It's Saturday evening and I am eating pizza

and watching tv--so exciting! Actually it has been a pretty good week--went by far faster than I had anticipated!


We had our first company as a married couple: Spike's mom came and spent a couple of days with us. She brought with a beautiful quilt she made for our youngest daughter, and I am in awe of it. She hand quilted it in concentric circles, and it is lovely. See for yourself:

She has slept with it every night since she got it. Seeing it has me wanting to make a new quilt myself, although I have two in process right now, and I have one ready to start (for Spike and I). One is at the hand quilting stage, and is about a third done, and the other is my Baltimore Album style quilt that I have been working on for the better part of 15 years (not consistently, mind you, but as I have the time and the space to do it). I just really want to get out my sewing machine and my fabrics and get sewing! Part of it is also the time of year--it's State Fair time in MN and I used to wander the Arts and Craft building drooling over the beautiful quilts and noting those I could easily do and those that I can only aspire to "someday".

Spike and I have been wandering the local Lowe's looking for ideas for the house and gardens. We just purchased this swing for the front yard and I am so excited to have it. Already I have spent some contented hours sitting in it reading, writing, and talking on the phone to family and friends. We are looking at putting a small raised garden in the front of the house behind where the swing currently sits, and Spike's parents sent us some forsythia bushes and a few other perennials that will find a home there. We are also thinking about putting a round garden around the tree in front (as most of our neighbors have) and plant some seasonal bulbs there: crocus, daffodils, and tulips; we are also thinking about what else we might plant there that will bloom after the bulbs die back. We are looking at putting in some kind of patio in the back, running from the door to the end of the living room, with a pergola on one end of it, and a trellis facing the neighbor's house with some kind of climbing plant on it, maybe clematis or even a climbing rose bush. Eric's parents sent a hard maple tree for us, although it is still primarily a seedling, so we are looking to get a more mature tree (although bigger than a sapling) to put in the back yard, as well as some bushes (I really want a lilac bush) and we are looking to put in a fence too.

We are doing some work in the house as well: putting up mini blinds on the bedroom windows facing east, looking at paint colors for the main floor (we are going to base our colors on the picture of Lake Calhoun that we got as a wedding present, and use it as a focal point on the living room wall), install a ceiling fan in our bedroom to help with moving air, and so on. A little at a time! Being realistic, things are going to be done as we can and not all at once.

Good news: Bingo is doing ok in his first week and half at school. He says he has 2 A's and 2 F's--The A's reflect his doing his homework faithfully and participating in class; the F's reflect the fact that he was behind in some of his math skills due to two rough years at Sandford before moving to Sullivan where he began to catch up (the math teacher here just wants Bingo to review multiplication tables to improve his multiplying and dividing skills), and he didn't do well on a pop quiz in English (got half right). The school here goes on a tougher grading scale than we were used to in MN--anything below 70% is failing! Also good news, Spike is starting work on Tuesday as a cop for the Veteran's Administration. I am so happy he has a job doing something he enjoys doing, and he is thrilled to have a job! I spent most of this late afternoon/early evening writing up my resume so I can start applying for jobs myself. Our senior learned a rough lesson this week about NOT leaving important homework for completion in study hall (he didn't get it done) but overall he is doing well otherwise, and our sophomore is doing very well and is up to date on all her stuff. She is a good student! Our GI Jane is organizing herself for starting her college classes, and my kids in MN are both starting or are in school too--I am so very proud of all of them! Spike resumes his classes the second week of September, so I guess almost everyone will be in school except for me... Oh well, my day is coming to finish up my degree.

Tomorrow is gonna be a busy day at church: Spike and I are acting as greeters and ushers, and the younger two are servers (still trying to figure out what exactly that means as far as roles go--seems like a combination fo acolyte and Bible-bearer). Gotta make sure we get to bed at a decent time because we have an early morning tomorrow!