Memorial Day weekend - lots of work done!

I am the R.S. VT Co-ordinator in our ward. I spent two days putting this magnetic board together. Now I can see all the routes and makes changes and visually see the results.

Saturday morning Dad and I painted the outside of the gate, fence and side fence. We did it in

1-1/2 hours! Now it is finished! Yahoo! We stained the inside of the fence a month ago. It's rained so much we finally had a week of sun and got the outside done!

I put these stepping stone (blocks) in a month ago. When we got done with staining the fence, I spent 1 hour and 'pulled' out all the grass that was sticking out of the picket fence along the bottom!

This is my 'first' official rose in bloom at our new home! I planted 4 rose bushes and I love them! I put in two yellow bushes and two different pink bushes.
A month ago I put in the scalloped brick to keep the gravel and grass separate. Behind that utility box I dug up a bush. See below in the bucket. Poor planning on the guys that put in the landscaping. They put in right behind the utility box, hard to open those doors, plus it was right next to the driveway. I had to pull up just past it to get the door open and not step into the bush!

This is the bush I dug up.

We had quite a busy weekend holiday and got a lot accomplished!

Stained the rest of our fence.

Dug out grass in the picket fence.

Dug out a bush.

Sprayed Round-up on a few dandelions.

Mom dug 3 holes for my friend down the street to plant her 3 plants. The ground has plenty of rock and not much dirt. The holes were a foot deep. She is going to have hip surgery soon.

Dad mowed all the grass. It takes him 1 hour to mow both front and backyard!

Dad cleaned and straightened up his shed and garage.

Mom made her VT Board.

Finished! :o)

Kirsten . . . A future little Monet?

Kirsten's class did this really cute project. They made blossoming trees! It was a 3-day project.

Day 1- Paint the 8x10 board

Day 2- Paint the tree on the painted background

Day 3- Make blossoms and glue onto the tree

Add a mat background and glue painting onto mat.

Make a simple poem about Spring and tape onto mat.

In case you can't read the poem, it says...

Spring is like

Little girls.

Sugar and spice

And everything nice

Then hand over hand I had Kirsten write her name to autograph her painting. I absolutely love it!

Kirsten's tutor and I worked with Kirsten here a home on this art project. Kirsten hates anything on her hands; she's OCD about that! She didn't want to paint with the brush, so I had her put her fingers 'in' the paint and we moved her fingers about on the board. I loved the texture and it turned out cute. The picture I took didn't do it justice. What can I say, I am not a good photographer. Someday I'll work on that talent.

The blossoms can be made by shredding small pieces of tissue paper and rolling them up. I chose the hard way. I cute 1-inch squares of tissue paper, 2 layers at a time, and trimmed off the corners and twisted them into blooms. I made about 150 blooms! It took 2 hours! It was worth it! We put the glue on the painting and would lay the blooms down and have Kirsten 'press' the blooms on with her fingers. As soon as the glue got on her fingers, she recoiled! It was fun doing this with her. We had her look at different colors and had her chose her mat background. She needed a little help. When the picture was put together and finished we showed her and she seemed very pleased with her work! I need to find a picture frame that will allow for the blooms and not smash them.

Ice cream anyone? ... also books and Kirsten! :o)

This is Tillamook Chocolate Mudslide ice cream. It is really good! The ice cream is so smooth. The chocolate chunk is okay, kind of grainy. However this is the 'BIG CHUNK' that I dug out of the ice cream! They are usually small chunks. This one would fill an eight ounce cup!



I cut up that chunk into smaller pieces and it filled the lid!

Kirsten has been curious about some of her other books. It was so much fun watching her 'surprised smile' each time she would open the book and something would pop out! She played with this book for half an hour!

I was trying to get her to look up and 'smile' for me. She was too interested in her 'pop up' book rather than smile for me!

We have a new addition-meet 'Belle'

Surprise! Isn't she a beauty?! I named her 'Belle'. (From Beauty and the Beast) Sorry the pictures are not clearer as I am not the greatest photographer in the world! Too much glare. It has a nature pictures of waterfall, etc. Sorry you can't see it!

Why that name? Computers for me are a 'beauty' to use and a 'beast' when things go wrong! Usually I am the one with the problem and not always the computer. :o/

We got our income tax back and dad brought this home for me. Wow!

Some facts--

HP notebook pc

Intel Core 2 Duo processor

17.3" Digital HD widescreen

500GB (ooohhhh!) (250GBx2 - 5400PM) Dual Hard Drive

4096 MB DDR2 SDRAM (2Dimm)

802. 11a/b/g/n (draft 802.11n WLAN & Bluetooth

LightScribe Super Multi 8XDVD+RW with Double Layer Support

High Capacity 8-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery

HP Media Smart

HP Mobile Remote Control

5-in-1 Digital/Media Reader

Express Card/54PC Card Slot

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4650 Graphics with 1024 MB

DDR3 dedicated graphics memory

Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit) with Service Pack 1

HP Webcam

Expansion Port 3

WOW! WOW! WOW!

I told Neil the other day that when he retires we are going to need '2' computers because of our own competition to see who gets there first and how long we stay on there. That is not to say that I spend frivolous hours on it. I do my little routine thing and then I'm done. When he gets on he is much longer! He does a lot more than I do. Me, I just check my e-mails, blogs, facebook, research and a few other things.

He is setting up stuff for me on my laptop as I am 'clueless' in that category. It's a little different using a laptop. I need to create some kind of angled stand as I don't do well looking straight down with a neck injury from years ago. It's fun to use! I can put anything on there I want.! It's mine! :o)

The first thing I did was put all 'my favorites' on there! Wahoo! My blogs, and pccrafter, which I love and use a lot! I love using to creates notes, etc. I have also discovered a 'lot of patience' on my part is required using a laptop and learning all the new functions. However...this old dog loves learning new tricks!!! :o)

PS-Thank you Michelle and Doug for tutoring me through X-cel-wow! Love that program!

Thank you to all my 'techies' who help me, Neil, Chris, Michelle, Bob, Doug....just so you know, you'll probably be hearing from me again! Love ya! :o)

Yard Work! Oh My!

I worked out in the front yard just outside the front entry and oh my am I tired! Sorry about the duplicate picture. I tried to delete it, but failed. Oh well. We had the builder put in all rock. All the other houses had bark dust. I am terribly allergic to bark dust. It drives my allergies c-r-a-z-y! I like the rock and it's so easy to keep up when weeds pop up! I just check once a week and take any out! Some of the other houses liked ours and had it put in. Bark dust is nasty and has to be replace yearly. I put in brick borders to add a little color. I love yard animals, etc. and put them out there. We had them from our other house and I brought them with us. Several people have commented how cute they are! :o) I've added some new ones. If you look really hard in the bottom picture under the reddish tall plant, there is a little gnome and I also have a little frog under there too!

The scalloped brick lining the sidewalk is going on the other side of the front yard. You can't see it in any of the above pictures, but I put in that scalloped brick as a border between the lawn and the rocks. It keeps the grass out of the rocks and the rocks out of the grass!

Neil and I also finished staining the inside of the back yard fence and now we are waiting for 5 days of sun so we can do the outside of the fence on the street side. The fence has to be dry for 3 days before you stain and dry 2 days after you stain. Come on sun!

Kirsten's Feeling Soooo Much Better!!!

You can't tell too well, but Kirsten is 'smiling' while she is sucking her thumb!

I'm afraid Kirsten will forever suck her thumb. She's been sick for so long. This week has been the 'turn around' point for her. It's been a long 4 months. I love her in pink! She wears that color so well! The shirt is one I bought recently. I bought 2, one in pink and one in lime green. She couldn't take her eyes off the bright green one, so we had to buy both of them! Next time she wears it I will take a picture of her and post it! :o)

Kirsten ate 3 days in a row! Only once each day, but what an improvement! She still sleeps in until 1pm each day, but she's getting better and she's happier and feeling much, much better than a week ago!

Kirsten has 2 days left of her antibiotic. It's supposed to stay with her for 3 weeks when she finishes that last dose. I sure hope she does not get sick any more! We like seeing her happy and well! :o)

Sewing curtains...hmmm

David took this picture with his blackberry. It is a picture of the curtains I made for he and Angela.

I hope to get a clearer picture soon. I was happy to at least see this one! :o)

David works for a furniture manufacturing place. They will have left over cuts of fabric that they can't use. The employees can take whatever they want from their discard pile. David brought home the red fabric in the picture. He asked me if I would make some curtains for their living room. Angela wanted the loops for the curtains to hang rather than the standard ruffle.

The curtains were easy to sew. However, those loops were a challenge! I had to make '40' of them. If I ever see another one, it will be too soon! I am glad that David and Angela love their curtains! They did turnout nice. I am 'not' a professional by any stretch of the imagination.