to believe that the kids have grown as much as they have, even in just the past month or so.  And how I can't seem, no matter how hard I try or pray or beg, to get it to all just slow down.  And so, that is how I find myself a week and some days past this actual event, but still sharing pictures and a few stories from what turned out to be a pretty special day with our favorite PSU football fan.

 

Last Saturday had been selected as the day that we were going to host a picnic for Jason's co workers.  One of his team members had reached a major milestone by passing all of his license exams, and so, we thought it a perfect excuse for a picnic.  The weather reports were showing sunshine where we have seen mostly gray clouds in the forecast, and so it appeared that Saturday the 11th was a perfect day for a party.

 

Until...Jason was invited to bring Joshua and I along to the PSU Lift for Life event that is a fundraiser to raise money for cancer research through an organization run by the athletes themselves.  Knowing that this might be a once in a lifetime chance, we decided to try to squeeze both things in to the same day.  I wasn't so sure it was even feasible, but Jason said he thought we could manage.  And so, try we did. 

 

Joshua brought along his helmet, hoping for a few autographs by the end of the day.  He has had this helmet since he was about 4 years old and asked Santa for a PSU helmet.  Unfortunately, he was a disappointed boy when we all realized that Santa had brought him a display helmet instead of one that he could actually wear on his head to play football.  Silly Santa.  But it sure did come in handy on this day!

 

 

 

Be still my heart.  This is Josh with a very large, and very nice Anthony Zettel.  He is by far my favorite Penn Stater right now...as evidenced by the fact that every time we hear his name announced over the loud speaker, or we see him do something cool, I always say, "He's my favorite".  He talked to Josh for quite a while and we had a chance to tell him about meeting his mother on the day of his first collegiate start during the now-famous 4 overtime win over Michigan (without a doubt, my all time, probably never going to be able to top it, favorite PSU game that we've attended).  Libby and I were standing outside of the tunnel awaiting the arrival of the blue team buses when this woman we were standing beside was literally not able to control herself or her tears or her general excitement about the whole thing.  We ended up talking to her and found out that her son was Anthony Zettel, a virtual unknown at the time, but she was the proudest Mama I had ever seen.  And we've been cheering for him ever since.  I think he is going to have a great season, and potentially a great career post PSU.

 

This picture was one of my favorites with Josh and Angelo Mangiro and his friend Carl, whose last name is escaping me at the moment. He came over to Joshua and started talking to him-- a definite people person.  He told Josh that he was hoping to be a first or second grade teacher when he graduated.  He said he had been practicing his stern teacher face for the classroom, but Josh asked why he wouldn't just tackle them if they weren't listening.  Evidently tackling is the method of choice for classroom management at Meadowbrook Christian School if that was his idea of appropriate.  Just kidding.  I hope.  Angelo was really sweet too because he asked Josh who else he wanted to sign his helmet and then went to get them from the part of the field we weren't allowed to go to.

 



 

During the event, there was also a Kids' Combine that was going on where kids could do exercises and drills with members of the team.  I thought Joshua would get a real kick out of this part, but he preferred to watch the guys do the lifting events instead.

 

This was the autograph line at the end of the Lift for Life event.  He filled his whole helmet and got the autographs of most of the 2015 team, plus Jesse James who graduated and now plays for the Steelers.  Jesse was a little hesitant to sign his helmet, but agreed to do it.  He was the only person who was reluctant in the least.  Just goes to show what the NFL does to people...and why I have no time for it.  

 

After we returned home around 3:30 we had approximately an hour to set everything up for the picnic before people started to arrive.  Let's just say we were moving with purpose.  But before everyone arrived, we managed to set up Emily and Earl's bounce house (thanks so much, again, guys!) for the kids, set up tables and chairs, and do final food preparations.  All in all, we had a wonderful, albeit exhausting day.

What an adventure!

It has been made a formal Dugan family decision, sworn, sealed and enacted into law that if anyone gets the bright idea to go camping over the 4th of July ever again, they will be immediately struck by lightning. You may recall the Poe Valley debacle last summer where we sat along the road for the better part of half a day due to a storm that had trees down blocking the roadways?  Well...I now enter into evidence the story of Nemacolin 2015. 

Everything was going great when we left on Thursday morning. This was our maiden voyage with Jason's new truck- specifically ordered with max towing capacity to be able to handle our trailer and all of the stuff we lug along with us. In all of the ways his Ram had struggled, we were noticing huge differences in gas mileage and overall ease that we could pull the nearly 10,000 pounds behind us. Until...

Somewhere before Bedford (and still 75 miles or so from Nemacolin) both of us heard a sound. To me, it sounded like we hit a groundhog. But it became very clear that that was not the case when the truck engine all of a sudden sounded like it was going to take off. Our 2000 rpm's quickly jumped to 6000 and the engine was shutting off at about 20 mph. We pulled into a Sheetz (and it isn't easy to just pull off when you're as long as we are) to think about what to do. Jason called the dealership to ask for advice and they didn't have any suggestions other than that maybe something had come unhooked. So we tried to keep going-- only to discover that it wasn't going to work to do so. Thank goodness for phones because we searched and found that we were 2.8 miles from a Ford dealership. So we went there. 

God bless those people at Shaffer Ford.  They came out to us in the parking lot and diagnosed and repaired the issue (the hose from the eco boost part of the engine) within a half hour. After that was fixed, we were back on our way and arrived at Nemacolin around 3:30. We were so relieved to be there safely and thankful that the excitement was over. 

Until...

Around 7:00 that evening, just as we finished supper, Mara came to me and climbed in my lap and fell asleep. Very odd for my little night owl. Jason observed that she looked awfully pale. Before an hour had passed, she was burning up with a fever and had declared thet her throat was hurting her when she swallowed. Fantastic.  

The rest of Thursday night was miserable. She couldn't sleep. Wouldn't eat. Was throwing up. Couldn't keep Tylenol or Motrin in her to help with the fever. So Friday morning we had to figure out what do. We thought about heading home, but I figured with the holiday weekend we wouldn't be able to see our doctor and would have to opt for a Med Express type option. So I searched for one of those nearby and found one in Uniontown- about 20 minutes away. So we got ready to go. The only challenge was that the only vehicle we had was Jason's huge and very NEW truck-- the same one I had vowed never to drive. But drive it I did. We made it to Med Express, and as it turns out, so did the rest of the population of Uniontown. We waited there for a few hours and finally saw a doctor who suspected strep throat even though the strep screen was negative. So they gave us some amoxicillin and away we went. So Friday was basically a wreck. Jason had kept the big kids and Toby at the campground to go swimming, and they had a blast. Me and Mara, not so much. 

Friday night the rain started. Like "Noah, build your ark" rain. Cats and dogs falling from the sky rain. And once it started, it didn't even let up until Saturday around noon. And so, the Dugan five plus active four month old puppy occupied ourselves inside of our 30' long tin can. We couldn't cook our supper as planned because we needed the fire to do so. And so we decided to take advantage of being at Nemacolin and see if we could find a restaurant to accommodate us, the Sherrells and their friends who had joined them for the weekend. A group of 12. Good luck. But we managed to eat at The Caddy Shack - a casual bbq restaurant on site. So that sure beat the Easy Mac and Chef Boyardee options I had in the camper. After dinner I headed back with Mara who was still fevered and miserable while Jason took the big kids to play at the arcade for a while. There certainly was no campfire sitting. 

Saturday morning it was still yucky and cold so we headed for the Gymnastics Center. The kids always love bouncing on the trampolines and jumping into the foam pit. This may have been our saving grace because I think one more minute in the camper and we might have all lost it. 

Lucky for us, the sun came out while we were jumping so we hurried up to the pool to swim for a while. The kids absolutely love the water slide and had a ball playing in the pool. Seats were at a premium because as soon as the sun peeked out and the temperature rose beyond 70 degrees, the people came out of the woodwork for the pool. 

We redeemed the day- and frankly the weekend- with weather that was agreeable to an outside cookout on the fires. We made our steaks over the fire and had lots of yummy things to go with them. We sat outside, the kids rode bikes, we ate apple pie and then watched the fireworks show from the campsite. Only one tree blocked our view. Lucky for us, there was a wedding taking place just up the hill from the campground and they had arranged for a special fireworks show at 11:00 pm.  Although it sounded like Vietnam at our site because they were setting them off so closeby, it was amazing to see the fireworks so close.  The entire sky above us was gorgeously lit up. Somehow, Josh slept through it and Mara fell asleep in my lap during it. But a great ending to the weekend it was, indeed. 

We packed up and headed home Sunday morning. Followed by a ridiculous amount of laundry that still remains un-put away.  Glad that trip is in the books. And looking for plans for next July 4th that don't involve camping!