Rainy Days and Camping

Hello again my friends! Here I am back home for a day or two and it's raining. Actually, I love to be at the trailer in the rain, it's very comforting to hear it on the rooftop. Yesterday we had showers on and off all afternoon. I just sat in my cozy rocking chair and knitted the afternoon away. Love it. I was going to stay there again tonight and come home tomorrow, but Hubby had a last minute meeting scheduled for tonight. That meant that he would have stayed at the house in town, AGAIN, because it just doesn't make sense for him to drive to the lake, just to go to bed and then get up extra early for the drive in to work. So sad. We were both looking forward to this evening when there is no one else in the campground and it's so very quiet. We eat dinner when he gets there, and then take a long walk along the lake. By then it's bedtime. Oh well. Since he was teaching a finance class last night I was there alone. I didn't want to miss him for a second night so home I came! I'll be going back Friday morning so it's not a huge sacrifice. :-)

Here are some photos for you. On Saturday I baked a rhubarb pie from rhubarb that I picked from my garden Friday morning before I went to the lake. This was my first pie attempt in my little toaster oven. It took twice as long as normal to bake and doesn't look that great, but it tasted wonderful if I do say so myself. I'm not a huge fan of rhubarb like Hubby is so that's saying something!. Next time I'll use my propane oven in the trailer and see how that works. Then, of course you HAVE to make cinnamon chips with the leftover pie dough. I've done this ever since I baked my first pie. My mom did it too. Our kids, (and Hubby) love them. It was such fun rolling out the pie dough at the trailer. I have a fully stocked kitchen there! A few more spices and I would never need to come home!

One of my blog friends, Judy, asked me to make here a few dishcloths in her favorite colors. Judy, here is a sneak peak of what I mailed to you yesterday! I hope you like them!


Hubby and I planted 17 pots of flowers on Saturday. Just petunias, red geraniums and marigolds, (marigolds are supposed to help keep bees away). I love flowers and can't wait until they grow a bit and fill the pots. The gazebo/screen room is so nice for sitting and having a cup of tea in the morning while reading my Bible. Yesterday I sat there and read the ENTIRE book of Psalms! All 151 chapters. I had intended to read 20 and just kept right on going! It was so cozy there. It started sprinkling rain and I just sat in there reading and listening to it hit the canvas roof.


I built this little rock wall yesterday with Chloe's help and our little red radio flyer wagon. Hubby bought it out last week for me and it worked very well. We've had our little wagon for 33 years now and have used it to move furniture, mix cement and of course, the kids have played and played and played with it! It was well worth whatever we paid for it so long ago. Anyway, I built this little wall so it would be small reminder in the dark that there is a drop-off there. I may make it a bit bigger at some point, but I do like it. How about you? Any advice? Bigger or not?


I'm making two more dishcloths for a friend at the lake and then I plan to finish the socks in hot pink that I've started for my secret sister at church. What are you working on and is it beautiful weather where you live? After tomorrow we're supposed to be in for a warm and dry spell. I certainly hope so.

Have a lovely day everyone. I'm so happy to be able to call you my friends.

Blessings,

Betsy

Yarn Sale

Hello again!

I know, I know! Two posts in two days. What's wrong with that woman you say! But I have happy news for those of you who like to knit or crochet. Michaels is having a 4 day yarn sale to make room for new stock coming in June. I hope this doesn't mean that they are getting rid of two of my favorite yarns, but from Wednesday to Saturday this week you can get Lily Sugar & Cream cotton 4/$5.00 and Caron Simply Soft 2/$5.00. These are both GREAT prices. Simply Soft is usually $4.49 or so per skein. Now the important thing to remember is that this is an email sale. The prices are NOT marked in the yarn aisle. When you get to the cashier just tell them that you're buying them from the email sale. You don't have to show them anything and the yarn will ring up at the sale price.

Looky what I bought!


Now I didn't buy all of this yesterday. I bought 16 balls of dishcloth cotton and 10 skeins of Simply Soft to restock my supplies. I may or may not go back today and get more!!!
Do you see the two layers of cotton? I really like this bin for keeping it in. I've tried several different storage methods but this seems to work best for me. I can see the colors through the clear plastic, even on the bottom layer.

Okay friends, I'm off to trim bushes in the yard. I just wanted to get the word out to those of you in the U.S. about the sale. Have a WoNdErFuL day everyone.

Blessings,
Betsy

Home and a Computer!

Hello Friends!

I think I've learned this week that I can post to my blog through my phone with words only. No pictures. I don't know what has happened since last week, but blogger won't let me upload from my phone. So if I blog from the lake it will have to be just talk-no photos. But here I am home for a day or so, I have my desktop so I can post a few pictures for you. I woke up to snow on my car this morning at the lake! It melted by 6:30 a.m. so it was short lived. You can see the fog/mist this morning in the picture. The lake is warmer than the air temperature today. It was 75F there yesterday. What a change! We had a rip-roaring wind come through in the afternoon bringing rain and snow at the higher elevations. There was a tragedy on a local lake during the wind. It overturned a small aluminum fishing boat and the couple in their 50's were tossed into the water. The man drowned but the woman made it to shore. So sad. It's a week of terrible weather in our country isn't it? My heart goes out the the people in Oklahoma. Having lived my first 32 years in Nebraska, I know the ferocity of tornadoes firsthand and they terrify me. When Hubby was offered a job here in Spokane, my first question was, "Do they have any natural disasters?" We had spent most of that spring in our tornado shelter with our children as it was a particularly bad tornado season that year.

I had a busy day last Friday. First of all, I'm not used to driving 6 hours with no one to talk too. Not even Chloe was with me for company! I arrived back in Spokane from Portland by 1:00 and switched cars with Hubby. His new truck had a tire that he had added air to twice in the three days I was in Portland. Switching cars meant unloading everything out of mine and putting it all in the truck. Then home to unload it all again, start the laundry and off to the tire shop. There was a nail in the tire and they repaired it at no charge. Thank you Perfection Tire! Obviously with the truck being new, we hadn't purchased the tires from them and they still repaired it free. Great guys.

Next came a stop at the grocery store, back home to finish laundry, re-pack for the lake and guess where I was by 5:00? Sitting in my chair with a glass of ice tea and my knitting while watching the skiers on the lake!

Saturday in the early afternoon the park delivered 6 truckloads of crushed granite to our site and our friends, Larry & Nita whose site adjoins ours. That is their motor home that you see. In the picture of Nita and I with our dog babies you can see our trailer on the left. The guys shoveled and shoveled and the backhoe came in and flattened it out some. One it rains on the granite it will harden to be almost like rock. This has expanded our sites about 5 feet to the back toward the lake. They have been doing this with all of the sites that want more space. This way we can move our fire pit farther from the trailers which will be nice for safety and for smoke getting inside. After they finished shoveling granite they built our new gazebo. Hubby and I bought it half price on clearance last fall and have had it stored all winter. This will be very nice and keep the bugs off of us while we eat and play cards, etc. Monday and Tuesday I sat at the table and did my Bible study and it was so peaceful. The week days are so nice there. No week-enders to make lots of noise. :-) Last night it was just myself and our friends, Willie & Dixie in the entire park. Solitude is nice. Willie baked lemon bars in the middle of the storm and invited me down for dessert last night. Yum!

One last photo of little Miss Piper in a different Mother's Day pose than the last one I showed you. This picture is destined for the trailer, while the other is on my bedside table at home.

I've been busy building my stock of dishcloths. I'm still not sure about selling them. It takes some of the joy out of making them to sell. I love to give things that I make away as gifts. I also forgot to take a picture of a half done sock. The first sock is finished to after the heel turn. I need to start on it again and get it done before I get "one sock syndrome"!

Have a lovely day my friends. Remember to hug your loved ones a little tighter today and everyday that you have them. This week has been a reminder of how a "normal" day can quickly change your life forever.

Blessings,

Betsy

Hello!

Ive been trying to post for over three hours. It's something with Google Chrome+ I give up my friends. I'll try again later when I'm not so frustrated!
Blessings,
Betsy

Home tomorrow!

Life has been busy since I arrived in Portland on Tuesday. Polly and I got here a few hours before Mandy & Brad arrived home. Piper stayed with me yesterday and didn't go to day care so she could get some good naps. She slept almost four hours in total for me during the day. Poor baby was exhausted from traveling. 7 1/2 months old and she is trying to walk. The pediatrician said today that probably within a few weeks she'll be walking on her own without ever crawling. You'll see a picture if her below. I also have some pictures of flowers here at Mandy's. Can you see the bees in the yellow flower? The peony bush is loaded with buds.

The necklace was my Mother's Day gift from Mandy & Brad. It has a disk with all 3 grandchildren's names and a disk that says Grandma and also a heart. I LOVE it.

I had a much anticipated lunch today with my sweet, sweet blogging friends Gracie, Teresa & Taci in Gresham. We had a wonderful time and over two hours passed in a flash. Look at the lovely goodies we gave each other. Gracie brought us each a hand crocheted hot pads. Mine will be much used in the trailer this summer. Taci made us crocheted bookmarks that I plan to use in my devotion book. So pretty. And Teresa gave us each 6 eggs from her chickens. Yum!! I gave the ladies each a dishcloth and a coaster with sheep in a road that says "Rush Hour". I thought that would be good for these ladies who live so close to Portland!

I stayed an extra day at Mandy's request but plan to go home early tomorrow. I hope to be driving by 6:30 a.m. I have lots to do tomorrow at home and the plan is to go to the lake tomorrow night. :-) Not even one night to sleep in my own bed.

And now, I'm off to bed so I'll be ready for my 6 hour drive home tomorrow.

Have a lovely weekend my friends.
Blessings,
Betsy

Monday, Monday

Good Morning my friends. After a long stretch of sunshine and hot weather I woke up this morning to raindrops on the roof and temps in the 60's. The rain is much needed so no complaints will be heard here. The weekend was absolutely gorgeous. Hubby and I spent Saturday and much of Sunday at the lake, coming home to sleep because we didn't want to chance anything happening to our Granddog that's been stayng with us for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow I'm driving back to Portland with Polly to reunite her with her Mom, Dad & Piper. They've been in Nebraska for Brad's brothers wedding and so we've been babysitting Polly. Chloe will be lost without her as they are great friends. I'll be in Portland so you know what that means! Lunch with Gracie, Teresa and Taci on Thursday just before I drive home the same day. It will be a fast trip with lots of driving by myself.

Craftwise this weekend I did manage to make four dishcloths. I'm going to try to make about 20 our so and take them to the place that did my cardiac stress test. The nurses showed interest and practically begged me to bring more up to sell to the staff. (Still no results from the test, so I'm assuming all is well.)

I sang on the praise team yesterday at church. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it. I sing a lot at the evening service and used to sing every week in the morning. I gradually stopped the mornings over a couple of years and now it is mainly the younger people. The evening services are much more relaxed and I enjoy them, but there is talk about not having a regular service in the evening starting in the fall. It will be more of a small group Bible study so my days of singing in "public" are likely coming to an end for the most part. That's okay. On my road trips, I crank up the C.D. player or radio and can sing as loud as I want!!! :-)

After church we went to Shakey's Pizza with our best friends Neal & Jenny and two of their four children and two grandchildren. We've been best friends for almost 20 years now! Since none of our kids were able to be here for Mother's Day, it was nice to spend time with kids that are almost like our own. Alex called twice from Japan on facetime. Gotta love facetime. It's free and we can see each other. Plus it's on our phones so we don't have to have a computer in front of us like on Skype. He called Saturday night because it was Sunday in Japan and he wanted to beat Mandy & Jamie!

Looky what Miss Piper sent to me.

Mandy made the chalkboard with a picture frame and chalkboard paint. She usually has it hanging in the kitchen with an inspirational quote on it. I just love this photo of Piper. Look at those little toes! And the card is amazing. Notice it says "Grandma Queen". That's me!!!! Our last name is Queen. I love this entire card. It's written like a fairy tale by a GRANDDAUGHTER! Perfect.

I thought I would be fine since we kept so busy all day, but I have to admit it. Holidays without our kids are really, really hard. I miss them. I don't ever want any of them to feel guilty for living their own lives. And every holiday I say, "It will be fine". And I really try to make it fine, but somewhere within that day, the sadness always creeps in. I hate that. I pray. I cry. And then I feel bad for feeling the way I feel. Does that even make sense?

My own Mom has been gone since I was 29. I'm 53 now and I still never go a day without thinking of her at some point. So here I am today. A little down. A little sad, but okay in the end. After all, life is what you make of it and tomorrow evening I will again see Mandy, Brad and Miss Piper when they fly back into Portland. Thursday I will have lunch with my new blogging friends who are beginning to mean the world to me. And when I arrive home Thursday night, Dennis, the love of my life, will be waiting impatiently for my return. I know that my Saviour loves me and cares about every step I take and every tear I cry. I can't ask for much more than that now can I?

Here's one more picture of our Granddog Polly. I think she's missing her little family too.


Have a wonderful day my friends. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend full of love and laughter.

Blessings,

Betsy

Giveaway

I have had so many wonderful comments on my blog lately. I feel so happy and blessed to have each of you in my life. Your comments brighten my days and are so kind.

I keep forgetting to let you all know that my friend Taci is having a giveaway on her blog. Quick! Find her link on my sidebar and run over there because it ends soon. I should have remembered to tell you sooner.

Hubby and I are back at the lake today. He's hooking up the permanent sewer pipes. Ick!!!! I'm sure glad I have him around.

Here are a few pictures I took from our campsite this morning.

Have a lovely day my friends.
Blessings,
Betsy

Sunshine!

Hello Friends!

According to the weather channel, Washington State is the hottest state in the country. We even beat out Arizona and Florida! It was in the upper 80's yesterday and it is supposed to be even hotter today. I did turn the central A/C on yesterday as it was almost too hot to sleep the night before. It's very early for this and I'm pretty sure it will be short-lived, but I am enjoying the bright blue skies and cloudless days.

I've been keeping busy. I finished one of the dishcloths for May. It's supposed to be a bouquet of flowers, but I just can't see it, can you? The pattern didn't have a picture with it so I realize I was taking a chance but it sounded pretty. :-)


These two Granny's Favorite dishcloths were gifts for the nurses who did my tests on Monday. I was knitting on a dishcloth while waiting for my appointment and one of them commented that she had recieved one as a Christmas gift and loved it but didn't know where she could buy one. I asked her what her favorite color was and decided to make them each a dishcloth. The nuclear technician who did the injections was a man so I gave him the blue petals dishcloth from my last post. I know he's married and it's blue.....




I delivered them this morning and they were so excited and pleased. They asked me to make up a bunch and take them to the office and they would sell them for me. They told me that several of the ladies have mentioned them but don't know where to buy them. I won't make a lot of money, but maybe enough to help with my yarn habit??? It wasn't my intention to sell anything or try to market my dishcloths, I just wanted to say thank you to these three nice people who didn't laugh while I'm sure I made a fool of myself on the treadmill! :-)

Yesterday I went to Hancock fabric where they are having a huge sale on fabric and bought enough material to make two new sundresses. I've worn out all of the ones I have and desperately needed a couple more for summer. I made one yesterday and will make the other one this morning. I love the fabric of the first dress and I have it on right now. What do you think? I think it lools like a beautiful vintage fabric. And I got it for $3.99 a yard on sale! See Chloe there on the floor by my feet? She's never far away from me.

I took some pictures of counted cross stitch pictures that are hang around our house. They were all done well over 20 years ago. My eyes just aren't up to those tiny squares any longer. I thought I would like to share them with you. In the sampler with the people on it you will see our little family as it was in 1988. That was just before Alex was born and so there were just four of us. If you look closely you'll see Bobbie, our cockatiel on my shoulder and Brandy the dog is there too. My, what a long time ago that seems now.

The picture with the swing in the pink frame hung in Mandy's room for years. There were over 40 different colors of green embroidery thread in that picture!

Most things that I made back then were given away. I guess some things don't change much. I apologize again for the photos. I never claimed to be a good photographer, but at least you can get the idea.

And now I need to get busy with the vacumming and dusting so I can make my other dress. The fabric is pretty, but not as nice as the one I showed you. Have a wonderful day and I hope you'll enjoy your weekend.

Blessings,

Betsy