A Wedding in June

Yes there was a wedding in our family! Back in June we traveled up to Wisconsin for a wonderful weekend. 

 Our son and his pretty bride with his adorable little boys!  We took these photos in the bride's mother's beautiful garden while the professional photographer was also doing his job.  I hope they didn't mind, but sometimes it's nice to have some candid photos.  That's why it seems like everyone is looking off to the side in these!

 This has got to be my favorite photo of the day!  The littlest grandson was doing his best to stay awake during the long afternoon in the warm sun.  All the little ones did so good! They did get tired, and there was a  meltdown or two but overall, Grammie's biggest fears of grandsons running wild during the ceremony never happened.  (There was entertaining instance as the wedding party departed  the sanctuary, but we won't mention that one!)

 Another favorite of the day!  Our two girls!

 Ok.  So I've got lots of favorites! Love these guys!

 Nice to have a photo of the kids!

 Just swinging!

 The girls!  (We really need more girls in this family!! Hint!, Hint!)

 Parents of the groom.  And the groom!

 Another tired, but handsome,  little boy!

 The delicious wedding cake!  Note the cake topper.  It was originally used on my parents wedding cake back in 1950.  Again on my sister and bother-in-law's wedding cake in 1974.  Ours in 1975.  Our daughter and her husband's in 2006 and then last year our niece and her husband's cake in Oklahoma.  So the little bride and groom have been making the rounds!

 I have to admit that when I first saw these little outfits that had been chosen for the little ring bearers, I was a little skeptical.  (Sorry M and J!) But after I saw them on the boys and saw how proud they were to wear them, my opinion changed!  They were so cute and wearing the special "super hero" costumes, made them feel like a special part of the wedding.  So important when blending a new family!   And hence, another favorite photo of the day!

Here's a few more!

Congratulations to the happy couple!  We'll be over soon and expect a barbeque!

Back Again !

It's been awhile.  But many things happening here and "on the road" so I probably get a few things recorded here on the little blog.  Not so much because anyone will read this and be interested, but because I don't do any other journal.  At the rate I seem to forget things anymore, this is my best bet!  There have been some other trips, vacations and reunions but tonight I'll just post a few photos from a past weekend's ride.

Our new Harley.  We're loving this one!  We had to retire the 08 Screaming Eagle after almost 50,000 miles and before more $$Harley$$ were required to keep it in tip-top shape.  It served us very well, but had it's little quirks which so far we've not found in the new bike.  So far, we are very happy with the change!

Of course we're not ones to miss a meal so our first stop of the day was Eddie Montgomery's Steakhouse in Hodgenville, KY.  It's a pretty impressive place for a little town but when you are a successful country music star, it's nice to build something to bring people to your hometown.  

 If you get Southern Living Magazine, check out the June issue and the article about Rockcastle River Trading Co.  We saw this and decided it would make a great destination for our weekend ride.

Built by Jon Carloftis, a successful New York garden designer, artist and author, this little gift shop and gardens tended by his mother and sister, is a hidden gem off the beaten path. 

It made for an interesting stop on our weekend drive.  The weather has been so weird this year that many of the flowers were already past their prime.

Pretty scenes in Kentucky.  One of many barn quilts and handsome horses grazing along the roadside.

Since I started to write this post several weeks ago, I guess it is time to finally publish it!  Especially since we've had a few exciting events since then too!

On Memorial Day weekend we traveled back to our home towns in Kansas for our 40th (yikes that makes me feel old!) high school class reunion.  This is the OHS class of 1972, or at least a good portion of them.  .  No, that's not our high school as someone on Facebook thought, but the old Boy Scout cabin behind us. We had a great time catching up and visiting with some of our old friends.  I doubt that any of them read this little blog, but if they do....Hi there !!

The next weekend, my cousin and his wife and one of his sons were in the area vacationing. I actually did some entertaining and cooked a meal for them one night, then we met them for a nice long lunch at Wallace Station a couple of days later.  It great to see then again!  I hope they enjoyed their visit to Kentucky.

There is much more I need to post here, but will save it for the next time.  I hope it doesn't take me as long to blog as the last time though!  (Hint:  If you like pretty wedding photos, you will love my next blog entry!)  See you later!!

Hello Blog !

Hello Blog!

Thank you Google for making changes to Blogger so now I'm totally confused as to how I'm supposed to ignore my blog for weeks at a time then come back here and expect to put together a post about everything I want to tell you about! Sigh.

Anyway, I'm testing the waters here and posting a photo of the three little grand boys at Easter.  We loved having them all here, as usual!

It was also nice to have a new guest here.  Meet our future DIL!  Yes, there have been changes in the family but our son is happy and that's what counts.

We've not had a good photo of the local family recently.  They've been working on healthy eating, exercising  and financial habits over the past several months and it shows!  Congratulations to this happy family!

This is all for now.  I hope this test post works!

One down, Many more to go!

For the record, I'm working on some UFO's here.  This is a Block of the Month quilt from three years ago (I think!) at Among Friends Quilt Shop.  I haven't participated in the the last two years and I still have one other one waiting to be quilted. 

 I am really pleased with how Tina, the long arm quilter, finished this one up for me.  It turned out very pretty I think, though it is very "girlie" so I'm not sure where it will end up.  I probably could work on UFO's for many, many months and still have plently to do!  

The Last Days of Winter

As I told you in my last post, we spent a few days with our grandsons in St. Louis.  It was pretty nice weather  while we were there, except  for the wind!  I made an attempt to get some good photos of the boys but wasn't too successful this time.  Big brother J looks like he is going to strangle his little bro here, but in reality was just about to give him a hug!  They are very close and love each other so much!  The younger one ( I can't say little, because they almost the same size!) idolizes J and tries to do just about everything his big brother does.  

A few days after we returned home, the temperatures soared and like much of the midwest, we are having an early Spring.  My daffodils are going crazy - but I had a visitor who was doing his best to keep them under control!

This weekend the wonderful Spring weather continued.  It is hard to believe that there are still a few days left of winter and spring really isn't supposed to be here yet.  We took advantage of the warmth and got the motorcycle out and took a short ride on Saturday and again today.  Yesterday we drove up to Columbus Indiana and had lunch at one of the many little restaurants on Main Street.  They have planted Aristocrat Pear Trees along the street and they were so pretty!  

I don't know much about this, but we were impressed with The Commons.  I believe it was originally a mall abut has been re-purposed into an indoor park and concert venue. 

We could see kids playing inside on some interesting play structures.  It looks like a great place to visit with kids on a rainy day!

Another photo of one of the many trees lining Main Street.  This was taken on my phone and then edited using my favorite phone app, Instagram.  

No photos from our ride today.  But only because I was lazy and just sat back and enjoyed the beautiful scenery and weather.  Who knows how many days we'll have like this before the seasons realize they've gotten so mixed up!

The Terrible Day

Last  Friday, March 2,  was a terrible day here in Southern Indiana.  The week had started off not so good for my husband.  He was sick with either a bad sinus infection or a case of the flu, we're still not sure which.  Friday was the earliest he could get in to see our regular doctor. It was a warm, humid, weird weather day for the first of March and all of the meteorologists in the area were forecasting the high probability of severe storms.  The doctor's office as well as many businesses were closing early and as we headed home traffic was heavy since schools were sending kids home too.  Similar to the atmosphere when a heavy snow or blizzard is expected, but much scarier.  The storms were speeding toward our part of the state leaving damage in their wake.  We are lucky to have a very comfortable basement in our home and we parked ourselves in front of the television to wait for the worst to come.  It never came for us but it did come for many of our neighbors just up the road.  I'm sure you've all heard the stories of destruction in New Pekin, Henryville and Marysville and places in between.  Lives were lost, homes destroyed and property and businesses damaged.  It will take years for normalcy to return.  If you would like to help, please text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10.  There are many local funds established and with the help and prayers of surrounding communities and strangers, they will rebuild.  

The Henryville K-12 school was heavily damaged in the storm.  When asked what we can do to help, a friend whose home and business was damaged, only requested donations to rebuild the school.  Many are trying to get the country group Lady Antebellum to perform at the Henryville High School Prom and have put together this video.  There is a contest to see which high school deserves this honor.  It would mean so much to these students!  

Also please keep Stephanie Decker in your prayers.  She is a friend of a friend and the mom who sacrificed her legs while protecting her kids.  There is a fund set up at Fifth Third Bank, 392 S. Indiana Ave., Sellersburg, IN  47172 to help cover medical costs.  Checks can be made out to Joseph E. Decker for Benefit of Stephanie Decker.  You can click on the link above to hear story and her interview on The Today Show.  Have a kleenex handy.

But today is a beautiful Spring day.  It is hard to imagine the terror of one week ago.  We just returned last night from spending some time with the grandsons in St. Louis.  Their daddy was away on a business trip to China so we watched the boys for a few days.  I'll be posting a few photos later this week but I wanted to get the word out about the high school and Stephanie.  Thank you so much, if you are able to help them !

Button, Button, Who Has a Button?

Several years ago when my husband's grandmother passed away, I ended up with a couple of containers of old buttons.  A few years later, my mother's collection became mine too.  I remember her cutting buttons off of old clothes before they went into the rag bag.  Being the thrifty woman that she was, I'm sure Grandma C did the same.  Last week I was literally hit in the head with one of the jars of buttons during a fabric closet cleaning frenzy.  Maybe one of them was trying to tell me it was time to make use of these treasures.  

I might take me awhile to come up with enough  projects for  all of these.  But it was fun digging through them and wondering what type of garment each one had adorned.  I did find just the right ones to complete this bag from a kit I ordered from the girls at Sweetwater.  Cute, quick and easy - the best kind of project.  Guess I'd better get busy if I'm ever going to use all of these buttons!

Hello Again!

A six week break should be enough to re-new the old blogging mojo.  I'm not sure if it was, but the guilt of not updating has drawn me back here.

The short version of the events of the past few months.

 1.  The week after Thanksgiving we took our little RV to Florida for a few days.  We stayed at Topsail Hill Preserve State Park and loved the place. (The sunset photo in my blog header was taken on the beach there) But we had been thinking that we would like more space, so....

 2.  We traded for a  new to us (and much bigger!) RV on the way home!  We've only had a couple nights in it but are looking forward to taking a trip sometime soon.  A guided tour will follow!

 3.  Christmas was very nice.  Our son and his little boys from St. Louis, our daughter from Chicago and D's dad and step mom from Arkansas all visited over the holidays.  Of course our other daughter, son-in-law and grandson that live nearby helped to entertain everyone too!

 4.  I had been fighting a cold since before Thanksgiving that chose Christmas week to explode into bronchitis.  Then D came down with a sinus infection at the same time.  Bad timing, but we eventually recovered.

 5.  The little gym where I've been going to Pilates closed.  So I joined a new one where I've been trying to go regularly to a "Group Power" class.  Some days it makes me feel really OLD but since several of my friends from the old gym are there too, it's not so bad.  But I wish someone would explain why exercising to keep relatively fit seems like such a "job"?

 6.  I made my first purchase from The Home Shopping Network, the Singer 160th Anniversary Edition Sewing Machine!  If we ever take an extended trip in the RV, I thought this machine might be a good one to take along. I haven't used it much yet so can't give a true review.  It definitely doesn't compare to my Viking Designer II but I think it will serve the purpose.  It does look pretty though!

 7.  I've been working on several different sewing and crafting projects.  Since the three grandsons are growing up and are moving up to big boy beds, I decided this year I would try to get three twin size quilts done in time for Christmas 2012.  One is pieced and at the quilter already - unfortunately I forgot to take a photo first.   There's been a couple other little sewing projects and I've been crocheting quite a bit too.  After some time spent re-organizing my too small craft closet, I've decided I am entirely "too" crafty!  I've got too many hobbies that involve thread, yarn, fabric, beads, paper and all the books and magazines that try to teach me what to do with those things!

 8.  I thank (blame?) daughter B for getting me back in the mood to read "real" books.  The kindle app on my iPad is wonderful, but there's something about holding a book in your hands that feels so right.  She loaned me her Hunger Games series books and I read them all within a week.  Now I'm looking forward to the movie when it comes out next month!

9.  Even though I've been ignoring this blog, I still manage to keep up with several others.  One of my favorites is From The Strawberry Patch by Mrs. Goodneedle.   She recently hosted a "giveaway" as many bloggers do.  And guess what?  I WON!  I never win anything so this was a wonderful surprise.  My prize was the new Elm Creek Quilts Novel by Jennifer Chiavernini, Sonoma Rose. Thank you so very much Mrs. G!  I'm looking forward to turning that first page!

10. Now I have covered most everything I should have been blogging about these past few weeks, it wasn't really that hard. Thank you for your patience and I hope you will be back again for the next post!

Welcome 2012

Welcome to 2012! 

Now that I've failed miserably with the photo challenge of last month, I might as well admit that I'm taking a blogging break.  My heart just hasn't been into updating this little blog regularly.   I will continue sometime soon and I know this is asking a lot, but please don't give up on me!  

When we look at smiles like these, we know how blessed we were during the Holidays!  

I hope the New Year brings you all health, happiness and peace!