Monday, April 20, 2009

Weekend with relatives

This past weekend we met my uncle Ray and cousin Karen in Shreveport for a weekend of fun. My mom came along with us. My uncle and cousin live in Austin. I had not seen my cousin for close to 40 years until just last year. My uncle moved to Austin last year to be closer to his daughter. So we are now back in touch with that leg of the family!

I recently took some old reel movies to be transferred to DVD. These were movies taken by my grandfather and we really didn't know what was on them. I was able to pick the DVDs up on our way out of town so we enjoyed watching them with my mom and uncle who were able to identify a lot of the people in the videos. Among them are my great-grandparents! There is even footage of me as a newborn. So the movies are REALLY old! Actually, the oldest portion was probably of my dad when he was about 13 which would make that reel more than 60 years old.

The only downside of the trip was the flat tire we had on our way to Shreveport. Of course we were in the middle of nowhere on a busy interstate and it was raining. It took 2 hours for roadside assistance to arrive. The tire was ruined and we were not able to find replacements in Shreveport so we drove home without a spare. I got to spend this morning at the tire shop getting a new set.

Here we are at breakfast on Sunday morning:

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Crystal anyone?

While we were in Ireland, we visited the Dingle Penninsula and went to Dingle Crystal where I was able to purchase a beautiful handmade crystal vase. Every piece is designed, cut, signed and sold by the master craftsman, Sean Daly. Sean was trained for 12 years at the Waterford Crystal Company and then started his own shop in Dingle Town. All the crystal is absolutely beautiful! It was very hard to do, but I managed to pick out my very own piece. We had it shipped here because it is VERY heavy. It finally arrived today and is gracing my dining room table! I absolutely love it!


Sunday, April 12, 2009

I'm wiped out!

Holidays at our house are fun and lively. So fun and lively that I get a little exhausted! But it is a good exhaustion. Here are some pictures of Easter at the McBroom house.....
Lily eating her cupcake..


Thomas's is almost gone!


We lucked out and the weatherman was wrong, so we were able to have the Easter egg hunt outside. Here are my grandkids lined up and ready to go hunt eggs. My granddaughter, Madison, is the only one missing. She lives in Ohio and didn't get to join us.



And they're off!

Gotta stop and check out the loot!

Saturday, April 11, 2009

Easter Eve

I got up early this morning and my dear husband fixed me a yummy breakfast before I headed off for a walk with my friend, Janie. We went to Grand Prairie and walked down the Fish Creek trail. It is a really nice paved trail along a creek. It stretches for 7 miles through Grand Prairie and Arlington. We walked a total of 7 miles. Training is going good for THE walk!

It is the day before Easter and I'm busy preparing for all the kiddos to come over and hunt eggs and eat. Problem is, the weather man is predicting RAIN!!! Hopefully they will be wrong or it will be all over before the festivities begin. We are having ham, potato salad, green beans, baked beans (Tommy and I couldn't agree on which one to serve), deviled eggs, rolls and banana pudding for dessert. I'm not telling everyone, but the banana pudding will be sugar-free :)

I just finished baking some cupcakes for the kids. They look yummy!!!

Thursday, April 9, 2009

I'm a speaker!

Tonight I was asked to speak at a meeting of Delta Kappa Gamma of Ellis County. This is a sorority of women educators. I have never really been a public speaker, but I felt like it went pretty well. The subject was "Memory Quilts" so I spoke a little bit about how I started quilting. Then I talked about my business. I took some of my quilts to show, including my photo quilt and a couple of applique quilts I have done (Christmas and Texas Our Texas). I took two additional quilts, one was the one that I did for my dad when he was going through his chemo treatments. I had my brother, sister and nieces and nephews write something to my dad on a block and I assembled them into a quilt. I also took the quilt that Janie made for me with blocks written by friends and family. People seemed to be interested and enjoyed the program. Thanks to Delta Kappa Gamma for inviting me!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Our last days in Ireland

Ireland, con't.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thursday night we went to the pub in Creegh and enjoyed traditional Irish music. Three musicians, a conchatina (sp??) player, a guitar player and a tin whistle/flute player. They were really good and we enjoyed them for a couple hours. Things here always start later than we expect. This was no exception. The music started at "half ten" (10:30 p.m.).






Friday we got up and did a little laundry and then headed for the Burren. It is a rocky, desolate area, but beautiful in its own way. We had another beautiful sunny day, although a little windy. We were able to tour a 1,000 year old ring fort and saw some more castles. It is getting to the point where we say "look, another castle". It is amazing.




Saturday we packed up and left Sean and Allyson. They feel like old friends! we drove to Dublin, stopping at Bunratty Folk Park on our way. It is kind of like Old City Park in Dallas, but the main attraction is a castle from about 1400. It has been restored. There are a lot of period farm houses and other restored buildings around it.
We finally made it to Dublin about 5:00 and turned in the rental car. We took a cab to our hotel, walked around the area a little, had dinner and relaxed in our room. The computer here in the hotel was down all weekend so this is my first chance to be online.

Sunday we got up and caught a tour bus. It is a bus for one fare you can get on and off as much as you want. We got a three day pass which will include our transportation to the airport. On Sunday we toured the Guinness Brewery. We also toured Kilmainham Gaol which is a jail from the 1700s.

Today we caught the tour bus again and went through Trinity College (founded in 1500s) and saw The Book of Kells, an amazing collection of the Gospels transcribed in 800 AD. We then walked through Grafton Street, the shopping district of town and headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral. From there we went to Dublin Castle and toured that. It was built in the 1600s and is where some of the government offices are still housed. It is also where the Presidential Inauguration takes place. From there we went to the train station (Tommy wanted to see it!) and then on to the Jameson Whiskey museum where Tommy got to be an official whiskey taster!

We have had an amazing time. Our flight leaves at 11:00 tomorrow. We will leave the hotel around 7:30, have some breakfast and catch the bus to the airport. We have a layover in DC and then it is on to home. Tomorrow is a long day of travel so we are staying in again tonight.

We saw our first rain of the trip today. I think it sprinkled on us for 10 minutes!