Our Midland RS Presidency

Our Secretary, Pam sent me a pic that was taken at our Ward Christmas Party early in December. It was fun to have a picture of the ladies I serve with. The Christmas party went well, and we had all been there for hours when this was taken. Pam was in charge of the planning and food and she and her husband did a great job getting everything together and done. We all worked at the food tables and in the kitchen and then of course the kitchen clean-up. A lady in the ward had set up this fun photo booth for family pics, so we all went in and got our picture taken together.

These ladies are amazing. I love serving with them as we strive to do what is best for our sisters here in Midland. I am learning lots from them and hope we can continue to work as a team for the best possible results in our ward. Jenny (a Texas native) reminds me so much of my Tawna. She is serving on the local PTA, as RS President and working part-time. All this in addition to  her family as wife and mother of 4. She rolls with what I term as "her hair on fire" all the time and gets so much accomplished. The same can be said of our Homemaking Counselor Holly (originally from Utah) with her 3 kids and all her responsibilities. Holly is also my Visiting Teaching partner and it is really fun to go out with her and teach our 3 ladies. She calls and makes the appointments and I usually do a treat. Sometimes she does a lesson and sometimes I do. She always makes sure they get their treat if we miss them somehow. She keeps me on track so I can at last say I do my visiting teaching. Pam (originally from Idaho) and I are the "empty nesters" but are the two who love our computers and have those skills. She is a wonderful Secretary and keeps us all organized. She and her sweetie do BBQ's and their skills are amazing. They did all the food for the Christmas Party and it was so very tasty. She put together a Relief Society directory for our ward complete with photos of each sister. Wow. That has been a wonderful tool to get to know the faces and names of our ladies here. I serve as Education Counselor and I think I am the one being educated. We are a good team and rely on our various talents to make the whole thing work for everyone.

It is a pleasure to know such wonderful ladies who are so dedicated to their callings.
I could learn a thing or two from them.

Rag-Time Quilt

I have been wanting to learn to do this kind of quilt for a long time now. Bought the pattern ages ago, so decided to try it out finally. Friends of our family, Nick and Katy are having their first baby, so it seemed like a good idea to do a quilt for them. It was fun to learn a new thing. The instructions didn't have a cutting quide for the baby size, so I had to wing it. Cutting all the blocks below. Learned a lot about cutting.

Then is was time to put the little "quiltlet" blocks together. I used 9 different prints for the front and took one of the prints to use for the entire back. I had a flannel sheet I bought a while back (the leopard print) so because there was a lot of that one I used it to do a one print back. You can use any combination of prints you want. Katy is using orange and brown for her baby boy, so I did my best to find flannels that would go with her nursery.

Along with the tried and true adage "Measure twice, cut once" I add "pin alot and sew it once". Too true. The blocks are sewn diagonally corner to corner. You can eye-ball a straight line on the small blocks, but I had to mark the big ones. I wanted to do it the way the pattern instucted at least the first time. It was good advice. Below is what the small blocks looked like pinned.

Marking the blocks was easy. I had a washable ink fine line marker that has been sitting in my sewing drawer forever. I finally got to use it. There are only 18 big blocks in this quilt, to it went fast. Those blocks took a lot more pins, but I had no difficulty with shifting fabric. I don't have the right walking foot for my machine (I found out with this venture) so I will have to exchange it at the Bernina Store when I go home to visit again. They sold me the wrong one when I bought my machine, so I will get the right one soon. A walking foot enables mutiple layers of fabric to go through the machine as one layer. No shifting or crawling fabric from the top to the bottom. I am looking forward to getting the right foot for that.

Sewing the blocks didn't take too long either. I did all the small blocks first (68). Then did the 18 big blocks.

Below are what the blocks looked like with the x's sewn.

Now to start assembling the small blocks into 4-block squares. All the seams are 1" wide and are sewn on the right side, or top of the quilt. I tried to just do a random effect. I am so used to doing right sides together when doing seams, I did two sets before I realized my quilt would be backwards if I kept that up. I ripped out the seams and put wrong sides together so it would be correct. I hate it when my brain take a leave of absence and habit takes over.

Two sets done ready to make my first 4 square block. Now I just have to do that 16 more times. Sewing the 4 square blocks took the longest, but it was fun to make sure no two prints ended up together.

Now to layout the blocks to start the completion process. I tried to make sure the same prints did not end up side by side, but there are a few places where it just had to be. I didn't spend hours figuring it all out, just laid them out on the floor and went for it. I assembled one row at a time and then sewed the rows together. Didn't take as long as I thought it would. It gets fun now because you can start to see what the final project will look like.

Here is what it looked like all together with the fringe cut. After all the seams are sewn you cut at 1/2" to 3/4" intervals along the 1" seams. Lots and Lots of cutting. Making sure of course you don't cut through your seams. I did a little each day in front of the T.V. while talking to Tracy and Pop. Eventually it was all fringed. Now to wash it. Not in my apartment washer. This is where Tracy and I went to one of the local laundromats to wash it for the first time. Lots of fraying that first time through the machines. There were a lot of threads in the washer. I can only imagine what the lint trap in the dryer must have looked like. The washable marker was washable. Good thing. I was a bit worried about that.

The finished product! All soft and nice for Nick and Katy's little baby to sleep on or under. I have enough of the fabrics left to do a strip rag quilt too. I called Malea, who has made several of those and got her how-to's. Maybe I can get my act together and get another one done for them. You just can never have too many baby quilts. I'm going to try some of those cute customized burp clothes next with some of the scraps. I wish I had done this for all my grandkids. I did a few quilts for them, but didn't have as much time as I do now. Fortunately Nana was still sewing and did lots of baby quilts for our new babies. I hope I can still sew when great grandkids hit the scene. I'll have even more time then (maybe) and can sew for them like Nana did for us.

Now I am ready to start some bigger versions of this kind of quilt for my grandkids who are not babies anymore. The ones that are big enough can help me and maybe learn a thing or two. Now if I could just live a little closer to them all…

Look What the Rain Blew In…

Visitors in January and now again in February. I could get used to this. Papa K. and Tracy drove to see us on the 16th. I was so excited for them to come here. Like a kid at Christmas. I love it when people come to see us. They got here about 5:00 our time and Grumpy started cooking up some Chicken Stir Fry for dinner. We figured they wouldn't want to get back in the car and go out to eat after spending the day driving. We had a nice dinner and just kicked back and relaxed. Some good conversation, a little T.V. and then the sheets were calling our names.

Friday Grumpy got home around 1:00 so we went to Texas Burger for a Jalapeno/Cheese Hamburger. Oh, and can I just say they have a great ice cream station there too! After those jalapenos it was time for a little ice cream. Good Stuff. Tracy and I went back to the apt. to turn into the computer addicts we are while Papa and Grumpy headed to the Commemorative Air Force Museum for awhile. My computer is on a built-in desk in the master bdrm and hers was on the dining room table. After yelling back and forth for awhile, I just brought mine in to the dining room so we could sit and compute next to each other. That worked out well. She helped me with all kinds of things. I wish I was as smart as she is when it comes to computers. I had to laugh at our 3 ipads sitting around the apt. All with the same covers on them. Too funny!

Yes, we spent lots of time in our jammies. I can't think of a better way to spend most of a day than in my jammies working on the computer. Crazy, I know. Friday night we ate at home, BLT's plus avocado on croissants. I love sandwiches. Saturday I finally finished cutting the fringe on a quilt I was making for a friend's new baby. My first rag quilt. Everyone I talked to said not to wash and dry it at home for the first time, to go to a laundromat where the commercial machines are built to take the "fall out" from all the fraying that takes place that first time laundered. So I decided to take the advice. Tracy and I headed to a laundromat while Grumpy and Papa went to tour Midland. They were done long before we were! Got that accomplished and went home to get some rest before going to our favorite (so far) restaurant here. Sho-Gun. It is a tepenyaki venue and I think a very good one. We ate there and stuffed ourselves beyond the comfort zone. Of course.

Being stuffed didn't keep us from going to the local HEB market for some ice cream on the way home. We ended up with mostly Ben & Jerry's with a little HaagenDas thrown in. There's always room for ice cream right? Tracy found a nice dutch oven there and bought it for home. I think I may be going back to get one too. I've been eyeing them for awhile, and I think I must have one. HEB is a fun place to shop. Kind of a cross between a grocery store and a Costco. I miss Costco. I love that HEB has a huge produce section and they carry really good meat too. They have great stuff and manage to keep the prices pretty reasonable.

When we were at the apt. we looked like the pics above. Good thing Papa likes to read on his ipad. We were all staring at a computer screen of some kind a lot. Got a lot done to get me set up and refining some of my skills. (yet to be proven). I am determined to learn new things.

We really enjoyed visiting and hanging out with family. It was fun to have family at church with us. We had a fried chicken dinner Sunday night and watched "Courageous". Good movie. Highly recommend it. We aren't hard to entertain, because we just like to be together. Thanks Papa and Tracy for driving to see us. They set out about 5 am on Monday morning. Grumpy went to work and I went back to bed. I still think morning should start about 10.

Good Times.

V-Day 2012

Well, I have become a true Pinterest addict! I don't even mind admitting that since there are so many great ideas there. I have tried a few and have many more to try out. This month I chose two ideas for Valentine's Day. This first one was a lot of fun. I have to say I had a great time executing this bouquet of Bacon Roses! First I had to find a mini-muffin pan. Grumpy went to 3 stores looking for one while he was out doing some shopping one day. He didn't know why I needed it, just knew I did. Such a considerate guy! He could only find the over-size Texas muffin pans. Go figure. I finally found one at Hobby Lobby. Yay! Next I needed Grumpy to drill at least a 1/8" hole in the bottoms of the muffin part (to allow the bacon drippings to go through). He did this for me about 9:30 Monday night (before Valentine's Day) thinking I needed it for a Relief Society project. Did I say what a considerate guy he is? Meanwhile, I had purchased bacon in various thicknesses. I had both a thick-cut and a regular cut package. The instructions were very good on the tutorial I pinned, so I followed them and got my "roses" in the oven to cook.

I had bought some cheapy white rose picks at Hobby Lobby, so while the roses were cooking I took apart one dozen of the stems to prepare for bacon roses. When the roses were done and cooled I assembled the stems and arranged them all in a vase. I called Grumpy to see if he wanted to meet me in the parking garage and we would go get some lunch. He did. You should have seen me driving while trying to hold onto a vase with 2 dozen roses in it. I drove slowly and carefully and eventually made it to the garage of his building. He was a little astonished that I had gotten him flowers for Valentines. He didn't realize they were edible. I finally had to tell him they were bacon roses and he was surprised. He really liked them then. He took them up to his office before we went to lunch. He even shared a couple with fellow co-workers when he got back. It's always fun to surprise Grumpy.

He really surprised me a few days earlier by singing to me at the ward Valentine Dinner Dance. It was really a nice evening. The cultural hall was done in twinkle lights and the tables in Valentine decor. We were served a spaghetti dinner by our hubbies and there were lots of different desserts to choose from on a cart they brought around to all the tables. A few of the men had volunteered to sing a song, read a poem or something for their wife in front of everyone. There was a nice chair and back-drop where the wife would sit while they performed their talent. I didn't know he had signed up to do that and he was the last one called up to do his song. While I was sitting in the nice chair he starts out by telling everyone I threw away his music, so he would have to sing a cappella. Nice. So after he threw me under the bus in front of everyone he sang a song he learned on his mission (in Chinese) called Eternal Love. After he was done singing, and a fine job he did I might say, he translated the words and read them to the audience.

No matter how the years come and go
No matter whether the flowers bloom or no
We two have an unchangeable love
I love you now.

No matter how the years come and go
No matter whether the flowers bloom or no
We two have an unchangeable love
I'll love you through the years to come.

Do not fear the dimming of our sight
Nor the graying of our hair
Among the people of this world
We two have an eternal, mutual love.

No matter how the years come and go
No matter whether the flowers bloom or no
We two have an unchangeable love
A mutual love eternally
A mutual love eternally.

By the way, when we made move #27 I asked him if there was any reason to keep the many cassette tapes we had been lugging around. We don't even own a cassette player at this point, so I couldn't see the need to keep the tapes. He said "Whatever", so I took that as a yes and got rid of all the cassettes. Apparently the chinese music from his mission was on one of them. Oh well. He sounded just fine a cappella. A very sweet surprise for me.

Last, out of the kitchen were some sweet visiting teaching treats. I got the recipe off, yes, Pinterest and decided to try it. The recipe was for Cinnamon Bear Popcorn, but alas, there are no cinnamon bears to be found in Midland. None. I got red hots instead since they are cinnamon and did the recipe that way. First time I have ever done anything treat-wise with popcorn. I will post the recipe for this on Nana's blog as well as the tutorial for the bacon roses. Both were "keepers" for the holidays.

A good Valentine's Day (and month) it has been. I married well.

New Stuff in the Apartment

Below is the Menu Frame Tawna and Nathan gave us for Christmas. I have been coveting one for awhile now, so am happy to finally get one. I can change the background to one of many Tawna included in the back of the frame to be seasonal or everyday. It is hanging on my wall in the kitchen and I used it recently to teach a class in Relief Society on Meal Planning. I saw a good idea on Pinterest where someone used tin cans covered in scrapbook paper to hold her menu choices. She would pick her cards from one can, plan her shopping list and then put them in the other can as "done for awhile". This allows rotatation through her dinner choices. I got some cute little buckets at Michael's to hang on the wall next to my frame. I have the dinner choice on the front with a list of shopping items on the back. I broke the shopping into categories so I could more easily shop with several cards at a time if I want. There is a meat/dairy section, a produce section and a general grocery section. That way I can take the cards with me and not have to make such a long list. I only make a list now for things that are miscellaneous, or pantry items. I only do 5 cards a week since we usually go out at least once and there are always left-overs for a night or two.

Thanks Tawna and Nathan. I love my Christmas Menu Frame.

Above are the frames and pictures that Summer and Jamie gave us for our walls. They went to the Temple and were sealed as a family in September. I love having a reminder of this wonderful and happy day. I added a few scrapbooky things for fun, just to the pic, not the wall! Although, I like the pic so maybe I will do that to the wall too!

Thanks Summer and Jamie for our Frames of Forever. I love seeing it everyday.

Below is a picture of the cute spindle Bob and Sydney made us for Christmas. It is so fun to use. They made 5x7 cards of different quotes, some seasonal, some spiritual, etc. I can change it to be whatever suits the day or the week or even a lesson I might teach. I haven't used it at church yet, and when I do I know everyone will want one.

Thanks Bob and Sydney for my fun Spindle Quip. I enjoy changing it out for different occasions. You guys always come up with such clever ideas.

We got many other wonderful and memorable things from family this Christmas too. I am only posting the ones that were house decorations. We are always so blessed with wonderful and thoughtful gifts at Christmas, thanks to everyone who gave us such nice things.