Penn State Chics Dig Nerds

Brady made some neat modular origami After a snow delay, our girls junior high basketball team finally had our basketball banquet We were involved in a lot of tournaments this month.  First, Natalee competed with her basketball team at the March Madness Tournament in Lewisburg.  Of course, the day of the tournament, it had to snow and cause some bad road conditions!  With the blowing afterward, I was glad we were staying there for the night. The team in Lewisburg Brady had the day off school the day before his birthday.  He decided he wanted to try to replicate the cake Cousin J had in Colorado last summer (the Agnes Cake).  I warned him that it would be a lot of steps and it would involve cooking icing, making meringue, and cooking the ganache.  He was not deterred! This is an intricate process.   Ta da! Happy 13th birthday to Brady.  For some reason, nearly all of the birthday cards Brady received involved flatulence.  I have not idea why :...

 Yes, it's the end of March, but I thought I should show a few highlights of January and February.  Between church activities, basketball teams, Boy Scouts, jazz band, and work... there was a lot to do. Amie sledding with friends Our washer suddenly became extremely loud. It was probably a bearing in it. It seemed more economical to get a new washer. Brady and Jesse ran with me in the SnowFest 5-miler at Greenwood Furnace State Park.  It was very cold this day.  When the race began at mid-day, it was 18 degrees.  Even though the whole trail was snow covered, we finished 18-19-20 (shortest to tallest) After we finished the race, we went to the lake to watch my cousin's wife participate in the Polar Bear Plunge. Brady went rabbit hunting with his Pap We tried to go sledding with the runner sleds on the mountain road.  It was too sticky, so we did not go very fast. Amie played for the Little Cats basketball team this winter.

 After Hurricane Ida hit the Louisiana, the storm remnants headed our way.  I wish we had a rain gauge, but we do not.  I hear from others around that we got about 7 inches of rain in 14 hours. We do not normally have a creek go through our yard.  It only happens when it rains a lot over a sustained period of time.  This time, our ground was very saturated even before this storm came through our area. Seeing all of this water go through our yard, it was not surprising to hear of all of the water problems that were caused by Muddy Run in the borough.  I heard of a lot of places having water in their basements, including our church.  My cousin, who lives a few miles away, had a lot of water in her yard and then in her basement.   With the high risk of flooding, it meant two days of online school.  The first day, there was a lot of creek flooding.  The second day, the Juniata River and large creeks flooded. You can tell how Brady felt about...

 We traveled to Colorado to visit friends and family as well as explore around the area where Jesse and I met at the Ranch 20 years ago. We were blessed by gathering with these wonderful friends and family again as well as spending time outside. It was very refreshing. We explored a variety of places.  We made it in time the first evening to help celebrate P's birthday with his meal of choice- pizza. The first full day, we acclimated and went to church with Jesse's cousins. We tried to find the Jamestown Picnic Area.  I think that this was it, but it was completely changed by the destructive floods a few years ago. We saw this view so often traveling on the long hayride to and from the Jamestown picnic. Oh, this view above Peaceful Valley!  Even smoky, the view is amazing. Unfortunately the ranch has all kinds of no trespassing signs.  We were hoping to get another picture on the stagecoach and walk up the road to the chapel.  But, we that did not appear t...