International Quilt Festival In Houston

I'm going! And I'm taking classes! And I'm going to be there when they open up the exhibit floor! I can't wait!!! I'm taking Wednesday off. I still need to prepare my stuff for the classes I'm taking - a fmq class in the morning and a color and design class in the afternoon. I can't wait! Such excitement! I'll post about my experiences, for sure!!!

Sewing Class

I bought my sewing machine last summer from a local quilt shop and found my people. They had a monthly meeting at the shop where you came to show off your stuff, see what the shop was doing that month or coming up and get a discount on things you bought that night. Of course, there was a day meeting and a night meeting. I came to one day meeting that summer, but made sure I was at all of the night meetings. When the quilt shop closed, the ladies still wanted to get together, so they found a church and organized it.  I was only able to go to one this summer - they only meet during the day, but I showed this casserole carrier I had made. They asked if I could teach it as a class, but I could only do it in the afternoons, after school, so we set that up and we had people come.

It was a lot of fun. I had submitted the directions and materials and I just walked around and helped. I got a lot of good ideas and Charlotte gave me a serger - a nice one that someone gave her and she didn't need and couldn't figure out how to thread it. So Julie took it home and set it up for me. I haven't used it - I haven't had time to sit down with it, but I can't wait to figure it out!

Zoo trip

Over Labor Day, we took a trip to the Houston Zoo with the girls. It wasn't as hot as the last time we went, but it was still crowded. But - we got to see DINOSAURS!

This bear was ready to play with some visitors!

New Mystery Quilt

After I was so pleased with the Alletaire mystery quilt from Bonnie Hunter I did last year, I was very excited when http://meadowmistdesigns.blogspot.com.es/   announced a new mystery quilt.
It didn't have applique, which I generally try to avoid (not too successfully) in larger projects, so I joined the facebook group and shopped my stash when the colors came out. We had a month of picking colors, a month to cut and 2 months of  sewing so far. I'm caught up. And I'm pretty happy with my results. I can't wait to finish it!

Color Choices

September

October

Lager and Therapy Dogs

My little Millie is going to kindergarten next year (sad face) and Scott will be home alone for most of the day. Not a good plan for someone with major depression. So I've been thinking and praying about what we could do to help alleviate some of that, and a dog is what I came up with. 

We have Lily the 13 year old Chihuahua and Bean the 15 year old cat, but they are generally hands off and not so cuddly, especially since the girls came along. 

I love Chihuahuas, but our experience with Lily soured us to them. There are several rescues in our area that hold adoption days on Saturdays in the local pet stores and we've been stalking them for a few months. In person, Facebook, etc, just looking for a dog we are drawn to and we feel would be a good match for us. One of the reasons I like the rescues is because most of the dogs are with foster families and are already house broken and crate-trained, for the most part. 

We've been looking at all kinds of dogs. I'm drawn to big, black dogs or just big dogs in general. Also, of course, Chihuahua mixes. Millie and Grace like all kinds of dogs. Millie really loves the sweet Chihuahua mixes. If it were up to us, we'd have a whole herd of Chihuahuas. Scott is more reserved. 

One of the best things about the rescues is that they have "sleepovers" where the dog comes to stay with you for a while and you can bring him/her back if it doesn't work out. We tried one last week with Lager. He's a 50-lb, beautiful 2 year old, maybe a collie/shepherd mix. We found out a lot during his stay, but he wasn't ultimately for us. He's too energetic and rough with the girls. He doesn't know how big he is. But we found that we liked having a dog around that wanted to cuddle and love you. We think 50 lbs is too big, though.  One of the dogs Millie and I found and loved was this huge, white dog named Marsha Mallow. She's really striking, both because she's huge and because she's all white. Millie and I really liked her but Scott and Grace haven't seen her. Now, she's all Millie can talk about. Even when I remind her that Marsha is bigger than Lager and even Millie is saying we need a smaller dog, Millie still keeps talking about Marsh Mallow. But I really think Scott is not going to go for a big dog.

We had him Wednesday to Friday and brought him back Friday afternoon. 

We started again Saturday. Pups in Peril is an organization my pastor's wife is a part of and she's a real advocate for us getting a dog. My favorite there is a big, black female named Sadie. There was a smaller, black one, but they're not sure how potty trained she is. We've proven with both kids and dogs that we're not good at training, so that's out for us.

We spent some time at an art festival, and of course, Millie found some super tiny Chihuahua puppies that were soo sweet and lovable. Too small for us, though. 

PAWS Beaumont is usually at the PetCo in Beaumont, so we headed there next. They always have a ton of dogs available. We had told them we were looking for a female, and they had Rosebud. We took her out and played with her a bit and decided we would try her this Wednesday. She's soft and smaller - not too small. Big enough for Millie to be Millie with. And she seemed to like us and not freak out when Millie got in her face. And Scott liked her and made the arrangements for the sleepover. I'm hopeful but I know there are a lot of other dogs out there. We just need one that's good for our family. I'm still hoping for a big black dog, but it's not for me - it's for Scott and the girls. I'm the motivator, but it's their decision. 

This is Old Lady Lily

Grace Camp

Vlog

Millie was mad at me. She was really mean for several hours. I had the crew drop me off in Houston and we stayed with Scott’s parents until we went to pick Grace up at camp the next day. Thursday night his parents had a dinner to attend, so we were on our own. We ate pizza and watched Jurassic Park, while Millie was scared and mean to me. The next morning we went to see Star Trek Beyond, which was very good, and had lunch at Red Robin, which was also very good. We finally left to go get Grace. After seeing her show and getting her luggage, we were on our way home!!!

Laura Trip

They picked me up around 10 and we headed out to Fort Worth. It was a nice trip. No real responsibility for me. When we arrived, I got my registration materials and had some nice down time to relax before dinner. We went to Bird Cafe. Unfortunately I had a headache and was nauseated, so I took most of it home and had it for breakfast. It was a Taso corn salad with proccutto and chicken, and some ricotta/mozzarella fried balls with pesto. The balls were totally delicious for breakfast the next morning.

I woke up early and went down to the fitness center. My knee protested every time I tried to ramp up to a run, so I walked a mile. We went across the street to the convention center so the rest of the group could get their registration stuff. The exhibits were open and a continental breakfast was available, so we wandered around a bit. One of the booths was a free trade vendor that I bought a little pouch purse from and some copper A&M heart earrings.

The first session was a general meeting with the key note speaker. He had started a charity called promise for pencils that built schools for children in other countries. Now that it is established and run by others, he is going after college debt and prep, which is interesting.  He had some good things to say. ( His step by step blueprint to change the world). I was able to sit and dream a bit about things. Like instead of doing Classcraft next year, making my own Pokeballs and letting kids buy things. I’m going to work on that.

The first real session I went to was one on how not to start a business. I went to get tips for my t-shirt quilt business. I was good. I learned some things, but mostly things I already know or had heard.

Lunch was at a little cafe where I had a pesto, chicken pizza. Delicious!

 The second one I went to was on Breakout edu - a puzzle box game that teaches kids problem solving, etc. I had heard of it before and found out that there are some strictly online, where you don’t have to buy the box materials. I will explore those and then put in for a grant for the materials.

The third one was DESSERTS spelled backwards - he had desserts to share and an activity that explores stress response. It was ok. The fourth one that day was on cancer curriculum - it looks like the case study site but with a little different angle. It has cancer, infectious diseases and some other useful things for anatomy. Biology too, but not for me next year.

That was the last one. After that, one of our group members’ sister lived in town, so she took us around. We went down to the stockyards and had dinner at the Cattleman. It was nice. I knew I couldn’t eat a lot, so I had a shrimp appetizer, but the ones who had steak said it was wonderful. We walked around awhile then went back to the hotel. Then went on an expedition. We found a nice little neighborhood with the hamburger restaurant one of us wanted to go to for the next night. We ended the night in the hot tub until they kicked us out at 10.

The next morning they had breakfast burritos available. The first session I went to was called Dead Teachers Tell No Tales about pathophysiology. It didn’t end up being what it advertised, but I got a lot out of it because she shared a lot of information and activities.  There was one on the urinary system at the same time and one of my group members went for me. It was neat too. The second one I went to was on Problem-Based Learning. It was ok. I got a few planning sheet. It was mostly information I already knew. The last one was on forensic science and it was a game changer for me. It got me thinking about teaching it and starting a club and competing for SkillsUSA. We’ll see. I did the research and I can teach it with my current certification. I’ve emailed the curriculum superintendent, so we’ll see. We will see.

After lunch at Riskey’s for BBQ, we just chilled the rest of the day. We went to that neighborhood and had a drink at the Dirty Crow so we could park there. We had great hamburgers at Fred’s, then went for another walk when we got back to the hotel. Downtown Fort Worth was such a nice place to walk around. Lots of little shops and galleries to wander into and out of.

Thursday was our last day, so we went to the first session but skipped the closing session to go see the “cattle drive” at the stockyards. My session was a bust, but we all got off in good time to just hang out at the stockyards and wait. We didn’t end up eating there, but got on the road.

It was such a good trip. I enjoyed the people I was with and the things I learned.