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!

Just checking in...... Well, I dont' have any new pictures uploaded, but wanted to check in. Things are proceeding with mother in law. She goes tomorrow (Monday) to see the surgeon, and hopefully schedule the surgery to have her toes amputated. She is very scared, but in so much pain, she's ready to get it over with. Her dh will finally have to be put in a home. She just cannot take care of him any longer and has finally accepted that fact and the fact that she herself will probably be in a home for a while til she can become mobile again after this surgery. I have been working on the frogs and hope to have some pics of them later this week. Have a great week everyone!

Bullfrogs........ I know it's been a while since I posted, but things have been really hectic around here. Been working 50+ hours a week, and still dealing with major medical problems with the inlaws. We think we finally have mother in law convinced that father in law HAS to go into a home for a while. She has had to call the ambulance twice recently because he has somehow gotten himself on the floor and stuck between the bed and dresser or in the bathroom doorway and she is unable to assist him in getting back up. And she goes in tomorrow to schedule surgery to amputate her toes, so she'll not be able to take care of herself, let alone another person who needs almost everything done for him.........anyway.....back to the frogs.
This is my special project I have been working on. There are going to be 12 different green frogs, and the backgrounds will all be the same. I'll try to be better about posting as I get them done.
Hope all of you are fairing well. I haven't had a chance to do much blogging, so am waaaaay behind on what is going on with everyone. One day, I'll catch up! Have some time off coming, so really looking forward to that!

Guild Raffle...... Geez, I can't believe it's been almost 3 weeks since I posted. Things have been really busy around here. First of all, I'll tell you about the picture I'm sharing tonight. This quilt was put together by our guild and is being raffled off tomorrow at our towns' Founders Day Celebration. I can't take credit for anything more than one block, but it's a pretty quilt I thought I'd share a photo of.
Update on our lives......well, nothing new on the pregnancy front. DD is still doing really well and we are now down to just a little over 3 more months before she has him! I finally bought fabrics to make him a quilt last week, now just to find the time to make it. First, I need to get the sewing room back in order. It's a disaster area. Well, the whole house is..lol
It's been a hard month on my mother in law. A couple of weeks ago we were over there and her toes looked extremely red. DH told her, "Mom, you have a bad ingrown toenail." She was in such pain she finally called and made a Dr. appt. He told her it wasn't an ingrown toenail, but poor circulation and that she almost had gangrene(sp?). So sent her to yet another speciallist, who ordered an angiogram. We went for that on Tuesday of this week. After the procedure, she had to lay flat for 6 hours, so we got to the hosp. at 10 am and didn't leave til almost 7:30. I felt so sorry for her. She hates to inconvenience anyone, and I tried to convince her I didn't mind. They found a blockage about 3" long above her right knee and the Dr. "rotorootered" it out.(her words, not mine!). They told us she couldn't be left alone for 24 hours, so she told them "I have my husband at home." Well, being the troublemaker I am, I went to the nurses behind her back and explained the situation to them(her husband has alzheimers) and they said she needed some one there that could call 911 if her "puncture wound" started bleeding at all. So, I called dh and told him that he and I would stay the night with them, and I arranged for his step brother to spend the next day with them(Garry is unable to work because he can't drive, but he could call 911 if necessary). THEN, after all the arrangements were made I told her about it. She wasn't happy, but wasn't as upset as I thought she'd be, either. I think she's finally accepting the fact that she is not superwoman! She even let me take her shopping this morning because she just didn't feel up to driving. It's so hard for them to give up thier independence. And it's so sad to watch him lose his mind. Last week, he made a joke that was like the man we used to know, then less than 10 minutes later, he asked if his son and dil had left, even though his dil had kissed him goodbye and he'd watched them walk out the door. Then, when we left, and I hugged and kissed him goodbye, he said, "Luvs me".........another comment typical of the man he used to be. Almost makes me cry.
Well, I'll finish catching up later. Will definitely not wait 3 weeks b4 posting again! Have a great weekend!

Wow... Happy Anniversary to my beautiful dd and dsil. Can't believe a year has passed already since my baby girl became a wife. And now she's going to be a mother. I still can't get over how fast time flies. People have always told me "The older you get, the faster time flies". I used to think NO WAY, it can't go any faster than it already does, but by golly, those folks were right. It sure seems like only yesterday I was changing diapers and all that fun stuff that she now has in her future!

Hubby and I went on a road trip yesterday. There was supposed to be a "100 mile yard sale" and we thought it sounded like fun. Well, there wasn't a lot of sales at either end of the 100 miles, but we did have fun and found a lot of good bargains. Of course we bought several things for the baby, including a swing. The cover is pretty dirty, but Grandma here can make a new one if it doesnt' come clean in the wash! I may do it anyway, just to make it "ours"!

We also bought a storm door for our back door. The dog had demolished the old one, and we took our chances on this one for $10. Lo and behold it FITS!! WOOHOO. Now I think he's back there trying to hang it by himself, so I'd better go offer some help! Hope everyone is having a good weekend.

Peace! Last year, I hit the after Christmas sale at the fabric department and bought a couple of yards of this print. I had no idea what I was going to do with it, other than NOT cut it up into tiny pieces and lose the scenes. When I saw Tonya's wonky letters, I immediately wanted to try them, but HAD to wait til I finished the kids' quilt. Well, it's not finished, but the top is and I can't quilt it til I get a backing. I thought I had enough of the blue floral, but, alas, of course I don't. Anyway, after I saw Tonya do the "Merry" wallhanging with a Christmas print, I decided that I would try that with this piece of fabric. I polled the girls I work with for one word and PEACE won! I then went to EQ and drew up these stars to paper piece for either side of the word and waalaa......here it is! I LOVED making the letters, so see more projects in my future using them! I'd say I'll be making a C-A-L-E-B one day soon! (Just hope that Dr doesn't change her mind or discover she's wrong!)
Ok, just wanted to show this! I'm tickled with myself to get something done so fast for a change! Going to go dig for a backing for this and decide how I want to quilt it.

This is my beautiful pregnant dd...Doesn't she look great? She's now 5 months pregnant and I love this picture of her. We took it last night after a day on the river. She's really proud of this belly!

The kids were talking about wanting a new bedroom suite yesterday. I told them, "While you are talking about your bedroom, I have something to show you." I showed them the quilt top that will be thier anniversary present and they liked it. At first she said it was "alright", then when I told them it was thiers, she kind of changed her tune and started in about which color they liked best and how they could use it to decide on how to paint thier bedroom! lol She just wants to see how it looks when it's really done(quilted) and now she wants a new bedroom suite even more! They already bought a bedroom suite for the little guy. They found a great deal on baby furniture a couple of months ago and called and asked me if I thought it was to early to buy it. I told them no, go for it since it was such a great deal!. Now they want furniture for Mommy and Daddy!
Well, we have a lot to do today, so I guess I'd better get off here and get busy! Have a great day, everyone!

~~TAA DAA~~

Well, here it is! At least most of it. It still needs the borders added, but you can't tell that from this picture! This picture shows the design. After I get the borders on it, I'll get some help and take a picture of the whole thing. But Jane has been wanting to see the star sashing, so thought I'd go ahead and share this now. I'm in love with it now that it's done! Did a little cursing on those star points, but now I'm glad I did them! I love the way they look. The pattern came from Quiltmaker and they called it Autumn Glow because of the colors they used. I'm trying to think of a name for this one as Autumn doesn't fit. I was thinking something along the lines of Starshine......I hope the kids like it! They are coming tonight, so will show it to them then!

Well, need to go change the sheets on the bed..Told them they could use our bed since dd is pg...They weren't supposed to be here til tomorrow, so I was going to wait to do that in the morning.......oh well, it's ok! Hope you all are having a great weekend.