Random Things Before I Leave

We're leaving for the weekend to go see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. Oh, and our Crazy Daughter.

So I just have some random thoughts/picts before I head out!

This is the spider web on the planter outside my front door. It looks so pretty in the morning with dew on it.

Once a month, we have Taco Salads at school for $3. Here's the sight that greeted me when I entered the lounge.

My principal. He's a card!

Here are our t-shirts for the Jack O'Lantern we kidnapped.

Dear Jane

Dear Jane Book
Originally uploaded by miadca

Well, here it is....The Book. It contains all the patterns for the Dear Jane quilt you've been voting on. Not a whole lot of instruction, though. It's kinda of a do-it-yourselfer. That's me!! (Trying to convince myself). Really, I taught myself how to play a tune on the cello, I taught myself to cross-stitch, though that's not hard. I taught myself to knit.

This is calling out to be hand quilted, though. Of course, that decision is years down the road!

Bath Mat

One of our Saturday chores is laundry. We don't dry the bathmats, you know, the whole spontaneous combustion or whatever reason you can't dry rubber....so we hang them up to dry. This morning, hubby comes out of the bathroom and says, I like to be the first person to put footprints on the bath mats after we've washed them. I said, yeah, it's fun, huh?

Then, I saw this! He's a hoot!

Fabric

Oh the joy....I've been to Hancock's and our local quilt shop today.

I woke up feeling kind of down, we did our Saturday routine of cleaning the house, then the other Saturday routine of going to the skate park. My son decided to spend the night with a friend, and I'm behind two baby quilts (where are all these babies coming from!?) so I went to Hancock's first. I love Hancock's because inevitably they have some brand of pattern on sale for 99 cents. Mind you, I have probably ten patterns in the closet that I haven't made yet, and I'm always so eager to make something, but making clothes just isn't my forte. I don't know if I don't know enough or just don't have enough patience. When we were in high school, I would say while out shopping, "Oh! This is so cute!" To which my sister would respond, "You can make that." Yeah! But how long will it take? I wanna wear it now. Maybe I don't buy quality fabric. I'm cheap, I admit it.....ask hubs. I'm pretty sure it's the impatience factor. But I did make my daughter's prom dress last year! That's her, in the orange...slouching.

But I ramble.....I love fabric, all the different colors and textures. I am drawn by the gorgeous quilts on the wall that call out 'make me.....make me.' And the patterns that are so cute and I think, oh, I'll have more patience this time, I'll finish this.

Summer is coming and I'll have more time. I promise I'll be posting stuff I'm going to make!

More Peasants~

My friends and I always go out to lunch on Fridays to a 'real' restaurant. No refilling your own drinks on Fridays, my friends. One of my friends and I had recently celebrated birthdays, but for some reason never exchanged gifts. So we brought our gifts to lunch today. We didn't want our other friend to be left out, so she got something as well. Don'tcha just love the construction wrapping paper!? Only in elementary!




Here it is!!! A model eye!!
It was in a closet at my friend's school so they wrapped it up for her.








Dust and all!

Good News and Bad News

First, the bad news. Look at this little guy! (that's not the bad news) Isn't he cute!? He is making a home in our partially cut down tree.

This is the bad news....today he is homeless!

Well, the good news is (and I'm stretching here, people) is that

cupcakes are in the oven!! See, that made you feel better, didn't it? Hubby's having a cookout tomorrow and I am the cupcake lady! Gotta love it. MmmmMMmmm.

A Vote, If You Please!

This one has white background (well, sort of, that's the best way I can describe it)
This one is what I would consider black background. Needed to clarify since I was clear as mud the first time! Sorry, Kapgar! See the vote button on the side? I am considering joining a group that is making this quilt. Which one do you like?

April is Earth Month

This is a big banner that is strung across the street here on base. No worries, I was stopped at a stop sign when I took the picture.

And yet, this is what is happening all over the base. I'm no horticulturalist (which sounds like a fun job sometimes) so I may not be understanding exactly *why* we are cutting down seemingly thriving trees. AND....the above photo is what my backyard still looks like. Dear Hubby called and politely asked when they thought they might come finish or at least pick up what they had started and they said no. Gee, thanks. It's starting to remind me of Geo and the plight of the wreaths!

(I can't find a link that will take you directly to the explanation of the whole wreath story, but basically these people had a Christmas wreath up until right before Easter, when the Easter wreath went up.)

One Sock

Please excuse my son's nasty foot. What I would like to discuss today is why he always wears one sock. This has been one of his "deals" since he was little. He takes one sock off. Always the right one. Not when he's wearing shoes, but after he gets home and takes his shoes off. WHY!? Is the one foot hot? I'm sure it's some bizarre sensory issue. But I find it amusing....

Also, welcome my friend Heather to blogland!

Yum-Yum!

Homemade German Chocolate Cake Icing! Heaven.....this is a recipe from a dear friend. One year when hubby was on his second deployment, she made me a bowl of just the icing, no cake. Yep, I ate it all with a spoon. Not in one sitting, but, yeah. I'm not usually an icing type gal, give me the cake, please, but this is too good!!

1 egg
2/3 cup evaporated milk
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup butter or margarine
dash salt
1 1/3 cup flaked coconut
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Beat eggs slightly in saucepan. Stir in milk, sugar, butter, and salt. Cook and stir over medium heat about 12 minutes or until thickened and bubbly. Stir in coconut and pecans. Cool completely.

Nicknames

We're getting ready for a cookout tomorrow, and so we decided to do TV dinners for dinner. Hubby likes the Mexican ones, but he doesn't like the rice. So he gave it to the dogs. Frozen...

That's K'Ehleyr. She's named after Worf's first wife on Star Trek. She's also known as Big K, Special K, and Big Dog.

That's Mopsa. Her name is from Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale." A shepherdess. She's also known as Little Dog, Flopsa, and Pizza Eatin' Dog (because once I called my son in to eat and by the time he got there, the plate was empty). My husband says if she were a person she'd ride the short bus. He means no offense, it's funny.
We have lots of nicknames in our family. My son is "The Magnificent." My daughter: "The Great," (or Grate, LOL, j/k!) or "Greatness." And I'm Momma the Llama. We can't think of anything that rhymes with Dad/Daddy, not that magnificent rhymes with my sons name...but I ramble. He does like to wear a "Grumpy" shirt (one of the seven dwarfs) sometimes, though.....hmmm. He said it, not me! :)

Trees and French Fries

I used to do parent-infant advising and I was at my now friend's home doing a lesson one afternoon. She has two deaf children, and the whole family is learning to sign. Makes my heart sing! Anyway, Little Guy signed WHERE DADDY, though WHERE looked more like twisting MILK and daddy was done with an 'A' handshape (baby sign). It was the cutest thing, and it just brought tears to my eyes that this two-year-old was using 2 word phrases just like hearing two-year-olds! Joy! Happy!
So, the other day mom tells me that Little Guy said and signed "Go McDonald's, French Fries." But signed, MCDONALD'S TREE. So, being the awesome mom she is, she modeled the correct grammar/signing and said/signed "You want to go to McDonald's and get some FRENCH FRIES (correct sign)?" Yeah, says Little Guy "French Fries" Signing TREE.
Too Cute!

Wordless Wednesday~Kidnapping update

Tote Bag Swap!

Well, ladies and gentlemen, this is the package I received today from Israel! Whoo-hoo! It's my second swap, and it was supposed to be a tote bag swap, but the sweet gal I was paired up with above and beyond. Don't you just love "Above and Beyond"
people? I do!! Anyway, she's Cats or Dog, no blog, but you can check out her picts on Flickr. The next swap is an organizational swap. I'm so excited!

Benevolent Analyst

350,640 Hours; 14,610 Days

My mom sent 40 presents. They were:
1. Pinata
2. Back Scratcher
3. Don't Mess With Texas button
4. Flip Flop earrings
5. Bumblebee brooch
6. Umbrella
7. Pinwheel
8. Travel Kleenex that said: I Don't Remember Signing Up for This
9. Koozie that said: Fabulous at 40
10. Miniature Fire Extinguisher for my 40 candles
11. Bluebonnet picture
12. Slinky
13. Pearls
14. Max Lucado's 3:16 Numbers of Hope
15. Band-aids
16. Razors
17. Pedometer
18. 96 Crayons
19. Tastes and Tales from Texas Cookbook
20. Paper clips
21. Dead Sea body lotion
22. Sticky notes
23. 3 CD's, Best of the Eighties
24. Winnie the Pooh stickers
25. Strawberry Shortcake doll
26. Almonds
27. Willow tree Angel signing 'love'
28. Joy for a Woman's Soul book
29. Stress apple
30. Pedicure egg
31. Toblerone
32. Panda Puzzle
33. Foam Sheets
34. Shadow box that says: Low Rise Jeans are Just so Impractical When Flying by the Seat of your Pants
35. Texas Key ring
36. 3 boxes of Texas picture Kleenex from HEB
37. Coin Purse
38. Potpourri
39. Crossword Puzzle Book and bookmark
40. a 1968 Half Dollar and a $40 check!

FujiFilm FinePix S700

I took this picture with my new birthday present! It is the cutest camera!! Would ya look at that table!? I've got lenses, filters, tripods, a case, a strap...I am SET! I just need to play around now and figure it all out. Hubby's so good to me. He doesn't mind me using his camera, which is the bomb btw, but I had mentioned I was going to use my birthday money to buy my own, a little more portable to permanently attach to my hand so I can have it at all times, and low and behold, can the man take a hint!? Wow. He is too good to me......Oh, and you see those beautiful flowers!? (OK, well, the wrapper is still on them because it says to leave the wrapper on for 8 to 12 hours so the stems have some support, and you know what a rule-follower I am...) They're from my beautiful sister and awesome nephews!! I assumed they were from hubby, so it was a pleasant surprise!
We are off to dinner with some friends to Red Lobster! Yum-Yum-Yummy!! Don't worry, more pics to come!

Feelin' The Love

Here's the status of our tree: Very Sad.....I'm crying over here.

And you know it's windy when it blows the basketball goal over, let's sing it again, shall we??

Oklahoma, Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain....

Hubby has had all my birthday presents out (we celebrate birthday week around our house), and he gets a little impatient, so he gave me the biggest one to open.

Which held this ergonomic seam ripper! Hahaha.....

Get it!? The huge box for one little seam ripper!? Oh, you got it? OK, just checking. My daughter doesn't always get things, but that's for another post.

I needed it to replace my other one that is broken.

I also received a package in the mail from my mom and step-dad. Weren't they kind to remind me that I'll be "Over the Hill" Saturday!?

So, I thought, well I'll put all the gifts with the ones that are already out here. So I begin taking them out of the box, and the pile keeps growing, and they keep multiplying in the box....she sent *FORTY* presents!! Hahahahaha......Wow, thanks, Mom! There was.....

......even.....a *real* pinata!! No strings attached. You can actually hit it. Well, yeah, if you had a tiny bat. Isn't that great! That Momma, she's a clever one!

Wordless Wednesday

This is hubby's favorite picture. He says I'm symbolically leading our son down the path of life brushing away all the obstacles. (Ok, not exactly wordless, but I wanted to explain!)

Hilarious Hubby!

This is the tree in our backyard. A few days ago we woke up and it had been tagged. We received a letter stating that beginning the 7th, the tree trimmers would be around. I am worried about my tree. It is huge. I know we don't own this house, but the tree deserves a chance. It did lose some pretty big branches in the ice storm, but there is new growth already. OK, back to the tree in a minute.

First, the other day hubby and I were eating somewhere (the memory's going) and I asked for something. Hubby said, "I thought you liked ----whatever it was----(there it goes again)?" Nope, I said, that must be your other girlfriend (a running joke in our house). To which he usually replies something very sweet like: No other girlfriends, You're my only girlfriend, or something similar. Well, in this particular instance, he looked me straight in the face, and with all seriousness said "No, she doesn't like it either." Bwahhaha....

So, I've been noticing that the trees with the red ribbons are mysteriously disappearing....not being *trimmed*, they're cutting them down! All the way to the ground. We're thinking about taking the ribbon off, what do you think? I am heartbroken for my tree. So, today when I got home hubby says "Well, the tree is still here, but I noticed that the ones that are tagged they are cutting down." I said, "I told you that~" he says "I didn't believe you!" LOL!~How's that for honesty!?

Jeremy Camp

We went to the local baseball game yesterday. Oh boy, well, they're not too good, but it was fun. Ok, except for the annoying loud kid behind me. Ok, and the two kids on the other side of my husband. Yeah, hard to control who you sit by.
But! Jeremy Camp gave a concert after the show. It was great. He has such a testimony...three days after he married his first wife, they found out she had terminal cancer, and she died four months later. Very sad. But he didn't lose faith, he grew from the experience and has had many great #1 hits since then. And he's married again and has two kids now. Now that's a strong woman!

Saturday Sweep

We decided it was time to clean the yard. Since the Ice Storm back in early winter, there have been sticks everywhere. My boys, as I affectionately call them, decided to re-use the sticks to make borders for a couple of plant beds. Wasn't that clever of them!? We also found the leg of an unfortunate action figure. LOL

We also decided to try our hand at a compost pile, so I used the grass clippings from mowing the front lawn and we used some of the leave remainders to start. Here's my son in front of the finished plant bed, and that's the front porch. We don't usually plant a lot in the ground because we move often, so I like to have lots of pots full of flowers.

This is how we all felt at the end of the day and the second shot is the shrubs we chose for the back under the windows. We also spread grass seed, so hopefully it will take root and cut down on the amount of dirt and mud tracked in by the dogs!

Quilts!

This is the first quilt I ever made. Funny how the fabrics look so dated now...

I quilted it by hand (pieced by machine). Took forever.

I have a problem with colors/fabrics. I loved these fabrics, and I thought they would work together nicely, but I don't like it. I do everything by machine now. Call me lazy. It's OK.

What I do like is the back:

Better than the front, huh?

This is a birthday cake quilt from Mary Lou Weidman's book.
LoVe iT! Happy Birthday to you....

This is the quilt I made for my husband, he loves blue! This is on our bed. The white against the blue is really great, but the white is really not great with the dogs.....sigh!

This is a heirloom quilt that is from my husband family. Names of family members and their spouses are embroidered in the white spaces.

I may try to duplicate it someday with 'our' family.

The next I'm going to get brave and try it free motion quilting rather than stitching 'in the ditch.'

Breathing Clearly?

I am an official ADOS administrator!
I have been in training for two days. Very interesting, and I'm ready to try it out. Any volunteers?




I've also have a nice Spring cold or maybe just allergies. My friend says "Oh! You've got to try the Neti Pot!" OK, can I tell you friends, I have heard about this thing before, and I just cannot get past the fact that you pour water in your nose. I mean, I am a special educator, so I can do most bodily functions: throwing up, diapers, poor salivary management, but I don't do what one of my aids called "green snakes~" aka, snot. For my sanity, she always walked around armed with a pocket full of tissues.
My father-in-law uses the neti pot, he even mixes his own solution. People swear by it.
My friend gave me two packets of this stuff, and I finally mustered up the courage to try it. I figured if I threw up, then at least I would know, and the next time someone suggested it I could politely decline. Once I got over the panicked feeling that I was about to drown and willed my body to relax, it was bearable. I'm still congested, but it may take more than one round since I am already sick.
Has any one tried this? What do you think!?