Approaching 2009

As I sit here contemplating, I am jolted to the reality that another year has passed. Since my last post, so many family activities have engulfed my time. Aimee, Alex, Caitie, Chris and Lori were here with us for Thanksgiving. We had a wonderful time and even got in a little shopping. Immediately, we were vaulted right into the Christmas flurries. Chris and Lori surprised me with a wonderful evening of dinner and a Ronnie Milsap concert in early December for my Christmas. What sneaks, they all kept the secret for several months without my knowledge.

David and I made the trek to Leander, TX the weekend before Christmas to share the holiday with Aimee and her family arriving back home in time for Chris, Lori and Jordon to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas morning here with us. We made the trip to Orange, TX to visit family and friends the day after Christmas arriving home the following Monday. It was a nice trip. I spent last night at a "Girl's Night Out" house party just eating, drinking, and visiting. Very nice!

Here it is New Year's Eve and David and I have no plans of any kind. I guess that means we are getting old! lol It is a good thing we enjoy each others company so much.

I look forward to starting the new year with gusto with the resolutions to finish several of my quilting projects. The Dear Jane quilt is the oldest but the one that I will concentrate on the most is the 4-patch posie quilt for my bedroom. I would like to have it done for spring. If I can just refrain from starting anything new and not join in too many swaps! lol

So long 2008! Happy New Year and welcome 2009!

National Tie One On Day!

Participation in National Tie One On Day is simple - on the day before Thanksgiving, pause in the preparation of your own bounty, wrap a loaf of bread or other baked good in an apron, tuck a prayer or note of encouragement in the pocket, and tie one on...an apron, of course! and deliver the wrapped bundle to someone in need of spiritual or physical sustenance.

Sweet November

As the seasons breeze through my ordinary life, I am reminded of the beautiful outdoors! Halloween came and went without much flurry around here; no tricksters or treaters in sight.

But the following week has been so full of anticipation and excitement. David has been busy with the political action campaign for Steelworkers. Due to his absence, I have had lots of quilting/quiet time. I was thrilled that he was able to be home on Election night so we could share the making of history. We are both so excited for our new president and for all of America!

After a long stretch of small projects, I have finally finished a quilt. This project was a block of the month that I purchased in a sale bin. I had the patterns for quite a while before actually gathering up the courage to begin. I am so excited to have finally completed it and have it hanging on my guest room wall.

Already Fall!

Like so many others, my summer disappeared far too quickly. The highlight, of course, was the wonderful adventure with Alex and Caitie. Soon after my last post, their parents arrived to add a few days of joy to my world. We had such a good visit that ended much too soon. Once they left to begin their new journey having just moved back to Texas from Arizona, my life was filled with getting back to what I expected to be my mundane routine. I quickly learned different; my help was needed to trek over to Austin to supply some adult supervision while Aimee and David started their new jobs. What fun we had playing games all day and just spending quality time together.

It wasn't long after getting back to Ruston settling back to the everyday ordinary existence that I call "my life" when we had another diversion called "Gustav". We had planned on having weekend guests for the Labor Day weekend. Those plans had to be altered a bit. Instead of just a visit, it turned into an evacuation plan. lol Our evacuees saw more wind and rain by coming here than if they had stayed home. They were all home just over a week when more plans had to be made to prepare for "Ike" who proved to be much more distructive. While some of our "guests" headed home to begin cleanup (flood waters inside a house is not a pretty site), my Mom stayed with me by David headed to Nashville on business. Once he returned, we drove Mom home and got her settled. Fortunately, her only loss due to "Ike" was things in her refrigerator and upper freezer.

OK. Life now returned to what we know as normal. David and I made the trip to Oxford, MS for the Presidential Debate. No, we didn't get anywhere near the actual debate but loved the frenzy surrounding it. We were in the crowd behind Chris Mathews during his commentary on MSNBC. If you were looking very close, you could see us in the crowd holding signs. We then met with a group to have hamburgers and hot dogs to watch the debate on big screens. What a wonderful experience!

Here we are almost half way through October and life is just busy enough to keep me from being bored. I have started hand quilting my Mystery on the Oriental Express and my Afternoon Tea in the Garden quilts. I really want to get the Afternoon Tea quilt finished since I will be hanging it in my guess room. So the Mystery has been put aside for now. I had also hoped to get back to work on my Dear Jane by now. But I just get too obsessed when working on it so it will stay buried for now.

Hopefully, I will get some new pictures taken soon to spice up this blog. Will I ever get my act together enough to keep this blog fueled more frequently?

First sewing projects finished!

This was Caitie and Alex's first sewing experience. They really enjoyed it. Alex is already planning a project for her next visit. Caitie stitched pre-cut squares together for a front and back then stitched it all together with batting. She bar tacked the intersections.

Alex wanted to do a collage of fabrics. She cut shapes from squares of fabric and stitched them to a foundation with a zigzag stitch adding embellishments by hand. We made a wire hanger for hanging since she wants to hang it in her bedroom at home.

And the adventure continues

After doing some Monday chores, mainly laundry, the girls and I headed to the library. After spending some time on the computers in the children's section, they found lots of books to bring home.

Today was our day for baking. We have a tradition of baking pies (scratch dough and all) every time they come. Sometimes they are here during Blueberry season and we even get to pick our own berries for the pies. Not so this time. They are eating the blueberries that I saved in the freezer for snacks. We made Ruston Peach pies today. I found the cutest little pie dishes at a kitchen shop- bigger than an individual serving but smaller and easier for the girls to handle.

Their parents are driving in tonight, will stay a few days to visit also before taking the girls back to Austin. Since their dad does not eat peach pie, we made a batch of Sugar cookies for him. Of course, he probably won't get as many as he would like since the girls have been scheming on them too.