Homecoming

This weekend was the first Homecoming dance for my daughter; she was very excited to be going & has been planning her outfit for a year.  Some of the style has changed over the past 12 months, but the overall  look remained the same.

I think she did well for not having any input from Mom...

very pretty

their ticket to the dance

I am a true believer that simplest is best.  I know that I am biased, but she's a beauty with very little make-up & conservatively dressed.  She had a good time at the dance with a few of her friends (guy friends, too).

PA School Leadership Conference

Today was an early start for our family, our youngest is part of the Marching/concert band which was asked to perform for the PASLC in Hershey, PA.  The kids had to report to school for 6:45 am; but since her daddy & I were assisting with the transportation of the instruments & equipment we had to be there for 6:15am to finish loading the trailer.

Dr. Sherry Smith - Lower Dauphin Superintendent

The kids did a fantastic job this morning.  Here are a few photos from the morning.

Jr ROTC from Harrisburg

Mr. Keith Richardson - Lower Dauphin HS Band Director

always in the back with being in percussion.

LDHS Concert/Marching Bands

Life Skills Class signing to "Believe" by Josh Groban

The high school band played the National Anthem & several stand tunes & favorites from past concerts.  The kids played for about 60 minutes between their 2 sets.  The kids did a terrific job for so early in the morning.

I'm so very proud of our band.

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Thanks to such a positive response from our community, Panstoria extended their Back to School Sale two days! But hurry! These great deals now end at 11:59pm EDT, Wednesday, September 9th!

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Not the way to start out our hoilday weekend...

A not so terrific way to begin our extended weekend with the holiday, after my daughter's performance at the 1st football game of the season; I had a deer run into the front fender of my Jeep!  Needless to say I had one VERY upset teen and a dinged up vehicle.  Not what I wanted to be doing at that late hour on a Friday night trying to leave for the weekend.

The damage was minimal, but I was unable to open the drivers door due to the damage to the front fender.  UGH!

(The red ellipses and circles show the damage to my vehicle that was in excellent shape prior to this accident.)

On top of that the poor fawn didn't survive.  This upset my daughter further because even though she hunts with her Daddy, "this isn't the way a fawn should meet its demise" (in her words).

She insisted we take a photo of the fawn and she wanted to pet it and stay with it until the end, so we accommodated her request.  Fortunately this didn't take long due to the severity of the fawn's injuries.  However, the aftermath lasted hours with her sobbing over the death of the fawn, all while I'm on the phone reporting the incident to the insurance company.  I'll just bet that sounded wonderful over the phone for them.  The up side is that no one else was involved, we weren't injured and my vehicle can be repaired; as much of an inconvenience it created.

The next morning I was making a trip to the insurance adjuster for a quote on repairs; still unable to open the driver's door to access the vehicle.  Someone should have thought to have taken a video of me having to climb in through the passenger's door to get in -- LOL!  Such a sight!

Got the repair quote; now I was able to have my Dad come over and temporarily fix my fender so that I can enter and exit through the driver's door.  Yea!  Time to get everything set up for repairs.  One more item on my overloaded plate.

The saga continues...

Summer's Winding Down

Last weekend my husband & I took a day trip with our daughter to Philadelphia.  We had a great day with her and everyone else on the bus trip.  We went to see the Masonic Temple, Constitution Center, Independence Hall, & the Liberty Bell.  Plus a stop at the King of Prussia Mall for some shopping & dinner before heading back home.  The weather was wonderful & we managed to find a bargain or two at the mall which we weren't counting on.  A few photos from the day's activities:

After we left the PA Grand Lodge/Masonic Temple we spent a few hours downtown exploring.

Eric & Lizzie - Independence Hall

Chris & Lizzie  - Independence Hall

 

back of Independence Hall

We also had some time to get in to see the Liberty Bell.

Liberty Bell

Eric & Lizzie

Chris & Lizzie

We're going to plan a trip back to explore historic downtown.  We didn't have enough time to get to everything we wanted to...

Graduation Thank You's

Last week I had a day to myself while the rest of the family were at the NASCAR race in Long Pond, PA.  I used my Artisan Program to design the layouts from the Jewel Achievement package, and I imported the photos from my Historian Program after doing some minor cropping & light adjustments on the photos.  I LOVE how these two programs work together seamlessly.  (Check out my links on the right of the page for these programs from Panstoria.)  They are reasonably priced for how powerful these programs are & all of the options you get.

I've been creating digital items with these programs for almost 10 years.  I've tried others, & I have found these to be some of the most user friendly programs out there.

front of card

back of card

This is the inside of the card for George's TY's.  I think it's a neat way for him to have some space to write a personal note to each person for their gift to him.  Love that these have a masculine look to them and still semi-formal from the outside of the cards. 

inside of card

We also had another graduate this year; I attended Nurse Aide training & graduated in July from the course; now I'm waiting for my state exam date.  There's one missing from the class photo...unfortunately there was an emergency & they weren't able to be present.  A great group of people.  Looking forward to completing my state exam.

I've been busy!

I can't believe that it has been 2 and 1/2 months since my last post, but when I look back at my photos and my calendar I've had a very hectic 12 weeks!

Here are a few of the reasons why:

My daughter's pageant - 

Memorial Day Weekend - 

we installed my flag pole after almost a year in the garage.

My son's band banquet (senior year) - 

& high school graduation - 

the orchestra

with the Superintendent

with the grandparents

I think lil' sis is going to miss him in the fall when he goes to college...

Then we started our projects around the house:

a project that we had hoped to have done in 2 long weekends is now going on 8 weeks due to and unusually wet summer here.  This past week is the first one to go more than 4 days w/o rain - it was 6 days!

digging the post holes

this is how you adjust for the concrete when you have the hole offset.

mixing the concrete

tamping the concrete around the posts

finally getting to the framework!

putting in the support joists

FINALLY getting to the decking...

even the kitty was enjoying being outside.

Then I decided to go to school to get trained as a Nursing Assistant; 21 evening classes the entire month of July.  Tonight was graduation.  Whoo Hoo!  Now to pass the state written & skills exam...

 Oh, and how could I forget; my neice was married Memorial Day weekend, too.

My uncle married them...it was a beautiful day for them.

Now that my evening classes are done with I hope to get back on track with my posts, photos and helping both my children adjust to the next stage of their growing.  It's approximately 3 weeks until my son goes to college; while it's local he'll be living on campus & his lil' sis will be adjusting to an emptier than normal house & no rides to school in the car - back to riding the bus.

Enjoy what's left of summer & save those great moments & memories with photos & then get them printed & into albums.  Albums are still the best & favorite way to look at photos.