On the Dry Side

The Right Tool

2012-02-10T16:21:00.001-08:00

Many of us have a collection of embroidery scissors which work perfectly well for cutting thread and floss. But most of those scissors aren't thin and sharp enough for the fine cutting required for hardanger.

As I was beginning to cut this section on A Legacy of Love, I had a moment of laziness, not wanting to get up for my good hardanger scissors. Of course my pretty Gingher Alicia is sharp enough but not thin. The other pair on my table had the opposite problem. So off I went for my Dovo.

What a lovely pair of scissors! They have a thin, fine blade that easily gets between linen threads, and sharp to the very tip. These scissors are made for hardanger. In no time, and without struggle, I was finished cutting.

They cost more but are SO worth it.

Farewell to January

2012-02-02T10:40:00.000-08:00

It's the calm after the storm, the least busy month of the year, and for that, it's my favorite.

Looking around the house, I don't think I got too much accomplished - although we are in the midst of a deep-clean of the computer nook, and that's pretty big.

I hosted Bunco at my house, which is both stressful and fun. Stressful because I had no idea what to buy for prizes - after playing for 18 years, it's difficult! Eventually I found some cool candle lanterns of various sizes at Pier 1. It's always fun to have the girls over to fill the house with conversation, laughter. And I always purge the kitchen/living area of extraneous things from Christmas and general living. I love the emptiness after all the fullness.

Even though my Dad no longer lives with us, he still requires quite a bit of my time taking care of some of his needs. Keeping up with his prescriptions is almost a full-time gig! In January we had a reline done on his lower dentures for a better fit, doctor appointment (never ending), and general errands for essentials.

Of course, we had the big snow event which gave me a chance to pull my stitching projects out of hiding. I finished a panel of VS Happy Hearts, and have now gone on to Connie's Legacy of Love, which I am going to finish in February - I promise, Connie!

I've had this beautiful design to stitch for Connie for an unthinkably long period of time. So sorry, my friend! But I am now ready to start stitching some eyelets, then getting the hardanger portions cut and woven - and finished!!

February's calendar page is starting to fill up with an indoor track meet for the boys (not going, but DH is), Sadie Hawkins dance, possible college campus visit, increasing track practices, doctor appointments, and general life busyness.

I'll miss you January!

Steamed

2012-01-26T20:28:00.000-08:00

It's the little things that make life nicer. Like an iron that makes steam.

I have an iron that used to make steam, but with several people using the iron, it was occasionally dropped until it leaked. Still, it got plenty hot and did a good job as long as there was no water in the reservoir. So I got by and the spray bottle of water was my friend.

While shopping at Costco this week, I saw this great iron. Look at the narrow, pointy end. And it's blue. I took it home.

It makes great steam, and that pointy end is awesome for getting between buttons and into other small places. I iron quite a bit, so this iron makes my life just a little bit nicer.

And like my sewing scissors, the kids can't even look Mom's iron. The old one is for them. :)

Happy Hearts

2012-01-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

So happy to actually finish the first panel of the Victoria Sampler Happy Hearts Sweet Bag project.

Now I'll be setting this one aside to work on another one of the WIPS in my project bag.

Kyle and Kirsten will be home from school early this morning as they have only one final today. I should come up with a good chore list for them. :)

Snow Day Stitching

2012-01-22T15:58:00.000-08:00

We've had our snow event for the winter. The kids had a late start on Wednesday. If it hadn't been the first day of semester finals, I think they would have canceled. The snow and freezing rain kept coming and they got Thursday and Friday off. Messed up their schedule anyway. As for me, I grabbed the opportunity to have a couple of stitching days.

What project to work on?? There are so many WIPs to choose from. Finally, I decided to work on VS Happy Hearts sweets bag from the retreat a couple of years ago. It hasn't come out to play for a very long time, so thought I should give it a little attention.

After working a little while, I remembered why I had set it aside - the design placement on my fabric is a little off from the chart. One thing I find very difficult to do in a room full of friends is count. And so I decided to embrace the difference and keep on going. Once the panel is sewn together with the others, it will not matter at all.

This week things should get back to normal. There is still snow on the ground, but it should be melting soon. Normal will now include a little bit of stitching most days, even if just for a few stitches. I've determined to leave this project out, finish this panel, then bring out another wip. Wonder what the next one will be. Like I said, I have a lot to choose from.

An Indoor Kind of Day

2012-01-18T11:17:00.000-08:00

Five inches of snow and snowing, maybe all day, and now the wind has picked up. Days like this, I feel so blessed to be able to stay home. Unfortunately the kids still had school with a two-hour delay, and Brendan's college classes were on-time. I thought for awhile I'd have to drive him with my 4-wd suv, but DH's meeting was canceled and he volunteered to take him for me. My hero! :)

The iron is heating up to iron a few shirts for DH, the laundry machines are humming, and then I think I'll cuddle up with some stitching and tea this afternoon. A day like this doesn't come around very often, so one must take advantage!

Friday Morning Outing

2012-01-16T19:08:00.000-08:00

Last Friday I had an unexpected free morning as Story Hour was canceled. Well, why not pick Ilse up as usual and have some fun?

We headed to the mall - to Barnes and Noble.

My daughter, Ilse's mother, does not spend a lot of time at the mall and very seldom takes the kids along if and when she does go. So the mall is fresh territory for Ilse. Rather than overwhelm her and spark all kinds of the "I wants", we just spent time looking at books and toys at B&N. In the children's section she spied many books they already have, but quite a few they don't. When I wanted to browse through the craft section, no complaints from Ilse. Of course, she likes to look at those books too. :) Finally, I asked her if there was one thing she would like to choose to take home with her. She thought and looked, and considered, then pondered. After all that, she went back to the first pink book that caught her attention when we first got to the kids' section - a book of paper dolls! The exact thing I would have chosen at her age.

Then we went down the street to McDonald's for lunch.

She had a great time playing in the tunnels and going down the slide, but finally the noise got the better of me.

I think this is something I'll have to do more often, not just with Ilse, but treat a different grandchild to an outing with Nana now and then. Now that I'm not homeschooling, I can take some time out to spend with my grandchildren more often. :)

A Fresh Start

2012-01-04T20:01:00.000-08:00

There's actually a new calendar on the wall, purchased before January 1. I must have been ready for a fresh start and a new year.

2011 had its great times, but there were also many difficult days. Moving my dad here and making adjustments, getting him settled in with new doctors, then moving him to assisted living, and a round of cancer treatments complicated my already busy life. On top of that, DH's dad grew more and more frail and weak until he passed away on October 4, aged 90 years. So sad to say good-bye.

But God has given so many good days too, filled with wonderful friends and family. When things seem dark, it helps to go to my daughter's home and see the grandkids. DH and I had a sunshine-filled cruise in February, I went to Victoria for a stitching retreat, and we took the family to the beach in August. There were so many fun-filled hours spent at the track and xc meets all over the state, I'm so grateful the twins decided to run xc! And lately I've turned into my mother and have been enjoying all those bowl games on TV.

Now with a new year ahead, I'm hoping to be able to get back to some of my favorite activities. I think I might still remember how to thread a needle! And then I might be inspired to write on my blog. We really have to take the travel trailer out more often. I've made some progress on dejunking, but have a long way to go. It may seem sad to put dejunking in a paragraph of favorite activities, but I'm loving the freedom in getting the stuff out of here and enjoying some open space.

Christmas at the Paulsons was lots of fun as usual. Here are four reasons why!

And with the Boise Paulsons and the McClees family joining us, there was plenty of merriment.

Here's hoping we all have a very good 2012! With love from Von and the entire gang.

Brendan, Kyle, Geoff, Mystie, Von, Melanie, Gary, Kevin, Kirsten

A Great Day at Sunfair

2011-10-03T22:09:00.000-07:00

The day started at 4:30 a.m. and ended when we got home about 8:30 p.m. - a really long day - but one that our family will remember for a very long time.

We first dropped Kirsten off to make the ride to Yakima with the team, and we picked up a couple of extras to drive up in our car with the twins - Mitch Yoke and Anthony Armstrong. We arrived at Franklin Park nice and early to help Kraals and Snyders with camp set up and so that Gary could check in with the lead photographer and find out the section of the course they wanted him to cover. He ended the day with about 3500 pics, having covered 9.5 miles (he wore his GPS)!

This course is a difficult one with one steep uphill and another longer less steep incline that they run twice and then the corresponding downhills. PRs are not usually made on this one. The freshmen run a 2 mile race, upper classmen 3 miles. Kirsten was hoping to finish in the top fifty and she made it at #44 with a time of 16:36, a PR for her! She's making good progress this season.

Kevin WON the senior class boys race with a time of 17:11.0 and Kyle came in 3rd at 17:18.6!! WooHoo!!! Very proud mama here. :) The fun thing was that the boys who were #2 and #4 were also twins!

In the varsity flights our Kamiakin boys did us all real proud coming in FIRST (as a team) in both our school division and overall. Each boy placed in single digits in their race (2 #1 wins), including one guy who took the SAT that morning and made it to the park in time to warm up for his race! Our girls team didn't score as well, but several girls came in with top 15 placements.

The competition was amazing with so many nationally-ranked individuals and teams. We're blessed here in Washington with some great talent. The Glacier Peak girls have an incredible team led by Amy Eloise Neal who broke the course record with a blistering 17:09.3. The thing is the girls who placed #2 and 3 had impressive times of 17:19 and 17:49 and the top six girls all broke 18 minutes!

Kamiakin's own Anthony Armstrong (ranked #5 nationally) ran with Andrew Gardner (#10) for most of the race, causing some angst in the Kamiakin crowd who are used to seeing him leaving everyone far, far behind. But he's a smart runner and knows his competition and just ran with Gardner and Vargas (Eisenhower) until coming around the bend for the finish line. That's when Anthony's kick overpowered Gardner for the win, 15:07 to Gardner's 15:09.

With all the excitement to see our boys and girls run, I ran more than I had for a long time - thank goodness it wasn't the first meet of the season so I have broken myself in a little. Still, DH and I are both recovering physically from the effort. :) And ESPN-Rise published two of his photographs on their website Sunfair coverage. He's thrilled, to say the least. :)

A great day indeed.

2011-09-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

Summer seems to have loosened its grip and Fall has taken over here in E. Washington. Temperatures are in the 70s this week and believe me, the runners in my house are so much happier! Not that we can complain about this year's summer - no extreme temperatures into the 100s, which is typical here.

The school routine is in place with Kevin having started classes at the community college last week. Middle son, Brendan, is struggling to find a job. Until he finds something I've had him working at painting the house. He's not particularly happy about that, hehehe. Maybe school will start to look better.

XC season is here and this year we have 3 runners, my two senior boys and my freshman daughter. Luckily this year the girls team has the same meet schedule as the boys, thanks to the boys' coach having a senior daughter as #1 runner. :) This makes our life much easier, as well as coach's!

The boys are burning up the fields here in the Northwest and dominating our school league (3A) with perfect scores against five of the six schools at the last league meet. They have also brought home hardware at the invites they've run so far, winning the New Balance Festival of Champs in Oregon City, and the girls varsity taking 4th place.

Tomorrow is the biggest invite of them all, at least in terms of numbers. Here's the Facebook update today:

Sunfair Invitational Cross Country Meet
‎1 Day left until Sunfair! Here are the final Registration numbers:
118 Schools/Clubs - 87 HS, 25 MS, 8 Elem, 2 Clubs
2,530 Runners: 2221 HS, 226 MS, 77 Elem, 6 Club
It's going to be a GREAT day of racing! The course is finished, come on out today and take a practice run

Yes, that is a LOT of kids! This is one of two meets that ESPN Rise (aka DyeStat) will be covering tomorrow as the caliber of teams and runners is excellent, many are nationally ranked. We're hoping Kamiakin runners have another awesome meet and bring home more trophies!

Along with all the xc excitement, we just today moved my Dad's things over to Parkview Senior Living where he has a nice little studio apartment overlooking the front of the building as well as views of a nearby park. He began his stay in August, initially as a short-term stay while the family was on vacation. But he enjoyed the people there so much, he wanted to make it permanent. Well, it took awhile to get his studio ready, but now he's in. Brendan, Kevin, and I spent most of today carting over the few items of furniture, the rest of his clothes, etc., and now I'm tired! It's so nice to have him in a place where he's well cared for and I can do all my running around the state and not worry about how he's getting along.

So we're leaving for Yakima/Sunfair at 6 a.m., which means I have to get up at 0-dark-thirty. I hope you have a very nice weekend!

Summer, Please Don't End

2011-08-30T22:29:00.000-07:00

School started today and I sent off Kyle (grade 12) and Kirsten (grade 9) to catch the bus at 7:15 this morning. Kevin has opted for dual enrollment and so will begin classes at the community college in a couple of weeks. I know, it's just crazy; how could they possibly be in high school, and the twins in their senior year??

One project finally finished - Kirsten's bedroom. The wallpaper is gone and we now have this amazing dark turquoise color on the wall. How long has she begged me to paint her room? I hate to think about it. It should have been done long ago, but other things seemed to be more important at the time. Forget that - after the initial shock, I'm rather enjoying that blast of color at the end of the hall! And she's ecstatic.

While the room was fairly empty, I scrubbed and put down 4 coats of polish on the floor. Can't believe how gorgeous that floor is now! It won't last long - too much life going on in there.

Speaking of life, here are a couple of teenagers who are full of it. There's so much life there that it knocked them right out. :)

In August we hitched up the trailer for our annual trip to the Long Beach peninsula of the Washington coast for the Paulson family reunion. Nice to get away and have some downtime! The boys and Kirsten needed to recharge the batteries as they put a lot of miles on their running shoes this summer. You might notice an additional dog in the picture. That is Max, my Dad's dog, and I guess he's now my dog too.

Also in August we hosted the annual Mid-Columbia Insurance picnic for our employees and their families. The weather was awesome that day, I think it was about 83 degrees F which is quite mild for the Tri-Cities! Usually it's 95 to 100. We had two bounce houses for the kids and lots of great food, fun, games, and prizes!

Last week was the county fair and at long last DH put in three pictures receiving a blue ribbon on one of them. Kirsten entered three pictures and got blue ribbons on each one! They're much more generous with their ribbons in the youth category. :)

Here is the portrait she entered which I think totally deserved the blue ribbon.

Along with the fair is a rodeo each night which is fun to go watch. Since our company is a fair supporter, we get special passes to the "party pad" which is right between the chutes for the riding events and the chutes for the roping/wrestling events and I mean it's right next to the action and sometimes you can almost be a part of the action! There I was sitting next to the rail on Saturday evening when a bull threw a cowboy off his back then charged at him. Said cowboy flung himself up the rail - almost into my lap. It all happened so fast, but not so fast that I didn't notice that the cowboy was pretty cute. :) Not only do you get the good location, but there's free food provided by some of the best caterers in town, so I got real spoiled not cooking dinner last week.

All that's behind me now and I'm back in my own kitchen, cooking meals not only for my family, but the boys cross country team came for breakfast yesterday! Thank goodness not the entire team - my house isn't big enough for them all - but enough of them to go through 5 pounds of bacon and who knows how many pancakes. This year I got smart and didn't set out all the bacon on one plate, but held some back in reserve so there was a more equitable distribution of the coveted bacon. If there's one thing boys love, it's bacon.

Of course, there's lots more to report, but I think I've gone on about enough for now. I'm hoping that one day I'll have a chance to sit with my needle in hand, but since it's xc season, I'm kinda doubting that's going to happen soon. In the meantime, I'll enjoy all your stitching progress and maybe make a trip to Joann's to see if they have those Alicia scissors I've seen on a couple of blogs today!

The Latest Lacey Thread Design

2011-07-23T20:32:00.000-07:00

Connie has just posted her newest design on her blog and website, The Lacey Thread. Isn't it pretty??!! It's good to see her creative juices are flowing again.

Summer Continues

2011-07-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, school has been out for a month, running and CYIA camps are over for the 3 youngest, and Kirsten's softball season is over except for the final tournament games Thursday and Friday. The days of summer now revolve around XC practices, thinking of chores for the kids to do, and trying to get into some of the larger projects on my to-do list.

One area of progress I'm enjoying every day is my back yard and garden. Gary installed the shade sails I ordered last summer and boy, do they make a difference! I like the fact that they're not permanent so we can take them down after summer, and there are no roots to deal with in the back garden. I love my trees in the front yard but it gets so frustrating to cut through maple tree roots to plant anything around the front of my house. Yes, I did make a raised bed, and the roots still invade. So shade sails are a nice solution for the back.

This corner is the last part of the garden to be planted. I know the chairs look pretty dumb, but they're protecting new roses from too much sun. By the end of this week there will be a few more chairs in the garden as I have a few more roses to plant. It'll feel weird to not order many roses next year!

This summer has been very mild, and windier than we've had for several years. No heat stress on the garden - but there's plenty more summer to come.

Loving the color of The Impressionist, below. It starts out all orangey, then fades to a beautiful pink as it opens.

It's amazing to look back at some of the old pictures of the back yard and compare to what we have now - soooo different!!

Next up, going through the garage and basement, purging junk - and taking breaks in the garden.

Starting the Cycle, Again

2011-06-13T21:31:00.000-07:00

Today was the first week day of summer break. What did I do first thing this morning?

Got up at 6:30 to drive my daughter to cross country practice.

When your kids decide to be runners, you don't really get a break. The last couple of years I've taken the boys to morning runs at 8 a.m., but the girls run at 7. At least they run together evenings, and now the boys can drive! :D

By the way, the boys are at Flathead Lake, Montana, for 2 sessions of running camp.

Run, run, run

2011-05-28T21:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day weekend!

The weather has turned out to be quite fine, so fine that I was able to get most of the back yard cleaned up and all the roses fertilized. The roses are beginning to look pretty good, areas are filling in nicely, and new ideas are ruminating in my brain.

After blowing out a bunch of leaves and washing things down, I was able to sit back and enjoy the blossoms.

It's going to be a good summer. :)

VS Retreat

2011-05-26T09:19:00.000-07:00

It’s sad to think that my oasis of stitching happiness, the VS Retreat, will be no more. Thea is cutting some of the stress from her life, which hosting a retreat like this inevitably brings. So I understand and sympathize with her, but we were all a rather happy-sad group this year; happy to be with a fabulous group of stitchers and friends, sad that it would be the last one like it.

I left home on Tuesday noon, driving over White Pass close to Mt. Rainier, which was shrouded in clouds, heading for Lacey and Connie’s new home there. They bought a sweet little house that is perfect for them, small but roomy, bright and airy, with Connie’s very own stitching room.We did lots of gabbing, looked over some of Connie’s latest designs, ate dinner out, then back home for more visiting. It was so nice that she could arrange to go into work late next morning so we could have a pleasant breakfast together before I drove on up to Port Angeles to catch the Coho ferry.

The trip across the strait was fun as I joined fellow retreaters, Jo-Celle, Laura, and Kathy. As Jo-Celle and I entered the hotel, heading for the front desk, we heard a big whoop and holler from the bar where several of our Northwest ladies were taking advantage of half-price wine day. Who can turn down half-price wine? We sat down and joined them, having such a great time catching up with one another.
And that’s how it went the entire weekend. Laid back fun, great food, excellent conversation, wonderful friends.

Thursday I stayed close to the hotel with Viv stitching in her room and drinking tea. After dinner the retreat officially started with stitching in the big room at the top of the hotel which overlooks the beautiful Inner Harbour and downtown Victoria. Friday several of us walked up to the Empress for a special box lunch in honor of the royal wedding – delish!

Me, Viv, Kathryn, and Nancy

My roommate, Marty, and Dorrie were so excited for the royal wedding that they got a room at the Empress and watched the festivities all night. I greatly appreciated the gesture as I was not THAT interested, so I got the sleep I desired, and started the stitching day rested and ready.

Dorrie and Marty

Friday evening, Victoria’s fine chocolatier, Bernard Callebaut, hosted a little private chocolate tasting just for us! Oh my, how wonderful was that! Brad had wine and other little goodies in addition to a store full of chocolate for us to try. Of course, I had to take a bit of chocolatey goodness home with me.

Saturday brought another day of stitching in our hotel. Thea had made several videos of the special embroidery stitches which was a wonderful way to demonstrate them so we all could see and understand. She also insisted that we stitch a silk ribbon flower on the edge of our fabric, especially for those who had not done much ribbon embroidery. Later in the day, a big bus took us all out to Thea’s home and VS Studio for a little end-of-retreat celebration. She had lovely salads and sandwich makings, ending with an amazing Black Forest cake.

Birgitta and Marietta

All too soon, the retreat was over. Following breakfast with the gang, Jo-Celle and I walked back to the Coho and finally parted ways at the Budget Parking Lot.
While this was the last retreat in this particular format, the friendships we’ve formed over the years will draw us back together again sometime, somewhere.

Victoria Sampler Retreat - The Last

2011-05-11T09:30:00.000-07:00

The last VS Retreat is history now and for all those attending, it was a memorable one. There were 40 stitchers from around the globe - Sweden, Australia, Scotland, England, and all over the U.S. and Canada. So much laughter and fun. It's sad to think of it being the last, but perhaps there will be a scheme afoot for a reunion.

The retreat project was a stitcher's purse plus several smalls. I went to the retreat with more stitching done than I ever had before, the house and the hill. So I feel like I actually made some progress on this project by the end of the retreat.

This is the front of the purse.

And a start on the back of the purse.

Of course, there were a couple of over-achievers who had stitched ALL the projects (but not the finishing) before the retreat - amazing! Lisa and Thea had the totally finished set there for us to see and get a better idea of how all the pieces fit together. It's a lovely project!

Stop by later for more pics and reports of the retreat.

Fun Day at the Track

2011-04-26T07:28:00.000-07:00

I knew horses ran a steeplechase, but had no idea high school track had the event too! Coach chose the twins to run in this event at Saturday's Kiwanis Invite down in Hermiston, Oregon.

He said he chose them because they are resilient. DH said he thought the more appropriate word is "expendable"!

This event is 3000 meters - seven times around the track with four obstacles, including this pond.

My boys came in 5th and 6th place with Kevin at 11:03 and Kyle at 11:12. Not bad.

The weather cooperated with us for the meet, but Easter Sunday was not quite as nice as the wind showed up again. The wind has been almost a constant this spring. Seems like 18 mph with 25-30 gusts being about average. When will we get a full week of nice weather??

A Little of This

2011-04-05T17:01:00.001-07:00

The street view of my house is much happier these days now that the tulips have begun to bloom. I need to come up with a plan for a nicer display later in the season. Perhaps the daylilies will do better this summer.

I received an email from Nordic Needle that the frame I want is backordered. No indication how long it will take until they have more. Ugh. I was hoping to get it and start that new VS retreat project on it. Not much I can do about that other than wait and hope it comes before I leave.

There’s plenty to keep me busy! Kirsten participated in her first track meet last week. Don’t you know she strained her knee in her first race. This is a problem she seems to have periodically – when she forgets to stretch and keep up on her strengthening exercises.

Over the weekend DH and I drove over to the Salem, OR area to attend his cousin’s wedding at St. Innocent Winery. What a lovely place for a wedding! Bobby and Linda (groom and bride) were soooo happy, their kids were happy, their families were happy, it was truly a joyous celebration. DH’s brother, Steve, recently retired and built a new home in Lowell, OR, just east of Eugene and they hosted us overnight. What a treat to wake in the morning to a beautiful view of Dexter Reservoir!

On the way home we had to make a stop at the famous (at least among local beer aficionados) Ninkasi Brewery in Eugene. I had their cream of mushroom soup which was chock full of mushrooms, lovely portobello mushrooms that I even needed a knife to cut into smaller chunks – YUMMO! The beer was pretty good too, although I do prefer wine. It’s just that visiting local microbrews is becoming a favorite pastime of DH and my son. So I deferred to him and we did not get up to Heirloom Roses before they closed for the day. I thought I’d save him some shipping costs, as long as we were in the area.

Oh well, that’s gonna cost him.

New Stitching Frame

2011-03-31T09:43:00.000-07:00

The Lap-Stitch Doodler frame has had my eye for several years, but I've put off and thought about it, then put off ordering it over and over again. This week I pulled the trigger and ordered it from Nordic Needle. I've wanted to try a lap/table frame and this one has style - I just like the way it looks!

I'll let you know how I like the way it works once it's been put to use.

Fitting It In

2011-03-29T10:28:00.001-07:00

Just because I haven’t had time to stitch the last few months doesn’t mean I can’t add to the WIP pile growing next to my stitching chair, does it?

With April arriving later this week, you know that it won’t be long until it’s time for the Victoria Sampler Retreat, the very last one. I signed up for it at the end of last April’s retreat, so the project arrived at my house yesterday – ready or not!

Thea has chosen some scrumptious colors for this one.

So I have my homework to do to prepare for the retreat. I always enjoy separating the threads and making up a new project kit. Trouble is, last year’s project is still sitting unfinished, and the year before that, and . . .

Ah well, it’s all good – and pretty fun too.

A Month Ago

2011-03-26T10:37:00.000-07:00

The waters of the Caribbean Sea were fascinating to gaze at from the balcony of my stateroom.

Most evenings DH and I tried to catch the sunset from somewhere on the ship.

Days in port were spent doing lots of fun things like cave tubing, zip lining, and swimming with the sting rays, or just relaxing on a beach.

I spent a lot of quality time with my Nook, but none with any of my needles.

The weather was perfect during the entire trip. All that vitamin sunshine gave me a great boost to get through the rest of the winter. We met some wonderful people and I even reconnected with my boss from my high school job. That was a crazy coincidence!!

Since returning home, my dad has spent a couple of days in the hospital with near-pneumonia, track season has started for not two, but three of my kids, and my schedule has not gotten any saner. Taking it all one day at a time and not looking too far ahead helps me cope with it all. :)

And memories of sunny beaches help too!

A Much Needed Rest

2011-02-20T11:37:00.001-08:00

Life is funny sometimes. Just when I was beginning to make plans for the next phase of my life, I find out it's not going to be what I thought.

In mid-December we found that we needed to move my Dad from Arizona to live with us in Kennewick. Thankfully we didn't have to do it immediately so we could get through the holidays and do a little household maneuvering before driving down. Mid-January Gary and I spent a week going thru the house and packing up the few things Dad needs, and getting him home with us. He did great on the trip, as did his little dog, Max.

Dad doesn't need skilled nursing, just some love and meals - and his meds. Still it does require me to rethink what the next ten years will be like. One thing I know, Dad's getting a little stronger and happier each day and life is good for him.

After all the work preparing for and actually moving Dad, I'm really ready for a little vacation in the sun! DH and I are about to embark on Carnival Glory heading for the W. Caribbean.

Ready . . . Set. . . Relax. . .

Whoosh!

2010-12-31T09:47:00.000-08:00

That is the sound that has reverberated through my mind all year - whoosh, and it's over!! Really quite the whirlwind and 2011 promises to be even more so. Taking one day at a time though. :)

Christmas was our usual house full of family, 23 of us this year! We should have had one more, but nephew Taylor had to stay in Boise for work. (We missed you, Taylor!) On Christmas Eve, I roasted the turkey and prepared the salmon chowder. How we look forward to that chowder all year long! Then it's candlelight service at church.

On Christmas morning, things start out pretty quiet as the kids don't wake up at 6 a.m. these days - teenagers! All the better for Mystie's family to have their own gift opening. While waiting for my adult kids to arrive, we nosh on cinnamon bread and coffee.

At last we're all together and the gift opening begins.

Knox

Ilse

It takes about three hours for us to get through all the gifts. The last one opened was mine from DH and the kids. They bought me a Nook!

I now have several library books on it and have really enjoyed using it. Thanks to Gary and the kids!!

Lots of merriment followed the gifting, including snacking, cooking, chopping, chatting, carving, etc. This year I tried a new vegetable dish, Bobby Flay's roasted brussels sprouts with pomegranates and vanilla-pecan butter. Really good, and even better the second day! Mystie brought her traditional layered jello and 7-up salad, plus roasted mushrooms and garlic. Quite a treat! And I can't leave out that my sister, Janeale, baked 40 dozen cookies to bring up for the weekend. Yes, almost 500 cookies! Remember those teenagers? Seven of them are boys who inhale them. Janeale is the cookie master, each one is perfectly delicious. :)

The McCleeses hung around until Monday. That evening Geoff, Gary, I, Jim and Paula, drove out to Prosser for a little wine tasting and microbrew sampling. I, the non beer drinker, even had a sampling of three beers/stouts at the Whitstran brewery and actually enjoyed them, although I like my wines better. :)

The Boise Paulsons left Tuesday and it's been kinda quiet ever since. With all the merriment over Christmas, I do enjoy a quiet New Year's Eve and that's just what I have planned for tonight.

To you, my friend, I wish God's blessings of peace, love, and laughter throughout all of 2011!

A Bit of Stitching

2010-12-13T08:41:00.000-08:00

Saturday was the Smocking Guild Christmas luncheon and ornament exchange, and of course I was still finishing up my ornament on Saturday morning! What a procrastinator I am. I chose the VS ornament from this year's JCS ornament issue with its unique shape and hardanger features. Because of my lack of time management skills, I didn't get to the beaded tassel that should hang from the center of the ornament - argh! That is really the touch that makes the ornament!

The funniest thing is that the guild member who received my ornament stitched the very same ornament for the exchange. We made different fabric and thread choices and it was great fun to discover the differences and talk about why we chose to do what we did. :) And Monica is an extraordinary beader, so her ornament included a stunning tassel. Guess she can now choose the beads she prefers for the design (from her very nice stash of beads!), and with her expertise, it'll be done in no time!

Christmas baking was in high gear on Friday in preparation for the annual Confection Selection which helps support our local Pregnancy Center. In all, I baked 23 loaves of cinnamon swirl bread and sent 20 of them off to be sold, leaving the less desirable-looking loaves for my family's consumption. On the Saturday morning of the bake sale, the weather was good - meaning no snow storms, and with a bit more promotion this year, every single cookie, candy, loaf of bread, and treat was sold!

Sunday evening DH and I helped to host our company Christmas dinner. My participation in preparation was minimal this year (yay!), so we just got ready and showed up. Our company had a good year and we are grateful for our employees' efforts in that success!

Now for the rest of this week, we have a XC awards meeting tonight for which I'm to get some treats ready and get a gift certificate for the coach. Tuesday Kevin gets his braces off! Hallelujah! And I will continue to fit in Christmas shopping and other Christmas chores in with all my other duties. My tree isn't even up yet!

With all that I doubt I get much stitching time in the next couple of weeks, but after Christmas - woohoo!

Wintry Blast

2010-11-30T14:30:00.000-08:00

Eight days ago winter arrived a tad bit early here in the Mid-Columbia. There sits my poor patio furniture in the snow.

We left home for Thanksgiving in Boise with our family, hoping that it would be gone when we came home on Sunday. Instead things have gone from bad to worse as today we have freezing rain on top of all that snow. Looks like the predictions for a hard winter are right on the money!

It's amazing to me that we're saying goodbye to November already and the Christmas rush is here! I started stitching my ornament for the exchange we traditionally have with my smocking guild ladies, pics to follow soon. Then in addition to all the holiday chores, I'd really like to get my bedroom cleaned up, painted, and all our stuff moved back in before the relatives arrive for Christmas! I think Kirsten will help out since as soon as my bedroom is put back together, we can finish stripping wallpaper and painting her bedroom. :D

Better get a move on!

November Roses

2010-11-03T17:52:00.000-07:00

This fall has been quite mild here in Eastern Washington. The last couple of days the sun has shone gloriously through the trees, although at a much lower angle, not quite getting into my back yard.

These things are starting to fall . . .

from here . . .

so outside chores continue, rather pleasurable chores on days such as these. And some of my rose bushes continue to produce blooms!

The leaves on the roses are turning yellow, like the maple trees, so soon there will be no more fresh roses on my desk. I'm going to miss that sweet scent!

2010 XC Season

2010-10-31T15:53:00.000-07:00

And it's over. . . kinda

The Kamiakin H.S. boys xc team went undefeated in their district and league meets and did very well at all the invitationals. Yesterday was the regional meet that qualified teams and individuals for the state meet and our team placed third, giving the entire team the opportunity to race next weekend.

My boys were on the cusp of qualifying for the varsity team, and they did have a chance to run a couple of times when a varsity runner needed a week off to recover from an injury or something. But they mostly ran junior varsity, and usually came away with a ribbon for winning or coming in the top group of runners in their races.

Kevin and Kyle at the Sunfair Invitational, Yakima, WA

Kevin crossing the finish line, just ahead of Kyle

The boys usually run most of the race together, with Kyle coming in a little faster sometimes, but Kevin pulls it out every now and then. This season Kevin started out with two awful heel blisters that took almost all season to heal. Dealing with the heel pain caused him to change his stride which then led to a knee problem for awhile. Once we learned the stretch we needed to do and got those blisters healed, he did better. :)

Here's Kyle coming in ahead of Kevin at the district meet, otherwise known as JV Champs by the kids. Kamiakin boys came in 1, 2, 3, 5, and 6 - Kyle was #2 (18:01 5k), Kevin #3 (18:05).

At yesterday's regional meet they had an unofficial fun run for the alternates and others who wanted to participate and both boys ran three miles under 17 minutes to set new personal records!

So the season is officially over for my boys. However, the state meet is this weekend, here in Pasco, and we'll all be there cheering on our varsity boys - and girls as the girls team placed 2nd at regionals! Then the next week we're planning to go to Eagle, Idaho (near Boise) for the Nike Northwest Regionals where our team will compete and our own boys will run in the JV event.
Will that be the end of the season??? We'll see!

Endings

2010-10-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

Here we are at the end of October, the end of cross country season, and the end of Melanie's wedding story. What a month it's been - a wonderful, wild roller coaster of a month!

The biggest event of the month, the wedding, was everything Melanie wanted, and my worst fear realized, as a rainstorm hit just as the ceremony was starting. All day Saturday my gut was twisted as the weather report for Sunday (10-10-10!) deteriorated. My mind went to Plan B, Melanie was determined to have the ceremony in her glen - regardless of the rain.

As guests began to arrive Sunday afternoon, most came prepared with raincoats and umbrellas, and God began to calm my fears. After all, it was just a little rain! The temperature was perfect and there was no wind.

The bride and groom were so happy that it spread to everyone. It was one grand, joyous celebration!

The caterer, inside the small lodge, was ready with warm food and beverages directly after the ceremony so we could all dry off a bit. We set up a few tables in the lodge and also had more tables outside under two canopies.

The food and the cake were so delicious! I was ecstatic with the baker and the caterer!! They made my day so much easier, as did my oldest daughter, Mystie, who graciously accepted the task of wedding day coordinator, keeping everything running smoothly so that I could spend more time with our guests.

The rain clouds drifted off to the east just before it was time for dancing.

I gotta say that we've been blessed with the best friends and family that embraced the rain as a grand adventure, wholeheartedly and with great joy celebrating Melanie and Daniel's new marriage! You're all amazing!

More on those other endings to come soon. :)

RIP Little Compaq

2010-10-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

My trusty friend for over five years, my Compaq laptop, has died a sad death, taking with it many photos that I did not get backed up or downloaded to my Flickr account. The computer geeks in the family tell me the info cannot be extracted. Sad, sad day yesterday.

But there's no time this week to dwell on it. Last minute wedding details are coming together, and there have been three xc meets in the last week. My personal hard drive is getting a bit fried too. :)

It's XC Season Again!

2010-09-04T13:14:00.000-07:00

The first week of school has just ended so that means Friday was the Hanford Jamboree, the first race of the xc season. The Jamboree course is only two miles, not the usual three miles or five kilometers, so it's really just an opportunity to get out there with the other area schools and see how well your guys did in their summer training.

Here's Kyle at the finish, pushing to beat out that Southridge guy who ran with him most of the race. Great expressions, eh?!

Kevin was about twelve seconds behind. He wore his new racing spikes and ended up getting huge blisters on his heels as well as battling acid stomach. I've put together a first aid box to take along in the car that includes a good supply of Tums. :)

This year Kirsten (8th grade) ran in the fun run. I was sooo proud of her for finishing the race after she had done a six mile workout with a middle school team earlier in the day!

I've been seeing what the town looks like at 6:20 a.m. every morning since Kyle has a zero hour weight training class. Lucky for me we've had lovely mornings this week. :) And since I'm already out of the house getting Kyle to school, I've been stopping by the gym on my way home, spending about an hour on a variety of workout equipment.

The weather has cooled for the beginning of school; perhaps my roses will put on one last show for me. Four new iris rhizomes that I ordered arrived the other day, so I planted those next to my new rose babies by the new section of fence. Here's how some of my older roses are looking right now.

Spending a few minutes deadheading and tending to them every day helps keep me sane. :)

If you're in the States, I hope you have a great Labor Day weekend!

Vacation Stitching

2010-08-30T10:21:00.001-07:00

It was so nice to be able to pull A Legacy of Love out of the stitching bag during my vacation. I wish more could have been accomplished, but considering it was a family vacation, camping, I wasn't really off duty. :)

With only one more set of flowers to stitch in the middle section, I'm feeling like working on this design some more. Or maybe I'm wanting to avoid thinking about all the things we have yet to do for the wedding! Only six weeks to go - ack!!

Of Roses, Camping, and School

2010-08-25T13:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, so July is behind us, it's August, and next week school starts. Life is busier than ever and I'm trying to believe that sanity will return, after the wedding. Well, maybe after Christmas.

New rose babies are getting settled into their new homes in my borders. Crocus Rose, Alnwick Rose, The Impressionist, Julia Child, Tamora, and Tea Clipper are my late July plantings. This week I've added five more: Apricot Impressionist, Crown Princess Margareta, Eden, Lady of the Mist, and Strawberry Hill. DH has finally finished the back fence so I can get the last part of the border planted. I can hardly wait for next spring!! There will be some moving around of roses I'm not entirely happy with, a couple of shrubs that need a more appropriate place in the garden, and lots more new baby roses.

Now planting rose babies here in the heat of the summer can be problematic. Strong sun and heat, and young, tender roses are a bad combination. Rather than rig up some complicated shading system, I took the rather inelegant, but effective, option of plopping down white lawn chairs over the top of the roses. Worked like a charm! I amaze myself sometimes, lol!

The first part of August we took a ten-day family vacation, pulling the trailer to Ocean Park, WA. As always, we left after work on Thursday evening since we have a difficult time getting up, packing the last minute items, hooking up the trailer, and getting out of town in the morning. We left town about sundown and got as far as Multnomah Falls, just east of Portland. It's amazing to wake up in the morning to view the beautiful falls before any other visitors are there!

From there we spent three days with the huge Paulson clan. Monday we moved camp to Fort Stevens State Park near Astoria, OR. What a great campground! Lots of walking and biking trails, military history museum, military batteries to explore, a beached shipwreck, a freshwater lake to kayak on, and so much more. The only thing lacking was a bit of sunshine.

Which we got plenty of when we moved camp to Randle, WA, for a weekend with a group of geocachers from all over the state. As we headed east from Astoria, the sun shone brighter and warmer; oh, it felt so good! :D

Beautiful sunshine, bright blue skies and warmth were plentiful for the rest of the vacation. Friday we made a trip up to Paradise in Mt. Rainier National Park. Kevin and Kyle got in a high elevation run while DH, Kirsten, and I took a more leisurely stroll up to Myrtle Falls.

I can't imagine that there has ever been a more perfect day at the mountain!

It's a good thing we had such a relaxing vacation because we had to jump straight into the deep end of back-to-school madness with sports physicals, new shoes, class schedules, changing said schedules, and CEF Good News Clubs. Now this week is the county fair and finally next Monday school will start once again.

While on vacation I did get a bit of stitching in, so perhaps there will actually be another post with that update soon! We shall see. :)

GeoWoodstock and the Not-So-Lazy Days of Summer

2010-07-16T09:51:00.000-07:00

Slow summer days spent reading and relaxing are days from my distant past. It seems that each summer fills more quickly with all kinds of activities - this year wedding planning has taken over most of my free time and cut into manyof my normal activities. That's one reason I really enjoyed taking a few days over the Fourth to camp with DH, Kirsten, and grandson Hans over in Fall City, WA. Geowoodstock VIII was the motivator for the trip and Hans jumped into the activities with both feet and didn't want to quit!

The actual event was in Carnation on July 3, but there were several meet-and-greets beforehand, and our campground was occupied mainly by geocachers from all over the country.

Grandpa and his new geocaching buddy.

Geowoodstock itself was quite the spectacle of 4500 cachers and lots of vendors and other activities and speakers of interest. Thankfully, the weather was pretty decent during the day with the sun even making an appearance for awhile. (Much of the weekend was cloudy, if not actually rainy.)

On Sunday, the 4th, we went into Seattle to the Groundspeak headquarters where they had more hunts and vendors. We left early in the afternoon so we could head up Snoqualmie Pass for a hike/cache hunt Gary had been wanting to do for a long time. As we neared the exit, the clouds were gathering overhead and I knew it was going to rain. So I cheerfully sent the gang off on their hike (6miles!) and I stayed in the car reading and napping. They came back pretty wet, but with the forest cover, not as wet as I thought. And Hans enjoyed the hike and was ready for more!

We headed back to our camp, built a little campfire in the drizzle, and waited for dark to play with the sparklers.

We made a pretty good decision to stay in camp and not search out a big fireworks display as some folks bought plenty, taking them down to the beach on the river (not far from our camp) and we had an up close and personal fireworks display without dealing with traffic!!

Next day, Monday, we packed up and headed home - back to the sunshine and warmth we love here in Eastern Washington!

Since then, Melanie and I, along with some of her bridesmaids, have put the deposit on the venue, got the caterer situation under control, and next week I'll be talking with a baker who has a great reputation. Decor ideas are coming together now that we have the venue, and Melanie has even found some pics of bouquets that she likes. I'm so glad we're getting these things nailed down before she takes off firefighting - especially since we don't have much time. October 10, 2010 (10-10-10) will be here before I can turn around!

Oops!

2010-07-02T09:37:00.001-07:00

Fall City, Washington, and rain go together like peanut butter and jam. So why didn't we put out the awning on the trailer last night? Oh well, we're here for the big Geowoodstock event and won't be spending much time sitting around camp.

The weatherman says it'll clear up later in the day. In the meantime, we may drive towards Seattle and show grandson Hans the big city.

A Bit of Serendipity

2010-06-22T10:47:00.000-07:00

Monday may have been the first day of summer on the calender, but here in E. Washington it felt more like April as it was a gray day with areas of light rain. It was also my birthday. DH and I had talked about driving over to a lavender farm a few weeks ago, so we thought my birthday was a perfect time to go - even if it was gray and drippy.

Blue Mountain Lavender Farm is just south of Lowden, which is west of Walla Walla a few miles, almost to the Oregon border. About ten years ago a Washington state gal and her French husband moved to the area (because he was tired of the weather on the wet side), took up a teaching job and found this delightful little piece of property in the rolling hills where they began to grow lavender.

They grow ten varieties at the farm and have plants for sale, u-cut lavender, a sweet little gift shop, picnic areas, and free samples of lavender lemonade. The yard area is lovely, tended by the wife's parents who also live on the property. Monday was kind of a slow day for them so DH and I struck up conversation with the couple and learned that they homeschool their two daughters who will soon be high school age and were eager to talk with parents who had navigated their children through the Running Start program. I bought a few plants and a sachet and on our way out they gave me a small dried bouquet for my birthday - such sweet people!!

For more wonderful pictures of the farm, go here for a slideshow of snaps DH took.

The lavender farm was the only item on our agenda for the afternoon, so we did the obvious thing - found a winery! Waterbrook Winery has a new facility and tasting room right on Highway 12 which we hadn't visited yet. They've built a big pond next to the patio of the tasting room which is nicely landscaped and will surely be gorgeous after a couple of growing seasons. The tasting room is large and airy, with quite a bit of expensive art for sale. Their tasting list was one of the longest we've seen and as we tasted each wine, were surprised to find that we both enjoyed each and every one. So we restrained ourselves and bought only half a case of mixed bottles. :)

What to do next? Well the server at the winery was talking about a great bar in Waitsburg, a small town (pop. 1200) about 20 minutes down the highway. Gary started looking for info online as we drove that way. As he was reading the glowing reviews of the jimgermanbar, many referred to eating first at the cafe across the street - Whoopemup Hollow Cafe - which also received many rave reviews.

All I gotta say is all those raves were right on the money! DH had the jumbalaya, I had goat-cheese filled ravioli with an appetizer of gumbo - each one truly spectacularly delicious. After dinner drinks at the jimgermanbar were unique and the drink menu changes at Jim creates new concoctions.
Wow! Little Waitsburg - I had no idea the delights to be found!

Wedding Season

2010-06-20T22:26:00.001-07:00

Diebler Bouquets
Originally uploaded by GaryPaulson

We've had our share of graduations this year, grand celebrations that they are. But nothing beats a wedding for a joyous celebration, and our calendar is filling with quite a number of them.

My joy was tempered with quite a bit of stress as I played the role of florist for my friend's daughter's wedding. I've made up bouquets and done a little arranging for four other weddings, but the bouquets were made of roses only, pretty simple. This bride wanted different kinds of garden flowers in a white and yellow combination. Thankfully the wedding was outdoors and not terribly formal, so that gave me a little leeway for each bouquet to be different and not look like they were made by a professional. Still fitting a variety of flowers together from a variety of places, including retail and personal gardens with a little bit of roadside thrown in, took me beyond my comfort zone.

Somehow I plowed ahead through my doubts and delivered the flowers on time for the pictures before the wedding. The bride told me she loved them (thank you for being such a sweetheart bride, Lauren!), and they were patient with me when I had to send my DH back home to retrieve the corsage pins that I had forgotten.

It was a delightful wedding on a beautiful day. But just to be fair to the couple of friends whose wedding was rained out and had to be moved at the last minute, this wedding reception was shortened by a rain shower. It was wonderful to see so many friends pitching in to get gifts moved, tables and chairs removed, etc., while a number of young people were on the dance floor in the rain. :)

My Ever-Growing To Do List

2010-06-09T10:36:00.000-07:00

Just when I saw a little reprieve in my schedule following the graduations and the two parties we hosted for our graduates, Melanie (WSU) and Brendan (Kamiakin HS), comes one of the biggest events a family gets hit with . . . an engagement!

Our daughter Melanie became engaged to Daniel Thompson over the weekend!

Here they are at Melanie's graduation, obviously. :)

No date has been chosen yet, although I'm anticipating a short engagement. Daniel has been hanging around here for seven years and has definitely earned his place in the family doing a lot of tree trimming, stump removal, and general landscaping help. The guy knows how to work!! Anyway, after seven years I think they know each other very well and probably will want to get on with their married life as soon as they can!

So stay tuned; there will be lots more action around here in the coming weeks/months!

A Little More

2010-06-02T20:56:00.001-07:00

Progress, that is, on A Legacy of Love. As of now I'm at the half way point. Think I better make this my focus piece for the month and finish it. :)

The rain showers keep coming back. While I'd really appreciate some more sunny days, the lawn and garden are green and lush with all the mild, moisture laden days of late.

So much going on with more birthdays for my grandson Jaeger (5) and dd Mystie, a wedding for a friend's son (which was rained out of the outdoor venue with record-breaking rain), softball games and practices, a landscaping project, a 31st wedding anniversary for me and DH, another graduation party to prep for. . .

Blogging has fallen way low on my to do list, but I'll eventually get around to visiting with all of you - hang in there with me! :D

Pitiful

2010-05-23T10:28:00.001-07:00

That's what I call the progress I've made on my VS Retreat project.

Perhaps you are like me in that when I'm with a group of stitchers, like at the retreat, I lose the ability to count. Before the retreat I had the fabric marked off into the various panels and center lines gridded. That's as much as I could do. At the retreat Thea wanted us to get in the satin stitches for the drawn thread portion of the four panels.

No problem. Counted away, put in my stitches, pulled threads, only to discover later that the number of stiches wasn't quite right. But still not a big deal, just an opportunity for making the design my own, lol. Now as I've gone on stitching, I've found that the placement of the section is off as well.

So the creativity continues . . .

A Day at the Lake

2010-05-22T08:32:00.001-07:00

This weekend Gary and I have run away from home to Lake Chelan for a meeting of some of the larger insurance agencies in the state. Yesterday's skies were full of ominous-looking clouds, so what a surprise to wake up to a gorgeous sunny day!

Later a group of us will be visiting some of the local wineries while others play golf. I hope this fine weather stays around all day!

Another College Graduate

2010-05-17T20:38:00.000-07:00

One more of the Paulson brood has graduated from college! This year it's Melanie who graduated magna cum laude from Washington State University - Tri-Cities on Friday. Her degree is in Digital Technology and Culture, a hybrid of humanities, social sciences, and technology. She worked hard for that honors cord and you can see how happy she is to have graduated!

Melanie and Geoff

The family in the peanut gallery.

To set off the black gown, Melanie found a fierce pair of shoes in WSU colors!

We're so very proud of you, Melanie!

Softball!

2010-05-13T07:54:00.000-07:00

Here we go again!

Kirsten really surprised me. She wants to play softball, even on a new team with girls she doesn't know. Her old team didn't continue on, but she is. Of course, she quickly made friends with the girls on this team - The Lightning.

First game was last Saturday - finally a beautiful sunny day (which we've had several of since). The Lightning started in the field and you could tell they had a bit of the first-game jitters. But once that half of the inning was over, they began to pull it together, winning the game 15-10.

Kirsten at bat.

And on 1st base.

The American Heritage Girls (AHG) year is coming to a close. We've been working on the geology badge and one of the requirements was getting a topographical map, studying it, then going to that place. Thankfully the USGS website has downloadable topo maps!!

Just south of Kennewick is a big butte called Jump Off Joe with a conglomeration of communications towers and dishes - and an amazing view of the entire Tri-Cities area. I chose this landmark to focus on the topography, as it's steep on one side (facing town), but gently slopes down the other side, and you drive up a canyon to get to the top of the butte.

The day was another beautiful spring day in the Tri-Cities.

Wind power is definitely making an imprint on our landscape.

The road comes up from the backside of the butte, so the amazing 180^ view when you crest the top of the hill is breathtaking.

This is just a small portion of the view. I was initially concerned that it would take too long to drive "clear out there" but it took about 15-20 minutes; plenty of time for the girls to gather wildflowers and braid them in each other's hair. :)

Now on to the next thing - preparing for dd Melanie's college graduation tomorrow and party on Saturday!

Stitching Treasures

2010-05-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

Shopping time in Victoria was quite limited for me this year, but a couple of fellow stitchers made sure that we all left the retreat with some special treats. Marty (from Iowa) made up a huge batch of these wonderful stitching bags.

These little wonders have three pockets, two with flaps on each side of the bag, then an open middle with a tab of velcro to close. So clever!

Our Australian friends stitched up these wonderful little pin pillows featuring the various state flowers of Australia

On Saturday I received a box from Connie who sent me one of those glass flower frogs that so many have been using to display their embroidery scissors. I had admired hers during my visit and she offered to visit the antique shop where she found hers to get one for me.

Thanks so much, Connie!!

Why I Return

2010-05-04T09:13:00.000-07:00

Victoria Sampler Spring Retreat 2010 is in the books, my third retreat. I've signed up for a fourth in 2011! Some may wonder why I'd want to spend the time and money, why go through the hassle of leaving an active family schedule (although that might tell you a lot right there :D). My stitching friends will understand the pull to return to a beautiful destination where you will find amazing women like these:

Lisa, Thea, and Cathy

who host these retreats and create the amazing projects we work on.

Laura and Brenda

Marty, Laura, and me looking at one of the many gift packages we received.

Marty was one of my roommates and she made all the attendees one of the most clever pouches you'll ever see - pic to come later.

Beth and Dorrie

Our new Australian friends!

They gifted each one of us with a darling pincushion they x-stitched with a state flower of one of Australia's states.

Saturday afternoon we all are bussed out to Thea's home and the VS studio for a snack and our exchange. In all there were 22 of us stitchers, each one dear heart.

Most dear of all to me are these ladies from the Northwest: Nancy, Kathryn, J0-Celle, and Viv (who is really from Tennessee, but we adopted her!). Here we are at our ice-cream dinner - oh my goodness! :D

Thea's projects are gorgeous, but these women are the reason I return to Victoria in the spring.

You Gotta See These!

2010-04-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Connie at The Lacey Thread has just released two truly spectacular designs that you should take a look at! I had the pleasure of seeing the finished projects on my journey to Victoria and had the hardest time taking my eyes off of them.

The pictures on the leaflets do not do justice to the designs as they cannot to convey all the texture and shine Connie used to enhance the pieces. If you love hardanger and silk ribbon, these are for you!

Victoria View

2010-04-26T18:25:00.001-07:00

One of the views from my 9th story hotel room of the downtown and inner harbor areas of Victoria. While the sun shone brightly on Thursday, most of the weekend was a mix of light rain showers and clouds with some sun breaks. But I wasn't there for the weather! More about the VS Retreat coming up.

Definitely Not Home

2010-04-22T09:16:00.001-07:00

This is not what you see out of any of my windows at home! This is Olympia, the very green capital of the state of Washington. Following a lovely drive over Hwy 12, Mt. Rainier shrouded in gray misty clouds, I easily found Connie's new home and we proceeded to have a great catch up visit. It was so good to see her DH, John, mostly recovered from his stroke and back to his jovial self, and little Lizzie so grown up and gorgeous!

Of course we talked stitching! Connie brought out her latest designs, and I gotta tell you they are truly something to drool over! Check out The Lacey Thread on Facebook, or her website to get a get a look once they're released.

Well, next up is Port Angeles where I'll catch the ferry over to Victoria.

The Thrills of Spring

2010-04-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

Sunshine!

Woohoo! We finally had an 80^ day yesterday! That, to me, is a perfect day. There is still a lot of clean up for me to do around the yard, but I took a few minutes to pull out one of the patio tables and a chair, then just enjoy some time in the fresh air and sun perusing some garden books from the library.

New buds on the peonies!

Progress on A Legacy of Love!

And so much more, such as celebrating the baptism of our newest grandson on Sunday, the ending of one season (teaching Story Hour on Fridays) and the beginning of another (softball for Kirsten).

Topping it off, tomorrow I leave home to spend the night in Olympia visiting with Connie, continuing on to Victoria, B.C. on Thursday for the Victoria Sampler Spring Retreat!

Easter Weekend

2010-04-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

I hope your Easter weekend was as much fun as ours was here at home! Saturday morning it has become our tradition to color eggs with the grandchildren, have an egg hunt, then share lunch together. The weather was darn cold and windy, but the festivities went on as planned.

Little Miss Ilse wasn't too sure about the dyeing thing at first, preferring to just peel an egg. After watching her brothers for awhile, she decided to get in on it in a big way - demanding all the dye cups she could get her hands on! Meanwhile, Knox decided to sleep. . .

He's such a sweet, easy baby!

Easter Sunday also happened to be Kirsten's 13th birthday! After so many years of raising children, it's hard to comprehend that they're pretty much grown up now - all teens or full adults. Kirsten is planning a birthday bash with a close friend for this coming weekend, so the actual day was rather low-key, but still fun. And she got the camera she's been wanting for a long time, so she was busy. :)

Then there are my boys who are just too full of themselves. :D

Brendan, Kyle, Geoffrey, Kevin

They always keep things interesting around here!

Well, another week has begun, the kids are back to their regular school schedule after a week of spring break, and I'm back at my studies too. I fell behind with all the folderol of having teens underfoot. The laundry kinda piled up too, so that's being dealt with. What hasn't piled up? The food supply! A grocery run needs to happen soon - although there are plenty of hard-boiled eggs. Egg salad sandwich anyone?!

Drippy Day

2010-04-02T12:06:00.000-07:00

The morning began gray and dreary and the promised rainfall appeared. Following Barbara's lead, I stoked up the oven and began to bake.

Cookies were requested for a dear woman's funeral reception tomorrow, so several dozen are for that. But as long as all those ingredients were out, I might as well bake some for Good News Club, and some for the freezer. In all . . . eighteen dozen.

By the time I started the second batch of cookies, the sun blew in on a stiff breeze. Looks like a mixed bag of weather for Easter weekend.

On the stitching front, I must send a thank you to the nice folks at Kreinik for featuring my previous blog post on their Facebook page today! What a day brightener that is. :)

A Touch of Glitz

2010-04-01T21:57:00.000-07:00

I just finished stitching the algerian eyelets in the top hardanger hearts section of A Legacy of Love by Connie of The Lacey Thread, and I couldn't help but admire the little bit of glitz the Kreinik metallic adds to the design! I love eyelets - all that pulling really helps me release the tension of a stressful day. This time, however, I tried to restrain myself from pulling too tightly so that more of the metallic thread could be showcased and catch the light. Sooooo pretty. :)

Now back to more of those flowers.

Oh yes, I got to babysit my grandchildren today, all four of them!! It seems like it's been ages since that's happened. They're all excited to come to Nana's on Saturday for egg dying and hunting. Now if we can just get the weather to cooperate with us!

Spring Disappointment

2010-03-29T12:23:00.000-07:00

After all the lovely, mild weather we've had this late winter/early spring, we now have wind and rain - on spring break week, of course. There's so much yard work to do and three boys here to help with it. Oh well, there's plenty o'spring cleaning to be done inside.

The tulips I planted at the front of the house last fall are looking so good! If only my strength hadn't given out there would be even more. More fill-in will be done in the future. The daylilies I transplanted are taking off as well, so there should be more color this summer!

Carol inquired about my irises a couple of days ago. Here's a pic for you, Carol! You can see that they're doing great after a thorough reduction and a spreading of the wealth throughout the garden. More pics of those to come! Several years ago Carol shared a few of her iris rhizomes with me and they seemed to adjust quite well to Kennewick from New Hampshire!

A Legacy of Love is slowly coming along. It's such a darling design, but those flowers and the color changes involved in stitching them, well, they're a bit of a pain. But I think I've got my approach to getting them done all worked out, so I'm just going to get on with it. :)

When I've accomplished more on ALOL, I'll treat myself by getting my Victoria Sampler retreat project started! The kit arrived in the mail the other day, and isn't the project a beauty?!

April 23 and the retreat will be here quickly, and I'd like to have the project on the bars, gridded, and some of the x-s done before leaving. Sooooo, I should wish you all a lovely week and be off to goad my kids into doing their chores and do some of my own as well!!

Springing Up

2010-03-16T09:42:00.000-07:00

Look what is happening in my garden! New growth springing up amidst the old, dead remains of last year's garden. It's always exciting to peruse through the leaves to see what is coming back.

The roses are really taking off, faster than I can get out there to do some pruning. Aw, it'll happen one of these days. . .

New growth - new project! I finally started Connie's A Legacy of Love over the weekend. It should go rather quickly once the top and bottom are stitched.

More growth in my studies. I'm almost at the 10% point in the course, having just started Anatomy and Disease yesterday. Luckily for me, I do not have to memorize all those muscles and bones and what they do. Spelling them all correctly is the goal, and one of the main skills of the MT is using resources to check your work.

Now to get back to it so I can stitch this afternoon!! Or maybe I should do some clean up outside. . . or a little of both. :)

How I Spent Last Week

2010-03-09T08:23:00.000-08:00

No stitching, didn't get out to prune the roses. There's a newborn grandson that needs to be held, and I'm up to the job - and so are the aunts and uncles. :)

I also did a little more than my usual share of washing dishes and folding laundry by helping out the new mother of aforementioned grandson. What fun to be in a house with young children, especially when the weather is nice enough for them to be outside expending energy! Their imaginations are constantly entertaining.

And it's most consoling to be with the small ones after you've been shopping with your very youngest child, and come home with a dress like this one.

This almost-grown-up young woman cannot be my baby! But it is. She was in desperate need of some new clothes that actually fit, especially for church. Thank the Lord that Kohls had a nice sale and some decent dresses and skirts (shopping for a young almost teen can be so frustrating!). So here is Kirsten all ready to leave for the Father-Daughter Ball. They had a great time together, and with their friends.

I've begun a new endeavor that's eating quite a bit of my time, in addition to baby holding; I've started an online course in medical transcription. It's school on my terms which I hope will lead to a job with enough flexibility for me to help with grandchildren, run kids around to various activities, craft, stitch, and garden, and still make a little extra income. With a "baby" that will be in high school in the fall of next year, my homeschool career will end and I thought transcribing at home would be a good career to begin.

It's a challenge to be learning in a more formal way once again. There is certainly a lot to learn! But with my background as an executive secretary, I have the basic keyboarding and English skills, and even transcribing experience, to build new skills on. It's good for the kids to see Mom working on homework while they are doing the same. :)

So I'd better get back to it!

Cruise Stitching

2010-03-02T14:03:00.001-08:00

A winter vacation, particularly a cruise to some warm, sunny destination, is now on my "Must Do This Every Year" list. Winter has not been particularly hard on me this year as the weather has been unseasonably mild and thus my SAD tendencies have been controllable. And yet a few days of warm temperatures and sunshine have buoyed my spirits to see me through till spring truly arrives.

While enjoying some of that sunshine streaming through the glass door of my stateroom, I stitched more on "Herb Garden Bouquet". I changed the dark blue flower there under the "K" from a lighter shade of blue as I felt there wasn't enough contrast to the blue in the flower neighboring it. The design is coming along, even though I didn't stitch as much on board the ship as I might have. You see, I also took a few naps, real afternoon naps. What a great vacation!

On my last Costco visit, this colorful bouquet called out my name, "Von, look at us! We're cheery, we're bright, we're colorful - take us home!" Could not resist the color combination, and why would I? :-D

I'll soon be setting aside the HGB project to begin stitching a model of A Legacy of Love for Connie of Lacey Thread Designs. The fabric has been stitched to the scroll bars and I've been putting in some guide lines before I actually begin the design. When Connie sent me the kit for ALOL, she included her other designs for me with a signed copy of Quaker Inspirations which she dedicated to me! What a dear thing to do. Thank you, Connie! Your friendship has been an inspiration to me for over thirty years.

Knox, Knox

2010-03-01T09:38:00.001-08:00

My fourth grandchild and third grandson, Knox Winckler, was born on Thursday night, February 25. He's a big boy, born at 9 lbs, 8 oz., but we tend to grow them big in our family. Mystie once again gave birth at home with our wonderful midwife, Fran, after going ten days past her due date of the 15th. I was really hoping she'd go ahead and have the baby while I was in Mexico, but Knox thought he'd wait for me to return home, plus a few days - much to Mystie's chagrin!

Best of all, he's healthy, Mystie is recovering speedily, and little Knox is on the receiving end of a lot of love!

Deluge

2010-02-18T14:09:00.001-08:00

The streets of Puerto Vallarta are small rivers running to the sea this afternoon. The day began bright, sunny, and warm when DH and I set out from the ship to explore the town. We took a local bus that bounced us down to an older section of town. The more authentic markets and old churches are much better than hanging out at Diamonds International.

As we explored, I kept my eye on an ominous sky that soon darkened the day and rain began to fall. We ducked into an internet cafe to kill some time. Soon the skies opened and have been dumping rain for a couple hours now. They tell us it's been a wet season this year, not normal at all. Guess the weather is strange everywhere on this continent right now.

Still, we're having a great time, eating delicious food, and we didn't pay big bucks for an excursion today! :D

Cruisin' With My Valentine

2010-02-14T13:48:00.001-08:00

LA is sunny, warm, and gorgeous today; a perfect day to start a 7-day Mexico cruise! Our stateroom has a balcony so we can soak up all the sunshine possible. We arrived fairly early and checking in was totally a breeze.

Fisher Communications has done a wonderful job taking care of all the little details from the time we left Pasco airport. Makes you want to sign another advertising contract with them, and that's the point, isn't it. :)

I'm not sure I'll be able to post much while we're gone, so I'll wish you all a sunny week!

Herb Gardening

2010-02-10T14:15:00.001-08:00

Attempts to keep winter blahs away continue as I garden with my needle. While going through my stash recently, I came across Herb Garden Bouquet by Cedar Hill. It seemed to fit my requirements for a good travel project, and flowers always cheer me. I started it while waiting in airports during my Arizona trip, and continued a bit this week.

The usual busyness has been accelerated this week and DH and I have another trip coming up on Saturday - ack!!

Bloomin' Blossom

2010-02-06T11:15:00.000-08:00

A bright little Blossom was finished about a week ago. This kit was just the color lift I needed. As to the finishing. . . not sure. Maybe I'll find a little frame to pop it into, then set it next to my stitching station during these dreary winter days.

"Blossom" by Dinky Dyes

thread kit included, some substitutions made

28 ct. white linen from my stash

This week I flew the coop, literally. Allegiant Airlines offered a fantastic fare from Pasco to Phoenix awhile back which I had to take advantage of. It's been far too long since I've visited my dad and sister in the Phoenix area, and with my sister recuperating from her second hip replacement surgery, the fare couldn't have come at a more opportune time. I wish I could have stayed with them longer to help out a little more, but responsibilities here at home keep me busy and pulled in so many directions that a longer stay couldn't be done right now. But my sister is doing quite well, making good progress, and will soon have things well in hand there.

As soon as I arrived back home on Thursday afternoon, I picked up my twins from drivers training, stopped at Taco Bell to take home "dinner", then DH and I sped to downtown Kennewick for the monthly Art Walk. This month one of the featured artists was our daughter, Melanie!! She had been working on a series of charcoals, some computer generated prints, and acrylics based on her wildland firefighting experience. Her framing and hanging was very professional-looking, with some help from Laura Gable, a local artist who has taken an interest in Melanie's work. It was an exciting evening for us, and especially for Melanie.

Now it's back to the routine. Yesterday was Story Hour with my little preschoolers. Kirsten had an overnight birthday/slumber party, another son went to a party, Melanie was at work in the evening, and I did my normal shopping. While shopping I made a little detour to Joann Fabrics to see if they had the Ott Lite I'd been considering, which was on sale.

Sure enough, I found it! In no time it was set up at home and I gave it a test run last night. That's stitching nirvana right there! The bulb is longer than my other light and 24w, rather than 18w, more flexible, and has the magnifier and chart clamp. Love it! My chart wasn't always slipping off the chair arm, and no more readjusting the magnifier around my neck all the time - all my supplies at hand - it's perfect for me. :D

And on that very happy note, I wish you all a happy, safe, and warm weekend, especially for my friends facing the snowstorms back east.

Blossom Progress

2010-01-27T11:58:00.000-08:00

January has brought us more rain than is normal, so it's been rather gray here. Sometimes the sun pops out then I pop out too for a quick walk around the neighborhood to replenish my vitamin D reserves. And if the sun doesn't come out to play, my trusty Ott light and these bright Dinky Dye silks I'm stitching with, serve as a good substitute.

To finish, I've only this little sawtooth design to stitch all around. It's been fun using the variegated thread and watching the colors flow as I've progressed around the edge.

As I was stitching the four flower motifs around the center, I became unhappy with the center motif as there was entirely too much green. The color of floss that came with the kit to be used for the leaves of those flowers was a dark blue/green which just did not suit me, so I substituted with something a little brighter from my stash. Now I do like green, but I wanted more variation in this design, so out came my scissors and out came the center motif. I restitched it this morning at the orthodontist's office. Now I'm quite satisfied. :)

Vonna's little bit of reorganizing inspired me to do a bit of my own. I've been gathering all the scattered project bags and bits of stash from here and there throughout the house and having a ton of fun separating all the silks from the cottons, Weeks from Gentle Arts, etc.

I have a smaller drawer set, similar to Vonna's, into which I'm putting some of my wips - one project per drawer. When finished, I'll take the cart back upstairs next to my stitching chair.

In family news, there is now another metal mouth in the house. Kirsten was laid out for two hours this morning in the orthodontist chair getting all the brackets cemented on, wires installed, and a lower Herbst appliance put in. That's a lot of metal in a small mouth!

We're keeping the Tylenol nearby!

Many thanks for stopping by for a quick visit today. I appreciate all of you!

Just Dropping In

2010-01-20T19:42:00.001-08:00

I've been using my stitching chair a bit this week and made some progress on Blossom. Using more color has been fun, but I can't wait to get to the border to use Dinky Dyes Luna Park, a gorgeous variegated floss.

Today was AHG. We're working on the Social Skills and Etiquette badge and the troop is hosting a dessert social fund raiser next month. My Pioneer girls will be making centerpieces for the event, so we spent some time looking at books and talking about ideas. Then we learned some special napkin folds from some library books, which definitely were lacking in clear instructions. Still the girls were able to figure out some of the folds and had fun doing it.

The boys have finals at school this week, and Kevin just informed me that he's missing his sketch pad which needs to be turned in to his art teacher - argh! I found Kirsten's grammar book today, so perhaps I can find this too.

I Need Color!

2010-01-14T11:06:00.000-08:00

Here we are in mid-January with so many gray days. Much of my stitching the last few months has utilized two colors of brown and a black. As pleased as I am with AQS (and thank you for all your admiring comments!) I felt a real need to break out some bright colors for a quick project.

I had just the thing in my stash: Blossoms by Dinky-Dyes Designs, which I'm stitching on a white 32 ct. linen over two using two threads because I want that blast of color. It's a fun little design that came with the silk pack. Mmmmm, love those silk threads!

Baking Day

2010-01-11T15:13:00.000-08:00

Cookie Duty

Those words strike fear into a woman's heart, if she has forgotten her designated day of duty! I've been there, arriving at church ready for worship only to have your heart stop when you read YOUR name under cookie duty for that very day. The nearby Safeway has probably seen quite a number of frantic Grace Church women in their checkout lines on Sunday morning over the years.

But yesterday was not one of those days for me. I remembered and scheduled all of Saturday to be in the kitchen. While waiting for the butter to soften, I made four loaves of sandwich bread and a pan of cinnamon rolls. Then I made nine dozen snickerdoodles and nine dozen chocolate chip cookies. That does me in for one day! Seven dozen of those were for coffee time after church, six dozen went into the freezer for Good News Club, and the rest are for us - they'll last about five more minutes. :)

While all this busyness was going on, my DH decides it's a good time to go out into the garage and bring in some dusty boxes to go through. While I always encourage organizing and decluttering, I don't appreciate the dusty boxes in my kitchen while I'm baking. So he was shuffled over a few feet away into the dining room. Oh the treasures he found - boxes of old power cords, floppy disks, computer mouse with track ball - things he was at last ready to let go of!

There were treasures in some of those boxes though. Like my dfil's bronze star from WWII.

He also found a box of things from his grandfather. Things like the class ring from the 1916 graduating class of Corvallis, Oregon, and various pins from his days in the Ag. Dept. of the State of Oregon.

There was one other very special treasure in that box - a caponizing kit.

Anyone have any roosters we can practice on?

First Week

2010-01-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

It's been a pretty good week here at the Paulson house, a good mix of activity and laziness, a return to the school routine.

Monday was, of course, the Fiesta Bowl and our Boise State Broncos bested the Texas Christian Horned Frogs 17-10, to end the season undefeated with 14 wins - the same as the 2010 champion Alabama. There was indeed a lot of whooping and hollering here on Monday evening as we celebrated the big win!

The kids were back in school, so the alarm went off early for me too. I hate getting up in the dark. But I did, and they did, and the cycle begins again.

I finished a huge organizational chore - going through all the photos for 2009 on my computer, deleting some, and reorganizing the remaining pics into monthly folders, then storing all those folders in one labeled 2009. Oh yes, I also finished up the same chore for 2008 as I just never got it all done a year ago. Can we hear it for perseverance! :D

Kirsten and Kyle had orthodontist appointments this week. Next week Kirsten and Kevin have appointments. At long last, Kirsten is beginning her orthodontic adventure having now had spacers put in and next week the Herbst appliance will go in. A light is beginning to shine dimly at the end of the orthodontic tunnel, the end of payments and appointments that have been virtually non-stop for thirteen years as each one of our seven children have needed treatment.

And in my stitching world, I've been putting my new chair to good use and have finally finished A Quaker Study.

Although I finished AQS in 2010, I stitched 2009 on it as most of the stitching was done last year. The trick will now be to find a frame to fit its unusual dimensions, or perhaps I'll have one made. My local Craft Warehouse has some odd sized frames, so I'm crossing my fingers for an inexpensive solution.

And now I really must get back to the kitchen and put pounds of butter and flour and sugar into the Bosch mixer and make up dozens of cookies. I have cookie duty at church tomorrow!

Football . . .Really?

2010-01-04T07:56:00.000-08:00

There are sounds and sights that filled my childhood that are rarely heard and seen by my own children in our home. My mother had seven brothers. Thus, she could throw a baseball better than most boys in the neighborhood. She loved racing me and my sisters to the mailbox, and beating us. She watched a lot of sports on television. Saturdays ABC's Wide World of Sports was tuned in. On New Years Day she would place the small television from her bedroom on top of the large set in the living room so she could watch two bowl games at once. There was chili on the stove - fend for yourself because Mom was glued to her games.

Mom had three daughters who never could learn to throw. Eventually we did grow and could beat Mom to the mailbox. We liked to watch ice skating on television. Two of us married guys who were not big sports fans and our children have not grown up to the sound of the crowds roaring on the tv and their mother yelling at the quarterback, or tight end, or blocker.

They didn't even know what a first down was until a couple of years ago when Boise State University went to the Fiesta Bowl and I turned the television to Fox to watch the game, being a BSU alum. Some kids came upstairs from the basement lair to see what was going on, a couple came in from outdoors to see Mom (me) watching a football game and wondering what happened to their mother. I told them to come in and watch for Uncle Jim and Aunt Paula on tv (they're huge Boise State fans and were in Phoenix for the Fiesta Bowl). As we watched, I explained some basics of the game. And what a game it was, the best college football game ever played.

Watching football games still isn't a normal activity in our household, but now and then I will watch one if there's a compelling reason. This year DH and I watched the Rose Bowl as the Oregon Ducks were playing. They lost, but it was a good game. And tonight we're actually having a family football fest! Son Geoff is bringing a friend over and we're going to be watching BSU once again in the Fiesta Bowl. I'm not expecting the same fireworks of the 2007 game, but we're going to have a good time and maybe even do a little yelling and cheering.

It'll sound like home.

Stitchy Review 2009

2009-12-31T06:00:00.000-08:00

Su is hosting a lovely end-of-the-year Stitchy Party for bloggers who would like to join in. As I don't generally keep track of stitching goals, I thought her party would be a fun way to see what I accomplished this year.

Umm, yeah . . . well, 2009 was not a stellar stitching year for me.

I did start off the year stitching up a little reindeer ornament, then stitched up a hardanger heart pillow with the smocking guild, completed the stitching of the stitching smalls in the Victoria Sampler Retreat design, and started a couple of hardanger coasters. But my focus piece this year has been A Quaker Study, and it's almost finished.

Of course, there are many other creative activities I try my hand at now and then. Smocking is a love of mine and I did get an Easter dress sewn for my granddaughter, Ilse. Through the smocking guild I learned a bit about doing kumihimo, which I used on the trim for the hardanger heart pillow. And that's about it, although I do feel pretty good about all the work we got done in the back yard this year. Anyone who has done much landscaping/gardening knows that after a hard day in the garden, you usually fall asleep early on the couch and not much else gets done.

In the coming year I'm hoping to stitch more, especially from my current collection of Victoria Sampler designs, smock another dress or two for Ilse, and just try to keep my head in all that's going on around me. :)

Tip of the hat to Su for the party!

A Lovely Lull

2009-12-30T10:46:00.000-08:00

It's rather quiet here. Package ribbons lie on the side tables, bits of wrapping paper hide under the couch, gift boxes await disposal. Relatives have returned to their homes. Now begins my favorite week of the year, the last week.

Not much cooking needs to be done as so much was cooked last week so I should be busy doing all that decluttering I've been meaning to get at. Or I could get Christmas stuff put away. But no, I've planted myself in my new chair and have totally vegged out watching movies, blog reading, and playing games on my phone. Short, dark days and darker nights sap any mental energy I might muster.

Snow fell again last night, oh about an inch or so and I was expecting another gloomy, gray day. Thankfully the sun is shining on the snow which reflects back more light which I crave on these short winter days! A bit of energy seems to be awakening in my lazy bones. I'd better take advantage of the sun and get a few chores done before the darkness descends once again.

You should see how the laundry has piled up over the Christmas weekend . . . no, I'll spare you that picture. :)

Oh So Merry

2009-12-29T10:53:00.000-08:00

We were 22 for gift opening and dinner on Christmas Day, a very jolly day for all of us. It's such a joy to see all the cousins having fun together, all of us enjoying the little ones, Hans, 6, Jaeger, 4, and Ilse, almost 2.

The morning always starts with our special Christmas coffee, pots and pots of it, and loaf after loaf of my cinnamon swirl bread as we wait for everyone to arrive for gift opening. Finally we cram ourselves into the living room and the festivities begin, one gift at a time.

Having everyone together is quite enough Christmas for me, but my children did give me a Capressa burr coffee grinder which I've wanted for quite awhile. And dd Mystie made me a lovely crocheted stitching set!

Jim and Paula brought little Chloe, the poor puppy who was abandoned, but ended up in the best home. She is growing so quickly, now scampering all over and even made an attempt to climb the stairs. Her antics kept us entertained all weekend, until the Boise Paulsons left on Monday.

Slowly I'm getting caught up on my blog reading and love getting a glimpse into Christmas at your house!

Christmas Wishes

2009-12-22T20:14:00.000-08:00

Time is running short these busy days before Christmas! Most of my shopping is done, the tree finally got decorated and I even dug out some of my houses, although the accompanying goodies haven't been found. The oven has been doing a big business keeping the cinnamon bread going and I even got most of my cards mailed off.

Yet to do - menu planning and grocery shopping. Think I'll just pull out last year's menu and go with that.

Over the weekend DH installed the remaining section of rail lighting in my kitchen. For the 22 years I've lived here we had this one ugly fixture which didn't get switched out even when we remodeled six years ago! Now the room is flooded with light. The downside to that - I can see how dirty the cabinet over the microwave really is, lol.

I mentioned in my last post that my Christmas gift arrived last week - a new stitching chair!

My old chair looked nice, but just didn't fit me well and caused some pain when I sat in it too long - like whenever I stitched. One day I was out and decided to stop in to a furniture store and sit in some chairs. While I didn't find the perfect one that day, I now had a mission and eventually found this one on sale at Macy's. While I'm not sure how it's going to work out for stitching, I do know that it's great for napping as I've been nodding off while relaxing the last few evenings.
Next week when the Boise families are back at home and all the Christmas activities are over, the chair and I are going to get really well acquainted. That thought is keeping me sane this week!

Well, the gifts yet to be wrapped are calling my name!

I wish for you, my friend, a very Merry Christmas full of good cheer.

Glazed

2009-12-17T11:22:00.000-08:00

Hooeeee, it's been cold in the Mid-Columbia lately complete with a small base layer of snow topped off with a glazing of freezing rain. That freezing rain is the worst! Schools around here have had a couple of late starts and one complete ice day off - that part I like! And with my little Droid phone, I can check the school district website for late-start notifications, then turn over and get another hour or so of deep sleep. Somehow I always sleep great between 6 and 7 a.m. :D

December is always busy and I'm pounding away at each activity as it arises. Early last week my job was to buy Christmas gifts for our employees' Chinese auction at our annual Christmas dinner. I was so anxious about finding things that they would all be pleased with - within my budget. After spending one entire day at Costco and the local mall, that job was completed. I was hoping that a couple of the items would spark some stealing, but everyone was very pleased with the package they pulled from the pile!

Also over the weekend, we hosted DH's brother and his family who came up for a basketball tournament that their youngest son played in. They arrived Friday night, kinda late after driving from Boise. Kip quietly walked in snuggling this tiny little creature which we immediately mistook for a guinea pig. But no, it was the sweetest little puppy that had been abandoned at the McDonald's that our nephew works at. What kind of heartless people drop off a tiny, unweaned puppy by a dumpster in temperatures near 0*F?

We all enjoyed this little girl so much! There's no better entertainment than watching a young pup learning to coordinate her legs and body to walk around and climb small obstacles in her path as we let her explore the kitchen - which has a vinyl floor so that the piddles she leaves were easy to clean. :) Over the weekend we heard her first real "bark". We're going to see a lot of growth in her when they come back up for Christmas!

One evening was devoted to the awards ceremony for the twins' cross country team. We enjoyed seeing all the boys on the team once again. Kevin and Kyle received their letters that night, and the next day I delivered them to the embroidery shop where we ordered their jackets. She still thinks we'll have them by Christmas - crossing my fingers that we do!

In the midst of the craziness, our water heater developed a leak. Luckily a slow leak so it didn't make a huge mess. So before it became a big mess, DH did some research and finally decided to hire a plumber to come in and install a new one and take away the old one - hallelujah!! It's so much easier to write a check than to write a check and install the water heater yourself as there's always something that goes wrong or something you don't have requiring another trip to Lowe's for the required piece of equipment. :D

Well, I think I'll end this little update here and try to get back to the making of my Christmas cards. I think they will be in the mail before Christmas, lol! Oh yes, and I need to finish decorating the Christmas tree. The lights are on and it's in place.

And Christmas came early for me! I'll take pics and share with you soon.
Stay warm my friends and take time to enjoy the process of getting ready for Christmas.

Pre-Holiday Cleaning

2009-12-02T08:04:00.000-08:00

Our Boise Thanksgiving was a real treat, but now we're back home and into the pre-Christmas rush of "Things That Must Be Done". First on my list: clean the carpet. We're hosting a Graceful Dinner this Saturday, not to mention family who will be here for Christmas, and the carpet was looking awful, really awful. As soon as we got home Sunday evening, I had DH retrieve the carpet cleaner from the office and I got busy moving furniture Monday morning. By Monday evening the carpet was looking MUCH better, though I was still pulling dirt out. No small city family does ground-in dirt better than mine, I'm absolutely convinced. Of course, there are a lot of us tramping around the house.

O.k. carpets are clean (mostly) and furniture goes back in, albeit in a slightly different configuration. This year instead of putting the Christmas tree in the window, I'm trying it in the corner by the fireplace, necessitating moving the couch and flanking tables and causing great upheaval in DH's pile of stuff in his corner of the living room. I'm not sure where it's all going to go, but I really need to have it gone.

Today I'm moving the cleaning machine on down the room to begin getting rid of some piles in the kitchen. Luckily I did a pre-emptive strike a couple of weeks ago, so it's not quite as bad was it could be. Good thing cuz I really gotta bake a batch of bread and attempt to do some laundry today too - and do something with my American Heritage Girls today - ack!

How are you doing with your Christmas shopping? Me? Well, I have started, but there's much more to do. Monday I did let my mouse do a little bit of browsing and we found a few gifts to order as well as my very favorite Christmas coffee - Gloria Jean's Mocha Merrimint!

Last year Gloria Jean didn't make this Paulson family holiday staple, and Christmas morning just wasn't the same. My sister-in-law and I both wrote the company about our utter disappointment, and now it's back!! Yay!! I'm sure our sorrowful letters melted the hearts at Gloria Jean's. :) I tried a couple of substitutes, but none compared. So I've ordered a nice supply of this, plus some other GJ offerings. . . can't wait till my order arrives!!

Hardanger makes such wonderful Christmas ornaments and I've started stitching a few. The smocking guild luncheon is this Saturday and I've really gotta find a lightning needle to get something made up in a hurry, as my current stitching has been for other uses.

Winter is creeping up on us here in the Mid-Columbia, but the pot of geraniums near my front door is bravely putting out a little color for me in spite of the cold December nights.

Lazy Thanksgiving

2009-11-27T18:33:00.000-08:00

I love Thanksgiving. It's a time to reflect on the good things, to give thanks, to gather with loved ones, and for me, a chance to slow down and rest. We spend the long Thanksgiving holiday in Boise with DH's brother and my sister and their families. Our boys stay with their Paulson cousins, DH, Kirsten and I stay in an inexpensive hotel room we find on Priceline. We sleep in, take the morning very easy, sip coffee, watch the Macy's parade and leave for the house around noon. The rest of the day is spent chatting, perhaps stitching, watching football, doing a little shopping, but mostly just relaxing. Repeat the next day (minus parade) and the next day. :)

Mmmmm, lovely.

Tonight we're changing up the action. Tonight is the BSU vs. Nevada-Reno football game. Jim, Geoff, Kip and a friend went out into the cold, rainy night to tailgate and watch the game down at Bronco Stadium. The rest of us are going out to Meridian to watch the game on the big screen tv at my sister's house. It's warm there, and they have snacks ready for us.

Hope the Broncos give us a lot to cheer about tonight!!

And I hope you have had as nice a Thanksgiving as I have had.

Give thanks to the Lord, for He is Good; His love endures forever.
Psalm 106:1

Just a Little Test

2009-11-21T09:28:00.001-08:00

I've downloaded a little program for my Droid phone so I can blog on the go. Consider this a test.

Enjoy the photo of one of my silly Story Hour boys.

Slippage

2009-11-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

Each day that goes by mocks me and my to-do list. As soon as one task is crossed off, another two or three take its place in an ever-expanding game of whack-a-mole!! And thus it is that the days slip away and nothing is written here on my lonely little blog.

Some stitching has been accomplished in the last couple of weeks, mostly in the creating of six tiny hardanger Christmas ornaments which were sold at my church's silent auction last Friday.

Here is an in-progress snap of the ornaments, shown with my apologies for the poor quality. Unfortunately I failed to get a photo of the finished ornies, but they were quite well received at the auction, as was my Cinnamon Swirl Bread. :)

The photo above was taken with my new Motorola Droid cell phone, and you can see that I'm having to relearn another gadget with various degrees of success! While the iPhones we previously used worked mostly fine for me, with dropped calls now and then, they were an abyssmal failure for our business partners who had no service at all in their home and the guys had nothing, or next-to-no service, at the office. Verizon's service is much better here in the Tri-Cities and I am enjoying the excellent screen resolution when I read blogs on the Droid. My biggest complaint is that Bejewelled is not available yet, but I'm sure time will resolve that issue. :)

The new year has started for American Heritage Girls (rather like Girl Scouts) and this year I am teaching the Pioneer class, five girls mostly in 7th grade. About half of our troop participated in the Veterans Day parade in West Richland, where the wind was blowing, but at least the sun was shining too. We've also just completed a food drive for our local 2nd Harvest food bank and I snapped a pick of the girls after they had helped to load up the mini-van.

This fall I have also taken on the role of Story Hour leader/story teller. Story Hour is a preschool Bible program that runs in conjunction with the ladies Bible study on Friday mornings. I really enjoy being with preschoolers and this has given me the opportunity to get out my Betty Lukens felt set once again, and the children seem to be fascinated with this low-tech story delivery system, lol!

Well, I'd better wrap this up for now - it's time to bake another batch of bread for the family. I hope to be able to get around to visit with you on your blog sometime soon!

A Thousand Thank Yous

2009-11-03T08:38:00.000-08:00

Our dear Anne surprised me with a beautiful RAK over the weekend! I was shocked to open the mailbox and see a squishy package from Australia, just in time for trick-or-treat - and what a TREAT!

Gotta love the chocolate for the sweet tooth and hot cocoa for the coming cold days, as well as the lovely skeins of floss in my favorite blue colors.

But the real sweetness is the beaded scissor fob, one of Anne's special creations, in blue, of course. We share a love for the blues. :)

Anne, you're one special lady, very much beloved by me and all the x-s bloggers! Thank you for your amazing kindness and generosity. Your friendship is the best gift of all. Hugs!!

Reaquainted

2009-10-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

I've had a little bit of needle time the last few days! There's not much left to stitch on "A Quaker Study" by Carriage House Samplings so motivation to finish is finally kicking in. I just finished the last line of the alphabet and now moving on to the last motifs of the design. It's been a delightful design to stitch.

Sunday afternoon I decided to play with some of my new stamps and papers, getting started on some birthday cards. The other day I purchased that brown non-stick craft sheet you see in the pic below as I'm always gluing off onto a paper base, then later putting down a piece of cardstock and getting unwanted glue on it. All glues peel or wipe right off of this sheet, and it has many other protective uses. Love using those Michael's 40% off coupons for items such as this!

Last Thursday was the last dual league meet, this time at Lawrence Scott Park here in Kennewick, just a short walk away from our house! I called Mystie to see if she and the kids would like to come see Kevin and Kyle run, so they came making it a fun family afternoon.

Kyle chasing Hans.

Kevin catching Jaeger

Ilse being tossed about by Grandpa.

Kevin and Kyle both posted another pr with times of 17:34 for Kyle and 17:36 for Kevin.

Our varsity team ran without our top two runners, yet they won the meet, ending the season undefeated in all our league meets. Currently our top four are sick with the district meet coming up on Thursday in Wenatchee. Argh! I'm really praying that they all recover quickly and can compete, especially the seniors who have worked so hard to get to the regional and state competitions.

Parents sacrifice a lot for their kids. Sometimes it works out that the sacrifice is fun. That was the case for DH and me last night as we participated in a fund raiser for the xc team returning cars from an off-site sale back to the dealership. I got to drive a new Subaru Forester, Honda Accord, Chevy Silverado pickup, a Cadillac Escalade (sweet!!), and pre-owned 2007 Mercedes E350 coupe, Subaru Forester, and a Chevy Aveo. I enjoy driving, so they can sign me up for another fund raiser like this anytime!

Fall Garden

2009-10-14T09:04:00.001-07:00

Our beautiful fall has turned its face away from us, giving us a very cold, wet shoulder. Gardening season is coming to an end and I haven't quite finished everything on my to do list. The extended weather report is giving me some hope that there is good weather ahead to plant some bulbs and maybe even pop some of those extra iris rhizomes into the empty ground of the recently dug corner. My lovely, rose guru friend, Cindy, gave me a couple of roses that were crowding her garden a couple of weeks ago. I did get them planted and the old rose is looking pretty good, time will tell on Nicole Carol Miller.

I ventured out into the damp garden this morning to capture a few images in the gray, subdued light.

With the onset of gray days and putting my garden to bed, I'm anticipating spending some time with needle and thread once again. But for right now I have to get my little girlie busy with her school day. :)

Lettered!

2009-10-11T17:26:00.000-07:00

At yesterday's Richland Invite, Kevin and Kyle earned their Kamiakin letter by posting 3-mile times of 17:47 for Kevin and 17:38 for Kyle! They have worked very hard to run under 18 minutes this season and I'm so happy that it paid off for them.

Kamiakin varsity team came in second overall for this invite.

The weather here has turned off COLD lately and I was so thankful for my warm hoodie and coat over that, preventing an earache and headache which often plague me in the cold. It looks like there will be a couple of warmer days later in the week so I hope to get out and plant some spring bulbs and get the patio tables and chairs put away for the season.

Two Meet Week

2009-10-06T10:36:00.000-07:00

Last week was another busy one for the Kamiakin x-c team, starting with a league meet in Sunnyside.

JV team getting a pep talk from Coach Rexus

The weather was windy, but not bad overall. The course was entirely flat with some areas of open field, as in recently harvested agricultural field. Guiding the runners through the course was a Gator which kicked up quite a dust cloud for the runners to breath. The driver did his best to keep far enough ahead that the wind could dissipate the worst of the dust. That's life here in the Mid-Columbia.

For this 5k race, Kyle came in just ahead of Kevin to place at No. 10 and 11; 18:32 and 18:40.

On Saturday the boys were up early early to get on the bus, heading up to Yakima for the Sunfair Invite. Last year the weather was rainy, but this year conditions were much nicer, altho the weather changed on us quite frequently from warm to chilly, windy to calm, even a sprinkle of rain in the sunshine. Glad we were in Yakima as Kennewick got hammered with 0.35 inches of rain. That may not sound like much to many of you, but for us it's a downpour!

Sunfair hosted more than 80 teams from all over the west. It's quite a sight to behold, Franklin Park lined with colorful canopies for many of the schools and teens garbed in their school colors walking around, warming up, cooling down, goofing off with friends, etc.

Here's the start of the sophomore race at Sunfair. The stats on Athletic.net say there were 250 boys in this race, plus 87 girls - talk about a thundering herd! For this 3-mile race Kevin ran 18:18 for 31st place and Kyle ran 18:19 for 32nd place - not bad at all.

This particular course's most memorable feature is "The Hill from Hell" which comes at about 1.25 miles into the race. Luckily the twins had run this hill last year in a league meet, so were prepared for it.

Our varsity guys didn't have a stellar day, but did well enough to earn us third place in our division, the first time Kamiakin has brought home a trophy from this event.

Hurray for Gary!

2009-09-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

What does one do with a slope like this? I've pondered that question all spring and summer coming up with various ideas, but scrapping most as more project than my DH would be willing to do. After talking with Melanie's boyfriend, Daniel (our personal tree guy), and seeing Costco had these nice specimens for a reasonable price, we brought home six arborvitae.

That was about a month ago. There sat the poor little trees in their pots, patiently waiting for the day they would be placed in their new home. Two lucky ones were planted in early September. It then became clear that the retaining wall would have to be moved out a foot or so for the remaining trees to have enough soil to grow and be healthy. That takes time. Time for large projects is scarce in cross country season.

Saturday was the day, the only free Saturday for two months. Dutifully, DH trudged outside to work on the wall. After awhile, he'd succeeded in rebuilding it and getting one tree in. Hearing mutterings of his rotator cuff hurting and being done for the day, I frowned and commented that this was the only day we had for weeks for the project to be done, soon it would be cold, etc. I took the shovel and started to work myself for a bit. It was a hard task and could understand why he wanted to quit for the day - after all, there are always those infernal rocks to contend with! Soon he took the shovel from me and before I knew it, he'd completed the job. Yay!

We've been enjoying some beautiful late summer/early fall weather and my roses have been giving me a nice little display to show me that they're enjoying it too. Occasionally I go through the garden and pluck dead morning glory vines from the plants, then move my little vials of Roundup on to another unsuspecting vine, hehehehe. :)

Saturday was also the Homecoming dance to which Kyle took the charming Bekah Diebler.

Today is a league xc meet in Sunnyside and we'll be missing at least two of our best varsity runners due to illness. The team should still do pretty well, and hopefully by Saturday all will be healthy for the Sunfair Invitatational in Yakima!

Highlander Invite - Spokane

2009-09-27T16:25:00.000-07:00

After three meets in eight days, our intrepid XC team has had some time off. Time during which many of the members have been ill - the flu is hitting our part of the country pretty hard right now, both regular and H1N1. My boys are fine so far and enjoyed a ten-mile run with the healthy team members on Saturday. We're hoping and praying that everyone is feeling better real soon as Tuesday we have a league meet in Sunnyside.

But last Saturday we participated in the Highlander Invitational put on by Shadle Park HS in Spokane. In this meet, races are run in classes of freshman, sophomore, junior and senior. Last year our freshman boys won first place and this year they repeated their victory as sophomores. Kevin and Kyle came in together at 14:57 for the 2.5 mile race.

This year my twins are not the only set of twins running cross country for Kamiakin HS. I'd been hearing about the Meadows twins from my boys and how they've enjoyed commiserating with them about all the silly questions they must constantly field. It was great to meet them, but I haven't figured out which one is which yet. :)

As I was waiting at the start line for the freshman girls' race, I turned to see two gals walking towards me - my cousins Tami and Kristi!! I was sooo surprised! Kristi's oldest daughter was running for Mead HS (Spokane) and they knew I was there from my Facebook update of the day before. Oh, we had the best time catching up, cheering on Makenzie, and gabbing some more, then watching my boys' race. Cross country meets leave you plenty of time to stand around and talk. I'll be returning to Spokane next month and promised that we would all get together again.

While there was no meet this weekend, there was plenty of activity and I'll share it all real soon.

Hood River Excursion

2009-09-23T07:51:00.000-07:00

Last week DH and I were able to get away to Vancouver, Washington, for an overnite trip sponsored by one of the insurance companies our business carries. The main event was a golf tournament, but for us non-golfers, they planned a little trip up the Columbia River Gorge to Hood River for a wine tasting tour.

Mt. Hood was a glorious backdrop to the lovely late summer landscapes we drove through.

Lunch was served at this little winery. One of their wines was a delish pear wine, two bottles of which came home with me.

With all the new school year busyness, it was nice to get away with DH and leave the family at home, just for a little while. :)

Cuz It's Been Awhile

2009-09-21T21:07:00.000-07:00

Hooeeeeeee, life's busy lately, but today we took a few minutes to enjoy the grandchildren and popsicles.

Take a break today to enjoy life's sweet things. :)

XC Season

2009-09-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

The start of school equals the start of the cross country season. Saturday was the Tracy Walters Invitational in Spokane, our first meet of the year and a very big deal for the team. Two of the Spokane teams at the meet are #1 in their league and very high in the national rankings, having large teams with talent that runs very deep. Cross country is huge in Spokane, largely thanks to the coaching efforts of Tracy Walters who was on hand at the meet to fire the starting gun for the races and congratulate the winners.

The top ten runners ran in the Varsity race. Kyle was #11, Kevin #13 following the results of the Jamboree the week before, so they were on the front starting line of the JV race. That alone says a lot for how hard they've been working and how far they've come since starting the sport last fall!

Kyle (1117) and Kevin, next to him, with their race faces on.

The start of the varsity race

Our guys let Ferris and North Central know we were there with Varsity placing 3rd and JV coming in 4th. Kyle came in 12th at 18:22, inching out a North Central guy for that position. Kevin ran 18:50 for 18th place, just ahead of their good friend Stevie May who won the 19th place ribbon.

Kyle, Kevin, and Stevie with their ribbons

The weather in Spokane was gorgeous on Saturday, Audubon Park was wooded and beautiful, providing a very nice race course - all in all, it was a good day.

This afternoon Gary and I drive over to the Portland, Oregon, area for an overnight business event. So of course, son Brendan is ill this morning. And the xc team has a league meet over in Yakima tomorrow that we'll miss. Mr. B isn't so ill that I need to stay home with him, but I am going to the store and will buy Lysol so he can spray the bathroom down when he comes out of his room. We really don't need the whole household sick, especially during xc season!

So I'm off to repack the suitcase, which I haven't emptied yet from Spokane, lol!

The Occasional Blogger

2009-09-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

Tonight the guilt for neglecting my poor little blog has wrenched me away from cleaning up dinner dishes (leaving them for Melanie to do) to write just a short little update. A feeling that I must grasp every moment to work in the yard has washed over me lately. Plus the weather has been cooler and gorgeous, making my excavation work much more comfortable.

Now I can happily announce that the Big Dig of 2009 is officially over!

Yesterday I finished shoveling and raking the mounds of dirt back into the hole, tamping down and removing more rocks for the rock piles. It's fairly smooth and level now and waiting for a nice mixture of steer manure and top soil to finish it off. There is more to be done though! First we need to plant these shrubs

on that sloping rock retaining wall.

Precariously balancing myself on that little ledge, I managed to dig the first hole to plunk one of those shrubs in. Eventually, soon . . . sometime this month . . . I hope . . . they'll be planted and growing happily in their new home. When they've grown a couple more feet, they'll provide a nice screen between our yard and the neighbor's.

Also over the long weekend DH and I drained the water from the waterbed that we've had for thirty years, which Kirsten had been using lately, listed it on Freecycle and got it out of our house!! Kirsten is sleeping on a trundle until we find a new bed frame for her. She's ecstatic that her room feels so much larger now.

Of course, school has started. I have been readjusting to NOT driving the boys to xcountry practice and Good News clubs, etc. Getting up at 6 a.m. once again is not much earlier than my summer schedule, but sure feels like it! Friday was the Hanford Jamboree for our local xc teams and my boys did quite well for themselves coming in at 11:46 and 11:52 (or something real close to that) on the 2 mile course. This Friday we'll be driving up to Spokane, then on Saturday is the Tracy Walters Invitational our team will run in. This one will put much more pressure on the guys as they'll be running against the best teams in the state. But we stand to do very well against them this year and we're hoping everyone stays healthy!

DH has been busy himself outside the last week or so. We ordered some more gravel for the front drive, and small red rock to add to our back patio. He and the boys have been taking a wheelbarrow load or two most days and raking it onto the previously laid stone. Unfortunately, the stone we bought four years ago is no longer available here, so we found something that we think complements the stone well, especially once it's all compacted.

Oh I have more plans for this area and DH is groaning at the thought as it means a building project for him. Hmmm, probably more than one building project . . .

Stay tuned, if you can stand more gardening. As soon as the temps force me indoors, there will be plenty o' stitching, you can be sure!

Conquering Morning Glory

2009-08-28T09:35:00.000-07:00

Argh! I hate this stuff and it's everywhere in my garden. All efforts to eradicate it have failed.

So what does one do to find the solution to a problem? You google it! I found a mention somewhere that someone took the ends of the vine and stuck them in a strong Roundup solution and killed them to the root. Aha!! In talking about it with my DH, we came up with the idea to buy little flower tubes, those things florists use in flower arranging, fill them with Roundup, stick 'em in the ground with the ends of the plant thrust into the cap. Brilliant! :D

These tubes are pointed on the bottom so they easily are pushed into the ground and the cap ensures that the Roundup doesn't spill.

My friends, it is working!! And it works faster if you find the base of the plant, tear off a couple of the largest vines about 9-12 inches from the base, strip back the leaves and stick them in the tube. In an hour or so you'll see that the vine is beginning to shrivel and by the second day the smaller plants are dead totally; I'm giving the larger plants another day. And there's plenty of weed killer left in the tubes to plunk them down in another spot.

Maybe this idea will help you; maybe you've had a brilliant weed killing idea of your own you'd like to share . . . leave me a comment.

Happy weeding!

Ending the Mess

2009-08-25T09:15:00.000-07:00

Mess seems to be the word of the month here at the Paulson house. As I've spent more time making messes in the garden, inside messes seem to be taking over, especially the laundry. Somehow the younger set doesn't seem to be aware of those messes, until I say something about it.

For now I'm ignoring most of that, concentrating on my garden projects.

We're nearing the end of the "Big Dig"! Just a couple more feet to the property line and then we can start smoothing out the soil and amending it so future plants will find a happy home here.

Here's the reason why I dig - rocks. Of course, the earth will replace many of those rocks as I've found out in other areas of the garden. In planting several new roses in an older part of the garden, I pulled out two more wheelbarrow loads of rocks. Oh well, it's my cross to bear. :D

In the area above I've moved a few plants and added a few new ones, then mulched. Looks more like spring than late summer. There are a few more new roses in with two more to be planted in the newly dug out garden. So I've been busy with that as well as a general family business. . .

Hans had his sixth birthday last week, right when his family was moving into a new home. Happily the weather was perfect and Mystie and Matt hosted a birthday party in their wonderful new back yard. This new house will be perfect for raising their family with lots of room both inside and especially outside!

Then this last Sunday we had our annual company picnic. There was lots of shopping to be done, buying prizes and items for the kids' treasure chest. The afternoon of the picnic was gorgeous and we all had a great time. This week is fair week so my twins will be spending a lot of time out there face painting for Child Evangelism and I'll be there Thursday demonstrating with the smocking guild. And next week school starts!!

I think I'm ready for that. :D

What A Mess!

2009-08-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

It doesn't look too bad now, but you should have seen it Saturday - a large blue tarp covered in mud and mud puddles, iris leaves strewn everywhere, discarded rhizomes, and me - hacking away like a mad woman. :D As this particular chore has never been necessary till now, I was not prepared for how physically taxing it would be to lift a huge clump of iris rhizomes, then separate out the twisting maze of roots.

Not one to give up easily, I persevered to the end of the job. With an almost blank canvas in this part of the garden, I can now prune a bit out of those roses and do a little bit of rearranging.

The two smaller clumps of iris yielded me these new starts. . .

and the two huge clumps gave me these in the five-gallon bucket . . . and a whole lot of others out on the compost pile!

Saturday DH even got in on the act by installing new irrigation water lines from the main to the faucets in the front of the house. Said faucets are on either side of the planting bed (see below) we've been working on. The rock perimeter is now in and we've begun filling in the hole with top soil.

After an arduous day in the garden I was totally pooped out. So no stitching is going on around here. I couldn't even stay awake to watch the entire dvd of 24, season 5, that DH and I put on that evening. Konked out in the middle of the third episode on the disk.

Dd Melanie has been home for a week now following her latest adventures with the fire clean up crews and is getting a bit antsy for the next call out. So far it's been a slow fire season which is good in some ways, as no one wants to see our forests burning. On the other hand, the work she would get from said fires builds up her bank account and pays for college expenses.

This week my boys are back teaching Good News Clubs, so there is more coming and going, in addition to the early morning x-country practice. School will be starting here the end of the month, so I need to get some lists made of things we need to do, like sports physicals, and things we need to buy. That sucking sound you hear is our bank account draining, lol!

As Newsgator informed me that they will no longer be supporting their on-line feed readers, like me, I had to migrate my feeds over to Google Reader. So far I've been happy with their reader, but the account filled with a lot of old feeds and it's been slow going getting everything looked at and cleared out. One day soon, I'll be back to reading my list more consistently and leaving more comments. Till the next thing comes up. It always does.

Gotta Sign Up!

2009-08-07T22:11:00.000-07:00

Skip on over to Connie's blog, The Lacey Thread, to sign up for her giveaway. She's celebrating the wonderful things in her life and wants to spread a bit of the joy to some lucky stitcher out there.

Connie's My Heart's Garden is a special favorite of mine combining both hardanger and silk ribbon embroidery. It's luscious! The ring pillow was designed for her own daughter's wedding and is so lovely. And Quaker Inspirations looks like a nice relaxing design after the challenge of the hardanger and SRE. :)

The deadline is Wednesday, August 12, so don't delay!

As for me, the weekend is here and we've had a break in the weather. There was even a bit of rain this morning. Brendan and I spent some time digging out a garden bed this evening without the sweaty effect that we've become so accustomed to! We're making some progress and we really need to get on with it as I have new rose babies that need a home. :)

Forty Degrees of Separation

2009-08-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

While it was 105^ at home in Kennewick, it was cloudy and 65^ at Ocean Park. The weather reports kept saying it would get up to 74, but the sun didn't break through the marine layer long enough to warm it up that much. . . which was great!! No complaining was heard by anyone on the peninsula the entire weekend. Saturday evening there was even a light mist.

Just on that point alone, the family reunion was a huge success. Of course, it's always a treat to catch up with all the doings in the larger Paulson clan and especially to see so many great-great grandchildren of Isabelle Paulson - I believe there were six of the nine children there! Of special note this year was that my sweet sis-in-law, Paula, was there following several rounds of chemotherapy, a recent successful stem cell harvest, and a week from now will receive those stem cells back in a transplant. She's looking terrific and her spirit is strong to face the ordeal ahead. I think all the hugs and cheers she got over the weekend will help carry her through too. :)

As for my poor heat-stressed garden, son Geoff, did a nice job of keeping things going here. The irrigation folks worked overtime to get the breaks in the system fixed pronto, and it was going strong before we arrived home. With the cooler weather coming, I'm hoping to finish preparing the last of my back yard garden and getting some plants put into the ground. My iris plants are needing to be divided, so will put some new babies over there as well as a few new rose babies that have recently arrived. Love seeing the progress! Love seeing my boys sweat, lol!

Now, back to work . . .

Hot and Very Dry

2009-07-28T19:53:00.000-07:00

The heat wave is continuing here in the Pacific Northwest, which is especially difficult for my friends on the normally wet side of the Cascade Mountains where air conditioned homes are not the norm as it is here in the desert. Coping with the heat is expected here and with a/c and irrigation water, humans, pets, and plants in the garden get through it.

Imagine my horror then when I read a twitter update from our local newspaper stating that the irrigation district had a big canal leak and Kennewick will lose their irrigation water for anywhere from one week to three weeks! Seeing my lawn brown up is sad, but the thought of hand watering my beloved roses with city water hurts on two levels: 1) time, and 2) $$$. To top it off, we're leaving town on Thursday for the beach and the heat wave continues on through next week. Argh!

Well, I scurried right home and started getting everything watered, while I still had water. Happily, I've had a bit of water all day today as the lines are gradually being emptied, so we're starting out in pretty good shape. Son Geoff will be taking care of things while we're gone. He kept the garden during our SoCal trip, so I have confidence he can handle this. :)

On a happier note, there was a hummingbird loving on my garden phlox yesterday evening. I haven't seen a hummingbird in my garden for years. I actually clapped my hands (quietly) in excitement to see him! Seeing the butterflies, quail families, and now a hummingbird enjoy my garden makes all the hard work worthwhile.

Perhaps I'll get a chance to update this weekend from the beach. We'll see how the internet connection is. Can't wait to cool off!!

A Day Off

2009-07-23T08:38:00.000-07:00

It does seem so unfair that we are sweltering in the heat here in E. Washington and many other areas of the country have had very little summer at all. If I could pass out a few degrees here and there to all my friends needing them, I certainly would! :) But the heat wave continues here and promises to remain with us through the weekend and into next week.

Because of this and the fact that I'm sore all over from pick axing and shoveling dirt and rocks, I took yesterday off. The morning was spent driving kids all round town, in the afternoon I took Kirsten swimming and sat around the pool visiting with friends, and in the evening I stitched. Very sweet.

This morning it's back to my ol' friend the shovel. Today I'm taking out a shrub that I've hated for 22 years! Perhaps I'll replace it with a nice hydrangea. :)

Progress of a Different Kind

2009-07-20T08:31:00.000-07:00

In trying to catch up on some blog reading post-vacation, I've been amazed at all the stitching y'all have been doing this summer! It seems that I tend to be more of a seasonal stitcher as once the weather turns nice, I gotta be outside as much as possible to work on my projects. It's slow going, but sometimes I actually get some help from the males in the family - which happened last week. Here is the fantastic result:

A little bit underwhelmed? :D Well it makes me very happy to see this as previously there was a big pile of beaten down, hardened dirt - the leftovers from the Big Dig when I created my rose garden. The boys were pressed into labor and given a pick ax, shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows and I oversaw the gang. A couple hours later we were mostly done. Since that day, I've spent some time fine tuning the level, never expecting perfection of course - and wheeling off a couple loads of stone - another of course.

Meanwhile Kirsten has helped me attack another problem area - the front foundation planting.

Tiny fibrous roots from the nearby maple tree choked out the hostas that I had planted. So I'm digging it all out, adding some steer manure, removing a bunch of roots and more - rocks. I'm planning to replant with some day lilies and spring bulbs which can withstand the onslaught of the maple roots.

The weather here has been HOT! That means morning yardwork and stopping at noon when the temp reaches 90^. (Highs have been at or over 100^) Sometimes Kirsten and I will then get a Slurpee at the famous 7-11 here in Kennewick. For the last several years the Kennewick 7-11 has been the biggest seller of Slurpees in the chain. One reason is - summers are HOT here! Nothing like a Slurpee to cool you down. :D

In the afternoons I've been reading again. After hearing the Satellite Sisters 'classic' broadcast with the author of Girls Like Us: Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon - and the Journey of a Generation, I checked it out of the library. In 1967 I received my very first transistor radio (10 yo) and loved many of the recordings by these women. Life was changing in a big way in those days and these women were in the midst of it. It's a very interesting read, especially appropriate for summer.

And now, Kirsten and I have to get back outside. We're getting a bit of a break today - it's going to be just 96^ today. :)

Thank God for air-conditioning!

Fun Times

2009-07-14T22:03:00.000-07:00

We've been home from our trip for almost a week now and I'm finally getting around to a blog update! Fun times were had by all, especially those three days in the Magic Kingdom.

I spent some time this evening getting some pics uploaded to Flickr, so thought I'd share a sampling of them with you. It would be a shame to ignore my blog any longer. :D As I get more photos organized, I'll come back for another little visit. In the meantime, I'm busy here at home. The grandkids came by this morning while their mother went to her dental appointment, my own kids coming and going, yard work getting done, etc.

etc.

etc.

In Need of a Vacation

2009-06-27T22:01:00.000-07:00

This past week has flown by as I suspected it would. Having three kids at camp made for a quieter house, but certainly didn't lessen any busyness in my life. Kirsten had three softball games this week and various overnites both at friends' homes and here. I was able to do some work in the garden, getting three new roses bushes planted.

Thursday morning was the gem in my week. My long-time friend, Cindy, came over to my house for a garden tour where I regaled her with the story of the triumphs and travails of developing the garden on this plot of land. Cindy has been an inspiration for me in many ways over the years, but especially in her love of gardening and roses in particular. It was great fun showing her my own little rose garden, asking her a few questions, and getting some ideas as I continue developing my gardens.

We soon hopped into Cindy's car, made a stop at Starbucks for coffee, then continued on to her latest home and a tour of her garden which is in its third year and beginning to flourish beautifully. She took many cuttings of roses from her previous garden, stuck them into the ground, covered them with a mason jar, and next spring had a new little rose growing - amazing! Artistic expression fairly drips from her fingertips, and graces her garden, home, family, and friends. Thank you, Cindy, for a most enjoyable morning!

Today I drove up to the camp to bring my boys home. Since then I've been processing mounds of laundry, helping DH get the boys to and from their jobs, and running more errands - so we can get out of here in the morning! A road trip vacation with the four youngest is actually happening - I hope the kids enjoy it as much as I know I will. We're heading off to enjoy a variety of pleasures in the state of California. Thank the Lord we have grown children here who will be taking care of the house for us while we're gone, so we don't really have to worry about closing up the house! I have enough to think of! :D

So I need to get back to the laundry room to get some more clothes out of the dryer and perhaps actually get some of it into suitcases! Till I have a chance to post again - take care and enjoy!

Double Duty

2009-06-21T15:23:00.000-07:00

Today we celebrate our fathers as they do indeed deserve to be celebrated! For my family the celebration is expanded as it is also the anniversary of my 39th birthday!! So the kids get a twofer today. Happy Father's Day to all the dads and Happy Birthday to me. :)

It's pretty quiet around here today with the three boys away at camp. On Friday I drove an SUV full of boys to the camp which is on the east side of White Pass, which is near Mt. Rainier - beautiful country!
Saturday I get to go pick them up. We'll be stopping for lunch in Yakima at the famous Miner's which serves humongous hamburgers - always a huge hit with the boys.

Yesterday DH and I drove over to Kendrick, Idaho, for a memorial service for my uncle. It seems that funerals are the only time I see my mom's family any more, so I do make an extra effort to get over to represent my mom who was the first of her eight siblings to pass on four years ago. It's always nice to catch up with my cousins and remaining aunt and uncles.

As much as I enjoy visiting with family, I love reconnecting with the land where my mom was raised. The soil on the ridges of the Kendrick/Juliaetta area is rich and deep, excellent farm land. We took a jaunt up to Cameron and I was stunned at the 360^ view of verdant fields as far as the eye could see topped off by a sky filled with puffy white and dark rain clouds which spilled their shadows over the fields. I can so understand why Mom needed, really needed, to get up to the ranch to visit not only her folks, but her land. The drive up the Clearwater River from Lewiston is always beautiful and it seemed even more so as many months have gone by since I had seen those rock studded hills. I gotta get back there more often to soak it all in.

With the boys gone this week, I hope to get caught up with some housework and laundry, and get started packing for our Cali. vacation coming up a week from today! Woohoo!

The Comedy of Errors

2009-06-18T16:03:00.000-07:00

Last Friday and Saturday my kids were part of a local production of Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. Since 2000 my good friends Crystal Eberle and Mary Leenheer have taught a short class in the spring to local homeschoolers concentrating on one of the Bard's plays, except for the two years they ventured into Gilbert and Sullivan. DD Melanie made artistic renderings for the first scene of the play where the old man delivers a speech detailing the events of his life. DS Brendan was that old man, DD Kirsten was one of the officers, and DSs Kevin and Kyle played the twins Antipholus of Ephesus and of Syracuse.

Kyle & Kevin center
Kirsten's face between them
Brendan in the back

I must say that everyone from directors on down to the young kids did an outstanding job. I think one of my favorite scenes was when Antipholus E. comes home to entertain his friends and finds the door locked against him, is refused entry, while his twin brother is inside eating his dinner with his wife. Hilarious!

Here is a link to a short clip of Antipholus S. (Kyle) arguing with his supposed man, Dromio (K.D. Casbon), one of the many mix-ups in the play. And here is a link to more pix of the play.

Mary and Crystal said that this year's class was one of their favorites as most of these kids have been involved in the plays from a young age, watched the older siblings in the plays before that, and so "get" Shakespeare. I'm so grateful for these two friends and all the efforts they put into teaching my kids so much that I could never teach them!

An added bonus to the play is that my sister and her family come up to attend the play each year and we do so enjoy having them here for the weekend!

A Small Dilemma

2009-06-14T16:39:00.000-07:00

Friday I bought this beautiful clematis at Costco. Goodness, I love the wine colored petals and the contrasting centers! But now where to plant this beauty. This must not be a hasty decision to pop it in the ground any ol' place, as does happen sometimes. No, I must find a place to show it off and where it complements the other plants around it. Hmmm. . .

This is just one of a myriad of dilemmas I face as I'm trying to improve the yard around my house. Awhile back I promised to show you some of the uglier spots in my yard. Oh yes, they are ugly.

You have been warned.

Above is the northwest corner of the property. It needs a section of fence, a gate, and a plan. Should I plant a tree to provide more shade for the back yard? Then I face the possibility of too much shade in years to come and the roots that choke out other plants. I've already taken out two pines so I could have flowers. Sometimes I miss the shade, but I love how the flower beds are shaping up! Argh!

Now we're facing the southwest corner. At one time there were four trees in this area, and where the fence is was a row of arborvitae. One tree remains as well as what is left of the dirt I dug out of my rose garden, some of the rocks that I dug out of said garden, weeds, and a pile of chippings. At least I have a plan of action for this area: clear it, level it, gravel it and park the trailer here. My boys and I will be busy this week! hehehe . . .