Jim had a course that he was taking in Washington DC last weekend, so I went with him.  We stayed at a great location, a nice hotel . . .  I am trying to remember the name of it. . . the Washington Plaza Hotel (I had to look up the bill), where the course was being held.  Close to the metro and convenient to walk to things.  I was able to see Suzanne a lot!  On Friday night, we drove out near where she lives and went out to dinner.  Then, on Saturday, she took the metro in, and she and I spent the day together.

                               

 

We went to one museum that we had been to before - something about portraits.  But we really didn't want to see the museum, we wanted to get lunch in their cafe and eat it in their beautiful courtyard!  Only there was some video program going on in the courtyard, so it wasn't as quiet and pretty as it was the last time we were there.  But we enjoyed our lunch and continued on our walk.  

Next stop was to find a yarn shop we had found online.  It required taking the metro to Dupont Circle.  No problem, Suz is metro- savvy.  BUT the portion of the red line we wanted was under construction that weekend, so instead, they were offering free shuttle service.  So, we took that.  It was nice that it was free, and it did take us right to Dupont Circle, but the buses had to drive through DC traffic, so it took awhile.  We got there, found our cute little yarn shop on the 2nd floor of a row of other shops and restaurants, didn't buy anything, and continued on our walk, with a refreshing stop for a Starbucks coffee drink.

We were walking along a very pretty route with lots of homes, lots of well-kept front flower beds, and lots of the embassies.

The Australian embassy -

                                

And it had this sort of statue with kangaroos on it!

                                

That road down beyond this statue of Daniel Webster had lots of embassies, we were told, but there were black clouds and a storm coming, so we decided to move along and walk back to our hotel.

                                

I just had to stop and take this picture.  My father was a Jewish war veteran, and I might have stopped in to see what sort of things were in this museum, but it was closed.  

                                

                                

The storm was getting closer, with warnings coming to our phones about thunderstorms and possible tornados, so we walked a little faster and made it back to the hotel just as the rain was starting!  We sat in the lobby and watched the wind outside blowing the pool furniture and umbrellas around, but the storm passed quickly.  

That was about it!  Dinner at the hotel, then Suzanne headed back home and Jim and I came home the next day.

All this traveling!  Everyone teases me because I say I don't like to travel and I haven't been home more than 2 weeks at one time lately!  I like being at the places I am going, but I feel like I just about get home from one trip and unpack and catch up when it is time to pack up again.  Housework doesn't get done well, my piles of papers to go through and deal with only get higher, laundry tends to look like a mountain, and the ironing. . . well, you know what I mean.  And so, guess what?  I am home this weekend, but going away again next weekend.  I am so excited - I am going to the True Woman conference in Indianapolis, and meeting my friend Julie there!  And I am ready to hear some wonderful speakers and be challenged by God and His Word in my life!  But there is that 10 hour drive out and back. . . more packing, more hotels, more catching up when I get back.

 

Meanwhile, I am knitting my Swallowtail shawl and working on nupps!  Don't know what nupps are?  I didn't either until I took this class and started this pattern!  Pictures of that next time!

 

I haven't blogged since I arrived home from Colorado, which was a couple of weeks ago now, because there hasn't been very much news.  I missed my grandchildren very much, and I have spent as much time as possible with them since getting home.  I miss Betsy terribly, but I text with her almost every day, and am so happy that she has been feeling a lot better and recovering well from surgery.  Here is her latest blog: ConcettoSpazialeAttesa.   I am feeling my age for sure these days as it took me a good week to get over the exhaustion of a long trip and changing of time zones so much.  It has been good to be home with Jim again!  He had the house clean, all the laundry done, and it was a pleasure to not have to feel like I was behind in everything.  And we celebrated 35 years of marriage the day I arrived home!  I have been happy to get back to church and all of those activities, seeing my friends, exercising regularly, working on my projects.  

Here are some projects I have been working on:  

These ruffly scarves are so much fun to make!  I am selling some this year, so if anyone local wants to buy one, I have some available and can order other yarn colors if need be.  Just message me on here or on facebook for details.

This one is going to Betsy, and unfortunately, I haven't been able to find this particular one anywhere, so I can't make another one of these:

                                        

 

Here are a couple of others I have recently made -

                                        

And I am still working on my swallowtail shawl - it is a difficult pattern, requires a lot of attention, so isn't good to take to a sit and stitch, but is slowly looking pretty good!

                                        

I am determined to also work on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  sigh.  I need more hours in my day.  Don't we all?  A quilt blog that I read had a challenge to stitch with needle and thread for at least an hour a day.  I'm going to try that!  I'll post progress on my next flower next time!

I came out here to Colorado about a week and a half ago, because Betsy was having gall bladder surgery.  It has been quite a month or so, first, knowing that Betsy was sick, waiting for her tests, finding out it was her gall bladder, being so far away when she was so sick, trying to plan the best time to leave for Colorado, then driving out, finally being able to help her for the few days before surgery, and then the surgery itself.  But it has all gone well.

And then Suzanne flew out for a few days too.  I finally started taking a few pictures these last couple of days!  Here we all are eating lunch yesterday in the restaurant where Andrew works.  He works in the evenings, so it was fun to all go to lunch there, and Luna too!  Notice her under the table.

                                       

 

Bets and Andrew had tickets to a museum in Denver - the science and nature museum.  We went on Tuesday, which was a week post-op for Bets, and we had a great time!   Denver is over an hour drive from Greeley, but it was a good place to spend the day.  Here we are -

                                       

                                       

 

One of the things we saw there was an IMAX show in 3 D - about tornados.  We were so impressed that we could get this captioning device for Betsy!

                                       

This one worked by her sitting it on the floor - it was a stand-like thing, and it showed the captions, which were on the wall in mirror image, in the back of the theater.  She said it worked great, although it took quite a bit of her looking at the words then up at the screen quickly.

                                       

And here is Suzanne sitting there too -

                                       

 

The museum was so interesting, with lots of different areas.  Too many to talk about, but we sure did have fun!  We saw this large diamond -

                                       

And Betsy thought that hers was a tad small compared to it. 

                                       

And here, you were suppose to listen to something on the phone.  Silly Betsy, you can't hear on the phone!

                                       

 

Of course, our few days here with Suzanne held some other fun things, with lots of breaks for Betsy to rest.  Here are the sisters, getting ready to leave Betsy's apartment one day -

                                       

And lunch at Chick-fil-A -

                                       

And a stop by the library where Betsy works -

                                       

 

It is HOT in Colorado.  Wow, hot and dry.  But once it cools down in the evening, it is quite pleasant.

Oh, we also went to a movie, yesterday - "The Odd Life of Timothy Green" - such a cute movie.  I was SO impressed that the movie theater had a captioning device!  I didn't know about them!  This one sat in the cup holder of the seat and had a place for Bets to read the captions that were written across the little screen on it.  I think she found that one easier to use than the one at the IMAX theater.   I am so very thankful for modern technology!

 

Meanwhile, in between all the things that mothers do when they are helping out daughters who have just had surgery, like errands, cooking, laundry, and taking them to fabric and book stores (don't all mothers do those last two things?), I have been very slowly working on my Swallowtail shawl, which I can't do when I am distracted, I have made two Grandmother's Flower Garden flowers, and one ruffly scarf.  There has been a lot of sitting and watching TV time to do all that!

Last week was Charlie's 5th birthday!  Amanda and Sam did a great job of building him a Monster Jam truck cake.  It looked like it was truly trying to make its way uphill, and the wheels were donuts.  I was quite impressed with the creativity!  And of course, Charlie loved it!

 

                               

 

                               

 

                               

 

The plates and napkins went with the theme -

 

                               

 

It's fun turning 5!

I am knitting this simple lacy scarf/shawl, with a hand-dyed mohair yarn that I bought at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May.  The pattern was free; it is called a Lacy Loop Scarf.  Very simple pattern on large needles. 

                            

 

I am enjoying knitting something simple this week, because I just finished up this Turkish lace shawl, which was a little more difficult.  Here it is being blocked on towels -

                            

 

And I am about to start a class on a Swallowtail shawl, which is, I am told, harder yet!

When I am not giving in to my knitting addiction, I am moving along on my Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt.  Hope you aren't tired of seeing these finished flowers, because this is only # 43 of 64, then there are about 14 half flowers, and then I need to put white hexagons around each one, and then sew all of those together!!

                           

We had such a wonderful VBS last week at our church!  It was a little different than usual.  We don't have a lot of young children in our church right now, so we focused on the ages of 10 - 16, which we do have, and friends they brought, as well as including a wonderful group of special needs young adults.  We were a small group, averaging about 20 "students" and many adults from our church who came to participate in many areas.  I have been involved in VBS for MANY years, and I have to say that this was one of the best I have been involved in, and definitely one of the most rewarding.

We focused on Scripture and on really digging into God's Word.  We had lots of fun, and every evening the group had a missions outreach activity.  They played games and ate and did a craft.  And they were the most cooperative and grateful group of young people I have ever had the pleasure of working with.  I was so glad to get to know some of the young people in my church a lot better!

My own role was to teach one of the Bible lessons one night - we did role playing to reinforce the story of the empty tomb.  And throughout the week, I taught everyone to sign the main Bible verse, and on the last night, it was videoed and sent to our Deaf mission in Jamaica to tell the kids there what we learned and how much we care about them.

And the curriculum we used taught, along with the Bible lessons, about the power that God has over nature, over circumstances, over sin, over death, and over our lives.  And we learned about some of the wonderful places in the world that show God's power.  For instance, the night I taught, we were learning about the Matterhorn.  Who knows what that is?  I had to study up on it a little!

Here are a few pictures I took on our last night.  This is of the opening assembly, as everyone was still gathering -

                                  

                                  

Nathan led our singing -

                                  

We had snack time every evening -

                                  

And played games outside -

                                  

                                  

And they were doing some kind of group activity here in this Bible story time -

                                  

On the last night, the missions project was to make card to send to the Deaf children at the Caribbean Christian Centre for the Deaf in Kingston, Jamaica -

                                  

                                  

In the front of those two pictures you can see a little bit that was left after they did their craft for the evening, which were these candles in a candleholder with sand -

                                  

Sometimes the craft and missions project were combined, like the night they decorated baskets, filled them with goodies, then took them to the nearby fire station to give to the firemen.

It was a wonderful week!  The adults who were involved were doing things like the other Bible studies, the crafts, missions, food, games, and several who were there especially to work with our special needs group.  I was so impressed that so many people came out to help and be involved in these young lives, making sure they knew that God is our all-powerful God who loves them and gave His Son to be their Savior!

 

 

Now, picture, for those of you who know how to sign, me signing, CHANGE TOPIC.    My hummingbird mystery saga!!   Some nights, our new hummingbird feeder still has the sugar water in it, and other nights it is COMPLETELY empty!  But it has remained intact, with the flower design still on it.  Jim rigged up a camera out on our deck, but nothing has shown up.  We are completely baffled!  During the day, we have lots of hummingbirds coming for a drink.  It is so much fun to watch them being very territorial and chasing each other away.  They do not know how to share!

 

Ooops, I forgot to take pictures of my finished Turkish lace shawl, and my newly started lacy scarf of hand-dyed mohair that I bought when I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival.  I'll do that next time!

                                  

This was the last evening of Vacation Bible School at our church and I have a few pictures to show, but I'll get to those next time.  Today, I had the cutest little 17 month old boy in the whole world spend the day at my house!  Mommy took the big kids to the pool, and John and I got to spend the day together!  I bet you thought that colanders were for washing veggies and draining spaghetti and noodles!  Well, you just might be wrong!

                                   

                                   

                                   

                                   

                                   

                                   

Today, while Amanda was playing piano for a wedding, the kiddos came to our house to play!  The best news a grandma can ever hear is for your daughter to call in the morning to say that the kids are so anxious to come over; can I bring them early?  Of course!  

It was a nice, relatively cool (after the 100+ degrees we had last week) day, so we played outside for awhile.  They love coloring the driveway with chalk, as well as any nuts, acorns, and sticks that are handy.  Today they decided to take ice cube trays out to put chalk and things in -

                                    

                                    

                                    

                                    

Then it was time to fix lunch, so I brought John in while I did that -

                                    

Later, Charlie was taking pictures with my camera, and either he or Grandpa took this picture of him and Grandpa!

                                    

Amanda finished up at the wedding, and Sam was out working, so we got Chinese food and they stayed for dinner.  What fun to have them here all day!  While the younger two took naps; Charlie and Grandpa did some clean-up work outside, then when naps were over, the kids played inside as it was starting to rain.

Rain, glorious rain!  We are getting a nice, soaking rain. now as I am typing this!

 

This coming week at our church is VBS!

 

On my knitting needles - this Turkish lace shawl -

                                    

                                    

 

We think that our hummingbird feeder was attacked by either a raccoon or a possum, which are the animals most often around during the night, this close to the house, that could get to the feeder easily.  But, we don't know for sure.  We also have lots of deer that come up to the house, but we haven't ever seen any on our deck, just eating bushes and plants!  And someone mentioned a bear - there have been bears sited in this area, but I haven't seen one right here.  I put the old one out yesterday, and it was empty, but I hadn't filled it all the way and we do have a lot of hummingbirds.  I put a new one up today -

                       

We will see what happens tonight!

 

Meanwhile, it has been soooo hot.  Today it was 100 + degrees in Roanoke, and the heat index (so my phone said) was 105.  And we haven't had any rain at my house for weeks.  We are trying to keep watering, but we are losing some plants and bushes.  My herbs on my deck have suffered too.  Here is my basil on the left, mint on the right.  The mint, especially, is just about gone -

                       

That picture was taken just before I watered them today.  I cut some of the mint off and I am trying to root it, in hopes that I might bring it back.  My parsley doesn't look so good either -

                       

This royal geranium seems to be hanging in there -

                       

I'll keep watering and see how things look later this coming week.  We are suppose to have cooler temperatures by Monday!

 

Our week was busy - Betsy and Andrew left on Tuesday evening and had a difficult, long, but safe trip home.  Betsy's car sickness was made worse as they got into the area of the smoke and heat in Colorado.  But they are home, she is readjusting to the altitude, and both are back to work.  For the 4th of July, we watched fireworks right from the hilly intersection of the streets here - we can see the ones from the country club.  Then on Friday, I happily watched my grandchildren most of the day so that Amanda could get a few things done.  

Before Bets and Andrew left, I took this picture of a quilt that Andrew's grandmother had made for them - of jeans!

                       

Here is one block of a pocket -

                       

And I love the fleece back she used -

                       

 

I think I am finally figuring out how to get my pictures onto my new computer, then onto xanga, then onto my blog!  But the secret is not to do more than 6 or 8 at a time, or it doesn't seem to let me move to another page of pictures.  And I forgot to ask Betsy about it before she left.  Oh, well!  This works!

The Mystery of the Hummingbird Feeder!  

I have a mystery!  I have had a hummingbird feeder up, outside of my kitchen window, since spring.  We get lots of hummingbirds and I have been refilling the feeder about once a week.  Last week, on Tuesday, before we left for Florida on Wednesday, I refilled the feeder.  While we were gone, we had that terrible windstorm, with branches and stuff all over the yard, so I wasn't particularly surprised that when I arrived home on Sunday night, and looked at the feeder Monday morning, it was empty.  I refilled it Tuesday (Monday was packed with activity around here).  It was around 4:00 in the afternoon Tuesday that I finally got to it.  By Wednesday morning - yesterday - at 6:00 AM, it was empty again!  So, I thought that maybe since it was an old feeder, it got battered around in the windstorm and was leaking or something.  I checked it, refilled it yesterday, again in the mid to late afternoon, and it was fine.  It was fine until we left for the fireworks, and then it was too dark to see it.  This morning at 6:00, it was EMPTY again, AND the little flowers that decorate the tiny little holes, you know?? - ALL of them are off.  

Squirrels tipping it over? I see squirrels all over my bird feeders, but I have never seen one on the hummingbird feeder.  Any other ideas?