Rock City

After seeing 147 billboards for Rock City, Mike and I decided to venture off the expressway and check it out.
OMG - the rock garden was beautiful. It helped that the weather was in the 60's and it was NOT crowded, so Mike and I could wander at our leisure.

Mike on our way to the lookout and here he is looking out over 7 states.


I didn't want to do it, but I figured if those people on Amazing Race can face their fears so can I.
Yes, Carrie, that is your Aunt Karen walking across a swing bridge. I waited for everyone to get off. I held my breath almost the whole way and stopping for this picture was not easy. BUT I made it! I can check that off my bucket list.





The trail under the rocks were not my favorite thing to do either, but I did that too.
I did enjoy the fairytale land.




Here is Mike at his favorite part of the trail. He stopped here as a kid and this is what he remembered from it.

Fat Man Squeeze.


I made it through too - though I did have to raise the camera over my head so it would get crushed. It was a great break from sitting in the car for a day and 1/2.

We will be hitting FL tomorrow.
Right now I am headed across the parking lot to get a Margarita at the Tiki Bar.

Hour vacation

1 hour in - Here is about the time that I remember the things I forgot to do, or forgot to pack. Not this time so far so good.

4 hours - we stop for the first time. YES, Mary, my first potty stop was four hours in - High 5 to me!!!

4 hours 15 minutes (I'm driving) the sun makes an appearance.

4 hours 45 minutes - the snow has disappeared. The grass is dirty brown and I'm thinking I would rather have the pretty white snow. Not...

5 hours 15 minutes the cars outside temp hits 50 degrees. BIG smile!

7 hours we stop for gas and the sweatshirt comes off and I continue in short sleeves.

9 hours we stop for the night. We have dinner at an Old Chicago. We get to our room and I turn on the air conditioning. The girl at the front desk said it's been unseasonably warm. BIG BIG smile.

Vacation

Where are we going on our 25th wedding anniversary vacation?
There is a hint in this first picture.



You guessed it.....
WE ARE GOING TO DISNEY WORLD


And then mike is going to play in the World Championship Senior Softball Tournament while I just watch.

Fabric Selections

There really are 2 ways to choose fabrics for a quilt.

There are those quilters like me who find a theme fabric and look to match it with contrasting fabric. A green with a yellow, a blue with a brown, you get the idea.
And there are those who find that theme fabric and go in search of matching the blues with a shade of blue, reds with shades of red, and so forth. That would be Sharen.

Most of the time we can talk each other into and out of fabrics and I'm pretty sure that is why we can spend hours at the fabric store. So I am at Joannes and I find the perfect theme material (pink, purple, with teddy bears) for the twins. Carrie has their room painted a soft lavender so I'm thinking one in pink and one in purple. Easy enough.
Until I can't find the "matching" pink. Where is Sharen when I need her?

There were 21 different shades of plain pink fabric and of course I couldn't find one that I thought would work. Yes - I am not lying 21!
Now what?
I thought about scraping the whole thing and coming back with Sharen, but I press on. I came up with the great idea to go back to the front of the store and check out the Valentine material and there it was. It's not plain pink, it has a little white in it, but it's going to be perfect!


Side Story...
When my sister Vicki asked me to make aprons for the females in her family I told her yes, but she would have to go with me to pick out the fabric.
I'm thinking - What did I just get myself into - I hope she is a fabric picker like me or we could spend hours trying to match the shades of colors.
She put my fears to rest really quickly. Turns out she's like me and wasted NO time finding the perfect fabrics. Brown with pink butterflies and a pink lining for the Grandmas and pink cupcakes with black lining for the younger girls.

Bulls Game

I have pork chops in the oven along with a sweet potato for me and a white potato for Mike and the phone rings.
It's Sharen - "Jon has tickets to the Bulls game tonight do you want to go?"
First I ask "Who is this?" and then I said YES!!!!
See, Sharen was never the type to drop anything and go do something. When she is home she likes to stay home, especially on a cold night with it snowy/raining out.
BUT that was the old Sharen - Her Resolution this year is to not to sweat the small stuff (at work) and say Yes more.
I print out the tickets from Jon's email - Change into my Bulls gear - Sharen picks me up and we are headed to Jon and Erica's in 15 minutes. Dinner forgotten.

My Dates
Erica has a D-Rose Bulls jersey and Jon wear Rose's college jersey from Memphis.

The tickets were in the 12th row. Awesome!!
Starting Line-ups. That always amazes me.

Tip Off

If you look really close you can see Scottie Pippen in the pink shirt sitting court side next to Benny the Bull. Myself I would of rather seen My Michael Jordan, but he was not there. Trust me I stained my neck looking all around the stadium for him.


Everything about the night was pretty awesome except for the final score. The bulls have lost only 4 games at home and Sharen and I were witness to 2 of them. That Just sucks.

Challenging

Challenging - to be difficult in a way that is usually interesting or enjoyable
To Challenge - to test the ability, skill or strength of someone

The patterns in my quilt books have 3 degrees of difficulty. Easy. Intermediate. And Challenging.

I found a scrap quilt in one of the books that is beautiful. I love it. Then I saw "Challenging."

I said to myself "Your a Quilter! You have a ton of scraps! You Can DO it!

I am taking my own advise and tackling this quilt.

********************************************************************************
When they closed the Elgin Joanne's I was very disappointed. It was right around the corner from my house and I would just stop in there because I could.
The only good thing about the closing was the sales. Different fabrics would be on sale at different times. 99 cents a yard for quilters cotton was unheard of - so I bought yards and yards or different colors. Not planning on what I wanted it for - just sure I would need it some day.
Then they put the flannels on sale and I never looked in the cotton section again. I was hooked!!!!
I bought enough flannel for 6 quilts in all different colors. I didn't know what I was going to do with it all, but I just had to have it. (The flannels turned into quilts for all my sisters for their birthdays).

So here I sit, several years later, with all this beautiful yards of cotton ready to be turned into a challenging scrap quilt.

I am a quilter - I have tons of scraps - I can do it!

Puzzle Picture

I have fixed hundreds and hundreds of puzzles.
I love doing it.
Every year for Christmas Mike gets me a puzzle. He tries very hard to get me one that is special in some way - 2000 pieces, odd shape, 2 sided, something.

This year the puzzle had only 500 pieces and was really quite easy to fix. Nothing special except it was very pretty, had a story with it about "Dream Circles", and came with glue and a hook to hang on your wall.

I have never glued a puzzle before, even though I have fixed many of puzzles that I thought would be beautiful framed and hanging on a wall.

So I fixed it. Then glued it.


It held together.
I liked it so much I hung it in my sewing room.

Pine Wood Derby

Mike and Dylan went Friday night for the weight in of their car. The car had to be under 5 oz. after a couple of tweaks Dylan's car came in at 4.8 oz. They were ready for Saturday.

Both of the boys were very proud of their car. Mike did the major cutting of the wood and adjusting the wheels and Dylan painted the camouflage and put on the stickers.

The derby was an all day affair (I'm so glad I decided to stay home). Mike thought that there was about 70 cars there. Each car had 6 runs on the track. Dylan's car won all of his races.


Oh Boy! Mike was thinking this can't be good - He really wanted to do good, but not make the top 4 because they have to move on to the Regionals.
It was all about the speed and Dylan won 9th place.

Seinfeld???

During the few days that I took off last week from blogging Dup accused me of a Seinfeld. Apparently the story goes that they stopped making the sitcom because they ran out of material. I'm sure that is not the case, but whatever.

I was never a fan and didn't watch this show, but Dup loved it.

Here was my morning, Dup.
I almost went out of the house with a curler in my hair. I caught it when I went to put on my new knit hat. (made by Sharen).

I get over to the library and put my book into the return scanner, which sucks the books into the slot like a vacuum, and the thing makes a LOUD noise like it's shredding the book. I put on my innocent face and walk away. When I left I saw a "out of order" sign.

As I was standing in the Meijer parking lot panicked because I forgot where I parked the car, (I then realized I was driving a new car), a large man driving one of those handicap scooters hits the curb and falls over. Thank God there was a cart boy there to help him up, because I know I couldn't do it.

I found my car, got the groceries in the back, and sat there and started to laugh. Not because of the poor fat man, but because I am sure that anyone of these things that happened to me this morning could of been on Seinfeld.

New!!!!

I got a new camera for Christmas. I have been whinning for one for awhile. It's way fancier that my old one so I am still trying to get used to it. (Hopefully that happens before we leave on vacation).
I couldn't pass up trying it out on the BEAUTIFUL trees last week. The frost on the branches against the blue sky. WoW!
The landscape down the street was breathtaking, but by the time I got back from the doctor it was melting so I just took this from our tree in the backyard.
SEE......

I also couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a picture of this.
MY NEW CAR!
I hated to get rid of my old one. The warranty was running out and I don't like to drive without one.
I really hated not buying a car from Dup. He has sold me all my cars for the last 35 years. With Dup there was no hassling, no sitting around waiting, I just told him what I wanted and he found it for me. Most of the time he drove it to my door.

But - I really wanted a new car. The last one I bought new was 40 years ago. We bought Mike a new car 3 years ago, but I don't drive it. We walked into the dealership and I told the salesman. Sun Roof, Heated seats and NOT silver.

This is what he came up with and this baby is all mine.

2011 Chevrolet Equinox

Notice: The snow is gone - it disappeared with the 50 degrees we had the last 2 days.