. . . hard to believe . . .

. . . it's been a whole year . . .

. . . since this little angel made his debut . . .

. . . also hard to believe it's the same baby . . .

. . . he's changed a lot . . .

. . . he's busy, but so sweet . . .

. . . all he wants for his birthday 

is to know who the top twenty are on 

so you think you can dance . . . 

. . . and he might have a crush on cat deeley . . .

. . . ahead of the times . . .

. . . how could we have known? . . .

. . . that thirty years ago, 

our yellow&white wedding 

was totally paving the way 

for mr&mrs pratt! . . .

. . . copy cats! . . .

{minus $1.2 million in borrowed diamonds, 

monique lhuillier gown [$20,000] 

& schmuck of a husband [worthless!]}

. . . AND there's another yellow&white wedding 

right around the corner . . .

. . . we were sooooo trendy . . .

. . . fourteen/ten . . .

. . . i'd heard them . . .

. . . the horror stories 

about phone calls 

costing several hundred dollars . . .

{don't get me wrong ~ i'd be willing to pay!}

. . . still . . .

. . . i'm thankful for 

the cox international calling plan . . .

. . . two hours and seven minutes . . .

. . . happy mothers day to me . . .

. . . grand total $6.35 . . .

. . . priceless . . .

. . . turn the page . . .

. . . phew . . .

. . . i, for one, am glad may is over . . .

. . . after forking over the dough for:

•nine wedding gifts

•nine graduation gifts

•four birthday gifts

•five bridal/baby shower gifts

•and a funeral flower arrangement

. . . we're fresh out of . . .

. . . thank heaven we've only received 

four june wedding announcements . . .

. . . so far! . . .

. . . sampler . . .

. . . our little quilt group met monthly in 2008 . . .

. . . we taught/learned a different block at each meeting . . .

. . . the goal was to have a finished project 

by the end of the year . . .

. . . a drive-by show was held 

to display our handiwork . . .

. . . sadly, my quilt was not in any shape 

to be viewed at that time . . .

. . . i have since rectified that situation . . .

. . . the nine blocks have names 

and the patterns are free . . .

left to right/top to bottom: 

rail fence, no name block #2, log cabin

friendship scrap, tippecanoe & tyler too, borrow & lend

churn dash, woven ribbons, teresa's pinwheel

. . . each block was framed . . .

. . . then came sashings and cornerstones . . .

. . . another frame . . .

. . . and a border of scrappy squares . . .

. . . one final border and polka dot cornerstones . . .

. . . expert machine quilting . . .

. . . a scrappy binding . . .

. . . and now it looks pretty awesome 

in my living room . . .

. . . finally . . .

. . . fifty-three/three . . .

. . . these two spent some 

quality pool time together this afternoon . . .

. . . only one of them needed a flotation device . . .

. . . happy birthdays to papa & tater tot . . .

. . . happy grammy's day . . .

. . . my darling daughters are so thoughtful . . .

. . . in honor of mother's day . . .

. . . they dressed all the grandkids 

in my favorite {?} color . . .

. . . for a little photo shoot . . .

. . . the boys ~ tate, elliott & tagg . . .

. . . the girls ~ halleigh & addison . . .

. . . the crew ~ tagg, halleigh, tate, addison & elliott . . .

. . . and here's me thankful for 

the cox international calling plan . . .

. . . happy mothers day . . .

. . . to my amazing mom . . .

. . . who is my hero . . .

. . . she's a perfect example 

of love, service & complete selflessness . . .

. . . if you're lucky enough to meet her, 

i guarantee the first words out of her mouth . . .

{well ~ maybe after she asks all about your family tree}

. . . will be, "what can i do to help you?" . . .

. . . and to my beautiful daughters . . .

. . . 66 2/3 per cent of whom . . .

{so far}

. . . are wonderful mothers themselves . . .

. . . i feel lucky to be a daughter and a mother . . .

. . . oh, & a grammy, too! . . .

. . . she did it . . .

. . . summa cum laude . . .

. . . with highest honors . . .

. . . hip hip hooray! . . .

{and she even looked cute in the hat}

. . . congratulations mimi . . .

{photos courtesy of manders ~ thanks!}

. . . thirteen/eleven . . .

. . . many moons ago, 

drew lamented the fact 

that he was not blessed 

with soccer talents . . .

. . . at that time, 

i was blessed 

with a hard drive failure . . .

. . . here is that long ago promised proof 

that his lack of futbol skillz 

is not for lack of trying 

at an early age . . .

. . . although after one year 

{around age five} 

of "organized" soccer . . .

. . . drew's dad said 

he'd rather watch grass grow . . .

. . . so we moved on to basketball . . .