Arlo Dog Sitting

 When Bryan told me they were ready to get a dog. I raised my hand and told him we have dibs on dog sitting when they went on vacation. 

Pickup at the shelter

Off they went and we had Arlo (R-Roger, L-Luke, O-Owen) for a week. He was just a puppy, 6 month old. Mike and I were excited, but hesitant - it’s been 25 years since Cheesecake. 

Arlo won our hearts pretty quickly. He spent the first night sitting at the front door waiting for Mary or Bryan. That first night He tried really hard to go to sleep in his cage, but he needed someone, so I took him to bed with me. The second night he fell asleep pretty quickly, but woke up and got back into bed with me. 

I took him out every morning for a quick walk, but most of his long walks were with Mike. 

He loved the creek

Warming his butt after his 40 minute walk

I think he had a good time. Mike bought him a new toy. And played and played with him.

I got to hold and snuggle with him. I say that’s a fair trade. He is just a baby so he slept a lot. 

Loved my quilts

We decided that we didn’t want a permanent pet in the house, but we wouldn’t complain if the Florys wanted to take another vacation. Love you Arlo!

Quilts

 Last summer Mary asked me if I was interested in making quilts out of shirts and baby outfits she had saved from the boys.

I have always wanted to try and make a t-shirt quilt so I agreed to give it a try.

1 bin for each and a misc bin for any boy

I was amazed at all that she had saved and could not wait to get started. I was very careful about not getting them mixed up, I started with Roger. 

Scraped

Sewing blocks

Picking blocks

It was time consuming, each block had to have interfacing.  I did not want to screw it up. I wanted to enjoy the journey. I took my time and set Christmas as my deadline.

Each quilt had the same row width

I saw so many pieces of outfits and t-shirts I’ve seen in pictures thru the years. I was praying these turned out like I wanted them too.

I took some time off and worked on another project. Time is slipping and I needed to get back at them.

It was October and I needed to concentrate. I finally got the tops done. I’m really liking where this was headed. 

Owen 52 blocks

Roger 55 blocks

Luke 48 blocks

I decided on fleece for the back. It’s warmer sturdy and washable without shrinking.

Now the fun part. Ok, I love everything about quilting, but this is the place where I can share this with my Mom. She paid for this longarm machine. I know she would be so proud of me for doing this.

Roger’s

Owen’s

Luke’s

I did manage to finish for Christmas. Why so many pictures? These are not all of them. I had Mike take these photos to make a book for Bryan, Mary and the boys to see my “Making of the Quilts”. I really wanted to share the journey with them. 

I sent the quilts home with them Christmas Eve. I wanted them to open them as a family. 

Bryan FaceTimed me and I got to see them open them. It was exactly what I hoped for. Boys were excited. Mary was excited and Bryan thanked me again and again. 

A big thank you to Mary for saving these memories and trusting me with them to put it all together.

Christmas 2024

 We did not have a white Christmas again this year. We did have breakfast with the Dupplers as usual, but it was the four of us.

Christmas Eve was at our house again. Everyone came except for Todd (hope he’s doing better soon).

Mike had bought a game for us to enjoy - Uzzle. We all took a turn. Roger and Logan seemed to catch on pretty quick. Winners… I did much better when we each had our own card instead of trying to match the same picture. It was fun.

My dinner of lasagna, Mac n cheese, garlic sticks and salads must of been good most was gone. Or they were all hungry. Our traditional grandkids photo was taken.

Grandkids

Christmas Eve has always been at my house. I love that the family realizes how much it means to me and makes an effort to be here with us. I know some day it won’t be this way. I stopped a few times and looked at the family all together, laughing, talking, playing and filled my heart with the sights and sounds of love.

We spent a quite and delicious ham dinner with Sharen and Dup Christmas Day.