Exquisite Grand Opening

I've had a delightful week watching my first orchid bloom open up. This is my first orchid and I've had it for over two years. When I first got it from the store in full bloom, the blooms lasted about 5 months. For the past two years I have been watching, waiting and caring. And it has paid off.

Nature's Bouquet

Photo slideshow generated with Smilebox

Enjoy some of my photos from my adventure to Sunrise at Mt. Rainier. Thanks to Loretta and Chris for letting me tag along. It was a wonderful day.

There is Sunshine in my Soul Today

Today I taught a lesson at church. The lesson was from a General Conference talk by Elder Richard G. Scott from April 1996. The title of his talk is Finding Joy in Life.

I wanted to share a few highlights from his talk. To read it in it's entirety click here.

Sadness, disappointment, and severe challenges are events in life, not life itself.

We are here on earth for a divine purpose. It is not to be endlessly entertained or to be constantly in full pursuit of pleasure. We are here to be tried, to prove ourselves so that we can receive the additional blessings God has for us. The tempering effect of patience is required.

We are one of the noblest of God's creations. His intent is that our lives be gloriously beautiful regardless of our circumstances. As we are grateful and obedient, we can become all the God intends us to be.

If we question everything we are asked to do, or dig in our heels at every unpleasant challenge, we make it harder for the Lord to bless us.

Find the compensatory blessing in your life when, in the wisdom of the Lord, He deprives you of something you very much want.

Attempt to be creative for the joy it brings. Being creative will help you enjoy life. It engenders a spirit of gratitude. It develops latent talent, sharpens your capacity to reason, to act, and to find purpose in life. It dispels loneliness and heartache. It gives a renewal, a spark of enthusiasm, and zest for life.

Learn from aspiring individuals who have made peace with their challenges and live with joy amid adversity.

No matter how difficult something you or a loved one faces, it should not take over your life and be the center of all your interest.

Challenges are growth experiences, temporary scenes to be played out in the background of a pleasant life.

First Flight

Yesterday I "flew" in a wind tunnel. It was one of the coolest things I've ever done. I was in a group of 10. First we sat and watched a training video, and then we learned the body position and hand signals for the instructor to communicate with us.

We then put on our flight suits with the attached straps going under our feet then tennis shoes on. Ear plugs, goggles and a helmet completed the outfit.

Once we were trained and suited up, we sat on the bench and waited our turn. One at a time we took our turn. We stood in the small door way in our ready position and then just flew into the wind tunnel. The instructor then took hold of us and assisted as we "flew" around.

The flight suits actually have handles on your shoulders and on the sides so the instructor can grab you and keep you in place. You basically lay out like Superman, hands and feet out, knees slightly bent.

When flying the wind is comforting, you bounce alittle and the instructor tries to keep you in proper form to move around. I could never actually see the instructor except for his hand signals in front of my face or when his hand would move my hand out to extend my arm.

You are only in the tunnel for 60 seconds. Then we sat and watched the others fly and then we got a second turn.

At the end the instructor went into the tunnel and soared right up to the top. Up and down a few times showing his skill.

It was a great experience and I will fly again. I want to learn to control the wind and my body as it's in motion in the wind.

I Met Her Today

You know, that woman at the gym. The one that has to pick the treadmill right next to yours. I have about 5 minutes left of reading enjoyment before I have to head home. And she starts talking to me.

She commented on my very cool book holder that keeps the pages flat and then asked me what I was reading. Sleeping Beauty Proposal (as recommended by my sister). I was anxious to get in as much reading time as I could but I wanted to be polite.

Then she asked if I had read The Help (recommended by my daughter), which I have. Then we talked about the movie, which neither of us had seen yet. Then she asked if I had read Water for Elephants (recommended by my daughter), which I have. This again was followed by the discussion of the movie which we had both seen.

And then I had to politely close up my book and mumble to her something about it was time for me to go. It really was. I had walked on the treadmill for 40 minutes and needed to get on with the rest of my day.

Now I have to wait to see what happens to Genie and Nick in my book.

It's not that I don't love talking to people, I really do. It's just that I find it odd that someone would start talking to me when I am not only reading a book, but also wearing a headset!

I'm on a vacation day today so I was able to sleep in and go to the gym a little later than my normal time - maybe that explains it.

Top 10

Top 10 ways you know your 10 year old grand daughter is visiting:

10 - You get to introduce her to new candies (Necco wafers)
9 - You get to eat ice cream cones before dinner
8 - You have your first visit to abercrombie kids store
7 - You get to watch a movie (Freaky Friday) on Friday night instead of WW Smackdown
6 - You have a really good reason to visit the Gourmet Popcorn store and sample wierd flavors
5 - It is reinforced that you can find anything on the internet, who knew there was a Sobe World?
4 - You get to make waffles with Cool Whip and berries for Saturday morning breakfast
3 - You have a buddy to take grocery shopping
2 - You laugh more
and the # 1 thing is - watching Grandpa act like a 10 year old!

Sat-ur-day

This picture is how my Saturday ended.Here is how the rest of the day went:

cleaned house

ate breakfast (Voodoo choco donut and a bowl of fruit) while watching The Haven (show on SyFy I just discovered Friday night)

Saturday Market for berries (and cotton candy)

Carpinito's for Yakima Valley corn on the cob

Homemade peach jam

Homemade blackberry jam

The evening spent in Mukilteo at a friend's 10th wedding anniversary/vow renewal party

and there was dancing, and I danced.

My New Best Friend

Yes, my new friend may be cold and made of metal and eats thread, and I do have to pay money to spend time with it, but it was worth every penny and I'll do it again.

Other titles for this post are:

My Very First Time

Quilting Makes Me Happy

I'm Sew Into This

If I had a bucket list I suppose this would be one of the items on my list and I can now cross it off as having done it.

All those years of classes at the Expo, all those expensive spools of thread, it has finally all come together for me.

We have a new quilt shop in downtown Kent called Running Stitch Fabrics. They have a long arm quilting machine. A couple of weeks ago I took the four hour class to learn how to use it.

Last Saturday I had signed up to rent the machine for 4 hours. The quilt top is one that my sister helped me make years ago. It is intended for the futon in the spare bedroom. Since it is for myself I figured it would be a good practice quilt.

I prepped the backing the night before. Saturday morning I was at the shop bright and early before she even opened. Alice helped me set the quilt up on the frame and got the machine going. For the first little bit I had some problems with my thread breaking. A call to the teacher fixed that and I was off and quilting.

I did a large stipple on the borders, a squiggly line with hearts in the sashing and a design inside each block. All in all I was there for 5 hours.

It was tons of fun and I had lots of comments and questions from many of the store's customers. It was great to see the store busy on a Saturday.

Now I am working on attaching the binding and then the quilt will be finished. I have the machine reserved in a few more weeks. I figure having a deadline will get me to finish up a couple of quilt tops so they'll be ready to quilt.

I'm hooked.

Clean Up in Aisle One

Why is it that when you notice a mess in the store and you go report it that you feel like the employees are pretty sure you made the mess? When you didn't. Really I didn't.

I was coming up an aisle and could see a yellow puddle on the floor, that should have been my first warning. Odor just kicking in, second warning. Curious I went around the corner and there was a case of beer turned upside down.

Evidently someone knocked it over, broke some glass inside and walked away. How could you not know that you did that?

That leaves me walking past it and noticing it and reporting it to an employee. I did my best not to say "and I didn't do it".

Because I really didn't do it.

But I did have this happen to me one time. Maybe I do understand.

Progress - One Week Later

Here is it a week later. I'm very happy to report that it's still growing. I've been handling it very carefully.

A Delicate Orchidstration

It was Valentine's Day February 2009. Instead of cut flowers I suggested to my husband that I would like an orchid plant. I've never had one before. We bought this orchid and the blooms stayed on it until June or July that same year.

For the last two years I have faithfully watered it once a week. I kept it in a north window in my home office. It grew new roots and new leaves.

About 2 weeks ago it started sprouting a spike. I had to wait to see if it was going to be a root or a real spike for blooms.

Turns out it's highly possible that it will bloom sometime this summer.

I am very excited about it.

This orchid is called a Phalaenopsis (fayl-eh-NOP-sis).

Wish me luck!