We’re Here!

We began our travel day with a 5:37 pm take off from home. Then we had almost two hours in Chicago before leaving for London at 9:03 pm. Needlessly to say it made a long “day” since we had been awake since 7:00 am.

After 36 1/2 hours awake, we dropped into bed in our favorite London attic room with a private bath and slept like babies last night.  Dennis slept for only about 45 minutes to an hour on the flight itself and I slept “maybe” 30 minutes, and that’s if I’m generous with the time. We were exhausted last night, but after a walk around the neighborhood and a great dinner made by our sweet Daughter-in-love, we were rejuvenated and made it through the evening hours, which is very important to avoid jet lag. This morning we both woke up feeling like ourselves and we began the day.

Our walk last night was to the Paddington Cemetery where the writer of Paddington Bear is buried.

But our first and foremost mission on this trip, is playing with our granddaughter, Miss J. Cuddling, feeding and changing diapers, or nappies as they are called here is taking up lots of time and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

We went to lunch at “The Kilburn Arms,” the pub down the street from the kids house. It was delicious and our princess slept through the entire meal in her pram. The atmosphere was very nice and the pub was very quiet, but then, it was a weekday around 1:30.

These pictures below are out of order and I’m sorry, I can’t get them to correct. More photos from Paddington Cemetery.

A WWI memorial to the soldiers of Paddington.

Several family members in one spot.

It’s an old cemetery with gravestones falling over.

This person was born in 1819 but has a newer stone???

After lunch our in-laws, (the other set of grandparents), stopped by to welcome us “home”. We so enjoy their company.  Dennis and I had each taken a Covid test this morning that turned out  negative and that set everyone’s minds at ease after we had been flying for so long.

Tonight we had a roast chicken dinner made by our dear DIL. Also mashed potatoes, cheesy cauliflower bake, stuffing, Yorkshire pudding, gravy, green beans & carrots For dessert we had warm apple pie and custard.

Tomorrow they are registering Miss J and then all four grandparents will join the three of them for a picnic in Queens Park. We’re making several salads in the morning and I baked chocolate chip cookie bars tonight. Another fun day is ahead. 

We are loving our time here so much. I dreaded the flight because of my back, but so far, so good. 

I’m having trouble commenting, but I am reading blogs. You may not get comments while I’m gone, but I am trying to keep up with all of you.

Take care everyone. I’m off to bed now.

I am SO thankful to the Lord for giving us the opportunity to hold this precious new life in our arms.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Projects done!

I finally did get a few projects finished. Two shawls, one and a half dish cloths and another shawl started.

First up is a crocheted yellow shawl, with a couple of white stripes to break up the yellow a little. I added a simple scallop on the edge to make it a little softer.

Next is a green knitted shawl. Every so often I threw in a garter stitch row for some interest. For the edge I did one eyelet row then another knit row before casting off. (Someone was helping with the photos.) 😍

I made a couple more dishcloths for my gift basket using Hobby Lobby’s “I Love This Yarn” in the Periwinkle colorway.  We actually have sunshine today, which makes taking photos difficult, but I’m not complaining.😍

I started another shawl last night in Red Heart Ombré. The colorway is “Deep Teal”.  All of the shawls will be donated to the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

This little girl was so cold this morning. The weekend was HOT and we had to turn the AC on with temps near 90F and very humid. Today the furnace is back on!  She huddles near the vent in the bathroom and looks pitiful while I dry my hair. 

I finished the baby announcement and had it framed at Michaels. I got home with it, (clear across town), and found out it didn’t have a back or hanger on it. They forgot!  Their prices are not inexpensive, so that was a bit disappointing. I would have thought they would have checked it before calling to say it was done. Oh well, it’s done now and wrapped in paper and in the suitcase because…

we’re heading to London tomorrow to cuddle with our new granddaughter. We’re so excited to see her, and her parents too of course. We have one big suitcase almost full of baby things!🤣 💜 They have lots of fun activities  planned while we’re there.

We have someone watching over Mom and giving her her shots while we’re gone. We have the house and Zoey also being taken care of. My back hasn’t been good for the past few days, so please pray that is better by tomorrow. I can’t imagine flying all night like this.

Take care and I’ll try to check in while we’re gone. BUT, I’m also not promising that I’ll put the baby down long enough to write anything.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

A New Week!

Good morning to all of you. I hope you had a lovely Easter weekend celebrating the resurrection of the Lord.

I thought I would share a few photos I took last week of the safari park about 5 minutes from our campground. Zoey didn’t know what to make of these animals and actually wanted to take on the bison about 3 feet from our truck!

Cute sunbathing turtles.

A herd grazing near the visitor center.

Beautiful and majestic animals.

Love the fuzzy antlers.💜

Lots of bison close by too.

This big guy was up close and personal and Zoey was sure she could show him who was boss.😂 We are REALLY working on the small dog barking but don’t seem to be making much progress.

Here was our camp set up. We didn’t spend a lot of time outside because it was so cold and windy, but enjoyed puttering about inside. We did have a few water issues but Dennis fixed them all. We also had a problem with the furnace not shutting off, but with the help of a Facebook group of owners of the same trailer, that was quickly resolved too. The trip did exactly what we wanted and I think we were able to get the new trailer “kinks” worked out. It looks big but I think it’s the perspective of the picture. It’s only a 26 foot trailer. We had the entire campground to ourselves the first night and only a few others the second night. As you can see, still no leaves here. We’ve made reservations for three nights in the same spot next month and five days in the Black Hills with Piper in June.

Our church is a fairly small one and one of the ladies made this “Tomb” from cardboard boxes and paper bags a few years ago. I thought it turned out well, especially with the dim lighting during the Friday night service. Dennis and Jeff, the pastor, were joking around after breakfast yesterday. Dennis told him to go check out the tomb and snapped this photo just as Jeff said no one was in there. He has risen! 

We had Sunrise service, breakfast at church and then the usual morning service. It was WONDERFUL!

I’ve knitted a few washcloths as a break from the shawl.  I really like this color I’m using now. It’s called periwinkle.

Progress is being made on the prayer shawl for the hospital. I’ve just begun the border and I’m making up the pattern as I go. I added a row of eyelets near the bottom for a bit of interest. Of course it will still need blocked.

I’m finding I’m not knitting nearly as much with a retired husband. 😍 We seem to be on the go a LOT. He’s waiting for me to finish this so we can go buy a new toilet seat for the camper and wash the truck. I love being with him so it’s NOT an issue at all, I just won’t be making as quick of a progress on projects. And that’s just fine. Time with each other is much more important.

Tomorrow we’re helping at a funeral luncheon at church. It’s nice to have the time to help others out and it’s like old times in the kitchen of the church that we met in. We literally met in Sunday school at this church.💕

Take care and I hope the weather begins to even out for all of us.

Blessings and love,

Betsy

Remembering

Always remember.

Easter Blessings,

Betsy

We’re Fine!

I just wanted to pop in here quickly and let you all know that we’re fine. I had told you that we were going camping today and that was what we intended, but our family talked us into staying home until tomorrow because of predicted storms. It was a good thing we stayed home because there was a tornado right over the campground we were supposed to be staying at. There were also 105 mph straight line winds about 7 miles north of our house. It’s been a wild and crazy ride tonight but we are doing well. We had lots of heavy rain and wind, but I don’t think we had any damage, although it’s dark and it’s hard to tell. And we have power! That is a good thing. We still plan to go tomorrow and take the camper to that same campground and hopefully, it will be all fine there also.

This was the biggest storm that Zoey has been through. She did great! There was a huge clap of thunder right over our house that woke her up and she barked at it! She was going to take that thunder on! Chloe was always terrified of thunderstorms, so it’s kind of nice to have a dog that sleeps right through them. 

I did try to take some photos, but none of them turned out because it was raining and hailing so hard and it was so dark. I was also supposed to be in our tornado shelter at the time, so I thought I better get back downstairs.😏

Thank you so much for caring. I’ve had several messages from some you wondering if we were OK.

Lots of love and many blessings,

Betsy

A beautiful day!

It is an absolutely gorgeous day out today. Yesterday was like this too. Blue, blue skies and temperatures in the mid 60s. Tomorrow is our camping trip and it’s supposed to be mid 80s with severe thunderstorms after dark and possible tornadoes. Yippee! Wouldn’t you know it? Our inaugural trip with our new trailer just to try to work out the kinks, and we’re going to be in thunderstorms. Then Wednesday and Thursday are supposed to be much, much cooler with temps in the 40s and low 50s. We have someone taking care of the house and watching over Mom for us and it will be a good little getaway. We’re only going a few miles outside of town so we can get back quickly if need be.

I have finished two more pair of mittens…

And I have begun a prayer shawl for the hospital. I’m just making the pattern up as I go and using Red Heart Soft Baby Steps yarn in the color baby green.

I finally got the photos from our walk last week downloaded. I love this name and just look at the date! 1813. For Nebraska that is very early. I know those of you who live back east have much earlier dates on the headstones, but not here.

These are very old too. And they lived to be older for that time period than seemed to be normal by looking at others around that time.

Dennis has begun the yearly battle with dandelions. The lady who lives to the left in this photo is very particular about her yard and she was very irritated when I got here last spring because the dandelions had taken over while the previous owner was in a nursing home. Believe it or not, as I was unpacking the car she was telling me what I needed to do to get rid of the dandelions! Welcome to the neighborhood!

He fertilized both yards on Saturday and watered so they’re looking very green. You can see up by the steps where the voles did damage last year. There are other spots in the front yard you can’t see very well, plus the backyard and mom‘s front yard. They stayed away most of the summer and then just before fall, they started digging holes and tunnels virtually overnight. Both yards looked absolutely awful and Dennis had tended them so well all summer. If anyone has any good hints for getting rid of voles we would certainly appreciate it.

Spokane apparently received over 2 inches of snow this morning. We had that here twice last week! What in the world is happening with the weather this year? And it sounds as if it’s all over the world.

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter week and remember the reason we’re celebrating this week. Our Savior, Jesus Christ gave up his life on the cross so that those who believe in him will have their sins forgiven and live eternally in Heaven. Easter Sunday, or more accurately Resurrection Sunday, is the most important day of the year for Christians. Without Jesus rising from the dead, we would have no hope. But he did and we do. Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Love to you all!💜💕💜



Blessings and Love!

Betsy

Blue Skies

We have had the craziest warm, cold, warm, cold weather for the last month and a half. Today is cool but beautiful and in the mid 50s right now. We just got back from another nice long walk at the cemetery. We are trying to do that every day that the weather cooperates. Zoey just loves it and it’s great exercise up and down the hills. I have a few more photos for you too. I hope that you like them.  Many people said that they like to see photos from cemeteries. Maybe next time we’ll actually make it up to where all of the family mausoleums are. Here is a rather plain one that was in the part of the cemetery we walked in today.

This section also had a lot of large monuments rather than the flat stones that are found in most of the newer sections.

Our trees still don’t have any buds on them yet. I’m looking forward to showing you photos of this beautiful cemetery in the summertime.

Another view of the same mausoleum. I have a lot of other photos I took this afternoon, including the earliest dates I’ve seen yet, but for some reason they would not download. I’ll try again next time.

I have finished six more pair of mittens. I got woefully behind on them as I was working on the baby cross-stitch. That is at Michael’s for framing and should be done by the 13th. I still have four more pair of mittens to go before I am caught up.

We had a quiet weekend. Dennis worked at the church camp all day Saturday putting insulation and drywall up in the dining hall. The camp is near the South Dakota border, about a one hour drive from here. I did some house cleaning and laundry. After he came home, we got diesel in the truck. Gasp! It wasn’t even at half a tank yet and the pump shut off at $120! Isn’t that awful? I would hate to see what it would cost if we were empty. Then we went out to visit with Mandy and Piper for awhile.  Brad was at his parents house helping to rebuild their garage that burned last week. It sounds as if they are making good progress in the rebuilding process.

Yesterday was church in the morning where I sang on the praise team for the service. I don’t normally do that anymore as I’m feeling much too old these days. It was a hymn fest which is always very much enjoyed by everyone, especially us old people. After that we had lunch with Dennis’s Mom and his cousin Cindy, who we haven’t seen in many, many years, but we keep in touch through Facebook. She lives in Texas but comes to Omaha on business once in a while. All in all, it was a very nice weekend.

I hope you are all having a wonderful Monday enjoying the blessings that God has given us.

Blessings and love, 

Betsy