What can I say.....I'm a joiner!

We have a break in the regularly scheduled travel updates.  Okay, I know I've only posted one and I'm about to leave on my third trip of the month but this is a completely different subject matter.

So, I wanted to announce that I'm joining up with some pretty amazing bloggers for a Sew Scrap Along.





Jodi Nelson from Pleasant Home blog fame is hosting a scrappy sew along and I have joined up.  I just know I have told you more than once that scrappy quilts are my ALL-TIME FAVORITES of any quilts out there.  So this is right up my alley!!

Now we all know that Christmas (sorry Anna, I used the "C" word) is right around the corner so I really don't have time to start 4 or 5 new projects but how can I refuse when I LOVE scrappy quilts?  I Can't!!  So we are off.  If you are a quilter I would invite you to join us and join in all the scrappy fun we will be having over the next few weeks.  If you aren't then you can just watch as we sew up some scrappy goodness, or at least start a few more UFO's to feel guilty about.

Thanks for stopping by.  Now we return to our regularly scheduled travel blogging(maybe).

October

I am so excited about October.  Not only is it probably my favorite month of the year due to all the beautiful changes God brings to pass with the onset of autumn but this October is going to be a month of travel for me.  As I have mentioned before, I LOVE to travel.  The excitement of making a list of all I will need for the upcoming trip and preparing everything then actually getting in the car to drive, drive, drive or even driving to the airport and hopping on a plane is almost as exciting as the trip itself.  ALMOST.  For the past couple of months I have been planning four, yes you heard me right, FOUR trips, three of which will take place this month.

I have, in fact, just returned from a long weekend trip to Spokane, WA to visit our baby girl who is attending Moody Bible Institute there.  It was my first trip to the state of Washington.  What I saw of it was really great.  We had beautiful weather all but one day and even then it wasn't that bad.  I was able to spend lots of time catching up with our sweet girl and also meeting and getting to know her house mates and other friends.  I was able to tour her school(and attend Friday chapel), which is really just a church that shares it's space with the college since there are less than 500 total students at this campus.  Many of the students are aviation students who meet for many of their classes at another location called "The Hanger".  I didn't see that facility.  The photo below is the church/school as seen from her front yard.  I love that she can walk to school!!!

Spokane has a really amazing downtown area.  The river runs right through the middle of town with the falls providing much of their energy.  The park downtown is great with so many different areas to explore.  The photos below are of Hannah with the Clock Tower in the background(and, yes, she did "steal" the flower from one of the many beautiful planters downtown); the falls, the wagon, and the runners sculptures.  I didn't make it over by the wagon and was really disappointed but we passed it several times in the car on our way to the parking area for the park.

What a great, great time I had!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Oh, you want to know about the other THREE trips I am planning.   Well, you will just have to come back by later.  This post is long enough.  HeHeHe!!

Donna

Free to a Good Home!!

REASON:
Caught eating a dead bird on the cutting table in my sewing room!!

Eeeeewwwwww!!!

Speaking Out about Loss

Wow!!  Here it is September 1st.  I love fall!!!  Not that it feels too much like fall yet but I love the changing colors of the leaves and the cool, crisp fall temperatures where you can turn off the a/c and enjoy the fresh air blowing through the open windows; having to add an extra blanket to the bed because you won't close the windows at night; having to switch out wardrobes because now you need sweaters and long-sleeves.  I just love fall!!!

So much has been going on around here this past "silent" six weeks.  A dear friend reminded me recently that I still have a blog that needs updating (Hey, Lynn.  Love ya and miss you guys bunches!) so I thought I would try jumping back in.  I have encountered a great deal of loss this past nine months.  I guess I'm not dealing with it all very well.  

December 17th, 2009 my sweet grandmother left this world to join my grandfather in heaven.  They both hold such a special  place in my heart.  Some of you longtime readers may remember the quilt I made commemorating her 90th birthday.  I'm so glad I finally got it finished and to her.  She was so proud of that quilt and the fact that I had made it.  She was one of my greatest cheerleaders!!  
Each block on the quilt held a signature of friends who attended her 90th birthday party.  What a sweet time that was.  I'm so glad I got to spend so much time with her the last couple of months of her life.  I miss her terribly.

In June, I was so excited to be able to join dear friends from our time living in Illinois at Myrtle Beach for a week.  What a great time that was just relaxing on the beach, at the pool or at the many of the wonderful restaurants in Myrtle Beach.  During my trip, though, our sweet dog Scout, who had been sick for a while, took a turn for the worse and died.  Now I know many would say that he was just a dog but that's not the way we see things at our house.  The pets we have (the MANY pets we have) are really members of our family.  We take them quite seriously here.  It was a real heartbreak not to be able to say goodbye to him.  We "rescued" Scout in December, 2003 and he was such a good dog.  He is missed.

July 22 brought not quite so permanent a loss but a loss, nonetheless.  Our baby girl left to go off to college.  The problem is that she is clear over on the other side of the country in Spokane, WA.  It's not like I can just jump in my little car and go see her on the spur of the moment or that she can even come home for a weekend visit!!  Her leaving brings us an empty nest.  We are so proud of her and are cheering her on whole-heartedly but, man, what an adjustment this is.  So many have told me that when we do finally adjust, we will love it but at this point I'm still not so sure about that.  I have kids spread out all over this country and, just so you know, this mama isn't so happy about that!  I REALLY miss my kids!!

So sorry this post has been such a downer.  I'm just keeping it real and letting you see what's been going on inside and why, I think, I have been so quiet on the blogging.  I do hope to get back to it on a regular basis(Lynn!!) so that you can keep up with my boring little life.  HaHa!!  Excitement I don't need.  Calm would be nice!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Summer Squash and a Murder Mystery

What do you get when you cross two prolific summer squash plants with a murder mystery?  Here at my house we got cookies!!  Let me explain......

I just finished reading Apple Turnover Murder by JoAnna Fluke.  It is a cozy mystery whose main character Hannah Swenson owns a cookie shop in Small Town, MN.  I love cozy mysteries - no sex, foul language, or blood and guts!  The author always includes recipes used by Hannah in her shop.  They always sounded so mouth watering but until yesterday I had not tried any of the recipes.

Here's where my yellow squash plants enter into the story.  In this book there is a recipe for Rose's Zucchini Cookies.  Now, we didn't grow any zucchini because we couldn't find any to plant last spring but our two little yellow squash plants have given us MORE than enough squash.  I thought, What could it hurt?  We have eaten squash almost every way you can imagine so why not in cookies? 

They are delicious!  Granted, it doesn't hurt that they include pecans and chocolate chips in the recipe.  They are so soft and chewy.  Who knew I could get in my 5 fruits and vegetables each day by eating cookies!!  Yummy!!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Spicy Doin's Round Here, Ya'll

Another week has come and gone.  We have been busy.  Besides all the normal happenings of life and gardening, we have been preparing to send our youngest off to college in a few weeks.  Very bittersweet days!!  And, since I don't want to cry all over you I will move onto another happier subject.

Our garden is doing so well.  We are just so excited about the bounty! I spent yesterday afternoon canning jalapenos.  Yes, jalapenos.  We are native Texans, you know!!  I guess it's true what they say...You might take the girl out of Texas but you'll never take the Texas out of the girl. 

So many jalapenos but that's okay because we eat alot of them.

After slicing up all those little peppers, I filled four pint jars full of them along with a vinegar brine to pickle them.  I then put them in a water bath for 10 minutes and out they came.  They will have to set up for about six weeks before we can eat them.  I expect to be able to get at least 4 more pints of peppers put up with the way out plants are producing.  If only the tomatoes would ripen we could have homemade salsa.  Now we're talking!!!

And, I think I forgot to tell you that a couple of weeks ago I spent one afternoon canning 18 half-pints of  homemade strawberry jam.  It didn't have to set up and we are really enjoying it!!

I'm really enjoying the new sewing machine.  The knee lift for the pressure foot is great for speeding along on chain piecing.  Soooo much more to learn!! 

Thanks for stopping by!!

Our Weekend

I hope you had a great July 4th weekend.  We didn't do much different than any other weekend but it was nice having Bill home on Monday (or at least until he got a call to go play golf for the afternoon!!).  We grilled out Saturday night and it was scrumptious, especially since the squash and green beans came out of our own garden.  We were so excited!!! 

YUMM-O!!!












It took me three whole days to gather enough nerve to actually plug my new Janome into the wall and turn it on.  After reading the instruction manual Friday afternoon, I had myself convinced that a Janome rep would need to come live with us if I was ever going to use the machine.  Since that was not remotely a possibility, I convinced myself that come Monday I would venture over to the sewing shop and ask for lessons.  I chickened out!!  So again, I grabbed the intimidating instruction manual, moved my little Singer off the sewing table and plugged in the electrical cord, the foot petal and even the knee lift bar.  Good to go!!!  I mustered up the courage to flip the little on/off switch and Woo Hoo..you should have heard all the little beeps!!!

So, I thought, "so far, so good!  Surely I can figure out how to thread the bobbin and then thread the machine."  And, what do you know, I did it!!  (Thanks to the step by step instructions with illustrations, I might add.  Have I ever told you I'm a visual learner??)  Well, next think I knew I was sewing along piecing some blocks and sewing on borders and today I finished up my 2008 (yes, that's not a typo - 2008) Thimbleberries Lodge quilt top. 

That's Rudy, our daughter's border collie, guarding the top from the wind so I could get a picture. 
One UFO down (that's unfinished object for you non-quilting readers) and a couple more tops to go.  Then I'm going to have to get brave again and learn how to quilt with my new machine since I told Bill that's the main reason I needed the new machine.  I can't even begin to tell you how many tops I have to finish up with the quilting and binding but I've decided that July and August are going to be FIU (yes, that's finish it up, non-quilters) months here. 

I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Thanks for stopping by!!

Birthdays

My birthday was last week.  Besides having to work, Bill,Hannah and I celebrated at Buffalo Wild Wings.  A pretty uneventful birthday EXCEPT.....I found out that my husband is a poet.  Here's the birthday poem he wrote in my card.

Ja No Me Better Than Anyone
Ja Luv Me Like No Other
Ja No My Faults
Ja No My Strengths
Ja No Me
Janome - Buy It!!

And you better believe, I did!!!   It arrived today.  Brown showed up and left me this!

Now I just have to figure out how to use the thing!!

Thanks for stopping by!!

Garden Revisited

         In May, I wrote about our hopes to have a garden that actually produces more than frustration.

So after Bill's hard work at tilling the garden plot.  I jumped in the van and did the easy work of buying the plants.

Then he did the hard work again and got all these into the ground along with some sweet corn.

God watered the garden for us yesterday and as you can see from the standing water He did a great job of it.  I, however, didn't want to slop out in the mud so I took this picture of our little garden plot from the deck.  Don't pay any attention to the acres of corn planted behind it.  That belongs to the farmers next door!!

And here are the first fruits(or veggies, LOL) from the garden.  Not enough for a good pot of beans yet but hopefully in the next day or so more will be ready and we can have some fresh from the garden beans.  Nothing else is ready to be harvested but it looks like we may actually have a producing garden for the first time in our gardening experience. 

Thanks for stopping by!! 

Myrtle Beach Revisited

Since Monday is usually laundry day here I thought while that was going on I would update all my readers (all 2 of you!! LOL) on what's been happening this past month.  June has been busy and I have some wonderful news to share but that will have to wait for another day!!  (It deserves it's own post!)

As you can see by the last post, I spent a week at Myrtle Beach with precious friends from our time living in Illinois.  I had a great time just chilling at the beach and by the pool reading, reading and reading some more.  And then there was the food!!!  Oh, my!!!!  We, of course, had seafood at both Joe's Crab Shack and Landrys.

This picture is blackened tilapia topped with etoufee, fried shrimp and barbeque shrimp I ordered at Joe's Crab Shack.  Oh, my my my my, was it ever good!!  But I have to say that my favorite restaurant was Myabi, a Japanese steak house.  It is not just gooooood food(and lots of it), it is also quite a show.

This is the volcano he made out of onion rings.  It was a really fun evening spent with special friends.

Thanks for stopping by!! 
(Sorry for the poor picture quality.  They were all taken with my phone.)

Memorial Day celebrated at Myrtle Beach

Life leads us down so many pathes. As I sat in church this morning at First Baptist Church North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, I was reminded of the sacrifices made by so many that I could attend this very service. How grateful to them and especially to God I am for this freedom we take so for granted.

As I sat in church with dear friends from our seven years spent in Illinois, my thoughts were on a dear friend from our time now spent in Lima, Ohio. She is a precious lady who continues to be one who challenges me daily to "remember" the things of God and the pathes He guides us down. The pastor this morning spoke on "Stones of Remembrance". I know he was taking that subject because of Memorial Day but it is a topic I have been pondering this past couple of weeks because of my sweet friend Kathy's blog. She has reminded me lately of the many times the Bible speaks of remembrances.

Memorials were set up to recall divine visitations so that others might learn about God when they would ask, 'What do these stones mean?' (Joshua 4:6 - The Bible Knowledge Commentary) Divine visitations - isn't that a great thought? That the Creator of this grand universe would set up a time to meet with me? Wow!!

But the most prevalent use of "remembrance" in the Bible is the command to remember the Lord and His mighty deeds. As I spent the afternoon gazing out on the beautiful ocean and the amazing beauty, the precision of the tides, the wonderful sun, how could I not remember the God who made it all and who takes the time to meet me where I am and to love me unconditionally through it all. I stand amazed!!

(Photo not mine. It was taken from tripadvisor.com website. Hopefully, some of mine will follow soon.)

Thanks for stopping by!!

Happy Mother's Day

My heart is so full this weekend. So full it keeps leaking out of my tear ducts. I'm not sure if it's because of Mother's Day or not but I will put the blame there, nonetheless. My kids are all now grown. That is really bittersweet to me right now. I love being a mom. It has been the joy of my life!

I have never been one to set goals for myself. I have always struggled with that when made to put goals on paper. I know it's said if you aim at nothing that is what you will hit. BUT, I can tell you that my one and only stated life goal was to be a wife and mom. Thankfully, I have had the privilege of achieving that goal for the past 25 years. I consider it a privilege to have been able to stay at home raising our children. I know we did without many things for that to happen but what a blessing it was.

So many changes have come in the past few years and, I know, many more are yet to come. In July, we take our baby off to Washington state for college. We will then officially be empty nesters with children from coast to coast and one right in the middle of this large country. Something tells me that my frequent flyer miles are going to go up far more quickly in the months to come.

I do love the fact, however, that later this year I will also become a mother-in-law. I'll be sharing a lot more about that as the date draws nearer. It is going to be a real fun time.

But before I close, I would be remiss if I didn't mention what a great mother I have. She has been such an encourager to me. She is such a strong woman and I love the fact that we are so close. I just wish we lived closer to each other. Here she is just a couple of weeks ago on a trail ride with some of her friends. I love you, Mom!! Happy Mother's Day!!!

And to Michael, Adam and Hannah....You mean the world to me!! I am so proud of who you are and who you are becoming. I love you with all that I am.

One More Try

This little plot of land has been sitting idle the three years we have lived here. I'm sure it's where the previous owner's had grown a very prolific garden. We have talked about using the space since we got here but, you see, we have never had very good luck with gardens.

In fact, you could very honestly say, we have had very bad luck with gardening. The first time we tried we were still living in Houston and had a draught you would not believe. Of course, everything died no matter how much we watered. The next year, still in Houston, we had floods and AGAIN everything died. So we gave up.

We even tried again after we had moved to another house in Houston but had no luck again. We decided it was much easier to buy vegetables at the grocery store!!

If you blow this picture up you will see that my sweet hubby is sticking his tongue out at me. I guess he didn't like me standing around taking pictures while he was working so hard. Go figure!!

Well, we are going to give it one more try!! We are hoping that this nice Ohio weather will be better for garden novices. We (that would be HE) tilled up the rich dark soil that looks very fertile (at least to us). He has gotten the rows all ready for the planting. And now, I'm off for the easy part.....the garden center to buy the plants.

So, if you would, say a prayer for our gardening efforts and come back soon to check in on our new adventure!!

Sweet Sunshine

The past two days have been really beautiful here. We won't mention the vicious lightning storm we had last night!! Such sweet sunshine and temps in the low 70's. I have been sitting out on the back deck reading and getting some much needed sun.

I just love these little johnny jump-ups. I'm so glad they come back every spring. The colors are just beautiful. Wouldn't that combination of purple and yellow make a gorgeous quilt? Hmm, I might just have to think about that. As if I need another project!!! I have so many WIPs (Works in Progress - for all you non-quilters). They have been weighing heavy on my mind lately. Just not heavy enough to get me back into my sewing room and get them finished up.

Now, where did I lay my book?????

I miss my boys!!!

I have really been missing my boys lately. I haven't seen either of them in quite some time. I REALLY need to go visit them SOON. Problem is, they don't even live in the same state as we do.

This is our eldest son with his fiancee. She has just been sworn in as a lawyer for the state of Florida in this picture. We are so proud of her!! They are going to be married this October. Aren't they are cute couple?

This is our other son with his sweet girlfriend. They are also cuties!! He is finishing up his junior year at the University of Illinois.