Quilts and Blankets

Hello my friends! It's Saturday and we're home. We'v been home since Monday and it's been hot and humid ever since we arrived back here. I haven't left the condo since Monday except to take Zoey outside and I'm loving it. 

I have a big surprise to show you. The day before Mom's Memorial service I received a box in the mail from Canada. That was a surprising in itself, but look what was inside!

A BEE QUILT! Valerie from the "Wandering Cat Studio" blog sent me this amazing, amazing quilt. She knows how much I love bees and although she says there's an error or two with seams, I cannot find ANYTHING wrong with it. It is just stunning and I am speechless. It arrived at the perfect time. There was so much stress happening at that time. I've wrapped myself up in it many times already. Here, let me show you this work of art.

It covers the queen size bed.

A closer look at the intricate squares. Nine patches are one of my favorite quilt block patterns. :-)

Bees, bees, bees all over the backing fabric.  Bzzzzzzzz

And here is her shop name below. Run over and check out all of her beautiful quilts if you haven't seen them yet. You'll be impressed by the quality. She and her Mom put together pure works of art.

Valerie, I can't express enough how much I am humbled by your beautiful gift of love. I will cherish it and love it as long as I'm here on this earth. Thank you!

Meanwhile, Miss Piper picked out yarn from my stash for a new blanket to match her newly, (in the past year), decorated bedroom. It went from a toddler to a teenager overnight. Just like she did!

I made squares during the entire camping trip and drive and then when we got home I began putting them together. It is 9 squares by 13 squares and each square is 4 inches. The border adds another inch between each square.

Piper wanted to have a "lacey" border like I put on a blanket for her baby dolls a few years ago and she wanted it in a creamy color. This color looks like french vanilla ice cream to me.

Working on the border. I think I went around the blanket with a chain 3, single crochet stitch about 8 to 10 times. Zoey's lambey had to get in on the action. Our floor sometimes looks like a toddlers room with all of her toys. :-)

Piper came over to swim with Papa yesterday afternoon and while they were in the pool, I finished up the border. She didn't even wait for me to wash it, but took it home with her. She seems to love it. Mandy washed it when they got home and...

she not only wrapped up with it on the couch last night, it's now on her bed too. Lizzie approves! The border yarn matches her bedspread pretty well. I do love making things for my sweet Piper because she's actively involved in the process of pattern choice, color choice and then she uses everything I make. She even knew exactly how big she wanted the squares to be. It's wonderful to make things for people who appreciate the work and and the love that go into every stitch.

Tomorrow we'll go to church in the morning and then drop Zoey off with Lizzie and go to Brad's parents for Father's Day lunch. It was nice of them to invite us and we always enjoy their company. I just made 36 deviled eggs to contribute. They always go over well at a picnic don't they?

I'm praying for the people of Israel and Iran today. Actually, for people all over the world. Sometimes it seems like everything is going crazy and then I remember that nothing surprises the Lord. He knows exactly what will happen and when, and I just need to put my trust and faith in Him. I am watching every day for the return of Jesus. The Bible says no one knows the day or the hour, but that we should always be prepared in and out of season. So I watch, wait and pray. Always praying for the hope of blessed salvation for everyone.

Have a lovely weekend my friends and Happy Father's Day to all of your Dad's and Husbands.


Blessings and love,

Betsy

Oh How I Love Jesus

Text: Frederick Whitfield

Music: Transitional American Melody

1

There is a name I love to hear,
  I love to sing its worth;
It sounds like music in mine ear,
  The sweetest name on earth.

 

Oh, how I love Jesus,
Oh, how I love Jesus,
Oh, how I love Jesus,
  Because He first loved me!

2

It tells me of a Savior’s love,
  Who died to set me free;
It tells me of His precious blood,
  The sinner’s perfect plea.

3

It tells me what my Father hath,
  In store for every day,
And though I tread a darksome path,
  Yields sunshine all the way.

4

It tells of One whose loving heart
  Can feel my deepest woe,
Who in each sorrow bears a part
  That none can bear below.

Graduation Day!

Graduation is over and we are back on the road again.

This photo was taken Friday when we stopped at a rest area in Indiana for lunch. Look at all of that moss on the roof of the picnic shelter. It obviously has lots of rain here. It was raining while we ate too!

A bit closer. 

Graduation at the KFC Yum Center in Louisville, Kentucky on Saturday morning. There were almost 500 graduates.

Here’s our 👩‍🎓 graduate. Amanda is a school nurse and is planning to continue on for her doctorate. She leaves next week for Kenya where she’ll be doing mission work for the summer. She has previously been on the medical mission field in Haiti. She’s beautiful inside and out. Amanda also played the piano for Mom’smemorial service. She’s multitalented!💜

Photos afterwards….with us

and Curt and Barb. For those of you who don’t know, Dennis and Curt are cousins and lifelong best friends. The four of us actually went on our first date together 49+ years ago.

We took Amanda to lunch after graduation and found this guy hanging out close to the restaurant.

This is where we camped Friday and Saturday nights. It’s just over the border from Kentucky in Indiana. It rained the entire time we were here with just short periods between showers. I love the sound of rain on the camper roof while we’re sleeping.

Last night we went to the highly recommended Norma Jeans for ice cream. It was delicious. I had raspberry truffle. Oh my! Dennis had blueberry cheesecake, Curt had Oreo cookie dough and Barb had salted caramel. Everyone was VERY happy. 🍨🍦

Today we had planned to go to Mammoth Cave, but the heat and humidity was actually making me ill. I could tolerate it at the first two campgrounds because we had electricity and could run our AC when in the camper. But the Mammoth Cave campground has no electric sites. Dennis made the executive decision not to go. We’re disappointed of course, but our main reason for the trip was the graduation and we did that. We were going separate ways from Curt and Barb anyway, as they’re heading northeast to visit Barb’s family. We’re now heading towards home with no clear plan of where we’ll camp for the night.  We may get home tomorrow or it may be a couple of days if we decide to stop somewhere. 

Meanwhile I’m crocheting squares for Piper’s blanket while riding in the truck.  Sorry that I just read your blogs this morning, the last campground didn’t have any cell reception or internet. Take care my friends.

Blessings and love,

Betsy 

Kentucky or Bust!

We left for Amanda’s graduation in Louisville, Kentucky on Wednesday morning. We stayed at finger Lakes State Park in Missouri the first two nights. Today we’re on the road and should arrive at a state park just north of Louisville in Indiana in a few hours. 

This is our camping buddies cool camper. Would you believe I forgot to take a photo of ours?

The first night when we arrived, Curt and Barb opened up their camper and everything was wet. It had poured down rain the night before in Omaha and apparently when their camper is down, it leaks. The mattress was soaked through and through along with all of the bedding. Dennis and Curt ran to the nearest Walmart and bought an air mattress for them to use while theirs dries out.

With the humidity here that’s not an easy feat. It’s been between 93 and 97% since we left home.

Today we’re trying to outrun severe thunderstorms. The goal is to get our camp set up before the storms hit this afternoon, but I’m not sure we’re going to make it. That’s Curt and Barb ahead of us.

This was the traffic in St. Louis a little while ago. There’s the St. Louis arch! No way could you convince me to live where traffic is this heavy. We are 52 1/2 feet long between the truck and the camper, and driving through this is not fun.

Right after we saw the arch we drove over this bridge. Curt is still leading the way!

What a neat bridge.

So far we’re having a great time. We only have electricity at our site the next two nights. When we are at Mammoth Cave, there is no electricity so we won’t be able to run the air conditioner. Yikes! I may not survive or we’ll leave early. 

Blessings and Love,

Betsy

Celebration and Sadness

I’m going to apologize in advance for all of the photos and a long post. Grab a glass of iced tea or beverage of choice and settle in! I have missed you all and I’m so grateful to you all for your wonderful notes and prayers over this past weekend.

On Friday night, May 31, our one and only grandson Caleb graduated from high school in Helena, Montana. He was the salutatorian. We are so proud of him. He is such a great kid and has been since he was a baby. Such a kind and loving young man. He’s a pure Montana boy. He mountain bikes on both bikes and motorbikes, fishes, skateboards, cliff dives, and swims. He’s an amazing snowboarder and already owns his own truck and boat! He’s been working for a landscaper for the last several years. He plans to become a lineman. Isn’t this a great picture? Our son Jamie, Caleb, his mom Crystal, and our oldest grandchild Kyleigh who just finished her second year of college in Bozeman, Montana.

Our two oldest grandchildren. Kyleigh was valedictorian of her graduating class. They sure make Grandpa and I proud of them. Wonderful kids or should I say young adults? They are and have always been, very close to each other.

On Friday they had a graduate walk where they walked around all of their past schools in their caps and gowns. This was Caleb‘s kindergarten teacher. Look! She still has his kindergarten picture! He says she was his favorite teacher and still is.

Then, on Saturday morning, we had the memorial service for Dennis‘s mom, Betty. There were about 90 people in attendance at the luncheon and several had left so I’m not sure how many were at the actual services. We first had the graveside burial of her ashes, then the memorial service at church, with a luncheon directly afterwards.

The photo below is all of her grandchildren, except our oldest son Jamie, who was unable to be there because of Caleb‘s graduation. He was brokenhearted about it. You will probably recognize Alex and Mandy in the center.

They called us last week and already had the year of her death installed on the headstone. It was nice to have it done for the burial.

We spent a LOT  time going through old family photos. It was a wonderful time of memories. We’re hoping that this fall uncle Alan can come back from Minnesota along with several other cousins and we can have several days of looking through all of the photos mom had and send them home with people. She seemed to be the collector of all of the family memorabilia, and it’s all fallen to us now. We don’t want to keep it all to ourselves and want to share it with Dennis‘s cousins.

Mandy opened up her home from the middle of the week last week until today. Both she and Brad were wonderful hosts and we can’t thank her enough for everything they did for us and the rest of the family this weekend. We basically trashed her house which probably drove her nuts because her house is usually immaculate. People were in and out constantly and what a blessing it was to have a place large enough for everyone to gather. Alex and his family stayed there, while we hosted Dennis‘s brother and his wife. Some other family members stayed in hotels or with other family that lived in town.

I had started this yellow and white blanket as a wheelchair blanket for Parsons House but when “Baby J” saw it, she immediately said “It’s Belle‘s cape!” She wore around her shoulders, trailing yarn behind her, and was pleased as punch. So of course I finished it and sent it home with her! She really doesn’t have very many blankets from Grandma like Piper does. Hers are mostly small baby blankets, so this is one she can cuddle up in now. Piper is modeling it for me.💜

We took a few hours after lots of last minute memorial preparations and visited the Mormon Trail center and cemetery. It is just a few blocks from our church and although we grew up here and have driven past it hundreds of times, I had never stopped to tour the museum. I guess when you grow up hearing the stories of the area, you don’t do the things that tourists drive miles to see. It was very, very interesting. 

Here we are showing how hand carts were pulled, literally across the country usually by two people, although we have help from a little one here. They certainly were hardy people to survive the hardships they faced.

This is a statue in the cemetery across the street. It depicts a man with his arm around a woman holding a shovel with their little baby buried in a grave at their feet. The vast majority of deaths were of children under three years old. So sad.

When we went to the church on Friday, so Alex could make sure the audiovisual presentation worked correctly with the churches sound system, he gave both Piper and “baby J” impromptu drum lessons. He used to be quite a good drummer, but hasn’t had much of a chance to practice recently. However, when he sat down and drummed, it sounded pretty good to me. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of him behind the drum set, just videos and Blogger won’t let me upload any of them.

Grandpa and I got lots of snuggles from our girls over the last few days.  The kids were boarding their flight in Chicago to London about the time we went to bed last night. When I woke up, there was a message that they had just landed in London! What an amazing world we live in. In the time I slept overnight, they flew halfway around the world. I must admit, I ugly cried when we left them at the airport last night. They are just too far away. Oh, how we would love to have them live closer. I’m sorry I can’t show you pictures of “Baby J’s” face, but because of her Mama’s job I can’t show either one of them online. She is a little doll though, and her mother is drop dead gorgeous. She is as lovely inside as she is outside and we are blessed to have her for a daughter-in-law.

And now I am frantically doing laundry and Dennis is buying groceries. Tomorrow he volunteers at the mission and I’m driving Piper to band class and tennis lessons. Wednesday morning early we leave on our trip to Kentucky to our friends graduation there. We’ll be camping for about two weeks, but I’ll try to keep up with you along the way.
We will be home just a little over a week and then we will take Piper camping to the Black Hills of South Dakota for a week. There are busy times ahead, but hopefully they are all fun times as well. We are still trying to get used to not checking on Mom constantly. That is still strange.

Take care everyone and I’ll be back soon.

Blessings and love,

Betsy 

When The Roll Is Called

Text & Music by James M. Black

1 When the trumpet of the Lord shall sound, 
and time shall be no more,
and the morning breaks, eternal, bright and fair;
when the saved of earth shall gather 
over on the other shore,
and the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.

Refrain:
When the roll is called up yonder,
when the roll is called up yonder,
when the roll is called up yonder,
when the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there.

2 On that bright and cloudless morning 
when the dead in Christ shall rise,
and the glory of his resurrection share;
when his chosen ones shall gather 
to their home beyond the skies,
and the roll is called up yonder, I'll be there. [Refrain]

3 Let us labor for the Master 
from the dawn till setting sun,
let us talk of all his wondrous love and care;
then when all of life is over, 
and our work on earth is done,

Gone for a few days!

Hello to all of you. I hope you’re all having a wonderful week. I will be away from the computer for several days as we have family arriving for Mom‘s memorial service and I won’t be home much. 

Alex and his family arrived about three hours ago. Dennis and I picked them up at the airport and I’ve already had three hours of Grandma time with “Baby J”, who isn’t much of a baby anymore, and Miss Piper. She knew exactly who grandpa and I were and immediately gave me an hug and said, “my house is far, far away, and I had to take two aero planes to get here.” All said with the sweetest little British accent. I just love her to pieces.

Although we’re gathering for a sad reason, I plan to make the most of every minute I have with family. Dennis‘s brother and his girlfriend arrive tomorrow and they will be staying with us. I know I won’t have a minute to myself until at least next Monday sometime. I plan to be back online then. 

Take care and enjoy your weekend and if you think about it, please say a prayer for our family on Saturday as we say goodbye to our dear Mom. 

Blessings and love, 

Betsy

Memorial Day

We’ve had a very cool and rainy memorial weekend here in Nebraska. I hope you have all had a good weekend, and that you took time to remember the sacrifice made for those of us here in the United States, by the men and women who gave their lives for our freedoms. We are truly blessed here in our country to have the freedom to live and speak as we want. We need to never take that for granted because those rights can disappear very quickly as we are seeing happen in many places around the world today.

On a brighter note, Miss Piper has had a very busy week. She earned her orange belt at taekwondo.

At the award ceremony at her middle school on Wednesday, she won several awards. She had all ones, or A’s as we used to call them. Honor roll all 4 quarters. She was on the yearbook staff and also took part in a community service project.

She was one of five students chosen to receive a “kindness coin” for sharing kindness to others at her school.

And here she is, all ready for her last day of school on Friday. Mandy made sure to tell us that she had shorts on under her skirt😂. The cardigan she’s wearing was one of her Grammys. It’s hard to believe that she’s wearing the same size clothes as Dennis‘s mom did.

I haven’t done much knitting or crocheting this week. The last blanket I worked on was using a hook a bit too small and I think I strained my wrist. I’ve been letting it rest for the last week, trying to get the pain to go away. I do have another blanket for Parsons House About 1/3 done but not really enough to take a photo of it for you. 

On Wednesday, Alex and his family will fly in from London. On Thursday, Dennis‘s brother Doug and his girlfriend Nancy will arrive. Saturday we will have the memorial service and burial for Mom. The young lady, Amanda, who we are going to her graduation in Kentucky next month, is going to be playing the piano. Our minister and good friend Jeff will be officiating at the service and Dennis‘s brother Doug will do the eulogy. Although Dennis has done a LOT of public speaking throughout his life, he doesn’t think he could make it through the eulogy without breaking down. I know it will be a hard day, but it will also be a joyful one as we celebrate Mom’s new life in heaven. 

May God bless each of you with the peace that only He can give.

Onward Christian Soldiers 

Text-Sabine Baring-Gould

Music-Arthur Sullivan

1

Onward Christian soldiers!
  Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus
  Going on before.
Christ, the royal Master,
  Leads against the foe;
Forward into battle,
  See, His banners go!

 

Onward, Christian soldiers!
  Marching as to war,
With the cross of Jesus,
    Going on before.

2

At the name of Jesus
  Satan’s host doth flee;
On then, Christian soldiers,
  On to victory!
Hell’s foundations quiver
  At the shout of praise:
Brothers, lift your voices,
  Loud your anthems raise!

3

Like a mighty army
  Moves the Church of God:
Brothers, we are treading
  Where the saints have trod;
We are not divided,
  All one Body we—
One in faith and Spirit,
  One eternally.

4

Crowns and thrones may perish,
  Kingdoms rise and wane;
But the Church of Jesus
  Constant will remain.
Gates of hell can never
  ’Gainst the Church prevail;
We have Christ’s own promise,
  Which can never fail.

5

Onward, then, ye people!
  Join our happy throng;
Blend with ours your voices
  In the triumph song.
Glory, laud and honor
  Unto Christ, the King;
This through countless ages
  Men and angels sing.

A Cute Face

Don't you agree? Just look at this face. Our weather cooled off a LOT yesterday afternoon. We had the A/C on all week and then about 2:30 or so, we felt a huge gust of cold wind instead of the warmer winds we had had all day. Now it's a gorgeous 64F outside and we have the balcony door and the windows open. It's Zoey's favorite place to be when it's nice outside. She'll lay in her bed for hours watching the birds and activites outside.

We have a beautiful greenspace outside our condo with trees between the buildings but I see a branch that doesn't seem to have made it through the winter. It's a great place to sit with a cup of tea in the evenings once the sun moves around the building.

I finished a granny blanket for Parsons House where Mom lived. I plan to continue to make blankets for the residents there since they all seem to like them. I just finished the border on this one about midnight last night so it hasn't been washed and blocked yet. I'm sure some of the wonkiness will disappear.

These cabinets have driven me crazy since we moved into the condo almost exactly two years ago. The glass was clear and you could see everything inside. It was the only cabinet to keep our dishes and glasses in and they don't all match. It looked chaotic inside, not like the beautiful ones you see in magazines. 

We found this vinyl on Amazon for less than $9.00. You just wet the glass and lay the vinyl on top. This was SO easy to do and if we get tired of it, you just peel it off. There is no sticky residue and I think the cabinets look a lot better. What do you think?  Dennis has been hinting that we can redo the kitchen if I want to because the black granite is impossible to keep clean. DO NOT SET A GLASS down on the counter. You have to get the granite cleaner out just to get the mark off. It's ridiculous. And the space for the refrigerator is really small so a normal size refrigerator won't fit. I just can't bring myself to redo it though. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the cabinets and it would cost a fortune. So I'm keeping the kitchen and just trying to make it work for us. I know I'm blessed with a beautiful home and I'm truly grateful. We love condo life and hopefully will be traveling more in the future. We can shut off the water and just leave. No yard work or snow removal. I'm very grateful for our home.

Dennis is still dealing with paperwork regarding Mom's death. We had to go downtown to the courthouse last week and get a copy of Dad's death certificate. We drove around for quite awhile without finding anywhere to park. Finally I dropped him off and drove around and around and around the block waiting. There is so much construction downtown right now that I will avoid it like the plague until it's done. And what has happened to people's patience when driving? I see a lot of agression and anger. Especially downtown! :-)

I hope all is well with you all. I've been doing better about reading blogs this week and trying to catch up with all of you. I missed all of you when I was away. June will be busy. We're heading to Kentucky for a graduation of a young lady from church who is getting her Masters Degree in Nursing. She has no family going, so Curt & Barb and Dennis and I are camping our way to Louisville, Kentucky. We've had this trip planned since last fall. After the graduation we're going to Mammoth Cave and then we'll head home for a week or so before taking Miss Piper to the Black Hills to camp for a week at our favorite campground. She's never been there and we're looking forward to the trip with her. Zoey will stay with Lizzie, Brad and Mandy. Later in July we'll head west to Spokane, stopping in Montana to see our son and grandkids. We're also planning to go to the Oregon Coast for a few days before heading back to Nebraska. So a busy summer is ahead if our plans actually happen.

Take care and I'll be back soon.


Blessings and love,
Betsy

What A Friend We Have In Jesus

Text: Joseph M. Scriven

Music: Charles C. Converse

1. What a friend we have in Jesus,
   All our sins and griefs to bear!
   What a privilege to carry
   Everything to God in prayer!
   Oh, what peace we often forfeit,
   Oh, what needless pain we bear,
   All because we do not carry
   Everything to God in prayer!
2. Have we trials and temptations?
   Is there trouble anywhere?
   We should never be discouraged—
   Take it to the Lord in prayer.
   Can we find a friend so faithful,
   Who will all our sorrows share?
   Jesus knows our every weakness;
   Take it to the Lord in prayer.
3. Are we weak and heavy-laden,
   Cumbered with a load of care?
   Precious Savior, still our refuge—
   Take it to the Lord in prayer.
   Do thy friends despise, forsake thee?
   Take it to the Lord in prayer!
   In His arms He’ll take and shield thee,
   Thou wilt find a solace there.
4. Blessed Savior, Thou hast promised
   Thou wilt all our burdens bear;
   May we ever, Lord, be bringing
   All to Thee in earnest prayer.
   Soon in glory bright, unclouded,
   There will be no need for prayer—
   Rapture, praise, and endless worship
   Will be our sweet portion there.