Remaining Weekend Fun!

Saturday and Sunday were as busy as the rest of the weekend, but it was nice and relaxing for the most part.

Saturday J, TJ and I showed. We didn't place, but that's okay. It was pretty windy and raining for part of the time with a severe thunderstorm warning in the area. Rich had the tournament draw for baseball so we went to the show in the morning, he left and then came back with Shannon. Alyssa and Ashley went to get their nails done so they met us at the show after that. Alyssa walked around on Tee for a bit before I went to warm up. Tee and Spike were both great in practice, but when we got in the ring, we got a little nervous. Mom took some pictures and Ashley video taped it. Alyssa got to "show" in a stick horse class and got her own ribbon which was pretty cool. Sunday we were going to show, but after looking at the showbill there was really only one class, maybe two that would have been worth going for so we decided not to go.

I was being lazy

J and Spike

Alyssa and Ginger with her ribbon

Instead of showing, we hung out with kids in the morning and then went to an Akron Aeros game in the afternoon. We had awesome seats right behind home plate, about a third of the way up. It was also Orbit's (the mascot) birthday so there were other mascots from around town there. The Lake County Captain was there (A ball here), the AA mascot for softball (Wheeler), the areana football mascot, the hockey mascot, the Cavs mascot and a few others. It was really great for Alyssa and she managed to get her picture with everyone but the Cavs mascot. Once the game ended we came home and Rich made chicken nachos for dinner and we hung out the rest of the night.

Alyssa dancing with Wheeler (Softball mascot)

Alyssa and I with Orbit

The kids left this morning for home and while we would love for them to be home more we understand. Alyssa tried to take me with her. She really had a great time playing games with the boys, helping in the barn etc. She can't wait to come back and told Grandpa that he needs to take some vacation time!



And today I have been banished to the house, I am still feeling some of the effects from the amiodarone and I got pretty red over the weekend. But its raining so what do I care? Off to work on J's quilt after a little blog reading and catching up with all my blog friends!

Early Weekend Fun!

The end of this week has been busy, and unfortunately no quilting has been done!!!




I am not a grandma yet - but in about 8 months, this precious little girl will be my step-granddaughter.

Miss Alyssa catching toads

Ashley will be her step-mother and she is absolutely wonderful! I love her little Tennessee accent. Yesterday we went to the park and we spent the time catching toads and walking the trails while Shannon (her dad) and TJ were running. I have to admit, I like spoiling her and telling her Grandma says its okay. We spent a lot of time last night talking and catching up with Ashley. I like Shannon, and they are planning on marrying. We shall see.

One of the trails we walked

Then today we kinda lazed around for a while, then TJ and I rode, bathed my horse for the show tomorrow and got somethings ready to go. This is me riding Tee.

Tee and I

TJ washing Tee with me

And lastly, CC sleeping, yes sleeping. He was out cold. We even moved him from my arm like that to TJs so I could take a picture of the sleeping kitten! So trusting and loveable!

Sleeping CC

Tomorrow is a show so there will be plenty more pictures!

So Little Time...

...to post that is.
We have been really busy this week with lots of things going on. Monday night T had a baseball game and J and I spent the night bathing horses and getting things ready for a fun show on Tuesday. Tonight T had a baseball game, there was a 4-H meeting, Thursday is a late baseball game, Friday is getting ready for a show, then shows on Saturday and Sunday, along with baseball on Saturday night. I worked Monday and part of Tuesday, and spent today getting the house cleaned up a little more.




J had a fun show yesterday, which was nice and small. He did okay in showmanship (not our stongpoint) and great in horsemanship. We were a little upset though because he nailed the really hard pattern (1 of 3 kids that counter cantered) and the judge marked him down for his horse neighing and him trying to stop it. I didn't think that was fair and neither did anyone else we talked to. But what can you do? Its only one persons opinion and we will move on. J was really upset though, but we talked to him and explained that it wasn't his fault, that he did awesom and showed him the video tape. I think he is okay with it now. I think he was more upset that kids who didn't do the pattern right at all placed a little higher than him which made him think he did something wrong. This weekend there are two horse shows so we will go to those and see what happens. I didn't get any pictures though because I video taped the ride. When (IF) I figure out how to load it and put it up here I will, but don't hold your breath! LOL!


T's baseball team has been on a hot streak, winning their last 4 games. Tonight they 10 runned the other team in the 5th. That is always nice, especially if it is a cocky team. Tonights wasn't but the team they played last weekend was HORRIBLE!


Yesterday I had a check-up at the cardiologist. For those of you that are "new" to my blog I have congenital heart disease and had open heart surgery in January. It was a rough time, but everything is wonderful now! I feel great, and the drs are really impressed with my progress. I was taken off my amiodarone (which is helps control fast heartbeats) yesterday, which makes me really happy since it has lots of bad possible side effects. I am still on lasix and potassium, but that's fine. I am VERY happy with how things worked out, even though it was kinda scary for awhile. While we were up at the clinic I took a couple of neat pictures with my camera phone. There was this, a man made out of metal letters. Its hard to see in this picture, but he was really cool!

and this: A "stream" that flows through the building to waterfalls on each end.

Tonight Ashley (Rich's stepdaughter) is coming home from NC. She is living down there with her boyfriend, and is coming home to see her Grandpa while he is still alive. Her mom's dad is pretty sick and has terminal cancer. They are staying with us and will be here till Monday. Unfortunately they will not be here till about 1 in the morning so its going to be a late night and hopefully not to early of a morning. I will definately take some pictures while they are here, we haven't seen Ash in about 2 years.


I have also finally gotten to a point on J's quilt where I feel I have accomplished something. I have 4 small pinwheels per square and then there will be sashing around each large square. There will be approximately 38 blue squares and 5 red squares. The red squares have a "horse" material, and will be the corners and the center square.

I have a few more things to do before Ash gets here (like move a bed!) and then we will be all set. We also have wicked storm coming in - lots of lightning so far. Hopefully the kids won't have any problems getting here!

Til next time!

Weekend Fun and CC

Well, its Saturday afternoon. I meant to post last night, but I had a horrible migraine most of the day yesterday and just couldn't do it. I was so tired and deflated. So I came home, took a nap, went to town with Rich and then came home and made block # 8 for the quilt along. It came out pretty good, but I forgot to take a picture of it and I hate loading one picture onto the computer, so next time.



Last night I also rode, which actually helped me relax some and relieve some of the pressure. I know that sounds weird, but I think it was the fresh air versus the air conditioning at work (I sit right under a vent). It didn't go away completely but it did lessen some. Here is a picture of my horse (for you Mary!) and a picture of all of them in the field. My horse is definately doing better and I am getting more agressive with him so he is not getting away with much. He isn't throwing his shoulder in too much and is really getting his hips underneath him. We put pads on his back shoes because he bangs his ankles, and it really seems to help. The pads make his hocks go out more.

Heza Tuff Mr Tee (really bad picture!)

Tee is on the left with the light mane, Spike (J's) horse next to him.

Today, our 4-H club sold hotdogs, chips, pop and baked goods at TSC for the Medina County SPCA. They had a big horse rescue last year and still have a 50,000. vet bill. There was a great turnout of kids and we sold all our hotdogs, but there was a TON of baked goods left! The kids did great! Here's a picture of our early morning volunteers hard at work.

Tonight T has a baseball game so I will probably ride when we get home. I also want to work on J's quilt some...I have moved past ironing and am actually getting ready to sew the squares into bigger squares. I did find an awesome backing for it. Its blue with horseshoes on it. Tomorrow I am going to clean and do some gardening, along with quilting and reading.

And lastly, the newest member of our barn family - CC, which stands for Cross Country. J and TJ were out running the other day and found this kitten about to get hit by a car. He is so adorable and so friendly! He loves to be held and be with people. J want to train him to walk on a leash so he can take him to ball games, etc with us. We figure he is only about 12 weeks old, about the age of the other kittens we had that Momma cat took away to the neighbors barn. Only thing is that our cat, Bob, HATES CC. Growls and hisses at him. But he will get used to him I'm sure. He's so little!

CC

CC sitting on Tee after I rode.

That's all new in my world, how about your world?

Happy Birthday!

To my sister, Kris at Quilted Simple! She will probably kill me for this, but oh well!! Stop by and tell her Happy Birthday!

I will update more later! I should be working - not blogging! LOL!

Yesterday's Pictures

Cornfield - I love this!

My lettuce in a pot - Almost Ready!

My JFK rose bush

After J fell out of his chair!

Water fight! (I'm the one in the sunglasses

Team pyramid

And hopefully tonight I will get all the pinwheel blocks for J's quilt done and ironed. Then they will just need to be sewed together and I can start on the sashing. Also want to get block 8 for AmandaJean's quilt along done!

Hippology and Fields

Well, today was the state hippology competition. It was a long day, but a good day. I took down 6 kids and they had a blast. They had a water fight, were pushing each other out of chairs and just in general having a good time. It was actually really funny, and no one got hurt. Annie fell over in her chair and then J fell in his chair and after that it became a game. I have no idea why J fell though, he just fell backward! AND J got 4th in the top 10. Its a team competition, but they give awards to the top 10 individuals. Our junior team (J's team) got 6th overall! Very exciting. This is the first year we had our name called at all! I think our senior team did good, but just didn't make the top 10. Either way I am proud of all of them.

This happens to be my favorite time of year. I love to see the fields when they are freshly planted and I absolutely love when the corn/beans is just starting to come up and you can see the sprouts in their individual rows.

T umped a game tonight, and this morning him and Rich went golfing since we were in Columbus. They had a good time, and are planning on going back in 2 weeks (Rich's normal day off).
I started reading Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. Everyone says its the next Harry Potter and so far its really good! I am only on about the 3rd chapter, but I am liking it already. I always hate it when people say a book is absolutely fabulous and then I don't like it!

All in all it was a really good weekend and now I think I am going to sew for a while, maybe read and then head off to bed.
Ok, well blogger is not letting me add any pictures tonight for some reason so I will post them all tomorrow!

Two in one weekend!

Posts - that is!



Yesterday when I was posting I forgot to put up a picture of the awesome little quilt I won from Jacqui. I absolutely love it! and I am actually using it for something. I have this huge cup that I drink water from all day long and the mini quilt is a perfect size for this cup. She also, wonderful lady, sent this material with the mini quilt. T loves baseball and this will be perfect for something for him. I think I am going to add it in his quilt that I will be making him for his birthday in December.

And as I stated yesterday today is our anniversary, 6 years. Here's a picture of Rich and I two years ago. Not the greatest picture. It was taken at Ashley's graduation from Fire Academy in NC. We drove down, went to graduation, went to lunch and drove home. It was on a Wednesday and we both couldn't get the time off nor did Rich want to take the boys out of school for that long. We are firm believers that they give you vacation time, take them then.

Tomorrow, J, TJ and I are going to Columbus for the last Hippology competition this year. We have to leave a 5:45 so its going to be early to bed for us. There are 6 kids total going, and we are gonig to have a cookout for lunch. Everything is just about packed except for the veggies, and the muffins for breakfast. Its too expensive to feed these two something like Burger King and the longer we sleep the better!

Tomorrow I hope to have pictures of competition, my lettuce (which is doing wonderfully!) and my corn growing.

Also, I helped my mom set up her blog today, but there are no posts on it yet, so check it out in the next few days. www.country-chicken.blogspot.com!

Hope everyone had a great fathers day and a great weekend!

Quilts, that's it...

It is Saturday afternoon and it's been fairly relaxing so far. I cleaned the house this morning and spent most of the afternoon sewing and reading. Right now I am reading "Flowers for Algeron". Its really good, pretty intense at some points with what is going to happen to Charlie, I like it. We will have to see but right now its probably going to be in the top 10 for the year. I haven't read as much this year, I just can't stay focused as much as I was last year. Oh well!
I finished the binding on these two quilts, glad to have two more to add to the finished pile. Its really hard to see but the yellow one has the word yellow quilted in it and J absolutely loves that! I don't know why, he just thinks that is the coolest thing!

I also made block 7 for Amanda Jeans quilt along. I like these colors together. I had a few issues with this one lining up correctly but it came ok.

I am diligently working on J's quilt. I have about half of the half square triangle blocks sewed together to make the pinwheels. Hopefully I will get the rest of it done soon (yeah right!) but it WILL be on his bed by fall.
Next week is another busy week. T has a game to ump on Monday, J has volunteering at the library on Monday, Tuesday I think is open, Wed is a game, Thursday is a game and Friday is something...I forget what!
Tomorrow, along with father's day, is our anniversary. 6 years and counting! I don't have any pictures scanned but I will try to scan one at work this week. We had our wedding at my parents house with close family and friends. We got married in the flower garden, and then had a cook-out. The invitations even stated casual attire. The kids jumped on the trampoline all night and a great time was had by allIts been a wonderful 6 years, and I couldn't ask for a better husband. He is so wonderful and caring. I hope (know) our next 26 years will be as wonderful as these 6 have been.

Totally ME!!!

What Sara Means

You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Short

Today's post is going to be short, and sorry, no pictures. Its been busy again, but I have gotten most of my yellow quilt quilted. If I run out of thread one more time then I quit! Also I picked up 3 more batiks for my batik triangle quilt that isn't even started. It requires 75 fat quarters...I have about 60. I am also finishing up the binding on my red, white and blue quilt.

This past weekend was busy but relaxing if that makes sense. I got my swing stained, we got the garden rototilled and 4 rows of corn planted. I am planting 4 more probably early next week. We got the grass cut, the weed eating done and got to ride. There was also a baseball game and a horseshow (I had to be ringmaster for 4 classes- contesting) but otherwise we didn't do much but hang out. I have also been trying to walk 2 miles a day. We (mom, J and I) are going to do a 5k (3 mile) walk on Fourth Of July.

My friend Rhonda wants a quilt so I am trying to decide what to make her. I want something with sage green in it so it will go in her family room, just not sure yet. She also wants to make a quilt for her friend who has cancer.

My job is going great and I love the guys I work for. I just wish I could stay. It will be 6 weeks next week and my last day is the 20th. I wish there were some way for me to be able to stay and the other girl to have to leave. I know thats horrible, but these guys are great! They leave me alone, and are fun to be around when they are around. They travel some and always seem to be in meetings. I worked for this company 10 years ago, I left in 99 actually to go to school and have been trying to get back in for a few years now. It just never seems to work out!

And lastly, my baby turns 12 on Wednesday. I can't believe we are on our last year of tween! It seems like just last year or two that I met him when he was 4! He went to the daycare that I was an after school teacher at and that is how I met his father! He is so grown up in some ways and still such a little boy in others! But he is my baby, and always will be.

Sorry this is short, but I am off to catch up on a few things. Yes, at 10 pm I am going to do dishes! That hour nap today totally threw me off! LOL!

Nice and Hot!!

Today was beautiful! In the high 80's! My kinda weather. I started staining my new swing, I had one of those fabric ones but the kitties liked it so much it was just to ripped up to use this year so we bought a regular porch swing and it just needs to be stained. Hopefully I will get it finished tomorrow night when I get home from work.

This week has been crazy like last week. Monday night we had Hippology and a baseball game. Tuesday it rained (Thank Goodness), Wednesday was 6th grade graduation, and tonight was a cross country meeting and a baseball game. Tomorrow we are having an end of year cook-out with the neighbors.





Last weekend J and I went to a fabric store in the small town just north of us. It was awesome! They had a ton more fabric than the place in town here and lots of cool prints. I picked up a horse print for J and a neon guitar print for T. I am going to use both of them in their quilts that I make them. Otherwise no quilting has been going on. Its been so busy and I don't like to quilt past nine on school nights.





Meet Steak and Patty. Our to Angus Heifers that are going to save me on groceries! I hate buying meat at the store. They will be ready by November and we are planning on selling 1 to 1 1/2 of them. I will say though that the boys thought we were crazy to want to buy meat (or raise it ourselves) until they tasted the awesome steak from Grandpa Metheney's steers. That changed their mind real quick!!

Patty Steak

Last night was 6th grade graduation. It was nice. They each got a little paper diploma and a memory book. Today was the last day of school so it was 6th grade picnic for J and field day for T. Rich took a vacation day and picked J and Amber (the neighbor) up at 1:30. Nice little treat for the 6th graders to get out early.

J and Amber at Graduation

Nico and T at Graduation