Kelly's Quilting Blog

I have moved my Blog

2009-02-14T07:51:00.002-06:00

I moved my blog because I didn't like that I had to login to the blog with my yahoo account. I have been using igoogle for everything, but when I originally created this blog, I used my yahoo account. So I figured out how to move my blog entries to my new one. It looks the same as the old one, but I will be posting on it more because I don't have to login to yahoo to post, I can do it right from my igoogle link.

So here is the link to it, it's called Kelly's Kwips! http://kellys-kwips.blogspot.com

Say Cheese, Cheese!

2009-01-02T10:33:00.003-06:00

Kasey has learned how to take pictures now with the digital camera. Most of his pictures have been really blurry, the subject will be all over the picture. He's getting better though and really likes to take pictures. Here's one I couldn't help but post, it was so funny. He wanted some cheese, took a couple of bites and then:

Kasey: I am going to take a picture of my cheese.
Me: OK
Kasey gets the camera and turns it on.
Kasey: Say Cheese Cheese!

Ok, so that was so funny, I just laughed and laughed. He was so serious.

Silver Dollar City Season Pass

2008-12-28T19:01:00.002-06:00

Well, I bought a season pass to Silver Dollar City in Branson, MO. I got one in Mark's name. When you get a season pass, you get 4 free passes for a guest, so I figure that I can go as Mark's guest. Kasey will get in free, so if Mark wants to go with him this summer they can go together. It's pretty cheap entertainment for the year. I love going during their Christmas season, they always have a ton of Christmas lights and it's always so festive.

Christmas was good this year! We had a lot of fun. Kasey told Santa he wanted socks for Christmas. He kept saying it all the time and even told Santa that at Pre-School. Christmas morning, he opened 2 packages of socks and ran to put them in his drawer in the bedroom. After opening 2 more packages of socks, he muttered, "no more socks, no more socks". It was really funny. I am sure he won't ask for socks next year.

Hard to believe that it's going to be 2009 in a few days. Where did the year go?

My Dad Knows Everything!

2008-12-20T21:25:00.002-06:00

Yes, I know, as much as I hate to admit it, he usually does know everything, or at least quite a bit. I asked him about the big airplane wings I saw on my trip to Chicago. He said they are the blades on a windmill. Apparently, they are building big windmill fields in Michigan.

So I did a search on it, and found this youtube video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-7VCH6Ah2w

Here is an other interesting article. http://www.leelanau.com/nmj/community/industry.html

Travel to Chicago

2008-12-08T17:41:00.004-06:00

Today, I drove to Chicago, it's about 8 hours. When I left home, it was about 40 degrees. As I got closer to St. Louis, it had warmed up to about 48 degrees, was nice and sunny. Then at about Bloomington, IL, I started seeing this snow on the ground and it was about 35 degrees!

I have seen this house a lot on my trips to Chicago, I just think it's really beautiful. I wonder who lived here? It's out in the middle of no where, with nothing around it.

And then I started seeing these trucks with escorts in front and back. It seems like I saw 10 of them. They look like airplane wings to me. I am sure my dad will know and he will comment on here what they are - dad?

Here I got a close up picture.

Here was another one pulled off the side of the road, see how long it is?

You can always tell when you are getting close to Chicago, about 2 hours out of Chicago, you start seeing trash trucks leaving then city and heading back in. I must have passed a hundred of them.

Traffic jam! I am glad it was on the other side and not my side.

Snow in Chicago.

I got gas in Joliet, IL and they had this TV screen on the gas pump, now how cool is that? They just played a lot of commercials, but it was really neat.

I made it to my room, they are calling for rain and snow tonight, so we'll see. They have about 6" of snow on the ground now, but nothing on the roads at all. I should be heading home Friday. I don't like being away from everyone, but I'll be home soon!

Kelly

What are you thankful for at Thanksgiving?

2008-11-22T16:31:00.003-06:00

This was the question that was asked at Kasey's preschool on Friday. Most of the kids said things like Mommy or Daddy. I tried to train Kasey to say Momma. We talked about it all the way over to school. So when they asked Kasey what he was thankful for, he said OBAMA. Now, I didn't coach him to say that. We asked him again because we weren't sure what he said and he again said OBAMA. We died laughing and the instructor said (who is a HUGE Republican, by the way), Kasey is thankful for our future President Obama. It was really funny.

Don't You Love a Parade?

2008-11-22T16:25:00.002-06:00

Here is Kasey and his cousin Connor. Connor was in shorts as he was heading to basketball practice. He got pretty cold. (This is what I picked him up wearing, so it wasn't my fault.. :) )

The parade was an hour and a half and was really good. The kids loved getting all the candy. We took home a huge bag!

This is the float that Mark's Skills USA class did. I didn't get a good full picture of the entire train, but it was over 90 feet long, had an engine, 2 people cars, and a caboose in the back. They did a good job and won first place in the youth division and earned the Mayor's choice award.

This is Kasey's preschool's class float. I didn't want to ride on it with Kasey (I was lazy), but I thought they did a great job.

And, yes, it was hard to believe but they had this big MONSTER truck in the parade. It would take a ladder to get up in that silly thing. :)

So after the parade, I took Connor to basketball practice and then asked Kasey if he wanted to go to McDonald's or Grandma's. He said GRANDMA's. So we headed over there and mom made us grilled cheese sandwiches.

Obama Wins

2008-11-05T17:52:00.003-06:00

Kasey loves to go vote with us. He likes to put the ballot in the machine and watch it go through. The election was a historic moment in American History. It is amazing that we live in a country where a black man can be elected President of the United States and I am sure that in the not so distant future, we will have a woman be President of the United States. We've come a long way, baby!

I am certainly glad the election is over though. I am tired of all the phone calls and the negative ads. I hope my family will start talking to me now. :) Just kidding, Grandpa Bob! I know you still love me.

Halloween & Superman

2008-11-02T14:44:00.003-06:00

Here's Kasey at Halloween at Grandma's house. He had one of those lighted up necklaces on.
Superman!!!

Playing around the pole at Grandpa Bob's.

This is at Grandpa Bob's house. Kasey took almost all of their candy. They didn't care though... But Daddy ate most of it.

All in all, Halloween was a pretty good night.

Ha Ha Tonka Trip this weekend

2008-10-21T17:53:00.005-05:00

Last weekend, we went to Ha Ha Tonka, it's a state park in Camdenton. It's a castle that burned down in 1942 and only the remains are left. It was such a beautiful day. Here are Kasey and I.

Here's a view from the top of the castle, looking down toward Lake of the Ozarks.

This is the river that runs from the Spring. The water was really pretty. We walked from the Spring to the castle, which seemed liked 2 miles, but it wasn't. There were about 300 uphill steps. Wheh!

Here's another view from the top of the castle.

Here's where we parked.

This is the castle walls.

Here's Nicky and Kasey on the window of part of the castle.

Another picture of the castle walls.

The water tower.

Golfing Today, Mark's Birthday

2008-10-12T20:52:00.005-05:00

Today was Mark's birthday. We have all been sick this week with the creepy-crud-nose-throat- stuffy-head-sore-throat thing... Not really sure what else to call it, but I bet everybody knows what I am talking about. The kind of sickness where you aren't really out of it and can't function, but you don't feel that great. Anyway, I told Mark we were going to have a surprise day today, so we went to Marshfield, which is about 30 miles away to eat at the Rib Crib (Mark's favorite restaurant) and then went golfing. What a great day it was! It was warm out, but not too warm and the leaves were starting to turn colors and the air smelled like fresh mowed grass. It was so nice to be outside.

Kasey had great time, his favorite thing was to collect broken tees off the tee box. It worked out really good because while we were waiting for the people in front of us to get done so we could hit, Kasey would clean up the tee box for us of all the broken tees and put them in the cart. We had a whole collection of them when we were done.

All cleaned up Mom!

Broken tees are all over the place!

Here's another one. So you wondering why he doesn't have any shoes on? Well, when I hit at the tee box and have my flip flops on, I decided to try barefoot. I actually hit better without my shoes on. I know, you're supposed to wear golf shoes, but that tells you how serious we are about golfing! Anyway, when I got back in the cart with Kasey, he had taken his shoes off too.

Any hole that had a sand trap around it, he went right for. Yeah! I love these big sandboxes...

Here he is putting his broken tees back in the cart.

This was the start of the collection after about 3 holes. I should have taken a picture after to show how many he got. He had so much fun. It didn't take him long to konk out on the way home.

Sure was a nice day.

Ran Out of Gas

2008-09-12T19:20:00.005-05:00

Last week Mark was mowing the yard and Kasey and I were sitting on the porch talking politics (just kidding...). Mark ran out of gas on the lawn mower, and Kasey ran around the house to the shed and came back lugging this gas can. It was almost empty, but he was really working on getting it to the lawn mower.

He knew exactly where the gas went, at the back of the mower.

Mark helped him up on the mower, he took the gas cap off and started pouring the gas in.

When he was done, he put the lid back on the gas tank. I know, this seems silly to post on this blog, but he was just so cute and the gas can was almost bigger than he is. He's going to be such a good helper I think.

Chalk Outlines

2008-08-30T08:10:00.005-05:00

Kasey loves playing with chalk. We thought it would be fun to outline his body on the concrete.

I hope this picture shows up ok, by the grass is Kasey in one pose, then he rolled over and posed again and toward the front he is curled up a little with his hands by his head. We got our cat to lay down too and took her picture.

Kasey talked his daddy into doing it too, so we outlined him.

Isn't that the cutest thing? I am so glad I took a picture of this.

Kasey went to Cricket preschool this week. He cried when I left him but he did really good after I left. My little boy is growing up...

Sissy can be mean to Kasey sometimes, I think she really wanted a little baby sister. She put his hair up in a barrette. He wasn't real impressed. I think his expression is really cute... :)

Nicky's Friend Meagan Had A Car Wreck

2008-08-21T20:59:00.010-05:00

So tonight, Nicky called her friend Meagan to ask her about something and Meagan said, "I'll have to call you back, I just had a wreck on Fremont." So Nicky raced out of the house and went down to the road to check on her best friend. Here's a picture of Meagan's little VW Bug (I loved her car). I guess Meagan was getting ready to turn onto our road and pulled in front of another car. Her car circled around and landed up on this stop sign.

Here's Meagan standing next to her car, Nicky to the left and Meagan's dad heading toward them. You can see Kasey in the stroller. I walked down the street to check on them.

Here's her car once they got it out of the ditch and off the stop sign to tow it away. Thank goodness no one was riding with her because I am not sure they would have come out of it in very good shape. And the crazy thing was that Meagan wasn't wearing her seat belt. Can you believe that? I think Meagan almost always wears her seat belt, but the one time she probably didn't, she had a wreck. I understand that completely because the one time I had a wreck and totalled my car, I wasn't wearing my seat belt either. I almost always wore mine also except for that one time.

We are so lucky that she wasn't hurt. This could have been a very sad story. Meagan and Nicky are both seniors this year.

New Keurig Coffee Pot

2008-08-17T20:35:00.002-05:00

Here's the new Keurig Coffee Pot I have been wanting. It is the coolest thing around. I got the carousel to go with it and a separate filter in case I don't want to use the pods that came with the coffee pot. I have tried a couple of them and I think I may have to acquire a taste for them. They are slightly stronger than what I typically like, but if you put a lot of cream in it, then it is better!!

I had enough points on my Master Card to buy this directly from them, but I shopped around and found I could use the same number of points toward an Amazon card and buy the pot, the carousel, the filter and another 50 coffee pods. I thought that was a pretty smart move on my part! I especially liked it that I didn't have to spend any money for it.

I put my Longaberger Coffee Mug under it too. I thought it looked really good. Who doesn't love Longaberger pottery? I got this as a $5 surprise treasure. I bought 2 of them and wished I had bought 4. You never know what you are going to get so you hate to buy too many of them.

Just Turn Your Back for a Minute!

2008-08-15T21:57:00.003-05:00

My new coffee pot arrived and I set it up yesterday. This morning, I had some stuff out on the counter top, include a small container of sugar. I went in the other room for a minute, came back in and Kasey was on the counter top and had poured the sugar all over the counter and was stomping his feet in it.

I told him he was bad and shouldn't do that, but then I wanted him to pose for a picture, so I sent a mixed message to him, but I thought he was really cute. At least he didn't throw it all over the floor, that would have been a mess.

His shirt came from Nicky, when she went to Jamaica. I don't really like it because the neck is all stretched out on it. It will end up in a t-shirt quilt someday for him.

My Prizes Arrived

2008-08-12T21:16:00.002-05:00

I got my first Blog contest prizes in the mail yesterday! It was so exciting, I got these from Kristie, who had a contest on her blog not too long ago and I won!! It was really fun to get her package. So thank you Kristie!!!
I love seasons, so this book was really neat.
While I was taking pictures, I was thinking about my poor camera. I bought it back in April and it is really, really small. I just love how it fits in my purse or in my pocket (which is not a good idea sometimes!). When we went to Texas, a piece on the top of the camera came off that holds the button in, I was able to find it, but put a bandaid on it because that is all I had in the car and it was too little to put somewhere because I didn't want to lose it again. The bandaid worked so well, I have just left it on there.

So when I had my scooter wreck, I had my camera in my pocket, because you never know when you will have a spot you want to take a picture, right? Well, that is exactly the side I landed on and it cracked my screen. I was able to get a good picture of it with my old camera.

That is so sad, but I am AMAZED that it didn't damage it anymore. I can still see the pictures and it didn't hurt the quality of the pictures any.

Tomorrow I am getting a new coffee pot from Amazon.com. It's Keurig, one pot coffee maker. I can't wait!!! I have been wanting one ever since the Pioneer Woman posted a giveaway on her blog and told about how much she loved hers. So I finally cashed in some points on my MasterCard and ordered it...

It's a Small World

2008-08-09T21:10:00.005-05:00

Nicky, Kasey and I drove down to one of Nicky's favorite "scary places", Wilson Cemetery. It's over 200 years old and she has been there probably 10 times, late at night. Supposedly it's HAUNTED! So I decided it was time that I ventured down there to take a look. It's about 20 miles from our house on a lonely gravel road that ends right at the cemetery. I think you could get a little scared by the road if you were inclined to be scared anyway. The drive down there was really pretty, with the trees over the road and views that you could see miles from. The cemetery was really overgrown. There weren't hardly any houses close by so I'm not sure who owns the cemetery and apparently no one takes care of it. There were some really old grave stones, the newest ones were 1945 and one in 1993.

I thought these were really pretty. The grave to the left was one that was 1945.
Here is Kasey and Sissy outside the cemetery. I didn't get a very good picture though, it's a little blurry.
Then as we were heading home, there was a truck pulled over at the side of the road, and a guy standing in the woods with a dog on a leash it looked like. We hadn't seen a sole out on the road and thought it was really weird. Right after that, I got a call on my cell phone from a guy that I work with. He said "Are you driving on a gravel road?" I am thinking, how did he know that? Could he hear the road noise? I know crazy thinking, but he said you just drove by me. I mean, how small of a world is that? He said that he and his family were taking pictures of a natural bridge. So we turned around and took some pictures. The river was just down from this bridge. It was really neat.
Here's a really good picture of the bridge. Nicky carried Kasey because she said I was too clutzy and might fall with him.... Well, she might have been partially right! Considering my last scooter accident...
Here's a picture of my friend and her family under the rocks. It was really neat.

It's amazing the things that are just off the beaten path. It was a really neat find.

Blogger Exporting

2008-08-07T21:15:00.003-05:00

Did you read about the new blogger export feature? I have my blog on a different login for my igoogle page, which I love and a separate one for blogger. Everytime I login to post to my blog, I have to change my login and then can't get to my igoogle page until I login to it. So this export feature will let me export my blog out and import it into a new blog. It's apparently on a demo site right now and they will publish it later, but I can't wait. I will probably rename my blog too, because I don't put much stuff about quilting on it. Maybe this winter I will quilt more though.

I did go to my quilting room and reorganize a little bit.

2 posts in 1 day - pretty amazing for me!!

My New Cell Phone!!!

2008-08-07T21:11:00.002-05:00

I got a new phone! It's a Touch by HTC through Sprint. I will say I am not a fan of Sprint, I had all sorts of trouble getting the right information from Sprint, I wanted to be able to use the phone as modem to get Internet on my laptop, they told me 2 times that my plan had that, but when I tried to get it to work, it didn't work. So I called in and they said "Oh, no, your plan doesn't have that". Jeez... They are annoying.

But this phone is SOOOO cool, I get Sprint TV on it, all sorts of cool Internet options, it show the weather on it, scrolling news items. I am sure the battery won't last too long, but it's great. I also signed up for Audible Air Book, and I can download books to listen to. The plan is that I would walk to get some exercise while I listen to a book, but I haven't done so great yet with it. Although I did ride 4 miles on my bike tonight.

Long Time No Post and Running Around Naked

2008-08-04T21:37:00.004-05:00

I can't believe it was July 20th since I posted last. I have no good excuse except I have been lazy. But I am healing up well from my scooter wreck. I know, I should not have worn shorts and flip flops... But...

Do you ever wonder why people think certain things are just not appropriate? I mean, it is really not appropriate for your 2 year old to jump in his pool with all his clothes on, then proceed to take them all off and run around the house naked? I mean don't you wish we could all do that? Not have a care in the world, just run around naked?

Well, okay, maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea... HA!!! But it is just so cute when a 2 year old does it, his little white butt disappearing around the corner of the house... No, I didn't take any pictures, just wanted to post about it and reflect...

And Sissy coming home and appalled because one of her friends is coming over and her brother is romping around the pool NAKED! Oh my!!

Scooter Wreck

2008-07-20T18:10:00.004-05:00

Well, it finally happened, I had a scooter wreck. I figured it would happen sometime, but I really wasn't prepared for it, not that I ever would be. We were scootering outside of town and I turned down a little gravel road and guess I hit the brake or something and slid sideways. The scooter went down and my leg was pinned under it. So here's a picture of my leg right after the accident. The gash below my knee was pretty deep.
Here I am looking all pathetic. I skinned my arm up pretty good because I slid on it and my hand. Kasey was on the scooter with Mark (who is much more careful than I am).

Here is a cute picture of Kasey and the scooter on the other side of the road. It started just fine and didn't really get hurt. But the really sad thing was that my really nice camera I just bought in April was in the pocket of my shorts and the screen broke on it. I have a big bruise on my leg where I hit on it. But it does still work, the screen is just cracked.
I called Mom and Dad and they came and picked me up. I was just a little dizzy so didn't think I should ride home. My dad doctored up my leg. I hate him doing that because he always pokes around on my sores and cleans them up, but he fixed me up really good. I knew he would. I just had to complain a lot while he was doing it.

But I do count myself very fortunate that it wasn't any worse than what it was. I'm just a little sore today.

Oh the really funny thing was a few cars went by and one was a guy I work with. He stopped to check on us and see if we needed any help, which is really nice, but I probably won't be able to keep it a secret at work... Oh well...

New Samsung French Door Refrigerator

2008-07-06T19:21:00.002-05:00

Here's the Lowe's truck at our driveway, ready to deliver the new refrigerator.
Dad, Sissy and Kasey watching. Kasey didn't know what was going on, he just kept waving bye-bye to the old refrigerator.
So, here is what it looks like. I had to get Kasey's refrigerator magnets on here. It's a leap frog that you put the letters in and it sings a little song, "K says kkkk, K says kkk, all the letters make a sound and k says kkk". It's a little song that will drive you crazy, but it's pretty cute. Mike and Becky got it for Kasey for his birthday.
This refrigerator has tons more room! I still have places that don't have anything and the old refrigerator was full.
Here's the freezer section, still lots of room! It hasn't started making any ice yet, I think it has to get really cold, the book said to wait at least 12 hours before you should expect anything.
I love getting new appliances! Makes me want to clean the whole house, but I think I will watch a movie instead.

We watched The Brave One, Jodi Foster, it was really good if you haven't seen it. I rented Vantage Point from Red Box today. I had about 5 free coupons for movies from them. They have a Red Box at our Wal-Mart store now and our McDonald's, so that makes it really easy to rent movies.

Tomorrow is back to work day. It seems like I have been on vacation forever, I guess it's been 11 days since I have been away from there, counting the weekends. That's been nice.

Kelly

We're Back

2008-07-04T18:29:00.005-05:00

Well, I haven't posted since we got back. After the last posting, my computer quit again! Can you believe? So I am on my other old trusty one.

It was a fairly quiet trip home, took us 12 hours on Tuesday and we made it to Oklahoma, then took another 6 hours on Wednesday. But it was a fun trip. We are glad to be home. All Kasey could talk about coming home was "Sissy", "Sissy", "Sissy". Nicky was really glad to see him.

We got Kasey a bag of sand toys at Wal-Mart and he had to carry them in to the hotel. He liked pushing the buttons on the elevator.

Here are Kasey and Daddy on the beach building sand stuff. Mark would make one of the sand castle forms and put it on the sand and Kasey would stomp it out. There were people laying on the beach close to us, just dying laughing at him. He was so funny.

This is my favorite picture of Kasey....

Well, hope everyone has a Happy 4th of July! We are going to shoot off some fireworks. Our neighbors behind us put on a big display which is fun to watch. We don't buy very many. I can't hardly stand the thought of spending money on something that you just burn up, so Mark has to go buy them and I don't even ask him what they cost!!!

Kelly

A Day at the Beach

2008-06-29T21:26:00.004-05:00

Here's a shot of our friends, Sonja and JW with me and Kasey. They were the best hosts we could have ever imagined! We went away with snacks in the car - grapes, muffins, cheese, bananas, juice drinks. They were absolutely great! Thanks for making the last 2 days so much fun.

So after driving for about 6 hours, we finally made it to the island. Remember I can't use the p key on my keyboard and have to paste it in every time I want to type it, so I am not going to try to put that key in very often. So here is Kasey with his first time at the beach. This shot is almost the first few times the waves hit him. He abolutely loved it! He fell down several times, but now he just runs in it and runs back out and says "Here it Comes!" when he sees the waves.

The other thing I wanted to see down here was the Wyland wall. If you read my other blog entry, you will know that I really like his walls, I printed out a list of them the other day, he is painting 100 of them, I checked off the ones I have seen and there are now 22 to the list.
After staying at the beach for a couple of hours, we ventured out for dinner. I think it's funny that everyone posts what they eat for dinner. So I figured I should do the same. We ate at Jake's, just a small restaurant off the beaten path. It had an outside patio, which was nice because Kaseycan get messy sometimes. So here we all are waiting for our meal.
Mark and I had the shrimp appetizer. It was really good and I thought they did a nice job presenting it, don't you?

We also ordered the Macho Nachos. They were really good too.
Here was Kasey's meal.

HA! Just kidding!!! He had to carry his frog around with him and put it on his appetizer plate, so I just couldn't resist taking a picture.

Here's Mark with the sand castle he built. He is so proud of it. That has to be one of the best smiles I have gotten out of him.

Oh, he's smiling so much because he didn't really build it....

Well, tomorrow is beach, beach, and more beach.

Kelly

Quilt Shopping Trip

2008-06-28T15:43:00.003-05:00

Well, I did get to do a little quilt shopping while I was in San Antonio yesterday. I got 2 fat quarters of Christmas fabric, one is candy canes and the other is Christmas cookies. My friend at work, Nita, and I are very slowly collecting fabric to make a Christmas Candy jar quilt. I think I have only 3 or 4 so far. So Nita, I will share this with you!!

I also bought 3 charm packs of It's Snowing by Moda. I really like the fabric in this pack and will make a Christmas quilt sometime. Don't have a clue as to what pattern I will use, but am hoping will be enough.

My last item was a yard of Texas fabric for a pillowcase for Kasey to remind him of our trip

Well, that's it for now.

Day 1, 2 and 3 of our Texas Vacation

2008-06-28T10:14:00.009-05:00

Our trip so far has been fun. I finally got my laptop back but it has a keyboard problem, I was supposed to get a replacement for it, but it didn't come in yet. So I put my old keyboard on it that has the bad p key. So anytime I have to type a p, I have to copy it from somewhere else and hit ctrl v to paste it in my word. Sure does slow me down, but you don't really use the p key as much as you think. It would have been much nicer if it was the q key, but oh well. But I am sure happy to have it!!

We got to San Antonio and the our friend's house around 9:30. Made it in about 13 1/2 hours, which is good for the stops we made, it was 775 miles. We stopped several times for gas and one to eat lunch at the Cottonpatch restaurant in Denison, Texas.

Sonja and JW’s house is out in the middle of nowhere outside of San Antonio. It is a beautiful house. There is sand all over the yard so it really hard to grow grass. They used to live right across the street from us, then had to move because of JW's job. We were sad to see them leave.

There are these plants that are poisonous. I do not know what they are called. But if you touch them, the burn like fireants have bit you all over. Sonja said even if you wear gloves to pull them out, they hurt. I stayed away from them.

I couldn’t wait to get to Sonja’s to eat her special German noodle dish. It has sauerkraut, bacon and spaetzle noodles (which is a German noodle). It sounds nasty but it is WONDERFUL! Hmmmmm. Kasey even ate some of it. We got up Friday morning and headed to Sea World, San Antonio. Tickets were $120 for both of us and Kasey got in free. Parking was $12 and we bought 2 waters that were $3 each. Isn’t that ridiculous? Oh my gosh, it is so hot here, it is crazy! It was about 100 degrees.

We went to the dolphin show first. That was really neat. Then we went to the ski show, they have a big lake there at Sea World. It was ok, but Kasey was starting to act a little crazy.

Then we went to the Shammu Whale Show. That was really worth the whole trip here. The whales are so cool. I just love them. They would swim around and jump out of the water. Then they would jump on the stage. Kasey enjoyed watching that. The last show we watched was the Sea Lions. Kasey got a little crazy there and ran up and down the aisles. He finally calmed down, but he was so tired.

This is Kasey and I all hot, tired and grumpy!

We left around 2:30, it was just too hot and Kasey was too sleepy. So we let him sleep in the car and headed for downtown. We decided we would just go ahead and go to the Alamo and the Riverwalk. The Alamo was neat, but there wasn’t a lot there. I am glad I got to see it.

Then we walked to the Riverwalk. It’s like a river under the streets of San Antonio. We walked around for a little bit, then decided to go on the boat tour of the river. It’s about 2 ½ miles long and took us 30 minutes. The boat was really crowded and Kasey moved around a lot, I worried he was annoying everyone, we were so crowded, he was kicking others. The tickets were $7.75 each.

Here are the boys on the boat. Mark has his eyes shut, but it's a great picture of Kasey.

Then we headed back to Sonja’s. I had some more German noodles and Mark had tacos. Sonja bought Kasey all sorts of toys, some toy trucks and cars. She got him grapes and bananas and some juice box drinks, some string cheese. She sure knows how to spoil that boy.

Saturday is lazy day, we got up and walked down the road a little ways, then came back, ate a huge breakfast of biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage and juice. Sonja says that JW’s next assignment with his company will be in Germany or Hawaii. Ah, another trip maybe!!!

Kasey played in the pool in the morning. I think he enjoyed that more than anything we’ve done so far..

This is all I will post for today, we are not planning on doing too much. Tomorrow we will get up and head to South padre Island and do a little swimming at the beach!!

Kelly

Vacation Time!!!!

2008-06-25T21:42:00.002-05:00

Well, I am off on vacation and taking a laptop with me. I got my laptop back, still have a few problems with it, but I can use it. I made a DVD copy of all the files on it, so I think I am ok. We are heading for San Antonio, Texas to visit our old neighbors, Sonja and JW. We are so excited to see them and show off our little darlin, Kasey! I am hoping the 12 hour trip won't be too bad with him, we'll just stop every couple hours. Will probably have to stop at some quilt shops.. HAA!!! Mark doesn't know what he's in for.

We are going to spend 3 days at their house and leave Sunday morning, heading to South Padre Island, Texas. We have a hotel by the ocean.

Doesn't that look nice? It will be fun to walk out on the beach and hang out!

I am trying out a new thing on blogger.com, I am sending this from my email account. I am hoping it works well. (not sure but the email thing didn't work, maybe it will show up later, then there will be a duplicate - oh well!)

I hope to post what's going on each day if I can...

Kelly

A Wyland Wall on a Truck!

2008-06-19T22:03:00.004-05:00

So, I have this fascination with Wyland Walls. They are walls painted by Wyland all over the United States and other countries. He has a goal of painting 100 walls, I think he just painted his 99th in June, but I can't remember where. I guess I could look it up but I am too lazy.... (imagine that?) The first wall I saw was when my mom and I went to Hawaii, there was one on a building in Honololu. At the time I thought it was neat, but didn't take a picture of it because I was driving. So when we got ready to leave, we got our pictures developed at Sam's so we could put them in the album on the long trip home. There was a Wyland book will his walls in it and I bought it. It was crazy expensive (or so I thought at the time), I think it was $26.00.

The second wall I saw was downtown Chicago, I just happened to be walking down a street and looked up in the sky and there was one on the side of the building. After that, I have started looking them up before I go to a new City. I actually started a scrapbook of all of them I have seen. I bet I have pictures of at least 30 of them.

Last week, I rode my scooter to work all week on a 1/2 tank of gas, which cost $2.00! I just love riding it, but this week, I had some things to do that I needed my car for and then it rained Monday and Tuesday. So I rode Wednesday and Thursday. Well, tonight on my way home, a truck was in front of me crossing the Interstate. It was a Wyland Wall truck. I could hardly believe it. He didn't want to turn on the Interstate, guess he had made a wrong turn, so he went straight and turned around in the new round-about we have and went back the other way on the Interstate.

I pulled off the side of the road, got off the scooter, pulled out my handy dandy Casio Exilim Camera that's credit card size so I can carry it with me all the time and took a picture of the truck going around the round-about.

This is a good close up I got as he drove passed me. I am sure he thought I was crazy because I was standing on the side the of the road taking his picture. He might be used to it, because he hooked at me and smiled and I just waved at him.

Here is a picture of me and Wyland. I have seen him twice now, once in Florida and once in Springfield, MO at the Bass Pro Shop Museum. He is such a nice guy and really believes in protecting the environment and the water resources we have. When I was in Florida, he painted a picture, in a matter of minutes. They auctioned it of and sold it for $10,000. Can you believe? Most of his paintings go for $1800 and up, but they are just copies that he signs. This one was an original.

Anyway, I thought it was a great day, that I got to see a Wyland Wall in my town.

Nicky made it home tonight. I will post some of the pictures of her coming home this weekend.

Plus we are having a garage sale Saturday so have to get all of my junk ready for that. Ah....

Kelly

Nicky's Washington DC trip

2008-06-13T12:28:00.003-05:00

Nicky's leaving for Washington DC today and they have setup a blog so we can see what she's doing.

http://moyouthtour.blogspot.com/

I Won! I Won! I Won!!!

2008-06-05T13:09:00.002-05:00

I am so excited. I actually won something off a blog posting. Kristie drew my name from 58 people who posted on her site! You can click on the link and see the stuff she is going to send me. All quilting goodies!!! I can't wait to get it. Kristie lives in Kentucky and I just love reading her blog. She is such a great quilter and is always busy with her family, I don't know how she quilts as much as she does.

Still haven't heard anything about my laptop yet. I hope it can be saved.

Thank you, Kristie!!!!

Computer Got Soaped, Died and is in the Hospital

2008-05-29T17:23:00.004-05:00

Kasey got on the countertop Tuesday and took the liquid dishwashing soap and poured it all over my new laptop. Yes, the one I got in February. So Mark took it all apart and tried to get the soap out, but it wouldn't come back on. So I took it to my favorite computer shop and they are looking at it for me. I hope it can be salvaged. Most of my stuff was backed up except for about a month of Kasey's pictures and videos.

I am so upset you can't even image.

So here was my original posting when I got my computer. I was so proud of it.

Followup From Mark's Gall Bladder Posting

2008-05-25T20:15:00.002-05:00

Well, I posted a while back that Mark was having gall bladder problems and after a lot of medical tests, gall bladder, pancreas, EKG, stress test, Mark self-diagnosed himself. He thought he had been drinking too much of the sugar-free Koolaide with the artificial sweetener in it. We had bought the Wal-Mart stuff and I would make a pitcher at night and he would drink most of it the next day. That's when most of his chest pains and sleepless nights started. So he quit drinking the diet sodas and the sugar-free Koolaide. Now he feels great, no chest pains and has been sleeping good at night.

I don't have any trouble with that stuff. I guess some people's metabolism isn't the same and it affects them differently.

Interesting Blog Information

2008-05-22T20:41:00.002-05:00

I found this information on a site about mistakes that Bloggers make. One that annoys me is the music on the site. I like music but I just think it's really annoying and then I can never find a way to turn it off quick enough.

Well, I got my keyboard from Dell and replaced it. Wasn't too hard to do, took 2 screws off the bottom, then took the top part off the laptop where the on off button is at, then slipped the keyboard off and replaced it. The P key works now! Yeah.

I sure haven't done much sewing lately. I've just been too lazy and it is so nice outside, we have just been playing outside all the time.

Kasey spent the day with Grandma today while Daddy was helping Grandpa side their house. I would call over there to see how they were doing and Kasey would kiss the phone. It was so sweet.

Back Porch "Take Two" and "P" Key Quit!!!

2008-05-19T20:31:00.005-05:00

Well, I was going to show this "Take Two" of the Play Center Back Porch, but as I was trying to update on my new Dell laptop, the "P" key quit working!! Can you believe that? So I had to call Dell and request a new keyboard. It should be here Wednesday and then I will replace it! It's really simple to do and Dell always has really good step-by-step instructions. I think Mark did something today to it, but he said he didn't!! He was trying to do a search for some medicine he takes and it started with P so he couldn't look it up. I guess we can copy and paste the P in any time we want to use it, but what a cumbersome thing to do!

Well, here's "Take Two" on the play center back porch. Mark went to Lowe's and got a big rope and tied it on the awning of the porch and hung the tire swing on it. Then he laid out all the puzzle floor mats. I think it all looks so nice. The floor mats will only make it one season, but they will help Kasey cushion when he falls. Kasey is really enjoying the sand box too.

We rode scooters out to some friends house tonight, Stephanie and Doyle, and went to eat at a little restaurant out in the country. I need to take some scooter pictures and some scenery that we see during our ride. It's really pretty. Next time we go out, I'll take my camera with me. Stephanie has been reading my blog but she hasn't started one of her own. I'm hoping that she will leave a comment for me sometime! Stephanie has a scooter too.

I am going to ride the scooter to work next week and log my mileage and gas down and see how much it cost me. The scooter gets about 80 miles to a gallon. I probably ride it a little too hard, so might not get that good.

Our economic stimulus check

2008-05-18T09:47:00.004-05:00

So what did you spend your Economic Stimulus check on? We got $1500. We've been looking around for a play center for Kasey and just can't find anything we like. We didn't really want to spend the full amount on that (I like to spend a little on what I want... HA!). We couldn't find anything less than $500 for what we wanted to get. So we decided to build something off our back porch. You never see anyone doing that, but we tend to do things different than anyone else anyway!

We went to Lowe's and they had a 10 foot slide, it was about $160.00. The one they had out had scratches on it and wasn't really aesthetically pleasing. The lady said she could discount it, so we were thinking about $20 less. She said she would take $86.00 for it! Woohoo! So we bought it and then we bought a rock climbing wall.

Mark took the slats out on the porch and we put both there. We also have a little swing on the porch too for Kasey. Here's a picture of Connor and Kasey playing.

I thought it turned out really good. Kasey loves it. We put a mat down at the bottom so he lands on that. He's really not using the rock climbing wall yet. We'll have to keep an eye on him, of course, so that he doesn't try to jump off the rock wall....

Here was Kasey helping Daddy put the rock wall together. He would put the screws in the holes. He seems to be really mechanically inclined. Just wait until he learns how to use the drill!

Last Night's Camping Adventure

2008-05-18T09:37:00.003-05:00

We had fun camping last night. I didn't make it all night though. The tent we had came from my dad, he bought it at an auction or somewhere, so when you get something from my dad, you never know if it is going to work or not! (Disclaimer to my Dad when he reads this: we love the tent, so keep all the free stuff coming....)

Well, the tent poles that hold the rain flap up on the top of the tent were all broke. Dad had another tent, but we didn't want to go over there and get those poles. So last night, because that flap didn't have the poles in it, they flapped and flapped every time the wind blew. It was really annoying. So I couldn't make it, I had to go back in the house and sleep in my nice quiet cushy bed. I do like sleeping when it's real cool out though. We'll get the poles from Dad and try again. If not, I looked them up on Coleman's web site, they are only $15.00 to replace, so that's really cheap for a free tent! Plus it's a 8 person tent and those are anywhere from $100-$180. We got a pretty good deal on our tent.

Kasey really had a good time sleeping in the tent. He had never slept with all of us like that before. Our nephew Connor came over too. I think he had a good time too. He is 10 and had never slept in a tent before outside. Nicky was going to sleep with us too, but she had a friend who wanted to hang out with her, so ditched us for her friend. She said that NOTHING will stop her from tenting with us next time except family emergency... Ah.. teenagers...

We are Camping Tonight

2008-05-17T20:10:00.002-05:00

Well, we have decided to go camping outside tonight in our backyard. Here's an overview picture of the tent and Mark's fire he started. We're going to roast some marshmallows and make s'mores. This is the first time we have taken Kasey camping, so we thought it might be best to camp in the backyard first so we could go back in the house if we want to. It should be a cool night for sleeping too.

Here's Kasey and Daddy sitting next to the fire.

I'll report more in the morning about how the night went.

Miranda Bag Almost Finished

2008-05-12T21:50:00.002-05:00

I worked Sunday evening on my Miranda Bag. I got everything done but the flap and the handles. I am not sure when I will get them done, probably this weekend. I know this picture makes it look crooked, but it's really not.. I really like how it looks and it WAS really pretty easy to put together. I did sew one thing wrong and had to rip it out, but it wasn't too bad.

This is the inside, I don't have anything to put in the bottom yet, so I put my 6 X 12 ruler in there and it worked pretty good. I have some heavy plastic that was used for a yard sign, I think I will use that for a while until it falls apart! I had a hard time with the interfacing when I ironed it on the liner, because the liner puckered up. I tried just pressing down on it without going back and forth and it seemed to do the same thing, so I am not sure what I did wrong. The only interfacing I had was the kind with the grid lines on it, but I would think that would be ok.

I'll post the finished picture once I get it done. I am going to make one for my mom too for a late Mother's Day gift, so I think I'll do a lot better on it.

All Mark could say was "Are these cheaper than the ones you buy?" Ha!! I just said, it doesn't really matter, I will still want to buy purses......

Saturday's Mother Day Surprise

2008-05-10T19:36:00.006-05:00

Mark had a surprise trip planned for today for Mother's Day. We went to Springfield (which is about 50 miles away), ate at Galloway Station and made a personalized Pottery item from FireHouse Pottery with Kasey's hand print on it. We were going to ride bikes, but it ended up being a cold and rainy day. But we had a great time anyway. I got some good shots too!

Kasey was ready to go, he had never seen the bikes on the jeep before. He hurt his hand on something on the bikes and wanted Mommy to kiss it. Wouldn't it be so sweet if I could kiss all of his hurts away? Life would be so simple!

This is at the FireHouse Pottery, we painted a little pencil box, it's a purple color with black specs, once they fire it, the purple will be really bright. Here it just looks white, but it was actually a light purple. We painted Kasey's hand black and then put it on the front. He was so good, they were impressed with what a good hand print we got.
Here's the pencil box. We put Kasey's name on the back of it and Nicky's name.
While Nicky and I were painting, Kasey wanted to play outside in the rain. So he and Daddy had to stand outside and play. When I went out to get them to get Kasey's hand print, Kasey was running around with a green water bucket. Nicky took this picture, he had the cutest look on his face. He's cutting a couple of teeth and seems to be having a lot of saliva right now (which is why his sweatshirt is really wet.. )
We stopped at Sequoia Park and fed the ducks and geese some left over popcorn. They ate right out of Mark's hand.
Kasey tried to get them to eat out of his too. One of them hissed at him and he just looked at them like they were crazy and threw the popcorn at them. He was really funny.
Then here are the kids sleeping in the backseat coming home. It was a long day for them!

Well, that's it for today. Happy Mother's Day everyone! Happy Mother's Day Mom! You are the best and I am lucky to have you in my life and Kasey to have you for a Grandma!!!

Kelly

Early Mother's Day

2008-05-07T20:12:00.005-05:00

When I got home from work today, Kasey met me at the door and wanted me to pay attention to him and he kept dragging me toward the kitchen. He wanted me to see the surprise he and Daddy got me. I had a cake, 12 pack of Diet Coke and flowers. Kasey put a couple of his stuffed animals on the table for me.

The card said

"Mom, this Mother's Day card is from both of us,

One Card, Twice the Love, Half the Cost! Happy Mother's Day".

I thought that was cute. Kasey couldn't wait to get into the cake.

They have another surprise for me on Saturday. Not sure what it is, but we are going somewhere. I think it's probably a bike ride somewhere, but we will see. I will probably guess it before we go, which always makes Mark mad, because he has a hard time surprising me. Course he usually says something to give it away.

Kelly

Miranda Bag Pattern Here and Fabric Purchased

2008-05-04T19:23:00.002-05:00

My Miranda Bag pattern arrived. So I found some fabric at a quilt store today. It's XOXOXO, The Cat by Wendy Slotboom for In The Beginning Fabrics.

I am going to make the body of the bag out of the black flower print, then the green will be the bottom. The light dot fabric is going to be the inside lining and the pink is the pockets inside. The handles will be longer handles made out of the green. I am really excited to get started on it. The pattern looks really complicated, but Lazy Girl Designs has pictures of everything, so it should be fairly simple.

Kelly

More Prom Pictures

2008-05-03T18:19:00.002-05:00

Here is everyone that was in Nicky's group. All the girls were really pretty. We took pictures for about 40 minutes, they were all sick of smiling!

Here's Nicky and Kasey. He kept his shirt clean for pictures, but right after this, he started playing next to the pond and got dirt all over his shirt. Typical boy.

Here they are getting in their limo. They were packed in like sardines! This car came from a local funeral home......

Getting Ready For Prom

2008-05-03T14:04:00.004-05:00

Today is Prom! So the first thing that happened was Nicky got her hair done. Here's the front picture.

View from the back. Our hairstylist, Lori put glitter in her hair, not sure it shows up but it really looks good up close.
Here she is putting on makeup. Nicky and I are both Bare Escentuals fans. Between the two of us (and my mom, who's a fan too) we have a ton of colors. Nicky's dress is plum (picture to follow) and she used a light lavender on her eyes as liner.
Here she is in her "going out to dinner" dress.

So at 3:00, we're heading to take pictures of her and her friends. I'll have some pictures to post after that. Then they are heading to Springfield to go out to eat. After that, they come back to town, dress up in their finery and head to the prom. It's a big deal to walk into prom, we'll watch that this evening and take pictures. Then after prom, they go to "after prom", which is a big, non alcohol party sponsored by the parents and a lot of the community supports. The purpose is to keep kids at a location where they are safe. They have a ton of giveaways for the kids to entice them to go.

We're hoping Kasey does pretty good tonight. This evening may be hard for him because it will be after his bedtime when they walk into prom. I'm hoping he doesn't get too upset and tired.

Free Rice to Hungry People

2008-05-01T21:32:00.004-05:00

www.freerice.com

We donated rice today to feed hungry people in the world, it's through the UN World Food Program. It was fun just to see how well you could pick the answers to the questions. I bet my Grandpa Bob would like this. (Post what your vocabulary score was on here!)

Nicky is the one that showed me the site. She donated 8,000 grains of rice one time. Not sure how much rice that really is, maybe a bowl full?

Blog Giveaway

2008-05-01T20:31:00.004-05:00

Well, I have been reading quilting blogs for a while and it seems that people are always winning stuff or giving stuff away. It is so fun to see what they win. One of my favorites that I read is ~CowGirlQuilter~. She lives out in the country in a beautiful spot in Kentucky and has 2 boys. She is a great poster and was the very first blog I ever read, I'm not even sure how I even found her blog. So I read for a while and then thought I would try it, so I could say she was my inspiration. She's posted her 300th posting on her blog and is giving some quilt stuff away. She wants you to post a comment on her site and then post a link on your site back to her site. I think I will give something away on my 100th posting. Maybe some of my holiday plastic cups. Ha! Just kidding.

One thing about blogging is that I love to read what people are doing. I have about 30 I read all the time and subscribe to bloglines.com which shows me what posting each person makes as an unread post. So it doesn't take that long to read. It is so much fun to read what people are working on in quilts, what they have done and what their family is doing. I really like Kristie's site the best because she has such a great heart and is really funny.

Watercolor Wall Hanging

2008-04-29T20:28:00.003-05:00

I made this a couple of years ago, the border is yellow, doesn't show up really good. Then the smaller inner border is purple and the outside is purple. I really enjoyed making it. It's from this book:

Dogwood Tree and Sleeping Kasey

2008-04-29T20:20:00.003-05:00

This was a Dogwood Tree at my Mom's house. I thought it was really pretty. We took Kasey to Mom's while we went to a City Council meeting. As we drove up the hill, he yelled, "yeah, yeah" and clapped his hands. When we went to pick him up, he and Grandma were on the couch, Kasey sleeping away. They were so cute. I think she had been sitting with him like that for at least an hour.

Thinking About My Life

2008-04-27T20:30:00.007-05:00

My Grandpa Bob came to live in Lebanon about 3 months after Kasey was born. He's my father's dad and I had never met him until about 7 years ago, I guess. I knew about him all my life, but he and my dad were never close and didn't really have a relationship. Grandpa Bob and my grandmother divorced when dad was really young and their lives were just too far apart. So about 7 years ago, I had done a little research about the family and learned that his 2nd wife had died. That really made me think about things like what if my Grandpa Bob died, would I even know? And would I even realized what I had missed in my life by not knowing him? So I decided to take the first step and make that call to him. So I did and I am so pleased with how things have worked out. That first year, we took a long trip to Maine where he lived in the summers. He had 3 children with his 2nd wife and we got to meet all of them and their families. Being an only child, I now have 2 uncles and an aunt and a half dozen cousins! That was amazing to me. So over the years, we have gone to his home in Florida and he's been to our house a couple of times. He is now married to Carole and the last time they came up to visit right after Kasey was born, they decided to move up here.

I was never fortunate enough to remember my maternal grandfather, I do remember my maternal great-grandfather though. It is really nice to have my Grandpa Bob in town with us now and my Grammy Carole!

So what has got me thinking is that my Grandpa Bob has written all of these stories on paper. I think there is probably about 40 pages. He writes a lot about his military stories and they are really interesting. I love the fact that this is about his life and the things that were important to him. I will have something to give to Kasey to remember his great-grandfather. I don't think many people are that fortunate to have a document like that in their families.

I have posted Grandpa Bob's blog on my favorite blog listing, along with my favorite quilting blogs, so he's in good company. I don't always understand his blogs, they are usually political in nature, which I'm not really too up on, but I enjoy reading them and commenting on them. Keeps him on his toes. :)

So here are a few pictures, we went to a Mexican Restaurant for my Mom's birthday, April 22nd.
Starting at the left is Grammy Carole, Grandpa Bob, Nicky, my Mom, Me and Kasey. (bad pictures of mom and me, but that is the best I could get from Mark taking the picture and Kasey being onery!!!)

Here's Kasey playing peek-a-boo. He loves to flirt with everyone. We went to Hardee's yesterday and he walked around the whole restaurant and waved at everyone and said "bye-bye, bye-bye".

This is a good picture of my Mom and Kasey. We were at the Civic Center, they were having a showing of Eagles. It was really neat and he liked watching the birds.
So what I have been thinking about after reading Grandpa Bob's narrative, is that I need to do something for Kasey like that. I found an old scrapbook document that was called "Journal Jar". It has about 10 pages of double spaced questions that help you to document your life. So I have started a document and have been surprised about how easy the words flow when you just type in a question. Here are a few of them:

Did you walk to school or ride a bus?
Tell about your first car
Describe your Sundays as a child

So I already have about 10 pages typed and it is just my growing up years. I think I am going to divide it up by 3 sections, my growing up years, my life before Mark and my life with Mark. I think it will be a neat way to document things I have done and what my feelings are. I have to get my mom started doing this. She has so many cool stories about our families and as much as I try, I can't remember some of them and usually get them all confused anyway! So, Mom, are you up for the challenge???

Blogging seems to be a great way to share your stories with your family and friends, but this is just one other way to do so. What makes it easier is if you are a fast typer too! I think it has made it so much nicer having the laptop too because I just take it where ever I feel like typing.

Miranda Bag Pattern

2008-04-27T15:39:00.003-05:00

Well, I have been reading about these Miranda Bag patterns on blogs. Everyone seems to be making them, so I finally have broke down and ordered the pattern. I really like how the inside has all the organizer pockets. I think I will use it a lot. But I don't like the small handles, I will try to make it with bigger handles, if I can.

Mark's Gall Bladder and My Bad Tooth

2008-04-25T18:13:00.003-05:00

Well, Mark went in for an ultrasound on his gall bladder but we don't know anything yet. The lady that did it wouldn't let me take a picture of him with his belly showing and jelly all over it. That wasn't fair. When I had the ultrasound with Kasey, they would let him take a picture.

Then I've been having tooth problems, one of my back teeth hurt when I eat on it. So I went to the dentist to get my teeth cleaned and there is a fracture in my tooth, so I will be getting a crown on it. They can't do it until June, but at least I don't have to get it pulled.

Well, that's all that's been going on with us.

Kelly

Spring Quilt

2008-04-19T11:24:00.003-05:00

Here's a spring quilt I made last year, I found the pattern in a magazine and used a jelly roll, but I can't remember the fabric name right now. Just wanted to post the pictures of the quilt. Kasey had fun while we were trying to take the picture, he wouldn't stand still long enough for me to get a picture with him in front of the quilt.

Here's Kasey in the bathtub. Daddy was putting spray soap all over him. He loves playing in the bathtub...

Well, Mark has been feeling sick for the last couple of weeks, he is bloated and having pains in his chest. We went to the doctor Wednesday and they think he might be having gall bladder problems. He's scheduled for an ultrasound this week so we will see what they find out. I guess that greasey foods really upsets the gall bladder if you're having problems.

Well, not much else going on this week.

Holiday Cups

2008-04-12T16:33:00.003-05:00

I thought it would be fun to start collecting these holiday plastic cups. They would just be something fun for Kasey to use and I could switch them out with every holiday. I have the following:

Valentine's Day - pink and red
Easter - bunnies and eggs
Snowmen - blue
St. Patrick's day
4th of July

I guess the next holiday that I can buy cups for will be Halloween, since I already have 4th of July, which would work for Memorial Day too. Then I can get Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Don't you think that's a neat idea? They are usually $1 or 8 or 10 of them. Anyone else doing something like this?

Visiting with Michelle

2008-04-11T20:33:00.004-05:00

Michelle and I met for coffee tonight and went through a computer lesson! She has finally posted a blog and I showed her how to use igoogle, how to setup bloglines and how to upload pictures to her blog. We took a few pictures so she could try it. Here's the link to her blog, My Five Little Sweet Peas, how cute is that? It was a fast visit, probably about an hour.

Nicky Won Electric Company Essay Contest!

2008-04-11T20:25:00.005-05:00

Nicky entered an essay contest at our local rural electric cooperative. There were 124 entries and the judges picked 10 that they liked, Nicky was one of those 10, 5 girls and 5 boys. Thursday night, she had to read her essay to the judges. After everyone was done, they announced the runners up. They named the first girl and it wasn't Nicky, then they named the 2nd and it wasn't her, then the 3rd and it wasn't her! We were going crazy, it was so close, then they named the 4th one and it wasn't her either! Which meant SHE WON!!! Oh my gosh, it was so exciting.

She won a small PDA device, I don't know what it is for sure, but I guess it has Office 2007 on it, Internet, a GPS system and all sorts of things. I can't wait to see it. But the BIG prize was an all expense paid trip to WASHINGTON, DC in June! Oh my gosh, we are just so excited. There will be 82 kids from Missouri that get to go for 6 days! I dont' think it's sunk in for her what an honor and what a prize this is!

Course, she did forget that I had told her the week before that if she won it, I would give her $100 spending money! When I told her that I was out $100, she was like "Oh, yeah, I forgot!" HA! I told her she had to buy me a t-shirt. Course in DC, you can usually buy t-shirts for 5 for $10, so she'll be able to buy everyone a t-shirt real cheap!

Here's her proud pappa! He said it was really his night to shine... :)

We voted!

2008-04-09T19:49:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was a big election day in our town, the mayor and 4 city councilmen. The opponents ran on a ticket of Open, Honest and Transparent Government. They all WON! We were so excited. The guys that were in office were secretive, dishonest and out for their own personal gain. It was wonderful to see the people of our town get out and vote them out. The new mayor won by a 70% margin over the old mayor. It was great. I am now so proud of our town.

So this is Kasey's 2nd time to go vote with us. He was so cute after I voted (we vote on paper ballots), he ran to the machine and pointed to it, he knew that was where that paper was supposed to go. I let him push the ballot in, he thought that was a lot of fun . Then we got a sticker for him.

New Washing Machine, Cat Food and MicroFiber Towels

2008-04-07T20:56:00.005-05:00

Well, here's a picture of my new washing machine. It's an LG. The really cool thing about it is that it has a delay timer, so when I want to wash something to put in the dryer for the next morning, I can tell it to start in 6 hours and it will start the load and be done when I get up and everything doesn't sit in the washer for hours getting moldy. The only bad thing is that it doesn't match my dryer. I can't really justify buying a new dryer just so that they match, can I? I am trying to tell Mark I need one and we can use that economic spending tax money on that... But he doesn't like the idea too much. So the little yellow sheet that comes with the dryer said that if you wash 8 loads a week, it only costs you $15.00 a year! We got it from Home Depot, they were a lot cheaper than Sears, plus they had a 10% off coupon and free shipping and handling. It was a good deal, they hauled the old one off too.

So I have to explain a couple things on the washer/dryer picture. The cat food is on top of the dryer because if it isn't up there, Kasey will eat it! That being said, when the cat jumps up there, she scratches the edge of the dryer (another reason we need a new one, right?). Then there is a note on the front of the dryer that says "KEEP THIS DOOR CLOSED". Which was only put on there because Nicky tends to leave the dryer door open all the time. There's a light inside which means it's on all the time when the door is open. The note helped some to reminder her to close the door... Ah, teenagers... :)

Then there was the cat food container that I found tonight when I came home. When we were at Sam's, I bought 10 lbs of cat food. Mark put it all in containers today and I guess decided to put the rest of it in the fabric softener container. He made sure it had plenty of labels on it, just in case we might decide to pour it in the washing machine as fabric softener! I was wondering if that would hurt the cat, but I opened the container and it doesn't smell like fabric softener, so he must have cleaned it out really good. I wondered then if he dried it out really good, I picture water in the bottom and the cat food in there and then it all MOLDS! YUCK!

Ah... husbands... :)

So the other thing I have to tell you about are my new microfiber towels. I love these things towels. I got them at Sam's - there are 32 of them in a package for $10, I have bought 2 1/2 packages (my mom and I split a package). I got a full package of blue and a full package of orange, then we split the green and yellow. These are wonderful for everything! Windows clean great with them and they absorb water really good. The only bad thing is that you can't wash them with fabric softener (also known as cat food.. ha) because it breaks down their absorbency. I just store them in a laundry bag and throw them in with something that doesn't need fabric softener. I have enough of them that I can go a month or so. Then my mom said she cut hers in 1/4ths and uses them as washcloths. So I followed her lead and cut them up, they work great in the kitchen. I even love the smaller size too.

So I think this must be the longest post I have ever made on here.

I am really excited because my Grandpa Bob called me today and wanted me to show him how to start a blog! I can't believe it, he just had his birthday this week (and I forgot !!! - bad Granddaughter!) and he's 85! (Hope that's right, maybe that will make him post a comment on his real age, he's either 84 or 85.) I think he's going to post all about politics, but I guess that will be ok. I will post a link to it on here when he gets it started.

Well, maybe my mom with post a comment too, she reads each one of these about 10 times but never posts anything, except these anonymous ones that say "what a beautiful child" or something like that. She tends to be a little proud of her grandson.

Kelly

Our Concrete Bench was Stolen!

2008-04-06T20:59:00.003-05:00

We have a concrete bench that sits by the road on our street next to our driveway. It's just nice to walk up and down the street and sit on it when you want to watch the neighborhood or just relax. Well, this morning it was GONE! I couldn't believe someone would steal it. I was really mad. So I called our neighbor (Tommy) on his cell phone and left a message, he has a camera on his house and I thought it would have recorded that area and we'd be able to catch our thief. He called me back in a couple of hours and was bringing the bench back. Apparently, one of his prankster buddies had stolen the bench, thinking it was his and not ours. He had left it at a house where my neighbor was planning on going that day thinking he would get the joke (seeing his bench sitting in the middle of this person's driveway!). But my neighbor didn't get it because it wasn't his bench. So once he got my message, he knew what had happened and brought it back to us. I'm glad I didn't call the police, I was going to, but Mark told me to wait awhile until we heard back from Tommy.

I looked outside my window Friday at all my yellow daffodils coming up and Kasey had pulled all the flowers off the stems. They were laying all over the place. Guess he thought they shouldn't be there! Should have taken a picture of that. :) I'll do better next time.

Finally, A Post From Me

2008-04-05T20:17:00.003-05:00

Well, I have been terrible about posting the last 2 weeks. I had originally planned to post at least every couple of days, then I just fell off the face of earth for awhile! Not too much going on in my life, so wasn't sure what to post! I took this picture the other day outside of my work. The City is doing some road construction and put up "Detoer" signs. I thought that was so funny. Apparently, it looks like the U came off the Detour sign so they put an E on it.

My mom, Nicky and I went to Springfield shopping today. Nicky needed to get some shoes for Prom (why, oh, why is prom so expensive now????) and a dress to wear out to dinner before prom. So we hit all the stores, Marshall's, TJ Maxx, Kohl's and Gordman's. She found a dress at Kohl's and then we went to Gordman's. I laughed and said, "I bet you'll find one in here you like better." She said, "No, I won't. I'm really happy with the one I got." After wandering around a while, I found her and guess what she had? Yes, another dress! I really liked this one better than the first. So we got it and took the other one back to Kohl's. Plus she found some really cute silver shoes with rhinestones on them. Our last stop was Sam's Club for diapers and wipes. I found Kasey a couple of books, I Can Cut and I Can Trace. Retail price on this website showed $13.99, but Sam's had them for $7.49. That was a good price. They also have I Can Color, I Can Fold and I Can Paste. I thought I Can Cut and Trace would be pretty good for his age right now, 22 months. We did a little bit with the I Can Cut, but he was tired, so I will do a little with him each day. It's really cute, they are colorful pages and you can tear each page out as you do it.

Here's a pic of Kasey, we had hamburgers and corn on the cob. He is pretty good at eating the corn, but liked to pull the skewers out and stick them back in. I am going to have to remember to use the ones that are plastic screw type rather than the metal stick ones. He could hurt himself on those. He thought it was fun eating the corn with those.

Here's what we did tonight before going to bed. He loves to play with this magentic farm book. He takes all the magnets out and puts them on the page. After he's played a while, he wants to put it all up in the plastic holder and put it back in the bookshelf. Usually we read a couple of books every night. My favorite are the Dr. Seuss books. I have a ton of them, probably at least 75! I just love the rhymes and silliness of them. I think he's going to like them too!

I haven't been doing much on quilting. I worked on my Triple Treat Quilt some, but nothing really to show.

Kasey's 1st Easter Egg Hunt

2008-03-22T14:24:00.003-05:00

We went to an Easter Egg Hunt, this was Kasey's first real hunt. It was neat and well organized, put on by a church here in town. This is what the field looked like before the kids got in there. This field was for the 0-3 year olds. Everyone watched while the kids gathered eggs, then they went to the next field so the next group of kids could pick them up. It was really nice.

Here's Kasey with his friend, Gracie. It seems that Kasey only has one friend in these posts and that is mostly TRUE! We don't really have many friends that have younger kids and since Kasey stays home with Daddy all the time, they don't get out much. (Next year, Kasey will go to a little pre-school for 2 year olds where he can practice his socialization skills.) We enjoy Gracie, she is fun to be around and Kasey likes her a lot!

Here we are about 2 minutes after the hunt started, you can see the field is totally cleared off of eggs. Kasey picked up about 15 eggs, and had fun opening them all up. I am going to have to teach Mark how to use the camera though, he had a tough time getting a good picture of us.

Hope everyone has a great Easter tomorrow.

Kelly

Nicky's Back from her Cruise

2008-03-21T17:43:00.002-05:00

Nicky made it back from her cruise. She came over wearing shorts and flip flips. It was nice outside, but not THAT nice! They left out of Miami last week and went to Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. This is Nicky on the right and her friend, Meagan on the left.

Here's Nicky kissing a Sting Ray! They went out on the boat and ended up on a sand spot in the middle of the ocean that they could stand up on! There were lots of sting rays around.

Nicky was happy to see Kasey. She brought him a cute t-shirt with little crochet guys on the front of it. (Course, I am thinking, I can't wait to make that into a t-shirt quilt someday!!!).

Kelly

Flooding in Missouri

2008-03-20T20:18:00.004-05:00

It rained here for the past 2 days, we probably had 5" of rain. Here's a picture of I-44, which is a major interstate that runs through Missouri. This is the Gasconade River. The water was 18" over the road. Traffic was diverted for 12 hours but semi's could go through. This was amazing because when you normally drive over the bridge, you could never imagine the water this high. They said the river had risen 35 feet. This is about 10 miles from our house. Thankfully, we didn't have any water damage or problems.

Nicky went on a trip this week for spring break with one of her friends. They went on a cruise to Jamaica and the friend's parents paid for it! It's nice to have friends like that. I will post her picture tomorrow. We are all excited to have her home and it will be fun to hear how the trip went.

Our washing machine is dying, it's a Kenmore front loader. After finding out what it will cost to fix it and the uncertainty of whether it will last much longer after that, we decided to go ahead and get a new one. I ordered a LG front loader from Home Depot this week, we should get it next week. All the reviews on the LG's were really good. I can't wait to get it, I think the neatest feature it has on it is the delay wash. So many times I put a load in before I go to bed and the clothes have to sit in the washer until the next morning. Now I can put them in there and set it to wash 12 hours later! How cool is that?

Kelly

Triple Treat Quilt Started & Elmo

2008-03-16T20:32:00.003-05:00

I started a new quilt for our bed, it's called Triple Treat from the Happy Hour book by Atkinson Designs. It will be a King size and will look scrappy in browns, blues, blacks and burgundy.

Here's the picture of the quilt from the book. I just pulled out 32 different fabrics from my stash, after sewing them into sets of 3, I cut 15" blocks (above). That gives me a pretty big piece left over that I can't get a 15" block from. The pattern shows a couple of things you can do with the left overs, make a table runner or the quilt on the bottom right, called Second Hand Strips Quilt. I think that I may take what I have left over and make pillow shams. That would look really nice on the bed.

This is how big the left over strips are. And my final project of the night was making Kasey an Elmo pillowcase. He is really into Elmo so he was crazy about this fabric. I think his pillow is becoming his "safety blanket". When we get him up in the morning or from his nap, he has to haul his pillow downstairs with him. Then when he goes up for naps, he hauls it upstairs with him. Anywhere we go, he has to take it with him in the car! I didn't really expect him to become so addicted to these. But I am glad that he enjoys them.

Kelly

Community Garage Sale & Pancake Breakfast

2008-03-16T15:36:00.004-05:00

Saturday we went to the Civic Center for their annual garage sale. I didn't buy anything real exciting, but it was fun to look around. There was a big crowd there. I compressed these pictures down but I think I went too far, they don't look that great.

Here's Kasey and Grace eating pancakes.

I did buy Kasey a pillowcase that had cows on it. It's really cute. Whoever made it did a really nice job on it, she surged all the edges. I was impressed. Kasey carried it all over the place.

Today we went to Sears and they had a few of their Craftsman toys on sale. We got Kasey an air compressor and jack hammer (that was all they had there). They make noises and light up. We got each one for $5.00. Normally they are $29.00! That was a real deal. We opened the air compressor, but I think we are going to save the jack hammer for his birthday in June.

Kelly

An Old Quilt from My Aunt Pauline

2008-03-12T21:14:00.004-05:00

My Great Aunt Pauline made a quilt for me when I was little. The blocks are all applique pictures of me doing something, like praying, swinging, playing the piano. I had this quilt on my bed for years, we washed it and used it. Little did I realize how valuable this quilt would be to me as I got older and I wish now that I would have just displayed it instead of using it. The quilt ended up falling apart. So I took all the blocks off the quilt and tried to salvage them. I made this wall hanging with the ones that were in the best shape and that I liked the most. The block on the top right is me with my Great-Granddad Fred and I kissing at Christmas. The details in this block are amazing when I compare it to the actual picture that my mom made into a Christmas card that year. The lamp in the background was a brown lamp, there was a window in the background, the chair was orange, there was a coffee table next to the chair. The workmanship in this quilt was just amazing.

I plan to put the binding on it sometime and then Mark is going to make an oak frame for me to put it in so I can display it on the wall. Here are the rest of the blocks. You can see the bottom block is of me and Aunt Pauline planting in the garden.
This is a really good close up of one of the blocks. I think that the shirt my Granddad is wearing is even an actual piece of his shirt. I am not sure what I am going to do with the rest of the blocks. I need to repair some of them. The original quilt had the same size blocks in a yellow gingham check. She hand appliqued all of these and hand quilted it.

Thanks for posting comments! I enjoy reading them. Michelle is going to help me make some boxer shorts for Kasey! I think that will be fun.

Kelly

Meet the Croc Family

2008-03-07T21:45:00.006-06:00

I have been looking at Crocs for a while and read about them on Cre8tive Quilter's Blog. Then I was at the hospital Monday and one of the ladies there was wearing a pair. I talked to her a while about them and she loves them. But she told me to be sure and get the real Crocs and not the knock offs. So when we were in Branson, they have a Croc Outlet Store at the Red Roof Mall. They get shoes from places going out of business or probably last year's models that didn't sell.

Here are the shoes we got. I got a brown pair (I really wanted black but they didn't have them in my size). Kasey got a little pair with black and yellow straps. Mark got the black pair on the right. He also got a KC (Kansas City Chiefs) charm to go in the shoe. When you buy those, you get 2 in a package, so Mark got one and Kasey got one. We thought that was really cute since Kasey could actually be KC.

Anyway, so far we LOVE these shoes. We don't think they look that cute, but they are comfy!

I also did a little research on the Sudoku fabric I bought in Branson and realized I had been spelling Sudoku wrong on my posts (Suduko is how I spelled it). So I went back and fixed them. Unfortunately, I didn't buy enough of this fabric for my Sudoku quilt, so I think I might piece it with some other fabric. I have seen people do that and it looks really good. Kasey was so cute, he carried this fabric around a lot today and just cuddled it.

When we were at McDonald's this morning before coming back home, Kasey kept throwing his pacifier down on the floor. So Mark decided to just tie it to his shoestring. He was so funny trying to get it off and then just decided he could put it in his mouth from there.

Kelly

Branson Trip

2008-03-06T19:28:00.006-06:00

We took a couple days off to go to Branson. We stayed at the Grand Country Inn, which has an indoor water park. First we stopped in Ozark and ate at Lambert’s, a really unique restaurant where they throw rolls at you. They are the best rolls, we could eat those and nothing else! Kasey had his first taste of Fried Okra, he really liked it.

Then we checked into our room and went to the water park. Kasey was slow to warm up to it, but he did really good. He liked playing in the water. Here’s a picture of Mark and Kasey in the pool. We stayed about 3 hours. They had a lazy river running through it, here are a couple of pictures of that.

They are calling for a lot of snow here tonight, we drove the 4 wheel drive, just in case we have snow. Here's Kasey after a long day, he's really tired. I bought some Sudoko fabric at a quilt store here in Branson. I thought it would be really cute to use it for the backing in my Sudoko Quilt. Kasey carried the bolt to the front of the store and gave it to them to cut. He almost didn't let them put it in the sack. Then when we got out to the Jeep, he cried until I gave it to him. He wanted to lay down with it to sleep. It was really sweet. He probably thinks I'm going to make a pillow case out of for him!

This hotel only has Internet in the lobby, that seems really crazy to me. They should put wireless all over the hotel.

Kelly

Politics and Grandpa Bob's Reading Blogs

2008-03-04T20:04:00.004-06:00

My Grandpa Bob said that he really didn't want to read my blog unless it has some politics on it. Well, politics is the last thing I want to write about, but I figured I better add something on here to make him wonder what this was about.

Here are some good blogs to read:

http://blog.hillaryclinton.com/ or maybe this one: http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/hqblog/

But I have a feeling he might like this one better:

https://www.johnmccain.com/Blog/

Sure will be nice when the elections are over.

Kelly

Sudoku Quilt and One-Two-Three!

2008-03-04T19:20:00.008-06:00

This is my Sudoku quilt I finally finished in February. There are 9 blocks and 9 squares in each block and none of the colors repeat themselves in the rows going across or the rows going down. Those of you who are Sudoku lovers, you know how this works. I guess this will probably be another quilt for Kasey, or I might give it away to someone.
Kasey and I were taking self-portraits. I would hold the camera and tell him to look at it and we'd say one-two-three. He would yell THREE real loud. It took about 20 pictures before I got a pretty good one of us.

Kasey went to Grandma's tonight (my mom's) and Mark and I went out to eat! That was nice to have a little time to ourselves.

Kelly

75 Degrees, Swinging & Quilts

2008-03-02T15:37:00.006-06:00

It was a wonderful day today! 75 degrees and lots of wind. We were outside almost all day, washing the car, cleaning up the yard a little, playing with Kasey and thinking about spring flowers. They are calling for snow on Monday, though!

Here's Kasey in his swing out on the back porch. Notice he has a pacifier in his mouth and one in his hand. Never want to get too far without a spare! :) Not sure that you can tell in this picture, but he has dirt all over his hands. He found a place to dig around in the dirt. He's all BOY!

Here's another quilt I made last fall. I need to get it quilted. I think I have about 6 I need to quilt. I need to post a picture of my quilt machine on here that Mark built for me. It's amazing! Maybe later this week.

This one I made for my niece at Christmas, she is 8 and her favorite colors were purple and lime green. I got the pattern out of the Happy Hour by Atkinson Designs.

Had a great weekend, now it's time to get ready for work tomorrow. Ah...

Kelly

Mark, the Sports Hall of Famer

2008-02-29T21:20:00.004-06:00

Mark was inducted into the Lebanon Sports Hall of Fame tonight! His basketball team went to the State Quarter Finals in 1979. They had a nice banquet tonight. My mom and dad came over to stay with Kasey and Nicky and Annabell met us there. We took our nephew Connor with us too. Here's a picture of Mark and Connor with the banner of all the inductees this year. Mark is the 2nd from the right on the Team 1979 picture. He was the smallest on the team but he was the most handsome!!! I was really proud of him.

Dr. Seuss Party at the Library

2008-02-28T21:10:00.006-06:00

We went to the library's Dr. Seuss 50th birthday party tonight and met our friends Mike and Becky. They have a daughter, Grace, who is 9 months older than Kasey.

They got to eat birthday cake. Kasey did really good with his fork and didn't make a huge mess. I got him a piece of white cake with white icing because that's my favorite! (But he ate all of it, so I didn't get any - I think that backfired on me... ) Becky got Grace a piece of chocolate cake with white icing. I bet that was Becky's favorite too! :)

Kasey wasn't sure about the Cat in the Hat. He went right to her and sat on her lap. He just didn't know what to think of her makeup!

Kelly

Pillow Cases for Kasey

2008-02-27T19:37:00.006-06:00

Michelle told me I should post my pillow cases I have made for Kasey on here. My friend, Margie, got me started making these. We went on a fabric shopping trip one time and I bought a bunch of novelty fabric. I think Kasey now has about 25 pillow cases for almost every holiday. I need to find some President's Day fabric, do you think there is such a thing? I didn't think I would find Veteran's Day, but it was really cute.

Mardi Gras
Halloween (2)
Valentine's Day
4th of July
Veteran's Day
Easter
Christmas (3)
Fall Leaves
Happy Birthday
Picnic
ABC s
St. Patrick's Day
Sports (3)
Crayons

I wasn't sure if Kasey would like them that well. His daddy thought it was a little silly at first. But Kasey likes them and points to the different things on the cases. He is starting to say the words to the things that are on the cases too. When I put him in his crib, he will hold his pillow up to me so that I will give him a new pillow case. It is so cute.

So I made some for my friend's daughter, Gracie. There was some really cute fabrics here too, I liked the Noah's Ark print and there was a flip-flop pattern. Making these for her gives me the opportunity to make some girl themed cases.

Kelly

My Little Clean Up Boy

2008-02-27T19:29:00.005-06:00

Kasey is so funny! He likes to clean up things. There was a plant on this corner stand and the leaves had fallen on the floor. He was picking them up and putting them inside the cabinet. So I went and got the little vacuum cleaner for him. He just vacuumed everything up and then opened the door and vacuumed the leaves that he had put inside. There was a little spot on the floor he was trying to vacuum but it was something stuck on the floor and wouldn't vacuum up. The next time I looked in at him, he had got the squirt bottle (which only had a little water in it).

He has the funniest look, like he was thinking "I was just trying to clean up! I didn't do anything wrong."

He started squirting the water on the floor and wiping up the spot. He is such a little sweetheart!

Kelly

Lunch with Michelle

2008-02-26T17:35:00.007-06:00

Michelle and I met for lunch today at Captain D's (one of my favorite places for Iced Tea! She is the one that got me started on the eye spy quilt (thank you!!) and gave me several squares for it. She is interested in a getting a new laptop, so I took mine to Captain D's so she could check it out.

We took a web cam picture of all of us. I'm on the left, Mark is behind me, then Kasey in the front. Michelle is on the right with her son Cooper, who is 3.

I am trying to get her to blog. Maybe if she gets a NEW computer, she will!

What Boys are Made Of Quilt

2008-02-25T20:44:00.003-06:00

I finished this quilt top for Kasey. I really thought it was cute. I got the pattern from Hancock Fabrics and bought the main fabric there. Then just filled in with whatever else I could find. Here's the link to the pattern. It's called What Boys are Made Of.

This was the first time I had done the mitered corners. It was actually really easy.

Kelly

Three Past Quilts

2008-02-24T19:38:00.000-06:00

Here are a few pictures of some past quilts I have made. All in 2007.

This is the eye-spy quilt I made for Kasey. These are 4" blocks, there are 221 of them in this quilt, all different themed fabric. I printed pictures of all of Kasey's relatives at the time that I made the quilt, mom and dad with Kasey, grandparents, sisters, cousins. We play eye-spy with it. Everytime I pull the quilt out, he just squeals! I didn't realize he would like it so much! Several of my friends had made this quilt, so they gave me some of their scraps for it. Then I got 3 other people working on their own eye-spy and they would give me fabric. I had to go on several shopping trips, of course. I think my favorite things in this quilt, besides our family pictures, is the fabric that relates to Missouri - the Kansas City Chiefs, the St. Louis Cardinals (which is not licensed anymore for sale) and the St. Louis Arch. When I started making it, I was just going to collect fabric for a couple years, planned on having it made by Kasey's 4-5th birthday, but it was so addictive, I got it done in about 3 months! I quilted it on my quilt machine with off-white thread and just stippled it.

This is a puzzle quilt I made for Kasey. He really likes the colors on it. I liked making it and had to put a lot of thought into how to arrange the colors to fit right.

I made this quilt for my step-daughter for her bed. It was a fun quilt to make too. I just stacked all the blocks up and chain sewed. I can't remember the name of the pattern, but it was from Take Two, by Atkinson Designs.

Kelly

WD40 really does remove crayon marks

2008-02-24T19:28:00.000-06:00

I should have taken a picture of Kasey's crayon marks all over this little white plastic table I had. We put paper on it, but he colored on it anyway! (Of course!). He would walk around it and point to the crayon marks and say "bad, bad, bad". I did a little research on the Internet and it said to try WD40 on it. Sure enough it cleaned it right up!

He was bad today, climbing all over things, we have been trying to teach him not to do that, so we put him in timeout (which right now is a playpen). He likes to say "bad, bad, bad" all the time, so I told him he was "bad, bad Kasey". He just looked at me and pointed his little finger at me and said "Bad, bad Momma". Needless to say, it was so cute, I could hardly say anything to him.

No quilting this weekend. I went upstairs and sat around in my quilt room for a while, but just couldn't get motivated to do anything. I am a little lost right now in my quilting. Just don't know what to do.

I think I am hooked right now on reading quilt blogs and looking for patterns to print out.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend.

Kelly

Baby Quilt

2008-02-21T18:42:00.001-06:00

This was a baby quilt I made last year. I figure I better start posting some pictures of my quilts. The picture doesn't really show the quilt that well. I quilted it myself on my quilt machine. That will be another posting, about how my husband built my machine. It's really nice. All I have done so far is stipling and loopdy loops.

Kasey in the Mascara

2008-02-21T18:24:00.001-06:00

Kasey, who is 20 months old, got in my step-daughter's mascara today and got it all over him. He broke the wand, so she won't be happy about that. For some reason, he liked the taste of it. I don't think he got very much of it in his mouth, but he thought it was a lot of fun.

We had a lot of ice today. Our nephew, Connor came over and played with the neighbor boy. They found a big icicle underneath the back deck. The hot tub is leaking water under the deck and they thought that was really cool. I didn't tell them where it came from. It was really cold today, probably didn't get up to 20 degrees. Had lots of sleet and rain. Schools are closed today and Friday. Connor is on the right, neighbor Lakia, on the left.

Gone With The Wind Quiz

2008-02-20T21:45:00.001-06:00

I took the Gone with the Wind Quiz. It didn't really surprise me that I was Melanie.

Which Character from 'Gone With The Wind' are you?

You are Melanie Hamilton. A true lady. You are generous, loyal, giving and can see only the best in people. You are willing to go out of your way to help anyone, even if it's against public opinion. You can be surprising firm if the occasion calls for it.
Take this quiz!

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Right Brain Left Brain & Organizing Quilt Patterns

2008-02-14T21:49:00.001-06:00

Have you ever taken the right brain left brain test? You can just do a google search on it and find all kinds of tests out there. I am a left brained person as is my husband. I didn't really find out much about what if a left brained marries a left brained, but I found out quite a bit about left brainers.

The left side of your brain controls verbal ability, attention to detail, and reasoning.
Left brained people are good at communication and persuading others.
If you're left brained, you are likely good at math and logic.
Your left brain prefers dogs, reading, and quiet.

The right side of your brain is all about creativity and flexibility.
Daring and intuitive, right brained people see the world in their unique way.
If you're right brained, you likely have a talent for creative writing and art.
Your right brain prefers day dreaming, philosophy, and sports.

The details of left brained really fits me. It's interesting when you do these things and see how they correspond.

I am getting all my quilt patterns organized. I have a lot that I have printed off the Internet so I made a binder up for table runners and have put all those patterns in there. Now I need to get 2 more binders, one for just patterns and then one for Kids Quilt Patterns. I have several of those.

Does anyone have good ideas for organizing their patterns? I thought about creating a binder for already created quilts. Then if I wanted to make a quilt I had already done, I would know it was in that binder.

Kelly

I got a new computer!

2008-02-12T19:22:00.000-06:00

I ordered a new computer from Dell and it came in today! I'm so excited. It's an Inspiron 1525, spring green, webcam, Windows Vista and media card reader. I LOVE IT! So I've been trying to figure out igoogle, which lets me create my own home page with all the things I like to surf the web on. I thought I would update my blog, save a picture out there and put a new post on.

I'll try to do better with my next posting and post some quilt pictures. :)
Kelly

1st Posting

2008-01-26T21:55:00.000-06:00

This is my first posting on this blog. I have read a lot of postings and wanted to start one myself, when I logged in, I found I had created this site back in 2004! But didn't know what to really do.