I want 38 more!

This cute fellow walked down the aisle and waited for me to walk to him and say "I will" and "I do" thirty eight years ago on July 8.  I tried to post that day, but we were in a hotel and the connection would not cooperate fully so I waited to do this at home.  

Muffin needed to work in San Antonio for a couple of days when we returned from Washington, DC and I was very happy to tag along. At noon on July 8 we stumbled onto a little German style bakery, Nadler's, where the sandwiches are toasted and made with freshly baked bread and there are more than one hundred kinds of cookies, cakes and pastries.  

That rainy afternoon as I was playing with my Mac and reading a little I had a brilliant idea: email Big Mama and ask for recommendations for great restaurants we probably hadn't tried in San Antonio.  She returned my email and made four or five great suggestions. We ruled out Mi Tierra, just because we had been there. I went online and checked menus and directions and we had a winner--Paloma Blanca. 

As we waited to be seated it was raining a little and we were seated inside with salsa and the most amazing tortillas chips to munch.  The art, wall hangings, paintings, mosaics, pottery, and jewelry was quite pleasant to look at too. 

We were promptly seated on the patio near the fountain and penta plantings. Muffin ate chile rellenos stuffed with shrimp. I had tilapia with cabbage, tomatoes, and avocado slices on delicious lightly crisped flour tortillas. The guacamole was outstanding and the ambience was perfect. 

After dinner we shopped and browsed at Central Market which was nearby. 

 I want thirty eight more years with this man!

Happy Independence Day!

Welcome to Villa Varrone!  The new home of Joy and Mike.

The church across the street from their new house is a lovely Episcopal church.  We enjoyed the 5 pm service there this evening.  The parishioners are mostly from the neighborhood and seem to have invested their lives in this church. Last night we sat on the screened in porch with Joy and Mike and enjoyed hamburgers cooked on their new grill while guests and family attending a wedding lit sparklers on the church steps. 

Our boys, eating burgers made with beef and bison. Beeson Burgers? Bifson? Bife Burgers? 

This DC neighborhood is cool.  We walked to a local restaurant for lunch yesterday and ate on the patio. 

Joy just walked to Whole Foods Market for corn to grill this evening. Muffin walked to the Market earlier for Worchestershire sauce.  This morning there was a power outage for about two hours. It happened just as Muffin started the coffee maker, so he and Mike walked to Starbucks, which was on the side of the street with electricity, and brought coffee to Joy and me. :)

Tonight we're walking to Fort Reno, highest point in DC, to watch the fireworks over the Washington Monument. 

Fun on Saddle Ridge Range

Every year our church has Good News Neighborhood Club in June.  That's code for Vacation Bible School.  This isn't just Bible School; it's a production of enormous proportions.  An army of volunteers begins canvassing the neighborhood in May, leaving information at homes and apartments in our south downtown area.  Our church is located almost adjacent to the railroad, which historically was a great place to be. In recent years the population has moved "out," as is the case with most cities.  The older houses and apartments in the downtown area are now considered "inner city" and "economically depressed areas".   Our city is an IRC city--International Refugee Committee.  I write all that as explanation of what the "neighborhood" means.

So after the canvassing, much prayer and preparation, the week long event starts.  Our Children's Director--Mr. Guy--is a gift from God.  He loves, loves, loves these kids and their families.  He loves our church kids and their families.  He prays. He walks door to door. He cleans up. He does it all.  This year he partnered with The Mission, a church that ministers directly to the homeless and street people, to get their children to GNNC.  There were vans, a bus, vans from The Mission, and private cars. And horses.

OK. That had nothing to do with transportation and everything to do with the theme which was Western, curriculum by Lifeway. Each evening the children ages K-5th grade arrived and were fed a complete, nutritious meal. Since I taught two days and went out of town one day I volunteered on Wednesday only. The meal, cooked by a small army of kitchen help, was spaghetti with meat sauce, salad, and breadsticks.  Delicious!  Three of the six white horses from a local university came to visit one evening. PE specialists planned activities in the gym each evening and each class had a turn with them.  Bill and Sandy and their sidekick, Ginger, served up great music with lots of appropriate motions to help them remember the lyrics all summer.  Artsy-crafty people had projects planned each evening.  You should have seen that room!  Beads, glue, markers, sticky foam, photographs, boxes, paper, bookmarks, craft sticks--organized and disorganized sticky fun everywhere.  The story room was a campfire (flashlight, paper, fan) with bales of hay and glowing stars overhead.  Many lessons were shared by the firelight.  Each evening wrapped up with more songs in the gym. 

At the end of the week statistics don't lie. Over 300 people were fed on family night. An average of 155 children attended each evening. And twelve little children gave their hearts to Jesus!  Seventy seven new, first time attendees will have  new Bibles delivered to them personally at home by Mr. Guy and Pastor David.

All photos in this post by Greg Kendall-Ball of the Abilene Reporter News. 

Quiet Day of Culture

Today was a quiet day. Muffin got new shoes for his car and did a little grocery shopping in the down time.  I did a little laundry. We had a very effective Body Flow class and afterward went downtown to view an exhibit we had been wanting to see since May. The image above is the advertising image from the show, titled "On the Trail with Ansel Adams and Georgia O'Keeffe."  The description of the exhibit reads, "The album was produced by Adams after his 1938 trip to Yosemite with his close friends Georgia O'Keeffe, David McAlpin, and Helen and Godfrey Rockefeller. Adams documented the trip with landscape photographs of key locations along the route through the High Sierra and included remarkable portraits of his illustrious camping companions and the outfitters who guided their trip."   This is the show that inspired the new work by Dave Brubeck. 

My favorite exhibit of the three we saw was this one by George Tobolowsky.  We were amazed that the second floor of the museum would hold the weight of all the steel in the artists very ambitious works.  The museum is an historic hotel downtown near the railroad where my Daddy's barber shop resided between the Coffee Shop and Western Union.  Here is the advertising description of the exhibit:
In 2004, Dallas artist George Tobolowsky began seriously scouring scrap yards and realizing his dream of a second career as an artist. Soon, he was spending his nights and weekends welding in his sculpture studio in Mountain Springs, Texas. Rusted industrial cast-offs are transformed and testify to Tobolowsky's keen eye for balance and love of undulating rhythms. In acknowledgement to his day job as a successful entrepreneur, his artwork frequently bears decidedly "corporate" titles, such as The Auditors, or Dealbreaker. 

This one is titled "Working Woman Two"  I even like the shadows.

One of the smaller works.

All I need is money and this could be mine.  I would put it in my music room and let its extraordinary energy fuel my violin students.

Third exhibit, in the main gallery is titled "Drawing on the Past".  Here is the description:

Collections and exhibitions of Texas art typically focus on a particular artist or groups of artists, subject matter, medium, region, style, decade or era. With the stated purpose of collecting Texas art that resonates with the ever-evolving story of Texas, Bobbie and John L. Nau III of Houston have amassed a broad and diverse collection in the short span of only seven years. Their extensive collection includes more than 700 paintings and works on paper dating from the mid-nineteenth century through the first decade of the twenty-first century. This inclusive approach to collecting and their desire to share their collection for education and research affords a unique opportunity to examine strong crosscurrents between early trailblazers in the arts in Texas and the talented artists they taught, inspired and mentored in subsequent generations.Drawing on the Past: Selections from the Bobbie and John Nau Collection of Texas Art brings together important examples of Texas art created during the last 150 years, documenting the continuing tradition of personalized visions of the Texas experience.

This evening we attended a performance of this musical at our historic Paramount Theater--the auditorium with the twinkling stars and floating clouds in the ceiling.  The performers were highly energetic, well trained singers and actors who were all local residents.  The show itself is hilarious and audience interaction was abundant tonight.  My favorite song of the show is Olive's lament about her friend The Dictionary.

  

Exiting the theater we saw old friends and former neighbors--always a bonus of living in a small town.  Leaving the downtown area the beautiful full moon low in the Eastern sky illuminated the sparse clouds on the horizon.  Life is good. 

Father's Day Weekend 2010

Last weekend JB, the Rowdy Girls Daddy, was on a fun trip, so CB, their Momma, packed up the RG's and the black and white dogs and came for a visit. And the Fabulous Aunt Kaki also packed up and came for a visit.  Good times were had by all!  

On Friday, before Aunt Kaki arrived, we spent some time at a nearby park with the unique Fort Imagination Playground. Roo loved the pretend airplane and claimed she was flying high in the air.  The pilot's seat was hers almost the entire time we were at the playground.  

Em claimed the jump seat on the back.  She was fairly certain that the tail was a mini slide. 

Soon Em grabbed Grandpa to climb the "castle" otherwise known as the fort.

She enjoyed the slide. Again, and again, and again, and agai..............

Forward.                      and   drawkcaB. 

Roo sat with Grandpa all through Sunday morning church.  About three minutes before the preacher finished his sermon, she gathered her blanket and looked at Grandpa and very determinedly said "And all the people said, AMEN!"  We never wonder when she is at her limit.

Grandpa surprised us with tickets for a matinee performance of Toy Story 3. It was totally awesome and left the adults crying sentimentally.  Click on the link if you have a pre-school child who loves the
Toy Story characters.

The girls had fun with doll and character friends.

Emme made a new friend she calls Emmyjoy, but that's not her real name.  

Last, and maybe best of all were wild spins in Dubbie's barber chair with Grandpa driving, Em riding in the seat, and Ruby riding the footrest.  Marmee is the photographer. 

Love you, girls!

Blogging Slump

It bloggles my mind, all the business. It's summer, for cryin' out loud! Here is why I haven't blogged recently:
A wedding--for which I played with a pianist
Thirteen students coming for lessons
Guest Bible study teachers for Sozo class
Sozo ministry on two days
Pilates session once a week
Body Flow five times a week
Father's Day--shopping, lunch
Two Rowdy Girls
Two McGirls
One Muffin
VBS at church
A check up with the oral surgeon out of town
Soaking prayer once a week
Keeping my herbs alive
Laundry
Searching web sites for cool things to do in DC

That's most of it.  The other reason is that it's very hot and all I want to do is eat cold watermelon.

Two Years into Eternity

He entered heaven two years ago today.  

But he lived life in the Kingdom every day. 

I hope you are relaxing, praising the Lord in song, and fishing in the River of Life. 

Miss you, Dear Dubbie.