Chase turns One

Saturday Laura and I attended the one year birthday celebration for Chase. He is getting to be quite the big boy. Laura and I aren’t invited to adult gatherings anymore. We have etiquette issues. However, we did get an invite to this one, which we couldn’t pass up. Laura did the shopping and bought the absolute cutest outfit-a little pea coat set, with shirt and pants. And do you think I could get a picture of it? I don’t know what is wrong with me. I did, however, get some pictures of the birthday boy.

The party was at Mr. Pizza. Laura had a game plan-go in, drop gift, pick up baby.

When Laura makes a plan, Laura makes a plan. She doesn’t even have her coat off.

Chase was not too sure why I was pointing a little black box at him.

Laura then relinquished said baby to baby’s mother Ali, who graciously posed for this portrait.

Ali is pretty cute too!

Laura attempted a picture of me. Why she didn’t tell me I had Prince Valiant hair is beyond me.

I am a little blurry which is probably ok, considering the hair issue.

After some holding we sat down to eat. Chase has discovered the sippy cup, but not so much how to drink out of it.

 

 

He got a little birthday cake all of his own. And he was pretty interested in that.

Then he got to try it out.

He wasn’t too sure at first, but then he realized that it was CAKE! A kid after my own heart. I don’t know many people who love cake as much as I do, but I think I’ve met my match in this kid.

Seriously, once he figured it out there was no stopping him.

I didn’t get a picture of the final outcome, but let me say the cake was pretty well worked over.

We had a good time, especially since we didn’t have to clean up or deal with a one year old who just ate half a cake.

We then went over to Mary K’s to check on her foot surgery. We made her a quilt which I also don’t have a picture of. The quilt was called All Stars.

This is what the pattern is, but we did this in Kansas Troubles and the back and border were a green flower print. It looked good once it was done, although I found a flaw right before I was leaving to meet up with Laura. Dang it.

Anyway, I  didn’t take a picture of Mary. Frankly, she gets a little scary after surgery and I didn’t think a picture would go over all that well. She did look very well, although that could have been the pain meds…..

So instead I took a picture of Elvin.

Ha! She wouldn’t sit still and then got irritated. She looks a little irritated doesn’t she?

And I found out that Twinkles had a stomach ache last week. Remember Twinkles?

I was very, very concerned since I am very possessive of this cow, which is actually still a calf. And the smartest ever. She is still up to no good out there in the barn. She is an escape artist like no other. What can I say? I am so proud. So when I found out she had a stomach ache (I guess you can tell because they kick up their back leg towards their stomach-who knew?) I was understandably concerned. The cure is vegetable oil. Without going into graphic detail on the outcome of giving a cow large doses of vegetable oil, Twinkles has now recovered. According to Laura’s mom (who is actually the caretaker) Twinkles can drink a bottle like nobody’s business, which probably explains the stomach ache. Either way, she is well now. I think. This cow business is quite stressful.

 

Grampa’s pictures

Yes, two posts in one day. Mainly because the dark room has absorbed all powers of memory and I forgot to post these. (So don’t forget to keep scrolling down for the other post!)

I got Grampa a bird cam for his birthday, which is this Wednesday. I ordered it and it arrived last week. It is the perfect combination of computer, photography, birds, and endless fiddling with. I don’t think I can come up with another perfect gift like that one, especially for the man who has everything.

Anyway, it’s supposed to be simple. And after several trials and tribulations I think he has mastered it. Look what he sent me.

That is one good picture. But this one is my favorite.

Squirrel!

I can’t wait to get more.

The Dark Room

Well, I was going to blog yesterday but I got so caught up in the football games I just couldn’t tear myself away long enough to do this. As Dave said, when Brett threw the final interception, “Minnesota just got Favred”. And he should know since he watched Favre do the same thing to the Packers. Lots of sad Minnesotans hanging their heads today.

But not me. Seattle was out of the game weeks ago and the Packers lost last weekend so now we are on to the finish. I have a little soft spot for the Mannings but the Saints are so happy to be going all the way. Hmmmm. We’ll have to see.

Either way, this weekend we painted. I say we but I mean Dave. I tried to get some pictures of the process but Dave was being rather evasive.

This is him hiding in the bathroom. I finally snuck up on him and got this.

He wasn’t too happy about it. I took some other pictures of the very white walls.

Dave didn’t want the blinds up because he thought people would see him. Hello-no neighbors on that side and it’s like an ice rink out there so it’s not like droves of people are walking in the park. But I left him with his phobias and went to Winona to get my hair done and walk with my friend Mary. We had a very nice walk and lunch-the rain held off until we were done.

I hurried home because I wanted to see our new color. We went on the Sherwin Williams web site and uploaded a picture of our room and tried several paint colors. We settled on Gale Force, a very lovely bluish gray sort of tone.

However, we found that the website is not true to color. Dave had looked at the color when I brought it home and said “It’s really dark” and I said “Maybe it dries lighter”. I never looked at the paint. I have learned a lesson from that mistake.

This is our new room

It is dark blue. Dark Blue. It is really pretty, but it is dark blue. The pictures make it look lighter (no, not as light as the web site). Dave said for 40 dollars a gallon we will learn to love it. He actually really likes it. I like the color, it’s very rich, but it is dark blue. We now refer to the bedroom as the Dark Room. (The lump in the bed is the cat-don’t ask)

This is really how it looks in the early morning. Hello? Anyone in there?

Oh well. It makes our old furniture look better.

We keep wondering what Roger Hazard would say about it (neutralize, people). However, it is our house so I’m not sure why we are so worried about what potential buyers will think. Oh well.

Next is the bathroom, which we will actually look at paint samples for. We have learned our lesson.

Last week was very frosty so I took some pictures out of our office windows.

Kind of pretty.

I also got the picture of Laura’s dog quilt.

Very cute. I wish I would have thought of taking a picture when someone was there to hold it up. But you get the idea.

I finished this one

I was going to put flowers on the corner of the border, and I cut some out but when I put them down I didn’t like it. So that’s that.

I cast on to finish the second beaded sock. I got to the 6th row of the Knit Purl when I discovered a knot in the yarn. Not much to worry about except it is a beaded sock, so you have to have beads travelling along with you and if there is a knot…..well, you get the picture. I had to cut the yarn and rethread the beads. Dang it made me mad.

I did get some assorted baby updates.

Here’s our resident diva.

Isn’t our Cora growing up? Angie told me some disturbing biting stories. (Ok, I’m sorry but I laughed when Angie told me Cora bit another kid because she wanted the toy the other kid had. I’m sorry, but I think it’s hilarious. Probably because it’s not something my child is doing-this time.)

And here’s our little Morgan. I am chuckling while posting. This kid just makes me smile.

Really? Seriously? You’ve gotta smile looking at that. She’s just too much. I don’t think she is ever cross or crabby. Well, maybe once….

Although I think this is related to eating ice cream or something. She is likely getting a brain freeze which explains that face. Which is still making me chuckle.

I was up to the new office so I thought I’d take a picture of what it actually looks like with cubicles. Not sure a picture conveys the idea.

But that’s where we will be. Only there won’t be a ladder or a hole in the ceiling.

Of course, the most important part of the place is the new break room, which has Laura over the moon. Every time we have gone up there, (and it’s been quite a few times now), I mean EVERY TIME this is what Laura does….

She is all about the new fridge. Not sure what she expects to find in there, but she has pointed out all the extras these bad boys come with. Note the side by side fridge/freezer (the first Laura discovery). Also note the ice maker in the door (thank you Laura-she’s the Carol Merrill of this refrigerator. Is that an obscure reference or what-think door #3). If nothing else, she will know that appliance inside and out.

Well, I’m off to finish a few more things today. Am going great guns on the finishing of projects. A day off is a glorious thing! I have to figure out how to have more of them……

 

NaFiQuiMoDo

What a looong week it was. I actually worked 5 whole days. Although a couple of those days seemed equal to two days so it was mentally 7 days. Exhausting. Laura said last week that the time was going so slow it seemed like the clock was going backwards and it was 2009 again. I usually say the day is so long it should be next week.

Either way. You get the picture.

The only thing alleviating the pain was the hard hats. They are so gosh darn entertaining.

This is the kind of thing they get up to-

Seriously, doesn’t half a hard hat entertain you? Give you a little chuckle? No? Hmmm. I guess you’d have to be there.

But if you look closely, no, not at the hard hat but at the surroundings-that’s our new offices. Yep. We discovered last week that we could get up there and they, the contractors or whoever they are, would let us walk around. They actually said we could come up anytime. Which is something that should never have been said to either Laura or me, because we went up 4 times last week. We were the unofficial tour guides. Truthfully, we have the only keys that work, but we like to think that it’s our importance and charismatic personalities.

Between day one and day four they made a ton of headway. Of course, I only took a picture of day one. Had I been thinking, I’d have taken day four so you could see our little set up. Last week was not the week for remembering the picture thing. It was Laura who said-Hey, you should blog this. Duh. (I also forgot to take a picture of the cutest little dog quilt that Laura made, so I have to try to get to work tomorrow-a day off-before Mary gets her hands on it. It’s for Mary’s grandson Connor, another of the cute babies)

Anyway, this is where we will be moving sometime in the next year or two. We were going to move in Sept, then Feb, now May. Maybe.

I don’t think this picture conveys the correct ambiance of the space. But it is very bright with lots of windows and light.

Laura, hanging in the space. Looking somewhat frazzled, and that was only Tuesday-or was it Wednesday? See what I mean?

This is looking across at where I work now. We hung a sign in the window for the hard hats, but they were not as appreciative as we had expected them to be.

Maybe because they couldn’t read the “holidays” part very well. No, in real life it is clearer.

Anyway, I’ll get a better picture of our space next week. On Fridays they all leave by 3:30 so it’s a good time to sneak around up there.

Besides setting up our new offices inside, the hats were turning up in the darndest places…..

I looked out my window and there were two on the roof.

So, I thought that is interesting I think I’ll get a picture. (Yeah, I remembered about the camera for this). So I was all pressed up against the window (I do occasionally work, by the way) and they spotted me. So I started waving and they were waving and look at this-

They’re smiling and giving me a little gang sign. I was so excited.

God my life is pathetic.

Ok. So much for that. Mary K was in Oman this past week riding camels and generally causing an international ruckus by losing her pass in some sort of government area. I am really hoping to get some pictures of that for next time. AND Laura’s quilt.

Kate was here for 3 days visiting Cody. Also no pictures of that. Hardly saw them. She is planning to go out to Nevada with Cody. I think it will be the first time she will be living outside of Maine. That should be an adjustment.

And I have been working like mad on the quilt thing. I finished the surprise quilt which is at the quilters (I said that last time). Now I am almost done with last year’s BOTM.

Remember this from last week?

Well, I had to sew all those little flowers and stems and crap down. Then I started arranging the blocks, which were already finished.

I put the sashing on the blocks. And laid it out. Then I finished tacking down the rest of the stems and have the first part of the finishing done.

All I have left is the sashing around the edges and then the boarder, which is supposed to have a bunch of appliquéd flowers but is not going to have them. I remember why I don’t like appliqué, or at least appliqué with this many pieces.

So, in the spirit of the National Knit a Sweater a Month-A Dozen Sweaters (NaKniSweMoDo), this year, for me, is national finish a quilt a month-a dozen quilts. NaFiQuiMoDo. I may even exceed this, but am not going to succumb to unrealistic expectations quite yet.

Lastly, Saturday was kind of a pretty morning. So I leave you with this picture of the trees and frost.

 

January ‘10

Today I am continuing on my resolution to finish up old projects. Last week I finished a surprise gift quilt, Laura did the back and off it went to Pine Needles for quilting.

This is what I did today

This is the center panel from the Block of the Month from last year.

I did a bad centering job for sure. I was getting frustrated by the fact that there were too many pieces to appliqué. And there is supposed to be appliqué on the boarders. Um, don’t think so. At least not to the extent that the instructions say. Maybe a few flowers. But first I have to tack all this down. That should keep me busy for the next couple of weeks.

I have received several  baby pictures recently.

Here’s Payton. Still as cute as ever, our little porcelain girl. Kristin hardly ever brings her around dang it. I guess I’ll have to increase the pressure.

This is Lyndsey’s Morgan. Getting ready for Thanksgiving, she says. This kid cracks me up. Every time I see her with a smile I have to laugh, not because she is funny looking, but she is such an imp. It just makes me happy to see her.

Now seriously, aren’t you just getting a little chuckle out of how happy this girl is?

But last, and not in any way least, remember this?

Laura with our little Twinkles? Number 1 Calf in 2009?

It all happened like this. We were talking one day before Christmas, and of course Twinkles came up in the conversation (seriously, if I could keep this cow in my garage I would so do it). Anyway, Twinkles was the topic and we starting thinking (always a bad idea between Laura and I) and…, well….,, this is what happened-

I KNOW it! Isn’t she just the best cow EVER???? Laura had quite a time getting her to pose perfectly. There was some problem with Twinkles not quite getting into the spirit, and Twinkles room mate trying to figure out why sucking on Laura’s pants wasn’t the same as sucking on a bottle. You get the idea. But look at that little Christmas calf. We have been discussing putting some jewelry on her next……

I tell ya, there isn’t much that is going to top this in 2010.