Johnsons' Journey

The boys had their final swimming lesson last Thursday. Their instructor, Alaina, put them through everything they have learned over the last four weeks… A sort of swimming test, I guess. *lol* … Anyway, they both did wonderfully, and they received a certificate saying that they passed the level two course, and are ready for level three… We hadn’t planned on doing the level three, but now the boys are wanting to do it. BUT, the girls get to have their lessons first… But with Joe’s crazy summer schedule, they will probably have to wait until this fall.

We still plan on taking them to the Thursday afternoon Family Swim time at the pool though, until they change the schedule in June and we won’t be able to do that again until next April. (They are going to be so bummed when that happens!)

I ordered myself my Mother’s Day present. … Joe never knows what to get me. (To be honest, he’s never been one to put an effort into surprises for me.) So anyway, he always asks me what I want, and then gets what I ask for. *rofl* … This year I wasn’t sure at first, until…

We have these nice Coleman camp chairs in our trailer, that look almost exactly like this one (only ours don’t have that bag thing hanging off the arm). It’s a nice, sturdy chair, and the table is awesome. It also sits high enough that it’s easy to get in and out of… The only problem is that there is no support for the lower back, so after a while my lower back starts to ache. It’s really annoying… But the chair cost $20 (on sale), so I don’t want to get a new chair… Plus, I really like that table. … So most of last summer, I would bring my pillow out, and use that to support my back, but that was a little annoying too. *lol*

And then I saw this chair cushion in a catalog a week or so ago… Doesn’t it look comfy? I thought it would be perfect for my chair!! It has strings on the back, so that it can be tied into place… I’m hoping that it will be enough to help my back.

Now the hard part will be to keep Joe and the kids off my chair, so I can sit in it myself! *rofl*

I ordered it last Thursday, and I am hoping that it gets here before our camping trip to Beverly Beach (which is 2 1/2 weeks away).

We didn’t do too much over the weekend… Joe had the day off work for a change, so we all slept in and had a lazy morning. When we finally got out of bed, we did a quick pickup of the house, and then I made some breakfast.

We did take the kids bowling though… Since they are on the summer junior league, they get to bowl anytime they want for 50 cents a game. Not a bad deal. … So we met Scott and Jacob and the bowling alley at 1 o’clock (Debbie and Jamie were off getting their hair cut). They bowled 3 games each, and then we left… Joe did bowl his best game ever though, and got a 165. Josh wasn’t impressed because Joe beat Josh’s high game of 158, but Jared is still in the lead with his 180. *lol*

After we left the bowling alley, we went to Pizza Hut for dinner, and then went shopping at Walmart. When we got home, we just bummed for the rest of the evening.

Joe wasn’t feeling well on Sunday morning, after he got off work at Safeway, so we ended up not going to church… We had originally planned on going to Joe’s parents’ house after church, and Joe’s sister, DeeDee, was going to come over there to cut my hair… I wanted it done before this coming weekend, since our niece, Leann, is getting married… But, since Joe wasn’t feeling well, we didn’t do that either.

He was feeling better by the evening though, so we made it to the bowling alley for the kids’ league… Jared and Jamie had decided to go with Andrea’s suggestion of “The Leftovers” for their team name, but Coach Mick had already assigned them with one… “Left Stuff” (as opposed to “The Right Stuff”) … They don’t really like that name though, and are going to ask Mick if they can change it to their name.

Some group had been in before the league, and had a birthday party… They ended up leaving half a cake, some balloons… Not to mention a huge mess. … So this guy who works there (I don’t know his name) let everyone have a piece of the cake (I was good though, and didn’t have one ), and he gave Alicia and Amanda each a balloon. They were quite pleased about that.

Sorry I haven’t been blog hopping like I should be… I’ve been busy working on Kyle and Leann’s wedding book that I am making. I want to get as much pre-done, before their wedding, as I can. I know that what with the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner on Friday, and then the wedding on Saturday, I will be bombarded with photos… I am going to be in a scrapping-craze come next week… So if I am absent, you know where I will be… Lost in Photoshop Elements. *lol*

Right now I have all the pages set as private in my gallery, so that Leann won’t stumble across them (since sometimes I post links to my gallery on facebook, and she is on facebook)… But I have created a “guest pass”, in case you’re interested in the pages I have done so far. You can check them out here…

Oh, I almost forgot… We got the kids CAT results back already. They did pretty good, though not quite as good as last year. *sigh* … I hope we can bring the grades back up into the 90s next year.

Anyway, Alicia, who just finished 2nd grade, scored an 83% and is testing in the 4.3 grade level… Josh, who just finished 4th grade, scored a 90% and is testing in the 7.4 grade level… Jared, who just finished 6th grade, scored an 85% and is testing in the 10.9 grade level.

At least they all passed. *lol*

Well, I suppose I’ve rambled on long enough… Hope you all have a great day! See ya on the flip side!

So, let’s play catch-up, shall we?

It’s been so insanely busy around here, that I haven’t had time to get online much during the day…  By the time evening comes, all I want to do is kick back with a blanket and a movie. *lol* I’m just so tired! It’s always exhausting when Joe is on vacation. (When does he go back to work?!?!?! *lol*)

So, let’s see… What have we been up to? … Last Friday was our cosmic bowling night. We meet up with Joe’s sister and her family every other Friday for Cosmic Bowl, so that’s what we did. We always eat dinner there, and then bowl from 4 to 6. It’s fun … This week just Joe and the boys bowled. Some times the girls decide to bowl, but I guess they weren’t in the mood. So instead they just sat at one of the tables and drew pictures and colored. That always keeps them happy.

On Saturday, the boys had their bowling league. (They only have 2 more league days left before the end of the fall/winter league.) The boys bowled pretty well. Nothing spectacular, but they held their own. Their team won all 3 games though… So far the boys team, “The Cougars” have won the most games. They are leading by 3 games. They’ve won 43 games so far, while the team in 2nd place has won 40 so far.

After bowling was over we headed to Oregon City, where we went to KFC/A&W for lunch. Then we went to Exodus Books, where we got some school books for next year… We bought everything we need for Alicia and Amanda, and almost everything for Josh… I totally forgot about Josh’s science workbook, so we still need to get that, and then we’ll be done with his stuff.

Now will come the expensive stuff… Getting Jared’s school books, since we will need to buy all the teacher books too… I am still waiting for the new catalog from BJU Press though, so I know what to look for on eBay. *lol*

We spend the rest of Saturday at Joe’s niece’s house… Her Dad, Gene, turned 50 yesterday, and they had a birthday party for him at their house. They also included Jamie and Jacob, who turn 14 tomorrow.

Dorothy (Joe’s sister, and Gene’s wife) had one of Leann’s friends dress up like a bum and she came to the house to do one of those singing telegram things. She did the bum thing because she was pretending to pick up pop cans… Since Gene works with Joe at OBRC, and they do that. *lol* (Joe’s even had a bum steal a bag of cans off his truck before. *lol*)

On Sunday we wanted to get up extra early, to get an early start on our beach trip… The time change screwed that up! *lol* … We ended up not leaving the house until around 10-ish… Oops! *lol*

The first thing we did was to drive into Woodburn, where we had breakfast at McDonald’s. The girls were thrilled because that McDonald’s has a playground (the one in Molalla doesn’t), so we let them play for a little while, and then we headed to Salem.

Since we are doing the Flat Stanley thing, I thought it would be cool to take some pictures of the capital building in Salem… Funny thing is, we’ve never been there before, and it takes a Flat Stanley project to get us there! … Though I have seen the building from the highway before…

Anyway, I was surprised and how great the place was. Turns out that there is a state park right across the street (State Capital State Park), and it’s really pretty. It has all these trees that were in full bloom, and tons of daffodils, and an interesting (yet cool) fountain. It was really pretty. We got there at around noon and we ended up staying for around a hald an hour… I had planned on quickly taking a couple pictures and leaving. *lol*

After leaving the capital, we were off to Lincoln City… We left Salem at around 12:30, and made it to the motel at around 2:45-ish (after stopping by a couple stores, looking for floaties for the pool)… We did have one minor mishap though, when Amanda got carsick… Thankfully, it was just the one time and she was fine after that.

The motel is great! Joe and I have stayed there a few times before, when we were first married, but it’s been years. The kids, on the other hand, have never stayed the night at a motel at the beach before, and they were over the moon happy. We stayed at the D Sands in a “family suite”. It has a small kitchen with a double “wall bed” in the living room (that Joe and I used), and a second bedroom with 2 full sized beds in it, that the kids slept in.

There was also a balcony off the room, with an ocean view. Oh, and an indoor heated pool and hot-tub, which was the icing on the cake!

As soon as we were settled into the motel room (room 209), we grabbed our chairs (for Joe and me) and the beach toys (for the kids *lol*) and walked down to the beach to let the kids play… The kids spent most of the time burying Josh in the sand. *lol* They all, including Josh, thought that was lots of fun. … They played by the water some, and Jared and Joe ran a race down the beach and back… I mainly sat there taking pictures, and trying not to freeze. *lol* I had on 2 jackets, but I was still pretty cold!

The kids played for a little over an hour, and then they started getting hungry. We had wanted to get Pizza Hut, but it turned out that the closest one was 35 miles away… So we went with Papa Murphy’s instead, since we had a stove in the motel to cook the pizza. … So we ate that while the kids watched a movie and Joe and I played on facebook.

After we ate, it was time to go to the pool (since it would be our only chance)… The pool itself was a bit small (we’re used to the big public pool here in Molalla), but the room was warm and they said the water was nice. Joe and the kids had SUCH a good time, playing in the pool… At least for the first half hour, when they had the pool to themselves… At around 7-ish another family of 6 came in, and the kids were REALLY rowdy. I wasn’t even in the pool, and I was getting splashed. *sigh* … After a while they gave up on the pool and hung out in the hot tub for a while, before we headed back to our room.

We spent the rest of the evening, relaxing in the motel room. Josh, Alicia, and Joe took turns taking showers and the kids watched a movie, while Joe snoozed in front of the TV and I played on facebook. *lol* (LOVED the free wi-fi in the room! )

We weren’t in a rush to get going on Monday morning, as we didn’t have to check out of the room until 11 o’clock… So we slept in and then leisurely got ready for the day. For breakfast we lad leftover pizza from the day before, and Jared, Amanda, and myself took turns taking showers…

We checked out of the motel at around 10:30 and then headed down to the beach to let the kids play some more… Jared and Joe started making a sand castle, but they didn’t get very far. Mostly they spent time time playing by the water, trying to outrun the waves. *lol* … Though I must admit that it made me nervous, even though Joe was down there with them. (I stayed up by the chairs with Alicia, who was digging in the sand.) … At one point the wave came in faster than they thought, and Joe had to scoop Amanda up, as she wasn’t running fast enough. About gave me a heart attack! (the joys of being an over-protective mom. *lol*)

The weather was really nice! It was still cloudy some, but not too bad, and the wind wasn’t as bad as it usually is there (especially for March).

After letting the kids play for around an hour, we got into the Durango and headed to the Tillamook Cheese Factory… Joe and the kids were wanting to sample some more cheese, and more importantly, they wanted some Tillamook ice-cream. *lol* … I, on the other hand, thought it would be another great place for Flat Stanley to visit. *lol*

After watching them work on the cheese for a while, we headed down to get some ice cream… Joe got peppermint, the boys got Tillamook mudslide (chocolate with chocolate chips in it), Amanda got orange sherbert, while Alicia and I had caramel butter pecan. Yum! … Oh, and let me tell you… Their waffle cones are to die for! That was the BEST ICE-CREAM CONE EVER!!! (diet be darned *lol*)

Joe and I both wanted to try and see the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse, and I wanted to show the kids Haystack Rock, so we took off for Cannon Beach. When we got there we parked at Tolovana Beach (near Mo’s) and walked about a mile down the beach, trying to get close to Haystack Rock… Seems like no matter how much we walked, it never seemed to get much closer. *rofl* I did get some nice shots though (but if it hadn’t been a bit foggy, they would have turned out better. *lol*)… We did get to (sort of) sea the lighthouse… It’s on a big rock, about a mile off the beach, so you can’t get close. In the fog, it was hard to make out… Also, I found out later that it’s easier to see it from Ecola State Park… I want to try to get there next summer, to see if we can see it better.

After we walked back to the car, the girls wanted to play on the playground for a while, so we let them… Josh played too, but Jared doesn’t really do playgrounds anymore. (He’s getting all grown up )

By this time it was 4:30 and (other than the ice cream) we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so we drove into Seaside to see about getting some dinner… While on the way I happened to see an elk on the side of the road. Since we haven’t seen an elk “in the wild” since 1994, Joe pulled over and let us get some pictures… There was also 2 more elk back behind some bushes, but you couldn’t see them well and I couldn’t get any pictures of them.

We ate dinner at a KFC/Taco Bell and then we headed home… We had worn the kids out, and they slept most of the way home. Poor sleepy kids! *lol*

It was an awesome time, and we’re hoping to be able to go back every spring break from now on. … Or we could go another route, and go see the Atlantic ocean. We could look into Outer Banks vacation home rentals, and see what fun place we could visit there!!! I’ve always wanted to see what the Atlantic looks like. It would be strange to watch the sun rise over the ocean, instead of watching it set at night.

On Tuesday Joe and I got to work in Amanda’s room. We wanted to strip off the Tinkerbell wallpaper trim, so we could hang the new Hannah Montana border. I also wanted to rearrange the furniture and to go through all her toys ( to pull out the stuff she’s outgrown)… I ended up clearing so much out of her room, that I was able to get the play kitchen out of Alicia’s room and put it in Amanda’s room. It looks pretty cute in there! I put her Barbie house in her closet (she has a good sized walk-in closet), and all the baby doll stuff around the kitchen. Amanda is thrilled with how it turned out… Now we just need to get her some more posters for the wall… I want to take down the Disney ones, and get her more posters from Disney Channel shows… Something that will last her until she’s Jared’s age. *lol*

Now that Amanda’s is done, Alicia is getting anxious for us to do her room… But since we have to re-paint her room, it’s going to have to wait until we’re on summer vacation… Though I do want to go in there in the next couple days to go through the toys and see what we should send to the GoodWill.

The three younger kids came down with a cold or something on Tuesday morning. They’ve all (except Jared) had a fever both Tuesday and Wednesday, though Alicia is the one who’s been feeling the worst. … She says she’s feeling better now, but her eyes are really red and bloodshot, and she still looks sick. Poor princess! She even ahd to miss Kids Club last night at church, since she was still feverish then.

Today we did some housework and I worked on the laundry (still trying to play catch up on that), and then we took the kids bowling. The boys had collected a TON of free game cards, so we used some of them up today. *lol* … Since the next two league days are pretty important, we’ll probably take them back tomorrow, so that they can get some more practice.

When we got home we had planned on organizing the shed, since it’s so nice out… but… Here I sit, catching up on my blog while Joe sleeps in front of Home Improvement. *lol*

As you can see, we’re having a very busy, and very fun spring vacation!

We had a bit of a wind storm blow through last night…

When we lived in Portland, I never really paid attention to bad wind storms. Oh, I was glad we weren’t out in them, but other than that, I never paid them much mind… It’s a bit different now. The road we live on has a ton of really, really tall pine trees. In fact, we have two TALL pine trees in our yard.

Side note: When we were first looking at this property, before we bought it, there was a tree down that USED to be in this yard. It was on it’s side, all chopped up to be removed, and the neighbor’s house had a big, blue tarp covering some of it’s roof.

Sooo… You can well imagine how nervous I get when the wind is really blowing. If you look at the trees, the tops are really swaying. I have nightmares about one (or both) of them falling on the house… I do a lot of praying during wind storms. *lol* … Anyway, when the wind gets bad, I always have the kids camp out in the living room, closer to the middle of the house. (One of the trees is sort of near Josh’s room, and the other one is near the master bedroom) That way, if one of the trees fall, they just might be safer in there… It doesn’t bother the kids too much, though I know that Josh isn’t overly fond of sleeping on the floor… It’s a bit of an adventure to get to have a “slumber party” in the living room. *lol*

By the time I woke up this morning, the wind had died down, and the trees are still standing… We do have a few small branches on the ground, and one of the trees has the rest of it’s remaining leaves stripped clean. *lol*

I think I may be trying to come down with Amanda’s cold… Of course, Joe is STILL convinced that we are all coming down with the swine flu … I tell you, he is SUCH a worry wart! (It’s just a head cold, promise!) … Anyway, I was feeling a bit whoozy this morning, I had a stuffy nose, and was sneezing quite a bit… But I seem to be feeling better now, so I hope it was just a fleating thing.

Not much else going on… All I did today was wash a bunch of bedding, I finished doing the indoor Christmas decorations, and I got some more pictures posted to Flickr… Oh, and I got a couple more months of old posts from 2003 moved over here. So, I’ve been productive in an unexciting way. *lol*

Well, catch ya’ll on the flip side, but before I go I just wanted to give a quick shout out for netbooks.

Since I was bad and didn’t do any blogging/blog hopping over the weekend, I thought I would jump on here really quick before I got ready for school.

Amanda is feeling better. She’s not 100% yet, but she hasn’t had a fever since Friday, which is always a good thing.

Yesterday morning, when she first woke up, she came to me and said, “Guess what, I have a stuffy nose, a cough, and bad bless yous.” … Bless yous… Isn’t that so cute!?

Alicia and Josh seem to be coming down with it too, as they were both complaining about sore throats yesterday. You could tell by looking at Josh’s eyes that he really wasn’t feeling well, though neither of them had a fever.

Joe, being the worry-wart that he is, is convinced that the kids have the swine flu… They don’t. It’s not even a regular flu. Looks like a head cold to me… Joe is ALWAYS thinking the worst. *lol*

Read the rest of this entry »

My little Amanda is sick. … Yesterday when she woke up she was sneezing all morning… Then, during school, she started to complain of a sore throat, so I gave her some Tylenol… By the time she was finished with her lessons, she was looking pretty wiped out. She told me that she was tired and that she was going to go back to bed, and that’s just what she did. She ended up sleeping for a couple hours. Poor Pix! … By last night she was running a pretty good fever too, and had started coughing… I gave her some more meds, and then put her to sleep in our bed (so that I could keep an eye on her).

Looks like Pixie won’t be doing school today… It’s a sick day. (She’s still sound asleep.)

The kids and I seem to be playing “catch” with this darn cold… First they got it, but when they started feeling better, I got it… Then when I started feeling better, they got it again. Now they are feeling better, and I have it again… Let’s hope it ends here, and they don’t get it again!

I’m not feeling too awful, but for some reason I am really dizzy. I’m not on any meds at the time, so it can’t be that. It’s not painful, but it sure is annoying! *lol*

On Saturday we went out to see Joe’s parents, so we could give Jim a Father’s Day gift… Joe went to the elk farm and bought Jim a summer sausage made from elk meat (ick). Jim has been wanting to get one, and we never usually know what to get him… But MAN, it was expensive! It was only 6-7 inches long, and it cost $20!!!! That’s just INSANE. We won’t be buying Jim anymore elk summer sausage!

After spending 2-3 hours at Jim and Elvina’s, just chatting and showing them our vacation pictures, we went to the church on 10 o’clock hill… Joe’s sister, DeeDee, had shown up at Jim and Elvina’s too, so all 9 of us went… The church was having a fund-raising dinner and silent auction to raise money for the church, and Jim wanted to treat us all to dinner… It was a ham dinner with scallopped potatoes, with strawberry shortcake for dessert. (Not that I ate the strawberry shortcake… I’m not a strawberry fan… But Jared sure loved it. )

We were going to try a different church on Sunday, but we ended up going back to Foothills Community… Joe didn’t get off work until almost 9 am, so there was no way we would be able to make it to a 9:30 Sunday School at a smaller church. Foothills has a Sunday School during the 10:30 service, which is very nice… So we made the kids happy by going there.

We still didn’t see the regular pastor, as he is still on vacation. We heard the same man who preached last Sunday, and he delivered an excellent sermon again. It was on David, Jonathon, and Jonathon’s son, whose name I can neither pronounce or spell. *lol*

I did notice something odd… Hardly anyone brought a Bible to church with them. When the man wanted to show a verse, he would put the verse up on the screen… At Lifegate we always followed along with Pastor Jerry in our own Bibles…

They don’t use hymnals either… Not that that’s a big deal or anything… They put the songs up on the screen, and they have a full band up there. The songs are awesome, but I haven’t recognised a single one of them. *lol*

I made Joe a roast for his Father’s Day dinner, and he happily ate three plate fulls. *lol* That man does love a good roast… After we got home from church he spent the entire rest of the day in bed, snoozing and watching TV… Include that with a big dinner, and I would guess we had a very happy, content Daddy on Father’s Day. *lol*

I still can’t get my laptop to sign into Flickr, not even on foxfire… So right now I have Jared’s laptop set up next to mine, and I’m posting his pictures to Flickr as I write… Since I can easily get his computer signed on to Flickr, the problem is obviously my computer, and not Flickr… So annoying!

BUT… There is hope… Joe has promised me a new desktop computer with our next tax returns. (I will never buy a laptop again! Too many headaches with the two we have.) … Then I’ll just use this laptop when we go on vacation or something.

I don’t know how Jared can stand his laptop… MAN, is that thing sluggish! … I don’t know why. It has the same processor as this one, and not half as many things installed on it… It may be able to get onto Flickr, but it’s taking AGES to get things posted onto Flickr… I asked him how he could handle it, and he said, “Very patiently.”

Just two more days and we’ll be heading out on our vacation… We’ll be hooking up the trailer and heading out early Saturday morning. Can’t wait! … We’ll be gone until the following Saturday (though I probably won’t get a chance to blog until Sunday the 7th, because I’ll want to get the pictures onto Flickr before I post).

I was hoping that Joe would get the trailer brought down to the house by Wednesday, but he didn’t get it here until this evening (it’s been a LONG week for him, work wise). So tomorrow is going to be a busy day… Since it’s the first time we’ll take the trailer out this year, I have to clean the entire inside. Plus I need to get all the laundry washed, get our bags packed, and get the trailer packed… Joe wants to have the Durago hooked up to the trailer and everything ready so we can leave as soon as we can on Saturday.

Soooo… I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to post before we leave, but you can watch my sidebar —-> for twitter updates, as I’ll probably be able to at least post on there before shutting down the computer.

Just pray that the kids are feeling better, so they won’t be sick on vacation… All four of them have colds, and the boys both had a fever today. I gave them some Tylenol, and they both seem to be feeling better now… We’re making sure to bring both Tylenol and Pediacare with us on the trip.

Since we can’t trust Buddy in the house, he has to spend the week in our bathroom… But don’t worry, our bathroom is pretty big… This will be the longest time we’ve left Cuddles (and Buddy), and I was hoping that they would be able to keep each other company… But the way that they’ve been acting with each other lately, it’s probably best that they are separated. They’ve been fighting again, and Buddy chases poor Cuddles through the house, while Cuddles hisses and growls like crazy. All Buddy wants to do is play with her, but Cuddles won’t let him near her. *lol* … I have to admit that it’s funny to see her running from a cat that is half her size.

Joe’s sister, Debbie, is going to stop by and check on the cats… Though as skittish as Cuddles is, she’ll probably hide the entire time that Debbie is here. *lol*

Well, if I don’t get a chance to post before we leave, I hope everyone has an awesome week!… I’ll be taking the laptop with me and I draft up a post for each day’s activities, and will post them when the pictures are posted.

Catch ya on the flip side!

Amanda: “Mommy, I think I have laryngitis.”
Mommy: “You sure talk well for someone with laryngitis.”
Amanda: “Well, I keep coughing, see? *cough cough*”

(Looks like Amanda is catching the kids’ cold now too.)

Good morning… Thought I’d better check in with ya’ll.

It’s been a nice, quiet few days… On Sunday and Monday it was glorious outside. The sun was shining, and the temps got into the high 80s/low 90s. The kids and I really enjoyed it, after months of being cooped up because of the cold and rain (we’re all summer folk in this house *lol*)… But alas, it didn’t last. It rained for most of the day yesterday. *sigh* (Though the sky does look clear right now.)

I’ve been spending some time at ancestry.com … I signed up for the 14 day free trial, which I will cancel before the 14 days are up… It amuses me that they let you sign up for the trail over and over. I’ve gotten a lot of free trials over there! *lol* (I just make sure to put some time inbetween the trials.)

The kids, all but Amanda, have been a little sick. It hasn’t been too bad… All three of them have had a sore throat, Jared has had a headache and a stuffy nose, and Alicia had a slight fever. I’ve been giving them Tylenol, and it’s helped… Though Alicia did end up napping for a couple hours yesterday. By the time she woke up, she was back to her normal, chipper self.

I did Alicia’s morning chores for her yesterday (emtied the dishwasher) since she wasn’t feeling well… But since she was feeling fine by the afternoon, I had her still do the dishes after dinner (her night is Tuesday night)… All she is required to do is load the dishwasher, wipe the counters, and sweep the floor… But she must have REALLY been feeling better, because she spent TWO HOURS in that kitchen! *rofl* … She organized the fridge, she cleaned out under the kitchen sink, she wiped down the sides of the cabinets… She cleaned everything in sight… Jared watched her for a minute and says to me, “She is just like you! … JUST LIKE YOU!” *lol*

Today  I have a bit of an earache, and am starting to get a sore throat.
Reading: “Love Takes Wing” by Janette Oke
It is currently clear and 71º
Today it was partly cloudy, and in the mid 70s

I got the quilt done today! Yay! This one is the one for my cousin’s baby, who is due in 5 short days, so he should be coming any day now!… You never know, she may be in the hospital right now! Anyway, here is the picture of it:

My cousin Lorraine loves cats and dogs. I made their daughter a kitty one, so I thought it would be nice to have a dog one for their son. 

While you are thinking about it, give a quick prayer for Blessed Mama. She is in the hospital right now, giving birth to her second son. I’ve been refreshing her blog all day, as she is having a friend post the news for her… Don’t want to miss out!

Uhg… I think I’m coming down with a cold or something. My ear has been plugged up for a couple days now, and it’s starting to hurt. And in just the last hour or so my throat has started to hurt as well. *sighs* I don’t want to get sick!

OH!!! I got my free 8 X 10 test prints back from WHCC today! (Boy, are they fast!) They look awesome!… They had told me in an Email, that I need to leave a 1/4 inch border, and I see they are right. The edge got cut off just a tad on all of them. So, before I send in any 12 X 12s to be printed, I will give them a small border, so that won’t happen. (If I have anything on the edge) Then I can just trim off any excess white that may show up. The prints do look very beautiful though! Wish I could show them to you. Even Joe seemed impressed!

Well, think I’m going to go take some cold medicine, and maybe get some prints ready to send in to WHCC! Catch ya’ll tomorrow!