The Pox

I am trying really hard to get motivated to work today.

It is almost 2:30pm and I have not accomplished much so far.

The morning started at 6:30am

with a vigorous hike on the mountain,

a stop at Jenny and Rafael's house to let in the tile man,

then back home to work/water my garden.

So I am puttering around in the garden when I hear......

"mom? are you out there?"

It was Rafael. His boss had sent him home from work strongly suggesting that he go to Urgent Care to have those suspicious spots on his arms checked out.

The spots had shown up yesterday, but I advised him to just sleep on it and see what happened.

Well, today they really started looking like Chicken Pox.

Sure enough, when we went to urgent care,

that's what the doc confirmed.

I'm keeping my hopes up that all I have heard

about chicken pox as an adult

are not true!

We had an extrememly busy weekend filled with

new house stuff, quilting stuff,

attending a wedding of a dear friend,

celebrating the birthday of a dear friend,

and

celebrating the birthday of my dear son!

who somehow turned 25 this year.

I sure don't know how this can be

when I am only a couple of

years older than that!

Good things come in LARGE packages sometimes!

I am starting on a yucky subject,

but I've kept the best news for last!

After reviewing the results of my MRI my doctor left me a message last week instructing me to go and see a spine specialist. Unfortunately he didn't give me any indication as the WHY he wanted me to see the specialist, so I called his office and left a message asking "WHY?". I really don't want to call this spine specialist without knowing why I need to see him. I've been getting a little disgruntled since there has been no calls returned by the doc, even after I called twice. So I have a decision to make...........Call again with an even firmer request.........Find a new doctor and get my records transferred........Take matters into my own hands and stretch, exercise and take pain pills. For now I think I've taken the third option, but since this problem keeps coming back I think I won't be able to ignore it for very long.

I am slowly working thru the pile of quilts that I have hanging in my closet to do. I"ve been pacing myself by working on the longarm frame and mixing that up with sitting at the sewing machine or doing household chores.

This was a fun quilt to work on:

This is what the back of the quilt looked like: Detail shot:







This quilt had a very traditional feel to it:
Each block had a different beautiful floral embroidery.

Ending on the happiest note possible.............

Jenny and Rafael got the keys to thier new house last night!

They bought a very nice house that is located right next to the mountain that I hike on. It is a sweet little house and will just perfect for them.

Mike gave them thier first housewarming gift:
Every new house needs toilet paper, right?

I know they probably can't wait for work to end today!

Beautiful Christian Sister

BEAUTIFUL CHRISTIAN SISTER

By Maya Angelou

'A woman's heart should be so hidden in Christ

That a man should have to seek Him first to find her.

'When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not shouting 'I'm clean living,

' I'm whispering 'I was lost, Now I'm found and forgiven.

' When I say... 'I am a Christian' I don't speak of this with pride.

I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not trying to be strong.

I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say.. 'I am a Christian' I'm not bragging of success.

I'm admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not claiming to be perfect,

My flaws are far too visible, but God believes I am worth it.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I still feel the sting of pain...

I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon His name.

When I say... 'I am a Christian' I'm not holier than thou,

I'm just a simple sinner Who received God's good grace, somehow!

I've sat down a couple of times to write a new post and every single time I"ve had computer malfunctions. (or maybe it was operator error?) This

site wouldn't seem to let me post pictures all of a sudden. I'm not sure what's up with that! But it seems to be working (Kinda) today! So here goes.....

I've been busy. I've managed to finish two quilts and am working on a third. Pictures to come later.

My godson came for a visit over the weekend and we made homemade pizza, went to the airshow at Luke Airforce base, went to a Coyote's hockey game. He showed me some things on my phone I didn't know how to do AND he brought his ukele and played for us.

I've been teaching my daughter-in-law how to quilt. She is making a quilt for her new neice. At the baby shower we took squares for all of the attendees to sign, the Jen and Jenny worked on sewing them together. The next weekend Jen learned how to do applique and then last weekend she learned how to quilt on my longarm machine. Next weekend is a lesson on binding. I am really enjoying teaching her. I feel like I am passing on this quilting legacy that was passed on to me.

Happy Birthday MOM!

I hope you are doing something fun today!

I'm going to be cleaning and grocery shopping today

since my godson is coming to visit this weekend.

My garden is growing at a rapid pace.

Here is my Topsy Turvy Tomato plant:

Day one

Day Eight

My butternut squash plant is going crazy! Yesterday there was a very large yellow flower that bloomed right before my eyes!

I've also got about a half dozen pototo plants coming up! I"ve never grown potatoes before so I'm not really sure what to expect.

I also planted some onions yesterday. Another first.

ST. Patrick's Day

My family began our St. Patrick's day with a GREEN breakfast........

green scrambled eggs, bacon, green pancakes and we skipped the green milk this year and had OJ instead.

I was asked what the meaning of St. Pat's day was............

HUM?????

My reply was that it had something to do with an Irish Saint named Patrick!

But I began to ponder the real reason so I googled it of course!

It seems that St. Patrick is credited for bringing Christianity to Ireland!

Here is an excerpt:

Why Saint Patrick's Day?

Saint Patrick's Day has come to be associated with everything Irish: anything green and gold, shamrocks and luck. Most importantly, to those who celebrate its intended meaning, St. Patrick's Day is a traditional day for spiritual renewal and offering prayers for missionaries worldwide.

Spiritual renewal?

Most Americans wear green and get smashed! We have an Irish pub a 1/2 a mile from our house. It was PACKED! They even put up a tent in the parking lot. We were lulled to sleep last night by music coming from the pub!

We ended our celebration by having Shepards Pie & bread for dinner and watching one of my favorite movies "The Quiet Man" with John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara.

A couple of years ago while at quilt camp

I decided to try out a new pattern.

I wanted to make a table runner using shamrock fabric.

Now, I'm usually pretty good a following a new pattern, however this time I was enjoying a glass of wine while I was sewing this new pattern.....

I looks okay until you really look at it and

see that it is NOT symetrical.

Then when you fold it in half you can REALLY see that I screwed up!

Personally I think it is a

PERFECT tablerunner for St. Pat's day...........

I made it this way on purpose!

That's my story and I'm sticking to it

I embroidered this apron for a friend for her birthday.

This is one of her favorite expressions. I love it!

Happy Birthday Grandma Lizzie!

Time in a Bottle

So I'm back to the Time in a bottle theme.

There just does not seem to be enough time in each day to accomplish all of the things I want/need to do!
I'll never understand how anyone could be bored!

I"ve been pretty frustrated lately because

I am unable to DO the things I want to do.

Machine quilting has been severely limited due to this latest outbreak of elbow/neck/upper& lower back pain!

I'm down to 1 quilt a week AND it takes me ALL WEEK to do it!

I've been trotting off to physical therapy a couple of times a week and at 2 hours a crack that sure does take alot of time! However I am learning some skills that hopefully will get me back to quilting for more than 15 minutes at a time!

I also spent 25 minutes laying in a coffin this week! (MRI) Let me tell you.........if you are not comfortable in small enclosed places it is not much fun!

I decided to keep my eyes closed and for 25 minutes I just thanked God for all of the blessings in my life.

The small enclosed space, the loud erratic noises of the the MRI machine just faded away and the time passed very quickly.

Now I just pray that they come up with something!

The last quilt that I was able to finish is this

Log Cabin Heart beauty.

I finished it JUST in the nick of time before

it speed off to Oregon for a wedding gift.

The maker was planning on doing the

hand binding while driving to Oregon.

(Thankfully she was the passenger!)

One of the other things I enjoy doing is gardening. I have the brownest thumb that you can imagine, but I do keep trying!

I really want to grow tomatoes so this birthday gift was pretty special. It is a Topsy Turvey tomato planter.

It hangs upside down from a hook.

The plant grows DOWN and the roots grow UP!

The bag is designed to be like a greenhouse.

This is what the plant looked like last Tuesday when it was planted. I'm going to take another picture tomorrow to see what a week has brought.

Happy St. Pats day tomorrow!