Merry Happy Jolly Christmas!

Today my new camera came in! I did not have time to mess with the software on the computer tonight, but I will try to do that this weekend, so I can start sharing my new pictures. I really like it so far. I was trying to save all my points earned in promotions at State Farm to get a really, really awesome camera, but alas... I dropped and broke the Kodak, so I had to settle for the points that I had accumulated this year. It would have taken two more years to get the one I was looking at. However I am so happy to tell you that I ended up with a much better camera than we had!!! Woo hoo! I am so excited!!! Will add pix to this post later. Must go to bed now. Hugs to all one or two of you!

Blue Christmas

I apologize in advance, this is not an upbeat post today, but this is where I am.

So have you ever heard the new song by Toby Keith that he wrote for his good friend and Tulsan Waymon Tisdale? I don't know the name of it, but it is a tear jerker, and a nice celebration of friendship. Today I was listening to the words on the way home from work and thinking yet again about how much I miss my foster mom, Bobby. I got started sniffleing and before I knew it the tears were rolling. She has been gone now for about 15 months and I have a terrible awful confession to make. I have not been back to their house since the funeral. I can barely talk to my dad on the phone. A few times I talked to him, I made him cry. Every time I think about her, I just get so sad... FOR ME! What a selfish thing! I was wondering why that is. I did not spend much time with her for the last 20 years. Called her rarely, usually just when I needed something. That finally hit home. I think I feel guilty for failing her, for not being successful (the words EPIC FAIL come to my mind). She was good at everything, and I just feel so bad that I am not what I should be in so many ways.

So this next year, I will try harder to be better. A better Christian, a better wife, mother, sister, aunt, niece, friend. You get it. Better. In honor of a great example...

The Season!

Well it has arrived. The special time of year when everyone is racing around, distracted, buying and making that perfect gift. We get pretty distracted by that and seem to forget that the perfect gift was delivered to us in a tiny sweet package over 2000 years ago, in Bethlehem. He came here, a pretty cruddy place from a perfect place. Here, with rude, selfish, ungrateful people like me, instead of his father and angels and beauty beyond measure. He came here willingly and faced a painful life and a horrible death for us.

Give it up, you can't find, buy or make the perfect gift. It already happened, it has been done. Don't forget to share that message and take a few moments to be thankful for the best gift you have ever been given. Thank God for that gift!

Burn Baby, Burn!

Here are pictures of my burning project. Kinda fun!

So Thankful!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! Welcome to the best holiday of the year!

I was up at 7. I don't want to waste my time sleeping. There is cooking to do! The turkey is out of its brine bath. I splashed him up with some vegetable oil. He is in the bag, and waiting in the fridge for his turn in the oven. The pumpkin pie is waiting on the counter. Cooked it last night. It looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. I am not one to make pie crust, so this one is curtesy of Pillsbury. To be honest, I don't even eat the crust for the most part. But there is Cool Whip in the fridge to top this bad boy off. Yummy!

Next, a little later, I need to peel and boil potatoes for mashing and make stuffing. Last will be assembling the famous green bean casserole. It will go in the oven with the stuffing as soon as the bird emerges. Then potatoes will be mashed and corn will be cooked. Oh, don't forget the bread, Lisa! I didn't make homemade this year. Acutally, I haven't for years. I bought some of the delicious Kings Hawaiian rolls. So tasty!

Jacob is so cool!

I will try to post more pictures later today of our feast. But it will be a busy day with all the cooking. Then after we eat, Jacob and I will deliver dinner to my mom at the nursing home. She did not want to get out today. She does not like the steps at my house. And finally, if we can convince Kim, a movie this afternoon. I want to see The Blind Side, with Sandra Bullock.

I am so thankful for my family, home, job and friends! I hope you are all blessed with a beautiful day!

...Update! It is 6PM. The food is put away, some in our stomachs and the rest in the fridge. I have made my pilgrimage to the nursing home to visit mom. I made an unsuccessful bid to convince Kim to go to a movie today. He shot me down. Said he was too tired. He did work all night last night, so I guess I can understand. So, perhaps tomorrow or Saturday. Sorry, Sandra Bullock, I did try!

Jacob and Travis went with me to visit Momma.

Momma was happy after eating her turkey dinner.

Please don't tell me how much we look alike...I know!

I just finished trying out my new wood burning tool on my cork coasters. I also have a set of trivets that I can burn. They are square tiles, instead of round ones, but I think it will look neat! It was fun, and I only burned myself one time. That puppy gets really hot!! If anyone wants to borrow it to try it out, let me know. I can share!

I also said I would post some pictures of the feast. Um... I forgot to take any! Please understand that when the food was ready, there were 2 hungry, no starving, teenagers standing in the kitchen with plates begging to be set loose on it! I did get an "after" picture of the pie. Happy, happy, happy Thanksgiving to you! I hope it was fabulous.

After!

Finito!

Project finished! This is another change purse. It is long over-due. This is a gift for Aunt Mary's birthday, which was back in August! Gasp! How tardy am I? Oh well, at least it will arrive in the same calendar year.

Christmas Gathering - The Church at Battle Creek

Wow! Is it ok to start a blog post with 'Wow!"? Well, that is all I could think of to start with. Last night I had a great time! Let's rewind about a month. Amy, my teacher friend who lives in Bartlesville emailed me and several other friends to see if we wanted to go to an event called Christmas Gathering that she attended last year. She said they give out a bunch of freebies at the church. It is a program by the church's ladies ministry. I remembered her talking about it last year, so I said sure, we all said sure... Free stuff? Fun night out?? Of course!


Amy went online to get the tickets. Panic! She could not purchse on line because the web site was down, nor by phone, because that is not allowed. Someone local (not in Bartlesville) had to dash to Broken Arrow to buy the tickets at $20 each. Panic! I was at work, so was Nellie. Gina was tied up. Samantha was our last hope. I emailed her and she was able to go get them! Thanks Sammy! You were our hero! About 2 weeks later we had a slight setback when it seemed that Nellie could not come along. But it turned out that she could. :o)

Samantha and Gigi.........................................Nellie, Amy and Lisa (me!)


We all met at our favorite restaurant, Qdoba for dinner first. Yum-o! Then we piled into Sammy's van and drove down the street a few miles to The Church at Battle Creek. Most of us were not sure exactly what to expect. Would it be mainly a religious experience? Was it more about the stuff? What was going to happen, and would we get there in time for dessert?!? We were directed in our parking without any trouble, and had a short walk to the doors. The church is in an amazing building. Apparantly it used to be an outlet mall? How did I miss that? I never knew we EVER had an outlet mall here!!

Samantha, Amy and Lisa

We had plenty of time so before we got some dessert, we shopped in the store they have on-site. Gigi bought an adorable owl door mat and we all bought silver tote bags for only $5!! The prices were very reasonable. I think a few other items were purchsed as well. Next we visited the dessert tables. There were lots of different yummies to try. So delicious. Most everyone liked the cream cheese on a oreo thingy with the cherries on top. Amy, daring to be different, declared she preferred the Puppy Chow. I liked it all. And that Red Velvet Cake dealie was divine!

After goofing around and posing for pictures, including our required picture of all of our feet, we we lined up to enter the sanctuary. There were a lot of ladies there. I heard there were 1500 each night. Thursday and Friday night, and they had several hundred ladies at a live feed in Pryor. I am not 100% sure of those numbers, but think lots and lots of ladies. Everyone we met and encountered was very pleasant and happy.

Amy, Samanth and Gigi waiting in line

The line moved quickly and we quicly found seats. We were on the last row, but that was no problem because there were 3 giant screens to watch if you could not see the stage area. This is obviously a first class operation! There was an excellent singer....I think her name was Alissa. She had a beautiful voice and was singing Christmas music. Of course we all enjoyed that!







Next they started several presentations, with music between each segment. We had a segment on Home Decor, Crafting, Cooking, and Shopping. During each segment our Elves would roll out with free gifts for everyone! First we received a great little tape measure in metalic colors. So cute and handy! During the cooking segment they sent out elves with these handy little kitchen gadgets called "Extra Hands". You use them to mix things instead of using your hands. Very nifty! During the crafting segment we recieved these handy little boxes of matches and recipie (did I spell that right?) book that has gift ideas in it. The final gift, right before we left was featured in the shopping and organizing segment. It was this awesome tote/hamper. It is so beautiful and functional. The exit was orderly and organized.

We all had a fabulous time, and if there was one sentiment that we all wanted to share, it was that we really wish there was a way to thank the ladies at this church who have worked so hard at setting this up! What a fun night we had. The segments were hilarious, the music was inspiring and the desserts were delicious. Thank you so much!!!

Inspiration Proclamation!!!

Wow! A trip to Michael's is worth an hour or four on the internet!! I found a great price on my favorite reasonably priced wool! Paton's $2.50! Can I get a woo hoo??? I spent nearly an hour pouring over the pattern books looking for something that lit my fire. I had a few sparks, but nothing that I got excited about. My Auntie Mary met me there, because she had a coupon, and there is no stopping that woman when she has a coupon! Her interests lay in another department, so she was off elsewhere while I browsed the books, then endlessly debated over which two colors of yarn to buy. Would it be the pretty new pink, the burgundy, the teal, or another skein of purple (my first skein is almost gone!)? I finally settled on the pink and the burgundy and set off to find Aunt M.

That is when it hit!! Innn-speer-a-sheee-onnnn! {insert Doug Heffernon voice}.

I so wish I could tell you, but I can't! I can't tell you what I found, or where I was, but I found IT. The idea I needed! Don't you love it when the idea hits your head, sometimes it creeps in, or sometimes it wacks you in the forehead, but it arrives and then starts snowballing till it is full grown and just dying to fly off your fingers???? Don't you? I totally love that. So here I am, back home with my idea. Love IT.

Here my new wools join the fun on my creativity table!

In need of inspiration....

So my big project is done. Now I am stuck. I just dont know what to do for Christmas gifts this year. I have been surfing the internet and thinking and thinking and all I get is the stuff I have already been making. I can do a few of those too, but I need a new, quick, easy, fun, felting idea. I think maybe tomorrow night I need to go to a few craft stores and breeze throught the books for some good ideas.


I did finish the changing pad tonight. I started quilting it Tuesday, and had to pull it all out Wednesday, because it was terribly crooked. I had intended to make a diamond pattern. But was having trouble figuring out how to make the stitches straight. Gigi suggested masking tape, so tonight I tried that, and it worked great! Here is a picture of it with most of the masking tape on. I just sewed in the narrow space between the pieces of tape. Gigi is brilliant!


This is how it looks after the diagonal quilting was done. As I went along the fabric must have stretched some because it ended up a little bit "wracked". Not too bad though. I hope Zoe wont mind!

So here it is all rolled up so it will fit neatly into the diaper bag. I even found my courage and crocheted this sweet little chain out of my tiny ball of left over yarn so that it can be tied up and kept in place. It took courage because I don't crochet!

Ahhhh! Happiness is a finished project! Now, what's next?

Project Complete!

Last night I finished The Diaper bag. I think it turned out rather well! I made the lining out of chocolate brown pinwale cordoroy. I added two pockets, one for a bottle, and one for the wipes. I am also making a changing pad out of the lining fabric. It is mostly done, but not quite finished. I took the project to Gina, who will deliver it to Trish tomorrow. I hope Trish and baby Zoe get a lot of use from it! Here are some pictures. The first picture is before I felted it. So you will get an idea of how big it is before it is felted.


This picture is the finished project! Ta da!





Here it is turned inside out, so you can see the pockets. I put hairspray in the bottle pocket! No baby bottles at my house! And one final picture of the results! It makes me smile. Next project?? Gifts! You know what is almost here!!! Christmas!!!

Sweet, Sweet November

It has finally arrived! My favorite month of the year! I love, love, love this month. I think it is the trees and the weather and Thanksgiving combined. Whatever it is, it works for me. I even welcome and embrace Halloween because it means that November is just one sunrise away! I hope you like it too. I have been at it again, driving and taking pictures. Don't tell my insurance agent/boss! :o) Are you sick of looking at my trees yet? I hope not.


Take the time to enjoy the beauty around you, and be thankful for the blessings you have. We are privelaged to live in the greatest nation in the world. You may not have as much as many do, but you and I are richly blessed. Remember, as my favorite preacher says, "God is good all the time, all the time, God is good."

What a day!

I feel like I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. It felt like every little and big thing that could go wrong did. It is just silly, looking back, at the things I let make me feel so irritated, but it got to the point where I was just looking for things to be irritated about. So, the day ended on a very nice note. I spent some time at a friend's house studying the Bible with a bunch of friends. It was refreshing and thought provoking. Can't wait till next month. I guess I should have taken a picture, I meant to, but didn't, so I will take a page from Amy's book and look for the 10th folder and the 27th picture for 10/27. Let's see what we get...

Grayson eating his first birthday cake!

Wow, that was harder than I thought it would be! There were not 27 pix in the 10th folder, so I tried the opposite, the 27th folder and the 10th picture. Guess what? There were not 10 pictures in that folder!! So I counted up 10 folders from the bottom, and counted up 27 pictues from there. It worked. :o) That was fun, Amy, thanks for the idea.

I hope you had a good ending to your day as well!

Perfect Fall Day

It was a perfect fall day today. The sky was blue most of the day and the breeze was gentle. I took the opportunity to take some more pictures. This time Jacob was driving so my life was not in any danger. :o)


This afternoon I took Kim's boots to the shoe repair shop to get re-soled, picked up a few groceries then went home and did a minute amount of housework then sat down to knit and watch the OU game! Boomer Sooner! They won!!!! I added about an inch to the bag, so it is coming along. I managed to get a lot more done last week.


Tonight was the annual fall party at Jack and Earline's house. It was the perfect end to the perfect day. There was a bonfire to cook our hot dogs over, chili and fritoes for fritoe pie. Marshmellows, graham crackers and Hershey bars for guess what? Yes, smors (you are so smart!)! Yum-o! The sky was beautiful as the sun started to go down. Jack hauled all the kids around the pond on a hay ride. They loved it. We just got home and I can still smell the wood smoke in my hair. I love that bon fire feeling!

I hope that whatever you did today involved some time outside in the fresh air and sunshine. Enjoy the rest of your weekend.