A Tale of Two Quilts

Well, we made it over the river (several times) and through the woods to my in-laws home in Boise. I am now currently in bed taking a break from binding this house warming gift for them. 

As I was binding this runner, I began thinking about the quilt I was snuggled under. The blocks are from a friendship quilt exchange my mother participated in along with my aunt and many of my "other mother" family friends. This quilt top was assembled and donated to MCC to raise funds for world relief. The North Fresno MCC Quilters hand quilted this and then it went up for sale at the Central California MCC auction. It was there my mother purchased it. After some shifting around, it now resides at my in- laws home in their new guest bedroom. What a treat for me to enjoy this reminder here of so much love and how lucky I am that all my worlds are so blended. 

My sister was telling me that she read The Quiltmakers Gift with a young girl that she mentors. Quilts are gifts that go beyond thread and material, making them all the more special to have out, use them, and remember their stories. Sure, there nice to preserve for posterities sake, but when they're tucked away, how can new memories woven into their tales. So, get those quilts out, take a picture, and use them, love them, love the people you connect with them, and make memories. 

And me? I will go back to binding....and enjoying a tale of two quilts that have crossed paths. 

Ice-Expanding My Schema

So you've seen the adventures of Daisy in snow. Today we explore what a Freezing Rain Advisory means. 

I checked the weather this morning and saw "Freezing Rain Advisory." Based on information I already had, freezing rain meant the water was snow. I thought that's silly. Why didn't they just put snow. When I arrived at my car I began to start to comprehend. Rain that hits lingers and turns to ice. I'm not really sure about the logistics on this one BUT I do know it meant I couldn't open my car door.

When I pulled on the handle the ice cracked but the door wouldn't budge. I hip checked it to loosen ice but still no budge. The ice scraper-not useful. Hot water-really not useful-and also increased the barrier of ice on the ridge at the base of the door. Finally Luke in his pajamas, coat and boots was able to force it open. 

This ice was so not like frost. 

Once I finally got into the car and got it going, the fans meant a bit of water under the ice and started to melt. I began to hit it with the butt if my ice scraper to cause it to crack and shatter off. 

Seriously peeps. Like a quarter of and inch thick! 

So this is how Idaho weeds out the weak. 

Daisy Does Snow

Having grown up in California, and taught middle school in Kansas (no recess in middle school and snow means snow day) it's still a bit surreal to me to be experiencing day to day things in snow. 

Here's the play area this morning blanketed in snow, and yep they played here. As did the people who made these footprints shortly after the snow. 

Me with snowflakes just after the kids had pre lunch recess and I was headed to my lunch break. 

My car. It never occurred to me that I shouldn't park my manual car facing uphill on a steep hill with snow on it. Duh. 

Yep. It's on the peoples grass strip. My principals solution: let it roll back as get both wheels on the curb to then steer off it. 

It worked. I wonder how I'll park tomorrow. 

Black Friday

was not a shopping day for me. At least it wasn't intended to be.
This one actually goes back a week. Luke had a bigger chunk of time off than I did so he left the Friday before Thanksgiving to go visit with his parents. That Saturday his dad had a big "work day" getting ready for a fundraiser put on by the hospital he works for. Luke tagged along to help

and they assembled and hung Santa, his sleigh, and his reindeer.  

Also during that week, Luke and John put up Christmas lights so that they could have their traditional day after Thanksgiving house lighting.

So, on Black Friday we went to the big Christmas Tree show/fundraiser.

We were joined by Jerel and Hailey Luke has known Jerel since forever, and we've loved having more chances to visit with them now that we've moved back to the area! 

We went back to the house and I got going on a turkey noodle soup from stock I'd made the evening of Thanksgiving! On a quick dash out I had driven by a Walgreens, on my way to the grocery store to get egg noodles. They had a sign that said 20% off Legos!?!? So I bought some. AND I had one of those rewards which I also used. Can you say jackpot?! 

We watched the boys unveil round 1 of the Christmas light festivities. 

Came in and enjoyed some soup. 

Then I introduced John, Luke and Neola to the magic of guessing which Minifigures are in the secret packet, actually being right, and the drive to finish the collection. We had one more errand that night (for shells and clay pigeons-my segue into the next post) and I convinced them that we should stop back at Walgreens for the rest of the collection. 

There we stood feverishly feeling up the Lego packets guessing at which Minifigure was inside.

I didn't see any of the stares because I was on a mission. Luke, John and Neola were great.

This was our haul: 

Once home we re-guessed and opened to confirm whether we were right or not.  

This actually turned out to be an excellent move because Luke caught our one and only error before we opened it!

Then Neola and I stopped by Target on Saturday to get the two Walgreens didn't have!

Sweet success! 

I was doing some grading in the computer lab, "My Room" or at least the room I decorated Lego Style, today and it was fun to hear some of their exclamations as they saw them when they came into the room! 

Icing on the cake was that we found this guy at Target too!

Luke and I built it together. 

Do you wanna build a snow man?