Festival of Trees

Each year Goodwill has a Festival of Trees event that my co-worker Joan helps with through her sorority. I have a gone over a couple of times during my lunch break to see the trees and they are always so beautiful. Organizations or individuals decorate trees with different themes and their creativity is just amazing. The trees are often decorated with very expensive items such as dvd players, a Nook, tons of toys or teddy bears. On Saturday they had it open for children to come and see the trees, do craft activities, meet an elf (that loved the triplets), get balloon animals, eat cookies and drum roll, meet Santa. Since Dennis and Jimmy were off bonding over a deer hunt, Maranda and I took the girls.

The girls loved it - especially the Tornado Tree decorated by the tv station KWCH. It was upside down and had Santa's feet sticking out, a dvd player, pictures of the weathermen, rain gauge and other weather related items.

The visit with Santa went the way you would expect if you know the girls. Izzy marched right up as quick as she could to him, Audrey kind of hung back a bit but slowly went to him and Lily wanted no part of the fat man. We got a cute picture but Lily was only in it because Maranda went up and knelt down with Lily. After the picture when Santa was handing out candy canes THEN Lily went to him - the child that won't eat wanted a candy cane. And she did eat some of it later.

We had a great time and if you would like to view all the pictures of the trees you can go to this link. http://www.flickr.com/photos/29777676@N04/

By the way - the vests the girls have on are ones that I knitted. :)

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving - ours was picture perfect.

Another blog to read

A friend of Jimmy and Maranda has a wonderful blog with great recipes all the time. Right now she is having a give away for readers of her blog and I get an extra entry for putting her blog on my blog. Of course I don't want my friends to enter her contest as it will reduce my chances of winning. :) Just kidding! You really need to see today's blog entry - the cake pops she made are as delicious as they are pretty.

http://inspirecreatebake.blogspot.com/2010/11/giveaway-3-bake.html

Apparently I am not smart enough to put the link in so you can click on it so just copy and paste.

Craig Morgan - This Ain't Nothin'

Country music songs seem to like to make a person cry or laugh and this song will certainly bring a tear to your eyes. I heard it a number of times and decided to find out who sang it and found this video which I thought was very well done.

Veteran's Day Afghan

Here is a picture of Bill - Michelle's father-in-law with the afghan we made at work. (during lunch of course)

Projects

I started this blog to help myself keep track of my knitting and crocheting projects so thought it about time I posted a few!
I started afghans for the triplets in July. I knew I would be sitting a lot with the knee surgery and knew on pain medicine that knitting might be a challenge. I can crochet in my sleep so bought yarn to make the girls afghans in "their" colors. Lily - pink. Audrey - purple and Izzy blue.










A teacher in the district that also goes to my church has gone through chemo this summer and lost her hair so I knitted her a hat this week. I love the pattern, it is simple but came out very cute.













In progress are a couple of baby blankets and a hat for a friend's husband. I have made at least five of these to send to soldiers overseas and one for Dennis and Jimmy - they are made of wool and are very warm.

Veterans Day

About a year ago some of us at work started meeting at noon once a week and knitting and crocheting. Some did not know how to do one or the other and those that knew taught the ones that didn't. Bill Brown donated yarn that he had found at his mother's house who is now in a nursing home. Most of it was red with some white so we decided this year to make a lap afghan and donate it to a veteran on Veteran's Day. Rhonda at work donated some white yarn that she had at home and I bought a package of blue and we were in business. We made up the pattern as we went along and learned a lot in the process. Three were not experienced at crocheting and two of us were old hands at it (emphasis on the old). The finished stripes were all 192 stitches but varied in length due to the different tightness of the stitch. Sandy Leithoff took the project home and "fixed" one end so it was even and it came out very well. One of the participants, Michelle Sponsel's father-in-law is a veteran in a nursing home so she is giving it to him. We had so much fun working on this - thanks to Kathy Golden, Janet Malcom, Michelle Sponsel and Sandy Leithoff. A thank you also to Kim Cannady who took our picture and is learning to crochet - she will be helping on the next project I bet!

Change in office view

The view from my office window changed dramatically today. I have other pictures on the blog of the progress they have slowly been making on the empty lot west of AMAC where Cargill is building a new office building and today they made quite a impact on the landscape. I don't think anyone working at AMAC didn't stand at a window to watch for a little while today. It was fascinating. A crane pulled up walls and placed them in place one after another. The workers were either very brave or pretty dumb and we really couldn't decide which. :) Five walls were put up in about an hour and by the end of the day the walls were all in place along the east side and half the south side is done. I forgot my camera today but these pictures were from my cell phone. One top picture is from my office at 8 am and the other two are from the sidewalk on the west side of my building before lunch.

Halloween 2010

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Originally uploaded by ssw751

Jimmy and Maranda's guests at the Halloween party on Sunday night. Is there anything cuter than little ones in their costumes!

Girls on bench

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Originally uploaded by ssw751

They also liked the wooden bench we bought when we moved here. This picture came out better since it was in the shade

Girls on the Glider

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Originally uploaded by ssw751

I planned to do a great blog post on my yarn hop adventure but haven't had time because I am busy using up the yarn I bought. In the mean time - here is a picture of the girls on the old glider that I can remember sitting in when I was little. I know we had the glider when we lived on Hiram when I was in kindergarten to third grade so the thing is pretty darn old. It needs painting and maybe next summer I will get that done.

We had the girls over on Saturday so their folks could get ready for the Halloween party and it was beautiful out so we played in the back yard a bit and they thought the glider was fun to sit in.

Straight No Chaser Video

This is the video I took at the concert. It is short but came out pretty well. We had fairly good seats especially considering the concert was sold out.

Straight No Chaser

Towards the beginning of September we were flipping channels and happened upon a concert on PBS of a group called Straight No Chaser. They are a group of 10 young men from Indiana that sing and preform with no accompaniment. We had never heard of them but were very impressed by their singing and comedic performance. Dennis said he would love to see them in concert so I grabbed my handy dandy laptop that is always close and found their web page and and tour dates. Found out that the only place in Kansas they would be was Salina on Thursday, October 21st. Knowing the concert wouldn't be over until too late to drive back I suggested we take Friday off and spend the night in Salina. He agreed that would be a great idea and I bought the tickets. They preformed in an old theater in downtown Salina that reminds you of the Orpheum in Wichita, if it were finished. The one in Salina is beautiful. The concert was fantastic - the group told the audience to ignore anything the ushers said and take all the picture and videos they wanted to and post them on a blog, Facebook, Twitter or anywhere else we wanted to post. They became a hit because of You Tube so they want the exposure. I have accidentally taken video with my camera but never on purpose so it was not easy to figure out how to do it in the dark but I got a snip of one song. If I had known it would come out so good, I would have taken a longer video. The group also stayed after and gave autographs and visited.

And more pumpkins

My church has a pumpkin sale each year with the money going to the youth. The church is not far from the kid's house so each year we take the girls over to pick out pumpkins and support the church. The first year we took a blanket and laid them with the pumpkins and took pictures and each year it is a little more fun. We cheated a little this year and stopped and got a couple of big (and very cheap) pumpkins at Walmart before we went to the church. Then at the church we picked out one big one and let the girls pick out quite a few little ones. They had so much fun. They were so proud of their daddy for being able to carry their big pumpkin. Lily said "this is the biggest pumpkin EVER!" Izzy said "yes, it is heavy but daddy can carry it"

Saturday, October 16 part two

This weekend was the annual Haysville Fall Fest where the entire town descends on a small park at the same time. Or that is the way it felt this year. The beautiful fabulous fall weather we have been having continued this weekend so the turnout was huge. We enjoyed going through the craft area - there were so many cute things. The girls got balloons - twice - lost or popped them - twice. They loved the bounce house - even Lily bounced in it. We didn't go through much of the car show but saw some of it.

Saturday Part 1

This weekend we had more fun. Saturday started with Laura and I meeting Jimmy and family to watch the girls take gymnastics. The family sit in a room on the other side of a glass and watch the girls. Three year old gymnastic classes are pretty amusing I felt bad that I didn't have any small bills on me - the gymnastic teacher asked if I was their "aunt" and I thought handing her a twenty might be a bit much. :)

Another Sunday afternoon

Been a busy busy week - Lily was still sick Monday and Tuesday so I worked half days those two days. It works out pretty well - Jimmy stays home with the girls while Maranda goes to Allison to teach first thing (her class is at 7 am) then she comes home and he goes to work. I come at noon so she can go back to Allison to teach her afternoon class. By Wednesday she was back up to par so everyone went to day care and hopefully they all have had their turns at this bug and I am skipping my turn!

Wednesday Laura had an MRI on her wrist which is still hurting from a fall she had in July. When she was leaving the hospital she and a truck backed in to each other in the parking lot. The truck had parked so Laura started backing out and the truck decided to back out to straighten her placement without looking back. Laura had her car towed to Wichita and stayed with us until yesterday. She went with us to the trailer and we had a very relaxing time sitting on the porch while Dennis found projects to do. Her car won't be done until next Friday so we took her home in the afternoon. She assured us she had plenty of food and would be fine without a car for a week. Her arm hurts too much to drive far and I am sure a friend will help her if she needs something at the store. Thursday we will go back to Ponca and get her and then drive her home next weekend, Will be glad to find out what the MRI shows.

Today we had a fun time going to a pumpkin patch with Jimmy's family until the rain started. We have been in a long drought but it ended today! We got to ride on a wagon and found pumpkins so the girls had a lot of fun. The wagon ride was probably the bumpiest I have ever been on - that place needs to put some hay on those wooden trailers! The girls had a hard time deciding on the perfect pumpkin. It didn't start raining until after we got in from the field and the girls were in a bouncy house so we still had a full visit. I can't believe how many pumpkin patches and the variety of pricing structures there are in our area. Bergmans seemed to be the best value and the people there are very nice.

"Cool Shoes"

We had great plans for last Saturday which fell through but we managed to have a pretty good day anyway. Dennis and I picked up doughnuts and went to Jimmy's house early Saturday morning. The plan was for Jimmy and Dennis to go buy sheetrock and do some repair work to the attic ceiling while Maranda and I took the girls to gymnastics and shopping. We had our doughnuts and visited a bit then started to gather the girls to go to gymnastics. As Lily was walking to the back door she stopped and started to vomit. Lily vomits pretty often but always at the end of a feeding, not just out of the blue like that. She felt warm, but she always seems to feel warm so they took her temperature and it was over 100. Their family has had the strangest virus. Izzy had it first, ran a temperature for at least five days then the next week Audrey and Jimmy had it, the next week (last week) Maranda had it and now Lily had decided she needed a turn. So as anyone with kids knows, you make plans then change plans. Maranda would take the other two to gymnastics and I would stay at the house with Lily. Izzy started crying because she wanted me to go too and Lily started crying because she wanted to go. Audrey was ok with the situation.
So Lily and I watched a couple of episodes of Mickey Mouse until the tylenol kicked in and then she was ready to play. When Maranda got back Lily was feeling quite well so we went shopping for a little while and picked up lunch and came back to their house. The guys were not making great progress but we have learned in the last four years to multiple by three the amount of time you think a project will take at that house.

Lily fell asleep during lunch so we laid her on the couch and after we ate Izzy and Audrey went upstairs for their nap, the guys kept working, Maranda went to Target and I stayed with the girls. When she got back from Target Lily was awake so she showed her the new shoes she bought her. These shoes are the cutest little shoes I have seen and Lily was thrilled. When Izzy and Audrey woke up Lily and I went upstairs to get them. When we walked in the room Audrey was still half asleep but Izzy was wide awake. She took one look at Lily and stood up and said "those are cool shoes Lily". Lily said "thank you". With the mention of shoes Audrey woke right up and said "how you get those shoes, Lily?" and Lily said "mommy got them" At that point Audrey and Izzy were racing to the stairs to go see if mommy had gotten them a pair too. Of course she had and they were very happy.

I still laugh when I think about Izzy though - "those are cool shoes, Lily" Yes they were.

Dennis and a new friend

Dennis spotted a man a little ways from us that he could tell by the patches on his vest that they were both in the Marines and in Vietnam at the same time. He went over and met him, he is a member of the America Legion in Mulvane. We may visit there sometime.

World War II Veterans

Most of the veterans were in wheelchairs and all were very happy with the turn out. We shook their hand as they went by. We thanked them for their service and welcomed them back home.

Honor Flight

I heard about a program that took World War II veterans to Washington DC to see the new WWII memorial and other sites. The trip was expense free to the veterans due to contributions from the public. The most recent flight left on Tuesday morning and returned Wednesday evening. The public was invited to come to the airport to greet the veterans. The Patriot Guard was there as was two fire trucks from McConnell along with a huge crowd. The fire trucks greeted the plane with streams of water shooting from each side that the plane went under. It was a very special evening and we plan to go each time this happens. The veterans were so appreciative of the turn out. The chief of police, Norm Williams was there, bagpipes played, an honor guard greeted them and there were many military personnel in uniform. I did feel sorry for the people that were trying to catch a plane or go to the baggage area as the crowd control was sadly lacking.

Laura's picture of Thunderbirds

Laura got a better picture

Thunderbirds

This weekend was the McConnell air show - the first one in four years. Saturday's events were canceled due to the weather but today cleared off and the Thunderbirds were able to do their show. Laura and I went over to the Derby Kohl's parking lot but of course forgot our cameras. The parking lot was a perfect place to watch - the planes came right over us - it was great. I took many pictures with my cell phone and one actually came out!

Another fun weekend

(picture I took with my phone at the Orpheum)

We had another fun weekend although things didn't go as well as planned, Jessica and I had a great time. ;) Stacy and family came on Saturday for her class reunion so Laura also came to see them. While Stacy and James were at the dinner and social time Jessica and I attended a sing-a-long with the Sound of Music at the Orpheum and Dennis took James Jr and Laura to the McConnell evening air show activities. The afternoon events were rained out so they were hoping the evening ones would be able to go on since the rain left. The clouds were too low though so the the flying events were canceled again but they did see a school bus go 245 mph in a quarter mile which impressed all of them.

Jessica and I had the best time at the Orpheum. It started about 8 and ended around 11:15 and by the end my jaws hurt from laughing so much. At the beginning we were shown pictures of different characters and told what to do when we saw them - hiss, boo, cheer etc. We were also given bags of props - a flower to wave during some songs, cards with different things on them and a firework popper that we were to pull the string when the main characters kissed. I had not seen the movie for many years so was glad that they had the words to the songs on the screen. Jessica - to my amazement - had seen the show many times and it was in her opinion the best musical ever. She was very excited to go.

Quite a few people came dressed in costume - there were probably five nuns but the best nun sat right behind us. This lady had no inhibitions and a very good voice. She was hilarious. Jessica said - Grandma we sat in the perfect spot. The audience would say things out at the show - some said some of the lines with the characters - we sang - we booed - we hissed - it was such fun. The best part was towards the end - when the young soldier had his gun pointed at the father of the children - it was silent in the theater - after all this was a huge scene of the show. Some forward thinking audience member had saved his/her popper and used it as the father approached the boy to make it sound like the gun had gone off. This brought the house down. I am so glad we went - Jessica and made a great memory last night.

Stacy enjoyed her class reunion but thought the food was awful - they went to a Mexican restaurant that I had never heard of. They didn't get home until after midnight and she was awake at 3 throwing up. I woke up a little after five and she came upstairs as I was going to the kitchen to take some tylenol for a headache because I couldn't sleep. I ended up sitting on the couch with her trying to figure out a way to make her feel better. By 8 she was a little better but didn't feel like going anywhere so the rest of us met Jimmy's family at IHOP and had breakfast. The vomiting has ended but she is just really tired now and very glad that James is driving them home now so she can nap.

Petting zoo

Audrey and Izzy
Originally uploaded by ssw751

Feeding the animals at the petting zoo is obviously a very serious job from the looks of Audrey and Izzy.

Alpaca

three day old alpaca
Originally uploaded by ssw751

Last year and this year there were Alpacas from a farm in Haven. They also had yarn for sale from the alpacas on exhibit. I bought a package last year and bought two more this year and plan to make a cowl. This little three day old alpaca was just adorable

More duct tape projects

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Originally uploaded by ssw751

The black dress had matching gloves and was all worn to a prom by the maker

Duct Tape Dog

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Originally uploaded by ssw751

This is one of the many projects that were made from duct tape. It was adorable

Fun weekend

Our weekend started off Friday afternoon - I left work a couple of hours early and we went to Ponca City to take some tubs to Laura and get her mattress that she no longer wanted. We took the van so wasn't able to get the box springs too so we will need to go another time with the truck. She followed us to the trailer and we had a barbecue then we all came back to the house. She loved the trailer - especially the screen porch of course. We had a really nice time.

Saturday morning we got up early and went to Jimmy's to follow them to the fair. We went last year and took the little wagon and were quite the spectacle, getting a lot of comments and attention. This year the girls just walked along with us and we managed to see the exhibits without feeling like an exhibit. :) The only time someone asked about the girls was hilarious. Dennis and Maranda went to the ticket booth for the train while the rest of us stood in line. The man in front of us turned and looked at the girls very carefully then asked "triplets?" and we said yes. Then he looked at Jimmy and said, "are they yours" of course Jimmy said yes and the man said "yo the man!!!" We all cracked up - Jimmy said he had never had that reaction from someone and it was the funnest reaction yet. The man was a twin so visited awhile about multiple issues.

We had a really good time in-spite of the overwhelming at times heat. I do not remember a hotter visit to the fair. The best time was sitting under the shade trees and having ice cream. After Jimmy's family left, Laura, Dennis and I toured some of the industrial booths and the Domestic Arts building. I didn't have anything entered this year but the project I am working on was entered by someone else and didn't win. The most interesting part of the Domestic Arts was the duct tape projects. Jessica loves to make things from duct tape so we were really wishing she was there.

On our way home, Jimmy called and wondered if the girls could come for their first sleep over so he and Maranda could go to the drive in. So three very excited little girls came to our house and all slept in the fish room. I had Izzy and Audrey in the futon and had a cot for Lily. It went very well especially considering it was the first time they had done anything like that. We had a really good time this morning playing. They love the grandkids room with all the toys.

Loved this weekend!

First weekend at the trailer

This weekend was our first weekend that we went to the fishing trailer and relaxed instead of worked. No painting, no cleaning and (thank you God) no dead mice. Or live ones. We started the adventure with a trip to Walmart. We bought a lot of frozen items to have for anytime we go there - breakfast, lunch or snacks. Also small bottles of juice and pop. I don't want to pack food every time we go. I say we didn't work but actually I didn't work - I sat on the screened porch and knitted but it seemed like Dennis kept finding things to do until I finally said - enough - go fish! And he did. He didn't catch anything but enjoyed himself very much. We had a firepit in the evening - the neighbors down river (or up river, not sure which) were playing music and we were directly under the milky way. I was surprised at how many street lights were were along the dirt roads - more than at our house but the stars were still very bright and beautiful. I even discovered how to listen the race broadcast on my phone. :)

I planned to sit on the screen porch this morning and have my coffee but it was too dang cold! We enjoyed sitting at the table though and seeing fish jump in the water. Dennis fished a little more this morning and we saw a couple on the river in their little boat.

I would say the weekend was a complete success but the water situation still needs to be resolved. The pipes are white pvc pipes and the water smells awful. We forgot to take bleach - put that and a few things on our list. The bed is made of cement so it has to go. We both woke up stiff and sore this morning. But that will get resolved in time too - at least we had no critters this time. knock on wood


Sunrise and fog on the river - taken from the porch