Odile and Duncan

Recently in the weather there has been much ado about the remnants of Hurricane Odile. Normally storms like that do not come our way, but this one did. There were places in  SW that got many inches of rain. Our town and others in the county were preparing for the worst. It rained all day Tuesday but we were spared. Hopefully the rest of the SW will be alright, Texas was hit hard. We are very thankful it wasn't too bad here.

View of a misty mountain, Steeple rock.

On Tuesday we had a downpour of rain. The Drain can't drain fast enough and it backs up in what we call our patio.  (which needs a good once over)

Here is the street view of that same moment. 

I hate wet dog, so I do indeed force him to wear a rain slicker.  Most of that day we had a fine Irish misty rain.

In Rhiannon's neck of the woods the town set up free sandbags to help in case of flooding.  The weather service was predicting severe flooding so Eddy and Quinton went a got quite a few sandbags to barricade around the doors of their house. Quinton had to go straight from football practice.

Quinton (white pants) surveys the area

Quinton zip ties a bag, while Eddy lugs a bag to the car

Eddy makes it look easy, 

thankfully we got some nice rain but not the severe flooding.

Here is some of the many sunflowers that are about currently.
Thanks to all this rain we have lots and lots of greenery and plants. 

Magic Quilt

 I am a gal of the opinion that you can't have too many quilts (see former post). I was at the thrift store when I found a blue quilt tossed amongst ratty blankets and sheets. I picked it up gleefully. After a quick glance over it I only saw a small hole that went all the way through the quilt and a few stains, nothing that couldn't be fixed.  I am guessing it is from the late 1980's or early 1990's.  As I held the quilt I sensed something magical about it and I could instantly picture myself taking a Sunday nap under its cozy, worn warmth. 

One worry at this particular thrift store is that it is mostly unpriced so you take your selections to the front counter to check out half holding your breath that the worker will give you nice cheap prices. Once in a while it backfires and you are taken back by your total.  (Like the time I took a screaming kid to the car and Ashlee had to check out for me and the worker charged me like five bucks for each hoodie somehow my total was thirty bucks needless to say I returned those hoodies and got my money back pretty quick.) 

I approached the counter with a friendly greeting and put a ziploc bag with three colors of felt on the counter next my quilt.  Ziploc bag of felt $3.00, way too pricey for a bag of felt so I put it back.  Nice pieced quilt $3.00.  Yippee! That was my happy purchase of the day!

Lovely Quilt

Small hole that went through all layers of quilt

After researching online the best way to repair it, I decided that zig-zagging the hole would work the best and then I could put an applique patch to hide it. Once I zig-zagged back and forth many times I decided I didn't need to hide it with an appliqued patch and so I just left it as the repair was unnoticeable.  Of course if you had an heirloom quilt or really old one you probably would want to repair with some other technique but since this quilt is just a friendly everyday type I went with a simple repair.

Zig-zagged back and forth to repair it

As to its magical abilities that I sensed when I first picked it up, 

I found it really does put one to sleep quite quickly.

 Here I am wide awake and antsy.

Magic Quilt has me under her powers

Walla, instantly I fall asleep for a lovely nap. Just to note, I usually sleep with a sweet smile on my face, I am just lucky like that. You should see my sister Ashlee sleep, not so pretty, maybe I should keep my eye out for a magic quilt for her. Ha, who I am kidding if I find another quilt I am totally keeping it for myself besides, a gal can't have too many quilts!

Eighty-first Birthday Bash!

My sweet Grandma Parke had a birthday and so some of her family gathered for dinner and a party. We had a lovely time and delicious food. It was a build your own burro (chipotle style) and a nacho bar. Although Grandma Parke doesn't like a big fuss made over her it was good to get together and celebrate such a wonderful lady who loves to do for others!  She is such an example of love and service.

Grandma (center) with her older brother Norman and his wife Lois

The tables all had such lovely flowers and tablecloths. (Thanks aunties for such a pretty party.) You may note a aerial McCoy, that pole has been climbed by many children over the years.  It is quite a feat to be able to climb it without any help.  

Party time

Two Quints, Declan and McCoy enjoying some grub

Three pretty ladies

There was even a wee table with flowers, that Zany (yes she wore that cute dress again, it's a favorite) and Archy got to enjoy

Before we knew it it was present time, the most looked forward part of a party next to the cake that is.  The children swarmed grandma to be up close to see the action.

Grandma opens presents surrounded by children

My Grandma has collected American Girl Dolls for years and she was tickled to get a miniature version of  a doll. Zany was quite envious of this gift not so much the other presents though. 

Ohh, what a lovely doll! thinks Zany

 My aunt (center) is an amazing artist who drew a portrait of Grandma Parke with her mother as a six week old baby. It was so realistic I thought it was a photograph. This picture (below) of it doesn't do it justice since the flash hit the glass unpleasantly but it is so wonderful.  Ashlee and I often decry our lack of amazing talent since so many of our kinfolk on both sides of the family are so gifted.

LaVona and Baby LaVana 

(you never guess it now but she was a very chunky baby)

The cake we really delicious and had a lemon filling with a whip cream frosting. It was huge too which made my kids super happy since we took home quite a bit of the leftover cake.

You only get to celebrate a octogenarian once in a while so to make the most of it the kids may or maynot have continued the celebration in the morning by having cake for breakfast (with a cold glass of milk, of course).

Happy, happy birthday Grandma!

Getting to know: Remington the Pug

Remington joined the family in Oct 2008 for my Birthday. Rhi knew that I wanted a Pug, and lo and behold she found me one. He only cost $100! Quite a bargian. He lived it up as a Stud Pug and went by the name of "Pip."  He didn't answer to the name so I felt that I could change and picked Remington. Unbeknownst to me, he as a tattoo of  "Pip" on his belly. So that is now his middle name. He is great. All of Rhi's kids love him, though he doesn't much prefer to be chased around the house by Z. Pa and Remi get along famously. He knows all the tricks to get treats out of him.

Most of the time he is a calm, happy sort. He never chases anything, other dogs, cats birds. On his walks his favorite thing is to go right up to fenced in dogs and stare at them while they go crazy and bark, while he looks back mutely.

He is allowed clemency at Rhi's once a year for Christmas. He loves heat dishes and will go right up to them.

He has a very expressive face, I wonder what he is thinking...

In the winter, he twirls himself into blankets.

Happy New year!

He can be distracted by the promise of a treat. This is his most intense expression, "feed me!" He will even don a dreaded Halloween costume without complaint.

What They Wore-Black, White & Blue

Despite my childrens protests and sometimes scriptures are quoted to me, 

there is no rest from dishes on Sunday!

Declan unloads the dishwasher (photo by Archer)

Auntie Rebecca had the high honor of picking the color for the Sunday clothes.  She chose black, white and blue.  Wait you say isn't that the same dress Zaynzley wore last Sunday?  Yes, it is. I had picked a cute little black and white dress out for her and she refuse to wear anything but this dress (Grandma Parke made for her) which she wore last Sunday. It wasn't worth a long fight so we gave up and just paired it with a cardigan.  People under three shouldn't have such strong opinions. (Ha)

Black, white and blue-ish group

A sweet grandpa that was in my ward (church group) passed away and his whole extended family was at church. He always reminded me of my grandpa who passed away in November 2013.  I could just see his recent widow across the chapel and as we sung the opening hymn "I'll Go Where You Want Me to Go"" I shed a few tears in memory of my grandpa and also for this sweet family who so missed their husband, father, and grandfather.  I usually associate that hymn with missionary work (it was also a missionary homecoming today) but today I was thinking how it applied to death.  A couple lines from the hymn stood out to me : 

But if, by a still small voice he calls

To paths that I do not know

I'll answer, dear Lord, with my hand in thine:

I'll go where you want me to go 

Sometimes you really don't want to see your loved ones go and leave this earthly existence and they may not want to go either, but trusting in the Lord to know where the he needs you or a loved one whether in this life our the next can bring peace.  Jesus Christ's hand really is in ours through all things if we will let him. It is such a comfort to know there is a plan and a purpose to our life here on earth and we can be reunited once again with our loved ones. I know I am really looking forward to giving my grandpa a big hug when I see him again!

Archer's Apple Annie Field Trip

There are some scenes in certain books that just stay with you no matter how many years pass. I can clearly remember one such scene from Cormac McCarthy's All the Pretty Horses. The main character says apples are the best thing to eat because after you finish eating them you still have the delicious taste of apple in your mouth long after.  I never noticed that about apples until I read that book. A good apple does linger lusciously in your mouth.  I think the best apples are local apples (too bad they are only around from such a short time), I take my apples tart and crunchy! So I was glad that Archer got to go with his kindergarten class on a field trip about forty minutes away to pick apples. He was very excited about it and in the days leading up to his trip he kept asking me what size apple he should get each of his siblings.

Proudly showing off his picked apples

Apparently he wasn't able to get everyone in the family a apple but he told me, "Thats ok we could share them since they are so big."

Here is how his field trip went in his own words:

"On the way back I sleep. It was a long field trip. I picked apples. The worker said twist and pull the apples. Snakes live there and they have little holes. But there was just apples and trees. They said be together. There was a bathroom, it had blue water. There was soap to wash your hands. We ate lunch under a big shade. I ate sandwich and grapes and juice. There was not worms and we rode on a tractor a white one. It took us back."

It took about forty questions to elicit all that information as Archer is not the most forth coming of boys. I had to pack a lunch/snack for him since he was going to be gone all day. I made a Peanut Butter Sandwich (no jam just PB is how Archy takes it), pretzels, peanuts, cheese stick, grapes and juice.  He only ate half of his sandwich and that was it. Sometimes you wonder why you bother packing more than just a sandwich for lunch.

Archer with his leftover lunch

Archy asked, "Mom take a picture of me with my grape guy."

Archer made a whole family of grape people

I guess he had to do something with all that leftover food. I can't wait to try his fresh picked apple and I am even looking forward to the lingering apple taste! Maybe the rest of the family will share just the one apple.  I did go to all that work packing his lunch.

PA Project: WWII edition: Sniper Rifle boxes

I had the inkling to take a picture of this project a couple of days ago, but alas didn't. It started out as just some old 2 x 4 and various scrap wood he had around. Quick as a shake of a coyote's tail,  he was finished, so I got no pictures of the boxes in progress. He made WWII replica boxes for the shipping of sniper rifles.  Here is the finished products. He did all the leather work, painting, and building, without any plans just his own mind. I too have lots of projects in my mind but unlike my dear old Pa they never turn out quite like I want them too. (I'm looking at you Dalek Cake)

The Allied version, even made the old label.

Here is the inside of the box, with the rifle inside.

Always being a fair minded soul he made one for the Axis.

It doesn't stop there. Here he is making a WWII style scope cover out of leather.

Bonus lizard photo. I have been trying to take a picture of 1) A cardinal that hangs about our house 2) A falcony hawk bird that can be seen about. To no avail. After sitting out side camera in hand I decided I needed a picture of something and this guy crossed my path.