starting july off right . . .

We enjoyed a terrific long Independence Day weekend! On Thursday, we had 'staff enrichment', which means we went to lunch together at a nice restaurant and then went home afterwards. Hip, hip! On Friday, Todd and I did our usual boating trip where he fished and I mostly read. I never get tired of the scenery!

On Saturday, we hit the lake again, this time with the Merkel crew.  

 

We spent the day swimming and splashing (and eating), and then we headed towards the shoreline at dark to watch fireworks.  It was fabulous!  

All the big shows had coronacancelled, but there were enough private fireworks being set off that we had a 360-degree viewing field! 

Early on Sunday morning, Joc, Ellie, Evey and I loaded up in the car for the five and a half hour trip to Indiana, for a baby shower for my nephew's wife (they live in Alaska, but her family is in Indiana).

It was a fun trip with the "big girls" and I got to see my sister (from Virginia) and both of her daughters (and her oldest daughter came with her husband and family, and I got to see her youngest for the first time). 

It was a sort of mini reunion!

On Monday, before hitting the road seriously, Joc saw an underground river tour she thought would be fun, so we detoured over to Bluespring Caverns. It was amazing! It's the longest stretch of underground river in the United States.  The cavern (cave) is a balmy 54° (air and water), year around, which made it a lovely stop on a 90° day!

The girls mined for gems and fossils and that was fun, too!

I didn't get a lick of stitching done in the last week, but I *did* finish up the 2018-19 HQH mystery quilt a couple of weeks ago!

Really pleased with the quilting on this, which was done by my longarmer friend, Melissa.  She does such beautiful work!

My sweet little helpers enhance the look, too!

I hope y'all are all doing well and staying safe and healthy! 

:)

happy independence day!

Happy 241st birthday to the good ol' US of A!!

Hoping that all of you that celebrate have fun and safe celebrations!!

:)
#imstillaround

happy bastille day . . .

How does one make excuses when one has faltered at the blogging wheel, so to speak?  One doesn't (at least this one doesn't) . . . one just marches blithely on and picks up where she left off.  Haha!

Why I feel compelled to post *today* . . . with the first night of VBS just hours away . . . I have NO idea! Haha!  It's how I roll.  I'm so excited about our VBS (Vacation Bible School), though.  We've got a great week of fun and songs and food and good teaching ahead! We spent yesterday evening decorating up the church for this year's theme:

AgencyD3:  Discover! Decide! Defend!

We'll be picking up Sawyer each night to go with us -- and even Ellie will stop by on Thursday night -- which will all make for an even funner week!

I've had a little time to get my quilting on, too.  Got this festive little banner finished just in time for the 4th:

And whipped this cheery little mug rug up for a dear one:

Sawyer's been over to go creekin'.  We had a marvelous day and made some fabulous memories.  Let me share one:

We had brought the minnow net and a bucket, but Sawyer was having no luck "fishing", so he passed the net to me and asked if I'd catch some fish for him. It just so happened that I had spied some tiny minnows, so I swooped the net down, brought it back up, and lo, there were about three 1-1/2" long 'fish' in the net. I exclaimed to Sawyer that I'd caught some, and he was so excited! "I love fish!" he kept saying. So I brought the net over to him and pushed it up from the bottom so he could get a good look. He again exclaimed how much he 'loved' fish and reached down into the net. I was really pleased to see he wasn't squeamish about touching them or handling them as he picked one up. Then, before I could say a word, he popped the little minnow into his mouth! AAaaaAAhh!! No Sawyer, we only eat *cooked* fish!!!!! I think he spit it out then, but I'm not quite positive. Oh well.  Boys will be boys and Sawyer will be Sawyer!

Just so you know, in the top left pic he's eating blackberries we picked . . . NOT fish.

I spent several days with Ellie, as well, while her mommy and daddy celebrated their fifth anniversary in Mexico! We had a fun time, as always!

She's such a dear little dolly!

And we've been tooling around the camp, working on the sanctuary and playing with turtles (I call Todd the 'turtle whisperer' now -- see the turtle coming up to inspect the cricket cage?!).

The bottom left are pumpkin plants -- volunteers from last year's pumpkins! 

And of course the Panter family makes frequent trips up here to visit and play!

Bringing with them the newest Panter ... Olivia Mae!

Isn't she precious?! Already going on six weeks old! 

Better get off here and get busy making "wanted" posters. For VBS, of course!

:)

salutations and . . .

:)