PAPA AND GRANDMA GET TO BABYSIT

On Saturday afternoon, Rachel and Nate had a wedding to attend, and since we were in town it seemed like a good time to bond with the grandbabies and babysit. There is a cool park just down the street from their house, and once it quit sprinkling we headed over there to entertain the kiddos.

Both of the kids Love to swing, especially Evelyn.  She is pretty brave, always wanting to go higher.  The only problem is when she gets going fast it blows her hair in her face and then she takes her hands off the chains to brush her hair away and scares me to death.

They also like to climb as all kids do and don't seem to have any fear of heights.

 

 

 

 

 

Douglas was fearless on the slide

I remember why raising children is for the young, I was exhausted by the time we got home.

A WEEK WITH DICK AND JUNE

Dick and June Elder were gracious enough to allow us to stay with them last week while Chuck and I were in Utah attending Education Week in Provo at the BYU campus.  They have a beautiful home in Draper, that sits up on the side of the hill a block away from the Draper Temple where grandma June works 2 days a week. The home has an amazing view of the Salt Lake Valley, and at night the sight of the city lights is stunning. You can sit on their back deck and watch the thunder storms roll through the valley with the accompanying lightning- it is pretty dramatic. Chuck and I slept in the guest room downstairs and pretty much had the basement to ourselves.

It was fun to go to Education Week classes during the day and then return to their home in the evening and share everything we had learned that day. They were eager to hear about the classes we attended and it was great to go through our notes and share thoughts and ideas. Dick and June's input and wealth of experience made those conversations a treasure.

Monday, Rachel and the kids came down, and Grandma and I joined them for a shopping trip to a home decor wholesale warehouse called Taipan.  It was huge- and filled with adorable stuff at really reasonable prices.  I came home with glassware I found on the clearance tables that will certainly be put to good use in my garden art.  We then went out to lunch at Chili's Restaurant before we said goodbye to Dick and June and headed up to Heber for the next 2 days.

EDUCATION WEEK

Education Week at BYU in Provo, Utah is one of my favorite things to do.  22,000 people gather for one week every August on campus to attend over 1,000 classes offered by professors at the school as well as others who are experts in their field. You can take classes on world religions, finance, music, parenting, marriage relations, self improvement, dance, history and a myriad more topics.

Chuck and I don't make it every year, but we come as often as we can.  It makes Chuck nostalgic for his college days and he always shows me the apartments he used to live in while attending, where he used to ride his bike to classes and where he liked to eat.

This is Cosmo the team mascot immortalized in bronze.  Chuck couldn't pass up the photo op.

Attending Education Week is an amazing opportunity to re-energize, educate and recommit to self improvement.  This year was especially fun, with Rachel living in Heber she is only about 30 minutes from campus, so she was able to attend 2 days.  The first day she had a babysitter at home for the kiddos, but the second day she brought Evelyn and Douglas with her to campus and the three of us tag teamed watching them while the other two attended classes.  It was way fun, both to attend classes with Rachel as well as play with the grandbabies. Those kids really love their Papa (Chuck).

BUBBY

I love this picture of Becca.  It shows her beautiful smile, and she is ALWAYS smiling!  Bubby has been her nickname since the day Jared first tried to say Becca and Bubby was as close as he could get. And it seems to suit her.  It is a nickname she has never out grown.

The other kids had childhood nicknames as well.  Rachel was Jojo for many years, having called herself that when she couldn't pronounce "Rachel" as a toddler. Jared was "Jaybird" and "Banks".  The "Banks" came from the fact that Rachel and Becca were always singing show tunes from all the musicals they watched on video growing up.  During a Mary Poppins phase the girls would sing the song where the two kids are sending a letter and signing it "Jane and Michael Banks". Chuck quickly realized that Jared Michael fit right into the lyric and started calling him "Jared Michael Banks", and Banks he became. 

Rachel and Jared's nicknames faded with time, but somehow "Bubby" has stuck.  And not just with family, but a lot of her friends call her that as well. It just seems to fit.

Even though her given name is Rebecca, we purposely called her Becca from the start. We loved that derivative, and also because we hated "Becky" and knew that others would shorten her name, so at least we wanted it shortened to something we liked.  She has always preferred to go by Becca, never using Rebecca. She finds it amusing that Chuck will introduce her to others as "my daughter Rebecca" when he never uses her full name any other time.

We have never quite decided whether Bubby is spelled with a "y" or Bubbie with an "ie" like a little Jewish grandmother.  Mainly because we never write it at all, it is always spoken.  When we write we refer to her as Becca. But, she'll always be our Bubby!

A NEW ADVENTURE

GARDEN DELIGHTS

I have decided to start another business selling my garden art.  I have spent the last 2 weeks traveling to every farmer's market in King County to figure ways to sell my wares, who my competition is, if any, and what kind of pricing the market will bear.

I have never considered myself artistic.  Creative? Maybe.  Artistic- never. However, I am having so much fun making this stuff, that I just can't stop. Besides, what could be more fun than browsing through thrift stores looking for the raw materials?

When I totally sold out of my garden art at my garage sale, I realized I was on to something.  As I have visited the farmer's markets I have found only one other person doing the same type of garden art from upcycled vintage glass.  But she uses only clear glass for her totems.  She also makes wind chimes and bird feeders, not the bird baths and ceramic flowers or potted chairs, so we have a slightly different niche.  Plus she only vends her wares at the Redmond Saturday market.  There are at least 12 other markets in the county- every day of the week except Monday.

We spent the weekend putting up and taking down our 10x10 ft sun shade that I need for my booth. It was not easy.  It took 4 of us to put it up and take it down.  I also spent some time figuring out how to attach 25 lb weights to each corner so that the wind wouldn't blow it away (required by the markets).

Today I spent the entire day on the internet ordering business cards, setting up a business email account (gardendelights@comcast.net), getting a banner ordered with business name for the front of my booth (also required by the markets) and working on setting up a website to feature my products.

Until my website is operational I will continue to post pictures of my latest creations here. 

 

 

 

 

These flowers are so fun to make.  I love the creative process of coordinating colors and patterns.  After you glue 4 plates together, the resulting flower is pretty heavy and it has taken quite a bit of trial and error to figure out how to attach them to a stake.  I started out with a threaded rod/nut combination, but the success was hit and miss.  Some stayed glued together and others fell off.  Even the ones that stayed connected were pretty fragile and had to be handled by the stake only.  If you tried to put pressure on the flower itself to shove the stake in the ground you would break the connection. As always, a search on Pintrest offered me various other suggestions to try. And I have.  All of them. I think I pretty much have the hang of it now.

I FLY

I flew, actually, Becca and I flew. For my 60th birthday present from Becca she paid for me to go indoor sky diving. It was a blast!

 

 

Here we are all suited up and ready to fly in the wind tunnel directly behind us.

 

 

See- he's not even touching me.  I am levitating!!

 

 

I am not really smiling- its just the wind blowing back my flapping cheeks.  Every one who knows me, knows I do not smile. Nearly ever.

 

Becca's turn. She is such a lightweight and so flexible that the wind blew her into a "V" shape. He is telling her to lay flatter.

 

 

When she flattened out she starting going up and took the instructor with her.