A Fav Quote

"The easiest way to simplify life is to always put God at the center, and even the character building bumps along the way go smoothly."

Ebony and Ivory in Perfect Harmony! :-)

ABOVE:  Video

BELOW:  Candid Shots

I am so excited.  For the first time in a long time I'm back in the saddle of taking piano lessons.  I took them as a kid from age 7 to age 13, and then later in my late teens and early 20's; and now it's a blessing to be able to have the opportunity to grow in this again.  Elyssia L. is so willing to teach me and I can already tell what an excellent teacher she is. I should be embarrassed, but for the first time I finally used one of the BFMH practice rooms for the piano lessons on the AC campus.  It's like a whole other world in there.  :-)  It will take a lot of practicing at home outside of  "class time" to chip away the rust to restore the shiny state underneath, but it should be well worth the effort. It will probably be a lot more "fun" to practice with my ipad instead of loose sheet music as that will be new to me this time around. The first "homework' assignment that I was given for this week is 4 pieces to learn.  They aren't too complicated, but I will have to learn them in 7 days.  The plan is for me to become a better skilled sight reader. They may not be living right now, but Bach, Mozart, Chopin, and Kabalevsky will keep me busy this week.  The plan is to keep a piano update on my blog every week.  I'm sure I'll miss a time or so in keeping updates, but it will be neat to see what progress is being made.

 



CCoatsOfManyColours! Crochet Design

Here is the second CCoatsOfManyColours! original crochet design "off the hook." Below is a matching cowl and cocoon set.  More details can be found on my Etsy Shop.

Just copy and paste the link below. 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/CCoatsOfManyColours?ref=hdr_shop_menu

Above are photos of just the cowl.  BELOW are photos of the cowl with the cocoon added.  You can wear the cocoon as shown below leaving the face out and covering the front and back of neck and covering the hair.

 Or when it's blustery outside you can wear the cocoon to cover the face as well as shown below.

A Fun Ladies Night

 Thanks to Mrs. Olivia C. for hosting a small "ladies night" at her place while some of the men were in club.  Everyone contributed to the dinner and we watched a movie that was about 98% accurate on the story of Esther.  Fun times!

ABOVE:  My sis in law Sonia, Olivia herself :-), and Jenny T.

BELOW:  I might get hit for posting this pic but I love it.  It's too classic to let go to waste.  Jennifer V. looks very shocked that I am taking a picture of her.  We were roommies back in the day before she married Olivia's brother David, and both she and David can tell you I was their personal paparazzi, so she learned last night that things haven't changed over the years.  :-)

 The food.  My sis in law's salad rocked.  It was a pineapple based salad with pineapple in it and a homemade pineapple dressing.  Olivia's chicken was yummy.  Thanks to Sarah C. for giving the recipe to her sis in law.  OC rocked it out!  :-)  My cake below.  A simple strawberry/cranberry cake.  My attempt to jazz it up was the gold sugar dusting and the crazy frosting on top.  Ladies night fun!

 Oh, not to forget the fire in the Culpepper's lovely wood burning stove keeping us ladies nice, cozy, and warm.

Meeting Little Mary Brown

Beautiful Sisters

beautiful sisters!

Breann and Katherine are so sweet.  It was nice to spend time with Breann who was visiting and to spend time with my lovely little sister, Katherine.  Their company made for a lovely evening. 

A Fav Quote

A Few Candid Photos from the Min/Staff Dinner 2016

 It was such a blessing, once again, to be able to attend the ministers and staff dinner of the mincon this year.  The dinners get better every year.  I try to never take things for granted though I'm sure I do being human, but what a blessing it has been to attend these.  I'm definitely not a big shot, more like a little shot, literally...I'm short.  :-)!  Here are a few of my little candid pics that I shot.  These are definitely not official or anything, just shot them for fun and for memory sake.  Sharing the joy!  :-)

ABOVE:  The lovely table in which it was such an honor to sit; the Culpeppers, Malone's, Mr. Wire, Mr. Symons, and sweet Jessie Beezley.  We had some great conversation and also threw in a little humor as well.  My fav fun saying of the night at my table...."If men are steel and velvet, what are women?"  I said "silk" in a question form thinking of fabric, but Mrs. Culpepper had the best answer...."fascinating!"  A+  :-)  (Thanks to Justin Goodearl for taking the above table shot. :-)  )

BELOW:  Posing with Mr. Wire.  This pic is special b/c going all the way back to when my dad was baptized in the 70's back when he was single, Mr. Wire was the minister who actually baptized my dad and he's still around and serving!  Obviously, I'm here by God, but Mr. Wire was the human instrument that started the Coats family journey on into eternity.  :-)

 BELOW:  The bro and sis in law.  Looks like they found a baby sitter for Sophia.  That can be hard when so many other people were in attendance and probably looking for babysitters themselves.

 The Culpepper's went all out with the decor.  They covered the backs to every chair.  I know from experience in helping with weddings etc that, that takes A LOT of time.

 Mr. and Mrs. Calvin and Olivia Culpepper put together the dinner theme and setup for the evening and I have to say that I've been friends with them for a long time, but never realized how talented they were in "party planning" so to speak.  This was one of the best dinners ever.  They put together the below invitations which were really the quality of a wedding invitation.  Amazed and proud of my friends.  :-)  The decor shown in earlier pics was great as well!

 WOW! is a good word for the menu that was definitely fit for royalty.  I don't remember ever having a meal that had two main courses.  That was a blessing that isn't taken for granted.  At first I was thinking, how to save room for so much food, but it was proportioned out perfectly.  We discussed at our table how blessed we are here with food in abundance even though the prices may be getting higher, we're still so blessed.  After our conversation last night it makes me want to try harder to be conscious of that blessing and not be wasteful.

 BELOW:  Getting more up close and personal with the trout.  :-)

 and the beef course was so yummy.

 The Krueger's and the students were so wonderful.  I didn't even say anything as I'm nothing special and would never ask for special favors, but they thought of little ole me and made sure no cheese was on anything that I was served on any of the food, and I got a "special" dessert.  ABOVE:  everyone was served a ice cream parfait type dessert and I was served BELOW pureed frozen raspberries.  Wow!  I definitely didn't deserve that, but it was definitely appreciated. Mr. Malone wins the award for best pun for my dessert..."Berry good"  ;-)