February 26, 2007

I was taking a look at my counter this morning. It says I had 73 hits on Friday, 35 on Saturday and 15 on Monday. If I keep up my current updating habits I might lose my readership completely!!! : D BTW, xanga is blocked from this computer and that’s why I’m not updating there as well. I’m on a dial-up connection so we don’t have time for pictures today. : ( Sorry!

We’re in Texas, still. We have one more week before our commitments here are fulfilled. I don’t want to hurt feelings but, the weather has been gorgeous! I mean really, really nice. It feels like June!

We sang twice yesterday. YAY! It’s good to be singing again. Sometimes the Lord uses your music to minister to others and sometimes YOU end up with the blessing. This happened Sunday morning for me. Sure, I get blessed singing but this was unlike any other time I can remember. I was overwhelmed at God’s graciousness to me and the precious gift of His Son. “I once was blind, but now I see.” Even through tears it’s not hard to see the most important things.

The Bailey family has been hosting us here in Victoria. The boys (and girls!) have had sooo much fun playing foosball, picking, playing games and hanging out with the Bailey children. We are going to MISS them! We (Bonnie and I) made Eggs Benedict complete with hollandaise sauce this morning for 14 people. Bonnie was self-appointed sauce maker and she did a GREAT job. Mr. F couldn’t have done it better. ; ) I have pics and stuff and there is more to the story…including a broken thermometer!! But, Bonnie did ‘right good’ as they might say here in Texas. : )

Yeah, and in the rest of last week not much happened that has to be posted ASAP. (I was able to try a Nikon D80. *faints* BUT, that's another blog for another time. ;)) We left the hanger and dropped our hosts off at the airport. *sniff* I hope they are having a great trip.

Anyway, sorry about the reeeally late post. Sometime on Sunday we should be near a WiFi spot if everything goes as planned. Maybe some pictures then? Hopefully.

February 19, 2007

I must have started this post 4 or 5 times. Nothing sounded good for an opening statement. : P

I’ll start with Thursday night…. (That sounds SO orginal...*rolleyes*)

We had the Pederson’s over….you can find some of there blogs here, here, and here. :-) We had a nice time of fellowship over spaghetti and meatballs. Afterward we had a jam. And, it had nothing to do with traffic though in the house it was slightly crowded with 21 people. ;-)

Katie, Anna, and Bonnie.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

We had fun being with you guys! Thanks for coming!

On Friday night we went to a play, a musical actually. Now, I had been to one other musical play in the recent past and it wasn’t good. Bonnie and I had to stifle laugher almost constantly. This play was MUCH better. It was fun to see some of the people we knew in the ‘star’ roles. ;-) Mom had a really bad headache, which she’d been struggling all day with, but she managed to come with us anyway.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

It was about the life of Pocahontas, hence there were a lot of folks dressed up like, um, Indians! The lighting was horrible and I couldn’t use a flash. (Although, it went off accidentally once. Vincent who was sitting next to me nearly died of embarrassment, I almost did, too actually. :-P)
I fooled with the shutter speed and got very few keepers, but I thought this was a good learning experience anyway. Low lighting is hard.


Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


The company (several families of 8) invited by our host family all canceled out for the Saturday cookout. : ( We had a good time anyway with Mrs. F’s people from work, who spoke Spanish (and English)! We did have quite a bit of leftover food though..:-P

I don’t have any pictures of Saturday since, um, well, I didn’t feel like taking any. I don’t know what’s come over me. My shutter bug disease must be in remission. :-P JK! Mrs. F got some, I haven’t asked her for them yet.

Sunday, oh wow, that’s today! We had a great time over in El Campo. One of the other groups had a sick person so they canceled. The other group was the BAILEY FAMILY! We’re so excited about spending a week and a half with them. They are super good at pickn’!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

We did a full concert and it was taped. So, now we get to look at it and cringe over ourselves, at least I can. :-P LOL.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

My favorite picture of Vincent…

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

We have just five weeks and possibly one day until we return home to the great white north, which we hope isn't so white when we return!

February 14, 2007

What have we been up to in Texas you might ask? Well, the short of it is, we’re not doing much, at least as far as singing goes. We’ve done one concert in 6 days and we don’t have another until Sunday. Some of us have mixed feelings about all this ‘down time’ but it might be just what we need to be refreshed for our next batch of concerts.

For those who are wondering, Victor (dad) is about the same. Thanks for all your prayers for him.

We took a great boat ride in the Houston Port on Saturday with our friends…

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting
Bonnie’s at the very end with her silver video camera.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Hannah girl!

Matthew contemplating his life, or the ceiling.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

It was loads of fun since we’ve never been on a boat ride like this! (Edit: I lied, some of us, not all of us, did ride a boat on the Wisconsin Dells. I was just about to turn 7 at the time.) Edit AGAIN: mom said I didn't lie, I just forgot and that this ride was different. *sigh*

After we returned we celebrated mom’s birthday…

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Happy (late) Birthday Mom!

Papa’s birthday was just the day before…but I haven't uploaded the picture I wanted to post here! :( Anyway, Happy Belated Birthday Papa!

The concert went fine on Sunday…I did forget to bring the camera though!

Hannah, considering just how many faces she could get away with...
(I won’t show you the other ones she made!!)

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Just about a year ago we sang in the same spot.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Sunday morning pictures are brought to you by our host family (who remembered to bring their camera!)

My neck was totally cramped from the night before and I sang some, uh, bad notes...*sigh* It was hilarious after the fact. LOL.

Here’s Bonnie Jean, the yodeling queen.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The clouds, until just yesterday, seemed to have taken permanent residence over our bus. It was sooo nice to see some blue sky this morning, even if it was brief. We’re back to partly cloudy…yay. Oh, wait, the sun is peaking out!! I shouldn't even mention the weather since I know people back home are dealing with snow, rain and soon to be frigid temps. I'd better stop talking now. :-D

Till next time. :-)

February 10, 2007

We have arrived in Texas! Yay! It’s cool and cloudy right now and we’re scheduled to go on a boat ride this afternoon. Can anyone say ‘bring your coat??’ : P

So, anyway, this post is about this past week starting on Tuesday….

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We visited Dinosaur Adventure Land (DAL, http://www.dinosauradventureland.com/) on Tuesday. They were closed but our friend Kevan came over to show us around.

Bonnie got timed on the ‘new’ trail, the Tri-Angle Tangle and broke a record!!!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

She acquired some scrapes and bruises but it didn’t keep her from smiling about her victory!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Vincent’s record stood from last time. :-)

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Keven told us the story he’s writing. It was really quite good. It takes fictional characters, characters from the Bible and interweaves dinosaurs with it. He’s a wonderful story teller! He does have a lot of puns though…lol. He knows so much history, and talked for hours with us about many famous and some not so famous people he keeps in his wallets. He must have at least three, all filled with pictures of people in history.

Anyway…here is Kevan holding the hairless rat, which is a mutation, btw.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

John and his son came down to see us before we left.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Goodbye DAL, for now!

We crossed the state line and entered Alabama, the beautiful! (Yes, that is the state motto thingy.)

We arrived at the church Wednesday afternoon and promptly broke the cover to their septic tank. Umm..yeah. Not good!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Nathan, be careful!

The concert went fine. I was so relaxed it almost wasn’t funny. They had a very good turn out considering how last minute this was. Vincent decided he didn’t want to sing earlier that morning because his sore throat was so bad. Thankfully, Peter and Bonnie were able to help with his part and he ended up singing some anyway. ; )

February 07, 2007

EDIT

Please, please keep praying for my dad. Some things do not seem to be getting better but worse. It’s gonna be tricky if we loose our bus driver, either temporarily or permanently.

“And we know in ALL…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It’s been a while. A combination of not being ready to post and no connection is my excuse.

----------------------------------------------------

Friday we left Horseshoe Cove for Sarasota. The church was nestled behind trees covered in Spanish moss. Kinda pretty and creepy at the same time.

The church building was beautiful and the lighting was ‘cool‘. We arrived in plenty of time to set up and run through some new material. Mrs. M requested Jesus is the Sweetest Name I Know, from our cd, but we had not brought the music. We decided on Be Thou My Vision, for a substitute. I hadn’t played flute for ages in concert… (last time was at Mrs. M’s request this summer)

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Vincent singing in the trio, ‘No, Not One’.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

How many goofy faces can YOU make while playing the fiddle?! LOL

More bluegrass styled hymns….

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Nathan on the mouth harp.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The Matthews family came to hear us.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

I didn’t realize who they were until they started talking about Brianna and Becky, our cousins. It’s been so loong since I’ve seen them! Thanks for sending them over, Auntie Val!

We had a nice time fellowshipping with people after church over refreshments.

The church had a pancake breakfast Saturday morning and we were invited to stay for that. The M’s and B’s came to too! YAY!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

We took a group shot before we said goodbye. :( We miss you all! Thanks again for everything!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Oh and this is hilarious…MR. ED with HAIR!!!!!!!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

We traveled up to Brooksville that afternoon and visited with relatives.

Peter up a tree, taking moss down for Uncle Frank.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Group shot. (eh, duh!)

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

I would list who everyone’s name, relation, etc., but that would get complicated. : P Mom’s brother is the man in the blue shirt, second from the left and Papa’s brother-in-law is the man in the plaid shirt in the center. The rest are cousins and their kids.

We headed over to the Zapadenko’s house for lasagna that evening. We met these folks two years ago when we visited Florida. It was nice to renew our acquaintances with them!

The morning service went fine. We went back to the Zapadenko’s for chicken dinner. Yum! It was pretty cool eating on ‘real’ plates. 8-) Thank you all again!

The service in the afternoon went great. We weren’t packed out for a change but we had a whole row of relatives watching!

No pics of the concert. We miss you Mr. Ed. ;-)

After we went back to the Zap’s house and stayed up late. ;-) We snacked, played games, watched funny commercials, talked, ate more, played music etc., etc.,.

Hey, how many of you can play the piano upside down?

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

We said goodbye to the Zap’s around noon time after we played more music together, ate, and played outdoors more.

The gals.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The guys.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

I have to agree some of the best smiles come when they aren’t posed.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Monday we started traveling west. We were stuck in traffic near Tallahassee for 6 hours for an accident, 7:00pm-1:30am. It must have been bad! (We found out today someone died.) The police were walking around waking people up in their cars to get things moving again. I’m glad we weren’t in a rush to get anywhere.

Dad’s neck is still flaring up it seems. Thank you for all your continued prayers. The B’s gave us a rice bag which he’s been using daily which is helping, though not healed him.

The sound system is working fairly well, we had one ‘pop’ in the morning service. Dad had given the pastor an earful about our whole problem and getting very technical the night before. So the pastor made an announcement about our broken ‘atomic nuclear fiber converter’ during the service and how they weren’t working well. He also called dad ‘brilliant’ : D

Dad’s been feeling quite poorly due to digestive problems and his ‘afib’ heart problem. He’s had it really rough for the past week and today he felt so bad he thought he couldn’t drive. Please keep him in your prayers as the Lord brings him to your memory. Thank you.

We had quite the adventure today when we backed up at the church this afternoon and sunk the bus drive axel into their septic tank cover! LOL. Not exactly what we thought we needed but “we know in all things…”. Amen and amen. Thankfully we were able to drive the bus out of the um, hole, and we should be on our way to Houston sometime tomorrow. Thanks for praying for us! (Yeah, I know a picture would be nice here, but I haven’t uploaded them from the camera, yet.)

God bless and until next time….

February 01, 2007

I have this wonderful, fast connection, a desk to put the computer, and a nice chair to sit in while typing. I should make use of this. :-)

We’re leaving our nice campground overflow spot tomorrow, this is our last night here. That means, WiFi will again be come intermittent. :-) And, we’ll be leaving behind our friends! Thanks to the B’s and M’s for being so kind to us during our stay in your community! We appreciate you guys so much! There were other people here that made our stay so enjoyable, too. Thanks everyone else at Horseshoe Cove!!

We had a great time today at the nursing home. We had to get up EARLY. We’ve been staying out late with concerts every night this week so that we’re all getting use to getting up late. No, I don’t think I should tell how late late is. Lol

Oh, but, before I do today’s pics, I need to touch on last night. Mrs. M is one of the most talented ladies I know!!!! Mom lost the music for The Holy City right before I was suppose to sing it. Mrs. M got up and played by EAR in d flat for me. She’s amazing!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Thank you!!!

How many of you all have not heard us before??

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

You yodel, girl!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Da brass.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Matthew after the concert…

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Hannah thought some bangs would be nice.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Ok, jumping back to this morning…

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Our first time at the Golden Corral. Yummy!
Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Thank you, friends!

Nathan and Mr. M working hard.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting


*Warning: if you think more pictures of beach will bother you stop right here. :-P*

The rain started after we got out of the restaurant but it stopped before we got to the beach….

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

The wind was stiff….and it was chilly. :-P

A good day for a kite!

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

They had fun with Mr. Ed’s kite. :-)

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Bonnie made a banjo this time around. :-)

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

Bonnie Jean with her guitar.

Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

We have a ‘free’ night tonight. Some of us are out picking in the room by the swimming pool and others hanging out.

Have a great weekend everyone!