Blog Interference

I have been to two weddings in the last two days. Memorial Day weekend and Curtis' best buddy Andrew married the lovely Courtney in New Braunfels. The adorable one between them is Andrew's daughter. Courtney stole my heart by making sure that Angelic Munchkin was involved in every part to the event. They took turns holding her as they cut the cake. They danced with her, separately and together. Oh her special wedding day, Courtney could have chosen to have this not quite 2 year old somewhere else. She did not. No wonder Andrew loves her so much! We had a blast at the reception. I dance with 2 of my sons. Curtis was the best man and in addition to having the rings ready at the appointed time during the ceremony, he made a pretty good toast to the happy couple at the reception. Video to be posted soon. Morgan was an usher and Ms. Desiree his lovely date. Those two are so nuts about each other, they almost outshined the bride and groom. Harris looked like Rick Castle - ruggedly handsome. Andrew and Courtney leave tomorrow for Navy life in California. I pray they have some wonderful adventure and are true to each other for ever.

Then there was the Monday morning wedding. A beautiful woman whom I've known since she was 14, who used to babysit for my boys - even before there were 4 of them - tied the knot with her Prince Charming. As Rachel and Robert beamed at the alter, the priest who officiated and who has also known this bride since her teen years when she babysat for his young children as well, said the sweetest things to the groom. He told him how long he had known the bride and that she was a brilliant, loving, wonderful person who was on the ball. He then told the groom that he must be someone very special if the bride had chosen him to share her life with. I felt exactly the same way! May they always feel as blessed to be in each others lives as they clearly felt as the exchanged vows this morning. Thank you Rachel and Robert for allowing me to witness this wonderful day in your lives.

So all I wanted to do this evening was get all this in writing and Her Royal Majesty, Princess Batik decided to take a kitten nap in my lap - with her head on the keyboard. I moved her, she went back. I put her on the floor, she came back to my lap and resumed her position. It sort of reminded me of dealing with a determined 2-year-old. I did, however, prevail in the end and here is the proof. It has been a really good Memorial Day weekend. I finished the lots-of-prep-work purse and it is most acceptable. I began and finished my last show quilt top. I made the backing for the other show quilt and took both of them to Wonder Wilma this afternoon to be quilted. I also made progress on a couple of other projects and have cleared the way my big June project which I am not at liberty to discuss just yet.

Well, it's almost June. I have lots on my calendar for June and I will end it by turning 50 years old. Those who know me might think it's just the 5th time I've turned 10. I am going to have some fun in the next few weeks. I might just get started on that in the morning - why waste time. . .

You just never know whom you'll meet next.

So here's what happened at my house last night. Harris came home from New Braunfels and said one of his Army buddies was in San Antonio for 2 months of training and he was coming to our house to have a beer with Harris. No big deal. When Menashe arrived, Harris introduced him to Hollis and then to me and I hugged him. I've had the pleasure of meeting a few of Harris' Army buddies and I like to hug them when I meet them. If they are important to Harris, they are important to me. No big deal. In the course of conversation over the next half hour or so, I was trying to connect Menashe to the other guys I had met so I was asking if he knew this or the other guy and Harris said "Menashe was in Iraq with me in the 1/64." Then he turned to Menashe and asked "Were you on duty the day I got blown up?" and this young man in my living room said "Yeah dude, I pulled you out." Ever so casually he said this. Like "Yeah, I had a burger for dinner tonight." Only it was a very big deal. I was completely floored. When I wrote my essay about Harris earlier this week, I sort of got into memory mode. I don't go there often but I've been hanging out in the memory of that part of my life a little more vividly this week and now all of a sudden here is one of the angel heroes who came to Harris' rescue when he got hurt. WOW! I asked a couple of questions about the whole event. Menashe was not terribly interested in discussing it. I totally respect that and did my best to shut off the interrogator in me which is not easy to do. I really just wanted to stare at him. I never, ever thought I'd get to meet the person who pulled Harris out of the exploded Husky. Will he ever understand the depth of my gratitude? Maybe - he has a 6 month old son himself (who incidentally is named after Alun, Harris' best friend that was killed when they had been in Iraq less than 90 days). Will he suffer for years with the memory of Alun's death and Harris' injury? I really hope not. He's just a guy from Brooklyn, New York who joined the Army and befriended my son and then pulled him unconscious from a big vehicle that had just been blown up. He was in my living room! Isn't that just amazing?

What's a distraction and what's an excuse?

So all day today I have been learning how to decorate my blog. Allow me to say TA DA!! Oh, don't get attached. I have discovered a treasure trove of decoration and I plan to make use of different items on a fairly regular basis. The problem is this undertaking is distracting me from project-of-the-week - the purse. I have made progress. All the supplies I need to make it are not in this house. I would say about 70-80% of the layers are even cut out. There are 2 more types of stuffing that have to be carved up and then I will be about ready to head to the the sewing machine. I am not giving up! Stay tuned. The only issue is this: for this 3 day weekend, I had planned to at least cut out the other quilt top to be built for the quilt show. Do we allow that to interfere with purse construction? Do we aim to leave the blog in it's current decorated status until these projects are complete? Do we just come up with some distractions and excuses and do what we want? What was that I said earlier - ah, yes - stay tuned. . .

Until we meet again.

I had to say good-bye to someone today. The thing is, I knew the instant I met him that he was just passing through my life. I knew he would be off to a big adventure sooner rather than later but I opened my heart and let him in. We had some silly fun together outside of work. We ran some errands together on weekends and he even helped me decorate my Christmas tree this past year when I just wasn't sure it was worth the trouble. We laughed together a lot and even though we haven't been side by side at work for a couple of months now, I knew where he was if I needed a grin and a hug. He's leaving for this new big adventure in the next day or so. I will see him on Facebook and know that he is okay but we all know it's just not the same. Good luck Brat! Thanks for your open loving spirit and please, PLEASE take care of yourself. I am very going to miss you!

Updates and a new dilemma. . .

Updates first: 1. My draft of H is for Harris, H is for Hero was accepted in it's entirety! The person who requested it read it late last night and said it was fine just as it is. Great relief. I shared it with a few people today and it was very well received. I won't put it here until it has reached it's final destination but I am pleased with the reaction. 2. Peaches continue to ripen and plums are not far behind.

The dilemma comes next. While in the quilt shop this weekend - not the 3 times in 3 days shop, but another one in town - I saw this really cute purse and it's pattern. I purchased the pattern and some really great fabric for the purse. Tonight, I began cutting out the pattern. But take a look at the instructions!! There are 3 pages of instructions and the pages are 15 X 21" each! I'm not sure I have what it takes here. The body of the purse is fusible fleece and fusible interfacing and it calls for layers and layers of the stuff. Not only that, you have to make the cording for the pocket. I guess one more trip to get more supplies at Hobby Lobby tomorrow and I will see if I can decipher all these directions. Maybe I should have asked to borrow the sample in the store. I may have to visit it once or twice. Oh, and I'm going to see if there is an instructional video on YouTube. Isnt' everything on YouTube? It just didn't look that complicated in the store. . .

Words, words, words

So today I was asked by a distant not quite relative to compose my thoughts about Harris as hero in his military service and recovery from his "adventure." That's easy! Then I was told to do it in 150 words. HA! That's just silly! I know how to be succinct. I don't often choose to be, but I do know how. I like words. I love making up words and do it all the time. When people say "Is that really a word?" I say "Did you know what I was trying to say? If so, then it's a word." Loose definition, I know, but I stand by it. It turns out one (maybe more) of the boys is really, really good with words. He doesn't make them up, he just does a really good job of using a wide variety of them. I have a hunch his punctuation is not all that terrific - he reads his compositions to me - but his word choice is amazing. This makes me very happy. Maybe he will have a blog some day. He did write a poem when my dad died that still makes me cry every time I read it or even think about it. I married a guy who is also great with words. Never, ever ask him to proofread something after it is published. You will regret it. So my 563-word composition will have to be trimmed down. Maybe I got the assignment wrong. I'll check into that. . .

Oh, and another thing. . .

Are you allowed more than one post per day? If not, please don't report me to the blog police - I'm still new at this! Okay, Sunday evening update: dinner was a smashing success. Curtis came over, Harris came home from the lake and the 4 of us had roast on our new deck furniture. Lovely evening, yummy food and some of my best work for company - good times! Here are the cobbler recipe and some photos.

Jamboree Peach Cobbler:

1/2 cup marg or butter (I use butter)

1 cup flour

2 cups sugar(divided)

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp baking pwd

1 cup milk

3 cups fresh peeled sliced peaches (I use more)

1 tsp cinnamon
dash of nutmeg

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Melt marg in 9x13 baking dish. Sift flour, 1 cup sugar, salt & baking pwd; blend w/ milk. Pour mixture over melted marg. Spread peaches over this & sprinkle w/ other cup of sugar mixed w/ cinnamon. Bake about 50 mins. to 1 hr. Crust will magically appear & cover entire surface of cobbler.

Enjoy!

Recipe courtesy of my mother-in-law. Laundry is still tumbling but I took some time to clear off one of the more cluttered surfaces in my studio and make a list of projects and their degree of completion. Thankfully, the list is not as daunting as I imagined. I think I'll go to work tomorrow to take it easy for a few hours. . .

Ahhhhhh Sunday

Well here we are at 3:00 Sunday afternoon and so far - it's been a really productive day! I taught Sunday School for the last time this school year and the kids were great. I took a photo to post but I have to wait for one more parent to give me permission to post it before I can share. The Pentecost service was great complete with an awesome sermon. Then after a quick stop at Wally World to exchange a boo-boo purchase I made last night, I came home, started a roast (Sunday roast - gotta love that!), changed clothes and ran to the quilt shop. We won't talk about how it's my third trip there in as many days. They did not have the fabric I went to get. I had to change my game plan for my show quilt. Fortunately, I don't have much trouble with this sort of thing. I decided what plan B would be, made my purchase and headed home. I have now finished the quilt top for what will be one of 3 show quilts and it is so freakin cool!! Wanna see a photo? Too bad! I don't want to post a photo until show time in July.

Next on the agenda is some baking. I have to get a peach cobbler into the oven and then I will bake a loaf of beer batter bread to go with the roast. The peach cobbler will be made with peaches from our tree! They are delicious and thanks to my mother-in-law, I have a great recipe for cobbler. In between all this kitchen nonsense, I will knock out a couple of loads of laundry. Boring, I know, but I am building a picture of productivity here so I felt compelled to throw it in. Curtis is coming for dinner. Maybe Morgan and Harris too. Maybe I'll talk to Clayton and make it a perfect day. . .

In the blogging beginning. . .

I really, REALLY enjoy other peoples blogs. I think I will see if anyone enjoys mine. . .

The photo was taken on Mother's Day eve. We went to dinner and then they boys posed for the photo. Clayton was somewhere in West Texas.

Prepare for photos of quilts - especially ones under construction, photos of our fruit trees - they are overwhelmed with fruit that we are just now harvesting, and photos of people I love. I'm going to be 50 next month. There will be extensive photography of that!

Okay, I'm off to be inspiried. . .