Day 1 with Bode !!!!

Ken and I enjoyed a short visit with our littlest Grandson today !!!! He's sooooo cute ! Grammy is in love !!!! He slept the whole time tho and didn't seem interested in my conversation about Lincoln logs and play dough ! Here's the little card on his bed, all the important details !
I left work early so we could enjoy him in the afternoon, what a great excuse for leaving work early ! Here is Grammy and Bode ! my newest little buddy !

Papa and Bode

The new little family surviving on just enough sleep on one hand over the last 48 hours to make it ! Just 20 hours after birth and surgery they are lookin good ! Mommy MB is happy to be getting tubes pulled out today and Daddy Chris is just taking care of it all ! And Bode, well Bode is just thinking this might be a pretty nice family !

Bode has Arrived ! 6/29/2010

Our newest little Grandson is here safe and sound ! Long night and long day for the new parents but he's here and so darling. Here are just 2 pictures, not to much time for to many as we had to sneak into the surgical recovery room one at a time to have our first peek and chance to hold him ! Here is Daddy Chris and his little son....Sorry this is so dark, wasn't using flash, but here is just a little peek at Bode, he's doing great, he had a long journey all night and all day but he made it here right before 7:00 PM. MB is doing great, will get pictures with her tomorrow when she's not in the out of surgery phase. He weighed in at 7 lbs. 5 oz, never did get to find out how long he is. It's midnight, Grammy and Papa are thrilled, but tired and heading to bed ! Can't wait to hold you again tomorrow Bode !

Baby Bode Watch

Well for all you waiting to hear, they are at the hospital for their appt. time and now at 8 have a room. They've done some magic gel and want her to sleep for the next 12 hours before they revaluate and hopefully get things going at that time. They brought her something to make her sleep. Chris didn't get any, just the chair that probably is the same kind of chair his father waited in for his birth ! So looks like nothing to exciting will be happening tonight !

The sweat shop is open !

Well here is my next little project I seem to have gotten myself in to.... Aprons.....
A couple weeks ago I brought home all of these.... and since then a few more have wandered this way.Apron making seems to be a new little project that I seem to have taken on. A local business has me making aprons for an event they hold. They'll be sold at the event to people that have come from all over the world to take scrapbooking classes. Thus.....the sweat shop has opened ! Who would have thought a fuseball table could be so handy for apron bodies...
and pocket sorting ! They are a very neat apron, reversable so the 2 sides are different, a big pocket on each side, real cute and trendy and fresh. Ken brought home a piece of wood to cover the fuseball table so that has been handy. I've been cutting for a week on my days off work(off one job and on to the next) Ken has helped a bunch of times even.
The pool table became a wonderful area for making the sets up.....body/body/pocket/pocket/ties etc. So I have alot of sets now made up as kits and ready to sew. Here is another one of them...they look dumb hanging on the hanger...but they really are cute. I made just the 2 of them to get my time in hours down so I'd know what to charge them per piece. The first one was figuring it out since I'd changed the construction method and the second one I timed myself. Now I'm into assembly line....Crazy huh....but it was a one time deal that I knew would be good, so if anyone needs me I'll be in the apron sweat shop !!!!

Something New

Judy and I started something new to put by our front doors, these are "calendar" quilts, a neat pattern that has a different little easy mini quilt for each month of the year. Judy and I had a fun day last week and put the tops together at her house. Here is July's.Quilted mine quickly and got it bound so it's hanging by my front door now.

Ethiopian Food

Well these friends of mine decided I just needed some worldly travel experience, so tonight, Denise and Sarah and I met at this Cafe Lalibela for Ethiopian food. I who made it thru the Indian cuisine thought, why not !
So Sarah and I started out with Ethiopian Beer. She had a dark one, rather fruity in taste, mine was light and sort of had more of a lemony taste, I thought it was very good.
Then they bring you this basket of the strangest stuff. It's the "vehicle" for getting the food to your mouth as they have no silverware or plates, kind of tasteless and what looks like it was made on a big griddle, probably poured out and it has this sort of bubbly texture, rather spongey. Compared to the wonderful Indian sorts of breads, this was rather strange ! It's not dry like a tortilla, but just sort of felt like a sponge !
So we ordered this vegetarian meal ( safe !) It's served on this big plate in the middle of the table, everything was placed on another one of those "sponge" things on the plate. Everything was very flavorful, but it was all the same texture....MUSHY. Like everything was stewed. Alot of it had a great taste, there was lentals and yellow peas and cabbage with potatoes and carrots and green beans that had a tomatoey sauce. Then they had a bit of fresh lettuce and a tomatoe with pretty good light dressing. One of the little things was cold. A couple of them had a spicey kick. It was all very interesting. I don't know that I really loved it, but I didn't really not like it either. Wouldn't be something I'd crave, just different.
So once again I've taken pictures of food and no people, but thanks Sarah and Denise for introducing me to Ethiopian food, I'm glad I got to try it. I'm hearing next month it's on to a Middle Eastern place !

Fathers Day #1

We've had a fun several day celebration of Fathers Day this year ! A couple weekends ago before Amy and crew left on their trip they had us and Chris and MB down for a yummy dinner for an early fathers day celebration. Amy made wonderful stuffed shells, along with all the fixins to go with !
We had fun with the boys....
We brought a dairy queen ice cream cake.... they wanted a preview of our trip pictures from Alaska...

And a squirt gun fight !

Who do you think was having the most fun !!!!?????!!!!

Fathers Day #2

On to our next celebration...

It was last night.... we met up with My sister and hubby at My parents house....sack of Arby sandwiches to enjoy, time for gifts and visiting and looking at my
Dad's new TomTom....
Then off to Yo Dippity we all went...YUMMMY !
Alissa and Alan met us there, it was fun and relaxing to load up on yummy frozen yogurt and lots of SUGAR treats! I'm thinking that place might be tooooo close to my parents house !
Our next Fathers Day celebration was today at noon. Chris treated Ken to a round of golf, then they met MB and I at Famous Dave's BBQ ! Oh my gosh, it was fun to treat everyone to a round of beer....(MB cried as it went by) and this huge platter. What a fun way to get to try everything, it's served in the middle of the table in a garbage can lid ! It gives Joe's BBQ a run for the money ! WE will be back !

Fathers Day #3

Our final fathers day fun was spent with Gene, Ken's wonderful Dad. We went this afternoon to visit, they were all enjoying the golf tournament on TV so I went over to Nello's and got a pizza, then before going home we talked Gene into a milk shake at Coldstone ! What a great end to a great day ! We sure have alot to be thankful with all these great Dad's that are around us !

Baby dishes

I got out a few little gems today to give to Mary Beth, she's so close to having their first baby that she needed to have a couple treasures that were Chris's when he was a baby. His first bowl and spoon, both engraved with his name and initials. Aunt Marcy gave these to him for his baptism and we used them daily ! And I've used them with all 3 grandboys so now it's time for them to go live in MB's kitchen, I hope she loves using them too, just the right size for those first little bites of cereal !Here is Chris when he was 2 and Amy in the stroller.

I gave her his feeding spoons and his silver cup. Sweet memories !

Time for Peaches

I just love having a mature back yard with fruit trees. It's so fun to go out and be able to pick fresh fruit several times a year. We love our citrus in the winter, oranges, grapefruit and lemons, and now the apricot tree is done for the year ( altho I'm still dealing with the bumper crop) The peaches are ready so I've been picking them a few a day, the birds have sampled a few but they really haven't hit the fruit to hard this year, either that or we had such good crops we didn't mind sharing. It's like having a garden, one of these years I'll get my garden wound back up again....need to find some eager guy that will build me a nice shade screen over it first and maybe a nice little watering system....maybe next Jan. I'll get to it ! Our gardens need to go in by the first of Feb. to be ready before the heat, some hardy things will last thru the year yet if they have shade. I'll be thinking of peach recipes if we don't eat them all first !

What do you do with more apricots ??????

Time for 2 more bowls full of apricots to come out of the refrigerator ! They've been ripening on the counter for 2 days so tonight they entered the "dehydrator zone". Wonder what they'll look like tomorrow morning !!!!
Another bowl came out of the refrigerator to ripen next.....I think more apricot butter will be in the making this weekend !

Apricot Butter

Well I thought I'd try something new today, I had taken another big bowl full of apricots out of the refrigerator to let ripen on the counter and a day off from work meant...do something with them. So I went looking on line for a recipe. I always loved apple butter as a kid, then when I was in Vermont I was introduced to pumpkin butter...mmmmm. So I thought I'd try apricot butter. There was a recipe, it was credited to the rival crock-pot book so I tried it and yeah ! it worked ! I took the apricots and washed and pitted them, put them into a pan and cooked them...
They were so pretty and orange. After they were mushy I put them into the blender....7 cups of mushy apricots, blended them up and dumped them into the crockpot...added 6 cups of sugar, 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1 tsp. cloves and 2 T. lemon juice. It cooked for 10 hours, half way thru you take the lid off the crock pot...by then the fruit has turned a golden brown and this reduces the liquid.
Finally before dinner it became 7 jars of Apricot Butter ! We had it on toast at dinner and it was so good, I will definitely do this one again with another one of those bowls of apricots waiting in the refrigerator !

Iced Tea Maker

Well I made a major splurge this week. After months of no spending on anything not necessary I had a major splurge at Walmart this week and bought this iced Tea Maker. I had some at my friend Judy's house last week, she made it for our Thornberry quilt meeting and it was so good. So after contemplating a $16.00 purchase I went for it. I justified it with knowing we really shouldn't be drinking the diet coke so this would be something good and cold to drink during the hot summer months. So it's all moved into my appliance garage next to the coffee maker and it's easy to do, I only had to call Judy 2 times for reassurance ! Anyone want to come over for a professional glass of iced tea? And thanks to Jamie for helping me get my first real picture on line into a post ! She patiently showed me on our cruise, I of course promptly forgot one major step and so she walked me thru it with no complaints ! She's a professional blogger you know ! Now if I can just do it again !

A fun project !

I made this grouping of frames for my friend Terry's birthday gift.She has 3 grandchildren so I made one frame for each of their pictures. I cut the flowers with my cricut and put a brad in the center and sort of bent the petals up for dimension.
They each have a little metal ditty with an initial for that grandchilds name.
This one is an"m" on a clip, can't see it so good, these sure were fun to make.

zip bags

I made 3 of these fun little bags this week to send with the boys for a treat for their trip. They each got a different one, they zip shut, a car bag for them to keep all their "loot" in as they travel, all those special rocks and sticks and fun things that boys pick up !!!! They have a whole bag of little treats for the way ( mommy gets to hand them out when it's time....like hour 9 of driving all day !) I wrap them up like a present, they each have one to match so it takes up a few more minutes of the road ! some are just treats to eat, some are little things to do. It'll be interesting to see what goes into these zip bags !

Thornberries in June

We had our monthly quilt meeting at Judy's house this month, a few were gone but we did have a fun time chatting, a great lunch....new recipes to try out and Lorene was the only productive person with show and tell. She had this wonderful applique quilt done that she's been working on !This is Judy's new dog Angel, she's a very nice dog they rescued and just fits right in ! She loves quilt too !
My camera wasn't doing so good on the colors yesterday, this was such a pretty blue with snowflakes.
We were having another scrap cutting adventure, alot more cut, how come we all came home with a box yet for another cutting time tho !?!?!?!? I think these scraps are reproducing ! We all had taken a basket full home to iron so it went faster this time with them all ready to go....I think we'll be having another cutting day one of these months, most of us still have more to press yet but at least they are ending up into usable pieces and kitted up for a project !

Anxiously waiting !

Here is the latest of our soon to be newest grandson. We are getting so anxious for him to arrive ! The best news is that he FLIPPED ! Yeah ! Chris and MB were at the Dr. for her check up thinking they were going to "schedule" his birth since he's spent the last few months with his ear up by Mommy's heart. But as the dr. examined MB she decided to send them for another ultrasound to see if what she thought had happened....he did turn ,so yeah ! He's going to hopefully come into this world when he's good and ready ! He was weighing in already at 6 lbs. 11 oz. so he's now busy getting some chub on him and considered full term. How fun that we got to have another early peek at him ! Hurry up and get here little guy !!!!