Prunes, yummm!

I've Been Tagged by Emily

I've been tagged by Emily!
Smith Family News

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself (on your blog, we all want to know them).

I'm choosing to follow only the first two rules of this game :)

I like to make up new songs by changing the words to familiar tunes.

I try to fill the boys Christmas stockings using a theme every year, last year it was school/office supplies. I have yet to choose one for this year.

My feet are two different sizes (almost a full half size difference). This makes finding comfortable shoes rather difficult.

I have been known to eat M&M's sorted by color. And taupe was the tastiest color. Bah Humbug to Blue.

Jon and I were married on the date of my Dad's birthday. (He had a great party that year!)

I taught myself to knit last Christmas.

Chicago Botanic Garden

Yesterday we took a trip to the Chicago Botanic Garden. It was a bee-yoo-ti-ful day. We took the tram tour around the outside edge of the Garden, we were the only ones on the tour. Can you even believe the Mum Towers? They were made by drilling holes in PVC pipe, filling it with growing medium, covering it with moss, planting mums in July, and voila. Here they are in October. I am positive I need more mums in my yard after visiting this Garden.

Sick Kid

Jason is sick today. He told me his throat hurt this morning. It wasn't that I didn't believe him, it's just that they cry wolf so often, how's a mom to know? Anyway, his teacher walked out with him tonight after school. She said he basically wilted at the end of the day. After I sat him down on the couch he fell asleep in about two minutes. He's snoring now. Sweet.
He wasn't sick that day. It's a much better picture of him than right now.

Jon the Tool Man

My husband is the best. He fixes things. He finds lost things for me. He can handle the kids by himself so I can go out. And don't let that look on his face fool you. He's a nice guy.

I love my Jonny. I am thankful that he is mine and I am his.

GO IRISH!

Sarah was quite pleased with the Irish win this weekend. Since the game started late she was actually in bed asleep when the game began but she was very excited when we filled her in on the outcome. We're pretty sure that she was practicing her cheerleader moves here. She learned this one from Aunt Heidi.

That's Miss Bear to you

Isn't she sweet?

WHERE is my book?

I ordered a book from Amazon so that I could participate in a Knit A Long, my very first one, and my book has not arrived. It's making me crazy. I've called every book store in town and no one has it either. So, I think, chill out, it's just not out yet. But noooo. Lot's of people in the KAL already have books that they bought locally. Obviously, none of them are my neighbors. I am learning quite a bit about the local knitting stores though through this little endeavor. Some of them, at least the people who answer the phones, are not very friendly. That's too bad really. It looks like I'll have to travel to Valparaiso to find a friendly and well stocked yarn store.

School is Fun

These are our boys on the first day of school this year. They both look like they have something up their sleeve. We're all having a great school year so far.

Jason has Mrs. Karen Demske and she reads all kinds of really great books to them. She also gave Jason a packet of extra math pages (she called them "My Math Fun Pack") for homework after he told me and her that "this homework is too easy, I want some minuses."

Evan's teacher this year is Mrs. Sarah (Doty) Owens. He started participating in choir this past week and they have a concert in December. That should be very interesting. Evan also has been reading many great books. He talks about Jerry Spinelli and other authors that he has checked out from the library at school. That is so cool.

go cubbies!

Evan is a Cubs fan from way back. Yes, we're sure this is Evan, not Jason or Sarah.

Crafty

So actually, this was my very first "quilted" creation. I used Evan's Cub Scout shirt to make the quilted blue area on this pillow and sewed his patches onto that. He is no longer interested in being in Scouts so this was the best way I could come up with to commemorate his time as a Scout.








And this is my first real quilt. I'm calling it Broken Blues. All of the folks in the books name their quilts so I decided I should too. Obviously my measuring leaves a bit to be desired in some areas but overall, not bad for my very first creation of this sort. Next step, layer the backing, batting and quilt top, baste together, and quilt! I haven't decided how to do the quilting yet either though so it could be a while. Oh well, I'm very impressed that I've come this far.

love it

LOVE IT
baby yawns
quilting
knitting
finishing a project
cool days
autumn
a clean house
learning something new
talking to a friend
walking
strolling
taking great photos
dreaming
planning
process improvement
sharing what i have or know
belly laughs
mowing the lawn
good music
gummy kisses

Quilting

I'm almost finished with my first ever quilt top. I just have to sew on two more of the border edges and it will be complete. Of course, there is still a long way to go after that to have a completed quilt, but hey, I've come a long way, baby. I think tomorrow I will take a photo of my work in progress and post it here. It's just too late to be messing with that tonight.

So perhaps next time my edges will be straight and my pieces will be measured more accurately. Hopefully, anyway. For my first project I really think that I chose something too large and too complicated. It's been fun anyway and a really enjoyable learning experience.