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Spring

Well I think it is finally Spring. It has been warm the past few days and today it will be 72 and very windy. But tomorrow's forecast is for rainy weather and in the 40s. But that is Spring for you-- warm one minute and cold the next. We have started burning off the gardens and alon the fence line. The grass is turning green and the collies have been able to stay out side all day for several days now. I have bought my onions and my pea seeds and have ordered potato onions and Egyptian Walking onions. Corn seed is so exspensive this year . We will grow tomatoes, peppers, onions-- red, yellow and the two new kinds, beans-- both romas and regular green, carrots and radishes and lettuces. I am also going to start some herbs this year. We have chives already and I am adding several others. The strawberry plants are beginning to look better and I may add some new ones. Last Saturday the raspberries were not looking so good but it is still early. The new neighbors down the road have a couple of goats that periodically come up here and we are going to have to fence our garden as they do nothing to keep them home.

My grandchildren garden is growing nicely. Wendy writes to me via e-mail fairly often and I love hearing from her. James is enjoying his mission in Puerto Rico although he is working hard each day. They had their first baptism last Saturday.

I have done alot of quilting this winter. I quilted a couple of small lap quilts and Wendys quilt is finished as is Sarahs. I just have to quilt Andreas and Michaels and bind them. And I finished the quilt for the Collie Club of America and it auctioned for $600+. That makes 12 that I have done. Next years quilt is going to be a signature quilt and at the National this year they collected all the signatures they could and others have e-mailed them to me. It should be a fun quilt to make.

I am still loving serving in the Family History Center each week for two days.

my grandchildren

I have not written since my Birthday on Nov 27. I get busy and forget that I need to write. Alot has happened in the past 6 weeks. The holidays were wonderful and on January 2nd we took James to the Missionary Training Center in Provo Utah to begin his two year mission for the Lord. He was so excited to be finally leaving. We are so proud of him and know that he will do well. He will be in Provo for 3 weeks and then goes to the MTC in the Dominican Republic for 6 weeks of training before he goes to Puerto Rico for the rest of the two years.
Josh has made the 8th grade basketball team and is so excited about that. He is now 1/4 inch from being 6 feet tall and he is still growing-- he wrote a letter to his brother last night and signed it "your little brother-- no I mean your younger brother". He is enjoying having his own room and we have discovered that he is a neat nick about his room when he is not sharing.

I am busy making quilts as usual. I have most of the quilt for the Collie Club of America National done and am working on the lettering this week. The theme this year is something about a circus-- the show is being held in LaCrosse Wisconsin where one of the circuses winters over-- so I have used 16 inch bright blocks in all primary colors. I am also working on t shirt quilts for Wendy, Andrea, Michael and Sarah. Two of the quilt tops are finished and the other two are just about ready for the borders.

So much has happened in the Family History area the past few weeks-- we are Beta Testing several things that will make genealogical research on the internet so much easier. We are also indexing all the East Idaho Death Records-- it is a big project and many of us have put our own research on hold in order to help with this huge project.
My kitchen is finally done-- at least the painting and the floor is next. We have the tile and just need the backer board and the glue and the big item-TIME. The breakfast room will have to wait for awhile as we are going to put random width old pine plank flooring in there. I grew up in old New England homes with pine floors and am excited about reproducing them here in parts of this house.

I am beginning to plan for this years garden-- we will have tomatoes, peppers, onions, corn, peas and a few other things. The garden will be much smaller this year until we see how my back reacts to gardening after last years injury. I have missed the peace and solitude of spending my summer mornings in the veggie garden and look forward to being able to garden again. Judie

My kitchen has needed redoing for a long time. So this Fall we painted it-- the cabinets are now a deep New England Red and the walls are blue denim color. James and Josh have done a great deal of it and I just love it. In the Spring we are planning to get new counters. Last year we moved the fridge into the breakfast area and this past weekend James built me shelves and a temp counter where the fridge used to be. He also built me a cute shelf to put pretty things on and made a scalloped apron for the shelf.

Bob and Lori and the kids were here on Sunday for dinner and the afternoon. We had a great time and it was wonderful to have them here for a visit. They fly back to Vermont tomorrow.

OOPs I forgot to brag about Josh and his soccer team. They were undefeated all season and in the playoffs and brought home the Championship Trophy. We are so proud of all the boys.

How can it be October 16 already? I keep meaning to write and have been so busy that it somehow never gets done.

James has his mission call! He is going to Puerto Rico, San Juan West Mission. He leaves on Jan 2, 2008. He is sooo excited about this. He will spend 3 weeks in the Provo, Utah Mission Training Center and then go to the MTC in the Dominican Republic for his language training and to learn about the culture -- he will be there 6 weeks. We have applied for his passport and he has been to the Temple-- what a wonderful day that was. We have purchased his shirts and still have socks, shoes and slacks to go. He will only need one suit and he already has that as it is too hot to wear a suit all the time there. He will travel in his suit to and from his mission and will wear it while in the Prov MTC. He got his luggage for a Christmas present last year. All his immunizations are finished and he is busy working to earn the last of his money to pay for this wonderful adventure.

I am busy making t shirt quilts for four of my grandkids for their Dad to give them for Christmas. T shirt quilts are a new adventure and I am enjoying learning about this method of quilting. Bob has saved all their tshirts from track and ski meets for years now and brought them to me before they moved back East and asked me if I could make quilts from them.

My kitchen has needed redecorating for a few years now and we have started on that. I never think I have enough kitchen cabinets but when I started painting them I may have changed my mind-- 23 cabinet doors and 14 drawer fronts is ALOT of painting. I am doing them a few at a time-- one section at a time. The cabinets are a deep reddish brown color and so far I just love them. They were white and 12 years has made a toll on them. We won't do the new counters until after the first of the first of the year-- maybe in Feb or March.

It will soon be time to start putting up the Christmas Villages for the Holidays. It takes several weeks. James built me cupboards with wide counters around three sides of our family room. During the Holidays we display our Christmas Villages on the counters and during the remainer of the year they and all our Christmas decorations are stored under the counters. My husband started the Villages and we have continued them over the years.

It has been awhile since I have written on this blog. I have been very busy with many things. I am working on five quilts right now. One is the quilt that I make each year for the Collie Health Foundation that will be auctioned off at the annual auction that takes place at the Collie CLub of AMerica National in March.

The other four are quilts for 4 of my grandkids. Their dad has saved all their t shirts from every meet for cross country skiing and track they have ever gotten and has asked me to make quilts for all four of them. I have cut out all the things on the jerseys now and have most of them reinforced with iron on sizing. Next I will have to lay them out and decide how to make them look the most attractive. I will use different fabric for the sashings on each quilt. Michael is working on a farm near where they now live-- helping with the cows and haying etc. I have some fabulous fabric with holstein cows on it for the sashing on his quilt. I have not decided what I am going to use for the others but one of them will be navy blue with little tulips on it. So when I am finished with this project, I will have blended my grandchildren garden with my quilt garden.