That was fun!

Wow!  That was fun!  Everyone has picked a quilt and they liked doing it.  I got a kick out of the process so I will probably do it again.  I actually have enough quilt tops done already for next year, I just need to quilt them.
Just to clear a few things up.
Ben, These are "Use" quilts.  You will probably have to inherit the "Look at" quilts. Sorry, you will have to paint that wall after all.
I know it appears that the order was from whitest (Sarah) to not so white (Val), but that was pure chance, and also very funny. Maybe next year I will have someone from a remote area do the drawing. When Sarah was drawn first I expected someone to say, " Yeah, because Sarah is Mom's favorite." Sure enough, Sarah herself said it. But I let the draw stand even knowing I was going to get flack. And you have to admit, her excitement was pretty funny. Sometimes having children is a huge chore even when most of them are over 30!  I'm glad Val ended up with the Valentine quilt, cause she is Val.  I thought that was appropriate.
Abby already claimed her quilt.
Caleb is only 16, I'm not wasting a quilt on him yet. Maybe next year.
Love you all.  It sure was fun that you were excited to get one of my quilts.

Quilts for Christmas

 I'm sure you will all be happy to know that I now have teeth! 
 I have decided to give all my children a quilt for Christmas.  I am putting a picture and description here so they can pick which one they want. Since I'm sure they will all want the same one, I will draw names to see who will draw first, second etc.
This is the order of the draw.
Sarah
Andrea
Betsy
Hannah
Abby
Valerie

Here are the quilts.

                             Purple Mystery-56 inches x 56 inches

                                                              Crazy Hearts-54x69  (Abby)

                                                  Valentine Hearts-78x85 (Val)

                                  Cowboys-67x81 (Sorry for the bad picture) (Hannah)

                                              Civil War X's and O's- 75x83 (Betsy)

                                               Simple Frustration-71x86 (Andrea)

                                                   Purple and Turquoise Boxes- 63x75

                                                     Homespun clover-72x98 (Sarah)
Pick which one you want and I'll get it to you, starting with Sarah. There will be one left over. Love you guys 

I can't believe I'm sharing this

 I can't believe I'm sharing this.  Last week I had some teeth pulled and bone grafted.  I cannot have any temporary teeth until the graft is safe, another 1-2 weeks. I HAVE TO GO AROUND IN PUBLIC LIKE THIS FOR 3 WEEKS!!!!  I try not to smile at people and  I talk with my lips covering my teeth, but can only maintain that for about 4 1/2 minutes. So I get a lot of funny looks and spend a lot of time explaining my dental woes. It is painful to eat so I dropped another couple of pounds (not a bad thing). This time next year I should have a mouthful of beautiful teeth.

 In the meantime I am finishing a lot of quilts.  This cute bear is my souvenir from Alaska. Great fun to make and awesome to look at.

This is the Christmas quilt I finished last year but didn't get back from the quilter until January, so I didn't bind it until yesterday.

This is one of the quilts I sold to pay for my Ipad.

This is another one I sold to pay for my Ipad.

By the way.  I LOVE MY IPAD!

Also, I won another ribbon with my "In the beginning" quilt. I've entered it in 3 shows and came home with 3 ribbons. Nice....

.So I need to hide in my basement and finish a bunch of quilts.  I have 12 waiting to be quilted.

Alaska Cruise

We went to Alaska on a cruise.  I wasn't real excited about going someplace COLD on a cruise.  That just seems wrong somehow. Until I saw Ketchikan.  It looks just like Northern Idaho which I LOVE.  I absolutely loved the whole cruise.  This is Ketchikan.

We went with 10 people in Jim's family, and some of us rode in a float plane!  It was so fun!

We saw a family of Orca's.

We saw Humpback whales from the side of the ship everyday.  I got several pictures of "Flukes" which are their tails as they dive.  They were huge and magnificent.  I wish I could have touched them.

The scenery was nearly prehistoric. I couldn't catch my breath.

We saw several Glacier's.  We sailed down Tracy's Arm to see Sawyer's Glacier which was the biggest we saw.  This one came clear to the water and big pieces would "calve" off.  There were mini icebergs all over in the water.

Of course it was very COLD by the glacier.

We even saw fresh steaming bear poop on our hike.
I lost my cell phone, found a great quilt shop in Skagway and ate myself into a near coma.  All in all, a great vacation.

The wedding

Last Saturday my youngest and last DAUGHTER got married. (sniff) Here she is with her cute new husband Kameron.

Jim and I with the newlyweds.

Abby and her Gorgeous sisters!

Her beautiful bouquet that was made by my Daughter Betsy, See andersoneverafter.com

All the beautiful, artistic pictures were taken by my daughter-in-law, Valerie. See alittlebitothisnthat.blogspot.com.

It was lovely and perfect and I'm glad it's over.

Catching up on stuff

For my birthday (almost 2 months ago), Jim got me a Kindle.  It is SO COOL!!!!  I read and read and read and even better, my Kindle READS TO ME!  Most books are text to speech enabled so I can have it read to me.  It is a computer voice that reads phonetically so sometimes it is quite hilarious, but you get used to it and it sounds totally normal after awhile.  I can read and sew, or read and clean, or read and work on the computer to my hearts content.  It is a multi-taskers dream. Thank you Jimmy.

This is what I woke up to this morning, MAY 24, 2010, almost June!

Branches are breaking and it is still snowing.  What is going on!

One Month Later

Exactly 1 month later, this is how full my M&M jar is.  My friend suggested I measure my family as well.

Hank's funeral

Not long ago I blogged about going to see Hank because he was supposed to be dying.  I was glad to have made the trip but I didn't believe he was very close. He died the morning of Valentines day. I had to teach Young Women that day and random things kept making me cry. It was a rough day. 

The funeral was Friday in Boise and I had to speak. It was very difficult to find good things to say, but it was a great thing for me to do.  I had the opportunity to remember the good times and the good things Hank did.  He was not completely evil, he was a great drum teacher.  His methods would have him in jail these days, but his students revere him. Three of them played at the grave side ceremony.  It was very touching.

There was a military ceremony that was very touching.   A soldier played Taps, and the flag was folded ceremonially and given to Jane, his last great love.  It was great.  I liked this part better than the funeral.After the funeral, there was dinner at the church for the family.  I saw lots of family that I had not seen for decades, some that I had never even met, ie stepbrother's children etc. I also saw family that I love to bits, like my Danelle.

It's over. Hank is gone. Strangely enough, I think I will miss him.

Valentines Day

He went to Jared!

My valentines gift from Jim.  What's up?

23 bags of M&M's

I got this nifty Jar for Christmas.  It was originally filled with lemons and limes and has all my grandchildren's names on it.  I put shortbread cookies in it for awhile and a few M&M's that I had.  Which led to the question, How many bags of m&M's would it take to fill it? I got a bunch of M&M's on clearance and went for it. Hannah, Kendall and Caleb guessed how many it would take and Kendall was SPOT ON! 23 bags!

M&M's  are everybody's favorite thing to have in the jar, but nobody is content to look at it as you can see.  The next poll is "How long will 23 bags of M&M's last in the jar?"

Family Theme 2010

Jim, Mom and I went to Boise to see Hank. He is frail and in a lot of pain, but was still sharp and witty. He had a hard time functioning through the pain and it was obvious he was a demanding and frustrating patient. Poor Jane is worn to a frazzle. She put him in a Nursing home temporarily so she could get some rest. She feels very guilty about it. If Hank could get comfortable, life would be easier for everyone. I don't think he is as close to death as people have implied. I think he is months away, much to his dismay. He is tired and in pain and ready. I am very glad I went to see him. I remembered how good he was to me. He sent me to college and was present at every important event in my life. My poor excuse of a father never bothered. Hank was a mean, violent selfish man, but could also be generous and loving. I will try to remember the good times. The bad thing about this picture is that I lost 25 pounds and still look like a porker. I just started back on my diet.

My cute friend April inspired me to have a Family Theme this year. I used President Monson's question, "What did you do for someone today". I bought and painted a magnet board to put it on. Underneath is a quote form Elder Uchtdorf.

Sorry it is sideways, I forgot to turn it around before I imported it. I love the thought that the number of prayers we answer may be more important than the number of prayers we say. We ask each other what we did for someone today whenever we think about it. I actually woke up the other day with the thought "What can I do for someone today". That is the idea, to make it be a natural part of our thought process each day, make it be a habit. It is a little hard for Caleb since he is at the "ME" stage of adolescence, but I think it will really help him. Thanks for the idea April.