family, food & fun . . .

We had a marvelous Independence Day celebration up at the camp! Guess who came to visit?!?

Yes! My darling Sawyer! Look how grown up he looks! He was just a kid at the camp yesterday. He brought his mommy and daddy, too. And Jocelyn and Jason came as well, to make the family circle complete!

Todd was the grill master for the event. Every family brought their own meat to grill and a side to share. It was a good plan!

I decked out a picnic table so it looked rather 4th-ish. I'd purchased some citronella candles for the table, to help keep bugs away. They actually did a pretty good job!

None of us just brought "one dish" to share, so the buffet table was full! It was almost like Thanksgiving!! It was funny -- once the meat was all ready and the lids taken off the serving dishes, someone remarked, "What are we waiting for, let's eat!"

Sawyer knew what that meant -- he ran for his chair. He was ready to eat too!

Such a charmer. He held up his end of the dinner conversation quite well. No one could understand all that he was saying, but his tone was cheery!

There was plenty for everyone. Joc made a yummy, not-your-typical coleslaw and a tomato and corn salad that was *wonderful*! Kim made roasted potatoes and a sugar-free apple pie (which was delish)! Jason even tossed in a pan of brownies he made just for the event! Add to that the prerequisite baked beans and watermelon . . .

And as you can see, plates were full!!

Sawyer particularly enjoyed the watermelon! (Never tell a young child to say, "Cheese!" when they have a mouthful of watermelon. LOL!)

Sawyer had three or four rides in the golf cart. He just loves riding around in that thing and he sits so nicely and quietly while it's moving. Early in the evening, I asked Sawyer if he wanted to go for a ride. He didn't answer me, he just took off running for the golf cart. Oh, I guess he *did* answer me!

Jason was the camera master for the evening!

He used an 8-second exposure to help create these fun effects! I can write my name with a sparkler!

And the star was fun, too.

James, who was having more fun with the sparklers than anyone, was our fireworks master for the evening. Jason had purchased a bunch of fireworks a year ago and brought them. He was having fun filming, so James agreed to light the fuses.

We had some rockets red glare.

And bombs bursting in air.

Giving proof through the night, that time with family is the best.

:)

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a full, fun father's day weekend . . .

It started out Friday evening with a surprise call from Kim, wanting to know if I wanted to get in some "Sawyer time" that night. Are you kidding me?! Of course! I suggested they bring Sawyer over for a sleepover, so they did! I love Sawyer sleepovers!

We had pizza for dinner. As you can plainly see, Sawyer likes pizza . . .

I know it looks bad, but he cleaned up very nicely! He sure can cram some pizza into his little mouth.

After dinner, Sawyer and I went out for a ride on the golf cart. He *loves* to ride around the camp. We went down the low road and saw this . . .

At first I was very startled, but then I remembered that we had the Christian Southern Archers coming out on Saturday for an event, and they'd already set up their targets. Sawyer didn't know the difference, though, and for the rest of our sixty-minute ride, he growled at every animal we came upon.

Especially this big ol' guy, up in the upper meadow. Even when we got close enough to touch it, Sawyer just growled and growled. It's very funny to listen to and even funnier when you know that he's actually mimicking his Aunt Jocelyn's cat, Leia (who growls at most everyone).

Sawyer even growled at this fellow . . .

Can you see the little Frog Prince in the center of the photo? Every time he jumped, so did Sawyer.

And I couldn't get a smile out of him for the life of me -- he was too intent on all the animals. He was hard-pressed to look away from them long enough for him to look at me!

Back at the RV, I turned on our happy lights and he amused himself walking up and down the stairs about a million times.

And once we were cleaned up and in our "escape proof" pj's, he still wanted to go outside!

We had a good night's sleep and his mommy and daddy picked him up early, to go visit Kim's dad. After checking on the archery group that was already up at the camp, I headed to the grocery store. It was a relatively quiet day, with Todd working down on the dock, and me doing domestic things and working on the ministry's newsletter, when a violent storm popped up and passed through the camp.

It took with it a couple of trees, including this one which came down over the main road *and* the road into the main camping area.

And yes, if you look closely enough, those are power lines and we were (once again) without power. I've never been so thankful for my husband's foresight than when he purchased that generator!

Saturday night we went to sleep lulled by the sounds of the cranked generator. We got up Sunday morning for a happy Father's Day breakfast of french toast and bacon -- Todd's favorite!

A quick call to Huntsville Utilities confirmed they did still have our repair ticket and that they'd get to us when they could. *sigh*

Sunday was a hot, hot day. Our raccoon visitor stopped by and took a little dip.

He really is very cute!

Later that afternoon, everyone came up for a little Father's Day get-together. We celebrated with Todd's favorite; a Carvel ice cream cake. I think it may be Sawyer's too.

Just take a look at the blue from the ice cream frosting, around his mouth!

Then Todd got down to business and opened presents!

He was very pleased and surprised by the Kindle! Yay!

And I couldn't post it on my blog on Friday, but this was actually the first Kindle holder I made! One for my dear man's new toy. :)

Sawyer makes himself right at home. I found my old cell phone for him to play with. He loves to carry around cell phones and remotes!

And here are the hers and his Kindle cases! We'll always be able to tell our Kindles apart.

And this morning, I played around just a little bit with quilted postcards.

This is definitely something I'm going to need to play around with more and get in lots of practice. I did two different techniques for securing them (mainly because I wasn't real pleased with how the first one turned out), but the second one did better. This will be a fun past time when I feel the urgent need to create. I even got them in today's mail!

Whew. I need a week to rest from the weekend!

:)

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a birthday happy . . .

Fortunately, my darling niece's 7th birthday is this coming week. Unfortunately, that day falls on the first day of travel for their summer vacation. Fortunately, they are spending the afternoon and evening at my parent's house (they're flying out the next morning). Unfortunately, Lucy believes that her birthday may get lost in all the shuffle. Fortunately, that will NOT be the case!

I started this ages ago (a quilt for her American Girl doll, Kirsten) and just
last week realized I needed to get on the ball!

I started with 12 simple four-patch blocks.

Stitched them together.

Added a border.

After adding backing & batting, did a simple outline quilting stitch, along with a ribbon tie.

Got the binding ready and . . .

Got the binding on it and ready to hand sew.

Got distracted by this guy . . .

Was inspired to put in Furry Vengeance to watch while I stitched down the binding.


Added a handwritten label. (I know, I know -- I need to get some printed with my name on them.)

Happy birthday to Lucy!

Now I just need to rush it to the post office in the morning!

And in case you didn't know to appreciate my Fortunately/Unfortunately beginning, you definitely need to click HERE.
:)

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Gracious . . .

What a week-and-a-half it's been. In my last entry I shared how the weather was already kicking into high gear; it kicked into even high gear later in the day. We were fortunate, to say the least, and did not suffer any major damage. Even people who had uprooted trees or car damage didn't really have major damage, in light of the tremendous loss of life and property that some in our area experienced. Really, all of North Alabama is got hit hard. Several communities in our county were hit with the huge EF5 tornado that swept through Wednesday evening. If you've watched news at all over the past week, you've probably seen images. Photos can't compare to driving down roads and seeing it with your own eyes. It's heartbreaking.

As I said, we didn't sustain anything major. We were without power, but since we're in our RV (and Todd had JUST purchased a generator), we were sitting pretty. When the power went, the refrigerator automatically converted to LP and the battery kept lights shining. Todd was on shift when it all happened (it tends to happen that way), so I was up at the RV by myself. It was a wild, wild and scary evening.

James, Kim & Sawyer came and stayed with us while power was out. We were able to keep Sawyer's milk cold (and heat it) and it was lovely spending time together, and allowing Sawyer to become comfortable in our RV home! We actually had a marvelous time riding around the camp in the golf cart, exploring through Sawyer's eyes!

James, Todd, Jocelyn & Jason have all been able to volunteer and participate in clean-up efforts, and caring for those who were displaced by the storm. The donations of time and materials is overwhelmingly wonderful. A true picture of loving your neighbor as yourself.

Sawyer Graham is walking and walking and walking! I can't believe how fast it's all happened. He's gotten quite stable, although if he wants to get somewhere really fast, he still crawls. So funny! He doesn't need to grasp the concept of running just yet!

My last day of work was this past Wednesday. It's a very good thing. I'll be able to take care of the administrative side of our ministry and shoulder some of the burden that Todd's been bearing by himself. I'm excited, to say the least!

Our guild's bus trip to Paducah was canceled, due to the storms. We were under a very strict curfew, and our departure and arrivals times didn't work in the confines of the curfew times. This makes five years running that something has happened to keep me from going to Paducah!

Kim's last day of work was Friday -- and as happy as I am for her (because I know how much she wanted to be a stay-at-home mommy), I'm sad that I won't have those regular Sawyer days, once a week. Perhaps Kim will soon be ready for some "Kim time" in a week or so, and will allow me to watch Sawyer while she takes some time for her!

Quilting has mostly been on hold through all of this (for one thing, our office/quilt room is also the guest bedroom!), though I do have my finished BOM due next weekend, and a new swap project in the works. More on those next week.

And pictures. My camera has been taking a break; it'll be out and in action again next week!

:)

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