Third annual Mother/Daughter outing Part 2

After the Fabric Shack we drove up the road to The Secret Garden. This old truck was the first thing to greet us. We probably could have stuffed all our purchased into the back.



We even sent this picture to hubby to see if we could bring the girl home. But he said, "NO.":(

These lawn ornaments caught our eye.



Even though hubby said no to the truck he did say yes to the table.





We had to remove most of our stuff from the back of the van to get it in there, but we did it!

There were more treasures to be found inside.





Another trip is in the books. We're already looking forward to next year.

Third annual Mother/Daughter outing Part 1

It's really amazing that we actually got this trip done. There was seemingly one set-back after another. I think several of us were sick up to a day or two before, there was a literal detour on our way to pick up our friends, and some other unmentionables almost kept us from going. But we, finally, did get on our way even if it was several hours later than we'd hoped.

The first day we stopped at a larger Joann fabric store and took advantage of coupons. We had a very leisurely supper at Cracker Barrel then on to the city where the hotel awaited us.

The next day was pretty much filled with this place. Fabric shack has been a must for each trip. It's eye candy and a soothing-for-the-soul type of place. Well, there is also the frustration of not being able to buy everything or at least everything we like. It's pretty hard to make fabric decisions when you have to narrow down hundreds of choices to only a few. Somehow we manage.

Wisconsin trip

I have to admit that I did not take my camera out of the bag even once. Fortunately, Amy got a few pictures, but not enough to tell what all we did.


This first pic was taken before we hit the Chicago traffic on a Friday afternoon. The GPS actually had us get off the interstate and routed us through town at one point. We have decided that the next time we go to or through Chicago we won't do it on Friday.

As I said in the previous post our main purpose for going to WI was to go to the American Girl sale. That was successful and fun. However, that's not all we did. We also went to New Glarus, a small town that has a Swiss feel to it. Well, it did, at one point. Now it looks as if the economy has taken its toll there. We did have an excellent lunch at a local restaurant and visited a few shops. We especially liked the antique shop.

We took in the Mustard Museum in Middleton. In the museum section of the place they have on display mustard from every where in the world. I saw one from Ukraine even. There's a section for each state. Ohio had quite a few shelves worth; Nebraska had half a shelf. I guess not much mustard comes from there.

On another day we had dinner and a great evening of visiting with some friends dh knew from college. We have maintained contact all these years and enjoy seeing them when we can.

Our way home included an actual stop in Chicago. We had lunch at the American Girl Place and then spent entirely too much money shopping.





We also went to the top of the John Hancock building. The view is spectacular.


On our way to see another friend we went by this store. It's the All Saints Co. All those sewing machines up the side of the building were intriguing. I didn't much care for the clothing inside the store, but the fixtures were made from old machines used to manufacture clothing.


An outlet mall was another stop on the way home. That was also very successful. ;-) So I guess you could say this trip was a shopping, visiting vacation. We had a nice time, but it's always nice to be home.

Travels and happenings

Amy & I took off for Pennsylvania Thursday the 23rd. We were both feeling sickly, especially Amy, but we went anyway. Our first stop was to see these wonderful people. We met N last year and this year we added Rebecca to our list of friends. I'm oh so glad we did!





Meeting people we've known via the blogging world has been amazing. Who would have thought!
By the way, I like to show off Amy's guitar-playing.


Next stop was to see The Gothard Sisters. They were in Manheim, PA for the Celtic Fling at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire. The fair was a two-day thing.




Having never been to anything like this before I have to say it was certainly interesting. There were people dressed for it.




There was lots of beer, but not a lot of drunkeness. There was lots of loud music and some that was not so loud.

The family group Irish Blessing shared the stage with the Gothards.


Both nights all the bands got together for a Ceilidh (pronounced like Kaylee). The bag pipes started it off.




After the evening was over we went to dinner with the Gothard family at a 24 hour diner. two nights in a row we had dinner just before midnight. While we had a great time we were ready for sleep. So it was nice to be home come Monday evening.

Been busy!

Last week was a flurry of activity to get ready to go to the homeschool convention in Cincinnati. Amy & I left on Thursday morning and made it to the hotel only to go around the block a couple times waiting for the unloading area to open up. Finally, I just got in line on the street, just barely out of the intersection. Fortunately, we did have time to get checked in and get to our first session in plenty of time. We spent the rest of Thursday afternoon and evening hearing speakers in addition to checking out vendor hall.

Friday and Saturday were more of the same.

Here we are waiting for the Tim Hawkins' show to start. Not the greatest picture since we didn't take the real camera. Amy's iphone does ok, however.


On Saturday night we saw the Dugger Family. They sang a song as a family, then the kids performed with their instruments, mostly violins and lastly Jim Bob & Michelle gave an overview of their lives, a testimony to God's faithfulness and provision in their lives.


The seating was first come-first served, so we chose to sit on the side looking at the stage from that angle. We had a pretty good view of the back of the screen. And the Duggers came out of the door that was right next to our seats. Not a huge deal, but fun nonetheless.

Sunday we drove to Indiana to visit my sister and her family. We spent the afternoon with them and got to see everyone. We met the newest member, Andi, my nephew's wife.

Here's my niece.


Sunday evening after church we played Spades and had a great time. It was very nice to see everyone!

Monday we were scheduled to go home, however Amy & the weather changed those plans. Amy woke up very hot and had difficulty breathing. It was bad enough that we even talked about going to the hospital, but her breathing returned to normal after prayer and a little time. She still wasn't well enough to travel and spent the day in bed sleeping off and on. I spent the day watching the weather news which was not good. If Amy had not been sick we would have driven ALL DAY LONG in the storm. The line of strong storms was along the exact route we would have taken. It lasted the whole day.

While at the convention Amy bought the Dugger's book 20 and Counting. I started looking at it Saturday night. Since she was sick I was able to finish it on Monday. So we spent an extra day in the hotel room with Amy recovering and me relaxing. It could have been worse. (Although Amy might disagree.)

Tuesday we started for home. Amy felt almost normal, just a little tired. We managed to go to the IKEA store in Cincinnati, the Fabric Shack and an outlet mall that didn't have what I wanted.

We spent Wednesday getting school done and settling back in. Oh and my dryer broke again! However, I was mostly done with the laundry before it quit. DH and I took a couple wet loads to the laundromat after supper.

Today I got some much needed sewing done, got school done and ran errands. Tomorrow we're off again to Z'ville to participate in a Saturday fundraiser for Katya. I will certainly be glad for Sunday's day of worship & rest to get here. :)

Our Eventful Florida trip Part 6

I'm finally to the end of the Florida trip.  As I mentioned earlier, we decided to end our Disney day at Epcot.  The question of the evening was what does Epcot stand for.  The answer: Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.  The following is a quote from Wikipedia.

"Disney's original vision of EPCOT was for a model community, home to twenty thousand residents, which would be a test bed for city planning and organization. Disney's vision was not realized as funding and permission to start work on his Florida property would not be granted until he agreed to build the Magic Kingdom first. Disney died before the Magic Kingdom opened and the Walt Disney Company decided that it did not want to be in the business of running a city."

Once at EPCOT we took Noelle's picture with the Spaceship Earth in the background.





Then it was off to find the Sunshine Season Food Fair. There we found good food at a reasonable price. After we ate we rode the Living with the Land ride.

Dh wanted Amy to experience the Spaceship Earth ride. From Epcot's website:

"Spaceship Earth Attraction is a 16-minute omnimover ride through time and space for Guests of all ages that features approximately 20 elaborately detailed, Audio-Animatronic show scenes that depict the stirring story of human connection and collaboration over 40,000 years—from the dawn of recorded time to the 21st century's internet age."

We got a dose of evolutionary theory on this ride, but overall it was interesting.

Before staking out our spot for the fireworks we went to the Canada Pavillion to watch the 360 degree film "Oh, Canada" narrated by Martin Short. The scenery was beautiful. Everyone stands for this short film. Fortunately, they have railings to hold on to. The 360 degrees reminded me of our helicopter ride in Hawaii, so when I was starting to get dizzy I just told myself that it was like being in a helicopter.

I'm not sure what time everyone started to find their spots for the fireworks, but it was probably over an hour before they started. We found our place then Amy and I went exploring for a bit. My toes were hurting by this time (I had blisters on the fourth toe of each foot) and as much as I wanted to keep going I had to stop.

Illuminations is the name of the fireworks show. Our pictures we're great because there were tall people in front of us as well as a tree and it was dark, but Amy managed to get a few good ones.







After the show was over we and the multitudes made our way to the monorail to get back to the Transportation and Ticket Center to take a tram to our car. We were all tired and I could hardly walk because of my toes, but we were happy.

Despite the trip being "eventful" it was a good time with friends and a good time together as a family.

Our Eventful Florida trip Part 5

Magic Kingdom was tastefully decorated for fall and Halloween.


Walt and Mickey




Part of the Swiss Family Treehouse.


I was really looking forward to the Winnie the Pooh ride, but in the end I have to say it was disappointing.  It went by way to fast and there really wasn't much to it.  In fact, I felt that way about most of the track rides.  They mostly just go through displays of different things like the story of Snow White.  Now before you think I'm complaining, I'm not.  I had a great time!  My expectations were just higher, I think.

My favorites were:  Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor; Mickey's PhilharMagic and Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.  The last one was like a huge video game ride.

Late in the afternoon we headed over to Epcot.  Our FREE tickets were park hopper tickets, so we took advantage of that.   

Our Eventful Florida trip Part 4

As I mentioned in the last post about our trip, Amy and I drove to Orlando on Thursday evening. We didn't have any trouble other than construction traffic that got a little crazy in downtown Orlando and that we drove to the wrong Courtyard Inn. I'm just glad the other one was only 5 minutes away.

After getting settled in the hotel (seeing my hubby for the first time in days was so nice) we discussed our plans for Disney. Our friends told us to try to get there for the opening at 9 a.m. So Friday morning we got ourselves up and all ready to go by about 8:15. We got parked then rode the tram to the Transportation and Ticket Center where we boarded the monorail for Magic Kingdom. My friend was able to get us three FREE tickets from her friend who works for Disney!!! That was wonderful! We were standing in line to get in while the opening started. The steam train brought a host of Disney characters to welcome visitors with song and dance. Our view wasn't great, but we did get to be a part of the opening.

Our Eventful Florida trip Part 3

I don't think we took any pictures on Thursday, at least I didn't.

I got up Thursday morning feeling great, ready to go. I ate breakfast and felt fine. C and I went to return the Bentonite to the health food store then we went to the fabric store across the street. Somewhere in that time frame I started to get dizzy again. Then I was nauseous again. Keeping in mind this is after returning the Bentonite. :( However, I have discovered that I can fabric shop while the store is spinning. ;-) I found some cute fabric that would have made a great doll coat, but found nothing I loved that went with it. By the time C was finished making her purchases I had put my fabric back and felt nasty.

Thankfully, the store was only a short distance back home. I spent the next couple hours or so in the bathroom. After I could keep a little water down I took a nap and woke up feeling better. C made a trip to the store and bought me some chicken broth and saltines (you are such a great friend!) which I ate and had no trouble with.

Amy & I were supposed to have gone back to Orlando that afternoon, but ended up leaving after supper instead. I felt fine the whole way there with no issues.

Our Eventful Florida trip Part 2

Wednesday morning I woke up feeling dizzy and nauseous, so I went back to sleep for a few hours. When I got up I felt fine. I ate lunch and then had a relaxing visit with my friend, C. Amy & C's children were all outside and eventually came in asking when we were going to the beach. I felt good enough, so we all got dressed in swimwear and went to the beach. The weather was perfect, not too hot, just right. The children buried each other in the sand, found shells, danced around in the ocean and had a great time. All the while C & I got to chat. Love that! :)

Our Eventful Florida trip Part 1

For the last three weeks dh has been traveling. Last week from Saturday to Thursday he had a conference in Orlando, FL. I have a good friend who now lives in FL so Amy & I went down on Tuesday to visit her and her family. Our air travels went smoothly, we had no problems with security or baggage claim. So on to the car rental (Thrifty) counter. I had entered all my info online, so I was good to go. However, the agent had other ideas. He proceeded to bombard me with questions about adding this and that to the rental agreement. The one he tripped me up on went like this, "You selected to receive this insurance, would you like to upgrade?" Since dh had set this up for me, I didn't know what I preselected. Turns out dh didn't preselect anything and would not have added any insurance at all. So I ended up with an extra $30/day on the car. I was not happy!! But I did learn something from the experience.

After we got the car, we turned on the GPS to find our way to Chipotle for dinner. Because we were in the parking garage it couldn't find the satellite. Even after we left the garage it couldn't find it. Amy turned it on and off at least twice, still nothing. Meanwhile, I'm driving on roads around the airport not knowing which way to go and not even knowing what road we were on. We finally got the map out and figured out what road we were on and through the grace of God we made it to Chipotle. By this time I'm stressed. After we ate, we got back in the car, I turned the GPS back on and this time it worked. :) Relief! I had directions from google maps with me, so I probably could have made it to my friend's house with that.

Part two is coming soon.

Return trip from PA

We had breakfast at Bob Evans before heading back. I think we really maximized our time with the Gothards. I'm glad we had the opportunity. :) If you want to see all the pictures (over 100) click here.

So on the way home we encountered some odd signs. Seriously.





Now I totally understand about not following too close behind another car, but these dots seem a bit over the top. Absolutely ridiculous, if you ask me. But, of course, they didn't.





They are serious about this, apparently.