A Bee-zy Day!

Here is our hive in its new home.  Our boxes had been setting crooked on top of each other when they were empty.  When the new swarm moved in, they were using the gap as an entrance to the hive.  So we left it covered with duct tape and only opened the bottom.  On Saturday, Wally bought a third box and Michael came over and helped straighten the two brood boxes and then add the third box, a honey super box.  This is where the bees will now make their honey and the brood boxes will be used only for the babies. 

So here’s Wally getting ready to set the new box.  Michael brought over his smoker.  It is supposed to make the bees think the hive is on fire and so they prepare to leave the hive and while they are busy securing honey to leave with, they are not busy stinging the bee keeper. 

The top of the hive...I just find that amazing!

Wally getting ready to remove one of the slats in the hive…I’m sure “slat” is not a bee keeping term, but we are still learning!

Success…the wooden slat is removed!

Wally and Michael were able to examine the honey comb.  There was not much honey as the bees eat on it to survive the winter.  The wooden frame is what the bees make their honeycomb on.  Somewhere in the middle of the hive, the queen bee is busy laying her eggs.  The “babysitter” bees take the eggs and place them in the comb and seal it up.  It becomes a larvae and then hatches into a bee….that has to get to work!  There are a lot of trees and flowers waiting to be pollenated!

By the way, how do you like Wally’s new beekeeping duds?  We need to see if they make any for a dog. Gypsy went running up to the hive the first day and got stung!  Now when she sees what direction we are walking in, she stops about half way there! 

Thankful Thursday

One of the greatest blessings in my life is my family…my own husband and kids, the family I married into, and the family I grew I up in.  There are six of us kids, three boys and three girls.  I love having sisters and we have a close relationship.  But I think it is a special thing for a sister to have a brother.  And I’ve got three! 

I’ve always thought they were handsome!

  And their looks, or clothes, improved over the years

And they have aged pretty well

I could just be thankful and end here.  But I really wanted to single out my oldest brother, Marty. Tuesday was his 56th Birthday and I am very thankful for the years the Lord has given to him.  Marty has always been fun, a hard worker, and he does like a good laugh!  He is a good husband and father and he now has six grandkids that he loves.  Mostly though he loves the Lord Jesus Christ.  He has been willing and obedient to follow the Lord by serving Him in camp ministry.  He is the founder/director of Whisper Mountain, a Christian camp in North Carolina.  I am thankful to have his godly example in my life and so blessed he is part of our family!

Marty and his wife Patti

 

Happy Birthday Marty, hope they gave you a Party!

Ephesians 2:10…”For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

A Bee-zy Night

Last week Wally and I met my friend Gayle and her husband Michael for tacos at Yolanda’s.  FYI…the best place for tacos we have found since Mexico!  Gayle and I go to Bible Study together and Wally and Michael had met before, but not sure if they remember.  Earlier this year I discovered Gayle and Michael had a bee hive and had harvested their own honey.  They had a swarm of bees that had started living in a wall of their house.  When Gayle called around to have them removed, she thought it was funny when she was asked if they wanted to keep the bees!  I guess Michael did not think it was funny…and the rest is history.  Michael is really into the bees, has read a lot about them and knows a whole lot!  He has even photographed them in their hive.  All of that background info is to say, Michael was more than happy to help us move our bee hive from our house to the Polo Club.  We had two brood boxes and two years ago our bees left in the winter. Last spring a swarm moved in…I shared that here. With our nice weather, we needed to get them moved, settled, and ready to pollenate our new neighborhood!

It was dusk when we reached the house.  All the bees would be back in the hive and Wally and Michael wrapped all the cracks and openings with duct tape…a man’s best tool!

            

When dusk turned to dark, another tool came into play.  Gayle and Michael had a flashlight app on their IPhones!

    

Once we reached the Polo Club, the guys carried the hive to its new spot…hidden behind the tennis courts. Michael wanted to be sure the ground was level and can you believe it, he had a level app on his phone too!

Thanks Gayle and Michael for your help!

 

(Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, I think my camera had low batteries)

Happy Valentine’s Day

Last Wednesday night Wally and I celebrated Valentine’s Day! You probably think we never get the special days celebrated on the special days. We do, but this year Wally bought tickets for us to see “Beauty and the Beast” which did not show until March. So last Wednesday we went to the Buell Theatre in downtown  for the event.  To top it off we had dinner before the play at Elway’s.  It’s located very near us here in the Cherry Creek North shopping area.  We got in there early and enjoyed a quiet dinner…no early bird specials however!    When we left Wally was checking out all the cars in the valet parking area…Porsche, Porsche, Porsche, Mercedes, Bentley and a Subaru!

Here we are with our appetizers, mini Australian lobster tails and jumbo Mexican shrimp…they were about the same size.  They were brought out in these little dishes, I guess on dry ice because they were smoking.  I asked the waiter if they were “smokin’ good?”  I’m not sure he appreciated my sense of humor! 

After dinner we headed to the theatre…

Sad was I to discover they would allow no cameras!  Many people were using iPhones but the ushers quickly pounced…I mean asked the users to put them away!  So I did not even try.  I did take a couple pics of my commemorative program (which cost 20.00!!) to try and show you some of the costumes and sets.  It was quite the show.

Here’s Belle and the town’s people in the opening scene.  They had three or four cottages to represent the town that were moved around on wheels (I suppose) by the village folk, singing as Belle walked the village…made it appear as though she actually walked through the village!

Here is Gaston and Lafou.  I thought Gaston looked a lot like Adam Cartwright off of Bonanza!  But he did have a rich baritone voice…much like the voice in the Disney animated version.  I had a flashback to Kenny and Wesley singing along on the song…”and every last bit of me’s covered with hair!”…and they would pull their shirts open like Gaston.  Wes was pretty small, so that was quite some time ago when the movie came out.

 

Back to the play,  the scene where the dining room comes to life was just as spectacular on stage, dancing forks and knives, plates rolling by and even champagnes bottles popping at the end and spraying out…with streamers spraying out into the audience! 

Here’s a couple more characters…Cogsworth, Lumierre and the Duster!

                              

There were a lot of special effects used throughout the play.  The march on the castle by Gaston was pretty realistic with the use of smoke, lights and see through backdrops that were constantly changing.

At the end of the animated movie, just as the last petal drops from the rose and Belle expresses her love for the Beast, breaking the spell, the Beast is lifted from the ground and transformed back into the Prince.  It happened on the stage too!  We were staring as the Beast was lifted and then two big poofs and bright lights shone out into the audience and there stood the Prince!  I thought it was all well done!  And it was a fun night!

Thankful Thursday

Ephesians 3: 16 says, “…that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man…”

I just wanted to share a quote from my lesson notes in Bible Study Fellowship last week about that verse which has been very helpful to me this week.

“The word strengthen suggests an injection of eternal life force into the very core of a person’s being.  This God-given empowering by the Holy Spirit comes in answer to prayer and faith.  It will cause one to be permeated by a previously unrealized consciousness of Christ's presence, love and fullness.

Now really that is so simple.  So why do I walk around struggling and defeated so much?  His strength is mine!!  All I have to do is ask for it…prayer.  And then take it for myself…faith.  It has been particularly encouraging to me in those moments where my negative thoughts are dragging me down.  I have a choice; be discouraged or tap into His strength!  It was a light bulb moment for me!  And I am so thankful for it.

Spring Things

The weather is gorgeous in Colorado this week, people are in their flip flops and sandals, shorts and capris, and no jackets to be seen.  What a big tease it is, because there is more snow to be had!  But I am going to enjoy it while it is here.  Wally hung my porch swing on the weekend, I was anticipating getting to use it.  It has a new home on a balcony this year but I think we can adjust. 

There is a tree at one end of the balcony that we want to hang a birdhouse in.  I’ve already heard the birds singing on many mornings before we are out of bed.  My scrappin’ room is just inside the balcony doors and I have been enjoying the finches as they fly in for bite and out again.   I can watch from inside without them getting too nervous.  But then Gypsy sees them and chases them off with her barking.  I’m going to have to have a chat with her about that!

One last bit of spring to share, daffodils!  These two just opened this week.

And these will opening any day and looking beautiful!

Happy, Happy Spring!!

Happy Birthday Dad!!

Today we celebrated my Dad’s 86th Birthday.  We’re only a month off, his Birthday is actually February 7.  It’s terrible to think we waited so long to celebrate but between a big snowstorm on Dad’s Birthday weekend and Mom having surgery a second time, it has taken us this long to get together.  Not only did we need to party for Dad, but for Mom too.  This is the only outing she has had since going to church on Christmas Day!  So we decided to meet up for breakfast.

Robin and I caught Dad pouring out tea for Mom. It was a simple gesture but it reminded me of all he has done to care for Mom.  To just say the laundry, cooking, and shopping does not begin to describe it!  And this has been going on since November 7 when Mom fell.  Well, back to the tea… of course once he knew we were trying to get a picture, the thoughtful moment passed and he was posing!

We ate at The Original Pancake House.  Mom and Dad, Robin, Wally and I had eaten there before.  But this was the first time for Terry and Scott.   So we ordered up their special apple pancake. It’s not like any pancake you’ve eaten before, I’m sure!

We had mentioned we were celebrating Dad’s birthday and also they brought out one of their crepes with a candle in it and sang to him.

Party People:

Terry and Robin

Scott

Sweet sisters!

Sherry and Wally

(Wally was actually roofing the garage of Mom and Dad's neighbor.  He took a break long enough to join us for breakfast.)

Mom and Dad

We had a great time together, good food, lots of coffee, catching up and laughter!!  Here is the funniest exchange that I can remember from this morning, (but I did laugh very hard)!  Dad was showing off his hearing aide and Terry asks if he has a “remote” so he can turn the volume up a bit.  It seems he does miss a lot yet.  So Dad starts telling us about the batteries and how often he has to change them… 

Terry: So how long does the battery last?  Dad: That depends on how much listening I do!

 

HAPPY, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copy Cat

I have seen this word used many times on card blogs…case.  For example, “I am going to case this idea”.  I sort of figured it meant, “copy” but I could never knew what all the letters meant.  So I finally googled it tonight and here is what I found.  Case means to “copy another scrappers efforts”. I feel so much better now because I do this all the time.  I just thought I was a copy cat!  Here are some cards that I recently “cased”

Recently my Mom asked me to pick up a couple of cards for her since she is still not able to get out.  I offered to just make them.  She needed a couple of birthday cards.  These first two card were for Mom.

I cased this card from Stampin’ Pretty

This card I cased from Becky Roberts. She recently had a tutorial event that I participated in. Everyday for two weeks she and her design team posted cards and a 3-D project. I actually paid to case this card!

This card was cased from Catherine Pooler’s blog. 

This last card is cased from…I can’t recall. I just made it on Monday but I could not find the blog I saw it on.

That’s all from this copy cat for now!

Thankful Thursday

I kind of have the blahs.  I’ve been getting them a lot lately.  I think this is what my Mom referred to as the “winter blues”.   I should do this more often, just take the time to look at all I have to be grateful for, you know count your blessings, name them one by  one…and chase the blues away!

• To start with, I’m having a cup of cappuccino in my “Elaine and Nolan” mug…I’m feeling better already!
• We did not get snow as forecasted…Yippee!
• While walking in the neighborhood today I saw crocus in bloom.  The daffodils and tulips are pushing up too.  I love spring!
• I’ve made a pretty good dent in our paper piles…that is such a good feeling!
• Wally washed my car inside and out on Monday and it still looks good!  (He also vacuums!)
• My friend Jana came over on Tuesday and we had a nice long visit!  We had not chatted like that in a long while!
• It’s Thursday and for the first time this week, we don’t have to go anywhere tonight!! 
• Wally told me that if the solar flair happens tonight and it effects all the computer chips in the cars, my Falcon won’t be affected!!  So thankful about that!
• We’re studying Ephesians in Bible Study right now.  Last week was Ephesians 1, the believer’s rich inheritance in Christ.  That chapter alone can chase any blues away.  But it just gets better!  This week we are in chapters 2-3.  “But God, Who is rich in mercy, because of His great love love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved)…

Wally said to show a picture of the tulips.  This is the bed in front of the clubhouse.  It will be fun to see how it looks when everything is in bloom.

And here are some daffodils poking up among the winter pansies.  It’s nice to see their color still showing after all the snow has melted away.

Thankful Tuesday

Since I never got around to posting this last Thursday, I thought I would slide in a Thankful Tuesday edition.  I just wanted to acknowledge Andrea for my blog makeover!  What a blessing to have a talented daughter who watches over the techno side of my life!  Last week she sent me an email giving me some links to check out with cute spring designs.  She knows me well enough to see something that I will like and pass it on.  (She does this a lot, not just for blog designs!)  Now the blog design is not her work, but the header is.  She even managed to keep a few apples in there for me.  We just need to connect long enough to change out some things on  my side bar and then I will be all set!

While I’m thanking Andrea I might just brag on her a bit.  She truly is talented.  Check out her own blog, Random Issues.  She has endless ideas of things to make for your kids, the home, the kitchen, and organizational projects she has completed.  And Andrea is the thriftiest homemaker I know…she shares those ideas as well. She uses her creativity and organization skills in her online cloth diaper business, Doable Diapers and in many of the ministries at her church.  I know I’m the Mom, but she truly does have many abilities and I am so proud of her!

Thanks, Sis!