Barnes and Noble? Maybe Not.

We went on a trip. We saw lots of cool barns--and countryside. Here are some pictures we took of SOME of the barns we saw.

I just love this barn!

Going to See the Grandchildren

Lots has been happening. Lots of prayers have been said. Some seem to be being answered. We'll see. God has His own time frame and we often don't understand it.

HOWEVER! How things turn out is partly in our hands and partly in His. We will trust in His grace to guide, direct, protect, help, etc. as we work our best to do His will to the best of our understanding. (We always have much room for improvement in that area.)

But, we are going to see the grandchildren tomorrow! Can't wait! They're in a new location, state, town, environment, etc. Son-in-law says the hardwood trees are in splendorous color and we should really enjoy the drive. We're looking forward to that as well.

I made a lot of "picture cards" which my daughter will help (or do because I might get in the way) laminate so I can play games with the children. I've thought that matching cards of things that go together might be kind of fun. I have a picture of a house and one of their family. I have a picture of our house and individual pictures of their family and ours. And a lot of other pictures, as well. Like one of a tablet and one of a pencil (can you tell why that might be? Big surprise, I'm sure!) One of a spoon and one of a bowl of gumbo. I'm sure it's easy to figure out for us BIG kids.

The next game I thought of entails the children picking several cards and then telling us a story using the various chosen cards. I hope it will work and be fun for them. I love telling stories and listening to those that others tell as well. There should be plenty of pictures to choose from--I have about 80 or 90!

If it all goes well, I'll report back. If it doesn't, I might report back anyway!

How About This? What's in the Box?

ADDENDUM!

I love the "comments" that have been added to the story thus far! I should probably have allowed more than "one or two lines" from each participant . . . BB and Jeannie have peaked my interest in where they might have been leading us! So, from now on, if you have more to add than "a line or two" feel free" to do so. AND, additionally, I should have mentioned, you can add on more than once, if you feel so inspired/inclined.

Of particular note: Those who visit (lurk), we won't be biting any one's head off if you contribute your fun continuation of this story. In fact, it would be really great to hear from you and learn where your imagination might take us! Thanks in advance to all who have and will contribute to this story. I'll be adding a bit now and then, meself!

Bush Babe at Granite Glen gave me a great idea the other day. She had a contest to guess what a woman was doing in a particular "mystery" photo she included in her post. I thought that might be fun, so I scrolled through the answers already in the "comments" and was inspired by Debby's response (of Life's Funny Like That) and took my lead from her.

That reminded me of an experience I had as a YOUNG teenager at a Church youth activity many, many long years ago. Some adult leader gave us a topic, which I thought was stupid. Yes. I still remember it. It was: Why should or shouldn't you campaign to have your pajamas color coordinated with your bedroom? I don't, however, remember all the rules of the game, but I do remember being rather wild in my defense of matching decor/pj's. AND I do remember having fun. I also remember lots of folks laughing as I launched into my ridiculous rational as to why one should match such silly things. I think I cited things like purple polka dotted pj's clashing with green striped walls, or some other nonsense, as sound reason to need to coordinate such items and avoid nightmares.

So, here are my parameters:

I'll begin the "Story line" and you, whoever you story tellers might be, get to add a line or two to get the story moving. Each contribution should build on the previous one, thus creating a larger story. I request that you keep the language and subject matter in check--as we may have young children lurking over our shoulders, and I'd be very uncomfortable with them getting a shock from any one's addition that might contain something objectionable. [I reserve the right to delete anything I deem objectionable.] Anyway, I know you're all talented enough to keep within "the BOX" and still be hilarious. Please be as creative as you choose! Magic, fantasy, outer space, dinosaurs--you name it--can be part of your contribution. Let your imaginations roll. At least, I have faith that you can follow the guidelines and still have loads of fun.

Since I'm new at this sort of thing, I hope you'll bear with me. My goal is sharing our imaginations + writing skills--and that will be the prize: to just have fun together. And perhaps we can cheer Debby through the trial she now faces. Feel free to invite your friends to participate. And let's have us some a that there fun!

HERE GOES:

On a lovely, crisp autumn day you take a stroll through the woods. After half-an-hour or so, you come upon a beautiful meadow. The sun is pleasantly warm, the air comfortably cool. There are fall flowers here and there in the grassy area before you bounded on all sides by the changing colors gracing the various leaves of the tall deciduous trees. Then you see it! A box. A large box. A large box resting against a huge, ancient forest oak . . .

You get to describe the box, what is (or isn't) in it and . . . (drum roll) . . . what happens next!

Have fun my friends! I'm looking forward to your imaginative renditions of "What's in the Box."

Quilt's Done

Okay. This is it. Another rush photo job, hence not perfect!

(Did I say that? Not perfect? Like any thing I do is perfect! I only wish...)

I finished the binding not by hand, as I would have liked, but finish it I did. On the sewing machine. And of course, 3 of the 4 corners refused to be mitered. Absolutely, unequivocally refused. Blatantly even. How could they do that you ask? Well, if I knew the answer to that, I'd have dispensed with their contrariness and mitered the heck out of them!

Whew. Sorry 'bout that. I'd better calm down.

Jesse'll probably be none the wiser and care even less. He's just happy to have it. I took it to the Church social in his behalf on Wednesday night, brought a Magic Marker so everyone who wanted to could sign the quilt. He told me last night that he slept under it, but his mother took it away from him.

I was shocked! Then I remembered: Ooops. "I did caution your Mom to let it air out a bit . . . you know . . . the fumes from the marker nearly knocked out two or three of those in the room where all the marking went on. AND we don't want you getting knocked out by killer fumes, not when you have an important mission to fulfill."

He smiled and nodded that he understood. Jesse, a man of few words. Bush Babe of Granite Glen has a SSB, so she knows someone like Jesse. But that tendency to be shy and quiet will change. Soon. He enters the MTC (Missionary Training Center) in Provo, Utah, next week.

I'm Working on a Quilt

Well, I'm actually, technically, working on two quilts. I started a flannel quilt for my husband, uh, ah, well . . . three years and counting . . . ago and it has now been quilted as of like two weeks ago thanks to three ladies from Church who love quilting, two of whom have been quilting for some years now, and a newer quilter friend and myself. I think it took two sessions for us to quilt it. I just need to get the binding done and I will finally be able to give it to my dear husband.

I picked up these wonderful flannel fabrics at JoAnn's. They were hosting a 1/2 price sale on all their flannel fabric, and I must admit I made out like a bandit. (I did. My wallet... That's another story.) But I love, love, love the huge variety of printed flannels they had at that HUGE JoAnn's in Tucson. I so wanted to buy tons more than I could afford. Oh, yeah. *goofy grin* I did buy more than I could reasonably afford. Ooops. Now I can't find a JoAnn's that big anywhere around here unless, maybe I go to the Houston, TX area. And that's quite a trip. Bush Babe of Granite Glen makes treks like that from time to time. Maybe I can too. At least when the wallet gets a little more something in it. *sigh* Or maybe I'll just make a few more quilts with what I have on hand . . .

This is mostly what my husband's quilt looks like. It will look slightly different once bound. (Sorry the picture quality isn't so great. I was in a hurry to post.)

The other quilt began as these three sisters and I sat around quilting two weeks ago when we realized that one of our young men, Jesse, who just turned 19 will be heading out on his two-year mission in a matter of weeks. We discussed getting together, pooling our quilting fabrics, etc. and getting this done BEFORE he leaves. He's going to Denver, Colorado. We've kind of had a tradition (long before I moved to this community) of presenting the returning missionaries with a quilt--as a token of our appreciation for their dedicated service. The tradition has had a change here or there: some quilts were presented prior to the missionaries leaving, as in the case of an older couple (the wife of this duo, was involved in my husband's quilt) because they were going to a cold climate--as Jesse is.

When it came down to it, we had so many other things taking our time--one sister had a brand new grandchild born, so she wasn't able to contribute at the moment, and one thing and another, so I looked through all my mountain of fabric to find I had more than enough, had enough batting, and enough flannel to back it with, so I struck out on my own to craft this quilt.

These are the pieces (quilt blocks) of Jesse's quilt. It will look different when finished.

With the time constraints involved, I won't be piecing this one by hand, though I did embroider Jesse's favorite scripture verse, John 14:15 on one square. Jesse's like that verse: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." He wants to do the Lord's work, and he doesn't use a lot of words. Using words will probably increase for him over the next two years. He's one of those "good kids" that you still hear about, doesn't get into trouble, has infinite patience and a very kind, loving heart. Oh, and he loves peach cobbler at birthday time, too. I made one of those for him, too, and had one of his (five) brothers, and his parents over for peach cobbler to celebrate--on a small scale--his birthday. I think I've known Jesse (and his family) for about 15 years now.

This is the embroidered block--not the best embroidery--again the time constraint. But it does accurately capture the Scripture verse, which is the point, I suppose.

Back to the quilt project. I finished the embroidery, and now I'll machine stitch the very large squares (all in the interest of time) together, stitch up the flannel back. Next week, these 3 ladies, and perhaps a few more from Church, will join me and we'll tie it. That process goes very quickly and will still make a nice quilt. We hope that when Jesse uses it, he'll remember people back home love him and support his decision to serve the Lord and His children.

Are there any quilters among you who lurk around my blog, by chance? What kind of quilting projects do you work on? Do you have special projects that you work on? Patterns/techniques you've found that you love? I'm such a novice in the quilting department, you'd be amazed. Or not. Share with us, please!

More Critters

I guess this blog is mostly a taste of "nature" more often than not blog. I live in Louisiana. It's probably impossible to NOT notice all the natural flora and fauna around here. It's close to 7:00 pm here and I noticed "something" oddly shaped on one of the front windows. The shape didn't look like a pair of "love bugs" that have been harassing everyone around here for the past few weeks. I don't know how they manage to survive all the disastrous love-bug genocide that seems to be going on wherever a vehicle traverses this part of the country. They are EVERYWHERE! They covered my white blossomed butterfly plants, the humming bird feeders, the windows, windshields, vehicle grills, headlights, and on and on. They're a huge pest. But I digress. The critter on the window didn't look familiar in size and shape. Of course, I don't believe I had on my glasses either . . . and I was half way across the room.

So I snatched up my glasses, slapped them across my eyes and walked closer to the front window. I was really surprised to find a tiny little tree frog. It was actually OUTSIDE. And I placed the end of my index finger against the window to gauge it's size. About the same size of my finger--nail tip to first joint--less than one inch. Poor fella (or gal--I don't know how to determine gender) is sooooooooooo skinny. Looks like a new one to me. Its little tiny "fingers" were so fine I didn't even see the little suction cup ends.

It was apparently hungry--gee! No surprise! Poor thing WAS very skinny! I watched as it tried to snag a mosquito. (Darn! I wish it had gotten that bug! We have way too many of their nasty kind right now. Guess they followed the two hurricanes we've had close by.) Nonetheless, this little amphibian was very energetic and moved all over the place. That didn't assist my photo taking desires, as you can imagine. But I did manage to capture a few fotos. Tell me what you think. Will it stick around and eat tons of mosquitoes, per my request? Or will it keep moving along and look for greener (huh?) pastures? Will it get fattened up in the near future? Will it find its way into my house, looking at the shefflera plant?

Did I mention that we have my daughter's house cat visiting for a yet-to-be-determined period of time? Daphne has shown some distinct interest in the happenings of the shefflera pot.



Since the sun is about gone, this little guy/gal looks to be black. Don't be fooled. It's a rather froggy green. Kermit, are you close by to verify?

There, see for yourselves. It is green.

Ah! Better lighting--clearer view of the GREEN!

Isn't this just cute? (Though skinny.)

P.S. This picture shows him pretty much life size. I measured with my finger. That's how tiny he really is. (At least on my monitor!)

Ike's Come and Gone

Gustav came and threw things around the yard, knocked out our power for more than half a day, rained about 3" worth and moved on up the road. Then we watched Hanna do her thing. All the while Ike was trotting around doing unbelievable damage to islands in the Caribbean. It's hard to fathom the extent of the damage done. One island lost 80% of their housing! Can you imagine your community losing 80% of the housing?!!

Then Josephine was fast on the heels of all the others! But Ike...Ike began filling up the entire Gulf of Mexico. It's hard to imagine how much disaster one hurricane can create. Then add to that, how much damage has been done in the rather near past! Gustav, Rita and Katrina. It tends to make one rather cautious and a little antsy wondering just where landfall is going to occur and how it will impact you and your loved ones.

We've been exceptionally blessed, I must say up front. I know the devastation to Galveston, and Houston, Texas, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and other communities in their near neighborhoods is huge! And we do pray for those individuals. The men from our Church Ward (congregation) and many others of our Stake (several Wards included) are planning to travel to Baton Rouge--where many people still haven't recovered their power since Gustav--to render service in cleaning up the mess. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints usually organizes and sends many needed supplies to those involved in many disasters here and all over the world. I know many other church groups, other organizations, and individuals do the same. Thanks to everyone who pitches in! I'm so grateful that there are so many good people everywhere who care enough about their fellow humans to serve them in times of need.