We're In Love With The Boy

This past weekend we fell in love with my new little nephew. My sister-in-laws parents are staioned at Travis AFB, CA about 1 hour from my house so it worked out perfect. Man we couldn't get enough of this happy guy.

Only Jen and the baby and her parents came to visit us. But Danny and Bailey joined the party via video chat. Ben, Madi and Bailey played for a while over video. They were doing some funky dancing and cracking each other up.

The Lakers AND Harlem Globetrotters

We loved living in Korea but are happy to be back to the USA...the land of sports. And boy are we glad the NBA finally stopped their strike and started playing!!! We live so very close to the Kings Arena that we want to take advantage of it. We made our way into that Kings/Lakers sellout. Steve took this picture. Look at Jimmer off the ground and being guarded by Kobe. Boy was it LOUD and full of electricity in there!

Kings did beat the Lakers.

Me and the kids...the only picture of us in the arena.

A few years ago I took the kids to see the Harlem Globetrotters when we were stationed in Atlanta but Steve was in Iraq and missed it. So when they came to Sacramento the kids begged to go. Well if you have ever seen them you know how fun it is, so we went again.

We had great seats...row F. Six rows up from the court. When the did they did the water throwing act we got wet.

This is me on the day we went to see the Harlem Globetrotters. I like to wear black...most days. I am not very good at fashion but that day I had on jeans with a black sweater and a necklace that was the same color blue as my jeans and I loved it. I like this picture...I look skinny don't I? I am so not skinny. I wish. It's so hard for me. But I have started working really hard on it. My goal this year is to work very hard on myself. In 2009 I ran in that half marathon. Now I don't know if I want to do that again...that was REALLY REALLY hard. But I want to get healthier which I hope will help me loose weight and I want to become more fashionable.

B is for baby, boy....

My brother and his wife have a new baby boy so I thought he could use a set of cute bibs. Before becoming a full-time mother, my sister-in-law taught 1st grade, so I thought she would really enjoy the Dr. Seuss fabric.

I love Dr. Seuss!!! I have yards and yards of Dr. Seuss fabric too. I found this at the fabric market in Dongdaemun, Korea this past summer. It was so cheap, at least a quarter of the price it is in the quilting stores here in America, so when I saw it I knew it was a steal and bought TONS of it. Glad I did.

My Red And Aqua Bathroom

Oh yea baby...my downstairs bathroom is RED AND AQUA! The main part of my house is very warm. It's painted a total California golden color and I like it very much. But red and aqua are my favorite. Remember my laundry room is painted a baby blue with beautiful red front loaders, but that wasn't enough so I did a blue/aqua in the bathroom with red accents downstairs.

I leave the door open and the little recessed light above the sink on because I love looking in there anytime I pass by. I am always keeping my out for some new red pretties to put in here.

crocheted IPhone cover

I have been sitting here enjoying the night with my family. We had a delicious Korean dinner-bulgogi, broccoli and egg rolls. We are all sitting here in the family room watching the 49's/Giants. Since we now live in California we are rooting for the 49's...but will be okay if it's the Giants who win...we LOVE NYC. While sitting here this evening I crocheted myself this pretty iPhone cover. Check out my ruffly edge!!

OOOOO the game is in overtime!

Winter

My WINTER dinning room. I love how simple and easy to keep clean it is.

Remember my big beautiful pine cones I picked up at Lake Tahoe over Thanksgiving. I love them so much I think they may stay out all year.

Steve got me this HUGE picture of New York City. NYC is our favorite city in the world...over Vancouver, Canada, Tokyo, Paris... I just love this picture of the city with the clouds and the colors. It's on the Brooklyn Bridge and you can see the Empire State....it was only 18 months ago when my family went to the top.

I moved my subway art into our family room. It's one of my favorite things too.

Another new kitchen towel. It's just a cheap flour sack towel with pretty fabric sewn to the end and I did a cute running stitch for extra cuteness. I started another on last night I hope to finish today. I want to make a pretty stack for my kitchen.

"My Room"

Yes, I have my own room and I love it. It's full of all my favorite stuff and even complete with an HD flat screen...I can spend all day in here. My room is also home to the PS3 so often times the rest of the fam keeps me company. It's a regular thing to have the kids ask me to go in the craft room with them...they like me to craft and watch them play at the same time.

This fun print is what welcomes you when you enter my room.

We have only been stationed here 4 months but I sure feel like it's home sweet home.

My Polish Cheese Lady

Isn't she a beauty? I absolutely love her to death. So when I found a stitchery pattern to make I thought it would be so fun to make a pretty towel for my kitchen.

I have TONS of polish pottery. It's all I bake in. It's the best and so beautiful.

My first trip to Poland: was back in April 2003. It was right after the Shock And Awe we had on Iraq. We were living in Germany. My husband was an Air Force Weather Forecaster attached to the Army's 1st Armored Division...who was among the first to drive from Kuwait to Baghdad. 1 week before Steve left he said if I wanted to go to Poland I better just go because the military had no idea how long they would be in Iraq. Steve was on a waiting list to ship to Kuwait...it took way over a week to to send everyone. So at lunch that day I mentioned I wanted to go to my neighbor and she said "lets go!" We made plans to leave that night or the next morning around 3 am. Well we were having so much fun that evening making our lists of what we wanted to get and picking up lists from a few of the girls around us that at 10 pm we were wound up and didn't think we could get to sleep. So we decided to shower and leave. OMG...my neighbor didn't want to drive but said we could take her van. I still laugh. I jumped in her Japanese made van with the steering wheel on the right. Now I lived in Japan and knew I could easily get back in the swing of driving like that but the kicker was the roads, German roads are like USA roads you drive on the right. So I drove around the block 3 times to get a feel for the crazy ride and then we hit the autobahn. So after being up all day taking care of my two babies all day I drive ALL the way to Poland in a Japanese van on the autobahn. We were so delirious by the time we got there. But boy did we shop!!!! We filled that van up! After shopping all day we started feeling sick. To top it off we got lost...they had closed the main road to get back to the border so we had to drive through neighborhoods. It is 3rd world and people were herding their goats. We were almost out of gas. We found a gas stationed with 10 or more cars in line. It was a gas station that looked like something in the ghetto in the 1950's with only 1 pump. The locals were starring at us. I remember I felt so sick and was so hungry. After crossing back into Germany we stopped in the town of Dresden to eat at McDonald's. We did make it home before dark that next night. Steve was so nice and had some food waiting for me so I could eat and he carried in all my boxes of pottery and tucked me into bed.

This little lady makes me happy so she is serving as my centerpiece.

Howard Dean's Scream

My FAVORITE alltime political video! It was 8 years ago tonight in Iowa.

A Few Favorites From 2011