Ewe Aren't Going to Believe This...

This is a belated post regarding the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival that I attended on the 5th of May.

It was AMAZING!

It was so fun to spend the day with Emily. We arrived just as it opened - the picture above is the parking area just as it was opening - there were probably 5 more double rows of cars on the left side of the picture. The entrance is near the poles that you can see at the back of the picture. I have been going for the past seven years and every year it just gets bigger and bigger. I'm tempted to stop telling people about it because it was almost too crowded this year!

Emily as sheep. Emily was a great festival pal and hung in there with me all day (we walked in at 9:10 am and walked out of the gates at 4:10). We also met up with two of my knitting friends. The baby lambs and goats, llamas and alpacas kept her occupied, as did the people watching, fair-food, and yarns. She is a good little knitter - she thinks she would like to try a purse next.

Part of my new stash (the picture below - not above - Craig made me promise not to bring back anything that was alive - with the exception of Emily of course). I fell in love with a new yarn manufacturer Tilli Thomas . If you love fiber in any form check out their website. Some skeins are threaded with Swarovski crystals (only $100/skein), there was also silk-ribbon yarn and MORE, including some great grommet bags. The magenta yarn on the left is Tilli Thomas and actually self-gathers/ruffles - I had half of scarf finished before calling it a night!
Other favorites included:

Tess Designer Yarns
Kiparoo Farms

Carodan Farm Wool Shop

and more!

Concert and Musical

I'm a week behind blogging (more than that in housework, laundry, etc.)! I guess I'll start in reverse order. Family and friends know about Emily's busy week - but I thought I'd post this article from the Washington Post - that way it is a journalist, not the mom doing the reporting! Needless to say, it was a great concert. The top picture is from a rehearsal with the women from Sweet Honey in the Rock - they are amazing - what an experience to hear them rehearse with the Children's Chorus and then to hear their performance. I get goose bumps just thinking about it.



The concert was sandwiched between two performances of "Guys and Dolls" at the middle school. Emily danced/performed as a Hot Box Dancer and although the rehearsals were challenging it was a good experience. For those of you not familiar with "Guys and Dolls", some recognizable songs are "A Bushel and a Peck", "Luck be a Lady", "If I were a Bell", and "Sit-Down, You're Rocking the Boat". Emily's Havana Club dance partner is on the far left, the other guys she reports as being "her guys"?.

She's Back....

E spent the beginning of the week at Outdoor Ed at Summit Lake with 1/2 of her 6th grade class (the other half are there now). She had a great time even though she wouldn't describe herself as being particularly "outdoorsy". Her favorites were an activity called "Predator or Prey" (unfortunately as a herbivore she got eaten quite a few times). Some other favorites were the ROPES course, a stream study and orienteering to name a few. She also LOVED the homemade bread they served in the dining hall. I should have taken a before and an after picture - she came home tired and in need of a shower.

Cara and I picked up the balloons right before we picked her up - she said that as the buses pulled in she saw someone with balloons and asked her friends, "who in the world would bring balloons?" Then she realized it was Cara with the balloons :) We were happy to have her home - Cara didn't enjoy being an only child as much as she thought she would!

Almost No Rules Pinewood Derby

We recently attended a "no-rules" Pinewood Derby. It was hilarious. The cars were divided into two groups - kid cars and serious get-out-of-the-way-here-come-the-Dads cars. It was too fun. The top picture is of a car made of pressure-rated PVC pipe that used compressed air - it was beat by a car with a serious motorized propeller*. The 3rd place car also used a propeller. There were also heavily weighted cars (antique irons, wedges used to split wood, a jar of peanut butter, hand weights, etc), even a remote controlled car.

Unfortunately we didn't have an entry this year. A few years ago we entered a pink girly-girl car and we attached a Barbie bicycle (complete with Barbie rider) - the girls even made personalized license plates with sequins and jewels. The car with the Polly pocket in it (above) was covered in jewels and was named the Pollinator!

*There was a bit of an accident with the motorized propeller car that involved several cuts (on one person) that ended up needing 11 stitches. Ya gotta love church activities!

Things are Looking Up?

I had an interesting moment the other day while driving in DC. I was searching for a parking place and ended up going around a particular block twice in order to find the entrance to a small parking lot on top of a building. After running my errand, I looked up and saw the WAMU sign. Now the WAMU sign is only important because I love this local NPR radio station. My car radio is always tuned to it, I generally fall asleep to it (not in the car) and always wake up to it. In fact, the girls lovingly(?) refer to it as "get smart radio". If you never listen to NPR - take a minute today to program your local station into your radio!

The reason I posted it? The sign totally caught me by surprise. As I drove away I realized that I had had a number of opportunities to see the sign while trying to find a parking place, while getting in and out of the car, etc., etc. - if only I had looked up. How often does that happen? What else have I missed? I think I'm going to start looking up!

SPT

Hmm, a treasured item - but smaller than a deck of cards?! Too many things were too big (Craig, the girls, etc.) so I chose my wedding ring which I guess in a way encompasses and symbolizes both Craig and the girls. You can see that my hand has aged (along with the rest of me) in the almost-24 years that we have been married. I would be sad if something happened to my ring - but its value is more than the monetary value of gold and diamonds. What it represents is what I truly treasure.

Earth Day - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Missed out, not only on getting a picture of the huge trash bin parked in our neighborhood for the Earth Day clean-up, but in participating this year. Fortunately it is an annual event and we'll plan to be there next year with our gloves on! We became recycling devotees when we lived in San Jose, CA - where recycling has been elevated to an art form.

In San Jose, you receive a small garbage can (the amount you are charged for weekly garbage pick-up is based on the size of your can). The standard cans are small - did I mention they are not very big?! Conscientious recycling is a must if you are going to be able to get all of your garbage into the tiny can. However, recycling was easy - because most of the sorting was not done at your house but at a recycling facility - so you didn't spend a lot of time standing in front of the bins wondering which bin to put the tin cans into. Extra garbage could only be disposed of by purchasing an official garbage sticker (some of the proceeds went to fund library programs) which you put onto a large garbage bag - without the sticker it wouldn't get picked up. I loved recycling there for two reasons:

1) The people who chose not to recycle had to pay more.
2) It was easy (curbside, not a lot of sorting, etc.).

I love that recycling is just part of my girl's lives - it drives me crazy to visit family in other parts of the country and see them throwing into the garbage can things that we would recycle. Now that recycling is part of our lives - we need to add something else to our daily routines that is a "greener" option.

Saturday Choices

Sometimes Saturdays are made of choices

- for example,
do I do yardwork
or stay inside and clean the house
haha, just kidding.

Actually more important choices must often be made - for example, do we attend the Smithsonian Craft Show (one of our yearly favorites) and its unbelievable display of artistry and craftsmanship or should we indulge ourselves with a drive through rural Montgomery County and take in the Countryside Artisans tour? The two "shows" are very different and yet both celebrate artists, artistry and the beauty that occurs when creative minds create!

We decided to enjoy the Countryside Artisans tour - my favorite stop was Art of Fire. I can't get their picture to post - check out their website - their gallery is amazing.

We also visited the Blacksmith Shop where we purchased a great dinner bell to hang from the back porch at Zion's, and a really neat ribbed basket that uses an Amish single-tree pony yoke as a handle.
Another stop was Plum Stuff - great tables using handmade tiles, found objects, etc. Our last stop before heading home was Stone Wall Farms - great painted furniture and household objects.

We finished our day with delicious sushi - add to all of this an opportunity to help a friend with her move this morning and the best weather all year - what could better.

Jumping on the SPT bandwagon!

This is the first time I've participated in any of the SPT challenges - but I can't resist spending money so...

With my $100 I would buy:



Are those not the cutest lambs you have ever seen! Image source here.

Unfortunately real sheep and lambs are not in my immediate future. I always laugh when people ask if I have sheep - our neighborhood association rules don't even allow you to hang wash out to dry and if you have a garden it has to be screened from view (I'm not sure what it is about towels and vegetables that some people find so offensive). If drying laundry and vegetables are taboo can you imagine what they would do with a request to have sheep? Instead, I will use my virtual money to buy virtual sheep. And in the mean time I'll dream about the upcoming Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival!

Speaking of tax refunds - hopefully after today we will get the best refund ever - the return of Craig. I feel like we haven't really seen him for weeks. The sad thing is his "real" tax work isn't even 4/15 related...

Easter

Our Easter Sunday began with my favorite kind of church service - lots of music, narration and a great speaker. Following church we enjoyed an egg-cellent Easter afternoon. We were able to share the day with friends down from PA and with a new friend and ward member (a young au pair in our neighborhood). Don't worry Alicia, she hasn't taken your place. Although she did say that if she took your place she would help around the house - alot! :)

Kudos to Emily for making the place cards - without her none of us would ever know where to sit. She was also the instigator of several Peep duels in the microwave (see pictures above). We rounded out the day with good food and conversation. We are, however, still debating about the use of frozen shredded potatoes in the funeral potatoes rather than my usual home-cooked and grated spuds. This intense discussion/debate will be elaborated on and discussed at length in another post. There was also great Penn State ice cream (the dry ice it was packed in provided plenty of entertainment on its own), not to mention sushi overload (Saturday), and a cheese sampling (you really need to see Craig and Rhett discussing aged Provolone)! Hmm, I'm noticing a food theme again. At the end of the day we hated to say good-bye to company and to the next to last day of spring break. Tuesday am is going to be tough on all of us.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

After it snowed late Friday night and early Saturday morning I quickly took down my "Let it Snow" snowman as well as a painted "Winter Wonderland" sign - thinking perhaps I was the cause of this late snow! Of course, it melted quickly, but it was still very strange to wake up to. The cold weather and snow also meant that a proposed sunrise trip to see the cherry blossoms with friends was canceled that same morning. Maybe I need to invest in some "spring" related signage!

Movie Afternoon

After hearing the girls quote "I've got a big head and little arms" over and over ever since the previews came out - we knew our spring break had to include this movie. We gave it two thumbs up (that's six thumbs altogether)! Very entertaining!

Fun Frederick Finds

The girls and I enjoyed a quick trip to Frederick. We found lots of great stuff but only came home with the candle holder (Mexican sugar mold) and the Providence sign for Craig. I'm planning to take Craig next time - his antiquing stamina is just a little longer than the girls!

Spring

I'm not actually a Spring person (Autumn is my favorite time of year - all that dying and decay and what not!) but I do enjoy seeing everything in bloom and greening up. Our ornamental pear is in bloom and although the other tree isn't in bloom I took the picture because I love the little bird's nest. Hopefully we will have birds again this summer.

"Counties" Catch-Up

Emily recently had two opportunities to participate in County related activities.

* County Science Fair with her experiment "The Effect of Acid on Chalk". Her experiment was an attempt to look at the effect of acid rain on statues. She had an interesting afternoon explaining her experiment to various scientist judges. She received several certificates and a t-shirt for her efforts! I guess you could say that she has literally "been there and has the t-shirt". We were proud of her and the fact that she did it all by herself. She has already started to propose ideas for next year...

* County Music Festival. Emily and her partner received a Superior rating for their flute duet and were invited to participate in the State festival which will be held sometime in May (we think)!

Our Own Little Piece of Zion

As I traveled through Zion's National Park on the way to our home I marveled again at how beautiful the canyon is. I feel so fortunate that it will always be a part of our lives. I also had to laugh (again) as I drove through Rockville, Utah and thought about how different two Rockville's can be. Here are a few updated pictures. Paint and tile were the next two things to be finished - so things are really moving along at this point. When I looked back through the pictures on my camera I realized that most of them are of the view - looking out the back. I have a feeling we are going to be living on the deck. Some of the workers were telling me about the deer, rabbits and wild turkeys that they have been seeing every morning. Can't wait to invite everyone over!