The sunset on my walk on Sunday:

The sunset on my way home last night:

What is it about boys, water and rocks?  AJ had a couple of friends over yesterday, and we took the dogs for a walk.  They spent most of their time skipping rocks.  The dogs loved it!

 Shasta got a nice dusting of snow in the last storm.

We get to try something new for Allison - glasses!  We saw Dr. Cooper yesterday, and her vision has gotten slightly worse (she's nearsighted, but not nearly as bad as I am), and we are going to TRY glasses for her.  She seemed to react well to clearer vision when he was testing her, so we will see if she will wear the glasses.  Luckily, with insurance, there is nothing out of pocket for us, so if she doesn't wear them, at least we will have tried!  Dr. Cooper is so great with her.  He really tries to read her body language for reactions to what he's doing to see if it helps her or not.  Her glasses should be in next week, so......wish us luck!

We woke up to rain today - and the paper said that there would be no rain all this week.  Kind of a surprise!  So far, we have almost a quarter on an inch.  We need the rain, so I'm glad, I just need to stop reading the weather forecast!

Today is Ralph's birthday - he's 58.  How did that happen?  We are going to have Sandye watch Alli tonight, and AJ, Ralph, and I are going out to dinner.  We haven't done a 'family' dinner out in.....ever?  Usually, we do lunch instead.

Alli is stuck in her brace for at least another 6 months, possibly 12.  Bummer.  The good news is that her curvature has gotten better.  She started at a 47 degree upper curvature and a 59 degree bottom curvature and is now at 45 and 55.  She is still stuck in her brace, but....it is helping!  

Since her appointment was at 3:30 yesterday, I actually got home a bit early - what a shock!  I dug around in my 'WIP basket" and finished up a couple of projects last night (one just needed some ends woven in - why was it just sitting around, waiting for that?)  Here is a doily that I started this last weekend, and finished last night.  Look at me go!  Okay - it was all of 16 rounds, and very simple, but I think it is pretty.

I had some help getting pictures of it, too.  Thanks, Indy - you're always SUCH a help!  (Not!)

I finished the pirate baby booties - the picture doesn't show them too well - I should have taken the picture outside in full sun, but...since it was raining, that didn't happen.  And, since I don't have a light studio set up at home for photos, this is as good as it gets!  

Hopefully, they will be appreciated.  I don't think I've met the mom-to-be, as I work with the dad-to-be.  I think he will appreciate the booties, and his wife should like the afghan, at least.

Another fun fill week on tap.  Today, Alli has an appointment with her spine specialist.  We did x-rays last week.  I am really hoping she is done withe brace, at least full time.  I also need to call in to her pediatrician to get a referral to a dermatologist for her rash that isn't going away, and then tomorrow, Allison goes to see her eye doctor.

My first stage of the quilt is done.  I'm not extremely happy with it - too many errors, so it isn't "perfect", but...for my first try, I'm pretty happy!  I hope I can do the next stage a little better, so the finished project will look good.  

I ended up not going to Susanville - the weather forecast was not too pretty.  It turned out it was wrong, but....I was afraid to chance it.  It called for 4-6 inches of snow overnight in Susanville, and I didn't want to get snowed in there.  Turns out, the snow started this morning, so I could have made it back, if I started early in the morning, with no issues at all.  Oh well - I did get my quilt finished, and my baby booties (almost) finished.  The booties are done, now I just need to figure out where and how to do the buckles to turn them into pirate booties.  I also made a little lamb rattle to go with the set.  The afghan is in the washer now, so I'll get pictures after is is all dried and fluffy.

Finally, an evening home alone!  It felt like that, but it really hadn't been that long.  I have felt so busy lately it was nice last night to not feel busy.  I left work early for an eye doctor appointment (no changes - I don't need bifocals yet!) and then I picked up Alli from daycare and took her to MD Imaging to get x-rays taken of her back.  She has an appointment Monday with her spine specialist.  Then we went to Wal-mart because we were almost out of diapers.  Did I mention the doctor dilated my eyes?  I did just fine driving until we left Wal-mart, and it was dark and all the lights were just blurry halos.  Not a good drive home!  I got home at the normal time, so I started dinner, and then.....basically had the rest of the evening off!   After I cleaned up the kitchen, I worked a bit on my quilt.  I am down to just the boarders around the blocks now (for this month's assignment at least.)

They aren't perfect, and I know I need to improve in some areas, but....by golly, they look good!  I'm proud of me!

We had our book club meeting last night - we read The Book of Lost Things this time - a good book, but one I think I would have enjoyed more as a 13 year old.  The meeting was fun, but it has already been a long week, and I need some down time!  Tonight I can (hopefully) relax, but....I'm off to Susanville this weekend, weather permitting.  Since there are chain restriction right now, and the storm is supposed to get heavier today, we'll see if I make it.  It won't break my heart not to drive through the snow to get there, but I enjoy my visits - just not the snow!!!  The last trip wasn't a lot of fun - I think it took almost 4 hours to get there.

I was watching Allison eat breakfast this morning, when I noticed that there was a school bus parked outside.  It was 6:15, and not her regular bus!  I went out and told the substitute bus driver that Alli would be a few more minutes, since she was a bit early!  They had given the sub the 'old' schedule - the one where Alli was picked up at 6:05, not at 6:30.  Poor thing.  She had probably been sitting out there for 10 minutes before I noticed her there (I don't usually look out the window that time of the morning - it too dark to see anything!)  We got Alli all fed and teeth brushed, and ready for the bus by about 6:20, so she was early for her next stop, but that would give her time to find the house in the dark.

I ended up with a busy weekend!  Mom called Saturday afternoon, and while we were talking, she decided to come visit me on Sunday.  She and a friend of hers (who had never been to Redding) came over Sunday and stayed until this afternoon.  We had a nice visit, and we took Mom's friend to the Sundial Bridge Sunday, and then today, out to Whiskeytown and Shasta Dam.  We could have gone a few other places, but the friend forgot to mention she got car sick, so we called it quits after Shasta Dam.

We were at the bridge Sunday in time for sunset (too much time talking at the house!) and it was a bit brisk.  Okay, it was down right cold - the wind was freezing!

Today's trip was still cold, but most of it was driving.  Here is Alli at Whiskeytown, by the Glory Hole:

And Alli up at Shasta Dam

Mom and Alli at Shasta

Shasta Lake and Mt Shasta

While I was waiting for Mom to arrive Sunday, I started playing with my quilt pieces.  I was able to get quite a bit done while waiting - and would have had a lot more done if it weren't for having to stop and rip out what I had done (the very first thing I did was use the wrong seem allowance - everything had to be done twice!).  When I was pressing these blocks for the picture, I realized that one of the blocks had a square of fabric upside down, so I STILL had to rip out and start over again.  Sigh!  After Mom left today, I managed to fix my error and got a little bit further on the project.  Not too bad!  It is going faster than I thought it would.  The original project looked pretty big when we started, but I put a big dent in it this weekend.

I finished another project!  (and started a new one, of course!)  Here is a doily that I've had started since October.  I could not find beads that I liked for the outside, so...here are beads that are so-so.  They are larger than I wanted, and the doily is just a bit gaudy with them.  But......I am one more project closer to catching up with my WIP's.

My new project.....I went to a quilting class yesterday with a friend.  M has taken a quilting class before, but it was several years ago, and I have never taken one.  We've both done a bit of sewing in our youth, so it isn't all a foreign concept, but....it's a bit daunting when facing the other ladies that have been quilting for years.  There are about 25 people in the class, and M and I are the only 'first timers' there.  The group was very encouraging, and a lot of fun.  Even if I don't get 4 quilts done this year (the goal of the group) I will have had a very entertaining Saturday morning once a month.  Here is a copy of the book we are quilting from, and our first project is the top left quilt.  (We are also doing the top right, the middle right and bottom left, I think)



It is a nationwide club (I had no idea - I thought I was signing up for beginning quilting classes at the local quilt shop!) and the book/quilts changes every year.  This year, they are doing four smaller quilts, and you get enough fabric each meeting to do the 'assigned' blocks.  It really does break even a large quilt into manageable portions.  One lady brought in her finished quilt from last year, and it was huge.  (I felt a lot better when I found out that she was the only one that had finished it!)  Here is a picture of just the quilt we are doing now:


M and I decided to go in together to buy our quilting 'stuff'.  We needed a mat, a rotary cutter and a ruler.  We both had coupons for 50% off one item at Joannes, so she bought the mat and cutter ($46.00 for the set) and I bought the ruler and thread ($16.00 for the ruler).  We came out pretty good in the end - probably $18.00 for each of us, rather than $70.00 each.  She came over last night after dinner to cut out the fabric.  I couldn't wait that long to play with my new toys, so I had already cut mine out.  (I did watch a couple of videos on using the rotary cutter before I started.)  I had no problem with the cutter, but trying to figure out how to use the ruler was a bit more problematic.  (Suggestion #1 - don't  try something new when you are already tired!  Poor M had already put in a long day, so was completely pooped by 9:30 last night, and still had more pieces to cut.)  We both have our piece cut and are ready to sew!  One more unfinished project!

I'm off on a new adventure today - I start a quilting class!  I am hoping to not only learn to quilt and actually finish a quilt, but that I meet some new people and 'get out' more.  I have become so stuck in a rut over the last few years.  Go to work, go home.   This is a little out of my comfort zone, so....I'm glad I got pushed into doing it.

I finished the bookmarks for the book club last night.  I stayed up too late doing it, but I finished them!  I think they actually turned out looking like a scraggly tree in winter.  (The book has  a crooked tree, in which the main character moves from one world into another.)  Once again, I couldn't find anything out there for a pattern, so I had to create my own.  Not too shabby!  

AJ took his  annual dip in the pool on his birthday!  He waited for me to come in from work last night, so it was dark before he went in, so the pictures didn't turn out as good as they could have been.  My flash didn't work the first time he dove in, so he dove two more times for me, just so he could have pictures of it.  (You'd think that at 19, he would have outgrown it!)

It was a balmy 52 degrees outside - but the water felt like it was just a notch above freezing.

Brrrrr........

I got a few projects completed over the weekend - the hat, the baby afghan (no pictures yet), the first tree bookmark, and a few rounds on a doily.  Not too bad!

 Here is the yarn that I bought that is a ribbon, and the scarf that it is making:

Here is the yarn stretched out:

The hat that I finished:

The first attempt at a tree bookmark:

The second attempt - much better!  (The brown yarn helps!)

The dogs on our walk - chasing the ball - Koori is in the lead - eat her dust!!

Throw it!  Throw it!

Moon last night: