Awards Night

Christopher was honored with an award tonight. This is the first time that we have ever been to one of these student appreciation nights. Teachers nominate students for the awards for their work in the classroom--whether it is doing exceptional work, helping others or just turning their life in a more positive direction. Chris' P.E. teacher was the one who nominated him. So proud of him for getting honored in this way.

A Sign of Spring

While Chris and I were in the Tri-Cities, I went for a stroll along the river while I was waiting for the kids to get packed and ready to check out of their rooms. I was looking for something of interest to take pictures of. It is kind of at that in between stage where there are cherry blossoms, daffodils and tulips in bloom but everything else is still lagging behind in getting to the pretty stage. All of a sudden I spotted this family of Canada geese with seven little babies swimming up river. I was fascinated by them and kept following them trying to get pictures. The parents kept a pretty close eye on me and I didn't want to get so close that they would feel too threatened but it was fun to see this sign of spring--a new family.

(Made the layout with Polka Dot Pixel's Grown kit available at 2 Peas in a Bucket.)

Polka Dot Pixels Penmanship Kit and Grungy Grocery Bag Papers

This week Emily is releasing two kits. The penmanship kit is such a fun kit. As promised, here is one of the layouts I did of the band kids playing in the park. They had a great time playing on the play structure, swinging, going on the zipline and rock climbing.

This layout is of my kindergarten class. Can you find me in the picture? Okay, maybe those of you that didn't know me at age 5 need a little help. I'm in the second row, second from the left with my hands on my knees. Not sure what I was thinking when I posed that way for the picture.

I used one of the grungy grocery bag papers and the penmanship kit to make this layout of my mom and her siblings on their farm growing up. I loved the milk and cream elements and thought it went well with the pictures of my uncle and his calf, Buttercup, and my mom carrying the milk cans out to the road to be picked up by the milkman.

Jazz Unlimited Competition

I went to Pasco, Washington Friday and Saturday to chaperone the band trip there. We had 240 band students from three concert bands and two jazz bands going to compete in the competition. I went on this trip with Chris two years ago and swore I wouldn't do it again--the kids got a little out of hand at times--but my sentimental feelings of being the last time I would be able to chaperone a school trip won out and I'm glad I went. The kids were as well behaved as you could expect a group of high school students and they did a really good job in the competition. It was a long weekend though. We had to be at school at 0430 on Friday morning and got home about 2330 Saturday night. It is a four hour bus ride there. Fortunately we chartered buses and didn't have to ride on school buses.

While we were there, we took the opportunity to take a picture of the whole band and the seniors. A funny story was there was an elderly Japanese gentleman with a camera around his neck that kept trying to get into the pictures. He actually is in the picture with the entire band. When it came to taking a picture of the seniors though, we needed to get someone to help him out of the picture.

The concert band performances were on Friday. We made it just in time for the Concert Band to warmup and perform. So the kids were busy trying to get into their uniforms on the bus so they could make it in time. Then we listened to other high school bands as well as the Symphonic Band and the Wind Ensemble the rest of the day. There were 34 concert bands that participated in the festival. The Symphonic Band and the Wind Ensemble both got gold division awards in their respective divisions.

That evening, we went to a jazz concert that is part of the Jazz Unlimited Festival and heard the Columbia Basin College Jazz Ensemble and Wayne Bergeron-the guest artist trumpet player-play with the Columbia Basin Jazz Orchestra. His claim to fame is playing trumpet on the soundtrack for the movie, "Cars", as well as a lot of other TV and movie soundtracks. It was a very nice concert.

The jazz competition was on Saturday. There were 55 middle school and high school jazz bands competing so it was a very busy day. The competition was stiff. We often commented that we wouldn't want to be the judges and choose the winners of the awards. I spent all afternoon listening to various high school jazz bands. Then we listened to the Columbia Basin College Jazz Ensemble while we waited for all the scores to be tabulated and anxiously waited to see who was going to win the awards. It was very exciting for Mountain View. Jazz Band II won third place in the 3A Division. Jazz Band I got first place in the 4A Division and also won the best saxophone and trombone section awards. The band also won the 4A Outstanding Band Program award for the combination of the Wind Ensemble and Jazz Band I scores. It was a very successful weekend for the entire band.

We spent Saturday morning playing in the park next to our hotel in Richland. It is along the Columbia River and is in a beautiful setting. It also has a great playground area. The teenagers turn into little kids at the playground and kind of made it hard for the real little kids to play there. But they had a lot of fun for the hour and a half that they spent there. There will be more layouts coming of our time in the park so be on the look out for those in the next week or so.

All in all is was a great weekend but I am glad to be back home to some quiet after all the teenage chatter and music.

(The Polka Dot Pixels kit used in these layouts is called the Mercantile kit.)

The New Polka Dot Pixels Creative Team Member

I got some really good news recently. I applied to be on a creative team for a digital scrapbooking design company called Polka Dot Pixels. What that means for those of you that aren't into digital scrapbooking is that I will get access to the scrapbooking kits that Emily designs before they go on sale, create layouts with the kit, and then post them to help her advertise and sell them. I was so excited when she asked me to be on her team. Many of her kits have a lot of vintage elements to them so they really appeal to me and go well with a lot of my heritage photos as well. So my blog will have some space devoted to showing off these layouts every week as well as what the current news from our family is. So I may be bringing back some pictures from the archives in order to get my assignments accomplished. I hope you will enjoy seeing them. Even if it means that you are seeing the pictures again in a new layout.

This week's release is called "Stitch in Time". The first layout features pictures of a vintage fashion show that I went to with our friend, Cindy, last year about this time. It was a really fun evening seeing all the beautiful old dresses, jewelry, hats and purses that each model brought out. And there was musical entertainment by Tony Starlight himself (the owner of the club that the show was at). He sang a lot of old Sinatra tunes and other songs from that era.

This layout is of my dad's aunt, Ruby. I have always loved this picture of her with such a fashionable outfit and hat. She owned a millinery shop in Elroy. Not sure if that is why she has such a fancy hat or if the picture was taken before that time but this is a real favorite of my heritage pictures of the Dodsworth family. And all these vintage sewing elements really work well with it.

This layout is actually of brand new pictures. My friend, Krystal, moved to Florida a few years ago and I miss her very much. After my surgery in December, she decided to make a quilt for me. She felt so badly for being so far from me when I was feeling so poorly. It took her awhile to find someone to do the quilting and to finish it but I got it in the mail a few weeks ago and absolutely love it. She picked the fabrics because they remind her of me and the colors I wear. And the tag she sewed onto the back of the quilt is so sweet as well. It reads: "Presented to my good friend, Shannon Roller, March 2011. I am sending you this quilt so you can wrap yourself in hugs anytime you need one. Fondly, Krystal." Such a beautiful and precious gift. And a precious friend to put so much time, thought and love into such a beautiful gift for me.

Scrapbooking My Heritage

I really should be cleaning. That being said--I have been doing some more scrapbooking today. I got another kit or two that I have been working on. Some I will share later as they aren't quite ready for prime time but will be in the next week or so. I have been eying one of the kits for a few weeks now. It is a Mercantile kit designed by Polka Dot Pixels and it is absolutely perfect for this picture of my grandfather and great grandfather from 100 years ago. So I decided to redo the original one.

Henry Dodsworth opened a grocery store in the 1880's in Elroy, Wisconsin. I have seen internet posts from Juneau County that state "H.C. Dodsworth-Grocer and Bakery". At some point his brother-in-law, John Britt, must have become a partner in the business because I have also seen an advertisement from 1906 that calls the business--Dodsworth and Britt-Leading Grocers. My grandpa, Lee, followed his father's footsteps and also went into the grocery business running A and P stores in Kenosha and Tomah, Wisconsin.

This photo was given to me about 10 years ago by my father. It stirred all sorts of feelings in me and made me want to look into my family history more. It was a huge undertaking--trying to learn more about my family and then creating both paper and later digital scrapbooks from the pictures I was able to find and the stories that I learned. But I am so proud of what I have accomplished in finding out and only wish that I could learn more real stories about the family instead of dates of birth, death and marriage which is all I could find out about for many of my ancestors. I am so happy to have this wonderful picture that started me on that journey.

Scrapbooking Weekend

I have spent a lot of time scrapbooking today. I had the house to myself for most of the day. While Bill, Chris and Beverly went to the Met in HD today, I was enjoying using a new scrapbooking kit that I acquired. Polka Dot Pixels came out with an Easter kit this last week. And being that I am a sucker for anything related to bunnies, I spent some time scrapbooking. I found a picture of of Sherrill and me in our Easter outfits and Sherrill sitting on a bunny, Mallory from her first Easter and of course, a picture of our Ranger. Fun spending time doing something I love so much today. Here is what I worked on.

Found Ourselves in Hot Water

Bill and I have enjoyed going to Bonneville Hot Springs for almost ten years now. At first, we went about once a year but it has been several years since we have gone. It ends up being a bit of a spendy weekend once you figure in a night of lodging, eating dinner and using the spa facilities. So it truly is a treat to ourselves when we go. A group of people from our flying club decided to go this weekend so we thought we would take advantage of spending time with them and going there for a spa weekend. We drove out to North Bonneville on Highway 14--a two lane highway along the Columbia River. It is a prettier drive through the gorge than going on I-84 on the Oregon side (although I love both for different reasons). We had two o'clock massage appointments. Then had dinner with 22 of our friends from CAA. It was Anita Davis' birthday so we celebrated with birthday cake as well. Then this morning, I wanted to spend a little time in the hot tub. I like the one outside in the courtyard. We had a great relaxing weekend.