Sleepless in Seattle

This week has been a crazy one! Preparing for a work retreat happening this weekend, exhibiting at a conference this week and packing and getting ready for a trip to Seattle.

My husband has a conference and I am tagging along. I'm really looking forward to this vacation. We went to Seattle a couple of years ago but only stayed one day. I'm going to have six days in this wonderful city.

We are taking a cruise on the Royal Argosy as one of the networking dinners - that is going to be fabulous. If we are lucky, it won't be raining (although I bought a really cute raincoat at Macy's) and Seattle won't be fogged in and I can see the city with the mountains in the background.

The last time we went to Seattle and traveled around Washington, we couldn't see Mt. Rainier or Mt. St. Helens. I really hope that sometime during the week the skies will be clear and I can go to the Space Needle and get some beautiful pictures. I'm also looking forward to visiting Pike Place Market.

Seattle here we come!

Grandma's Toys

Cora came to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Her mom and dad came too! She is playing with Grandma's toys. Even some that Grandma played with herself when she was a baby.

All of my children were home this weekend - the guys played some golf and the girls shopped. Seems like we do that a lot (golf and shop).

Cora has a little tooth on the bottom, says momma and dadda and waves goodbye. It is fun to watch her grow.

Project Complete

This is the plaid skirt I mentioned in a previous blog. I guess I can call this my flood skirt since I made it on my day off because of the flood. I'm really happy with it. Add a brown belt, white shirt and a brown blazer and the outfit is all ready to go. The pattern is really easy, elastic waist instead of zipper, nice side pockets and a small split in the back to make walking easy. I need to keep my eyes out for some more material and whip up another one sometime soon.

I don't really sew very often but when I do, I enjoy it. Making things like skirts or baby afghans help me feel very productive. Taking material or yarn and turning the product into something to use is satisfying. Well...onto the next project.

Reschedule

My table all set for 10 ladies coming to the Bible Study Kickoff gathering. Soup, sandwiches, chocolate dessert -- but still in my refridgerator. No one was able to come to my home due to the high waters!

Well, maybe another evening before Winter. Snow will also keep people from being able to get to my house. Our driveway is very steep and you have to have a 4-wheel drive to get out in the snow.

Instead I spent the day sewing myself a skirt. I had some teal, brown and green plaid material laying around and decided to spend my time on a sewing project. I'm not quite done with it but am anxious to wear it.

Flood Waters

This is the road that we normally drive on to get to town! Needless to say, we didn't make it to work today. This is a river that gets out of its banks from time to time but very rarely goes over the road and bridge. If you go the other direction on this road, it is also flooded by a creek. We are one of a few homes that gets flooded in. We also have water in our yard but not close to our house or basement. Thank goodness.

Hopefully the waters recede and we are able to get to town or work tomorrow. Thanks Ike!

Tour of Missouri

We enjoyed watching the bikers race to a finish at our capitol city. This biking event is called the Tour of Missouri. They have been biking all through Missouri and will end the race in St. Charles (St. Louis area).

I don't know too much about each rider or who is in the lead, but it was great to see all the athletes and the crowd excitement.

Later in the evening we went to the home opener of the local high school football team. My husband and children are all alumni and the evening started with a dedication to the school's new football and track field. We played a team that was ranked 2nd in the state of Arkansas and lost by 5 points. Our school is ranked 4th in the State of Missouri in Class 6A.

Mulching

I am hosting our Women's Bible Study kick-off for the fall. We take a summer break and now we are ready to jump into the the book of Luke! We have a few new ladies joining us this year so we our up to about 11-12 ladies. We normally meet at the church but for the kick-off, I invited everyone out for soup and sandwiches.

To get ready for this event, my husband and I did some mulching in the flower beds. We have been meaning to do this earlier in the summer but kept putting it off. This year we used a darker wood chip instead of the lighter color we have used in the past. I really like the look of it. Our dog Belle is helping us by stomping down the chips after we pour them into the beds! She is also overseeing the project.

Now, this week, cleaning up the inside!

Crafting

I've been sewing and crocheting a little in the past weeks. A friend of mine also became a grandmother of a little girl and her son and wife live on the east coast while he attends medical school. I love to crochet and had this pink yarn in my craft closet, so I made this baby afghan with a frilly edging for the new parents.

I also bought some really fun material at a garage sale not too long ago and made some of the material into slipcovers for these pillows. This is the baby bed Cora sleeps in at out home. I also bought her the cute little cabbage patch doll for her to play with at Grandma's house. I have more of that material but I haven't decided yet what to do with it. I was thinking about somehow using it as background in a picture frame to hang on the wall. I haven't figured that out yet.

I have so many craft projects that I either have already started or have plans to start that I would have to quit my job and do that full time to complete all of them! Well, I guess I have enough projects for this winter anyway!

Favorite Things

Some of my favorites internet sites are:

• For Better or for Worse - comic strip
• Truth or Fiction - gives you the truth about e-mails that are floating around
• Stat Counter - let's me know who is visiting my blog
• Google - love this search engine and also log in and use the google reader to read my favorite blogs
• Online Book Catalog - read classic books free online
• Facebook - just recently got an account and have been keeping up with friends and relatives.

I also check out all of the news sites (CNN, MSNBC, Fox, ABCNews, CBSnews, USAToday) on a daily basis not to mention all of the local newspapers. The WWW definitely keeps me much more informed than I was prior to Al Gore inventing it ;).

Weekend Fun

We spent the weekend in this cabin on Lake of the Ozarks. My daughter and her family joined us as well as my son. My daughter's in-laws also joined us along with their daughter and new SIL. This is our 2nd annual holiday together. We are also making plans to go to Colorado together over the Christmas break. You can imagine, that little Miss Cora received a lot of spoiling over the weekend with both of her grandparents in the cabin with her!

We enjoyed our weekend boating, shopping, golfing, eating and playing Taboo. The young guys beat the 'ol guys in scramble golf but they all had fun either way. The gals went shopping and split up with moms and daughters and did the most shopping at Gap, Carters, Nautica, Marshalls, Bass, J Crew, Banana Republic, Hartstring, Geoffery Beene, Nine West, Baby Gap, and Izod.

We had a beautiful weekend and the grandpas got up early and went fishing together. No fish to fry but a few stories! They are anxious to get Cora out fishing with them since she is a early riser! Maybe next year!

I hope everyone else had a great Labor Day Weekend! Our prayers go out to those in the gulf area that are dealing with all the different hurricanes that are going through (Gustav, Hanna, and Ike).