Wordless Week: Day 2, Grand Canyon

Wordless Week: Day 1, Morning Moon

 

Hermitting and WIPocalypse - just a little late

Another hermitting weekend started with a concert!  This time it was JJ Weeks Band, Hawk Nelson and MercyMe.  They were all great and I even bought a JJ Weeks Band cd since I hadn't heard of them before.  I'm loving these concerts!  Of course, DJ and family came, my MIL and our newest concert clan member, Teresa.  I wonder who we'll see next... 

We had a rather unpleasant situation arise while we were there - DJ, mil and I decided to check out the merchandise that was being sold in the main area during one of the bands playing.  Not a problem until we came back to find two women in our seats.  DJ's son tried to tell them someone was sitting there but one of the women insisted that she doesn't believe in saving seats in church.  Um, what?!!!  Just because you came late, you think you can sit wherever you want?  Does that mean you can't even use the restroom in fear of losing your seat?!  Well, her friend left but this woman refused to move.  Luckily, there was enough room for us, but my mil was NOT happy!  Long story short - she ended up leaving and during intermission the people around us told us how rude she was and how she wouldn't listen to DJ's son.  Then I saw them head to the front - I hope no one left their seat to use the restroom!

 

So I didn't get a lot of stitching in last weekend, but I'm so close to finishing this!  I've been working on some smaller projects but can't show them because they're for next weekend.  

 

I know I have other WIPs I should be working on, but that would mean I'd have to find them first.

 

Loving the full moon!

 

 

Input on Lies Women Believe About Relationships?

 

My girlfriend, Ronda, who I grew up with, will be speaking on Saturday about "Lies Women Believe About Relationships" and she is asking these questions...

 



Ladies, your help is needed! On Saturday I'll be leading a discussion on, "Lies Women Believe About Relationships." I've been asking women the following survey questions, and would love to use your answers too as part of the discussion... anonymously of course.

Question 1: Name one lie a man has told you.  Anything from I'm not married to I'll remember to take out the trash.  Please keep it clean!

Question 2: What is one lie you have believed about relationships? I know too numerous to mention. :)
Thank you for your help.

Guys don't be offended, I know women have also told their fair share of untrue statements etc...

If you'd rather not show what your response may be, please just email me directly and I won't post it.  I'll also be sending it anonymously to her.

 

 

Tea for Two!

Last week, DJ and I had a stitching date planned and the night before we talked about what/where we were doing.  She mentioned having tea... so, knowing there was a place in Ellicott City, I thought we should go there.



 Tea on the Tiber

 

 

I called the evening before to reserve a table for us.

 

DJ sitting pretty, waiting patiently to be served!

 

We both ordered the peach ginger tea, very nice!  Our food was also very nice, but I could have had more of one or two of the mini sandwiches.  The scones were excellent, I think I need to find a good recipe!

The only "problem" we had was that it was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and we were sitting by the window with the sun shining on us AND we were drinking HOT tea.  I almost asked for ice cubes! 

 

We had some time to shop before and after, but not enough since I had to get home to pick up the boys.  Although I did see a dragon, yeah!  The one shop I love walking through and we didn't have enough time.  Our next visit will just have to be longer.

 

  Or maybe we'll just window shop and not go inside -

 right, when pigs fly!!!

The Beauty of April and a TUSAL

 

Ah, the beauty of spring!  Our weeping cherry is blooming and the daffodils are glowing.  Hard to believe just over three weeks ago we had snow. 

Doesn't seem quite right working on January's Garden, I'm not thinking of snow at the moment!

It's kind of hard to see, but it's growing! 

 

If only I had long hair!

 

Easter and Birthday Fun!

We got to spend Easter Sunday at my parents house this year with my younger brother and his family,  I can't remember the last time we did that!  Nathan had made a Resurrection book in school and here he is reading it to his cousins.  Sad to say they weren't very impressed, although they did learn some things!

DH had to go back home that evening, but the boys and I were able to stay longer.  My nieces and nephews were able to stay too, so I played mother to eight.  Good thing my parents were there, I can only take so much whinging and tattletaling!  But they were actually all good, we had great fun by the fire pit, making peep smores!

And now we come to the birthdays, Nana's turning 90 tomorrow and the boys are now 15!  Wow, when the heck did that happen?  We had a party for Nana this past Saturday, what a beautiful day to celebrate.  She is amazing for 90 - still living on her own, driving well, cooking and baking, still wants the great grandchildren to come over during the summer to stay with her, and still speaking her mind! 
Oh, and she didn't want her neighborhood friends to be invited because they don't know how old she is and she wants to keep it that way!

I didn't want 90 to be too bad for her, so I tried to make it fun.  The cake artwork was made by the boys via lite brite. 

 

Hard to believe these two little munchkins are now 15!  Here there are celebrating their 1st birthday. 

The picture on the bottom right was taken at school, my mil had their names added for a birthday surprise.  They didn't mind it so much, except when I insisted on taking a picture of them in front of it!  Oh yes, I can still embarrass them. 

 My boys!  The gmen requested my margarita cake - the REAL deal!

 

 

Cover Page Finally Finished!

 

I'm sure there were frogs in there somewhere, I sure found enough!  If you look close, maybe you can see where I messed up - are you looking?  Oh well, I just got to a point where it just didn't matter.  Now to find the book I want to display it in.  I might just make one,  but I'm not going to worry about that for a while, I've got too much stitching to do! 

I started January, with a little help from Max.  But don't let him fool you, he was after my threads! 

 

 

Have a Blessed Easter

 Thank you.

 

Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop

 Ready for some fun?  The amazing Jo, has organized an Easter Treasure Hunt Blog Hop, so come join the fun!  The trail starts at her blog, follow as directed and then head back there to leave your comment on what the phrase is.

 

freebie from Country Cross Stitch Kits, which I altered a bit.
 

I think I should have stitched frogs, since I seemed to do way too much frogging for such a little piece!


My letter is...  

 

  The next blog to follow is LYNN's, go hop on over.  Have fun!

 Lucky Nathan guessed how many jelly beans were in the jar - 102.  And he even shared with us all, such a good egg! 

 

My Sharathon Experience

 Going to bed just before midnight, having a cat wake me up at three something in the morning, and having the alarm go off at 4:10am is rough!  It was so worth it and I'm planning on doing it again next year!

 My local Christian radio station, 95.1 SHINE FM,  is having their annual Sharathon for the station.  This is from their website...

Keeping us in your prayers would mean the world to us. Please pray that God would use the generous donations of our community to reach as many people as He can and will through our station. Let us pray with you too. Fill out our prayer request form here, and we'll lift you up in prayer.

Please share the message of 95.1 SHINE-FM with your friends, family, coworkers, and more! Every person can benefit from positive messages and inspiration in their life. Don't hold back the joy that you've experienced... share it with those around you!

Driving there was actually no problem, not too much traffic on 95 that early in the morning.  I didn't get lost or have to turn around or anything, that's good for me!  We got our instructions on what we had to do when we answered the phone, and I had also read it a couple days beforehand.  It was actually easy, but I was still nervous since I'd never done anything like that before.  It was slow at first, but then... my phone rang!  Okay, I can do this.  Did I mess up my greeting?  Maybe just a tad, but then I realized that some of the callers were nervous too.  At the end of the call, I was to ask if they had a prayer request or comment.  Most just thanked the station for being there or asked for prayers for their family.  Then one caller asked if I could pray for her while on the phone.  Here's a little secret, I'm a quiet pray-er, a pillow pray-er, a private pray-er.  But she was asking for prayer right then, not later by someone else, but by me.  So I did it, I prayed for her, her situation, and for her family to come to Christ.  Yes, I did it!  Not to say I'm ready to pray out loud all the time, but at least I know that I can do it.  I mean, who's going to tell you you're not praying correctly?!

As for the staff at the station, they were totally awesome!  I got to meet some great people - Vicki, Kathy, Kelly, Tina - and although I didn't officially meet the DJ's (not you, DJ!), I saw Mike and Dave coming in and out throughout the morning and saw Christina as I was getting ready to leave.  What a great group of people!  And just because you don't live in my area doesn't mean you can't listen to this fantastic station - you can go online right now and listen!

  Leaving after my shift, I'll be back next year!

Too Busy to Hermit and SHINE on!

 So close, but not quite done.  Between a birthday party, an amazing concert, and doing stuff around the house, I didn't get to hermit as much as I wanted to. 

On Saturday afternoon, I headed out to see Casting Crowns with DJ, Teresa and DJ's menfolk.  It was an hour away, but a straight shot so it wasn't too bad.  (Thanks for driving, DJ!)  Wow, amazing, awesome, they are wonderful!  I really liked that it was at a church, and not a huge concert arena like before - it was so much more personal!

And even though this wasn't this past weekend, I also went to the 3 in 1 Tour, featuring Brandon Heath, Mandisa and Laura Story.  Another amazing church concert, these are the best!

 

Where do I hear these wonderful groups?  On my local radio station, 95.1 SHINE FM.  You can listen live, RIGHT HERE!!! 
They are doing a Sharathon at the moment, "Partnering with us makes you a part of the community of listeners and businesses helping us to share the life-changes message of God's love with the Baltimore area and beyond."

So guess what I'm doing from 6-9am tomorrow morning?  Helping out in their phone center!  That was the only time I could make work, even though I'm totally NOT a morning person.  That's okay, it will be worth it! 

March TUSAL, TARDIS style

 Oops, late again.  So much for being on time!

I've added a bit more, but I'm hoping to do better next month. 

 



And hey, it's π day!  I made an apple crumble pie, yum.

 

 

More March fun!

DJ and I had another stitching date last Friday, this time at her house.  We stitched and she also got her exercise!  Up the stairs, down the stairs, up the stairs again - all in the name of stitching.  Go take a look and see the redecorating we did.  Did you go to her blog yet?  Did you see the dragon and castle she made her son?!  LOVE IT!  And to think it's been hiding out in a closet all this time, but not any longer.

She tried out a new recipe for lunch and who knew I liked my pizza balls a little burnt!  JK, they were still good and we talked about how to improve them.

 

 And what did Mr. Tom do almost the whole time I was there?  Slept in his special place.  Such a cutie!

 

 I've been working on My Garden Journal, with a little help from Max!  I already made a little mistake so I'm working around it and I decided to make the flowers pink to add some colour to it. 

 

On the packing front, I have all my Halloween decorations ready to be stored at my friend's house.  This doesn't include my blow up pumpkin/ghosts and spider that go outside.  Can you tell I love Halloween? 

My March Madness, so far

DJ and I got together for a stitching date last Friday, and were entertained by the tree guys.  Unless there's a zip line attached to that tree, I wouldn't be up there! 

 

 I wonder why I had to frog my web - wrong darn colour!

 

 On Saturday, I took Nathan to a birthday party at Port Discovery in Baltimore.  The Wizard of Oz was the featured exhibition.  I "lost" him at the end of the party, he was off having fun!

And hey, I got a knight picture!  No dragons though, bummer.

On Monday, I was lucky to get together with DJ and meet Gillie!  Of course we had to meet at The Stitching Post and then have lunch at Peace of Pizza.  Fab afternoon, how wonderful to actually put a real live face to a name!  Take a look at her blog, she's looking for The Primitive Needle chart, Cape Cod's Girls.  Can anyone help her out? 

When I came back home, all the tagged trees were down in the front yard.  Nathan is standing on the trio stump before it was ground away.

 And today, it snowed.  The weather reports were all over the map, literally!  Some areas nearby got a little snow, others just got rain.  It was very wet and heavy and I'm glad I have two teenage boys who shoveled the driveway for me!  It was coming down heavy at times and looked just beautiful.

No angry birds here!