What NOT to do when helping clean yard. . .

While DH was running the riding mower, mulching up leaves, I was helping by picking up sticks, tree branches, etc. I picked some up from the patio and not realizing how close I was to our pickup topper (stored on stands and parking for riding mower), turned around right into the corner of the opened back window. Ouch!!!

I will definitely pay more attention to my surroundings from now on. Just glad the damage is on the outside of my eye. I think keeping ice on it after I did it definitely helped on swelling and kept from bruising worse.

No wise cracks from my kids or there will be no sugar cookies, pumpkin bread, cherry or pumpkin pie for Christmas!!!

Fresh Apple Cake From Friends

Recently, some friends from church brought over a fresh apple cake, still warm from the oven. We love our church family! It was so good, I had to force myself to cut it up and freeze most of it to keep us from gobbling it down. Thanking the maker of this wonderful cake, I asked if she share recipes and she did.

Seeing that she made it in a bunt pan, I told her that I had a fancy pan I was going to try it in. I received in the pan Christmas gift exchange several years ago and had never used it (still in cardboard wrapping). I also made another in an old favorite pan. Both are now in the freezer.

It did really well in that pan. I do have a confession though - I forgot to put the nuts in both cakes - and I EVEN had the pecans!! :(

Guess I will have to FORCE myself to make another.  ;0) Thanks Evelyn and Dwayne!

Special Friends . . .

We made a lap quilt a while back for some special friends, Angie and Tom. As soon as I saw the fabric, I knew it had to be for them. I made the quilt top and my DH quilted it. The Lord fills these two people up and that love flows out to everyone around them. Our family is blessed with their love and  friendship. Thank you guys!

Cross Quilt Beginnings

Cross Quilt Beginnings

I don't always plan out the quilts that I make, in fact, I rarely do but generally have an idea of what design I want. However I started some blocks just to keep busy, not having any idea what I would use them for.

A friend, who knows I quilt, gave me some scraps someone left at our church.

 There were lots of brown, green, yellow and teal pieces of fabric.
I cut three inch strips  and stitched two different colors together on two sides then cut them diagonally, flipped them and stitched together. It takes a LOT of three inch blocks to make a quilt!!

 I forgot that I had already packed my quilt books so I searched the internet for patterns  but didn't find anything that struck my fancy.

I remembered a picture I saw several months ago and saved it - now where did I save it?? Finally located it on my desktop (among the hundreds of other pictures on there).

 

I had enough blocks to make the center of my quilt but will have to wait to finish until we get moved - I already packed my fabric as well!! Anyway, here is the start of my quilt.

Magdalena Michael

I have been remiss about posting to my blog for several months. We have had a lot going on and the next few months may be pretty busy as well, depending on how some things work out but will try to put inputs in now and again.

 Magdalena Michael

 

 

Beautiful Family!!

 Magdalena Michael, our newest granddaughter was born August 19th in Bulgaria. She was pretty small but healthy and welcomed by Mom, Dad and big sister Kalina. 

There was much speculation about what her name would be. When asked what her new sister's name should be, Kalina (our three year old granddaughter) replied "Broccoli".  Our son and daughter-in-law called her "Plus One" until she was born and gave her the name Magdalena Michael.

They call her Maggy. Her great grandmother (my grandma on Dad’s side)  was called "Maggie" as well as one of my cousins.

It will be awhile before we get to see her in person but are getting picture updates and hope later to see her on Skype. She is a beautiful baby!!

Still on my soapbox - ANGRY with HP and Microsoft. . .

I have a perfectly good dependable HP1000 Laserjet printer with an almost new print cartridge in it, THAT I CANNOT USE!

Because these two companies got together and decided not to have a printer driver available for use with Windows 7. This printer is UNSUPPORTED. I am not the only one with this issue and do NOT understand why these companies will not do something about it.

I just bought a new printer to run on Windows 7 and IT IS NOT AN HP PRINTER!!

Gu Ru

Guru

We have been doing a bit of work at our church in the last few weeks and it has generally gotten around that we do some computer work. One Sunday, an elder announce that our congregation has some new computer "guru's". 

Several people have asked if we are the guru's - I don't know about that - we both just like working with computers and have learned quite a bit. One member is so convinced she calls . . .

Me         - Gu                                                    

and  Him        - Ru

She knows who she is!!

WE ARE GOING FOR ANOTHER 100,000 PLUS MILES!

It's back from the shop with some transmission repairs and a new clutch. AND IT'S QUIET.  It doesn't sound like rocks rolling around in it now.

We are very happy with the shop who did the work. They pulled the transmission and sent it for repairs as some gears showed some wear. Got it back, put it in and it was not right so they sent it back. Got it in again and the noise was still there, coming from the clutch. The replaced the clutch and it is very quiet now.

We recommend AAAA Transmission for their work and honesty. They treated  us right! They said it was a learning experience for them working on this diesel truck. The mechanic said he learned a lot and it will help him with future customers.

He also mentioned that the repair shop told him after looking at the transmission that the owner (my DH) really knew how to drive and take good care of that truck. With that many miles on it, it is in really good shape!

Computers

We bought a new Acer computer for me last October at Fry's Electronics. It quit on me in June - would not even boot. I had an extended warranty, even though it was still under manufacturer's warranty. Fry's said they would send it to Acer to be repaired. Four weeks later, Fry’s called and said it could not be fixed and Acer issued a store credit to me.

We went in and found that all the computers now had Windows 8 on them. I told them I did not want one because none of my software would run on it. When asked about a refund so I could get one somewhere else, I was told (after they supposedly spoke to a manager) that Acer would not do a refund - I had to use the credit in the store. We're talking $400!! They said I could use it on something other than a computer!! I told them I needed the computer.

Finally went back to the computer department to look around and found a different salesman. He found one computer that had Windows 7 on it and it was not an Acer. I had to pay more for it since it was not on sale like the first one. They did give me a small discount on it. When we got home I looked for warranty information on it and couldn't locate it so my DH called to find it does have a 1 year warranty. I did not buy the expensive extended Fry's warranty on it since it was a waste of money on the last one!!

Since I was upset about the whole deal, I posted a note on Acer's Facebook page and was told that they did not issue store credits - that Fry's did and if I still had the computer they would fix it! Hmmm, makes me wonder what really happened to my computer. Someone is not being truthful so I will choose carefully who I give my business to from now on.

AND my DH bought a new Dell laptop two years ago at . . .you guessed it . . .,- Fry's. For some time now the screen would go all squirrelly with lines across it. But it was so random we figured they would not be able to duplicate it so we did not take it in. We had purchased a 2 year warranty on it, thinking, we had plenty of time to take it in if it did it more often. More often showed up this week and we discovered the stated 2 year warranty was actually one year with an expiration date of June 2013!! DH did some research and found that Dell has known about this problem for some time and has done nothing to fix it.

At this point, we are NOT happy campers!!

Mom's visit

We had a great visit with Mom last monrh.  June & Teresa took their vacation to go camping and brought Mom here to stay with us for a few days. They had an interesting trip, traveling with three dogs and my 89 year old Mom. Not even halfway here, one of the truck tires started coming apart and they did not have that size in the town. After waiting awhile in the heat, they put the spare on and continued on their way. But something was wrong - the truck was vibrating and could not even go 60 miles per hour.

Teresa and I were texting back and forth, so I told her we would head that way. A little while after we left, she texted not to come. A car with three guys and a girl pulled up beside them and told them they had a flat on the travel trailer. They put the spare on it and continued on their way. Thank goodness they made it since they were out of spares!

They all came to church with us Sunday and met bunches of our friends. After lunch, the girls and their dogs left to find a lake and RV park. They traveled to Mineral Wells and stayed until Tuesday. I called a tire store for them to order 4 new truck tires and they were put on Tuesday. They left the next morning traveling to Lake Arrowhead, near Wichita Falls for a couple of days, then on to Copper Breaks state park on the way back to Amarillo.

Mom went with us to the nursing home to visit DH's Dad. They are always picking at each other from a distance. Mom is older by 7 month so Dad says he will seek advice from her. She tells him (via us) to behave and "don't make me have to come down there". Good visit but wish I had taken pictures.

Mom went to Fry's Electronics with us to get my new computer (that will be another blog), out to eat a couple of times and to Wednesday night church. One trip out to eat, we were both bad and had pecan cobbler with ice cream on top. (Sorry, Mom, I had to tell on us!)

One morning after her shower, I went to take mine and discovered a lizard in the tub. She said "Is that the tub I just got out of"? I figured the lizard already took a shower with her so had my DH remove it to the outdoors.

We had a nice visit with sister, Kathy & husband Gus. They stopped by after visiting with their son, Steve in Dallas. 

Then, our niece Lene and kids came over to visit Grandma.

I had been wanting to go to Amarillo for a visit and daughter, Sheri and grandaughter, Emma as well so we took Mom home and stayed a few days to visit. Of couse, we had to stop at our favorite restaurant on the way - Dutch's in Quanah.

 My sister Barbara, had a stray dog show up a few weeks ago and wanted to find a home for him. She is a cat person and said that the dog was not hers - but . . . she bought food, treats, pigs ears and toys for this dog. She called him 'BOY' and her husband called him 'DOG'.

Since Sheri has been fostering dogs in her area, she said she would take him home. They looked for his owner but no one was looking for him and he did not have a chip identification. Sheri gave him the name 'Charlie'. He did really well in the car on the trip home.

Barbara has a yard full of pretty flowers and I took a few pictures of them.

We had a great time doing thrift store shopping with Fred as well.

We observed Mom & June's "pet" squirrel. He loves their deck. First he checked out and ate some bird seed around the feeder, then checked out the cat food - turned up his nose at that! He proceeded to the deck to relax a bit before scampering off to the top, onto the house and into the tree.

We had a really great visit!

Azle Church of Christ VBS 2013

Azle Church of Christ's VBS (Vacation Bible School) was held on July 13th and was REALLY GREAT!!! So much preparation went into this and the children came. We were expecting about 60 kids and had over 100. This was from our bulletin this week after VBS.
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WHAT A SUPER GREAT VBS!

Amongst other things, VBS means Very Busy Saints, and our VBS was such a huge success because of the hard work and great effort of so many.   Children and adults have all had good things to say and everybody had a really wonderful time.  The ice cream part was another great success and I don’t remember a time when we had so many cookies and so much ice cream left over.  Thank you for your hard work and great effort.  This was a truly great V.B.S.; we praise God for all the blessings.   We had 101 children in attendance!!!  WOW!!!

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We did do some advertising besides lots of posts shared on Facebook.

Flyers went out to anyone who would let us put them in their store windows. The door hangers were well circulated as well.



Beautiful decorations and beautiful people were in abundance. It was nice to be a part of it all. Here I will share some of the pictures in collages, because I took so many.

This picture was the decoration in the auditorium. The scenery was painted on cardboard by one of our church members. She did a wonderful job as did one member who planned much of the scenery and booths.

The fellowship hall looked so good with all the streamers and banners on the walls with the fruit of the spirit theme.  Classroom reflected the theme of Fruit of the Spirit with their decorations. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Gentleness, Faithfulness & Self Control.

We all sang songs, listened to a skit about patience. The kids went to class before partaking in a good lunch and fun booths to keep them entertained. It was great!








My DH and I took pictures of kids and printed them so they could take them home.

 One very popular booth was the stick horse booth. Little kids (and one BIG kid)  lined up to ride the stick horses around the booth with music playing.

Everyone enjoyed the popcorn booth, the country store and the face painting booth.

The bounce house was a big hit as well.            
We were privileged to have a presentation from the Fire Department from Briar, Texas. The children also got to see the fire truck and climb inside.






We had a "Stump the Wise Men" booth as well so kids could ask questions. Children earned tickets from various sources and used them to pay for booth rides and items.

The registration table was very busy getting everyone signed up and name tags done. Most booths were inside but there were some outside as well.

This picture shows the BIG kid riding the stick horse.  Looks to me like the little cowgirl was showing him the correct way to ride. Ride 'em cowboy, Monte!!



Our preacher was enjoying a snow cone and an elder was all decked out in costume for his booth. The ladies in the kitchen did a wonderful job getting everyone fed!


Booths included: Snow Cone, Popcorn, Cotton Candy, Jump House, Ring Toss, Bean Bag Toss, Duck Pond, Balloon Dart Game, Spin-A-Prize, Milk Carton Toss Game, Putting, Races-Potato Sack, Tug-O-War, etc.

Lots of good fellowship visiting went on as well.
I think everyone had a great time.

The kids left with bags of goodies prepared for them, the pictures we took and will receive attendance certificates for their participation.