A Few Days of Photos

 We have had some adventures and we've been busy!

I haven't blogged in a few days and the details do pile up! It has been really hot and humid this week. I have gotten stuff done anyway, but it has been a sticky business. 

On Monday I went to Verizon and traded in my Note9 for a new phone. The Note was a great phone, but it was starting to do the same weird battery thing and I didn't want to fight it out with Samsung, so since Verizon had a trade in promotion going, I decided to skip the battle and just trade up. 

It's always a big pain getting a new phone. For all the benefits there is a lot of hassle. I had everything just the way I wanted it with my Note and now I am still trying to get this one to do what I want. It's mostly there. 

The camera is definitely better!! I am super pumped about that. With all the pictures that I have been scanning, it's pretty cool to have this stellar little gadget. I don't know how they keep making them better!

Cora and I have been walking almost every evening and we have seen some pretty cool stuff! Like these new additions to the pier down by the lighthouse:

Cora was quite impressed.

Yesterday I caught the sun through the clouds as I was heading to Mass:

Then tonight Cora and I headed out to the lock house and saw all kinds of interesting stuff! 

The lockhouse:

And the river is way up and very brown. Along with the Algae bloom it looks like a swamp:

And then we found this guy, who didn't seem at all concerned about me and my little dog.

We were just getting back to the car when my friend Lisa arrived in the parking lot with Chipper, Maggie's brother, and we just decided to go with them on their walk. I don't think Cora has ever walked that far, but she was raring to go the whole time and it was really nice to walk along with them! Hope we get to do that again! He's such a big sweetie. 

More Hiking and Saturday Details

 What a day! I am pooped, but it was a good one. 

I went out on another hike with Lisa this morning. This time I did the other half of the Susquehanna Loop. We didn't go quite as far, because like a dummy I forgot to eat breakfast. I had the right shoes and water in my bag though! It was muggy, but not real hot and the woods were nice and shady. It is so good to get out into the woods! I love it!

I worked on getting some stuff moved from the office since there are now open shelves in the basement. Paul moved his clothes to college, and Brendan is going to keep his in his room and do his own laundry, so the family closet is a thing of the past. It worked well for a long time! We have to put shelves into the closet in Paul's room before he comes back though. He can do the same thing. He should be good at doing laundry by then!

I went shopping and got a nice piece of Cod for dinner. Fish, rice, broccoli and salad were a nice meal at the end of the day. 

Cora spent her day ringing her bell to go outside. I did notice that she did that a lot less when it was raining the other day. I took her for a walk downtown and she did really well! She is much less skittish and she just pretty much trots along in front of me. She is definitely getting the hang of it. I want to take her into the woods soon so that she continue getting hiking experience. Maybe later tomorrow afternoon. We shall see.

I sorted the bins and paper boxes in the office closet and then tried to so some computer work. I ended up being distracted though. 

We will be going to 10:30 mass in the morning and then the day should be nice and relaxing. 

All the Cooke kids are back at school! They started last week. I hope they have a wonderful year. 

Lilly is planning to start soon as well. She has a computer-based program this year that should make it much easier for her to be accountable and view her progress. I am looking forward to it!

Onward!

Well, yesterday morning Paul was all packed and ready for the trip to Ohio and his latest adventure, college at Franciscan. He and Tim headed out at around 8:30 and got there around 4:00, after fighting a lot of Pittsburg traffic. They got unloaded and moved him in and Tim turned around and headed home. 

After Paul left I went over to Danielle's to take Cora for a walk with Luna and Comet. They did pretty well! They had fun chasing around the house after we got back.

It sounds like Paul is getting settled in. I will be going up in a couple of weeks to take a few things that he is identifying as nice to have, like his longboard. 

I am looking forward to hearing how things are going, but I know he is going to be busy!

Brendan and Catie have been making the most out of the last few days before she has to head to college in Pennsylvania. They have been hiking, swimming and gaming like crazy. Her school is only about an hour away, so they should be able to see each other on the weekends when they don't have too much school. 

It has been really humid the last few days. I mowed yesterday and I was really wiped out by the time I was done. 

This morning we went to Mass and then came home and I did chores around here. I worked on some parish ministry details, scanned a bunch more photos, and did some laundry. I also set my sewing machine back up! Hopefully I can work on my quilt over the next few weeks. I want to finish it so that I can start one for Maria and Austin's new little one. So exciting!! 

There was no pony leading today, but Lisa did ask me if I wanted to go for a hike. She is trying to get in shape for some stiff hiking in Yosemite and I am happy to join her! It was a pretty sticky day, and I wore boots that were not the best, but it was so good to get out!! The trail was damp and the woods were beautiful. We saw lots of deer! We are going again in the morning! I will definitely wear different shoes and take a pack with water and extra socks! 

Busy Days!

 We have had a lot going on around here, as of late! 

On Thursday Cora had a vet appointment, her first one with Dr Cullum. He walked into the room and said "Wow, you really went from one extreme to the other!" He was very happy with Cora though. She is healthy and she got her last shot until next Spring! She weighed 5.7 pounds. He said that he thinks that she will be somewhere between 8 and 10 pounds by the time she is full grown. She will be spayed sometime this Fall. 

She is making very good progress. She walks very well now on the leash, and she comes in from the yard when I call her, most of the time. She knows "sit", "down", "wait", "watch me", "up", "Off" and we are working on "roll over". She is also doing very well on her house manners! She is definitely my little buddy. We have been going downtown and walking where we can see lots of people and new things. She takes almost everything in stride.

We had a pretty quiet weekend. I went up to see Lilly ride Ivy in the new place. Ivy is very relaxed and happy there. Lilly rides bareback and they enjoy each other!

Sunday we worked on getting Paul packed for college. We went through his clothes and he got some things together and he seems very confident that he has everything! He and Tim will drive up tomorrow and I will go over sometime in September. I hope he has a wonderful semester! I am so glad that he decided to go, for however long he stays. It will be a very good place to start from. 

Monday we had Adoration and Benediction. Fr Francis really had made Benediction so beautiful. I am loving the way that the parish is moving forward. We are starting some of our ministries back up, and I can wait to start putting on programs and doing studies again! It feels so "normal"!

I went out walking with my friend Celeste last night. It was super muggy, but it was so nice to walk and chat. I enjoyed hearing about her family and how life is going for them. We walked near the water. The Algae bloom is still pretty bad.

Today I have been getting ready for a gathering of our small group tonight. We are having dinner and just a chance to catch up. We will start regular meetings again in the Fall. I think we will be doing a scripture based program. Fr Francis will be stopping by so we will ask him for ideas!

I'll try to remember to take pictures. 

Just Summer Days

 Had to get so much done today, and I only managed to get to about half of it. 

Yesterday was warm, and I had a couple of appointments so I was really moving all day. I went to Mass, and then came home and got some work done, until I had a meeting with Fr Francis. We talked about his vision for ministry and I am looking forward to digging in! 

I am excited to get back into studies and groups and talks, but I need to be careful not to get in too deep. I have a big bite in my Spiritual Direction work. I have so much to learn!

I also want to be sure that I do some work on the Family Project every day. Scanning, planning, reading, sorting. It's a bit at a time, but it can really absorb me. 

So back to yesterday. I went to Adoration at 3:00, which is now my regular time, and then came home to put dinner together. I had to get things pulled together because John came for dinner and Brendan had to go to work. Paul had some friends over later. It was so nice to just sit down and talk to John for awhile. He is so busy, and he has so many great insights on things! He is learning a lot about technology, the good the bad and the ugly. I know that all the guys are well versed in the tech world, and I am quickly being left behind. I am really glad that I have my kids to advise me. I still just use my laptop and take pictures with my phone and add stuff to Google drive....I'm simple like that. I think we may all need to have a good sense of where this stuff can take us though.

After dinner I went to Benediction at the Church and then came home to meet with Christine and Paula. We discussed the way things are going...and the fact that Jesus has it ALL under control. We just have to keep walking the mission forward. 

Today I went to mass and then went up and got Lilly and we took Cora to Petsmart and Michaels so that I could get MORE boxes for the family stuff. My, my.

I am going to keep forging ahead on that tonight. 

It is HOT out there, so Cora is going to get her walk late this evening, after it possibly cools down a bit.

I think she is pretty happy inside...

 

But she does love her yard....

Walking With Cora

 Today was a very nice day! 

I got up early and got ready for Mass. Cora and I have a pretty nice little routine going. I hope it continues. After Mass I came home and let her out and then I had to head out fairly quickly for Freedom Hills to walk the pony. Sunny had a pretty overcast disposition. She did NOT want to walk anywhere. She wanted to go back to the barn and eat. But we convinced her otherwise. 

I got home and let Cora out of her crate and then I decided that we would go down to the lockhouse and walk those trails. They are short and shady and the views are very nice. We saw an egret in the pond! Cora got a little swim in the creek, which she thoroughly enjoyed. 

When I got home I took care of some details and then worked on some emails and scheduling. 

Around 4:30 I decided to poke my nose into First Fridays downtown. It's kind of fun to see all that is happening and who shows up. I drove around looking for parking for awhile and ended up parking by the church. Then Cora and I started to walk into town and as we were just passing the fire station we saw Danielle, Lizzie and the two dogs in the car looking for parking! So we waited for them and all walked down together. Cora seemed like she was being very whiney and I couldn't figure it out, but when I leaned down to tell her to stop, I noticed that she had ants all over her muzzle! Ugh!! Lizzie and I cleaned them off and she seemed to feel much better. We saw lots of people and the dogs got to see and hear all kinds of new things! Cora did very well. She is a very brave doggy. She met lots of kids and some scouts even gave her a dog treat, which made her very happy! 

We decided to leave after one trip through town, because it was really hot, and getting crowded. I brought Cora home and she played and had a good evening. Then Tim came home from a week away and she was just thrilled! 

Now we are all just winding down and having a quiet evening. That's nice. It is good to all be under one roof again. I would love to see John one of these days.

Being Outside

 Well, Cora had a fantastic day, and I enjoyed it myself! 

I had to make a long drive down near the city so she was going to be in her crate for a few hours. I wanted to get her out for some exercise before I left, so I went over to one of the neighborhoods and we went for a nice walk. I can't take her too far yet, but we went for about 20 minutes. The temperature was perfect, and she was a very good little partner! 

I put her in her crate and headed out for my appointment. As I expected traffic was pretty bad. On the way home a 40 minute drive took and hour and a half! 

When I got home Cora was just hanging out and waiting. She was very happy to see me, but not in a panic at all! I took her out, gave her some lunch, had some myself, and then we got in the car, picked up Lilly, and drove up to the dam for a walk along the river. It was beautiful up there! Cora loved all the smells and sights.

 We walked about 20 minutes again and then loaded up to head to Aberdeen, so that I could meet Nina. She and Lilly were going to go up to the barn and do the feeding and the stalls. I have yet to go up there, since the owner has a some really restrictive rules. 

I came home and got out the mixer to make the cookies that I told Brendan I would make. He and Caitie went out to Kilgore Falls to hike and enjoy the day off. I am so glad that they are able to take full advantage of this great summer weather! It is going to start cooling off soon. 

I want to try to get Cora onto a short trail every couple of days so that she becomes accustomed to hiking and trail walking. She is really full of energy!

Tonight I am going to do some more work with pictures. There is so much to do!

Whoopsie Wednesday

 Today wasn't super great. 

I really had a hard time keeping my mouth shut, every time I turned around.

Cora has become obsessed with eating bugs in the back yard, so I ended up putting her on her leash to get her to come back, because she always runs from me and it makes me crazy. I took her for a very long walk and I think it did help wear her out.

The photo project got ugly today too. Mom took apart almost all of the other albums but she only took a couple of pictures out of this one. The pictures are all glued to the pages and the pages are so brittle. I didn't want to lose any of the pictures! Mom must have just given up and tossed it into a box. I don't blame her. There are some really great pictures though. Lots of Elmer and Grandpa Weaver in their earlier years. Hanging out with friends and just having fun. So...I spent the afternoon prying them up, and then started scanning them. Oh yeah, and there are no names or dates. So I will have to be a detective and use other pictures to figure that out. It will all come together. 

No matter how my day went, it went better than this guys....

Yeah, It's a Tuesday

 Today has been a pretty productive day, all in all. 

I got up, walked, showered, and got Cora up to go out and have her breakfast. She's usually pretty sleepy in the first hour of the day. I did my prayers while she dozed on the couch, but she perked up when Paul came down. He was heading out to work at 7:30, and I got out the door to Mass. It was lovely. A nice Rosary with all my "Rosary Friends" and Mass.

After Mass I came home and let Cora get out in the yard to play for a while before I crated her again so that I could go over to help some friends sort some items in their basement. That project is going to be long term, but I am so glad that we are getting started on it! We worked for about an hour and a half, which was plenty of time to fill up a couple of boxes worth of stuff for donation, and create some areas for storing the things that they want to keep. I think the time was just about right, to keep things positive. 

Lilly called while I was there and asked me to bring her some chicken. She loves to be able to make it herself, so I just went and bought her a bag. Then I went home to get Cora out of the crate and let her eat. She is doing so well with all the things that she needs to learn to be a good family dog, and a few things that she is learning to make life more fun! She likes to fetch, and soon we will start working on some little agility tricks so that she will find some things familiar when we really start training for it. She also wants very much to play with Autumn, but Autumn has another point of view on that. 

A little later in the afternoon Danielle brought Luna and Comet over to play in the yard. They really had a great time running all over the place, wrestling and getting into trouble. They are so silly.

After they left I made a simple dinner for the guys, since Tim is still away and Brendan was heading out to work. I haven't seen John in a few days. I hope all is well with him. He has been working two jobs and is really going pretty constantly. 

I also tackled some of the things in the big bins downstairs. I pulled out all the pictures and got them organized into envelopes and plastic boxes. Some of them are kind of bent from being in plastic sleeves and in the collapsing cardboard boxes, but most of them are ok. I need to get to work scanning the ones that haven't been done.  I also spent some time this morning blogging on the Maggie Loves Weaver blog. I am excited because I have so many pictures that I can add to it now!! I worked on the pictures until I just got too tired.

Maggie 4th From Left

Granny Bea

In the morning, after Mass I will go to Weis and get some Strawberries so that I can make a Strawberry/Rhubarb Crisp for a friend because I am going to visit her tomorrow afternoon. 

So many of our friends are facing difficult health issues. Scans and biopsies and a lot of scary waiting. It seems like we have a new person to pray for every few days. We are also praying for friends who are going through some serious struggles with extended family. This world really doesn't let up, but Jesus never let's us down. 

Granny

 

I am just loving getting to know my Granny Bea through all the letters that she wrote to my Grandma Maggie. I feel like I am walking through a side of the family story that I didn't know very well, and a time that I lived through but didn't appreciate. 

 I sat down this morning after I had been working on something else, and I was just going to do a little paper sorting and maybe read a couple of them, but it just captivates me. Sometimes her handwriting can be a challenge, and I am challenged by some of the names and places. I want to do a good job translating some of them and then putting them into a blog, along with pictures and screenshots of some of the places. Granny really needs her own dedicated space, just like Maggie and Weaver. I need to get going on that again too!

Tonight I will stay away from TV and just read letters and work on the blogs. Mom did a fantastic job of dividing the pictures up and scanning many of them. I will do some more scanning as well. I sure hope there is a kid out there that is into the family history. If we can get things documented and up on the blogs, then at least we can finish with the Hendrys and Raritys of the generations that we are connected to. 

It is amazing to look back a lives that are past and read them as they were written in time. It always seems like I am writing to the wind. Who is gonna care about all the day to day stuff that goes on? But when I look at the family letters and pictures, it's the little details of daily life that are so fascinating. How much did stuff cost? Granny had so much fun talking to people on the Greyhound bus on her way home from visiting relatives. She tells all about the conversations that she had with the people that she sat with. That's the stuff of life. That's what fills in all the blanks between the pictures. That's who she was. 

She wrote SO MANY letters! I am SO glad!

Golly, An Update

 I'm slipping again, dear blog. It's been a few days.

I'll try to catch you up on what we've been up to. 

The guys are working like crazy. Paul works all day at the Y and then goes to Ripkin Stadium and works most nights. He's trying to get as much saved for school as possible. He leaves for Franciscan on the 19th!! I can't believe how soon it's coming up! Brendan is also working five nights a week at the Amazon warehouse in Aberdeen. I guess John is also working there to make some extra to pay down some bills, and since Paul worked there last year, I guess I should go down and apply, lol.

We have been working on getting the yard cleaned up and the beds weeded. While I was away things got a bit overgrown. I have most of it under control now. I don't want to use Round-up, because dear Cora loves to eat the grass in the back yard, and I don't want her eating that, so I am just pulling it. There is an area in the back behind the fence that is in desperate need, but I just can't stand all the mosquitos!

Danielle came over the other day and we gave Luna and Cora haircuts. I really didn't want to do it yet, but Cora's coat was getting really long and she was going to start getting mats. It was also super hot. She looks cute, and she must feel better. She is doing so well in the house! She hasn't had any accidents, and she always rings the bell to go out. She also has started going to bed at 10:30 and getting up at 7:00, which made for a nice weekend! 

Tim is away this week. He is in Kentucky on the first work trip in over a year! Covid put all the travel on hold. He is also going some time in September. 

Tomorrow morning is Mass and then we are starting to go back to the old Adoration schedule. We will have it in the chapel from 9:00 to 7:00 pm with Benediction and a Novena at the end! I am so glad! 

I have been reading Granny Bea's letters and they are just hilarious. What a force of nature she was!

Tomorrow I have to get up early, so I will be hitting the sack now.