Catching Up

I really must try to do better with this blog. So much water has gone under the bridge in a year. Last summer, 2007, I spent several weeks in Bozeman, MT, awaiting the birth of Jeannine's 2nd baby. She was born June 28 and nameed Sofia. I don't remember all the vital statistics a year later! But she is a beautiful little girl. Actually, she is not so little. She weighs 25 lbs. Her "big" sister is now 2 1/2 and only weighs 27 lbs. Sofia seems like such a big baby, but we are just so used to tiny petite Maya. Maya can even wear some of Sofia's clothes.

Right now I'm sitting in an extended-stay facility in Greenville, SC, keeping the girls while Charles and Jeannine are running last-minute errands before their house closes this afternoon at 1:00. Yes! They really did leave Bozeman after nearly 8 years. Charles has taken an engineering job here in Greenville. Jeannine will stay home with the girls for now. I'm so thrilled that they are now within a weekend's driving distance from us!!! Charles has been working for the last 2 weeks while Jeannine and the girls have been staying with us. When it came time for them to leave this week (after 9 weeks with us), it was like cutting off two right arms! Wow, how you get attached to grandchildren! I remember when Mark, Fernanda, and the boys moved back from Brazil almost a year ago. They stayed with us 6 months while looking for a house. We got so very attached to them, too. Of course, they are only about 35 minutes from our house now.

We were able to watch Sofia as she took her first steps, and now she is walking all over the place. I wish you could hear Maya talk. She is 2 1/2, but she sounds like a 12 year old. Tuesday evening, Maya was lying on the couch, and I leaned over her and quietly said, “I’m going to miss you when you go home.” She said, “Don’t be sad, Grandma.” “Well, I’m just really going to miss you.” Then she put her finger up to her lips and quietly said, “Shhhh”, and then she very tenderly touched my cheek, and said ever so quietly in her tiny little voice, “Shhh….Calm down, now.” I had to bite my tongue to keep from laughing out loud.

I sure haven't done much quilting lately. Actually, I haven't done much for months. Just too many other things going on in my life - work, for one. Monday the fall semester classes begin. I'll start lecturing bright and early Monday morning. I'm not overly fond of Monday classes, but that is the only day I could do it and have the room I needed. We are now in the new building and it is beautiful with nice big classrooms and all computerized. I no longer have to carry my own laptop and LED projector to class every day. They are all built in. We all have individual, private offices - well as private as you can get with a big window in the door. But it sure beats those tiny little cubicles we were in for over a year.

Happy 10th wedding anniversary to Jeannine and Charles today!! What a nice way to celebrate your anniversay - moving into a new house. Well, it is not "new", but it is a darling little older home that has been completely refurbished inside. It has a nice big front and back yard and is on a quiet street not far from downtown where Charles works. I know they are so excited. Now to just get the furniture out of storage and get it all in place - what a big job!

I did something soooo fun yesterday - I took an Amtrak train from Birmingham to Greenville!! I haven't ridden a train since I was in grade school. It costs less to take the train here than it does to drive these days. It only took slightly longer than driving it, too. And I even got a 15% senior discount! And I didn't have to fight that traffic through Atlanta - what a relief that was. I just sat back and enjoyed the ride. I even ate dinner in the dining car - a first for me. It was delicious, too. Trains have alway facinated me.

Dylan Reading

The boys came to stay with us this weekend. I always read them a story when I put them to bed. This time they asked for Green Eggs and Ham. Dylan said, "I want to read it." He had told me knew how to read. "The first word I learned was cat and the 2nd was dog." So when they got in bed, Dylan took the book and just started to read it! I was amazed! I had no idea he could read like that. He is just in kindergarden, but he read that whole book. Here is an example of his reading.

Maya and the Nativity

Here is Maya concerned that Baby Jesus has been out in the rain. She's 26 months here.

Happy Father's Day!

Here are some fathers that are special in my life. Love you Dad, Guy, Mark and Charles!!

Dylan's Graduation

At the end of May Dylan had his graduation celebration from preschool. He will begin kindergarden in the fall. Can't believe it!



















The cake had blue frosting on it.

Update on Maya

Jeannine has been sending lots of videos lately. Her daycare babysitter says that Maya is about a year ahead of where other children her age are. She is 19 months old here.


Maya had earlier gone to a friend's first birthday.

Jeannine said that Maya has this book memorized. A bear sneezes when a bee lands on his nose. Somewhere it talks about a grandma, "where's the mousie", and at the end of this video, she says, "It will be hard to find."

Here is the little "drama girl."

They got some flowers planted in their barrels. She's got about 3-4 weeks to go her until her due date.


















She just practicing getting used to the potty.

Time to catch up....

I guess it is time to get caught up here since the break is over and I'm into the next break! During the break between semesters, I got a lot of quilting done. It was so weird to spend all day in my quilt room. I kept thinking I needed to work on something for school since that is all I had done for the last 5 months 24/7. I felt like a bird out of a cage. Here's is some of what I finished.


This is a nearly twin-sized flannel that came in a kit I purchased in Bozeman a year ago. It is pieced and appliqued. It is a lot prettier in person. I freehanded the squiggle quilting and the hearts in the inner border blocks.

The is a little gizmo to hand on the backside of the front car seat. The yellow pockets on the bottom hold larger toys, books, etc. and the elasticized pockets at the top hold the smaller things.


















This is called an I Spy quilt. Most of these I've seen I don't really care for because every square is just sewn together and it is too busy. I decided to "fussy cut" two of every square - two matching 3" sqaures in the center, and two matching 2" squares in the border. This is going to Maya, and she can play with it finding the two blocks that match. The boys have had fun playing with this since I finished it.














This next one, I had pieced and appliqued this top several years ago and didn't quilt it because I didn't how to quilt it. Every time I picked it up, no inspiration would come to me. A couple of times when Jeannine was home, she would see this top and tell me that someday she wanted it if I ever got it done. So I decided that I would sandwich the top, batting and backing and just start stitching. That is what I did. I basically quilted "in the ditch" and squiggled on the border. The qpplique on this one is fused with blanket-stitching. I much prefer to needle-turn applique, because I don't like the stiff feeling you get with fusing. I've now learned to not fuse the entire piece down, but just use a "rim" around the edge and that keeps it much softer.














The other project was the reversable place mats. You can click on any of these pictures to see the details. When I fly out to Bozeman next Tuesday, I'll have to take an extra suitcase just to take all the quilts.