Firsts and a finish

First day of school for the gmen, their junior year.  Can you tell how excited they are?

 

First day of school for Nathan, he's in 2nd grade.  What a difference from his brothers!

 

First varsity game of the year, both boys played well and the team won!

First flag football practice for Nathan, not quite ready for tackle yet.

First pack meeting as a Wolf, checking out his belt loop achievements he earned over the summer.

 

First game, he played offense.

 

Even in the rain, he did well and his team won!

Love this picture of the gmen together!

I worked on this while driving to the lake.  I decided watching Doctor Who was more entertaining than listen to what DH had on the radio.

Finished - May!  The rest of the months will be put on hold since I'm trying to work on Halloween and Christmas. 

And I still have to finish Karen's fairy.  Is it just me, or does anyone else get so close to finishing a piece and then have to take a break?  All I have left is the beading and outlining.  I'm wondering if it's because I know once I'm done I know she'll be gone?!

Summer Blog Hop, Garden edition

Here's to another year of Jo @ Serendipitous Stitching hosting her Summer Blog Hop with Garden as the theme.  My beautifully stitched postcard is from Kaye @ Kitten Stitching.  Of course I love that she has cat in it! 

 And here are her garden thoughts...

 

"Here are my pics - "My cat Coco lives here" (actually High Hopes by Just Nan) and two pics of my winter garden - one very bare and the other of some jonquils.

I love gardens and flowers but unfortunately I hate the actual gardening and I am allergic to a lot of highly scented flowers!  However, I am lucky enough to live in a beautiful, leafy Melbourne suburb with some of the loveliest gardens to view as I go on my walks.  I do so enjoy seeing the change of seasons in the gardens which I pass and in my own, lovely garden which is looked after by a lovely man who comes by once a fortnight to maintain mine for me."

Please be sure to check back to Jo's blog at the end of summer to make sure you haven't missed any garden postcards!  I know I'm way behind on following it myself, so that's where I'm headed - mine is out there somewhere!

An early housewarming gift

Look what I received in the post from my chosen sister, Karen...

I LOVE IT!!!

She surprised me and made this for me to hang in my new craft room.  I love that the house is blue and it has two kitties - Ming and Max!

This is pretty close to the colour the room is going to be, sort of a creamy, very light yellow. 

Not quite sure where I'm going to put it yet.  I wish I could put it just before you enter the room, but that won't work.  No worries, I know I'll find the perfect spot.

So thank you, dear Karen, for making me this wonderful treasure.  Maybe I'll even wait until you come visit to hang it up, then I'll put you to work! 

We still don't know when we're moving in yet.  I'm hoping for the end of September, but realistically it will probably be mid October.  Not quite sure how I'm going to decorate for Halloween while trying to unpack - priorities!

At least we're one step closer inside.  The fireplace was finished this week, we just need the mantel.

I still haven't been reading blogs, but I will make that my down-time this week in the evening.  Please let me know if I'm missing following your blog, I haven't caught up with that either.

And thank you so much for your thoughts and kind words for my Mom.  She's at home and doing great.  On Monday she gets her staples out, all 32 of them!  

My Momma and some scenes from a car

Mom/Oma's "party" before her hip replacement surgery. 

 

Oma and Opa with 6 out of 9 grandkids.

Crazy bunch included Margo and Doug, who are hosting my parents while we are in our rental house which is not practical for Mom to stay in.

Arrived at the hospital, ready to get fixed up!

Pre-op, getting ready and getting drugged!

 

After surgery - she's talking to Margo and he's talking to my older brother.

The gmen came to visit.

 

Margo and Doug had brought some beautiful flowers when they came to visit.

Mom will finally be getting out tomorrow, she went to the rehab floor a couple days after surgery and she's doing great!  She had to get a special walker since she can't use her hands due to her rheumatoid arthritis and she's zooming around.  She gave us a scare when her heart rate was high and they didn't know why, but no problems now.

 

Driving into and around Baltimore every day wasn't really too bad, we seemed to find different ways of getting home every day!  These were some of our scenes.

 

 

Just in case you didn't know what colour it was!

And many thanks to Nana, who had Nathan stay with her so we could visit Mom every day.  He always has a good time with her.



 



Mythbusting

I had heard about this on Pinterest and looked it up - "wooden spoon over boiling water", this is one of the pins I found.

 Wooden spoon over boiling water

And this is what happened when I tried...

Um, didn't work!

Then I found this one when I looked up "keeping bananas from turning brown"

How to keep bananas from browning quickly

And this is what happened when I tried it.

Ok, it looks like I didn't have it wrapped tight enough and actually should have wrapped them individually.  I'm willing to try again and see what happens.  As for this bunch, looks like future yummy banana bread.

This is not so much mythbusting, just a little different.
Baking your eggs instead of boiling them to make deviled eggs.  Placing them in muffin tins instead of boiling them, super easy.  

Well, one cracked so that ended up getting tossed because it was a bit mushy on the outside.

The others were fine, some were easier to peel than others, no big difference.  But you can see where the eggs shell had touched the bottom and side of the pan.  I think I'll stick to boiling my eggs.

Shockers - a SAL Garden finish

Hey, it's still July and I finally finished April!  Too bad this was supposed to be finished LAST year.   I decided the bottom and right side vines needed some colour, so I changed the green to purple.  

 Now I can dig out May and get that started.  I'm trying to use what floss I've got, so I've changed the colours a bit.  I'd like to think I can do them all by the end of the year, but that's just wishful thinking!

 



The house is coming along beautifully and here I am in my craft room.  This was taken before the drywall was put up.

Here is it with walls, I have no idea what colour it should be painted.  Is there a magical shade of something that would make me stitch faster with no frogging?!

The floors will be a mocha colour wood, but not too dark.  Maybe a light yellow?  Way too many choices, I can't decide... thoughts?

By the way, if you've requested to follow the house progress and haven't heard from me, it might be because it's going to a noreply email if you haven't set it up for your own.

A conversation with Master Nathan

Nathan spend some time with my parents this week and this is the conversation between my Dad, aka Opa, and 7 1/2 year old Nathan.

0pa:  Do you think there are fairies?

Nathan:  Well, I sort of guess there are as there is the tooth fairy, and you don't think my parents would take my teeth, do you?

0pa:  Certainly not! What on earth would they do with them?

Nathan:  Exactly....

(Please don't look in Daddy's box on top of his dresser!)

0pa:  How about Jack Frost, Mother Goose and the stork?

Nathan:  No, there isn't a Jack Frost, but we all have mothers so there is a Mother Goose. Everyone knows storks bring babies 'cos they're alive!  I'm still thinking about the Sandman, even though you didn't ask.

 

0pa:  I heard that when clouds knock into each other they create thunder and lightning.

Nathan:  Nope, it's all electricity.

 

0pa:  How do you feel about King Neptune and mermaids?

Nathan:  It's a myth...  

(No mermaids?  Whose child is this, certainly not mine!)

  

0pa:  Are there such things as elves and trolls?

Nathan:  Elves, yes, but we don't have trolls in America.

 

0pa:  How about unicorns?

Nathan:  I don't think so. And before you ask, we know about Santa Claus.

0pa:  We do?

Nathan:  Yes, 0pa, everyone knows there is a Santa Claus.

0pa:  I never doubted for a moment...  For which I received a big understanding smile from Nathan.

 

0pa:  Could there be witches?

Nathan:  No!

0pa:  Why not?

Nathan:  There just isn't.  I don't believe in them!

  

0pa:  Do you think there are dragons?

Nathan:  No.... Wait a minute. Yes, there are dragons.

0pa:  Why?

Nathan:  Because the only way the Welsh got their flag was the battle between the two dragons.

(THAT'S my boy!)

 

0pa:  Angels?

Nathan:  0f course there are angels!

0pa:  Why do you think that?

Nathan:  Because they are God's helpers... For my trouble I received a pitying look as if to say, "doesn't he know anything?"

Dad, being Dad, sent this to family and friends which pretty much means it's been around the world!  Here's another question for Nathan from a friend. I loved "A Conversation With Nathan."  Thank you for sharing. What a wonderful young man and a pretty good 0pa as well. I wanted to know the answer to those questions for some time now. Do ask him about true love if you have the chance. Love to you all, Carol   Well, I consulted the oracle about true love and hereunder his response:   Yes, I believe in true love as how could you love anybody else?   Thus, Carol's answer straight from the horse's mouth!! That kid is a trip and answers so seriously and gives every question his full attention.

Scenes from a... boat

July 4th at Deep Creek Lake

Swimming pup

Tubing!

The boat battery died and we were waiting for it to charge up - Nathan's keeping warm under his towel. 

Looks nice, but the water was very choppy.

For July 4th, it was cold!  Good thing I had my blanket, it was chilly out there on the water.

  We just need to go straight ahead to the boat slip. 

Loch Ness Nathan!

Wasn't too cold for them either.

Loving the water. 

The next day was SO much warmer.

Flying Nathan!

 

The gmen. 

Pretty sure they all had a good time!

And hey, you can see a corner of the house from the lake.  Darn trees.

No stitching today, but hopefully tonight.