Crazy About Quilts

September 29, 2008

This last summer, Margaret, Erica and Brea got real ambitious - I mean REAL ambitious - and cleaned the sewing room. In the process, they found two quilts that Margaret had sort of started but never finished. They put them into project bins, but the net effect was that it motivated Margaret. She put them together. She quilted and backed one of them - the cowboy quilt. Then she put the animal quilt together and got it all set up and ready to go. She has sent that one off to Melanie and Mom to see what they can do with it.



Here, now, are pictures of the last 4 quilts she has done.



The Cowboy Quilt.

The Animal Quilt. This was made from some blocks my Mom gave Margaret.

Two other quilts she did in the last year.

Tolkien Again

September 24, 2008

I finished another book - rather I re-finished another book.

I agzin read The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien. Yes, I have read it before - four times (at least) - it just caught my fancy as it sat forlonely on the book shelf. Of course this means I have to read the other three also - and possible The Hobbit and The Simarillion, but I promis to be good and only read them on business trips.

Indian Summer in Spokane

Spokane, WA - September 14-20

I had a work/teaching engagement in Spokane, Washington the week of September 15. It was a five day class for Agilent Technologies - and just for everyone's benefit - yes it went very well.

In reality, I like Spokane. It is beautifule there and it does have memories. Three years ago I also taught in Spokane and because it was a stay over a weekend, I flew Mar up for a little R&R. Those types of memories make a place special - and I remembered the special. It wasn't as special by myself, but it was still nice.

On Tuesday, I took the 30 mile drive over to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.

On Wednesday I went to the Spokane Temple.

On Friday, I went down to Riverfront Park in downtown Spokane.

On Saturday I flew home.

Mar as a Socialite

Book Club - September 18, 2008



Yes it is true. Margaret hosted the Relief Society Book Club at our house. She only fretted a little bit. Of course things had to be spotless - and she had to have new drapes in the living room, but that was on the docket anyway. Come the day of, Thursday, she cut up fruit and made a chocolate dip and a vanilla dip and sugared pecans. Sounds like "no problem", except she got distracted and had to hurry through the refreshment preparation and then found she had no cocoa. Still it ended up very good. In fact she had 10 sisters come for her little social and that is more than they have ever had. I think it was because Mar was the host. She thinks it is becasue after a month of the kids in school with getting them up and out of the door and then doing homework, all the ladies were ready for a big break.



The book they read for this month was Debbie McComber's Twenty Wishes. In fact it is about some women who got together to talk about their wishes, so it made the discussion of this book pretty easy. They just talked about their own wishes. One of the wishes in the book was to walk on a carpet of bubble-wrap, so Mar had some bubble-wrap there to play with. You know, bubble-wrap just makes any gathering a little more fun.


It is also the hostesses responsibility to suggest three more books for the group in two months (they already know what they are reading in October. Margaret suggested The Secret Life of Bees, Sherlock Homes and Silas Marner. Which do you think they choose? (See below for the correct answer.)

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Hah - you are wrong. They choose Silas Marner. Yep - I was surprised also.

Literature - Prince Caspian

September 14, 2008

I read Prince Caspian by C. S. Lewis. It is the second of the Narnia books, following The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It is a simple read (I read the entire book while traveling to Spokane, WA). I wanted to read it before I saw the movie version that came out this last summer, event hough I had read it before - at least 25 years ago. I did enjoy it.

Pictures from the Field - Sept. 9, 2008

An exciting day in the mail. Michael sent us the memory card from his camera - 2 gig of pictures and videos from the mission field. Needless to say, I was late getting back to work from lunch - the pictures called out to bee seen. Here is a amall collection.

Mar - Back to School - 8/25/08

Nope, we didn't by her new clothes or a new back pack - but Mar is back in school again. This semester it is "Pathophysiology" at Front Range Community College. Ugh. Yes it is a hard class. Class times - 4:00 - 6:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays. She sort of likes that schedule.

Pool Party at Mat n Andi's - 8/30/08

Yea - we were supposed to do this for Andrew's birthday - but it was collllld and rainy. So we put it off for a couple of weeks and called it an Andrew birthday, Nana birthday, farewell to Breanne and Ben (going back to school) pool party. It was nice.

Mar and I were there.

Mat and Andi and Andrew and Mylie were there

Erica and Rich and Alice were there (even though Alice had been sick - and this made her sick again).

Breanne and Ben were there.

Sean was there.

And afterwards we went by Aaron and Kiyoka's so Breanne and Ben could say goodbye to them.

(And it looks like - if it doesn't have grand children in it, the picture isn't worth taking.)

Teaching in the Big D

August 24 - 29 - Dallas, TX

I taught a class for work at our Dallas office. 4 people. It went pretty well but not perfect. We actually ran out of time and didn't finish the last section, but the students didn't mind - their brains were full.

Not much else happened in Dallas. I jogged. I watched some TV. I did a little bit of computer work. I ate dinners. The Dallas office is located next to an up-scale district called Addison Village. It is a lot of nice apartments with small eclectic businesses and parks.

I went to the Dallas temple. It is one of the temples I can drive to without a map. I enjoyed it.

And my flight home - Friday night - was uneventful - once we got on the plane, but that was 50 minutes late.

Birthday Camping - 8/22/08

Yes - August 22 is Mar's birthday. It is hard to do something special for a birthday after years and years of special birthdays. But this year, we did okay.

We had been discussing going camping, but we started discussing it way too late. By Thurssday, all of the camp grounds in Colorado and the rest of the Rocky Mountains were "sold out", "booked", "reserved" or otherwise occupied with residents other tha bears, elk or chipmunks. Still, not to be overcome with grief and incativity, Mar and Brea woke early and called the reservation cancellation line and yes - there were cancellations at Camp Dick, our favorite campground of all. Problem - the only way to get the cancelled camp sites was to go and get them. So here was the plan - Mar and Brea loaded the car with all of the camping gear I could throw in in 15 minutes and then they drove up to Camp Dick to see. It was my job to "get the food" and "the rest of the stuff" and the "other kids" and go there - but only if they really got a camp ground. Oh, and there would be no cell phone from Camp Dick, so I was to assume they got a campground if they weren't back by 3:00. So we executed that plan.

All went well. Mar and Brea got two camp sites right next to each other and right next to the creek - and they were handicapped accessible (Brea's Ben was on crutches at the time). Mat and Andi and the Kiddo's got there first and helped get all set up. Erica and Rich and the Kiddo came to our house where they met up with Sean and Ben and me (and all of the food and stuff), and we car pooled up. It was a beautiful place. We had a fire and cooked dinner and had a cake and played games. The next morning we woke up and made breakfast and went for hikes - short ones so Alice could go - broke camp and played more games. No one got real hurt. We all had a great time. And we didn't vilolate Mother Nature by singing Happy Birthday to Mar - too loud.