Andrew lost his first tooth : )

Andrew has been wondering about the tooth fairy so he was delighted when he lost his first tooth.  One day is was a little loose and the next day it was ready to come out.  The tooth fairy did arrive and left him a small LEGO set and a presidential dollar coin.  As it turns out, he already had the dollar coin in his collection so he promptly gave his coin to Thomas!  They played with the little LEGO set and all was well.  Expect the tooth fairy will have to keep watch for the next few years.

James finished his Life Project! (Finally)

 FINALLY-James' Life Project for Boy Scouts is finished.  The task was to paint the eaves all around Fr. Scott's house.  James is actually tall enough to reach up and paint the lower eaves without a ladder.  The upper levels did require a ladder though.

 Even the plants took off and grew in the two weeks it took to complete the project.  There was quite a bit of prep work: scraping off the old paint,applying a coat of primer to the scraped surfaces,  Then, after several hours of good old-fashioned hard work the project is done.

 If everything passes inspection by the scoutmaster tonight, we'll be hoping to see the Life awards in June.

Now, it should be time to go swimming!

Confirmation 2012

After two years of classes, James and Ray were confirmed at Holy Cross Church.  Our new bishop, Armando Ochoa was there for the confirmation.

 Thomas and Andrew just love Zachary.

Zachary, Fr. Scott and James-these boys have been altar servers since they were little.  Now they are as tall (or taller) than Father Scott.

Tiger Cubs Earned their Tiger Badge

On Friday, April 20th, after much anticipation, the Tiger Cubs finally received their Tiger Badges.  Andrew gave Mrs.Tyler the cub scout handshake, 

 then it was Caden's turn to give the secret handshake and receive his award,

 followed by Juan who also received his award.

 It's been a great year with these three little Tiger Cubs.  I hope they had as much fun as I did getting to know them and learning a little about scouting along the way such as the living circle handshake.

 Proud but silly boys with their Tiger Badge award and their Marbles belt loop.

 Caden with his proud grandpa.  Lucky boy to have a grandpa that loves him so much.

Andrew and his little brother, Thomas sharing the moment.  Thomas can't wait until it's his turn to be a Tiger.

"I CHOOSE"

It's quiet. It's early. My coffee is hot. The sky is still black. The world is still asleep. The day is coming. In a few moments the day will arrive. It will roar down the track with the rising of the sun. The stillness of the dawn will be exchanged for the noise of day. The calm of the solitude will be replaced by the pounding pace of the human race. The refuge of the early morning will be invaded by decisions to be made and deadlines to be met.

For the next twelve hours I will be exposed to the days demands. It is now that I must make a choice. And so I choose.

I CHOOSE LOVE. . .
No occasion justifies hatred, no injustice warrants bitterness. I choose love. Today I will love God and what God loves.

I CHOOSE JOY. . .
I will invite my God to be the God of circumstance. I will refuse the tempation to be cynical. . .the tool of the lazy thinker. I will refuse to see people as anything less than human beings, created by God. I will refuse to see any problem as anything less than an opportunity to see God.

I CHOOSE PEACE. . .
I will live forgiven. I will forgive so that I may live.

I CHOOSE PATIENCE. . .
I will overlook the inconveniences of the world. Rather than complaining that the wait is too long. I will thank God for a moment to pray. Instead of clinching my fist at new assignments, I will face them with joy and courage.

I CHOOSE KINDNESS. . .
I will be kind to the poor, for they are alone. Kind to the rich, for they are afraid. And kind to the unkind, for such is how God has treated me.

I CHOOSE GOODNESS. . .
I will go without a dollar before I take a dishonest one. I will see the good in others when it is hard to find. I will confess before I will accuse. I choose goodness.

I CHOOSE FAITHFULNESS. . .
Today I will keep my promises. My debtors will not regret their trust. My associates will not question my work. My spouse will not question my love. And my children will never fear that their parent will not come home.

I CHOOSE GENTLENESS. . .
Nothing is won by force. I choose to be gentle. If I raise my voice, may it be only in praise. If I clench my fist, may it be only in prayer. If I make a demand, may it be only of myself.

I CHOOSE SELF-CONTROL. . .
I am a spiritual being. After this body is dead, my spirit will soar. I refuse to let what will rot rule the eternal. I choose self-control.

LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL. . .
To these I commit my day. If I succeed, I will give thanks. If I fail, I will seek God's face. And then when this day is done, I will place my head on my pillow and rest.

(I will I could claim that I had written this piece but I did not. Unfortunately, I do not know who did write it. If you read this and it is yours, please let me know so I can credit you for it. If you read this and just like it, I hope you share it.)

Andrew turned 7 years old

This is what 7 years old looks like at our house. Trying to get a nice photo of a wiggly 7 year old is amazingly difficult.


He did enjoy the party with a few friends (and a brother).
Everyone loved the Ninjago cake decorated by Dad.
Overall I think I had a happy little 7 year old ninja!

Ninjago Cake by DAD

Andrew turned seven years old the other day and I was really struggling with party ideas and getting it all done. He wanted a LEGO Ninjago party and there is NOTHING on the market for party supplies, etc. I originally scheduled the party for a Saturday only to realize that our family could not come as they had so many other obligations. To add to the fun, we had a massive rainstorm come through for two days prior to the event which precluded any outdoor activitiy.
Just as I was stressing out over making a cake and getting the party together, Andrew informed me that the cake I had in mind was not at all what he wanted. He even informed me he could do the cake if I would just provide a cake and some blue frosting. Although I considered letting him go to it, I had my doubts. Meanwhile, Super Dad came to the rescue. He drew up a quick sketch of a ninja that met with Andrew's approval, then proceeded to offer to decorate the cake. Something he has never attempted before but I was so relieved. I had the cake baked and the white frosting on, then we mixed up some other colors and set up the piping bags.
Then Super Dad went to work. He carefully drew the outline with a toothpick, then started filling in with frosting. I stood nearby to smooth things out where I could and to keep the frosting bags filled.
Thomas and Andrew kept a front row seat offering their comments throughout the long process. They had plenty to say on the color selection, the sword angle and how it was coming along.
Overall, I think the cake came out great and Andrew was pleased with the final results. Good job, Super Dad!

And the winner is. . . . .

RUBY by Bonnie and Camille

Check out this link for the full story!

http://www.fatquarterly.com/congratulations-ruby-our-2012-modern-madness-champion.html#comment-15495

Love this fabric line and hope to find some at the quilt show this week-end!

March Madness Final Four

It's down to the final four at www.fatquarterly.com. Who will make the final two and then take the champion postion.

Check out the results and cast your vote today.

http://www.fatquarterly.com/modern-madness-the-final-four-2.html

I can't wait to see the results!

When I Grow Up, I want to be a Blanket!

Another knitting class and another project. These balls of yarn will someday be combined into a lap blanket. For now, they are a bunch of little squares that are waiting for me to get it together and put them into a small lap blanket. I've been knitting and knitting some simple plain red squares with the crinkly red yarn and have just started knitting some various stitch patterns into the lambswool angora yarn. If all goes as planned, I'll knit the various stitches into squares then eventually sew them all together. Meanwhile, I'm having a great time with the ladies at knitting class. We laugh and talk together while working on our various projects. Our teacher, the amazing Carole Dulitz, is always teaching us something new while we develop our skills with lots of fun projects. I can't say enough good things about the teacher and/or the class. Hopefully, I'll have more to post as this blanket progresses. Next time I'll show a few of the other small projects I have in the works. Wish me luck!

Inge Look Postcard and Postcrossing

So I'm back at Postcrossing and am so very delighted with this adorable postcard from Finland. It's by a very talented artist by the name of Inge Look. Her depictions of these two charming little old ladies is absolutely wonderful. They bring a smile of delight to my face and laughter to my heart. Such simple, sweet expressions of life. What a treasure! If you are at all interested in exchanging postcards with people around the world, please check out www.postcrossing.com. It's certainly been a fun adventure for me.

Catholic Scouting Rosary Patches

Something I wanted to do for a very long time now is to help my children earn the rosary patches offered by the National Catholic Committee on Scouting. However, I had never seen one in person, only online. I didn't even really know where to begin. Although I wish I could say we said our daily rosary still, I can't. We used to be diligent and say it every night as a family then we would go through times of crazy busyness and it wouldn't get done. I wish we still did. Most of the time it's just me saying the rosary as I'm driving or perhaps as I'm about to fall asleep in my bed at night. My husband once asked, before he became Catholic, why we just said those "chants" all the time. Why didn't we just say prayers? Well, the rosary is prayer. Not to say that you cannot pray anytime, anywhere or anyway you want to. However, when you're crazy busy, life is overwhelming, you're exhausted or completely stressed out, the routine, the habit, the repetitiveness of the rosary prayers is amazingly comforting, it builds the habit of prayer and soothes the restless soul. I love the rosary and am delighted that these beautiful patches are available.
Unfortunately, my camera (or perhaps it's the photographer) is a bit challenged when taking close up shots of the individual patches. They are larger and more lovely than I thought. Each one measures about 5" in diameter. There is plenty of gold thread throughout to emphasize different features. I really think they are beautiful. To earn these patches, you have to answer a few simple questions about the various aspects of the life of Christ corresponding to the mysteries of the rosary. There are various levels, for example, the first grader is not going to answer the same questions as the high school student. However, I like to think my first grader could answer most if not all the high school questions. After you complete the questions, you place an order at http://nccs-bsa.org/activities/index.php . It's not difficult, the patches are beautiful, and you can take another step in your faith. Or if you are in the neighborhood, Fr. Gregory Beaumont of Holy Family Church in Hanford is offering a few more presentations on the rosary. I was fortunate to attend one of his presentations, watched a beautiful slide show of the various Joyful Mysteries, met some very nice people, shared a meal together and enjoyed myself immensely. The Luminous Mysteries will be presented on Wednesday, April 4th, 2012 and the Glorious Mysteries on Sunday, May 6th, 2012 at Holy Family Church in Hanford. Hopefully, I can arrange to attend another presentation. Maybe I'll see someone I know there!

Jim Shore Santa's Workshop

I saw this beautiful quilt online a few months back and absolutely fell in love with it. It is from the very talented Chasing Cottons blogspot. I not sure how to link to the blog about it but it is so fabulous. It has taken me quite a while to track down the fabrics and guessimate what was used to make this beautiful quilt. However, much to my pleasure, I have now collected the fabrics from several sources-most notably Auntie Chris' Fabrics and Over the Rainbow fabrics. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with these people in finding these lovely fabrics and I couldn't be happier. Can't wait until my pile of fabric looks like the last photo from Chasing Cottons. Wonder if I'll ever be that amazing with my quilting skills? Hopefully I can do this be Christmas this year. Wish me luck!

Happy 18th Anniversary

Eighteen years later and we haven't aged a bit. HA! Time does take it's toll on a person. That and six children. However, I have to say, it's been a lot of good years. Not always fun and easy but good years still the same. Lots of great memories, six great children, three houses, one apartment, lots of jobs, homeschooling, and a multitude of other things. Happy Anniversary to us. I love you Gary Miller.

Happy 50th Birthday, Gary

Happy 50th, Gary. Gary turned 50 years old today so we celebrated with just the kids and plenty of cake and ice cream. He didn't want a big celebration and since it has turned out to be a wet, rainy day, perhaps that was best. He did get some fun golf equipment to add to his collection and I just know his golf scores will improve now. Happy Birthday, Gary! I love you very much.

Pinewood Derby Race 2012

The annual pinewood derby race never fails to please. After weeks of anticipation, the race was on. Andrew has been so excited all day for the big race tonight. His little yellow Star Wars car was finally on the track for the big race day. After many calculations by the computer and several heats of races, his little car didn't make the top three. However, he did get the Best Dragster award and was pleased with the race overall. The chocolate milkshake afterwards helped him in planning next year's car.

Diagonal Scarf

Another scarf completed. Actually completed this one a month or so ago but never uploaded the photos. It's a beautiful yarn knitted on the diagonal so it's pretty interesting to knit. However, this particular yarn is a little challenging to work with for a beginner. The variations in the yarn itself look great as you knit but don't make mistakes as it's difficult to correct them. Anyway, my scarf collection is growing. Whom to give it to????

March Madness Continues

So my quilting friends-if you aren't playing along with March Madness, you should. I can hardly stand the anticipation and am anxiously awaiting the results each day. All these fabric lines are beautiful but I can't help but have my favorites. Maybe this is the feeling that my husband gets watching LSU football-anticipating who is going to win. It's killing me to wait and yet I almost don't want it to be over. I'm so enjoying seeing all the various patterns and also seeing a bit of what people are able to create and make with these lovely fabrics. If you aren't playing along and want to see some of this year's fabulous fabrics, check it out at http://www.fatquarterly.com/blog.

Once I figure out how to link some of the fabric photos to this site, I will. They are all fantastic so it's going to be hard to pick a winner.

What do you do with your Duplo?

Saw this idea on the Filth Wizard blog and loved it so I commandeered all the Duplo blocks and started writing. It worked okay but was a little wonky. Later on I got a label maker and went to town putting words on all the Duplos. Still have a few Duplos left and am on the hunt for some more. I'm thinking this will help build reading skills with the four year old and the six year old. We've had a lot of fun coming up with silly sentences and adding words to the collection. What's your favorite word?