Thursday, January 29, 2009

Finally I Can Post This!

I have finally finished the project that I have been working on for what seems like years! I was not able to post any pictures of it as I did not want a certain someone to see it! Well, now that someone has received it as their birthday gift. That certain someone is my brother, Freddy! I talked about my brother having his 51st birthday on Jan. 19Th in my last post. My brother has always been an Alabama football fan.
When our Mama was alive she would always buy him something representing Alabama football every year for Christmas. After she died and I was cleaning out some closets I came across a Christmas ornament that was still in the box. It was a little Alabama airplane with a little elephant flying it. I knew she had ordered that for Freddy for Christmas. So just before Christmas I wrapped it and wrote to Freddy, love Mama on it and mailed it to him. I am sure it hangs on his tree every year now.
Now on to what I made for Freddy. It is an Alabama Football quilt! I had been planning the project for years, but just could not find a pattern. It is very hard to find an applique' pattern for Alabama! My 86 year old friend has made all her grandsons Alabama quilts, but she likes to machine piece and so her quilts are mostly machine pieced with only a little applique. I kept searching and searching. Then one day this older lady who was a member of my church died. Her daughter gave my 86 year old friend a lot of her sewing stuff. Imagine our surprise when we found an Alabama Quilt pattern among the things she was given! I was so excited to find out that is was applique. I really liked it and decided to use it for Freddy's quilt. I did change it up a little, but over-all it is the same pattern. I hand appliqued the blocks using the blanket stitch and then I hand quilted it. The hand quilting seemed to take forever! I don't really care for hand quilting and have only hand quilted a few very special quilts.
Here is a picture of the finished quilt.

Here is a close-up of the Elephant that is in the middle of the quilt. I just love him! Don't look too closely at my hand-quilting as it is not the best in the world! But it was all done with love!
This is a close-up of one of the footballs.
And here is my son, Keith, holding the quilt.

I finished this quilt the day before my brother's birthday. I mailed it the day after his birthday since his birthday fell on a National holiday and the post office was closed. He just got to pick it up at his post office yesterday. He called me as soon as he got it and was so excited about it! He told me it was AWESOME! He just loved it and couldn't believe all the work I had put into it! He will never know just how much it means to me that he loves it so! His wife took pictures of him opening his present and of him holding the quilt. So she is suppose to upload them to walmart.com so I can print them out. I can hardly wait to see them!
My brother had also called me on Tuesday to wish me a Happy Birthday. I was sitting here at work and the phone rang. My hubby had already called me twice and so I figured it was him calling me again. Imagine my surprise when I pick up the phone and my brother starts singing Happy Birthday to me! I just laughed and laughed! It has really been a very special birthday for us both. Oh, and my brother told me that he was late mailing me my present so I haven't gotten it yet!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Hello

It seems like I have not blogged in forever! I usually try to blog at least once a week. This past week was so busy I just haven't taken the time to blog. I was working like mad on a project that I needed to get finished. I finally finished it on Sunday and will post pictures of it soon. I am waiting till a certain someone receives it in the mail. Now that this project if finished I just really don't know what I want to work on. I picked up a piece of embroidery that I had started ages ago and have been working on that a little. I've taken a head cold or either it is really bad allergies. So I haven't felt like doing much of anything these past couple of days. I might just try and finish that embroidery. I kinda feel like I want to do another embroidery. One with all kinds of things on it. I am also working on my scrapbook a little. I bought a new scrapbook to start out 2009 with. So that is fun.

Monday was my brother, Freddy's, birthday. He turned 51.
Here is a picture of myself and Freddy.


It is so hard to believe we are getting so old! I will be 49 in just a short week. Yesterday was my oldest brother's birthday. He would have been 57. His name was Keith and he was just 24 when he died. His birthday is always a sad time for me. He has been gone now for nearly 33 years but I still miss him so much.
Here is a picture of Keith, his wife, Denise, and his baby, Susan.



Things here have been going fine with Amber home. She has started her classes at the college now and is still in the process of looking for a job. Jobs in this small town are very scarce. I sure hope she can find one soon. I know it will make her feel better. She is really sweet about helping me cook. I have got to get out the ground beef for the Taco Soup this morning before I go to work and she will have the soup ready by the time I get home from work. Isn't that nice?!

Hope you all have a truly blessed day today!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Tote Giveaway

There is a beatiful tote being given away over at Just Another Hang Up blog! Tomorrow is the last day to join so hurry on over and join!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Sunday

It is really crowded here in our little house now with Amber home from college. I could not believe the amount of laundry she had to wash! Keith cleaned out his room and so he had tons of laundry himself. We washed clothes all afternoon yesterday and I still have about 5 loads to go! I am afraid I stayed home from church today to try and get it all finished. It is just about overwhelming! At least we are going through Keith's things and getting out what is too small for him to wear and packing that up to take to goodwill.
Here is a cute picture I took of Keith on Friday. Our cat, Molly, had been laying on the green pillow right beside Keith. But when he laid down on the bed she got on him and laid down! I was sitting at my computer and he told me to look and see. So I had to get my camera and take a picture. She loves the men! When hubby is laying down she will lay on his chest and rub her face against his chin for him to pet her. She will only do that to me if he is working nights and not at home. And she doesn't do it very often then. And I am the one that feeds her! Go figure!
I have to tell you something funny that happened yesterday. I had gotten up late and went to Wal-Mart to get groceries. Sometimes it takes me a while in Wal-Mart if I have to look for other stuff besides groceries and sometimes I run into people I know. So by the time I got home it was after 1pm. It was pouring down rain and you should have seen me standing in the rain putting my groceries in the car and trying to hold onto my umbrella! What a site I was. Anyway, I got home, put away the groceries and then had to hang up some of my laundry that was dry. I had not eaten all day and I was starving. I had planned to go fix something to eat after I got the clothes hung up. Just as I was finishing the hanging I heard my dad in the kitchen. I look at the clock and realize it is 2pm. Now my dad empties out the ice trays every day at 2pm on the dot! I looked at my daughter, Amber, and say ,"darn, your paw is in there getting out ice and I am starving! I was gonna go fix a hot dog!" She says I'll go fix you one. So off she goes to the kitchen. Now my dad lines all the ice trays up in a row across the bar and stove. So Amber figures she will help him out and empty some for him. She picks up two trays and dumps them into the ice holder. In a minute she came running back in the bedroom and said my dad was upset that she had emptied the two trays. She said he told her he could not get all the ice out now because she had emptied out the wrong tray first! Now all the trays look exactly the same! But I guess he has a certain order in which he empties them. He was all in a dither! I went back into the kitchen with her and we were in front of the stove fixing hot dogs. He was all upset cause we were in his way. I tried to explain to him that he had the whole rest of the kitchen but that did not seem to register with him. He then said he had to fix his sandwich and we were in the way. You have to understand that he fixes a sandwich everyday when he gets out the ice to eat at 5pm. He fixes it and puts in the refrigerator till 5pm. I told him it was almost 3 hours before he eats and so I think he can get it made by then. But he wanted to do it right that minute! He always does it at the same time every day. So I tell him he has the whole counter on which to make his sandwich, that we are not in his way. So he sets to work making it and as he is making it he stands there grumbling about us the whole time! Amber and I hurried and made our hot dogs and got out of the kitchen. I told Amber that no matter what I would never be in the kitchen when Daddy was getting out ice again! It totally unnerves him! His dementia seems to get worse every day. It really is sad. Amber said she would start getting out the ice at 1pm so he wouldn't have to worry about it. It only takes us about 5 minutes to do it and it takes him close to 30 minutes. But I told her no, that it is good for him to do it. He doesn't really do anything except sit in his recliner all day so getting out the ice and putting away the dishes at least get him moving a little.

Friday, January 9, 2009

Amber moves home!

This is another one of my self head shots. I think I might be getting better at this!

As everyone knows my daughter, Amber, has been going to a college in Louisiana. It is a five and a half hour drive from here. It has been very hard on Amber and us with her so far away from home. Last Saturday, the day before she was to go back to Louisiana after the holidays, she told me she just did not want to go back to Louisiana anymore. She wanted to be home. The last term was a rough one for Amber. She had some health problems and it was hard on her being so far away from home. So her dad and I told her she did not have to return to school in Louisiana this term. That she could just come home and go to the college here at home. So on Sunday she and my niece went back to Louisiana so that Amber could take her home and go to work that evening and tell her boss she had to quit. She has had a very nice part time job there and done very well with it. She really hated having to tell her boss she was quiting, but she had to. He was so nice about it and told her if ever she needed anything to let him know. He told her he really hated to loose her, that she was a very good employee and he liked her personality. She had worked there for almost two and a half years. She kept telling him she hated not to be able to give him a longer notice but her dad and me had to come get her this week. We had to go get her while her dad, who works shift work, was on his 3 days off this week. Her boss told her he understood. So on Tuesday evening, after I got off work, Hubby and I jumped in the car and headed to Louisiana. We got there late that night and got up early Wednesday morning and went to Amber's dorm and loaded up her stuff. Here is a picture of Amber in her dorm getting ready to load up.
Here is a picture of the stuff she has packed and ready to go!
Here is Amber at the college she was attending in Louisiana.
After we got all her stuff at the dorm loaded up we had to go over to my nephew's house and load up some stuff she had stored there. It wasn't much. Just her sewing machine and some fabric and a couple of boxes of other stuff. Amber is like me, she has to have her fabric and sewing machine where ever she goes!
This is a picture of Amber with her cousin Ross. They are the same age and grew up together. Ross goes to the same college Amber was attending. I know she will miss him the most of all. She and him have hung out a lot while she was at college and he has helped her several times moving in and out of the dorm.

Here is another picture of Ross and Amber goofing off.
This is a pretty good picture of the two of them. The sun was really in the wrong position and the pictures turned out too light in spots. I should have made them stand somewhere else. Hubby was wanting us to hurry up with the picture taking so we could get on the road.
This is a picture of Ross and me. Once again the sun was doing terrible things to the photo.
Here are Amber and Ross in a final hug. I know they will miss each other.
This is Amber with the aprons she wore at work. She had to have them cleaned and pressed and return them. So we stopped by there on our way out of town so she could drop them off.
She worked at Schlotzsky's Deli. As I was standing there waiting on her to give the assistant manager her aprons I saw these little guys sitting on the counter. I thought they were so cute! They are holding up samples of the bread Schlotzsky's uses for their sandwiches.
This is a sign that was inside Schlotzsky's. Amber came out of the office and saw me taking pictures and thought I was nuts!
This one is a little dark, but it is the back of Amber's truck with all her stuff in it, heading back to Alabama. Hubby was driving Amber's truck and Amber and I were in the car following him.
It was a fast and tiring trip. We got home Wednesday afternoon and were all ready to just rest. Yesterday, Thursday, Hubby went with Amber to the College that is 30 miles from here so she could get set up going there. As parents we know that our children should go to a college close to home to begin with. But they think they know best and don't want to listen to us. Amber so badly wanted to go to Louisiana where her cousins were. Now she is seeing that was not the best choice to have made. But I believe it probably was. It really taught her to appreciate home. She learned a lot while she was there, both in school and out. We are just thankful that God took care of her and has brought her home safely to us. Amber is a very smart girl. She will get a part-time job here and finish her college education and go far in life.
And let me tell you! Our little house is bursting at the seams now!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Giveaway

Want to win a Digital Video Camera? Go here and enter the giveaway!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

A New Year, A New Beginning!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Today was not only the beginning of a new year, but of a new life. Hubby and I decided that we would renew our wedding vows today. This was a surprise to our children. We did not tell them until last night. We had arranged with our pastor to meet us at the church at 2pm and remarry us. Our Pastor took this picture for us. We have definitely changed since our first wedding 22 years ago. Hubby doesn't really look much older, but I sure am heavier! Ugh!
Here is a picture of our son, Keith, Me, Hubby, our daughter, Amber, and our daughter, Tara.
Here is a picture of me (without my glasses), hubby, and our Pastor, Brother Don.
Here is a picture of our niece, Rheanna, Amber, Keith, and Tara. Keith was pure silly this afternoon. He has been into this staying up all night and sleeping all day. So he decided that he wanted to get his sleep pattern straightened back out. So not only did he stay up all night, he also stayed up all day! About 1pm he laid down on our bed and went right off to sleep. We let him sleep about 30 minutes and then made him get up to get ready to go. So having been awake for so long he was acting silly when we were trying to take pictures. We kept him awake the rest of the afternoon and he went to sleep about 6pm tonight. Hopefully he will sleep through the night and then be back on the right sleep schedule.
Here is a better picture of the kids!
It was a very short ceremony and only our kids and my niece were there, but I think it was lovely. We went out to eat afterwards. I would have taken a picture of us all at the restaurant but hubby didn't want me to.
I was trying to take a picture of myself like my kids take for their myspace profile pictures. Here are a few of the results. I am not good at this at all!


Tara took this one of herself and me. The blouse I am wearing in all these pictures is one that my best friend, Barbara, sent me for a Christmas present. I think it is beautiful. She did a great job of picking it out for me! Goes to show you how well she knows me! Thank you, Barbara!
This is our cat, Lilie. I was taking down some Christmas decorations and laid this wreath on top of my tote full of decorations and Lilie decided it would be a great place for a nap! This wreath is one I made when I was about 16 or 17 with a lot of scrap yarn I had at the time. It really brings back memories every year when I take it out to hang.
This is a picture of the fabric and book that my best friend, Barbara, sent me for Christmas along with the blouse I mentioned earlier. She also sent me a really cute ornament with Minnesota 2008 written on it! I just love that girl! The fabrics are gorgeous! I can't wait to make something out of all of it! She knows how much I love cats and that is the reason behind the book! What a friend! God truly blessed me when He sent her into my life!