Lorraine D. Hebler

catching up with family

By Lorraine

Spring days ~ busy days!
April was filled with lots a family activities and get together’s!

 The son of our cousin, Caroline, was married in a lovely wedding.
Caroline, with her family including the newlyweds, Dan & Abbey 
(photo taken from facebook. Tyler Boye Photography)

As is so popular now, they had a photo booth situated in an obscure corner. All I can say is that my sister, John and I got some of the funniest pics ever!  So silly, that Carol made me promise never to share on any social media! Just imagine, John in the center with a crazy hat and over-sized glasses with basically the same expression in every photo and my sister and I making every goofy face we could possibly think of. Oh, my! Each time I look at the photos, I crack up all over again!
(photo taken from Stephanie’s facebook page)
Then there was a christening for our cousin Karen’s grandson, baby Mark.
 Together again with Carol, her daughter, Christine, John and I. Later noticed the framed photo on Karen’s mantle. It is of our daughter, Erin when she was just three year old performing flower girl responsibilities in Karen’s wedding. Such sweet memories!
 There were random, every day moments too.  I caught this scene of, Erin, Jared and Abbey studying in the family room.  Erin is completing her master’s degree, Jared is a high school Junior and Abbey is studying digital animation.

Noah and I went to breakfast one morning and later we did some cooking together.

I even got a pic from Erin as she drove through center city the other day and saw the old Divine Lorraine Hotel. 

 We had a trip to The Pop Shoppe with the kids, celebrated our dear friend’s 91st birthday during Bible study and peeked in as the kids helped Aunt Abbey create a 5-little monkeys video for a class assignment.
Noah went to work with PopPop and learned about nuclear engineering. 
Jared was inducted into his schools Technology Society.
pics with his proud mom and PopPop
Each day that passes, each achievement obtained, each celebration shared, each difficulty acknowledged, each experience learned, each encouraging smile, each laughter and giggle, each conversation, each hug and embrace are all gifts.
“We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary,
small (and yet really not small) gifts.” 
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Gratitude paints little smiley faces on everything it touches.” 
Richelle E. Goodrich
Smile Anyway: Quotes, Verse, & Grumblings for Every Day of the Year

Vintage French Provincial Bedroom Set

By Lorraine

My sister, Carol, just went to closing on a house she sold.
I lent a hand helping her pack.
We began in mid-November and through sorting and wrapping, taping and stacking, hauling and heaving, lugging and loading, stooping and stretching, sunshine and raindrops, lost keys and cell phones and frustrating inspections, there was much chatting and memories, stories and updates, giggles and laughter and sisterly love.
 
 
 

 
This vintage French Provincial bedroom set belong to our parents, purchased in the early 1960’s.  It went to Carol when Mommy passed several years ago and I got the new set mommy was then using.
 Carol doesn’t want to take this to her next home and though I wasn’t in need of a bedroom set, the sentimental value was too great to pass it up and now resides in our guest room.
 The chest on chest belonged to Daddy and how I remember, as a kid, snooping through his top drawer and seeing his neatly folded hankies, perfectly placed wallet, coins, keys, pens, deck of cards and trinkets stored there. 
I left the white iron bed that we had purchased and used until we received mommy’s new set. It is a queen-size and better suited for visitors than the full bed that is part of the set. I think it works with the other pieces.

 

 

 

Searching old photo albums for shots with the furniture in the background, I found these:
My 8th grade graduation
Cousin, Karen and I as flower girl and junior bridesmaid for Carol’s wedding
Daddy and his first grandchild, Chrissy (Carol’s oldest) at his organ
and
Carol ready for her senior prom
Carol, John and I looking a wee weary, took a selfie after a long, busy day, with only the steps to sit upon. Still happy together
(John may have been a just a tad grumpy being forced in a silly selfie photo, but he was a good sport)
and still finding fun in being together.
yes, sisters.  she is so kind, smart, poised, beautiful and generous and I love her to pieces
❤
Next time, I will show you where I put the bed to this set and then my dining room changes.
ta-ta for now!

Our Anniversaries

By Lorraine

Celebrating anniversaries together is lots of fun. These two couples took a cooking class together and not only learned something new but had a blast.
Celebrating anniversaries. What do you do when celebrating your anniversary?  Maybe something different every year. A quiet dinner together? A vacation? Exchange extravagant gifts. Take a walk along your favorite trail? John and I celebrated out 39th wedding anniversary and my cousin, Karen and her husband John will be celebrating their 33rd anniversary early November. So, we decided to spend a day together. We picked Atlantic City because John and I haven’t been there since we were children.

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Cousins Camp ~ Part 3

By Lorraine

~ DAY 4 ~
John took a vacation day on Monday to join us at Sahara Sam’s Oasis Indoor/Outdoor Water Park.
This place is less than 15 minutes from home so we saved travel time and gas mileage plus we qualified for discount tickets using our AAA card.  No one was happier to officially be a senior than John that day as his ticket was FREE!  And, FREE makes him very happy 🙂

 After the girls had their early morning tea on the patio, we all met at the water park and it was off to cross the crocodile flats on swaying lily pads. 
Here Jared convinces his PopPop he will not get drenched along the Lazy River Congo Bongo.
Would you had believed that boy?!?
One of us preferred to stay alert and avoid most of the deluges 😉
 For the kids, getting waterlogged was the goal.
 Silas, the youngest stuck close by Jared who kindly accompanied him throughout the day.
 over and over and over they climbed the steps, hopped into their tubes and zoomed down the winding shoots to be deposited in a pool of water at the bottom
 There are four slides and the kids made use of them all. A 350-feet body slide, Snake Eyes for a single person tube or a double person tube and the Kilimanjaro that is family size.   
 Jared accompanied the girls many times 
And you didn’t think he would let me off the hook, did you?
That first curve was quite jolting so I prayed, relaxed (sort of) and looped and swirled to the bottom.
All of the colorful slides wind around the outside of the building.
We saved a bundle of money by bringing lunch.  There is NO food or drinks allowed to be brought into the park so I packed hoagies I made in the morning, orange slices, chips, cookies and drinks.  We headed to the parking lot to have our tailgate lunch.  Not very elegant but the kids devoured it all, even the ones who usually have small appetites!
After lunch, they wanted to return to the inside park.  Then they saw the awesome wave pool.
After watching some really amazing people on the FlowRider Surfing Simulator, Noah and Ryan wanted to give it a try.  We had to sign a special waiver before they could and we weren’t sure how they would do. We’d been watching a lot of people and it looked quite challenging.
I love their faces of determination as they rode the waves and managed to stay on their boards for the duration!
  It was hard to end the day.
“Just once more on the…. 
just once more?
We stayed to nearly closing.

Cousins Camp ~ Part 1

By Lorraine

We had an action packed July with grandkids and I know they are looking forward to seeing photos of our adventures together.  It will probably take me all of August just to recap July!
I guess I will start with this week and work backwards 😉

Cousins Camp

 
~ DAY 1 ~
 
Cousins Camp began by meeting at a halfway point (Clarks Summit, PA) to pick up our New York grandchildren.
We had lunch with their parents then piled the kids and luggage into our car for a week long adventure.
 

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Barnegat Lighthouse

By Lorraine

Barnegat Lighthouse

My sweetheart and I planned a day together just to enjoy ourselves after a long string of working weekends doing yard work and all sorts of chores.

We are fortunate to live just over an hour driving distance to many shore points along the Jersey coast.

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lilacs

By Lorraine

 The sweet fragrance of lilac fills the air and it reminds me of the joy and blessing of friendship!
 It’s been a perfect couple of days after some very heavy rain this week.
The grass is green, the trees are blooming and it is really spring!
 It is also Raider’s birthday
 I think he is feeling his 11 years
 a quick selfie before heading out for another full day of yard work
my boy
❤

Oh, my Chloe Dear!

By Lorraine

The other night my phone sounded that a message came in.
It was from Chloe
Just as you guessed,  I have watched this sweet 25 second video over and over and over 
As promised, we met up with PopPop for our annual Shamrock Shake lunch
at playland
with Cambrie 
 hello, Chloe!
Aunt Abbey was able to stop in from work as well and give a hug to Jethro
Chloe’s newborn shamrock shake face
and last years sweet little face
This little leapling will be turning 2 in a few days ~ can you believe it?

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