Christmas Bridge

Our bridge group, Christmas 2007

Kay's Christmas Block

This is Kay's Texas Christmas Block. It is all machine appliqued.

Big Bag Block

This is the block that made from Charlotte's Big Bag 'O' Scraps. The block is called Duck and Ducklings.

Another year older!

I am another year older today and I thank God for that!

Home Grown, Vine Ripened Tomatoes, YUM!

Rex did a great job this year on his tomatoes. We also have a refrigerator full but they'll be gone after Wednesday. Our kids and their neighbors are coming for 4th of July. What they don't eat they will take home (Sugarland) with them. The grandkids love to go to the Parade in Centerville. It's a small town parade, craft vendors, quilt show, dominoe tournament, judged home canning and baking and fireworks Wednesday night. The little kids love to see the all the horses and floats. Hope it doesn't rain.

The Wackies at Dahlia's

Cardinals

Here is the male cardinal feeding a baby.

The baby below is getting up courage to leave the nest. Male and female are flying around him chirping (encouraging him).

Voyager of the Seas Cruise Ship

The midnight buffet.

Our Ship -- Voyager of the Seas

Cardinal

This cardinal built her nest in the ficus on our back porch. this picture was taken through the window. She now has three little babies. Last year she raised three in this same tree (different nest).

Emily's Week in Leona, Summer 2007

She loved the bubble bath in the jet tub, picnicing with Grandma in the "little forrest" and driving the mule, although the sun was in her eye. Since my hip replacement, I can't get on the ground with her but Grandpa did. We had a great week.

Block of Month for Wacky Pak

This is a Texas Wildflower block that I made for Rhonda. Her quilt theme was Texas. There is Thistle, Indian Paintbrush, Bluebonnets, Lazy Susan's and Primroses. It is machine appliqued. Can't wait to see the quilt put together.

This is Kathleen's block. Her theme was Lighthouses. I paper pieced this block and let me tell you, there are some very small strips in here. It enjoyed making it -- it was a challenge for me.

I've got another Texas to finish for Annale and a Texas Christmas for Kay. Plus another Texas block for Relay for Life for next year.

Cruise

Yea!! We're going on a cruise -- The Wacky Pak. There are 8 of us going on a seven day, Western Carribbean cruise. A quilting cruise. We are going to take some quilting classes and sew on board as well as all the other activities and ports. My passport is expired so gotta take care of that next week. I know about the delay in obtaining passports but we've got until February so shouldn't be a problem.

Also going to Denver in August to visit my friend Marian. Marilyn, B.J. and I are going to play bridge as well as tour Marian and Jud's mountain home.

I am excited about both trips.

My Header

Yea!!! This is what I've been trying to do -- scroll in and fade out (in the same color) on my header. I can move on to something else now.

Lots of Stuff Going On

I haven't posted since the first of the month. There's been lots of stuff going on here. Two funerals -- my cousin and my very own Dad. Dad died peacefully in his sleep. He was 83 years old and lived a grand life on his ranch in Jacksonville. I had so much support from all my friends. I love you all so much and thank you for everything.

I bought a new lap top and signed up for Sprint PCS Wireless Network Air Card. It is soooo much faster than my old dial up. A Sprint tower is almost in our back yard. Maybe I can seriously upload and attach pictures now.

My new laptop is running Vista Operating System and some of the old programs are not running properly. My Embroidery VIP System seems O.K. except the 3D View does not work. Everything else seems O.K. I emailed Husqvarna Viking and (like all the other programs), they do not guarantee their software to run under Vista. I worked on my header a little bit more. I made fade in and out text on it but have not gotten the background color correct yet. I edited the HTML and changed the color value on the header background but it still is not correct. Will work on it some more. The GIF Animator that I used also has problems running with Vista so I have to go to the desktop computer that is running Windows 2000 to use this program. Seems most of the programs that we run do NOT yet have an update for Vista Operating System. I am hoping some of these programs will eventually have a free update for Vista.

My Kodak digital camera uses .MOV extension for the videos, which Windows Media Player does not recognize. Wish I had known that when I bought the camera -- bought the camera before the laptop. However, I found a QuickTime Variation on the internet (free) that I downloaded and it will play the .MOV Videos.

I spent a lot of time making movies (from pictures) with Windows Media Player. It is so much fun. You can add music, captions, tons of different effects -- fade in and outs, spins, etc.

Just got to get back to sewing. Finished Kathleen's block and will send it to her as I will not be able to go to WP dinner this month because Emily will be staying with us next week.

More later ..................

Leon County Relay for Life

Here I am on the 'survivor's walk' at Leon County Relay for Life. Rex and I went to the dinner in the HS cafeteria and then to the football field for the relays and games. LBC had a team and we visited with them for a while. Karen told me this morning that they were rained out around 4:00 am but they walked until then.

A "Floor Hug"

This picture is not turned. Emily lays on the floor and Katie lays on top of her for a "floor hug". We stayed with them in Sugarland last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed them. They both were real "Grandma's" girls. They both wanted to sit in Grandma's lap, both wanted "Grandma" to play with them. Poor Grandpa.

WOM Spring Fling

Here I am today at Madison County Library using their computer. The library has DSL (I have dial up at home) and so is much faster to upload these pictures to Picasa.

Sherry and I decorated this table for WOM (Women on Mission) Spring Fling. Sherry grew the Irises in her garden. They were absolutely the most beautiful Irises I have ever seen. (I brought them home after the banquet).

You can click on WOM Spring Fling under My Pictures on the sidebar to view all the pictures. They are not very good pictures this time. They are all very dark. Each table was decorated differently, different theme, etc. There was "an evening in Paris", memories, beach, cowboy, snuggly bears, spring garden, and others. We had dinner, entertainment (songs) and two testimonies. It was a very nice evening.

Bridge in April

Just back yesterday evening from Sugarland. I was hostess at our monthly bridge club although we had it at Ellie's house. They tried to come to Leona before but then had to cancel because two of them couldn't come and I have NO substitues here. I served 'make your own' taco salad like Melissa serves at Compass Centre. They really liked it. Store bought cake for dessert since I was in Bryan all day Wednesday at doctor's.

We spent the night at Doug's and enjoyed our grandkids. Since Katie (2-1/2 yrs old) was born, the family has always endearingly called her Katie "bug". Well, now in day care they are learning their whole names. They asked Katie what her last name was and of course she said "BUG". LOL. She and Emily are just so sweet. Katie always wants to 'go to Grandma's house'.

Today I am resting.

Quilting Friends Retreat

The three of us (Kathy, Kathleen and Jerri; known as the Brat Pak) at Quilting Friends Retreat at Compass Centre in Mt. Calm. Wow, what fun. We laughed, sewed and ate. If you haven't been to Compass Centre you should make plans to do so. The food is wonderful! Melissa is a wonderful hostess, just SEW accommodating.

The quilt in the background is mine. At least the blocks are -- haven't put it together yet. I worked mostly on swap blocks for the WackyPac. Kathy and Kathleen had their laptops and communicated with the WackyPac members that were not there.

I hope to get all the pictures uploaded today. I was excited to get pictures of Shirley as she usually manages to elude the cameras. Monica and Kathy were crazy. Kathy was on such a high Saturday night that I thought we were going to have to give her some Prozac. LOL

Still haven't made an album of my quilts. Gotta get pictures of them. Going to Bryan tomorrow, to bridge in Sugarland on Thursday, decorate a table for WOM Spring Fling on Monday night. Maybe one day next week I will find a day to take the pictures.

Blogging

I've been all over this internet today looking for free blog buttons, badges, and clip art. There is so much out there and my dial up is so slow. I found some glittery artwork after I saw Molly's blog. Really, tomorrow I must stay OFF this blogging thing and get ready to go on quilt retreat this weekend.

My New Camera

I'm practicing with my new camera.

Easter Sunday Morning

Surprise, it snowed in Leona last evening. Maybe three inches. It as the first time we've seen snow since we moved here 10 years ago. It was exciting.Our son and family had other plans this Easter weekend so Rex and are here and I am playing on the computer. We arrived at church this morning to see that the parking lot was empty. We were met by our preacher who said the electricity was off and so no service. We drove toward Madisonville with the intention of going to Mt. Tabor church and alas, they also had no electricity. We just went on to Madisonville and ate lunch at the Woodbine. It was delicious as always but I was disappointed that we didn't get to church service especially on this Easter Sunday.

Bridge Group, Dec. 2006

Shirley, Pat, Linda, Joyce,

Marilyn Sue, Jerri, Ellie