Just Let Me Quilt: Monkey Girl

Showing posts with label Monkey Girl. Show all posts

Friday, June 30, 2023

Getting Back In The Groove Of Things

I got back from Ohio a few days ago after being gone two weeks to hangout with my daughter, son-in-law, Monkey Boys and that sweet Monkey Girl. It was fabulous!

I didn't have my sewing machine (gasp) so there was a bit of withdrawal at first. I got over that quick when the home improvement projects began at my daughter's house.

Monkey Boy #2 is quite the handyman. He installed this ceiling lamp and laughed at the big shock he got when accidently touching two wires together. I didn't laugh at the big flaming ball that flashed for a moment. It took a while for the numbness to leave his hands. I'm too old for that kind of scare!

We painted the 1960's colored walls with a nice gray with white trim. Even I got up on a ladder and did my share, and the rest of the family pitched in, too. The youngest boys did their part by supervising while using their electronic toys.

There was swimming at the hotel pool.

Shopping for football shoes.

He got into a mechanic's class, so we went tool shopping.

There's only one little quilt shop in the area and we went so my quilting/fabric shopping

needs were met and it helped with the withdrawals. I bought one thing.

We went to Ritter's ice cream place...yum!

Their trampoline has a net around it and I managed to squeeze this chubby and old body

through the opening. No photos of me and no paramedics were called to extract me from it

when we were through playing in there. I got out on my own.

She wasn't sure about having grandma on her trampoline.

These two stayed at the hotel with me on two different nights. It was nice to have the company.

It was so hard to leave!

One nice thing about coming home was that Carla from Creatin' in the Sticks came to visit.

We had a blast getting a Starbucks treat, visiting two quilt stores, going to lunch,

visiting the Bellagio Garden, and dropping a few bucks into the casino machines.

We also might have won a little bit!

The Bellagio Garden is so pretty to walk through.

One day wasn't enough with this sweet lady!

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Sunday, June 12, 2022

Unplanned Trips Have Their Perks

Two years ago we found out that the Monkey Boys were going to be moving. Covid delayed it until two weeks ago. The reality of knowing that the whole family, including the newest Monkey Girl, were leaving to live clear across the country hasn't been easy to deal with. Warning: This is a long winded/photo heavy post.

It was a whirlwind of a week with final packing, graduation party, and graduation ceremonies (and no sewing or blogging.) The oldest Monkey Boy graduated a year early and was Student Body President. He excelled in all his classes...he definitely didn't inherit his amazingness from me!

The speech he gave at graduation was wonderful, timely and of course, he was incredible in my eyes!

Monkey Boy #2 played his cello at the graduation. He's first chair in his orchestra, was class president, and was the volleyball teams captain.

He was also a huge help to his mom during the time dad was away and during all the packing. Monkey Baby loves her big brother!

The Dreaded Day...Time To Go

Are they levitating or jumping for joy as they start that 30 hour car ride, not including stops, with seven kids? Note: Monkey Baby cried the majority of the trip. Poor thing!

I'm going to miss this face!

We left right before they drove off. I couldn't watch them drive away! Fifteen minutes after they hit the road to head to Ohio, we got a phone call that their car was having issues. After trying to figure out what was wrong while standing on a black asphalt parking lot in 100 degree temperatures, we unloaded some of the stuff in the back of the car. That didn't help so we unloaded everything they absolutely needed to take and put it in our car and sent them on their way.

We took their mini van home with what was left in the car and unloaded it in our garage. A trip to the dealership and a three day wait (three day weekend, unfortunately) and they found nothing wrong. Ugh...isn't that usually what happens!

A day later we loaded the mini van with their belongings and what we'd need for the trip. It had been a long time since I'd been a mini van driver!

We stopped to see my wicked friend, Joan Kawano, in Denver. We had a quick bite at Roadhouse Grill, met her cute granddaughter, no pictures (darn), a hug, and I missed her as soon as we drove away.

We had some stormy skies and saw LOTS of wind turbines.

Would you believe I'd never seen the Mississippi River!

We arrived in Ohio four days after leaving Las Vegas and the weather was not even close to the dry heat where I live. It was muggy and unfortunately, the air conditioner in their new house was broken. Yikes! We were all dripping wet from trying to unpack, clean, and organize in the heat and 75 per cent humidity. The boys were all taking it in stride.

Add a broken washing machine to the list of "WHAT THE HECK!" things they were dealing with, including laundry for seven kids and four adults (including us.) I had no idea how expensive a laundry mat was when you had to use at least six machines on two different days. It's a lot!

We put the trampoline up with the boys help and they LOVED their grassy backyard!

Three days in Ohio, a family photo, and we were back on the road to Las Vegas.

The oldest Monkey Boy came with us to get ready for college and live with us. We tortured him with a couple tourist stops...John Wayne's home and Boot Hill in Nebraska. He had no idea who John Wayne was, but he made the best of it.

I've made a couple John Wayne quilts with fabric by Riley Blake Designs.

Boot Hill in Nebraska was an interesting stop.

The details in this statue were beautiful!

Even though the trip was long, the perk of it all was seeing them sooner than we planned to. It was so worth it, but it was very hard to say goodbye again.

Time to get back to the real world!

Thanks for stopping by.

Monday, September 20, 2021

Garden Of Quilts And Falling For You Blog Hop

Last week was full of inspiration, beauty, and friends at the "Garden of Quilts' and I loved it! I'd never been to it so this was really exciting. The biggest treat was that I got to hang out with LV quilt friends and my partner in quilting fun, Joan from Moosestash Quilting, who brought along her friends.

My hubby and I arrived at the hotel on Thursday night. It was fun to see that they were ready to welcome all the quilters for the "Garden of Quilts." Those balloons were their idea of a quilt.

Friday was hot but still beautiful at the Garden of Quilts. It was my day to hangout with LV quilt friends.

Thanks for the laughs Brenda, Susan, Nancy, Vicki, and Letty!

The flowers and plants were gorgeous along all the pathways. It was breathtaking no matter what direction we looked!

It was a pleasure to finally meet Julia Frazier from Riley Blake who keeps all us project designers in fabric and on schedule. Talk about a talented and nice lady...she rocks them both!

I was on my own looking for water to drink when I found a shady spot overlooking this beautiful waterfall. Incredible...I could have sat there all day!

The LV group and I went to a cute quilt store in Draper, The Quilter's Lodge, where I was compelled to purchase some fabric. This little pink bundle was perfect for the recent info I had received just the day before.

There's a new monkey on the way and it's a girl! With six brother's she will be so spoiled, I'm sure. I know I'll be spoiling her!

Joan was planning on arriving Friday evening at the same hotel as me along with her friends, so I texted her a photo of where her room was compared to mine. I'm terrible about using the marker on my phone, but I did the best I could.

Saturday was our day to hangout and I was really excited to see her! Funny thing happened about this staying-at-the-same-hotel thing. We decided to meet downstairs for breakfast on Saturday so we could leave for the Garden of Quilts right afterwards. This was our text messages for the breakfast meet. At 6:51 a.m. the texting began:

We both had waited for the other one for about a half hour. Our breakfast was free and so we went ahead and ate without them because they were slow coming down. They thought I'd gone back to bed or something because I wasn't showing up. Different hotels but we had a good laugh over it!

Her friends, Deb and Joi, were hilarious and I went hoarse from laughing and talking. So fun! It was a rainy day and a little cool. A nice change from the day before. All the quilts had been moved under tents instead of flying freely in the outdoors.

Joan and I look like twins in our almost matching shirts. No, we didn't plan for it. It was hard to give a normal smile around Joan because I wanted to laugh the whole time. Neither of us wanted our pics taken, but that Joi was a pushy photographer! I'm glad she was, though, because it's worth it.

We were in the right place at the right time to see Jenny Doan from Missouri Star Quilts. She is hilarious, inspiring, and so worth listening to.

I took Joan's group to the same quilt store and enjoyed some time with them just sitting on the porch attached to the shop. After that, Joan took us on a wild ride to find a place to eat. Everywhere was busy and we were starving! So starving that we accidently locked Deb in the car and she couldn't get out when we were checking out a restaurant. Wish we'd taken a picture of her pitiful face begging to be let out of the car.

Thankfully, Chuck-A-Rama had a table for us. Afterwards we met Deonn Stott from Quiltscapes to give her a quilt to do magic on. I love that lady! We had extra time with her because she lost her keys among the class materials in her car. She had taught EIGHT quilt classes at two different events so her car was packed full. What an amazing lady she is! No photo with her, though...dang!

Sunday morning had us on the road to Vegas. So sad to leave! That skeleton was in a gift bag from Joan. She had given me one of her java jackets in Ghastlie fabrics. Check all of them out HERE...so cute!

Now that I'm home and caught up with almost all my emails, it's time to visit blogs for the "Falling For You" blog hop hosted by that lady I just hung out with...Joan. Blog hops always inspire me and I'm sure they will you, too. Joan and Carla always keep me motivated with their blog hop challenges. Thanks ladies!

Check out who's hopping this week!