Sweet Surprise

I got to talk to my sweet missionary son yesterday. I was surprised because I thought his plane was delayed due to the hurricane and flooding in NY. He bore his testimony to me in Creole and it flowed with a love of the language. He is so excited to get to be around the Haitian people. I'm so proud of him. There really is no greater happiness than to know that your children walk in the ways of God.

Ready for a Routine!

Well, it's time for school to start and summer just melted away in the heat. We helped Kayla and Mitch move to Texas from Utah, got Zach off to the MTC and made a family trip to Utah. We had a wonderful time enjoy the beautiful weather and when we got home we found our yard and city dried up and brown from the heat and no rain. We've had over 100 degree temperatures for so long that I think many of us are remembering the last ice storm with fond memories. I've been busy with family projects and so I am very behind in my quilting. I'm looking forward to sending the kids off tomorrow and cleaning my house, going back to yoga class and getting some quilting done. I'm ready for a routine!

Our new basketball player

Emma finished her first organized basketball season. She loved it and talked her parents into getting a basketball goal for the driveway. (Dad's not too enthused.) She is in heaven and it will be good exercise for everyone else, too.

I'm happy when I'm quilting

This is the back of an I Spy quilt that I made for a friend. I added swirls to my crescent pattern and it made kind of a sunburst. I like how it turned out.

Our quilt group put this "Hole in the Wall" quilt together at our last meeting. We each brought four quilt squares already pieced and it went together really fast. I am quilting it and then we are donating it to a charity.

I went to a class taught by my friend a few weeks ago to make this bargello wall hanging. I don't have it quilted yet but when it's finished I'm going to hang it in my quilting room.

This was a custom quilt done in gold metallic thread. The thread is a bit tricky. It breaks unless it is very loose on the top tension. I have 4 more quilts like this that want an all over in the metallic. I should have metallic thread mastered by then or else I'll swear never to use it again. The feathers creep around the red star. My favorite stitch is the curly one that I call French Curls.

The Deep Freeze Continues...

We woke up this morning to 5" of snow that covers the 2" inches of pure ice we've had for 4 days. Needless to say we are having our 4th day of cancelled school and other events. Steve braved the elements in search of a snow shovel but they were all gone. He did find one last year for the church. We watched in amusement as he returned and could not get the truck up the driveway. Well we are supposed to reach the 40's sometime this weekend and thaw out. It will be a welcome relief!

The Deep Freeze

In Texas we are used to hot weather and cold weather is short lived. Well, this week the kids have missed three days of school and counting because of an ice storm that hit three nights ago. We have two inches of ice and a layer of snow on top. We have ventured out by sliding down our driveway and getting a running start to get back up. Tyler's Eagle project was supposed to be in two days but he has rescheduled it to next week. It is supposed to be a little warmer. We have had rolling blackouts in our city and my new furnace cannot keep up because there is not enough natural gas pressure due to the high demand. Yesterday it was colder here than in Wisconsin. With the Super Bowl here on Sunday it was said that the Green Bay Packers brought their cold weather here. Well, it could be worse. We could live in Chicago.