He's really growing! I finally, FINALLY got to go back to see my grandbaby this weekend, and boy, is he special! I cannot quit thinking back to the day his mommy was born. Just doesn't seem possible that now, she is old enough to have given me this thrill! Some people think of being a grandma as being old. Not me, we planned our children while we were young so we could enjoy being grandparents one day, and wow, it's so worth it.

Hopefully now that the ice has disappeared, life will get back to somewhat normal. I hope to be able to sew now. Just haven't had the time or gumption the last few weeks, but really need to get Mr. Caleb's quilt done, along with several other projects I have in the works. I have decided 2007 is going to be my stash reduction year, so want to finish a few ufo's in the process. So, eventually, maybe I'll quit gushing over the baby and have quilty pictures to post again! k

More Winter Storm Pictures.... Here are a couple more pictures of the ice we had last week. We were without power for over 7 days. In that time, our generator quit, so we went and stayed 2 nights in a hotel, then 2 nights with friends. When we got ready to load the generator, dh decided to give it one more try and it started and ran fine. Apparently, when it quit, it was because the fuel filter was frozen.......anyway, we are ready for the next time the power goes out. And it is wonderful to have power again. You don't realize how much we take electricity for granted til you don't have any......But, we survived and will continue to do so!
I'll add more pictures later. I took a drive on Tuesday, when it was sunny and took pictures around our little town and if it hadn't been so devestating, we would call them beautiful.
Of course, I also added one more picture of my beautiful grandson that I didn't get to go see this weekend as planned...We ended up with another snow storm yesterday evening and calling for freezing rain and sleet today, so we decided it was better to not try to make the drive. I shed a few tears over it, but, better to wait til it's safe. Instead, I guess dh is going to go get his mom from his stepbrothers and move her in with us today. She's not happy out there, so we thought we'd invite her here. Her power has still not been restored.
Hope you all are surviving this crazy weather!

Ice Age.... we are in the middle of an ice age. The top picture was taken the morning we left to go be with our daughter for the birth of our grandson. That was Saturday morning. The 2nd picture is almost the same shot, only taken Monday morning. It was to dark to take pictures Sunday night, besides, we had some more important matters to tend to, like getting the generator going. The 3rd picture is the spot in the road where Mark wanted to park his truck on Sunday night, but something told me to tell him not to. When we got up Monday morning, this big limb was laying right where the truck would have been. WHEW.......so glad he listens to me SOMETIMES(but not all the time, as I will tell you in a few minutes)......lol Some of you will remember the whiskey barrel that my mailbox is in, well, it sure looks different this week, doesn't it? I guess I should think about going out there and seeing if I can pull those branches down, around or something so that the mail lady can get to the mailbox today.
On our way home from St. Louis on Sunday, Mark commented about how he wished we could afford to buy a generator. I told him I'd find a way we could, IF we could find one. I got on the phone and called several places that we knew of on our route home, but of course NO one had any. We passed thru a town along the interstate and I said, "There is an open Hardware store, let's go check there." Mark noticed right beside it was one of those salvage type home improvement stores. Anyway, we get to the hardware store and I get out of the truck to go in and ask, and before I could get to the door, he honks the horn and calls me back to the truck. The salvage place next door had a huge hand painted sign, "We have Generaters", so we decided they'd be a lot cheaper there, so I hopped back in the truck and we went over there. Walked in and the guy said we have ONE left......it cost a little more than we had expected, but I told Mark, we REALLY need something, so we got it. There were a couple of pple who came in after I had paid for it, only to be told there were no more.....was that LUCK or WHAT???
It's done a pretty good job til this morning.........now for the part about wishing he didn't listen to me sometimes..hehe. I wanted to let it run out of gas to see how long a tank full would run. So he did......now it doesn't want to start. He said, We had trouble when it ran out before(but it hadnt' had a full tank that time, so we had no idea on how long a FULL tank would last). He wanted to turn it off and fill it like we did just before we went to bed last night.....I SHOULD have listened to HIM this time! Anyway, he couldn't get it to start and he had to go to work. I've been out there to try it once, but to no avail. I'm thinking we flooded it, so turned off the choke and will try again real soon. If I can't get it to come on, I guess Angel and I will go visit my neighbor for the day. I have confidence, though I WILL get it started! Sunday night, when he brought it home, we couldn't find our big gas can, so he filled the small one we had and poured it in the gen. gas tank and went to get some more while I started the thing. I tried and tried and tried........was getting frustrated, but REALLY wanted to get it started before he got back, and I finally did!!! I AM WOMAN, hear me roar!! Just hope I can start it again this morning!!
Meantime, I havnt' heard from the new mommy. Talked to her hubby Monday morning and he said the baby had just finished nursing and was doing great. I am so proud of these kids! They are going to be great parents and Caleb is lucky to have them!

More Baby Pictures.. Here are a few more baby pictures. Obviously, they are not in any particular order, but here they are, anyway! I called up there this morning and his daddy said he'd just ate. Yesterday, he was having a hard time nursing, but apparently, he's figured out what to do, as they all do pretty quick! We, on the other hand, still have no power and from the sounds of it, we won't get any for several days. We bought a generater on the way home yesterday and at least have heat. Also, having a gas water heater is a Godsend, too.

Well, we have to go check on his mom. Hope everyone is staying warm.

I'm HERE!!!!!!






I am Caleb Michael, and this is my Grandma's blog. The top picture is of me fresh from the womb. I tried for 28 hours to be born, and my mama was a real trooper, but that nasty umbilical cord was wrapped around my neck and kept pulling me back up, so the nice Dr. decided to give my mommy a c-section. I sure was glad that ordeal was over. I weighed 8 lbs and 7 oz, and was 20 1/2" long. I was born on Jan. 14 at 1:46 am.
The 2nd picture is of me with my Mommy and Daddy. I think they were still working on my mommy, but don't she and Daddy look happy that I'm here? And speaking of happy, just look at the joy on my Grandma and Grandpa's faces in the bottom 2 pictures. Everyone is so glad to have me, I'm a lucky little boy.

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!

More winter photos I was sitting here this morning and heard a crash. Looked out the front door and this is what I saw. I'm just glad it fell beside the old ford and not ON the windshield. This is our canoe hauling truck and I'd hate to see something happen to it! While I was out there, I snapped the shot of the Christmas lights that David(ds) just got out put up for me yesterday. I hope this doesn't hurt them.

Winter has arrived!! These are some shots I took this morning. They were taken from my back door.The first one is the tops of the trees in my neighbors yard. The 2nd one is my newest little Weeping Cherry tree. I hope he survives. I'm sure he will, he's about 3 or 4 years old now. The bottom one is of a couple of the neighbors bushes. I just thought they were pretty, so snapped a shot.


Both guys(dh and ds) work in opposite directions and each took clothes to stay the night if it is to treacherous to come home. DH has his mom in the same town where he works and ds works in a hotel, surely they can spare him a bed! I have been trying to get some housecleaning done and am going to bring the sewing machine in the living room so I can sew and watch tv. Missed Simply Quilts this morning because the electricity went off at 7:25 and came back on at about 7:56..Just in time for me to see Alex say good bye to her guest........Oh well, life goes on! I'm sure I've probably seen that one before, anyway.(trying to make myself feel better!

It's now almost 2:00 and the sleet is coming down again. I may have to take more pictures this afternoon. They are calling for around a foot of snow after the ice stops. I have my tv, laptop and sewing machine and lots of projects, so I'm not complaining. As long as my guys are safe. I'm just thankful I'm finally over the bug that I've had the last 5 days and feel like doing something.

More Retreat Photos... I'm finally finding time to read blogs and post some more retreat photos. Here are 2 sets of the challenge blocks. I know there is a 3rd set somewhere, I'll find that photo and post it later. The log cabin tumbling block with the tulip in the center was the first place winner. It truly was a gorgeous block. There were some really great ones there. I enjoyed making one and look forward to doing it again next year! There was one(top center in the pic on the right) that some one had actually fussy cut 2 of the paisley type shapes for eyes for the owl. I have to admit, that was my favorite block! The top right in the right picture are the ribbons. Close up of them coming soon, as blogger isn't allowing me to post it right now. I thought the ribbons were absolutely beautiful.
I have to finish a set of "dingo dog" ears and paws for my nephew in OK today, so I can get them in the mail. He's in a play, and if his mom and dad share pictures, I'll be sure to share them here, as well. My week and a half off is already half over and I still haven't touched the sewing machine. But I did get the old computer broke down and the desk out of here to make room for the antique one that used to belong to dh's grandma. His great aunt gave it to us last weekend, and it's a perfect size to "dock" the laptop we got ourselves as an early Christmas gift! Bad thing is, we decided that we will have it there to charge the batteries, but we would not sit at the desk to surf, as we want to treat the desk with kid gloves. As soon as I get the camera to cooperate, I'll show you a picture of the desk and you'll see why. It's beautiful and we'd hate for anything to happen to it.

2 more months!! Who besides me thinks she won't make it? I look for him to arrive a little early, but then, I also thought for sure she was having a girl, so what do I know? She had a wonderful shower yesterday and got all kinds of fun loot. When we got home, Jeff was anxiously waiting to "play" with it all. Several of us told her she should have let him come to the shower, too. He and I put the cradle and stroller together, while Sara put things away. It was a fun evening. Now we just need a baby! We talked about how all of this made us more anxious for the birth. As you can see from the picture below, he's not going to want for much! Sara got a little upset because there was so much "I love Daddy" stuff, but she has to realize, most of the shower guests were Jeff's family.She doesn't have any around. I guess I'll embroider some bibs and stuff for her between now and Christmas. Saw a really cute one this weekend that said, "My mommy rocks"....guess I'll make him one of those!
On the quilty/sewing front, I arrived in St. Louis early yesterday, so ran by Joann's before heading to Babies R Us and the shower. Bought a really nice piece of fabric and a pattern for myself a dressy coat. I need a new winter coat, and thought this fabric was gorgeous...and it was on clearance for $3 per yard, then they were having 50% off Clearance prices on top of that! How could I resist? I told hubby the lining will cost me more than the outer fabric did! I think I'm going to buy some of that prequilted stuff for the lining. Will show pictures when I get it made. Also, while I was there at Joann's, I found the PERFECT thread for my onion quilt. It is variegated oranges-browns. Now I just have to decide on the backing for it. Thinking about just sewing together the leftovers haphazardly and creating a back that way, but not sure I have enough. May have to run to the fabric store I "found" last week and see what they have.I bought a couple of pieces for it there, maybe they'll have a big enough piece of some of it left. Wish me luck!

Well, I think I'll go try to catch up with some of the blogs I've missed reading. Hope you all have a great week!

How cute is This??? This is the most recent picture of my beautiful daughter and her handsome hubby. This was taken on her birthday a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow is the baby shower, so I'll have more pictures next week. I can't believe there are less than 2 months to go til she has to share the baby with the rest of us! I know this granma is definitely ready to hold that little fellow in her arms!
I'm still working on editing the pictures from the retreat, but will be sharing more later. Will be gone most of this weekend, so not sure I'll find the time or not. But, after only 3 days of work next week, I'll be off for 1 1/2 weeks!! I can't wait! I need the break.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this while I was thinking about it! Hope everyone has a great weekend!

TAADAAA!! The proof is in the pudding.....err.....picture! Here I am showing off my completed top while Mary and Jane are still working on theirs! Well, they WERE working on them til I asked some one to snap a picture so I could show *I* finished first! hehe.....we really weren't competing, but we had a lot of fun pretending we were! Some of the ladies were amazed that the 3 of us got ours done because we three made more blocks than anyone else, therefore had bigger tops.
My local quilt guild had "sew night" tonight, and I've been asked to talk about our trip for our January program. I may have to make some notes because I'm afraid I'll forget some of the details that are so vivid in my mind now! I guess it's a good thing I took so many pictures! I'm hoping to put them on a website soon, so I can just share a link and you all can see as many pictures as you want to see. Still learning this laptop, though, so may be a few days before I get that far. Also, have my daughters baby shower this weekend, so will be gone again! I'm really, REALLY looking forward to that week and a half I have off work coming up soon!!!
Well, guess that's it for tonight. Hope everyone is having a great week so far.

Retreat was a BLAST.... And ForestJane was even more fun in person than she is online! We had such a good time, that Mary and I are planning on going back next year already! We met so many wonderful people. They all welcomed us with open arms and we could not have asked for a warmer welcome.
The only sad note of the weekend was I got a phone call about my father in law while we were there. Sometime Friday night, he wandered outside and into the detached garage and fell and was there for a while. When Mother in law woke and couldn't find him, she called the neighbors and they are the ones who found him and called 911. He suffered some hypothermia and a hurt hand(which seems to be ok now), and is still in the hospital. Seeing as how he didn't suffer anything more serious than that, this could almost be viewed as a blessing in disguise.If he stays in the hospital at least 3 days and nights, their insurance will pay for him to go straight into a nursing home and for the first little bit while he's there. Maybe by then, we'll have all the VA paperwork taken care of and he'll be set. I want to thank everyone for all the warm wishes and prayers.
Well, I'm still overwhelmed. Will post more pics as I get them edited. Working on a new laptop, so learning all over again! Hope you all had half as wonderful a weekend as I had!

Guess who!!! My mom said, "I'd recognize that mug anywhere!" Actually, the pattern is not mine, it belongs to Rita D, from the EQ5 library. I just changed it a little to make it look more like me! This is my challenge block for the Quilt retreat I'm going to this weekend! I don't know what I'm more excited about, meeting ForestJane , or just getting to get away and do what I love best with a bunch of others who enjoy the same thing! Both are pretty exciting prospects! Nice to have something to look forward to!(of course, I'm STILL very ANXIOUS about the arrival of young Caleb in January, but this will be something fun, too!)
Well, it's late and I need to get to bed. I just wanted to show this block, since Jane showed hers! hehe....I'm sure she and I will both have lots of stories to tell come Monday!