Life in Weyers Cave

Life is good. The mountains are beautiful, the weather has been great. The flowers that Martha planted in my yard are wonderful and I feel so richly spoiled having someone do that for me. What an incredible blessing! I also have roses in the house from some dear customers by EMU (that's Eastern Mennonite University -- really!). He is a retired Mennonite minister and they are the so dear. I love to go up there. I just got them on high speed last week. I also am spoiled with friends. Coral Anna came to dinner last night. She is from South Africa and I love to hear her stories. She has lived many places and had many experiences. I had a Ruritan meeting Wednesday and got home and had a cute ice cube tray in the shape of bees on the chair in my office -- a sure sign that ToniAnne had been there. The next morning I found two pins in my car. She knows I often wear pins and has probably given me 100, leaving them in the house or in odd places to find. I went to lunch with Mary Beth for her...

Don't any of you who ARE happily married still wish there are some things you had decided on or knew about BEFORE you got married? Are there things you found out later that would have had an influence on your decision to marry, but you worked it out? Or have you seen things in your parents' or others' marriages that you wonder how they stuck together? Haven't you thought: I won't marry someone with that trait? And especially to the divorced ones: Looking back with 20/20 vision, what would you have done differently? What did you learn about yourself? Anonymous comments welcome, but make up a pseudonym so others can refer to your comment.

My poor kids. I have learned from experience what I expect them to look for in a mate. Any additions or comments are appreciated. The next mate in THIS house will have to jump through some hoops! Financial: Is there money in the bank on the side of both parties? Have they had all of their expenses paid in the past or are they used to being bailed out? Can they live within their means? Are they "ashamed" of hand-me-downs? Go through their things and see how they spend their money. Discuss things you might consider wasteful spending as well as ways you might cut back on your expenses. Doer vs Slacker: If they see a piece of trash on the floor, do they put it in the wastebasket without thinking? Do they help with the dishes without being asked? Can they pitch in and see what is needed to be done? Do they make excuses for not helping out? Do they have a good attitude when they are doing menial labor like cleaning bathrooms? Do they clean up after themselves or expect others to cl...

I worked at the Museum today. I have told them I speak some German, but I try to stay kind of low-key there. We hadn't been there long before four French came in, with very little command of the English language. So I started telling them about the house in French. The four people who were working there kind of looked at me funny. Then in came not one, but TWO sets of Germans. By now, though, my brain was in French mode and I kept dropping into Flemish, so I didn't do too well on the German. But they recognized the Flemish dialect. It was funny. Tonight I cooked David some German rice left over from Allen's mission. It was all in German or Dutch. I guess it turned out okay. It's a shame that we can't use more languages in America, but the alternative of having a multi-cultural society where people don't understand each other is much worse. I love languages, but when it comes to practicality, health care, legal contracts, and basic education, let's stick wi...

When I grew up in the 60s we heard a lot about materialism and "conspicuous consumption" -- having something bigger and better than the neighbors just to "prove" you are better. These were characteristics looked upon with disgust at the time, but now it seems to be the norm. David recently received a "gift" which he generously gave me. It is actually a folder and I can choose any gift I want out of it. So let's see, an MP3 speaker system, a portrait clock, a wheeled duffel bag, a car-powered wet/dry vac, a fossil watch, a 2.1 megapixel camera (no brand), six 5-oz steaks and 12 pieces of chicken, another MP3 speaker system, an organic afghan throw, a gardener seat with garden tools, an 11 piece cookware set which should last at least a year, a cordless screwdriver, a "personal pocket organizer", picnic shoulder bag set for two, shredder, kitchenware caddy set, bracelet, bracelet and earrings or photo frame. Personally, I would have preferred ...

  Yorktown is on the ocean and the elevation is never high, so I was surprised to see caves there. I am sure these played a part in the defeat of Cornwallis which of course, ultimately ended the Revolutionary War. I hate to say anything good about the French, but it is true that we as Americans don't give them enough credit for their assistance in the Revolutionary War. We could NOT have won without them.

  This was one of the better displays.

  I really enjoy looking at all the neat trees in Colonial Williamsburg. This is a typical street, although there are usually more tourists around!

  At Jamestown in 1607 they used the same wattle and dawb construction we use at the German farm in 1710 at the Museum of American Frontier Culture. It was often whitewashed.

  Keep the kids occupied. Put them up here with a couple of noisemakers and tell them they have to scare the birds away from the garden all day.

  I don't think I would want to sleep in these skins. Yuck. Lots of stuff in here, from dead birds hanging from the ceiling to an abundance of baskets and skins.

  At this Indian village ca 1607, you can see the huts made with mats and the ladies sitting under their tarps making baskets and weaving reeds and such. The leather is in the process of being tanned.

  I don't remember the names of the ships: the Discovery, the Sarah Constant and ??? These are scaled models of the ships that brought the first 104 settlers to Jamestown in 1607. They were so hungry, and only 38 survived the first year, that they literally dug up the graves of their companions and ate them to stay alive. Not something they put in the history books for the kiddies!

  Across the ferry from Williamsburg and famous for peanut soup.

  Very friendly dog, although the owner said he wasn't so friendly towards other dogs. If all pit bulls were this sweet, they wouldn't have the reputation they do. This was on the ferry over to Surrey.

  David enjoyed feeding the gulls on the way back on the ferry from our dinner in Surrey.

  Not to be confused with a fork, just ask Cathryn.

It was nice going off with David for a week in Williamsburg, but I really enjoy coming home to my own life, my own bed, my own office and kitchen and my own niche in the world. Today I was in charge of the kids' sharing time, so we played charades. The monthly theme is families and I told the kids that this is something my family enjoyed doing together a lot. I had slips with family activities in them. Some of the kids, even the older ones, had a hard time getting the hang of it. But I think they enjoyed it. When we were in Williamsburg, we stopped at the outlet mall. I just wasn't in a shopping mood, but there was a dress there that literally yelled out my name, so I had to get it. David talked me into getting another one as well. I think it has been at least three years since I got a new dress I really liked. It was weird getting dressed for church and not yelling out to David that I don't have a thing to wear!

I know, I haven't posted in a couple of days. Monday I volunteered at the Frontier Culture Museum for three hours, then Tuesday morning came to Williamsburg where I have been on the other end of the tourist thing. Tuesday we went to Yorktown, Wednesday was Jamestown, then today was Williamsburg. I guess I should have some fun stories with all of this. Thank you Allen, for the military son-in-the-army discount at kitchen store, including a Lindt dark chocolate truffle box of candy. Allen, by the way, had lasik surgery on Tuesday and is pretty miserable right now, but I am confident he will be fine. He has learned he doesn't respond normally to pain medications. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. I finally bought myself a 4 gig card for my camera and, dang if the computer doesn't read 4 gig cards, so I am going to have to find a different way to move the pictures over. We stopped on the way over in Richmond and I spent ten seconds popping the front bezel on a computer....

Whenever I get stuck on what to teach on Sunday, I fall back on balloons, puppets, beanies, or hats. Today was balloons. I stuck in papers that talked about communications in our family then blew them up. We played with them, then one child got to pop it. We had eight. Little Trinity (age 3) made me put my hands over her ears for the pops. She is new but I think I have her as a friend now. Yes, some mayhem, but we had fun and I think I got the point across. I love my kids on Sundays.

This morning I told everyone at Ruritans I was NOT signing up for the chicken barbecue. But Geneva left the money boxes here so I took them over at 7. Then they needed help wrapping chicken. Then selling chicken. But it didn't sell well so I worked like crazy until after 2 and I STILL have 50 pieces in my freezer. Then I ran down to meet Tammy at the Red House at 4 and we went over everything for two hours. We couldn't reproduce the leaks the inspector saw. Now we have to climb in the attic because the inspector says he did the roof wrong. Obnoxious inspector if you ask me! But it is a nice house and Tammy loves it. I really hope it works out for her. I am so incredibly beyond sore and tired and sunburnt and I want to go to bed early. And go to sleep. And NOT get woken up.

I told Tigris he had to jump through hoops to get a job. Today I had to jump through them to keep mine, but I got certifications from Dell in Desktops, Laptops, Soft Skills, and some other areas. I HATE certifications. Trick questions. Ten hours of certifications today. Ugh. True or False: Bandaids and peanut butter are used for making sandwiches and covering cuts. Well, it doesn't SAY in that order, so which is it? You have to read the mind of someone you have never met. It is so insane! I still can't get the Vista Certification. If anyone is really good at Vista, let me pick your brain. Otherwise, I will see if the boss gets some material on the test. I fed the girls at Shoney's for their final day of seminary this morning. Then went to the Red House to see the electrician. Then the Museum to get another fitting for my German costume. She said I had a big head!!!

My blood pressure is way down, and there is no reason for it to be. I guess when Gail got sick and went in the nursing home it went way up and when she left me and it was all over, it came down. Or maybe the chelation therapy or biofeedback is working. I don't know. Maybe, as some say, it is a miracle and I should just accept it as that. I also don't have my constant dizziness. Maybe it is from cutting medications in half. Maybe it is part of the miracle. I am working on Dell certifications. Hate to do them because the tests are always full of trick questions. They are long and tedious and poorly written. But am also getting trained and fitted to be a German interpreter at the Museum of American Frontier Culture. How exciting is that! I will work in a farmhouse built in Hordt, Germany in 1710. Yes, volunteer. But if I enjoy it, what is wrong with that! There were some problems with the inspection of the Red House. A few minor leaks and stuff. I think I need to replace the dishw...

David and I played password for Family Home Evening. We won. That's one of the advantages of not playing against anyone. I had trouble getting him to say stem and he trouble getting me to say a word that, well, I am surprised was there, but had he said "a-doodle-do" I would have gotten easier than pea. It was scary the number of times we could get it on one try. I am better at giving clues and he is better at thinking of the words. But he didn't know what fard means. I had to say mascara. One of his clues was Accipiter which he said was eagles, but I think it is really hawks. Only because I looked it up today. He had to say golden and bald birds before I could get it. It's tough playing with a PhD.

Obviously this man is not interviewing as a math or geography teacher.

One child has called and said they loved me. Sigh. But David not only mowed the lawn at the Red House for me yesterday, but helped Martha with her computer problems while I was gone, cleaned the kitchen last night, and left me my favorite American chocolates on my bed this morning. Four points for him. But he is gone to JMU meetings all day today.

 I always wanted a recorder stand and this is a neat one I inherited from Gail. It is nothing but a round piece of wood with pegs sticking up to hold the recorders.  One of my favorite gifts of all time, this clock hangs over my desk and has a little bee that goes round on the second hand. One of those things from someone I felt I shouldn't accept a gift from because it was no reason, but I love it so much and it fits me so well I couldn't really object.  My camera collection. The little ones don't work but are too cute to throw away. the biggest is too bulky to carry many places. The one on the right has a rechargeable proprietary battery that I JUST replaced and even the new one won't keep a charge. I think it might be the charger, which I also replaced. My new one is the the one taking the picture.  Faraday is 14 years old and going strong.

I know there are some that read this just to find out what is happening with the kids, especially the boys since they don't have blogs, so here are the updates: Allen is now officially in Psychological Operations soldier and in SOCOM. He passed the language requirement in German so has given up learning Thai and never did learn Chinese - yet. I don't know what I am really allowed to say publicly, but he is very happy and LOVES what he does. Bryan is in the process from moving from Key West to Ft Lauderdale. He is still with the same airline and has learned to fly a new type of plane. He has a best friend Louisa, who is like a sister and makes his life interesting. He also has a sweet girlfriend Elise who works for a vet. Cathryn is going back to finish her degree in English Language at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks in the fall. She is still in Seward, Alaska cleaning hotel rooms and will stay there until school starts. Dianna is enjoying BYU Idaho and planning on comin...

Oh, bother. I don't want to get excited and then let down again. First there was this darling lady and her older boyfriend who were going to buy the Red House, but after two months her son put the k-bosh on it. Then I listed it and the realtors found a sweet almost newlywed couple, but never told them where the back lot line was. They ran away when they realized they only got a third of the yard they thought they were getting. Then the hispanics who wanted to lowball the price and have me put an additional five thousand dollars into the house so they could get the government loan. Okay, I won't count them. Next came the lady who could "sense" all the spirits in the house and had to sell three properties in southern Virginia where nothing is selling before she could close the deal. But she knew and could sense that the house was meant for her and the spirits were waiting for her. David's friends were next, pre-approved, but the approval fell through after two mont...

For the past two years I have stocked the concession stands for the softball games for the Weyers Cave Ruritans. We have three games a night, four nights a week, for three months and it starts the first of May. I told the club last year I wouldn't do it again so Don Garber said he would, but he backed out at the last minute. Oh well, I do enjoy it. So all day today I was buying stuff, stocking, making lists, pricing, etc. The stands were vandalized last year at the end of the season, so they have been repainted and many normal things like the signs and clock removed. The new sign with pricing doesn't fit, but I will let the men worry about that. I figure with 90% men, there are some things I can delegate! I really love working with these guys. Guys are so less petty than girls and, even though they have their idiosyncrasies, I think they just don't take the small stuff as seriously. So back to the burgers and dogs and *gasp* Pepsi (since Coke won't give us a good deal) ...

So David has finished his classes and finished the graduation ceremonies, so now he is off to do some genealogy in Baltimore. I have been doing some on the internet. He offered to take me to delightful Hagerstown, but, uh, I had to do my hair? The softball leagues start tomorrow and I do have to stock the stands, which is a huge job. And I have to put mulch down at the Red House to make up for what the lawnmower did. So I got home from church today and found little yellow notes around the house. Each one says "I love you" on it and I have to find them all and then put them together in a puzzle. I have found five of perhaps 20. Do you think he will remember that I want a bag of Lindt dark chocolates for Mother's Day?

David and I went to a play at the Brethren Church last night. My friend Martha was in it and she is a really a nice actress. It was a musical based around "Lord of the Dance", Gail's theme song. I was going to take pictures, but get this, I didn't have a camera! The new one only has a 32 MB SD card, and the old ones have battery issues, especially since I took lots of pictures of Gail's stuff yesterday to send to her nephews and ran the battery down. But that's okay, because David has a much better camera than all of mine put together. He took a lot of nice shots. After going through many of Gail's old pictures, I realized how much I enjoy dressing up and being someone else, like in the Madrigal group. So I wrote the Museum of American Frontier Culture and offered to volunteer there and told a buddy with the Civil War re-enactment group to get me on the list. There is also an outdoor theater not too far away that I might see if I can get involved with. So...

And my first words this morning were "Go away CAT!" But April is over and so is my bad luck?