Little Man's quilt...

With 3 weeks to go, Em finished the quilt she was working on for Connor.  

She did an awesome job on it.  Her first quilt from following a pattern. 

She's definitely hooked now.  

Connor now has a HUGE supply of blankets to keep him warm.

At least for his first year.  :)

There are more plans for some more quilts from her, but she's got a couple of other little gifts she has on her to-do list that are priority.

Then she is talking about making a quilt to display at the fair!

Can't wait for that to be finished.

Weekend in a flash...

I have suffered with allergies all weekend.  This is the first spring in many years that I have had to stay indoors just so I wouldn't have to dope up on medicine in order to see or breathe.

So here is what I did...

I finished a few bibs for little Connor just in time for the baby shower.

sorry for the bad pic.

 I ventured out long enough to go get my hair cut.

About 5 inches.

Yeah, it's been a long time.

Some banana chocolate chip bread was made.

There's one slice left, I think.

I didn't scarf it all down.

I had help.

The girls and I have been watching Jane Austen movies we checked out from the library.

Love them!

I was thinking I needed something new for the table.

So I got the hook and yarn out.

It's a complete work in progress.

Decisions are made row by row.

I'm just trying to remember to write down what I did just in case I want to make another one.

When I can't decide what to do on the next row, I go back to the stripey blanket.

I'm nearly finished with main part of it.

Now I'm just enjoying some quiet time because the rest of the crew decided that they needed to go hiking before the rain came in.  

I didn't want to have any more sneezing attacks.

So I'm vegging out.

It's safe at home with hooks and yarn.

And M&M's.

The only bad thing about the whole weekend,

the windows have to stay shut.

Oh well, that will soon pass.

I hope.

Relaxing...

Even though we have been back home for a couple of weeks now, things just haven't felt like all has returned to a relaxed state of being around here.  It usually takes about a good week to unwind after getting back to our own things.  You know that wonderful feeling that you get when you walk back into your house and smell your smells, sit on your own furniture, sleep in your own bed.  But after this last trip it has taken longer to get to that relaxed state.  Much longer than what I would want and like.

But something happened over the weekend when my lilacs started to show off around here.  Their scent is everywhere.  I especially love smelling them after a rain shower.  It was as if they were putting on a show just for me.  A show that I needed.  A show that I was worried that I would miss while on our trip. A show that I desperately needed.

 There are three different lilacs in my yard.  Their colors are so wonderful.  I can't pick a favorite.

There is the dark purple one in the back yard.

The Sensation Lilac on one side of the front yard

And a wonderful white Primrose Lilac on the other side of the front yard.  I'm waiting for this one to make it's big show.

 One bush in particular, my Sensation Lilac, needed a teeny bit of trimming.  I took full advantage of making sure all the gorgeous blooms at the ends of the trimmings made their way into the house.

 They are over flowing every where.

I finally felt my self take a huge deep breath today.

As if all is okay because I did not miss my wonderful lilacs.

I was asked earlier today if I thought I had enough flowers in the yard.

NO.

One can never have too many flowers when they bring you so much happiness and peace to your day.

They make it possible for me to 'breathe' each day.

I love my yard and home.

Spring time friends...

My Mother's Day ended up being quite enjoyable.

Breakfast was made for me, though I did not eat it in bed.  I don't do the eating in bed thing.  Ick.

Dinner was also made for me.  Homemade spaghetti.  YUM!!

And while all of this was going on I was camping out in the craft room cutting lots of little squares for a new project.  It was quite nice to be doing my own little thing since I wasn't allowed in the kitchen that day.  So very nice I must say.

 A few moments were taken to go see our spring time friends that come a visit for a few weeks each year.  The girls really look forward to seeing them and making sure there are plenty of snacks to eat.

 The little friends would come up near the craft room window and just sit amongst the flowers.

 I kept checking on them to see how their accommodations were.  One must be a gracious hostess and make sure they have enough bread, water and quiet places to nap.  Every once in a while there would be little pecks on the window just to let us know they were still there.  A few times there were even knocks on the front door, almost as if they just wanted us to come out to say hi.  They would only take a few steps back when we opened the door and sit back down.  Too cute.

 After all the bird watching that was going on, I was able to manage a couple of little gifts for Connor.  Too many distractions going on that day.  Sweet distractions at least.

Maybe today I can get many more made.

If I'm not distracted by our spring time friends.

Mother's Day...

I was asked what I wanted for Mother's Day while we were on our trip.  It didn't take but a second to answer.

All I wanted was 

1.  to be able to see all the pretty flowers that the girls and I planted last fall, before they faded for the season and

2.  a quiet, simple day with my family, who makes Mother's Day possible for me.

As you can tell, my #1 request was answered already.

Now I'm just waiting for the second request tomorrow.

We were also surprised with the returning beauties that always greet us each year.

 You can't imagine how happy I was to see we hadn't missed our most wonderful lilacs.

Here's hoping that all of you have a fabulous Mother's Day also.

xxxx

Back home...

A quick trip back to Minnesota was made due to a medical condition with Glenn's father.  After things were quickly planned and packed we were headed down the road.  Early start you know because that's just how it happens with us you know.  By mid morning we were near coming up to Targhee Pass and I was getting a little nervous about seeing all those clouds covering up the Grand Tetons off on the side.

 But as quick as you blink, the clouds started to clear and the dear ole' sun showed it's self.

 All the roads were dry and clear thankfully.  But we were quite surprised to see how much snow was covering things in West Yellowstone.  There wasn't much parking to be had in town at all.

 After a quick fill-up we were headed toward the Gallatin River Valley until to be stopped by some wonderful creatures that were munching on anything they could find thanks to the melting snow.  It was hard not to miss them being there were signs every where telling of their presence ahead.

 After a few minutes of watching, we were back on track down through the valley heading for Bozeman.

 Then near the end of the valley, brakes were being hit and a quick turn around was made just so we could see a mommy and baby moose sitting in the snow.  I'm beginning to think Glenn has this thing with spotting moose because no one else saw them sitting there.  Good thing we have Glenn.

 After a nights stop in Billings we started early again so that we could make Fargo the next afternoon to stay at one of Glenn's brothers place.  Then a couple of days spent with Grandpa before his surgery.  Then down to another uncles house in Alexandria so we could be closer to the hospital where Grandpa would be in St. Cloud.  Things went tremendously well for him and he was out of the hospital sooner than the doctors thought.  I must make mention that this has been the one and only time in this man's life that he has ever been in the hospital for anything.  Amazing.

So after we made sure all was well with Glenn's father, we started getting things ready to head home.  Little would we know that we would go through an earthquake in Alexandria before heading home.  Nothing serious, 3.1 is all.  But an earthquake none the less.  And then after only 5 hours into the trip back home, we were forced off the interstate because of a BLIZZARD!!!!  Didn't see that coming.  Especially since we had been checking and re-checking all the forecasts for all the areas along the way back home.  A little snow in the northern part of North Dakota.  Yeah right.  Little snow my eye.  So after getting one of the few remaining rooms in Bismarck, we went out for food, snacks, etc. and hunkered down for the night.

The next morning we started out when the interstate was opened.  It was a slow go with all the compacted snow and ice all over the roads.  Lots of people were off the road in the deep snow banks.  There was even one big rig who thought it would be a good idea to pass us by going over all the compacted snow and ice and nearly lost control.  When I saw the truck bouncing and swerving next to us it was all I could do just to close my eyes, hold my breath and not make things worse for Glenn.  What a bunch of morons.  Yeah, that's the idiot in front of us.

 There were lots of big rigs that had slid of the road on the off ramps and were blocking the ramp completely because each end of the truck was stuck in the snow banks.  It was quite a welcome sight to cross the state line into Montana and to have dry, clear roads to drive on after 3 hours of stressful driving.

 The decision was made not the stop at another hotel for the night.  Mid afternoon found us back near West Yellowstone.

 There were a few jaywalkers cutting across the highway.  But of course we didn't mind.  Brenna was concerned that they should be taught that roads are dangerous though.

 Past the east end of town a baby bison was spotted by the road so we had to stop and watch for a few minutes since there was no traffic coming.

Then down the road a few miles we crossed the state line into Idaho.  Lots of squeals and cheering was going on even with the realization that we had about 6 more hours till home.  No one cared because just being back in Idaho, we were home.  So just after 11pm, we pull up in the drive way.  I opened the door to the house only to go running out to the front yard to check on all the blooms that I thought I would miss while gone.  I was so glad to see that they waited for me to get home to enjoy them.

I was up early the next morning just so I could see all the brightly colored blooms in the morning light.

It's good to be back home.