Just a Bump in the Road

Have you ever had one of those weeks were you wondered if it was a total waste of seven days?  Well that almost could be said about last week here at our house.

 I started out with good intentions.  Monday I was on the road to getting back into my routine at the gym and spent some time with B and the little Peanut.  The fabric I had to hunt down on Ebay for a special project arrived and I was all ready to do work on that the rest of the week.  Tuesday came and so did Peanut for a day with Grammie.  We played.  I didn't sew.  I was looking forward to Wednesday as a mall trip and lunch with a dear friend was planned.  But I woke up with the flu.  Yuck!  I spent the entire day in bed and I don't remember the last time that has ever happened!  Whether it was the dreaded H1N1, I'm not sure, but I don't really think so.  It was more of a stomach type virus.  By Thursday morning I was better, but hubby was down with the same thing.  Since I was the back-up sitter this week for the regular babysitter who was on her honeymoon, little Peanut was back with Grammie. (So far, he's still healthy!)  Grampa got sent to recouperate in the basement and Peanut and I just didn't do much of anything.   Friday brought a burst of energy and I tried to catch up on laundry, groceries and housework but by the end of the day I was exhausted.  With D still recovering too, we didn't get much done Saturday either, except a little shopping.  So much for my good intentions!  But now with that behind us, I'm looking forward to this week! 

With either lousy weather or sickness keeping us in the house the past few days, we were ready to venture out on the Harley for a short ride today.  The fall color is near peak around here and it's surprising with as much rain as we've had that so many leaves are still hanging on.  We took some back roads over near the river and found some pretty places to stop and take a few photos. 

We've ridden by this bison ranch before.  I'm not sure if they knew what to think of us.

This helmuted, chaps wearing creature hanging over the fence with a camera was probably rather amusing to them (just as it was to me!).  By the way, have you tried bison meat?  One of our favorite breakfast places serves bison sausage and D loves it.  They're just now beginning to carry it in the local grocery stores and the ground meat as well. It has good flavor and is nice and lean.  My apologies to the photo subjects above. 

Little Peanut is growing up so fast.  Here he's just getting ready to do his little flip back over from his tummy to his back.  Thus the sober, determined look on his face!

Grammie and the Peanut before the week went downhill.  My attempt at a windy self portrait with the little guy.  He looks rather worried here.  I think he's used to me being on the other side of the camera! 

I didn't mean for this blog post to be such a "pitty party".  I try not to do that so I'll promise to do better next time.   So much for this week, a better week is ahead......!

Pumpkin Farm Adventures

Lucky me!  We took a quick trip over to see the our Missouri family last weekend.  Look who's walking (and running)! 

I was invited to the pumpkin patch with little J, his mama her, friend and her children.  It was pretty cold but we had a fun time.  This little gal is only a few days younger than our grandson and already wedding plans are being made!  She is adorable and I had so much fun photographing the little ones.  Her big brother was kind of camera shy but Miss M was not!

How do you like this wind blown shot?  He sort of looks like he's practicing for his future GQ cover! 

His daddy wanted to try his hand with the new Nikon.  Someone was curious! "What cha doing Dad?"

We took a few fall family photos outside before we left. 

Another cutie pie pic. 

Not much else going on here this week.  We're closer to getting the final touches on the kitchen and once all is done I'll post some new photos.  But a small setback tonight when one of the doors was dropped during installation.  Now repairs of dents and scratches will have to be made. Someone was pretty unhappy with himself!  It seems like fall came so quickly and weather has turned too cold that we didn't get all the motorcycle rides to see autumn colors in.  We had hoped to accompany some friends on a longer  trip next week, but a business trip again had to take preference. We're hoping for a warm weekend here and there before winter sets in so we can get out on the Harley one more time. 

Have a good week!

Happy Fall!

The Fall Quilt Show organized by Park City Girl has certainly been fun.  Thanks for all the nice comments about my quilts and for all the visitors who've stopped by this little blog!  I've no where near looked at all the quilts and blogs (I think there are over 600 by now!) but every day I try to look at a few.  There are some very talented people in blogland!  If you need some quilty inspiration, just click on the sidebar badge or here. 

Now after all that, I should have another quilty type project to brag about.  But everything that I have been working on either needs to be kept under wraps for awhile or else isn't quite to the bragging stage. So instead I'll go with the travel theme and show some pics from our last motorcycle trip a couple of weeks ago.  It seems that it might have been our last trip for the year too with the arrival of cold, wet, fall weather.  But the day we drove up to Greene County, Indiana was perfect for a motorcycle ride.  D had read about the longest railroad trestle in the United States located near Solsberry.  It is 2295 feet long and 180 feet high and built in 1906.  It's located pretty much out in the middle of nowhere but half of the adventure was finding it.

D and M climbed all the way to the top and took a photo of me and R standing near the motorcycles down below. 

I guess he thought that since he'd just climbed the Great Wall, he could handle the "great" trestle!  I don't think M was as excited about the height as D was.  You can see D waving from the top, but barely see M as he wasn't thrilled about getting close to the edge.  Can't say that I blame him!

After they enjoyed the engineering and the view, they decided the trestle is probably still in use and it was best to climb down.  Luckily, no trains came!

Today was such a rainy, dreary, cold day that baking seemed like a good thing to do.  I found this recipe for Pumpkin Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies  on the Tasty Kitchen website.  They turned out great.  Now I just have to keep away from them. 

Here's my kitchen helper today!  The little Peanut is looking like the little Pumpkin today! 

Speaking of pumpkins..... We're so excited that we'll get to see this little one this weekend and maybe go to the pumpkin patch with him and his mama.  Evidently he's walking everywhere now so hope I can keep up with him!

HAPPY FALL!

My Fall 2009 Quilt Festival Entry

Amy at Park City Girl is again hosting a Quilt Festival.  Welcome to my entries for the Fall 2009 Festival!  Click on the link button on the left side of this post and you'll be guided to her blog where you can find sooooo many wonderful quilts for your visual enjoyment.  I'm sure you'll find some very classy and professional looking quilts there and mine in no way will compete with those!  But I'll show a couple that I've actually fully completed this summer/fall.

This is the newest grandbaby's quilt that I completed back in June shortly before his birth in July.  I used Jungle Jumble fabrics by Michael Miller and the Wild Thing pattern by Thimble Blossoms.  The colors and design looked great in his orange/zoo animal themed nursery.  There are more photos back on this June blog post.   All the quilting on this one was done by me and although nothing fancy, it feels great to be able to say I completed the entire project.  I'm a little embarassed by the photo above though, as it does show a little mistake with the crooked backing.  Oh well, it was so fun to make and the little Peanut will not care! 

 

I just posted about this quilt a few days ago but worth repeating.  Originally not my favorite quilt, but it has been growing on me and I feel that I did a pretty good job on it.  The quilting was done by a LAQ though.  This was a Block of the Month quilt for 2008 at Among Friends Quilt Shop.   I had never done a quilt with the blocks set on point and have to admit a little frightened to cut that one block in half ! 

So if your day is as rainy and dreary as ours is here in Southern Indiana, you can spend hours lost in browsing through the multitude of entries over at Park City Girl.  HAVE FUN!!

He's Back !

In my last post I said D had been busy with work "stuff".  Not your ordinary work "stuff" mind you, but a twelve day jaunt to China to train new employees at a new company office and plant.  He left me behind at the homefront and though I would have loved to go along, I didn't relish the thought of days alone in a hotel room in a strange country.  Maybe next time though! 

The streets of Shanghai were just as busy and crowded in the middle of the night as they were during the daylight hours.

He and two co-workers were able to take a weekend jaunt to Bejing and take in some of the tourist sights. 

He did, in fact, climb the Great Wall !  Though it was hot and humid, they managed to cover at least a couple of miles of the wall.  The entire week the skies were overcast and hazy so photos didn't turn out as good as he'd hoped.  Here's the proof that he was there!

They were also able to go to Tiananmen Square  and the Forbidden City.  Security was stepped up in Beijing as they prepared for their 60th Anniversary and decorations were being put in place for the coming celebration.

Company employees gathered for a group photo.

The new office building and production facility under construction. 

As was the case when he visited here four years ago, the food selections were "interesting"!  I think this is pork and one of the more palatable ingredients he found. 

 He brought home lots of goodies including many of these moon cakes and lots of tea.   

It's nice to have the hubby home, safe and sound, even if he is still suffering from jet lag.  He flew back into Chicago last Thursday and instead of coming on home, I drove up and met him and we spent a couple of days with daughter E.  We drove up to Milwaukee on Friday and toured the Harley - Davidson Museum.  I'll save that for another post.  But it was interesting and definitely worth the trip especially for Harley owners.

Have a great week!