Wonderful Weekend!

Ever have one of those times  when you really wish you could replay the entire event?

I have to say that this past weekend was, for me, one of those times.

Mandy and the grandkids -Maya and Kurtis -arrived here Saturday afternoon. Saturday evening, Mandy and I went to Tofttrees in State College for my "Celebrate the Season" Avon sales meeting. Sunday morning, I actually woke up early enough to be able to get ready to make it to church after which, we came home and Mandy fixed breakfast (bacon, scrambled eggs -for those who wanted eggs -and French toast) and then, after she and the kids left to go back to Middletown, I had a great time with my son as I rode over with him to pick up his big truck to be ready to start his work week early-early this morning. On the way over to his workplace, we stopped in Clearfield and had a great supper at the Panda Gourmet Buffet and then, I got to ride in a big 18-wheeler coal bucket!

It was so nice having the grandkids here, even if it was only for about 24 hours. Both kids seem to be adjusting very well -so far anyway -to the changes with their moving to Middletown. Kurt is having some issues that are going to have to be checked out though. His teacher was very concerned in that he appears to be "zoning out" frequently in class and she's wondering if perhaps he might be experiencing some type of petit mal seizures or something like that. So Mandy's going to have to look into this and get it checked out.

Maya had testing done in school this year (as did all her current classmates) for musical aptitude and she tested that a clarinet would be a good item for her to take lessons and learn to play. Lucky for her, Mandy's boyfriend's father played the clarinet and happened to have one which he loaned to Maya to use to learn on it.

She brought the clarinet up here with her this weekend but unfortunately, had a lot of difficulty trying to show me what she had learned about the instrument -other than she had learned how to put it together and all the little quirky, maintenance type things one has to do when putting a clarinet together. She tried to demonstrate her ability to get a note out -kind of is a "Johnny-One-Note" musician in that aspect right now, ya know -but she couldn't get the mouth and the instrument to coordinate and cooperate. That upset her to the point then that she was whining about how she wished she could have taken flute lessons or trumpet lessons because trumpets only have three buttons to push, ya know. And on and on about how terrible the clarinet is, so difficult, and how much better ANY other instrument would be for her. A typical obsessive type rant for her when she doesn't want to do the work involved in learning something new!

Before they left, I told Mandy to be sure NOT to let Maya win the battle of whether to keep trying with the clarinet or not because each time a concession is made to Maya because whatever it is she is to be learning is a bit of work to get the hang of it, the more she will try to always take the easiest route and not have any real ambition then to learn a multitude of things as she grows. All kids, I think, tend to be like that and those with obsessions (like Maya has a bent to do) use it perhaps even more to get out of things.

But anyway, aside from all of those things with the family, there was something else that happened on Saturday that made that day ultra-ultra special for me!

As Mandy was pulling up in front of the house in our parking area, a nice new gray Honda pulled up and the driver called out to Mandy, asking if she could tell him where "Jennifer Ertmer lives?" Mandy pointed to my house and told this man, "Right there!"

So, he pulled into the parking area and Sammy -the mutt -was by that time, alerting me there was an unknown vehicle by our place. I happened to look out the front door just as the driver of this car got out and stood up and my mouth dropped as I recognized the man IMMEDIATELY!

It was a guy who graduated high school two years ahead of me but who had been a member of our church back then and also, had been organist and choir director at our church for about 3 years back in the good old days ya know. He and my neighbor down the street (Kate) and I -along with Kate's sister, Louise, her brother Bob and I were frequently together for church activities. Plus, his senior year in high school, he had study hall with about seven other girls from my class and me and he was really quite the entertainment for us back in those days too.

Who was this "mystery" visitor to my life, you ask? Well, I was so excited to see him, I did something I very rarely do. I asked Mandy to go get my camera and to take a picture or two of me standing with him! (I hate having my picture taken so this was quite the leap for me to take, trust me!)

And anyway, here -for your viewing pleasure - I will share the pictures of my brief visit here with the notorious Eugene A. Larson, formerly from Lanse, PA, graduate of West Branch High School class of 1960, graduate of Grove City College and now a resident of an island off the coast of the state of Washington in the Seattle area. (At least, I think it's the Seattle region.) And, trust me when I tell you, Gene looks very much the same today as he did 53 years ago too! Personality-wise, he hasn't changed either -not a whit!

The lady who was with Gene Saturday, is his cousin, Gertie -who is a very good friend of mine and who lives about two miles from my place. She keeps in touch with him and then tries to keep me semi-informed too as to what's going on in his life out in Washington. He's been married for close to 50 years now, has three daughters and several grandchildren too. That much I do know. I think I've seen him only maybe 2, possibly 3 times, since about 1964 although he hasn't lived out on the Pacific coast all that length of time but just that the times when he was home visiting his Dad and when I was around home too back in the 60s just rarely jived.

But at any rate, it was something that totally made this weekend complete for me on the happiness scale! Having my grandkids here, sharing some quality time with my son, the holiday sales meeting for Avon where I lucked out and won a beautiful red fleece blanket with an extra soft, plushy lining, along with a couple other little goodies in the Avon product line too -and then, having had the surprise visit with Gene.

Can't really get very much better than that!