Beautiful Scenery & a Squeaky Wheel

While my parents were here, we headed to Heritage Square, thinking that the kids would enjoy some of the amusement rides as an early celebration of Evan's birthday. When we arrived, we found the rides still and quiet. We told an employee that the website had listed weekday hours for the rides. He told us that we were mistaken, but I insisted to him that the website had mislead us.

We browsed in a gift shop for a bit and had old-fashioned portraits taken of the kids together. As we waited for the pictures to be ready, the amusement park employee found James, conceding that the website information was incorrect, and giving him two free all-day passes for unlimited rides to use when the rides were indeed open. Sometimes it pays to "complain".

My dad proposed that we drive to Mount Evans. The road to the top is not open until Memorial Day, but we enjoyed the scenery at Echo Lake. Since Logan had fallen asleep in the van, my mom volunteered to sit with him (also because the altitude was affecting her) while we roamed around a bit.












On the way home, we stopped in Idaho Springs to eat supper at Beau Jo's which makes gluten free pizzas!!! I ordered a gluten free Yukon, asking that they substitute black olives for the artichoke hearts. When the pizza arrived, they had indeed included black olives but had substituted mushrooms for the Canadian bacon!!! Mushrooms are not my favorite to put it mildly. My mom's pizza order was incorrect as well. Though I didn't want to point out a mistake again, I told the server. He resubmitted the GF order and was very apologetic that I had to wait, though it didn't bother me. Pizza is a rare treat for me. We received a discount on our bill due to the mistakes.

While the family waited for the pizza, James took the kids to see a train engine and this water wheel outside...




On the way home, my dad asked to see the view from Lookout Mountain. (James and I were married on Lookout Mountain at the Boettcher Mansion.)

Visitors to Our Side

During the first weekend in May, my parent came to visit. They didn't just come to play, but also to work, serving our family and the church.

My mom Margie is the administrator of our denomination's nursing home. She gave a three hour seminar at our church on caring for the elderly, specifically those suffering from Alzheimer's. The seminar was well-attended and, I might be biased, but she did a great job educating us about how to serve the elderly and their caretakers. Evan took this picture, and I noticed that my mom managed to escape the other pictures that were taken during their visit.


My dad Bruce preached on Sunday and also served our family by building a planter in front of our porch, greatly improving the curb appeal of our house. The kids, especially Evan, enjoyed helping him with all of the digging, loading, hauling, unloading and building. They enjoyed the working as much as the playing of the week!


My dad, ever the perfectionist, chipped part of the ledge off of the backs of the blocks on the corners in order to make them sit just right. He also glued down some of the layers to prevent shifting (or as he learned from building a planter at his church building back home: to prevent theft of blocks!)


After my parents went back home, my dad's sister, my Aunt Beth came over and helped us begin to plant flowers in the new planter. Aunt Beth plants wonderful flower gardens each year, and she gave us step-by-step instructions to get us started. (Gardening is not my forte.)


Aunt Beth helped us with the front rows of lobelia, pansies and violets (and two calla lilies at the back which are an experiment to see if they will thrive in the shade in Colorado).


Logan enjoyed playing in the dirt while we worked. The poor guy had a rough day that day, falling down and smacking his mouth on the pavement, giving himself a fat lip and loose front teeth. :-(


Matthew did a majority of the rest of the work, planting an assortment of begonias, impatiens, forget-me-nots, leadwort, columbine, dusty miller, and ferns. He demonstrated a knack for gardening. Aunt Beth also had him do some garden work at her house.












Thank you to my mom and dad and aunt for all your help and hard work!
More pictures of the visit to come...

Why I'm a Fan of Facebook

Months ago, several people at church ganged up on me told me that I should join Facebook, a social networking website. I thought the idea a bit pointless, wondering how it would be any different than just emailing my friends, but I caved to peer pressure went ahead and joined. Noticing that Facebook had a search feature to locate any friends that also might be members, I decided to type in the name of my long lost friend, Janet.

Janet and I grew up in a town in Kansas, attending school together, grade school through high school. We became friends especially beginning in fourth grade through the strings program. Janet played violin, and I played cello. Janet already had a head start on violin as well as other instruments, including the accordion! She always set the standard for maturity, hard work, and accomplishment at anything she pursued, whether it be music, or 4H, or academics, yet she was down-to-earth, humble, and easy to talk to. I stood in awe of her achievements, such as winning Grand Prize at the county fair for her sewing, playing accordion and fiddle in a country music band, earning one of the top chairs in the State Honors Orchestra, or accompanying our choir on piano, but she never put on airs or looked down her nose at anyone. Janet always had a strong sense of right and wrong, and was even willing to go to the mat to defend the right. I have to grin when I remember her scraps with two different school bullies over the years, and I recall accompanying her to the vice principal's office in high school in order to discuss our concerns over the conduct (no pun intended) of an orchestra teacher.

Janet and I kept in contact off-and-on through our college years and for several years after. Our last visit together occurred in 1994, I believe, when she visited me in Denver before she traveled to Europe. We wrote to each other during her trip, but I didn't return the last letter and then lost contact with her. I often regretted dropping the ball in our correspondence.

Because Janet had a very common last name, entering her name in the search field of Facebook to find her seemed like looking for a needle in a haystack. Hitting "return" brought up over 500 results! However, the very first person listed with her name featured an avatar of an orchestra with a woman conducting. It turned out to be a fan page for a music teacher in a school located in a country of northern Europe. My curiosity was definitely piqued! I did a Google search and found the website of the school named on the Facebook page. Combing through the site, I found my friend's name and an email address! I sent a brief email to the address, asking if this Janet had grown up in my hometown. When I received a return email, I discovered that I had indeed found MY friend, Janet!

Janet and I exchanged emails and family pictures, but the best part of all came when she had a layover in Denver when visiting her mother this fall. My family and I met her at the airport, and she and I had time to talk for a couple of hours, catching up on each other's lives.

Here we are at the airport:


I celebrated my fortieth birthday the week after our reunion, and I consider the renewal of a good friendship the perfect gift!

Mr. Nobody Must Have More Practical Decorating Tastes

Mr. Nobody Was Here

Because it was just too difficult to lift the lid!

Tea, Tedium, and Toddlers

This summer, our family is enjoying food flavored with fresh basil from our very own basil plants. Matthew waters the plants everyday and recently pruned two of the plants, washing and trimming the leaves, coating them with olive oil, and freezing them in ice cube trays for future use. That little project inspired him to put them to another use. He tore up some of the leaves and put them in a cup of water, letting them steep in the warmth from the sun for awhile. Sophie and Evan also requested that he make them some "basil tea." I tasted it and it was slightly sweet and actually good!

Now that Evan is back to square one with learning new piano pieces, his attitude and quality of practice has crashed. He gets so easily discouraged when learning anything new and doesn't put his heart into the hard work that it takes to get to the point where he can become proficient. He doesn't want to quit piano, but he is just spinning his wheels as far as making progress in learning new pieces. He is driving his piano teacher up a wall. Unfortunately she resorts to nagging which isn't helping. James are praying and discussing alternate methods of external motivation to encourage Evan until the internal motivation kicks in (as it did eventually last year.) I'm attempting to be an example to Evan by practicing one of his songs myself to demonstrate good habits (in all my spare time :). At least the kids see me applying myself to something that I require of them.

Last weekend James and I watched the movie Rudy. (Unfortunately the movie included a lot of taking God's name in vain.) The movie is based on a true story and shows how a devoted heart can overcome seemingly impossible obstacles in ability. Of course, it is all from the perspective of purely human effort, but it is an interesting study in human nature. Rudy is Evan's antithesis right now.

Since Aunt Beth was babysitting her grandson Elijah on Friday, she brought him over to spend time with our kids. Logan and Elijah are both at the same stage where they get far more interested and excited over pictures of people than the people themselves. They both point happily to pictures of each other, but when they are right next to each other, they look everywhere but at each other!



We enjoyed watching the boys play side-by-side, and someday they will enjoy actually playing with each other. (Click on the pictures to view larger. You can see a video by clicking on "My Recent Shots" in the sidebar.)

More of the Great and Grands

To read my mom's take on their visit and for another mountain trip slide show, click here.

A Walk in the Providence of God

During the two years that I taught at a middle school, I had the privilege of spending two summers with my grandparents who lived in Colorado at the time. Grandpa and Grandma owned a big blue Dodge van which they used for hospitality on wheels. They loaned the van out for church use frequently and also loved to take visitors up into the glorious Rocky Mountains.

As a frequent recipient of blue van hospitality, I wanted to reciprocate and take Grandma to the mountains during her visit last week. At first, she said that she did not want to go, that she had seen the mountains enough, but Aunt Beth whet her appetite with a short jaunt to Boulder Canyon. When we brought up the idea again to take a trip to Sprague Lake, Grandma was game.

We prepared our gear the night before to be ready to hit the road at 8 a.m. Our departure was delayed first by trying to figure out Grandma's medication and then by troubleshooting malfunctioning oxygen cannisters. Thankfully, James had the day off, and being blessed with "The Knack", he was able to fix the regulator. We left about an hour and half "late".

Driving into Estes Park, we realized that it would be better to eat lunch before going on into Rocky Mountain National Park. We parked near Lake Estes and had a picnic while watching rainstorms surrounding us. Lighting flashed in the dark clouds hovering over the surrounding mountains, but we lunched in the one bright spot of the landscape.


Aunt Beth questioned whether it would even be worth it to venture into Rocky Mountain National with the rain. I pointed out that we could still take a short scenic drive in the park, and she agreed. I silently asked the Lord for good weather so that Grandma would be able to get out and enjoy the mountains. We pulled into the parking lot near Sprague Lake and helped Grandma into her wheelchair while she donned a rainhat, jacket and grabbed her umbrella. As we started walking, the sun broke out of its cloud covering and spread its rays over the lake.

We enjoyed strolling with Grandma around the lakeside path, while the kids climbed boulders and chucked stones in the water. Baby ducks, seemingly without parental supervision, entertained us by darting in and out of the grass at the water's edge. Grandma got out of her wheelchair and walked a third of the way while holding on to her chair. We all soaked in the sun and the beauty of the scenery.

After circling the lake, Grandma said that she thought we should head home. As we walked to the van and the car, the clouds rolled in and started sprinkling. We drove out of the park in a downpour. Aunt Beth and I both said, "Thank you Lord!" as we realized how he had timed our trip. From our perspective, it had seemed like hassles arose which made us "late" in starting our trip, but God, as always, by His Providential care brought us to the lake at just the right time to bless us with a lovely lakeside walk. (Click here for yet another example which I blogged about. Why don't I recognize and praise God for His Sovereign Providence every minute of every day?!)

For I know that the LORD is great,
and that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the LORD pleases, he does,
in heaven and on earth,
in the seas and all deeps.
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who makes lightnings for the rain
and brings forth the wind from his storehouses. Ps. 135: 5-7

Grandma Jennie

We had important visitors to our side of the mountain last week. My Grandma Jennie, accompanied by my parents, flew to Denver to visit her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. We were thankful that, at 93 years old, Grandma was healthy enough to make the trip and to enjoy it!

While talking with Grandma, she told me some stories from her life that I had not heard before. As she watched Elijah (2 weeks older than Logan) looking at a book, she commented that she had not had so many books as a young girl. She remembered aloud that she had come down with Scarlet Fever at the tender age of five, and that, sadly, one of the possessions that was burned to rid the house of germs was her family's Bible storybook.

I asked Grandma specifically to tell some stories from her days as a teacher in a one-room schoolhouse. She recalled riding on horseback to school and the time her father admonished her not to ride so fast after the neighbors reported that they feared for her life. She slowed down.

After she agreed to teach, she heard the tale of the previous teacher whom the eighth graders locked in the coat closet all afternoon one day. She had to be strict from day one with her students. One eighth grade boy decided to challenge her when she told him to stop misbehaving. "Are you big enough to make me?" he sassed.

She replied, "No, but I think you are big enough to do the right thing."

He stopped.

Grandma mused on the fact that she had a limited time each day to work with each grade. It impressed me to realize how much independent work her students were expected and able to do.

Please visit Sophie's Side and The Far Side to read the kids' posts about their week with family.

I'll post more pictures and stories later...

Yawn

Babies do not comprehend time changes!  I started wondering why Logan was so wide awake at a late hour tonight, then James reminded me of the time change.  Oh yeah.  Duh.  That's probably why I had such a hard time holding my eyes open during the sermon today.  I really wish that we could just pick one time and stick with it.  I wonder how long it will take to adjust to this time change.  I do not remember the fall change with fondness.

This week the Genevans, the choir of my alma mater, performed at our church.  We had four of the choir members stay overnight at our house.   Our kids were thrilled to get to sleep on a bedroom floor in sleeping bags.  It is funny how small changes can seem like such an adventure to them.  James and I stayed up talking to the young men for a little while.   (We're old fogies now.  The college kids were probably born when we were in high school!)  They did a little laundry.  At one point, one of them started looking out the window into the night.  We wondered what he was doing, but then he asked, "Is that a helicopter!"  We laughed, because the loud noise and vibration shaking the room was actually caused by the spin cycle of our washing machine!

Hosting an Epicure

Yesterday, a new woman in our congregation and her toddler son came over to our house for lunch. (Her husband was in another state for job training.) I set up a taco salad buffet on our kitchen counters and as our guest was assembling her salad, I asked her, "Where did you go to school?"

She answered, "Culinary School."

I laughingly replied, " Okay, that is intimidating!"

She sheepishly explained, "I usually try not to say where I went to school until after I eat with someone."

Sophie Is Five!

We had a birthday party for Sophie on Saturday. Sophie called it a "Flying Pony Party." Including our kids, ten kids were present.

Our talented friend, Michelle, made the CUTEST pink pony cake for Sophie:

When the kids arrived, they colored posterboard pony heads that I had drawn and cut out ahead of time. Two other moms and I, armed with glue guns, glued googly eyes on the ponies if the kids wanted, glued on each kid's choice of crinkle paper mane, and attached a stick to make homemade hobby horses.

After finishing their ponies, the kids had a "pony parade" around our house. Actually, it turned into more of a wild mustang roundup for a time, but I got the kids calmed down long enough to take this picture:

We consumed the cake. The kids played "Horse, Horse, Pony." To conclude the party, I gave out some small gifts to each child.

James' mom, John, Angi, Conner and Josi stayed awhile longer.

Nerf Dart "Misfire":

The Latest...And Pictures

Matthew is a geography buff. He requested that we decorate the boys' room with maps. That was easy to accomplish! I have a slew of maps from my National Geographic subscription in the 90's. The boys and I took down the bunk beds yesterday for a change. Evan chose a political world map to hang above his bed and Matthew chose a political map of the United States. Matthew asked me this morning if we could switch the maps after he has memorized the states and capitols (his idea). We are going to hang more maps around the room as well. Matthew told me that he spent some time this morning when he woke up looking at his map.

Please pray that Matthew will be able to be brave in spite of his fear and learn how to swim. At swimming lessons, he puts up a mental block and decides that when his teacher moves a certain distance away, that it is too far and too risky for him to try to "torpedo" and swim a little to her. I even offered him a slurpy at 7-Eleven if he would just try and say "I think I can" instead of "I can't", but even a SLURPY is not incentive enough. James and I are going to take just him over to the rec center tonight, hopefully, and have him try swimming to James while I stand right beside him (but I won't touch him. If he needs help; I'll let Jms do the helping to reinforce to Matthew that his teacher would be able to help him in that similar situation if he has problems.) ...Sophie says that at her next lesson she'll bob and put her face in the water without fussing for a Slurpy. We'll see!

We thoroughly enjoyed a visit from Martha and Jennifer and Randy and family on their way home from a visit to the mountains. The kids got along famously. After they left, I noticed Sophie sitting very subdued on the couch. I asked her if she was okay and she replied that she missed Tori and wished that they lived here.

I wonder if Martha will be able to resist the urge to go out and buy a guinea pig after meeting ours? Hmmmm...

Anyway, here are some pictures that we just got developed...

This is our former house in Hays. The picture isn't that great, but it is painted a nice beige color and the shutters and front door are a wine color. Very nice. The garage door is a new white one with windows and the fence is painted white now.

The kids playing at a water pump at a rest area on our recent trip

On a recent hike:

Classic Sophie: