African Violets - Springtime and Granma Thomas



When I saw these at the store I just had to get a couple.  They remind me so much of Granma Thomas.  She loved Aftican Violet and had lots of them in her house.  She used to put them by the big living room window where they got lots of north sunlight.  She used to break off a leaf and give me a start of hers.  In fact, I actually took several of her starts when we moved to Oregon.  Right now, I have to have mine facing west sunlight at least until it gets too hot.  Anyway, yeah for Springtime and Granma Thomas' Aftrican Violets!

A Night at West Yellowstone

One weekend Dan had a hanchoring to spend a night in West Yellowstone so he got on-line and made a reservation at the Wyndum-World Mark resort.  I had Monday off of school since it was Martin Luther King Day.  On Sunday, Jan. 19th we had some company from Arizona come over to spend the day with us.  They were the grandparents and an Uncle and Aunt of  Whitney's new husband Grant.  They were all so sweet it felt like they were family. They went to church and had dinner with us before we took them the 2 blocks to the airport at 7:00 that evening. 
Afterwards, Dan and I loaded up the car and headed north.  It was about 2 hours later and we go there. We were both so tired that we went straight to bed and slept till morning. 




We soaked a little in the hot tub before packing up to drive back home. 
We hadn't eaten since dinner the day before so we found a little Deli on our way out of town and stopped to have a bite to eat.  It was really good and it gave us a little more time together before getting home.

We got home in the early afternoon and that gave me time to get ready to go back to school the next morning.

Most of all, it gave us both a nice break from Idaho Falls and a little extra time for just us!

Cleaning Out the Storage Room and other Sundry Chores

While the Ellsworths, etc were outside cutting concrete and digging holes, I decided to be somewhat productive as well.  Before I quit the pharmacy I had used my discount card and much of my savings to stockpile our family food, etc. storage.  I filled the family room with all kinds of food, toilet paper, oil, flour, sugar, etc, etc.  It had remained on the family room floor for several months just waiting for me to clean out and rearrange the storage room which was such a mess that there was no room for anything else. 
Well, I was going to change that this very day.  However, before I went downstairs, I got out the windex and the rags and cleaned off the back door windows.  It was such a beautiful day outside I wanted some of that delicious sunshine to come right in and warm up the house. 

 

Then I went downstairs and started in the storage room.  

I took out the quilts and saved the ones that were saveable.  I washed and dried them on the clothesline in the backyard.  I rearranged and organized and before too long I had room for almost all the items in the family room. 

 

With Alisha's help we got things moved in and put away; all except the flour and sugar.  We have another plan for them but that will take cleaning out the garage before they can be moved.  Maybe sometime this summer????

 

 

We even found a new home for our wheat grinder.  That makes me excited to grind wheat.

 

It felt so good to have some order to things that I decided to actually put up the wonderful pictures that the kids had given us for Christmas.  Seth and Ali gave us the Love plaque for Christmas two years ago and we'd kept it upstairs for a year.  Elizabeth and James gave us the Lake Powell Family Reunion puzzle for Christmas this year so I put them both on the family room wall.  I like how they look together with our other hangings.  Don't you?

Alisha's Birthday, Christmas, Valentines Day, and Easter Dress

You know how sometimes you decide to do something and then it takes FOREVER to actually get it done?  Well, that's the story of Alisha's Birthday, Christmas, Valentines Day and Easter dress.
It really all started almost a year ago when Alisha told me she'd like a new dress for her birthday.  I was excited to know what it was she'd like, so of course I said, "Let's do it!" 
She came up with an idea of what she'd like it to look like and in a few weeks we went and got the fabric for it.  We walked in the store and within just a few minutes we had exactly what she had wanted.  It was all so easy! 
That bag of fabric sat on my sewing table for quite a while - way past her birthday in August.  Finally somewhere around Oct. we drew up a pattern and cut out the fabric.  We even made great progress and fitted the bodice to her.  I was so pleased.  We were on a roll. 
However, the fitted bodice and cut out skirt sat on my sewing table for another while.  I had great hopes of finishing it for her for Christmas, but..... we were going to spend Christmas in Las Vegas and there was so much to get done.  We just didn't have a spare minute :-(
After Christmas, I thought how nice it would be if she had a new dress for Valentines Day but tears again because between one thing and another or rather one excuse or another the dress remained on the sewing table.  Mind you, Alisha was very patient and never expressed regret that it wasn't done.  She is just too good sometimes.
Finally, mid March we got the dress parts back out and refitted the bodice, remeasured the skirt and put all the pieces together and Alisha got a new Easter dress.  She loves it and it looks really good on her.