Happy Birthday to Me!

Yep, it was my birthday on Wed. But, when you get old enough, they're just not as exciting as they were when you were a kid. Had to go to work, and since I was sick on Tuesday, had a lot to get caught up on. Did have a wonderful dinner with my parents, and then opened my gifts before heading home. Another sign you are getting old? Useful gifts are fun! My parents gave me all kinds of sewing things...like a rotary blade sharpener...and I was totally excited about that! Here's a pic of me and my haul (although you can't really see what I got except for the moose family)
The big bummer is that the days are becoming noticeably shorter. Hate the thought that soon we will hardly get to see the sun during the week. But, I am getting some nice sunrise pictures.
The neighbors had cows out a few mornings this week...the dogs went crazy as we drove past them.
Did work on a few layouts, and watched some more Prima live classes...so have lots of ideas swirling in my head. But of course, despite all the supplies I have, I don't have the critical things needed...like specific colors of embossing powder. But I have all kinds of ideas for Christmas presents now...hmmm...how long do I have to get them done before Christmas?? Since we are planning to be moving this fall, I'm hoping to get a lot of things done now, as I expect that I won't have much free time leading up to the holidays this year.

Speaking of moving, K has 2 interviews this week, and will likely be hearing from another company to schedule a 3rd. Keeping our fingers crossed that we will have 3 (or more) spectacular job offers to have to pick from. Then the fun begins...NOT! Too bad we can't just teleport all our stuff to a new house.

So a final couple of pictures of some of our cuties to end the post. First off is Charlie 'helping' with the laundry...or, maybe not so much helping as I really did need to use the laundry basket to get the clothes off the line.
And the cuties in the backseat...Bode and Ardee on our way into work. Ardee usually growls at Bode and won't let the little one touch him...just like human siblings! But sometimes when everyone is rather sleepy, we can all snuggle together!

I'm a KU fan!

Nope, I have not changed college allegiances...but I do like Keith Urban! We attended his concert on Friday, and someone in the crowd had a sign that said something about how he was the only KU they liked, and I found it quite amusing. He does put on quite a show though...really shows his appreciation for the fans. So here's a couple of photos from the night...
On Thursday, the women from my department went out to lunch at Umi to celebrate the August birthdays. It was a total blast. I had never been to a Japanese steakhouse where they prepare your food in front of you before...too fun! And super yummy too! The two of us present who had August birthdays even got serenaded twice...once by our chef with a little flaming onion 'cake', and then again by our waitress with fried bananas and ice cream with a candle on top.

Today while I was out doing laundry I heard a plane flying low. Couldn't see it at first through the trees, but finally caught a glimpse of it and realized it was a crop duster. Haven't seen one of those since I was growing up in Goodland. Cool. We stood out and watched it make several passes, and of course got a few pictures as well.

Rain, rain!

We had a much cooler week this past week. Cool and rainy...just like I like 'em! I was pretty busy with work, so didn't have much energy for creative endeavors when I got home at night, in fact I think the same stuff is sitting in the same place on my work table as it was when I went to bed last Sunday.

Did get pictures of several pretty sunrises and cloudy afternoons, including this one from Friday morning.
On Friday I took mom & dad to the Midwest Genealogy Center. They were wanting to do some family history searches, but don't really like driving in Kansas City much, so I volunteered to take them when we weren't able to find a farm-sitter so we could attend my HS reunion. I figured I'd be a good sport and play along and see if I could find anything about K's family there. Boy was I mistaken...I'm pretty sure I printed and copied more than they did, and I can't wait to go back to see what else I can find! And, as a bonus, we got to see Bettina from Glass Dragon Bears, whom I haven't seen in well over a year (and I added a super adorable elephant made my B to my collection). Anyway, the Genealogy Center is amazing, the staff are super helpful, the building is chock full of resources, and I highly recommend it to anyone in the Midwest looking to do some family history research.
It rained Friday night, so we had all kinds of drippiness yesterday morning. The dew was so pretty on the cobwebs all around the farm.
And the one big craft project that Mom & I worked on...a king size rag quilt. I have had this project in the works for at least 5 years if not longer, but was never able to decide how big I wanted to make it, which fabrics to use...etc. Sometimes having two brains on the job helps...we pretty quickly were able to measure the bed, determine a suitable size, and pick the best coordinating fabrics for the job. We spent a long day yesterday cutting most of the 1152 blocks we needed, finished the last few this morning and I have them all stacked up how I want and ready to start sewing. Mom loves to quilt, but I'm not sure I can ever be more than a rag quilter! This will be my 4th and biggest so far, but it was fun to get started on it, and leaves me with all kinds of ideas swirling in my head for more in the future. We'll see how long it takes to actually get it assembled before I make too serious of plans for more!
Meanwhile, K and Dad trimmed everyone's hooves...the dogs were overjoyed will all of the selection of horse hoof to eat. It was a long, but productive day, to end a long and productive week, and everyone was dog-tired by last night...including Ardee.

Yeah-ish for Rain!

Yep, yeah-ish. The rain (2.5") was much needed, but along with it came a huge increase in humidity. Yesterday morning it was 91%, so it makes doing anything outside quite miserable. My clothes on the line took forever to dry, and I actually had to run the dryer for the first time in 4 weeks to finish getting the last few things dry.
Yesterday we had this monstrous frog hop into the garage, followed closely by Chuckie the cat. Let the cat inside and put the frog out in the flower bed...hope he made it home safely.
As I went outside to take pictures this afternoon of the lo's I completed this week...it was thundering and looking like it could rain again. It is supposed to be quite a bit cooler this week, so bring on the rain I say (if nothing else, it means we don't have to water the garden and the flowers as much...our water bill is almost as extreme as our electric bill).
I didn't get a whole lot of crafty things done this weekend...spent more time cleaning and gathering stuff for layouts. But I did get a few layouts completed that have been sitting around waiting for me for a while.

First up, our youngest pup who insists on sitting on my lap as we drive to work because the views of the deer are better from the front seat.
Then a layout about doing laundry on the line...one of my most loved parts of summer.
Then a couple of simple layouts I did on some canvas that I painted Christmas Eve last year.