Taylor/Strand Wedding

Last night the Pearl Strings played for the wedding of Jen's (our bandmate) son, Josh. It was a very cool location in an old barn outside Mt. Airy. Reagan was at girls' camp, so Ed filled in for us on the bass!

Helen and I played prelude and the wedding processional music. I'll miss playing with Helen! She played violin for all this, although she was a viola player when we met. She's been playing with the band so long she is just as comfortable on the violin now as the viola!

There was some very heavy rain on the way over, but it stopped raining in time for everyone to enjoy the ceremony and the cool breeze that lowered the temperature to a comfortable level!

Congratulations to Josh and Jen. They looked so happy! Good luck to the Taylor family with two Jens in the family now!

Last Night at Book Club

Monday night was my last night at the Book it Sisters Book Club. Anna (in orange) hosted it and we talked about Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup. It was a hard book to read, as the subject matter is so painful. It is horrible hearing how inhumanely slaves were treated, not to mention that they were slaves at all! 

It was fun meeting with these ladies for the past year and a half! We've read 25 books, and shared 25 meals together! During that time we've laughed and cried and shared our own stories with one another. That's what book club is really about!

For our review of Twelve Years a Slave, see: http://bookitsisters.com/twelve-years-a-slave/

Does Your Weight Watcher Leader have Chickens?

Every month we have a drawing at the end of Weight Watchers for various giveaways. This week I was the really happy winner of a dozen eggs from Deb's chickens! They are a beautiful assortment of colors. I almost hate to crack them! Since next week is my last meeting with this group of ladies, it felt like a memorable way to remember a wonderful weight loss journey we've taken together!

Sykesville Freedom Festival

This is our seventh summer in Sykesville, and the first time we've made it over to the Sykesville Freedom Fire Department Carnaval! On Friday we dropped by to check out the Festival.  It was fun to see how they fit all that excitement on an empty field!

We passed on the rides, but had a sampling of the food, including these funnel cakes that were even better the next day! They were much larger than we expected, and we enjoyed the leftovers on Saturday!

Penultimate Gig

The Pearl Strings had their second to last gig yesterday at Springfield Hospital. It was a fun warm-up to our last gig in the Bush backyard on July 3rd at 6 p.m. (Everyone welcome to come!)

We played:

Sloop John B

I Got the Sun in the Morning

Tell Me True

Carpool Lane

Ash Grove

Happy Place

Mr. Sandman

Morning Bird – Forest Sun

Celtic Hymn Medley

Blue Skies

Homeward Bound

Two of our favorite songs, Carpool Lane and Happy Place were written by band members, Judy and Jen.

Afterwards we met at Panera, our favorite place to rehash our glory! (or talk about our mistakes). We missed Helen, who had to go home and clean house for company coming!

Reagan brought her kids, as it was summer and school is out! They were good as gold at sat at their own table. I wonder what they were talking about!

Sassy Caps and Sassy Ladies

Our Relief Society is making Sassy caps for cancer patients, and since I missed the first two training sessions, Beverly had a special evening just to show me how to make one. I didn't quite finish, but loved making it, because you could visit at the same time as knit! It was especially fun, because Kaylene and Mickey dropped by to make caps, as well. They were old pros and were able to share some tips with me as we knitted. I'm glad I'm going to be taking a new skill with me to Utah!

Thanks, Beverly, for all your hard work!

Dinner with the Flynns

It was fun meeting the Flynns for dinner last night at Shannons in Ellicott City. Debra was Ed's admin, and we appreciate it that they make an attempt to stay in contact with us still! They are also looking forward to retiring this year. Debra has 28 more days, but who's counting? We think with their nice beach house in Delaware, they're going to be very content!