July Blocks of the Month

Look what I got on the quilt frame! It is coming along very quickly too. My good friend Dixie helped me baste this together. It is going to be done in no time.

Here are all of my BoM, and yes, I know there are two months here, I got a little busy in June, so I did two in July. The calender quilt is also caught up. I think I will use outdoor fabrics for August.

Here is penguin quilt for Callie for her birthday, she loves all animals that start with 'P' : ponies, penguins, puppies and platypus. Interesting child.

My mom sent me this pattern and I thought it was cute. But when I started reading, I noticed it had several different fabrics in it, in other words, it was more than I thought it would be. So I started collecting. The black has a multi-colored dot in it. I looked for that for a couple of months, until I stopped one day in Rupert and found it. It will now go on the 'to be quilted' pile.

Weekend in July

Callie and Emily always take a great picture

Here is the chaos before the group picture. I love it.

Here are some men who still act like boys.

By the way, we went to Peter and Leigh-Ann's wedding. She was beautiful and Pete, well, he looked pretty good too.

I am recovering from a very quick trip to Yuba City. We had a great time visiting with relatives and friends. I am not sure why, but Yuba City always feels like home. It was so good to see Peggy and please keep reading.

The only down part of the trip was that it is so hot. We have lived in Idaho 3 years and I think it took me 3 days to acclimate to this climate. I am going to have to plan my trips to Yuba City during fall and spring.

Quick Update

Twin Quilts

I finished my twin quilts. It was one quilt, but I took it apart and made two smaller ones. I also finished this little green quilt, which I have been hand quilting for a few months. Things are moving along.

Callie's friend did not have to pay the fine for her ticket.

Rich got his cast off, but has to be 'careful' for another month.

Courtney finished her last class, so she will be a college graduate next month.

I finally go new walking shoes. Not the ones I wanted, but some good ones from Lands End. They were a clearance and it was free shipping, so it was a good deal.

I have a question

My question is one I have had for many years, Why do you freeze fish with their heads on? Rich brought me some fish home from his fishing trip with Ty and their heads were attached. When I was a kid, I used to like to open my Grandpa Empey's freezer so I could see all the fish, frozen in milk cartoons, with their heads on. Maybe, it is hereditary. Happy Monday!

Andy and Barney

Callie's friend got pulled over last night in front of our house because she didn't signal before she parked on the street, so he thought she was drunk. It was after 11, and she had to be the only one on the street, well except for the police. They ended up giving her a ticket for not having a current insurance card. It reminded me of another story.

When we first moved here (just about 3 years ago) one of the hardest things to deal with was the 25 mile an hour speed limit. We just weren't used to it. One Saturday morning, the soccer team was having a fund raiser in conjunction with the Joe Mama's Car Show here it town. They sent Wes to get ice. You should know that the Jerome police department gives out as many tickets on that weekend as the do the rest of year.

So Wes went to get ice and then got back in his car and drove a block or two and got pulled over. The officer had been following him and found it highly suspicious that he had gone in the gas station and come out so quickly. ????? Wes told him he was buying ice and needed to get it back. Highly suspicious! Well, the car had expired plates, so he got a ticket.

So if you come for a visit, don't think for a minute that driving the speed limit is enough. With Andy and Barney in the patrol car, looking highly suspicious or not signaling is enough to get you pulled over.

Here we are flooding the back yard This is not our horse, but it lives behind us

Community flood gate.

Mondays are our irrigation day. The way this works is that we pay for the privilege of using irrigation water, whether we use it or not. We also pay for water at the house too. The first summer we lived here, we used the sprinkler system. Whoever put it in, did not plan on watering the entire lawn. After a year of fixing it every other day, we tried a hose and sprinklers. That worked well, but since we were still paying for irrigation, we thought we would take a shot at it this year. Wes hooks up the hose, then goes to the community water gate and turns it to stop the water, and then it comes up the hose and we flood the yard.

Family Reunions

We went to the Richards Family Reunion yesterday. This is a picture of the 5 remaining siblings (2 have passed on). I am well aware that I should not share everything that I think, but work with me here. The first time I meet Glenda (in pink) I immediately named her 'Glenda the Good Witch'. I have never meet a person as nice, kind and loving as she is. Because she is 'Glenda the Good Witch', I have just referred to the sisters as the 'witches'. Good ones, bad ones, wicked ones; I will never tell, but thank heavens for Grandma and Grandpa Richards and the legacy they have left the world.

The End of the World?

I found a recipe for rhubarb jam that I really wanted to try. Unfortunately it was cooked jam and I had to look like I was canning. I have often said that you will know when things are really bad, because I will start canning. No worries, I just made jam! And it is good, I may do it again next year.

summer walking

Had a great walk this morning and realized I hadn't shared pictures in awhile.

Oakland beats Detroit

We cleaned up camp and headed up the highway to Oakland. I was surprised to note that Keith, Wes and Rich had on their A's attire. Callie, Courtney and I took a walk and ran into the elephant, who was kind enough to let us take his picture. It was a good game: the sun was out, the A's won and the hot dogs were $1.

Manresa State Park

I am always looking for unharmed sand dollars. When they are still in the sand, pre-seagull, they are kind of brown. Callie found one in the first 10 minutes. Keith and Courntey found 8, but they were up to their waists in the waves.

I make a pretty mean sand castle. The kids only dig huge holes.

Manresa State Park is south of Santa Cruz, near Watsonville. We always enjoy going there. We did not see dolphins or whales this year, but we have seen them in the past.
I love the way these flowers grow into the tree.

Please notice that Rich has his cast out of the sand. There was only a little bit of sand in it when they took it off. I was surprised.

I may have invented the 'staycation' many years ago. We used to pack up the kids and go to the beach for a few days every summer. We had a good collection of boogie boards, but did not move them. The kids still look forward to packing up and going to the coast. Unfortunately, it is now 700 miles away, not to mention that Governor Arnold wants to shut down all the parks we have ever visited.

As I watched the kids boogie board, I realized that I miss the days when they were little and would dance with the waves and yell at the ocean. It's okay though, I have 100's of pictures of them doing just that.

Now they dress in black (thanks Uncle Pete) and ride the waves for hours at a time. They have a great time, but it isn't as fun to watch.

Cast Away

I took Rich to get his cast off today and they did take it off. Unfortunately, they put on another one. One of his breaks had healed completely, but the other one had actually got worse. If it isn't healing in two weeks they are going to have to do surgery. Please send him your good thoughts and prayers.

California

The sign says, 'Welcome to California.' We were is stop and go traffic. Rich asked how long we would be in this mess and I told him about 7 days. We really only had one other traffic problem, also caused by construction. We had a good trip and are home now. I will post more pictures later.