Canoes, Penguins and Giraffes, Oh My

Good Morning to all of you.  I hope you are having a great week.  It's been beautiful, beautiful up here in the Pacific Northwest.  Very few clouds, although the wind has been blowing.
We had an enjoyable weekend at the lake.  It does seem a bit strange not to be decorating gravesites on Memorial Day as we did when we lived in Nebraska.  We don't have any family buried up here.  My sister-in-law and niece are good about visiting all of the family and friends graves back home and putting flowers on them.

I did watch a few ceremonies on television honoring our veterans.  I am so grateful to each and every person who has served or is still serving in the military of the United States of America.  My father, brother, brother-in-law and my wonderful husband Dennis, have all been active duty military.  We have many friends who have sacrificed for each of us, and to them and all veterans I say "Thank You."  I know I'm a day or two late, but I don't think it's ever to late to say thank you.  We should remember them every day.

I have been working on this baby blanket all weekend and it's still not done.  There were lots of visitors and lots of talking and walking at the lake this weekend and not much knitting done.  In fact, yesterday I had almost 16,000 steps on my fitbit!  WOW!  I don't know the last time I walked so much.  I took a walk with Lori before coming home and then it was yard work and cleaning once I got home.  It's nice to see that number going up though.

I trimmed bushes and Dennis mowed last night.  Then I planted some flowers and did some weeding.

 Dennis' shed.  The sign over the door says "Papa's House."  That's what Piper named it while it was being built.

 I picked three grocery bags full of rhubarb yesterday and distributed it to neighbors.  As you can see there is still more.  It's been prolific this year.

 The marigolds are establishing themselves well.  There are even a few "volunteer" plants from last year that have joined in.  I love marigolds.  They will eventually grow big enough to completely fill in the bed and it will be one mass of color.  At least that's what it normally does.

Alex is building a canoe in the back of his office building in Towada.  He sent for the plans and discussed the procedure with his Dad over facetime and has begun building it this week.  It's looking good and I see by the photo he sent that he has found a helper!  Do you think it will be watertight?

Piper went to the zoo again yesterday and got to feed the giraffes...

 ...and pet the penguins!  How fun is that?  The company that her Daddy works for is building some new exhibits and they were able to get special passes to actually get "up close and personal" with some of the animals.

This little girl and her Mommy are coming to see us in June.  Yippee!  They are bringing the cats, Amelia and Franny to live with us.  They are 14 & 16 years old but Piper has developed a severe allergy to cats.  Of course they can't go to a shelter because who would adopt such elderly cats?  They are used to us and to Chloe so the obvious choice is to bring them to us.  They know our house and they know us.  It will all work out well.  We're hoping they will do okay on the flight from Omaha.  They flew from here to Washington, D.C. so that's not new for them either.

I have decided that after I finish the blanket in the above photo, I need to do a mitten marathon for awhile.  Kathyb has me wanting to do a log cabin afghan and I really want to work on my nine-patch knitted squares, but winter will be here and I haven't made very many mittens for the school kids yet.  Shame on me. Of course, there will be socks on the needles too, but the mittens need to be a priority for awhile.  I figure that they are small and therefore easy to work on in the heat of the summer.

What about you?  Are you working on a special project this summer?  I'll be back soon to visit and I'm tryinig to keep up with all of your summer news too.

'Don't be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

James 1:16-17

"My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires." James 1:19-20

Blessings always my friends,
Betsy

It's been a week!

Oh my goodness.  It's been an entire week since I last posted!  It's been a fun week with most of it spent at the lake.  I was there from early Friday morning until Sunday night.  Then I went back Tuesday morning and came home this morning for Bible study, errands and laundry.  Tomorrow morning I'm going back and don't plan to come home until next Wednesday!  Oh, I love these spring days when it's quiet out there during the week.  Once school gets out, look out!  It's busy, busy, busy all summer long, but I enjoy that too.  I love to hear the kids laughing and running up and down the road on their way to the beach and fishing.  But the quietness of spring has it's many virtues too. :-)

I spent a lot of time walking and averaged 8000-12,000 steps each day on my Fitbit.  I walk a lot more there than at home.  Isn't this a beautiful view?

 The cabins have all been cleaned and are waiting for the summer guests to arrive.  Which I'm sure will be this weekend.

 Do you see the guy on the jet ski to the right in the picture?  He was video taping and talking, (yelling), into the camera as he drove around the lake.  I wonder if he has a u-tube channel or something?

 I never get tired of looking at the different views around the lake.

 I had five garbage bags of partial skeins of yarn given to me at church on Sunday.  Most of it is probably over 50 years old and will have to be tossed for one reason or another, but there is still enough for a few baby blankets.  I crocheted this one on Monday while watching the water skiers go by the trailer.  Sorry it isn't a nice photo.  I didn't have a place to lay it flat that wasn't covered with pollen from the pine trees.

 I also made seven more dishcloths this week for my gift closet.

 And look what arrived last Friday from Tammy at T's Daily Treasures on my sidebar.  She was in the States for her son's college graduation.  Tammy and her husband live in Kuwait and I've been blogging friends with her for several years.  She is so sweet.

 There is this beautiful post card of the Holy City of Bethlehem with different scenes.

 Also this beautiful piece crocheted by Tammy herself and a keychain made from Olive wood from the Holy Land.  Tammy knows how much these items mean to me and I thank her for thinking of me while she was here visiting her family. 

These ladies, these women all around the world have come to mean so much to me.  From the ladies I have met in person who live in the Portland area, to women far away in the United Kingdom, in Kuwait, in Australia and in Japan, along with many, many others here in the States and around the world, I have made friends, sisters of the heart and I am so thankful for this blog that has given me that opportunity.

How else would I know to pray for Lorraine and her husband Gerald in the U.K., or Sharon and her father in Austraila?   My dear friend Cheryl has had several family tragedy's this year and each time she reaches out to ask for prayer from her sisters here in blogland.  I am so grateful for each and everyone of you as you come to visit my little corner of the world here.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and for those of you here in the States, a fun and SAFE Memorial Day weekend.

"A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:34-35

Blessings,
Betsy

Rain, Sun, Rain...Rinse and repeat!

We have had a wonderful week of sunny days...until today.  It's been raining fairly steadily most of the day which is fine with me, but there is severe flooding all around northern Washington and Idaho and I feel so bad for the people in those areas.  Flooding now and then forest fires in a few months.  That seems to be the cycle in the past few years.

Big family news!

Miss Piper graduated!  Here are a few photos of her. This first one was sent to me before they left for school yesterday.  She looks so old!  Oh, my goodness, where have the years gone?   She chose her own dress and accessories.

 Here she is with Brad's mom, Marilyn.  I'm so glad that at least one of us Grandma's were able to go to her special programs, (and graduation), this year.  I am VERY sad that I'm missing all of these milestones, but very grateful that Mandy sends us lots of picturees.

 This was sent to us at bedtime last night.  Apparently she didn't want to remove her graduation cap.  Papa said she's already studying for college.  I think we need to let her go to kindergarten first. :-)

 I've been knitting on a couple of dishcloths since I last wrote on Monday.  I realized my gift shelf was getting pretty low so I thought I should get some made up.  I have another on the needles now and really enjoy this pattern.  It's become my "go to" pattern for dishcloths.  It's memorized so very easy to do on the go.

It was a busy morning for me today.  I went out to the lake yesterday morning and we spent the night.  Dennis left for work about 4:45 a.m. and I left about 7:00.  After a quick stop at home to drop Chloe off and shower I was off to Weight Watchers.  It was a good week there where I was down 1.2 lbs. for a total of almost 20!  Only a little tiny bit more to reach that first big goal.  I still have lots more to lose, (about 30 lbs.), but it will be good to reach another milestone.

After W.W. I stopped at Hobby Lobby because they have their "I Love This Cotton" on sale for 30% off.  Since I was almost completely out, I thought I should get some.  All of this was less than $20.00.  Normally it's $3.49 per skein so it was a good time to stock up a little.

 After Hobby Lobby, I ran to get my hair trimmed then it was time for acupuncture on my feet, the grocery store and finally home about 2:30.  Now I need to clean house and finish some laundry because we have Bible Study here tonight.  Whew!  I'm tired.

Tomorrow I'll go back to the lake for the weekend.  Yippee!  We have a birthday party to attend for Hayden on Saturday out at their new house.  I hope the weather is good.  They have a new addition to their family.  The boys were promised a dog when they got settled in a forever home so look who came home last week!  Meet Denali!  He is SO cute.  They love Chloe so much that they decided to get a lab puppy, although he is an American lab and she is a British lab.

Jenny gave me and her daughters each a couple of roses on Mother's day.  Wasn't that sweet?  I think they're beautiful and they still look gorgeous.

Okay.  Enough sitting.  I need to sweep floors and switch the clothes from the washer to dryer and fold the sheets.  A woman's work is never done is it?

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend full of love and blessings, both seen and unseen.

"In thier hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps." Proberbs 16:9

Blessings,
Betsy