He's Back.........!

Remember back in January when I felt a little blue when Jon went back to school? Well what ever was I thinking LOL! Here he is back again for the summer, along with several piles of stuff
scattered from room to room! I can't get near my washing machine, it's been running all weekend and were just finally making a dent! Ah well, laundry aside it is great having our boy home for awhile!

In between loading the washer I spent the afternoon pulling fabric for my next quilt. You may recall the brights I bought in Lawrence when Grandpa was here. I knew they would coordinate purrfectly with this cute kitty fabric.

This seriously CUTE kitty fabric by Michael Miller.

I hope to spend much of the week stitching.
I have to tell you I was really excited yesterday, I was on the Southwest site checking out air fare and lo and behold... summer fun rates are in full swing. I booked a flight to Pittsburgh to see my Daddy in July. He is going to be 92! I will miss his birthday by 2 weeks, but he is hoping I will be able to catch one of his softball games, yes softball! He plays on a Sr league and is the oldest registered member of Senior softball in the USA- you go Dad!
Well I am off to cuddle up with Cleo and watch Dancing With The Stars and then the new Bachlorette. Have a wonderful week!

Mothers Day On The Road

If you read my last post you know Jerry and I drove to Oklahoma City this weekend. Now that is one really boring drive, I35 all the way, 5 hours of non stop interstate. If the wind is blowing in the right direction it gets you there fast. Miles and miles of flat land, brown grass dotted with little scrubby trees. There is one scenic exception, the beautiful Flint Hills in southern Kansas. Grassy meadows as far as the eye can see, little tufts of hills, mesmerizingly beautiful and I always look forward to this part of the drive.

We rolled in our daughters driveway shortly after noon, William was peeking out the window saying "they're here, Nana & Papa are here", I imagined by the look on his excited little face. We spent the afternoon catching up then drove to Okarche Ok for a special treat, dinner at a favorite spot, Eischens. Established in 1896 it claims to be the oldest bar in Oklahoma. We noticed a sign on the door stating they would be closed on Tuesday while filming a Food TV episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. So as you can imagine this is an immensely popular spot and you better get there real early if you are hungry!

Their specialty is none other than........Fried Chicken!

As a matter of fact fried chicken is about all you can order here, besides some awesome fried okra, you wouldn't want anything else, except maybe a pitcher of red beer.

After dinner we went to our son in laws parents where Jerry & I were spending the night.

Cute little William was baptised during the Mothers Day church service. His Mommys only concern was how he might react if he got water in his eyes because he hates getting water in his eyes! She needn't have worried, Father was wonderful and William flew through his baptism like a pro. He was adorable in his little white suit and grinned from ear to ear all day, I think he knew he was pretty special!

After service we had the wonderful brunch Granma Marilyn had prepared. It was so nice to be with all of the family and friends on this special day.
Then it was time to change and hit the road and 5 hours later here we are home again, almost like we had never left!

Still kicking!

Well my goodness, you turn around and here it is May already! May in our house is one month that sticks in our minds for several reasons. And while we are under a tornado watch here reason number 1 comes to mind. May is a really big tornado outbreak month here in the Midwest. I don't know why and I don't worry about it because just what are the odds of ever being in an actual tornado. We moved to Edmond Oklahoma in the summer of 85. As our 1st spring approached so did the active weather warnings flashing across the TV screen. We questioned our neighbors as to what we should do or expect and our neighbors thought we New Yorkers were pretty silly! Well they said, when the bad weather rolls in, why we go out on the porch and watch or get up on the roof and take pictures! Tornadoes don't come to Edmond, they always make a loop right around us. On May 8th 1986 we were under a big tornado warning. You can probably guess where this is going LOL! Hubby of course was out on the porch with our girls and his camera, all our neighbors were waving at each other and looking at the sky, at that big rotating wall cloud. I was in the house holding my 5 month old baby boy. Then the TV went poof, along with the electricity and in comes my family screaming to get in the closet for gods sake! A funnel had dropped, right smack in our neighborhood. All 5 of us squished in that tiny closet, plus our little dog too (this was way before Cleo!) And there we waited in the dark, just waiting and listening, like forever it seems. Well anyway, our home was not one of the ones hit. Our tornado made National Geographic Magazine. I also saw footage of it on Utube and tried to download that without any success, but oh well, I'm sure you've seen one tornado you've seen them all!
Mothers Day in our house is also the day our 1st daughter Melissa was born, how special is that, every 7 years we get to celebrate together! I also have to add, that tornado hit the day before her birthday and she made sure her presents were in the closet with us LOL!

For those of you who read my daughter Melissas Texas Twinadoes blog, you know that this Mothers Day marks 2 years of our Grandson Brandon being cancer free. The gift Brandon received on that day, is one more precious and powerful than any gift you could probably be given, a new lease on life through organ donation.
As for me this Mothers Day, Jerry and I will be driving home from Oklahoma City. Our Grandson William is being baptised Sunday morning! You all can think of me driving right on up tornado alley road on my way home LOL!
Have a wonderful weekend, may you be spoiled and pampered this Mothers Day!

Home again, home again!

Wow, that went fast, it always seems to and here I am home once again.
The weather in Dallas was in the high 70's and after leaving a chilly 32 degree KC I couldn't believe I could wear Capri's and sandals, what a treat!
Our 1st full day we packed up the boys and a picnic lunch and went to the Arboretum and Botanical Gardens in Garland. What an beautiful way to spend a pretty day. The flower displays are breathtaking.
Besides all the gorgeous flowers there are waterfalls, sculptures, a serenity pool, lake and many miniature buildings for children to enjoy such as this cute gingerbread cottage.

Or this fanciful butterfly hut, vines covered with hundreds of hand made butterflies, a sparkly visual treat!

We kept a busy pace, each day revolves around lunch and nap times so our journeys had to happen before or after. No trip is complete without a trip to a fabric store with Grandma. The boys were fascinated with these spools of thread LOL!

Being a Mommy to twins is hard work. Keeping that thought in mind, Melissa and I escaped one afternoon for some much needed girls time out. We went to the little town of Grapevine and browsed through all the antique and artsy shops. Here I am taking a break with my new friend, he's kind of ignoring me don't you think!

We rounded off our shopping with dinner at a Mexican restaurant-Esparazas, I just love Mexican food and Texas serves up some of the best. They also had the most awesome frozen margaritas I have ever tasted!
My final morning we went to Dennys for breakfast. As we walked in 2 college age boys waiting for their table jumped up to open the doors for us. How refreshingly nice that was. A lovely start to a long day ahead.
My journey home was truthfully pretty excruciating. My flight out of Dallas was delayed 8 hours due to the flooding and severe storms around Houston. All it takes is a little Mother Nature acting up to back up an airport. So I settled in for the long haul with hundreds of other travellers and attempted to amuse myself as best as I could. I'll tell you I dropped lots of money at that airport while trying to do so! Lets see, for starters I had lunch at MacDonald's and later dinner at Pizza Hut. I bought 3 magazines and snacks in-between. I listened to every tune on my Ipod, all 6,000 LOL! I did have a book with me, I just didn't feel I could tune out enough to concentrate on that. The terminal seemed to buzz like a hive, everyone on cell phones, crying babies, children running around, thank goodness I had only myself to entertain. I really wished I had a laptop with me. By 9pm we finally had a plane, pilot and crew and were able to depart to a round of cheers.
Home again, home again lickety split!

All set to go!

Happy day after Easter! To those I did not get the chance to talk to yesterday, I hope yours was wonderful. Ours was quiet but sometimes quiet is nice. I made a lovely brunch for the 4 of us and after that Jerry and I were on our own as Jon and Carly headed back down to school.
I sat and bound my quilt. Then it was on to making my big list of errands to do for today before
leaving for Dallas tomorrow.
I am pretty near packed other than those last minute items that have to wait. And as you can see Cleo is camped out as usual on my suitcase! She looks a bit cranky, you mean I'm not going she said, humffff!

The ugly dolls are in my carry-on along with a "People" and stack of quilt magazines. I am off to visit my 3 year old twin Grandsons, Aiden & Brandon. I am soooo excited! I hear they are going to be keeping me busy LOL!
Have a wonderful week!

Snowmen In April!

Yipee, my quilt top is back lickety split! These snowmen are absolutely happy and adorable I must say. Well I know snow is something many of us are pretty tired of by now. However Christmas and Fall projects are exploding in my sewing room. This is the time of year to design and stitch up new projects for the up and coming Christmas season. By the time Fall rolls around I will be working on Spring and Summer!
I send all of my quilt tops to my friend Brenda in Oklahoma to be quilted. I met Brenda when she owned My Sisters Quilt Shop in Edmond. As you know quilting is the icing on the cake and
I am always excited to see how she quilted my top. Brenda is one very talented lady and a new author as well.

This is her new book "Fabulous Fractures". Her quilts are truly amazing, so look for her book in your local quilt shop and check them out.

Anyway, back to the snowmen, here's a little grouping of three. I just love this color palette. I used up my stash of Deb Strains "It's Snowing" fabric by Moda. Her colors are always so bright and fun, I look forward to her next line of Christmas fabric.

One cute little snowman! I have yet to bind my quilt. The strips are all cut and ready to sew in place. I've spent most of the week working on the pattern instructions, so were moving right along.

On to knitting! In my spare time (?) I am working on Christmas stockings for the twins. Isn't this pattern adorable? I have to tell you though, this is one humongous stocking, a good 30"s long! I started making these for my family many years ago, now I make them for each new family member so they all will have matching stockings to hang on their mantle. I usually do this on road trips, a nice little way to make the hours fly by. Also much easier for me to knit in the car than at home with Cleo who so loves to "help". LOL and that is not a pretty picture!
Speaking of the twins, only 4 more days until I head to Dallas for a visit. I just can't wait to see my munchkins!
I guess many of you are getting ready for Easter. We have no plans this year, just Jerry and I, possibly Jon, our plans are up in the air.
Wiahing you all a great weekend and a Happy Easter if I don't get to another post before!

Chocolate Bunnies!

Oh yum!! Look what arrived via UPS a few days ago, chocolate bunnies from my favorite candy store Sarris Chocolates, located just outside Pittsburgh Pa.
Each Easter I treat us to the wonderful chocolate novelties I grew up with from Pittsburgh or Buffalo. It may sound kind of silly to you but basically all we have here is Russel Stovers and there is just NO comparison! I grew especially spoiled when we lived in Buffalo. So many neighborhood family chocolate shops. 100s of molded novelties for Easter, it was always hard to choose for the children. And the taste, melt in your mouth chocolate, I am just dying to bite off a bunny ear LOL!

My poor Jerry is sick with that nasty nasty stuff that is making the rounds again. I am trying to be sympathetic but at a distance! I leave for Dallas right after Easter to visit with my daughter and my twin munchkins, I just can't get sick!
Back to working on the drawings for my next little quilt, what fun! Have a great week!