Introducing.....ANGEL! The newest addition to our family...And you all thought the next big announcement from me would be the arrival of the grandbaby!(due in 3 weeks now but could be born any time!).

We had a lovely Christmas with the kids. Their little Shih Tzu, Roxy is always a lot of fun. I guess that's why dh got to thinking about wanting a dog again. So, after the gift exchange, he says, "You should look up pictures of a Schnoodle on the internet." A Schnauzer is his favorite breed and a Poodle is mine(only the little ones though! lol) He had seen them advertised for sale in the paper and was thinking about going and looking at them. So all 5 of us were in the computer room looking at Schnoodles, Puggles and a couple of other mixes. We oohed and ahhed for a while then I went to petfinder.com and looked to see what was available at local shelters. I used the zip code of the town we had been planning to go shopping in today.......anyway, when I pulled up the pictures of Angel(the top 2 pictures were on their website), we all fell in love! So, rather than hitting JC Penney's and other after Christmas sales, we ended up driving 130 miles to adopt her! She is a one year old Beagle/Terrier mix and is supposedly already housebroken and good with other dogs and cats. Well we haven't had her around any other animals yet so not sure about that, and all she's done since we got her home is lay around and sleep! But she hasn't had any accidents either. A lot different than taking in a puppy. She's very calm so far. She loves to cuddle it seems. The only "bad" thing, is she has a "cherry" in her right eye that we will have to have taken care of right away, but she was so cheap to adopt, we decided not to let that keep us from bringing her home!She had been spayed already, so the shelter didn't have to charge us for that. We were told her previous owners had surrendered her because they didn't have a yard to play in. Whatever the reason, we are glad to have her!

Hope you all had a Wonderful Christmas!

"I didn't know basketballs were so small"... That was dd's comment to me when she sent me this picture! She still has 4 weeks til her due date, but no one thinks she's going to make it that long! Then again, we may all be surprised! He'll come when he's ready! What I love the most is the fact that she's still smiling! She told me she was miserable, but looking at her face in this picture, I don't see that! She's very excited to be having her first baby, and so am I!

Well, I don't have anything new to share other than this, and I have some towels to embroider, so I'd better get in there and get busy!

Bullfrogs!! Well, I ran into a friend at the store yesterday, and she informed me I hadn't posted in a while, so thought I'd better get a post up! So, here are the froggies all put together. However, when I looked at the picture, I decided I had all the light ones to close together, so I took a couple apart and haven't photoed them yet to show that they look better now! Will do that soon.

We had our annual weekend at a resort at the lake this weekend.....DH's work pays for a dinner, dance, a room and breakfast. We chose not to partake of thier dinner this year and opted to go out with another couple to a local restaurant instead. The 4 of us went to a place called Bandana's where they have yummy bbq. We were not disappointed! We then went back to the resort and had a drink in our room while we waited for the dance to start. It was nice spending time with friends just sitting around relaxing. Then, we went down to the dance. I guess we're getting old, because we did not care for thier choice of music at all! They normally play some good music at this dance, but had a different dj this year and we were not impressed! I guess some liked him, though, because there were dancers on the floor! DH said that was only the ones who had had plenty to drink and didn't care about the music! hehe. I don't think there I could drink enough alcohol to get me out there on the floor to some of that music! I'm not much of a drinker, so I'd be passed out long before they could get me up there!

One more week of work, then I get another week off! We did some more Christmas shopping this week and I think we are about done now. Just need to think of one more thing to get our son in law and pick up a thing or 2 for ds. Hard to buy for ds since he has a birthday Tuesday, too. We did get his birthday bought yesterday, so at least we are done with that! Still hard to believe that my "baby" will no longer be a teenager. Seems like yesterday he was born, and now here we are waiting for a grandbaby!

On that front, dd called me today and said they'd decided to go shopping and after 45 minutes in the store, she started having pains again, so they had to leave. She seems to think that when she's ready, all she has to do is go for a major walk and that will bring on her labor! She's went from "I love my big belly" to "I'm huge, uncomfortable and ready to get this overwith" in the last couple of weeks! Her actual due date is now less than a month away, so it's really getting close now! I bought dh and I toothbrushes yesterday. I intend to carry a bag with us to work after the holidays so we won't have to mess with coming home and can just head straight to St. Louis if she goes into labor while we are at work. I even got one of dh's bosses cell phone # so I could call him and have him give dh a msg if it happens during the day. The ladies in the office have better things to do than to deliver emergency msges(can you tell I've had a bad experience with them?) so I just asked James if I could call his cell phone. DH could carry his, but it is so noisy in there, I don't think he'd hear it, so wanted a back up plan! James is the assistant plant manager, and he and his wife are friends, so I just told him I needed his cell phone number just in case!

Ok, I guess I'd better go figure out something for supper. Have some towels I need to emb., too, so also need to get the emb. machine going! Hope everyone has a great week!

Happy Birthday, JR!!! Today was my wonderful father in law's 81st birthday. I'm sure he sat in that home thinking he'd been forgotten on his birthday because we all had to work. But we hadn't forgotten him at all! I took mother in law to see him and went and bought supper. This man has always loved fish, but when I asked him if he wanted fish or cheeseburgers, he wanted cheeseburgers!! So, off I went to Wendy's to buy burgers and fries for everyone. My dh, ds and JR's son and his wife (JR is actually my dh's stepdad, but there is no step in father in law to me) all showed up and we had supper and birthday cake with him. He was so chipper.....the happiest I'd seen him in a while and even mother in law was in a great mood and feeling a little festive. Was so nice to bring that little bit of enjoyment to thier otherwise boring, dull lives. AND, I have even more news. Tomorrow, some really good friends of ours have thier annual Christmas party. Last year, I think there were like 50 people there. Well, today, while we were out and about, I mentioned it to my mother in law and casually asked her if she'd like to go and she accepted! I told dh I think she's finally tired of sitting around feeling sorry for herself! Not that she hasn't had every right, but it's nice to see her willing to get out and about again. I'll post about it tomorrow or Sunday! Meanwhile, have a great weekend, everyone!

Christmas has arrived!!!! Look what I got to open tonight! My neighbor/friend brought my gift over last night before I got home, and then asked me tonight what I thought of it. I told her I hadn't opened it yet, so she told me to open it! Isn't it PRETTY? It's all hand appliqued. The picture doesn't do it justice, I'll have to try again later. But thought I'd go ahead and post this one so you all could see! Now I feel awful that I ORDERED her something.....lol.But how can I beat this? Ooh, I have an idea, but will be pushing it to get it made.......will keep you posted. lol...
Well, going back to work was as bad as I thought it would be, but, since we like to eat and all that jazz, I'll keep working! DH would never let me buy fabric if I didn't have my own income! We may pool everything that comes in, but at least I'm contributing, so don't ever even consider "asking" his permission to buy fabric and such. Anyway, just wanted to share this for now. Will check back in later! Hope you all are having a good week.

Hard to say goodbye... this shot of ForestJane and me was taken just before Mary and I had to head back to Missouri. We had a wonderful visit and I'm really looking forward to next year!

Suzanne Marshall and me. This is a picture of me with a very special lady. She was the guest teacher at the retreat and I wanted to be sure and have a picture of the 2 of us and I think this one turned out great. Suzanne was a very interesting lady and a wonderful teacher. I'm so glad I got the chance to meet her and learn from her.

My poor car... this is what I saw when I first heard the crash that brought the carport down on my car. DH said there is a small ding in the roof, but looking at this picture, I was sure the whole car would be a wreck. I consider myself very lucky if a small ding is all we got. Below is a picture of the antique desk that used to belong to dh's grandmother and was recently given to us by his great aunt. We use it as a "docking station" for the laptop as we don't want to take any chances on ruining the desk by using it or sitting in the chair. We tend to be rough on chairs, so figured this is a great place for the laptop to charge, but then when we want to use it, we bring it to our laps, or on a small table in front of the chair or couch..

I did get the 12 bullfrogs all done, now I'm working on stitching on the sashing. Will try to post pics of all that soon!

SNOW...... Well, the ice finally turned to snow sometime during the night. But before it did, the roof of my "carport(tarp over a metal frame) fell on top of my car. With a heavy heart, I had to knock all the ice off the tarp so I could survey the damage and see if any windows were broken or any other damage. THANK GOD there was no damage that I could see, so we avoided that one catastraphe. But my car can't move til we take the hacksaw to the poles and get them out of the way. At least I have the old ford if I need to get anywhere.. As you can see the difference from the shot I showed of it yesterday, we really got the snow! Then, the swan shows how deep it is, as well. And I couldn't get my back door open, and showing the reason for that, as well. If this new google version(I just switched this morning) will let me, I'll show a few more pictures I took on my outing into the yard this morning! I thought the snow on the roof was pretty the way it drifted. I covered my car with the tarp since I can't move it, anyway. My front steps look more like a ramp. Wish I could have taken a picture before I had to make footprints! Then, I took another shot of the little weeping cherry tree.

Ok, I've procrastinated enough. I got all the units sewn for the bullfrogs, and now they need to be trimmed....my least favorite part. But I'm going to force myself to do it now, so will try to have some quilty pictures to post later! Hope you are all having a good day!