training

This week is full of interpersonal skills development at an SYIS (Sharpen Your Interpersonal Skills) course on the NTM (New Tribes Mission) Canada base.

I'm sharing an apartment (with two others) in this building

plenty of northern scenery

main building on campus

each table is fully equipped for quality learning :)

lots of small group and all-group sharing

the color dots are drawings by each participant, showing "where I am" right now--
like those "You are HERE" dots on maps

Across the Border

I packed a few groceries, some clothes, and my passport after work last week and spent yesterday driving to another country...

Greetings from Canada, friends :)

ps- still questioning why this workshop had to be 9 hours NORTH instead of a comparable distance south... but, the temperature in the apartment is vastly warmer than we heat our half-a-house in Pennsylvania :)    .luxury.

Fourth

Last Monday I learned that all Pennsylvanian residents must file local taxes.

(good thing I learned this important information before Wednesday!)

Cumberland County Tax Bureau received my FOURTH personal 2014 tax return...

(1st: Federal, 2nd: Pennsylvania, 3rd: Michigan)

Blue

When my sister announced her engagement and asked me to be her maid of honor, I told her I would wear whatever color she wanted-- even blue (a color which I never wear).

She chose to take advantage of my offer to wear her favorite color. All the bridesmaids are to be dressed in light blue this Saturday when Blueberry Betsy marries her sweetheart.



ps- Happy Birthday to Blueberry Betsy TODAY!

April 15th

Happy Tax Day

the IRS building in Washington DC

And...

Happy Birthday to my favorite decade-year-old

LYDIA!

(ps- I can't believe you're 10 already!)

a time for cherry blossoms

Last week, Heather (remember her?) and I decided to get together for Saturday brunch. But, on Thursday we changed plans; we decided to drive down to Washington DC instead to check out the annual cherry blossom festival, because Saturday and Sunday were supposed to be the peak glory days for the flowering trees.

I'd say Saturday was a peak day-- not only for the blossoms, but also for the tourists! There were nearly as many people as blooms (and that's not really an exaggeration).

I was giddy about our little trip to DC, because this was my first visit to DC since I was five! Twenty-three Aprils ago, Dad and Mom took all six of us little people on a big trip to Washington DC (or, George Washington DC, as Betsy called it). Brian was three months old, and Aaron was going to be 11 in June.

Grandma went with us, and she and I were subway buddies. The best part of my subway buddy situation? (the undivided Grandma attention, of course, but on top of that)-- the occasional Cert mint from Grandma's purse!

Well- back to our recent Saturday trip:
Heather, Malinda and I managed our way through the crowds and soaked in the sunshine as we walked a few miles worth of steps around a handful of our nation's most famous historic monuments.

did you know the Washington Memorial was recently re-measured...
and it is shorter than previously thought!

World War II memorial

Lincoln Memorial-- still just as many steps as I remember there being when I was five!

oh those blooms!

A new memorial (at least I didn't know about it) to honor MLK

I always find the wording above Lincoln rather interesting and slightly eerie

food trucks galore!

It was so much fun to visit DC with friends and spend the day together enjoying the lovely sunshine and abundant cherry blossoms. I've been dreaming of a trip (okay, multiple trips...) to the District of Columbia ever since I realized how close it is to central Pennsylvania.



PS- One last highlight of our family trip to Washington DC twenty-three years ago:
Fruit Loops and doughnuts for breakfast every single morning of the trip!
...oh the things that make impressions on a five-year-old...

pansies

This spring Sara is working at a greenhouse, and

free flowers are one of the perks of the job.

Oh how I LOVE pansies!

[and these blooms came just in time... because I was beginning to wonder if summer would ever come to this cold place. Seeing cheery flowers reassures me that summer will indeed come.]

This Little Guy :)

charms my heart.

full house

We hosted sixteen in our half-a-house on Sunday.

It's such a gift to have a place where we can host friends and family.

being FIVE

Nessa turned five last week, and she invited me to eat cake and ice cream at her birthday party!

dress-up time at the party

what could be better than a pink and purple cake with a princess and "the man she will marry" on the top-?!

Favorite quote from the visit:

(overheard on the way to the car wash riding in my car)

"Wow! Isn't this so fun? This is like riding in a real car!"

old house

You know you live in an old house when...

you prop the bathroom window up with a stick from the yard.