It all began in a Garden

Phew! Finally a full day to just quilt!

Things have been so busy that I have not been able to block out enough time to QUILT! (ie....WORK)

I've just about finished the large king-sized quilt that I have been wanting to work on for weeks now.

There always seemed to be a reason that I couldn't start on it................my batting was not wide enough, the store in California where I get my batting did not have any in stock when I was there, not a big enough block of time to actually work on the quilt and finish it, (I don't like to leave my quilts on the frame for long periods of time) and the last reason, I guess, is that I was just procrastinating doing this quilt because of it's size. I was worried that I'd flare up my elbows again and that scared me.

Well............GREAT NEWS! I was worried for nothing.......I've been quilting most of the morning and I feel pretty good! Maybe the long absence from quilting helped the ole elbows heal abit. Hallalujuh!

Since I'm taking a little break before I finish off the quilt I decided to write about my garden.

Last year for Mother's Day I asked my husband for a tree.

We have this beautiful mulberry tree in our side yard that has a wonderful large and shady canopy.

That tree is one of the reasons we bought this house.

This tree shades over 1/2 of the side yard.

But I wanted another tree at the other end. Sorta as a back-up in case anything ever happened to the mulberry.

So this is the way the yard looked on Mother's Day 2008:


Mike is out digging the holes to plant TWO trees

This is what it looks like today! May 2009

Mother's Day 2008

May 2009

My Pot sculpture has really grown in a years time.

I received some hollyhock seeds from a good friend and just

yesterday I finally got my first blooms!

Mother's Day Surprise!

On Saturday I was invited to spend a delightful afternoon with two of my favorite girls in the world.....Jenny and Jen. They wanted to take me out for pedicures, a movie, shopping and happy hour. We had a fabulous time. We also managed to run over to Jenny's new house to have a look around. And then there were some mysterious phone calls..............


And when we arrived back at MY house I was told that something was really wrong out in my garden and I really needed to quickly go out and look!

Of course what I found was a yardful of wonderful friends assembled by my sweet husband to surprise me for my 50th birthday!!!!!!! Which by the way, was actually 2 months ago!

How Many Times must a girl be reminded that she is FIFTY!!!!!??????





SURPRISE!!!!





Many dressed 50's style with rolled up jeans
and hair slicked back
.
Jen's grandma made her a poodle skirt for the occasion!





My dear husband and master-mind of this surprise
kept everyone's glass filled.
He bought a Margarita Maker especially for this
occasion. I'm anxious to try to make some Sonic style
smoothies with it this summer!



There was plenty of food from BobbyQ's
on the back porch.



Rafael and Jen filled plates with cake and ice cream.

Mike set up 4 banquet tables in the pool area.

It was a great night and it made me feel really special that my husband would plan this and so many friends and family came to help me celebrate. AGAIN!


Sunday, of course was Mother's Day!
So I got to spend another whole day with my family!




God has richly blessed our family with love, and laughter
and health and good times and lots of wonderful friends
and I am soooooooooo very thankful!