Wayne Left Me, But Now He is Back

Wayne went to visit his mom near Tacoma, Washington for 8 days, and just got back this morning, after being on the red-eye overnight. (I kept joking and telling people he had left me for another woman. And it was true. But of course it was okay since it was his mother.)

He had a fun time, they did part of his "Long Way Round" goals of touring every bit of the edges of the United States. He and his brother, his mother, and his sister drove his mom's car around the Olympic Peninsula for 3 days. It was not quite as good as driving his convertible, but it will have to do for now.

I only have two days of seminary left, tomorrow and Wednesday. Then WHAT WILL I DO ALL DAY? I can hardly wait to find out.

One of the things I need to do is inventory my food storage and emergency preparedness supplies. We haven't had any bad hurricanes here since Fran and Floyd. It is about time we have another doozy of a storm, and I will truly hate myself if I am not prepared, since being worried about emergency preparedness is one of my favorite hobbies. Wouldn't that be a joke, to find out that I am all talk and no do. That is referred to as "All hat and no cattle" back where I come from.

Couldn't keep her out of the picture

I have been working on redoing my website, and one of the things I had to do was take new photos of all the quilts I have made in the past two years. I was babysitting Elizabeth and Thomas while taking the photos, and Elizabeth kept getting into the photos. She was just dying to get her picture taken.



I made this quilt top from an antique grandmother's garden quilt top that my mom bought at an estate sale. About 20 years ago, I washed it, and parts of it shredded away. Of course the quilt top was ruined. So over time, I took it apart and resewed the good pieces onto this green background, then put some borders around it. Last year I finally got the little quilt top done, but not quilted.

Now it is a beautiful new baby-size quilt top, ready for some new grandchild to inherit it.

Or to be used for a budding model's photo backdrop.

Head Chopped Off

(News Flash!!!!! Seth got accepted into the masters degree program for engineering at NCSU!!!! He starts class on July 1.)


I was babysitting Elizabeth and Thomas on Tuesday, and I sang them a song from the Kingston Trio, "With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm". Its a gory song, but our boys seemed to love it when Wayne used to sing it to them for a bedtime lullaby. I guess we are just a messed up family.

With Her Head Tucked Underneath Her Arm

Weston/Lee/Weston

In the tower of London, large as life, the ghost of Anne Bolyn walks they declare.
Poor Anne Bolyn was once King Henry's wife until he made the headsman bob her hair.
Ah, yes, he did her wrong long years ago and she comes up at night to tell him so,

Chorus:
With her head tucked underneath her arm she walks the bloody tower,
With her head tucked underneath her arm at the midnight hour.

She comes to haunt King Henry. She means giving him what for. Gadzooks, she's going to tell him off. She's feeling very sore,
And just in case the headsman wants to give her an encore, she's has her head tucked underneath her arm.

(Chorus)

The sentries think that it's a football that she carries in and when they had a few they shout, "Is Army going to win?"
They think that it's Red Grange instead of poor old Ann Bolyn with her head tucked underneath her arm.

Sometimes gay King Henry gives a spread for all his pals and gals and ghostly crew.
The headsman carves the joint and cuts the bread then in comes Anne Bolyn to queer the do.
She holds her head up with a wild war whoop and Henry cries, "Don't drop it in the soup!"

(Chorus)

One night she caught King Henry, he was in the canteen bar. Said he, "Are you Jane Seymour, Anne Bolyn, or Katherine Parr?
How the sweet san perryann do I know who you are with your head tucked underneath your arm?"

(I was actually surprised when I read the lyrics. I always thought it said, "and in comes Anne Bolyn to clear the dew.")

Janette's Birthday

Janette and Seth moved to Cary a couple of weeks ago. My brain is still not accustomed to the fact that they live here now. Apparently my mind still thinks they live in Utah. They have dropped in several times, and it is the strangest thing, each time they walk into my house I do a double-take and say to myself, "What are they doing here? They live in Utah."

And then I remember. But there is always a split-second of confusion.

Anyway...

Today is Janette's birthday, and it will be her first birthday as a married woman AND her first birthday living near her inlaws.

Warning to Janette: The Wayne and Amy family is very untalented at celebrating birthdays. We sometimes try, but we usually fail. So just remember to train your husband to celebrate your birthday in the manner to which you are accustomed. Because the rest of the family might have good intentions, but we are pretty old and set in our ways. So you may not be able to retrain all of us. However, you and your sisters-in-laws could probably push the family toward more celebratory traditions if you all make it a common goal. And that would really be an improvement for our family.

I apoligize in advance to all my daughters-in-laws because I know I didn't train my sons well in gift giving. Any talents they have in this area came from their own personalities, not from me.

Here is a hint from one of my relatives:
She noticed that her husband was a dud at celebrating her birthday. After several years of crying from disappointment, she decided to let her wishes be known. So every year, she finds 3 or 4 wonderful things and she tells him about them in advance. "Remember, on my birthday we are going to go out for dinner at ___________." And "Remember, on my birthday, you need to come home from work early." And "Remember, my favorite flowers are ______________ and I would love a big bouquet of them on my birthday."

Her husband loves her and so he does all those things, and she is happy she got the birthday she wanted, and he is happy he didn't have to think of them.

P.S. Janette, I hope you have a very happy birthday today!

Work and Opportunity

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge

If A is success in life, then A equals X plus Y plus Z. Work is X, Y is play, and Z is keeping your mouth shut. Albert Einstein

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison

You can’t build a reputation on what you’re GOING to do. Henry Ford

The harder you work, the luckier you get.

The man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it. Harry Emerson Fosdick

Do or do not. There is no try. –Yoda

Advice for Sewing, 1949

This "advice" was in a Singer Sewing Manual from 1949.

"Prepare yourself mentally for sewing. Think about what you are going to do...never approach sewing with a sigh or lackadaisically. Good results are difficult when indifference predominates.

Never try to sew with a sink full of dirty dishes or beds unmade. When there are urgent housekeeping chores, do these first so your mind is free to enjoy your sewing....

When you sew, make yourself as attractive as possible. Put on a clean dress. Keep a little bag full of French chalk near your sewing machine to dust your fingers at intervals. Have your hair in order, powder and lipstick put on....

[If] you are constantly fearful that a visitor will drop in or your husband will come home and you will not look neatly put together, you will not enjoy your sewing as you should."

Yeah, right.

Jacket for Strapless Formal

Once again, I had to make a jacket to cover up the top of a strapless formal. I think the jacket turned out really cute with a double layer of gathered black tulle around the edges.

(What was it that Dorothy Parker called these kinds of dresses? Oh yes. A gownless evening strap.)

Tara at the Prom

Tara and Andrew went to the Panther Creek High School Prom last Saturday. Janette did her nails, and a friend's mom styled her hair. Sorry, I still don't know how to turn photos on this Mac.

Publicity Miracle

I still don't know if I am getting released from seminary, but I am thinking it will happen. My plans are to pursue my quilting career again full blast, so I can be hired by lots of quilt guilds and quilting conferences again. For the last 2 years I have not worked much, because I wasn't advertising myself. It was too stressful teaching seminary and then trying to do all the paperwork for the business.

A few months ago, I finally entered some quilts in the AQS show in Lancaster PA, and although I didn't win any of the cash awards my quilt caught the eye of the editors of American Quilter magazine. I would say that this is one of the top few quilting magazines in the world. And the editors liked my quilt well enough to feature it in a big way in the American Quilter July 2010 issue, which came in the mail yesterday.

This is a pretty big deal for me to have a full page devoted to my quilt, with all the text explaining about the quilt. Only the best of show winners and some of the category winners from the Lancaster Show had their quilts with full page pictures. (Of course they also won big cash awards, but lets not think about that.)



(Click on the photo so you can read the text, it is completely accurate, no misprints or inaccuracies, she even listed my website url, which she said they wouldn't do.)

So I am thinking, that if Heavenly Father wanted to tell me "thank you" for teaching seminary and for putting my business on hold, and if He wanted to give me some free publicity to jump start my entrance into the ranks of the famous quilting teachers, He couldn't have done a much better job. This publicity is truly a miracle. Thank you, Heavenly Father.

Isaiah and The Light of Understanding

This piece of art was made by my son Seth for his final project in his Isaiah class at BYU.

When you look at the above photo, it looks like a mess. The idea is that Isaiah's writings just look like a big jumble of unintelligible strange scriptures, and no one can figure out what Isaiah is talking about.


But to anyone with the light of the Holy Ghost, modern-day revelation, and the spirit of prophecy, the main ideas of what Isaiah is teaching will be plain. 2 Nephi 25:4, Doctrine and Covenants 8:11

I love 2 Nephi 15:26-30. LeGrand Richards explained that in these verses, Isaiah saw a vision of modern transportation: trains, plains, army tanks, etc., but just didn't know how to explain what he saw.

Bolivian Artifacts

Wayne went on his mission to La Paz, Bolivia in 1975- 1977. A few years ago, he put together a display of all his mission stuff for some church event. I thought my readers might find it interesting to see what types of things he brought home from his mission. (Click on the photo to make it bigger.)

(He didn't bring home the CD player, I suppose he was using it in the display to play pretty Bolivian Andean flute music.)

Do You Like My Hat?

My friend Amelia leads the singing in Primary, and she made this birthday hat for the children to wear during their birthday song. I took a picture of her son wearing it.

I just love goofy hats like this. When Tara was 6 we had a dress-up party for her little friends and everyone glued flowers, ribbons, etc. all over big hats that I had purchased at the Dorcas Thrift Shop.

We seem to have quite a hat collection at our house. When Bryce came home from his mission, I grabbed a lot of the hats out of Tara's closet and put them on everyone.



And I love the book "Go Dog Go". I was just reading it to Elizabeth the other day. Now we say to each other, "Do you like my hat?"
"No, I do not like your hat."
"Goodbye."
"GOODBYE!"

Destructive Stories about America

Orson Scott Card gave a speech when he received the 2010 Distinguished Public Service Award from the Washington, D.C. chapter of BYU Management Society.

As quoted in Mormon Times, Saturday May 1, 2010, he spoke of how America's strong society began to be dismantled in the 1960's and the once-good, once-strong culture became seriously damaged. "The strength of the culture is eating itself from within," aided by destructive stories, he said.

Some of the destructive stories include:

"The old morality is stupid"

"Marriage should last only as long as you're enjoying it."

"America mistreats other countries as well as the poor."

"God is dead."

"Those who believe in God are forcing their religion on others."

"People who don't have the same political beliefs as me are evil or stupid."

"My side should have complete control of the education of everybody else's children."

"The only law in business is do what works as long as you can get away with it."

"The new American dream is to have stuff and be guaranteed that you'll have the same rewards as people who are luckier or harder working or smarter than you."

Peek into the Future

(I added some photos on May 13- Seth and Janette all moved in, and May 15- Adam's Award, so go back and look at them.)

I was walking by our car and noticed that the paint job was like a funhouse mirror. I thought, if I keep eating brownies I am going to look like this soon.

My sister always called me Squatty Body, and I could definitely grow into that name.

Adam's Graduation

Adam graduated from NCSU School of Design on Saturday. Wayne and I, Tiffany and Tiffany's parents got to attend the ceremony.

It was the School of Design (the artsy people) so we were not surprised to find out that they were not required to wear caps and gowns. About a third to a half of the people had gowns on. The rest wore all sorts of things. Adam chose to buy a red shirt for the occasion, so he blended in really well with the red gowns.

Two of the young women wearing caps and gowns decorated the tops of their caps with sequiny glittery pictures. One was a picture of a Wolf, and the other said "Hi Guys!" Those two caps gave some nice variety to the sea of plain caps we saw, looking down from above.

Before the ceremony, someone started throwing around a blowup flamingo, and it was thrown from person to person for quite a while.

As the graduates walked past to get their empty diploma cover (note inside:" You will get your real diploma in the mail after you pay all fines, overdue charges, and pass your final grades") they showed an image on a big screen. Most of the people had closeups of themselves, or themself and their spouse, but some got pretty inventive. There were several really memorable photos: jumping off cliffs into the ocean, or standing behind a pile of 1000 textbooks, or stuffing a whole piece of pie in their mouth.

My Ride to the Fabric Store

Saturday morning I wanted to go to the fabric store, because I have a new quilt that I am dying to make and I had been waiting all week for a chance to go.

Wayne had just bought his convertible the day before. When I said I was going, he said "I'll take you there." This is fairly unusual, I usually drive myself on errands such as this. But he was so excited to drive his car again that he gave me a ride. Unfortunately for him, I hate convertibles so he had to drive me there with the top up. But then he put the top down and drove around Umstead State Park for 45 minutes while I shopped, then he came back to pick me up in perfect time, just when I was checking out.

I spent $66 on fabric, which I don't do too often, but I bought the whole entire project at once, instead of using fabric I already had, and adding additional fabric to it. This one will be new and different colors for me, colors that I did not already have in my stash, and I am pretty antsy to get started.


Here is Wayne in the parking lot of "Wish Upon a Quilt" in Raleigh. I love that fabric store!

Adam's Award, Wayne's New Car

Yesterday Wayne bought a grey 2007 Mustang Convertible. He has wanted a convertible ever since he watched "Long Way Round" and "Long Way Down", the two series starring Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman, where they rode their motorcycles all the way around the world, and all the way from the tip of Scotland to the end of Africa. He wants to do something similar, but in a convertible.

I pretty much kept my mouth shut while he was looking. I knew he was going to buy one when he found the perfect one. I knew that it was inevitable. It was fate. I am neither happy nor sad. I just figure it is like the sunrise and sunset and the changing of the seasons. They just happen, there is nothing you can do about it.

(In case you are feeling some sense of deja vu, yes, this is his fourth Mustang. He has owned a black 1965, a black 1968, a red 2004, and now a grey 2007 convertible.)


Yesterday we went to the awards ceremony for the School of Design at NC State. Adam got an award........(drumroll)...The Digital Mouse award, for Excellence and Leadership in digital technology.


Today he will be graduating from NC State. We are very proud of him!
(Here are photos of Tiffany and Adam on the way to the awards ceremony. The grounds of NCSU are so pretty!)

Rules Written by Men

We always hear “The Rules” from the female side. Now here are the rules from the male side.

These are our rules!
Please note…These are all numbered “1” on purpose!

1-Men are NOT mind readers.

1-Learn to work the toilet seat. You’re a big girl. If it’s up, put it down. We need it up, you need it down. You don’t hear us complaining about you leaving it down.

1-Sunday Sports: It’s like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.

1-Crying is blackmail.

1-Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work! Strong hints do not work! Obvious hints do not work! Just say it!

1-Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.

1-Come to us with a problem ONLY if you want help solving it. That’s what we do. Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.

1-Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.

1-If you think you’re fat, you probably are. Don’t ask us.

1-If something we said can be interpreted two ways and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.

1-You can either ask us to do something or tell us how you want it done. Not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.

1-Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.

1-Christopher Columbus did not need directions and neither do we.

1-All men see in only 16 colors, like windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.

1-If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.

1-If we ask what is wrong and you say “nothing”, we will act like nothing’s wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.

1-If you ask a question you don’t want an answer to, expect an answer you don’t want to hear.

1-When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine…REALLY.

1-Don’t ask us what we’re thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as baseball or golf.

1-You have enough clothes.

1-You have too many shoes.

1-I am in shape. ROUND is a shape.

1-Thank you for reading this. Yes, I know, I have to sleep on the couch tonight; But did you know men really don’t mind that? It’s like camping.

Seth and Janette All Moved In

Yesterday we unloaded Seth's and Janette's truck, and they are now residents of Raleigh North Carolina. They will be in the Cary 2nd Ward with Isaac's family. It is wonderful to have 3 married boys all living nearby.

I am having fits with all the things I need to do to get my business back underway. While teaching seminary for four years, I have let the business slide. Now I have to get my website completely redone (anyone know who I should hire? or what template I should use?), new brochures sent out to quilt guilds so they will hire me again, and buy the projector and make the Power Point presentations to replace my slide shows.

On top of that, we are having another workday for the stake charity baby quilt project on Wed. May 19 (I have committed to getting 50 quilts ready to tie at our Youth Conference in July) and my dining room is full of the baby quilt supplies. Zac needs to get his Eagle project turned in, and I need to make a lace jacket to go over Tara's strapless Prom dress.

So why is it that the only thing I want to spend time on is designing a new competition quilt?

Power Point Presentation nightmares

I've got to teach quilting in Texas in July, and know that the time has come to convert from slide presentations to Power Point. And now that I am trying to do it, I am having nightmares at night. This whole thing is stressing me out. I have a Mac computer at home, a PC laptop to take on the road with me, and I don't know whether to do a Keynote or a Power Point. It is too complicated. And I only have 2 months to figure it all out.



Here's an article written by John Boehner, the House Republican Leader, about the Freddie and Fannie mess. "CNBC’s Rick Santelli Rips Key Democrat For Ignoring Fannie/Freddie Reform" http://gopleader.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=184989

Love This Rug!

I COULD NOT PASS UP THIS RUG! It looks just like some of my quilts. I wish I could have bought 5 of them to put all around my house. I wish I could have runners made to go down my hall. You just shouldn't pass up things that are exactly perfect for you. And this is one of those things.

Advice from George Bernard Shaw

A playwrite asked his hero, George Bernard Shaw, if he should continue with the profession of playwriting. “Go on writing plays, my boy”, Shaw encouraged. “One of these days one of these London producers will go into his office and say to his secretary, ‘Is there a play from Shaw this morning?’ and when she says, ‘No’, he will say, ‘Well, then we’ll have a start on the rubbish.’ And that’s your chance, my boy.”

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to everyone I love who is a mother. We are having a quiet day at home today, because late tonight Seth and Janette should be arriving, and then we will all get together tomorrow for a late Mother's Day /Welcome Home party. We are so excited that they are moving here.

We went to Adam's senior art exhibit at the Fish Market Gallery in Raleigh Friday night, I am so impressed with my son's artwork.







In honor of Mother's Day, I want to re-post something that I have put on my blog before. In case you've never read it, this story will prove to you that Motherhood Isn't for Wimps. This is one of the most classic stories from my young motherhood.

Hard Times as a Young Mother

(Photo: My family in 1987, about six months before this story happened.)


A letter I wrote to my mother from Cary, North Carolina, May 10, 1988. We had moved to Cary in December 1987. We had three boys, Adam was 6, Isaac was 4, Seth was almost 3. I was 7 1/2 months pregnant with our fourth son Bryce.


Dear Mother,
I am at the end of a long day. I thought I would tell you about it and xerox it for my journal.

We got up this morning at 8 am and cleaned the house in preparation for our arts and crafts class (two other home school families come over once a week). We made sack puppets decorated with construction paper and yarn for hair.

My kitchen was covered with big packages of food storage in various 5-gallon buckets and number 10 cans so all day whenever any of my kids fought or did something naughty I made them carry something down to the basement. Now the kitchen is almost clean and I didn’t spank or pull hair all day.

After the other kids left we ate lunch and then went on errands. First we went to the grocery store and bought lots more food storage items.

Yesterday I got my years supply of grape jelly, macaroni, and shortening. Today I got 10 bottles of 2-liter soda pop (we will use the empty bottles for water storage), oil, and mayonnaise. I keep finding things on sale and buying a bunch.

I had to fight with Adam at the checkout counter because he is fascinated with the conveyor belt that moves the groceries and likes to hold the groceries back with his hand.

Then we went to the library. It has a fun children’s playroom, and the kids went straight in there while I put our 23 books in the book return hole. As soon as I was done I heard Seth screaming and ran in there and Seth had fallen on a sharp corner of the baseboard and punched a small hole in his forehead.

Blood was running down his face and he was screaming. I laid him on the librarian’s counter and she got a bandaid and some ice wrapped in a kleenex and I carried him outside to scream for another 5 minutes. Adam and Isaac wanted to check out some books so I told them to pick out their own and gave them my library card, and they did just fine.

We came home and I read them 3 books and felt so sleepy I made them all get in their beds and we all fell asleep (except Adam, but he was quiet.) I woke up 45 minutes later.

Adam and I made a casserole together. Wayne came home just long enough to eat, then he went to church to teach his Webelos scouts. While he was gone I got Seth up from his nap and he had wet the bed. (He has been in training pants for a week but I have always put diapers on him at night).

I had to feed Isaac and Seth, and since it was Isaac’s day he had to help me with the dishes. While cleaning off the table Isaac got too enthusiastic with spinning the lazy susan that is in the middle of our table and a jar of pickled beets tipped over. It was spinning so fast the juice flew clear to the wall on three sides of the kitchen before the jar finally spun off the table and hit the floor, splashing the rest of the juice and beets all over the other side of the kitchen.

I couldn’t believe I didn’t yell or anything, I just told Isaac to start carrying food storage downstairs and he did that the whole time I scrubbed all the floor, walls, table legs, and folding chairs. The 1/4th of the kitchen floor that didn’t get beets on it was already sticky because two nights ago we had a friend of Wayne’s over and served pop. Seth spilled two whole glasses, one right in the visitor’s lap.

After I got the beets cleaned up, Adam was trying to close his bedroom window and it closed on his finger and scraped some skin off so he cried a long time.

Now Wayne came home from church so I decided since my legs hurt I would sit here and write about my exciting day. I figured you would enjoy hearing about it.

Love, Amy

P.S. As Wayne was reading this letter and chuckling about it, Seth came out of the bathroom after going potty. He said, “I dropped the roll of toilet paper in the potty. Sorry.”

Disposophobia

Many years ago I used to visit teach a woman who was a hoarder. Her house was filled to the brim with possessions, junk, trash, recyclables, collections, and garbage. I saw this YouTube about hoarders and it reminded me of her. I suppose people like this have a fear of disposing of anything. They keep it all.

Click on this link to watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl57o1GEg5c&NR=1

I like FlyLady's motto, if it isn't blessing your life, give it away so it can bless someone else's life. I just love to get rid of things. If I didn't have 3 other people living here (plus the need to have food storage and emergency preparedness stuff) I would have a pretty empty house.

I get rid of things on a weekly basis, because I pass Goodwill every Wednesday on my way home from the temple. It is a great feeling.

Washing Machine for Emergencies

I just bought this emergency washing machine from Emergency Essentials. It looks a little like a plunger. (In fact, some survivalist books say you can use a clean plunger. But this one has been engineered to do a better job on clothing- see the grill? That keeps the clothes from getting sucked up into the plunger, and creates a vacuum to pull the water through the clothing better.)

You take a 5 gallon bucket and cut a hole in the lid for the handle to stick through. Put water and detergent in the bucket with the clothing, and beat the clothing like you are churning butter.

I think it looks like it would do a better job than scrubbing on a washboard, which some of my boys had to do on their missions.

Some More Charity Quilts

I worked all last week matching up the donated fabrics and deciding which fabrics would go with which borders and backings.

I am down to pretty slim pickings now, with very few big pieces left for backings.

I had lots and lots of little strips left, so I created these three quilt tops using strips, to go with the large pieces of red I had left for the borders and backings. They are not masterpieces, but at least they will cover some needy baby or an old person at a rest home.

(Oh, did I say "worked" all last week? I think I meant to say "played".)

Over the Hill, Fourth Graduation

This quilt is hanging near my bedroom door, so I see it several times a day.

I made it in 2002, and while I was sewing it I was actually thinking about how our houses become more delapidated every year, not about our bodies. But now that I am 8 years older, I am thinking more about my mind and my body wearing out. My eyesight is getting so terrible I need to get some magnifying glasses so I can thread needles again.

And my brain is shot and I am a terrible person, I was only thinking of the 3 people graduating from college, and completely neglected to mention that TARA IS GRADUATING FROM HIGH SCHOOL in June. So I apoligize for forgetting that.

"Over the Hill", 15"w x 12"h. I made this highly embellished piece in a workshop taught by Susan Shie. I've always enjoyed her quilts.

Three Graduations

Seth graduated from BYU a week ago, and Janette graduated from UVU last Friday. And Adam will be graduating from the Design School at NCSU in another week and a half! We are very proud!!!

(And Seth and Janette are currently driving from Utah to North Carolina, where they have leased an apartment close to NC State!)

Changed to Roche

After the Primary debate last Saturday, I changed my opinion and will be voting for Frank Roche for 4th US Congressional district (not B.J. Lawson). I ended up agreeing with Roche more than I knew.

Remember to vote in the Primary on Tuesday May 4!

Time Management

I was raised in Oklahoma, and it is a rural state. A very important person in each county is the county extension agent. He helps the farmers with information on how best to raise their crops or their animals. There was a story once of a county extension agent who was driving along down a country road, and he saw a farmer out in a field with his pigs. The extension agent thought, well, that’s mighty strange, that farmer is doing something I’ve never seen done before.

He watched the farmer awhile, and realized that the farmer was picking up each pig, and holding the pig up to the apple tree, and letting the pig eat the apples off of the branches of the tree. Then when that pig was done, he would pick up the next one.

The extension agent got out of his truck, and walked over to the farmer. Hello, I’m the extension agent, and I’ve noticed that you are holding your pigs up to eat the apples off the tree. I have a suggestion for you, You know, if you would just shake the tree, the apples would fall off, and the pigs could eat them off of the ground. It would save an awful lot of time

The farmer looked at him and thought about it for a minute, and said, “What’s time to a pig?”

Old Testament Jokes

This is a comedy skit from the recording "Old Testament and Other Stories" by the 3D's.

What kinds of jokes did they have in the Old Testament? Old jokes.

Who was the greatest actor in the Bible? Samson, he brought down the house. He was the only man to ever die of fallen arches.

Where is tennis first mentioned in the Bible? When Joseph served in pharoah's court.

Speaking of sports, Where is baseball first mentioned in the Bible? In the big inning.

Where else is baseball mentioned? When Rebekah walked to the well with a pitcher.

Who was the greatest financier in bible? Noah, he floated his stock while the rest of the world was in liquidation.

And don't forget pharoah's daughter, she took a little prophet out of the bullrushes.

When does the Bible mention the first motorcycle? When the roar of Pharoah's triumph was heard throughout the land.

Who were the first man and woman mentioned in bible? Ginny Sis and Chap One

How long did Cain hate his brother.? As long as he was Able.

Why was Goliath so surprised when David slew him? A thing like that had never entered his head before.

Speaking of headaches, Who got the first prescription? Moses, he got two tablets

Who was the best doctor? Job, he had the most patience.

Who was the busiest doctor Moses, he delivered the whole house of Israel

Incredible Shrinking Toilet Paper

I got some toilet paper down from the attic, and proved what I had been thinking for a couple of years: They have decreased the width of every roll of toilet paper by 3/8". Its depressing.