FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND

There is nothing I enjoy more than time spent with my grandsons.  And now that they are getting older, I get to spend time with many of their friends, too.  This has been a super weekend for Papa and me.  The boys came up for a visit and brought a friend with them.

The plans were to go to Lake Winnepesaukah in the evening to enjoy the amusement park rides.  However, we have been in monsoon rainy season here and it has rained constantly for the last week.  So plans were changed.

Our first stop was at CiCi's Pizza for a loud, but enjoyable, meal of carbs, carbs, and sugar.  This is a favorite place for the boys to eat, and now we know that Leah, Preston's girlfriend, loves it too!  They have to drive about an hour to get to a CiCi's from their town and we are less than fifteen minutes away from our location.  So, needless to say, it was a great choice!

On the way home from dinner we stopped and picked up fishing worms.  The kids went to the dock and fished for a couple of hours.   Of course they were standing under an umbrella the whole time because the rain never let up.  Preston caught one fish; Leah, his girlfriend, caught three fish (Yay for the women!); and Nick just watched and held the umbrella.  Preston later caught one of the snapping turtles which proved to be a little bit of a challenge to get him off the line.

We all gathered in the den to watch home movies eating popcorn and drinking lemonade.  This was so much fun.  We were watching Christmas videos of the now almost seventeen-year-old and laughing so hard we had tears in our eyes.  Our younger grandson is ten and, of course, he did not remember any of those homes they lived in or any of those early Christmases.  He just enjoyed laughing at his brother doing funny stuff.  The problem is that we have to get our footage of Nick, the ten-year-old's movies switched over to DVD and we have not done that yet.  Sorry, Nick, we are running behind schedule.

On Saturday we headed to the Tennessee Aquarium for some indoor fun where all the water is in containers.  However, we still had to trek around and about and it required us to wear these lovely ponchos.

 

We did board the Electric Shuttle to get around as much as possible.

 

 

We had such fun viewing all the exhibits.  I took lots of fun shots inside the Aquarium.

I love the silhouettes here.  It makes Leah look like a mermaid.

We had so much fun just laughing and enjoying each other. 

Of course, we had to have lunch.  I guess when you are with teenagers, pizza and hamburgers are the food fare.  They chose Mellow Mushroom for lunch and guess what we ate??

It was so sad to see them leave.  Their visit was just too short.  I don't get to see them as much as I would like, but we make every second count when they can come here.  Thanks for a great weekend, guys!!!



Maybe the next post will have a quilt in it.  LOL


                                         -sandi




















 

AUGUST REPORT

At the beginning of August my DH selected another WIP from the bowl with all many of the unfinished/in progress projects that I have in the studio.  The one he selected was listed as #8 on the master list.  It is a set of 9-patch blocks that  started with a Moda Jelly Roll.

I have tried several different layouts but did not choose one.  I still have to make a block or two more.  Inspiration has not been forthcoming on how to finish this quilt.  I kept setting it aside as other things began to happen during the month.

Early in August was the Longest Yard Sale and DH and I are vendors.  We were involved for two weeks with setup, selling, and breakdown.  It was a huge success for us, but indeed a lot of work.
These are our tents with twelve tables of merchandise.

Another thing that happened at the Longest Yard Sale was the purchase of a Yorkie Puppy.  Her name is Little Bit.

She was four months old when we brought her home with us.  Puppies require a lot of time and attention and she was no exception.  Now that she is a little older and trained, she is not a lot of trouble and she brings bundles of joy to our lives.

As the month progressed my life became a little more hectic.  I had a windfall.  An opening  occurred at a nearby retreat center and I was invited to go.  I accepted and thought I would work on this WIP there.  I love to work on a big project when I go to retreats. I went to Grand Oak Retreat in Scottsboro, AL.  I had a really great time and met some new quilters.

In the meantime someone commissioned me to make a quilt to give for a Christmas gift.  I thought I could use my time at the retreat to make the top for this customer.  Again I set aside this month's WIP.  So I spent my four days cutting and sewing on this:

I was really pleased with the way it turned out.  Scrappy quilts are so much fun.

During the next week after Retreat, I went to Birmingham for a day trip to visit my grandsons before school started and for Little Bit to meet the boys and their dog, Hoss.

This is Nick and he is nine years old.

Hoss is a Teacup Chihuahua.  He is a lot bigger than Little Bit.

A few days after I returned, my DH went to the hospital to have the first of two Hip Replacement Surgeries. 

 We spent two nights and three days at the hospital.  During that time I worked some on my Hexie project.  I almost finished one more section.

Our children came up and spent the weekend before surgery  with us celebrating our older grandson's sixteenth birthday.  What fun was that !!!

This is Preston and he is a Junior at Hoover High School.

During this month I taught a class making Zippy Strippy Bags with my Piecemakers Bee Group.  Still I did not work on the WIP.  I could not get any inspiration for setting it.

I have a full, rewarding, and exciting life!!!  I try to live each day to the fullest!!  This is not a dress rehearsal, life is the real thing!

This month's WIP will be carried over to September and will surely be completed during that month.  Somehow, I could not get it going for August.  Wonder Why????

                                        -sandi