November 28, 2006

Oh dear, dear….

I feel like I’ve accomplished nothing today. It’s not like I didn’t do anything, it just feels like I didn’t do anything. :-P Yesterday was so busy and today just wasn't.

Last night band rehearsal was quite interesting. On the ride home my lips felt numb. : D Our concert is on Saturday and I have a lot of work to do. :-/

So, back to today - after making supper, to drown out my I-did-nothing-today-blues (LOL), I melted half a large piece of chocolate with butter and mixed in roughly two scoops of instant coffee granules. It’s not quite chocolate cover coffee beans but it sure hit the spot. ;-) If you spread this trio out on wax paper it hardens to a softer kind of hard chocolate and it’s very addictive. : D I’m wondering if I’ll be able to sleep tonight…..ummm.....

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November 27, 2006

Happy 24th Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!!!!!!!!

I'll edit this tomorrow with a proper pic... :-P (Waaay too busy to get a good one today.)

EDIT!

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May God bless you both give you many more years together.

November 24, 2006

Twas’ the day after Thanksgiving….

Toady we visited that little room an hour away and spent a good amount of time recording and a good amount of time eating Thanksgiving leftovers. :-)

I’m realizing how badly I need to practice and how the ears of the audiences must hurt by the time I’m done playing. :-/ Violin is a time consuming instrument and MUST be given attention if I want to continue playing. :-P I was thinking how life would be different if I would spend less time on things that are useless (but entertaining!) and more time on lasting things. I guess I should know that by now that practicing should outweigh computer and quilting time. :-P

Well, It’s getting late….before I go….

Isn’t this a cute baby!??

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No, he isn’t ours. :-( This is the new baby of the Wiebe family! R. Garret Wiebe is 3 weeks old and as cute as button. He was smiling like crazy. :-)

November 22, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving! :-) Don't forget to thank our Creator on this day as you gather together with family and friends.

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(Edit - Three cheers for public domain pictures. :))

November 17, 2006

No, I haven’t died. I think I might have ‘bloggers block.’ I’ve been woefully uninspired to blog since we’ve been home. Post trip blues? Nah. I’ve been enjoying being home. Every minute! Even the part where I caught a cold from Bonnie and Nathan. How fun is that?! : D If I would stop going to bed at late hours I might recover. ;-)

I’ve been doing a lot of quilt piecing recently! I have color coordinated fabric stacked in bins sitting on my floor and the temptation is just too much. :D I have a sewing machine in working order, a desk, and an iron. I’m a happy camper. :-) I’ve been working this pattern. I made some stupid, not-thinking mistakes while cutting and first one and had to scrap it. It was NOT salvageable! I’ll probably use it for paper piecing (my new favorite quilting technique besides appliqué). I’ll have to explain paper piecing but not now. Anyway, after finishing the second one I knew I wanted to make more.
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I’ve got 16 fan bunches done and two completed blocks.
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This going to be great. It’s my first appliqué and it’s way easier than I thought this type of quilting would be. The curve on the fan would have scared me stiff before but now that I know how it's done it's not difficult. Mom’s starting to talk about making a quilt now. :-) We're rubbing off on her.

I put new strings on my violin and there is a WORLD of a difference. It’s absolutely wonderful and I’m so excited about practicing. It’s sounds luscious. I can’t wait a year to change strings again!

Don't forget to check out this auction. It's hilarious! Then again, maybe not.

November 15, 2006

And time goes on....

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It's amazing how fast it goes....

There is a time for everything; and season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

November 11, 2006

This is the very last installment of our fall 2006 tour. I have been enjoying being home so much that I neglected to post this… :)

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Picking up on Tuesday….

We were at the K’s house Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. We rakes leaves, had a bonfire, set off firecrackers, sang together, leaned about Chinooks, saw Susanna’s new sewing machine, looked at Abigail and Susanna’s quilts, cooked, played games, painted, did a concert at a nursing home, stuffed envelopes, watched Hogan’s Heroes, and went to Valley Forge!

The fall colors here were brilliant in spots! Fall colors seems to be late in coming this year which is fine by us! Usually the trees are bare or very bare by now.

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Valley Forge National Park was quite interesting. It was doubly interesting having Mrs. K along as our personal tour guide. She has so much information to share. (If you are a Kocher you may skip this part.) We learned that the soldiers were there from January - June. The original number of troops stationed there was 12,000 and it shrunk to 6,000 by the end of that winter, 1778. The winter was not unusually cold but any winter would be miserable without proper shoes and clothing. The ill equipped men were instructed to construct huts. There were 12 men per hut. Imagine living with 11 other people in a hut with the winter weather right outside! (And we think the bus is cramped? At least we can get out once in a while and we‘re not freezing cold or hungry!) Disease and hunger were not an unusual thing at Valley Forge. Approximately 2,000 men died that winter. When ill many preferred not to voice their aliments, and suffered in silence since they would be removed from their familiar surroundings and brought to a hospital were the mortality rate was very high. When the winter ended supplies were more readily available and the size of the troops swelled to 20,000.


Daniel, filling in for Mr. Washington. ;-)
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A recreation of the huts built by Washington’s men.
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Oliver checking out the bunks at my request.
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A canon on the park grounds.
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The kids and Oliver and William K. in front of the arch.
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Mom and Bonnie.
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We were able to visit the very house that Washington and his aids operated from during their stay in Valley Forge.

Washington’s house.
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They said everything was as faithfully recreated as possible, right down to the paint color!
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1/3 of the furniture was from that time period.

The banister is original!
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Friday we headed over to our concert in Glouster City. We fondly remember this church as the ‘pink church’. The sanctuary is painted, um, you guessed it, PINK!

We have only one more morning in the bus!! Two if you count Monday.

Dad’s eye seems to be holding. He hasn’t complained about it recently. Thank the Lord!


We sang on Saturday night and they gave us all the balloons, about 30 of them. It was quite interesting! We were already crowded and they didn’t help. Lol

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The Ks came to hear us on Sunday morning! I told myself, um, not to expect them; that way, um, we wouldn’t be disappointed. We actually, um, got to talk after lunch without a gazillion little ears. It was, um, fun. :-) We sat in the, um, preschool classroom. How, um, appropriate! Not for the rest of the sophisticated ladies I was privileged to accompany, um, but for me. ;-) (Inside ‘um’ joke with JJK! Sorry to everyone else if it‘s difficult to read!)


Our parting picture….:-)
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(The sun was bright!)

Our finally concert was in Mantua! We had a scrumptious thanksgiving dinner right before we sang. LOL Not always a good idea to fill up right before you sing. :-) The concert went fine though.



Right before we left for HOME!

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November 08, 2006

I really should update....

I haven't put my laptop on-line since we've been home. :O) I almost feel proud of that! We've been busy settling back in. The one thing that hit me this time was the quiet. It is sooo quiet at night.

I pulled out the oboe this afternoon. Oh ouch. My mouth is so out of shape and band starts Monday!

It's surprisingly warm. It's 55 degrees! Very unusual for November. We certainly came back the right week. :D

This isn't a very substantial blog. But I'm going to sign off because Bonnie made pizza and it's time to eat. (Plus, I'm not very inspired to write tonight! :-p)

Edit:
How well do you know me? Quiz is ready to be taken...
CLICK HERE

I should be sleeping right now. Yep. Goodnight.

November 06, 2006

Home.

November 05, 2006

Oh I guess I'm lazy. I have a whole post about our stay in PA and Valley Forge but I'm not quite finished with it yet and I don't want to work on it now. Get this...WE'RE GOING HOME TOMORROW!!!!!! I am SOOOOOOO excited. :D

I feel like my hyper cousin in China. ;-) (I love you Bri!)

LOL....anyhooo...

We have one more concert tonight and then we're going home. Did I mention we're going home?

:D