First, we are very sad to share news of CoCo’s passing. CoCo was such an integral part of our family for her 14 wonderful years with us. We loved her so very much and miss her terribly. She was a happy-go-lucky, spunky and sweet companion. I remember so clearly the night we adopted her, driving on a cold winter evening out to the “toolies” of Darrington, WA to take a look at her. We found her listed in the newspaper’s Free Pets section. Nick was just 4 years old then, and I could harly contain my excitement! When we finally found the correct (unmarked) street, and the mobile home with a German Short-Haired Pointer tied to a tree in the yard, Ed and I took a double-take and asked each other if we should go up to the house or not. It was not a welcoming sight in the least. We each had visions of a horror movie unfolding. Approaching the front door, the wet pressboard porch sagged beneath our footsteps. Once the lady of the house opened the door and asked us in, we followed her between the stacked newspapers, boxes, bags and whatnot lining the walls into the family room. We saw teenagers huddled under blankets on the couch, with sweet little black lab momma dog at their feet. We could see the kitchen from where we stood, with the kitchen window wide open. No wonder it was so cold inside. A green garden hose was duct taped to the kitchen faucet and appearred to be their watersource. {Oh my!}

{CoCo at about 5 years old, Nick about 10}

The lady of the house let the puppies out of a really old-school dog kennel made of wood with a domed top and a little metal screened window in the front. Happy to be out of their box, and having been woken up, the 6 or so puppies did as any normal pup would – they all commenced to pee and poop all over the carpet. The lady was prepared, however, with her roll of paper towels. She quickly tore a sheet off, laid it over the spot where the pee or poop was, and moved on to the next. {Naa – no clean-up, just a quick cover-up! :O)

We watched the puppies. Which was most/least active, dominant, nippy? Ed was the first to spot CoCo, and she was the only one in the litter that was chocolate brown, and she was happy, but somewhat calm. It was speculated by the lady of the house that her other dog tied up outside was the papa. I think one of the pups did have that speckled coat. As we continued to watch the pups, it was obvious that CoCo was meant to become part of our family. She was perfect!!

The lady of the house, despite those questionable homekeeping habits, handed us an index card from her card file that contained all of CoCo’s relevent information – parents’ breeds, pup’s date and time of birth, number in the birth order, weight at birth, colorings and markings, etc. I was shocked to recieve it and have been grateful over the years to have had the information.

We drove the 45 minutes or so home, holding our noses all the way. Being stuck in a dirty kennel with 6 or 7 other puppies lent CoCo a rather nasty aroma. Despite whining most of the way home, after a quick bath that first night, CoCo slept well. With lots of treats and lots of love, CoCo quickly became our well-behaved, well loved daughter-dog. She loved everyone she met, including lots of dog-pals over the years. Rest in peace, my big brownie dog. We’ll always love you.

I guess I have a lot to catch up on. Today I was checking in on Ravelry (knitting site) on the Knitting RPh board and there was a link to a couple of fun quizzes.Try for yourself, if you’d like!

NameThatDrug.com – The Drug Test

I have some pics to post, too. Hopefully I’ll BRB.

Bets

Ed bought a gorgeous HD a few weeks ago, March 19th actually. Here it is coming home to Ed’s garage one lovely evening. He borrowed a trailer from his boss to bring it home from Cowboy Harley Davidson in Austin, TX.

When we moved to TX, and Ed had his license changed over and apparently was concentrating on making sure that his CDL (Commercial Driver’s License) was carried over, and with the correct grade. Unfortunately, the licensing person missed his motorcycle endorsement and Ed did not catch it. So he has to go through the classes and take the test. Oh well. He hadn’t ridden a bike since he had one when he was about 18 or 19 anyway. And over the last 25 years or so that we’ve been together, I wasn’t exactly supportive of the idea of Ed getting a bike. Now that he’s gotten most of that fearless, invincible “thing” out of his system, when he brought it up a few months ago, I thought it would ge something pretty fun for him, and maybe even me. One of the other foremen that Ed works with has a bike and lives about 45 minutes away up in New Braunfels, decided to get a new bike and invited Ed to go with him. That, folks, was all she wrote. Ed found the bike of his dreams, got a loan, and there she is!

Fast forward to one week ago today. Sunday April 6, 2008. Ed’s friend invited him to go riding with him. Ed had taken his written test, passed it and was able to ride as long as he was with another rider with an endorsement. Great! Ed left early in the morning, maybe 8am. He called at about 5pm and Nick answered the phone. Nick says “How bad is it Dad? On a scale of 1-10?” Nick says “oh – a 5?” The ambulance is on it’s way? Where are you? OK, bye.” So by now, my heart has stopped, I am hoping it is some sort of twisted joke and I’m trying not to panic horribly. Nick says Ed said they had ridden all day, had a great time and right after Ed had split off from the guys he was riding with, he hit gravel and went down. Ed was on 46 about 5-10 minutes from home. So I couldn’t stand the thought of Ed laying on the side of the road, waiting for an ambulance. I got dressed {yeah – disgustingly slovenly huh? Sunday, 5pm and not even dressed?} grabbed my purse and cell phone and took off, leaving Nick at home in case Ed called back there. I headed for 46, which is really 10 minutes from home, and since I did not know which way Ed was, I decided to go West toward Boerne. I tried calling Ed’s call, tried calling home, and could not get through on my cell phone at all. @#%*&%!#*^(&^ And for those of you who know me, yes, all of that came out of my mouth every time I tried to call and could not get through.

Fast forward again. I find out Ed is being taken to the new Boerne Methodist ER, so I meet him there. Exam, X-Rays, wounds cleaned. Result: broken scapula, sprained shoulder, dislocated/sprained thumb, broken toes, abrasions, scrapes, contusions. Treatment: shoulder – let the break heal on it’s own. The muscles will keep it in place; MRI Monday 4/14 to determine actual damage and why it looks wonky and out of wack; thumb – surgical repair on Wed 4/16 since it won’t stay in place; broken toes – leave them be and they will heal; abrasions, scrapes, contusions – scrub, scrub, scrub, antibiotic ointment, daily dressing changes. We’ve gone through at least $110 in gauze pads, tape, gauze wrap, self-adhering wraps, ace bandages and antibiotic ointment. Good thing I’ve got that 15% Walgreen’s employee discount.

I decided to not include any wound pictures. They are pretty gross. Some wounds were deep, most were just removal of nearly all layers of skin. Gross, gross, gross. This is why I never followed in the footsteps of the women in my family. But I can say that there was a great sense of satisfaction in tending to a loved one’s needs, and helping bring health and healing to him.

He has not been able to sleep in bed yet. It is very painful for him to get up, even up out of a chair. And of course he’s already been back to work Wed morning, Thursday & Friday. He is absolutely nuts if you ask me when it comes to working. He did not take any pain medication during the day, so was out of control by the time he came home. So the recliner is his bed, and with the Valium for muscle spasms and some Vicodin DS for pain, he sleeps better than usual.

At least he did not ruin his latest surgery – his rotator cuff repair was the right side, and his wreck was his left side.

His bike is likely totaled. We should hear about that tomorrow.

This weekend’s excitement is the toilet cracking in our bathroom. So Nick is learning all he never wanted to know about toilets and plumbing. What did I do? I made cupcakes! I’m also making some cards for some dear friends who showed a lot of support with Ed’s accident, knowing that my back is wasted. Oh – and that surgery is scheduled for 4/24, with my pre-op scheduled for this week. Yippee-skippy, huh? I hope you have a great week!

Bets

Looking at the old blog I see that I completely missed February! C’est la vie!

So what is new? Hmmm. Found out that Nick’s graduation ceremony will be held on our 23rd anniversary, May 31, 2008. While watching an episode of Martha Stewart Crafts on DIY a few weeks back, she was talking wedding stationary (for which I have no need), including Save the Date cards. It occurred to me that this would be a nice idea to apply to Nick’s graduation, since everyone who we would invite is from out of town. So I made up some postcards and got those in the mail Monday. Phase I done! Now to get that cap & gown, class ring, announcements, etc. all ordered. Oh yeah, and senior pictures! Oops. We still haven’t done those. I *really* need to get them done. I just have to talk him into going.

Ed had rotator cuff surgery done 4 weeks ago now and is doing very well. You’d never even know that he even had it done.

We are planning to replace all the windows with some more energy-efficient double-paned 3/4″ Low E + Argon gas vinyl windows. We’re also reconfiguring the kitchen door and picture windows in the rec room. The window will become a french door, and the current kitchen door in the breakfast nook will become a window. We may even be able to build a window seat there now. We’re really excited about doing this!

The pets are all good. CoCo’s showing her age more and more but is OK.

Work is going fine. Been missing too much due to my back, though. Exploring some options there.

No real crafting been happening, also due to my back. I am working on an applique block of the month on The Quilt Show though and am really enjoying the hand work. It’s what I can do right now. I have quite a bit of knitting to do also.

I’ve been converted from Microsoft Outlook/Exchange to Lotus Notes today. :O My laptop is ready, so I must sign off, get ready for my 3PM meeting and start checking out Notes.

Wish me LUCK!!

xoxo
Betsy

p.s. Sorry for a no-pics post!

Well, I’m not much of a fig lover (the fruit), but I am definitely a Fig Tree Quilts fan. So if you are a quilter (or ever wanted to try it!), head on over to Fig Tree Quilts and look at the new quilt kit available for Pre-Order!! Joanna has designed some truly darling fabrics, quilts and accessories. Here is the yummy quilt. It is the perfect combination of piecing and applique.

And here are a couple of recent pictures highjacked from her blog (below). These are just the look and feel that I love. Kind of country, but fresh – not shabby. Plenty of color, but pretty and somewhat muted.

I just love the old drying rack with quilts on it. Growing up we always had one – but I’ve never bought one. That’s now on my list. I’ve been talking to Ed for years about having some sort of display rack or ladder for holding my quilts. The ones that are not hung up are on hangers in my craft room closet. I’d really like to take some of the displayed quilts down off the wall and display them this way. That opens up so much wall space for putting up artwork and pictures. And I may just paint the drying rack it a nice blue (since I won’t be drying clothes on it). (Now if I only had *bolts* of fabric to stack next to my quilts!

So, I still I.O.U. the items noted below. And did I mention photos of 3 quilts I finished last weekend. Maybe.

Big xoxoxo’s to my family and friends.
Bets

Well Christmas has come and gone, New Year’s too. And I.O.U. pictures galore of the finished kitchen, my new baby (car), and miscellaneous other happenings in the Pratt family. I did get a letter from a relative (My Mom’s cousin Janet) in the Olympia/Aberdeen area, and we have suffered a loss of our tiny little family. My Mom’s cousin Dale died of heart failure at the age of 50-something.  He died a couple of weeks before Christmas. That is terribly tragic, and brings to mind how lucky I am to have the family I do have left. Which brings to mind that I need to communicate more often to my dear family members and make sure they know how very precious they are to me. Each and every one.

Tomorrow is another day. Actually, as 12:03, it’s tomorrow already. TGIF – and I’ll try to post over the weekend. I have the pics all downloaded from the cameras, just need to compress them and share.

xoxo
BP

I’ve never really given it much thought, but something copper is coming my way. Ed bought it today. Wanna guess what it is? I’ve been wanting one for about 3 years (although, as I mentioned, I hadn’t thought of copper).

What do you think?;)

Thought I’d share a great couple of blogs I’ve been stalking since becoming re-obsessed with quilting recently: The Apronista Blog, and Pat Sloan’s blog. Pat has whipped up 2 of the cutest aprons I’ve seen in a while, and they are being given away on The Apronista’s blog. It looks like the Apronistas have give-aways pretty much every week, and have some pretty awesome connections, tutorial links and Flickr galleries. And Pat Sloan is a pretty well known author/quilter/designer with a pretty fun style.

Looks like I’m down for the count again with my back. I was feeling *so* good for about 2 weeks, sewing up a storm and getting out and about with Ed. Last week was really painful and I spent the day in bed yesterday. I worked for about 5 hours today and had to go lay down. I was in tears.

We had a low-key Turkey Day – just the 3 of us. Ed and Nick took care of the entire meal and did a really wonderful job. I wasn’t in much of a thankful mood, being in so much pain. We (as a family) have SO much to be thankful for every single day of our lives, and do talk about that subject occasionally among ourselves. Life is good!!!

Off to the MD tomorrow for an epidural injection. Hopefully that will take the edge off, and make sure I’m able to travel to Chicago the week of the 3rd.

I.O.U.:

• Pics of the finished kitchen. It really does look *great*!!
• All the holiday decorating is done, too, so I’ll post some pics of a couple of new additions for the new year.

Not too much else is going on. Over the 4-day weekend, I bought a couple of domains and am planning to launch a self-hosted, enhanced blog. This got me to thinking about my “mission statement” for my blog. It does currently serve several purposes, like communicating with family and friends, and sharing pics. I’d like to begin to include some tutorials so that I can share some of my knowledge with anyone who stumbles upon my little piece of the Internet!

xo
Bets

Nick has been wanting new curtains or blinds or something for his bedroom window. I ran across these

in the Pottery Barn Teen catalog and figured I could whip one up pretty easily. So I went online to find directions on making a Roman shade (found a good one here), and ordered the fabric and blackout lining from JoAnn’s with my 40% off coupon (yippee!). The fabric was under $30.00, and the lining was under $11. So this past weekend, I threw it together! Voila!

Sometimes I think I take the worst pictures in the world! I did the white topstitching at the edges and down the centers as shown on the PB model. It was nice to have the topstitching down the center since I had to piece the fabric. Nick’s window is 70″ wide, and no fabric except quilt backing is available that wide. I was thrilled with the quality of the denim and the blackout lining from JoAnn’s.

Not much more news from this end.

xoxo
Betsy

With the exception of one baby quilt about 6 months ago, I have hardly quilted in the past few years. Well, I was motivated this weekend, and despite my back, I finished 4 half-done quilts, and made a top!

So here is the quilt top for our niece, Mysti, who we just found out is having a boy on 11/16 – so I had to hurry! My photography skills do not do this quilt justice. The fabric is a beautiful aqua blue and chocolate. Here are a couple of the blocks:

Here is the finished top. I’ll have to get some good pictures once it is quilted. I will definitely post that up, too.

And just in time for Halloween (NOT!), I hand pieced the 5″ squares, then broke out the sewing machine for the borders, then added prairie points. They were surprisingly easy!

And I bought a kit for this Christmas quilt years ago. I remember being on a shopping trip with Sarah Schroeder in WA, so it’s way over 4 years ago! Whomever cut the kit didn’t do the best job on fussy cutting the Santas, but I guess that makes it extra “homey”. I have just one side of the binding to finish hand-stitching on.

And the flannel baby girls’ quilts, of which I made 3. The first I finished and even machine quilted went to one of the guys that works for Ed and his wife. They had a cute little baby girl. Here are the other two, waiting to be shipped off to get long-arm quilted:

Quilts=cat magnets, oui?

And last week, after finding out that Mysti and her hubby are having a boy, I broke out the baby blue yarn and knitted up my first booties and baby hat:

The blue goes with Dante’s eyes, don’t you think? (Poor kitty putting up with me dressing him up!)

Here’s one of our frog friends I caught playing in the pool, as mentioned in my last post. Actually, with the cool weather we’ve had the last 2 weeks, I think they’ve gone into hibernation for the winter. I haven’t seen them around lately.

And, drum roll please, the appliances are ALL installed, the granite was installed last week, and everything except the tile is installed!!! Woohoooooo!!! Ed got the vent installed, too. You know the kind that comes up out of the counter, then goes back down? It is *too* cool. He spent practically all day Saturday getting everything squared away – the new sink, faucet and soap dispenser and stove top. This really is my dream kitchen! I simply love it. The granite looks so good, and was very nice to sew on all weekend. I never thought we’d be able to afford the granite, so I feel so very fortunate.

Hugs and kisses to friends and family!
xoxoxo

Betsy