Stitching, family and reading....

The Tuesday before Easter, I received a email from the Maryland Disabilities Office about the White House Easter Egg Roll. Our local autism chapter had asked if anyone would be interested in attending this event with their children and I had entered our names in believing the chances of being selected was slim to none. Well, was I wrong!

So, on Easter Monday our family went to Washington DC via the Metro and was able to participate in the annual event and spend a nice, relaxing day together. The kids were so excited and enjoyed the train ride immensely. We were let off about a block from the White House and enjoyed the festivities at the White House. We did receive the commemorative wooden egg; which was a good thing. Some other person there stepped on Ray's egg in the middle of the egg roll and he went ballistic. He had thought this was his "special" egg that day and was wanting to bring home a smushed, smelly, boiled egg and I was having a hard time to convince him this was not a good idea!

Recently, Becky's class went to historic Saint Mary's City in southern Maryland. For those not familiar with the significance of site, it was the 4th permanent settlement in the New World and served as the first captial of Maryland. They amount of archilogical exploration of the site has allowed them to rebuild many of the buildings which are built on the original foundations which were unearthed. The kids really enjoyed seeing the replica of the Dove (this ship was one of 2 which carried the original colonist over to Saint Mary's), seeing the reenactors, the printing press, and al the other neat discoveries in a place like this. Mom loved the stitching supplies in the plantation owner's house, of course along with seeing the tobacco hanging in the barn. My parents raised tobacco when I was a kid and it was nostalgic smelling the spicy, dry smell.

Flat Stanley is in many of the pictures with Becky since Raymond has a Flat Stanley project in school. Flat Stanley is a boy who had a bullentin board fall on him in one day so now he is flat. You can put him in an envelope and mail him around the world. Teachers are using it to promote children to document and write journals about the adventures of their own Flat Stanleys. We thought it would be neat for Stanley (or Flat Ray as my son likes to name him) went on the bigger kids field trip.

Reading wise, I finshed 2 books recently of varying jandres. Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth was a really interesting read about 12th century England. The story takes place in Kingsbridge; which is a priory for monks who build a cathederal and change a small, insigificanct priory into a thriving city. The story is well prepared and written, very detailed and keeps the reader's interest. It is not a light read and is definititely not a weekend read.

The other book was Twilight by Stephanie Meyer which I started reading after hearing my niece gushing about it and seeing all the hubhub in all the stores about the books and the movie released last year. The book was good; the movie lacked a lot of the the detail but it was fun seeing the characters represented on screen. I laughed when I started reading because I thought I could give Jessica (my niece) one of my old V.C. Andrews novels and she would feel she had found a whole new literary world! The characters were interesting and the story is an extremely easy read. As you can see, my reading interests vary drastically ~ it just depends on what I'm in the mood to read.

Stitching wise, I've been working on a few projects. I have started LK's February Stamp-It (one of the list projects). I am wanting to complete all 12 months on one piece of fabric and finish as one item. I started another Christmas ornament (I would like to complete 1 a month this year) while on the field trip with Becky since it was a 3 hour ride. Also, I've been working on my SAL of BRD Tiny Trees and Gifts for Thee. I am working on my biscornu and looking forward to finishing during my retreat in less than a week. Hopefully a finish will be available soon on something!