Congratulations Karen!

The pictures are pretty self explanatory! It was a GOOD DAY!!












This is Laurie, Karen and Patrick walking into Titan Hall for the ceremony.













The group pic before the ceremony.













That would be the beaming Karen on her way in, during the processional..


This is "Doc" - the wonderful man who is single-handedly responsible for instilling a love of history into Karen, inspiring her to make it her major!

















This would be the proud father and the grad....walking back to the car......

On the way out of the parking lot, the VW van overheated......much chaos, bad language and disgust ensued......

Laurie set us straight. She stated, "you know, this totally COULD have happened on the way TO the graduation......"

Dead silence. We shut up, and limped home, a little ways at a time......running the heat to cool the engine, windows down and suitably optimistic! We parked the car in the garage, piled into the kids' cars, and headed back out to celebrate.













This would be the hot, tired, windblown, starving and HAPPY family of the graduate!



Congratulations Karen!

Finished!

She did it. Last two essays were done at home instead of the library as planned earlier, because ...... I'm not sure why, given what a madhouse "home" is with four dogs, and phones ringing....

She had to have them emailed to the professor by 6:45 p.m. The email went out at about 6:43 pm. Be still my heart.

And then the grinning began....and she put on her senior ring and it is staying on......and she giggled and posed with the hat/tassle.....

In case inquiring minds want to know, her helpful "brother" Patrick put the doll on the laptop screen.....with the statement "he'll help." The doll is a story in and of itself. When he (Jason Priestley from the long ago "90210" show) wasn't acting in the movie Karen was making (more on that below) he served as a ring bearer of sorts......more inspiration!

And those of you interested in a movie this evening can go to the site mentioned at the end of this advertisement:

Rasputin. A naughty boy in Russian history.....passed himself off as a priest of sorts, with powers and abilities of sorts....eventually insinuating himself into the Royal Family of Nicholas and Alexandra, supposedly able to prevent/stop their son's bleeding spells (hemophilia)....When Nicholas trotted off to war to be with the Boyz on the front lines, Alexandra who was a bit of a desparate airhead, permitted Rasputin to make major decisions affecting the government, cabinets, position-holding, etc......eventually some folks took exception to this naughty boy and the effect he was having on the governing of Russia, and they decided to kill him. Only....he wouldn't die. Poisoned wine - nah. Poisoned cake - nope. Shot at close range, several times - still kicking! Eventually drowned at the Neva River.....

Pop some popcorn and enjoy the class project of Karen and three fellow classmates in Russian History.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u46c6sBaHLk

Um....actually the doll did not star in the production.....but his shoe did.....on the popsickle stick bridge after Rasputin was flung off into the blue ice cubes in the kitchen sink waters of the Neva River...... (Listen all the way to the very very very end! The final song is exceptionally well executed!)

I must get back to work. Karen has left to celebrate with Teege and I'm alone with the four dogs. That's as peaceful as it gets around here, so I better make hay and get some work done.

Babies don't wait!!

Karen and Patrick have a co-worker/friend at Chipotle who is expecting.....very soon!

Sounds like an excuse for a quilt to me!!

I have been wanting to try a kaleidoscope quilt, and I had been drooling over the selections here:


http://stores.ebay.com/Avalon-Bloom

So I bid on a child's/beginner kaleidoscope kit and I'm having way too much fun....
















So much fun, in fact, that I have bought the patriotic set (I'm thinking pot holders, placemats, hot plate mats....), and also the Mardi Gras green set to make for someone special.....for Christmas!


Shhhhhhh! (I'll never tell!)


I even got Karene started on them....She has one to begin soon also!


I'll be using the yellow as my corners, as above (the seller included pink gingham corners which were SO cute - but the baby is a boy. No pink corners this time!) I'm using the bright blue as sashing and some orange squares at the four corners, bordering with green, backing with a white-on-white print.....

There is WAY too much fun to be had on Ebay...... ;)

The Countdown

This would be the "almost" college graduate, fresh out of the shower, attempting to wake up after almost no sleep, and finish one (of three)ten (10) page theses due this week.


Note the cap and tassel for inspiration, the numerous water bottles for hydration, the stacks of reference books for information.......




And note Le Tigre, the Wonder Dog.......who wonders where the Karen she knew has gone....


Sad,
sad,
sad, Le Tigre........











Today she finished the second of the three.......with 25 minutes left to jump into the car and race drive over to school and turn in her paper...... 20+ miles away. I don't even want to think about that. Then she goes to work, works til 9 p.m., comes home and writes the last five pages of the second paper and tomorrow she heads back to school in the morning to turn it in, complete two short essays in the library, and turn in a mountain of reference books......

AND SHE'S DONE!!!!!!!

Completely done. Finis! We will attend her graduation ceremonies Sunday morning and have a celebratory lunch right after. Yay!! And then she wants to do post-baccalaureate work, and eventually start on a Master's degree.......after some serious sleeping!

And Le Tigre gets her Karen back.

And I get my dining room table back. And I shall stake out a claim to it so I can finish machine quilting my bestest buddy's quilt which has been waiting..... since last September for a long time to be finished. And she (the bestest buddy) can stop teasing me about how long it has taken, even though I deserve the teasing.....teehee!

Then I can start on my next UFO. ;)

Happy Birthday Karen!!

Today, 26 years ago, at 00:16 or so in the morning (I may be a bit foggy on the details given what I had just been through!) we welcomed an 8 pound 3 ounce baby girl into our lives! Karen, I love you so very much, and I am so very proud of you. I have felt a little sad today, because at 26, you can't really just have a birthday, unless your job-school-life-in-general decides to cooperate. So instead of singing and candles and general merriment, you have a day full of school, work, class projects, term papers, theses (pleural intentional - 3 in fact), and NO TIME FOR A BIRTHDAY! From a little squirming pile of little baby googoo, to this:


(Karen and Laurie)
I am a truly fortunate woman. I love my kids, my kids love me. I love watching their lives unfold.

Happy Birthday Karen!! We'll celebrate right after you toss that graduation cap in the air on May 28!

One other thought, completely off subject. I basically staple my pants to the floor and stay in my office all day.....I put bird feeders outside my window to kinda brighten up the vast wasteland that is my unfinished back yard. (Doesn't really count as a UFO (UnFinishedObject) because it has never been started!)

Today I noticed a bird that was pulling at a bit of cotten stuck on one feeder. I raced outside and clothespinned cotton balls to the oriole feeder, just for grins. The goldfinch was delighted.


He came back and proceeded to rip the cotton balls to pieces. A hummingbird staked one out and also made off with clumps of cotton, but I couldn't catch him with the camera. Here you see the goldfinch, upper right corner of the cotton balls, peering at you with a piece big enough to resemble Santa's beard....see his little black eyes peering at you?



Then he hopped to the left, sat on a clothespin and posed for me.....and took off!



Cute! (I apologize for shooting through the open window screen....Must think of a way to avoid that next time...)
Back to work for me.....

She's lucky she's so cute

This is Sadi. My daughter Laurie's puppy.......she has had her for probably about six months now. In fact, she's been around long enough to be spayed and become a "dog" in my mind. But we still call her "the baby" because:
1. She is tinier than the other three dogs....
2. She is puppy-like in what she choses to play with....
3. She has absolutely boundless energy (to the chagrin of her favorite target, a huge yellow lab mix named Max).

But she's cute.....

So when she takes advantage of the open shower door, and snags the "scrubbie" and absconds with it, and turns it into this:


I don't get out the torture device from when she was spayed.....and turn her into this:


I do, however, call her names.....such as Laurie's favorite nickname for her when she chews up Laurie's clothes, make up, ipod case, etc......that being....."butthead"!

But she does have that cute factor just nailed! (And I'm really NOT a dog person. Ask anyone about that....)

Back to work for me.....after I pick up the purple scraps.......

First Entry

Every blog has to start somewhere! This is mine.....

Here I will post ideas, celebrate the small things, contemplate bigger things, post pictures and generally be silly. Hopefully my family and friends will check in now and then to see what sort of mischief my family and I are up to from time to time.....

I think I'll take this opportunity to go see what this looks like. And then I have to get some work done. (Work IS a four-letter word....)