Retirement Adventure

Surgery Again

2012-02-07T14:26:00.000-08:00

Yet another surgery for my hubby coming up in a month. We more or less knew it was coming but had to play the "jump through hoops & etc" with several doctors before they finally said ok so it is your back & you can learn to live with the pain or have surgery. Ed picked surgery since it was now affecting his feet.

Store

2012-02-06T11:18:00.000-08:00

We decided it was time to try our hand at putting the items that I make on line to see if they will sell. The name of the business is Bag Lady at bag-lady.ecrater.com

Flat Stanley

2011-12-28T14:00:00.001-08:00

Our grand daughter Sarah had a project to get some adventures for her Flat Stanley. So since we were going on a cruise we said we'd take him with us. Then her siblings wanted a Flat Stanley too. So we then have 4 then three of Sarah's cousins wanted to have Flat Stanleys too. We then had 7 Flat Stanleys with us. So we took pictures of all of them doing different things. We then made little scrap books for each one.

Pillowcases

2011-09-09T14:33:00.001-07:00

I read an article in a magazine about making pillowcases for kids that have cancer or other major sicknesses. I thought this sound like a nice project. There were no groups in our area so I offered to start a group. Little did I know how much work it would be. I did make 31 pillowcases mostly with fabric we bought. This is not a cheap project. After a bit of time & much thought & prayers I decided maybe God didn't really want me doing this or at least not being the one in charge of the group. I made up that many pillowcases & dropped them off at the hospital now I will "retire" from this project. I have pictures of the pillows done but can't find it right now, will add later.

Neighborhood Bible Time

2011-09-07T15:08:00.000-07:00

Our church had what they call Neighborhood Bible Time which is a bit new to us. We are used to Vacation Bible School in the summer. We were honored in that they let us teach even though we hadn't been there the required 6 months.

Play Time in the Park

2011-09-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

It has been awhile since I have posted anything so I will try to get some of the stuff on. I might end up with it all out of order but it is all since April so there is a bit to remember when it was & etc. This is a picture of 7 or our grand kids playing in a local park. If you count there is one extra boy in the picture. Guess he thought it looked like fun & wanted to join us.

Tree & Lighting Don't Mix

2011-06-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

Last summer lightening hit one of our trees out by the mail box. We didn't know if it would make it or not. But this spring we could see it had died. We called the road people & they came & cut it down for us. One pictures is the pile of the big pieces.

Happy Easter & New Church

2011-04-24T11:17:00.000-07:00

We went forward today after the morning service to ask for membership in Ashley Baptist Church. We have been going there evenings for two months & now full time for 4 weeks. It is a great fit for us since our church Amazing Grace Baptist Church's last day was March 29th. I will add a picture later.

Good Find

2011-04-24T11:12:00.001-07:00

I look at the free stuff on Craig's List regularly. I saw an ad for free table & chairs & responded. But found out we were the second ones to respond. So I gave up on getting them but yesterday later in the day I saw the person had emailed us. He wanted to know if we wanted them yet. I wrote & said yes. So as it was getting dark we picked them up. They are a bit dirty but that can be taken care of with soap & water. It has a hole in the table top & we have an umbrella from a cheaper set we had gotten 4 years ago. So hopefully that will fit in this table.

Old project finally done

2011-04-24T11:08:00.000-07:00

Had these ducks since 2002 that needed new beaks & feet. I got them for $1 each because their feet & beats were broken. They had been made of light weight felt. I replaced them with heavier fabric. I had to hand sew them on that is why I hadn't gotten to doing this project as I knew it would not be real easy to do.

Dust Bunny

2011-03-24T20:15:00.000-07:00

We all have dust bunnies time to time. But have you every seen one as cute as this? I ran across a pattern for this guy today & I HAD to knit one up. I was thinking of doing them to sell. But this one might be one of a kind. It was harder to do then I expected. This kind of yarn is awful to knit on such a tiny scale. I may try one in a different kind of yarn.

Who Are They/Who Do They Look Like?

2011-02-14T14:56:00.000-08:00

This is a test. Who do you think these two kids are & who else do they look like?

More Beans

2011-02-10T16:30:00.000-08:00

Well I have finally gotten caught up on the canning of dry beans. I think all totaled I have canned nearly 100 quarts of beans. They are not all ours but the bigger amount belong to our daughters but I offered to can them for them.

A Market or Not?

2011-02-05T13:21:00.001-08:00

I have been trying to figure out what to do with the nice bags we get with our cat & dog food in. They are made of a plastic fiber type material & seem too good to use as trash bags as we did with the paper ones we used to get. So I finally decided to try my hand at making bags out of them to sell at the Danish Festival next summer. Do you think they will sell as much as people are into going Green?

Snow & More Snow

2011-02-02T11:38:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures of what we saw this morning when we looked outside. It is going to be a major job to get so we can use the driveway with these big drifts in from of the front door & garage doors.

Gift

2011-01-29T08:59:00.000-08:00

Amy gave us the painting she had done that hung in their small downstairs bathroom. We had said we liked it the last time we were there so they decided to give it to us. Such a nice gift. :)

Group Pictures From Trip

2011-01-29T08:52:00.001-08:00

Every visit needs family pictures. Here are a few.

Arizona Visit

2011-01-29T08:33:00.000-08:00

We went to the dog park but ended up spending more time by this little lake.
Jousha brought out his big bag of cars. He arranged them by color. Then raced some of them.

David & Marissa cutting one of the many loaves of home made bread Amy made while we were there.

Brrrrrrr

2011-01-23T13:17:00.000-08:00

This is the temp it got down to last night. That is a minus 14. The minus sign is hard to see.

Prayer Notebook

2011-01-22T11:04:00.001-08:00

We decided we'd like to pray more effectively for our family & Pastor. So we asked each family to let us know what they'd like us to pray about & then I did cards for each family in general then for kids in general then each family member. Each family has a different color too. As prayers are answered we write that in the notebook too.

Renewing Two Skirts

2011-01-22T10:35:00.000-08:00

I had two skirts that were a wee bit shorter than I liked so I haven't been using them much. They just sit in the closet & I thought that was silly. So I took some fabric & gave them each a ruffle. Now I can get more use out of them. :)

Older Project

2011-01-21T17:30:00.000-08:00

Just before Christmas I decided I need a different way to keep my favorite recipes. I got a small photo album & put them in there. That way they are covered & don't get dirty while I am making up the recipe. I use a clothes pin to hold it open.

Skirts

2011-01-14T08:38:00.001-08:00

These are the last two things I have been working on. I made an all blue skirt over a year ago off of a pattern I had gotten. I made the mistake of cutting it out wrong. I am used to cutting two pieces at once but this pattern they are all cut out single layer. So I had ended up with an extra set of top pieces but didn't have enough fabric for the bottom ruffles. So then I had to find something that would work for the ruffle. I got fabric last May but got busy & couldn't get to it. Then I couldn't find it. Finally I found all the parts & decided to take time & do it up. When I went to do it I found the pattern I had made myself off of the pattern, it is for a 6 pieces gored skirt. So I decided to do that one too. I happened to have fabric I had gotten cheap at Goodwill. So here is the finished skirts. You can see they need to be pressed yet.

Missionary Board

2011-01-14T08:36:00.001-08:00

This Ed working on making the Missionary Board for our church.

Mouse

2011-01-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

For our Christmas get together we made little mice out of cherries with stems.

Gingerbread House Number Three

2010-12-31T13:48:00.000-08:00

We were able to do a gingerbread house with a third set of grand kids yesterday. The youngest of that family was too little to help so she just watched.

Odd Thing to do on the last day of the Year

2010-12-31T13:46:00.000-08:00

Don't have a picture to post but wanted to post about our silly thing we did today. It was very warm for Michigan so we did a few things that we hadn't gotten done before the snow came. We put away some swings & toys that the grand kids have here. I also climbed up & cleaned out the eves. Man they were needing to be done too. Now hopefully the rain we are to get yet today will run in the eves & not over them.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-28T07:00:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of our local grand kids after they had opened their gifts from the missing ones.

Cookie Making

2010-12-27T13:53:00.000-08:00

Our church was going to go caroling so I offered to make cookies to have afterwards & let our grand kids that go to our church help. We made three different kinds. This is how their clothes looked when we were all done. :) They sure had fun.

More Beans

2010-12-27T10:36:00.000-08:00

I canned more beans. One day I had seven different kinds. I don't remember just now many jars I ended up with, lost count.

Bad Toe

2010-12-27T10:34:00.001-08:00

Ed hit his toe on something, we both remember he did it but can't remember what he hit it on. This is what it looked like after a few days. The toe nail is about to come off so now it looks less colorful.

Christmas Programs

2010-12-18T00:00:00.000-08:00

We have had several Christmas programs to go to. Sarah's was first then Benjamins. Katherine & Victoria's would have been next but the weather got bad & it is canceled until Jan. Caleb was able to have his program. It was very crowded so we couldn't get very good pictures. we did see him come in & he looked either scared or nervous.

"Gingerbread" Houses

2010-12-17T00:00:00.000-08:00

This is a new annual thing we do with the grand kids that live near us. This is the second year of doing it. Last year we used graham crackers & it was hard to get them to stick together. This year after Halloween we found gingerbread houses made up already, they are actually chocolate favored. So we used that to make our Christmas ones just didn't use the candies & etc that came with them but got Christmas colored candies. The first pictures are of the Dempsey grand kids work on them & the finished product. William gave up on it as he wasn't feeling good. The picture is just as he gave up & I could not get him to smile & look at it.

"Gingerbread" House

2010-12-16T15:25:00.000-08:00

I don't know how to get the blog to let me post two sets of pictures & wording so will do it this way. These are pictures of the Orange grand kids working on their house & the finished house. Sorry the house is side ways.

Flower in December

2010-12-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

We had some hanging baskets of flowers that were doing so good when the first hard frost came we put them on the porch. One has been blooming for us, sort of a way of thanks we think. But it is neat to have flowers in December.

More Canning

2010-12-16T14:58:00.000-08:00

I finally am getting around to posting again. Life has been busy & I have not had time to add anything. But had to share my latest canning with you. We got a big bag of carrots, I think they are seconds & meant for putting out for deer. But I have used them over the years for canning for us & get a great deal as they are only $3.50 for about 25 pounds. I did some with potatoes, onion, celery & ham & some just plain.

Sauerkraut anyone?

2010-09-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

We had gotten a lot of cabbage given to us free & I didn't want it to all go to waste. My hubby loves sauekrat so we made up three batches. We got 60 some pints of it. I don't like it so it will take awhile to use this up. I have been "pedaling" it to family & friends.

Slocum Get Together

2010-09-14T16:27:00.001-07:00

Since my youngest sister wasn't able to be at the Slocum get together we had in July we decided to try for another get together when they were in the area for Labor Day week. We didn't get very many pictures. My youngest sister, Lily is in the center picture. My oldest sister Liz is in the bottom picture with her back turned a normal thing she tends to do when there is a camera around. My sister that is next in line after me, Jude is in the right picture.

Danish Festival

2010-09-14T16:22:00.000-07:00

Every year our home town has the Danish Festival as the main settlers to this area were Danish. Since I am of Danish blood we like to join in in the activities. The last few years my sister has had a craft booth & invited us to join her in selling some of our crafts. There is several parades, this picture is some of the grandkids waiting for the "Kids" parade. I didn't get pictures of the main parade as I was at the booth trying to sell things.

More Wedding Sewing

2010-09-14T16:18:00.000-07:00

I did a bit more sewing for our Pastor's daughter's wedding. She needed a bow to trim the bridal table & also a long runner type table cloth for it. In the picture the long runner is folded in half, so you can see it is long.

Surgery

2010-08-13T14:07:00.001-07:00

Ed had his surgery for a bone spur on his spine. It appears the surgery was a sucess as the numbness & tingling is gone. He still has a lot of swelling in the area. It is hard for him to have to wear the collar as it has been so hot. He has two more weeks to go.

Table Cloth Circles

2010-07-24T10:34:00.000-07:00

Our Pastor's daughter is getting married in Sept & I was asked to make circles to go on the tables. There was 18 in all.

Tall Ships

2010-07-24T10:28:00.000-07:00

We went to Bay City last Sat to see the tall ships that were there. We weren't able to get very close to them.

Travlers

2010-07-24T10:19:00.001-07:00

The pictures are sort of out of order but they are a few of us taking David & Marissa to the airport & seeing them off to home.

Sleepers

2010-07-24T10:09:00.001-07:00

While we had David & Marissa visiting us we had a "play day" with some of the other other grand kids coming too. This was nap time.

Art Work

2010-07-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

I found this neat picture after some of the grandkids were here. I asked the next time who had done it & Emily said she had. It is a flag, can you tell?

Another Blessing

2010-07-04T13:51:00.001-07:00

Our 19th grand child was born this morning at 12:38. Her name is Samantha Peace. She is a sweetie & looks like her other sibs. Well the computer is not letting me do what I want, I didn't want the picture of the quilt at the top but that is where it wants to be.

Maranda Park Party

2010-06-26T14:44:00.001-07:00

Most of us were able to make it to the first park party of the year. It was a nice day & we were all worn out after being there for two hours.

Family Get Together/Birthday Party/Father's Day

2010-06-26T14:40:00.001-07:00

Our oldest daughter & her family live in Arizona so when them make their yearly trip here we do a big get together. There are many summer birthdays so we celebrate those too. I have some nice pictures of us all but the blog won't let me add them now.

Puppy Love?

2010-06-26T13:55:00.000-07:00

Our grandson Andrew love our dog Betsy & she loves him & takes a lot of rough loving from him.

Sunday School & Nursery Duty

2010-06-08T17:09:00.000-07:00

Sunday I had both SS & nursery duty & decided it might be fun to post some pictures. Here are the boys playing.

Puppet Stage

2010-06-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

When we got back from Arizona I found out that I was needed by the church to make a covering for the puppet stage. So that is what I have been working on so it would be ready for VBS. My daugther Becky has been working on the puppets that will be used with it.

Today's excitement

2010-05-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

We had some major storms today. While we were eating lunch we heard something like the lighting making a very loud noise. We both said "that hit something". Later we were going to go into town & sure enough the tree at the end of our drive way on the mail box side had a big side out of it & pieces all over the road & into the side of the road on the other side. The top picture shows a hole it the ground from the lighting we think going into the ground, it doesn't show up too good.

Latest Project

2010-05-29T17:01:00.001-07:00

I wanted a purse but was not able to find one I liked so I made my own.

Happy Memorial Day!!

Second Project of Late April

2010-05-29T16:58:00.000-07:00

I have a new pattern for a Sedona skirt. It is made with 5 upper pieces & 5 lower pieces that are fuller. It didn't have a pocket so on the first one I made I just put a pocket in one seam & called it as side seam. But I found I missed having two pockets. So then I figured if I used smaller pattern pieces & then made 6 of them I would have two side seams & could have two pockets. That is what I did for this skirt.

Belated Post on Projects

2010-05-29T16:55:00.000-07:00

I had made a purple skirt to wear with my Easter vest I made but I needed a blouse to wear with the skirt at other times. I ended up finding two fabrics I liked so I now have two blouses I can wear with the purple skirt.

One project leads to another

2010-04-17T15:58:00.000-07:00

I made the new purple skirt to go with the Easter vest but I can't
wear that all the time so I wanted to get fabric to make a blouse to go with the skirt. When looking for fabric I found two I liked & I couldn't decide. My dear hubby said get both. Sewing isn't as cheap now days but it is cheaper than buying a blouse to match & normally I can't find what I like in the stores. I think we have about $12 total for both blouses. The trip to Jo Ann's was actually to get some black fabric to make a modesty panel for the key board for church. So that is a project too but won't take long to do. I hope to get the two blouses done before we head to AZ. I also have a bit of other sewing I'd like to get done. But since I only have two weeks I may not get it all done.

Answer to Prayer

2010-04-12T14:59:00.001-07:00

We have been wanting to find a new home for Minnie our daughter's beagle for some time. We posted her on Craig's list only to get some nasty emails back. Well finally I found some one posting to take in dogs & find them a new home. Many emails later we have her off to a new home today. We were a bit concerned at first but the young lady was so excited to meet Minnie & said she'd love to keep her herself but had already found her a home with out other dogs too. So we are happy tonight to know she can have a happier last years of her life.

Potato Bag

2010-04-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

This is one of those put off jobs that I finally just did. I have wanted something besides a paper bag to put the bag of potatoes in. So many of the bags of potatoes I get now days are clear plastic & the potatoes soon grow "eyes" so I like to keep them in the dark a bit more than the plastic bags allow. So I have wanted to make a cloth bag for them. I finally just stopped & did it. This blue check fabric is like some I have covers for the toaster & mixer so it also matches.

Easter Outfit

2010-04-07T14:21:00.000-07:00

I hadn't planned on making anything new for Easter Sunday but in cleaning I found a vest panel amoung my sewing stuff & it needed a "lining" so I decided to pick an Easter print then I would have two vest in one. I also noticed I had some purple fabric & thought it would be a nice skirt to go with the vest. So kind of at the last minute I decided to see if I could get both done for Easter. I wasn't up as late as my daughter with my sewing project but it did keep me busy. Now I will have a vest too for Memorial Day or 4th of July, that is what the vest panel was for.

More Bags

2010-03-08T08:56:00.001-08:00

I made a bigger bag next, then did a baby one. The bottom picture shows all three sizes.

Finished Bag

2010-03-01T14:53:00.000-08:00

Here is what the bag looks like finished. I had problems with it wanting to curl because I was knitting every row, so I did a bit of purling. The next bag I will do loop type handles.

Recycling

2010-02-16T14:00:00.000-08:00

This is my latest or newest project. I am taking grocery bags & cutting them into strips & then knitting the "yarn" into bags.

2010-02-06T16:08:00.000-08:00

I have been working on baby quilt number 19 & it is of Fisher Price Little People. We had a coloring book with most of them in & Ed scanned the pages & turned them into a counted cross stitch pattern for me. I first outlined them all then go back & fill them in. It takes about 8 days to fill in each one. It is fun seeing them color up.

Extra Christmas Blessing

2009-12-26T13:07:00.000-08:00

We are going to visit our daughter & her family & staying there while she & her hubby go on anniversary trip. I had checked a week or so ago for tickets & found some with Allegiant airline for $110 each way for each of us & thought that was a fair price. Last night late as we were heading to bed I thought I would see if the price had gone up any. To my surprise the price had gone down, way down or there was a special as the price was $25 each way. So we called our daughter to find out for sure the dates & etc & then ordered our tickets online. This morning the price is back up. So we feel that was a Christmas blessing to us from God.

Christmas Get Together

2009-12-26T09:13:00.001-08:00

What family get together doesn't include eatting? The gift giving. A good time was had by all. We misssed one family but they were here in our minds & hearts

Christmas Fun

2009-12-26T09:02:00.001-08:00

We decided to make ginger bread

houses using graham crackers.

Grandpa & Grandma put them together & the grand kids

decorated them.

"Twin" Cousins

2009-11-29T13:12:00.001-08:00

Here are a couple of the new usual shots of the "twins", Peter & Andrew.

Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T13:08:00.000-08:00

We had our family get together yesterday at the township hall in my folks home town. It was mostly us & three of our four kids & their families. Here are some of the grandkids playing on the table rack, it is a train, can you tell.

Finally

2009-10-31T14:37:00.001-07:00

I finally have finished the counted cross stitch sampler I was working on. I had thought of finishing it to take to the 4H fair that was in July. I didn't get it done. I got hung up a bit with having to do the group of flowers on it. But finally I told myself I HAD to finish it & be done with it. So I did, only to have the fabric be too small to have the edges be completely covered by the frame. So it got put on hold again while I figured out what to do with it. I finally decided to put it in the frame & cover the edges with ribbon.

Playhouse

2009-10-31T14:29:00.001-07:00

Here are some new pictures of the
playhouse. It now has it's door & windows in. With help from our son in laws it also has the roof on. We ran out of time to get the siding done before winter.

Kittens

2009-10-24T17:27:00.001-07:00

Here is a picture of the four kittens that adopted us. It was hard to get a good picture as two of them are shy & stayed hiding in the back & two are more outgoing & were climbing out of the box. The two shy ones are black & a dark calico. The other two are black with white the one on the right about to get out of the box & an all orange one. I am not too good at telling gender but I think the orange one is a male & the other three are females. We are sort of thinking of keeping two but which two.

Night Gowns

2009-10-24T17:21:00.000-07:00

I have been needing some new night gowns, so finally
I went through my stash of fabric. I found the fabric I had gotten
for 50¢ a yard with the idea that I would make curtains for the play house with it. I decided to just use some of it for night gowns. I have now 3 new night gowns, sure they are a bit bright but that is ok I am just sleeping in them.

"Stopping the Plow"

2009-10-21T13:42:00.000-07:00

We had plans of things we were going to do today but in the middle of it all we had a change of plans or at least a side track for a bit. We were outside doing a cement foot print of our grandson William & I looked up to see a orange kitten go across the drive way. We were then off to catch it, though we don't want a kitten we sure don't want wild ones around either. We got him & were letting all the grandkids pet it when we saw another kitten. We got that one. Then there was another & while trying to get that one we found another. They were all rather hard to catch so seems like they have not had much attention. We now have four fairly young kittens. I was glad I had just gotten my cat carrier back from my sister. We put them in there. When I put food & water in with them the went at it like it had been a long time since they had eatten. We are not sure if they belong to the neighbors or some one dropped them off. Last night late we heard a cat fight outside by our front window. So now we wonder if momma cat was moving them over here & got in a fight with our cat or what was going on. So we will call a few neighbors to see they are missing babies. I will try to get a picture of them to post before we get them off to other homes.

Shirts & More Shirts

2009-10-21T13:33:00.000-07:00

Our church has Olympians groups for the kids. I was asked if it would be possible to embroider the name of our church on shirts & then put the right patch for what ever group the kids were in. I of course said yes, who can say no to a church need? I asked my daugther to do the embriodery as she understands my machine better than I do. It took a bit of doing to get them all done, as the machine kept acting up. Then it was discovered the iron on patches did not stay on. So all of them had to be hand sewn on. That became my job, which was ok as I could watch TV at night & do the stitching. My fingers did get a bit sore though. Then we decided the little kids in the nursery should have shirts too so we did more shirts. Nursery ones are yellow with Happy Bee on them. I am the person in the nursery so I have a green shirt. The leaders of Olympians have blue shirts & the kids have red ones. We are sort of a mini rainbow when we all are together.

Patches

2009-10-21T13:18:00.000-07:00

We have moved Patches on to another family. This van has been
sort of a family car. It started out with our oldest daughters, then
our youngest daughter need a car so it was given to them. Then
when they were able to get something else we got it. Then our
middle daughter didn't have anything to drive so we let her
borrow it. We got it back again but weren't needing it so decided
to let it have a new family. It was a bit sad to see Patches go. BTW
it is called Patches as the paint is peeling off & also a tree branch
fell on it & it has to have tape on it's windows to seal out the rain.

Cousins

2009-08-26T10:55:00.001-07:00

This is a picture of cousins Peter & Andrew. Andrew was not a day old yet & Peter was a bit over 6 weeks.

Number 18 is here

2009-08-26T10:51:00.000-07:00

Sorry I am so slow in posting this. Our 18th grand child arrived 8-9-09 at 10:30 pm. Andrew weighed in at 7 pounds & was 19 1/2 inches long. He looks like his sibblings & they LOVE him.

Play house

2009-08-26T10:42:00.001-07:00

This is the insulation being put in place.

This is with two sides on.

Now a picture of the start to the roof. The roof is ready now for roofing but I don't have a picture of that.

Number 17 is Here

2009-06-26T11:27:00.001-07:00

Our 17th grand child has been born. Peter was born on June 24th on his grandpa's birthday. Peter weighed in at 7 pounds 3 ounces smaller than was expected as Momma was BIG. He is 20 inches long, has light brown hair & dark blue eyes. We are very thankful God allowed him to be delivered ok, as the cord was around his neck twice & around one arm once. We feel blessed having so many grand children.

Travelers

2009-06-18T19:45:00.001-07:00

Our oldest two grand children came to visit us for a week. The rest of their family will come in a week. We had to drive to Detroit to pick them up. We were just about to head out & their mom Amy called to let us know that they had been bumped so would come in three hours later. So we waited to head out. Here is a picture of them just after they got off the plane. By being willing to be bumped they each will get a free ticket that can be used next year when the come. It is going to be a fun week.

Two More Done :)

2009-05-24T13:52:00.001-07:00

Sixteen years ago I made a baby quilt for our first grand baby. Well I have continued making them. These are pictures of number 17. The first ones were total secrets, well the momma to be knew I was making it but not what it was going to be. Now I have a hard time keeping secrets & have already given this one to momma to be for Peter when he arrives late June.

This is number 18 just finished last night. It is for Andrew, due mid August. It has been fun doing these quilts. Little did I know when I started 16 years ago that there would be this many of them to do, but I am glad to do them.

65th Anniversary

2009-05-09T18:16:00.001-07:00

My folks had their 65th anniversary yesterday, May 8th. We four daughters had an open house for them today. We had large turn out. My older sister got balloons for each member of the family that are a result of my folks being married. There are 4 daughters, 4 son-in laws, 11 grand kids, 9 grand kids in-laws, & 21 great grand kids with three more due this summer. The family is growing & growing. Amazing what two in love cause. :)

Play House- A Start

2009-05-04T17:09:00.000-07:00

Well the long talked
about play house
has as start. It will take awhile before it is done. Keep looking back for futher updates.

Special Gift

2009-04-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

I took a break from stitching on the baby quilts to work on this project. I have had the pattern for a long time & was eager to see it worked up. But the main reason that I took the break was that we were going to fly to visit our daughter & her family in Arizona & I wanted to be able to have something to work on while flying & waiting in the airports. I didn't want to chance loosing the baby quilt squares so thought I'd do something else. As I worked on it I decided it would be a nice gift for our Pastor & his wife. I wasn't totally sure if they would really want it & didn't want to make them feel they had to have it if they didn't want it. So I gave them a choice & they seemed to think it odd I asked but I told them I didn't want to force them to take it if they didn't like it. Then I asked if they wanted it matted & framed or made into a pillow. They decided on a pillow. So while they were visiting their kids I got it made up & left it on their couch to find when they got home. They loved it.

"Helping" Grandma

2009-04-11T16:16:00.000-07:00

We were making St Patrick cookies & it was a ball for all involved, even if it was a bit messy. I know it is a bit late to be posting about things that happened back in March but I have not been able to get to it before. As the saying goes "better late then never"

Family Visit/Vacation

2009-03-05T12:06:00.001-08:00

We went to visit our daughter Amy & her family in Surprise, AZ. We have not been there before so it was great to get to see them all & their house & surroundings. Now we have a better picture in our minds when we talk to them on the phone or receive emails from them telling us of things going on in their area.

While we were there our grand daughter Marissa got baptized. It was great to be there to be part of that great event. She sure loves the Lord.

Amy & the kids sang a song during the service too. It was a real family kind of day.

One day we went to one of the mountains in the area. This is a picture of them in the back ground.

Here is some of what we saw. The one on the right gives you an idea of how big the catus grow there. That is us between these two.

We attended a free symphonic concert in the park.

This is their resident lizzard, he was on their back yard wall. All the yards there have walls around them. The funny thing is they were just talking about they didn't think they had any when Matt saw this guy while out watering the plants.

Checkers

2009-01-16T15:11:00.000-08:00

This is my nearly finish newish project. We have been picking up games to put in the motor home. We found the big size checker pieces at Goodwill but it didn't have a price on the bag. When checking out we asked the price & one lady said there is a rug that goes with it. She went to look for the rug & get us a price on just the pieces. Well some one else check out at the other register & she had the rug. We offered her the pieces & she said no she just wanted the rug. She was paying $1.99 for just the rug & the lady came back & said it would be 99¢ for the pieces. So if we could have talked to the lady with the rug we could have worked out a deal with her. Oh well Goodwill got an extra 99¢ for their work. I have since found I had a piece of heavy fabric that could be used for the "board". I marked off squares & have now painted them. I had to do the painting in two steps as I ran out of paint. I just finished the last of the painting. You can see the tape is still on. Now we can play checkers if we want. I also thought this bigger size would be fun for the grandkids to use too when here.

Twin?

2009-01-04T15:55:00.000-08:00

I thought maybe I should post pictures of both our black dogs so you could see how Betsy's size is compared to Abby's. It is hard to get the two of them to sit still long enough to get a good picture. I was trying to bribe them with a treat then they kept looking up at me & moving closer to me. But here is a picture that will at least give you an idea of her size. Soon she will be bigger than Abby. By the way Betsy is the one in front.

This lower pictures is Betsy's way to get our attention. She also rings a set of bells on the door when she wants or needs to go out.

Holiday Blessings

2008-12-25T19:51:00.000-08:00

I don't have a picture to put with this one but wanted to post anyway. For Thanksgiving we got good news that a new grandbaby was on the way & now today we got news another one is on the way too. So 2009 will see us adding two new grandbabies in June & August. :)

Christmas Sillyness

2008-12-25T19:44:00.000-08:00

Last year after Christmas Grandpa & Grandma saw these reindeer antlers marked down & we thought it would be fun to buy them for the grandkids to wear. We are sorry that the grandkids in Arizona could be part of the sillyness. Even one of the big "kids" got in on it.

Snow & More Snow

2008-12-22T15:55:00.001-08:00

This is what our front yard & drive way looks like, or did before the drive was plowed out. This seems to be the common look this year. We sure have had more than enough snow & we aren't done yet. We are suppose to get another 5 to 10 inches yet tonight through tomorrow. The last major storm that this picture is of we got 12 inches.

MESS

2008-12-22T15:48:00.001-08:00

This is what we found when we came home from the family get together. It was very cold so we let the dogs stay inside. We totally forgot about the possiblity that Betsy would attack the plants. It wasn't a very important plant but oh the clean up was a major job.

Sibblings

2008-12-22T15:45:00.001-08:00

We had a family get together with Ed's side of the family. We don't seem to get together too often so we always have to have a sibbling picture. I wish we had done a sibbling picture when we were together with my 3 sisters, next time I guess. They are standing in age order.

Girls & Frogs

2008-12-22T15:42:00.000-08:00

We have a tin of fake frogs here that the grandkids love to play with. At their last visit Sarah decided to build them a "pen". She did a good job laying out the blocks for them to sit on. She was not too happy with Betsy when she kept coming to see what was going on.

Cats

2008-12-22T15:39:00.000-08:00

We have been trying to get both of our cats used to each other. Diamond the black cat lives in the garage but wants to come in & visit us off & on. But she is a bit intimidated by Owyn's size.

Sewing Projects

2008-12-15T15:24:00.000-08:00

I had several pillow panels that I wanted to make up for our motorhome "Silver Eagle". This is a picture of sort the before. I forgot to take a picture before I got going on the first one. The picture to the right is the finished project. I was glad to get them done as my fingers were really getting sore as I sew the panels on by hand.

Christmas Programs

2008-12-15T15:11:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was the day for Christmas programs. Our church Amazing Grace had theirs. This is a picture of our choir. We are small but we are very on fire for the Lord.

This is the kids choir. That is one of our granddaughter as "Mary". "Baby Jesus" ios our doll, which will probably now be forever called Baby Jesus instead of Rose.

This is a picture of some of our other grandchildren. kind of hard to see them but we couldn't get any closer for pictures.

Vacation

2008-12-15T14:47:00.001-08:00

We just had nearly a week at one of our timeshares, this one was in Sunrise Beach, MO near Lake Ozark. We left here a day late as we wanted to be in church here as a missionary couple were coming we wanted to see. Then we headed home early enough that we could be home again for church yesterday. We have a full & busy week but it was good.

Our last night there the moon was so pretty.This picture doesn't show it as pretty as it really was.

This is a picture of our "friend" while on vacation. The first day when we were going to head out in the morning I saw what I thought was a twig laying on the stair railing. But it was a tiny snake. I thought he was dead. But when we came back I thought he was laying a bit different, so I took his picture. Yes we had snow while there. The next morning we moved him a bit to see if he would move. He didn't while we were there but later when we came back he had moved a bit. The last day we were there he had made it down to the floor of the stairway. I didn't think he was safe there so moved him into an area with bushes.

New Family Member of the Four Feet Kind

2008-12-04T16:45:00.000-08:00

Well we did a very silly thing today. We added a new dog to the family. She is a lab mix of 4 or 5 months. We have named her Betsy. She is a sweet girl. Abby is not so sure she likes her but they are doing fairly well. I saw her on Criag's List last night. She was at a animal shelter in White Cloud & her days were limited. I have promised not to look at the list of Pets any more.