A Road Trip, Some Flooding, & Standing On Top of the World

For Conference Weekend we contacted, my sister, Ann to see if we could join her family for the weekend. We had a great time together. It was fun to reconnect with Tyler and Ann and their children. With the time difference, we were able to spend time Saturday morning at a pumpkin patch before the broadcast of General Conference began. The kids panned for gems & fossils, milked a "cow," slingshot small gourds, took a hay ride, picked pumpkins, and strolled through a corn maze:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
About a week later, our area was hit with several hours of rain. Due to all the consistent moisture, we had flooding around the area and had to remain off the roads. Before any driving bans, I ran home and discovered that we now had waterfront property:
 

 

 

 
Good thing we had more than one way in and out so I was able to drive through this mess once. I'm sure it got worse than the above pictures before the storm ended. 

Eventually the rains subsided and we had the opportunity to climb to the top of the Founder's Hall Dome on campus.
 

Picture via Penn Live

 
We made sure to take our cameras for pictures of the area:
 

Hershey Park in the distance.

 

A bird's eye view of the senior high campus.

 

 

Inside Founder's Hall

 

A different view of Founder's Hall than we usually have.

 
Dan's been struggling with his back. As we tried to figure out the best medicine for him, he decided to give some suggestions by other Houseparents a try:

 

Driving along we followed a hot air balloon which landed in a field on campus. Apparently it's a frequent sight:

Visits, Potatoes, Volleyball, Homecoming & Kisses

Amanda had a conference in Pittsburgh for work in September. Thankfully, Jake and Sid were able to join her at the end and the three of them headed our way for a long weekend. It was a short trip but we were so glad they made the effort to come.

Our agenda included a stop at the school for lunch. We were there for a couple Senior High lunch breaks and the kids were able to meet a few of the students we've interacted with in the few months we've been in Hershey.

From there we headed to Chocolate World.

Chocolate World has the largest and widest selection of Hershey chocolates you'll find anywhere. YUMMY!!! There's even a ride that tells how Hershey makes its chocolate and at the end, everyone receives some chocolate!

 

The next day we headed to Gettysburg together. We took the auto tour and since we had bought a tour on cd on our previous visit, we gathered in the same car and went from stop to stop learning more and more about the critical battles that took place there.

 

 

 

It was fun to show them around where we live and let them see more of what we are doing. Overall it was too quick of a visit but better than no visit at all.

While preparing for dinner at a student home I noticed the following:

An Idaho brand of potatoes! Then a few days later I saw this:

It was fun to have these two touches of "home" here in Pennsylvania, especially after the kids had left recently.

After attending a couple football games, we decided to support the girl's volleyball team. We managed to attend a couple of their games too. It was even more exciting and nail biting than the football games since we knew 75% of the team and were much closer to the action; we cheered ourselves hoarse.

Eventually, we spent a couple weeks at another girl's student home. There was the possibility we would be taking over for a period of time since the housefather's mother was ill. So we were  assigned there to shadow and learn the regular routine. We even ended up covering a few days that the houseparents were off which happened to fall on Homecoming weekend.

At 7:30 am the Saturday morning of Homecoming we were awakened to several of the students knocking on door letting us know that the power was out. We gathered together in the living room with pillows and blankets to visit and wait for the power to return. As the morning progressed, we began trying to figure out how we were going to eat breakfast and all get ready for the tailgate party and game. Eventually we decided on McDonald's for breakfast and by the time I returned with the first van load of girls, the power was back on. Dan took the remaining girls who had slept through the excitement and they got breakfast while we quickly got ready. The girls were troupers despite concerns about how we were going to eat breakfast and primp for the afternoon's festivities.

We made it to the decorated van contest and game with plenty of time to spare.

This game ended with a win for us! YAY!

As Dan and I left Founder's Hall, we saw this parked right outside the porte cochere:

 

Not sure why the Kissmobile was there but we decided to seize the moment.

Another fun-filled couple weeks!

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.