This and That

Oh my goodness these last two weeks have been a blur-we packed up and moved from our summer house back to our regular house over the weekend.  We rent our regular house to baseball families visiting our town for 12 weeks during the summer.  G also  has been working with a contractor day and night for 8 days trying to get our second rental house ready for tenants who are moving in this week.   On top of all of that craziness classes started today at the college where we work and we have an exchange student living with us this fall and she moved in yesterday.  I'm exhausted just typing all of that.  For the last two weeks I have done nothing but pack, clean, organize and I made numerous trips to Home Depot to get stuff for the rental house.  I am SO exhausted but I am thankful that we are back to our regular house and almost settled in there.  

I also did manage to squeeze in a few fun things that were already on my calendar in the last couple of weeks.  

 G learned to put in windows and put 16 news ones in our rental house!  Here he is putting in the windows in the dining room of the downstairs apartment.  I took tons of pictures of the renovations that we did and want to make a book of before and after pics.  

The upstairs bathroom needed a complete overhaul.  Here is the before and the (almost) after.  

I love making homemade freezer jam so I made 6 jars of  strawberry freezer jam for us and I also made pesto using basil from my garden.  I was able to make four batches of pesto the basil leaves from one of my plants.

My friend M invited me over for a fun afternoon of swimming, friends, and snacks.  It was a great day!

My friend T had her second annual summer brunch and I made peach hand pies to take to the brunch.  They were so easy to make and I used peaches from the Farmers Market.  Peaches are in peak season in NY right now and they were so delicious.  I will post the recipe soon.

I went to a fundraing event for Hospice over the weekend.  ZZ Top played and it was a lot of fun. Practically everyone from our whole town was there and it was fun night for a great cause!

A couple of weeks ago my friend D hosted our monthly bunco game and her hubby made pizzas for us in their outdoor pizza oven.  They were so good!  

A couple of weeks ago Margaret Atwood, one of my favorite authors, came to Cooperstown to give a talk about her books.  She talked mostly about A Handmaid's Tale and the TV series it has become.  She gave a fascinating talk and I learned so much from listening to her.  She had a dry sense of humor and she kept everyone engaged with her funny stories and sharp wit.  After the talk she did an impromtu book signing and I had her sign a copy of the Handmaids Tale for Ava.  Once school starts for Ava we are going to read the Handmaid's Tale together.  

This morning I watched the finale of Sharp Objects.  I read the book in June and have absolutely loved the series it was SO good.  The finale was intense and crazy and I loved every minute of it.  If you watched it let me know how you liked it.  

Finally our exchange student from Taiwan arrived yesterday.  She slept most of the day yesterday and is still tired today.  She is a sweet girl and we have had fun talking with her and getting to know her a little bit.  We have a couple of fun things planned for her this week before school starts.  

I hope you had a great couple of weeks.
xoxo

Ava’s home!

Our Ava is home from the Czech Republic!!  She decided to come home a few months early from her year long exchange.  I am sad that she didn't stick it out until the end but she has been so homesick for months so we made the right decision to have her come home early.  She had some amazing experiences-she visited Hungary, Austria, Poland and Slovakia.  She got to visit the world famous Christmas Markets in Austria, she visited the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland and she visited Budapest in Hungary.  She also went to Prague four times during her stay in the Czech Republic.

She stayed with two host families during her time in Czech and she loved them both so much. I still stay in touch with her first host family and her second family was just as nice.  Both sent us pictures and updates via Facebook.  I am forever grateful to both of those families for loving our girl and caring for her while she was in Czech.

Ava took a lot of stuff to  Czech and she bought a lot of clothes and souvenirs when she was over there.  I wasn't sure everything was going to fit in her suitcases but thankfully everything did!  Here she is after packing everything up. She was thrilled she didn't have to leave anything behind.

Ava's second host family took her to the airport.  They were a lovely family and she spent the Christmas holiday with them.  Czech has some interesting Christmas traditions and I am so grateful that she got to experience those customs and traditions with this family.  One of the traditions involves keeping a Carp fish in the bathtub for a few days and then killing the fish and eating it on Christmas eve.

Going to catch her plane in Prague.

I had already made plans to be in Florida so Graig and Grandma Jan picked Ava up from the airport in Philadelphia.  She was SO happy to be home!!

We are so happy our girl is home.  She will be home for a few days and then she starts school next week.  I am so thankful to have her home and I am thrilled she had this experience.  It was an adventure she will never forget.

Xoxo

Our weekend

It was a beautiful weekend in upstate NY.      This weekend was jammed packed with activities and fun. I love, love, love fall weekends and this weekend I enjoyed every single second. 

Friday night my friend Jenn and I planned a birthday surprise for our friend Barb. Jenn and I bought all of the supplies to make fall centerpieces and then we went to Jenn's house and put them together. It was so fun to put the flowers together.  I am going to show a full tutorial on them tomorrow for crafty Wednesday.  After we made our arrangements we went to dinner at a delicious Italian restaurant in Cooperstown.  It was really a great night!

Saturday morning I was up bright and early to go to a Rotary pancake breakfast.  The breakfast supports the Rotary Youth Exchange Program that Ava is participating in this year.  The breakfast was delicious!  

At the breakfast I got to meet the two exchange students that are in our town for the year.  It was great to meet them.  They were so cute and so far they are having a great year!

Saturday after breakfast my friend Rachael and her boys and I went to a pumpkin patch.  It was such a fun way to spend the afternoon.  We also stopped by the state police 100th anniversary party (the boys thought that was so fun!) and I picked Dalhia's at my neighbor's house.  She has so many and they are SO pretty. 

Saturday night Graig and I went out with friends to celebrate our friend Sheila's birthday.  We had dinner and listened to a dinner concert.  It was a fun night.  Here is a picture from the girls table.  The guys wanted their own table :)

Sunday I worked at a Community Connections event to introduce people in our community to various non profits.  I work part time for our community foundation.  We give small grants to other non-profits to do activities and events in our community. 

After my afternoon working I ended Sunday with a trip to Cooperstown with my friend Sabrina.  We went to small plates tasting event at the Farmer's Market.  All the foods we sampled were local and organic.  We got to try so many interesting foods.  My favorite were the pumpkin maple bacon cupcakes that are pictured below.  

I hope you had a great weekend and a good start to your week.
Xoxo

Ava update {one month}

As of today Ava has been in the Czech Republic for one month.   I thought I would post a monthly update during her year so everyone could stay up to date with what's she's been up to during time in the Czech Republic.  

Ava is staying with a great host family  and we have been in touch with them via Facebook.  Ava's host mom sends me pictures every week which has been wonderful.

One month ago we were at the airport saying goodbye to our Ava.  I was so happy to get passes to go all the way to the gate with her.  It was great to be able to spend extra time with her.  

Ava's host family met her at the airport with a big welcome sign.  

After they left the airport they visited a few places in Prague before heading home. 

Here is Ava in front of her school. She started school a week after she arrived in Czech.

Here is a Snapchat pic from Ava's host sister ❤️

Ava's host family likes to eat out (just like us!) so that has been fun for her. 

Last weekend Ava went on a weekend retreat with all of the other exchange  students that are living in Czech.  She made some new friends

.  

This pictures is also from the retreat.  I loved it so much I had it printed on a wood panel for our dining room.  

She's also been doing some sightseeing.  She sent me these pics yesterday.  She was at the Bolt Tower in Ostrava. 

I can't believe it's already been a month.  I hope the rest of the year flies by.  We miss her so so much!

Xoxo

Goodbye Ava

Yesterday we took Ava to the airport to begin her year as a Rotary Youth Exchange student.  I have had very mixed feelings about this day since we found out a month ago this would be her departure date.  We are so excited for her to go but we are also so sad she'll be away from home for a year.  

She packed SO much.  The girl loves clothes and her shoes and she filled both of her suitcases plus her carry on bag to the brim with stuff. 

We drove to the Philadelphia airport  about 4 hours away from our house for Ava to catch her flight to Paris.  From Paris she will go to Prague.

Over the weekend Ava had many teary goodbyes with her friends and family.  I am so thankful that she has so many people that love her and care about her. 

Saying goodbye at the airport was so hard. We all cried.    I know she is going to have a great year but it was hard letting her go.  

At her party I asked people to write her notes to read in the Czech Republic.  We packed these in her suitcase and if she gets lonely she can look at them and be reminded of her friends and family back at home.

This morning she landed in Prague!  Her host family was there to pick her up.  Her host Mom has been messaging me a lot on Facebook and she has sent pictures and videos.  I am so thankful for them.  I love seeing these pictures!  

Please keep Ava in your thoughts and prayers this week as she transitions from life in the USA  to being an exchange student.  She will get settled in her new house this week and she starts school on Friday. 

I hope you have a great week!

Xoxo