Happy Anniversary

 We celebrated our 39th anniversary on the 13th.  

Hubby wanted to go to the Toledo zoo.  

That's where we spent the day together. 

 We have not been there in YEARS.

  There was an art show going on so some of the exhibits were not easy to see. 

 We had fun and on the way home we stopped at Dickie's BBQ for dinner.  

They are all just big kitties.

Such a cool splash pad for the kiddos.

CHEERS to another year of marriage!

~XOP~

Happy Anniversary

We had our 30th wedding anniversary yesterday. 

 I can't believe it has been 30 years!  

Time really does pass much too quickly.  

I have been so busy that I have not had time to blog much.  

Last weekend we went to Grand Rapids to move my sister into her new apartment.  

We began on Friday and hubby told me not to make any plans for Friday night 

and that we would be done at 5pm.  

He told me he wanted all my attention for Friday night.  

Interesting...what could that man have planned? 

 He also would not tell me where we would be spending the night 

since we were staying to finish the moving on Saturday either.  

At 5pm we got in the car and began driving north of GR.  

I didn't think much about it but kept wondering where on Earth we were going? 

 To Hardy Dam maybe?  

A favorite spot to be sure.  

No, probably not there. 

 Then the light bulb went off.  

Me:"I think I know where we are going."

Him: "Oh really? Where?"

"Here"  I say

(Winter Inn, Greenville, MI)

He just smiled.

And then I began to cry.

This is the Inn we spent our wedding night at. 

 He not only booked the Inn but the same room we stayed in 30 years ago!

I think this is the most romantic thing he has ever done for me!

Gotta love this man!

Happy Anniversary to my BFF!!  

I hope we can do 30 more!!

~XOP~

Busy, Busy, Busy

It seems like I never have enough time to do what I want to do or that the "stuff" of live gets in my way! We went out to dinner with my inlaws and DH's sister and husband at a very nice place on
Thursday. We had a wonderful dinner and a wonderful time! I really like his sister and BIL. I was talking about my quilts and then decided to show my BIL the string "M" quilt. He wanted to buy it right then and there, lol. I told him it was a raffle quilt and he said "How much?" Finally I was able to get him to understand raffle. Well, they have a son that graduated from U of M so I might have to make one of these for him.

Maybe you remember me making a rag quilt for my godson, their son? Anyway, she would not let him take it to college with him. Called it an "heirloom" PAH, it is a utility quilt! I *still* cannot convince her otherwise, sigh. She has it put away for him. I think if I make the M quilt I will have to mail it directly to my nephew (now living in SF) or he won't get to use it either!

These are the pictures of the rag quilt. Mark played basketball in HS and was considering playing for MSU. The orange and black are his HS colors and the blue is BBall fabric.

I put the college colors on the back, MSU's are green and white.
Here is Mark with his quilt! As you can see, it is clearly a utility quilt, right? It was made to be used.

Friday DD1 came home and we hung out all day (I took the day off work to spend time with her). Yesterday I had quilting with the ladies at the church and managed to get my Halloween Jars all sewn together and on their shelves. Now I have to make some design decisions. I want to applique a cat on the top and a broom on the bottom. I just don't know if my design skills are equal to that challenge! LOL. I think it needs a floor if the broom goes on it so I am off to preview "floor" fabric. I'll get a photo posted soon.

25 Years of Marriage

Yesterday was my 25th wedding anniversary.  I wish I had photos to show you of low those many years ago, but I haven't learned how to operate the scanner yet!

DH's sister came by with these beautiful Waterford flutes and a bottle of champagne for us.  She is great and we were very appreciative of her thoughtfulness!

Before I left work yesterday this arrived for me!  (and yes, that's my messy desk at work)
Here I am holding the flowers and the balloons.  In case you can't see it, the balloon in the back says "I love you".  There were 25 white roses.

Why white?  Well on the morning of our wedding, he send me a dozen white roses!  So when he does flowers for an anniversary (and it has been quite awhile) they are always white roses.
I ended up getting him tickets to the Nascar race on Sunday at the Michigan International Speedway in MI and Pit passes.  He can take DS with him.  They should have a good time.

We went out to dinner last night and then watched Allison swim in the 800 free relay.  She was the lead off swimmer and the relay took third.  So now she has a bronze medal!!  

It was a good night for everyone!!

This and That

Well, this is going to be one of those posts.  

Schmitty swam in the semi finals last night and placed 9th by 1/100th of a second!!  That sure is rotten luck, huh?  I am so proud of her and all that she has accomplished though and she still has the 800 free relay to swim in and I am sure that will medal.  Wasn't it an amazing night for US swimming last night??  We certainly do Rule the Pool!!

I have been working on some of these "jar" blocks for a quilt to use for our Christmas craft show to sell and have the money for the CL's to use for quilting and whatever else we decide we need to have to make our charity quilts.  I am doing Halloween jars.  Here are just a few.  I am making 16.  I will"put them on shelves" and maybe put a cauldron or a broom in the corner, we'll see.  I love Halloween!!  What do you think?  NO I haven't stopped working on FS or the Anniversary quilt, but these are fast and fun to make.  (Can you say ADD?? LOL)

The third installment in the Designer Mystery BOM arrived yesterday so I need to get to that too.
As if there is not enough for me to do this week here is the rest of the line up for the week:

Quilting with the CL's tonight

25th anniversary on Wed (no quilting with the CHV ladies tonight)

Senior pictures with DS at 4pm

Dinner with the in-laws and DH's sister and BIL on Thursday

Friday- WHEW

Sat quit-till-you-wilt at the church

Sunday Lacrosse picnic

Now, I REALLY need your help with this.  As you can plainly see, my 25th wedding anniversary is tomorrow and I have NO idea what to get DH.  I really wanted to go on a trip to Ireland but that is not in the cards (you know that pesky 2 kids in college at the same time thing!)  So any ideas?  I know the Nascar race is close to home on Sun and he would love to go to that, but I was thinking of something together or some kind of gift, HELP!!