My visit to Jon and Melanie was fantastic! I now remember how much I really liked living in the northwest. We went whale watching but didn't see any whales. We did see a lot of porpises, bald eagles and harbor seals. The weather was very nice. About 75 degrees. It rained a couple of times but only Washington mist.

We went to Pike's Market on Sunday. Lots of nice flowers and fruit. We bought apricots the size of peaches. The cherries were everywhere just like I remembered. There were all kinds of neat things there. Handmade jewerly, leather goods, clothes almost anything you can think of. I even got to buy some devil's claw for the strained muscle ointment I make. There was a street band playing and they were pretty good.

They were a funky-folky sort of band. Pretty eclectic bunch.

We went to the Pt. Defiance Gardens. The roses were in bloom. There were so many different types. I wish I could of taken all of them home with me.

Today we are off to Troy IL. for one of Catie's softball games. Her team won last Thursday. Thier first win of the season. It was pretty nice since it was Catie's 13th birthday. Here's a picture of her batting. Nice socks, huh. They were suppose to be tyed diyed but the couch couldn't get them. One of the girls does have them though.

Below is the video of the sailing we did on Mother's day.

This Thursday we are off to Washington state to visit Jon and Melanie. We are planning to visit McCord AFB while we are there and drive around Seattle a bit. Maybe take a trip to Pike's Market. On Saturday we are going whale watching. It has a 60% chance of rainning on that day but I don't think the whales mind being wet. So perhaps we will spot a whale or two.

I'm still having a hard time learning how to get the pictures and text lined up right. So please be patient if the format is strange.

We'll we are off to the game.

Spinning Wheel

I bought a spinning wheel this week and I have already made a skein of yarn. It's about 116 yds. It looks pretty good. The first skein I spun is the purplish one. The one I did on the new spinning wheel is multi-colored .

My peonies have been blooming. The white ones bloomed first. Then the red, dark pink and the light pink ones are the last. As you can see the white ones had a red/dark pink center. They were very pretty.

We went sailing on Mother's Day at Caryle Lake. The wind was light and it was a nice peaceful time. Catie was a little bored. Don liked it and he wants to take lessons. I would like to too, but I think that if only one of us takes lessons the he/she can teach the other to sail. Don is also looking at boats on line for sale.

Hey All,

Let's try this again. I am having a heck of a time with this blog. It seems that my server is having difficulties with this site.

It has been raining here the past few days. Althought it isn't very fun with the rain and storms it is good for the garden. Everything has sprouted and looking very good. Don put a cage around the tomatoes and peppers. Something was nibbleing on them. I think it was deer but Don thinks it was rabbits. I really don't know how the bunnies we have aroun

I have been working on a new design for my jewerly. I am not really please with what I came up with but I can work from it. I want to put some color on it. Maybe some seed beads or delicas. I'm really not sure at this point.

d here could jump three feet off the ground to the garden to do that, but hey I guess anything is possible.

I finished the earrings for Catie's friend. She wanted blue so I put some blue beads on it.

I have asked one of my friends is she can help me at the Pagan Picnic this year. I will be on vacation visiting my son Jon when it is going on. I asked her if she could sell some of the jewerly I have made at her booth. I haven't heard from her yet. I really don't know what she will say. It doesn't hurt to ask. The worst she can say is no.

I met someone at a meeting I went to recently. She was an independent marketing agent. She told me that she would help me with marketing my jewerly. All she wanted in return was trade. I should have known better. I emailed her and the address she gave me came back undelivedable. One of my friends told me that she was a headhunter from another group. Sigh....

I am going to a spinning get together at Trish's house tonight. She is one of the ladies I went to the sheep festival with. Bridgette is giving her a personel class at Trish's house. Trish invited me to join them. So I am going to have a great time tonight spinning some of the roving I got at the festival.

Cooking School & My jewerly

Last night Don and I went to a couple's cooking class at Dierburg's in Edwardsville. I had a blast. I think Don enjoyed it too. There were 9 couples there to cook. There were 3 cook stations 6 receipes which ment 3 groups of 6 making 2 receipes each. It was a bit crowded in the kitchen. The menu was:

Crab-Stuffed Mushrooms

Strawberry Spinch Salad w/ Maple Almonds & Raspberry Vinaigrette

Chicken Cordon Bleu w/Mushroom Wine Sauce

Fresh Green Beans with Caramelized Onions & Bacon

Toasted Almond Wild Rice

Fresh Lemon Tart with Berries

Everything was very good. The Mushroom Wine Sauce was a litter bitter/dry because of the white wine it was made with. Don and I helped make the Chicken Crodon Bleu w/the wine sauce and the Toasted Almond Wild Rice. The rice dish is soooo easy. You use a box of Uncle Ben's wild rice mix. Chop a medium onion add it to sliced mushrooms in a skillet with a few Tblspns of olive oil. Cook the onions and mushrooms until soft. Toast almonds in oven. When everything is ready mix them all together. Wa La Toasted Almond Wild Rice. Really all of the receipes were pretty easy. I am making the Lemon Tart today for a get together I have tomorrow.

I forgot the camera so I don't have any pictures of last night, but we did sign up for another class next month. This on is a demonstration class and not a participation one. Don didn't like the crowd in the kitchen. I will try to remember the camera so you can have pictures..

Catie's final performance of Beauty and the Beast was pretty good, if Catie says so herself. She told me that they got a standing ovation. The PTO was there to observe the quality of the production to determine if Drama will be put into the budget for next year. Catie is pretty certain that it will be. I sure hope so, Catie had a very good time in Drama Club.

Here is a picture of the bracelet and earrings I just completed. This isn't a real good picture of them. In the sunlight the crystals really sparkle.

I like the dangle earrings to the right. This picture really doesn't show how pretty they are. I need to figure out how to photograph my jewerly so you can see it clearly. Don helped me make the dangle ones. I hammered the circles/ovals flat and he drilled the holes at the ends. After

he messed up on the second pair he told me he didn't want to do it anymore so I had to buy a hole punch on the internet. I didn't want to mess with Don's tools. I might drill a hole in one of my fingers.

New Grandson

Wonderful news, my grandson was born last Saturday, April 17th. He weighed in at 7lbs 4oz. The pictures are kinda small and a bit blurry. They were sent via e-mail and the program my daughter uses is a bit funny. I can download them all at once but they are grouped all together in one file. I can copy and paste them individualy but then they are tiny.

Jessica is in Turkey and I guess if the baby doesn't come before the due date, they like to induce labor on the due date. So Mason was born on his due date.

Bryson is a big brother now and I don't think he quite knows what to think. I talked to Jessica over Skype. (It's a wonderful thing) and I got to see everyone. Bryson was attempting to kiss and hug Mason but like all two yearolds, he hasn't quite gotten the hang of gentle yet. Jessica says that her or Randy have to run interference between Mason and Bryson.

The Garden has been planted. Don, Catie and I planted the seeds and plants in our garden boxes last Sunday. We had bought seeds. Our goal was to start with only seeds. After looking at the instructions on the seed packages (of course we did this just before we were going to plant) we found out that most of my herb seeds needed to be started 8 to 10 weeks before the ground warms. ?! So I hurried to Lowes and bought some herb plants. I wasn't able to find some of the ones I wanted but I did get a majority of them.

Tonight is opening night for Catie's school play. They are doing 'Beauty and the Beast'. Catie is in the chours. She one of the villagers, a fairy, and a cream pitcher. She has a line in the mob scene. Catie is a bit nervous about tonight. They are behind rehursals about 3 weeks. The script and music was delayed getting to them because of the snow storm the east coast had a few months ago.

(Catie is the villager in the red)

I am attempting to make a bed coverlet for Jeni and Jamey's wedding. They are thinking about getting married in August so that gives me approx. 4 months to get it done. I have been having a heck of a time starting it. It starts on double pointed needles and has about 75 rounds. It is cabled. It's called Yiggdrasil. The tree of life. The center is the roots so the cabling doesn't make much sense. But I am at about round 25 and I am starting to see a pattern.

Sheep Festival

The sheep festival in Waterlou, IL was great. I went with a few of my friends from my knitting group. The three ladies are in my knitting group the gentleman is a friend of the redhead. He is a very nice guy.

When we got to the festival there were lots of sheep (as is to be expected). There were boy sheep, girl sheep and baby sheep. There were

even rabbits. Most of them were Angora rabbits. They have long beautiful hair. You shave them like you do sheep and mix the hair with a wool or alpaca then spin it.

There were lots of goodies to look at too. Many colors of wool and roving. Home spun yarn, homemade candles and lotions and spinning wheels. I even saw a demonstration of a spinning wheel type that Ghandi used to spin cotton with.