Professional Baby Quilt Maker

**Warning: This post is super old, but I didn't want to post it until now for obvious reasons you'll understand after you read through it...

Before I went home for my 2 week vacation (at the end of September) I had decided that I wanted to make a baby quilt for my dear friends Liz, Jared, & Baby "Tron". Well, when I got home my mom had other ideas .... it was clear that 1 quilt just wasn't good enough. When it comes to my mom & quilts she turns into a drill sergeant. Even though I was at "home" for 2 weeks, I really wasn't in Madison for the whole time - total it was probably less than 1 week. In this one week time Mom had decided I was going to make a total of 3 quilts. With each quilt I did more and more of the work whether it be the sewing the back on, hand stitching the border, or even the actual quilting. I'm pretty proud of myself if I do say so myself.

Here's the final products ....

Quilt 1:

This Quilt is for Jared, Liz, & Baby Tron. Liz is going to be induced next week!!

The back

Quilt 2

This quilt is for Mike and Sarah Good. Sarah had Yliana Michelle Nov. 17, 2010

My mom's friend made a label to put on the back of the quilt.

Quilt 3:

This one is for Jason & Cara Friedlan. Cara had Owen John Oct. 15, 2010.

The pattern is supposed to go with the song "5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, one fell off and broke his head ..."

Todd has always said that I wouldn't get hired in a quilt store if I didn't know how to quilt. Well, it appears that I do now. Thanks Mom!!

Day 16 - Holy Cheese Ball !

Tomorrow Todd and I are having a small get together at our new house. I'm calling it a Housewarming Party. We have invited all (10) of our friends here in Little Rock. This afternoon I started getting some of the food ready for it. I made chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, oatmeal cinnamon cookies, and a cheese ball. This is my first ever cheese ball and let me just tell you its alot easier than I thought it would be. Todd and I have both tried it .... to make sure that it was edible .... and it was delicious! I got the recipe from Cooks.com. (Click on the word recipe if you want it.)

Day 14 - Welcome Home

We ended up moving on Tuesday ... into the newly renovated house on base. Its not the best looking house, but its certainly not the worst looking house. Either way it doesn't really matter since we are only going to be here until March. The only thing that sucks about it is we have been there almost 3 days and we still don't have internet or cable yet. As a side effect of no internet and cable I have finished 1 book, started a second & finished it, and tonight started a third book.

Here's a picture of the front ... more to come later. (Once our internet is up and running.)

Day 13 - Caught red handed

We didn't really catch her red handed seeing how we put the cup on the ground for her, but I liked the title ...

Even Bottcher likes to get into the holiday spirit with a little Eggnog

We don't care about your pets

"The Air Force doesn't care about pets" is what someone actually said to us.

On Friday we got a call in our hotel TLF room (first one ever I might add) saying that they are going to be doing renovations on our side of the TLF starting Jan. 13th. Translation = we are getting kicked out of our room. They told us that we could be moved to another TLF on base, but we weren't allowed to have pets. That doesn't do us any good especially since they won't pay to have the cats boarded. I was pretty irritated that they are only giving us a month's notice, but I guess that's better than nothing. Lucky for me Todd was level headed and starting to think about what we needed to do to get another place so he made a call to the Landings at Little Rock. The Landings at Little Rock is just a fancy word for on base housing. He was on the phone with them for about 20 minutes and then we were out the door to fill some paper work out. The woman we talked to said we were really lucky and she had a couple of possible houses we could live in. There is one that we can definitely move into on Monday its a 3 bedroom and that's about all we know about it. We didn't get to see inside since someone is currently living there (until Monday). There was another one that we got to look at but someone else is suppose to be getting it. We both really liked the one that the other person is supposed to get, but the woman we talked said if they didn't show up by noon on Monday it could be ours. It might be bad to say but we are both really hoping the other people don't show up or don't want it. This is a considerably nicer house - its a 2 bedroom plus an office, newly renovated, and more importantly cheaper. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Even though it sucks to be moving again (not even 2 months ago we moved down here), I'm actually pretty excited. This will be our first house!!! I have never lived in a house that wasn't my parents house. From my days at Auburn until the present I have only lived in apartments. I can't wait to live in a house .... even if it really isn't ours and its on base!! I told Todd I wanted to have a house warming party once we moved in. His response was we don't have any friends down here. I said sure we do - the Courtrights, the Millers, the Sanders, the Youngs (minus Laura), John Young, and Ryan Hendrickson. As far as I'm concerned that's enough for a house warming party.

I'll post again with an update once we move and get everything settled (again).

Day ????

It is clear now that I might have been a little over confident with me being able to do the photo calendar. Today is the 12th and I haven't posted a picture since the 8th. Whoops. I don't even think I took any pictures during those days. I did think about it (multiple times), but I didn't like any of the ideas I had. At least point I will not be going back and trying to fill in the days with pictures. I instead will just be adding pictures that I seem to take whatever day I take them. I think I'm going to blame Arkansas for my lack of picture taking. I think if we were still living in Cheyenne I would have plenty of good pictures to take .... or maybe its my biased love of Cheyoming.

On a side note - my new project quilt is coming right along. I'd say I'm over half way done!!

Day 8 - New Project

The fabrics for my newest quilting project. The line is called Lollipop.

Day 7 - Chocolate treats

Its become our Christmas tradition to do the Advent Chocolate Christmas Calendars.

Day 6 - Holiday Cheer

Nothing says Christmas like Egg Nog (or maybe Boiled Custard)

Day 5 - Hodge Podge

My first hodge podge quilt attempt. My mom had gave me the pieces pre-cut so I haven't done this completely by myself. I'm not done yet, this is just the front side. I still have to do the back, batting, and re-do the bottom row (its really off in matching up with the rows above it.

Day 4 - Kick'em in the butt Big Blue!

Auburn is the new SEC Champions & is headed to the National Championship!

(Sorry for the flash glare on the tv)

Day 3 - Dinner Date

Dinner date with Todd. Delicious!

Day 2 - Happy Birthday to Me

My birthday present from Todd - a brand spanking new Janome DC2010

Christmas Photo Countdown Calendar - Day 1

Note: I'm totally copying this idea, but the blogger suggested it so it must be ok. I got the idea from the blog Mila's Daydreams. If you haven't seen it you really should check it out. The pictures she creates with her daughter are just so dang cute. She makes me wish I had at least a single ounce of creativity, but unfortunately I don't so which is why I'm copying her.

I'm not normally one who is excited about Christmas. Yes, I like it, but its not my favorite holiday. I think it comes from all the years while I was growing up that everybody put Christmas decorations up before Thanksgiving. It gave me the impression that no one really cared about Thanksgiving. For most people its not really a big deal, but considering I was born on (the actual day of) Thanksgiving it really urked me. Although my birthday was a little different this year (I made it into a birthday week celebration even though Todd didn't agree with my decision) there were still many people that had decorations up. To try to enhance my holiday mood which might be hard pretty hard I'm going to try to do a photo countdown calendar to Christmas.

I have a couple of disclaimers I should make you aware of:

1. It might be unusually harder to get me in the Christmas spirit considering we are temporarily living in Little Rock, Arkansas. We have a very slim to none chance of getting any snow during the winter. For those of you who know me snow is one of my favorite things!

2. I may not get the post up on a daily basis, but my goal is to at least take one picture per day leading up to Christmas. Depending how it goes maybe I'll extend it to New Years .... but no promises.

3. Even though the intent of this is to put me in the holiday spirit some of my pictures may not have anything to do with Christmas (See Below).

Day 1: My two sweet boys taking a nap. Todd had a long day at work and Cowboy in general has a "hard" life.

USAF Newest Pilot

Last night I got to do something that I've never done before ... fly a C-130 (E model) Simulator. I had such a great time!!! I want to give a big THANK YOU to John Young for setting it up so Todd and I could do it together. I can't say enough times how much fun I had!! Last night I got to do something that I've never done before ... fly a C-130 (E model) Simulator. I had such a great time!!! I want to give a big

For those of you that don't quite know what a C-130 simulator is, its a giant pod that has the inside set up like the inside of a C-130. What should be the windows are actually screens that play a specific landscape. All the buttons, knobs, dials, switches, pedals, etc. still work as they would in a normal C-130. If you haven't figured it out yet the main purpose of this is to simulate flying. Lucky for me last night we were able to fly around the Little Rock area. I don't know the area very well yet, but I did see (or maybe they pointed out to me) the downtown area, Lake Maumelle, and Pinnacle Mountain just to name a few.

The guy that was in charge of our flight simulator, Jimmy, ended up being a guy that Todd had done many sims with during his 2 years of pilot training. I thought he was super nice for letting us do this. It was also great that he seems super excited about the whole thing in general. Todd made the comment that he had never seen anyone so excited about directing the simulator. In the short amount of time I got to fly Jimmy had me take off, fly in formation, perform an airdrop, fly underneath a bridge, perform a touch and go, and a final landing. Todd also got to do some illegal flying such as a barrel roll and a (back) loop. All of that in just an hour .... who knew you could do so much.

I think I'm ready to become the Air Force's newest pilot!!!

Take off !!

In flight

Look Mom ... No Hands!!

A celebratory fist pump for no red screens.

It appears I'm in deep concentration on my final descent

Jimmy, me, and Todd

Denver Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon

The Denver Rock'n'Roll Half Marathon has come and gone. This was my first half marathon. I can say with great pride that Todd and I kicked its butt. When we were first discussing doing the run we decided that our goal would be to keep a 10 minute mile. If we kept that pace, after 13.1 miles our time would be just over 2 hr. & 10 min. I thought I could be happy with that especially since it was my first half marathon. As the weeks ticked by we talked some more about our goal and decided to change it. We thought a half marathon in 2 hrs or less would be a better, more challenging goal. The day was finally upon us so off we went to Denver to run.

Here's a brief summary of how it went ...

The morning started off very cold, the temperature at start time was below 50 degrees. Once we got to the race site we stood in line at the port-a-potties for at least 20 minutes. Turns out while we were waiting the race officially began ... whoops. Lucky for us they gave every runner a device that clocked each person individually. It started my time as I crossed the start line and ended when I crossed the finish line. We ended up starting the race about 8 minutes late, but there were still many people starting behind us. Once we got started we kept a 9 minute pace. For some reason (I'm beginning to think its due to the cold weather) around 1.5 miles I got a stitch in my side. I think its kind of crazy that I got one that early in the race, but eventually it went away. Miles 2 through 7 came and went, they were all pretty uneventful in my opinion with the exception of seeing some of our friends Mike Schroeder and Ryan Bach (they were there for moral support for their girlfriends). About mile 8 we had slowed the pace down to about 9:20/mile. My knee was killing me to put it mildly. It was about that time that I was starting to get thoughts that I might not be able to run the whole thing. Lucky for me, Todd wouldn't let me quit. Around mile 11 all we had left was downhill for the remainder which Todd informed me of, which didn't really make me any happier. At that time per Todd's suggestion I started listening to my iPOD - his logic is I run faster when I listen to music. He was right, we picked up the pace slightly. Mile 12 came next and for some reason my knee was no longer in pain instead I was a getting pretty light headed. I think it was due to my electrolytes being out of whack from all the running. Whether that was the reason or not, I only had 1.1 miles left and I had to finish!! Once we could see the finish line we started to sprint, grabbed each others hand, and finally crossed the finish line together. As soon as I stopped running my knee was in more pain than at any other time during that race - I can't even put words to it. But, thankfully it was over. We each received a medal, got a bunch of free snacks, and met up with some other friends that were running it. By the time we were leaving the race to head back to the car we found out our official race time. We didn't end up beating our 2nd goal, but we were pretty dang close ... we finished at .... (drumroll please) .....

2:00:17

I can honestly say that I'm happy with that time and I think Todd is too.

Todd and I

Todd, Me, and TJ

I can now say that I've run a half marathon!! I don't think I ever will again, but who cares. The first one is the only one that matters. Todd on the other hand has started training for a full marathon, the New Orleans Rock'n'Roll in February. I think he's crazy.

My favorite time of the year

Fall is my favorite season. Besides Thanksgiving and my birthday the next best thing is the leaves as they change colors. Todd and I went to for a stroll the other day across the Big Dam Bridge in Little Rock.

Here are a couple of pictures I took to show off the leaf colors

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

Its my favorite time of year .... Thanksgiving. Well, in a little over a week. Either way Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Some people might think I'm biased because I was born on Thanksgiving, but I don't really care.

To get into the holiday spirit (& because we are having people over for dinner tomorrow night) I found a recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies. After I finished the batter I thought I better make a few just to make sure they tasted good. Final outcome ... Delicious Success!!

I found the recipe on foodnetwork.com and after reading some of the comments I made some recommended modifications. Here's my recipe ....

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups canned pumpkin puree

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

2 cups (1 12oz bag) of milk chocolate chips

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

Using a mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Beat in the white and brown sugars, a little bit at a time, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs 1 at a time, then mix in the vanilla and pumpkin puree. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and pumpkin pie spice. Slowly beat the flour mixture into the batter, adding a little bit at a time. Stir in the chips. They recommend to make the cookies about the size of a tablespoon. Bake in the oven for 15 to 20 minutes or until the edges are brown.

A couple of things to note ...

I used a fork instead of a mixer

You can use pumpkin pie mix instead of pumpkin puree

I used bread flour instead of all-purpose flour

You can use semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of milk chocolate chips

I used 1 tsp of pumpkin pie spice instead of 1/4 tsp ground clove

Lastly, these are kind of cake-y cookies, don't expect them to fall and spread like normal chocolate chip cookies.

Enjoy!!!

So Long Cheyenne

This post is alittle late, but better late than never ....

Its hard to believe that my time in Cheyenne has come and gone. When I moved out there 4+ years ago I didn't have a clue where life would lead me - how long I'd live out there for, if I'd like it, if I would make any friends, or what the job would be like. Looking back I can say with certainty that I would be the where I am today without Cheyenne.

Moving to Cheyenne did many things for me ....

- I was finally living on my own (translation - no financial help from the parents)

- I bought and paid off my very first car

- I worked in a job that didn't pay half bad

- I now have a second cat (that is super whiny) named Cowboy Ottis

- I learned how to ski

- I climbed the highest peak in Colorado (Mt. Elbert)

- I made some lifelong friends that I will never forget (you know who you are!)

- Most importantly, I met the man that I would one day call my husband

Now one last goodbye to Cheyenne some of my favorite memories by pictures (in no particular order) ....

Snowshoeing with Todd in Dillon, CO

Skiing - every winter

Getting engaged at the top of Mt. Elbert

Going to the Rockies vs Padres and sitting in the Rockpile

The Muddy Buddy in Boulder, CO

My wedding day

AF vs Navy & a night out in the Springs

Snowmobiling with Liz and Jared - especially when I crashed my sled and Liz got lost

When Todd and I went as Britney & K-Fed for Halloween

The TwiHards winning the Beer Pong Tourney at the 3rd Annual National Corndog Day

Redneck Squadron Party

Murder Mystery Dinner

The Melodrama during CFD

Hiking Canyonlands & Arches National Park with Sue & Jackson

Our first trip to Deadwood, SD

I'm sure there are alot more memories to be shared, but these are some of my favorites that I have the pictures for. Both Cheyenne and the friends I made there will always hold a dear place in my heart.

So Long Cheyenne. You will be missed!