Last Weekend

Stan and I took a little trip to Palm Springs.  Just to find the sun.  We also met up with our friends Pastor Ray and Trudy Leonard who have retired a little south of there. Spent Saturday with them and had a wonderful day catching up. We stayed at WorldMark in Indio.  What a beautiful resort. The flower above was one of the many I saw there. I have no idea what it is. Do you?

While we were out walking on Saturday morning, I saw this sweet dove in one of the flower beds. I love watching them. They are so dainty and delicate.

Stan went out for a walk alone on Friday. I shot this picture from our balcony. He had no idea I was taking it.  This resort has everything a person could want or need.  If you are a golfer, there is an amazing course right next door.  We had lunch on Friday and Saturday at the clubhouse and watched the people out on the course. Kept us entertained for a while.  Neither of us golf, but it does not keep us from enjoying watching others.

On Sunday, after we checked out of the Resort, we took a drive up to Mt. San Jacinto and took the Arial Tram to the top. I have to admit I was just a little bit frightened. The tram starts at an elevation of 2,643 feet and ends at an elevation of 8,516 feet. It was about 65 degrees at the bottom and between 25 and 30 degrees at the top.

It is about 10 minutes to the top 2.5 mile trip. The following pictures are ones I took on the way up.

Palm Springs from the Mountaintop. Unfortunately, my camera was on the wrong setting so I did not get a real clear picture. Still pretty breathtaking.

Looking down from the top. In the car just before we began our descent.

Almost there. I believe this is the tower that we were told was 54 stories high. Doesn't really look it from this picture but I did not get a picture of it from the ground up.

Back at the bottom. This small waterfall is the source of water for the lodges, both at the top and the bottom  of the mountain.  Each cable car is fitted with a water tank which has water pumped into it and carried to the mountain top and stored in a cistern for use up there.

We were really impressed with the airport. All of these pictures were taken after we went through security. Such a nice place to wait for your plane.

Coming home, I was able to get a direct flight from Palm Springs to Seattle.  There were no seats for Stan so he flew to San Francisco and to Seattle on Monday morning. I got the car and drove the 60 miles home to sleep and got up in the morning and went back to Seattle to meet Stan's plane at 9 A.M.  It is a part of the joys of flying as an employee dependent. We just call it part of the adventure.  Next trip? We are thinking Arizona.  We really do love our daughter's job. We threaten her with mayhem if she ever quits.

Today, after Church,

Yvonne came up to me and gave me a great big hug. She whispered in my ear that her daughter Chris is Cancer free. As we hugged and Praised God for His goodness, I had an Epiphany. As we broke our hug, I looked her in the eye and said aloud. "So is mine."  What a beautiful thought. Every day, I shed a tear because she is no longer here, but KRIS IS CANCER FREE!! Thank you Jesus.

What is noteworthy about this picture?

My door is open, the sun is shining, my puppy is enjoying the sun and I am not cold. Today has all the makings of a good day.

I bought it today at Goodwill.

Now I have to decide what I want it to be.
It could be a sugar bowl.
It could hold a spring arrangement of flowers.
I could fill it with some fiberfill and cover the top with some pretty fabric and make a sweet pincushion.
I could just set it up and let it look pretty.
Any other suggestions?

Fox picture I took last summer

                          Near Talkeetna Alaska

                          Wordless Wednesday

Spring

As signs of new life begin to appear around us. I am also celebrating God's promise of a continuation of life.

I celebrate the new life He blessed us just one day after he took our beautiful daughter home to spend eternity with him. Today, Isabella Katherine Rosebrook celebrates her one month birthday.

I marvel at Jayce, the beautiful healthy Great Grandson who in a different family would have been aborted as he was conceived against his sweet mother's will. She put her faith and trust in God and what satan meant for

evil, God turned into Good.

And Trynity my beautiful Great Granddaughter who came into this world fighting for her life. She spent 52 days in the hospital where wondrous miracles were performed to keep her alive.  When the Dr. released her he told my granddaughter, her mommy, that he had not expected her to survive her first week.

God is so good to us. He is the giver of all life here on earth and in Heaven.  As some of our closest family members begin to make their transitions into their eternal life, we here on earth praise Him for the new beginnings he has gifted us with.
BTW, the top baby, Isabella, is the bottom baby's, Trynity, auntie.

A month ago

I measured time in minutes. I held her hand as she slipped into eternity. I sat there looking at her pale tiny hand, watched as her finger tips turned blue, felt her hand become cold, and through many tears, kissed my sweet daughter goodbye. Looking at the clock I could see it had only been minutes since Joseph noted the time of her passing so he could tell the coroner when he arrived. I watched the minutes tick by as we waited. Then it became an hour. My God!! My daughter is lying dead in the other room and the coroner is not here yet. What is taking so long? I am no longer measuring in minutes, I have graduated to hours. At six AM I sat up from trying to sleep on the couch. Joseph was up and getting ready to go to take care of things. It had been 51/2 hours since my Kris had left us. Soon it was one day, then two, then three. I muddled through. I don't remember much about them. I know I shed many many tears. I could not stop. Within the week we had a beautiful service for her. As a testimony of who she was, the church was filled, standing room only with overflow into the halls outside. I heard people say they had counted 470 while others said they had counted 500. Her only request for her service was that the Gospel be shared so clearly that  no one would leave the church wondering if they would go to heaven or not.
One week passed, two, three, four. Each week a tiny bit easier. I quit crying myself to sleep every night. I quit crying at every thought or mention of her name. I did not quit crying completely, but it became a little easier to make it through the day.
Tonight Stan and I were at a dinner with a group of friends that we get together with every month. As we ended our evening, we were praying for healing for some in the group. It tripped some sort of switch, I had a complete and total melt down. I prayed for 18 months for healing, it did not come!
Please, friends, know I do know the truth. I do know of His saving Grace. I do know my beautiful daughter is no longer in pain or suffering. I know all of the platitudes and the answers.  I know how blessed I am to have raised 6 children to adulthood. I know I have enough healthy beautiful grandchildren to populate a small village. But tonight none of that knowledge is enough to fill that huge gaping hole in my heart.
Kris is not the first child we have lost. We also had a son, Jeffery Matthew. He died in my uterus after I took a very nasty fall down a flight of stairs. Ironically, I was carrying Kris in my arms and as I fell, I turned my body to protect her from injury. That action resulted in Jeffery's death. He is always with me too. There is a special place in one's heart for those children you never had the privilege of nursing at your breast or cuddling up close to and drinking in their sweet baby smell. I counted the minutes, the hours, the weeks, the months and eventually the years. I can know it does eventually get easier. I know there will be a day that Kris comes to mind and I will smile at the memory someday..............
Right now, at this very minute. As I type these words, it has been exactly one month since Kris slipped into eternity. I will continue to count the weeks until it has been two months, three, four, five...........
Some day the hole will close up just a little, the tears will not flow at every mention of her name, at the thought of praying for healing for someone else when he did not heal her. Someday.........................
Until then, please bear with me. I have so much to process

Africa calling

Running through my mind lately is a stronger tug to return to Africa than has been there previously.

Diner car. Apparently there is not a walk way between cars. I don't think I would be leaving my car and jumping from car to car to get to the diner car.

Second Class car.

The Train

First Class. Bring your own sheets, bug spray and blankets.

Getting to Dar es Salaam is easy. From Dar to Kigoma though is another story. I do not want to pay $500.00 to fly. I can use the train as my means of getting there for probably around $50.00 and 45 hours. I would not do it alone though. It is dangerous. My friend in Dar said he would accompany me. I am wanting to go give some time at the summer camp he has started in Kigoma. He has started an outreach to the street children of Kigoma. Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ and educating them in standard sanitary and health practices. Also educating them in AIDS.
Other concern is if my legs are strong enough to support me to squat over the hole when nature calls. Guess I better get out and do some walking
Tanzania by Train

Dress a Girl Around the World

The underskirt of the twirl dress

Almost a year ago, I started sewing for an organization called Dress a Girl. It is a based on a concept that every little girl loves pretty dresses. We send them throughout the world, wherever there is need. Even in the United States. Every dress has a label on it with our logo. 

The thinking in this is that with a label, in countries where there is so much trafficking of little girls, the label tells a would be kidnapper or trafficker that this little girl is loved and would be missed. The labels are never hidden. They are always in a conspicuous spot. Lower left hand of the twirl dress as you are looking at it.  I have not put one on the bottom dress yet.

The twirl dress. If you look in the lower left side of  the dress, as you are looking at it , you will see the label.

The original dress began with a pillowslip. It was a very basic design and very easy to make. Unfortunately, I am easily distracted and soon became bored with pillow slip design and started experimenting with the design.

Like I said, what little girl doesn't like to twirl.  If you look closely, you will see the headband I made from left over fabric.

That led me to give up on pillowslips all together. They are still used by many sewers, but I found I was being "stifled" by sticking to them. I had to branch out.

I still have to add pockets and labels to both dresses. I will also add a bow to the neckline of this one.

So, I started doing lots of twirl dresses. Because I think no matter where the little girl is, she will love to twirl. These two dresses are made from a coordinating fabric. I had enough for a twirl dress and a simpler dress variation of the original pillow slip dress pattern.

Winter Glitter

 More Wordless Wednesday here

Blogiversary Give Away

I almost forgot to post this!! Bad Me.
I have a friend.  We "met" through our blogs. She has one of  the most interesting blogs I read. Her name is Henya. She grew up in Russia, moved to the United States as a teen and two years ago, she and her husband and seven children immigrated to Israel. Since moving to Israel they have added one more darling baby girl to their family.  Henya is a voracious knitter. She always haves something on her needles, no matter where she is, she has her knitting.  She even took several projects with her when she delivered her last baby. Even if you are not a knitter, you will truly enjoy reading Henya's "stories". They are stories about her life in Russia or Brooklyn and now Israel. Reading her now is almost like your own private travel guide. Your personal Rick Steves.
All of this to tell you, Henya is having a great give away. You just need to visit her blog to see how you can win. If you are not a knitter, and you win, I will be happy to relieve you of your winnings that you will never be able to use.  If you are not a knitter, and you win, you will still win because you will have found one of the most fun blogs in the sphere.
I am wandering now, so I just need to give you the link and you can go see for yourself: So without further ado, I present to you...............Henya at Chicken Stitches