Think he likes it...?

The Raw Materials

Well, Anna, I thought my next quilt was pinks and white, but I believe I have changed my mind (what a surprise!). Since it is fall, I was thinking more golds, oranges and browns so that is what I have chosen but I don't really have a pattern in mind. I have tons of pink scraps now so I am ready to go on that whenever.

But before I can start on either one of those, I must put this flannel "quilt" together for my hubby. This material is quite hard to find down here and when I did, I paid a fortune! Yippee for me though, the cottons were a dollar off per yard. Woohoo!

Sunday Dinner

Today, we invited Michael and Madhu over for Sunday dinner. They are hilarious and definitely kept us entertained (I thought it was supposed to be the other way around!) Very lovely couple who came to the U.S. about 6 years ago. Michael is a good guitar player and plays on our church praise team. Madhu is a sweet lady and very funny.

This picture is for Judy, who doesn't think that I can cook!

I put 80 meatballs in the crockpot. The guys didn't eat as many as I thought they would (I also made Chicken Dijon) so we have a few dozen left over. Jason doesn't mind. He loves meatballs.

Completed - Citrus Dream

I finished up the binding tonight. This is the first time that I have used a multi-colored binding. I think it looks fine with this quilt, but wouldn't necessarily go with all quilts. I haven't washed it yet, so you might see some of the water soluble ink that I used to quilt the lines with.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to my very own brother, Brent. Today, he was presented with the Tim Dotson Memorial Scholarship at Youth Challenge. The criteria included being a junior or senior at a Bible college, having specific call to the ministry and having received recommendations from the college president and his church pastor.

Tim Dotson had the original vision for Youth Challenge, a weekend "getaway" for teens and young adults to interact with each other and learn more about God. Tim was taken home on October 27, 2004 unexpectedly.

This year the theme was "What If?" Randy Brown spoke last night about how God had saved him from a life of sin. Randy had been a Skinhead in California. Skinheads are generally known as white supremists or pro-white gang members. Skinhead refers to their shaved/bald heads. Randy, in particular, had the goatee/mustache combination with the hair grown long enough off his chin to braid! Usually known for their violence against blacks, Randy was no exception. Ironically, God used a black man named Ed to lead Randy to the Lord. Randy was a regular drug user and had no qualms about fighting anyone and had attempted to kill is own father, who at that time lived in fear of being murdered by his own son.

What a miracle God has done in this man's life! He is now a pastor in Pennsylvania. What if Randy's family had not prayed for him? Before he was saved, he was a Los Angeles Skinhead and had 2 felony strikes against him. California is a "3 strikes, you're out" state. Even his parole officer expected to see him locked up for the rest of his life. Randy had done some "hard time" in the state penitentiary and appeared to be headed back that direction when Randy met Ed.

Hmm...

...I always thought I got more done when I was alone but now I am not so sure. Patty and I worked away at scrapbooking and she helped me with some colors and such but I still only completed 5 pages. Shooo! But it was definitely fun. Even more funny....some of the pictures of her and Tim when they were dating. The clothes they wore were hilarious looking but then I guess my kids will probably say the same thing about my dating pictures, huh?

It's that Time Again...

Scrapbooking! Tuesday night. Come one, come all.

Happy Sweetest Day to my Honey!

No longer newlyweds...

Just some random photos. We are past a year of marriage so I guess we aren't newly weds anymore but it so much fun to look at pictures.

Welcome Trent

This is Trent the treadmill. He is quite a healthy machine. I spent a few hours putting him together and then tested him out. If the amount of sweat is any indication, then I believe he works perfectly.

Notice the giant Green Button for GO and the Large Red Button for Stop. I think these work well for blondes like me.

This little string attached to a red magnet is my emergency stop. If I pull this lovely little device, the machine rapidly and safely returns to a stopped position. Yes it works and no it wasn't an emergency.

This nifty little sensor measure my heart rate (supposedly). I am not entirely conviced of its accuracy.

I am sure many other interesting, bordering on hilarious, stories are sure to be forthcoming in regards to our treadmill. Unfortunately I remember the hours of PE class with ~d wherein, I performed aerobics as if they were fun. I think I would die now if required to do such exercise. Sigh, to be young and in shape again. At least I can go for the latter state of fitness.

Wake up and Smell the Daisies!

Last night was Homecoming at GBS. Jay sang in a quartet when he was in college so he had the privilege of singing in the quartet choir. I practically forced him to go up there.

This morning I finished the "Wake up and smell the Daisies" quilt. I tried to take pictures at an angle so you can see the quilting detail. I believe this will be only my second quilt to give away. There is a lady at our church who has cancer and has a month long stay in the hospital to go through. She is there now and I thought this cheery looking quilt would mean something to her.

My first sweater of the season!

Jay is so sweet. He drove out of the way to Macy's and bought me a pink Tommy sweater. He knew I wasn't having a good day today. He rarely buys me clothes so I was very surprised. I am such a lucky girl! I wonder who named this article of clothing because it sounds terrible if you think about it.

Scrapbooking....

...a couple different people have been asking about the scrapbooking session. I failed to put a post on here. It will be the last Tuesday of this month and then when we get together this time, we can discuss about November as I know it will be close to the holiday! Congrats on the equines, Emily and Callie! (Hope I spelled your names correctly) Anytime you need me to ride one, just let me know. I would be happy to oblige you.

One never knows.....

...when you might wish you had your camera. Today was just such a day. Jay had a colonoscopy today. They knocked him out for a little over an hour and then brought me into the post-op/recovery room to see him. He was awake...sort of.

My day started at 4 a.m. with my cell phone alarm clock. That's a doozy! I don't even know if Jay remembers me leaving. I arrived at work around 5 a.m. My boss is off this week on a business trip to New York and I am in charge of everything and I have certain deadlines I have to make etc. I worked from 5 to 1 p.m. and then rushed home and picked up Jay and drove him to the office.

When I first saw him in the recovery room he asked for a COKE to drink. He never drinks Coke unless we are in a restaurant and they can make a cherry coke for him. That was my first clue. Then he asked me twice (seconds apart) what time it was. He was acting quite hilariously. We had decided to go to Texas Roadhouse after the test was done since he hasn't had any solid food since Saturday night. When the nurse walked him out to the car I wasn't too sure about the whole restaurant thing as he didn't look too steady on his feet. The nurse warns me as she is shutting the door to our car, that if we do go to a restaurant to eat, not to let him journey to the facilities as he was likely to fall asleep in there.

Nonetheless I start driving towards Texas Roadhouse. He pulls out his cell phone and starts going through numbers so I ask curiously what he is doing. He advises me that he is going to call his "bookies." I told him to put his cell phone away and then I called his brother and let him know that I wasn't too sure about my husband's state of mind. He starts coming around more at the restaurant and he orders his food and gulps it down and then he started getting drowsy again. As we are walking toward our apartment, he starts asking me weird questions about how did he get his clothes on and did I put his shoes on. I sent him to bed where he currently is residing. Just another day in the life of me.

Why do YOU go to church?

Sometimes I wonder how many of us really think about this question. In fact, I would say most people don't think about it.

Do you go because...

• It was the way my parents raised me
• I've always gone
• I don't want people to think bad of me
• It's the Christian thing to do
• The Bible tells us to
• I need to grow spiritually
• I need to worship the King

I was thinking about this today and I wonder if for the most part we go because that is what we do on Sundays. How many of us go because we are EXCITED about going to church? Do you get up on Sunday and you can't wait to get to church? Or do you get up and go because you know you "need" to go to church? Obviously, there are going to be days where you don't feel like going, but for the most part, are we really enthusiastic about our worship of the King? Unfortunately, I don't think so. Lord, help us to be excited and enthusiastic in our worship and praise to You.

Happy Birthday to My Mother In Law, Barb!

Day 6 - Las Vegas, NV, Atlanta, GA, Dayton OH and Independence, KY

Headed home today. Sitting in the McCarren Airport in Las Vegas as I write this. Looks like we will be on another Boeing 737 for our trip. We had a wonderful time. A few more pictures (out of the 644 pictures that I took.)

Day 5 - Grand Canyon, AZ to Las Vegas, NV

This morning we noticed several deer right up beside the lodges. See the rock wall just to the left of the white truck? This is the safety wall for the Canyon. This deer is eating the grass right in front of the lodge with people walking all around her. She wasn't scared at all!

It rained on the way back to Las Vegas and I was able to catch this beautiful rainbow.

We crossed Hoover Dam again on the way back in and this time, we stopped to take a few pictures.

Of course, we weren't in our Marriott Suite before too long when Jay wanted to know if he could go ride the ride on top of the Stratosphere. Unfortunately for him, the Big Shot wasn't running because of the wind, so he chose the Insanity ride. It looks like a giant crab with 4 big claws. At the end of the claws are two seats. The claws stretch out into open space about 1,000 feet above the Strip. Agh!

Smiling at me, as I cower at only 950 feet.

Pictures from the observation deck where I safely sat, watching him ride in the air above me.


After a yummy dinner at a buffet on the bottom level of the Stratosphere, we put the convertible top down once more and cruised the Strip for some more pictures. My boss had told me to watch the water show at the Bellagio. It was indeed beautiful. I couldn't capture the water very well with my
camera but I tried.

I tried to take pictures of buildings and hotels that I had taken in the daylight so you can compare them to the previous post.



Even the McDonalds had a catchy light sign.