Early Rising

It’s amazing what you can accomplish in a day when getting up before 5:30am!!  And why were we up before 5:30—who knows.  Here in Montana it is starting to be daylight by then and our bedroom has lots of windows—I’ve always had a hard time sleeping past day break, Michael even more so.

By 9am I had the sheets on the bed changed, three loads of laundry done, folded and put away, the house vacuumed and dusted and packages readied for mailing when we left for Billings.  Michael arrived back home just in time for lunch—leftovers.

Then it was off to Billings again—this time to look at another vehicle in immaculate condition, only driven by a little old lady—you get the picture.  Needless to say, we didn’t come home with a new to us rig, what are these people thinking? 

Tomorrow I plan on quilting and NOT going to Billings. 

Partly sunny and very breezy today!

A Beautiful Day

It was such a beautiful day, we decided to take the little sports car and make a trip to Billings.  A few weeks ago we took Michael’s new laptop (Christmas present) back to Best Buy—the wireless card had died, the computer had been repaired and was ready for pickup so off we went.

We ran a couple other errands and were back home before 4pm.  I got a spurt of energy and planted some seeds in trays under the grow light.  Michael started the excavator and “tilled” my garden with it.  The soil is a tad too wet for much gardening but maybe now that we stirred the dirt the sun will dry it out. 

And we took Miss Emmi on one last walk for the day—deer everywhere, green grass sprouting and the trees are even starting to bud out a little—maybe spring will get here one day!

 

Michael was a patient husband (maybe he is taking lessons from Rick???)—he sat in the car with Emmi while I went in two quilt shops today!!!  Seriously, he is always very patient with me when I want to shop—he usually keeps some sudoku puzzles in the rigs for times like those!

Spring Quilt Retreat

Well, the 2011 Spring Quilt Retreat is history.  I arrived back home just a little after 4pm this afternoon.  As you can see from the slide show, we quilters accomplished a lot!  Not only did we get a lot of quilting projects finished we went to a Mardi Gras festival complete with an imported King Cake.  We were entertained by an expert banjo player who just happens to be married to the chef!  Plenty of wine was consumed and plenty of laughs were heard.  Last night we traveled to Mexico and enjoyed chef Terry’s fabulous homemade tamales and other assorted Mexican dishes—complete with my famous buttermilk margaritas. 

Medicine Flower Lodge is a perfect place to hold a quilt retreat.  The meeting room is spacious and holds all our tables, sewing machines, cutting stations, ironing stations and us.  Our accommodations are great and the food is outstanding. 

We woke to snow on our first morning and had to slog over to the meeting room—the deer weren’t too concerned about our presence.  The weather the entire time was typical spring in Montana—snow, wind and cold.  But it didn’t matter cause we were only interested in one thing—sewing! 

The economy benefited from this quilt retreat also—all 12 of us donated money to the quilt shops in Absarokee and Bear Creek.  As if we didn’t have enough projects! 

This group of women is the best—we all get along so well, teasing, laughing and supporting each other.  Several of the women have been quilting forever and are our expert resources. 

Michael and Emmi were extremely glad to see me when Shirley brought me home—Emmi “talked and talked” voicing her pleasure in seeing me.  It is good to be home and life is good!

PS:  Thanks Rick for the tip for loading a slide show into the blog—it worked like a charm!

I Think I’m Ready

For the quilt retreat that is!  Eleven of my quilting buddies and I are heading to Red Lodge tomorrow for our spring quilt retreat and not coming up for air until Sunday afternoon!  I’ve got a plastic bin full of projects and my Shop Hop passport all ready for stamping when we stop at the quilt shops in Absarokee and Red Lodge.  We are going to have so much fun!

We made an early run into Big Timber this morning—the clinic was holding their annual health fair type blood draw--$55 for a set of routine blood work that would probably cost close to $400 any other time.  The kicker was you have to be fasting, nothing by mouth after midnight the night before.  No coffee—I’m really not a pleasant person in the morning until I’ve had my coffee so we went early, got the blood work done and made a beeline for the restaurant for breakfast and coffee. 

I’ve spent the rest of the day getting ready for the retreat—packing, cutting out projects, etc.  I did make a batch of spaghetti sauce for late lunch/early dinner—Michael will enjoy the leftovers while I am gone. 

Here’s my pile of stuff to be loaded into Shirley’s rig in the morning--

Our hearts go out to Al and Kelly who are grieving the loss of their second beloved dog in less than a week.  I can’t imagine their pain. 

I’m taking a little break from blogging—not taking a computer with me on the quilt retreat—I’ll be back on Sunday and posting again.

Kind Of Boring Around Here

Snow again, just a little, but a bitter cold wind to go with it.  I guess we can’t be greedy, we had three days of sunshine! 

I made chicken fettuccine for lunch and so Michael will have leftovers while I am gone to the quilt retreat this weekend.  We leave on Thursday and I can’t wait!  Started packing some of my projects today.

This afternoon we drove over to Bozeman to look at a couple used vehicles.  Made an offer on one but the owner thinks his car is worth more than we do—maybe he will change his mind, who knows.

Miss Emmi got to go along for the ride—she was a happy girl. 

And that is it for our day, like the title says, kind of boring.

Took this photo the other day, we don’t look quite this snowy right now.

Everything Was Right

Some days everything just works—the tension was perfect, my stitches were perfect and the little customer quilt I finished today was perfect!  The thread never broke the whole time I was stitching—it was a perfect sewing day!

Michael cut a little firewood this morning then used the skidsteer to auger post holes (sure is nice to have that equipment!!) and set several posts for his new section of fence.

Sunshine early but about 4pm the temperature dropped and a storm blew through leaving behind little round balls of sleet.  I was able to hang my sheets out on the line to dry this morning.

Spent some time on the phone today with car rental companies—our quilting group has talked about traveling to Spokane, WA in the fall for a quilt show.  I was checking pricing for renting large passenger vans.  I got some doozy customer service type people today—where do they get these folks???  One guy  at Thrifty Car Rental told me I couldn’t make a reservation that far in advance in case the van was not available—I would need to call back closer to the departure date.  I asked him, “what happens if you don’t have a van?”  He replied, “well, then you can’t get one.”  I suggested that scenario wasn’t going to work and the little pip squeak suggested maybe I should call someone else!!!  How do they stay in business??

And why does it take several calls on the part of the patient to get a physician’s office to do their job??  That was another of my issues dealt with today! 

This was our view from the hayfields today—see that hint of green?? And the chokecherry trees are starting to bud—spring may eventually come to Montana!

Easter Sunday

It was a beautiful day in Montana for celebrating Easter—the birth and resurrection of Christ. 

Michael took Emmi for a walk and we then headed off for Red Lodge dropping Emmi at Nat’s.  For a couple of years now we have met our friends Jane and Rich in Red Lodge for Easter brunch.  After moving to Powell, WY in 1992 a divorce left me high and dry there—I was the director of nursing for the small hospital where Jane was one of my nurses and Rich worked in the lab.  Rich and Jane along with their children Elizabeth and Jonathan took me into their family and I became one of their family.  Jane stood up with me when I married Michael.  As the years have gone by and tragedy struck Jane and Rich, we haven’t seen each other as much as we once did but our friendship has persevered.  When we do get together it is as if we have never been apart—we took over a table in that restaurant and had a hard time giving it up—it was so good to see them.

I remarked last night—“well at least the kids didn’t have to hunt Easter eggs in a snowstorm this year.”  That remark must have triggered Michael’s memory.  He remembers as a child finding a “gold” egg at the annual Big Timber Easter egg hunt that was worth $20!!!  That was a lot of money for a little kid way back then!  (Sorry Michael for the “way back then.”)

Life is good—we got to take the little Toyota MR2 on the road trip today!!

Spruce Grouse I think.

Ski runs on Red Lodge Mountain.

She found the sunshine at Granddad’s.