Something For Me

I am so happy! I just finished my first real attempt at a quilt. The pattern is called "Turning Twenty." You take twenty fat quarters and turn it into this quilt top:

or any other quilt top when you choose 20 different fat quarters. That's what I love about this pattern, you can make it over and over again but choose different fabrics and it's a whole new quilt. I love putting fabrics together and while I don't think this one turned out quite like I'd imagined, I'm happy with my first attempt. Now I just have to machine quilt it and bind it...two big challenges since I'm not a pro at either, but it's all about the learning, right?

Can't wait to snuggle up with my honey and this quilt on the couch. Probably won't happen to next winter though the way things are heating up around here. We're using the A/C already!

For Grandpa Galen

Finally, I am posting about the pure enjoyment experienced at our house last week as the kids enjoyed their animal crackers. They are definitely good!

Grandpa Galen held a contest for the grandkids outside of Utah to see if anyone could guess what snack he'd packed for him and Grandma to eat on their way home from the temple. The winner of the contest had to buy a box of animal crackers for everyone to try (well, we thought the winner had to buy it but REALLY the parents were supposed to buy them so we owe Meghann five bucks).

Anyway, Galen, enjoy the pictures and video like we enjoyed the crackers.

Michael McLean

Look what I got!!!! This is Courtney and I got this when I went to the airport with my dad!

In case you can't read it is says " For Courtney the total BABE of Orlando" That's right the total babe! He signed it on the paper I held up in the car window at the airport when we picked him up!

Chaufeurin' Celebrities

Yesterday was Time out for Women in Orlando. I got to wear this name badge:



I was basically a door greeter and handed out programs to everyone. But BRADY, well, he got to be one of the official chauffeurs and drive some of the presenters from the airport to the hotel. He and Courtney drove Michael McLean on Thursday and




Mark Mabry (of Reflections of Christ fame) on Friday



He was supposed to drive a few presenters on Saturday from the Convention Center back to the airport, but I was already there at the event and would pass right by the airport on my way home, so I volunteered to drive Wendy Ulrich

and Chieko Okasaki back, plus two of their guests back to the airport.

Chieko pictured here with Hillary Weeks, who I did NOT drive, but she was at our event.

When I told the lady from Deseret Book that I would drive them back she said, "Great. You know how to get to the airport from here without any trouble, right?" "Right," I said. Then I quick called Brady to double check my directions. I was a little nervous about which turn I took to get on the toll road (you know, the freeway that's not free) to the airport, but I was pretty confident about which turn it was. Oooooh, I was so wrong though. I took the road heading WESTBOUND and needed the EASTBOUND one. I just wanted to die. Here I am with four ladies in my car - two of them Mormom Celebrities! and they have a flight to catch in an hour and I just took a wrong turn. I made them scrounge around in my tote bag looking for my cell phone so I could call my personal GPS and find out what in the heck to do.

I was trying to remain calm, but really I was sweating bullets. Brady helped me figure out what to do (it's not like in Utah where you can just get off the next exit and turn around. Oh no, not here in Florida where the streets are set up like a maze!) and eventually, we got on the right road. By then, I couldn't even make conversation, I was just watching the road so I didn't make any more wrong turns. And I wanted to crawl in a hole.

I eventually got them all to the airport and breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Next time I'm going to leave the chauffeuring to Brady and I'll stick to handing out programs. I'm good at that.

The Smallest Family

That was our title last weekend when we got together with the CES families from Tallahassee (seven kids) and Tampa (six kids). Add to that the General Manager of the Church Ranch's family (where we ate dinner) (six kids) and we definitely had the smallest family. When does that ever happen? Well...maybe when we come to Utah, but here in Florida it was nice to try out the title of The Smallest Family.

Here is a picture of the three CES families with all the kids lined up in order of age (not height, you'll notice. One family had a 12-year-old that was no taller than Tucker). We are also missing the two youngest girls - two-year-olds who couldn't be bothered with a picture.

We all got together after the men in Brady's area had a few days of meetings out at a new camping facility built on the ranch. They built several "bunk houses" - four cinderblock walls that house 20 people on bunk beds. Our kids thought it was a blast - a bunk bed for everyone. Everyone slept on top and kept their gear on the bottom bunk.

Friday night we had a huge dinner with the GM of the ranch. There must have been 50 people there. We ate BBQ pork, baked beans, cabbage salad, fruit salad, macaroni salad, potatoe chips, cookies, you name it. It was a lot of fun. The kids just roamed around their yard (which is so huge you wouldn't believe it) and everyone played together like they were long lost friends (even though they'd just met).

There were so many things to do the next day. After a delicious breakfast of pancakes with homemade buttermilk syrup and bacon, the men loaded up the gear to go canoeing and fishing. While all the men were gone with all the kids (except a few little ones, but none of my little ones), I read a book. I can't remember the last time I just laid on an air mattress at 10:00 a.m. and read a book. It was lovely.
After the canoe trip we let off a rocket that Tucker had recently purchased. He was so excited about it I think he asked 50 times when he could launch it. It was a lot of fun. Then we went to the target range and shot a few guns. I started to get a little anxious about 18 kids being around about 10 guns, but the dads were very careful. When Brother Bowcutt told me I could be the adult in charge of one of the guns, I told him maybe his 17-year-old son would be better for the job since he had a lot more experience than I did.

Now, I must admit that I am an involuntary screamer when I get startled. My brother Mike can attest to that. He used to get the biggest kick of going around the house scaring me just so I would scream. I would scream and then I would hit him. So when those guns started going off, I couldn't help but let out a scream every now and then. Brother Bowcutt looked at me kind of strange when I did it the first time. I told him I couldn't help it!

Then he decided I needed to shoot one of them big guns. I don't know what the numbers or names of the guns were, but I shot a darn nice one. He told me not to scratch it because it was worth about $1,000. Yikes! What was he doing letting me touch it? Well, I'll tell you what, you would think I've been dropping the kids off and going to target practice during the day. I hit a piece of skeet square in the center AND it didn't shatter! I guess that is amazing because all the men just couldn't believe it. Brady made me have my picture taken with the gun and the skeet just to prove it really happened.

Here's me saying, "Don't make me shoot this gun..."

Once I got a hold of it, it's wasn't too bad!

Here's me, shocked and surprised that I hit the thing!

And here I am again, Brady made me give him my "Oh yeah, I'm so bad" pose so he could plaster this on his desktop. I guess it was a proud moment for him to know his wife could shoot a gun. Watch out!

Now, for a few pictures of everyone else shooting guns - and other camping pictures:

A Few Projects

I have been working on a few projects lately that have been a ton of fun. The first is a baby quilt a friend asked me to bind. She wanted the satin binding embroidered with the baby's name, date, weight, and what the baby's name means. At first I told her that was beyond my abilities but she was persistent and I finally gave in. I'm glad I did - I learned something new and it turned out beautifully.

Next I made a few bags that some of my mom's friend's wanted. I've made the lady bug fabric before, but I absolutely loved the way the other bag turned out (Kristin's). I liked it so much I considered changing my name and keeping it for myself!


A few days ago I came across a blog (I think it was a link from my cousin Adrian's blog so thanks, Adrian!) and there was a tutorial on how to make a reversible eye glass case. I thought the girls would like that so I made them each one. They were simple and easy to make but turned out so cute.

(this picture shows the inside pulled out so you can see the lining fabric too)

Our (Almost) Favorite Day

It's almost as good as Christmas morning. PJ day at Brusters is something that we look forward to all year. It happens every March, and yesterday was the big day. We like to ride our bikes there when the weather is nice. It was about 80 degrees yesterday - perfect for a bike ride. Here we all are riding down the street in pj's. Courtney and Meghann both had a friend with them so we were quite the sight biking down the street.

Even Brady broke out his pjs! I'm telling you, we'll do anything for a free waffle cone. (I carried my bathrobe in a bag on my handle bars. I've got a little pride you know!)

Girls trying to decide on flavors:

This kid couldn't decide on a flavor. I thought he was going to kneel down and start praying about it! Finally, however, he decided on Peanut Butter Puddles (an excellent choice).

His head almost fits inside the cone!

Here we all are enjoying our cones.

My poison this time was Chocolate Peanut Butter Buckeye. Mmmm...chocolate ice cream with this thick, and I mean thick ripple of real peanut butter AND chocolate covered peanut butter balls. Could you just die and go to heaven? I think I did for a minute. Until I realized how much walking I was going to have to do to make up for it.

It was worth every bite!

What Remains

SO! After one night in the hospital, three days of pain medication, passing out in the hospital wheelchair (too MUCH pain medication!), three meals from the Relief Society, general anesthesia to undergo surgery, LOTS of resting on the couch, countless phone calls of well wishes, and passing eight little stones that were once one rather LARGE stone, this is what remains:

One nasty old bruise from where the nurse missed when trying to insert an IV before surgery.

Glad that week from Kidney Stone *#$^% is over. I think I've passed it all, I can't imagine there are more than eight pieces! I asked Brady if he thought it would be alright to post a picture of the stones and he said, "No, it would be gross." I said I thought it would be fascintating. He said, "Not everyone shares your fascination for things that come out of the body." So, if you DO share my fascination, email me and I'll sneak you a picture. I'm not fascinated with everything that comes out of the body. Just kidney stones. And pimples. It's my sickness.

I'm so glad to be back among the living and thank you, thank you, thank you for all of your phone calls, prayers, well wishes, thoughts, flowers (I still need to send you a picture mom and dad!). It really is a small miracle that life is back to normal already.

Now, bring on the bills! (UGH!!!)