Life has been busy....

I started this blog as a kind of journal, so that family and friends could see what I have been up to.  I have not been very good about keeping it up, but since I don't have anyone who follows it regularly, I guess it doesn't matter that much.  At the end of March I went to Texas for a couple of weeks.  I helped one of my sons to move there.  Got home and promptly got sick for a week with a relatively high fever.  Later in May I went to Mississippi for a few weeks for a new grandbaby.  Now that I am back home, I really need to work on decluttering my house and working on conquering the jungle of weeds.  But I have had a lot of fun traveling recently. Now it is time to stay home and get things done.

While in Texas, we went to the Scarborough Fair (Renaissance Fair).  As the saying goes, everything is bigger in Texas.  It seems to apply to their Renaissance Fairs, too.  It was great!  Perfect weather, too.  It was breezy, and not too hot.  I got another Renaissance Puppet, a gryphon.  Yes, the people who sell the fantasy puppets at the Maryland Renaissance Fair were at the Texas one, too.  My son and I walked into the shop, he with his gryphon, and me with my unicorn, just for fun.  The shop attendant quipped, "I've been wondering all day when you were going to stop by to see the family."  They had more buildings at that Faire, archways, a troll bridge and a mermaid pool.  We missed that last place.  We evidently missed an entire section of the Faire and didn't realize it till we were on the way home.  Hopefully we can go again some other year and see the part we missed.

In Mississippi, they were having a big 150 year commemoration of the siege of Vicksburg.  I got to go to some of the events for that.  When we arrived at the battlefield, we had just opened the car doors when a cannon was shot very, very close by!  We were all very startled and jumped!  We got to see a demonstration of rifles, and hear a little about the different weapons, etc.  It was very sobering, to think of the huge loss of life during that siege, and that was only one of many battles of the Civil 
War.

Every state has its historical sites and various events, and I enjoy visiting them.

Toy Yoda

While getting my oil changed today, I spotted an interesting license plate on another car being serviced.  As I got closer to the green Toyota Camry, I also noticed the bumper sticker and what was in the back window.  When I showed the picture to my son, he told me in his best Yoda voice, "Post it on Facebook you must."  And I did.  But not everyone I want to share it with is on Facebook, so I am posting it here, too.

I'm a missionary mom again!

Our youngest son was supposed to enter the MTC on October 31st.  Due to Hurricane Sandy, our flight got cancelled. Twice.  Josiah and I were finally able to fly out on Nov. 1st.  My in-laws picked us up at the airport, after picking up Josiah's sister.  Since Josiah was arriving a day late, we didn't just have to kick him out of the car at the curb and drive on.  We got to go inside with him.

Above:  me, Josiah, and Jeanne in front of the MTC.

Below:  Mimma, Josiah, and Grandad.

I even got to help Josiah put on his name tag, just as I had done for my other three missionary sons.  When I went to put it on, I realized his pocket of his new suit was still sewn shut.  The sister at the desk had a seam ripper handy.  I had to laugh.  I'm guessing that happens to a lot of missionaries.

My son was called to serve in the Alaska Anchorage Mission, which includes the Yukon (Canada).

His mission paperwork said to wait to buy his warm winter gear until he arrived in the mission field.

He had the Mr. Mac three-season coat, which we figured would be fine for the MTC for his short time there.  We were wrong.  It snowed within a few days.  I was staying at my daughter's apartment for awhile.

They got 18 inches, which I loved, since I don't often see that much snow where I live.  My enthusiasm was not shared by the people who lived there.  And I had to make do with layering a sweatshirt under a flannel jacket.  I had accidentally left my warm coat in my in-laws' car, and they lived about an hour's drive from my daughter's apartment, so I had to make do for about a week or so till I saw them again and could retrieve my coat.  I also did some family history research down at the big Family History Library by Temple Square, so I took some pictures of the temple and Temple Square while I was there.  Here is one of them:

The night before my visit ended, my sister and I went to see my daughter and son-in-law in "Savior of the World" at the Conference Center.  My son-in-law is the angel to the shepherds, and is one of the angels that rolls away the stone from Christ's tomb. At the very end of the production, he dons a plain robe and is able to join his lovely wife in the chorus on stage.  Afterward, cast members greet the audience.  Here they are:

It was my fourth trip to Salt Lake City in 2012. This has been an amazing year for our family!

Cox Farms 2012

This year Jon and I went to Cox Farms by ourselves.  It was a lot of fun going down the slides and doing the fun things the farm has to offer, just the two of us on a date.  It brought back a lot of memories.  We started going to Cox Farms years ago, when our kids were much younger.  We've taken our grandkids in more recent years.  Our two youngest sons both work there now, and each of them have worked for Cox Farms during their Fall Festival for many years.  It hasn't always been at the same time, but this year they are both employed there.  Josiah also works Friday and Saturday nights at their Fields of Fear.  Jon and I have no interest in the scary stuff, so we've never seen our son in that role.

The Cox Farm Fall Festival is held during a beautiful time of year, of course, and the weather was very pleasant today.  The fall colors in a farm setting are somehow extra special.

The photo below is a bird's eye view of part of the farm, taken from the top of the Dino Slide.  It's my favorite slide, maybe because it is fairly high up.  It's a lot of fun to slide down from there.  Sometimes you even get a little airborne while sliding down.

Before guests leave, they get to choose a small pumpkin, but the farm also sells much larger ones, and in many different varieties, such as these:

Although Josiah doesn't have his dragon puppet with him in the picture below, he and Jordan both take their Renaissance puppets to the farm on most days, to entertain the guests.  However, on Fridays and Saturdays things are too busy, so the puppets stay home.  This picture of Josiah as rope swing attendant was taken today, on a Saturday.  Jordan normally works on Saturdays, too, but today he got the day off and went back to the Renaissance Fair with Thalita.  And his gryphon puppet went with him.  Thalita thinks it's creepy, but when Jordan offered to leave the puppet home, Thalita told him to bring it.  Hopefully they'll bring back some pictures from today that I can post.

Trunk or Treat

We had a Fall Festival at church last Saturday.  So Jon and I wore our Renaissance costumes.  Who needs a Halloween costume when you have a Renaissance costume?  I never was into scary costumes, anyway.  I wore my unicorn and dragon puppets, and Jon wore Josiah's dragon puppet.  They were a hit with the kids there, and with some adults, too.  Some adults just thought they were creepy.

We also brought my "marble" posing bench to sit on for the Trunk or Treat part.  For those who may not know what a Trunk or Treat is, those participating decorate the backs of their cars (trunks or backs of vans, etc.) and hand out candy to the Trick or Treaters.  I used a stone wall decoration across the back seats, to keep the medieval theme, and I had a little ghost, with ceramic jack-o-lanterns, bat lanterns, and a candle holder with artificial candles in the back of my van.  I had the candy in a little bowl the ghost held, and a couple of spiderweb bowls.  You can't see my decorations, but here we are seated cozily on our bench, which was actually very comfortable.  It was much better than standing or sitting in the back of the van.

One of the best parts of the night, though, was having an excuse to play with my puppets in public.....and seeing everyone's reaction to them.

More Renaissance Fair pictures

For those who have never been to the Maryland Renaissance Fair, it is a lot of fun!  There are musicians, performers, shops, games, pony rides, elephant rides, and a tournament.  Our favorite performers are Johnny Fox (sword swallower) and Hilby, the Skinny German Juggling Boy.

 Above:  Johnny Fox

Below:  Hilby

Yes, that is a bowling ball that Hilby is juggling.
And a hedge trimmer (turned on) and a sword.

Above is our son Jordan, his girlfriend Thalita,
and her roommate Kellie.  

They are standing beside the weather stone.
This is how it tells the weather:

Shadow = Sunny.

No Shadow = Cloudy.

Wet = Rainy

Swinging = Windy

White = Snow

Missing = Tornado

It's also fun to see the many costumes that people come dressed in.  Some come in Scottish kilts, others in clothes that the nobility would wear.  There are pirates, monks, soldiers, wenches, fairies, and more.  And yes, some folks come in good old T-shirts and jeans.

The food at the Fair is also a bit more unique:  turkey legs, soups in bread bowls, Scotch eggs, Steak on a Stake, and more.  The turkey legs are delicious, but they take time to eat.  As long as you have plenty of napkins, you can enjoy them as you watch one of the many performances.

My husband and I went back a second time, just by ourselves, for a date.  It was so much fun, especially since we had had to leave rather suddenly the previous time due to the weather instead of staying to the end and getting to enjoy more of the Fair.  And when it was time to leave, we passed underneath the gates that say, "Until another day, fare thee well."

Yes, that's a baby unicorn on my shoulder.......

Not your usual fur baby, but I've had my eye on this one for awhile now.  Every time we go to the Maryland Renaissance Festival, there has been a shop with fun, unique fantasy puppets.  I have wanted one of the shoulder puppets for a long time, especially the blue and ice colored unicorn.

The one Jordan got was a baby gryphon.  It has more natural coloring that fooled a few people into thinking it was a live creature.  Since the puppets have a special wire that makes the head move, Jordan startled more than one person into asking, "Is it real?"  Jordan's girlfriend Thalita didn't like it.  She thought it was creepy, but her roommate Kelly, who had also come with us, thought it was really cool.

Josiah got a baby bat that clings to clothing instead of sitting on your shoulder.  So here we are with our fun little puppets.

As usual we had a ball at the Renaissance Festival, although we had to leave in a bit of a hurry due to a sudden, violent storm.  We got out before most folks because Kelly got a call from her mom who was concerned.  The storm that was headed our way was moving extremely fast, hit suddenly with almost no warning, and had spawned at least one tornado.  We left just before it got ugly.  When it hit, it was torrential rain, and the temperature dropped about 25 degrees in a matter of minutes.  As we drove westward, away from the heavy rain, it was apparent that the storm had come from the west.  The force of the rain began to subside, but branches and leaves were on the ground, and there was even a tree that had toppled completely over onto I-495, closing a couple of exit lanes.  It made a mess of the traffic, but once we got past it, we got home pretty quickly, and I'm grateful we got home safely.

Even though we didn't get to stay to the end this time the way we usually do when we go to the Fair, it was still a lot of fun!

Married!

The rest of May, June, and July seem a blur now.  There were wedding preparations, of course, since the wedding was to be in August.  On July 4th, Jon, Josiah, and I drove out to Utah.  Poor Jordan had to stay home and work.  And after we arrived in Utah, Jon flew back home right after the bridal photos were taken. Here is our beautiful daughter and her groom-to-be just before we left for the "Bridals":

But the look in Blake's eyes when he looked at Jeanne for the first time in her wedding gown was priceless.  He had tears in his eyes when he saw his beautiful bride-to-be.

Their marriage took place in early August. Jon, Jordan, and Thalita flew to Utah the weekend before.  Josiah and I had just stayed in Utah the entire time.  The day for the wedding arrived at last, and everything was as lovely as could be.  We don't have the wedding pictures that the photographer took yet, but here are Blake and Jeanne on their wedding day in front of the Oquirrh Mountain Temple, in a photo taken by a family member after the photographer was done.  By the time this picture was taken, the bride was sunburned, and the groom had the sun in his eyes, and they were both tired, but it will do till we have a better one to post.

Catch Up.....Engaged!

At the end of April, my husband and I flew to Utah so that he could meet our daughter's boyfriend.  While there, my husband was asked for our daughter's hand in marriage, although their actual engagement took place after we returned home.

One of the things we did together while visiting Utah was to go to Thanksgiving Point, where the above photo was taken of the happy couple.

Also at Thanksgiving Point, there was a beautiful statuary garden called Light of the World, where all the statues were based on the life of Jesus Christ.  Although the photo can't do it justice, my favorite was the representation of the raising of Lazarus.

I stayed in Utah with our daughter after Jon flew back home, so my visit extended into May.  One of the things I did was to go back to Thanksgiving Point again, the second time with my daughter and my sister.

Catching Up...More April

In April, our oldest son and his family came to visit.  While they were here, we went to see some of the sites in DC, but we also visited the Claude Moore Colonial Farm (above photo).

I love having them come to visit.  It's always so much fun!

Catching Up.....March

Oops, I did this a little backwards in my "catch up" posts, since March is before April.

It's been a few years, but my husband and I used to go see the cherry blossoms in DC every spring.  The last couple of years, it just hasn't worked out, but this year we went by ourselves to see them, and it was a lovely date.  The weather was pleasant, although the skies were gray.  And the cherry blossoms were as beautiful as ever!  It's one of the things I love about living near DC.

Catching Up.......April

This is my son, the Easter Bunny.  My youngest son has worked the past few years for a local farm during their Fall Festival, and one of the things he loves to do is dressing up in costume & entertaining the kids.  This year they called and asked him to be their Easter Bunny for a day, so here he is!

Space Shuttle Landing at Dulles

I was lucky enough to have my morning free, and I found a nice viewing spot for seeing the Space Shuttle Discovery coming in for it's final landing at Dulles Airport. It will be put on display at the Dulles Air and Space Museum. We heard it coming before we could actually see it. I took the above photos as it was coming in for it's final landing. You can see the landing gear is down in the top photo. The bottom photo shows it just above the Dulles Air and Space Museum. The tower in the photo is the museum's observation tower.

When in first came in, it went on to DC, where it circled several areas. My husband saw it circle above the Tyson's area as he was on his way to work. We could hear it but not see it the first time, so while it was circling DC, we went and found a nice little spot where we could get a good view without being obstructed by trees. It came in from the east, then instead of landing, circled and headed south towards Manassas, then came back and approached from the southeast of our viewing spot. Again, we heard it before we could see it.

It was absolutely AWESOME!!!!!!

Second Necklace

The above necklace was my own design. Fairly simple, but it's made to look like a draped necklace, except it uses a clasp and is two strands instead of just being very, very long.

This could really become addicting.

Seven Month catch up

Here is the condensed version:

October had pneumonia again. Second son and his wife had a little girl.

November went to Texas to see my new granddaughter.

December went to Texas with whole family. It was our first time in four years that we were all together with our kids and grandkids.

January I got sick again (don't think it was pneumonia, though), and my third son went to Brazil.

February I went to Utah for a visit with my daughter.

And now we're in March.

Life's been busy. Maybe I'll post some pictures later.

September Fun

September brings two family favorites: Cox Farms Fall Festival and the Maryland Renaissance Festival. The Renaissance Festival actually begins at the end of August, but it's usually very hot the first weekend(s). This year we went Sept. 10th to the Renaissance Festival so that Josiah could come. Cox Farms Fall Festival began the following week, and once he started working at the Fall Festival, he would have fewer opportunities to go with our family.

First, the Renaissance Fair

Above: me in my Renaissance costume

and a flower wreath in my hair.

I got my costume at the Fair that day.

I had wanted one for years.

Below: Josiah with a Renaissance Jester.

Above: the Tournament is always a fun event to attend.

Below: Josiah and Jordan watch a Fair Magician do some tricks.

Second, Cox Farms Fall Festival

Kick off weekend had Josiah help with training new employees

at the Cox Farms Fall Festival. Above you can see him at the rope swing.

There are lots of places you can take pictures on the farm.

Below: Jordan on a tractor. The tractor doesn't work, of course.

Jordan treasures the leather jacket he was wearing. He would

never wear it to do work of any kind, let alone farm work.

July was Awesome! Part 2 (finally)

The main reason for Jeanne, and Mike & his family coming to visit in July was for Josiah's Eagle Court of Honor. It was a wonderful event, and many friends came to share Josiah's special day.

However, we also planned some fun things to do as a family for the days after the Court of Honor. On the day after, we got packed up and headed north for New York. We stopped at Hershey, Pennsylvania and took the free chocolate factory tour. Mike's car still had a problem with overheating and needing coolant, but we got on our way after the tour and got to New York late that night. We were camping at a very nice campground, and we let them know we'd be arriving late. We were setting up our tents around midnight, but we finally got settled in.

The next day Jordan, Josiah, and I played with the kids at the campground, and Jon, Jeanne, Mike, and Lena went to the Nauvoo temple. That afternoon we went to see the Smith Farm, the Sacred Grove, and then went to the Hill Cumorah Pageant that night. Above are most of the family in front of the Smith home. Below is a photo of Jon and me sitting in the Sacred Grove.

The Sacred Grove is beautiful, but it is also a very quiet and reverent place. Even though there were many youth groups there, it was not noisy. I heard one or two people call out, but they were the exception. Most people seemed to feel immediately how sacred a place it is and spoke in quiet, hushed tones. It was very much like being in a temple.

We also went to see the Grandin building, where the Book of Mormon was published, after the Sacred Grove and before the Pageant. Many years ago as a young woman, I was in the Hill Cumorah Pageant, but I'd never actually gotten to see it before.

On Saturday we packed up, visited the Hill Cumorah itself, then went to the Peter Whitmer Farm. After the Whitmer Farm, we said goodbye to Mike's family, and they went to Kirtland, Ohio before returning home, while we headed south to go to our own home.

Driver's Training and Disaster Week

Despite the title of this post, the two are not related, except that they both occurred in August.

I had every intention of telling more about our wonderful July as my next post. There was Josiah's Eagle Court of Honor (the main reason for his siblings and nephews/nieces visit), our trip to the Hill Cumorah Pageant in Palmyra (New York), and the visit right after of Thalita, the Brazilian girlfriend of our son Jordan.

However, August was as busy as July was, and somehow my blog never got updated. First of all, we got Josiah signed up for Driver's Training. If he didn't take it in August, he wouldn't be able to get his license till he turned 19. Neither he nor we wanted him to wait till then. However, because I'd been waiting to sign him up till we had some free time apart from all the visitors, the only class he could get was in Springfield, which was an hour's drive each way, during rush hour in the morning, and the lunch hour when it finished, both bad traffic times for our area. The class itself was 3 hours. After the first day I took my scrapping stuff. As much as I love to read, I was much happier scrapbooking. I got a lot of pages done during those class times. The class plus the driving time to get there, however, took 5 hours out of my day. And then the next week, Behind the Wheel began in the afternoon, which took additional time out of the day, and we tried to get in practice driving in the evenings.

It was on the way to one of his Behind the Wheel classes when the first disaster struck. We were stopped at a traffic light, and suddenly the car started rocking and jiggling like we were on a moon bounce. Josiah and I both thought something really weird was wrong with the car. It didn't last long, though, and by the time the light changed to green, everything was back to normal. Josiah was the one driving to his Behind the Wheel class, so I was a little nervous the car would start acting up again while he was driving. Stopped at a light was one thing. Having it happen when he was driving would be another. It wasn't a problem, though. The car was fine. Then Jordan called and that's when we found out it had been an earthquake of 5.8 magnitude.

Now, some may wonder how we could be so dumb as to think something was wrong with the car. First of all, I've never experienced an earthquake before. Secondly, my cars have weird problems, the kind mechanics have never heard of before. Like the time when our previous minivan would suddenly switch to low gear every time I turned on the windshield wiper. The mechanic really didn't believe me on that one, but I told him to take it for a test drive and see. Sure enough, it did it to him, too. It was a computer glitch. So it wasn't that unreasonable to think it was just another weird problem with my car. I wasn't looking around me to see everyone and everything around shaking. As soon as the car started rocking, Josiah and I immediately looked at each other, and he asked, "What is happening with the car?" I had no idea. It just never occurred to us that it was an earthquake till we heard the news from Jordan.

Thankfully, our home seems unhurt, but apparently there was some superficial damage to the DC temple as a result of the earthquake, with the tips of four spires broken off. At first we just assumed that the report we heard was confusing what happened to the National Cathedral with our temple, but both buildings were damaged in our 5.8 quake. The local news media didn't see fit to report about the damage to the temple, so we heard that from other family in other states first. The Washington Monument also apparently cracked in spots near the top. If the earthquake had been longer than 30 seconds, there would have been a lot more damage. There were some aftershocks in the days following, but not strong enough to be noticed.

With the hurricane reaching our area just a few days after, most on the East Coast were feeling a bit jinxed, but our neck of the woods came through pretty well. We lost our power only for a second. Literally. Then it came back on, and we had no other power outages, thankfully. No tornadoes, either. The weather radios were quiet in the night, which was a pleasant surprise. We expected to hear alarms for flooding and tornado watches/warnings, the usual thing we get when a big hurricane comes up the coast, but not this time. We got some heavy rain and strong winds, but we got blue skies and sunshine after. It was nice to have a calm ending to Disaster Week. Not everyone was so fortunate.

July was AWESOME! Part 1: The Beach

Our daughter plus our oldest son and his family arrived July 2nd, so we started out the month with a houseful! Our home is small, but somehow we all fit, and it was wonderful having everyone. On July 4th we had originally planned to go to see the fireworks in DC, but the grandkids really wanted to go to the beach. So we planned a one day trip, and on Monday morning we packed up and drove 4 hours to a quiet beach that is part of Delaware Seashore State Park. We arrived about 2:00 p.m., and everyone was very, very hungry, so the first thing we did once we got set up was get out our picnic lunch.

After lunch, the grandkids played in the sand, and jumped

waves with their grandaddy, aunt, and uncles.

(Grandad may not be in these pictures, but

they did a lot of wave jumping with him.)

Little Keith and Allyssa had a great time digging in the sand.

Unfortunately, our afternoon was cut a little shorter than we had expected. A thunderstorm came up rather quickly, and although we had started to pack up when we heard the first rumble, a lifeguard drove up to us and told us to get our canopy down immediately, because the metal poles made it a lightning rod. (Our canopy was the tallest on the beach!) We got it down and threw things in our bags. We didn't care that everything was in chaos. We tried to get the little ones to hurry, but they didn't want to leave. Then a huge bolt of lightning hit very close by, with a very loud clap of thunder, and even the children ran at that point. We were drenched before we made it to our cars, and we sat waiting in our vehicles, hoping the storm would be over quickly so we could go get cleaned up at least a little. We did get a chance to rinse off inside the bath house, although we had a little trouble finding our clothes and toiletries because everything had just been thrown quickly into the cars.

Then we headed to Ocean City for our traditional ice cream treat. Our car led the way, but before long Mike and his family were no longer behind us. We got a call on my cell phone. Mike said, "Our car is overheating." They had to find a gas station with some coolant. We pulled over at a McDonalds, thinking it would be an easier place to meet them once they got what they needed. The skies poured, and we hoped it would clear soon. It didn't. They did join us, but had to wait to get out of their car because it was a "Noah" rain. Finally they came in, and we had some food. It wasn't where we'd intended to stop for our dinner, but it was a haven in the storm. By the time we finished eating, we were able to go to our cars without getting drenched, and we continued on till we found a Candy Kitchen that let you do your own ice cream sundaes.

On the way home, Mike's family had to stop again, but he said to go on ahead, and they would meet us at home. While driving home, we saw fireworks, and they were pretty good ones, so we stopped by the side of the road as several other cars had done. We didn't take pictures, but it was nice to see some fireworks on the 4th, too. They were suprisingly good fireworks, too, although we couldn't figure out what town in Maryland was doing them. Even though we stopped quite awhile, we still got home before Mike's family did. They arrived a bit later.

Most Wanted

Our ward used to do a fun activity each year called "Find the Advisor" at a local mall. The Youth leaders (Advisors) and other adults would try to disguise themselves while groups of the youth tried to find them. It was a fun and often funny version of "Hide and Seek" with those who were "hiding" staying in plain site. No one was allowed to hide in stores. They had to stay in the hallway. Over the years, though, the area of the mall where our ward had the activity got a bit rougher and less safe, so the tradition ended because none of the other malls were willing to give permission for the activity.

This year it was revived again, but with some of the youth being part of those in disguise. The name was changed to "_______'s Most Wanted" and was done at a mall in a better area. This first picture is of most of those in disguise just before going out into the mall hallways.

Below is the picture of the "best" disguise, meaning almost none of the youth groups found her. She is the Young Women's President, and she put her grandkids in their stroller and was definitely one of the hardest to recognize.
Jordan was the scary looking one. He wore a fauxhawk, used super glue and magnets to simulate brow, lip, and ear piercings, and although you can only see one of them, we even drew fake tattoos on his arms with a sharpie. His hair was sprayed black, and he grew ten days worth of facial hair which we darkened with my mascara. As he walked along at the mall while texting on his phone, girls would look behind them, see him, and scatter out of his way. The Starbucks cup in his hand had hot chocolate in it. Three of the four groups recognized him, more than he had expected.
Josiah tried to blend in by looking a bit more ordinary. He rarely wore his glasses at church, and we sprayed his hair blond. He was disappointed that all four groups found him since being ordinary is theoretically supposed to be more likely to be overlooked.
Half the fun of the activity was coming up with the disguise. We spent a lot of time in the days beforehand hunting for parts of the planned disguises, and it was all over in such a short time.