Here’s Mark giving us a live performance on July 4th of his new song, Canadians in my House. Click over to his blog and take a listen!
Scott and Sue Family
Adventures in quilting
For Christmas, Scott gave me a stack of fat quarters in fall fabrics for a Thanksgiving quilt I want to make. I have a landing that’s prominent in my living room and I like to hang a quilt on it to soften it and dress it up a bit. So far I have a patriotic one and last year I made a Halloween one, which was my third
finished quilt. (Did I mention that I’m a novice quilter? Hence the need for more time to quilt. I’ve made 3 finished and hand quilted, one that’s partly hand quilted, 2 pieced tops for charity that someone else finished, and a UFO pieced top made from scraps leftover from the quilt that I’m quilting now. That’s my entire inventory. I’m not counting all the tied quilts I’ve made over the years because what I really wanted to learn was how to piece and hand quilt.)
OK, back to the fall fabric. I’ve been looking through my books and magazines for a pattern that I want to use to make this quilt and so far I’ve been underwhelmed. On July 2 we went to lunch at Archibald’s Restaurant and did some shopping at Historic Gardner Village because it was my birthday weekend and I wanted to. 🙂
Scott sat on a bench outside while I browsed around Pine Needles, looking for bargains and inspiration. I found both! Cute Moda charmpacks 1/2 off and a quilt sample done up on the wall that I just fell in love with. The quilt had a sign on it saying the pattern was “Off the Grid” from Moda Bake Shop so I called over a saleslady and asked her about getting the pattern. Discovery: Moda has oodles of free patterns online using their products. Who knew? Well, all the savvy quilters knew, I’m sure, but I discovered a gold mine when I got home.
So I looked up the pattern, printed the instructions, and found the designer, John, has a blog of his own called Quilt Dad. Which brings me to the Pay It Forward section of my post. (You were wondering when I was going to get to that, weren’t you?) His blog is packed full of cool ideas and I’m linking to one of the best parts: his charity quilting. He participates in quilting bees where members contribute blocks to make charity quilts. Check out his blog!
Back to me. Last week I cut out the pieces to my Thanksgiving quilt and here they are. I can’t wait to get started sewing.
Elder Brian’s June updates
6-7-2011
I am doing so good, the weather is cool (we are in “June Gloom” right now). But it is super nice. The ocean is beautiful and I love seeing it every day!
Miercoles: We went to the train station and we sang hymns and contacted people and it was SO fun. We had some sweet experiences. This one guy from Africa came and talked to us and [we] were able to teach the Restoration to him and he felt the spirit strong! Then, this one lady came up to us and said that she was thinking about the missionaries that morning and how she needs help with her daughter who is heavily addicted to drugs, so they set up an appointment and met with them that night!!!
6-14-2011
Wow, so for my news….I am being transferred! It was a shocker for sure. I was not expecting that, not even for a minute. I was only here in San Juan Capistrano for 6 weeks?! Gah. Well, I guess the Lord needs me somewhere else, so I am ready to go for it. This area is insanely crazy, we have seen way more miracles than we have deserved. This has been the most productive area that I have been in, and truly it has been a great experience. On Sunday at the stake missionary correlation I was talking to President Cook and I am also being released as a Zone Leader!!! Hallelujah! I have been a Zone leader for 8 months. It is time for someone else to be a zone leader too. What President Cook told me was that I am going to be a district leader in a Spanish area (hooray), so that this transfer I can get to know the area and then for the rest of my mission I will train. President wants to have the experienced missionaries be trainers because for awhile most of them were just really young and inexperienced. This transfer there aren’t any Spanish missionaries coming in, so he is “arranging his pieces”, so that next transfer and the transfers that follow, I can train. So that will be awesome, I am
really, really, really excited for that, but I am sad to leave San Juan.
6-21-2011
Ok so for the news on my transfer. So now I am serving in Mission Viejo as the district leader of the Mission Viejo Spanish District. I cover the entire Mission Viejo stake, and the ward that I am serving in, (the Mission Viejo 5th Ward), covers three stakes! So there is one companionship assigned to each stake and there are 6 missionaries in the ward. We cover the cities of Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Ladera Ranch, and Wagon Wheel. President Cook told me that they are putting me in position so that I can train here soon. The district is small, only 6 missionaries, and they are all great, so this will be a really nice transfer, where we can get a lot done!! We have a full-time car (covering 4 cities), but the car got wrecked a few days before I got here, so we were walking and hitching rides until a few days ago when we got the car back. The area has a ton of potential, and historically has always seen a lot of success. Right now, we don’t have a whole lot going on, but we will see here in a little bit and hopefully we can get things rolling!
6-28-2011
I do now know my release date and everything. So the official day (as of right now) is December 20th. That is a Tuesday, so I will either stay in the mission home that night and come home on the 21st, or I will go home that day.
Jueves: In the morning we had a MIRACLE!!! We were going to check up on a referral in these apartment complexes and this 15 year old kid came out. He was all like, they aren’t there, but you can teach me if you want! So, we did, and we taught him about the plan of salvation and the Restoration and we invited him to be baptized and he said yes!! We are working for July 30th! He is awesome and has so much potential. After him, a lot of our appointments fell through until we were able to teach one of our progressing investigators in the evening. It was a really good lesson about the plan and she really felt the spirit strong. Then after that we ran over to English classes and helped out with them, and then at the end we gave the spiritual thought. The classes are so fun! I love teaching English!
This work truly is the work of angels and miracles never cease to exist!!
Wherein I come to a bend in my road
Life has a way of throwing us curve balls, taking twists and turns, sending us on a roller coaster ride…….you get the idea. We try to plan and organize our lives but things change, we make choices, and one day we end up at the end of our forties with a new vista spreading wide and free before us. This is where the bend in my road has brought me: to an open meadow full of a multitude of beautiful choices. How to decide?
After 17 years of PTA volunteering, my elected position as Utah PTA Education Commissioner has come to an end and I have chosen not to go for another term. I have left the Board and some other related positions and am free to pursue other things. I have some friends who have been noisy cheerleaders for this action and a long-suffering husband who is happy to see me at this bend in the road.
So where to go from here? That’s the big question, isn’t it? I found Deb’s blog and want to Pay It Forward to her this week because she has the idea I want to embrace. Her blog profile says “I am a lifelong learner exploring new adventures after 32 years as an educator.” I’ve always thought of myself as a lifelong learner AND an adventurer, so her blog was fun to click around and see what she’s doing with her life.
My One Little Word for 2011 is BALANCE and here are the things I want to balance in the last half of 2011 as I step off on my new path, in no particular order.
- quilting
- reading
- scrapbooking
- gardening
- family history
- service to family
- service to friends
- some child advocating
- learning Photoshop Elements
- blogging
- practicing piano
- exercising
- organizing and cleaning out my home
- crocheting
Let the adventures begin!
Our date night to 17 Miracles
Scott and I went to see the movie, “17 Miracles”, last Friday on the recommendation of a neighbor. It is in limited theatrical release and is a touching story of the Willie Handcart Company that left Iowa late in the season to travel to the Salt Lake Valley. They encountered harsh winter conditions, ran perilously low on food, and many died along the way. It was quite interesting and we enjoyed it, although my historian antennae were up during parts of it. But it’s wholesome entertainment and it does a pretty good job at entertaining. I was disappointed that the rescue was glossed over, but on the whole, I think people will be touched and get an idea of the hardships. Maybe it will inspire them to “read more about it” and find some first-hand accounts by those who were really there. The filming is lovely, the makeup and costumes are great, and I can listen to Dallyn Vail Bayles sing all day long.
I was looking up some info on the movie and found an interesting blog written by Karen, an extra in the movie who is also a descendant of one of the women highlighted. She tells what it was like to be behind the scenes and her emotions at portraying a member of the company in which her great-grandmother crossed the plains. There aren’t many posts, but I liked reading her account, so I’m Paying It Forward to Karen!