MICHAEL'S BACK!

Here are the brothers at the Whuhan airport right before Michael left to return stateside. After three planes he arrived about an hour early in Nashville but we were there to pick him up. Jennifer was home with her girls -- they were asleep. Matty and I and Avery went to the airport and Christy was there too. Avery was so excited -- when we saw him coming down the walk way she took off running -- Daddy! Daddy! she was hollering and he started grinning from hear to ear! It was great. I left this afternoon a little before four and got home abut 11:30 thanks to a wreck on Interstate 40. Traffic was backed up about 10 miles and it took about two hours to cover that ten miles but after that -- smooth sailing all the way.

I enjoyed my visit and was able to get most of the fabrics I needed to be able to do G'mas family tree quilt top. I still need to find something to use for the sky part but I think I can find something on line. Well, that coke I drank is wearing off and it is 1:30 am. I'm going to bed. Tomorrow I'll try to put up a couple of pictures if I get a chance.
Call me sentimental but I just love my boys (all of 'em)

TIRED WITH A CAPITAL "T"

We had a wonderful week -- who wouldn't with these two sweeties :) We played, went for walks, sat on the patio, went to Wally World and Punkin Patch and ate at the Mexican Restaurant. Saturday we met Matty in Memphis, I got my car back and came on home. They met some friends there and went home on Sunday.










When I got home I decided to do some embroidering. I did a towel for Jack -- broke a needle -- had to restart the machine and try to get the design back in the same spot. Almost but it is off just a hair.















After that, I went on and worked on my senior gifts. Most were throws with names embroidered on them. One is a set of monogrammed towels.


They are in the washer so I don't have a picture of them yet.


On top of that we've had a funeral visitation and then the funeral today for an elderly man at our congretation - JT Sartain. He was such a good Christian man.




Anyway, I'm extra tired so I'm off to bed.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY "JOHN RYAN"

I'm a day late (and probably a dollar short but this month is passing way too quickly!! I can't believe my one and only (for now anyway) grandson was a year old yesterday. He is such a handsome boy -- like his Dad :) He's been walking for a couple of months and gets around really well. He is definitely tall and is curious about everything. When he visits he loves to follow Toby around after he warms up to him. He is a little afraid of him at first and then all of a sudden he's his best buddy. He loves his sisters and is almost always smiling. Jack is so laid back and I know Stace appreciates that :)


Sorry you were sick on your birthday Jack but you'll have many more to celebrate in high fashion. Feel better soon.


Happy first birthday!

love,

Grams

THE BEST SURPRISE!!

I got a phone call yesterday at 3:00 and at 4:30 I left for Memphis to meet up with Jen and Matty. After a short pit stop, Matty took my car and headed back to Nashville and Jen, Vail, Katy and I came back to Cleveland. They are keeping me company for the whole week. Saturday morning we will head back up to Memphis to meet Matthew and then they are going to spend the night there and maybe go to the zoo that afternoon or something. It was a spur of the moment thought on their part and a great surprise for me -- even though I have to go to school during the day. Just wish it was a little warmer.

Hope everyone enjoys their week. I know I will :)))

FUN ON A FRIDAY NIGHT

Well, I opted for a different kind of occasion last night. It's called run out of gas for the grill and have a sub host while you go somewhere else to cook the burgers. It worked out rather well :)

I was going to have the burgers all done before anyone got here so about 5:15 I lit the grill and about 5:20 I put the burgers on. The fire was going nicely and all was good. I sat down and read the first couple of pages of the paper for about 10 minutes -- maybe a little longer. At one point during that time I checked the burgers -- everything was fine. I went out about twenty to six to flip them over and --- NO FIRE -- where's the devil when you really need him???? So, I called Carolyn who luckily lives two doors down (but doesn't have a gas grill) and asked if she would come over a few minutes earlier than six and then called Aunt Donna (barely caught them before they walked out the door to go whereever they were going) and Lowell lit the grill and I piled the burgers (15) into a baking dish and went the couple of blocks to their house. Got back about 6:25 and everybody was sitting around talking and enjoying each others company. We got the food out of the fridge -- everything was prepared and already on plates or in bowls ---- put the buns in a basket and the burgers on a platter and sat down to eat. I think everybody had a good time and got to know Tim and Debbie a little better.

After everyone left, about 9 or so I was wanting to go somewhere (don't ask me why) so Toby and I went to WallyWorld to pick up a couple of things and then came home about 10 and I finished the hand sewing on the binding of the nursery rhyme quilt and watched Without A Trace that I recorded Thurs. Night -- didn't go to bed til about 1. It was probably the coke I drank at 10. Anyway. knowing I would sleep til at least 9 this morning I was wide awake at 6:30. So I finally got up, swept and rearranged the patio, emptied the dishwasher, took Toby for a walk ate some yogurt and bacon and will go get a refill for the gas grill and some lead washers to hopefully keep my shutter from blowing down everytime the wind picks up.

It's a beautiful day though a little cool.

48 DOWN 0TO GO!

All the blocks are finished and I've laid them out to see the pattern. I'm sure I'll switch a few after I look at it for awhile but you can see how the color design works. I think it will be really pretty.

COMFORT ZONE

We all have a comfort zone. Mine has gotten very small since Bob died, at least in respect to hospitality (family is discluded from this). He has been gone ten years now and I don't think I've had people in my home for a meal ten times since then. The few times I have, I've always had grandmother come too so there would be an even number or maybe I thought I needed a chaperone. It's not like we were going to play cards or something. Anyway, I've invited three couples over for a hamburger cookout on Friday. One of the couples is our new preacher and his wife. I really like both of them and so I thought I'd help them get to know some of the other folks by having them over. Someone is bringing a desert, someone else chips and then I'm doing the burgers, buns and condiments. (That makes me think of the time we were collecting things for hurricane ? when the kids were young teens. We had labels on tables in our fellowship hall so things would be sorted and easier to pack up to take on a truck to Louisiana. Well, one label said condiments and Mr. Lyn kind of hyperventilated when he first saw it because I guess his glasses needed cleaning or something. Anyway it was funny when it happened.) Enough digressing -- hopefully this cookout will be a step in the right direction toward enlarging my comfort zone back to what it used to be.


UPDATE ON THE CHURCH DIRECTORY: The copying thing is not going to work. So, we are going to have to get people to stay after church to have their pictures made. I think I'm just going to say that for three weeks I will have my camera with me at every service (that will be a total of 9 times if you count Wed. night) and will stay and take pictures as long as there are people there -- after that they will either have to email me a picture or just not have a picture in the directory. That should be enough time. It dragged out for six weeks before -- kind of ridiculous when there are only 50 something familys involved.

Michael leaves for Nashville next Wednesday. I won't be there to see him off but I will be there to welcome him back on the 26th. Can't wait!! Well, I'm off to bed but before I go, I did do three more log cabin squares so I've only got three more to go -- Yipee!!!

ONLY SIX TO GO

I'm down to six squares -- I've got 42 finished of my log cabin quilt. I'll have them done by the weekend if I don't get sidetracked. One thing I've figured out is that you should not buy your quilt backing for a log cabin quilt until you get at least some of your blocks put together. There are 24 fabrics used in this quilt and I think what I got for the backing is really too busy. It needs to be toned down. The fabric I got has a light background full of tiny flowers. Now I'm thinking that will be way too light. There are a couple of the greens that I really like or even the red that is the center of all the blue and green squares. I think I'm going to see if the store where I bought the fabric still has any of that fabric left. I can use the light for another quilt. Or, maybe, after I get the top made, I'll like the light fabric for the back and won't worry about it any more. Off to bed.

PROGRESS AND SETBACKS

This has been a week full of working on my computer and finally this weekend -- some sewing :)

I got my Dell back on Monday -- it had to be reformatted so the good news was that everything I had moved over to it was still on cd's so I still had that data and pictures. But, every new file and picture I had saved on the hard drive since I got the computer in Sept. was lost. I realized yesterday that included all the pictures and pages I had completed for the Church Directory -- not good. I think we have figured out a way to finish our work without having to redo pictures. Hopefully we can reenter the information (I still have the sheets everyone filled out) and then our preachers wife who is an avid scrapbooker has offered to cut out the pictures from the copy I had printed out for proofing purposes and glue - paste- whatever to the page. We are going to try one and see if the printer will copy it to see if it will look good. If it passes that will be our solution-if not i guess we'll spend six more Sundays trying to get everyone to retake pictures. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Here are all the squares completed for Jens rag quilt. All I have to do now is sew the squares together and then do all the snipping that turns it into a rag quilt. The other picture is a sample of the three different color squares that are going into the log cabin quilt. I've completed 36 of the 48 squares. I'm excited to be close to the finish line on completing the squares. Then I'll get the quilt top together. Once I do that I will probably put it aside to begin working on the quilt for grandmother.

Here is a picture of the quilt I'm going to do for g'ma. It will be a first for me. It comes with a full size pattern for the tree, the sky background and the ground. It also has a pattern for the leaf. My plan is to use a machine applique/embroidery pattern for a leaf I found (very similar to the one in the photo) and do the leaves totally with my embroidery attachment. That will be easier than having to "steer" around the leaf myself. Plus I'll be embroidering names and birthdays on the leaves anyway . You can see pictures on the leaves in the photo but I'm not doing that -- just names and birthdays. So there will be 40 + leaves including a few blank ones to full in spaces. I'm going to start looking for a good "tree bark" fabric and one for the sky too. For the leaves I'll probably use some sort of batiks in fall colors -- gold, red, yellow. What you see in the photo is actually a wall hanging -- comes in two different sizes. I'm going to make the larger one and then add a border or two and bind it as a throw size quilt.

SOME PICTURES

Here are some pictures Itook of the quilt label I embroidered and a dish towel I did. The label is a little dark but I like it. It turned out kind of like a badge. The flowers on the towel are just an outline stitch. The towel is a bright turquoise -- doesn't look like it in the picture to me.

TECHNOLOGY WOES

Well, my laptop which I've only had since Sept. had a major crash Thurs. night. I had finally gotten around to loading my Bernina Embroidery software on it Wednesday and it was running fine. I'd been putting it off because there are so many bugs inVista but then Bernina came out with a service pack that you could download that was supposed to make it run well with Vista and it was -- for 24 hours. Anyway, I'd been on Internet and decided to play do some things in my embroidery program so I clicked on it to open it up. Then I decided to go ahead and close IE since I really didn't needto have it open. Than's when it happened. It totally locked up and I finally just turned it off and then turned it back on. It would reboot and about half way through the process, the screen would flash and it would start to reboot again. Like the song that never ends. I actually don't really know that the Bernina software made Vista crash but that was the last thing I had put on the computer so it kind of seems logical. So, I called the Dell guy in India and we had a 2 hour conversation. During which he didn't understand half of what I said. Know how I know. -- Him: "Turn the computer back on now." I would -- after several seconds -- Me: "It's stopped booting up and has restarted again." Him: "Okay" Several seconds go by -- Him: " Has the desktop appeared yet?" Me: "No, it stopped the booting process and started over." Him: "Oh, okay." Several seconds go by -- Him "Do you see the desktop yet?" By now its on its 4th or 5th start over. But you get the picture. I'd have to tell him three or four times before he caught on and we would try something else and then have that same conversation again when he told me to try to boot windows again. We ended with Dell telling me I would need to reformat the hard drive which means I lose most of my pictures (all the ones since I moved in this house) and then I would have to reload all my software. ARRGH! So, Friday I took it to the local computer shop and they were able to tell that there is nothing wrong with the disks and tried to repair windows but whatever got corrupted, makes it look like there is no operating system to repair. So, now I wait til Monday for them to see if they can at least salvage my pictures and other data files. Then we will go from there. I'm considering just putting XP on there except there are some things about Vista that I've gotten to really like. I just wish it was more compatible with all the other children on the playground.

Of course today I get an email from Brian asking me to email a picture of him when he was short and chubby (his words) so he could prove that he weighs less now than he did in eighth grade. Sorry Brian. Maybe next week sometime if I'm lucky enough to have my pictures back.



On a happier note, I've finished sealing the wood and making a cover for my ironing board. Here's a picture. The cover is a green duck cloth and there are 3 layers of low loft cotton batting under it. I used a spry can of Kilz to seal the top of the board. I didn't do the underside because the can ran out of paint. The cover was really easy to do. I think it turned out great.



After Toby and I go for a walk, I'm going to straighten up so my table is free for eating as I'm having the teens over for sloppy joes tomorrow after evening service. Another couple is helping too. Then if it's not late I'm going to get back to making log cabin squares. I've done the four brown and the twenty blue so I'm half finished. Now I have 24 green squares. Then I get to put them together. Can't wait.

THE $249 IRONING BOARD AND OTHER STUFF

Okay-- you are looking at the $249 ironing board - would I buy it -- NO WAY -- do I want it -- YOU BET. The part you see floating in the air is actually an attachment that makes it into a large rectangle -- great for ironing large pieces of fabric, quilt tops, your sheets (if you're wierd :)) and even very very large sized underwear (if you are even wierder). Okay, I'll calm down. I'm getting kind of crazy here. Too much caffeine free coke I guess.
Anyway, I found a pattern that includes the directions for making a "long board" that fits over your ironing board and also directions for making a cover for it. So, here is my plain old ironing board








and

here is my "long board" $8 for the pattern and $25 for the materials. The Votech guy made it for me and isn't charging me but I'm sending him $15 for his trouble. So far $33. I need to seal the wood and make a cover. I'm guessing for a total of $50 I'll have the ironing board I long for -- here it is sans cover. I saved about $199 on this deal.










I'm also posting a picture of my extension table I got to go with my sewing machine. It is hand made of nice wood and has about 10 coats of varnish on it. Smoother than a baby's bottom. It will be great for quilting. I broke it in quilting the the Nursery Song Quilt. I put a folding table perpendicular to my dining room table and put my iron on it with a "mini" ironing mat because I have to press after each strip that I add to the log cabin squares. This makes the squares go together a lot faster. The piece in front that the scissors are sitting on actually slides out so I can easily change my bobbin.



So there you have it. My newest gadgets.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A "FUNCTIONAL" fAMILY

I have decided that every family is dysfunctional. Maybe I've always known it but finally don't mind admitting it. I'm not airing our dirty laundry here but we could use prayers from lots of people. Life happens and it ain't always pretty. Sometimes it's the shock of finding out the person you love most is dying of cancer or some other horrible disease. Other times its having to watch someone have their heart broken and knowing there is nothing you can do to make it better. All you can do is offer support and prayers and keep your anger in check. So, pray for those things and that those involved will have strength and the tools to make good decisions.

On a happier note, I came across a really good thought provoking blog --I've linked to it on the right. I don't know the guy's name but he is a preacher and has some very insightful things to say from time to time. Read the blog -- it's a good one.

I did make three more blocks for my log cabin quilt today. I'm getting faster and faster with them. After I make forty-eight I'll be an expert :)

I'm going to bed at 10 tonight. A good night's sleep should benefit my mood greatly:)

Night all

ANOTHER FINISHED PROJECT - WOOHOO!!

I'll have plenty of hand- sewing this week during down time at school. The yoke linings on the last of the shoulder tie dresses and the binding on the nursery rhyme quilt. I did the quilting yesterday and this afternoon and put the binding on tonight. Don't know why I didn't finish it sooner -- I really like it now that it's done. I used a decorative stitch (# 305 on the Bernina 730) on all the straight lines. The stitch reminds me of a bunch of simplified astrisks all strung together. Then I did some large curley -ques on the sashing pieces and the border. The I did a diamond shape around each of the embroidery designs. It worked out really well. I cut the binding strips so the stripes were perpendicular to the edge of the quilt. I really like how that turned out. The binding looks wide in the picture because I haven't turned it to the back yet. Anyway, the pictures below are of the quilt and also the squares for Jennifers rag quilt. She is going to get a little more material so I can add another row of squares. I'm going to work on getting my log cabin quilt top finished in the next week or so. Then I'm going to try to tackle the quilt top for Grandmother's surprise quilt. Can't wait to share the plan for that -- Let's just say it involves trees and some falling leaves.

Here are some pictures of the nursery song quilt and jens rag quilt squares.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIS!!

My big sister, Beth, has a birthday today.

I wish her a very Happy One and many more to go with it. Great Sisters are rare and mine is definitely a gem. She is the mother of seven great kids and has accumulated 13 grandchildren so far. She has devoted her life to God, her husband and her children. I don't know anyone who has worked harder than she has over the years. In the early years, she kept up with kids and a mini-farm -- collected eggs and milked goats and fed whatever animals they had at any particular time. She teaches class at church and her home is always open for friends and family to drop in and visit. She loves to cook and makes most everything from scratch. Now-a-days she helps out with her grandkids whenever she is needed. She will go to TX or TN at the drop of a hat if asked. When Bob was first diagnosed with cancer, she dropped everything to come and stay with my kids so they wouldn't be alone (and they were old enough to stay home by themselves). They have always remembered how she took such good care of them. When he died she left ahead of her family to get here to be with me and I'll never forget how much that meant. She is a great listener and always has encouraging words and good advice. I admire her selflessness and the way she always puts others needs ahead of her own. She is truly the best sister anyone could ever want. Happy Birthday Beth!

Easter Break

Ok - so Spring Break ended and we had a Professional Development day, three days with students and now it's Easter Break. They could've just given us the extra week -- I for one would never have complained!!!

I finished all the "summer tie over the shoulder dresses" so I'm working on quilts. Jennifer picked out some fabric for a Rag Quilt -- she had seen one in the fabric shop in Franklin. I've cut out the squares - the batting squares are the least fun -- and have sandwiched 16 of the squares and sewed them with a big X. Once I do all of them like that, I'll lay them out and then sew them all together. Here is a picture of the fabric. It will make a really soft comfy throw and she probably won't have to worry about any guys wanting to wrap up in it. Anyway, after picking out that material I thought that these rag quilts would make rally fun presents for the grands for xmas. So, we came up with "signature" colors for each ot the girls and went ahead and picked out Katy's fabric. Her color is yellow. Vail's will be blue, Avery Green, Molly B pink and Suzannah will be purple. It was wierd because I couldn't decide about a color for Suzannah -- the others were easier to pick and then when they were here I found out that purple is her favorite at least for right now so I made a good guess. Sewing is my stress reliever so it's great for me to be able to sew this weekend. Well, it's late and I'm going to bed.

ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END!

Well, my Spring Break has ended. It is back to school tomorrow for teachers and then students will come on Tuesday. Here are some pictures of the "Grands". The first group is from Nashvile. There are more of them because I always seem to take more pictures when I am away from home. (Sorry Texas Neals)

Jed telling Katy some secrets.










Katy getting ready to eat.











Uncle Michael and Avery catching some fish for supper.










Cousins looking at the snow.











Playing in the crib.

Jack -- the youngest and the handsomest :) "Nanna" and Molly B.

















I had so much fun at Jennifer's. We picked out some fabric for a quilt (I can't believe I broke my rule but hey -- isn't that what rules are for?) Jen and Matty got to have a date night and I got to babysit:) We went to Sam's and the mall and just visited.

I got home Tuesday and got ready for Billy and Stace's visit. They got here Thursday around noon. Funny kids that they are they called as they were driving in and were telling me they were in MS but hadn't gone through Vicksburg yet. Then Billy started talking about politics which I thought was a little strange because he usually isn't much of a talker. Next thing I know someone is banging on my door and guess who it was -- the Texas Neals!!! We had a great time - we ate out a couple of times. Had a pizza and a movie night with the girls and watched Toy Story, went to the Italian Festival (it was the 2nd annual one here) and watched the spagetti eating contest -- pretty disgusting :) played catch with Suzannah - watch out softball players -- a star is emerging , hugged and followed Toby all over the place, sat on the patio, planted a forsythia bush and put up a ceiling fan in the kitchen. It was great!!

Now I'm really tired and heading to bed. Night all.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATY JACE!

Katy Jace Ensor celebrates her 1st birthday tomorrow. She is one sweet girl. She is crawling and will pull up and walk around the ottoman or up under the kitchen table amongst all the chairs -- holding on all the while. She loves vegetables and bananas and her blankie when she is tired. She loves to watch Vail play and enjoys her bath.!

Have a great birthday Katy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRIAN!

Happy 27th Birthday Brian!! We are thinking about you and hoping you have a wonderful birthday. Hope you know how proud we are of the work you are doing and how much we admire you for being able to live so far away. We miss you and love you very much. Hugs from all of us!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY SUZY-Q

Suzannah Faith Neal was born six years ago today. I remember the call from Billy and collecting Grandmother and going to Longview by way of Cabot AR and getting Jennifer and I think Brian to go with us. We were less than an hour from Longview when Billy called to tell us she had arrived. I remember sitting there thinking -- "my first grandchild!" It was an awsome occasion.

Six reasons why I think Suz is special:

1. 1. She is cool and hip!
   2. She not afraid to compete with the guys!
2. 3. She is smart!
3. 4. She loves her family!
4. 5. She doesn't let her diabetes define who she is. If you didn't see her checking her sugar, you wouldn't even know she had it!

6.She giggles when I sing Happy Birthday to her over the phone :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SUZY-Q! I love you!