Backpacking May 2010

After taking our gun class, Veda, Pat and I went backpacking on the Mogollon Rim.  We hiked the Cabin Loop Trail which started right at the top of the rim.  The trail is 17 miles and we took 4 days to hike it.   We found the trailhead with no problem, but as soon as we started hiking, we accidentally took an old jeep trail and got off our Loop trail within the first mile.

  I had my GPS with me and we finally found the original trail after a 3 mile cross country hike, up and down watersheds... ugh.     So, on our first day we only went 1.5 miles on the trail.  The rest of the hike was a little harder than we were anticipating because we had to make up for lost time.     The hike was beautiful and there was lots of creeks and springs all along the way.

 We passed several places where the snow hadn't melted yet, but the weather was actually very nice and warm.  It was breezy the whole time, but stayed in the 70s and 80s.   It got chilly at night, but still very pleasant.  

 

On the second day, we saw some elk which was nice since we hadn't seen any wildlife until then.. not even squirrels and not even many birds.   Hmm... maybe we made too much noise...

I wore the wrong shoes so by the 3rd day, I was hurting pretty bad.   The water in the creek where we spent that night was wonderful.  This was our favorite camping spot.  

We had such a nice time hiking.   We had lunch in Pine before we headed home.   Pat had to leave the next day,  but Veda stayed another week and did some visiting with friends and even quilted her tree quilt that she had started 2 years ago.    I'm so glad my friends got to come visit again!

Defensive Handgun Class at Frontsight

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Frontsight for a 4 Day Defensive Handgun class.   I went with my friends, Veda and Pat.   The class was amazing and we learned so much.  I highly recommend this class for ANYONE.  Even if you've never shot a gun before, this class would be great.   It was 4 days of intense training in handling a handgun and learning how to shoot it and also how to defend yourself if you ever needed to.  

The facility was very nice and they have tons more updates planned for teaching all kinds of weapons training.  It is located in Pahrump Nevada which is about a 45 minute drive from Las Vegas.   The facility doesn't have any hotel facilities so we stayed in a rental house in Pahrump.   It was a double wide mobile home, but had everything we needed.  We mostly prepared food there so we wouldn't have to eat out and it had 3 bedrooms so was very comfy for staying overnight.   It was only about 20 minutes from Frontsight. 

Doc is earning his keep

Doc treed a cat a couple of weeks ago.   The poor cat stayed in the tree most of the day.  Doc would get tired of barking and go take a nap for awhile but the cat was too scared to try to come down and pretty soon Doc would be back again barking his fool head off.    Every hair on the cat was sticking straight out... poor cat.   It did eventually get down and run away, but we haven't seen a cat around here since then..  

Easter 2010

Mom had Easter dinner at her house this year.   It was a fun family get-together.   She had yummy fried chicken.. her specialty.   We had an Easter egg hunt, but Shayla was the only kid there so she got to find the eggs all by herself.   I think we hid 25 eggs or so.  She eventually found them all, but I think it would have been more fun for her if it was a little more competitive.   Here are a few pictures of the day:

President's Quilt Idea

This is my idea for the next President's Quilt for TBQ Guild.     What do you think?

Winter Mini

I finished a little quilt today that I made for a quilt exchange. I will be sending it to a lady in Australia. It's about 24" wide and I think came out pretty dang cute.

Office Makeover Progress

The office is coming along nicely. Most of the waiting room is finished. We still need to build drawers under the files for vitamin storage. Plus, we're going to put a big screen TV on the west wall for our Power Point lecture and build a cabinet for folding chairs for when we have DOZENS of patients coming to the lectures.


This is looking east toward the massage rooms. Behind the blue walls is a hallway where a water feature will be.


This is looking west toward the kids play room. The angled wall is where the TV will be with the magazine rack under it.


This is the hallway where the water feature will be. We plan on putting some big cactus plants in the spaces between the blue walls.


This is our awesome vinyl flooring. It looks so much like real wood that nobody can believe it's vinyl until they touch it. Love it!

We still have to get some artwork for the blue walls and I plan on hanging a quilt or two around, too. With the new lighting the room seems very warm and cozy, and Alan and I recovered the chairs, too. I also ordered some wooden blinds for all of the front windows. They should be here next week. It's coming along!

Christmas 2009

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I suppose it's about time I catch up on my blog posts. We have been very busy around here with the holidays and the office remodel, we haven't had time to do much that didn't HAVE to be done.

We truly had a wonderful Christmas with all my kids and grandkids here. Landon and Tracy flew in from Washington a week before Christmas and helped us get everything ready for the party (2 parties to be exact). They actually decorated the house which was a big help to me since all I had done by then is pull the boxes out of the closet and buy a big old tree.

On Christmas morning, Lain, Kevin and Shay came up from Phoenix and we had a pretty relaxed time of opening presents and enjoying the time. We didn't have to make a huge dinner for all the sisters and families because they didn't come until the next day. So we didn't even have a traditional Christmas dinner. Alan made lasagna!

Here are some pictures of our Christmas:

For Christmas, I got a hanging lamp for over the dining room table. I even got to unwrap it.

Isn't it beautiful??? I LOVE IT!!

The grandkids were VERY ready to start opening presents!

This is the quilt I made for Elaine. It isn't quilted yet.. I just ran out of time! If it looks familiar, I made one just like it for Landon and Tracy last Christmas. Lain liked it so much I had to make one for her, too.

Kevin and Elaine opening presents.

Landon and Tracy... I crocheted the scarf and hat for Tracy. She liked it alot.. :-) I also crocheted some slippers for her but that didn't turn out so well. That's another story...

Damian modeling his new hat.

Alan modeling his new hat. I guess this was the year of the hat. Just about everyone got one!

The day after Christmas my family came up from Phoenix and we had another big dinner and did a White Elephant exchange. It's always so much fun getting together with my family.

A New Baby

We had an exciting event today. One of 'my girls' had her baby today. Heather had a baby girl, Aubriella Noel. I was invited to attend the birth and got a phone call at about 6:30am saying it was happening. I went to work for a couple of hours and had Sue arrange my schedule so I could be there for the birth. Heather had a home birth and was more comfortable without any extra people in the room during the birth so I didn't actually get to see her bring born, but got to say hello to little Aubriella right afterwards. What a sweetie... and doesn't that look like red hair??? We'll know in a day or two.



She even got her first adjustment at 2 hours old.

Bear Cabin

Once a year, my quilting group goes to Show Low, AZ for a quilt retreat. Last week was the week! It is called Bear Cabin and it is so much fun. Carol is the best host and makes everyone feel welcome and cared for. We did alot of sewing, alot of laughing and alot of eating! My friend, Julie and I drove together because we both had to work half day and weren't able to leave as early as everyone else. It takes about 3.5 hours to get there. After saying hello to everyone, we set up our machines and started sewing. Here are a few pictures of the activities around the room.
It's a wonderful place for sewing. The light is wonderful and the atmosphere is friendly and warm. The weather was beautiful.. just a little chilly but sunny and perfect.

Maggie, the Bear Cabin Mascot

We took Maggie for a couple of walks out in the forest to stretch after sitting for too long and Carol fed us 3 wonderful meals a day (Carol is a great cook!). Who could ask for more?!?

This is the group. We were there from Thursday afternoon to Sunday noon. It went by so fast, I can't wait till next year!

My Quilts

I've posted 117 of my quilts on Flickr. Here is the address if you're interested!

New Tree

We're just full of projects! This summer while Landon was visiting, the boys put steps on the side of the house by the greenhouse. For years, there was just a rickety old board with steps on it to climb that little hill. More than one person fell on that 'ladder'. So, now we have beautiful steps there. A couple weeks ago Damian got a backhoe and dug out an area on the side of the steps for a tree and a little seating area. He planted the tree today and now I can see some real potential for the east side of the house.
It's a mimosa tree so eventually we will have a nice shady area. There will be pavers around the tree and block walls around the dug out walls... some nice flowers and bushes.. I'm lovin' it.

Office Remodel

We are remodeling the office! YAY! We haven't done much with the building in many years so it's about time some things change. So.. we're adding another massage room and we moved the front desk to the middle of the room. We also made the kids room smaller so we'd have a little more space in the waiting room since we made it so much narrower by moving the front desk. Alan built two small walls on the east side of the room as a divider for a little more privacy for the massage rooms. All the wall changes are done and the drywall and texturing is now finished. We are doing different lights in the ceiling (getting rid of those ugly flourescent lights) and the popcorn ceiling has been scraped. Electrical/lighting is next, then painting and flooring. I'm SOOOOO excited about the changes! It already looks better, doesn't it!

County Fair 2009

Well, It's that time of year again. County Fair! When the kids were little, we spent lots of time preparing for the fair. We always submitted tons of stuff from artwork to photographs to quilts. The kids always made some spending cash to spend at the fair and complained about having to look at EVERYTHING in the exhibit rooms before I would let them go to the rides. But.. they have some great memories about the county fair.

It really isn't the same now as when my kids were little. The fair has moved to another building that isn't even close to Prescott. In fact, it's kinda out in the middle of nowhere.. probably 15 miles from Prescott but only about 5 miles from our house. Anyway, I think people just aren't as excited about the fair as they were 20 years ago and there are way fewer entries in all the exhibit halls. However, I still enter quilts in the fair and for the last 4 or 5 years, my friend Jennifer and I do the quilt display in the Homemaking department. So, that's where I was today.

We took this pile of quilts......
And put together this nice display of quilts.
I entered 3 quilts. See if you can guess which are mine. They all got blue ribbons.

This quilt won the Rosette for best quilt and I think it deserves it. What a gorgeous quilt!

I made this little quilt and donated it to the fair for them to raffle off for a little extra money to buy upgrades on the displays in the Homemaking department. All of the tables and racks are at least 25 years old and very worn. We donated a quilt last year and they were able to get some much needed poles to hang quilts on this year.