Life Hit... Hard

When shit hits the fan and all of the sudden your hopefully calm and peaceful 2010 spins in four different directions at once you forget to update your blog... rather I forgot to update MY blog.  I has been a joyful and rough couple of months and I will sum it up with a short synapsis.  Also, if anyone knows why safari won't let me run certain pages please do give me some tips on fixing it.  I am currently running firefox to see this page. 

My last blog ended with MIL visiting.  Was a good visit over St. Patty's day and she made me curtains.  See.

She completed more but I don't have the patience to figure out how to make the pictures work.  Sorry.


My friend, her little boy, and her mom came to visit next.  This is the friend that introduced Eric and I so she loves and knows us both and we love her and her family just as much!  We went to the mall, chilled, and for my Bday went to Old Chicago with friends and went to The Farm for breakfast.  mmm mmm good best eggs benedict around.  I may have to go this weekend as that just made me want some!

Lucas got to see and feel the joys of fostering dogs:)

The weekend before my birthday Eric and I were walking all four dogs around the park by our house.  I had just taken two pills on an empty stomach which is usually not a problem for me.  That day it made me throw up on the sidewalk keeping two interested dogs at bay.  Hmmm I thought to myself, that is strange.  Got back to the house... peed on a stick three different times (three different sticks) and found we .....

Have a bun in the oven!!

Due date 11/2/10 and just found out it's a boy!

April was quiet and my Sister came to visit again in the first part of May.  YAY!

She will love me for this but these are the only ones I have of her visit.

On May 26, 2010 a good friend and Eric's squadmate, Travis Murphy, was killed in the line of duty.  To say the least it has been heart wrenching, horrible, terrifiying and painful.  I  knew what it meant to marry a Police Officer but had not expected it to happen so close or so soon.  Him and his wife are good friends and we will miss him soo so much as he was such a character.  I love his little girl with my heart and will love his little boy just as much.  Below you will find one side of Travis although there were many :) 

Miss you Travis.

Grandpa and Sunny came to visit middle of May and just left the beginning of June.  We were so glad to see them and spend some quality time with them.  Sunny is hilarious on the Wii.  Hopefully they will be back soon and we will get to WI to visit very soon.  Thanks for the visit!  We really enjoyed it all:)

They liked the new couch:) Love you Two!

Visitors Galore!

I am a tad bit behind in my blogging so here are some great updates since February.

1. My oldest sister, Shannon, came to visit from the cold of Colorado.  She is great fun and a great time:)  As you can see we took Odin and went hiking on South Mountain.  Her and I are both directionally challenged and we almost got lost but I had been on the trail before and the catastrophe of hitching a ride averted.  

My beautiful sister, Shannon.

Odin is the best hiker and he can go off leash and not wander so he always gets to come with. 

The smiles say we are sisters :) 

2. My Dad came to visit:)  I love when people visit!  I have missed my dad and haven't seen him or my sister for that matter since the wedding so it was a good time.  Dad and Ted (his blind and deaf dog) were down for 4-5 days to help celebrate Lyle's 90th and help us with a few 'honey dos' that were being neglected around the house.  Now, all of our closet doors close and open. 

The stairs were like walking the plank for this blind dog.  I literally had to wave my arms back and forth to get his attention most of the time.  

Juliet is still weary as Ted has a bit of an old man "I'm deaf and blind leave me the hell alone" attitude.  

3. My Great Uncle Lyle turning 90!  He and his wife drove from Oregon to AZ to celebrate with friends and family.  So not only did I see him and his wife but my dad and my dad's two cousins from WI Rae and Kris.  Also, I met a cousin I have in Gilbert?!  Who knew I had a cousin who lived here with the last name Bonkrude!  Cousin Matt seems like good S***.  

L to R: Bill, Dad, Eric, Me, Deyonne, Lyle

 

 

My Mother in Law came to visit her beautiful curtains will be included on the next post.  It has bee a very event ful 2010 and I have really enjoyed seeing all the family:)  We aren't planning on having visitors for a while but if you want to we have PLENTY of space and an open door. 

Friendship Star and Quilting Class

I needed to take a class to help me learn to quilt.  I headed online and researched surrounding quilt shops and their classes.  I knew I needed the right place to make my heart sing for quilting which I knew it could.  I can usually get a good feel from the information provided on the website and Quilters Ranch in Tempe really flipped my switch.  It is a bit of a ways from my house but I was willing to drive.  I enrolled and fell in love.  There were 10-12 students to start and of course a few didn't continue as retention goes but those who did were fun and enjoyable and an overall good time.  I will miss going, as this Thurs. is the last class and I unfortunately can not make it. 

Above you will see our fisherwoman who hooked us, Susan in pink.  Erin is sitting in the blue and I accidentaly cut Shirley in half. 

I am horrid with names but this young woman was super fun and likes to read blogs, so she will probably see that I couldn't remember her name:(  Her Friendship Star quilt top was BEAUTIFUL as you can see above.

Above is Susan with her Snowman Quilt for 2010, I love this quilt as I love snowmen also.  She got me into quilting hook, line, and sinker.  She is, I am pretty sure, the owner of Quilters Ranch but I would hate to mis-type that information.  I will double check and probably not get back to you about it but know for myself in further information telling.  Below you will see my finished product of the Frienship Star.  I know I will continuously visit the Quilters Ranch when I am over that way if not just to say hi or show my finished log cabin, which will be next. 

Below shows my favorite quilt top yet.  Granted, it is only my second but I am soo happy with the way this looks!! Primarily due to fabric choice and not skill of sewing and cutting well, I am still perfecting that part.   The goal is to cut and sew with percision and then your quilt top will lay flat making it easier to finish the quilting process.  This in not flat.  I am just tickled pink about it unflat and all.

The border is of cows and pigs and chicks and does not fit in with my decor at all but I just don't mind.  I just loved the odd colors of the animals and how fun it is.  

I did pretty well with my friendship stars and their points.  This may have something to do with the paper guides, those things are awesome.  I also made the borders wider than they were supposed to be.  I wanted the whole print in the border and had to double the original size to get it where I wanted it.   This might be against some rule or something but I figure it is my quilt so I can't make it how I want it right?  

Above you can see my cows and chicks and pigs. 

I am now working on the log cabin which will be done soon hopefully.  I will of course share and brag about that one as well. 

Half way there with the quilt

I finished my first quilt top!  I love it.  Doesn't the outer border really pull it all together. 

I am getting better at my 1/4 in seam and this has helped make it lay flat.. however the cutting straight thing is still a work in progress.  I am just proud I have one done and I can move on to the next. 

The next step to completing this fully is the batting and backing then quiliting it to make it stick together. 

Odin decided that he loves this quilt too and also wanted to be famous on the blog again since Dante has had all the fun lately.  He is my sewing partner.  He lays on my feet underneath the table while cutting and ironing and sewing.  On to my next quilt top, the Friendship Star, I am SO excited to do this all over again!

Let sleeping dogs ly.....

Cause if you wake them they will tug on Odin's ears and tail constantly, poo on my floor, and piss off Buster so he loudly barks and snarls every 3 minutes.  Ugh cute can only make up for so much foolishness!!

Skiing in AZ

We went up to Snowbowl in Flagstaff this last weekend and it was quite fun.  I love to ski.  It makes me really happy to fly down a hill on sticks, to crouch down and rip it up.  Since I can't take pictures of myself while doing that you will have to imagine.  Above is one of Kristen and I waiting to go up the lift. 

  Jill and Christy went snowboarding while Kristen and I, after a short lesson from Kristen to Jill and Christy, hit the big runs.  My boots didn't fit my calves very well so I didn't get as much skiing in as I wanted due to pain.  Downside to renting. 

Kristen is a good skiier.  I mean really good, was an instructor in Utah good.  Ya.  She challenged me, which I like and tried to teach me too.  I wish she would have gotten a picture of me falling down the hill after the mogul attempt.  It was fun to fall again.  I haven't fallen in a long time.  I am not a mogul skiier but I would like to try again. 

This is Kristen headed down the best run by far.  She was telemark skiing.  

The snow and skiing was fantastic and it was a balmy 45 degrees or so.  As you can see from Jill being in her underwear that it wasn't cold.  Couldn't ask for a better place to live than AZ in the winter, cause when we hit Phoenix again it was in the 70s.

Buster came along cause I felt bad leaving Eric with 5 dogs overnight.  Buster by far is one of the best behaved but is loud... a lot. He was a very good boy this trip.  He loves to go anywhere and Kristen's little girl, Ila, seemed to like him on the way up and back.

This was the beginning so I will end with it.  Christy and Jill looked 100% better than this at the end of the day.  I didn't see them but I am sure of it!

Hyper Henry

This is our current foster dog, Henry.  He is up for adoption starting the 19th or 20th.  All I know is that he is reserved for an adoption event and I had to sign a waiver saying that I wasn't able to adopt him prior to that event.  Like I need another dog....

He is super cute right... but super hyper.  I guess you kind of have to forgive him because of his age, 2 months but its a little crazy how much he jumps AT you.  I think he is going to be a really good dog if his future owner can control the jumping.  He has a good personality and loves to be touched.

Like every dog we foster, he wants to hump Odin.  This is the first foster that has tried to get milk out of Juliet.  She is just so patient with puppies:)  Buster and  Dante are basically annoyed with the whole situation.  Right now he is trying to electrocute himself by chewing on a cord thats plugged in and I am really tired of telling him to stop... should we see how this pans out?  Ok thats cruel, sorry.  He is quite cute and will make someone very happy as long as they continue to give him belly rubs, otherwise he will jump AT them over and over and over and over....