I guess I'm not a true blogger!

Well I at least can admit I'm not dedicated!  I really want to keep this going, and post more than once a year, so here goes to another shot at it! Really, it's not like I don't have enough to blog about, it's just that I can't seem to make time to sit at the computer much.. I know, I need a laptop. Yeah, that's it, a laptop. I wonder if I can convince dear hubby that it's vital to my blogging that I get one?

It's been a little over a year since my last post, so much has happened that I don't know where to begin!  Some things need a little more than a quick mention, others not so important. I'll get around to the important things later.

Uh, my little description to the right is a wee bit off. Since my last post we now have a tank full of fish, had another bird given to us, adopted a dog from our good friends, adopted another dog from another military family who was moving to Germany and couldn't take her with, and had someone dump another dog in our neighborhood and guess who the neighbors called to come catch her??  Me, the one with sucker tattooed on her forehead. Three and half months later, she's still here. So yeah, the petting zoo got a 'tiny' bit bigger.

A month or two ago I took the Wilton Decorating Basics class at Michaels. Since I am a Michaels employee, my tuition was free which is awesome because that means more money I can spend on decorating stuff.   I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to taking the Flowers and Cake Design class next. June is the perfect time to sign up, all month all Wilton classes tuition and class kits are 50% off!  This week only (May 22 thru May 28) Michaels is also running a sale on Wilton products, buy 2 get one free!  Very cool sale!

Soooo that's my first attempt at restarting my blog. I think I need to revamp it a bit, freshen things up a little. Or maybe I shouldn't get ahead of myself..........

Next Blog?

Have you ever clicked on the 'next blog' tab at the top of your page?  I just really noticed it today, and thought 'what the heck', and clicked it.  A random blog comes up each time you click. I found all sorts of cool blogs, just normal everyday blogs and some pretty strange blogs!  Here are some of my favorites that I came across today.....

Remember This Photography   A very nice photography blog with some of the cutest baby photos I've seen!

Robin's Nesting Place  A gardening blog with beautiful photos

Prince of Cake  A very cool artist's blog, has nothing to do with cakes!! LOL

A "Cheery" Disposition  A Guitar Hero and his Princess.......the guitar hero plays for Josh Turner! How cool is that?!

Fine Little Love  This blog has very beautiful photos

Now that's all I had time for today, another day when I'm just sitting here wondering what to do, I'll click that tab again and take a glimpse into the lives of the rest of the world. It's inspiring!

First attempt at piecing a quilt top

I've loved quilts for a long time, don't know where I got my love as no one in my family quilts.  Years ago I bought a couple of books on quilting, wanting to learn myself. The books sat in storage for all of those years. I bought a very amateurishly finished vintage quilt top from a fabric fair, I finally got the ambition to put it together about a year or so ago. I sewed it pillow style and tied it. I have a photo somewhere, I'll have to look for it. I found an ad on craigslist a couple of months ago for some antique quilts for a very good price, and I grabbed them up. They're beautiful, and just what I needed to get my desire back to learn quilting.

So anyway, I bought some precut 2 inch squares from ebay, figuring if I had some ready to go fabric that I would give quilting a try.  I was browsing online and found a little tutorial for a postage stamp quilt, so that's what I went with. It's a tiny little project, just about placemat size, but it seems like it took forever! I need to learn patience with quilting.  I made several mistakes, but I think it came out pretty good. I'm not sure when I'll actually sew borders on it and actually make it into a little quilt, I'll probably give it to one of my girls for their dolls.

Here it is,  please don't look too closely, you'll see all of my mistakes!!! LOL

Right now I'm working on a small flannel quilt for our friends' new baby girl. I'm going slowly and fixing mistakes rather than ignoring them.  I bought a set of flannel receiving blankets and thought, the designs on these are pretty cute, I think I'll cut them in pieces!! LOL  I just cut 4 inch squares and arranged them in rows. Here's the blankets before cutting and after.

         

So far I've gotten the rows sewn in groups of three. Next I'll sew them into blocks of 3 rows, then sew them all together.  Not sure what I'm going to do after that. I really need to take a few quilting classes!

What a great day!

   

Today was a beautiful day!  The dogs wanted to stay out most of the day, they laid in the sunshine for hours.  My feathered babes were out on the deck enjoying the sunshine also.  I, however, spent most of the day inside, cleaning.  I love the first day of the year when all the windows can be opened to air out the rooms. It makes me want to make everything look fresh and bright.  I did take a break and sat outside on the deck for a little while stitching on a bookmark, listening to the radio and enjoying the fresh air and a nice glass of lemonade.

We spotted our first spring baby today!!  A mama squirrel was sitting on our fence chattering away and swishing her tail at us. At first I thought she was angry that our birds were out, but she was clearly testing us out to see if it was safe enough for her baby to come out.  I must've squealed like a little girl when I saw it!  Rusty laughed at me. Hey, it doesn't take much to make me happy!  Anyway, I snapped a few shots of mama and baby.  They were watching me just as intently as I was watching them.

They were so sweet, the baby was all over mama and was very close to her most of the time. They hung around for a little while, I guess mama decided it wasn't safe to come down into the yard though. I hope I catch them when they come back!  Our pet birds waste a lot of their food, so I take it out and dump it under the one tree in our yard. The squirrels and wild birds love it.  They get lots of good stuff; dried fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds. It's a regular banquet out there!

Tomorrow's forecast is looking as nice as today's, so more spring cleaning and enjoying the outdoors!

**I realized after the fact that I was posting after midnight!  So the correct date for this post is Tuesday, March 30.**

Before I was a Mom

My sister in law sent this to me by email.......

Before I was a Mom,
I never tripped over toys
or forgot words to a lullaby.
I didn't worry whether or not
my plants were poisonous.
I never thought about immunizations.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never been puked on.
Pooped on.
Chewed on.
Peed on.
I had complete control of my mind and my thoughts.
I slept all night.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held down a screaming child
so doctors could do tests or give shots.
I never looked into teary eyes and cried.
I never got gloriously happy over a simple grin.
I never sat up late hours at night
watching a baby sleep.

Before I was a Mom,
I never held a sleeping baby just because
I didn't want to put her down.
I never felt my heart break into a million pieces
when I couldn't stop the hurt.
I never knew that something so small
could affect my life so much.
I never knew that I could love someone so much.
I never knew I would love being a Mom.

Before I was a Mom,
I didn't know the feeling of
having my heart outside my body..
I didn't know how special it could feel
to feed a hungry baby.
I didn't know that bond
between a mother and her child.
I didn't know that something so small
could make me feel so important and happy.

Before I was a Mom,
I had never gotten up in the middle of the night
every 10 minutes to make sure all was okay.
I had never known the warmth,
the joy,
the love,
the heartache,
the wonderment
or the satisfaction of being a Mom.
I didn't know I was capable of feeling so much,
before I was a Mom

Me and my babies 2005

Snow Pics!!

The kids had a blast today! They had so much fun, they forgot to be mad that it snowed during their Spring Break! I loved watching them play, it's been a hard move and a long time since they've had this much fun. The girls love it when their Daddy throws shovels full of snow on them, I think he had as much fun as they did. Even Robert and his friend Devin went out to join in. They had a big snowball fight, boys against the girls. Emma and Abby grabbed the wicker loveseat as their shield, the boys only had a little table as theirs. It was so funny watching them try and build it bigger. Ellie Mae and Jack liked playing also, Ellie Mae loves the snow. Jack isn't quite used to it yet, having spent his whole life in Georgia, but I think he's acclimating. Me, well, I like to be warm. I stood on the deck to take the photos or just inside the door! I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days so staying warm was my objective today. I'll go out and join them next time. I love playing in the snow too!

It's already starting to melt. Tomorrow's forecast....highs in the lower 50s. It's winter one day and spring the next, regardless of the actual season we're in!

Yay, spring is here?!

Can you hear the sarcasm? Yesterday the girls and I were hiking, today it's snowing. I mean, like 6 inches of snow in 3 hours, kind of snowing. By Friday we're supposed to be back up to into the 50s. Colorado has some crazy weather!

Happy Spring!!

Yay, Spring is here!! I'm looking forward to the sunshine and flowers. I can't wait to plant a bunch of daisies in my new back yard. Which reminds me....so much has happened since my last post.....almost an entire year ago! Too much to put into one post, that's for sure. We are now in Colorado instead of Georgia. It's beautiful here, we have an awesome view of Pike's Peak from our neighborhood. The mountains are breathtaking, I never get tired of looking at them, they're so impressive.

I've been busy learning to quilt, on my own. I finished my first quilt top yesterday, a very small postage stamp quilt. I made a lot of mistakes, but I think it's a good first try. I've assembled a quilt before, from a vintage quilt top I bought a long time ago. It looks like it may have been someone's first try also, which suits me fine. My daughter claimed it, she's been using it on her bed ever since! Next I'm going to do a simple top with flannel squares.

For my fellow quilters and crafters, Leah of Burgundy Buttons is giving away a Verna jelly roll! Go on over to Park City Girl's blog, Amy's Creative Side for the details on how to enter.

Enjoy this beautiful day!

Happy Anniversary!!

Yesterday, April 30th, was mine and Rusty's 15th wedding anniversary. It seems so long ago, but then again seems like yesterday. Our kids told us happy anniversary several times, especially the girls. They wanted to have a big party to celebrate, they're so sweet. We had several plans made, but ended up not doing any of them! We had a good day though, went to breakfast together, went shopping for auto parts, Rusty was a good sport while I shopped at my favorite resale shop, then we worked outside for a while. I worked on the front yard and he on his car and truck. He indulged me by doing some sanding on the hutch I'm painting for my dining room. Instead of going out to dinner, we ordered chinese take out. It was a pretty good day.

Here's us, all those years ago. Sheesh, we were still practically kids.

We're both thankful and blessed to have each other, we are truly best friends.

Spring Break

It's spring break week here for the kids, almost over now. I haven't gotten a single thing done! I love my babies being home, but my house needs cleaning and I need to do some stitching. I did manage to get the girls to clean up their room and helped them rearrange it. It very well might be the cleanest room in the house right now!

We also have had two of their friends sleep over twice this week, it's amazing what 4 little girls can do to a place in such a short amount of time! And boy can they eat! We went to a pond here on Fort Stewart, I took the camera and got some really nice shots of them. I'll see if I can get enough time to sit down and upload them, I still need to get our Easter photos uploaded as well. Hopefully tonight they'll give me a few minutes, I don't know, they've been talking about the drive in all week!

Ah, I hear the little sweeties coming in from the playground, I better go fix them a little snack before dinner. Tonight we're making homemade french bread pizza!