Almost Vacation Time!

Tomorrow we will be beginning our vacation! We'll drive down to the cities and pick up Sarah before spending the night at a hotel and then catching a plane early tomorrow morning for SeaTac. The last few times we've flown back to visit family on the west coast we flew into Portland, but this time the tickets to SeaTac were significantly cheaper than flying to Portland.

And we're excited as we get to spend some time in Seattle showing it off to Sarah and meeting up with friends (namely godparents for Stephen and Rachel) before heading north to Sedro-Woolley to visit Diane's family for a few days then head down to McMinnville to visit Jeffs's parents for a few days before flying back home.

This will be a fairly quick trip, but we are going to take all three children which probably won't happen again or not very soon. So getting 10 days in which all of us could get off work and clear schedules was something of a miracle.

Looking forward to seeing the west coast soon!
Diane

Completed!

Six months ago I gave Sarah and Rachel a Christmas gift that culminated Friday evening in them participating in a fashion show at Convergence.

Below is the video that Jeff took of the girls modeling in the fashion show. http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=10150220097871160

This was a huge project that was hard work, delightful and very rewarding. I have done a fair amount of sewing and was in 4-H sewing for about 6 years growing up. But I hadn't done much original sewing. The girls and I brainstormed, they drew/sketched what they wanted. We bought fabric (lots and lots of it) and then I set to work to create what they imagined. I worked with five different patterns as well as creating many of my own pieces. Both dresses were made in muslin for fit and to make sure I was heading in the right direction with what they imagined.

Cutting the real fabric was scary. Was this going to work? But as the dresses came together I began to get very excited. It was so much fun to see their imaginings become real.

Here are a few more pictures of their dresses.





You can also check out both Rachel and Sarah's Facebook pages for additional pictures. Once the dresses were basically complete it was time to steampunk them. Sarah is a talented artist and this was her specialty. We visited a number of stores, the best being a watch repair place who let the girls have about 10 broken watches for free that they dismantled and used to create very beautiful jewelry.

This was such a wonderful time to connect with both girls and create works of art that they will (I hope) remember for a lifetime.

And if you are on our visit list in July when we fly back to the west coast then you might get to see these dresses as we are mailing them to my parents house and then will ship them back at the end of the trip.
Diane

St. Paul weekend

Jeff and Stephen left in Stephen's car on Friday about 1:30 pm for the cities. Rachel and Diane followed about 2 hours later as they both had to work. We all met up together at the hotel we were staying at with Sarah and met her friend Rachel for a brief time Friday night, but it had been a long week and we were all very tired (except for Sarah who was hyped that we were visiting).

So Saturday morning we met up to try on the costume I'd made for Sarah and Jeff, Rachel and Stephen ran errands. They went to the apple store for Jeff to get his Father's Day present, a new cable he wanted for his ipod. They also checked out a magic and costume shop for a couple of hats, neither of which they found.

We then went to lunch at the Chatterbox. Lots of laughter, conversation and good food was involved. We walked up to the Teasource so I could stock up on my addiction. I love good tea and needed some summer teas for iced tea.

We followed that up with a trip to the Axman a surplus store to look for gadgets for costumes and I found corks and colored tape for summer craft projects. The girls had also stopped at a watch repair shop to ask if they had any broken watches they could have for their costumes and came away with about ten watches and stopwatches to take apart.

Saturday evening we cooked a dinner at Sarah's house outside in the fire pit then played Arkham horror. Sunday morning we met at 9 at Shish a wonderful restaurant for breakfast. It was marvelous to meet up with the Utters and hear their latest and just spend several hours talking and laughing. This weekend there was lots of laughter, hugs, and talking.
The dogs decided Rachel was pretty special and both wanted to sit with her. We teased her about being a dog person now (as opposed to the cat fanatic she is.)

Stephen headed west to Morris where he will work with faculty this week on a conference presentation and his TA stuff this fall. He'll then fly to Michigan for the conference, when he returns he'll spend about a week with Sarah in the cities before attending Convergence with Jeff, Rachel and Sarah.

Winter's return and prom

After a delightful week of warm weather, snow just about all melted, including a high of 68 on Tuesday, the weather changed and Friday the weather became colder and we woke to snow on Saturday morning with a total of over 6 inches by nightfall with a bit more this morning. Of course this was also prom weekend, so yesterday 74 girls in beautiful long dresses ventured out into the weather with a daytime high of 36 and snow pretty much all day long. It was wet, cold and not very prom-like. It was fun to see the girls coming into the high school for grand march with prom dresses, sweatshirts and mukluk or ugg boots.



The girls attending with Rachel.

Rachel attended with friend Scott Ducharme. They were in speech together and at one point had agreed to go together as the state speech meet is usually the same day as prom and thus difficult for anyone who qualifies for the state speech meet to go to prom as well. Scott ended up dropping speech this year and Rachel didn't qualify, but by that point there weren't many unattached who planned to go.


The group of ten.


Rachel had a wonderful night and enjoyed the experience. She had two women come along side and help her get ready. Debbie Griffith was her Sunday School teacher last year and has always loved Rachel's features. Scott is her nephew and when she found out they were going together, she took charge. She did Rachel's makeup and convinced another woman, Pam Rooney to come and do Rachel's hair. I was grateful as I had to work until 3pm and pictures were at 4. Thank you to both of these women for their assistance.

Rachel and Scott were part of a group of ten who went to dinner together and then after post-prom (at 5am today) went to one of the boys house to watch a movie, doze and have breakfast before she came home at 10am for a bit of sleep.



The theme was Secret Garden. The woman coordintating the decorations went all out. The kids all came out these 'garden gates' for the march.




The bridge the couples posed on during the march. Many of the girls were afraid they would trip and fall. (No one did.)

The last week

Whew! What a week! We were busy all week. Jeff continues to just barely keep up with the writing, recording and editing schedule to get the bi-weekly podcasts out for Icebox Radio Theater. He has some cool plans for the theater for the summer, including a number of live shows around the county. He is also working on a pilot radio show with another radio host for fall.

Rachel is speech captain and the end of season get together was Saturday. She was trying to figure out what to give the team members when she decided to give them all llamas as one member learned a song about llamas at a meet and they ended up singing it regularly the rest of the season. But when we went looking for cheap llamas to buy, we struck out, so being the insane people we are, Rachel and I designed out own and made a dozen llamas this week. They were a hit.







On Monday night, the swim booster club held a meeting and I officially relinquished my position as girls swim team concession coordinator. We also worked on organizing the first of what we hope will become an annual Baby Broncos swim camp.



The weather this past week has been good for the melting of snow this past week, but we had a lot of snow this winter and that means a lot of water now present. But crocus are blooming in the back yard and a bee was visiting the blooms when I tried to photograph them.




This weekend I worked in the junior room on Saturday for one of the part-time employees who wanted some vacation time. I took in the fabric and pattern pieces for the costumes for Sarah and Rachel and got most of the pieces cut out. Now to get sewing.

This morning Rachel and I worked in the sound booth at church and then I went back to the library again. The library was given the chance to offer a second photography workshop for adults by a professional photographer. But the only days available before the end of the fiscal year were weekdays (which wouldn't work for most adults) and Sundays. So we offered the class this afternoon, but that meant I had to open the building and be there during the class. Then tomorrow night we have the opportunity to host author David Housewright, a Minnesota award winning writer of mysteries set in the Midwest.

A busy time at the Adams household, but I don't know if we'd have it any other way.
May God bless your week.
Diane

Emotional End to Speech Season

The speech season is over for Rachel. The section meet was Friday in McGregor. It was moved to Friday afternoon(we think because the state meet for single A is Friday). Rachel felt like she had done fairly well and was confident she had qualified for the finals. But she didn't. She was very emotional when she called to let us know. But she recovered enough to go and support her good friends from other schools who did make finals. (She ended up 9th, top 8 were in finals).

After receiving scores and judges sheets, we decided that she had bad luck and ended up with three judges who didn't get her creativity. They talked about her professionalism, her great enunciation, her poise and confidence and then ranked her 4th, 3rd and 2nd, with percentages in the low 90s. She hasn't been that low all season. She had also beat every contestant who made the final round at least once this season and several she beat more than once. It was a traumatic experience. But has made her stronger and more determined than ever to do better next year. She is already exploring options for doing a different category or at least playing around early in the season in a variety of categories.

Yesterday she laid low most of the day. This afternoon she was able to get together with Trelawney (good friend from across the river) and they filmed to create a short promotional film for a library contest for teens about why they need the library. I was able to go over to the library with them as they spent 4 happy hours creating, shooting, lighting, directing, acting and lots and lots of laughter.

Now they'll both attempt to edit it in the next two weeks to get it submitted.

Jeff also worked on the next radio production with Dave (Trelawney's dad and sound effects director).

We had a yucky weather day. High of 35 with snow, rain, hail, wind and generally damp conditions. The sewer drains are backing up, the lawns are flooded and the bones are cold and creaky. The weather should warm up (to the 40s) and dry up by the end of the week. I'm ready.

I'd hoped to start seeds in the house this weekend, but discovered I didn't still have potting soil leftover from last year, so we got some today. Hopefully I can get tomatoes, herbs and maybe squashes (I'll need to make newspaper pots too) started this week.

Hope your spring is progressing and you are beginning to see new life. We are still trying to melt our snow and thaw the ground.
Diane

Snow Melt

This winter/spring snow melt has been unique in our experience and as I talk with others, they have also expressed the strangeness of the melt. In our experience, the melt happened fairly quickly and usually was accomplished with a rain storm and warm temperatures.

This spring we just finished eleven days of sunshine with highs in the 20 - 30s each day but overnight lows between 0 - 10 degrees. This meant that we melted during the day but refroze and solidified everything each night. Late last week I began noticing the strangeness of the snow. It was melting very differently. Some places or piles were melting more than others and then we began getting these beautiful lacy sculptures of ice on top of the snow piles. I really began looking at them Monday and Tuesday and took a few pictures to try and capture the look. I didn't do the snow and ice justice, but you can get a brief glimpse of the unique look that we saw all over.

I loved the mountain peak looks to the snow covering lawns. But my favorite was the lace ice that seemed to defy gravity and physics to hang at impossible angles and be connected by molecules of ice.

We saw snow flurries most of the day today and are expecting up to an inch of snow tonight. Tomorrow the weather is expected to become more rainish so I imagine the snow will melt quickly. I am ready. I'm hoping to plant my tomato and herb starts on Saturday so I'm beginning to think gardening and that means I want the snow to go and the ground to thaw. But I have thoroughly enjoyed the melt this spring.