Snow Day in Texas

I know to all my family in Idaho, Utah and Pennsylvania, this is no big deal, but it isn't something that happens here very often.  Under the snow is a layer of ice, so Austin pretty much grinds to a halt.  The boys are having a lot of fun in the snow.  Jeremy's friends are all home from school, so they have been playing in the snow.  He plays for a while until his hands are numb, then comes in for a little while, then goes back out again.  Rachael isn't interested in going out at all.  I'm getting ready to start sewing some more.  That's how I plan on spending my snow day.

I finished the quilt for VIR 2 days ago and turned it into Stacie last night.  I took a good photo of it before I turned it in.  I wish I would have taken better photos of my bags before I turned them in.  I took those photos with my iPhone, so they are kinda blurry.

The theme of this quilt is "When Life Hands You Lemons...".  This quilt will be auctioned at the VIR silent auction and dance show that will take place on March 5th at Tapestry.  This was the most challenging quilt I have ever made.  It was also the biggest I've done so far. I'm pretty proud of it.  I didn't think it was going to turn out for a while there as I struggled to make some of the stars.  I tried a short cut I learned on You-Tube and it fails to mention that you have to add extra for seam allowance and I'm new enough at quilting that I didn't think of that myself.  Lesson learned though and I won't make that mistake again.  I'll post pictures of my bags soon.  If your my friend on FB, you can see the photos of my bags on there until I get to post them here.

Long time, no post

I haven't written anything on my blog for a very long time. It's been like 9 months. There has been a lot going on. I'm not going to get into it all, but I will summarize the last 9 months as quickly as possible.

Most of the year has gone by pretty uneventful. We have just been going about our daily life. During the summer, we had girl's camp, youth conference, cub scout day camp and boy scout camp. Youth conference was a pioneer trek, including authentic pioneer attire. They had to trek in the Texas heat in the middle of June. It was a good experience for them.

After all the camps were over, July brought be a mild MS flare. I lost the sensation and a lot of movement to my left hand. I had gone 25 months without a flare. I did my steroid treatment and I got all the function back in my left hand. I had the normal side effects of the steroids-high blood pressure, diabetes, thrush, and just general yuck.

August was a hard month, especially for Rachael. Her boyfriend of over a year left for his mission. He entered the MTC on August 20th. He spend almost every waking minute before that over at our house. The week he left was also the week Rachael started back at school and in dance. She was an emotional mess for the first week. He has been gone for 5 months now and she still has a hard time sometimes. I think what is hardest for her is that he is having a hard time, especially with being home sick. She has gotten to talk to him twice since he left. She talked to him when he left for Norway from the MTC and she got to Skype with him on Christmas too. He is also struggling with his testimony right now and wondering if his mission is really worth it, which is really hard on her. I think it would be better if she could just talk to him rather than relying on the written word. She might be able to talk him through this much better if they could actually talk.

In October, my mom and step dad visited. It was a pretty good visit. I kinda freaked out before the visit and cleaned fanatically. She didn't even criticize my house. It was nice to have it cleaned though. I took advantage of the bunch of energy I had and the motivation for cleaning to purge my house of all the clutter. The holiday season brought more clutter, but it is still better than it was.

The holiday season also brought me another flare. This one was really bad. I lost almost all the function in my right leg. I had to go back to walking with a cane. At first, I couldn't walk very well at all. I did steroids again, although this time they didn't work quite as well. I got the feeling back in my leg and some of the strength, but my entire foot is now paralyzed. We had to install a left food accelerator in our van so I could drive. It's a little bit of a pain because now I can drive any of our other vehicles, but I'm at least grateful that I can drive.

Rachael did really well with school in the fall semester. She got A's in both of her classes. She took environmental science and government. This semester,, she is taking Texas government and english. She will officially graduate from high school in May, although she has been taking only college classes for the past 2 years. She will do one more semester at ACC to finish out her basics, then transfer to Texas state. She wants to save as much as possible so she isn't in a lot of debt when she graduates.

The boys are doing well. They are both still in scouts. Jeremy is a Bear in cub scouts. Andrew is in boy scouts and is a 2nd class. We are working on lots of merit badges with Andrew and lots of various cub scout things with Jeremy. Andrew was able to graduate from OT right before Christmas. He was really excited about that. He has come a long ways. His sensory issues are much better and his handwriting is a lot better too. We still need to practice with him so that it flows better and quicker, but it is so much better than when we started.

Andrew is still enjoying his cooking classes. He goes back and forth about being a chef. He has plenty of time to make up his mind though. He likes his classes, but doesn't want to just experiment in the kitchen. He does like baking more than cooking. Jeremy really wants to start Ti-kwon-do. He will probably get to start during the summer. We wanted to start in the fall, but we just couldn't afford it.

Stan and I both have new hobbies. Stan got interested in doing wood working puzzles in November. He made some for all of our nieces and nephews. They turned out really well. He has more he wants to make. He got a lot of new wood working tools with his bonus. He may even look into selling them when he feels he is good enough. I've started quilting and making bags. The bags started off as just a way to have a messenger bag that was the right size and wasn't stiff and ugly like a lot of them on the market. I made one for Margie for Christmas as a practice and found that I LOVED making bags. I bought a quilting book while my mom was here. We found a bunch of quilting squares that Rachael and Beth started 10 years ago. I finished up that quilt top and put it together. Next, I made a roller derby quilt for Jessica for Christmas. It's a lot of fun. It's not as fast as bag making, but I still like it. I'm working on one for the VIR auction now. I have the top together and it is sandwiched with the batting and the backing. I still need to quilt it. I'm waiting on a part to my walking foot to help keep my lines evenly spaced. I see a lot of flaws with my quilts, but most people love them. I made one for someone at church this past week. It was my favorite one so far. We are even starting a quilting group at church.

Christmas was really good for us. The kids got spoiled as usual. It was fun to spend time with family and friends. We cut back a lot on the extras of the holidays because of my flare. It was ok though. I think it was one of our best Christmases ever.

I'm going to be opening a store on Etsy soon. I have to get my bag stock up so that I have things to sell first. I made my first sell bag on Saturday. I have a bag I have to make for my mom, then I can start making more store bags. I think I'm going to make baby slings, car seat tents, maybe a few quilts and lots of bags. I have a few quick and inexpensive bags I can make and some more complex bags, like diaper bags I'm going to make. There are lots of pictures of my bags on my Facebook page. I need to download them off my phone so I can put them in my blog.

I will try to blog more often. I know a lot of my family use this blog to keep up with me. I'm sorry I let you down.

Creekhaven Inn

Stan and I got a rare treat recently. We went to Wimberly and spent 2 days and nights at a bed and breakfast called Creekhaven Inn. It was a wonderful trip. My friend Lynn took care of the boys for us while we were gone. Rachael was home alone on her own. The room was beautiful, the bed comfortable and the surrounding area was lovely. The top picture is of the creek that ran in front of the B&B.

Here are some pictures of Stan and I that we took using the tripod.

Here is our room. It had a huge garden tub as you can see that look out onto the creek.

This is a tree that was in front on the B&B. It is a 1,000 year old cypress tree.

We want to try to go every year. We thought we might try other B&B in the area, but we loved this place so much that they will probably get our business each year. We really needed this break. While the boys were with Lynn, she took them geocaching. We are hooked now. We have found 9 geocaches so far. Every time we go some place, so see if there is a geocache in the area. If you don't know what geocaching is, go to www.geocaching.com . Be careful though, you might good hooked too.

Pictures from Spring Break

Spring Break

We had a marvelous time during spring break this year. We didn't go anywhere like we did last year, but we still had fun. I took lots of pictures, but I am going to have to upload those onto the blog later. For some reason, my computer isn't showing me any pictures. I've tried to upload 2 on here and they just aren't showing up. I don't know what is wrong. It could be Mozilla, or Blogger. I don't know. I'll tell you about spring break and you can see the pictures later.

The first day was kinda boring. We had some errands to run, so we did that. Andrew mowed the lawn and I worked with Rachael on learning to drive a standard. It wasn't very successful. She stalled a lot and was kinda freaked out.

On Tuesday, it rained all day. We stayed inside and watched movies and just hung out. The rain slowed down in the afternoon so I took Rachael to drive more. She did a lot better this second day. Unfortunately, we didn't get any more practice in that week, so she still needs to work on it more. Part of why we didn't get to practice is because we discovered her license was expired. It had expired back in October. I thought they were good for a year from the time you get it, but it was only 6 months. OOPS!!! She has been driving with an expired license for 5 months. Stan was able to take her in and get it renewed on Thursday, so that is taken care of now. It is good until her 18th birthday, then it will be good for a few years.

By Wednesday, the rain was gone and the sun was shining. It was beautiful. We went to Zilker Botanical Gardens. We spent about 3 hours just walking around. I look just over 100 pictures. Some of them turned out sooooo good. I can't wait to post them on here once my computer lets me. The Hess's went with us. It was a lot of fun and everything was so pretty. It will be even better in a few weeks when all the flowers are actually blooming. Everything was green, but there wasn't very many flowers out.

On Thursday, we went to the Nature Center. They have a bunch of animals there, like a mini zoo. Most of the animals were wild animals that had been kept as pets, or injured animals. They can no longer live in the wild either because of their injuries or their lack of ability to take care of themselves because of living with people. We got some good hiking in. There is a little stream that connects 2 small ponds at the nature center. The kids all took their shoes off and went wading through the water. Andrew and Jeremy ended up being soaking wet. Rachael also managed to lock her keys in the car there. It's a good thing we got a copy of her key for me or her dad would have had to come down to open the car. Andy and Rachael then went to help Ammon with his Eagle project. They had to work really hard cleaning up a bunch of tires that were buried under a play area. They fixed some benches too. They came home exhausted.

On Friday, we went roller skating. There is a new roller rink open in Manchaca. I hadn't been roller skating in years. I was surprised how much my legs hurt while I was skating. We skated for about a hour. It was good exercise. I didn't take any photos of skating because the rink was pretty dark. I didn't think they would turn out between the lack of light and the movement of the subjects. Jeremy didn't quite get the hang of skating though. He couldn't seem to move his feet properly. Andrew didn't want to go at first, but he was the one that didn't want to leave. He is also the one that has asked many times when we are going back. Jeremy has to skate for 3 hours before he can get his roller skating belt loop anyway. This means we will probably go at least 2 more times over the next few months. After we got done skating, we went to this little frozen custard place called Licketty's. It was yummy. The Davis's were suppose to meet us at the rink, but they got held up at the allergist office, so we went over there to hang out for a little while.

Saturday turned out to be very cold and wet. We had planned to go out shooting at Cannaday's ranch Saturday morning. We decided not to wimp out, but I wish we would have. It was really windy and the temperature was only 36 degrees. The low for the day was suppose to be 45. Boy were they wrong. It was so hard to believe it was so nice the entire week then it was like the middle of winter again. I shot Stan's new .22 hand gun about 8 times then I went back to the car to warm up. Jeremy came with us, but he never shot any of the guns. It was just too cold for his skinny little body. He stayed in the car the entire time. Now, we need to go out again when the weather is nice so we can do some real shooting and not be rushed to avoid freezing.

I'll try to post pictures tomorrow and hope it works. I also need to download my camera and post about the mini vacation Stan and I took in Wimberly at a bed and breakfast. Stay tuned!

Happy Valentines day

Stan and I aren't really big on celebrating Valentines day, but it is a good excuse for us to go out on a date. We really don't go on dates as often as we should. Life gets busy with 3 kids and just life in general. Yesterday, we went out to Joe's Crab Shack. It was super yummy. We had lots of crab, including some yummy crab nachos. Tomorrow, Stan doesn't have to work, so we are going to take the kids to see Percy Jackson-The Lightning Thief. I'm really looking forward to it. Stan, Andrew and I have read the book. Andrew loved the book. I'm sad that there are only 5 books in the series. It is the first series that he will actually read just for fun. He is on the 4th book, so I need to find a new series that he loves just as much.

I got a new calling today. I was called as ward historian for our ward. I'm really looking forward to it. It's right up my alley. I've been helping out the former ward historian for the past 2 years and she keeps telling me that I am going to take her place every time I create a layout for her. I guess she was right. I was asked about the calling 2 weeks ago, but not officially called until today. I already have 4 events I need to create layout for. I finished up the last of the layouts for 2009, and I'll start the 2010 layouts this week in between doing my ADSR layouts. For those of you not familiar with ADSR, it stands for Amazing Digiscrapping Race. Think of The Amazing Race TV show with scrapbooking. It is a 6 week race, with 2 scrapbooking challenges each week. The challenges really take my scrapbooking to the next level most of the time. They get me out of my comfort zone and help to make me a better scrapper. Plus, you get a different prize for each challenge you complete and are entered in the drawing for the big grand prize at the end of the race. I don't ever count on winning the big grand prize (which is usually a huge pot of scrapbooking kits) but the weekly prizes are so worth it. A lot of the sites create huge collaborative kits for the prizes, or let racers chose from a selection of monthly collaborative kits. It's a great way to restock my scrapbooking supplies.

My diet is going pretty good right now. I'm still doing the Primal Blueprint. I've lost a little over 6 pounds in 6 weeks, which is more weight than I have lost in the previous year, so I'm glad for that. I'm hoping this week will bring me to the 60 pound mark since starting Weight Watchers. Even though I am following the PB plan, I am still doing WW also. I count points each day but I just don't eat any grains. Since my highest weight, I have lost a total of 67 pounds, but 59 pounds since starting WW. I feel pretty good right now. I just can't wait for my hip to heal so I can do exercises besides working out in the pool. I have bursitis in my hip, which constantly aggravates my chronic low back pain, so either my hip or my back seems to hurt all the time. As a result, I'm only allowed to work out in the pool. Oh well, this too shall pass.

Birthday and baptism

January has been a busy month for Jeremy. On the 7th, my "baby" turned 8 years old. He woke me up at 8am so he could open his presents before dad went to work. He got a Lego set and a Bumble Bee cannon blaster. He was super excited about both of them. I think I am crazy for getting the cannon blaster. That thing makes a lot of noise, and loud noise too.We celebrated his birthday on Saturday, the 9th, by going to Wazoos with his cousins. Wazoos is a big inflatable fun park that is close by our house. It's all indoors, so I don't ever have to worry about the weather. It's fairly new, so it usually isn't super crowded. It's co-owned by someone in our ward, so the youth are going to go there for a mutual activity this week.

On the 16th, Jeremy got baptized. Stan baptized and confirmed him. My dad and uncle Herb were here from Idaho for a visit, so they got to be at the baptism. My uncle Herb was able to stand in the confirmation circle. We had a good visit with them while they were here. It was pretty laid back, but that is the way I like it.

Here is our family after the baptism. I didn't realize we were standing where the powerline created a shadow right across our heads. I'm going to have to see if I can get rid of that in photoshop.
These are the men who stood in the confirmation circle to confirm Jeremy. From left to right, Brother Yu (he is the ward mission leader), Bryon Hess, Stan Hodge, Richard Hodge, Andrew Tarver, Herb Hess, Matt Thompson, then Jeremy right there in front. Again, stupid powerlines.