It's Friday Night...

...and I am tired.

Its been a busy day today. I had to have my truck looked at at the dealers, there is a ring that is associated with the ABS and its cracked so that took the better part of an hour. Then I took J to get his glasses. Stopped at my moms. Then came home, ate some lunch, rode and bathed my horse. Took another shower (I hate smelling like wet horse!) and then took the boys to CC. Finally got home and finished getting everything ready for the show tomorrow. Its only a fun show so we don't have to wear show clothes, but I still want them to look nice. I have to ringmaster most of the day so I am sure I will be tired by the time we are done!

Tonight for CC we went to Allerdale park on the OTHER side of the county. We live on the county line in the NW corner and the park was on the SE corner! Its a very pretty park though with lots of hills winding through the woods. There is a bridge and several walking paths, along with a pavillion with picnic tables. Here is a few pictures:

Last night I walked with a group of other parents. That was nice, we are going to try to walk most nights, but I think we went about 5 miles last night. Boy, was I tired! But it was fun to have someone to walk with!!

No quilting has been done since Wednesday and I don't think any is going to get done between now and Tuesday. I really want to get J's quilt done, but just don't have the time this weekend, with the show and baseball and kids. Off to bed now so I can get up early to get to the show to help get things ready!!

3.75 miles

That is how far I walked yesterday. I am very happy with that. And I wasn't all that tired! I walked while J was at CC practice. I am so proud of him. He did awesome. They were running about a 2 mile course that included going up and down the football stadium stairs for their "hills". He finished the first lap in 5th out of 20 and the second in 8th! He did so awesome! I am really impressed with his dedication and how well he is doing! He has also taken about 2 minutes off his time since he started running. He was running an 8 minute mile on Tuesday!

Last night Ashley called, Shannon proposed to her. We are happy for her, but we are trying to talk her into eloping or having a very small wedding. They are not sure what they are going to do yet, but they better get thinking about it since they want to get married in either March or April!

No quilting has been done. Its been errands, cleaning up, riding, practices - etc. Just busy stuff. We did plant 21 pumpkin plants the other day. We were actually talking about planting seeds, but there is not enough time for the seeds before Oct so we decided to look at plants. The lady who owns the local green house is sort of friend (LONG story) and said that I could have the plants for 15 cents a piece. So I took all the jack o lanter plants, 3 plants for mini pumpkins and 3 plants for huge pumpkins. I don't have any pictures because they look horrible, but hopefully they will start doing better! They needed to be planted and were starting to have issues with being in pots! I got the 21 pumpkins and 3 tomatoe plants for $4.09! Can't beat that!!

And I am off to work on J's quilt some. We have a show on Saturday so I will post more after that. And I will leave you with this beautiful picture of Alyssa.

J's Quilt

Well, I finally feel like I am accomplishing something on J's quilt. I have all the squares done, all of the sashing pieces done and half the rows together. All that is left is 3 rows and then to put sashing in between the rows. There will be two rows of sashing in between the rows and 4 light blue squares at each corner. This is what I have done so far, the last row and the next to last row have a sashing strip in there. There will be two of those between each row of squares. Make sense? Then all I have to do is get the material for the border, binding and backing and I can get it done!

Yesterday J had a friend over and they played in the sprinkler for awhile. T went to B's house to go swimming and came home in the afternoon. Tonight was Cross Country practice and all three boys went. T is not joining, he just went along for the exercise but ended up not running because they were doing time trials etc to determine how well they were doing.

It was hot here today, but I did spend some time outside on the swing. I actually got up first thing this morning and rode, but did spend most of the day working on J's quilt. While I was outside reading I found this guy on my leg. I actually thought he was a piece of hay before I brushed him off and realized he wasn't!

Tomorrow will be riding in the morning, then sewing on J's quilt, then cross country practice. It seems to be a pattern!

Old guys shouldn't play softball

Every year our baseball youth league does a coaches game on the weekend of the 4th or somewhere around there. Today was the day. 10 am this morning 14 guys (I believe all over 40, except one!) were out there playing softball. And if all of them are anything like my hubby they will all be complaining about the muscles they never use in the morning. One guy (who I know is older than Rich) slid into home, IN SHORTS! Ouch, that had to hurt! They were also drinking beer by 11 so I am sure he didn't feel it too much. Rich hit a home run and his team won. It was pretty funny to watch these guys try to hit the ball out of the "park" so to speak! Here's some pictures!

Rich batting

Rich playing right field

Rich's friend Kurt pitching

My friend Robin

In other news, not much. Both the kids are at a friends, I have been working on J's quilt since we got home, and am going to go ride my horse shortly. Its been hot here for once this summer and after this morning I was banished to the house again. I almost have all the sashing put together for J's quilt. Once I get it done it will be all downhill of sewing sashing together, adding the border, pinning and quilting! I am hoping to have it done by next weekend. *yeah right!*

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a happy 4th of July!!

Mom, glad you like the mini quilt!

Last night's sunset (sorry, not a great picture!)

4th of July Fun

Yesterday J and I did the 5k run/walk. J finished in about 32 minutes, which I thought was pretty good for his first ever! And I finished in about 40 minutes, pretty much what I expected. The hills were what slowed me down! Here is a picture of J and I at the finish line:

Then I came home and finished up quilt blocks 9 & 10 for the quilt a long. I am very happy with the way these turned out. My points are getting so much better! There is not one "missing" point on either of these:

Then when Rich and the kids got home we went to my mom and dad's so Rich could give my dad a lesson. We had dinner and just hung out while they rode. T's girlfriend went with us and we played a game of corn hole. T and B beat my brother and I by ALOT! It was 21 to 7! Then we stopped at the neighbors for a few minutes to say Hi. There was a little one-on-one basketball played, and just hanging out! Here are some pictures of last night:

Dad riding with Rich coaching

J with one of mom's baby chicks

Matt and T playing cornhole.

After that we went to fireworks in Valley City and then came home. I was so tired that I just went to bed. It was about 11 by that time, and I was beat! Very productive day, but very tiring.



Today I cleaned the house and went to the grocery store while Rich and the kids did things like weed-eat, fertilize the garden, clean stalls, and now they are at the baseball field trying to get it playable for tonight. Tonight is our last regular season game. We have one make-up scheduled for Tuesday and then tournaments start the next weekend. If we win our first tournament game and my mom's neighbor wins their first tournament game then we play them in our second game. That will be a good game, even though they will win since I will want to cheer for both sides!





I am going to work on J's quilt for awhile and then head up to the ball game.

Mini Quilt and Pink

Paula at A Latte Quilts issued a mini quilt challenge on Friday. The challenge was to complete a mini quilt top by the 5th. I started on mine about 3 hours ago and it is done! Completely! I used fabrics from my stash and created a 17 inch square mini quilt. Here is a picture:

This morning I went to JoAnn's to use my coupons. I didn't buy anything exciting except blades for my cutter and the newest issues of American Patchwork and Quilting. I then went to drop off my first Project Linus quilt at the local fabric shop. I am very excited to donate this quilt to Project Linus (Mom, you could have kept it!):

While I was there I decided to use my gift card and get fabric for a quilt for Miss Alyssa. Her birthday is in December just like T and TJs so I figured if I am going to make all three of them a quilt I should probably get started. Not that I think it is going to take my 6 months, but I am sure I will want to mix it up some! :) So I picked up all this PINK material for her quilt:

Tomorrow morning J and I are competing in a 5K run/walk (I'm walking :)) and then I will be coming home to a quiet house and spend the day quilting till the kids get home from the parade with their mom. I will hopefully have more of J's quilt done and my two blocks from AmandaJean's quilt along...

And more quilting for tonight!

Our House

Awhile ago Kris did a "where you live" that showed posts of her house and property. I meant to do it back then, but just never got around to taking the pictures, so today I went out and took them. We live on an L shaped piece of land, 10 acres, a split level house and a 10 stall barn with a tack room and washrack. Our house faces the west, we have two small paddocks that both have gaits to the pasture. We ride in the north one and the south one is always open to the pasture. So here are my pictures:

Our house from the road

The road from the SE corner of the house

The barn from the SE corner of the house

The property from the NE corner of the North paddock, we go back to the trees and across two other properties in to the end of ours.

The barn from the NE corner of the North paddock.

Our patio

The back of the garage

The front of the house - T & J's rooms upstairs.

My Daisies

I tag anyone who wants to play along!