SEWING DAY

Amber brought the babies from Denver and stayed for a few days. I made these little skirts out of scraps, but as you can see they are not the way cute scraps, they are just what I had on hand. Carien had made this pattern for her girls, and Brooke made one for Alyssa, so I thought I would try the pattern too. CUTE, but these girls are cute no matter what. Hallie knows just how to pose when you say "Cheese".

Addy has been wanting to have me teach her to sew for a long time. We got her project done, a book bag for school. Addy designed this book bag herself and picked out the material which you can't see very well, but it's cute, dragon flies.
(Sorry we will have to post Kayla and Mylee's projects later when we are done.)

Wow, amazing that this is the first time in my life I got my Christmas quilt done in the summer. This wasn't an old project either, I really concentrated and pushed myself to finish a project start to finish in one week. YEAH!

Erin made her little super-hero his dream quilt. We were able to find most of the super-hero material, but some of it we had to buy on Ebay because it is hard to find. I have to hurry and quilt it before he starts sleeping in his "big-boy" bed too!

BOOKS I HAVE READ THIS SUMMER

I managed to squeeze in a little reading this summer. Here are the books I have read. Most of them were recommended to me by someone else, and some I liked and some I didn't like. I had no idea that in the 1940's some of the people in Korea were forced to take Japanese names. Based on real events in the history of Korea that I never learned in History class. Most of my education didn't explain much war history beyond the dropping of the bomb in Japan, and this is written from the perspective of a 13-year-old Korean girl and her brother who was trained as a Kamikaze pilot.

I loved wrapping up the 3rd book in this series, the continuing story of Sarah Pine in the early territorial days of Arizona. Tough lady who had a lot of crazy wild west experiences. This one ends really well in spite of how the author likes to kill so many people.

I really enjoyed this book. I can't look at bees the same way again.

I really liked this book. It was much better than the movie, and really a very surprising ending.

I loved this book even though it was written like a documentary. I have spent a lot of time wondering if there is a lesson in this, like, how can we be more prepared? It is a bit hard to follow because there are no major characters, it is just a sequence of events. But really, can you ever feel safe after reading this?

I thought this was a really delightful book with so much character and fun! I would recommend it to anyone.

I wasn't too crazy about this book, but it was a really sweet story and so positive set in a time where there were so many horrible things that could have happened

Oh my gosh, I loved the first book; "Rebbecca", but this one was terrible. It was no more than a stupid romance novel obsessed with a self-absorbed narcissistic main character, and it never addressed the negative consequences she caused all the other characters. No poetic justice here, so don't waste your time.


I usually love Maeve Binchy books, but this one was a lot of words that didn't wrap up in a meaningful way like some of her novels. It was interesting but it ended in a way that demolished the purpose for even writing it. I couldn't quite catch the point, it was just sort of a log of events that didn't evolve into any kind of interesting delima.

This was interesting because it gives you a glimpse into the secret world of Muslem women.

This is really outstanding. What a great book, it is like I need to rip out every page and glue it to my mirror or fridge.

I thought this was going to be stupid based on the story we are all familiar with, but I found it be be quite cute.

GRANDMA SLEEPOVER

Last weekend I had a sleepover with about 7 of my grandaughters.

First we had a hot dog barbque. Then we played DDR on my x-box.

Then we went to the park and did some fireworks that Sage brought for the party. (It was Pioneer Day, we had to celebrate)

Later we watched HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL while eating popcorn and candy and we tried really hard to stay up until midnight. Then we all slept on the deck. It was a pretty hot night!

The next morning we went to breakfast at the Pioneer celebration at Brooke's neighborhood for Pancakes and a parade!

Brooke is in charge of all the Neighborhood activities and she planned all the fun for the day. She made up some prizes for the most patriotic and other awards. The whole event was a success!

I think that the girls will want to have a sleepover again soon!

SPECIAL BIRTHDAY NIGHTGOWN

last January i bought a ton of yardage of some cute pink tricot. I launched on a plan so that each of my granddaughter's ( YES - all 15) would get a handmade nightgown for her birthday this year.

Well, last weekend I invited all my granddaughters (age 6+) to come to a slumber party at my house. Poor little Emma who has one of the last bithdays in the year (August 30) realized that SHE was about the only one that didn't have a pretty tricot nightgown.





She said in her sweet little voice; "grandma, how come everyone has a pretty nightgown and I don't?"





I felt so bad.

SO, today i am taking her a birthday nightgown that I finished yesterday so she can take it on vacation with her to Lake Powell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ON THURSDAY EMMA!

GETTEN IN SHAPE

I joined Gold's gym so I could get in shape. One day I tried the class called "Boot Camp" which is code for "running around like crazy". This is the kind of workout that no one over their ideal weight should try because Advil cannot take away the pain afterwards. The bottom of my feet were pretty sore from that, so I decided to find something that would be more pleasant.

I was excited to try the Spinning classes especially since that is something I have always enjoyed. Well I tried a few and found most of the classes are full of 20-something "aerobic-queen want-a-bees" (that means REALLY HIGH IMPACT kind of work-outs...)...not very many recreational riders like me.

But today I tried the Monday morning 5:00 a.m. class and the teacher said he is 70 years old. Perfect I am thinking, just my style of riding. Wow was I wrong. This guys worships at the alter of Lance Armstrong and he was determined we were all going to learn the "Lance Dance" for an entire hour of quad-busting. Okay, I checked out his legs, I know I am a pretty old lady, and this guy is a geezer too, but I would say Dr. Oz would say his "real age" based on his legs would give him a several decades advantage, I guess I would say his legs are a healthy 40 years old. I am guessing he is one of those guys that rides 50 miles a day on his bike and thinks hills are our friends.

I will probably go back next week.

I will let you know if I actually ever get in shape. Right now I am just glad I am holding off getting diabetes since based on my "bad lifestyle choices" (quote from the trainer at Gold's Gym), I am totally a high risk candidate.

MERRY CHRISTMAS - again

Look what we saw out our window when we woke up this morning, April 16th. What a beautiful winter we are having lately. My tulips keep trying to poke their heads up, but they are having no luck!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY today to Tom and Amber! Mylee's is next week!How do you like the apron Erin made! Amber bought the material and was going to make it for her friend....Well, Erin saw the material sitting here for a month and decided to help sew it and then modeled it too! Amber loves it and decided to make a different one for her friend. I think it is so cute I am making one for my friend too!Hayliann stayed with us while her parents were on vacation during Spring Break. She dressed up for the talent show at her school and sang "Popular" (From Wicked) in the talent show! It was really cute. She did it like a spoof, cute. Brooke hated to miss it so I was the designated vidoeographer by default. Novice that I am at technology, I didn't know how to use the video camera, it was so technical. I desperately called Brooke who was in San Diego and said; "how does this thing work?" She said; "isn't there some 12-year-old around the auditorium that could explain it to you?" Well as it turned out the little 12-year-old girl sitting next to me designing apps on her I-phone was able to explain it to me in very elementary terms like; 'ON" and "OFF". Lucky for Brooke, I captured the entire performance so the family could enjoy it since they missed it while on vacation.We have 20 grandchildren, with 3 on the way...So you can imagine the logistics when a bunch of them are here at the same time - c-h-a-o-s!! We just don't have enough "kid stuff" to keep them entertained. Luckily I purchased my (and Lisa's) favorite chick-flick DVD - "Enchanted". Grandpa Rock kind of thinks it's cute, and thankfully, it was a sucessful granddaughter-magnet as Rock piled a bunch of them on the bed to watch it. We've got a lot of "chicks" in the family. Stone bottom left was just wanting to join the party, we really didn't have to find something for the boys to do because we have an x-box in another room.HEY WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL MY APPLES? Meika, Jayma and Sienna love the apples.
Grandma's day outing with Amber and Erin and the Easter bunny at the Mall. That darn merry-go-round went so fast I never got Jayma except in a blurr.....

WORKING HARD THIS WEEK

I have been working hard at being a Realtor this past few weeks. Some good days, some bad days, but the best of all was when I sold AMBER & JAKE'S house! Yea. It was only listed for 8 days. The first 7 days it was pretty quiet.....then we found the perfect buyer!

Since then, I have had TUNZ of calls about it! I wish I had 6 more like it to sell!

(Notice my "For Sale" sign in the upstairs window.) Notice all the pretty flowers Amber planted in the front....

But for the sad part, they are moving to DENVER in a few weeks. I guess they will be somewhere in the middle of Sarah and Camille. Hummm.....What's the draw to Colorado anyway?

Now I am trying really hard to find a house for Lisa's Auntie. Everytime we find the perfect house it gets sold....so we are still looking. This is more fun than a real job!