Heavy Metal

This past Sunday, Hubby and I drove up to Valley Forge National Park to listen to a concert of sorts.  A friend from work had told me that his friend, Doug Gefvert was a Carillonneur and played at the Washington Chapel there on Sunday afternoons.  A Carillon is a set of bells. There were at least 50! It was a fascinating experience! We climbed this teeny tiny spiral staircase up the bell tower to

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the small room that houses the ‘piano looking’ instrument used to actually play the bells.  It consists of wooden levers, which are connected by cables directly to the bell clappers.  Similar to a piano, the harder the lever is depressed, the sharper the note will sound.  Some of the larger bells require more force to strike, and are linked to foot pedals. I took a short video of him playing Amazing Grace.  He is very talented! This is his profession, and he skillfully answered all of our questions.

  

The Washington Memorial Chapel that houses the bells is a tribute to George Washington, as seen in all the carvings of soldiers.  The grounds are beautiful as well and hopefully we can go back after the leaves start to change.  It will be magnificent. This  was a great learning experience, and we had so much fun! 

 

 

In October they are playing the original silent b/w version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame inside the chapel, and they have hired an organist to play along with the movie.. and there will be bells involved as well.  How incredibly cool is that going to be! 

Pictures to make you chuckle

Swim day at Grandpa's house.

Grinning with mouth full of pear

Giving big brother 'the look'.

Flying Leap

Taking a hike

My Sister's Wedding

I finally got the pictures done from Juliana's wedding! It was a beautiful day, the bride was radiant, and everything turned out great! You can see them at http://flickr.com/photos/hotrodhanna/ . Click on the albums on the right side to view them.

Tea Parties and Tupperware

I had a Tupperware Party at our house. It was a Tea Party theme. Turned out very cute, and it sounds like everyone had fun! Many thanks to all who came!

The house is still on the market, several nibbles but no bites so far. We are still praying about it, if the Lord wants it to sell, it will!

Funny Sign

I found it quite funny that the important qualification for this position was being able to sell shoes to women, not selling women's shoes. hahaha.

Exhaustion

This has been an insanely busy few weeks. We have been house shopping, found a floor plan we love, signed with a builder, consulted an attorney, interviewed realtors, put our house on the market, got it ready to show... all the while working overtime to pay for all this, answering phones and scheduling for Jim and Brian's carpet cleaning business and getting ready for Juliana's shower. Ug. I leave Monday morning for CA and I will be gone for 2 1/2 weeks. It all sounds pretty straight forward, but it has been incredibly stressful for both of us. We keep praying that if this isn't something we are supposed to do that the Lord would show us, and so far there are no major roadblocks, so we'll wait and see. The builder won't start building until we sell our condo, and the contract gives us two months to do so. If our house doesn't sell in time, we'll just stay put, no harm done, we get all our money back. So we are praying about it and we'll just wait on the Lord. Again, easier said than done. I am so tired I am ready to collapse and I haven't packed a thing yet. Laundry is still piled high. I am looking forward to getting away for a while, spending time with family and being their for Juliana's wedding, but I will still be worrying over the house situation in the back of my mind. I can't help it, I worry about everything. Intellectually I know the Lord will work everything out, but we still try to be cautious and not put ourselves in a precarious position. Prayers are greatly appreciated!

All done!

I finally finished the laundry room! I made the shelves myself : )

Brunch with the Girls

I was in the mood for crepes, and aside from IHOP, there aren't any spectacular places where we can get crepes for breakfast. So, I made them! Fresh strawberries, cantalope, Jersey blueberries, whip cream, chocolate sauce... they were awesome! Lily even liked them!

Thank You!

Many thanks to ComfortablyCrazy for making a custom apron for my neice! She loves it! She was helping Grandma 'Cinna' in the kitchen. Apparently she was walking around in just the apron and undies for most of the day, she was wearing all she wanted to wear! Visit her Etsy site HERE for other aprons, or contact her if you have something special in mind! Thanks again H!

Beach Day

Saturday was beach day, or as they say here, we went to the "shore". The kids looked like they had a great time, Hubby got to play some volleyball, and I brought my camera! We have dunes and boats at the shore! I miss seeing the piers of CA, there is a pier in Atlantic City with shops on it, but its not the same as having one every 2 miles or so that you can walk on, fish off of, etc. It was a beautiful day, 80's and humid as usual though. And they have bitting FLIES here!! I hadn't encountered them before, but Yikes! They are huge and they hurt when they bite!! Hubby said they are called green-heads. Me no like. All in all, a good day though. I got to play with the black&white setting on my camera. Here are a few of my pictures! I am really frustrated with slide.com, I can't get some of the pictures to rotate. Grrr.
My niece refused to smile most of the time, but she is very photogenic if you are patient... and yes, that is a very sandy sandwich she is holding. It lasted a painfully long time, and she ended up eating the whole thing. Ew.

Happy Birthday Darrah!

Brian, Erika and I treated Darrah to a spa day for her birthday! Looked like she enjoyed her alone time, and the pampering! We brought her tea sandwiches and champagne during her pedicure. I discovered frozen grapes! Awesome idea, they are like mini popsicles, and they make champagne keep bubbling! Sure to spice up any event.

Yellow

I have been feeling a little out of control lately, so I decided to tackle a project: redecorating the laundry room... by myself. It was either that, or get my hair cut. No one goes in the laundry room but me, so I figured there would be no harm in giving it a whoorl. I found a yellow that I really liked on the paint chip, but now that its on the wall I'm a little undecided. It seems a bit more in-your-face than I intended. I was thinking more antique-y. Too late now! I was however, quite impressed with myself! It only took about 3 hours to paint the whole thing! I found some mahogany stain and I am going to try to make some shelves next. I have some antique tin signs that I want to hang up also. I read that if you are painting a small space that you should paint the ceiling too, so that there isn't an abrupt starting/stoping line at the ceiling... making the room appear smaller. I pondered this, and decided to try it. I think they are right! I will post more pictures as the project progresses.

Sweet Crunchie Goodness

My brother in law Scott picked up some Crunchie bars for me when he was in the London airport! I am so excited! These are my favorite candy bars of all time. They are made by Cadbury and are really hard to find! I used to stock up on them when we would go visit my Aunt Ruth in Canada, and I ran across them at a specialty store in LA. Needless to say, when I heard he was passing through England, I made a plea for chocolate! Yea, success! They don't 'expire' until Jan '09 so I am going to make them last as long as I can, although I may finish them off before too long.

Shady Maple

Today I went to Lancaster with my In-Laws, and Lisa and the kids. We met Kathy there who had brought along Ray and Ruth Land. They hadn't seen Cole before, and it was fun to see them interacting with their great-grandchildren!

We passed these kids and their pony on the way home. Looks like the boy in the hat is the 'brake'. I love the flag too.

Wildlife

My kitten is growing so fast! And I saw a few of these birds as I was driving home today. They are a really beautiful blue.

The kids are here!

Lisa and the kids are visiting from Florida! They are growing so fast, and are so much fun! The newest member of the family is exceptionally smiley. He is so cheerful and has a contagious smile!

My New Toy

I discovered that we have a T-fal/Krups outlet here! Yea! They have lots of pots, pans, cookie sheets, coffee makers, indoor grills etc, seconds and discounts galor. I have a weakness for kitchen utensils and gadgets, and shoes. Hubby and I have been getting increasingly frustrated with our toaster oven, and I found a discounted refurbished one! It's really cool. The door opens all the way, and easily too! It has 2 removable racks, and a broiler pan. It can toast, defrost, broil, and bake. I did chicken in it tonight! It is fantastic. I can cook chicken at 350 for 30 mins and it only takes 30 minutes! You don't have to wait for it to preheat, and you don't heat up the whole kitchen with the big oven. It has a timer too, so when the timer goes off, it shuts off! How cool is that? I know that I can do that with my big oven, but I like the fact that this uses less energy and doesn't heat up the entire kitchen. Woohoo. :)

Sunday School Picnic

This is a week late, but I figured I would slip it in here. Here are some of the darling faces of Dorothy. It was really hot and humid that day.

And this very special lady
had a BIRTHDAY today!

Soccer Season

It's that time of year again. Hubby is playing outdoor soccer with several of the guys from Superior Walls, and meeting. (For those of you back home in CA, yes, we play soccer indoors here during the winter.) Hubby is on the right, Erika's hubby is on the left. Friday nights are now soccer nights, I grab the lawn chair and watch with the other wives as our men work out their fidgets and frustrations from the week. I must admit, my man looks pretty handsome out there! He really loves to play, but sadly we are both feeling the effects of "swift-footed Time". This little girl is the daughter of one of Hubby's soccer friends. I have discovered that I love taking pictures of kids! They are so expressive, and they do the funniest things!