A Celebration and a Cause

"Great things are done by a series of small things brought together." Vincent Van Gogh

Last night we attended the Cook Children's Volunteer Dinner with part of our family. Dick was one of the volunteers being honored for his service.  A very nice evening...dinner a the TCU Student Union Center..we got to meet some of the people he works with on his floor.  These are the ladies who nominated him for the award.  Of course, I had to tease him about making a speech...being a more than reticent person, he was adamant that he would not have to give one!!  There was a video presentation about the volunteers.  It was really inspiring to see many of the things they do at Cook... to hear their stories...and the gratitude of the Cook people for the volunteers.

And the second part of my blog is the "CAUSE"!  I don't usually listen to Oprah, but I do often watch "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?" which came on right before Oprah.  So today, after the Millionaire, before I turned the tv off, Oprah's show came on...I was intrigued by the topic...to sign a pledge to not use cell phones or text while driving.  That happens to be a subject I am very concerned about...as they say, texting/talking while driving is as dangerous as driving drunk!  So after the show, I went to her website and have signed the pledge (although I am not one who does that anyway; I hardly ever even have my phone on!) but I do want to encourage everyone I know to sign the pledge and to really live by what you have pledged!!

Busy Week!

"Atheism is a Non-prophet organization!"

Our "studioQ" group met at Heather's Monday, this is Pam showing us an old book with some neat embroidery/embellishments from the '70's, but very much like some of the things we are doing today....the old adage.."what goes around, comes around"..proven true again!  Then Bethany had a beautiful baby quilt she is doing for a friend.

Beth showed a small quilt top she is doing with scraps and Susan had made her "Yin/Yang" purse with some fabric she had gotten at the Bear Creek Quilt Show.

Wendy had a top she made from a class she recently took and Heather had several pieces that she had hand-dyed using techinques for blocking out color from a workshop she had taken.  This was one of my favorites!

It was a beautiful day at Heather's so we ate lunch outside.  They have a beautiful yard! And this was the anniversary of our third year to be organized so we had to celebrate with a little of the bubbly!

Monday evening was my granddauthter, Kathleen's Confirmation and I very was proud to be her sponser!  There were 63 of the kids being confirmed, but it moved along pretty smoothly and we were home by 9:00.

Can you guess what Kathleen is saying to me????

Then tomorrow night we are going to the Cook Hospital Volunteer Appreciation Dinner and Saturday off with friends to Waco to see woodwork and have lunch.

Great Weekend!!

" Sometimes I feel like I am diagonally parked in a parallel universe!"

Race for the Cure 2010 Fort Worth, Texas

Both my daughters and the mother-in-law of one and I did the Race for the Cure yesterday...a 5K in and around Fort Worth....beautiful day and much fun had by all!  This is the 14 or 15th time I have done the race; I'll have to count my t-shirts to make sure of the number!

Have you ever seen a pink tractor before?  Pink was the color of the day!!

The crowd in front of us didn't come close to  the number of people behind us.  I think I heard there were over 18,000 people doing the race!

And... the finish is in sight!!! The race is won...of course, for us, it was more of a "Walk for the Cure", but we did out number the runners by a long shot!!

After the race one of my daughter's and I went to an exhibit at the Cowgirl Hall of Fame; a realatively new museum in Fort Worth.  The exhibit was "In the Faraway Place", paintings and photographs by and about Georgia O'Keeffe and the actual camp equipment used by her on her treks into New Mexico.

Then this morning we went to the other daughter's house for brunch with everyone...celebrating a birthday and granddaughter's confirmation which is tomorrow night.  The above mini quilt is for my daughter's birthday....she just bought a new house and frequently calls it "Casa Abba" (which is in reference to her blog).

Whoops!!!

"To live a creative life, we must lose our fear of being wrong!" Joseph Chilton Pearce

 I have two daughters...both very bright, beautiful...inside and out..and very observant!  One of my daughters just commented on my yesterday's blog about my picture posted of the cemetary...I did not notice the name on the gravestone...I was concentrating on the angel above!  The daughter who noticed the name is the sister of the one whose name appears!!

This is really the year for blooming things...my irises have never looked better...and I can never think of the name of this little pink thing, but it too is glorious this year!

I am about to finish Barbara Kingsolver's "The Lacuna".  It is one of those books once started, needs to be finished.  The subject matter is great....a period of time I find interesting...right before WWII and into the McCarthyism era...compelling characters, fiction and non-fiction..Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, Trotsky...and a fictional boy/growing up to be an author...but there were several times I really wanted to just put it down and be done with it...then I would read a little more and become curious to see what came next.  This is the first book I have read of hers...I had thought I would want to read "The Poisonwood Bible" but know I'm not sure...anyone out there who has read it?  Recommendations?

It's been a long time!

"Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose"...Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

And I have been "silent" way too long!!  We have been out of town, then when we returned our computer access was out.  The road leading to our house is being reworked.  What started out to be repair of potholes has turned into a major project.  We know that eventually it will be really good, but in the meantime, we are dealing either with mucho dust or slimy mud!!  And the reason our DSL service was out is that somehow the road crew had cut our line!!  That only took three days to get fixed!!

Bluebonnets in our yard...this is what we really love about spring in Texas!

Last week we went down to the Texas Hill country...we had heard that the bluebonnets were really impressive this year.  And what we heard was right!!  This is the view of an old German cemetary in Fredricksburg.  The bluebonnets are so thick it has created a place of beauty in what could be a rather gruesome place...actually I have seen many cemetaries which are very beautiful...some really great works of art.  This picture is taken in an area set aside for children's gravesites. Some of the older graves have the tombstones written in German.

When we go to the Hill country, we like to visit Enchanted Rock, a state park which was an area held sacred by the Indians. (see my profile picture..background)  We have climbed to the top many times, but this time we just did the 2 1/2 mile loop around the base...There we saw a lot of bluebonnets and clariet cup, a member of the cactus family.

It is blooming now also.  I am amazed at the ability of flowers or any growing thing to come up out of sheer rock!

While in Fredricksburg, we visited the Museum of the Pacific...Admiral Niminz who was the commander of the Pacific Operation, is from Fredricksburg and there has been a museum about him there for quite a long time.  Then this museum, sponsered by George Bush the first, was built and just opened up last December 7.  It is a very impressive building and artifacts...extremely well done...is comprable to any museum we have seen in Washington, DC.  Any war buff or anyone with an interest in WWII should not miss it!

I am sewing on a gift for my daughter for her birthday which was Friday.  She just moved into a new home and I am making her a gift to go with it!!  I can't show it because she reads my blog, so I will wait until next week after we get together.  She, my other daughter and granddaughter as well as some friends are doing the Susan Koman Race for the Cure/5K...for me it is the "walk" for the cure!!  This will be probably our 15th or more time to do it.

Musings on a windy day!

" I intend to live forever...so far, so good!"  Anonymous

The weather is very mild, but the wind will just blow you down!  It rattles the windows and blows all the patio furniture around.  At least it is not a wet or cold wind so I am really not complaining, just stating the facts!

I was too impatient to wait for the mountain laurel to come in to full bloom before taking a picture so here is close up of one bloom.  The flower is very sweet smelling too!  The first time we saw mountain laurel was in the Hill country of Texas.  There is a state park down there..."Lost Maples"...which has a lot of it growing wild.  So we got a plant at the nursery which was about two feet tall...now our plant is over six foot, but had never bloomed in the eight or nine years we have had it until now!  I guess they are just "late bloomers"!!

Now, I am not one to read the obituaries regularly, but the other morning one caught my eye as I was scanning to see if I knew anyone. (That is what happens when you reach the golden age!!)  Anyway, you know how people will ask for memorials for certain things (charities, hospitals, churches, etc.) in lieu of flowers...this one that caught my eye was requesting monetary memorials to be made to members of the immediate family!  Somehow, that just struck me as wrong!

And yesterday, coming home from the "Y", I was at a stoplight by a utility van which had a commercial sign advertising its place of business.  It was the "Canine Fitness Camp"...below the title it said they had accommadations, workouts, healthy meals, hikes, swimming, etc....for your DOG!  Kind of made me laugh out loud...or...LOL!!!

One last thought...my hummingbirds finally got here!!  They are running about three weeks late; smart little guys...they knew it was just too cold to come here!  And..does anyone have any ideas on how to keep the grackles from the feeders?  I hate to be mean, but they are not a very pretty bird, nor have a pretty song...and their presence kind of keeps the cardinals and wrens, etc. away.

Happy Easter!

"Chance favors only the prepared mind." Louis Pasteur

Happy Easter to all!!  I am not an overly religious person, but Easter is one of my favorite days because it is such a time of renewal...an awakening..springtime..and has been celebrated internationally  well before the advent of Christianity.

We had the family out for dinner...our usual Easter egg hunt, games, etc. Great times had by all!   We were missing Andrea who is out of town.  She will have to get her "Easter goodies" when she returns. 

Dick and I went to the Amon Carter again on Friday. The exhibit there now is "American Works on Paper" from the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art by many artists are not necessarily known for their watercolors/pastels/charcoals, etc.  I think my favorite for this exhibit was Edward Hopper...he had some fabulous watercolors there.

I could visit the galleries of Fort Worth every day...just love them!

Let the fresh air in!!!

"I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges." Anonymous

What a beautiful spring day!! I have opened up the house to let the wonderful fresh air in!!  These are the days that make winter bearable!  Here is a picture of the redbud trees blooming on the lot next door.  It has never been built on and we keep hoping it will never be!  And some of the crape myrtles are budding out, the blue bonnets in our yard are getting ready to burst into bloom, and for the first time since we planted it  nine years ago, our mountain laurel is blooming...just barely so I will wait a couple of days to get a picture of it!

I have finished both of my mini quilt swaps...one is my winter one which is very late getting out and the other is a subsitute for fall to someone in the swap group who never recieved one.  When I signed up for these seasonal swaps, I didn't get a  spring one sent to me, but the moderator of this group has set up what she calls her "quilt angels" who volunteer to make quilts for those who do not get one. (Some people who sign up do not fulfill their committments for some reason or another.)  So I did get a spring quilt made by someone other than the person who was supposed to make me one.  Therefore, I signed up to be a quilt angel too, and that is why I am making a second fall quilt.  It is just 18" square...kind of fun to try a new (for me) technique.

We have been eating out much more than we usually do...we went to dinner and a concert with some friends last Saturday.  Wednesday, we got together with our poker bunch, ate out and played cards...very sad for us...we lost big time!! (Not really; we just play for quarters)  Then yesterday we met a couple for lunch whom we hadn't seen for awhile.  Then tomorrow is Easter and, although we are staying home, we are having dinner here and will probably have more to eat than we would normally have.  Thursday I am meeting a couple of friends for lunch whom I used to work with and haven't seen for awhile; then Friday going to the Bear Creek quilt show which will probably mean eating somewhere!!!  So...about time to hit the ol' salad trail!!

My next project is to make a quilt for my best friend from grade school who celebrated her 50th wedding anniversay this year..I want to give it to her when I see her in Chicago later on in the spring.  We are getting together for a celebration of our 70th birthday year....about 15 of us have gotten together somewhere for significant birthdays several times.  Good times!!