Happy New Year & Merry Christmas

Bubba would like to wish everyone a carefree and happy New Year.

He would also like to tell everyone about the lovely Christmas we had - even if the only present he got was a piece of ribbon!

Christmas this year was different and it was all because of a Bunny. The Easter Bunny to be specific. You see the Bunny was very careless this past Easter as he left some of the candy from the Easter Baskets in our cupboard. Silly rabbit. As a result we had a very traumatic Easter day, and now all the children aren't as naive as they once were. :(

Things were also different because my sister didn't arrive until 4 in the afternoon on Christmas day. We decided it would be best to wait until she arrived to open presents, and so after waking up late, we had a big breakfast followed by a day of game playing Risk.

This is the face my dear husband makes when he thinks he has done something very clever.
He makes me laugh!

Once my sister arrived we had a delicious turkey dinner
followed by some invigorating conversation.
However, my oldest daughter was anxious and reminded us that as interesting as politics is there were gifts to be opened!

I have NEVER seen EVERYONE help clean up like this before, nor have I seen Christmas dinner clean up so quickly! This might have to be a new tradition. :)


The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
and the presents awaited all to soon be there!

We were all excited by the gifts we were given.

My sister loved the bag I made with pictures of her pretty puppy.

My dear husband loved the hat his son gave to him.

The twins love the PS2 and guitar hero that their brother passed on to them! As well as the Songstar game their sister gave them to use on it. Somehow I didn't get a good picture of my oldest daughter opening any of her great gifts. She'll tell you it's because she's the middle child.

Bubba wonders why I was excited to recieve a book about a cat when I already have two beautiful cats to cuddle and hold here at home.

My dear husband out did himself this year giving me some beautiful sapphire earrings which are too pretty to wear everyday. I guess we'll have to go somewhere fancy so I can wear them! He also bought me a new chair for my sewing machine - all without ANY promptings from me! My sister outdid herself as well giving me all of these GREAT quilting and surface design books, as well as some Shiva paint sticks I'm anxious to give a try. She went to the Dharma Trading Co store in CA to pick up a couple of the things and I was SO exicted she went to the actual store. Silly me.

The best part of Christmas was just being with my family, and enjoying their company. I hope your Christmas was just as enjoyable!

Stop and Lick the Icicles.

My creative friend stopped by this evening to bring me a delightful Christmas gift she had made for me. As she came up to the door she bent down to get a drink off one of the melting icicles hanging from our Christmas lights. We laughed at her childishness, and then paused to observe the beauty in the glassy sculptures.

When I saw how the water from the top icicle was dripping to form a new icicle below it I became very excited and called to my family to come see right away! I heard chairs scoot and feet scramble because of the thrill they heard in my voice. "Oh, that's nice" was all one said when they arrived. As they returned to the kitchen, I heard a cynical voice crack that the most exciting thing to do in this town on a Saturday night was to look at icicles. I retorted that sometimes it's good for life to be simple and you just have to stop and lick the icicles!

As my friend left she suggested that I take a picture and include it in my next blog entry. I knew she was right. I had to do it immediately even though I haven't blogged about Christmas yet! The beauty of the icicles was just so overwhelming and they had to be documented, and so here they are for all to enjoy!

As I turned to go in from taking photos I noticed this little gift of berries someone had left for me on my mailbox. They are just one more gift of wonder in a busy world.

Searching for a woman's family

Recently when I was working on some family history at familysearch.org (a free website where you can search for your ancestors). I discovered Family Search Indexing. A website where "Volunteers extract family history information from digital images of historical documents to create searchable indexes that assist everyone in finding their ancestors."

I decided to give it a try. I downloaded the software and spent an evening going through all the tutorials and then downloaded my first project. It was some very interesting marriage records, which were all seperate pieces of paper, not the typical items listed in a column.

I have always been facinated with old records and things, even if they don't have anything to do with my own family. Just so you understand, I also enjoy walking through a cemetary. I am facinated knowing that these people lived, and had families. I love reading headstones and seeing how old people were when they passed away and wondering what their life was like. I know that this may sound a bit bizarre to you, but that's just one of the things that makes me tick. With this said, it should come as no surprise that I found family search indexing as addicting as family history, if not more so, because you are actually accomplishing something with every keystroke!

Last night when I opened up some new documents to index, I found that indexing is also facinating to others in my family. One of my younger daughters sat down next to me to see what I was doing and was immediately sucked in. She began helping me by reading off the information for me as I typed it into the form. The whole time she kept wishing that she could do the indexing all by herself. She became upset when I looked at the clock and discovered it was an hour past her bedtime and I made her go off to bed. Not sure if that was the "family history bug" making her want to stay up or the "I'll do anything if I can stay up bug." Either way it was a great experience for the two of us to share.

As we indexed, my daughter was laughing at me as I got very excited when I found an unmarried sister-in-law living with a family. Why is that exciting? Because it can help you find a whole new line in this family silly! An unmarried sister-in-law, if she truly has never been married, now means we know the madien name of the wife in the family! Researching a woman's side of a family can be difficult without these little clues and so I get so excited about these clues!!! I love to find links in the family chain!!!

Happy 25th

Happy Anniversary to me and my dear Hubby!

And here's a few of the great things we've produced together. . .

The Cats Like it!

I finally finished my challenge quilt for Quilter's Holladay, and the verdict is in. The cats say it is a winner! Wahoo. lol Actually it did take two awards at my guild meeting as well - a tie for "Most Complicated interpretation of the theme" and "Most Original interpretation of the theme." I received a beautiful fat quarter as the prize for both titles, along with a beautiful ribbon which says "Good job" or something like that. I guess I should pull it out and take a picture, but that would interupt my train of thought. :)

The challenge was multi-leveled: use only squares and triangles, use the color green plus one or two other colors, and you could also use black and white, and it had to be at least 50" x 50". I would never have made this quilt the way I did without the challenge and so I think I am grateful for the stretching it provided me? It took me about 10 months to complete with the majority of that time spent putting 2 1/2 inch squares up on my design wall (aka - a flannel sheet thumb tacked to the wall), and then putting them up again when the cats decided to pull on the sheet and knock half the blocks down. They thought I was off on a few blocks and needed to start that part over. (rolls eyes)

I have NOT named the quilt yet, but it will be something about an eclipse. A lot of people think it looks like a flower and perhaps I should go with that, but since I originally designed it as an eclipse of the sun I want an eclipse name. I made a goal of not starting any new quilts until this one was finished, with the exception of the baby quilt I had to make for a friend (which still needs to go into the mail!), and projects for work, and technically the quilt isn't finished until the label is sewn on the back, sooooo . . . any suggestions? I really want to start a new quilt!!! I've already bought the supplies and can't wait to try out the new toy I bought too!

I LOVE Mondays

There is no sarcasm in the above title. It is a statement of fact. I LOVE MONDAYS. Monday is the day after Sunday, which means I have been spiritually and physically charged (3 hours of church followed by 3 hours of nap). Monday is the day that we get back on a defined schedule, which means I am in charge of my schedule. I get to sit at the computer all day, or work like a demon all day without interruption if I like. Usually I am fired up for the week ahead and start with a to do list and get to it. By 9 p.m. I am happy with what I have accomplished and exhausted.

This past Monday I ran to the bookstore with my two youngest at about 8:30 p.m. Suddenly I wasn't feeling like a happy mom anymore. "Are we done? Are you ready to go? Please put that down." I decided nights when I'm tired are not a good time to go shopping. My patience has gone to bed and I am ready to join her! Patience, Energy and Charity had all run off to bed because I had spent the entire day shopping with them, followed by making a wonderful dinner of Turkey, homemade rolls, sweet potato casserole and stuffing. And that was followed by running children around and more shopping at the bookstore. Can you see why we were all beat and ready for bed?

Tuesday morning arrives. I have spent Monday being very productive. I am now too tired to function, despite having had 8 or more hours of sleep. My body is physically tired, my brain doesn't want to cooperate. I hate Tuesdays. Most of the week now will be spent in an exhausted state - but watch out come Monday! Cause Monday and I are like this! (imagine two fingers crossed tightly together)