Hello 2009!

And a Happy New Year to you. My sister and BIL arrived and we really enjoyed their visit. They called to say they made it home(Florida) safe on Friday. We always have warm weather when they visit. I always ask them if they prayed for warm weather. It was 82 degrees here yesterday and today it got up to 42 degrees with a brisk north wind. What a difference a day makes!

What have I been up to since my last post you might ask? You might ask, right? It really doesn't matter 'cause I'm gonna tell you anyway. LOL Let's see our plans were foiled to go to San Angelo for Christmas. DH got called out Christmas Eve and then had to work Friday after. We had to get another 2 tons of feed that weekend. I tell you those pigs EAT. We've got 14 on a self-feeder that should be butcher ready the end of March if they gain as expected. I will try and get pictures sometime. We got all that done and DGD wanted to come spend some time with us. We got her on Saturday morning and then DS#2 called and asked if we could keep DGS Mason that night so they could go out. Sure! I got up Sunday morning and started sneezing my head off. If I sneezed once I sneezed a hundred times. Not really but it really felt like it. DH helped with the DGKs as best he could. DGS Mason went home Sunday afternoon late and DGD Aimee and I went to bed early. I cleaned house on Monday in anticipation of my sister and BIL's visit. I ran out of energy and finished the next day. Don't worry--I am feeling 100% better now! It has been two years since I've seen my sister. We really enjoyed their visit. DGD Aimee went home the same day they arrived when her mommy & daddy came for dinner. I felt like I cheated her from crafty fun since I had so much to do.

My sister got to go to my Kraz-z Quilters meeting and watch us hand quilt. We finished the one on the frame and put another one on before we left. She had never been a part of putting a quilt in a frame before. THEN we went shopping! When we visited them in 2004 she took me shopping at some nice shops in Florida. We are two years apart in age and spent most of our growing up years together. When we married our lives took us in different directions. We haven't been able to spend much time together over the years.

While we were out my sneaky BIL, my SNEAKY BIL installed a light kit on the guest room ceiling fan. Imagine my surprise when he flipped the switch! AND he went shopping (in addition to Christmas gifts) and got us a griddle. I've always used the same cast iron griddle that we inherited from Larry's grandmother. I have upgraded, folks! I love it.

I took down the Christmas tree and all the decorations put away on Saturday after we went to Weatherford to pick up our pork. I washed the bed linens on guest bed and hung on the line (82 degrees). I took advantage of the warm weather and washed some other things and hung on the line. We knew we had a cold front coming with a possibility of freezing weather so I washed up all the laundry. My wash water runs outside and freezes in really cold weather. I know sounds primitive doesn't it? But I love living in the country. Today DH wanted to go to Cabela's to look at reloading equipment. He got a 7mm rifle with his bonus check. He's wanting to get into target shooting. Long distance shooting. He's always been a really good shot. After we left there I wanted to go to Sam's to stock up on staples. With our beef, venison, pork, and now with today's items purchased I shouldn't have to buy much except eggs, milk, and fresh produce. We can get iced in (as long as we have power) and can eat real fine.

We had some of the bacon this morning. Thick cut, very little fat, like eating ham! Cooked it up on the griddle BIL surprised us with. Eggs over easy, thick cut bacon, whole wheat toast with my Apricot Zucchini Jam. It doesn't get any better than this!

Oh, I almost forgot to tell you! I decided I wanted to give the Pink 4 Patch Stacked Posies quilt to my sister. She was thrilled. I'm glad she liked it. Tomorrow, I plan on balancing the checkbook and sewing the Star BOM#10 block and posting a picture.

Blessings,