Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig

Niles is home...Niles is home!!!

*thanks Blogger...no pictures!!

He arrived after I had already gone back to the office after lunch so Ed brought him down so we could open the box and welcome him home together.

Oh my goodness....We opened the box and the surprises just kept coming out...they just kept coming and coming!!! Niles and Nancy must have been very busy working at UFO busting and WTIL is blessed to be the beneficiary! Seven waaaay awesome tops and 4 kits! I can't wait to see these done up into quilts. The colors are wonderful, the patterns are wonderful, the kids will be the winners with these fun quilts!

Niles also arrived back home in much better shape than he arrived at Nancy's. You see, Niles' trip to visit with Nancy was his first time away from home traveling alone and he had a bit of a "breakdown" in route to Nancy's, which made us all sad...we were all very worried about him, but that Nancy, she is the bestest of the bestest. She "fixed" Niles up and he is as good as NEW again. Thank you Nancy, you went over and above the call of duty on this one! If you ever decide to change careers, Niles told us he will give you a great reference, he says they are always looking for caring people like you at the Gnome Camp.

Now here is the over and above...Niles arrived home in his own little traveling treasure chest, which totally appears to be made just for him! Perfect in size, perfect in shape....A treasure chest just for Niles! Thank you Nancy, Niles loves his little treasure chest and is thrilled with having been given this wonderful gift which proves once again your caring heart! He was also thrilled to present me with some wonderful FQ's, he says he wants a quilt to line his treasure chest made out of them so he will always remember your kindness and the bonus is, green is Niles most favorite color...imagine that!

What's up next for Niles? Well, it is family vacation time....a trip to southern California to Mickey's house...a friends daughters High School graduation...a trip into Mexico...time with our son...

After that he has a stint on the farm...summer is here and my niece and her hubby will need an extra hand in the fields.

A couple of people have asked if Niles can visit with their families and OF COURSE he can! I am currently working out a schedule for him through the end of the year, so if you would like to be included, please email me!

Whatever!

I am not sure what happened but my header has been playing a disappearing act, here today, gone tomorrrow and back again. SO....I re-loaded the graphic but now it will NOT center! Tonight, I don't care...for now IIWII...

Update on Ed: his shoulder is killing him...I feel so bad, but there is nothing I can do. He had an MRI earlier this wk, results will not be made known until after we are back from vacation. Doc did shoot him full of cortisone so let's hope that will give him some comfort. He does take pain meds each day for his legs adn the Doc told him he can take a dose every 12 hrs rather than every 24, that should help him sleep while we are gone.

I now have my granddaughters birth certificate and state issued ID card. Ck that off my list! OK, now I can get her in and OUT of Mexico...her daddy will be happy about that...sheesh...anything to keep peace in the family!

I just remembered I want to take my GFG with me....gotta dig that out, better do it before I forget again.

Clearing things up

The quilts posted in my last post were NOT all made by me. That wonderful stack of quilts is a combined effort by 2 groups of ladies, one group that Cher over sees in Portland (the Portland Piecers) and another group that I over see here in my teeny tiny town (the BoBo's ~ like YoYo's).

Both of these groups of ladies quilt for Wrap Them in Love, a foundation whose purpose is to make and donate quilts to children all over the world who are living in orphanages, group homes, and various other situations where they have little to nothing to call their own.

Tonight my good pal, Barbara, came by to help me take pictures of the quilts, pack them into boxes and then blessed me by loading them into her car and she will take them to the UPS shipping point tomorrow. WHAT A BLESSING... with Ed's shoulder being out of whack and my schedule jampacked, this was a great gift of time and effort on her part. So...4 large boxes are headed to San Diego. THAT IS A BIG BIG STRESS FROM MY LIFE!!!

I always love seeing the quilt stack getting higher and higher as each quilt is turned in. I might be the middle man, but I can't not take credit for all the work, many many women contribute to the endeavors of WTIL.

Thank you to all who donate to any charity, each time I hear of someone giving unselfishly I feel blessed!

It's crunch time...

...and as soon as I cross something off my list something (or things) find their way to my list...one step forward two steps backward at this point. Oh well, it will get done, even if at the last minute.

Finished a surprise for my best bud (who lives in San Diego) and her daughters birthday gift, as well as a surprise for my son today (he reads my blog so I shall not say anything more, but it is a good surprise!! Ryan, you will love it!). All of these gifts will be packed in with the quilts which will be shipped out later this wk directly to my sons office in San Diego. Having those gifts finished is a huge stress off my shoulders.

I have packing to do, gathering this and that and remembering that and this...my big concern now is...gotta remember to MAKE sure to get my granddaugthers birth certificate (if she does not get back into the USA her daddy will disown me big time!!!).

Ed and I went to the library on Friday, LOL....why did we do that??? I should have just had them hold my books rather than bring them home...reading is an escape for me...if I am stressed, grab a book...if I am excited, grab a book...can't sleep, read...yep...I've been reading! Good thing I have 9...yes NINE library books...ok, make that 8 now.

Last wknd I met up with Cher in Eugene, it was girls day out for my daughter, granddaughter and I and the perfect chance for Cher to hand off 29 wonderful quilts made by the WTIL group in Portland. Today I numbered the quilts that have been collecting in our guest room...32 in all. I am still awaiting word on 14 more, if they are not in my hands by Wednesday they will have to wait until our next shipment goes down in October. Isn't it typical to get a quilt just after the boxes have been handed over to Mr. Brown?

Here is a pic of the 61 quilts (29 from Cher's group, 32 from mine) I have thus far, isn't that a beautifully unselfish pile of love?? Blessings sewn into quilts to wrap children in love...doesn't get any better than that!

My pal Barbara is coming over tomorrow after I get off work, she will be my quilt holder while I snap pics, then we will pack them in boxes...oh that will be a huge huge stress off these shoulders!!! Hopefully she will agree to get them to UPS for me...if not Ed said he would do it on Thursday.

My usual quilt holder went to extremes to get out of holding up quilts...he tore his rotator cuff...just before vacation!!! Tomorrow he finds out more, but good grief...do we really want to know more? LOL Two years ago we planned vacation and my father died so we postponed it, then within a month Angela's grandfather died, we had to cancel because school was starting...this time when Albert, Angela, Ed and I planned this trip back in SEPTEMBER we all agreed we were going NO MATTER WHAT....at the time my mother was not doing well...my brother was not doing well...Angela's grandmother was not doing well...there were a few other family issues cropping up here and there. We decided that NO MATTER WHAT we were going to go...even if something tragic was happening we would go. My sister and I had a good conversation before we booked the tickets, she would have to fill in the gap with my mother if we were gone and she agreed 100%, NO MATTER WHAT....So, now we are just a few days away from being out of here and Ed tears his rotator cuff. NO MATTER WHAT...we are going! All I can say is....good thing he has 5 library books!

OK, it was a sorta quilty post...hopefully that will put me back in the good graces with everyone!

Blessings in my life:

My sister, I love her so much

Barbara, always willing to jump in and deal with things without batting eye

Secret codes like: MOTF, YAM, SOPO

An awesome job for my sons friend, fresh out of college!

Fly Eyes, Ziplock Baggies, Grandkids and Gifts of Love

Insects have compound eyes. Instead of one lens they see through two spheres with
many lenses. But apart from that they also often have extra single lens eye on the front of the head. Each lens of the compound eye catches it's own image. The
final image an insect sees is like a mosaic. The morelenses the compound eye
bears the higher the resolution of the image. The two large spherical eyes of a
fly give an almost complete 360 degree vision.

While having breakfast in a quaint little coast town last spring, we noticed a ziplock baggie full of water hanging above the open door. Strange....Interesting....Off the Wall. There was also a sign posted next to it on the door frame. We looked at it, stared at it then I could take it no more...had to get up and see what it was all about.

Seems when a fly sees the bag of water his eyes mulitply the bags and gives the flies the impression that there is a wall of water in front of them and they will not cross it. So...this resturant hung a bag of water above the door. We did not see any flies in the place so figured there must be something to this. When we got home I filled a quart ziplock bag with water and tacked it above the sliding door.

Our grandkids are in and out the patio door, the adults are in and out the patio door, the cat is in and out the patio door. All last summer our patio door was open. We had exactly 2 flies enter out house all summer long.

Last wknd I filled another quart ziplock baggie and found a large pushpin and hung up our "fly screendoor". If you try this, let me know if it works as good at your house as it does at ours. I love these natural, no chemical solutions to pesky issues.

ON ANOTHER NOTE: We are down to the wire time wise for vacation. I have a dozen projects yet to complete, packing to do, a bit of shopping yet not finished. What's new? Tomorrow is Friday, the beginning of the wknd. I am planning to take the wknd to get as completely done with everything as possible...we'll see how that goes!

I am enjoying the sun, which is suppose to go away tomorrow. I love the warm air on my skin and can't wait to get to Southern California/Mexico where it will be warm and sunny.

Cher handed over 29 quilts and I have 32 ready (14 more promised to be turned in before I ship these to San Diego next week) here so we will have between 61 and 75 quilts to take into Mexico. I am so excited about this, I wish everyone who quilts for charity could experience this part of the process. Nothing beats seeing the eyes of a child sparkle when you wrap a quilt around him/her...nothing beats having a child crawl up on your lap and lay their little head on your shoulder, speaking in a language you can't understand but totally understanding the smiles hugs and laughter...it totally rips your heart out and at the same time it fills your heart with the assurance that you have done something right in the world.

As the school bus goes past the office each morning our middle grandson holds up a sign letting me know how many more days until we leave, this morning the sign said "9 days Grandma"...I love living in a small town where grandparents and grandkids wave to each other each morning, where we can be involved in these kids' everyday lives...baseball is going strong with games 4 nights a wk and Saturday morning.

OK, off to bed...

I am not surprised, not one little bit...

I read several comics each day at work, one of my favorites is Close to Home ...they crack me up and some days they are so very dead-on that I have to wonder if John McPherson is regularly peeking in on my life....as was the case with this cartoon....it was yesterday's cartoon.... I printed it off and was going to send it to our son who has a great sense of humor and loves his declawed kitty...


























When I got home from work I was delighted to see that our youngest son had sent us an email, and was thrilled to see there were attachments ....photos...I love photos...here are the photos he sent...

I must admit, this could be scary to some....but to us, to his family, co-workers and friends, to those who love this young man and those who have just met him if only for a few brief moments (with the exception of the lady at the photo department at the near-by drug store, which is another story )...there is nothing scary about him, he is the best of the best (actually...he and his brother are equally the best of the best). Those who know Ryan are not in the least surprised by this...how can they be...this is another picture of Ryan with his adopted gma during a bbq a couple of years back. Same great kid, same giant heart, same awesome love for Jesus....same Ryan McGoobie...just with a hint of his goofy personality showing through. When he was in High School he had really long hair...really really long hair and was planning to get it cut off but wanted to do something off the wall with it before he cut it off. We told him he could do what he wanted with it for 24 hrs....he decided to get a mohawk...but we did not let him dye it, so he walked around our VERY conservative teeny tiny town with his red mohawk, those were the days before digital cameras but the kids took 35 mm pics for proof...good grief!!! Good thing everyone knew he wasn't a threat.

Promised Pics ~ Courtyard Part II

Looking from the back yard to the front yard (West to East)

2 years ago I decided this would be my space...first up was to have the walkway scalloped...thanks Roy (oldest son) and Ed (hubby). In a month or so the arbor that you can see above the gate will be covered in the most yummy smelling jasmine...I stick my nose into that everytime I walk but it while it is blooming, in fact, during it blooming season I roll a blossom or two around in my hands after washing them! Natural perfume!

On the left side is the rock disk that my parents gave us...hilarious...When my parents were closing their nursery, daddy just KNEW we needed this disk that had been in their stock...so they loaded it into their truck with a tractor...drove 5 hrs to our house and then we all stood around trying to figure out how to get it out of their truck into our backyard...below is a better picture of the disk, which now has a cute little topiary in it along with these cute little pink flowering grasses that minic the ball of the topiary (I am hoping Blogger will enlarge this pic!).

In this picture you can see a bench..above the bench is the kitchen window. As soon as the flowers in the window box start blooming there will be wave petunia's flowing down color color color!...looking out the kitchen window always makes me smile, no matter what time of year. The other two windows are the livingroom. The box beside the bench is to house the water hose...but I think Ed has forgotten about moving the waterline, in the mean time it makes a great table to set my coffee cup/iced tea glass. There are 2 honeysuckles and 2 (???can't spell it???) arbervitums below the living room windows.Here you can see a better view of the clematis. Both are healthy plants, but one begins its blooming season a bit later, it is going to be beautiful when it starts blooming, it is already heavy with blossom heads. You can also see my other "down under" planter in the foreground with the one I showed in my last post in the background, down by the gate.This wall plaque is a special gift given to me by a young woman whom I discipled for 2 years prior to her marriage. Just before her wedding she asked me to baptize her. We had a private ceremony with her family, her fiance's family and a couple of close friends. It was a special time for everyone...especially for her fiance. They have been married for almost 2 years and are such a fun couple!

Courtyard plans for Summer 2006:

**kill off the grass on path**

**plant blue star creeper on path**

**place stepping stones on path**

I have all the stuff I need for each of the grandkids as well as my favorite (I know..I know, not suppose to have favorites, but I do!!!!...oh well) great-niece to make stepping stones... As soon as the stepping stones are done we will place them on the path and let the blue star creeper grow around them and fill in that area. I think it will be beautiful!

Ed just left to go pick up the rest of our hanging baskets. As soon as these last ones are hanging we are finished with the new stuff. Can't wait for everything to be in full bloom...color color color. I love color...have I mentioned that?

Since you asked:

Jeanne...Million Bells are miniture wave (or super) petunia's. There are other names for them as well (trumpet petunias etc). We have petunia's (mini's and regular size) all over the yard. I love how fast they grow, how much color they give off and the fact that they are rather forgiving if they don't get watered each day. I DON'T like having to deadhead them but I do it knowing that they will provide us with lots of color in the yard all season and into the fall.

Last year we had "issues" with our neighbor on the other side of the fence. Those issues have been resolved and this year we can get back to using (and enjoying) the courtyard whenever we choose without disappointment regarding what is going on on the otherside of the fence. When you live in town, when your houses are stacked up ontop of each other, you just don't always have life 100% as you would choose.

So...there you have it a virtual tour of our courtyard...please come have a cup of coffee or a glass of iced tea with me!

Courtyard Pics

Awhile back I mentioned how much enjoyment I get while spending time in my courtyard during the warmer months of the year. I was asked to post pictures but never got around to it....so this morning I shall post a few pictures.

This is one of my "down under" planters. The pic with flowers (million bells) in full bloom is from last year, the other pic is how it looked a couple of wks ago, just getting planted this year, the growth is just getting going. I love this planter. I wish I could find more. This is the first color you see as you enter the courtyard from the front of the house and I have another one at the other end of the courtyard near the deck.

This is clematis, I posted a picture of just a bloom earlier and someone asked what type of flower it is. I am sorry to say this year they are not as thick as usual, but the blossoms are huge!!! (I measured a blossom last wknd, 7.5" across) and the color wonderful. We have 3 clematis in the yard, each a different color. They are climbing vines, I enjoy going out to train them to curl around the stakes rather than across the top of the fence which is where the stretch to get the most sun.

These three little flowers (planted in the base of a clematis pot) bloom all year long! A touch of color when looking out my kitchen window. OK, you are too quick for me...you are right, they are ceramic. For Mother's Day last year Angela and I took a clay class at the pottery shop and made these fun flowers. She got hers done in a couple of sessions, I on the other hand did not get mine done for months...(parenting the parent issues kept me from getting back to them sooner). I love these bright spots and they add so much to the Mary Engelbriet look and feel of this area of our yard.

I will have to take a couple of pictures today to give you a better feel for how the courtyard looks now, it is an ever changing area that I love to tinker in. The honeysuckle is in desparate need of being trained to their cages, currently they look like they are in need of an Edward Scissorhand haircut!

I totally enjoy seeing pictures of where everyone lives, their children, homes, gardens. In my mind it is another step towards friendship. When we share stories about our vacations, our jobs, our family members we leave it up to the readers imagination to create faces to put with names, color to put with flowers, gardens to put with homes. Keep posting those pictures...my imagination is not all that great and doesn't always do the greatest service to your lives.

"Oh, That Stuff"

Several years ago Wrap Them in Love was donated a truck load of fabric....the founder, Ellen, spent hours and hours cutting it up into kits which she challenged us to make into a quilts...I think we donated $5 per kit which included everything you needed to make a quilt (minus the time). This is the fabric that never ends, it crops up from time to time in WTIL quilts and everyone always gets a good laugh out of the fact that there is STILL some of it around.

Well....while going through my momma's stuff I found yet another kit of "That Stuff". I for one am sick of this stuff, but my granddaughter thought it was the coolest and latched right on to it thinking it would make a great boy quilt. So...she sat right down and made up a top, doing a bit more designing than her first top, and this is the end result. I am so proud of her, at only 8 years of age she has already made 2 quilts...both of which she is excitedly waiting to give to children in Mexico when we go on a short mission trip next month. She now has a boy quilt and a girl quilt to give away, made by her own hands.