First Time in the Hot Tub

The grandsons had an "awesome" time in the hot tub yesterday. This was their first time over since we got it and they couldn't wait to get in. Is this not what life is made of or what?

Christmas Wish List

I am putting this page up as a way of keeping track of what everyone tells me they want for Christmas...grin Not that DH or I have a problem with remembering, you understand..grin It's also a way to let everyone else know what to get for everyone else! So I will put this link on the sidebar and hopefully can keep it updated so you can look throughout the year. Let me know what you want so I can post it.... ok??

Me

One tube of paint (can be oil or acrylic) in any color you like. The colors most used are Titanium White, Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna, Sap Green, Alizarin Crimson, Pthalo Blue. Any colors will work. One brush... any size.

Paula

I just got off the phone with Paula and she tells me she wants sewing notions this year... thimbles, needles, fabric (in bright colors and island prints.. like those old 1960's Hawiian shirts!), a folding cutting board to cut her fabric on... anything you can think of...

Round Robin Letter Update

I just got off the phone with Paula... believe it or not, the RRL is on it's way to the post office as we "speak"! She said it has become quite large, so she had to have a fight with the envelope to get it in there... but she won.. grin

Eggs

Aren't these pretty? They remind me of the eggs Betty sent home with us last year... But they're not. They are ceramic...! We found these at the feed store a couple of days ago. These are the eggs that are put in the nest to get the chickens to lay and set. But... they will also look really cool painted!

Memories

Every time I see this little pic that I found online in a free Flickr group, I think of Paula and John...grin They both loved the steering wheel of a car... John just loved exploring everything. He was always climbing into the boat... Couldn't keep him out... just knowing that he would land on his head one of these days...

Paula, of course, had to actually drive. She found the keys left in the pickup one day and suddenly the house trembled as she drove it right into the side of the carport!

Blahs....

Isn't it funny that when you are in a blahs mood the best help in the world is to reach for the phone? Talked to Paula and John in the last couple of days and to sister Teresa yesterday... it's amazing what a difference a conversation makes. I think the cool (humpf... 95 degree) weather has helped a lot when compared with the 107 we were having (and will again in the next few days.. but oh, well!) Just looking over the meadow and seeing the trees dropping leaves and becoming as bare as the deepest part of winter is depressing. But....

"Reach out and touch someone" is a good thing.

im a little teapot

My friend Debbie has discovered the joys of blogging! She has a new site up called im a little teapot where she is showcasing the many teapots that she has collected over the years. Her first one is up and boy! what a beauty! I've never seen one like it. Pop over and say hello...you'll like what you see!

(P.S. This is another of those days that Blogger has decided that no pictures are needed. I have been working on this post since around 8am and finally decided to roll with the flow. Michelle.. of la vie en rose... a sweet life finally grew tired of it all and has moved her wonderful site to typepad .. I have considered doing the same (moving, I mean), but so far have not...)

Connections

This is another post that our son has posted. I love it...

Connections

This is a picture that came in a "Round Robin" letter my mother has going. For those of you who don't know what a Round Robin letter is, it's like a chain letter only without the catch. One person writes a page, inserts it in the envelope and mails it to the next person on a list. When the letter comes back to you, you remove your old page, put in a new one and send it on again.

Some of the people on the list are only tangentially connected to my own life and yet, through the vector of my mother, I can't have escaped their influence. The Butterfly Effect on a personal level.

I only knew one of the women in this picture, my great-grandmother. She's the one standing on the right. When I was very young we would visit and in the evening she would sit in her rocking chair and we would take turns brushing her hair. She always wore her hair in a bun just like in the photo, but at night she would let her hair down and it would become this glorious, silken curtain of white that draped over the back of her chair and reached almost to our knees. Wrapped in a terry robe, she would lean back and we would brush with long strokes. She would hum, sometimes laugh, often talk with our parents while we brushed and brushed and then we would braid one large long braid which she would pull over her shoulder in preparation for bed. It was a ritual that almost all of the myriad grandchildren she possessed passed through. She passed on a few years ago. Life, as it often does, had put space between us. Visits were rare and the magic of the brush had passed. I miss her. I wish I could be more like her, or at least like the myth of her that I have cobbled together.

The woman in a the middle of the photograph is my great-great grandmother. In the late 1800's my great-great grandfather left my great-great grandmother in New Mexico where they lived to go look for work in The Indian Territorities (soon to be Oklahoma). When he found employment he wrote to his wife with the good news and she loaded her six kids, the oldest of which was a fourteen year old boy, into a wagon and made the trip from New Mexico to Oklahoma. From all accounts she was an extraordinary woman. We never existed together. She died long before I was born but there is a photo of her holding my mother. And there is this:

This is part of a plant that my great-great grandmother gave to my great grandmother who passed it on to my great aunt who gave it to my mom who gave it to me.

It's just a plant, except it's not. It's a connection. A piece of the myth and fact that is my life.

Parts of these myths and facts will be lost in the passing to my children, just as parts have been lost in the passing to me. More will be lost in the passing to their children and that makes me a little sad. But new parts will be added and that makes me happy because in the end it's not the myth or the facts that are important, it's the connection.

Crochet Pinafore Dishcloth Pattern

I remember back in the 1950's when almost every kitchen had hand crocheted potholders in the form of veggies or dresses (or something) hanging on the walls or around the cabinets. They have very much gone out of style now in the U.S., but Tomomi tells me that they are very much in vogue in Japan right now. Along with hand made quilted purses, etc. I was really surprised to find this pattern online. I think this will be a "soon" project to do...

Frazzled!

What a mess! Jim and Don were here yesterday and DH had them look at a leak under the kitchen sink... Wow! What a mess. The disposal had to be taken out and put back... the soap dispenser bottle that attaches to the sink had been cut in half by some wonderful workman who conveniently forgot to mention it.. so there was soap 1/2 inch deep under there... what a mess... Today was the wash everything that was stored under there in soapy bleach water, dry and put up after cleaning under there and putting down new liners day... Am I whining again...grin Sorry... And all before 10am... that's the good news! Have the rest of the day to do something else..grin

My Garlic Teapot

Don't you think she is the cutest thing?!!! This little lovely is another gift from Deb... she hates it! I knew there was something special about it, but I couldn't figure out what until I took the picture. Can you see it?? The cute little eyelashes, cheekbones and nose?? How 'bout the hair on the spout, lid and handle? ...grin Click on the pic for a larger view...

New Look!

If you drop by occasionally, you will notice that things look a little different. I changed the format this morning trying to get a little more color here..grin It must be the drought... Getting a little tired of dry and hot...

In the change, I have lost all my links. Since I don't have time to fix it this morning, it will probably be an ongoing thing to get them all back up. Bear with me.. ok?

Catching Up!

I seem to have been spending most of my blogging time keeping up with the Fabric Follies site, so decided I needed to update today and promise to do a little better job of keeping up...
The days just keep on getting hotter and hotter. 107 degrees here yesterday according to the weather, but it seems to have been hotter than that. I keep wishing for rain and a few flower buds, but there's only the brown of our trees dropping their leaves. Two drought years in a row are taking their toll on our trees in the meadow.

We bought a hot tub last week. I think I'm going to name it "Calamity Tubbs" since the pocketbook is having a heart attack at the moment... grin As a result we are doing lots of staying at home and crafting.

With everything that's happening in the Middle East, I'm having a little more anxiety than usual over Chuck and Dustin being over there. Can only hope that next few months pass by quickly and they get home safely.

Random Thoughts

Every now and then I pop over to our son's blog and I'm always amazed at the insight I find there. Here's an example:

Random Thoughts

I don't know why I haven't felt like posting anything for so long. I come here with every intention of writing something and when I look at this page I just lose all motivation.

I did have an interesting experience today at work. We're in the midst of moving the plant and I find myself alone where 8 people were sitting - they have already moved.

This gives me plenty of quiet time for thinking. In addition to thinking I listen to Dave Ramsey in the afternoon. If you don't know, Dave Ramsey is the Total Money Makeover guy, the "normal is lookin' good, bein' broke, and one job layoff from bankruptcy - don't be normal", the "live like noone else so later on you can live like noone else" guy. He has no formula, no tricks. His whole spiel is "get out of debt, stay out of debt, invest and give." That's it. The whole secret to financial peace. Personally, I think he's right.

So anyway, I'm sitting there listening to people talk about money, and generally drifting through various thoughts when it hit me that I have enough. It was such a great feeling. Not just enough money. Not just enough stuff. Enough everything. Enough love. Enough family. Enough possessions. Enough.

It's not that I stopped wanting things. I still want to get the boys new beds. We need a new garage door. I want my marriage to be recognized by my own country. I want the various quarrels in my family to be resolved. I still want. But if none of those things should ever happen it will be ok. It will still be enough.

I think this has come to me because I've really been trying to practice gratitude thinking lately. In other words, my circumstances haven't changed but I think my perception is beginning to. It still has a long way to go. And it's not been as easy as I thought it would be. Well, not consistently easy anyway. It's hard for me to be consistently grateful for my job. It's pretty easy to be consistently grateful for my husband and kids.

Don said to me the other day, "since we let God into our lives, things seem to be going much better." I think he's right. What is strange is that we don't make any more money now than we did before. We don't live in a different house. We don't have different friends or family. I think that God must be working on us, changing our needs and desires, showing us the divine worth of each person, each thing. Anyway, those are my random thoughts for tonight.

I hope everyone is well - Geekboi, I hope your new home and the job are working out. Bear, I hope your "unstructured" vacation went well. Damien, I hope your retirement from blogging is helpful. Jeremy, I hope school and married life are going well.

And I hope that everyone has enough.

Free Crochet Doll Pattern

This little doll is sooo cute. Since this is a copyrighted site, I can't put the picture up. Makes me wish I had a little girl to crochet it for. Annie's Attic has a free pattern every day, but you have to check every day because that's the only time you can get it..

Round Robin Letter Update

It seems the RRL has been held up in Oklahoma for a couple of weeks. DD has been rebuilding her bathroom floor (boy! did it need it! It seems that when they got under there, a support joist was broken and had to be repaired also) After talking with her this morning, it seems that the floor is finished except for the linoleum and she can now wash her face without expecting to wind up on the ground any minute... Sooo, the RRL should be on it's way in a day or so.

It's a little Warm around here!

It's a little warm around here these days. Yesterday the official temp was supposed to be 100 degrees. Well it made it... we went to buy groceries yesterday afternoon and our Blazer showed the temp outside at 107 when we left... by the time we got up the road a mile or so, it said 109. On the way back home, the thermometer outside the dentist's office said 108 and the one outside the vet's office said 110. At one point, the Blazer said 112. Whew! And this is only mid July. I surely do hope that this not an indicator of what it will be in August!

Although this is not the 17 year swarm of cicadas, they are surely singing for all their worth in our backyard this year. I took this picture on our front porch last year, but they are evidently muliplying plentifully this year also... grin

Wordpress Featured Blog

I was checking my stats on my Fabric Follies blog and checking back to see where some of the links were coming from and boy! what a surprise! Fabric Follies is the Featured Blog on Wordpress under the tags Quilting, Fabric Postcards and Embroidery!

I'm a Snapdragon

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

Feather Stitch

This is my first try at using feather stitch. It is actually a very easy stitch to do. I had trouble trying to figure out where to start my pattern... kept getting a bit confused (grin.. imagine that!) since you have to start this stitch at the top of your pattern regardless of whether you are going up & down or left & right. Since any variation of any kind throws my brain into a cluster of stir fry, I had to start it a couple of times before I figured that out.

T-Shirt Pants

I found the most amazing tutorial the other day. How many old t-shirts have you got laying around? If you're like me I have dozens. This tutorial that was put up in Live Journal by 24 blackbirds is just great. Cut the top off your t-shirt, cut the sides up and the sleeves out... well, I'm not real good at the telling how to do this... have a look at the tutorial... grin It's here...

Eggs!

We bought eggs and breakfast things for our company that came from Virginia to visit... then ate out most of the time..grin As a result, the eggs passed their expiration date. Instead of throwing them away, I decided to try blowing them and painting them. This is the first one. I hope that each one will get better, but we'll see. I think they would make really cute Christmas ornaments..

Our Sonic Kingbird

We finally had time to run up to Sonic for a hamburger at noon a few days ago. The nest was still in the tree and one adult was still flitting among the branches, but there were no babies in the nest. With all the traveling done lately, we missed the fledging of the baby Kingbirds... sigh

Wedding Day Photos!

It is with tremendous joy that we can finally announce the marriage of our son Jim to his long time partner Don. They were married in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on June 27, 2006 at St. John's Presbyterian/United Church.
There is nothing that makes a parent's heart sing as much as seeing their child's heart sing..

Fourth of July

This being the 4th of July with celebrations of our Independence Day going on all over the country, I guess I just felt the need to say a few of the things that are on my mind today.
This is our son Chuck ... who is today in a foreign land working with the many other Marines and soldiers who give every day of their lives for the protection of this land and our many freedoms. This is his 3rd year (1 year tours) serving in Iraq. He had a choice when this tour came up and he chose to return. I cannot say how proud we are of him and at the same time, I cannot say how anxious I am about him during this tour.
On the trip to my daughter's a few days ago, I was listening to talk radio. The statement was made that it should be called Hypocrite's Day. This gave me pause.. How many of our children really know and will sing with dignity the National Anthem? How many actually know and can recite the Pledge of Allegiance? How many adults will consider today a day to think about all the freedoms our soldiers work for every day to preserve for them? Or is it all about fireworks and backyard bar-b-q's, fishing trips and beer?
Perhaps we should give it some thought, stop for a minute and think for a bit about all those who are still fighting this fight for independence even as we fire off our Black Cats and grab another beer as we run for the boat with our fishing poles.

Back from Paula's

This is my daughter Paula and her 4 sons ... We had only been home from Dallas a few days when I talked with her on the phone and found out that she was on vacation!!! So I jumped in my trusty car and off I went to spend a couple of days with her when she could actually visit..grin Had a good time and got to visit with the grandsons who are now much bigger than they were in this picture... We moved her tv into the living room, bought a DVD player and a couple of movies... Watched Failure to Launch and laughed ourselves silly... She has the Round Robin Letter and assures me that it will arrive at my house early this week... She wouldn't even let me peek at it!