Megan turned 1 on Friday.  Here we are at Toys R Us that morning because our gift was her big girl car seat and we were picking it out.  When you are 1 you can be in a bigger car seat and face forward!

                                      

On Saturday, her mommy and daddy had a picnic birthday celebration.  The weather was beautiful, and it was a perfect time to get together with family and friends.  Here is Megan with her Aunt Suzanne -

                                      

I just love this outfit -

                                         

A friend, named Rachel -

                                        

Charlie was so happy to be outside and running around!

                                         

Here are Jim and his brother, Kip - I have shown them together before looking so much alike (but Jim is 4 years older) but now Kip has shaved off his beard.

                                          

Charlie is playing frisbee and "Uncle" Roger is helping -

                                          

Aunt Joan (Kip's wife and my good friend) holding Megan -

                                          

Megan got passed around as everyone wanted to hold her!  Here are some pictures of people visiting -

                                         
                                          

                                          

Amanda made the cake, and Charlie told me he helped put the sprinkles on!

                                          

                                          

                                          

Megan enjoyed it!

                                          

                                          

                                          

                                          

Opening presents -

                                          

                                          

                                          

We were all happy to be there to celebrate with them!

                                          

                                          

Happy Birthday today to my granddaughter, Megan!  She is ONE!!! 

                                           

                                           

                                           

                                           

                                           

The days seem to fly by here!  We are celebrating Megan's birthday tomorrow, if everyone is well.  Megan had a stomach virus last week, and just when Amanda thought that maybe Charlie escaped having it, he has had it this week!

Suzanne's school is on Spring Break, so she drove in Wednesday, then left yesterday to drive to South Carolina to spend time with friends from her alma mater, Columbia International Univ.  She will be back tonight, I think!

Last night I had the privilege of interpreting our church's Maundy Thursday service, a reflection with Scripture and hymns, on the days leading up to the crucificion.  On Easter Sunday, we have a Sunrise Service at 7 AM followed by our morning worship service, all of which I am participating in some of the interpreting.  I have benefited by reading and practicing Scripture readings and songs over and over while I prepare for interpreting!  Perhaps God led me into interpreting to have me spend more time meditating on His Word!

I finished a couple of quilts lately!  Both are for grandchildren.  One is a combination of machine piecing and hand applique - a bear in the center and a log cabin design around the outside.

                                     

Looks a little bumpy there the way I took the picture over the couch!  Sorry!

Here's another view -

                                     

And the back -

                                     

The next one is a "Baby Sign" quilt that came in a kit -

                                     

It has pictures of babies signing different things -

                                     

And with the back -

                                     

The Baby sign quilt will stay at my house to be used for any grandchildren that are here.  The bear quilt went to Charlie.  I was working on it since right after he was born, and he is 2 1/2! 

For Megan, I am making a Christmas cross stitch stocking right now, and starting on a smocked Bishop dress.  And I am looking for a cute pattern to make her a quilted twin sized quilt for when she is in a big-girl bed.  Does anybody know of one?

I had this cute conversation with the adorable 5-yr old daughter of a friend ("I'm FIVE now!") while we were working at dog training the other day.  She was sitting on my lap.

Katy:  "WHY can't I go over and help Betsy work with Luna"?
Me: "Because Luna has to learn to just focus on Betsy".
Katy:  "WHY does Luna have to learn to just focus on Betsy"?
Me:  "Because Betsy is training Luna to be her hearing dog".
Katy:  "WHY is Betsy training Luna to be her hearing dog"?
Me:  "Because Betsy can't hear.  Betsy is deaf".
Katy:  "Betsy can't hear"??
Me:  "You know, when the doorbell rings at your house and you hear it and answer it"?  Katy nods.  "Betsy can't hear the doorbell and so Luna will be able to let her know that the doorbell is ringing.  And Betsy can't hear when someone calls her name. . ."
At this point, Katy was looking at me like I lost my mind, because she was just having a whole conversation with Betsy before this.
Me:  "If you try to talk to Betsy when she isn't looking at you, she can't hear you.  When you look at her, she sees how your mouth moves and she can talk to you".

So, Betsy and Luna walked back to us.  And I told Katy we were going to try something.  She was sitting on my lap with her back to Betsy.  I told her to call Betsy's name really loudly.

Katy:  "BETSY, BETSY"
No response from Betsy.
Then I told Katy to turn around and look at Bets and call her name.
Katy, turning to Betsy:   "BETSY"
Bets:  "Yes, Katy"?
Then I told Betsy what we were doing. 
Katy:  "You can hear me when I look at you and you see my mouth move"?
Bets:  "Yep, I can tell what you are saying by the way your mouth forms the words".

Katy, to me:  "WHY can't Betsy hear and is deaf"?

Well, I couldn't answer that one!!!

The missions team arrived safely home from Jamaica!  We are so thankful to God for working out the details of the entire trip.  I have some pictures that Betsy put on my laptop from her camera - I will let her blog most of them, but I thought I would share a few.  I can share more later, of more of the team as they work around campus. 

Betsy spent her days working in the library, along with others, to paint it, and paint words and designs on the walls and around the ceiling fan - 

                                  

                                   

                                   

                                   

                                   

                                   

There was time to play with the kids; they love to have their pictures taken -

                                   

                                   

The last day of the week, the team gets to go to the beach, and Dunns River Falls -

                                   

And I think this is at Devon House where they went for ice cream -

                                  

On the way home -

                                  

If Bets wants me to, I will post more of the work pictures on my site tomorrow.  They had a wonderful week, worked very hard, and enjoyed playing with the kids.  They were in Kingston, at one of the campuses of the Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf.  The Deaf children come to the school at an early age, not knowing sign language or any means of communication.  They live and go to school on campus.

I heard from Betsy, after they were home, that there was very little water available on campus that week, and one day they lost electricity altogether.  She said that they had a great team, no one complained, and they all worked hard.  They did appreciate going to the beach where they could take showers in the facilities there!  Many of the people on this team have been there before, and some, like Betsy, have been there many, many times!  But some were there for the first time.

The team will be giving a report at our church on the evening of March 28th, at 6:00, if anyone local wants to come!

                                    

It's a Saturday night and I am hanging out at the computer just a click away from the tab that says, "Flight Tracker", waiting to see when the flight that Betsy and the Jamaica missions team is finally taking off from Miami.  They will arrive in Raleigh, NC, where some friends will bring the cars they drove in, to the airport, and then they will drive the 2 or 3 hours it takes to get back here to Roanoke.  We will pick them up at our church, in the early morning hours, which will be later because of the time change!

I can't wait to see pictures and hear stories about the week in Kingston!

Jim and I spent the day working on taxes.  Then, he walked Luna while I fixed food to take to Amanda's for dinner.  Their friend, Danny, was grilling some of our moose roasts, and there were 4 families over for dinner.  What fun!  The moose, made into barbeque sandwiches, was delicious!  It has been a lovely spring-like day here, the kids could play outside, and it was so nice to visit with some old friends, and see our kids and grandchildren.

What to do while I wait for the travelers to arrive?  Nap?  Sew?  Catch up on laundry?  The plane is now 20 minutes late leaving Miami.  I will have a loooong time to do whatever it will be that I do!

Last Monday, in Telluride, after Jim was finished with his morning meetings, he and Betsy got ready for their skiing and snowboarding.  Here they are, putting on boots, goggles, and helmets.

                                

                                

                                

                                

And off they went!  I met them at lunchtime, and we walked into the little courtyard near the ski lifts.  The weather was almost 40 with no wind, so it felt quite warm and most people ate outside.  We got hot dogs from this little place -

                                

More pictures of the courtyard with restaurants and food stands -

                               

                               

                               

Betsy was planning which trails they would go on in the afternoon -

                               

                               

By this time, I had figured out that if I looked out a certain window in the hotel, I could see them skiing down the trail that would take them to the first lift -

 Here they are getting ready to go -

                                

And along came a group of children that were in ski school - they were so adorable!

                                 

                                    

Anyway, back to Jim and Betsy -

                                   

                                      

                                     

                                     

While they were skiing (and snowboarding), I stayed there by the window and worked on the cross stitch Christmas stocking I am making for little Megan, who, by the way, turned 11 months old while we were gone.

                                     

Then as I sat there, I saw a bookcase with some interesting books in it, and I picked up this one -

                                     

I borrowed it overnight and read it!

There is a free gondola that you can ride from the village where we were staying into the town of Telluride.  We rode on it a few times while we were there.

                                     

                                     

                                     

                                     

So, that was our trip!  We left there on Thursday morning and had a full day of flights, arriving home around 11 Thursday night.  I was so glad to get off of the mountain and out of the very high altitude and home again!

Meanwhile, I have just heard that the Jamaica team arrived, got all of their luggage, got through immigration and customs, and are on their way to the CCCD campus!!  Praise the Lord!

We just spent a few days in Telluride, Colorado!  Look at the beautiful views we enjoyed!

                                     

These pictures were taken from the top of one of the ski slopes, and not by me, because I wasn't up there!  But Jim and Betsy were!  Here are a few more that Jim has shared with me -

                                     

                                     

On the way up. . .

                                    

                                    

Jim had a meeting to attend in Telluride, and we had planned for months for Betsy and I to go.  Jim skis, and Betsy snowboards, so it was a perfect vacation.  I don't do either!  But more about that later. . .

So, on Sunday, Feb 28th, we flew and ended up in Grand Junction, Colorado.

                                    

                                    

Then we drove for 2 1/2 hours to Telluride -

                                    

Not as much snow as I expected in this part of CO -

                                   

                                   

But there was more as we got to the mountains -

                                   

And ended up here -

                                   

                                   

That's not where we were staying, but we got directions to our hotel, near the conference center, in Mountain Village.  And this is what we saw from our hotel room -

                                  

More tomorrow about our week!  Jim had to go to meetings in the early mornings and late afternoons, which left most of the time from 9:00 to 4:00 free for skiing!  We arrived home around 11:00 last night.

Meanwhile, around 2:00 today, I got an interesting phone call.  Our church is sending a team for the week to Kingston, Jamaica, to the Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf.  Betsy has gone many, many times before, sometimes on work teams, and sometimes to help with Deaf camp, and sometimes as a summer intern.  But with the Colorado vacation already scheduled, and her job, and her hearing dog in training, and some theatre groups she is working with, she hadn't planned to go on this trip.  But the death of one of our church members had our pastor dropping out suddenly, and Pam, the team leader, wanted to see if Bets could go at the last minute.  She "happened" to be out near the mall where she works, and decided to just go ask her boss if she could get this week off as well.  And while she was doing that, I was home trying to locate her passport, and Pam was checking to see if the airline would allow them to switch the tickets.  It all happened at once!  Everything was so perfectly coming together, that we knew without question that God planned all along for Bets to go on this trip!  Many of you prayed when I posted it on Facebook, and within an hour, we had the plans made!

So, tomorrow morning, the team leaves.  But shhhhh . . . they are trying to surprise the school principal and the work team leader in Kingston, both of whom are good friends of Betsy's.  They don't know yet that she is coming!

                                   

For your viewing pleasure!
                                         
                                                                               
                                     
                                         

                                         

                                         

                                         

                                         

                                         

                                         

                                         

                                         

                                         

Every year, in February, a group of 1975 Air Force Academy graduates get together for dinner.  It is the guys who live in the Washington DC area, or who can get there.  Jim and I went for the first time to the dinner last Saturday night.

                                 

I asked Jim why it is called a Dark Ages party, and he told me that it was always dark in February - when they were at the AFA, it was dark when they left their rooms, dark when they returned, and it is dark in February.  So, I guess they brighten things up with a party!

This year, the dinner was at a restaurant in DC, and the dress was island/Hawaii - type clothes.  It was a lot of fun!

                                  

                                  

                                  

                                  

This was Jim's roommate his first year at the Academy -

                                  

                                  

And his wife - I enjoyed getting to know her -

                                  

Another roommate from another year -

                                  

The wife of one of the guys used to be the vice principal at the school where my daughter Suzanne teaches!  What fun we had chatting and discovering that connection!

                                  

This man organized the party this year -

                                  

Here is the whole group of graduates that were there -

                                  

We don't live in the Washington DC area; it's about a 5 hour drive, and we were able to break up the drive and spend a little time with Suzanne while we were there.  It was lots of fun!

                                  

Suzanne had been home for the week because her school was out due to the snow, so we were able to help get her parking place shoveled out, and on Sunday morning, we went to church with her.  I took a couple of pictures of the snow around Leesburg -

                                  

                                  

Then we drove back home in time for our church evening service.  We had a missionary speak - he and his family are currently working in New Zealand -

                                  

                                  

That was our weekend - a quick and enjoyable trip!