Spring 2013

Spring has come to Texas; and, with the season came my last school break.  This year the schools in central Texas had different calendar dates for their breaks.  Killeen and Gatesville were the same week; Copperas Cove had to cancel spring break because of all the days they missed due to the numerous bomb threats; and, Temple and Belton had theirs a week after ours.  So, we didn't get to have the grandkids together like last year. Still, it was a pleasant break and I needed the rest to get through the remainder of the year.

I spent a lot of time reading, cleaning the yard, and quilting.  I made some wall hangings for the girls, using some St. Patrick's embroidery panels my mother made.  They are the perfect size for the mini quilt racks Mom gave us last summer.  The wall hangings are identical except for the inner border.  The one I didn't post a picture of had a light green shamrock fabric where the tan fabric is in this one. They were quick and easy to make, which is always a plus when I only have a week off.

Of course, I had one of Mom's quilt in the quilting frame for about a month before the break.  I was thrilled to finally get this one quilted.  It is probably a king sized quilt and I love the red, white, and blue fabric Mom used in it. You can't go wrong in a quilt with red, white, and blue fabric using pieced stars.

  

Another milestone this spring, was Maggie's move from indoor pee-wee soccer, to the real thing. She is on an all girls team with the city parks and recreation department.  Gerson is her coach again; and, he is going to be coaching Sophie when her indoor season begins in a few weeks.  Luckily, a girl from church has a little one on G's pee-wee team and has agreed to fill in for him if Maggie and Sophie have games at the same time.  Their seasons should only overlap for a couple of weeks.  

These pictures were taken at Maggie's second game.  It was unbelievably cold that day!

Leslie had made the cutest water bottles for all of the girls on the team.  She found them at Dollar Tree, put some cute blue and white polka-dot ribbon on them, and used adhesives vinyl and my Silhouette to cut out each girls name. I feel like I'm looking for hidden pictures, trying to spot the water bottles in each frame!

Another exciting development in our city was the addition of an Aldi market! It hasn't been open for very long, and I hadn't had a chance to check it out.  Maggie called me this morning and asked me if I wanted to go to breakfast with her, Sophie, and her mom.  I asked her where she wanted to go, and she said Shipley's Do-nuts; but, her mom made her settle for Cracker Barrel.  

After breakfast, we all checked out Aldi.  It is very small and reminds me of the little commissary annex we used to have on post, or, the little commissary at Bad Nauheim, Germany.

It has such great prices!  Everything in the picture below was bought for $25.00.  I plan on doing most of my grocery shopping there once the newness wears off and it isn't so crowded.

We seem to have managed to get Boomer's mange under control.  He sure lived up to Scott's name for him; a mangy flea market dog.  I started to notice pink patches of skin on him and his hair was starting to fall out. I thought maybe he had allergies, so Ron took him to the vet.  Well, several dips, scrapings, and about $1,000 later, the silly guy is cleared up.  Thankfully, it wasn't the horrible mange that results in raw sores and can be contagious.  The vet said Boomer's was more of a "walking dandruff" and not contagious.  Maybe I should have just washed him with Head and Shoulders.  It would have been much less expensive.

But, as much as he loves us and we love him... it was worth it.

Today is Good Friday, and will probably be the last day I have off until school ends in June.  It was so sweet when Ron said to me, "It sure is nice having you home."   I had to admit, I agree with him 100%.