Plastic Thunder Big Wheel Rally

Following the recital on Sunday, Memorial Day marked the first official Big Wheel "Plastic Thunder" Race, an event that was thought up by Dan and hosted at our friend's home in Cross Roads Farm/Harrisonburg. It was a huge hit!

Nia's Dance Recital

There was all sorts of excitement this past weekend. On Sunday, Virginia performed in her first dance recital along with cousins Miriam and Emma. They were adorable!

Old House Blues

Why is it that every time Dan goes out of town, one of our household appliances fails me? Just a couple of months ago while Dan was ice climbing in New Hampshire, our heater went caput....and we were very, very cold. This weekend he had a caving group over in Highland County and our hot water heater went on the fritz.....just when I REALLY wanted a nice, hot shower. I decided to take matters into my own hands (since I really had no other choice.) I hopped out of the shower and trudged down to the dark, cold basement. I gave myself a quick tutorial on hot water heaters, thanks to the owners manual that was so handily attached to the device. Armed with a flashlight and screw driver, I proceeded to turn the hot water temperature up another ten degrees. Back upstairs I went....with the kids naptime countdown clock ticking....for attempt #2 at a hot shower. No luck. I slid into my warm slippers, threw a towel around me and huffed back down to the basement. I figured this time if my handyman skills didn't fix it, I was out of luck. So back upstairs I went for shower attempt #3. Forget about it. The kids desperately needed to be bathed this evening as well, so I decided to do things the old fashioned way. I boiled a large pot of water which was then poured into the cold bathwater......a slight improvement. While we may still be cold, we are at least clean! Oh....perhaps I should also mention that earlier this week we ran out of water in our cistern, so I was without water for about 24 hours or so. Such is life in an old farm house!

Jozin z Bazin

Oh my goodness.....these videos are hilarious!

blurb.com

I recently switched our blog site to blogger.com. Because I needed to cancel my Typepad site, I was going to have delete all of my previous posts, pictures, etc. Somewhere along the way, I had noticed a website that gave me the option to transfer my blog posts into book form, www.blurb.com. I logged on to the site and it immediately gave me the option to upload my Typepad blog into blurb.com to create the book. Within 10 minutes, I had all of my blog data and pictures on the website in book form. I then took the next couple of days to sharpen it up, edit the fonts and style and add in some more pictures. I just received the finished 7x7 hard cover book with personalized dust jacket and all. It's perfect! The price was also reasonable. My 85 page hard cover book was about $30.

This now gives me motivation to continue blogging! As most of you know, I have a terrible memory so this is the perfect way for me to order my memories and eventually turn this blog into another book. That way, even if no one is actually reading my blog ramblings (which....if you are....thanks!) it still gives me a reason to continue with the updates.

Long live the Chronicles of Velker!

Happy Birthday Dan and Nia!

Last week we piled into the 'ol motorhome and meandered our way up to Skyline Drive for a sunset picnic to celebrate Dan's birthday.















This week we celebrated Virginia's 4th Birthday. She insisted that we celebrate at Pump it Up. It was a blast! We then drove over to a nearby park for a picnic and cupcakes.