Bunco Night

 The third Tuesday of every month, my daughter, granddaughter and I play Bunco with a group of ladies from our church.  Bunco is a dice game that's very easy to play, but can get very loud whenever someone gets Bunco or Baby Bunco.  If you're not familiar with the game, check it out here.

When a person throws a Bunco, Bonnie the Bunco Bear is thrown to her and she gets her picture taken.  She can keep the bear until the next person calls Bunco which could be awhile or just a couple of minutes.

My granddaughter, Kyleigh

Me

 

 At the end of the evening, there are three winners and a loser.  This time I had the most wins and my daughter, Janice had the most losses.  The other two won most buncos and most baby buncos.  I've come close before, but this is the first time I've actually won a prize.

March Miscellaneous

 Since the Corona Virus scare started in earnest in mid-March, most of our March activities were cancelled, but I still have a few pictures to show.

The middle school youth group at our church meets on Sunday afternoons.  As part of the meeting, they usually provide some kind of service.  This time they painted props for this year's VBS. Janice was asked to attend to help prevent any paint fights!  (They're still meeting via Zoom.)

 

David and went out to pick up breakfast, dinner and salad packages from our local Norm's.  They were giving you the raw ingredients to make several meals with each package.  We both wore masks that David had here for using when he was creating dust.  We also wiped down our hands and everything we touched.  The steaks we got were the best we'd ever tasted so the following week, Janice went back an got more.

Our cat, Taz has been very people oriented the past few weeks.  There was one day when he really didn't want me to use my computer, but in the end after a few yells, meows and pushes, we settled on a mutually acceptable position.

Last night I caught him in this unusual and weird position on David's stomach.

Finally, yesterday (3/31) was Kyleigh's 12th birthday.  Since we're all self isolating, we couldn't join her for breakfast, so Janice ordered two Polly's Pies' cinnamon rolls for us and four for them to be delivered by Door Dash so that we could all eat breakfast together on Face Time.  We also got to watch her open what presents were available.  Her favorite present is sitting on top in the picture below.  We haven't given her ours yet, but will when we can get together again.

February Happenings

One Friday a month, our church hosts KNO (Kids Night Out) where the parents can leave their children and go out for a date or just have some time to themselves.  So far, they've done Pac Man, Mario Brothers and on 1/31, they did Donkey Kong.  Janice is part of the committee that puts on the events and she is in charge of arts and crafts. 

Janice showing off her artwork

Janice, Joy (she's in charge of KNO) and Amorita ready for KNO

Kyleigh's school has an annual fundraiser called the Gala.  This year the theme is the  80's and they've been doing a lot of advertising.  One of the events included guessing how many gumballs were in a large jar and Kyleigh managed to guess the correct number.  For this, she got to keep them!

I go to a Bible Study Group that meets at the church on Wednesday mornings.  Every year, one of the male church members has a quartet come and sing to both our group and the ladies in the office.

I haven't shown any pictures of Taz lately, so I thought I'd include one here.  This is one of his favorite spots to hang out when I'm at my computer.  Look at those big eyes.

Kyleigh is now selling cookies at booth sales in front of various stores in the area.  Yesterday, she had two sales and was approached by a Mystery Shopper from Council at the first one.  Since she met all the requirements, she received a Blue Ribbon certificate.  Good News!  Kyleigh made her goal of selling 700 boxes this year.

Kyleigh's cheerleading group participated in a competition on February 22nd.  I had planned to go, but wasn't feeling well.  They won first place in their division and an Outstanding overall.

Kyleigh and Grace

Kyleigh and the Coaches

The Performance

The end of the performance

I usually stitch with a cat sitting beside me.  The other night I got up to get something and when I came back, he was holding my scissors.  David took the pictures while I was in the kitchen,

Night of Comfort and Service

Last night, the Women's Ministry at our church put on a Night of Comfort and Service.  It began with a potluck dinner with lots of good food and conversation. 

After dinner, everyone adjourned to the gym where there were several serving stations set up.  Kyleigh helped make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and later helped make sack lunches for a local food bank and a homeless shelter for families.

Janice helped pack snacks, also for the food bank and the homeless shelter and also helped pack lunches.

I helped cut out waterproof linings for sanitary pads that go to girls/women in underdeveloped countries.  They use these instead of disposable pads which are hard to come by.

There were also stations for rolling bandages using strips from old sheets and crocheting plastic bags into mats for the homeless.

Afterward, there was a short worship service focusing on prayer led by three students from Concordia University.   They'd also set up prayer stations so that you could write a prayer request on a 3x5 card and leave it in a bowl.  At the same time you were able to take someone else's prayer request and pray for it later.

 

Happy Birthday to Me

January 6th was my 70th birthday.  My husband took me to breakfast at a favorite restaurant and then we met Devin, Janice and Kyleigh for dinner at Olive Garden.

Kyleigh handed me a balloon filled with helium that said "Happy Birthday" on it, so the restaurant knew we were celebrating a birthday; they just didn't know we were celebrating two (both mine and Devin's).

They brought us each a dessert and sang "Happy Birthday".  I'd forgotten my phone so I asked Janice to take a picture of it.

After the picture was taken, Janice had Devin and I switch desserts, since this was raspberry cheesecake and his was chocolate mousse.  She knew I'd prefer the chocolate!  BTW, Kyleigh ate the Happy Birthday.

I didn't receive anything stitching related for Christmas, but I did get two gift cards for my birthday.  One was from Jo Ann's and the other from 123Stitch so I see shopping in my future.

Middle School Mission Trip to Mesa, AZ

Elevate, the youth group for 6th, 7th and 8th graders at our church is emphasizing service to others this year.  So far, they've served a meal at Mary's Kitchen, packed Boxes of Love with supplies for Thanksgiving meals and went caroling to several of the older members' homes at Christmas Time among other things. On the 2nd thru 5th of this month, Janice and Kyleigh went along on their first mission trip.

This is what their leader posted on Facebook when they returned.

Amazing weekend taking 36 middle school students and 15 adults to Mesa, AZ to do a serving weekend. It was truly a ministry highlight. On Friday, my city kids did fantastic working at the barn at Sunshine Acres Children's Home cleaning up after animals and moving hay. We took a tour of this amazing 120 acre property with 7 homes, which house 70 children who might otherwise not have a home. Saturday morning they worked in thrift shops and visited nursing homes. Saturday afternoon was fun exploring Goldfield Ghost Town panning for gold, zip-lining and touring the mine tunnel. Our last service project was a personal favorite, packaging food at Feed My Starving Children. Thanks to my good friend Celeste Koski at St. Luke Lutheran church for helping make this dream a reality and for housing us. Praise God we arrived home today tired but fulfilled.

The Whole Group Getting Ready to Leave

The 6th Grade Van - Kyleigh's in the back

Sorting Incoming Items at a Thrift Shop

More at the Thrift Shop

The Group at the Nursing Home

At Goldfield Ghost Town

More at the Ghost Town

Packing Food for Feed My Starving Children

Both Janice and Kyleigh came home exhausted, but both had fun.  Janice said there's another trip being planned for 2022 and Kyleigh's already said she'll go.

Advent by Candlelight

Last night was Advent by Candlelight, an event put on by the Women's Ministry at our church.  It's a time of fellowship and reflection with dinner, dessert, music and readings.  This year, Janice and her friend, Amorita paired up to host a table.  They came up with the theme of "Make new friends, but keep the old; One is silver and the other, gold."  The table was decorated in  silver and gold.

 

Janice received quite a few compliments on her napkin folding and even demonstrated how easy they were to fold.  She found the idea on Pinterest.

Part of the table decorations were two large angels and seven small ones that were painted silver.  The small ones went home with the guests.  The big ones are the same design.

The Women's Choir, the Hand Bell Choir and two violinists provided the music and several readers reminded us of the various names of Jesus.  The lights are turned off during the program so it's done by candlelight.

After dinner, the program and dessert, there was more time for fellowship and picture taking.

And where was Kyleigh during all this?  She was in the Nursery eating pizza and waiting for Devin to pick her up after he got off work.  Next year, she'll be old enough to attend also.  And, Janice and Amorita are already planning next year's table decorations--somebody said something about a Disney theme!

Gingerbread Houses

The Friday after Thanksgiving, Janice and Kyleigh went to Amorita's to make gingerbread houses.  They paired up:  Janice with Dena (Amorita's daughter) and Amorita with Kyleigh.  I'm not really sure which gingerbread house is which, because I pulled the pictures from Facebook, but I know they had fun!