Run, don't walk.

If you haven't already, go out and buy Susan Boyle's CD. It's beautiful.
Hope everyone had a great T-Day. We did! We were in Spring, TX at Alan's brother and his wife's house. Don and Lanette are always so laid back and so much fun! Thank you for all your hospitality. We were going to host his family here at the orchard, but my sister Susan fell and broke her femur bone and had to have surgery. She was in Spring so we moved the function there. She's better now and out of the hospital.
I hope to have some pics up soon.
til then. from sea to shining sea......
mimi

why hasn't someone told me about this before?

Where have I been? I just read about this on one of my quilting blogs. http://www.kuler.adobe.com/
 In the right margin on the home page is the "welcome" to Kuler, and a link to a demo video. This will change quilting as I know it. I've never been very good with fabric colors, what fabric for dark, light and in between mediums when I'm dreaming up a quilt. Now I can go to Kuler, find a picture I want to be represented in a quilt, (which I often do when I'm traveling, like golden birch tree leaves against a clear blue sky or a just baled hay pasture against one that isn't baled--patchwork looking landscape, or an ocean wave) and click the "mood" of that picture, and presto, I have all the colors displayed in the blink of an eye. I can move the little dots to any place on the picture if I like that color better. This program is amazing. And it's free!!!! This program can be used for deciding on paint colors for rooms in a house. For deciding on paint colors for painted furniture. What theme do you want for your baby's room? Go to Kuler and find a photo of what you want and move the dots and presto, you have the colors right there! Maye it's too bright? Click on muted, or maybe you want it deeper? Click on that. You can download it to your desktop, or another program I don't have. I have to learn more about this Kuler. That's where I'll be whenever I have a chance, I'll be playing in Kuler for sure.
Let me know what you think and how you can use it. I haven't registered on Kuler yet, but I'll be a registered user before the day is done, that's a fact jack.
mimi

Sadie and Tessa with Grammy and Pappy

I bought Sadie 3 plastic tubs and a bag of potting soil. Gave the girl a pitcher of water and all her bowls, spoons, scoops. She mixed, stirred, patted, and poured for 2 hours. You'll notice 2 or 3 pony tails and 2 bows. Grammy doesn't do so good with hair.

Today for lunch we went to Pappy's barn. I forgot a stroller so Alan and I carried Tessa to the garden in her high chair. She loved it.

Sadie showed me what she wanted to wear today. She picked out the summer strappy t-shirt. I told her she had to wear a shirt under the strappy T-shirt. She picked out the lime green t-shirt and the aqua shorts to go with it. I tried to persuade her to wear blue jean shorts but she said no, she wanted the blue (aqua) shorts.

So that's what my last 2 days have been like. Lots of giggles when Sadie flung mud on her face, giggles when Tessa plays patty-cake, great nap times for both girls, and lovin' on both girls!!!!!

til next time,
from sea to shining sea

way back when....

We were in Chicago. I still needed to post our time in Chicagoland, so here it is ....finally! This post might be jumbled, because lately blogspot won't let me attach pictures where I want them. They all go at the top and in the order I attach them. The last post I had to attach all pictures from the end of our trip to the beginning so they would attach in the correct order. Well, this time I'm not going to do that. However they attach is how you will see them. We arrived in Chicago, I should say the far outskirts of Chicago since there aren't any RV parks IN Chicago, and Byron and Heather said they would drive out to see us the first night. After they arrived at our RV park, we found out while they were driving there that Heather asked Byron if they were still in Illinois! Yes we had to camp that far out from them.

They live very close to downtown, I think the drive was 45 minutes without traffic to our RV park. I'm determined to find something closer to them. We had a great time with them. Their home is so cute.

It's a row house, well I call it a row house. They have the downstairs apartment and their landlord has the upstairs apartment. I'm posting a picture of all the backyards. The first backyard is their neighbor's!

The picture with the small flower bed with roses is their yard. It's just large enough for that one flower bed and the BBQ pit. We visited with them 3 nights then it was time to say goodbye. It's so much fun going to Chicago and seeing Byron and Heather. I wish we could have stayed longer--maybe next time if I find a closer RV park. Oh yeah, byron took us on a tour of his work place, Serious Solutions.

 He makes green windows for homes and commercial buildings--I'm pretty sure I have that right. It's a new way to make more efficient windows and be "green" in the process. The factory is huge, it's a new product and exciting for the industry. The picture below is Alan and me Skyping with Sadie---thanks Byron for setting us up on Skype!

As far as being home, Alan helped me make a Square Foot Garden. I'm hoping to take pictures and post my fall garden soon

till then.... from sea to shining sea...

mimi

our time in Layton

We arrived in Layton, UT and the next day we saw Bob and Marce! What fun they are. They fed us and then took us to Antelope Island, one of many islands in the Great Salt Lake. Look at this reflection of the mountain in the lake.



Here's Bob and Alan.

Here's another photo of the reflection of the mountain---I can't delete it so you get to look at it again! Actually this time I was higher when I took the picture and it's a better view.

Here's a picture of Bob and Marce on Antelope Island. They have on the same color T-shirts--they're Twinkies!

Bob and Marce love yard work. And their yard is beautiful.

I took a picture of the pumpkins they are growing but the photo disappeared.

Marce and Bob made Twice Grilled Burritos.

They eat almost all their meals outside and it's just delightful.

Marce taught me how to use a FoodSaver and cook lots of food and then freeze it. Plus how to organize my refrigerator! Yeah Marce. She would be great in an Infomercial! Or a cooking show.

Thank you Bob for grilling all my chicken and checking the temperature of each piece!

We left Bob and Marce early Sunday morning, heading east for Chicago. We didn't want to leave because we had so much fun with them. We'd never been to Utah before and they are our new friends. They're the ones we were parked next to in Missoula and I decided to go to their RV and knock on their door and invited them out to eat with us! We get along great and enjoy each other's company.I can't wait to get together with them again!!!!! We love you Bob and Marce!!Thank you for being so warm and welcoming to us and treating us like a king and queen! You are so special to us.

We are now in Chicago. It's Tuesday afternoon and we're waiting for Byron and Heather to drive to our RV park when they get off work.

So until next time.

from sea to shining sea........mimi

last week in a nutshell

Last week went by fast. On Saturday we were in Spokane, WA with Heidi. We drove to several apple farms and pumpkin farms, ate pumpkin doughnuts, and had a great day.

On Sunday we drove Heidi to the airport to fly home and we headed out for Jackson, Wy. We drove through Yellowstone and the Tetons. Below is a photo of current forest fires we saw while driving.

On Monday we made it to Jackson, Wy at sunset. The Tetons in the evening were beautiful.

We arrived in Jackson very late but were hungry and too tired to cook. It was our anniversary so we walked downtown to look for somewhere to eat out. I guess we were so tired cuz nothing sounded good. We ended up eating at a hamburger at Billy's Burger. On Tuesday we drove to Pinedale to visit the Mountain Men Museum and see where the Green River Rendezvous was. The town is small but there's so much history in that area.

The mountain men had to cross the Winds (a mountain range) before they came to this valley where the suppliers would meet them (their rendezvous). Below is that mountain range.

Here's a photo of autumn in Wyoming. It's so beautiful with all the yellows, oranges, reds against the mountains.

Then on Wednesday in Jackson we had snow. SNOW!!!!! We decided to head out on Thursday for Salt Lake City area (actually Layton, UT) where our friends live.

The scenery on the way was so pretty. Snow everywhere. We finally arrived in Utah and the mountains there are gorgeous.

So on Thursday night we arrived in Layton, UT and called our friends Bob and Marce P to get together the next day.

So until then....

mimi

Spokane with Heidi

My pictures are backwards. We visited a winery towards the end of the day. It was at an historical site on a hill overlooking Spokane and the Spokane River.
This is the original home built in 1924. There are lots of rock structures attached to the house and on the grounds. The flowers were beautiful.

Here's another view from on top of the hill at the winery.

The gatekeeper's house.

Where the wine tasting takes place.

Riverfront Park where the World's Expo was held in 1974.

Flowers at the park.

Alan and Heidi on their big red wagon at Riverfront Park.

There was a carousel at Riverfront Park. This horse was hand made by the original carver, Looff. It is inlaid with gemstones.

Heidi is riding one of the 6 armored horses hand carved by Looff. There was a ring game where the rider can lean out a grab a ring then toss them into the clown as they go around. I tried taking pictures of Heidi leaning out and grabbing the ring but my camera wouldn't click that fast. When the ring makes it into the clown a bell rings. She made the bell ring! Go Heidi.

Alan and Heidi at the water park at Riverfront Park.

Alan and Heidi walking downtown when we were shopping.

So this post is of our first day in Spokane. This morning we're all tired from all the walking we did yesterday. Oh yeah, I DID get to visit one quilt shop while Heidi and Alan stayed in the car. What a find--Fat Quarters Thursday--$1/fat quarter!!!!! Plus we also found a butcher shop that had all kinds of spices, smokers, books, knives, butcher equipment. We picked up lots of brochures and bought several BBQ rubs. Yum.

So hope you enjoyed our visit to Spokane downtown.

'til next time....

from sea to shining sea......

mimi