continued updating

We adopted Allie this last fall, she is a 7 year old yorkie with a huge attitude. Shes a very sweet dog, and we are her 3rd owner. She may be the smallest but has the biggest personallity. At some time in her life she was trained. She can sit on her hantches, and stand up, roll over and lay down. I tell her lets up your sweater on and she come running and puts her head threw, she loves her sweathers and coats. Yorkies have very thin human like hair, they need to be bathed just like you wash your hair at least once a week, or it gets oily jsut like human hair. So she has to wear her sweaters out in the cold. Her first owners thought she was getting mean cause she curls her lip, but Yorkies all do that when they get excited to see you. The last people that had her just couldnt take care of her anymore so ask us knowing we could give her what she needs. She has taken totally to Jessica.








Little Vegas was the next to come to our house, she is a retired breeder, she has had a long road for her 7 years. As a puppy she was bought as a breeder and was not interacted with very much.
The people decided they didnt want to breed the dogs anymore and our breeder got her back with some others about the same time we got Sugar from her. She was scared of everyone. Our breeder had her for the last 3 years and she has become more social but still has a little fear of people in general. We had told our breeder that is now getting away from breeding that if she decited to find her a new home we would be interested. When we first got her (about 1 month now) she was so fearful. But shes really warming up to us an will stand on her back feet waving her feet up and down for attention. She used to just shake when I held her so I gave her time and room to feel at home and now shes doing just fine. Here she wont have to worry and will have a nice retirement.
We wont be getting any more dogs for a long while the doggy motel is full. Thank goodness they are small.



All the dogs get along pretty well they are finding their way into our pack. They even sleep with the cats at times.





I did do some sewing this last year, I finished Jessicas quilt(above) before she went off to college. I also finished 3 other quilts before christmas last year that I gave to the 4 kids that I was babysitting for. They werent going to have much of a christmas so I figured it would be a good thing for them.

Jessica made the quilt (below) for the 4 years old girl that I didnt have time to get done. All the ones I did were all hand quilted taking so much more time than what I expected. We were just finishing up the last stitches the day before christmas. She designed it and machine quilted it in like 4 days.

I finished an other quilt but didnt get a picture of it before giving to the kids mom.
I think I finished an other top also at the beginning of this year. The 3d nine patch that I had been working on for ever. Then one day Buddy our eat-o-matic, got ahold of it and chewed up one side of it that im yet to repair.

We worked on the house a bit more over that last year but still dont have the bedroom totally done. At least we have the sheet rock up and its close to being painted. Sean just has been so busy with work he hasnt had time or energy to work on it.
well I think im almost caught up to the present now, there may have been other things but I cant think of them right now. I did get more fabric here and there but not much till this summer, Ill write about that later.
so till next time....

where did the time go??

Wow where did the time go, its been over a year since last here. We have been busy, I guess I'll try to bring this up today with what has been going on...

Jessica made it thru her senior year, graduated in May. She got her DL in December before christmas. And my worries started. Jessica went to Mississippi on a mission trip this during the summer to help people in a very small town that has a lot of poverty. It was a real eye opener for her, she had never seen such poor living conditions for people. I was very proud of her for giving of her self like that. This fall she went off to college in Hastings. That too was also a eye opener for her. Lots of challanges and temptations. But she so far is do pretty well. Having room mates was one challange she had to get used to. On the downside she hit a deer just after Halloween and crunched her car, she was fine, just a bit rattled. I got the 1am phone call from her, I hate that. So now we are in the empty nest syndrome now, its just different in the house with out Jessica but we are getting used to it.

Samantha I still in Omaha doing pretty well. Keeping very busy all the time. She on the side belongs to a circus troupe that does all kinds of different things, she has learned Poi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_dancing and is starting to contact juggling, and does things with the ring (big round metal ring in the air), Its intesting, she has no fear it seems. She is also still in school and working. Dont know where she finds all the time. So we joke she ran-away from home and joined the circus.

We rescued an American Eskimo dog in may, he was running on the road far from anywhere, a car almost hit him and Sean stopped to get him. Took lots of patients to get him to come up to Sean, We figure he was about 7 months old when we found him. He was so dirty and full of ticks. He had stickers all the way down in his skin. Smelled really bad, so we think he had been out for a while. He has a problem with eatting to much so I have to regulate his food all the time. He is somewhat of a fat boy now. But so loving and loves to hug. We are trying to get him trained, hes like having a 2 year old all the time, and is very smart. Being bored is a big problem, then he starts chewing, nothing on my desk is safe with im, nor are my quilt pieces. He has decided that anything he sees me playing with he wants to play with. But hes a good dog for the most part, will be great when he grows out of the puppy stage which is at about 2 years.

September 08 I got a call from the breeder that we got taffy and sugar from asking me if I would take a pup she got back from some people that couldnt keep her. So I went to see her, what a sweet cute dog, her old people took her to the vet and found out she has a heart mummer she was only 5 months old, then I found out she is the younger sister of sugar and Samanthas Beebee. What a sweet dog, just loves everyone. The heart mummer will probably never be a problem at all since she was born with it. The people just freaked out for nothing. She doesnt like to be away from me at all and will cry till she sees me if im out of sight. She is also a bit hyperactive with an hyperactive system so shes not very heavy at all, and eats like crazy. But she does fine and is a very happy little dog. Its good none of our little dogs are over more that 5 lbs. If we put them all togeather wouldnt even have a large dog. Buddy its the largest dog we have now at about 25-30 lbs.

Just not to long after getting saving Buddy, we lost Millie, she had almost died in December 08 from a massive infection in her girl parts, she had all that removed and was on her way to recovery, but she really had a hard time of it during recovery, when the fatty tumor started growing and broke open and wouldnt heal, She went into surgery again to have it removed and didnt make it thru. She was 9 1/2 when she passed. We all miss her she was a big part of the family for so long. We found she had cancer, probably the shock of the other surgery started it growing. She had started loosing weight so we knew something wasnt good. She will always be in our memories.

This last year was not a good year for us for our old animals, we lost our cat Cowie suddenly, stomach cancer, and we lost Popcorn our oldest cat of old age. She was about 16.

I had H1N1 in may and all the cats came down sick with upper respitory. I spent every hour treating them and all survived it, but jsut after that Popcorn started not being able to eat.

I had found out that cats can get H1N1 from people. so it was very sad to loose Cowie and Popcorn, makes a hole in the house where they used to be. Cowie was Seans favorite cat so it was a great lose to him.

Threw all of this I did sew quite a bit and I will put up pix of the quilts I did get done, but for now Im going to close for now and come back later and continue on with our last year update.

The last of August, where did the summer go?

Well its almost the end of summer, where did it go? Jessica went on her Europian discovery with People to people in July, she went to Italy, Austria, Switzerland, and France. 20 days of constant travel and sight seeing, also learning the history of many of the towns and citys she was in.

She started with People to People back in November of last year, She went to quite a few classes during the time from November to June. She passed the course in June and became a student Ambassador for the United States in June. They

Flew in to Roma on the 5th of July and spent about 6-7 days in Italy. Traveling up to the eastern part of Austria, visting citys along the way.

The spent about 7 days in Austria give or take a few days. The went to a castle, visited small towns and large citys. They went to Vienna and a salt mine on the Austria, Germany border.

She with her blond hair and blue eyes really blended right in with the people there. They spent 3 days with a host family in Switzerland. Her family was in Bern. She had alot of fun with them and they were excited to have her being she was the first kid they had hosted. They took really good care of her and she got to experence the every day life in the family there. Her Host brother took her to a birthday party that one of his friends was having when she first got there, him being 19 she got to meet kids her own age. She spent alot of time with the host family extended family also. She was the only one in her deligation that was in a city for the host family stay, she really enjoyed the whole time there.

From there they did more in Austria and Switzerland then they were off to France, the shortest time was spent in France, there departure was from Paris, so they had afew days to enjoy the sights of Paris and all the shops of course.

They spent a total of 20 days in Europe. Jessica was ready to come home and sleep in her own bed after being way that long. Im very proud of here of being able to join and go on such a wonderful trip. She got 30 credits to her high school credits form the trip.

She will beable to go again this next summer with the people to people, this time she will be able to choose where she wants to go. It was such a learning experence for her and all the young boys and girls the are excepted into the program.

She got home and days after getting home she had a week of camp to go to then she got home from that and went to her sisters house in Omaha for almost 3 weeks. Now she is back in school and winding down after a very busy full summer.

I havent been doing any sewing the last month, we have been busy trying to get the bedroom done. we have the drywall up and we are getting the mud and tape on next we are starting to see the light of day. It seems other things need our attention that pulls us way from the room.

Oh well it will get done one of these days LOL.

The other thing that happened the stopped my sewin was Taffy ate my glasses and I cant see up close to sew. I havent been able to replace them yet that is next on the adjenda.

I have also been doing the nasty job of deep cleaning the house. I really hate that, windows, curtains, and all that nasty stuff.

Our garden was a total bust! I have never seen so many grasshoppers in my life. They eat my hole garden by the end of july, not leaving nothing for me. I guess Nebraska and Kansas has had a real problem this year. Now I can understand how the settlers of old felt when the swarms of grasshoppers took all there crops. Oh well there always next year......

We have been picking the wild plums this year, they are quite good. If I had the energy Id make some wild plum jelly, thats if I had the energy! Days seem to go so fast anymore seems hard to get any thing done.

Well thats me up todate with what has been happening in the last few months....

I will post up more of the Europe pictures that Jessica took, she took like 2000 pictures so its going threw and picking some of the better ones.

Enjoy your days............

Aunt Bee's flowers

An appliqued Hybiscus for Aunt Bee, her theme is flowers. On the black background all the flowers that have been for her really stand out. She is going to have a very dynamic quilt when its all done. Im not really good I dont think at doing flowers, probably one of my hardest thing to make a pattern for. But I enjoyed the challange.

Country Cousin....

Country Cousin cat is the newest block for Cinder from quiltchat for the appy swap. She is the type of cat that loves to sit on a pillow and be very prissy.

Having lots of cats, I do have a few cats like this even one that is a boy priss that loves his sleeping spots and doesnt like to be interupted at all.

I love how cats can curl up and take cat naps sitting up like they do.

With this block done I will only have 3 more blocks to do and all my 11 blocks to the ladys will be done. Its be alot of fun. It has challanged my comfort zone in appliquing.

Victorian Shoes

This blocks is for Lorraine in Austraila that is in the appy swap, her theme is shoes. The buttons on the shoes are vintage glass buttons, thought it would add to the look of the boots.

Ive enjoyed doing this swaps, puts a challange to my appy ablitys.

Moving on to May.....

At the end of April beginning of May we bought a car, her name is Little Duck, because she is small and is the puddle jumper. she gets about 40 or better mpg. we have cut our gas bill way down, and now I dont feel so bad if we do go for a ride.

We had a little visitor it know as the humming bird moth. Very neat insects.

My iris bloomed this year, I missed having them last year for what ever reason the purple ones didnt bloom.

Also got my garden planted with corn,watermelon, canalope,tomatoes,onions, 2 kinds of squash and this year we planted potatoes, could be interesting if we get any. We also planted sugar snap peas and red leaf lettuce and strawberrys. Every thing is coming along just fine.

These last pictures are of the part we have finished in the bedroom, tis getting closer and closer now.

Well until next time.....

Whats been up with us ?

We will start back in april on things Ive missed putting up pictures for.


Jessica went to her Jr/Sr prom in april, behind her is the fruit tree in bloom.

A turkey very confused about having 70 degree weather one day and snow the next. We didnt loose our fruit this time thank goodness. And the snow left pretty fast.

Jessica finished her quilt she was making in school, I think she did a good job on it. She also made a very large pillow in the same colors and design.

We started doing some serious figuring about getting the suppies to start remodeling the bedroom, we finally have all the slat and plaster down. Its been alot of dirty work, but that part is done. We have decited to remove the old floor and put in a new hardwood floor. The old one has to much damage due to age and termites. We had thougth we were going to put down carpet but with animals its not pratical to have any carpet for them to mess up. We found a very pretty cherry wood color designed hardwood. Already pre stained and finished.

Jessica had an electronic baby she had to care for just before the end of school, had it over night and yes it cries, you have to turn a key in its back till it tells you can let go. It does work, she doesnt want to have children till shes out of school and ready for them. This is the second time she has had one of these babys home, they are loud and crabby!

Some where in all that in april we went fishing, the day was very windy with white caps on the lake and nice size waves that made the boat ride interesting at best. We found an area that wasnt as windy deeper in the flooded trees ( Harlen county dam was low no is filling up so there are lots of trees and weeds under water now)

Jessica caught 2 large cat fish and I caught 1. Hers were the largest of the day.

We have gone fishing afew times but havent really caught anything to speak of. The gas prices are killing us taking the boat out so we have found a few places to fish in ponds that we can walk into.

We have spent days it seems ordering and shopping for stuff to do the bedroom. I never thought id be so tired shopping but wow that was not fun.

At the end of april we went for a ride to Red Cloud my old home town, we had heard word that one of the streams there was stocked with trout back in march. The creek really had nothing in it and very little water by the time we got there. But we went by this old victorian farm house in the creek area, which I just fell in love with. Pictured below....

isnt it just beautiful, oh k its old and needs a painting but look at style of the house and all the ornate wood design, I bet its just beautiful inside with the wood. Its just sitting there rotting away now. Nobody is living in it and the owner live on the other side of the state, I think that is so sad.

Well on to may......

Beth's theme block Dragonflies

I finished Beths block tonight for the Appy swap. I used yoyos for the flowers covering them with a shiny silvery shimmer material , buttons for the center of the flowers. The wings of the dragons are also a shimmer material.

and the beloved Rickrack. This was sorta different to make but fun.

picture perfect

We had this picture perfect early spring day last week. So we went out to the lake, it was just so beautiful, no wind, it was in the 60s. Just right. We have been hard at it taring down a porch on the house and this was a nice brake. We are suppost to have some more days of 70s and high 60s, its going to be hard to be inside.

I havent done anything quilty for a week, I need to get back to it. I have quite a bit of applique work to do for the swaps, I just need to take a brake my eyes were starting to really bother me with all the up close hand sewing ive been doing.

Every quilt needs an outhouse....

This is the block for "T" that is one of the girls in the swap im in, her theme is photo album.
This is not an actual picture I have seen but a combo of a few pictures of my grandparents farm.
We had a Outhouse in the back side yard that would have looked out at the the south field. The windmill was in the back yard on the way out to the barn, we pumped water to a water trough for the cows in the pasture behind the house by the barn and chicken coop. and the Apple tree would have been one of many fruit trees to the north of the house.
Our outhouse was abit bigger , we had a 3 setter, up town! and at the back of the out house was the coal house. Finally we never had fence post that were the same, mostly they would be tree limbs cut to size.
I hope 'T' enjoys. it was fun to make.