New favorite website

http://organizedhome.com/

It's done!!!

My mom's purse that is. I think it turned out really nice...what do you think?

It feels...

Like spring!!! It has been 80+ degrees (gotta love Texas) the past few days and today when my visiting teaching companion and I pulled up into my driveway after visiting one of our sisters we both said "look at the trees; they have leafed out". Nothing like Bradford Pears to make it feel like spring. They are the last to lose their leaves in the fall and the first to get them in the spring. Plus they are beautiful trees. Even though it wasn't I who planted them we are one of the lucky few on the block to have them.

Bit by Bit

Today I am doing much better than yesterday. And actually, as the day wore on yesterday it helped. I actually went into his bedroom today and stripped his bed, washed his bedding, scrubbed down the mattress (it is a waterbed), dusted all the furniture, vacuumed the carpet, and started going through his things. I found a digital camera...I didn't even know he owned one. Now I have to figure out how many megapixels it is to see if it is worth keeping. Tbere is a Rio One which was his very first MP3 player. He left his Magic The Gathering cards...I am sure he will get those some day...I can see him playing that with Shanae. It will be interesting to see what other things I run across.

When we were making the quilts for the women's shelter there were a few of us that had decided to make quilts for our family. I had made one for my bed last year...actually it might have been the year before. So I was looking online trying to decide what I should make and decided that I was going to make one for Daniel's bed. I decided to do a postage stamp quilt. It is made with tiny snibbits of fabric (I cut them out at 2"x2" so that means they are 1 1/2" square when finished). It is good because I can use all my scraps. And I have 40+ different fabrics. Let me tell you...it is colorful. And quite nice BUT it is taking forever doing those small pieces. I am almost halfway done with the top of it. The timing is ironic because he had a sports comforter on it before and this will be better for a guest bed. I'll take a photo when it is complete which might be a few more months if I decide to quilt by hand instead of tie it. But it is a good project to keep me busy.

So now we have only one kid left in the house and he is 22 and going to college so is not around much. Actually...he is here a lot...I just don't see him all that much. I'm sure it won't be that long until he decides to move on too. Then it will be really strange.

Tough day...

Daniel left today on an airplane for Portland and he had a one way ticket. I know that I did all that I could with raising him but I still worry about him and miss him. But I also know it was time for him to move on...I just hope that this was the right decision. He took 3 suitcases and shipped his computer in 2 boxes. When I feel like I can go into his empty room then I will box up the rest of his stuff in case he wants it in the future then I will paint it. I was going to paint it a year ago until Michael came home 6 weeks earlier than expected from his mission. My goal is to have it done by the time Kelly gets here. Kelly is my sister and she is coming down for a visit in March over Spring Break We actually have a guest bedroom now instead of a storage room for guests. I never thought it would be so hard to have him go. A few pictures of him through the years.

  2 years old

 9 years old

 He loved to play soccer and was really good at it. 11 years old.

 15 years old

 20 years old

I gues that I should be happy that I got 21 years to raise him. My mom didn't get that long with me. Still today is a tough day. Much harder than when he went to Kindergarten.

New Pictures!!!

My daughter got new family pictures taken today along with a few of the kiddo...enjoy.

Today...

I made a quilt top. It is for the wormen's shelter. I think that I have enough fabric to make one more. We will be quilting again on Wednesday and then Saturday in a week is our Stake's "Day to Shine" where we will take them to have them delivered.

Then later this afternoon we had the missionaries over for dinner and I went out with them to visit people. Since Michael has been on his mission I have made it a practice to call the missionary's mom to tell them how their son or daughter is doing and how much we enjoyed having them in our home. This time I also took a photo of Sister Johnston and Sister Sermon. 

Our visits were very interesting. Every house we went to had no one home...probably because it was Saturday evening. Then they had a referral. They had the name, address, age, and all the information about this referral. When we got to his house he denied ever meeting the missionaries and giving them that information...very strange. But he did accept a pass along card. The last house we stopped at was very cool. It was a man that the sisters had met before. He is having a hard time (but then again...aren't we all to some degree???). He is not a member but was very receptive to their message about faith. It was a very spiritual experience and I understand now how the spirit guides us with what to say in certain situations. That visit made the entire night worthwhile and now I realize how those encounters make a missionary's mission worthwhile. These two sisters are INCREDIBLE!!