Happy Birthday to ME!! Yesterday was my birthday and I decided to treat myself to a trip to a LQS that I had never visited. The owner was our guild's guest speaker on Tuesday and she had brought things to sell and I fell in love with this book and a FQ of the fabric on the left. But since all she had was FQ's and she told us she was having a 20% off sale this weekend, I decided to wait and visit her shop and buy what I wanted then! So I cleaned off the bolt of the leaf fabric, bought the book AND found this gorgeous green batik that I just couldn't resist! I'm not sure what I'll do with either fabric yet, BUT.......who says you can't buy fabric without having a purpose for it?(Well, who besides my husband, and I don't listen to him anyway! hehe)

It was a WONDERFUL day for a totally other reason, too. I have been worried sick about the 2 cute little blondes you see here(taken at the airport when they accompanied my folks to drop us off for our trip home last summer). They are my niece and nephew. My mom and dad have been there for these kids since the day the oldest one was born. They have bent over backwards helping my brother and his wife with these 2 cutie pies. Well, last month, my brothers wife decided to leave my brother and took the kids and left. Then, had the audacity to send my folks a No trespassing order, which meant they could have no contact with the kids at all. What happened/happens between her and my brother has nothing to do with my parents, yet she chose to punish not only the children, but my folks as well. Anyway, my brother has never been what we would call an upstanding citizen, but he does love his children and when he and his lawyer were preparing for the divorce and custody hearing, the lawyer told him to be prepared because all of the stuff they were bringing up about his wife's past(and current on some of it), that she of course would be bringing up HIS past and the judge may decide that neither of them were fit parents. Which is exactly what happened. She(the judge) also stated that the maternal grandmother was not an option for temporary custody and so the choices were the paternal grandparents(my folks) or DFS. She told them she had to leave the courtroom for a few minutes and when she came back, they would decide where the children would go for the 30 days while thier parents were being investigated. Well, the........Mother.......(I'm being nice here) of these children had to take her attorney out in the hallway to have a discussion.....which tells us that she actually considered putting these babies in foster care rather than let them go to my folks whom they love dearly and have been close to all of thier lives. Anyway, the outcome is that my folks got them for the 30 days and thier parents have only supervised(by my parents) visitation one day a week. They may visit more if my parents agree to it. In a LOT of ways, I'm almost glad I'm 800 miles away, though. When they went to pick up the children after court yesterday, one of the "ladies" from the mothers family(I think my mom said it was the kids' grandma's sister) GRABBED my mom and was cursing at her about how could she do this to the kids' mama(taking the kids away from her)........I'm afraid if I weren't so far away, I"d have to go take care of that woman. My mom is a very kind and gentle soul and I don't ever EVER remember hearing a curseword come out of her mouth. And for this woman to get violent with her......well, it still makes me so mad I get tears when I think about it. She told the "lady", I didn't do anything to her, she brought this on herself.. Anyway, it's one of those bittersweet times when I wish I could be there to support the family, but on the other hand, almost glad I'm not, so I'm not involved. I've never been involved in anything like this and not sure I have the restraint to keep my mouth shut. Especially when I found out that they have the little girl, who is 6 years old today, on SLEEPING pills.....Pills are one of the reasons the mother didn't get them. She abuses prescription drugs, as does her mother and aunt, from what I've been told. I can't say for sure anything about the mother and aunt, but I have witnessed her use for myself last summer when we were down there visiting. But to put a 6 year old on them.........Oh well, enough ranting and raving. They are safe with my mom and dad for the next 30 days, and possibly for good. Both my brother and thier mom had to go for drug testing straight from court yesterday and have to undergo psychic evaluations and they will all be investigated(including my parents) to determine permanent custody. I will keep praying for the kids and have faith that God knows what is best and will take care of them. Thanks for "listening"! Have a GREAT day.

Feathered Star Block.... I was a little on the ornery side this evening with this block. I am the block of the month person of our quilt guild and I have been trying to challenge the ladies to do some things that are a little different this past year....so this month, I had put a tease in our newsletter about this month's block going to bring some of them out of their comfort zone. So when it was my turn tonight, I asked them if they were ready to be challenged, and pulled this block(12") out of my bag! You could have heard a pin drop! I know there are several ladies in the guild who could do this with no problem, but not so sure there are that many who would want to....After a "pregnant" pause, I laughed and said, "THAT was a joke....now do you want to see the REAL Block of the Month?" Heard a few sighs of relief when I brought out the Galactic Star block I had got off of the Quilters Cache website. The "Out of the comfort zone" part was that so many of these ladies just love thimbleberries and don't do much in bright bold colors....well, this block is a bright orange or yellow star on a black background..not to hard, I just like to tease and try to keep things fresh! One of the ladies told me afterwards, "When you brought out that Feathered Star block, I just decided then and there, I was not even going to attempt it!" We have such a fun group of ladies in our guild. Sometimes, after working 10 hours, I think, "I really don't have it in me to go to the meeting tonight."....but I always have so much fun, I'm glad I go! We keep each other inspired and I miss them if for some reason I can't go.

Just realized that when one of my fellow guild members mentioned a picture of Caleb, I hadn't put one of the cutest ones up here yet! So, ML(you know who you are!) this is for you to see!

I SEWED!!!!! I actually found time to sew Friday...well, I MADE time, when I should have been cleaning house, but decided to heck with housework, I wanted to sew! I had the strip twist(I got the pattern from Bonnie's website Quiltville . Then, I put a border on the Orange Peel that I made at the retreat in Memphis last November. All that's left on that one is to finish piecing the back, which I did also start Friday! Then, it'll be ready for quilting! Haven't decided yet if I'll do it myself, or if I'll take it to my friend and let her do it for me.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!!

We had a wonderful Mothers Day. Our daughter and her husband and our handsome grandson met us at a park which is about halfway between us and we had a picnic and took a nice long walk. We had a great visit. Was to short, though! After hubby and I got home, we planted flowers. I have planted a LOT of flowers the last couple of weeks. Will be getting pictures of them later in the week. While we were at the greenhouse, we found a beautiful blue and purple hanging basket. I can't wait to show it.

WOW... I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted. Of course, I've made 2 trips up to see this big boy since then, and on one of those trips, I brought him home with me to spend the night. He's growing so fast. Can't believe he's almost 4 months old already. But then, his mama shouldn't be going on 23, either! We're not sure what his face was all about in the bottom one, but it was to funny not to share!

I'm hoping to have quilty pictures soon. I've actually been back in the sewing room again, after a hum drum period of just not having the motivation to sew. Guess I go thru these slumps every so often, and when I'm in one, I'm likely to get frustrated and toss something away if I force myself, so I just don't! Spent 2 days in there this past weekend, though, so surely I'll have something to show soon! Oh, wait, I can show my fabric bins all nicely sorted out. I have 10 bins, and the fabric is divided into colors. These bins are where I keep fabric that I have 1 yard or less of. Not sure if you can tell it or not, but my blues, greens and misc(prints with several colors or novelty fabrics) are overflowing. The orange bin isn't far from it. Not sure what has got me into buying so many oranges lately. Started with my project for the Memphis retreat last year and has just mushroomed from there! Like suddenly, I fell in love with orange!

I didn't realize til I put up this shelf a couple of months ago, just how many quilt books I have! It's unreal. And I keep buying more. Not sure why, but books and patterns appeal to me, even though I know I have more than I'll ever make in this lifetime. And I also have a big chest of drawers full of fabrics, too.....all my holiday fabric in one drawer, and the others are just full of larger pieces of fabric. I think I have an addiction to it all! hehe....anyway, it's getting late and I need to get a couple more things done b4 bedtime. Happy Wednesday(or whatever day it is when you read this, but tomorrow is Wednesday for me!)

No quilts or flowers.... but I am finally adding new pictures of the baby for your viewing pleasure! Just haven't been on the ball about posting for quite a while now. No explanations, just to lazy, I guess. Anyway, enjoy! Will try to be better about posting in the future.

On the quilt front, I really haven't been doing much sewing at all. Have a prom dress that needs altered and a jacket waiting for a zipper. Guess I'll try to do those this evening....if I can get my rear in gear and get off this couch!

MY string quilt... all the talk about string quilts made me remember this one that I made many years ago. I gave it to my dh's dad and stepmom for Christmas one year, at dh's request. I did mine a little different than you all are doing, I think. I started with a muslin foundation, on which I drew lines so far on either side of the center diagonal, and started sewing my strips on that line. I really should make another one day!

Wow..... I can't believe it's been so long since I posted. Life seems to get in the way of things sometimes. We have been really busy and to be honest, I just haven't even had time to think of blogging(or sewing for that matter). I do have a few new pictures of my gorgeous grandson I'm posting today. And hopefully, I'll get in the sewing room and get some sewing done today, too. First I've got to get in the kitchen and get some meals cooked. I've decided to cook all of next weeks dinners today while I'm off(on Friday) so that I can just pull something out of the freezer in the morning and pop it in the oven or microwave when we get home from work. We'll see how it works. DH wants me to go back to buying those frozen meals from the store like I did when I first took this job...but I personally get so tired of that stuff. I've always enjoyed cooking and much prefer home cooked meals!

As for sewing, I've just been in a slump and not in the mood to sew. I have always had times like this off and on. But I feel it has ended and I' itching to get in there and sew again. I told my friend that I was going to gather all my tops and bring them to her and add to her pile and just pay her to quilt them for me since I never seem to have time to go to her house and quilt them myself on her long arm machine. Now I just have to wait for her thumb to heal so she can sew again! She tried to cut the end of it off a couple of weeks ago and it still looked pretty bad Tuesday night when I saw her at our guild meeting.

Well, the oil is heating for my hotwings, so I'd better go in and rinse and drain them so they'll be ready when the oil is hot. Hope everyone has a great weekend! I'll try to be better about posting in the future.

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!