Garden Show Tradition

I like to visit the garden show (Northwest Flower and Garden Show) in February. It cheers up my winter weary soul. It gets me excited about Spring and gardening. I've been going to the Garden Show since 2011 when I went with my youngest son. I missed a year or two. I like to drive even though parking is expensive (20 dollars for 9 am until 3 pm). One year I took the bus and I was holding onto a large sign as well as other purchases and that was nerve wracking!

The highlight of the show for me this year was the mannequins covered in fresh flowers. Each one was designed by a local florist. You could vote on your favourite.

remember to click on the photos to enlarge

I like this mannequin covered in money plants.

Here are some close ups.

One thing that was disappointing was the reduced size of the vintage market. They also didn't have a sign so at first I thought there were NO vintage vendors. I felt quite sad and disappointed. I did eventually find about 6 booths. In previous years, that area has been the highlight for me.

My favourite display garden was done by Christiansons Nursery near Mount Vernon. I don't know how they managed to "build" a house in 72 hours!

I love the pansies surrounding the stone steps.

One of the other display gardens featured two canoes filled with plants.

I told my hubby that if his canoe doesn't get used this coming summer, I might garden inside it!

Here is a photo of my purchases.

I bought a daphne plant which is super fragrant. I also bought two dahlias bulbs, a garden hat, a floral arranger, some shells, and a vintage book for display.

When I go to the garden show, I end up feeling younger! The average age of attendees is probably 65 or more.




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Plenty of Sunshine

This year both boys had the entire week off from school for Mid Winter Break. This was a first for us. Having the whole week off allowed us to leave home a bit later in the week, after Presidents Day.

We stayed two nights at Suncadia Resort. I looked up when we first went to Suncadia and that was 2014, during Spring Break. If you'd like to go down memory lane, here is a link.

Suncadia was pretty strict about check in time. It is 4 pm and we were hoping for a bit earlier. Again we were frustrated by our inability to make tea in our room. We also had neither a microwave nor a fridge in our room. We thought that was strange since we've stayed in cheap motel rooms that had both.

They had various winter break activities for kids. One was tie dying so I tie dyed a Suncadia sweatshirt. I paid for a t shirt (cheaper) but they didn't have a lot of adult sizes since most "customers" were kids. I got a free upgrade to a sweatshirt. It had to soak for a few days and after rinsing, it is now drying in my bathroom.

We had dinner the first night in Cle Elum, the town nearby, in hopes of saving some money. We ate in a diner type place (called Country Cottage) that was pretty quiet.

One of my goals for the time away was lots of unplugged time, aka, not spent on screens. J had to keep up with work, though. C did some homework and A did a bit of reading.

We had a late lunch at the Stovehouse restaurant. C and I both had butternut squash soup. I liked it, he did not. We played shuffleboard for quite a while. It is a lot like curling. I enjoyed it. I guess I'm ready for the old folks' home. Just kidding!

Here are the men playing fuseball.

On Thursday, A's main goal was filming a video of throwing an Aerobie (a frisbee with a hole in the middle) from the top of the coal hill and someone catching it at the bottom. That required several trips up and down the hill.

While J and the boys worked on this, I had a pot of tea (inside) and read a book. The boys weren't interested in the pool or waterslides. Both looked very busy when we looked in on them.

We played ping pong and the cornhole game (an example is pictured below)

in the games room while we waited for our late dinner reservation of 745. I had a delicious salmon with a side of brocollini and the men had individual pizzas.

Friday morning we packed up and then A and I went cross country skiing for an hour. We did this once before in 2017.

A is smiling!

I think if I ever do it again, I would like some lessons. I don't know how to stop without falling down!
Cross country skiing is quite a work out. My hips are pretty sore today.

Some of A's classmates travelled to visit colleges during Mid Winter break. I would've liked to do that if I had planned farther in advance. I'm thankful for all the sunshine we had during our break, both at home and at Suncadia.



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A College Visit for My Son

This scarf was a gift given out to my son.

This account was written by my hubby.

I drove A up to Trinity Western University in Langley, BC, late Thursday evening for the TWU Preview Weekend. The border crossing had no wait. We stayed at a hotel. By getting there the night before we were able to arrive easily for the 8:30AM breakfast Friday morning. Once we got to the right place, everything was well organized. We were seated at a table labelled "Washington". One of the other families was from Ferndale but the second family to arrive was from the same school as A. The girl was a senior he knew from the cross-country team. Her family got up at 4:30 that morning and drove straight up.

The morning schedule included breakfast, and then split the parents from the students for some information sessions. The lunch was good because you sat at a table based on your planned major and there were professors from those departments. We weren't entirely sure what major to choose but I helped A find "Arts, Media, and Culture" which turned out to be perfect. There was a female professor of non-fiction writing and then a male professor who was both a film critic and an author of "Of Games and God" who had helped get TWU's Game Design major off the ground. The profs did a great job engaging the students over lunch. One boy from Santa Fe, New Mexico, wanted to start his own business in the area of video creation. The only girl at the table was interested in journalism.

After lunch we went to the academic departments of greatest interest, which for us meant going to the SAMC department and learning from the professors of Arts, Design, Music, Theater, Worship Arts, Media Studies, and Non-Fiction writing. A then went on to a sample lecture on movie criticism which he thoroughly enjoyed while I split off to get a tour of the science labs. 

In the evening there was a wonderful parents dinner while the students staying overnight were taken by TWU student volunteers for the night. My dinner was good. I again sat with the parents from Washington. TWU President Mark Husbands showed and discussed a very good video presentation about how nearly all Evangelical children today believe in Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.

My tablemates were tired and went to bed after I talked their ears off. I then retired to my hotel. I went to the lobby to relax and ended up being joined by a gentleman from the Preview Weekend up from San Diego with his daughter. We talked for about 2 hours before I retired for the evening. A stayed overnight in the TWU dorm.

In the morning I made my way back to TWU for breakfast. Eventually A rejoined us. Turns out after he had finished his breakfast he had a nosebleed and that took us away from the scheduled events. I met his chaperone Reed who was majoring in Education. Eventually, after calling the First Aid guy, the nosebleed stopped. Then I rejoined the parents university tour and A rejoined the students' program. We found each other later on that morning for the US students Financial Aid presentation and then the Travel Studies presentation which was really good. Fully 50% of TWU students end up doing some of their studies abroad before they graduate.

The weekend ended with a pleasant hamburger bar lunch after which we all departed for home. A found the whole experience valuable and eye-opening. The evening with the TWU students was definitely the "low-light" for him, for various reasons, but the students meant well and tried hard to be welcoming. TWU is definitely on our radar as a university with a legit academic program that interests him, a college that supports our values, is within our budget, and is "exotic" enough to demonstrate that he didn't just do the easy and convenient thing.

Don't be fooled by the photo. He isn't miserable. He rarely smiles for photos.

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Night to Shine 2020

I volunteered at Night to Shine on February 7th. C joined me. I heard about this event a few years ago and wondered if I could get involved. There is a Facebook group for parents whose kids attend our school. The organizer of the local Night to Shine asked for volunteers. The response was overwhelming. I think the largest percentage of volunteers were from CPC.

What is Night to Shine?
Night to Shine was started by Tim Tebow. It is an annual event and takes place all over the world. It is a prom like event for those with special needs who are 14 and older. The first Night to Shine event was in 2014. I looked up where events were held this year and there was one held in Taber, Alberta, where my aunt and uncle used to live. The event we volunteered at was held at City Hill Church in Kenmore.

The reason that C and I are both wearing black is that I was directed to dress in black like a hairdresser/makeup artist and C followed my lead. All of the volunteers dressed up. The guests were attired in formal wear.

C is holding shoe shine tools.

My responsibility was hair. C did shoe shining. There were also makeup stations.

I braided and curled hair for several guests. I worked alongside a lovely young lady who attends the same school as my boys. She is in 12th grade. She wasn't very familiar with Tim Tebow. Funny!

The funniest thing that happened to me was this. A young guest said she wanted her hair up so I did some braiding. She shook it out and said she wanted to do her own hair and put it up (messily) in a scrunchie. I thought that was hilarious. Good thing she didn't have one of the ladies who is professional doing her hair. I wasn't offended or hurt at all. 

There was a lot of sitting around and waiting. I think there were actually too many volunteers!

Here is a rough idea of the itinerary.

Check in
Makeup/Hair/shoe shining for the guests
Popcorn and Italian sodas for the guests
Photo booth
Red Carpet (lots of cheering for the guests)
Rides in the stretch limo
Dinner (donated by a local Italian restaurant)
Dance

Our "shift" was from 4 pm until almost 10 pm. The event ended at 9 but there was clean up as well.

There was a fashion sketch artist doing sketches of the guests and their buddies. Her business is called Drawing Blueberry. Near the end of the event I noticed that she was also doing some sketches for volunteers. I asked her to do one of C and I.

I may volunteer again next year. I think I will pick a different job. I was on my feet for a long time.
One job I could do is be a "buddy." That involved being paired with a guest (in my case it would be a female guest) and staying with them all night. The parents and caregivers get a break for the evening.

One highlight of the night was all the time that I spent with C, just chatting. I don't take those times for granted when he just wants to talk with me.



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Snowshoeing - A First

Note: This account was written by my hubby. 

J, A and C joined Troop 574 for a snowshoeing hike to Skyline Lake at Stephens Pass on January 25th. It required getting up very early to meet up in Monroe at 6:15. If you don't arrive at Stephens' very early on a Saturday you can't find parking! There was a good group gathered at the trailhead by 8am. The hike is short, about 1 mile, but very step. It's 1000 feet of elevation, and it starts immediately. It was our first time on showshoes, which we rented from REI. The hike is mainly on a road which was being ploughed by a snowcat machine even as we were hiking. The going was slow for C and myself, but A was able to stay with the main group.

The weather was just below freezing and snowing, but it was wet snow that mostly acted as rain as it accumulated on our clothes and made us wet and heavier.

We all gathered at a watertower which we were told was "half way", but actually it was closer to 80% of the way there. After the tower, it starts to level off and then you branch off from the road for a bit -- and this is where you really need the snowshoes as we would have gone waist-deep into snow otherwise. Suddenly we were at the lake -- which we couldn't see because of the snow! We stopped there for about 45 minutes. I chose to lay in the snow, which worked great once I put the extra pair of snowpants we brought in our backpack down as insulation.

On the way back, as has always been the case, C became the fast one and A the slow one. We actually took off our snowshoes once we got back to the road and walked in our boots. C went way on ahead. A found his size 8 boots to be too small so I swapped with him which made him a lot happier. Many of the scouts had brought tough garbage bags so they could slide down, which worked better in some places than others.

The man in the front is the Scoutmaster. A and C are on the left. I think there were 20 people in the group. Some scouts aren't in the photo above.


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