Dan's First Naval Leave- May 2010

Dan, in the center, came home after naval school in Pensicola, FL for a 10 day visit before deploying to his permanent ship, the USS Carl Vinson, stationed in San Diego, CA. It was so nice to see him. Here he is with his friends, Kyle and Melissa and cousin Julie (my daughter).

Here he is with  his friend Melissa, his Uncle Bob (the builder) and his two nephews, Jonathan (in his lap) and Malakai.

His cousins enjoyed themselves,Kathy and Jenny and my stepdaughter, Amber.

Here is some of my brother Bob's family...Jonathan and wife Paula. Nice photo.  

We would have stayed longer, I'm sure, but there was a power outage 5 mins. before we got there, so we all were in the dark shadows for the party (we stayed 2 hrs). The kids built a bon-fire in the back yard, but the winds were REALLY whipping, so it may not have been a great idea to do THAT!! Hope we see him before we leave on vacation and he goes back. He certainly has grown up.... nice to see that.

To Sew or not to Sew?....

Okay, so now that the holidays are over, and I have the whole week (and more) off from work, you'd think that I would be locked in my sewing room working on charity quilts or even a UFO or two?

Hmmm......

That would probably be the natural course of things, since I spent the two days before Christmas hand-sewing bindings on two of my children's Christmas presents (table runner and couch quilt). (I'll post pictures later, as I can't believe I fogot to take a picture of the two gifts!!I'll have the recipients take them and send them via email)

I think it might have been on my mind more if I hadn't gotten sick at church on Christmas Eve (and all through the night- isn't there a song by that name?). And it's too bad, since I had a GREAT time at my sister's home.

We played 'Catch Phrase" with 12 of us- about half the crowd and had so much fun, that my husband even made a comment about how much he enjoyed it (and he's not a crowd kind-a-guy...)! He's the guy in the black sweater...

With the exception of my daughter Julie and her son, Malakai, who were dealing with being sick (gee, wonder where I got that?), all the cousins got to catch up with each other, expecially since one is in college, one is out of state, and one has gotten married (AND EXPECTING her first baby in May of 2008!!! Eeeze myee greeeen waaad enough?---is my grin wide enough?)I wasn't even doing well on Christmas day... or the day after. Malakai, my grandson, enjoyed ALLLL the cars he got for the holiday and his new blanket his Aunt Janet made for him.

If I had been doing better, more pictures would have been taken, but not much was done. Not by me, anyway! As the kids went off their separate ways, I went mine (to bed).... to continue being sick.

Of course, now that I'm well, and everyone is back to work but me, I guess my time is occupied with cleaning up and clearing out all kinds of stuff! (And does this feel good!!!) I will get to sew, but clearing out my 'piles of stuff' feels better right now. At least I know what the next project is.... a baby quilt for my newest grandchild to be.