What is yellow, has seeds, and is edible?

When I picked up my mail at the post office earlier today, there was a laundry basket full of summer squash with a "FREE" sign attached.
So, I'm going to do the only logical thing. I'm going to make another stop at the post office to add my eight squash to the pile :o)

My one friend told me that her five year old sat out on the front lawn last Saturday and sold squash for 10 cents a piece. She made $2, but her daughter is really cute, so I'm sure it wasn't her product that boosted sales :o).

Brayden had the "show and teach bucket" for school today, and even though he was hesitant, I made him take a squash. He has to give three clues, and the class has to try to guess what is in the bucket.

The Quilt Walk Story

The Quilt Walk story revolves around the initial attempt to settle Panguitch, Utah in 1864. The first winter was brutal, food was scarce and the settlers were starving to death. A group of seven men, with a wagon pulled by two oxen, set out to get food from Parowan, 40 miles away.
In their weakened state, the men struggled with every footstep, sinking up to their hips in the deep snow. Eventually they abandoned the wagon and oxen and continued on foot. As they held a prayer circle kneeling on a quilt, they discovered they did not sink in the snow. The men completed their journey by laying quilts over the deep snow and walking across them, retrieving their quilts and repeating the process over and over again. The story came to be known as the Quilt Walk and is treasured in the annals of Panguitch history.


Now I can throw away the pamphlet that I've been hanging onto for this story :o)

Wahoo! It's harvest time!

I went outside to check on the garden this morning, and before I knew it, Dillon was outside wearing one of Brayden's cowboy boots, one of Caleb's cowboy boots, and carrying a couple of plastic containers to collect vegetables. It was very cute. He had to tromp through the wet weeds (that are taller than he is) to get to the garden. He helped me pick our first green beans, our first red potatoes, and our first carrot.

Does anyone need any summer squash?

The apple that Dillon is pointing to is not from our tree, but the apples on our tree will be ready any day now (as long as it doesn't freeze) and we can't wait. It's a good thing I didn't let Todd cut that branch off :o)

Never take candy from a soldier...

Caleb warned us last night that we should never take candy from a soldier, 'cause it might be drugs. It took us a minute to realize he meant a stranger :o)

Today we spent the entire day (10:45-5:00) at Aspen Ranch where the students were having a rodeo. We've never been allowed to see the kids on Todd's team, but they needed spectators, so the families of the employees got to go. They had all kinds of horse relays to show off what the kids have learned, and the clinical director dressed up as a clown.

The first couple hours were a little tense as we found out that one of the teams (as well as their therapist, the HR director, and the school director) went on an overnight campout on Thursday night and still hadn't returned to the Ranch. They had search and rescue out looking for them. My first thought, of course, is always that the kids on the team "jumped" the adults and had taken off, so I was pretty worried (It's happened before). We finally got word that the team had gotten separated, and it was too dark to hike the 13 miles out, so they stayed another night and were on their way home. I felt so bad for their wives who had no idea where they were. The school director has 10 kids. Todd has to take his team on an overnighter the weekend after next. As you can imagine, I'm not looking forward to it.

Anyway, back to the rodeo. The best part was all the free food. They had FREE hot dogs, hamburgers, chips, watermelon, soda, punch bags (like a Capri Sun), snow cones, candy bars, Twinkies, Ding Dongs, popcorn, and candy bars--and we tried them all. The kids were disappointed that the cotton candy machine wasn't working, but I think they got PLENTY of sugar without it. Dillon was in heaven. I think I probably gained 10 pounds.

Our favorite event was definitely the greased pig. The boys and girls teams took turns chasing after the poor little porker, and I was amazed at how fast they pinned him down.

Brayden and Caleb know all about the kids at the ranch and how most of them are there because they're addicted to drugs. We had a great discussion last night (after the soldier/stranger comment) about drugs and free agency. It's too bad we have to warn our kids about that kind of stuff in Preschool and Kindergarten nowadays.

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

First day of school 2007
Caleb is ready at 7:55 AM to start Kindergarten at 11:50.

So far I've spent the morning talking on the phone with friends, but now it's time to get back into the swing of things. The dishwasher repairman is coming sometime this morning, and there's a dirty toilet and a couple loads of laundry calling my name. Not to mention the 26 quilts in my basement. I was down to 20, but I got six more yesterday. Thank heaven for school!

Best of Show

I quilted this quilt that won "Best of Show" in our county fair. It's really not my style, but it was fun to use the variegated thread. The lady who made it is planning to give it to her sister who doesn't like ANY color. She gave me a $35 tip for this one :o)


My quilts all got blue ribbon's except for the bug jar, which got a red. I was disappointed that my bug jar quilt (that I made from start to finish in 3 days) was displayed hanging up so you could see the whole thing, and my basket quilt (which took me 2 1/2 years) was folded up, and sitting on a table with the worst basket showing. I was tempted to ask if I could switch the two quilts, but it doesn't really matter. My name is on the Best of Show quilt, and really all I wanted was the advertising.

A tisket, a tasket...

I finally finished my quilt for the fair! This was an hand-appliqued block exchange that I did with my quilt guild in Logan 2 1/2 years ago. Every person made 12 of the same appliqued basket, and then we all traded to get one from everyone.

It was quite an experience. When Dillon was born, I was madly sewing three-dimensional flowers in the hospital because they were due that week. Then, when Mom came to stay to "help with the baby" we made flowers....and more flowers. Mine is the tan basket with the yellow daffodil (I added that for the fair--nobody else's had that flower), and the pink and blue rusched flowers.

I quilted it last week. It took 10 bobbins of thread (that's a heck of a lot for a quilt that's 67" square), and if I were to do it again I'd quilt it differently. Oh well, at least it's finished!

This is the first time (and last) that I've ever done (or will do) a scalloped edge. I think it took me 1 1/2 hours just to sew the binding onto the quilt, and then I stayed up 'til 1:30 AM to finish the hand-binding.

The "Felicia fair"

I've been working like crazy to finish my basket quilt to enter it into the county fair so I'd at least have one thing with my name on it to advertise my business.
While I was at the post office this morning, my visiting teaching partner (who happens to be on the fair board) caught me and asked me to bring whatever I could find because there weren't enough entries to fill up the room. So, I went home and scrounged up a bunch of stuff.
Luckily, the rules state that anything can be entered, regardless of when it was made, as long as it has never been in the Wayne County fair before.

Spring Needlepunch

Bug Jar quilt that I made four years ago, but
I finally sewed the beads and buttons on (for eyes) today!
The quilting in the border is supposed to be
fly swatters--it's not my best work.
There's supposed to be a spider web behind the spider,
but I was new to quilting and thought it would be easier to stitch
the web AFTER the quilt was quilted. I was wrong.

"For These I Give Thanks"
I think I started this one while I was pregnant with Caleb (5 1/2 years ago)
and finished it to display for a Relief Society function about four years ago.

Thirties table topper
I made this one with scraps from a client's quilt
after she had me sew her binding.
(I don't usually keep their scraps--
they always want to keep them :o)

Dillon's field quilt
This one is not for judging, but for show.
I thought the people of Wayne county would get a kick out of it.
I have more fabric to make one to sell, but by the time I
add up the cost of the fabric and my time to quilt and bind it,
nobody in their right mind would pay what it's worth.

I also entered a stitchery pillow that I gave to my neighbor
for her birthday, but I don't have a picture of it.

Missing President Faust

I was sad to come home from the boys' swimming lessons to find that President Faust passed away this morning.

President Faust walked into me and Todd's Eternal Marriage class one day at Ricks College, and I will never forget the look in his eye, and the spirit he brought into our classroom. Our teacher started to cry. He didn't say a word, he just looked around, and then left. It's amazing the influence he had on my life, just from those two minutes that I was in the same room with him. I have told people about it many times. He will be greatly missed.

Going...going...GONE!

It took Caleb all of 10 minutes to learn how to ride his bike without training wheels last night. Here he is with Dad chasing him, and cruising up and down the street with Brayden.

It's so nice to live on a street that isn't busy. We have rush hour from 7:58 'til 8:01 AM when all five employees are hurrying to work at Garkane (the power plant) that's two buildings South of our house. Throughout the day, a few Garkane trucks will drive by, but they're on the clock--so they're not in any hurry. On Monday the garbage truck comes--the kids love that. The rest of the time it's pretty much open for bike riding.

We did have a funeral procession come by yesterday...that was exciting.

It doesn't get any more "small town" than this...

The business hours of our local craft shop are such that I never venture out there, unless I call first to see if they're open. I called this morning, and they said they'd be open for another 3-4 hours. Before hanging up, I mentioned that I'd probably be there in an hour.
I got busy doing other things and didn't leave when I had intended. I wasn't in any hurry until one of the ladies who works there called me to tell me that she and the other worker had eaten something bad, and they both had diarrhea, and wanted to close early. They were waiting around for me to come pick up the bottle of paint I needed. Of course, I hurried over to pick up my paint so they could go home.

The moral of this story, is that the rest of you need to be grateful, every day, that you have a Michael's nearby.

The prophet said to plant a garden......he never said to own a goat.

One of my favorite primary songs is "The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden". I have been singing it to my kids for years, and was so excited to plant a garden this year since we finally own a piece of land.
I think I called my Dad every day for two months (sometimes more than once a day) asking questions about gardening, planting, vegetables, growing seasons, etc. in preparation for our first garden.
When it came time to plant, I arranged for the hardware store to deliver a tiller. Todd did the tilling, but everything else has been my job. I killed out the weeds beforehand, made the furrows, planted the seeds, and have tended, weeded, watered, and babied my garden all summer long.
So you can imagine my reaction, when Todd announced last Sunday that our neighbor's brought us a goat all the way from Pleasant Grove (and that he requested it).

So this is Billy, our goat. I despise him from the tip of his horns, all the way down to his stinky toenails (which I've heard we're supposed to clip). As you can see from the picture, there's not a lot of green pasture around, and what there is will be gone within a couple weeks. I now live in fear that the stupid goat will get hungry, get off his chain, and eat my garden. I told Todd it would only take once, for my entire garden, and all my hard work to go down the drain. (Or down the goat, rather). He is well aware that there will be NO forgiveness. And yet, the goat is still here.

The good news, is that our friends Becky and Don would like to take him for a while so he can eat down all their weeds. I think it's a great idea to have a town "roving" goat. When your weeds are gone, you just pass him along. I just want our turn to be AFTER the harvest.

Oh, and by the way, the tomatoes in the picture are the first two things we picked from the garden. We've also picked radishes, spinach, and lettuce. I am anxiously awaiting zucchini, red potatoes, green beans, lots more tomatoes, and hopefully a few peas and carrots (the pea's and carrots didn't do so well).