Catching Up.....

A few topics fell through the cracks when they happened and I didn't write about them so will not catch up....
 
Precious Moments Chapel: You have probably seen the Precious Moments figurines over the years and may even have some.

In Carthage, MO there is a "theme park" run by the company that started them and continues to make and sell the figurines of children.  Parts of the park have been shut down but the Chapel, gift shop and a few other areas remain. My nieces and I went  by there when were down near there for Memorial Day. It had been many, many years since I have been to the park and chapel. The founder and creator of the figurines in 1985 was Samuel J. Butcher, a former janitor. The Chapel was inspired by the Sistine Chapel in Rome. Its interior has been painted by Butcher with biblical murals and frescoes -- not Michelangelo masterpieces, but cartoon art populated with the  Precious Moments children. Sam spent four years painting the chapel, then opened it to the public.  If you take the tour, the guide tells the story behind Sam's labors: how he spent more than 500 hours on his back atop a 35-foot-high scaffold painting 75 baby angels on the ceiling. To me, the stained glass windows were very impressive. There are 15 of them in the chapel. Some of them contain over 1,200 individual glass pieces and were made and hand leaded in Redding, CA. Each of the stained glass windows represent a portion of the 23rd Psalms. The one below on the top right is "He maketh me lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters."

 

Exhibit at the Nelson Art Museum: When Nancy was here visiting last month from Tucson, we spent a day at the museum. They have a special exhibit this summer titled Roads of Arabia: Archaeology and History of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Roads of Arabia is an unprecedented assembly of more than 200 recently excavated objects, which have not been seen outside of Saudi Arabia until 2010. It was very interesting to look at all the stuff but I was fascinated with a special computer at the end of the tour. I typed my name in and it spit out a sheet, with my name on it in Arabic characters that can be used as a bookmark.  Pretty cool.....