Good Times in Springerville!

This weekend, Hannah and I went of to the grand land of Springerville, Arizona! Why would we be going to such a small and far away place? ACADEC of course! We had our Round Valley scrimmage and it was a really good indicator as to where we are at with our studies. Hannah, being the hardworking, overachieving genius that she is did fantastic! Here, let me just make you a little list of her achievements.

-1st Place Art
-1st Place Economics
-1st Place Superquiz

-2nd Place Speech

-3rdPlace Language and Literature
-3rd Place Math
~~First Place Overall Honors~~

I, being not quite the amazing person Hannah is, was still able to collect a few awards. I got second place in interview and essay, which was pretty exciting for me because I've never won any awards at these wonderful little competitions.

Our team got third place in Superquiz relay and first place overall. It was a very successful trip, and I think the whole group of 17 had a good time!

The whole team with our first place plaque :)

The nine of us with our 3rd place Superquiz plaque!Anyone who won any awardsThe usual outside on the steps picture afterwards
Overall winners

Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel

Picnic area in the Reserve where we finally had lunch after many hours of walking and exploring. The people in the picture are our tour group,

The pictures in this post are from "The Biblical Landscape Reserve" We spent the whole day Sunday with a guide touring the over 600 acres. The objective of this project is restoration to Biblical times from Scriptural description of the areas. They are restoring to how they were during the different time periods.

Since it was the time of Sukkot that had a large display of a variety of Sukkas. Some met the Biblical definition of a proper Sukka and others did not. There were signs to explain the problem with the incorrect structures. According to Jewish tradition they need to be a certain size or larger at least three sided have to be freestanding, they must be a portable structure and many other requirements.

An actual cistern for water storage. The area was laid out so that all the rain fall would run into the water storage area. This is an actual cistern from the time of Abraham. There are many references to cisterns in the early Scriptures. There are many cisterns in the hills of Israel that are continually being discovered. Some will still hold water.

If you would like to know more about the Neot Kedumin (Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel) check out their web site http://www.n-k.org.il/public/english/index.htm and click on virtual tour. Also go to their newsletter for more pictures and information. It was a very fascinating day with so much information about the land and the scriptures describing the areas we were looking at.

More of Sukkah

There are more pictures in earlier post in October. There are three post for today. And i will get a little more posted later today or tomorrow.

We had two Sukkah's, the larger on the main floor balcony was used for the evening meal. Here it is set up for another excellent meal.
The view was breath taking no matter where we looked.





It is almost dinner time and the tables are all setup in the Sukkah.



Carla and one of the other guest decorating the small sukkah on the lower level.
A birds-eye-view of the lower level sukkah. The ladies had a lot of fun cutting out decorations and attaching them to the walls of the enclosure.

Preparing for Sukkot

Since I am still trying to learn how to put these together you need to look at the pictures from the bottom up. We were In Israel for the Biblical holiday of Sukkot (Lev 23:33-44) This set of pictures show the building and decoration of the booth (sukah). We had our evening meal in the Sukkah every evening. The ladies had a lot of fun with the decorating.

The flight in and guest house

The bus is a major source of transportation in Israel. Here is the local bus stop, on Friday morning some of the people decided to go to the next town to look around. Since there was no return trip they had to tramp (hitchhike) back. They had a great adventure and found that tramping was very easy.



The guest house is a ten bedroom house with two kitchens one for meat, on the main floor; and the other for Dairy on the lower floor. The top floor is a two bedroom suite for the owner. Murry (the owner of the guest house and a Doctor from South Africa) was also a guest on the tour and was just another member of the gang as we traveled.




The open area in the guest house where we spent some of our free time discussing that days adventures and the plans for the next day.



A view from the balcony out over the landscape from Nevey Menachen, the community we were staying in.



The accommodations at the guest house made it feel almost like being home, very family oriented. This is a picture of our room.

View of inside of the plane. The flight in was only eleven hours from Atlanta , the return on the other hand was 14 1/2 hours. I am ready to return,but there has to be a faster way.

We are home

Just wanted to let everyone know we are home. A lot of jet lag. It was 48 hours between getting up in Israel and going to bed in Arizona. The water bed never has looked so good as it did last night. I am very glad that I did not work today, but it is back to the grind tomorrow.

Since I forgot to take the spare battery and charger for the camera I am patiently waiting for others in our group to email me their pictures. At that time I will post pictures of all the places we went.

I will send an email to alert everyone that pictures have been posted.

Long Days

We are very sorry that we are not keeping up with the post. We leave very early and are not back to the house for the evening meal till after seven most nights. By the time we eat and discuss the day it is just too late to try and put sentences together for an accurate post of the day. I promise that once we are back into the states we will post a lot of pictures and narrative to the ten days.

Jeursalem

Monday, October 5th was an exciting day with lots of changes. The plan was a bus ride into Jerusalem to the western wall and other sites in the city.

Yes the bus ride was as planned, until we arrived in Jerusalem. As we approached the city the police informed the bus driver that the road he wanted to use was closed. A call to the Rabbi, who was to meet us in the western part of Jerusalem, did not help as the bus driver was not willing to take the route he suggested. The end result, we disembarked close to the “dung gate” on the Eastern side of Jerusalem. From there we went to the site of the Garden tomb and relaxed in the garden, waiting on our tour guide to come to the Eastern side of the city. This gave us the opportunity to visit the tomb which probably was Yeshua’s tomb.

From there we went into Zedekiah’s cave. Actually a massive underground stone quarry under the city. A huge area, we only went through a small part. Alhe stone was cut out without the use of metal objects or all our modern stone cutting equipment. The Rabbi told us that the stones were cut out by placing pieces of dry wood in the cracks and then soaking the wood. The expanding wood caused the sections to break loose so they could be rolled to the surface to build the buildings.

From there we entered the “dung gate”, this is all on the East side of Jerusalem, and walked through the old city of Jerusalem. Most of this area is inhabited by the Muslims and filled with their shops. The most amazing part of walking in this area was discovering the Jewish Yeshivas right in the heart of the Muslim areas that have been reclaimed for the Jews. We walked the “Via De la Rosa” as a part of the areas we traveled in what was almost like an underground city.

At one point we were in an area that placed us beside a very secluded part of the Western wall, not visited by many and were able to discuss, pray and observe a great deal without anyone around. Just our group of 16 with the Rabbi as our teacher. This was a very special time, to be at the western wall, without all the hectic activity normally associated with the western wall. We also went to the public area of the Western Wall, masses of people wedging in to get to the wall for prayer, to touch, to leave a prayer or just to say they were there. The Rabbi took the men into a study area by the wall where students were studying Torah.

Even though we spent most of the day in heavy Muslim areas at no time did we feel unsafe. Yes, the IDF was everywhere, but they too seemed very relaxed.

Our final adventure of the day was to observe the discoveries of the old City of David and looking across the valley to the Mount of Olives and down the Kidron Valley. It was a very full day.

Today, Sunday, we spent 8 1/2 hours touring and learning in "The Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel" The reserve is a very large park devoted to planting vegetation to match what was there at the time of the Bible. As we moved through the different areas the guide read Scriptures that explained what would have been there and she pointed out the trees that were described in the Biblical verses.

Other areas we discussed were cisterns and their importance in ancient biblical context, Other aspects of the early Hebrew life, the importance of the foliage, water and seasons all were brought out through Scripture verses.
There was just so much information both about the foliage and landscape and Scriptures that I feel as though I had a brain fry from two directions.

Due to technological challenges I will not be posting pictures for a few days. I trust that the problem will be solved with in a day or two. If it cannot be solved I will post pictures once we return to the states.

Tommorrow, Monday we will go to Jerusalem for the day. The areas we will visit depend on traffic and waiting time for the historic areas.

More Pictures

I am still getting an understanding of putting pictures into this system so all the pictures are first. It may get better as the days go on. Jim

Trip to Israel

Where to start! We left Las Vegas 9/30 at around 1:30 Pm for Atlanta, everything was on schedule, a good flight with excellent take off and landing. We made our way through Atlanta terminal finding our departure gate with ease 15 minutes before the plane from Las Vegas was to land. There was a good tail wind and it only took 3 hours for a 4 hour flight.

We found the right gate and just as I looked to see the departure time, it said 11:35, I rechecked the ticket and it said 10:35. I looked again and as I looked at the screen it changed again to 1:00 am. That was the beginning of a long wait for the true departure.

The blessing of the wait was finding two ladies of like mind that we share info with. Carla was cold, very good air conditioning, and borrowed a jacket from one of the ladies until we were ready to board the plane.

At 11:45 we started to go through security and the boarding process. Because of the destination everything was very high security, a complete re screening of everything and a very slow boarding process for over 400 people.

Our landing in Israel was very smooth and the trek through the terminal building to the Passport check area was very easy. They very efficiently processed the people and next stop was finding luggage. Just like Vegas and every other airport, wait and watch for just the right moment to grab, and then discover it was the wrong bag. Throw it back and try again. I was fortunate that I only grabbed the right two bags and off to the taxi.

Taxi, was a great area of caution as the price needed to be determined and also to make sure the driver knew where we were going. The dispatcher, who spoke the best English looked with a puzzled face when Carla told her the name of the town. Then one of the drivers spoke up and said he knew the area. Whit the help of our maps and three calls to the guest house we arrived in very good time at a rate less than we were told to expect. All in all a very good experience, God was really in total control of the whole adventure.

Lunch is cooking as I type and it is a day to just relax and prepare for Shabbot and the beginning of Succot. With the first day of the feast and Shabbot being the same day the volunteer staff is very busy with all the last minute details, building the sukkah.

I am attaching a photo of the inside of the plane and a sunset from the plane along with some of the guest house and the community.

I trust that this finds everyone excited about the high holiday

Seven days

As the days speed by we are getting all the last minute details taken care of for the two weeks we will be in Israel.

At work I am double checking the inventory to make sure they don't run out of anything, the staff is so accustom to Jim taking care of everything even when being off for a week. This time I will not be easily reachable during business hours and I do not want calls while I am sleeping.

At home we are in the middle of putting tile on the walls in the kitchen. The rest will wait until we are gone. We are too much in the road wanting to cook etc. The primary care givers for Helen while we are gone are also the ones doing the tile so it will work well for the final wall to be done after we leave.

Helen has been making great progress with her PT. She went to see Cheryl Webb, Nurse Practitioner Monday and got a very good report. Cheryl was very happy with the progress being only 4 weeks post op. Not walking yet, but I suspect that by the time we return she will be taking steps with the walker.

Had my first lesson on how to down load the camera into the laptop and post pictures on the blog tonight. I will need to practice a lot while I still have Megan to tell me what to do. Of course she is just a phone call a way, even if she is sleeping when I have questions.

Week at a glance

Seventeen more days and counting and we will board a Delta plane for Atlanta and then on to Israel. But back to reality and an update on Helen for those that are interested.

Just when I was all set to give a report of great accomplishments for the week we had a sleep marathon of about 20 hours. Finally at 3:30 this afternoon we were able to get her awake for a can on Ensure and 4 donut holes. She was up in the wheelchair for about an hour and was ready to go back to bed. We were unable to wake her for dinner.

Looking at the week as a complete unit it was a good week she was up more. She is helping with transfers to the wheelchair, bedside commode and back into bed. On Friday the OT had her out in the wheelchair and self propelling on the hard floor down the hall and back. Helen also had dinner with the family most evenings.

Carla found a dress for her at Wal-Mart today that will make a change from the hospital gowns. Dresses will be much easier to put on right now than pants and tops.

Starting Monday Vince, the handyman that did a lot of work for us on the Ridgecrest property will start putting tile on the wall between the counter and cabinets in the kitchen. We have wanted to do something to dress up that space a little and give it more character. I think the tile Carla picked out will do that. Pictures once it is finished.

I trust that everyone will have a great week. WE enjoy reading everyone's blog about all our families.

Happy Eighteenth Birthday Hannah

Hannah turns the big eighteen today. I do not see the excitement that the other sisters have had about eighteen. Hannah is very serious, it is all business, get the projects done, get the homework completed, and stay on task studying for the SAT’s.

She is very diligent filling out college application to places like Notre Dame, Calvin College and the state Universities. She has also been considering which scholarships to apply for and a lot of other college stuff.

Carla and Amarys are making her a cake today. It will be fun for Amarys to help grandma (granny) spread ice cream in and on the cake. It will be a new experience for all as it will be Carla’s first ice cream cake.

We wish Hannah Joy McBride a Happy Happy Eighteenth Birthday!

We see improvement.

Gee, has a week past already. This week has held a variety of activities and moods. We have had a wide awake for a day-and-a-half with conversation from another time period. We have had a full day of sleep and finally a couple of days of pretty good, here in reality.

The RN was here on Monday and then back again on Thursday. For right now she will come twice a week. The Bath aid will be here Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The OT (Occupational Therapist) will be here on Fridays. Next week they may send in a Physical Therapist to help with leg exercises. Each one has a lot of helpful ideas and spend time working with Helen.

She is coming out to dinner in the wheelchair and sitting on the edge of the bed for breakfast and lunch. She is helping quite a bit with transfers. Carla is going to try tomorrow to have her take some steps with the walker. Being at home has given her a much better attitude and we can also control the medication better. That helps the mood and amount of sleep tremendously.

Last night after dinner she sat in the lift chair and watched/listened to Lawrence Welk (her favorite TV program). I teased her that I put my ear plugs in for the hour.

Dinner at The Table

This morning brought a prescription for oxygen and some brilliant ideas. We decided that if we gave Helen Tylenol about a half hour before we started moving her she might not have so much pain. It worked, and though she complained some it was not as loud and persistent. Cheryl Webb, the PA that we normally take Helen to, suggested that we give her the Tylenol every 4 hours for a few days to stay ahead of the pain. It is really helping her attitude.

She ate a good lunch, then when Megan and Hannah came home from school she was awake and they spent a while talking with her. Nicole also came with Delaney and in all she had a great late afternoon. We moved her to the wheelchair and she joined us for dinner at the table and then went back in the TV area with David while we cleaned up the kitchen. She had an excellent dinner, equal to or more than she would normally eat. By the time she was put back into bed she was ready, but had had a good day.

Home health is supposed to be here tomorrow to evaluate the situation and determine what services she needs and qualifies for. I feel we should have a nurse occasionally, a bath aid and pt/ot. Time will tell on that. I was a little disturbed that they did not come in today, and in fact, I had to call them.

Tomorrow will be another day, and I trust it will be as good or better.

Now the Work Begins

After a restful day of study and hosting a Bible study group at our home we began a new chapter in our lives. At about 5:50 we wheeled Helen in and placed her in her hospital bed. Uptown delivered a truck load of equipment and supplies on Friday in preparation for this move from the Hospital to home today.

Unfortunately the energy of going from the hospital bed to wheelchair to the car; the ride home and back into the wheelchair and then into the bed was all Helen had. She slept through almost the complete the move, barely waking enough to help a little. She has been asleep since she was put into bed, though we have tried to wake her every half hour. It would have been nicer for David if she knew she was home with him.

Tomorrow will be a new day and we are trusting that she will be a wake and alert and aware of where she is in the morning.

Early in the week Home Health should be in to do an evaluation and then decide exactly what is needed. They have ordered a bathing aid and OT/PT, but I feel we will also need a nurse at least once a week.

As we progress through the challenges I will keep everyone posted on the blog.

Only 32 days and we leave for Israel

Ring Ring!

So last night, I had a very traumatizing experience. I was at Oak Street Haven and I was ready to go. I called my dad's cell phone but there was no answer. Then I called our house phone. No answer. Then mom's cell phone. No answer. Dads again. Moms again. House again. FREAK OUT! I was pretty angry with them for not answering and then they showed up! So I got in the car and after telling them exactly how I felt about it, I got over it. But then, today, I got inspired and wrote a poem about it :)

When Parents Don't Answer Their Cell Phones
Ring, ring, ring, such an empty, disturbing sound
"You have reached my voice mail, which means I am not around"
Where are you mom? Where are you dad?
This makes me worried, upset and mad
If you leave the house, please take your phone
For you're supposed to use it when you're not at home
If you do not answer, I may start to stress
Why has your answer button been left unpressed?
Has something bad happened to you?
If you are dead, what will I do?
Wait, there's your car! And there you sit!
Completely oblivious to my worried fit!
You heard it ring, but didn't reach it in time?
Guess what! I called a second time!
Just take your phone out and call me back!
This will prevent my heart attack.
Oh mother, oh father, I'm glad all is well
But next time, please, just answer your cell!

:)

It is in the works

Carla had toe surgery today. An ingrown toenail made a real mess. She is feeling great tonight. I trust that she will be doing as good tomorrow.

I had a meeting yesterday afternoon with the OT/PT for Helen and found out that the dementia is hampering any real progress for a walking recovery in the near future. Since Medicare required a certain level of progress within the first ten days there is not an option for her to stay any longer. I had another meeting with the OT this morning and scheduled home care training for Carla for Friday morning. It looks like we will be bring Helen home on Saturday late afternoon.

Hannah, Megan and David went to the hospital around 4:30 pm yesterday and Helen slept the whole time they were there, about 45 minutes. Sarah, Carla and David went to day about 10:30 am and they could not wake her up enough to talker to her. I looked in while was there early this AM and in the afternoon when I was confirming all the needed equipment orders and both times she was sleeping pretty sound. The nurses told me they were having to feed her again and that when they tried to do therapy she would go to sleep.

We are trusting that when she is home and in a familiar environment with family around all the time she will be more cooperative. We will have home health coming in at different times during the week. Most likely an RN weekly and an aid three times a week to help with bathing.

Frank is planning to come tomorrow (Thursday) for a short visit. I think that will be good. Trusting that his voice may trigger a little more responsiveness. It will also be good for David to see him as well.

Carla and my 32nd anniversary is Friday,so we will celebrate while Frank is here. If we can get reservation we want to go to Mattina's, an Italian restaurant in downtown (old town) Kingman. A lot has transpired in the last year.

We are progressing

Helen's attitude is very good, she is very cooperative, she is eating good, we see progress.

The posting is slow for the past few days because I have been taking "non-Drowsy" Clariton and it muddles the mind. I would rather sleep than function. I took just a single Benidril last night and the mind is still not clear. Guess antihistamines are not in the drug regiment to get rid of what ever I have.

Nicole had dinner with Helen last night, that made her happy. She enjoys seeing family members especially at meal time.

Hopefully I will be able to give a better update tonight.

Lasagna and green beans

And desert was chocolate cake. You guessed it! That was Helen's dinner tonight. We went to visit during her evening meal and sat with her to encourage her to eat. She had eaten 80% of breakfast and 40% of lunch. I would guess about 60% of dinner and the portion was large.

Today they dressed her and she had therapy three times. She had a much better day and was more co-operative. I watched when they transferred her to the wheelchair for dinner and she did help a little. There was some complaint of pain, not much and it did not last. She is only on Tylenol standard strength so that is very good.

Yesterday was a very bad day. No cooperation and slept most of the day. She was very with it and made it plain she did not like all they (the nurses and PT) were doing and went to sleep to keep from doing what they wanted, including eating breakfast and lunch. Dinner she ate about 80%. The nurses aid said she was hungry.

There is a re-evaluation of her status on Monday to re-determine if rehab is the right palace for her. AS a family we will be working on a plan B and ways that each member can help to take some of the stress off of me.

We had a few minutes of rain today and it was only into the low 90"s. A very nice day.

Acute Rehab Here we Come

Since Wednesday night is grocery shopping night I did not go to the Hospital to visit.

Carla and David went in the afternoon. They were getting ready to do the Rehab evaluation and while they were there and had said they would call us to discuss the options if she was not accepted. We had not heard anything later in the day

This morning when we went to the old room the bed was empty. The nurses desk was the next stop and they excitedly told us that she was in acute rehab room 385. This is where they will help her rebuild her strength and learn to walk again. Her comment was that she felt that she was in a prize fight and they were shoving her. I am sure we will hear about all kinds of torture as they work with her. Helen is not used to being told she has to do something and pressing for endurance.

Will post more as time progresses. We are very thankful that she was accepted.

I Can See Clearly Now (almost)

Today was a good day. When we walked in Helen was setting in a chair, and was easy to awaken. Her mind was much clearer tonight the majority of the conversation was current about real people. She reverted to the past and some dreams a little, but much more aware of who we were. We talked for about 45 minutes before she started nodding off for a nap. The timing was good because the nurses arrived to move her back to the bed from setting up in the chair.

She remembered Hannah visiting the night before last and Nicole and David visiting last night, also ask about Sarah and Frank.

PT had her up taking a few steps. They also moved her from the bed to a chair several times. She told the nurse they were torturing her when they moved her. The nurses said she is very cooperative and a great pill taker. That makes their job. easier

The evaluation for Acute Rehab began today. It will be good if they accept her. Medicare allows three weeks of rehab. It will take a lot of work to rebuild her strength so she can stand alone and learn to walk again.

The Mind Clears a Little

There was some improvement today, but nothing massive.

Carla and I visited early this morning. Helen was much more with us.

This evening Nicole visited with Helen before we arrived and found her very much aware of what was happening. She remembered Hannah visiting last night and asked about the grand kids and other family members.

PT was not able to do all the planned activities as Helen's HH screen was not within the correct parameters. They have given her two units of blood hoping that will bring the hemoglobin level up to the acceptable levels. They are also giving breathing treatments to help keep the lungs clear.

The nurses are very good working with her to get food and liquid into her. Helen does not like fluid so that has always been a challenge.

David is doing so so, very lonely and not sure what to say to her when visiting. Since he doesn't say much to us either it is really hard to know what is going on in his mind. When she was very confused it was obvious he did not understand at all what was going on, even when we tried to explain.

We are trusting each day to be an improvement. We trust she will be able to move into the rehab program.

Adventures of the Mind

Where do I begin? The stories are fascinating, beyond real, but not hallucinating. The nurses tell me that Helen was awake all night talking with David, some in New York but mostly in Boston. By the time we got there at 9 am she was sound asleep for the morning.

This afternoon She had great conversation, but we were not there to participate. By 5 PM when we arrived at the hospital she was sleeping. After several attempts we aroused Helen and most likely she knew we were there as she told us about the adventures of the afternoon. The Parkinson medication is capable of causing some very vivid dreams, thus most likely the source of her conversation topic. Dr. Dawn also told Carla that the vivid dreams and adventures are a part of hip fractures. For brief moments we could tell she was with us, though she is not sure where she is. When we ask her where she was we would never get a straight answer.

Carla tried to get her to eat some of her dinner, without success. Not even the cake. But when the nurse came in with some medication she took it just fine. They tell us she is a good pill taker.

Tomorrow Physical Therapy will be in to begin getting her up and walking some. Tuesday or Wednesday they will evaluate for acute rehab. Because of the Parkinson and dementia she may not be a candidate for the rehab program. We are trusting that she can go into the rehab program as the other choices are coming home or a facility (we do not consider that a choice)

Life right now is one day at a time.

It will be good to go to Israel in October for two weeks, we are almost ready to start counting the days till we leave. I think it is 46 now, we won't start counting until it is 30.

Recovery Here We Come

Today was the day for surgery. Helen was out after three incisions by 1 PM and on her way to recovery.

The pain medication she has been on has strange side effects, therefore she had a sleepless night with some very vivid flash backs of her past years. This morning before surgery she was still very confused and wondered when we were going to take her to her appointment for surgery at the hospital. Having experienced many of these same things with mother when she had surgery and was on morphine I was not surprised by her experiences.

Tonight Helen was still coming out of the anesthesia and a little confused, but appeared to be doing very well for being 6 hours post surgery.

The plans for tomorrow are for her to be up and doing a little walking. Most likely not ready for a Marathon yet.

What will happen next

Yesterday was a really good day for Carla's Mother Helen. She was awake more that normal, all the grand kids were here and she had a great time with them.

This morning did not start out as good. She did not really want to wake up and get the day started, so everything ran a little late. Thankfully Megan was home and able to take care of Dave and Helen's breakfast. She is really good about helping out.

About 12:15 Megan called me at work requesting that I come home, grandma had fallen and need help to get up. In the process of getting her up I realized that the right leg would not bear weight, I knew then that we had a problem. David got a chair for me to put her in. The next step was a call to 911 and a trip to the hospital for evaluation of the situation.

End result is a broken hip. Not a real bad break, but at 87 any break is a bad break. There are some pre-surgery test in the morning then if all the test are ok the repair surgery will be done, most likely tomorrow.

I will try to keep the post current on how she is doing.

Ages 4 and Up

It's official. There is nothing more exciting than playing with something that is for ages 4 and up. What is this magnificent toy that will probably keep me busy for hours? The Twirl O Paint. I remember having one when i was little, but we always used marker. Then, as the years went on, since it had been around already for years and years, it started acting up, and as all things eventually do, it died. So my life has been Twirl O Paint free until tonight!Dad bought a new one! Well not new. It is super old, but he did something with the wires and baking soda that made it work! And it was brought to my attention that it isn't called the Twirt O Marker. So I pulled out our big bucket of paint and got busy. It was the most exciting thing of my life. Even more exciting than when my soup turned to pudding when we made dessert (read older post)

I was enthralled, and started perfecting my pictures. I'm basically positive by midnight I will be pro. Hannah unfortunately did not join the fun, but merely gave me a "you really need to start acting your age" look when I proudly showed her my first picture. I admit, it is a bit five year oldish, but it is sooooo worth it!

Freeze Frame!


My first Creation
The second act of genius
The final, and my own personal favorite

Now, I need to cut more paper, find more paint, and have some more fun! Then, I will have a jolly good time cleaning up the huge mess I am sure to make!

Benefit Concert

Friday, July 24, Oak Street Haven will be hosting a benefit concert for the Allison family. There is no admission, but donations are of course gratefully accepted. All donations will go to the family. There will be a wide array of vocalists, and it will probably last from about 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. Come and enjoy some music out in the wonderful summer air!

Angel food Shepherd

"Will you seperate half the angel food cake cubes?"

"Oh sure. I would LOVE to."
"Be careful."
"Be careful? Did you just tell me to be careful with the angel food cake cubes? Like I'm some kind of monster? Some, some angel food cake hurter?" (Said 'hurter' as 'herder') "Haha. Herder. Haha. I'M A SHEPHERD!" Uncontrollable giggles.
"What?"
"I went from angel food cake to a shepherd!"
"Wow."
I believe I may have problems...


ANYWAYS...
Hannah decided to make a fancy dessert. We bought ingredients for it a very long time ago. Unfortunately, we ate the yummy ingredients already, so we had to buy more. So we were making this cool angel food cake berry whip cream pudding orange juice almond extract thing, that i'm sure has a simplier name that i am currently not aware of. It was of course messy business.

First, I was incredibly frustrated with the frozen berries that were supposed to be thawed out. Wait no. FIRST I was frustrated with the sister who forgot her credit card at the store. Anyways, then came the frozen berries.

It basically took FOREVER to thaw them out (using the microwave). Then, hannah let me make pudding!
I have never made pudding before. It was a very exciting experience! Did you know that pudding starts all liquidy and gross and then after you stir it for two minutes and your carpeltunnel wrist is screaming at you, it turns into a pudding-ish consistency? It was pretty mind boggling to me in that moment. Pudding will forever be magic in my mind.


Speaking of magic, I'm very upset that I never bought tickets for Harry Potter, so I will have to wait forever to see it. : /

Back to angel food cake. Hannah started putting it all together, and while she did this I went over to the whip cream, and decided to swipe some. The closest thing to me was the measuring spoons, so I grabbed it and used the one on top to scoop some up. It didn't occur to me that the measuring spoon on top was probably the one Hannah used. Here's a little tip - almond extract is not very tasty. I immediatly reacted to the gross taste in my mouth, and Hannah of course laughed at me for my stupidity.

Here is the "going into the fridge before the whip cream got put on it" picture


So, five hours later, the family sat down and was ready to eat the dessert. I took it out of the fridge, threw a BUNCH more whip cream on it (who doesn't love whip cream?) and served it. It wasn't the prettiest presentation, but it sure was yummy :) Everyone consoled themselves with the fact that everything in it was very low calorie as they went up for seconds. Silly me, all the "in the making of" pictures, i forgot to take the finished product picture with all the whip cream. But here is what was left after the family got it

Thanks for making us such a delicious dessert Hannah!