Mississippi Queen

Yeah, that's correct.  I am like royalty!

My family definitely needed some Mississippi/Tennessee time this summer.  We just returned home and it was a fantastic visit.  The theme for this visit?   My husband and kids are simply too good to be true and I am freakin' unbelievably lucky to have been blessed with this family.   Theme #2?  I love my life.

Here are some pictures, in no particular order:

Did I mention that we drove?  Here the kids are in Arizona.

We stayed with my Daddy.  Love the area around his house.

His house is in Hernando.  I love Hernando's Courthouse Square.

We often had ducks as sentries.

You can never have enough kudzu.

When visiting with my daddy, there is always some of this...

And some of this...

And a lot of this.  (This is a hole in the wall place near my dad's house.) 

Did I forget this?  Dale's is the yummiest (other than home-cooked.)
These greens and purple-hull peas were a little piece of heaven.

But my favorite things are the views...

We even went by my elementary school:  Southaven Elementary School.
I did go to Hope Sullivan for a year and a half, but this was the school that I remembered most.  

Old church/schoolhouse out on Malone Rd.

Look at these adorable "churn."

Visiting my mom's gravesite.

We had to visit Graceland, of course.

So many choices for an Elvis fan.  #TCB

Crazy Catch-Up Post v2.0-Cycling

In the last post, I caught up on the quilts that I've made since neglecting this blog.  In the post, I wanted to update you on my bike situation.  (Yes, in my opinion, it deserves its own post.)

Early in 2012, I tore my right meniscus.  Believe it or not, it happened at the gym stepping off of the treadmill.  I didn't realize that is what I had done and trying to talk myself out of any real pain (sheesh, I have had four children) I kept doing all of my normal exercising:  running, elliptical trainer, squats, blah, blah, blah...   Well, I did some serious damage.  Arghhhh.

Around that same time, my super-hot hubby decided that he would start riding regularly again.  Rene had been a hard-core mountain bike rider and cyclocross rider, but had never really been a serious road cyclist.  I love any opportunity to share pictures of my hotter than an oven-husband.  Here is a shot of him in a mountain bike race from back in the day:

Mmmmmm. Mmmmm. Mmmmmm.

I digress....back to road cycling.  Since he was going to start riding road seriously he needed a bike upgrade.  You will find that, in our family, it doesn't take much coaxing to upgrade our bikes.

So, hubs bought himself a Cannondale CAAD-10 Ultegra on a super-sweet deal.  His other Cannondale was available and considering my growing frustration with my knee injury, I decided to give it a try.  I hadn't ridden (other than our beachcomber) in years, so I wasn't sure if I was going to work with my knee injury.  It did.  I could ride for miles and miles and my knee is pain-free.  Yippee.
(It is a temporary fix, but I just keep putting off the surgery because I can't imagine being immobile considering our fast-paced life.)

The only problem was that Rene's old bike was too big for me.  It was 54 cm and just not a good fit.  He finally talked me into buying a new bike for myself that actually fits.  So I went to my favorite bike shop, Nytro, and was fitted for a bike that fit my frame.  I ended up with a 2012 Carbon Fiber Cannondale Synapse 51cm.  Such a better fit!  Now, my arms don't fall asleep on long rides.  Here is my little sweetie....

Look how cute our bikes are together.  His and hers.  Sick, right?

Alright, so I could go on and on (wait...already have) but the long and short of it is that we have been riding fools.  The other awesome thing is that Jake is old enough now to babysit the younger kids and he craves money like crazy so it is win-win.

In November, Rene and I signed up for a Century Ride called Bike the Coast.  This century ride was 100 miles up and down the coast...not a race-just a participation ride with a little bit of a competitive feel.

We did it!  Obviously, Rene killed it way quicker than I did but I was so happy to have finished.  100 freakin' miles!

The Start Line at 6am.  Ick and Brrrr.

My bike at a SAG station.

Finally, the finish line!  (I think that I crossed it around 1:15pm.)

   Since then, we have been bundled up and riding in the cold, winter months.  That almost seems like a joke out here in California.  Seriously.   :)

As of the end of the year, I had ridden 2,714 miles and I only started in May.  So, this year I would like to double the number of miles and vary my routes.  (Because I am normally in a time crunch, I tend to stay on the same route.)  So excited for this year!  Rene and I are also planning on taking our bikes to Mississippi with us when we go this summer.  Should be hot and fun!  :)

So excited for this year!  Rene and I are also planning on taking our bikes to Mississippi with us when we go this summer.  Should be hot and fun!  :)

Ok, I feel pretty caught up.  One more, as soon as I get to it, about the family.









  

Crazy Catch-Up Post v1.0-Quilts

Yes.  I have totally neglected this blog.   Sometimes, life moves pretty quick and it's not conducive to blogging.

I decided just to create one epic post to catch-up on quilts and then another to catch-up on everything else.

So without further adieu...

This quilt is one that I made for a teacher with whom I work.  She wanted a baby quilt for her step-daughter who was expecting a little boy named Levi.

I really liked the colors in this quilt.  The browns and blues are pretty calming, in my opinion.  I forgot to take a picture of the back, but I used the same blue flannel that I used in the sashing.  It was crazy soft and perfect for little Levi to snuggle.


The next quilt was one that I actually finished last year, but only recently finished quilting.  It has some great redwork, embroidery pieces sewn into the blocks that make me really love it.  I free-motion quilted some Christmas trees on the pinwheel blocks.  It was something new for me, but I really liked them.

In February, I posted Serendipitous Countdown to Christmas which earned the "Serendipitous" part of its name from the second quilt that could be made from the "discarded" portions cut after you made the blocks.  I finally finished the second quilt:  Christmas Leftovers

I hate how wonky the pictures look.  The quilt really is squared-up and not bowed out, but apparently I have no idea how to properly take a picture.  C'est la vie.

Finally, this is a quilt that I made when we went on our Julian trip.  (I didn't even get a chance to blog about that either...but it happened.)  It is quite possibly the easiest quilt that I have ever made.  I took some charm squares and "snowballed" opposing corners.  Easy-peasy.

I think these are my new favorite Christmas colors.  I didn't think that I would like the navy blue and the olive green, but the overall effect is very nice.  Likety-like.

There.  That wasn't so bad, huh?  All caught up in quilts.

No dress rehearsal

This is our life.  
Sorry for TTH non-sequitur... We decided to take one more little family getaway and I would guess that 90% of the music that we listened to on the way there and back was The Hip, so I am still in a poetic state of mind.

We hopped over the San Jacinto mountains to Palm Springs for a few days.  It was such fun!

The kids enjoyed the amazing pool...

I couldn't begin to count the number of times that the kids went down these slides.  Although Gabriela stuck to the little slide, the older three kids rode the heck out of the big slide.

Daniel making a big splash...

Jake holding the phone on his way down...

Some random shots...

We found the Hotel California!

Jake getting ready to slide, again.

The view from our Villa.

The girls going for a daytime swim.

The girls going for a nighttime swim.

Our crazy family.

Jake and the girls humoring me for a photo.

As always, it was some great family time and a perfect way to wind down our summer.  I do have to admit it was really nice to be home, too, where we only have to go to our backyard to enjoy a little bit of paradise!  :)

Thanks René, for the perfect frozen margarita!

In It to Spin It

a.k.a.  I knew my callipygous build would be useful one day.

This past Sunday, I went a little farther than my previous record distance.  I am beginning to think that 100 miles by the end of the summer is totally attainable!  So proud of myself!

My time wasn't that grand, considering my stop at the harbor to enjoy the afternoon, but I am mainly focused on increasing my distance-not decreasing my time.

Friday night, René and I had a hot date...we took a ride together.  It was fun to try to keep pace with him and even better to draft behind him into the headwind.  :)

(Isn't he adorable?)
Want to see something else adorable?  My bike!  (Actually, I am thinking about an upgrade... we shall see.)

Quilts for Kaitlyn's Promise

For the last two years, I have been able to create two quilts each year that I donated to Kaitlyn's Promise, in the hopes that Cheri could raffle them off to earn some money for their scholarship fund in Kaitlyn's honor.  

It was important to me to be able to continue to honor that commitment this year.  I got a bit of a late start this year and really had to put a rush on these two quilts, but was able to get them completed and in the mail two days before the event!  Whew!

I actually pieced the first quilt at our Cabin Fever Quilt Retreat; however, I had not found time to actually quilt it.  With the lazy summer days, I was able to get it finished pretty quickly.  (One of the quilts that I donated last year, Sunkissed Sherbet, used the same fabric, by the way.)  It is lap-sized and measures 43" x 57.5"


This quilt is titled Sunkissed Parallelograms because I used Moda's Sunkissed fabric line and...well...it has parallelograms.  The quilt is machine-quilted, by me, using a free-motion, meandering/stipple pattern.

I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with the second quilt that I donated.  It is a lap-sized decorative quilt that measures 41" x 49.5" and is titled "Tweet! Tweet! Tumbler." It featured Moda's "Tweet! Tweet" fabric line and I pieced this quilt in a tumbler pattern.

When I bought the fabric, I LOVED it and couldn't wait to find the perfect project to use it.  As soon as I started to piece this quilt, I hated this fabric.  I didn't like the way that the prints worked together and had a hard time coordinating placement of the pieces that didn't feel "heavy."  Yet, once it was pieced and I began quilting it, I fell in love with it again.  The final project was fairly pleasing.  I machine-quilted this quilt using a free-motion, stipple pattern.

Enjoy.

To pass the time...

I have a few quilts to post, but I am not ready to do so, but probably will later this afternoon...or tomorrow...or a week from now...you never know.

Yesterday, I went on a bike ride and had a few firsts.  First of all, I went farther than I have before which is awesome.

Here is a screenshot from my map my ride log:

Woot!  I have decided that I will ride 100 miles in one shot by the end of the summer.  Considering that yesterday was a breeze, I don't think that should be a problem.  I never in a million years thought that I would be a distance rider, but....you never know.

The other "first" that I had was my first battle wound.  I earned a road gash, not rash....gash.  Let's just say that my cleat would not clip out fast enough.  Ok, let's just say that *I* didn't clip out fast enough.  Fortunately, there wasn't a lot of traffic on the road because it could have been worse.  Here she is...the baby gash:

Sidenote:  It is amazingly difficult to take a picture of your elbow, especially when your adrenaline is flowing like the Mississippi River.   

When I stopped to clean the cut out at a water fountain and to fill my water bottles, I called René and told him what happened.  He asked, "Do you want me to come pick you up?"  I answered, "Of course not, but thank you."  I just wanted to be sure that he knew why I wasn't moving, if he was monitoring my ride with an app we use to keep track of each other on long rides.

As soon as I got home, he greeted me at the door with a broad grin on his face.  He was so proud of my first crash.  Ha!  See why I love this man?!?!?  He numbered off the reasons that he was proud of me and my epic ride.  (You see he has been cycling forever and I have only recently become serious about it.)

My boo-boo has now been properly treated with TLC and neosporin and my ego has been properly stroked by my sweetie.

I can't wait to get on my bike and go a little farther.  :)

Sagan for the stage win!

I love this kid!  

A Work of Heart

During the second semester, I was chosen to have a student teacher in my classroom.  To be honest, I was reluctant to accept another student teacher.  I have had nothing but wonderful experiences, but to mentor a beginning teacher, in a sincere and reflective manner, takes a lot of time and that is something of which I find I have only a little.  My principal was persuasive (READ-relentless) and I accepted the student teacher.  I am so glad that I did.

Ms. Nelson turned out to be a fantastic teacher with whom the students bonded easily and responded to willingly!  It was such a joy to watch her "come into her own" in the classroom and gain confidence in her teaching ability and style.  

We also had many things to talk outside of education because she is crafty-type person.  What the?? What?  Happy day!  

Well, all in all, I am so glad that I was blessed with Ms. Nelson in my class and I do hope that she gets to hang this quilt in a classroom of her own sooner, rather than later.  

Here is the quilt that the students helped me make for her.  They each decorated a square and I put them all together.  :)  Good luck, Ms. Nelson!