Hanging Pictures

We are cleaning and spiffing up from winter.  The trees have grown A LOT!  Again, all the water.

Nicole came up today and helped me hang some pictures.  The kids characitures, the BYU stadium Shaun gave Duff for Christmas, and also all the vintage musical albums the kids gave us for our anniversary and Father's Day.  Everything looks really nice.  And one of the things I love about it is that they are personal to us and the decor evolves over time.  Nicole and I talked and talked and talked and I enjoyed seeing her.  It's been a couple of years.

It is peaceful and quiet and just what we've needed.

Midway or Ireland?

Duff and I left for the cabin this morning.  It was just the two of us this time, which we really enjoyed, but at the same time it felt a little odd.  We always have someone with us or Darla.  Christine has lacrosse the next two days and our puppy is 'gone' since the last time we were in Midway.  When we walked in the door it hit us that Miss Darla wasn't with us.  She loved this place.  When we got to the switch backs she somehow knew where we were and got really excited.  She would wait not so patiently at the front door to get inside and ran right over to where her dish goes and stood there until I put a drink of water down for her.  Then she would run to her kennel in our room and bring out every 'baby' she had in it and scatter them all over the great room squeaking them with pleasure.  Her arrival routine was complete as she jumped on to the giant bean bag and settled down with a sigh.  We both started crying and missed her a lot.

There is still snow on all the mountain tops and it is June 29th!  I have never seen that.  Midway looks like Ireland it is so green from the heavy winter and long wet spring.  We have had a summer storm ever since we got here and are loving it.

Busy As A Bee

When I do my embroidery projects I thread lots of needles with all the different colors of floss so I don't have to change them out all the time.  It's easier that way for me.  I line all the threaded needles up and stick them in the arm of the family room couch.  My family hates it.  They constantly forget they are there and get stuck by them.

I solved the problem by making this cute pincushion.  I finished it today.  I got the pattern from Cross Stitch Happy.  I think it turned out really cute and I love it.

So-ing

 This is my embroidery floss tote.

It has all my DMC and accessories in it.  I like the catalog system. 
All the pouches are numerical and I can find what I need quickly.

See the lime green sewing box?

My mom gave it to me when I left for college.  It had basic sewing supplies in it.  I didn't think I needed it, but I used it a lot.

When I was in the floss box today, I looked more closely at the green sewing box.  I had a great memory.  It was written all over with a white sewing pencil by Shaun when he was a little boy.  On the top it said:  "So-ing".

I remember when he wrote it.  I couldn't bring myself to clean it off.  It's been on there for 20 years.

My laptop is having issues.  I think it's time for a new one.  I'll post when I get this figured out---

Quiet

No one is home right now.
It is weird.
Chris is at Girl's Camp.  Josh and Meredith are in Arizona.  Shaun is up in LA at a concert.  It's a gal he knows from high school that Griffin is working with recording.  Griff was at the concert too and they got to hang out together.  Mike and Adrianne went to spend the weekend at Josh and Mere's to have some much needed alone time.

Duff and I haven't been alone in the house on a Friday night for a lonnnnng time.  It was really nice.

Colors Of The Wind Keep Us Steady As A Beating Drum

Christine left for Girl's Camp today. They have good things planned and she will have a great time. I like their theme this year.

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!

Garden (two weeks later)

The whole garden has just taken off!

Pictures two weeks later.

We are going to have more tomatoes than we can handle.  So we will be canning hot sauce, salsa, and whole tomatoes come August/September.

It Is Finals Week

It is finals week.

She gets out of school early every day only to come home and cram some more. Oh, and Panda Express.  Our finals lunch treat tradition. Two more days.  Then she'll be a junior.

Where has the time gone?

To All The Dads...

 Our Father's Day was a good one!  We had a great dinner of steak, baked potatoes, corn on the cobb (Josh and Mere), brussel sprouts (Mike and Adrianne), and Duff's requested Chocolate Eclair Cake.
The kids got him several original long-playing albums from all the musicals he loves: South Pacific, Oklahoma, The King and I, Music Man, Carousel, Fiddler On The Roof,   I am going to frame them and we will hang them at the cabin going down the stairs to the game room.  Perfect.

And our grand-dog-ter, Gidget waking up from a nap.  She likes to sleep on her back with her head hanging off your arm.  Haha!

Father's Day Cookie Bake a.k.a. Personal Progress Project

Shopping for cookie ingredients.

They had a budget of $125.00 for all of it.  The cookies and the wrapping.

I helped them calculate how many ingredients they would need to buy for the amount they needed per recipe/batch of cookies.  They learned a lot.  I learned a lot.  Did you know that there are 37 cups of flour in 10 pounds?  We did a lot of that kind of figuring.

 They went down all the aisles to be sure they had everything they needed.

Christine had also already played 2 lacrosse games that morning.

 Checking out.

 Cookies, cookies, and MORE cookies.

 The girls had an assembly line going on the kitchen table for the wrapping.  It went smoothly.

Now they are all ready for tomorrow.

The cute tags.

We are over-dosed on chocolate chip cookies.

I don't think we will be making some any time soon.

They worked from 1-8:30pm on this part of the project.

Then had friends over and played board games.

(Can I borrow some of their energy?  I went upstairs and took a bubble bath.  I was tired.)