Snow, Exams, Indy, Quilt, Paint, Guest, Taryn, Patio

It's been a week since my last blog..... and alot has happened since then! We had some snow, and that closed school for a day on Monday, then the kids went to school late on Tuesday. Indy arrived in the middle of it all on Tuesday night. On Wednesday they went to school on time, but came home at noon due to the threat of an ice storm, which never arrived. Sheesh! It wouldn't have bothered me except for a pesky little issue of final semester exams. Gib missed his afternoon exam on Wednesday and had to take 3 on Thursday. Everyone went to school for full days Thursday and Friday and got to finish all exams resulting in a relaxing Winter Break without the prospect of taking an exam in January looming over their heads.


Nobody was more relieved than Gib who pulled tanked grades up and got 2 A's and 3 B's for the semester. He came home and got his grades online, and requested the return on his cell phone and facebook account. He had to text his dad for the password. His dad replied "good grades". Gib thought it was a question, so he texted back YES. Turns out, Mike had changed Gib's facebook password to "good grades" during the duration of the weeks he had to go without it while working on his academics. I thought that was hilarious. I'm not so sure Gib found it as funny as I did.


Preschool ended on Thursday for the holidays. We had a half day with the Christmas program which was so adorable. The program was centered around my favorite childhood book of Twas the Night Before Christmas, with a narrator reading the story, a slide show with the pages of book as he read along, and at certain points each preschool class sang a song. Very cute! Afterwards, they all had class parties and went home. We broke down classrooms and then all the staff went out to lunch and we had our gift exchange. My boss knew I wanted to get this one teacher to make a quilt for her gift. She does so much for our school, the community, etc., and I wanted to give something extra back to her. I got this idea a long time ago to make a quilt based on the units she teaches; I browsed the material store to see if it was possible. Boy, was it!! So by some stroke of luck, my boss handed me her name and said she had drawn it for me since I wasn't going to be at school the day of the drawing! Wow, what a coincidence!

My mom and I had alot of fun shopping for material. It features Eric Carle heavily since the teacher starts with that unit and uses their Eric Carle inspired paintings all year long in their art projects. Mom and I spent alot of Thanksgiving placing the fabric.

Then mom went to work on all the sewing!

Here is the back of the quilt, done in subway tile pattern.

Everyone loved it, especially the teacher I gave it to! She couldn't believe we got all her preschool units into one quilt. My mom did a great job on it didn't she?! We make a good team. I love to choose the fabrics and she loves to quilt.

Another project finished this week, finally, was painting Taryn's new college girl bedroom. Indy helped me since I only got 1 wall done on Monday. She and I cranked it out and when Mike and I left on Sunday to get T, all that was left was one wall of touch ups and to put the furniture in place. I could have finished the touch ups if Killer Bunnies hadn't called me away! We wrote a message on the wall to her friend Charlie who will be remembered forever for losing in Rock-Paper-Scissors and having to stay in the "turquoise room" when he and Trevor came for a visit. We thought for sure the guys would be fighting over the bed, but nooo, they fought over the pull out sofa rather than lose any manliness in the turquoise room. Trevor and Charlie are on their missions now, but another friend from the infamous EFY group, Brennin, is back from his mission, so he came for a visit this weekend! We were excited to have his company. He had to learn Killer Bunnies, however, we didn't make him stay in the almost finished, paint fumed navy blue room. Indy, Brennin, Gib and Mariah also visited the Opryland hotel; a busy place this season having just reopened since the May flood. There are some great photos on Indy's facebook wall of their Opryland excursion. And one photo that is deep, deep, deep undercover right now. A totally fake marriage proposal from Brennin to Indy that they are going to use to fool Charlie and Trevor into thinking he proposed to her while they are on their missions.

Mike won Killer Bunnies by the way. Poor Brennin could barely keep Bunny Heart alive the entire game and had to revive him once even. He was attached. I do believe there is a photo of him snuggling Bunny Heart.

While Mike and I were picking up Taryn in St. Louis, Indy and Brennin finished her room as a welcome home present! They moved in all her furniture, hung the shelves, put up artwork, and decorated with all her shells and stuff. It looked great! We got home just in time to say goodbye to Brennin who had to return home that night. Bummer. Unfortunately, it was too dark without overhead lights in the college suites to get a photo, because as soon as Taryn moved in, her travelling trunk exploded and that AFTER photo is not going to happen until I see carpet again.

Here is Taryn, utterly thrilled that I texted Mike to send her out for a Rest Stop Photo Op to add to my collection

Fishy!!

We haven't seen much of Taryn since she got home Sunday night. She has a cold and doesn't feel well. She is pretty much sequestered up there with her Betta fish, named Fishy, who had to travel with us in a Parmesan cheese shaker because it had a lid with holes and could fit in a cup holder. I thought that was totally ingenious on my part, especially since it was 2 am when I came up with it.

WHEW!!! this is long, isn't it?! Yesterday, Christmas came early and we got concrete!!!

The cats haven't used the back door since who knows when. Neither have we, but hey, we're just the humans, it's the cats that use it the most!

Chino was given Top Cat honors.

Not sure about this!

Haven't quite figured out there was stairs yet. He eventually did.

Give Chino the time and he'll get there.

Heading to his sidewalk, happy as he can be!

Mom's prison window will be replaced soon with a longer, bigger one.

Still no bars. She hasn't tried to escape so we're rewarding her Good Conduct. From the inside the difference is amazing! So much natural sunlight in her kitchen and living room now! Yay!

Next: The patio will be scored in a diamond 2x2' pattern tomorrow. It will be stained when the weather warms up and it has cured. The pergolas will be built and the fire pit and elevated portions of the patio will be bricked. Also we have some brick columns going in which will be topped with outdoor lights flanking the sidewalk. And the wrought iron guys comes tomorrow or Thursday to start the railings.