Short trip with long drive

... but it was sooooo worth it. But first I have to brag a bit about some flowers. Our blue hydrangea put on a beautiful show this year and for quite some time. Made me happy anytime I saw it.

 

Inside my porcelain plant also did well.

We had to deal with quite a lot of things but with summer finally here we decided one day that we needed to treat ourselves to a blizzard. Why not?

And this was fun. James called me one day when he was sitting on the back patio to show me this! So I had to take a photo. Can you see it? 

It was on the floor in the previous photo. Then  it hoped onto a chair leg. A Hyla, or Gray Tree Frog.

But this is what I referred to in the headline. Friday June 20 we left the house early to drive to Nashville. We leave without breakfast, just have a cup of tea in the car and stop after about 2 and a half hours in Troutville. Got to walk a little every once in a while.

We were at Helen's place in good time. She and William carried this rug up to the third floor. It is a berber with a long family history. James had it in his bachelor appartment when we met. It made it to America with some other pieces of furniture from him and me when it was clear that the company wanted him to stay longer in America then the 18 innitual months. It came to our first house in St Louis and all other following houses. But there was no place in Richmond since we had "downsized". This is the place where Helen teaches and it takes the echo away in the room. 

We got a lot accomplished on Saturday. Because our car is quite large and easier to transport things in we accompanied Helen to search for furniture. We found a great desk/shelf unit for William but even our car was not right for it. But we helped moving William's bed to a different wall in his room in anticipation for the addition. His father will help with that.

And Sunday morning we had to leave early because we were driving to Kentucky. St Matthew by the Lake Lutheran Church was celebrating its 40th Anniversary. James, Helen, Sarah and I are charter members and of course were invited. The service was at 9:30 am. Of course a lot has changed since then. The building is of course a lot bigger and better. 

But we were a young family and it was an important time in our lives. First it was a part of a larger church in Paducah and Sunday service took place in a church building we rented for that hour. When we were a large enough group and were able to stand on our own, the building was actually built mostly with labor from everybody. Oh, the memories. 

Here is the framed Charter in the Narthex.

Of course there were more things on display. We found ourselves in quite a number of "old" photos.

After the service upstairs was a delicious lunch meal and social time. It is always bittersweet ... so many of our friends back then are gone but surprisingly there were still a wonderful number still living in the area or have come like we did. Lots of surprise-screams and hugs. Needless to say that we had a great time and were happy that we had made the effort. 

Lots of photos were taken but I decided that this blog is not the place for it. Just a few to remember the moment.

The bishop was taking selfies!

Pastor Will telling the story of the beginning.

A group photo of the charter members present.

I was highly pregnant when the members (including of course James) "swang the hammers" to physically build the church building. My efforts to sew the first paraments (for the altar, lecturn and pulpit) starting with a green one. Lori took me to the room were all is kept but the only thing we could find was one of the blue pieces (used in Advent). It's ok. Time has gone on. 

When it was time to head back to Nashville again we took a quick look at the house we had built all those years ago. We lived 9 years at Kentucky Lake. Lots of memories there too. Well, we did have to show William  but it looked quite different now. Even the address had changed from Rural Route 1.

Helen fixed an impromptu meal in the evening ....

... and Monday morning James and I were on the road again to drive home. Everything had gone very well and relatively easy, except to leave Helen and William again.

Tuesday morning we had a leisurly breakfast with soft-boiled eggs from William's hen's eggs.

Of course I had to take the photos to text to him. His answer: did you trick Papa? 

Yes, the story lives on, ha-ha.

*  *  *  *  *

Sorry, just found some photos which came late and I think I would like to include them:

Peace!

Most of the Pastors/Interims which have served here except two who have died.

The first: Pastor Will. I will never forget him. He held the first Passover Seder Meal I attended and gave me the tools to organize one two years ago. It gave me great understanding.

Trying to catch up

Time flies. The first 6 photos are even still from May. I needed to "show off" my pretty clematis and the hawk we spied from our bedroom early one morning.

I am very proud of my rhubarb harvest. James enjoyed his dessert very much. 

And when we were invited to Wade and Sarah, Stella was very happy.

This photo I took at the last of 4 meetings. I had been asked by two ladies to teach them how to make bobbinlace. I had been very reluctant but agreed to teach the beginning and to give them plenty of info so they have their "foot in the door". I must say that I enjoyed it because they were so excited about what they learned. What I did not enjoy so much is that I had a hard time to find my lessons which I had developed many years ago. I like to teach by making small projects in the different techniques.

One thing the ladies wanted to do were the snake, a bookmark. And that came handy when our boys were out of school for the summer. First week of June Caleb had his daily goaly camp again. On days like that we usually pick them up when Sarah arrives at her work and then drop Caleb off at the camp. Ha-ha, with all the lace stuff still laying around at our house, Caleb and Owen decided to make a snake it too. 

And they were both very good. They selected their colors and were eager to learn.

Every day was different. Tuesday lunch was outside and I had used the alphabet noodles Helen had given me for them. Of course we had to find the letters for our names. No picture of Owen because he ate his name right after assembling it.

The day the twins had plans with some friends, Caleb spend the night before with us so he didn't have to get up so early to leave house with his Mom. When our friends Martha and Jerry called because they wanted to go for dinner to a burger place in Ashland, he said that he would like that. Their place was on the way so we picked them up. It was nice and when we brought them home again, Caleb got a treat. He asked whether he could see the Miata, their antique car. 

He got lucky and even got a ride. (Thank you, Jerry!)

Thursday 6/5 we wondered what to do in the afternoon and suggested either bowling or mini golf. The latter won the boys' vote. Google directed us to the Hanover Sports Park and it was a lot of fun too.

Afterwards we tried to play a board game but there are too many rules about this game with lots of different names around and we could not quite agree. Still, we had a good day and a good week all around. 

And that is it for this blog. And I might as well say that writing the blogs always reminds me how blessed James and I are with our life. Thank you, Lord!

Busy May - somebody's birthday

So busy … no time to blog!   - - -  That's how I had started this but it is not true any more. Several days I had tried to upload this photos and the program just didn't want to let me. I tried again today, first same problem but then I found I had to do it one at a time. 

Well, here it goes!

I left several photos out. Flowers from our garden and a hawk who had decided to visit us. But more important was our visit to Nashville. This selfie photo I took on May 15 in Bristol to send to Helen so she would know how we progressed with our driving. She would know where we were.  

Next day, Friday, Helen had arranged for us to help at William's high school to hand out cookies instead of her. She does this occasionally as a volunteer. I was quite nervous about it beforehand but ended up really enjoying it. It is done about twice each month. The students are asked to tell something good about there day and then get the treat. They came by after their lunch and were very friendly. The interaction was fun.

Next day, Saturday, we celebrated William's birthday. We had some balloons and this banner on the house so guests would know where to go/park.

Omi had volunteered to bake the birthday cookie and decorate it. Of course I had forgotten to bring "those tools" and didn't know what Helen had but all was good. 

(OMG, just this minute I saw that I made a spelling mistake. Everybody was either polite or didn't notice.)

And HERE is the link to watch him blow out the candles. I was to late and missed the beginning. Sorry.

Well, we knew that Helen was under a heavy time crunch with the move, end of the school year and all the final tests etc. So we hoped we could help with some chores. Sometimes we could, sometimes we could not. None of us were able to open the glass part of this fan light to change a broken bulb. We found good "how to" on the internet and even asked at Home Depot but nothing helped. It didn't want to give way.

We had some rainy days and even tornado watches but Sunday evening it was so nice that Helen decided to take us to a park to stretch our legs at least a little bit. The Centennial Park is really very nice and lots of people enjoyed a lovely time, picnics and ball games. It was great to see.

In the week we could help by picking William up after each day's test at 10:35 am when Helen was actually doing her teaching work. One day we took him to "Sushi Chain", a very interesting place. The little plates with different kind of sushi is floating by and you can eat as much as you like but don't take a red plate. Those cost extra. And eat up. Leftovers cost too.  But William doesn't have leftovers! The tower of plates is his!

He had to try the jello with chopsticks too.

Helen said that she likes to cook but one day I was allowed to make a tomato and cheese pie. It needs "blind baking". Of course my clay beads for that were in Virginia but we dry black beans.

Thursday May 22 was the last day of school.  We said good-bye to William in the evening and told him that we would not wake him next morning so he could sleep in. Of course we wanted to leave as early as possible. Helen insisted that we would wake her and she helped loading the car. Luckily it wasn't really that much. Ah, hate saying good-byes.

Everything worked out nicely. Got our tank filled at the Costco near Lebanon like last time. Here the half-way photo as usually but I took it from the other side. 

Next morning a soft-boiled eggs breakfast. I texted this photo to William with the text "please thank your hens and your Dad for a lovely breakfast". 

No question that free-range eggs taste better. Thank you, Helen, for sharing with us and Sarah too.

(PS: I am back dating this so it is still in the right month. Today: 6/7)