In Case You Were Wondering

I've had to explain how we get 3 vehicles into our 1 car garage. Well, I finally got around to taking a picture of it. If you look closely, you can see the little corner of the truck's canopy in the back. Chuck (the truck) is parked sideways back there. And of course, there's Baby and Foxy in front. It takes a little care to get them in there, but we manage, and it's so nice to have them all in there when it's 0 degrees outside! :)

Some craftiness

Well, as you can see from my sidebar, I am involved in a potholder swap. My dear friend Monica got this whole thing started and organized. My swap partner was Michelle. I made the blue chick for Michelle since I figure blue goes with almost everything. :) Since Monica did so much work and organizing I wanted to make her one too. And since she loves cherry stuff, the cherry chick is hers. :) I can't wait to get mine from Michelle. Fun, fun, fun!!



Another quilt I finished is one for my sweet friend Judith whose dream has finally come true. Her and her husband just adopted a precious little girl. We're having an online shower for her. I just love the colors of this quilt. The pattern is an Atkinson Designs pattern called Lucky Stars. It is such a great pattern. It goes together quickly and the points are perfect on all the stars. :)

I'm finishing up another quilt HOPEFULLY today, so I'll post that later. Quilty, chickeny hugs to all!

Our weekend visitor

We had little Miss Tango visiting us this weekend. She's a little hamster from Anisa's biology class, and she also belongs to one of Nisa's friends. She is a SPAZ! We let her run around the house and just watched her. We think she got in about 5 hamster miles in just one night.

She stayed in Anisa's room, so the first night Tango kept my kid awake with all her noises, but the second night was ok.

Isn't she just so cute?! :)


This is her cleaning herself. She kept very clean while she was here. She reminds me of Sara who would take 5 showers a day if we let her!

Frigid Cold Day

Well, the kids are snuggled in their warm, cozy beds. It's 7:19 a.m. By now, they should be awake, already have breakfast in their tummies and on their way to beautifulness so they can go to school (actually, Anisa throws her clothes on, puts her hair in a ponytail and is ready....Sara takes FOREVER to get beautified). This morning is different. I have gotten an early email from a dear friend who notified me that school is closed. Why? Well, they say it's because of the dangerously cold temps......right now it's -10 with a windchill of -30. Yea, it's cold outside, but I'm still not quite sure why they cancelled school. I mean, the middle and high school kids don't go out for recess and the little kiddos have had indoor recess recently because of the cold. Oh well. Whatever. My girls will be thrilled when they wake up.

So, I plan to get some sewing done today. I'll be posting pictures of my latest finished project probably later this morning or early afternoon. I need to make a fabric run to our little quilt shop in town. My friend and I plan to go swimming at the Y in a little while. I really need to get the house clean and some laundry done. Fun, fun. I hope you all are having a wonderful week, even tho it just started. It's getting off to a fun start here in WI! :)

Baby, it's COLD outside

Ok, this is DEFINITELY not a complaint, just a tale of the weather here in Sturgeon Bay. It's been cold, many of you know from my older posts. I'm LOVING the snow. I'm enjoying the cold weather, since I HATE, HATE, HATE the heat. Today is downright frigid! Even the snowflakes won't come out! Right now, it's -3 degrees with a windchill of about -21. I don't mind since I'm in my warm, cozy house.

I feel sorry for all my wildlife friends. The bunnies, squirrels, foxes (we saw one running across the highway tonight), deer and the birds. I hope they're all tucked away in their dens, holes and nests. Now, I realize animals can usually deal with this. They get thicker fur and feathers. I just don't like them to have to be in the freezing cold. I told Travis we should put up little tents in the tree off the branches. I was only half kidding. Could you just see all the little canvas triangles in the trees?! :) tee hee

The air is cold, but what really gets you is the wind. And since I don't like to wear lots of clothing, I've been cold lately. I am usually warm, but a sweatshirt in this kind of wind just doesn't cut it. I guess I'll have to break out my coat. Darn! I might even have to wear...GASP..gloves! Oh well. I might just get into my flannel pants and t-shirt, and get under a quilt. Now that sounds like an EXCELLENT plan. :)

Sledding

Well, we don't have MOUNTAINS here, but we have a couple hills in town. So, since we got MORE snow (YIPPEE), we went sledding. We went with the Friese clan and had a great time. Even tho our butts were frozen and numb it was fun. Travis ate some snow going down head first. Anisa and I went down with him once each.
Here's my kid in the green jacket. Sara was coming down with a pretty icky cold, so she was warm and toasty at home.

Here I am heading down the hill. I got a big bruise from my boot hitting the side of my leg every time I hit this one particular spot on the hill. It's ok, tho. It didn't hurt because I was numb! :) We are supposed to get snow on and off all week, so the hills will be nicely packed for next weekend. Our temps are supposed to get down to single digits, so we'll see if we go out again!

I've been traumatized

Ok, so yesterday I was coming around the counter from the kitchen to the dining area to look at my little birdies and squirrels and ........

THERE'S A HAWK EATING A LITTLE BIRD! Right under my tree. So, he sees me, grabs his meal and flies away. Now there is a pile of DEATH *(well, feathers) under the tree. I'm traumatized! The worst thing is he looked at me like, "Don't judge me, you chicken eater!" Ouch.

He came back today to see what other tasty animal he could snatch up, but I scared him away. I understand he needs to eat. Really, I do. I also think he is cute and fun to see. I just wish he didn't have to eat the CUTE animals in my backyard! I hope he finds a tasty snake in a field somewhere. As long as he doesn't bring it here, I'll be ok.

I think I'll make salad for dinner tonight! :)

She PASSED!

Yes, I'm a good driving teacher. :) AJ took her driver's license test this morning and is now a full-fledged driver. I just watched my money go out the window to the insurance company! We get a discount as long as she maintains a B average, which is our requirement anyway. Lucky for her, she does have good grades and will get to drive by herself. Here's the first time she has gotten to drive without an adult.....she had to take her sis to swimming. Of course, I was worried, but she made it back all in one piece and the Element is whole also. Whew, the growing up business is for the birds. I need a nap!

Sweet 16

Wow, I can't believe MY BABY is 16! Yep, 16 years ago I gave birth to my first daughter, and here she is a young woman. YIKES! I can't be old enough to have a driving kid!

Here she is driving to her Birthday Dinner. We had to go down to Green Bay on Saturday since snow was predicted for Sunday. We never can believe the weathermen, but this time they were right and I'm glad we went on Sat. The birthday girl picked the Olive Garden for her dinner. Of course, it was delicious.

It's hard as the giver of the gifts to shop for a teenage girl to begin with, then add the fact that the teenager doesn't really want much right now! But I managed to pick up a few things for the kiddo. She's REALLY into Converse and I think this is her 4th pair. They're about the only shoes she wears now. She saw this pair of shorts at the mall recently and so I got them for her plus the shirt which she likes. She also got a knifty knitter...the kid can whip out a scarf in a matter of an evening, so I thought this might be a fun thing for her to have. Oh, and she got a cover for her ipod and a little purse. She will also possibly be going to Washington this spring to see her best friend (grades allowing).

This is our BABY getting kisses from her adoring parents. We love the kid....what can we say??!! :)

6 Weird Things About Me Meme

Well, Monica tagged a bunch of us, so I guess I'm IT for a minute.....

1. I love my van, named Baby and SHE'S A GIRL. :)

2. I can sit and watch the squirrels in my backyard for hours. They're so cute when they sit up on their hind legs, and they're soft looking, although I haven't touched one, since I think they have bugs.

3. I eat popcorn with chocolate. I prefer to have a dove milk chocolate bar, and take little bites, then pop some popcorn into my mouth so I get the salty and sweet flavors at once..yummy!

4. I love chickens. I like the real kind, because I think they're cute, but I have a ton of stuffed and statue kinds of chickens. I have them all in my sewing/guest room. If I had real chickens in there, they would poop on my new carpet...ewwww!

5. I prewash all my fabric. As soon as I get home, I throw it in the washer, then as soon as it's dry I love ironing it into neatly creased pieces.

6. I hate clothes. As soon as I get home, I strip and put my flannel pants (winter) or soft shorts (summer). I don't like my clothes fitted.....loose is good! :)

More frozen stuff

I know, my posts have been about snow lately. Well, in a tiny little town, where there isn't much to do, you have to get your entertainment from somewhere. I choose nature! :)

This is Sturgeon Bay looking north out into Green Bay. On the right is the boat launch next to the shipyard. It really is beautiful when it's frozen.




On the other side of town, the ship canal comes from Lake Michigan into Sturgeon bay. This is a man-made canal so the ships don't have to go all the way around the peninsula. Right now there are a lot of big ships (called Lakers) coming in for winter Lay-up. Yesterday the largest Laker, the Paul R. Tregurtha came through. The ship is HUGE! 1,013 feet. I would have LOVED to watch that baby come through the canal. The ships stay here in the winter because of the lake freezing and the locks between the lakes have to close down for maintenance. The ships will have work done while they're here, and get back to work in the spring.

This last picture was taken of some little icicles that I thought were pretty with the sun shining on them. We've had sun today, but it's still cold....currently 20 degrees.

Got Salt?

Ok, if you've ever lived in the midwest, you already know. If you have not lived here, I'm going to tell you something terrible....... They salt the roads here in the winter. Of course, salt is a good thing to keep the roads cleared, but it's not good for your vehicle. We've been driving the Element, since it's our "winter" rig. Well, there is salt ALL OVER EVERY ROAD. If you drive, salt slings up on your vehicle. Eww. It's kind of hard to tell, but the salt is almost level with the door handles!

Thank goodness there are plenty of carwashes here. We got the ultimate wash with the pretty foamy stuff! :) You drive into this "garage" and both ends are closed and it's warm inside. TJ and I laid our seats all the way back and watched the water spray through the sunroof in back. Ah, the fun things to do in Sturgeon Bay! :)

Lovin' the Snow

So, TJ and I went dowtown to look at a couple of shops and I wanted to see if the bay was frozen. Well, we didn't go walk on the ice (now, that would just be dumb), but here are a couple of pictures of Sturgeon BAY.

The top picture is looking up into Sturgeon Bay. You can see the shipyard (TJ's second home) on the right with the Lakers (the HUGEMONGOUS ships in the yards). Some of these babies are over 1000 feet. It's not a great place to be when the wind chill is below zero.

This second picture is one of the little boat harbors close to town (actually town is in the background. You can see the little steel bridge on the right. That is one of the two bridges in town. Someone on the city council or something thinks we need another bridge. Um, well, we only have 9,500 people here. I'm thinkin' 2 bridges are plenty. Oh well. Gotta spend those tax dollars on SOMETHING! I wish they'd put in a skateboard park or a skating rink for the kids. Now, THAT would be worthwhile. Oh well.

Wishes Come True

Well, my wishes for snow are coming true...for
a little while anyway. We got some snow. About 4 inches or so. It started last night around 9ish and we woke up to this. It's continued snowing most of the day, but it's now starting to slow down. Earlier there were big, giant flakes coming down, now there are just little baby flakes. It's all good, tho.

The squirrels are a little cold right now, since their bellies hit the snow. They are jumping really high to get to the patio where the peanuts are. We've even had some goldfinches on the thistle bags. They are especially puffed up today, too.

This is a picture of some snowflakes. The flakes are so pretty when you can see them individually. There are a couple of clear ones on the paper. They remind me of my friends...a little flakey, but they are each special and I love them because of it. :)

Supersize me

Well, since my little friend
Happy Zombie asked me so nicely to post the pic of my supersized chicken, I figured I'd better. So, here she is. HZ, another friend and I were participating in a Thimbleberries club in Longview, WA a few years back and you could earn thimbles (little wooden ones) if you brought in a show and tell item with Thimbleberries fabric in. You actually can't see the Thimbleberries fabric in this picture, but it's on her tail. I also included some of her chicks in the picture. I kind of went crazy making these little chickens a while back. 2 log cabin blocks sewn together with some felt, and beads for eyes and voila, you have a chicken. So, anyway, this pic is for you M! :) hugs and pecks

Pincushion Challenge

I'm a lurker at a few other blogs and there is one called Booga J that has a pincushion challenge. Well, I took the challenge and here is my pincushion. The theme is Winter Wonderland, and I LOVE Mt. Hood. I love to see it all year, but it's especially beautiful in the winter covered with snow. Now, I can see Mt. Hood anytime I want....can't wait til I can see the real thing, tho. :)

Ok, I know I complain alot about having to live in WI, missing the PNW, blah blah blah. This is not a complaint post. This is about a couple of things I actually LIKE about living here.

Ok, now that you've picked yourself up off the floor, I can continue......

Of course I LOVE the wildlife here. I understand that some people would argue about the wildlife being RODENTS, but I happen to love the squirrels and bunnies. On a drive this summer, we saw a HUGE porcupine and we see plenty of deer ~ some are even alive, not just roadkill.

The birds here are spectacular. I've posted about the colorful cardinals and goldfinches. Hopefully we'll get to see the Indigo buntings and orioles this summer. TJ is REALLY into watching the birds. He took this picture while he was sitting on the step outside. This little black-capped chickadee came right up. He didn't even care that TJ was sitting there. These little guys are just so cute and sweet. They have a cute little song and they are real small and look darling when they're puffed up. :)

Another thing I've noticed here in SB and all over Wisconsin is the amount of HUGE American flags. Not the amount of flags, but they are literally gigantic! I don't know about everyone else, but I can get a lump in my throat when I see our flag. I am so proud to be an American. I am proud of having a husband who serves our country and being able to support him. I am so thrilled to be able to live in a house, have a 1993 Ford Aerostar (had to throw that in), be able to practice my religion, and not live in constant fear. I can't imagine what some people go through in other countries. It's a great nation we live in.

Now, there you have it. Me NOT complaining. Today I have to do laundry, clean the house and probably run the gym clothes to my kid since she left them on the counter in the kitchen, but I'm going to do it all without complaining, because I'm just happy to be able to do it all in the first place. :) hugs and kisses to all my friends.

New York, New York

Well, I'm finally getting around to getting AJ's New York pictures on here. She got to go on a Mission trip in November with the Moravian Church. The Moravian church is a lot like the Lutheran Church. 30 people went. They loaded onto a coach bus on Wed. a.m. and drove the 26 hours straight to New York.
Upon arriving in the Big Apple, they got on the Staten Island Ferry to go to Great Kills Moravian church where they camped out for the 4 days they were there. I must add, no showers were provided! YIKES.


The trip was to help those in need. They were broken into small groups and worked in various places in the city. AJ's team worked at Chips a soup kitchen, and upstairs are apartments for young pregnant teens, and teen mothers to try to get their lives sorted out. She also worked at The Methodist Church ~ a place that provides clothing for people who need it.



They got one day to sightsee and explore the city. They ventured out to see a bunch of cool sights. They went to Ground Zero, the Empire State building, Central Park, Grand Central Station, Starbucks (duh), Times Square and saw the Statue of Liberty.














It was a good experience for her. She got to see how people who aren't as fortuntate as us have to deal with life. And, got to see New York....Bonus! :)

More quilting gettin' done!

Well, I have finished another quilt. One of the girls from my bible study class had a precious little baby girl.
I pretty much just gathered fat quarters from my stash and put them together. I didn't really have an idea of exactly how this quilt would look. I usually have a picture in my head, and usually the quilts don't turn out like I THINK they will. This one was a pleasant surprise. I really am happy with how it turned out. It's bright and cheerful and I hope baby Madison will get lots of snuggle time with it.
One of the fabrics that I used has little dragonflies on it, so I thought it would be cute to quilt little dragonflies and flowers and swirly things on the border. Here's a close-up of the quilting. Now to start another project, or maybe I'll finish something that I've already started. Maybe I'll just go shopping!

Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

Ok, yea, whatever...Distance makes the heart YEARN!! I was looking on line to find out where the nearest 7-11 was. I'm having a Slurpee fit here! So, I found out the closest one was in Zion, IL just out of Chicago and it is about 203.5 miles from my driveway. That's about 3 hours to drive for a Coke Slurpee. That's sick! So, it got me to feeling a little sorry for myself living here in Door County (which we have lovingly renamed Dork Ounty). Here is what I'm missing and how far it is to the closest one from my door.

Mall (in Green Bay) - approx. 45 miles
Starbucks (actually Sara has a fetish) - 47.5 Miles

Costco - approx. 220 Miles (there are several in the Chicago area)

IKEA - 328 Miles
Fred Meyer - 1674.33 Miles
Fabric Depot - 2048.92 Miles
Uwajimaya - 2064.68 Miles
Cannon Beach - 2135.37 Miles

I think those are the most important places that I miss. Of course, I miss friends all over, and that stinks. I'm going to go sew now. That will keep my mind off my desire for a Slurpee. :) tee hee

One more thing.....

Ok, I'm on a roll. Travis took this picture this morning. It's a cardinal (duh) in our tree right out our back door. We've become really crazy about the birdies here. We have some spectacular birds that visit us. Today we saw our first waxwings. They are so cool. They have a little wig like the cardinals, but they're grey with a little black mask and yellow tipped tails. The cardinals are kind of shy so we don't see them out very often. We can usually see them deep in the bushes out back.




We have a thistle bag out in the tree that the goldfinches love. We get common goldfinches and purple finches, which are more red than purple. These little guys are the yellow kind.




We have also had a Downy Woodpecker in the big tree out back. They are so cute to watch because they kind of "flit" around and peck at the bugs. We also get nuthatches. They like to peck at the bugs too, but they prefer to eat head down. We learned this weekend that there are brown creepers around and they eat sideways. The Discovery Channel is NOTHING compared to our own backyard. :)

Christmas pic

Well, I figured since I was on here, I'd put on the girls with our Christmas tree, even tho it's late. If you know me, you're used to me being late! :) Anyway, we usually get our tree on my birthday, but this year we were LATE with that too. We went out to a cute tree farm out in southern county and cut a cute little tree down 5 days before Christmas. We didn't have a big space to put it so this one was perfect. It was a nice height, and kind of narrow. Just right for the spot we cleared out for it. We just took it out today. Kind of sad but I like putting all the Christmas stuff away and getting back to normal. :)

Happy New Year!!

Well, I hope you all had a wonderful New Years Celebration. We successfully stayed up til Midnight, toasted with our Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider (which I can't find in Sturgeon Bay, gotta get it in Green Bay), kissed and wished each other a Happy New Year. I don't plan to make any resolutions, but I would always love to lose a few pounds, stop ragging on Travis so much, blah blah blah...we'll see if it happens. :) tee hee

We had visitors!!

My mom and my nieces, Steen and Kels, came out to visit us. It was a WAY TOO short visit, but we had fun seeing each other anyway. The cousins all got along (nothing new there) and they got to see all our wildlife. They already knew their aunt was wierd! :) Life is more exciting like that!








Anyway, the CA girls went with my girls to school on Friday to experience THAT. We spent a day shopping and on our way to Appleton we went through a little town on Lake Michigan called Algoma.

When we were in Algoma, the lake was very stormy and wavy. The water was splashing over the breakwall (I don't know if that's what it's called, but it sounds very technical, doesn't it?). There were tons of geese out there on the beach. I love watching and hearing them, but MAN, they have big poop! hee hee


We also watched as the water splashed up on the beach and it was freezing almost immediately after it hit the beach. It was really cool. Mom and I went wine tasting up in Carlsville. But I want her to come back in the summer when things up north are open. Most of the peninsula shuts down from Oct/Nov. to May. We didn't get any snow while they were here which kind of bummed us out a little too. Oh well, we had a good time together, just visiting. :)

Snow Pictures

:) I wanted to get these pictures posted so everyone can see what I ordered! :) Yea, the snow is all about me.....hee hee The only worry I have is my precious Traily has to be out in subfreezing temps all winter. I hope he survives. I have the portable heater going inside so things can thaw a little. This morning when I took Travis to work it was 13 degrees outside. The Element has a great heater, tho, so we were fine inside AND it handles pretty good in the snow.

Today the sun is out, but I think they're predicting flurries on and off for the next few days. I need to get the salt off the Element. Travis keeps wishing we could have studded tires on our vehicles. Oh well.

Everyone says I'll get sick of shoveling snow by the end of winter. I guess they COULD be right, but I'm not sure. After I got done with our driveway, I went and did the neighbor's drive (they're snowbirds). I wanted to do my other couple of neighbors' driveways, but it got too dark.





This post wouldn't be complete without a picture of my fuzzy friends. They are so cute in the snow. They dig to bury their peanuts under the snow and they even fluff up the snow over their treasure. I love, love, love watching my little squirrels. :)