Got it Done

 This batch of apple butter was 14 pints. I was very pleased with it. However, the next batch, I will make not quite as sweet. Although Mr. Mark LOVES it sweet. He ate a pint the first morning! Out of the jar! hahaha I also canned 4 pints of tomato juice. Thought there would be more, but that is what I got. Pleased with even that much. I am planning on making apple jelly next. Working my way down the list. Jars are on sale now with it being end of season. Now is the time to get them. Speaking of jelly. Have you heard that peanut butter is going sky high this winter? All the devastation in the southern states this year. We are going to try to stock up this week. Mr. Mark takes a lot of pb/j sandwiches in his lunchbox. Either for a snack or breakfast or lunch.

 This is a more girly monkey love hat.

Just two more of my hats. Screaming pink (and dark chocolate brown) huh? 

 Mark, Shayla and Toby at Mark's birthday party. Doesn't Shayla look festive. Our mom got the little girl's these flower leis to play with. Shayla LOVED hers! Said they made her feel fancy. It was so sweet. Except she took me to stop doing the hula dance. It was creepy!! That was hilarious. Me doing it and her saying that! Love that girl.

This week seems to be going fast. Hope everyone is getting to do something they love. Feed your passion my friends. Life is too short to not do something you enjoy!

I am blessed. ~Angela

September Photos

 September is all about birthdays for us. My girl is now 24. Heather, how did this happen? Our Baby Shayla (niece) is now 8. And not quite a baby anymore. Cannot believe how fast the years have gone.

They shared a party this year. We never do themes, but this year I did an Alice in Wonderland tea party. Heather loves her some AiW!! I had the dining table set up with roses and cupcakes, cookies, cake, and other goodies. We had turkey and ham sandwiches on party buns with a bit more "real" food. The small photo is a treasure to me. It is of my girls when Heather was 16 and Shayla was 3 months. We had so much fun that day. Did you notice the googly eyes on the roses? hahaha You have to have googly eyes on your flowers for anything with Alice you know. It was a good day.

Then daddy had his birthday next. He and Jaidy were playing around. Daddy was getting ready to blow out his candles. He had a willing helper. A good pic of both their happy faces.

Jaidyn loves my wormies. Glad she is not too girly to get her hands dirty. She would carry one or two around and then trade them for others. Lots of worming loving and then hand washing.

This Little Miss LOVES my poor Timmy cat. They have a love/hate relationship. By looking at the pics, can you guess who does what? :o))) That is a very tight death grip hug she is giving him.

I am blessed. ~Angela

My favorite two little girls

 My sweet nieces, Jaidyn (3) and Shayla (7).

 Shayla lovin' on Timmy. Check out her crazy bangs! She gave herself a trim job on the school bus. Said they were in her eyes. Silly kid.

 This is what an indoor eggie hunt looks like. More rain! And again today also :o( Blechityblechblech! We hid, if you can call it that, their goodies through the living room, the hall and the computer room. They had fun. But outdoors is so much nicer!

 We were watching The Wizard of Oz before and after. Good backrgound music for romping through my dinky little house!

I thought it was funny that the digital photo frame was on a pic of Toby, right beside a photo of him, when I snapped this. I didn't notice til I was downloading the pics.

Hope your day was good.

I am blessed. ~Angela

Our homegrown Easter bunnies

These two make my heart sing. Precious nieces.

Happy Easter to you all. Jesus is the realllll reason for the season.

My playmates

My sweet niece baby Shayla came for a few days. We played babies and animals, read books, watched movies, played school and had alot of snuggle time.

My sister Penny and I have been out in my playhouse. She was winding cones and skeins of yarn on her swift and ballwinder. I was sewing on the other side of my dinky lil wooden table. At times, holding onto it for dear life as the swift vibrated the legs off the poor thing! LOL I love my dinky lil table though. It just works.

I was working on small projects (I need to photograph them yet.) and hemmed six skirts for Miss Shorty. She also made the sweetest honey soap. Smells divine!

Today was a homeblessing day. I did laundry and the floors, cleaned out the frig, and general spic/spanning. Made peanutbutter cookies and a pot of "what I had on hand" chili. Now I am tuckered out.

I am staying home as much as possible. My immune systems is not good. And just coming off the chemo, well it is worse than the normal for me. Hope everyone is staying healthy with all these flu cooties running amuck. My dd has been very sick. On the mend now though. I hated not being able to go to her and mother her, even though she is married. She is still my baby. Maybe after we get to the good freeze stage here, the flu will taper off.

Here is our encouragement for the day.

Matthew 6:31-32 (King James Version)

31Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32(For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

The past few weeks

Alot going on. I have been taking a treatment (partial chemo) each Wednesday. The last one in this round, is this week. Then tests to find out what is what with my liver. Hopefully it will show regrowth from the surgery and this is over with. I am keeping the housework up and taking care of Timmy and Toby and that is about it. Some crocheting of course, because that is mindless.

Have had this sadness to work through also. My Lydia crossed Rainbow Bridge.

The two pics below are what I made for our Hand-Dids, Autumn Friendship Swap. The first one went to Kim. The crow, leaves and stems are wool. The rest is fabric needleturn applique on a pinwheel background. I had posted HERE the lovely she made me.

This scrappy baby is what I made for Vickie. It is wool applique on flying geese background.

Here is my sweet Baby Shayla (I know we will have to quit calling her that one of these days. But not yet!). Her and I watched the latest Wizard of Oz that just came out. I had gotten Happy Meal McDonald toys and saved some back for her. I have the whole set for myself! LOL She really liked the movie. The first part, when it is all sepia she wasn't too sure about. Told me this might be too grown up for her. I assured her it was going to get fun in just a minute. When it became color (and what she was used to) she got happier. Kids. Look at her mouth from licking it. Mom says I did that too. Love my niece that is for sure. She gave me a hug during her visit and told me she was blessed. Aaaaaaah!

There are still a couple of spots open for the November 2010 Quilt Camp/Retreat.

Please pray for our blogger friend Terry. Her husband was in a serious accident last week. Barb lives in American Samoa in all that devastation. So many prayer requests. I am grateful that God is all seeing and Almighty.

Busy week for me

This has been a very busy week for me. Monday, was Heather's birthday party. Tuesday, I took my pretreatment shot and had another dr appt and some tests ran. Wednesday, I cleaned and made a huge stock pot full of veggie soup. It is so yummy. And I love sharing it. We all need to eat more vegetables. Also spent some time with my birthday girl. Thursday, I took our elderly uncle to the dr and had another dr appt for myself. Friday, I left early and went and spent the day with a very dear friend. Got home late. Found out while I was gone that my father-in-law was in the hospital. Problems with his kidney functions. Woke up today to a phone call that he has several bloodclots in his lungs and legs as well. The doctor told him he was a miracle!! That he would have died shortly with these undetected and untreated AND he was blessed that they are not the kind that break down and travel as they dissolve. His just dissolve and stay in place!!!! Thank God for that. He will be in the hospital several days and on meds for a long time. But much better than the alterrnative!!!

Also today was our sweet baby Shayla's 6th birthday and her party. She is so precious to us. Love this lil niece so much.

The years have flown by it seems. Went to her party and the local kiddie pizza/playland place (What a money rip off!) and to the hospital with sis to see her Papa. Home to catch up the housework tonight and give my fur babies some loving. This ole girl is not used to so much running. But you know, it was good for me to be busy and be out and about. I am so happy I was ABLE to do what I needed and wanted to do. God sent me the energy. And the gas money. Both I am grateful for. This week I am hoping to be crafty and have some new pics to share with you. I am sorry I am behind in all my blog reading! Will try to get caught up with everyone.

I will leave you with this thought.

"Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."

~ C. S. Lewis

Eggie Hunts rock!

My sister Debbie (Meme) and Baby Jaidyn. The bebe's first Eggie Hunt!

I honestly do not know WHAT was happening with Baby Shayla's hair here in her face! Love that killer smile of her's. There was so much loot for her to find, I had to upgrade her from a basket to my new yarn bag. We divided the yard up and placed the goodies on each side for the girls. Ivan rehid half Shayla's eggs for her once. Some so hard I couldn't find them!

Both girls got cutie bugs. They were laying in the bushes.

This baby is the cutest. Love those leggings on her too! Twirly dresses are the best.

And this says it all. Except Baby Jaidyn was the only one asleep! LOL Toby (Who has on his soft muzzle to keep him calm and not jumping all over the kidlets. It is so loose, comes off without unsnapping it. It is just hanging on him basically by his ears.) and lil Shayla were playing opossum for a photo. :o) Being Aunt Angie is the best thing. Love'em, spoil'em, tucker them out and send then on their merry way. Is this grammy training??

We are getting ready for a wedding!

Flower girls? Check!

Baby Shayla, our now so much a baby, is all set. But is thinking she prefers to be the "wedding girl" (bride) to the "basket girl" (flower girl). Hmmmm...I do not Heather will be stepping aside. Sorry Shayla! LOL

Poor baby Jaidyn has a rash, reaction to a baby shot. She is covered head to toe. Looks like a lil cherub in her dress though.

These are just quick snaps at the house. Trying the dresses at the last minute for fit. Thankfully, only Shayla's needs hemmed and cut off. I think there is 5 layers to the skirt! We are at 11 days and counting~!!!

We did a lil get-together today with my family and Baby Shayla.

And then Miss Big Girl Jaidyn took her first solo ride on Shayla's Care Bear car. This was a big deal for Shayla to share. Cause she looooooooves her car and has had it since about 18 months or so. Jaidyn took right off on it with no hesitation. She loved the music it plays too.

Then there is poor Mr. Toby. We have a muzzle for him now when folk's come over. Honestly I wish we did this the minute we brought him home. NOT to keep him from biting or barking. He never ever does either. But it totally calms him down. It is so loose it will slip right off his head. My hands both fit inside it even. (These are all disclaimers so no one will turn us in to the Puppy Protection people.) It just totallllly settles him down though. Toby is very much a hyper puppy still when we have company. He can drink and pant with it on. I bought the one a size bigger too. Here he is laying around on Mr. Woofie, Shayla's big doggie. Debbie got this for her a couple years ago. The Pooh Bear is mine. LOL

Aaaahhhh sweet peace. LOL This was him before Mark was even out of the driveway taking Shayla home! And here he stayed for 3 hours!! Watching lil kids frolic is exhausting work for a puppy dog! :o)