This past weekend, Jim took part in the Psaltery Symphony that has been held for the past few years, at Tamarack, in West Virginia.  The symphony itself is on a Sunday afternoon, and the workshops are the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday before it.  It is a wonderful opportunity for people from all over the country to get together and play these beautiful instruments.  Many have played for years, and some are very new to it!  We have made many friends over the years who we met at these workshops.  I don't play a psaltery - I sit and do handwork!  It is very relaxing!

Here is the group at one of their rehearsal/workshops.

                                

                                

                                

At night they had an opportunity to get together in the meeting room of a local hotel to "jam" - or play music together.  Many of the group play other instruments, and it was soooo much fun to watch and listen!  There was a large group this year, and so some of the time, they went over the music they needed to practice together for the symphony, and some of the time they played other pieces.

                                

                                

These pictures are from Saturday night when there was a small group, playing psalteries, dulcimers, and even a drum.  Some of this group are professional musicians and can play a wide variety of music.  I love listening!  Oh, and sewing while I listen!

                                

                                

 

I had an especially wonderful time on Saturday.  At lunchtime, a friend who I knew when we lived in Biloxi, who now lives in West Virginia about an hour from where the workshops were, came to visit me!  I forgot to take any pictures!!  We had 4 hours together, chatting away and catching up on 20 years of family news!  We have been in touch through Christmas cards and Facebook, so we did already know quite a bit of news, but there was sooooo much to talk about.  It felt like we hadn't been apart for any time at all!

 

Saturday, in the late afternoon, Julie and Arne Paulsen arrived!  Julie is my xanga friend of many years now, who I met in person when I visited her at her home outside of Chicago, and who I have seen many times.  Our husbands have become friends, some of our children have met each other, and we chat online almost every day!  They were not participating in the symphony this year, although Arne did last year.  This year they arranged their vacation to be coming to the area at just the right time!  They were going to surprise me, but decided to tell me ahead of time, and I am glad they did, because the anticipation is half the fun!  

                                

 

We sat in the auditorium during the Sunday morning rehearsal, before the symphony got started.

 

Next time - visiting with the Paulsens, and the Psaltery symphony!

I took a suggestion from one of my xanga friends, and let the kids make a giant spider web today!  They loved it!  They wrapped yarn around and around the kitchen chairs and table!

                                     

 

                                     

                                     

                                     

                                     

                                     

I love having the kiddos here!  And I love that they love to come to Grandma's!  I never had grandparents, and to spend time with my own grandchildren is the joy of my life!  Today they came just because I try to keep them on Fridays whenever I can, to give Amanda time to do whatever she wants!  They came today in the late morning, after finishing their school for the day, and stayed until late afternoon.  It was a wonderful day for this Grandma!                      

I kept the kids this morning while Mommy had a doctor's appt.  I had a little craft for them to do first.  My friend Pam told me about our local art museum having a "yarn bombing" for kids, where they wrapped yarn around things in the museum!  Well, I didn't want yarn wrapped around everything, so I changed it up a little.  I took some cups and styrofoam plates that I wasn't using, and gave them yarn (there is no shortage of yarn around here left over from various projects), along with scissors and tape and some other stuff, and let them create whatever they wanted!  

                     

Here is what Charlie came up with:

                     

                     

And Megan chose a pink cup -

                     

                     

                     

John did NOT get yarn, scissors, or tape.     He got the paper cup and plate and crayons!

                     

I guess that wasn't as much fun.  

Then we went outside for awhile since it was a beautiful day!   Shhhhh. . . . don't tell Betsy and Andrew that while they were having a blizzard in Colorado, it was about 86 degrees here, and sunny!

We still had piles of leaves left over from the fall, hidden in a corner of a flower bed.  We raked, swept, and got them into a pile, and it looked a lot like fall!

                     

                     

                     

And they played ball on the driveway.  They also colored the driveway with sidewalk chalk, but I didn't get a picture of that.

                     

                     

Pretty soon it was time to come in for lunch and wait for Mommy!

                     

                     

In the few days before Easter weekend, it was a whirlwind of activity around here, but I didn't get too many pictures.  One day I kept Megan with me because she was sick, and it was the day of the library Easter party.  Amanda took the boys to the party, promising they would bring her some goodies, and she was quite happy to stay here!  She felt like doing something for a little bit of the time, so I took out some yarn and threaded a tapestry needle, and showed her how to pull the yarn in and out of one of my old dishcloths, and "decorate" it.  She enjoyed that!

                                 

And she loves to play with my pink tool set, so she was "fixing" this wooden rocking horse.  

                                 

Suzanne came home, and she and Jim were doing all of the newspaper crossword puzzles over the weekend!

                                 

 

We had our family Easter dinner on Saturday night - it is so much easier to get together the night before Easter because Easter Sunday is busy with a sunrise service, church services, and then hungry children, much needed naps, and Suzanne and her boyfriend Bryan needing to get on the road to get home.  And since Megan's 4th birthday was coming up, we had her birthday celebration that night too!  Look at this beautiful cake that Amanda made!

                                 

                                 

We sang "Happy Birthday" and she was all ready to blow out those candles!

                                 

John was waiting so patiently through the whole thing!

                                 

Look at the inside of the cake!  A rainbow cake!

                                 

                                 

Charlie was there, but this time, he was getting sick, so he was on the couch most of the time.  But he enjoyed laying there and watching her opening her presents.

                                 

                                 

It was a nice evening!  Easter Sunday was chilly and raining.  Some of us went to the Easter Sunrise Service, which ended up being inside in our church, and then during church, Charlie stayed here with me because he was still sick.  We had a nice, quiet time together.  Most of the time, he was resting, but we did play one game, and it was a privilege for me to be able to help Amanda and Sam, who both have major responsibilities at church.  And I am thrilled that the kiddos love to be here with me even when they are sick and would really rather be with their mommy!

 

It was a busy and exhausting weekend, but a wonderful time of remembering the resurrection of our Lord!  By mid - afternoon, everyone had gone home, and I took a nice nap!

 

 

 

Easter weekend was a lot of fun!  Our church had an Easter festival/ Easter egg hunt on Saturday.  Lots of people came!  Many from the surrounding neighborhoods, as well as children and grandchildren of our church members.  Here are some pictures of that fun day -

Bouncy things to play in -

                                       

                                       

Popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones -

                                       

                                       

                                       

                                       

Tattoos, well, the fun kind -

                                       

 Face painting -

                                       

                                       

Everyone seemed to have a great time!

                                       

                                       

                                       

                                       

                                       

 

Next time - family fun and a birthday party!

Wednesday night was the only night that all 10 of us were together.  It was nice having everyone there!

                                      

The kids played an online game of Ticket to Ride, passing around the Ipad for each person's turn -

                                      

                                      

Joan was working on a beading/jewelry project -

                                      

Thursday, Jim, Andrew, Bets, and Josh went skiing/snowboarding at Breckenridge -

                                      

Kip and Jerry went to Arapahoe Basin.  

When they all got back, they got in the hot tub, a popular place each day!  It was outside.  Here is what the scenery looked like beyond it -

                                      

But they seemed to enjoy it!

                                      

                                      

                                      

                                      

                                      

                                      

Kip showing off another fun hat!

                                      

This is what I accomplished - 2 flowers!

                                      

 

Thursday was the day that Suzanne and Bryan left.  Joan and I drove into Denver to take them to the airport, and then we shopped at a mall.  It hadn't snowed for a couple of days, so the roads were dry and we had no trouble on the 2 hour trip to the airport.  And I was delighted to once again be out of the mountains were there was no snow, no ice, and I could breathe!!  That night we ate pizza and left-over lasagna.

Friday was the last day of skiing.  They all went to Copper Mountain, and it is there that the Deaf in Colorado get a 50% discount on lift tickets.  So, Betsy got the discount.  They had a wonderful day, and that night we went out for dinner.  I hardly know what we ate and I sure don't remember the name of it!  And why is that?

We knew a storm was coming.  The prediction was for a few inches in our area and up to a foot in Denver.  Triton was the name of this storm.  Our plan was to leave the house around 8 AM and get our rental cars back, be at the airport in plenty of time for a 12:45 flight.

Here, by the way, is the White Wolf lodge where we stayed!

                                      

As we were driving to dinner that Friday night, I got an email on my phone that our flight was canceled.  Sigh.  There wasn't even a flake of snow yet.  So, all during dinner, we discussed what to do, and I made us reservations for the next night at the Residence Inn Airport where we had stayed when Bets and Andrew got married.  Staying in our townhouse wasn't an option because it was already rented out, nor did I want to stay in the high altitude another night.  

By 6:00 the next morning, we got another email that we had all been put on a 5:30 PM flight out of Denver.  Good, we had a little more time to get there.  We left the house at 8:30 in 3 cars.  Bets and Andrew in their 4 wheel drive SUV, the best car in that weather; me and Jim in a smaller rental car; Kip, Joan, Josh, and Jerry in our rented mini van.  The roads were treacherous.  Awful.  VERY icy, all the way to Denver.  The snow had started in Denver sooner than predicted, and was really bad the whole way.  Our car did a major skid at one point, but Jim pulled it out of the skid and we were ok.  Then came the text I had hoped not to get.  From Bets.  "We were just in an accident."  A flurry of texts, phone calls to Andrew while they called the police, exchanged info with the driver of the other car, tried to drive again - we knew they were ok.  But the car was not.  They couldn't drive it and had to pull off onto the nearest exit.  A car had skidded across 3 lanes of traffic into their car.  The fender was bent into the tire.  Betsy's door wouldn't open.  But they were fine.  They called for a tow truck and waited.  We all knew that the rest of us couldn't help them.  If we had pulled off onto that exit, we would all have been stuck.  It was snow-covered and icy.  One of the hardest things we have ever done was to drive past that exit, see the car there, and keep going.  It was a heart-wrenching experience.  But of course, we were texting with them the whole time and knew they were ok.  We got to the rental car place, returned our cars, got the shuttle to the airport, saw that our flight was still on, and went to eat lunch.  Who could eat when the kids were still stranded?  It was a couple of hours before a tow truck picked them up, took them to rent a car, took the car to wherever, and all we could do was keep reassuring them that it would all be ok, that is why they have insurance, etc.  

There was one nice perk in all this!  I had facebooked that we were going to the Denver airport, and one of Betsy's old college roommates, traveling across the country to her new Navy assignment, saw my status and commented, and met us at the airport!  I hadn't seen her in years!

Finally, finally, FINALLY, Betsy and Andrew and Luna got to the airport to see us!!  I was one happy and relieved mom!!  The airport, by the way, was pretty empty, as so many flights had been canceled that day.  No lines at lunch or through security!

Here we are at lunch, visiting finally with Bets, Andrew, and Stephanie, her roommate -

                                   

                                   

                                   

                                    

                                   

I just had to get this shot of our luggage!

                                   

 

And so we visited for awhile.  We had reservations on both sides of the country!  One hotel in Denver in case we didn't get a flight out, and one hotel in Chantilly, VA, because we knew we would get into Dulles close to midnight.  We had to cancel one of them, and we had to pay attention to the time, with the difference in time zones so that we could cancel without paying anything.  The hotel in Chantilly even gave me an extra hour to see what the flight was going to do.  If you are ever staying near the Dulles airport, the Comfort Suites in Chantilly is the BEST!  But finally, after we all discussed the options and uncertainties, we decided to cancel both of them and just drive the truck that was waiting for us at the Comfort Suites, home, even if it took us all night.  Which it did.

We got off the ground about an hour later than scheduled, but at least we took off!  2 time zones and an lost hour for daylight savings time later, we arrived home around 6:00 AM.  Bets and Andrew were safely at Andrew's parents' house.  Stephanie found a place to stay that night as well.

 

And I am still recovering from that trip!  Tired as I can be, headaches that come and go.  But so very thankful to our gracious God for His protection and direction through all of this.

 

Will I ever go back to the Colorado mountains on a ski trip???   No.  I loved seeing everyone, and I loved that they all had fun, but it was too high, too icy, too uncomfortable for me.  I suggested, and they all LIKED my idea - the next time the Foster family takes a vacation together, can't it be to the beach?????     

 

More ski trip news!  On Monday, the gang went to Keystone to ski, and they came home tired.  It took awhile to get there via shuttles and buses, and then back again.  But they had a good time.  Monday night, Joan and I fixed dinner - my "lazy lasagna", salad, garlic bread.  After dinner, there was more game playing and a lot of TV watching, or book reading.

On Tuesday, Jim and I drove to Greeley to pick up Betsy after she was finished work.  We decided that would work out best, rather than having her drive one car, and then Andrew driving another car the next night.  We were thrilled to spend the whole afternoon with her!  It was a 3 hour trip each way.  We met her at the library where she works, helped her pack up, went to lunch, and drove back.  And we were also thrilled to have some time OFF the mountain where we could breathe in the lower altitude!

Here is some of the beautiful scenery as we were coming out of Breckenridge -

                                             

                                             

                                             

 

That night, we went out to dinner, to a Steak and Ribs restaurant -

                                             

                                             

 

On Wednesday, some of the gang went skiing/snowboarding again in Breckenridge.  Some took the day off and relaxed and shopped.  The skiers of the group were Jim, Kip, Bryan, and Josh.  The snowboarders were Suzanne, Jerry, Betsy, and Andrew when he arrived.

Wednesday night, Andrew arrived after he was finished work, and Kip and Jerry cooked our dinner.

                                             

 

 Hot dogs and brats on the grill, and thank you to Kip for shoveling and cleaning off the grill and to Jerry for grilling -

                                             

Sauteed green peppers and onions, and hash browns, which are part of an Uncle Kip tradition with my girls -

                                             

                                             

                                             

 

Other scenes around the house that afternoon and evening:

Bets and Josh watching a movie on her Ipad -

                                             

Jim reading his Nook -

                                             

Here is Bets looking at something -

                                             

Suz and Bryan teaching Josh to play Cribbage -

                                             

                                             

Luna just enjoying being with everyone -

                                             

                                             

The sisters doing a crossword puzzle -

                                             

Kip was looking for a yellow mohawk to insert in his hat, and they found one somewhere in a shop in Breckenridge!

                                             

 

More of our Foster family ski trip to come!

 

 

 

                            

We planned and planned and it was finally time for our Foster family ski trip!  It was really my sister-in-law, Joan, who did most of the planning, reservations, financial accounting, etc.  Most, but not all, of our family could go.  And of the 8 days there, some of the family came and left and others came mid-week.

We flew out on Saturday, May 2nd, from Dulles Airport.  6 of us drove up there the night before, spent the night in a hotel, left a car, and got a shuttle to the airport:  me, Jim, Kip (Jim's brother), Joan, their son, Josh, and their nephew, Jerry.  Then Suzanne and her boyfriend, Bryan, met us at the Dulles airport because they were on the same flight.  

Me, Jim, Kip -

                                       

 

Joan, Jerry, Josh -

                                       

Suzanne, Bryan -

                                       

 

We stayed in a 4 bedroom townhouse, called White Wolf Lodge.  I have a picture of it, but I took it as we were leaving, so it'll show up later on in this series.

We flew into Denver and got two rental cars, and drove up into the mountains.   We got groceries, got unpacked, and heated up a dinner that we arranged to be delivered.  And it was Jerry's 25th birthday, so Joan ordered a cake for him.

                                       

                                       

The house was very nice, a short distance from the bus to the slopes, and very convenient to driving into town.

Here is some of the skiing/snowboarding gang, all ready to go, the next morning -  

                                       

That night, we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant -

                                       

                                       

                                       

                                       

                                       

Came back home and the kids played Rook -

                                       

It was a great week of skiing/snowboarding!  Joan and I did a lot of what I call "lodge mom" stuff - grocery shopping, a little cooking, laundry, a little transporting to the shuttle buses, stuff like that.  The altitude though - really got to me!  Got to most of the olders of us at some point.  Going up and down the stairs made me soooo out of breath, and walking from the car to the grocery store and back, in the snow and ice, also did me in.  I was exhausted!  My fear of falling, after having taken too many spills in my recent years, along with the constant fear of falling and hurting my shoulders after those rotator cuff surgeries, really limited my activity.  And then there was the time change!  It was even hard to find a good way to breathe while I tried to sleep!  I drank lots of water, which was suppose to help.  There was more snow and ice than I want to see in a lifetime - good for skiing, but not so good for getting around otherwise.

I loved staying right there in the house and doing what chores I could, and then sewing and sewing and sewing!  You can see my small container of sewing stuff in the last picture there - I worked on my Grandmother's Flower Garden hand piecing and got quite a bit done!  I loved seeing everyone having a great time together!

 

More of the family ski trip next time!

 

I finished John's quilt last week - I had pieced the quilt top and the quilt bottom, at my recent trip to the beach, then it was quilted by my friend who is a long-arm quilter.  Then I sewed on the binding.  This will be for John's big boy bed!  

                             

Here is a better picture of the border -

                             

And the back - the biggest part of the back is another piece of fabric from the "Riding the Rails" fabric line, then I used the left over fabric from the top to piece around it -

                             

I made a label by cutting a piece of the train border, and writing on it, then I appliqued it to the finished quilt -

                             

It's hard to see in the picture, but in the clouds, it says, "For John, From Grandma", then on the hilly part "February 2013", and then my name at the bottom by the train track.  Oh, well, trust me, it's there!

 

 

On the needles:

                              

This is the beginning of a scarf, which was really an Advent 2012 scarf that my friend Pam found on Ravelry.  We knew we couldn't do it in those weeks before Christmas, so we thought maybe we could do it in the 40 days of Lent!  Still hoping to get it done by Easter!  If you look closely, you can see where there are several patterns - you do one pattern each day, or, in my case, in several days!  How did anyone get this done during Advent when some of it takes so many hours?  You can see that I have been putting lifelines in all along; I haven't needed to use one yet, but I have done my share of TINKing - KNIT backwards!  I'll try to keep it updated!

                             

Last Friday, we had an unexpected 2" of snow here in the Roanoke area.  It was the 3rd or 4th Friday in a row of snow here!  I usually watch my grandchildren on Fridays, just to have one day when I can spend time with them a week for sure, and to give Amanda some free time.  Or time for doctor's appointments, which was the case last Friday.  The snow arrived overnight, and the temperatures were warming up, so we knew it would melt, so once John went down for a nap, Charlie and Megan went outside to play.   Here are some pictures of them in the snow -

                        

                        

                        

                        

                        

And by 3:00 in the afternoon, that area they were playing in, looked like this -

                        

And Megan looked like this!