Graduation party

Spencer's quilt

Eli's quilt

Elijah and Spencer's graduation party was last night. Audie and I arrived at Dad's about 6:30 and helped with the finishing touches. Janice and Maritza had put a lot of time and effort into this party. There were: meet and cheese trays, cheese and cracker's, fruits and veggies. Then she made red punch and had a gorgeous cake. Aunt Naomi, Uncle Dan, Carmen and the kids were there, as well as Raegan, Brent, and Hayden. Uncle Jeff came, but Aunt Bea had a graduation to attend. The surprise of the night was seeing Mr. and Mrs. Roberts as well as Grandma Roberts.

The boys opened their quilts and loved them. When I told Grammie that I was going to finally give them their quilts she asked if there were monkeys on them (refering to her sock monkey and sock monkey curtains). I told her there were no monkeys because the boys had picked out their fabric and that wasn't what they had chosen. She looked at me and said, "Well, damn!" That summed up that conversation.

fabric, spring cold

As if I didn't have enough fabric at home, I went and bought more fabric today. I'm going to sew a monochromatic quilt. I have white in it, but I think this is OK considering that white is not really a color but the absence of color. I took my quilt pattern into the store and the woman patiently helped me figure out how much fabric I need. For some reason, the pattern I have only tells how much fabric I need for one block not an entire quilt. I probably bought too much fabric, but that's better than not enough. I'll also have leftovers to use in my scrap quilt at the end of the year.

I woke up this morning thinking that my allergies had flared up overnight; however, as the day goes on I believe I just have a cold. What a bummer. This is a busy week and I don't have time to be/feel sick. I've been using my oils and taking Vitamin C, so maybe it will go away quickly.

This past weekend I went down to Aberdeen to visit with my family. Mom and Dennis drove up from Colorado as well as Misti and little Dagan. It was weird to be at Grandma's all weekend and not have cousins coming over. Besides Nick, Misti, and I, the only other young person there was Travis. It just had a different feel to it. We did get to see all of Grandma's siblings and some of Grandpa's siblings. I also got to know Dagan and play with him. He is definitely all boy and loves his cars. I finally feel like an aunt now that I've spent time with him and heard him say my name.

This week will be busy because Audie comes to town on Thursday and is staying through Sunday. He is coming because Elijah and Spencer are graduating from High School. I find it hard to believe that my little brothers are finished with high school. I remember Spencer's Kindergarten graduation the year I graduated from high school. It seems that it was just a few years ago. I'll post pictures when I have them. Elijah is leaving for Tuscon, AZ on June 8. He's not letting any grass grow under his feet. Spencer says that he's staying here and going to BSU. Maritza just finished 6th grade and will be in junior high next year. I have realized that time flies by fast, especially when you get older.

What a day

Today was crazy. My alarm went off at the normal time, but I had a rough time getting up and so ended up crawling out of bed way later than normal. I woke up with a very heavy heart due to the fact that I had heard some bad news from a friend yesterday. I started praying as soon as I woke up and prayed most of the morning. Work is just a little stressful as we are winding down the end of the school year and everyone wants to be finished. I was supposed to attend a meeting this morning, but it was canceled, so I was at work not really wanting to be there. As the day wore on it did get better and for that I was grateful.

After work I went to spend the afternoon with Grammie and Pa. Grammie was in a great mood, but Pa was quite dizzy and feeling very sick. I sat work on the crossword with Grammie, but we didn't get too far on today's puzzle. I realized that Tuesday's puzzle was still available so we worked on that. Since Grammie has a hard time hearing sometimes it came make the crossword interesting. Like this afternoon, I asked for a scoop holder that started with a "c." She thought I said soup holder and told me the answer was a tourine. I then reminded her the answer started with a "c" as in Christmas, or cat. Let me tell you that just confused the situation even more. After hearing the work Christmas, Grammie that I needed the answer noel. I had to start all over again with the original scoop holder clue. When we finally figured out that we were talking about two different words she started laughing hysterically. It took awhile for her to stop laughing and when she did she declared that "that had hurt." I'm glad I can make her laugh. After we had exhausted that puzzle, we looked at the latest Martha Stewart magazine. It has tons of great, bright pictures and I can keep up a running commentary to amuse Grammie. The first picture I saw was for blueberry scones. I told Grammie that I had never made scones before and I wondered if they were hard. I asked Grammie if she had ever made then and she said, "No, but you could make then sweetheart. They wouldn't be that hard." I just smiled, but inside I was so happy that she still remembers me enough to have confidence in me.
We continued looking through the magazine and ran across some crazy ways to spice up one's personal alcohol stash. This consisted of adding beets, chamomile, lemon, or many other crazy things to your alcohol. Grammie didn't seem all that interested in the options. :-) The food section was fun with lots of different ways to serve cold soup: carrot, cucumber, pea and best of all- corn and coconut. I told Grammie I would let AJ know to serve cold soup for lunch tomorrow. That about did it for the magazine after that. I told Grammie about the quilting guild and she thought it sounded like fun. I said good-bye and left to run to the bank.

When I got home I had to look up the address for the quilter's guild meeting tonight because I had lost the paper that I had on Tuesday. After booting up the computer, looking up the address, finding the address on a map, and looking up books to buy it was time to gather some quilts and run out the door. I figured I would grab dinner after the meeting. When I got to the meeting I left the boys' quilts in the car and went in to wander the "yard" sale. When I was about 1/2 way through, Gwen (the woman who invited me) came up and gave me a huge hug. She was so glad I came and wanted to know where my quilts where to show. I brought them in and got them ready. In the meantime, the secretary of the group befriended me and let me sit with her. I saw the most beautiful and creative quilts during show and tell. I talked about mine and told how Eli's had 1,000 pieces and Spencer's glowed in the dark. The comment about Spencer's earned a laugh. Afterwards some of the women came up to look at the quilt and I was warmly welcomed back. I can't wait to go again. What a wonderful bunch of women. The only catch is I have to make my name tag. I suppose I'll think of something.

After the guild I went to Barnes and Noble to buy some books for my friends. I didn't find what I was looking for so I walked over to the customer service desk. Would you know it, but the person there is the same person who can't remember that I work in the school district doing the same thing that he does. I said a quick prayer and walked up to the counter. He was happy to see me and he did remember my name. I think he was going to ask where I worked/how work was, but at the last minute he asked about a mutual friend. We talked for a minute and I left. I came home and typed out my day. I can now say I'm ready for bed and will probably fall right to sleep.

Chris' quilt

Here is the quilt I made for Chris.

Tuesday, May 19

Today our 7th graders took an exam in history. I helped one boy study for it yesterday and couldn't wait to hear how his essay had gone. When I asked him about it he replied it had been horrible. I reminded him we had studied and asked which question he had written on. He told me he had written about Japanese Imperialism. I was excited. This was a fairly easy topic to write about with clear sub-topics. I asked what he had written. He said, "Westerners weren't not allowed in Japan." I said that was true. He then said, "Christianity was not allowed in Japan." I said that was also true. Then he said that the black people were labeled as Bantu's. I looked at him and said they were labeled as Bantu's, but that was called the apartheid and that was a completely different question. I tried to assure him that he had correctly written two paragraphs and the teacher would give him credit for that, but he did feel bad about throwing the apartheid question in with Japanese Imperialism.
After school, I decided to go look for fabric at a local store. I have decided to make a monochromatic quilt and I'm trying to find the fabric before I dive into a new quilt. As I wandered the store I heard two older ladies talking about their quilts. They were discussing which quilts they would enter into the quilt show. One lady showed the quilts in a book she had been making. She makes them exactly like they show in the book with the exact colors. That seemed a little much, but whatever suits her. Then the second lady commented that she had a quilt with 300 pinwheels. I about died at this point. I joined the conversation and commented that I would not be making a quilt that they were showing in a book. One lady asked how long I had been quilting and I told her 2 years. I also told her that I just finished my 6th and 7th quilt of the year. They about died. I was invited to visit the Bogus Basin Quilt Gild this Thursday, and was also invited to bring some quilts to share as one of the ladies was in charge of sharing time. Well, I guess I have a place to be on Thursday night. [It's also yard sale night and people can bring their extra fabric to get rid of. Maybe I'll see some good fabric to buy. I'm not sure that my 50 yards I have from the Joann sale is enough. :-) ]
After the quilt shop I decided to have my tires on my car rotated and the oil changed. I had called Les Schwab earlier in the day and they said it would take and hour to rotate the tires and another hour to change the oil. Two hours... come on. I could change the tires and the oil in two hours. That is, if I had: a car lift, powered lug nut tool, oil pan, oil, and oh yeah a spot. I mean really, I could put a quilt top together in that amount of time. So, I went to a different Les Schwab and had the tires rotated in 30 minutes. Then, I went to Jiffy Lube and had the oil changed in 10, plus they vacuumed my car. Now, I just need to hope for a good rain storm and I can pretend I went to the car wash.