This summer while Bob's son Jeffrey was in China teaching English, his dog Stretch stayed with Bob and Diane. Both they and my children got very attached to Stretch.
Case in point. GR came home from work one evening and Sam was having a rough wake up from his nap. GR asked if he had missed him and Sam wailed ... "Stretchy!" ... "Sam, did you miss me?" .... sniff, sniff "Stretchy!" Stretch was also quickly added to the family prayer line-up - when the kids say family prayer they name off everyone in the family and Stretch was added in right along everyone else in the family.
When Jeffrey came back to the states for school at the end of August, Stretch went home, and Bob and Diane started their own dog search.
Last Tuesday night they picked up, Puppy W., from a shelter south of town. And Thursday the kids and I went to meet her. Diane let the kids pick out the name, and she's settled right into it - LUCY. Even Sam can say her name. She is incredible with kids! And is very fond of licking faces, ears, and feet.
Before heading home, I sat the kids down around Lucy for a picture of the four of them. In all the pictures I took, Lucy is looking at the camera, looking perfect and never moves (except to lick Sam's ear - look closely in the picture)... the kids on the other hand, well I have one okay shot.
Saturday the kids, Grandma Mum and Grandpa Bob introduced us to Wheatfields breakfast (cinnamon rolls, French toast and omelets) and our local Farmers Market. Both have become a little Saturday morning tradition and they wanted GR and I to experience it, as well as Grandma Mutti and Grandpa Art who were in town visiting for the weekend.
Walking through the farmers market GR found a Lebanese Woman selling Lebanese foods... their lemonade (quite tasty!) two different breads stuffed with meats, and a treat cut into a diamond shape with a blanched almond in the center of each diamond.
We purchased the treat, which was very different - had the consistency of a dry lemon bar (sticky/gooey and dry at the same time) but definitely didn't share the same taste or sweetness as our lemon bars. I liked it, but it is a great example of how sweet American treats are, because this was anything but sweet.
This evening, Sam was looking for a pre-dinner snack, so I offered him one of the Lebanese treats. He really enjoyed them - finishing off the remaining two diamonds and consequently not eating his potato soup for dinner.
I've had a chance to talk with Mary Ann on the phone two weekends in a row!! She asked about what projects I was working on and I sent her the following pictures that I thought would be of interest to some of you:
Flag Wall Hanging
The cream and red stripes are quilted using metallic threads… gold = cream and red = red. I added small red seed beads sporadically over the red metallic quilting threads … 3 beads, 2” space, 7 beads, 1” space, and so on. They add just a hint of sparkle to the quilt and make you want to take a step closer to check it out, which I like. This is very different than any other quilting project I've done, which I also like.
Butternut and Blue
I started this quilt when I was pregnant with Sam - it was a class done through a quilt shop in KC. I finished the blocks last Spring and had the columns of squares assembled by late Summer 2004. Then I went on the hunt for the blue fabric. I found some in February, but none of the local shops had a bolt of it, only fat quarters. I found it online, but kept hoping I could find it in a shop and never did. So I ordered this fabric from an Ohio quilt shop's website. I called to make sure the colors were what I wanted and they shipped it out to me.
The woman who taught the class (Barbara Brackman) is a quilt historian, fabric designer and publisher. She is publishing a book and has put out a call to all former students to submit pictures of their finished quilts or quilt tops to be considered for publication in her upcoming book. The color is a little off, which is too bad because they are really pretty, and fairly accurate to the period (civil war era).
Each of the blocks is for a woman involved in the civil war, MO KS border wars. I’m not sure what kind of quilting I’m going to have done, but I defiantly want to have vintage/civil war era quilting designs used. This may take some research and some asking around. I’m hoping Barbara Brackman can provide some suggestions.
Bears Paw - for Sam's room
This is a vintage quilt top I purchased on eBay for $29. I’m hoping to have it quilted and use it on Sam’s bed. I like the steel blue and creamy white colors of the fabric. To help finish off the quilt and give it more interest, I’m removing the top borders (white, blue, white) that are actually the side borders and returning only the blue strip, and will then add a 5” border.
For the last 5+ years 30s/40s reproduction prints have been hugely popular. And I thought I’d try and find one of those fabrics to use as the border. Thinking I might have to lay it out on the back porch to fade it like the blue. Mom and I found the blue, cream, red plaid fabric pictured below, a 30/40s reproduction print, at a shop downtown. I purchased the remaining 2 yards (enough for the borders, and binding or pillow case). It goes beautifully – and doesn’t even need to fade! Next I need to find someone to quilt it … I hope that won’t be a challenge.
Sam and Emily had their well baby check-ups on Friday AM. Emily is now of the age where they want a urine sample at her check ups. So after they did all the check up things for Emily and Sam we headed for the bathroom. After waiting for a good 5 minutes, she was able to expel a drop of urine that never even dropped off her skin. So we closed the lid on the cup, and headed back to the exam room.
The nurse was so funny...
N - Well did you get the drop?
Me - Aahhh, no, I didn't. [Heck it came out of her body and rolled back and across her little bottom, how was I suppose to collect that one drop?!] My husband works here at the hospital, can I collect a sample at home and send it with him?
N - Yes, you can keep the sample in the fridge for up to 24 hours. Here let me give you another sterile cup for her sample.
[I guess it makes sense that pee would go bad... everything else has an expiration date.]
Me - Great, [I put the cup in my tote bag] we'll send it next week then.
Since pee goes bad in 24 hours, the earliest we could take her sample is this morning, and honestly I don't see the point of that. So the plan had been to take her sample Tuesday morning so GR could take it to work with him.
Last night Sam was playing with one of his favorite bouncy balls and putting it into a cute little container. It was cute that is, until I looked at it closer...
Oh well... I guess we'll get our third cup on Tuesday, and try again.
