~ went out to dinner with Trucker, Grampy, Miss Joy, Tess and Wylie to where the Princess works.

~ bought a new cookbook that is all bacon recipes!

~ picked out a few recipes (from above mentioned book) to make for Mom and Marv when they come visit us in August!

~ listened to Trucker's new muffler that is really loud, over and over and over.

~ made a new recipe that had a baking powder biscuit crust filled with sausage, salsa and cheese. Trucker ate six pieces of it, so it must be worth making again!

~ shared sleeping quarters with Toad because the King was out of town.

~ stood on the porch with Trucker and watched a storm go over.

~ read Hebrews 10 and pondered Christ's sacrifice He made for me, how much He loves me and why He did that for me.

~ worked on Trucker's quilt.

Check out Keys to the Cottage to see how some others spent their weekend.

Growing Up

Trucker with his truck!
Picture courtesy of my Mom

My Trucker is growing up super fast. Physically, he grew up super fast, he was 6' by the time he entered middle school. Now he is 6'2" and will be starting his sophomore year soon. When does this growing stop? God is certainly turning him into a big, handsome man!

Big and handsome is nice, but God has so much more in store for him. As I mentioned before he is working a full time job this summer. The first day put a whoopin' on him, after that he has taken to it like butter takes to bread! A young guy he works with sold him some Flomaster mufflers Friday. I don't know anything about mufflers, I just remember reading that name brand on the muffler as Trucker was showing them to me. I guess that is one of the best, hottest mufflers to have if you like loud stuff on your truck. I personally don't like loud pipes, but I'm also not a fifteen year old gear-head!

Yesterday Trucker spent many hours working on getting his new muffler put on his truck. His Dad was gone for the weekend so he was on his own, for the most part. I know he put a few calls into Grandpa Marv to ask questions. Good thing Grandpa Marv is patient and a gear-head himself! The new, LOUD muffler was finally on and ready for a test drive around 7:30 last night. It was a moment a Mom will not forget. Once we got out on a straight stretch, and he could get some speed going, that stinkin' muffler was LOUD. I looked over at Trucker to ask him if it was the way he wanted it. I did not need to ask for he had a smile on his face that went from ear to ear! That made me smile to myself. He was proud. He had loud pipes and the fact that he did it himself I think made him proud, too.

This morning I was the proud one. During church we split up into small groups with the people sitting around us to pray for Vacation Bible School which starts tonight. Trucker was in a group a few pews behind me with several other youth students. A couple minutes into praying, I could hear his voice. Normally he is a quiet guy, so the fact that he would open up in front of his peers and pray for the youngsters coming to Vacation Bible School did this Mama's heart good! I could not hear his prayer, I just knew it was his voice. He didn't pray for long, maybe thirty seconds, I don't know. I don't need to know though because God knows and that is what counts!

I love you and am proud of you Walk. You are turning into quite the young man. Now I will go work on your quilt some more so you can have it before you are thirty!!

Lots of Learning Going On

Two weeks ago Trucker spent the week with his Grandma and Grandpa in southern Minnesota. He was learning a ton from Grandpa Marv about doing body work on his truck. He had to learn a lot as fast as he could because he only had one week down there.

When that week was up, he had to get back home because he started his first honest-to-goodness, tax paying job last Monday. He is working at a potato farm; doing physical work with his hands, getting dirty and spending his days outside. All fun stuff to him. However, he learned how many breaks a day you get the hard way. I packed him two sandwiches and two snacks Monday morning. When morning break rolled around, no one told him that it was only break time, he assumed it was lunch. So he ate all of his food - then had to go several more hours through lunch and afternoon break with no food! I don't think he has ever gone that long without eating since the day he was born, other than when he is sleeping. We both learned a lesson that day. I learned he will be putting in some long days and needs more food. He now gets three sandwiches and three or four snacks in his lunch. He learned that you get a few breaks a day and that you should spread your food out over all of them!

I do have to wonder about the guys he works with though. Trucker told me over the weekend that he was embarrassed eating baby carrots as one of his snacks last week. I personally don't know what is embarrassing about eating baby carrots so I asked him why. He informed me that the rest of the guys don't eat healthy snacks, they eat lots of cookies and cake. I only give Trucker one junk food snack a day, the rest of the snacks are fruit, yogurt or veggies. Do you suppose the adult men working there really eat that poorly? Or do you think Trucker is trying to weasel more cookies and pieces of cake and pie out of me?!!

How Funky Is Your Chicken?

The quilt shop in my mother-in-law's hometown is giving you the background material and asking you to make a chicken block out of it and return your block to them. When they have enough chicken blocks to make a quilt, they have a volunteer put the quilt together. The quilt will then be sold or raffled, I don't know which they are doing, and the money will go to the domestic abuse shelter. You may also donate finished quilts to the shelter. They try to supply all of the ladies and children with a homemade quilt when they leave the shelter. You may go here to view free patterns of other chickens and critters!

I normally don't enjoy doing applique projects. When the quilt shop owner asked me if I would do one, I was hesitant to take her chicken wire material. The Princess opens her big yap and says, "Take it, Mom, I'll do it". I accepted the material, thinking, "Whew, I got out of that one!" By the time we finished shopping and got back out to the van, the Princess informed me she didn't know if she would have time to do the block because she had graduation gifts to finish and two summer jobs. Great! Now I have to make the stupid chicken. It actually was fun, simple and not too putzy, though. I did not mind it all once I got started!

The top picture has the eye sitting on, but not sewn on yet. I don't know if I like the eye or not. Do you think I should make a different color eye, embroider one on or not have an eye on there at all? The King says the chicken has to have an eye, it would be rude to give someone a blind chicken. I see his point, but I also thought it looks a little too busy with all the stitching in that small area. Any ideas, input or opinions?

This Weekend, I...

~ went out to dinner with the King and Trucker to where the Princess works.

~ went to a church council meeting.

~ enjoyed a dinner of fresh fried fish and an avocado pasta salad which the King and Princess prepared.

~ loved it when some of the youth kids showed up with a block of cheese, knowing that we would have lots of pasta in the house so they could make homemade macaroni and cheese.

~ made an applique chicken block for a quilt, more on that later this week.

~ went to Grampy and Miss Joy's for a root beer float, then brought the rest of the root beer home with us so Grampy wouldn't be tempted!

~ gave the dog a bath (he needed it bad!).

Go to Keys to the Cottage to see what other people did over their weekend.

This Weekend I...

~ Drove the wrong way on a one-way aisle in a parking ramp.

~ Went to a quilt show with my Mom and mother-in-law.

~ Ooohed and aaaahhhhhed over several quilts.

~ Went to a beautiful rose garden in St. Cloud, Minnesota. If you are ever passing through St. Cloud, stop and visit the rose garden. There is no charge, and there are thousands of flowers and fountains to look at. It will be well worth your stop!

~ Ate lunch at Red Lobster!

~ Kneeled right on a dog turd while playing with my Mom's dog.

~ While driving to southern Minnesota with my mother-in-law, she pointed out the farm house her Aunt and Uncle lived in when she was a young girl.

~ Also drove by the farm house her Dad was born in, in 1900!

~ Got to ride home with Trucker in his new-to-him 1992 Ford truck! Thanks to a lot of hard work on his part and some help from Grandma and Grandpa, he owns his own truck before he even has his driver's license!

I stole this "This Weekend I" from Becky at Keys to the Cottage. You can get to her blog from my side bar. You are supposed to be able to use her cute picture too, but I don't know how to do that. And it is to hot to sit upstairs at the computer much longer to figure it out!

SUMMER

Summer has officially started in our house. Yesterday was the last day of school. That means our Princess is now a Senior and Trucker is a Sophomore! Monday night we had end-of-the-school-year projects decorating our couch. The Princess made some beautiful pieces of pottery. Trucker made a clock quite some time ago in woods class and for his second project he made a bunch of plaques to hang deer racks on. Those turned out really nice. I think some are for our own home, some for Grampy and one or two are for the hunting shack.

Now that the kids are older, they aren't around as much during the summer as they were when they were in elementary school. For today, though, they are both at home. I love it! As I am typing, the Princess is downstairs making cherry muffins for lunch and Trucker is outside splitting wood.

Later this afternoon a friend of theirs is coming out and they want to do some mudding on the four wheeler. The Princess said she might even partake in the mudding adventures today. Stay tuned for those pictures!

As for me right now - I am taking a break from my job that I am able to do from our own home. I love that! I made myself a cup of hot tea with some honey, am blogging and thanking God that I can work from our home, that summer has started and that I can be home with the kids. Life is good!

Oh yeah, and for the stupid side of me now. Princess made a quilt for a graduation gift for a friend of hers from church. She finished it up just in time for the grad party and I FORGOT TO TAKE A PICTURE! Rats! I will have to talk to Sami and ask her if she can bring the quilt back out some day!!