Show Me Safari Shop Hop

Today I went on my first ever Shop Hop. This is where you go from shop to shop and register for prizes and pick up a kit to make a quilt square. When you get all ten squares you can complete a quilt. The shop owners go together to put up some nice prizes and they have a lot of interesting items to see.

My friends Jan, Debi, Barbara and I had such a great time going to Hamilton, and then to Kearney, and Excelsior Springs, and Liberty and finishing the day in Smithville. We have five more shops to hit south of the city, and we will do that on Thursday. I bought the kit for each square today, except the one in Excelsior where I went 'rogue' and bought fabric of my choice to use on that block. Daring, I know, since I barely know what I am doing. But thanks to my great teachers, I think I am learning it.

These are the gals from MO Star Quilt Co in Hamilton, MO. We love this shop and these ladies are so patient to answer all of our questions, even if they have answered them before.

And this is Jenny at the MO Quilt Co. She runs the shop, and she is pointing to the kit they were selling for the quilt. I love how she finished this quilt and how she put all the pieces together. I think I am going to love quilting.

Good Morning

Going on a Shop Hop. .......I'll tell you more later.

The Ladies' Retreat

A couple of weeks ago I and several ladies from our church went on a ladies' retreat to Iowa. Our destination was a beautiful church camp in very northern Iowa. It was a nice drive, until lunch. We had a nice lunch and got back in the cars just as the hurricane rain caught up with us. We drove through rain off and mostly on again the rest of the afternoon. Our trip took 5 1/2 hours of driving.

We arrived at the camp at about 4PM and were directed to our cabin:

It was a typical camp bunk house. There were 5 sets of bunks, sleeping 10. But anyone sleeping on a top bunk would be very cozy with the ceiling, so one of our gals put a mattress on the floor and slept there.

We had a nice evening meal, and a session with some special music, skits, and a speaker that night. Some of the ladies took an evening ride on the beautiful lake on a pontoon boat. But since it was still raining a bit, I chose to eat some more dessert and then head off to bed.

Our rooms did not have a bathroom, we had to go to the bath house just across the grass from our cabin. I know, cozy, huh?

Saturday was a beautiful day, and we were all up pretty early, there was a nice breakfast waiting for us and steaming hot coffee.

Before the next session I took a walk around the camp and got some really pretty pictures of the place.

As the dawn is breaking

The lighthouse at the entrance to the camp

The grounds there are very beautiful. It was quiet and peaceful.

We had two sessions on Saturday morning, and then lunch. We packed our car and got on the read for home around 2PM on Saturday.

The drive up and back was, I think, the best part of the whole time. We chatted and laughed and told stories and asked opinions and just basically got to know each other a little bit more deeply. I think this is what women really want when they set out on these little trips. We just want some time to invest in each other and find a place where we can ask questions and get answers to life's issues.

We don't really need to go 5 1/2 hours away from home and sleep in odd places. We just need some time to spend with each other in a place where we can relax and be ourselves.

Sometimes it turns out to be on a road trip.

There were over 500 women at this retreat.

These are the ladies I traveled with

The Storm

 This is the morning after. On Sunday morning around 7 AM, and since we had no electrical power, we went down to the local QT to get some coffee. This is what we saw. The main street was closed off due to downed power lines. I thought, not too bad, this shouldn't take long. Hmmmmmmm.

Saturday night 9/18/2010 around 10:30 we had had some rain and thunder, lightening and stuff like that, we thought it was winding down, well, guess again. As I was all tucked in to sleep, it sounded like the beginning of a war outside. All hail broke loose, I actually thought that the window next to my bed was going to break from the way the hail and rain was beating on it.

 At 11AM Sunday this is the remnants of the hail from the night before. Eleven hours later the hail is still covering the ground. I have never seen this, especially when it is above 75 degrees. The fog and haze gave our surroundings a very eery feeling.
During the storm the rain and wind were so strong. Trees were uprooted all around us, branches and limbs were broken and brought down. Back out on the main street, two power poles were broken off about three feet from the ground and lay across the street impeding traffic and cutting off power. There were lots of problems after this storm, it was going to take some time to clean up.

The hail laying in a parking lot looked like we had an ice storm. I guess we did. This ice lasted until mid afternoon, when the temperatures reached close to 90.



This is more of the hail remaining on the area surrounding our house.



These are lines down about two houses from us. There is also a large tree limb blocking this intersection, the wires are tangled in the limb. We think the branch came out of the tree in our front yard, and was washed down the street by the water that ran from curb to curb about 8 - 10" deep during all the rain and wind.

 You can see the gunk and the junk the storm left behind. These are tiny pieces of shredded leaves. I guess the hail tore up the leaves, stripped them from the trees and plastered them all over the houses and cars.
There were trees blown down, uprooted right out of the ground. Broken limbs, trees on houses, cars. After living in stormy places like Florida and Texas, I never saw anything like this before.

We, personally, did not have any significant damage that we know of, yet. We need to have the roof checked, a small section of fence fell down, that's fixed now. One of those turbine thingys flew off the roof, that's back on now. And a small shed blew over, that also is upright again.
We did not get our electricity back on until 8:30 Monday night. It was a long couple of days without power. I did not do well, I don't like that feeling of sitting around waiting for something to happen.

I must give high fives and extreme thanks to KCP&L our power company. They were out in force for several days. They still are out, fixing stuff. Kansas City, MO was out with clean up crews, picking up trees and debris from yards and streets right away.

There is still a lot of junk to pick up, but our street is back to normal. The kids even went to school on Monday as usual.

The story we heard was that it was not a tornado but three,(or more) micro bursts packing 80 mile per hour winds, hail, lightening and all the rest. It was something. And there were no major injuries during all of this.
 

The view from my front porch.

I'm back

It feels like I'm back from the dead. I have so much to blog about, where to begin.
I went on a women's retreat on Sept 10, 11. This was fun, in spite of the accommodations. Then when I got home, I was sick for a week. As I was in the grips of recovery, we had such a storm. The word from here is there were three micro bursts right on top of us. We (our neighborhood) was without electricity for 45 hours. Can I just tell you, I don't cope well in the 90 degree heat without even a fan to blow on me.
I have photos and stories, I will update soon.
We did not have any damage, but there was plenty all around us. There is still a lot of cleaning up to do, but we are all OK.

Sorry

I know I haven't posted in about a week, I actually do have some fun stuff to post, but alas, I am sick and feel just lousy. I will try tomorrow.

Labor Day 2010

 

Every year from the Friday before until Labor Day there is a huge festival on the square in Independence, MO. Independence is just outside of Kansas City, MO. It is the originating place for the Sante Fe Trail. Yes it is, look it up. ........they have this huge festival that has spilled out of the square and onto surrounding streets. It's great and we usually go to it. Even when we lived in Texas we would sometimes come back and go to it. I love to get a turkey leg, Bill gets a funnel cake, and the home made root beer is great. This is the first place I ever ate, or even heard of kettle corn. It's sweet and salty and when made correctly tastes just a little bit scorched. I won't say burned, because that is just a little too much. It's great, they have lots of craft booths, church displays, community interest things, and you can even register to vote.  Or you can just wander around like the other 50,000 people do, then go home. I love it.

 SantaCalaGon days is the kick off for all the great fall festivals around here. Most of the same craft booths and vendors and food will appear at all of them, but I can't go a whole year without that great smoked turkey leg. I passed on it for today, but I know that come Sept 24th, Liberty, MO is having their fall festival. I'll get my turkey leg fix then, maybe.

Here are some pictures from the festivities and around Independence, MO. What president came from Ind, MO? Do you know?

The Independence courthouse

That's Harry himself

Look closely, there's Bill and Donna

Love that funnel cake

The home of Harry S. Truman, 33rd President of the United States of America.

Independence, MO has quite a large Mormon community. This is the temple built back in the 1990's, I think. I have been inside once, and it is very impressive. The pipe organ is huge, and sounds amazing. The spire is open to the sky, kind of looks like a giant  ice cream  cone.

Thanks for touring with us today.

Who Are You?

 So, if I may ask, who is my visitor from Moscow?

Update:

 I know, words just can't tell how happy I am with my new kitchen. I know it doesn't look finished, it's not. But that said, I am happy just the same. It has been a long time coming and now that it is all new and functioning, I am very please. We still have a lot to do, but much of this can be done while we wait to get the money to complete the cabinets. We chose to install the bases and counter top so we could have the functioning room. I don't mind at all waiting for the uppers, because I know it will look great when it's finally done.

 Love the faucet, it sprays and the nozzle pulls out, very cool.  The composit granite sink it wonderful.

There doesn't seem to be a good place for the trash can?/?

 Pretty counter top, chosen by my husband, I agreed to it, sight unseen. He and Aron did a great job of choosing it. I was a bit shocked at first, we had agreed on black, but I really love it.

We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our friend and pastor Aron. He is a wonderful craftsman, and a great friend. This job could never have been completed without many hours of work from him. Thanks too to his lovely family and wife Bekah. They shared him with us for a lot of hours. Thank you all so much.

We also thank our friend Ron, he did a lot of work too. Ron spent a lot of time in a freezing cold attic and helped us get everything figured out just right. Thank you Ron.

I especially thank my husband who gave a lot of time, and sacrificed many hours of shooting and gun stuff with his friend Larry to make this kitchen possible. He is a rare treasure.
Our son, and his family helped early on and the black appliances came from them. It wasn't my idea, but now I really like the black and white.

Ummmmmm one thing, does this mean I have to start cooking again?

Field Trip

Yesterday was our field trip to visit some quilt shops. The first one was Missouri Star Quilt Co. in Hamilton, MO. It is a little teeny town with the best quilt shop in the whole world. Jenny, the owner greeted us as if we were friends. She was so warm and charming, encouraging us to ask questions, watch demos and take as many pictures of her completed projects as we like. How refreshing.

Jenny and I at the great big quilting machine, this thing costs $$$thousands. I'm not even dreaming of one.

I do love the quilts, I came away with my head spinning at some of the great techniques she showed us. I would drive an hour to spend an hour or two with this quilting diva. She loves her craft and loves to share it.

This is a better shot of the big long arm quilting machine. It is just amazing and operated by computer.

We ran back up the road, had some lunch and then moved on to another quilt / decorating shop. Very fancy and very nice, but not very personable I'm afraid. The ladies there were pleasant, but they did not make me feel as though I wanted to go home and quilt my brains out.

We decided, the five of us that is, that it would be in our best interest to form a quilting club. Many fabric stores in this area offer discounts to those belonging to quilt clubs. So, we made up a club. Yep, it's a made up club, but we decided to name it.


                                            

 Needles and Pins Quilt Club