Seasons Beginning to Change

With only a few spare hours here and there, it's been a huge challenge to keep this even close to up-to-date. The hours we aren't with students we are running errands, sleeping, attending church, sleeping, at a church activity, sleeping, in trainings or meetings. Those priorities push the blog horribly out of date and the house a disaster. We keep telling ourselves it will get easier once we're assigned a students home, hopefully we aren't lying to ourselves.

The students returned from their summer breaks and are back in full swing of school work and activities. The first marking period came to an end and the time was been busy and hectic yet full of fun too. We're still shadowing and jumping from student home to student home and loving every minute of it.

The annual day of service to honor Martin Luther King, Jr. was in October. We were at a girl's student home and tried to come up with some ideas that would benefit the community not just the school or student home. After calling around to see about making visits at nursing homes, we paid closer attention to something the students said and opted to write letters to anyone they could think of who might need encouragement. We all selected someone and got busy writing and drawing to encourage someone else. We delivered several of the letters and sent a few out to the appropriate people. The girls really got into it and realized that something small can be very comforting and helpful to someone in need.

After spending some time doing service, the students all gathered for treats, carnival games, dancing, basketball, socializing, and swimming. It was a fun weekend and everyone seemed to have a good time.

A couple weeks later we attended the annual Cocoa Bean football game; our school vs the in town rival, Hershey High.

 

 We cheered loudly for the students we knew on the team.

 

 

We looked hard for the ones we knew in the band and color guard.

This is an annual tradition between the schools with the trophy going back and forth; but at Hershey High for the last nine years. This year's game was a nail biter of a game that sadly we lost by a measly five points. Not a very fun way to start the season, despite the determination of the whole team.

The following Monday was the Jelly Bean game, the JV version of the Cocoa Bean:

The JV played well and sent the other team home without the trophy this year; make that year #10 for Hershey.

This backpack deserves a shout-out:

It brought a smile to my face and I refrained from shouting "You spinney backed jerk."

One of our weekends off we headed to Amish country for a day visit. Not really sure where we were going, we drove through the area looking for places to stop. As we drove through the heart of the Amish communities, this was a frequent sight:

Yes, the town is really called Intercourse:

We were brave and even tasted some Shoo Fly Pie:

While helping at a third girl's student home (we do get assigned to boy's homes too, but they weren't doing as many photo-worthy activities at this time.) the Hershey Horticulture Society was holding an event at Founder's Hall. I persuaded three of the girls to go with me to view the displays. There were some amazing arrangements and flowers I'd never seen before.

This particular student home assignment was for us to Med Assist. That meant that one of the houseparents was ill and unable to perform their duties for several weeks so another couple comes in so that the student homes will have a male & female adult in the home. Dan and I were both there as was the regularly assigned housefather. During our time Med Assisting, it was the housefather's birthday. The girls and I decided to make some homemade cinnamon rolls for him. He took a night out and we went to work. On the morning of his birthday we were able to get everything together and surprise him with our efforts. The girls were excited about what we had done to help make his day more special.

 

Though we've not been able to attend our Church meetings more than every-other-week, we've been lucky enough to be off for a couple different ward activities. At one, one of the young women was drawing caricatures of people in attendance. We decided to have her draw one of us:

An example of how our brains aren't functioning as well as normal (whatever that is for us); Jake, Amanda, & Sid came out for a quick trip in September. They left on Sunday for the airport from Gettysburg and we left about the same time and headed straight to our ward for church. When we pulled into the parking lot, Dan reached for his tie and realized he'd packed his suit but not his tie. Here he is in church trying to hide that fact:

It was a busy couple months but we did all we could to make the most if it.