Post Hurrican Irene and a bunch of randomness

We made it through the storm with no ill effects. We had our electric go out for just a minute here and there but no major disruption in service.
 We took the leap and got rid of our cable service this past week. We realized that we don't watch it that much and that we have using our Netflix more. Any shows that I watched were dvred and I would sometimes not watch them for weeks and by then I could watch most of them online. We also figured we could buy a couple of movies or seasons of tv shows we liked and still be able to save money. The cable rep that my hubby talked to was not to happy and kept asking if we were going with someone else.
My husband surprised me and came walking with me on Monday. We had a good time. We then went out for breakfast at one of our favorite diners 
Sunday we didn't have church because of the hurricane so we had a nice relaxing day here. Dave and I watched Secretariat On Netflix. We now have a blu ray player in the room that we can use netflix on the tv. It makes it really nice to watch some of the movies that I would like to watch with Dave as he usually only watches movies in bed before he goes to sleep. While we were watching this he googled it and found that some of the movie was not correct but it was a nice movie anyway.
 One station I will miss because we no longer have cable will be Turner Classic Movies. Netflix has some of the classics but not near the amount that TCM had.
We were without Internet on Monday so that put a bit of a cramp in our school as some of Hannah's subjects requires access to the Internet for various reason.
 I will be on vacation next week as one of the ladies I work with will be going on a cruise so they don't need two people there at night so I will work Sunday night and then bring the other lady home for a cookout on Monday then I will be off for a week after I take her back home. No real plans for the week except Hannah will be starting Homeschool Group which she is looking forward to as she will be taking an art class for one of her classes. I also may go to visit my Mother In Law but I am not sure about that yet.

Hope everyone has a great rest of the week. 

There goes our Weekend

We had planned to go to see the Statue of Liberty on Sunday but from the predictions of Hurricane Irene it looks like that will be exactly when she will be around New York so there go our plans plus the money we spent on our ferry tickets (they are non refundable). 

I have started walking again after having taken off a week and half because of my back hurting.  I had Hannah walk with me on Monday and both she and David went along with me on Wednesday to Ferncliff Nature Preserve.  We had to navigate a downed tree over the road both ways and I have the bruises to prove it.  Dave took some pictures and I will post them later. 

Yesterday we went back to the Indian Steps Museum and took Dave with us this time.  We enjoyed wandering around the museum then started to walk the nature trail to see the water fall.  I walked a very small part and decided that I would attempt it as it was pretty steep and although I am in better shape than I was I still am not up to that quite yet. Maybe in a year.  Dave and Hannah continued on an reported back that there were 2 downed trees on this trail and the waterfall wasn't flowing much at all.  So I didn't miss much. 

Of course the big news was our Earthquake on Tuesday.  As everyone else in the household was driving in a car at the time, I was the only one that felt it.  I didn't like it one bit.  This is the second one that I was in as we had one when we lived in Indianapolis many years ago. 

We watched this over the weekend
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Dave really likes the Andy Hardy movies.  They are kinda corny but cute too.

Stay dry every one!

I knew this would happen

After homeschooling for many years I have learned to roll with the punches.  I know that I need to have some sort of plan but also not be too rigid with that plan.  I had our first week planned out and we have had a good two days.  Hannah has gotten all of her work done and has not had any problems. 
But school will be put on hold for the next two days.  Why?  Because Hannah has an opportunity to go to Philadelphia to do some missions work at an inner city church plant there.  She will be working in their garden plots that the church had growing fresh produce for the people in the area.  They will do some other things around Philly too.  They will be spending the night at the church we use to attend.  (Hannah still attends the Youth group there and Faith teaches Sunday School).  So Wednesdays lessons will be pushed to Friday and the rest of the week will move to next week.  This is one of the reasons I like homeschooling.  We can learn when it is convenient for us.  When the kids were younger if we didn't homeschool they wouldn't have been able to see much of their Dad because of his schedule.  Because we homeschooled I was able to pack up their books and he was able to take them with him on some of his trips.  We have always tried to make it happen when the kids have had a chance to help others. 
So it will be quite here the next two days. 

First Day of Junior year plus this and that

We have officially started our Junior year of High  School for Hannah today.  So far so good.  We tend to try to easy into things so we only will be doing a  few subjects this week and adding more as the weeks go on.  I will have to  wait for some subjects that Hannah will be taking in Homeschool group to see where I need to fill in places.  We will be doing quite a bit of cooking and home ec (translation cleaning).  We hope to be taking several field trips to various places with Hannah reporting about them on her blog.  First up will be the trip that we took to Indian Steps Museum in York county last week. 

Several things are on my mind this morning beside the start of school.  On Saturday there was a tragic accident at the Indiana State Fair where 5 people were killed and dozens of people were injured when a stage fell.   This was caused by a gust of wind.  My prayers go out to the families of these people. 

The second thing that is on my mind, a family from our church are in the process of adopting a little girl from Bulgaria.  The mother is over there now to meet the little,  She has posted some pictures about this meeting.  Warning the pictures are quite disturbing regarding the conditions these children have to live in over there.  Here is the link. 

On Saturday we watched part of this





A few weeks ago I think I posted about the first volume of this two disc series.  I tried to find some video of some of the routines from this disc but I couldn't find any but I can assure you that it is funny.

Dave and I watched this





Last night.  I liked it but I think I liked the one entitled Earth better.

Well I guess that is it for today.  Everyone have a great day!!

The Last Week and A Half

We have had an eventful week and a half here.  Last Monday Faith and Hannah left for a missions trip to Nappanee Indiana.  They conducted the VBS for the BIC church there and did some work around the church.

Our weekend started with Dave and I trying our hand at geocaching. There is one in a small park near us.  The above is a picture of the park.  We were close but we had to get help from the guy who lives in the house pictured. 

After we dropped the girls off at the church on Monday for the missions trip we went for a walk at Silver Mine Park.  The above pics were taken there.  We then went looking for covered bridges.

The above bridge is the Colemanville Bridge and a picture of the stream .  We then went to the Pinnacle Overlook down at PPL in Holtwood.

Isn't that a great view of the Susquehanna River!!

We found another Covered bridge on our way home.  This is the Baumgardner Bridge. 

We then went home.  that was our Monday.

On Tuesday I went walking at the Theodore Parker III Natural Area.  I posted pictures earlier of Dave and myself here.  I started walking at the other end of the trail.  Well I didn't walk far as the trail kept going down and as you know if you go down on the way back you have to go up. 

I didn't walk Wednesday but on Thursday I went to the BellaireWoods Nature Preserve.  The description said that the trail had cobblestones.  These were not cobblestones but boulders.  I must have twisted the wrong way after walking here as I have been experiencing back pain in varying degrees since then. 

The above pictures are from one of the places I walked on Friday.  These are from the Manor Township Park.  I drive past this park all the time and ddi not realize how big it was and how pretty.  The path wasn't very long and I didn't want to walk it again so I went to Central Park and walked part of Mill Creek Trail.  I had tried to walk this trail before but the trails aren't accesible until 7:30 so this was a perfect day to go. 

The above pictures are from my favorite place that I walked all week last week. On Saturday I went to   Ferncliff Wildflower Preserve.  It was a really pretty walk.  I didn't do it all as my back was really starting to give me problems.  I hope to take Dave here in the near future and maybe even do the geocache that is there.  (several of Lancaster Conservancy properties have geocaching).

By Saturday night my back was hurting so much that I couldn't bend down to pick something up.  I stayed home Sunday from church and tried  to rest my back.  I didn't walk on Monday.  Yesterday I went to Wolgamuth Park and walked a half mile.  I couldn't walk much further as my back was really hurting me.  I walked a mile on the Lancaster Junction Recreation trail today.  My back would be fine for a while then I would get a spasm.  I plan on doing some stretching exercises because when I stretch my back it seems to help. 

The girls came home on Saturday and they really had a great time and seemed to have made an impact on the kids who came to VBS. 

We will be starting school on Monday so I have been gathering materials and planning the first week.  Hannah and I function best if I don't plan to far in advance.  I have a general Idea of what I want her to achieve and how we are going to do that but the plan changes almost daily.  Plenty of room to tweak things if needed

How has your week been?

Remember Always Look Up!!