My Corner of the World

A Quilt Top for Emma

2016-03-09T15:03:00.000-08:00

I'm off work this week, and have two quilt tops I want to make. One for Baby Emma and the other for Baby Wesley.
I picked out a pattern for Emma, but could not find the fabric I wanted. I went to 35th Ave Sew and Vac. I looked online. No Luck. So Monday after I had brunch with my Mom and Sisters, I headed out to Mulqueens in east Mesa. I looked and look and still could not find the fabric I wanted for Emma. So I took a deep breath and decided to clear my mind and just look for fabric. No pattern in mind. Well it didn't take long before I found a polka dot fabric I really liked. No surprise there, I love polka dots. I also found a jelly roll that had the same colors. Then I remembered a quilt I pinned on pinterest to make for Katie Bug.

I pulled up the picture in the store and decided that was what I was going to make for Emma. When I got home I looked for the book I got when I bought the kit for Katie. Took me a while to find the book, maybe I have too many books. No that can't be it. When I did find the book and turned to the pattern I couldn't not believe what I found. The name of the pattern was "Emma". I guess it was meant to be. So here is the quilt top for Baby Emma.

I added a border. I think all quilts need borders to finish them off. Not sure yet how I will quilt it, but the binding will be the polka dot print. Now to get busy and get the quilt top done for Baby Wesley.

It's been a while

2016-02-28T08:32:00.002-08:00

I haven't posted in forever. So this is just a little test to see if anyone still checks on my blog. So Hi Lori!! You are probably the only one.

Not your normal ice bucket challenge

2014-08-22T17:05:00.001-07:00

I'm sure by now every one has heard of the "ALS" ice bucket challenge. If you haven't, people are challenged to donate $100.00 to ALS or get a bucket of ice water dumped on them. It has gone viral.

Last Tuesday the Phoenix area had a massive storm. There was major flooding in New River. Well my new boss Chris happens to live in New River. It was his motorcycle I was sitting on that I posted to facebook last week. Chris' house was destroyed in the flooding. He has been interviewed twice by the news.

http://www.fox10phoenix.com/story/26348090/2014/08/22/new-river-community-deals-with-massive-monsoon-aftermath

http://www.fox10phoenix.com/clip/10501461/mud-covers-inside-of-new-river-home-after-storm

At work we wanted to do something for Chris and his family, but just didn't know what to do. Last night on facebook, Ron got called out for the ALS challenge. That's when the light bulb turned on. I presented the idea to a few friends this morning and we decided to run with it. So Chandler Transportation is doing the "CLS" (Chris lost stuff) ice bucket challenge.

We drafted all the office staff and the mechanic. So for every $100 donated an office staff member or a mechanic will get doused with a bucket of ice water. When drivers donate they get to choose who they want to see get the "bucket". We have a tally sheet on the bulletin board. Oh and in case you didn't know, Mike Stickler is a mechanic at CUSD. Yep, I made sure Uncle Mikey gets the bucket. I thought about donating $100 to make sure I got the bucket, but then I thought I would dump on Mike. I did this because I knew that then he would make sure I get the bucket. He has accepted the challenge.

Sterling took it one step further. He decided that any individual that donates $100 under his name will get to personally dump the bucket. So if 5 people donate $100 , then he will take 5 buckets.

We even have district office getting involved. Some of then can't wait to dump a bucket of ice water on Sterling.

Next Thursday at 1:00 PM we will line up in front of a 40 ft school bus. We will have people in the bus hanging out the windows with buckets of ice water. The goal is to have all 24 of us get dumped at the same time.

We contacted Fox 10 and they are going to send out a news crew. What we are billing as the "event of the summer" will be caught on tape. It has really infused a fantastic energy into the bus drivers. It is amazing how great you feel when you are doing something to help out a family in need.

A little note

2014-08-16T19:38:00.001-07:00

To my sweet Lori,
I read your post today. I will try to post more often for you and the little bear. Can't wait to see you in September.
Next post will be house renovation updates including pictures.
Love you so much.

January UFO ready and waiting.

2014-02-02T14:13:00.000-08:00

I finished the baby quilt for T-Rex. Went shopping with Ashley yesterday and got fabric for the binding. I know I didn't actually finish in January, but close enough.

Next week I plan on putting up my big quilt frame. I have a few tops I need to get quilted. Hey I may even finish the 2012 BOM quilt.

Oh What A Beautiful Morning

2014-01-25T11:19:00.001-08:00

It was indeed a beautiful morning today. The sun was shining and the weather was perfect. Ron and I spent this beautiful day touring the Gilbert Temple. It is such a beautiful building.

I didn't realize it was cloudy until I looked at the picture. One of the best things about touring the temple today as taking some friends from work. Back in November or December there was a feature on the news about the open house the upcoming tours. One of my dear friends Sue asked if I would take her to see the temple during the open house. So on December 31st I got reservations for 12 people. Well we ending up only 9, but it was wonderful. As members of the church we know how beautiful the Temples are. It was amazing to see it through the eyes of non-members. They were all in awe of the detail and the beauty. It was such a great opportunity to share our beliefs. To walk through the sealing room and talk about getting married for time and all eternity. I was exciting to point out the mirrors on both sides of the alter and talk about the symbolism of marriage without end. I think one of the best things was listening to two of my friends talking to each other. One mentioned that she thought it would be nice to visit the temple, but was amazed at how excited she became when she entered the temple. She mentioned getting a tingly feeling.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to share this beautiful experience with such wonderful friends.

A New Day, A New Year

2014-01-20T07:18:00.002-08:00

I thought about closing my blog due to low ratings. Then this morning after reading a blog I frequent I decided to move forward. Even if no one reads my blog it is my feeble attempt to document milestones in my day, month and year.
Things have changed at work. New boss, new office, new responsibilities, and a new outlook. In the overhaul they were throwing out an old cubby cabinet. I have given it a new home in my sewing closet.

It was made for fabric

Saturday's milestone, and new cabinet in my sewing closet. I can't believe how quickly it filled up. I decided to make this year the year of UFO's (unfinished objects). My plan is to finish one a month. January is to quilt and bind a baby quilt top I have had forever for the newest Maroney baby. T-Rex is scheduled to arrive in February. I should have a picture of the finished quilt by the end of the month.

Happy September

2013-09-02T18:33:00.001-07:00

Fall is just around the corner. I am looking forward to good apples a plenty. I want to make some yummy apple treats and a really good chocolate cake.
My main goal for September is to get out of the funk I am in. For that I think it is add more tunes to my MP3 player. I think I need to put in the earphones at work and drowned out all the crazy wicked people I work with.
That, and eat chocolate cake.

It's Official...

2013-04-10T17:32:00.000-07:00

I bomb at blogging. So today you get a short story about my friends sister. Sue's sister, Barb,
came to visit for a week. She decided to help Sue with the housework. She loves her swiffer and bought on for Sue. Sue hated the swiffer. So when she was ready to leave she decided to take the swiffer home on the plane. Frank took the swiffer apart and Barb tried to put it in her suitcase. The handle was to long and would not fit. She said suppose I could use it as cane and take it on the plane.
So Frank found a rubber piece in garage and put on the end of the handle. Voila, a cane. When Barb got to TSA at Sky Harbor she asked if she would be able to take her cane through security. No problem they had her send it through the scanner. Then off to the plane. Still no problems. She boarded the plane and stored her "cane" it the over head compartment. When they got to Chicago they had to change plane. When they were leaving Barb almost forgot her cane and had to go back. Has she was leaving the plane the flight attendant said, "Did you get a job cleaning the airport". I guess she recognized the green handle. Barb busted up laughing and said, "It pays really well".

It's been a while.

2013-02-11T17:19:00.002-08:00

Well it took me longer than I had hoped to get back to my blog. Life has been busy. Lori can to visit for a week and we had such a nice time. But I am horrible at taking pictures. So not much to show for it. While she was here they blessed Jeremy. I got is blessing outfit finished in the nick of time. Sewing clothes is not my favorite thing to do. I'm always happy when I'm finished. But find excuse after excuse to keep from sewing. Here is Jeremy's little suit.

It is much cuter when the little man is in it.

Lori is coming back in March. I will try to be better at getting pictures. I would love to get pictures of all the grand kids together. That will be quite a feat if I can pull it off.

On other fronts, I finished my last January block of the month square. I think the star blocks will be a lot of fun.

I also finished the top of my 2012 BOM quilt. Next up, backing fabric and quilting. I'm hoping to have it finished before the end of March. I'll keep you posted.

I finally started the playroom. Ron and I bought a room divider with baskets at Costco. We started with just one. I'm going to look at for a while and decide if I want to get a second one.

We put it in front of the window. The baskets have places for labels, so I will be putting pictures of what goes in the basket. So far I have one for cars, and one for blocks. It is still a work in progress.

I'm hoping this will help the kids get things back where they belong. If not I'll have to have Benjamin spend the night. He is so much like his Dad that I know he will get things back where they belong.

I was released as Nursery Leader last Sunday. I am now an Achievement Day leader. Our primary is small so I have all the girls 8-12. It is only 8 girls. It should be fun. Well that's it for now. Next time more pictures of Grand kids.

Week-end Update

2013-01-21T13:45:00.002-08:00

My 3 day week-end didn't turn out quite like I had planned. It turned into a 4 day week-end when I came home sick Thursday afternoon. I got home around 2:15 and stayed in bed until Saturday morning. I did catch up on some taped TV shows, and had great soup that my sweet Kristi brought over. Saturday was just kind of a lay around the house day. Watched some TV. Watched Ron work in the garage. It was nice to be out of bed.

So today I caught up on some of my BOM projects. I finished my Sugarblock January BOM. It is much brighter in person. I think it will be a fun little quilt when I am finished.

I decided to scrap the Owl Family Tree BOM. Just decided it wasn't for my. Don't worry, I found something to take it's place. This from Craftsy, it is called the Scrap Happy Sampler BOM. I didn't buy anything for this block. It uses 12 strips 1 1/2 by 14 inches. So I just pulled out the scrap draw in my sewing room, and found 12 fun strips. I had to cut them to size, most were 2 in strips. This block took most of the morning, but I love how it turned out. Can't wait to see the rest of the blocks from this series.

I still have on more BOM for January. It is from the Craftsy Lucky Stars BOM Club. I ordered some fun fabric from Connecting Threads. They should be here this week. So maybe I'll get all the January blocks done by the end of the month.

Lori, Justin and Jeremy will be here on Saturday. Then I will start on Jeremy's blessing outfit. I want to make sure it is long enough in the body. He one long skinny boy. I am excited to see them.

A little progress

2013-01-14T16:01:00.001-08:00

It was a busy first week back at work. But I still managed to get a few things done on my quilting goals. I got the blocks assembled on the 2012 BOM quilt. I couldn't find the fabric I wanted for the outside border. So I ordered a Blue with stars. Hopefully it will be here this week. If so I'll finish the top this week-end. It's getting close.

I got one of the 2013 BOM January blocks finished. I found some fun black with print colors in my fabric stash. So the black prints will be the basic fabric for the Quilt Doodle 2013 BOM quilt. The first block is called "Monkey Wrench".

With a 3 day week-end coming up I hope to make some real progress. Wish me luck.

So far so good

2013-01-03T17:54:00.000-08:00

Well it hasn't been a week and I am posting again. That's a good start for the "blog more often" challenge. So how am I doing on the other challenges. Here is my update.

Today I had breakfast with Randi Sue. Mom was busy and couldn't join us. We met at Mimi's and had good food and a great visit. I found out her work schedule so maybe we can get together on a more regular basis.

Got the fabric for the 2013 Sugarblock BOM. Can you tell I like polka dots?

Working on the 2012 BOM quilt. Got the sashing all done. Now working on the 9 patch blocks so I can join the sashing.

Thought I should change the name of my blog to Kathy's Crazy Quilt Obsession. I found quite a few BOM I want to do in 2013.

I am doing the Sugarblock Club BOM. It is by Amy Gibson, the same lady that did the Craftys 2012 BOM. It cost $8.00 for the year. If you are interested here a link http://www.stitcherydickorydock.com/sugar-block-club/

I also found several on Craftsy that I am thinking about. They have a 2013 BOM class. You can see the finished quilt. Not sure I want to make this one. But I did sign up for the free class. http://www.craftsy.com/class/craftsy-block-of-the-month-2013/183. You can give it a look.

Also on Craftsy are 2 other free BOM. http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/january2013bom/40232 , This one is a family tree. Looks kind of fun.
http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/january-bom-2013/40260. This one will be a surprise every month. I signed up for both since they are free.

I am also looking into on that is $10.00 for the year. It is all star blocks and has me intrigued. http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/lucky-stars-block-of-the-month-club/39705.

So am I biting off more than I can chew? Probably. That's why the blogs should be called "Kathy's Crazy Quilt Obsession".

And just because Randi Sue asked for it. Here is a Christmas Eve picture of my Grand kids in the robes I made. Sorry for the poor quality. My camera was having issues.

New Year Challenge

2012-12-30T12:05:00.001-08:00

I'm not going to call it a resolution. No one keeps resolutions. So instead I am creating a new year challenge for myself. Things I would like to accomplish in 2013. In no particular order.

Blog on a more regular basis.

Finish 2012 BOM quilt.

Get fabric for the "Sugar Block Club" 2013 BOM quilt.

Make the nativity advents for my children.

Spend more time with family. (Children, grandchildren, Mom, Sisters)

Get baby Tolman's quilt finished before April.

Get to the Temple more often

Make Jeremy and Baby Tolman's blessing outfits.

Get the playroom finished. Okay start the playroom.

Fill free to join me. Together we might get a few things done.

All caught up

2012-10-12T06:02:00.002-07:00

I finished my September and October blocks this week. I am not a fan of curved piecing. Mostly because there are so many pieces to cut out. I really hate cutting.

I changed up the Cleopatra's puzzle. I didn't think it went well with my other blocks. This reminds me of spinning fireworks.

I almost went all red on this one. I like the way it turned out.

October blocks were paper pieced. Amy Gibson is not a great paper piecing teacher. I didn't like that she did not indicate sizes for cutting the fabric. Just make it half an inch bigger all the way around. Would really be that difficult to say "cut a 7 inch by 2 1/2 inch strip for # 6". By the way, those aren't the real dimension.

I changed up the "flying geese" block. I didn't want that much white. So instead of using white for the background I used it for the geese. It gives the block a totally different look. Instead of focusing on the geese, your eyes go to the star in the center.

Ron thinks the October blocks look like Chinese throwing stars. Next month we assemble the top. Excited to see how it turns out.

A letter

2012-09-29T23:48:00.000-07:00

Dear Nicholas,
Tomorrow it will be 3 years since your last e-mail. It seems like it has been so much longer. I miss you so much and think about you every single day. You have missed so much in the last 3 years. You wouldn't believe how big your nieces and nephews have gotten. Jenny and Benjamin turned 8 this year. They are in 3rd grade. Jenny is an avid reading, just like Lori. And a great sister. Benjamin loves everything military and things about space. Do you remember how much fun he had dancing at your wedding. Everyone thought it was so cute when he danced with Cienjana. Curtis will be 7 in a few weeks. He loves legos and watching movies. Abigail, Katie and Madie were so little the last time you saw them. Abigail and Katie will turn five in a few weeks. Abigail started kindergarten this year. She seems to like school. She has the cutest curly hair. Dustin and Sarah had another little boy in March. His name is Samuel. He looks like Benjamin with Curtis' round face. He started army crawling in August. Katie is a little tom boy. Don't put her in any frilly dresses. She loves pre-school. She and Madie are taking the same pre-school classes through Gilbert parks and rec. Kristi and Cliff had a little girl in April of 2011. Her name is Molly Grace. She is a sweet little girl with an infectious smile. She loves babies and snacks. She will be a big sister next April. Madie is 4. She will be 5 next May. She loves cartoons and chocolate. She became a big sister on September 11th. Henry Cole Watson is a sweet baby. He has a hole in his heart. Hopefully it will close before he is 1 so he won't have to have surgery. Kristi is a very busy Mom. She volunteers at Jenny's school several days a week. She loves to cook, and caters almost every family affair. Cliff and Dustin are both in the Bishopric. It keeps them busy. Cliff is still at Wright Engineering. Dustin works at University of Phoenix. He is a director of business operation. Ashley started an online business this year selling animal theme headband. Her biggest order was 165 bee headbands. Zach graduated from ASU in May. They bought a house in Gilbert. Dad is helping them fix it up. They should be moving in a few weeks. Then Dad and I will be empty nesters. Lori and Justin graduated from ASU last December. Justin got a job with Intel, in Sacramento. It is a really good job. Lori is expecting a little boy in December. They have waited a long time for this. She has had 2 miscarriages. But thankfully everything is going well with this pregnancy.
Dean passed away in February of 2011. He had a heart attack at work. I worried so much about my Mom. Parents shouldn't out live their children, But she is such a rock. I wish I was a strong as she is.
My Mom asks about you all the time.
Dad has been busy racing the last few years. Last year he was the IHRA Fuel Altered world Champ. He missed it this year by one point. I have been traveling with him. He has raced all over the US and a couple tracks in Canada. He still works for Brothers, and still hates having a desk job. Racing is his stress relief.
There have been so many events, both happy and sad in the past 3 years. I have missed you at every single one of them.
I wish I had known when we went to your graduation that that would be the last time we would see you. I would have held on a little longer and tighter for that last hug. Do you remember the first time we came to see you and Lindsay in Monterrey? We played a board game and you kept score in Mandarin. I still have that paper. I wish I could take back all the heartache we have caused you and Lindsay. I wish you understood how much we love you both. How much you are missed. How incomplete our family is without you two. I am so sorry that you have missed so much in the last 3 years. I am even more sorry that we have missed so much of your life. I hope that someday we will see you again. That you and Lindsay will want to be apart of our family, your family. Just remember "I love you forever, I love you for always. As long as your living, my child you will be".

Love you,
Mom

Finally

2012-08-30T16:34:00.001-07:00

I am finally caught up. I finished the July and August blocks just in time for September. I an excited about the September blocks. It is paper piecing and the quilt I am making for Baby Jeremy is a paper pieced pattern. So they are.

August star blocks

Not sure which one I like better

July Dresden plates

The flag plate is my favorite. Not sure I like the white center on the blue one. I might change it if I can find a fabric I like better

Just for fun here's Samuel. Or should I say Bentus. He a total mix of Benjamin & Curtis.

Such a cutie.

Next up, Jeremy's quilt and bedding for Henry and Jeremy. Also bought some diapers to make burp clothes. Going to try the new machine and put some cute designs on them. I'll keep you posted.

Save the date

2012-08-24T13:14:00.001-07:00

We are having a shower for Lori in September. I'll be sending out invitation, but want to give the family a heads up.

Moving out

2012-08-23T18:22:00.000-07:00

Ashley and Zach bought a house. They are suppose to close on Sept 10th. That just happens to be her due date. The house is in the Gilbert Rd and Guadalupe Rd area. It is a cute little house that needs some TLC, and they are up to the task. So as they prepare to move out I have to decide what to do with all the space. This is the plan. The current sewing/pantry room will become the pantry/toy room. I'm thinking of painting a bright yellow. That just seems like a fun color. Madie's room will become the guest room. Yes I will have a room ready when Lori & Justin come to town, or Ruth & Randy, or... The names are endless. So that leaves Ashley & Zach's room. It will become my new sewing room. It will have space to set up my quilt frame. It can stay up all the time. But the room is just so big it needs some thing else. So after much pondering and lots of time on the Internet I found the perfect thing to put on the sewing table.

That's right Ashley is moving out and Viking is moving in. I have wanted a sewing/embroidery machine for a very long time. After all the overtime I put in this summer this sweet machine is sitting at the foot of my bed just waiting for the new sewing room. I got a sweet deal. I bought the floor model. It has 56 hr of demo time. Plus the sales lady threw in the 5D embroidery software for free. While the sales lady was boxing up the machine I met 2 sweet ladies that have the same machine. They hang out at the store on a regular basis. They were so funny, They told me "don't buy your thread here. It's cheaper on the Internet". They just kept telling me where to get things and that they would see me in class. Oh I get 4 free classes. Good thing work is back to 40 hr weeks. I have got some serious playing to do.
Just for fun, more pictures.

Oh the possibilities.

...by little

2012-07-21T20:13:00.000-07:00

Hey I finished the June blocks too!!!

These are not my favorite, but they are not my least favorite either.

Oh and I finished the top of Henry's quilt. So let the quilting begin.

It was a pretty good day.

Little by little

2012-07-21T15:13:00.000-07:00

Friday morning Ron left for a race in Grand Bend, Canada. I just couldn't take off work with school starting on Monday. So I decided I should take this week-end and not do anything I don't want to do. I thought I would like to catch up on Block of the Month. Here, only a few months late, are my May blocks. She calls then "log cabin". Other than the log cabin technique there really isn't much about then that I feel is log cabin. But I had fun any way.

I had to stick with the traditional red center of a "log cabin" block.

This one seems more like "crazy quilt" than "log cabin"

Before I go, good luck to my very own Speed Racer. Wish I was there.

Random

2012-07-04T09:53:00.000-07:00

I finally started Henry's quilt. Not sure I'll have the top done by Saturday. But it will be done before Henry's arrival. So how about a sneak peek of things to come. I found this fabric at Joann's on clearance a few months ago. I fell in love with the little dinosaurs. So this was my inspiration. It will be the border and the backing.

I picked some bright colors. I guess I don't think babies should sleep. I added yellows, oranges, greens and blues. The hardest part is making random squares. I guess I'm a pattern girl. So Ashley helped me line things up. We went with a sudoku theme. Each color in each line, but not twice.

Because I love the dinosaurs so much, I'm adding appliqued blocks of the dinosaurs. I copied the fabric on my printer. Then took the copy to work and enlarged the dinosaurs to give me a pattern that matched the original fabric. I think it will be fun when it's all finished.

Remember when I told you I went to Bronner's Christmas Wonderland last month after the race in Pittsburgh. I fell in love with the store. I bought a Nativity (like I need another one) and a couple of ornaments. After we got back I kept going to the website. You see I have a few little ornaments on that go on my tree that have the names of my Grandchildren. But I have a few Grandchildren that you just can't find their names on an ornament. So I ordered gingerbread boys and girls. You see at Bronner's you can get most ornaments personalized. I thought if I went with the gingerbread I can add more as new grandchildren arrive. So here are my nine little gingerbread ornaments. One for everyone including Henry.

Here is a close up so you can kind of see the detail. They will be so excited when they decorate the tree and get to hang up the ornament with their name on it.

Confessions of a workaholic

2012-06-24T13:08:00.001-07:00

I have been a workaholic since the first of May when we got the new map. 12 hours Monday thru Friday. Plus 5 to 7 on Saturday. So here is my big confession. I DON'T like it. I miss my family. I miss my life. I miss sewing. I miss going to the fabric store. I miss playing with my grand kids, and texting with Lori.
I have managed a few days off. Went with Ron to Pittsburgh for a race. Went with Ron to San Diego for his Father's Day present. I just haven't had time to blog about it. I miss blogging, or I miss having something to blog about. So let's play catch up.
Pittsburgh:
The race was rained out on Friday. So we went and found this restaurant Jim had seen on the food network. Had dinner on Friday at Primanti Brothers. We had their "famous" sandwich. They put the coleslaw and the fries on the sandwich. What did it I think? I should have had a salad. Not everyone thought they should have had a salad. However, they all agree that we never need to go back.
Saturday the race was awesome. Ron owned the track. And he managed to go pretty straight. That's always a plus in my book. Sunday we drove the rig to Port Huron. That's where it will stay until the next race. We spent Sunday night in Detroit. Monday we drove up to Frankenmuth to visit Bronner's Christmas Wonderland. It is a Christmas store they size of 2 football fields. I saw it on the travel channel. It did not disappoint. We were their about an 1 1/2 hours. I could have spent another hour with no problem. Then we drove through Frankenmuth and had lunch at a restaurant famous for fried chicken. Well pretty much every restaurant said they had world famous fried chicken. You know the chicken was pretty good. If we had more time we would have loved to walk through the town. Maybe some other time. Who knows. We flew home from Detroit Monday night, and it was back to work on Tuesday.
San Diego:
We drove to San Diego Friday morning. Friday night we went to dinner at Phil's BBQ. As seen on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. We are spoiled living in Arizona. We have world class BBQ. Haven't found anything better. Saturday we went to Seaport Village and Little Italy. We found a cool new store at Seaport Village. Everything in the store changes color in the sun. We got headbands for the granddaughters. On a sad note the Scandinavian store is gone. Guess I didn't buy enough from them. We went to the farmers market in Little Italy. We were looking for an antique store. We found it later that day. We did enjoy the farmers market. We spent part of the afternoon chilling out at the hotel. Then we were off for a 2 hour Sunset Cruise. It was called "sights and sips". Pretty much a happy hour cruise. It was fun and relaxing. Plus we got free entertainment from a young lady that drank way too much. Sunday we got home in time for family dinner and got to see all our grand kids. Then Monday back to work.
Boy I miss not getting 3 1/2 weeks off work.
As for sewing, I have started a quilt for baby Henry. I might even get the top done before Ashley's baby shower. As for the block of the month. I am behind, but don't worry. I'll catch up.

Do you really get what you pay for?

2012-05-13T06:43:00.001-07:00

We got a new map for the routing software at work. We haven't had a map up grade, other than what I have drawn in, since 1998. So you can see how old our map is. The new digital map is the first step in getting live time GPS for the buses. The GPS will be really cool. We can see were a driver is and or was at any given time. So if a parent calls and complains that the bus never came by we can look it up and say, "the bus was there at 7:34 and waited 2 minutes". So now it won't just be the driver's word against the parent's word.
The down side of the new map is when they installed it into our program all the routes disappear. We knew that going in. I told my boss I would put in the hours to get it up and running before the 2012-2013 school. But I don't want the days I take off to go racing with Ron to count against me. She was fine with that. So this week I started drawing in the routes. There are about 2500. So it is not a quick fix. Monday thru Thursday I worked 12 hour days. I took of early on Friday working only 10 hours. Saturday was a very short 5 hour day. That's what my life will be like until I finish.
Well to make matters worse, the map is full of error. Streets where they don't belong. Routing down Arizona Ave I noticed a name change. That's right one 10th mile strip was titled Ryan Rd. Then I found a street that went through a park. There are bus loading zones at schools that have us dropping kids in the parking lot. Okay I can fix these as I find them. Wow more overtime (I hate overtime). The real kicker was when I found that some of the streets were not numbered correctly. Great now I'll have sped drivers turning right when they should turn left to get to a students house. Not to mention regular ed students will be assigned to the wrong bus stops. I found an apartment complex number in the adjacent neighborhood. So as I find the mistakes I fix them which makes routing a sloooow process.
We have been in contact with the software company. First person was not very concerned. You know a not my fault kind of deal. My boss got a hold of someone higher up. He is looking into it. So my office is where I will be spending my summer vacation.
The moral of the story, you don't get much for $30,000.00 these days.

Molly Gracer

2012-04-23T15:30:00.001-07:00

Our Molly Grace turned one on April 14th. Yesterday we partied.

Kristi, Molly & Katie ready for presents

Would somebody please open these goldfish?

Baby Samuel was excited to be at the party.

Speaking of goldfish. Mom made me a goldfish cake

Can I really stick my finger in the cake?

Nothing says I had a great time like a dirty face.