Quilt

So, after 3 months I have finally finished my quilt that I was making for our bed. When my mom was here in July, she helped me pick out the fabric. In May, when we were at Josh's mom's house I saw the sheets she had on her bed and decided I liked them enough to incorporate them into my quilt and to also buy a set for our bed. Picking the fabric out was harder than I thought it should be but we got it done. Here are a few pictures of the process along the way:



The quilt is made by sewing strips of different colors together.



There are 36 squares on this quilt plus the border. This was a very monotonous step and somehow (probably due to mistakes I made along the way) I kept running out of cut strips so I kept having to cut more cloth or sew scraps together. You can see that the center piece is from the sheets I bought and cut apart and again we have the same sheets on our bed.



Here is the finished product. When I originally started the quilt I thought Josh and I would be getting a King sized bed but then we ended up only getting a Queen sized bed so the quilt is really big.

I made tons of mistakes along the way and you can see most of them if you really look closely at the quilt. There are lots of squares that didn't match up nicely with the squares beside them and that caused problems. The batting also gave me some problems because the quilt is so big that I don't have a room in my house wide enough (unless I took out all the furniture)to lay it down without it bunching up. Eventually Josh helped me out by rigging up some rope thing in the garage to hang the quilt from so that I could pin the material in place. This helped some but again, if you looked closely at the quilt you would see that at some point during the sewing process the batting moved away from some of the edges.

This is the fourth quilt I've actually made. With this one I had thought about possibly having it machine stiched together like you see most quilts. The problem with this is that I don't have a sewing maching big enough to do this. I was excited when I found a place near here that offered to do this for you but then disappointed when I found out how much that would cost and how long it takes them to do it. So, I finished the quilt the same way I have done all the other ones by just tying all the pieces together with string. This also is a time consuming process especially on a quilt this large.

I'm happy with how it turned out (mistakes and all) and I like the nice touch it adds to the bedroom with the decorations I already have there.

Laughter

So this weekend we went to Springfield, MO because we had tickets to go to a comedy show called Stand Up 4 Marriage. The show didn't start until 7:00 but we decided to go up a little early and just mess around. Springfield has a wonderful store called Mardels which I love. Basically it's like a discounted Christian book store. If you know me at all you know I love to read and I love getting books even more but hate paying full price for them. So, we went there for a little bit and I got some good deals.

After this we went to Bass Pro. Apparently Bass Pro's home office is in Springfield and this was the first time I had been to this particular store (I had been to the one in Branson once). I must say I was somewhat amazed at just the shear size of this store. Unfortunately for me there were not very many things in that store that interested me or that I would buy. Josh however liked this store more than me (however I think he still prefers Cabellas over Bass Pro).

We had a little time after this and before the show started so we got something to eat and then walked around a park some. It was a nice park and had a ton of squirrells that we enjoyed watching. Springfield is a college town (Missouri State Univ.) and overall I would say that I would not want to live in that town. It kind of looked run down (at least the parts we were in).

As I mentioned before the show didn't start to 7:00 pm but we got to the building about 6:30. We got a message that they weren't going to open the doors and let you sit down until 6:50 so there were a ton of people crammed into the hallways. It was a little crazy. Unfortunately our seats were about smack dab in the middle of a row (of 60 seats) so that was a bit of a pain to have to walk over so many people just to get to our seat.

One nice surprise (and maybe why the doors opened so late) was that there was a rose glued under the seat of every-other chair so that the husbands could give it to their wives. It was a nice surprise.

The first act was Yakov Smirnoff who also has his own theater in Branson. He was very funny and actually is the one who organized this whole night. He shared with the audience that he is very passionate about saving marriages because he actually had a marriage that failed. I thought that he did a really good job and I love the cause he is working for.

Mark Gungor was the second act of the night. He was funny but for me personally he didn't say very many things that I hadn't already heard before in school before. The third person to speak was good also but not quite as funny. His name is John Gray and he is the person who wrote the book "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus." His act went way over his allowed time but that was okay. The last comedian was Chonda Pierce. I love Chonda Pierce and this was my first time of seeing her in person. She was really funny and one thing I like about her is that she tells it like it is. At the very end we were in line to get a copy of the show on DVD and she walked right in front of me, not more than 2 feet away. That was neat too!

This night was really fun. I got to see Josh laugh harder than I've ever seen before. There is just something special about laughter and getting to experience it with someone you love. I think laughing together could help many couples feel closer to each other.

Sunday we had to make pumpkin cookies (wonderful recipe from my sister-in-law) to take to Community Group. Josh and I went to town and ate out and then went to a corn maze. I've been wanting to go to a corn maze for awhile but this is the first time it actually worked out. I must say I was a little disappointed because it was way too easy to find your way in the maze. Josh had a good point in that kids are going to be running around the maze and they can't make it too hard because of that. I kind of wish I had thought of that before we went. Oh well, you can't win them all.

After that we went to Bella Vista and walked around a lovely walking trail. I wish we lived a little closer to such a trail because it sure does beat walking around the same .21 mile track over and over again.

We then went to church followed by community group. I'm sure glad that God connected us to this group of people. I love getting together with them and fellowshipping with them. I look forward to growing in these friendships and creating more.

All in all, it was a great weekend and I'm so thankful for the time and memories created...

Camping Trip

For awhile now I've had the camping bug which if you knew me several years ago you would be surprised about. However, since I met Josh I have started to enjoy camping more as long as I don't run into snakes or many bugs. So, this weekend with the cooler weather Josh and I decided to go camping. We went to a national park named, Shores Lake. This is the place that we went last December when we went camping.

We left Huntsville Friday afternoon and it was about an hour to Shores Lake. The timing of this trip was actually good because this past weekend in NW Arkansas was a festival called bikes, blues and BBQ. This meant that thousands and thousands (more than I've ever seen before at one time) were driving all of NW Arkansas. I don't have anything against bike riders but it does present a bigger driving hazard for regular vehicles at times.

We got to the camping area and were somewhat surprised at how many people were already there setting up camp. We found a site that was pretty good and not directly by a bunch of other campers. It turns out that this weekend was the start of bow season for deer hunting which accounted for some of the campers there. Josh and I then cooked hot dogs over the fire and had smores for dessert. It was yummy.

On Saturday we woke up and had a wonderful breakfast of scrambled eggs, fried potatoes and onions and bacon. It was sooo good. We then attempted to go hiking on a trail at this park but a little ways into the trail you could tell that it had not been kept up and was completely over-grown. So Josh started walking across a creek and through woods that did not have a clear trail. This kind of hiking (without a clear, cut trail) makes me nervous but not because I think Josh will get us lost. Rather I get nervous because of my really big fear of anything other than cats. To me it just seems like you are more likely to run into animals I don't want to see if you walk where there is no trail. However, we made it safely on our little trek and made it back to camp. I was surprised because Josh bought me new hiking boots (my last pair my parents bought when I was 13) and they really were water proof. I walked through the creek and my feet didn't get wet. It was nice!

Later that day we decided to go to White Rock (another national park) and hike there since we were so disappointed with the trail at Shores Lake. This park we also visited in December and it has beautiful views. Unfortunately when we got there we soon realized that this park too had trails that were overgrown. I guess the government funding for keeping up federal parks has been cut or something. It's a shame...

When we got back to camp it turns out that even more people wanted to camp and we had two groups of people that were camping directly on either side of us. For supper we had hamburgers and baked potatoes cooked in the camp fire. They were the best potatoes I've ever eaten and if you know me you know I love potatoes and have eaten tons of them.

Unfortunately one set of our new neighbors were very loud and did not follow the posted rules that said you were supposed to be quiet between the house of 10 pm to 6 am. It was getting close to 1 am before they quieted down. I was really tired before 1 am and not able to sleep and after 1 am.

Sunday we got up (even though it was so cold I didn't want to get out of the sleeping bag) ate breakfast, relaxed a little and packed up and headed home. It was a good camping trip and I was so glad that I got to spend more time with Josh. I love sitting by a camp fire and eating "camping" food.

Here are a few pictures from our trip:



View at White Rock



Another view at White Rock



The leaves have just started to change and that made me happy. I love Fall and the changing of the leaves. I can't wait to see more in the next few weeks.



This is a pretty butterfly we saw on one of our hikes.



Another pretty tree at White Rock.



Josh made some pine needle tea which he said wasn't as strong as some he has made in the past. I tasted a small sip and it wasn't that bad but I don't know that I would drink a bunch all at once.



Our tent



My wonderful husband and best friend. There is no one I'd rather go camping with.