Grandparents, porch, and china. Oh my!

Wow! We have had quite the week with sickness, an anniversary, company for tea, Sunday dinner company, the china cupboard shelf breaking, and finishing the front porch roof! All those things merit a blog post, but alas, I am much too tired to do one for each event so they all will be meshed together in one!

The hipped roof was a little more difficult and took much longer than they thought it would take, but look at it! I think it is perfect!

Grandpa and Grandma celebrated their 54th wedding anniversary on Friday! Grandma had a delightful time dressing up in anticipation for their special dinner that night with my parents! She was so excited she had to call her daughter Kim and tell all about her preparations! The picture was taken outside of the fancy Italian restaurant in our town (the only nice one here!). They all had a delightful time and really enjoyed being together, the four of them!

In their 54 years my grandparents have:

Raised 5 children

Been given 17 grandchildren

and 1 great-granddaughter, Zoe

And been blessed with too many friends to count!

Lived in a motorhome for 4 years traveling the US all that time

Have lived in at least 11 homes and only in two states (not including travelling)

Built 3 homes

Been to Russia, all over Europe, Israel, Alaska, Mexico, and all over America.

Ran a business

Taught and attended many Bible studies

And countless other things that I can't think of right now! They have been such a blessing to have as grandparents. We love them and are so thankful we are going to live right next door to them when the house is finished.

The survivors....

Oh...yes... The china cupboard....It was about 2am on Friday morning (everyone was in bed) when I was awakened to a tremendous crash that kept on crashing....I lay in bed not wanting to see what happened knowing full well what it was. I was right. The glass china cupboard shelf that held my special tea set, many pretty plates, quite a few tea cups, and some wine and champagne glasses broke in half. The break sent everything on the shelf crashing to the center and then down on to the next shelf, and the china and glass wear on the bottom shelf were made to carry the brunt of the falling middle shelf and its contents. Surprisingly, there wasn't THAT much broken just a few VERY special pieces (of course) and a few things that can be easily replaced. Some things can't though, but I know that they are just things even though they were very special and given to me by my grandparents. God knows! I rejoice I was able to enjoy the tea pot from my tea set for 10 years now! Another thing that may not mean much to you, but which I was very thankful for was the fact that that tea set had 6 cups and saucers and only one tea cup and one saucer broke, that is all (along with the tea pot :cries:) I still have 5 cups and saucers to enjoy! The cream and sugar made it out safely as well!

The strange thing about this happening was that about 6 years ago that shelf broke in the center as well but that time NOTHING was broken. I have no idea how that happened. Even the set that broke this time went through the last crash unscathed. When dad replaced the shelf he selected a much thicker piece of glass to prevent this from happening again. Well, as you can see it worked for several years but ended up giving way as well.

Now on to a more pleasant topic! :) Company! On Sunday last, we were able to enjoy having a dear couple from our church to enjoy our Sunday dinner with us! Mr. and Mrs. Still were a pleasure to have!

Then on Monday we had tea, with scones and Devonshire cream with our friends the Stinsons who have been in the States for 2 months after returning as missionaries from Brazil. Mrs. Stinsons father died so we thought a little tea might be fun to do with her and her girls in honor of her daddy! It was fun to sit around and talk about Jane Austen movies, sip our tea and savor our scones!