Our summer has gotten off to a good start. We've already had our grandchildren here and we have been on a weekend trip to Ohio. Kaleb came to stay with us on the Wednesday after we got back from Ohio. He went to work with me several of the mornings that I needed to work. One day he went to the Salisbury Zoo with Aunt Shirley and Christopher. He has gone to his home the past two weekends. He went to Six Flags yesterday and will come back here tomorrow. We have enjoyed having him with us for an extended period of time.

I have been walking on a regular basis again this spring and early summer. The beginning of June the honeysuckle were in full bloom. I think they are one of my most favorite fragrances. During my teen years we had honeysuckle vines that would grow up by our porch and I loved it. Often when I smell them in the spring, it will bring back memories of those years. One thing I noticed this year was that along our road where the honeysuckle was growing the briars were right there beside them. I thought how often that is the way life is--we have the pleasant right along with the not so pleasant. But God is faithful. . .

Robert took care of a gentleman last night so he has slept most of the afternoon. I'll have to see if I can get him interested in a game of Scrabble. . .

This is a busy time of year at school as I am trying to get as much done each day as possible for the awards assemblies on Friday--the last day of school for this year!  The school year seems to have passed very quickly. Maybe I have been busier than some years or maybe I have enjoyed the year more. For some reason we seem to have gotten to this place without too many bumps in the road.

We have an "empty nest" for a few days right now. Rodney and Dwight moved Kanina to NC. They left Monday and will be gone a few days. It seems that along with the "empty nest" came the responsibility of caring for CAT (no name has stuck for this feline who has taken up residence here against my wishes). CAT doesn't like closed doors and the past two mornings has awakened me at 4:40 because the bathroom door is closed while my husband is showering.  Most of the time she is a lovely kitten, and her coat is a beautiful gray, but at that time of the morning she isn't exactly what I want to hear or see!

Since I have gotten an earlier than usual start, I plan to go to school early to get some extra things done while I can work without interruptions. We have early dismissal today, so maybe I will get a nap this afternoon.

Have a great day!

Flat Stanley's Visit to Delmarva

On a sunny Thursday recently we received a letter from our oldest granddaughter. This is what it said:

Dear Grandma, Grandpa, and Kaleb,
I have sent this paper Stanley for a Flat Stanley project in social studies. I was assigned to have you take Stanley places and take a picture of him and write on each picture where he's been. 
                                             Your grandaughter and cousin,
                                              Abby Miller
P.S. Some places could be your house, grandpa's work shop or grandma's office. Please make sure Stanley is in each picture.

 This is how Flat Stanley arrived.

We had already made plans to go to Chesapeake on Friday, so we took Flat Stanley along. We took pictures along the way to document our travels.

At the Chesapeake Bay Bridge and Tunnel.

Entering one of the tunnels

Dinner with Ken and Elsie at Red Lobster

Back here in Delaware: Kaleb and Flat Stanley visited the Library.

Flat Stanley showing off Robert's Handiwork at Dover Windows and Doors

and finally Flat Stanley "helping" me at the GMS office.

Robert said we took over thirty pictures all together. We had fun with Flat Stanley. We got this message after we sent him back:

Dear Grandma & Grandpa,

I almost forgot to say that Flat Stanley also visited Washington D.C. Kanina took pictures but I don't have them.

I promised my oldest sister this summer that I would post this picture
of her grade school teacher so here it is:

Goldie (Hummel) Hostetler and Carolyn (Miller) Salesky

 Goldie Hummel taught school for a couple years in the school run by Deep Creek Mennonite Church in Virginia. ( I was too young to remember this...not sure any more which years it was.) She made a long lasting impression on my sister and in recent years they have visited by phone from time to time. A dream of my sister was to visit with Goldie. My husband and I took Carolyn along to Indiana this past summer and Aunt Ruth made arrangements for us to visit Goldie, who lives with her daughter not too far from Goshen.

A Little Trip down Memory Lane