Beware! She's contagious!

The cat was playing with a milk ring....you know that little ring that you have to pull off to open a gallon of milk. Lorelei thought he was so funny...her laughter is just simple contagious! Have your sound turned on!

Is that a bud I see....

First, you just notice this dead bloom on the lilac bush, but then look again and you will see a bud swelling up. (Betsy, maybe that is a new 'up' to add to your list.) Anyway, that bud a promise that spring does follow winter...and today with the sunshine its been believable. I took this yesterday along with some others, but I liked seeing both in one photo.

We did head south today...I didn't know where we were headed when I left the house but we decided to go south. I was hoping that if we went south we might get into some snow, but no, it was sunny all the way. We went at least an hour south of Terre Haute...so I am assuming no one in Indiana got any. I have not taken time to check out Mary's blog...I will do that later. If I had known we were going to head south, I would have gotten on line and checked out the weather.

I shouldn't have left. I will tell you about a little mystery I have had.

One day last week, I went down in the basement early in the morn...I don't remember why. Now our basement is not finished...it isn't as bad as some I have seen. It could be better though. Anyway, I get down there and there is this small puddle of water in the floor...and I could not tell where it came from. I had been down the night before after midnight, I had not run the dishwasher, the washer or the dryer, nor anything.

Nothing happened for a few days, then I was back down there yesterday and there was a bigger puddle of water. I looked and looked and could not see anything wet. This time Roger went down and looked. We have a humidifier that we added to the furnace...water runs through a filter each time the furnace runs. The part of the water that isn't used drains into a bucket in which we have a pump, and the pump pumps it over into the sink. So Roger thought something on the pump had gotten stuck, so he worked on it a bit. We thought that did it.

I went down this morn, and there was another big puddle. Roger came and looked and the furnace happened to kick on, and something about the humidifier was leaking. He turned off the water to it, and then that valve wanted to leak. To make a long story short, he thought he had it fixed again...but changed the bucket he had the water draining in.

We left shortly after that, and was gone a till about 4:00, came in and I fooled around a bit. Checking email, and snail mail, fixing a bite to eat, etc. Then, I thought I better go check the basement and guess what? Another puddle! I realized then that I had not really felt satisfied with it when we left. We cleaned it up again, and Roger worked on the valve again.

I didn't think it was the valve because I stood down there and watched and watched before I even told him about it. So, came up and waited a while again....down the stairs I go. Still a puddle! This time he thought and filled the bucket with water that the pump is in...when he kicked it on, it had this tiny leak that showed up.

I went back down there a few minutes ago and it is actually dry. He will have to work on the humidifier because I am getting shocked every time I touch anything, or any time I got to pet the cats. For now I feel like the puzzle is solved...with all the time spent down there it better be. If I am spending time down there, I had rather spend it sewing.

I will leave you with a little video of Lorelei...I first thought I wouldn't because it is so dark on one of our computers...but thought again and thought I might as well. If you can see it, it will get a chuckle. I have watched it numerous times and get so tickled at her.

A visitor

We had the pleasure of having our little darling come for a visit yesterday! She gets so excited when she sees us. Who would have thought anyone our age could give such joy to a kid. She just about jumps out of her car seat to get to us.
She is doing the blast-off thing from Sid the Science kid in the photo above...we just say blast-off and she raises her arms up. Or sometimes she will raise them and go 'ta-daaa!' Sarah said the other night Jeremy came in, I don't remember if it was from work or from going and doing something else. Anyway, Lorelei heard him and yelled 'DA-Da!'
She yells 'Cat'when she sees the cats for the first time or if one appears unexpectedly. She gets excited over them and wants to follow them. It is more the excitement of the chase than it is to actually pet them. Bubbie laid on the couch the entire time she was here and she might look, touch him for a couple minutes, then she would go back to playing with her toys or with us. Yet let one of the others walk through, and she was after them in a flash.
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It is down to 13º as I type this. Tennessee is supposed to get hit with a pretty good snow storm, but we are only supposed to get an inch at the most from it....more as you go south. I don't know if I am happy or sad with that. I really would like to have one more good snow at least...so I suppose I will be wishing we were getting it.

Not sure what I am going to do today...nothing has to be done. We had sunshine yesterday! If I thought it was going to be sunny most of the day, I would suggest a road trip. But Roger may have other things in mind.

Have you ever

seen a birdhouse like this?
At least we assumed it was a birdhouse. There were other birdhouses around. But the holes seem so small I cannot imagine what what kind of bird uses it.

A little drive

Yesterday Sarah and Lorelei were coming over, but the visit was cancelled. So, Roger had to go pick up a prescription. I put on my winter boots and old work coat....it is a generic Carhartt...grabbed camera bag and went with him. I even went in with him to pick up the prescription...pretty sight that I was.

You have to understand that my coat is stained from work, and the pockets are crammed full of stuff. Who cares...it keeps me warm and if something happens to it it is not hard to replace. My good coat, I very seldom wear. For one thing I very seldom wear a real coat, I much prefer a jacket. I searched for ages for that 'good' coat, only leave it in the closet. But I have it if I actually need it.
I had just planned to go through the strip pits to check on the wildlife. I will report on that another day. I didn't get a single good shot of anything there, so we headed up the highway. Betsy had told me to take pictures of the snow. When I had went to bed the night before there was at least an inch on everything, but by the time I got up the wind had blown it every which way and there appeared to be just a skim.
However, Roger spotted the view in the top picture....I like it. And the bottom shows how the snow was being blown about. I think either photo is better appreciated if enlarged.

It is still cold this morn, but supposed to make it into the thirties before he day is over. I will believe it when I see it. The boys just went outside....I cannot believe they have not wanted back in. Last night Bubbie would want outside and be wanting back inside in about 10 minutes. Mama Cat does not even want outside any more. She finally got brave and went outside a bit Sunday, for the first time in ages.

During the last cold spell, she started out trying to go out only to turn around and rush back inside before the door was closed. She finally gave up trying and would turn around and run if she was looking out the storm door and one of us opened it. It was as if she thought we would force her to go. She is only 3 or 4 years old and seems like such an old cat.

Right now I am going to post this, and head over to my other blog. I have to decide what to post there.

Today

Sarah sent me this pic of Lorelei...she loves book. I don't care what she is doing, you can usually get her attention if you get a book. As of right now, they are planning to come up tomorrow. Even though I just saw her yesterday, I will be so glad to see her. She is a ray of sunshine in our life.

Yesterday Sarah was changing her, and I was there trying to keep her entertained. I need not have worried. She got started with her foot...she would hold it up right in front of her face and just wiggle it all around and talk to it. Then she would lick her toe...then hold it back out. I honestly think she was having a pretend conversation with it. Sarah and I both had tears in our eyes from laughing so hard....or I think she did. I know I did.
As for today, it has snowed all day long, but yesterday was so warm that the snow melted for the longest time. Yesterday was in the 50's and we had lots of sunshine here...my brother lives an hour or so east of us and he said they only had 10-15 minutes of sun. It is down in the 20's and windy, but still not the freezing cold that we just got through
The birds just flocked to the feeders all day long...I think I counted 17 starlings out there at once. Tons of sparrows and juncos were here, along with a couple cardinals. And the squirrels came this morn. So everything should be full tonight, but I am sure they will be here tomorrow.

I made the cats stay in today till the wild things could eat in peace. The cats weren't too happy, but they don't really need to be out anyway. They sit and look out the window and dream of what they would do if they were allowed outside. Except my boy...he has laid and slept most of the day. A couple of times he wanted outside, but for the most part he has snoozed the day away.

listen to Winter Closing In

I have been having a hard time blogging for one reason and another. Part of the time it is one thing, and part of it is I don't have many new pictures. But I found something to share today.

I was killing commercial time while watching the Saints and Vikings...Colts done won, BTW. Anyway, I google Tim Grimm every so often. Just to see if I have missed anything. Well, I ran across what is a new song for me. It so fits here and now...well, maybe not today since it was shirtsleeve weather, but it sure expresses what I have been feeling. It is a song I should have written. Even if you don't like the music, listen to the words.

I always think that a good song is one that I see a whole movie just in a few verses. I have featured Tim Grimm before, so hope you don't mind a new one from him.

Church in Illinois

I thought I would show a couple pictures of the church that is in the background of this post. It is just out in the country....it feels like it is miles from anywhere, but it really isn't too far to Paris, Illinois. It is a Catholic church...I took a picture at another time that told the date of when it was built but now I have searched and searched and cannot find the photo.
Someday I want to be over there at the right time to get either a sunset or a sunrise in the background. I am always just a little late for a sunset.
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We went to see Lorelei yesterday....she is just such a funny little girl. Busy all the time, but doesn't have to have someone entertaining her. She can sit and play and play with her toys. Right now she is the sunshine of our days. She laughs so easily and it is contagious to be around.

8 lists of 8!

I could not figure a way to work this video into the lists below, so I am just putting it here for a little laughter. It is so like Bubbie...he comes to bed of the morn, and jumps up, and for the longest time, he always jumped up on me. He will walk, sometimes jump from me to Roger or Roger to me. It is against the rules to step on the bed. He gives this little meow, just about like the meow on this. Only, it isn't so much that he is hungry...he just wants one of us to be awake and maybe get up and move around. If we make room for him, he will snuggle into one of us and stay there if one of us pets him. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it...now for the business at hand.

MB, over at Small City Scenes of Stanwood was tagged to do this meme that was Eight lists of Eight categories....she didn't tag anyone but invited anyone that wanted to, to do it. So, I have been working on my lists the past couple or three days and here they are:

8 TV shows we watch on occasion:

1. Ballykissangel
2. Masterpiece Theater/Mystery
3. On the Record with Greta Van Susteren
4. Law & Order, all of them
5. Antiques Roadshow
6. American Idol
7. Pawn It
8. Frazier

8 favorite places to eat & drink:
1. Yoder's Kitchen in Arthur, Illinois (probably my favorite place of all)
2. Hardee's (I love their thick burgers!)
3. Shoney's (their breakfast bar--none here any more but I eat there any chance I get.
4.Benjamin's--a little hometown diner in Rockville
5. Olive Garden
6. Texas Roadhouse
7. Golden Coral
8.. Johnny Carino's Italian (only ate there once or twice in Pigeon Forge, TN but I still remember it as being soooo good.


8 things I look forward to:
1. Seeing Lorelei
2. Seeing/talking to our girls
3. Picture taking
4. Comments on my blog....I love comments.
5. Going fishing
6. Road trips--be it a short drive or a long one.
7. A good book to read
8. Fresh tomatoes


8 things I love about winter:
1. Snow
2. Reason to make soups
3. Good time to curl up with a book
4. More time and inspiration to quilt/quiltpiece
5. Beautiful pictures
6. Christmas
7. Watching the birds on the feeders
8. It makes me appreciate a warm home more


8 things on my wish list
1. Totally healthy family
2. A good lens
3. More photo trips
4. To spend my time more wisely
5. To get more quilt tops actually quilted.
6. A GPS
7. A trip to Tennessee
8. A new desktop computer



8 things I am passionate about:
1. Lorelei
2. Photography
3. Anything quilting
4. Good books
5. Internet (maybe passionate is a little strong, but I sure do enjoy it)
6. Colts football
7. Good music
8. Love seeing wildlife



8 things I have learned from the past:
1. Be careful what you say and how you say it.
2. Don't dwell on things that made/make you angry (I still have a long ways to go about one particular thing there.)
3. Be patient.
4. Don't always be in a rush.
5. Don't be afraid to be yourself, again I am fifty+ years old and sometimes am a bit shy.
6. Listen to my instincts.
7. Eat dessert first...you never know when you will die. Actually, that was the motto of one of Sarah's friends in high school.... She did actually live by the rule.
8. I definitely need to write notes to myself.


8 things I want/need:
1. A better memory
2. Need to lose weight
3. Need to reorganize things.
4. Need to redo our fence
5. Need to put rails on our front porch because of Lorelei
6. Need more time...always need more time
7. I want more flowers that bloom later in the summer and into fall.

I don't want to tag anyone, but if you decide to do your lists, please let me know. I love reading this type of meme.
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I got the above almost ready last night late. I did finish my quilt top. Now to the business of finding what I want to use for a backing. I like wild backs, but Roger thought I should use a plain one. I think I will have to rummage around in my fabric to see what I have.

Another foggy road trip

Roger wanted to get out of the house today, so we went over to Arthur, Illinois. I didn't take but a half a dozen or so photos. It was foggy, and there are very few places to pull totally off the road over there. And even out on the county roads, there is quite a bit of traffic. As an example, we might drive around here on our county roads for 15-20 minutes without passing anyone or having anyone behind us. Over there, we are very seldom out of the sight of another vehicle. Even for 5 minutes.

No sewing done today...

Sewing

I spent a big part of the day sewing...the time flies once I start. I listen to audio books part of the time...most of the time in fact. I have spent a lot of happy hours with the pedal to the medal so to speak.

There are so many tools for quilting now that my mom never had nor used. And when I was young, Coats & Clark was the only thread we had heard of. Now, there are so many to choose from....the ones above are just a sample. And some of you would probably never believe the price of some of them.

For machine quilting, with my Juki machine, Coats and Clark is not the way to go...but it sews fine when I am just sewing. In machine quilting...at least in free-motion quilting it seems to break often when I use it.

I used King Tut thread by Superior threads for the first time on the quilt for Lorelei and for my new nephew's quilt and it was wonderful. It is the spool second from the right.

Anyway, one of these days I want to take pictures of some of the other tools that speed up the process of quilting...or at least the making of the top. But for now, I need to think about some sleep.

Through the fog

One thing about Indiana is the weather is always changing. The past few days it has been foggy of the morn. Friday when we went up through Attica and on north of there, it was foggy all the way there. Not bad enough to be dangerous...but always when looking in the distance, everything was in a fog.
These were both drive-by shots. That is the one thing about fog, I do not like to stop if there isn't a real good place to get off the road. Still they are not bad.
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Lorelei was up here today...well, everyone was here. But she keeps us all entertained. We consider ourselves so blessed to have been able to have her as much as we did while she was so young. The minute she sees us she gets this big old smile on her face and she cannot wait to get out of her car seat. And she jabbers, talks and has so many expressions that she is more fun to watch than TV.

And I got to see her take a couple steps to Rachel, our older daughter. She has been taking steps at home but this was the first time for me to witness it. It won't be long until she is running around all over the place. And I do mean run...I have a feeling she is going to be like her mommy. When Sarah was little, she never just walked anywhere....she either ran, skipped, jumped. Never just a simple walk.
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My quilt top I am working on is at least half done. In ways more than half since all the rest of the squares are cut, and I have a whole bunch of the rest of the blocks sewn into pairs, or twosies as we quilters call it when you join two parts.

Imagine going to school here....

We were almost the only ones in the quilt shop yesterday, so as I was checking out the sales lady asked me if I was headed straight home. I told her maybe not straight home, that I had my cameras with me and we just sort of wonder the back roads and eventually get home. So, she started telling me about this place.
It was the first school of higher learning in Tippecanoe County....as you can see for yourself if you enlarge the pictures. The one below is not in sharp focus, but I can still read it with no trouble when enlarge. There is another view of the Academy at my test blog, From the dirt road. If you look closely at the picture there you will see a two story home out behind this place. Imagine only paying a dollar for room and board! Of course, a dollar was much harder to get back then.

I finally gave in....

They say confession is good for the soul...so I am about to tell you a fact about myself. I love fabric...specifically cotton fabric. I love my clothes to be cotton, but I love cotton fabric for quilting just as much. And I really love some of all kinds of cotton....the bright colored fabric, the batiks, stripes, plaids, etc. I love, love, love batiks and have quite a collection going as shown here....and that was long ago. I probably have almost double this now.
For a long time now I have had my eyes on the Civil War /Reproduction fabrics....I always look at them but have restrained myself from starting to collect them. Today I finally gave in and started...I just love the old timey look of them. I will have to collect a few more before I start anything. I would also like to finish a few things I have started.
I did finally start sewing my fabric squares together yesterday evening...and I did a few more this evening. Hopefully I will get more done this weekend, but we will probably be watching football most of tomorrow evening and night. The Saints play in the evening, and the Colts play tomorrow night.

We watch the Saints because Drew Brees is the quarterback, and he played for Purdue. And it is sort of obvious why we watch the Colts....but what isn't so obvious to everyone is that P. Manning was the quarterback for University of Tennessee. I was so thrilled when he signed on with the Colts...it was more than I ever hoped for.

It is late and time for me to think about going to bed. So, got to hurry and post a pic to my other blog. Good night for now.

The girls' work....

Roger was down messing with something in the basement...he has some of his hobby stuff set up down there. And he ran across this home made birthday card from Sarah.
The minute I seen it, I wanted to share it with you. It makes me laugh just looking at it. If you enlarge the photos, in the middle of the word 'tell' she punched a bunch of holes with a pin or needle or something. I have no idea what age she was...it is possible that she was in high school, but I think she was younger. Yet it is apparent she was giving him money. So, I don't know. We almost always went and picked out something for him. Maybe this is from when she had her paper route.
She has always had a great sense of humor. When she was just little I used to say that she was going to grow up to be a stand-up comedian.
Though what I showed you from Sarah is funny, it is still sweet.

And I wanted to show you something from Rachel. I have always loved chickens, mainly roosters. I have over a hundred of them...and this is a water color Rachel did for me. I cropped off part of the tail when I scanned it but you can tell what a great one it is. Again, I am not sure of the age...I don't know why I didn't write it down somewhere. I am sure she was either in middle school or high school.
Both girls are very talented. They get it from their dad.

Little Darling

Lorelei and her mommy spent the day with us...she is such a character to be so young.
I am thinking for her birthday she should have a drum...she loves making noise of any type. Be sure and enlarge the bottom photo to see her teeth.

Still cold

It is still cold here...and we are getting snow right as I type. I don't think it will amount to much but the sidewalks have a skim of snow covering them.

I took a little drive this evening to see what I could see. I headed to the strip pit area...the first trip through I seen one Northern Harrier, and some geese in the distance. (The photo above was from a few days back.) I went on over into Illinois to see if the geese were over there, but there were fewer today than when my brother was here. It really makes me wonder what has changed. Maybe they will come later.

On the way back home, I drove through the strip pits again, this time I saw a coyote. He was moving pretty fast when he spotted me...crossed the road and disappeared into the weeds, etc. The only thing moving otherwise were crows.
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I need to make a run to pick up birdseed and sunflower seed...I guess they are birdseed, too. But I get them for the squirrels also. I really figured that I would see lots of action out at the strip pits because the squirrels were playing and chasing each other all morning long.

I think I have enough squares of material cut to finish a quilt top...I just have to get down there and start sewing. I got all my material back in place, and I have my machine set up again for regular sewing. It's funny...I have three sewing machines set up for sewing, but of course one of them is my favorite for all things quilt related.

How do they stand it???

These are both pictures from this winter...the top one is from the first real snow right after Christmas.
And the one below is from yesterday. Every time I see the animals out in this weather I wonder how they survive. At least the cows don't have to hunt for food...I can just imagine the hard time the wild animals have when the weather is so bad and everything is frozen solid.
The birds and the squirrels are eating me out of house and home. I would love to know of a way to discourage the starlings. They just seem to take over. The juncos and the sparrows get plenty that is dropped to the ground but the cardinals keep a bit more distance.

And I am assuming it is Mama Squirrel's last litter that comes with her. Two of them are definitely this years young...the other I am not so sure about but I think it is hers because it will come and get on the picnic table while I am putting food out for them; it knows my voice. It just isn't quite brave enough to take from my hand though I think it considers it.

We were getting flurries just a few minutes ago when I let Shelby out and in. I don't think more snow is in the forecast, but the forecast has been wrong before.

We have snow!!!!

We have snow!!!! And it is still snowing as I type this. It started after midnight last night....I seen a few little flakes sometime before I went to bed. I am not saying what time I got up, but we had about 2-3 inches then. As I was laying there awake, I was thinking how rich we really are. We never go hungry, never really suffer with cold or heat; we are blessed more than we will probably ever really know.

We messed around here a little while and Roger asked me a couple times if I wanted to go for a drive. Well, I wanted to, but I didn't. I dreaded getting out in the cold...however, we filled up the gas tank, and headed north...but only for a mile or two, then across the highway and into the country. It was snowing and blowing...if not for a line of trees, there was no definition between the sky and the land.
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I cannot seem to settle down to blogging steadily. I seem to jump from one thing to another, or one thought to another. I keep thinking I will get back in the groove, but I get sidetracked by things and thoughts. I turned off the comment moderation on this blog the other day, but left the word verification and the first thing I got a spam comment. I would love to know how they choose their victims. Do they actually get business from it?
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I went to Sarah's yesterday and we did a few errands. Loralei was in high form. She could out yell me any time. She now has three teeth that we can see...it is so hard to catch her still enough to actually see.

I got an email from Sarah today...Loralei is officially climbing now. She is always going over to their elliptical machine...Jeremy was distracted by a phone call and in just minute she was up on it. And beating on the upright part. Can you believe that next month she will be one year old? I cannot imagine life before her now.

Nothing like mom!

It had been a few days since we had seen Bright Eyes....so while in Terre Haute we stopped by to see her. (We woke her and mom up from a nap!) She has a good time with us, but every so often she just has to have a little loving from her mama.
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Betsy asked if that is Roger in the photo in the post below...yes, it is. I don't care how cold it is, he will be out without any jacket. He usually has a jacket or coat of some kind in the car, but he very seldom wears one.

Cold and colder still....

These were taken last week...and it was cold then. But not the bitter cold that it has been the past few days. It is 9º as I type this. On this day some of the bigger icicles were actually melting.
These were taken near Fallen Rock Camp Ground...so you can see where it got its name. It is east of Highway 59, south of Mansfield a couple roads.
The cats go out but don't stay long. Mother cat only tries to go out about once a day...but before I can shut the door she whirls around and runs back inside.
The birds are really going through the food and Mama Squirrel and three others help them. Even with the nuts and handfuls of sunflower seeds I put out for the squirrels they get under the birdfeeders and hunt for all the drops.
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I am slowly cutting 6 inch squares of fabric to make a quilt top. I just have the urge to sew and not sure what I want to sew. If I would go down and work steady I would have enough cut in no time. I think I need 240, give or take a few....and I have 150 cut. With rotary cutters and rulers, it really doesn't take much time. Even in this, the time consuming part is deciding which fabrics to use.

I was just going to use mainly fabrics that were in the dark blues, dark reds, and tans but have been introducing other colors along. I only cut two square of each fabric, so by that you can guess I have a lot of fabric. I probably have enough to just cut one square of each fabric, with no two alike....I have been building a fabric stash for a long, long time.

At last

Click to enlarge and maybe see the geese!

Yesterday evening while Neal was here, we made a run through the strip pits and seen a few more geese than we have been seeing. We decided to head on west just a few miles. There were a few fields of corn stubble left, and in these fields were the geese. Not as many as I hope there will be....I know there was only a drop in the bucket compared to what we usually see, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.
And of all times, we had went out to eat so I didn't take my camera. But I did have Roger's P&S in the Rav4, so it is what I used to capture my first sunset pictures of the year 2010.