My friend, Mary Hartmann, tagged me. I did not win her Christmas wallhanging she was giving away. Too bad for me. But I thought I would play along with her anyway. This has really made me think (in the past happenings and for the future.) But here goes.

Five things I was doing five years ago
1. We got our first little cocker spaniel puppy. She is now five years old.
2. I was doing the newsletters for our business, Spectrac Suspension Center.
3. I was working on genealogy.
4. I was faithfully exercising 3 times a week.
5. We purchased a home where our daughter, Julie lived so I was helping her a lot.

Five things on my to do list
1. Finish up Chistmas gift buying
2. Finish up machine embroidery blocks for the Latte Quilt and Heritage Quilt.
3. Put together a story of one of the Lipps children for my genealogy web site, http:www.downthehallway.com.
4. Visit my visiting teacher partner in the hospital next week.
5. Help Julie finish her purse she is making.

Five things I would do with a million dollars
1. Pay off the mortgages on both homes.
2. Buy a RV storage business for Jerry but he would have to first sell Spectrac.
3. Buy a home with lots of storage space.
4. Buy an expensive Gammill long arm quilting machine.
5. Travel to the places my ancestors lived - England, Germany and the states in USA they lived in.

Five places I have lived
1. I am a native Arizonian so have lived here most of my life, mainly Bisbee.
2. Lived in Garden Grove, California while I taught school there.
3. Lived in New Mexico as a child.
4. How boring, I need to travel more.

Five things I want to be doing in five years
1. Traveling
2. Machine quilting on that Gammill long arm.
3. Doing something with my husband instead of sitting at home all the time.
4. Seeing to it that Julie is settled in a happy, comfortable, safe home with nice people.
5. Taking care of myself so that I can be healthy to do all these things.

Five people I have tagged
1. I will think about that right now.

Last Year's Christmas Quilt Finally Finished

I finally finished last years Christmas Quilt. Mary and I were at the Cutting Edge last year and I bought the fabric for this quilt. It is a Nancy Halverson pattern. I got it all together and started quilting on it and had only the border to do and it sat in my sewing room forever. Well, this month I finished it. It is not my best work. I guess my heart was not into it. I quilted the border with a design I learned from the Patsy Thompson CD. I did it kind of fast so the work is not the best but it is done. Now it will adorn my house for this Christmas season. Yahoo!

Chirstmas Quilt to Win

My good friend Mary Hartmann (unfortunately she's not related) is giving a small quilt away for her first year with a blog website. Please check it out and enter to win. She is very creative and generous to do this. It would be so nice to have a new quilt decoration for this Christmas season.

Saying for the Day

"Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life-and-death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems."
Life's Little Instruction Book (Rutledge Hill Press)

Red Delicious

I have all the Red Delicious Blocks fused and hanging on the design board. I now have to do all the detail work and cut the blocks to size and put on the sashing. There is a mistake on one of the wave looking blocks and I have to redo it so it matches up with the adjoining block. It was fun to get this far with it. Quilting will be a challenge.

Fall Quilt

I finally put up my Fall Quilt but just think in a just few weeks Thanksgiving will be over and everything will be Christmas. I made this a few years ago and quilted it with leaf and pumpkin designs. I got the fabric in Tucson at one of the quilt stores there. Also is a picture is my sewing machine. I sure have enjoyed it.

Our Washington DC Trip

Beginning October 4th we spent 7 days in Washington DC. What a good trip we had. The weather and sites were great. We rented a car much to the concern of those we talked to who have lived or been to Washington DC. We found out about that concern. DC is not a good place to drive in or find anything. The layout of the town is very different with angle streets. Jerry was very frustrated thinking that he was really getting old. He has a good sense of direction and is a good person to travel with for that reason but this town had him baffled. We found out later that others we knew coming to the SSA convention had the same problem. One couple went to visit friends living in Washington for a 15 min. trip and it took them 1 1/2 hours.
We came to DC for the SSA Convention. We came early to see the sites. The convention had blocked out 4 days for us at the Hyatt near DC but because of an armament convention being held over we were moved to another hotel. I guess the goverment wins out over us. We stayed at 3 hotels in 7 days. It was frustrating but we got two days free and the other days at a reduced rate.
Our first stay was in Silver Spring for Sunday night. This little town was so busy for a Sunday, I couldn't believe it. It seemed like any day of the week and not a Sunday when many things are closed down. We decided to spend just one night there instead of the three nights planned. Monday we happened on to the Temple. What a glorious site from the freeway. The leaves were barely beginning to turn color but one maple tree on the temple grounds was spectacular. It was flaming red.
We headed straight downtown to Washington DC. The next stop was Arlington National Cemetery. There we saw the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the changing of the guard at 12:00. What a respectful moment that was. The walk to the Tomb was all up hill and I was exhausted. In fact by the time we got to the hotel that night I was so tired I could have cried. We did see President Kennedy and the continual burning fire at his grave plus Robert Kennedy and the recent grave of Edward Kennedy.
Jerry decided to stay at a motel out from the city so he found one 17 miles away in Manassa. It was a little further than we wanted but once we found our way there, the trip wasn't so long.

Washington DC Temple and Arlington National Cemetery

The next day we went to the Capitol. The weather was beautiful but on this day the wind was blowing so hard. There was no dust like in Arizona but the wind was as hard as a Santa Ana wind.
We were not allowed to go inside the capitol. In fact I read they had the unveiling of a statue honoring Helen Keller who was born deaf and dumb and learned to communicate. The steps to the capitol were barred off and guarded by police with automatic machine guns.
The White House was interesting. We accidentally found a parking spot nearby. There was one protester out front who has been there since the 1980s. Evidently someone important who lives in the White House, perhaps Michelle or her girls, were returning home and we got caught in that situation. But it was interesting with police, guns and black limousines. They were probably having a party that night because there were catering trucks out back. We could see guards with guns on top of the White House.

Capitol and the White House

Jerry was good to take me to the Congressional Cemetery in SE DC near the Naval Yards and the Anacosta River. We got lost several times but with the help of a GPS we found our way. Every place I go I try to see if there is information about my ancestors and Washington DC has quite a bit of history about my Coombe and Barry families. They knew George Washington and helped to settle DC and wanted to make it a great sea merchandising area. New York finally won out on that. Many of our Coombe and Barry families are buried in Congressional Cemetery. The Coombe Vault dated 1828 was restored in 2004. We were shown the vault and were given an inch thick of papers on the restoration and examination of the caskets. Our family helped to start this cemetery which is owned by Christ Church and not a federal ownership. The vault had not been opened since 2004 and the key was bent but the chairman of the cemetery board agreed to try to open the vault for me. Behold the key worked and the door opened. Jerry thought I was going to jump right in. Not really, there was a big spider web right in the entrance and of course no one is authorized to go in. In 1828 when someone died or a neighbor or friend died and there was no place to put the body, our Barry family volunteered their vault until they could get their own buried plot ready. There were 22 burials throughout the early years in this vault. I was given all the records they have available for this vault. It is awesome. When they opened the vault to start the restoration, the Smithsonian was there. They took the caskets and bodies and examined them thoroughly. Unknown to the Coombes when they first built the vault, it was built on a water belt (can't remember what it is called) so there was a well in the vault. It had flooded over time and when the vault was opened, the caskets and a skull were floating. Now it is all cleaned up and the bodies have been returned and put in wood boxes. One casket was not moved because it had deteriorated so much. This was an awesome experience.

Congressional Cemetery

The Lincoln Memorial was wonderful to see. A ranger gave an excellent talk on the Lincoln Memorial and its relationship to the other monuments in DC. There is so much symbolization on how and why everything is built in DC. The Lincoln Monument was built on marsh land and dedicated in 1922. It has 36 columns representing the 36 states that were in the union at that time. It overlooks the Reflecting Pool and the Washington Monument. The DAR denied Marian Anderson, a contralto, to sing at Constitution Hall becuase of her race so she was offered the use of the Lincoln Memorial to sing before 75,000 people in 1939. Martin Luther King, Jr gave his famous "I Dream" speech in 1963 on the exact spot where she sang.

Lincoln Memorial

We saw some many old buildings, momuents and memorials. They were all so great. While at our second hotel, the Air Force Memorial was next door so I took pictures of it. All our soldiers were so brave. There are memorials to honor all of them. The names at the Viet Nam Memorial go on forever. I don't think they are put in alphabetical order so finding a name you know would be hard. The Korean War Memorial was very different. It is said that any soldier you look at looks at you and follows your eyes. Each figure reflects onto an adjacent wall at night making it look like there are more than the 38 soldiers there.

More Memorial and sites

By the time we were able to tour the Smithsonian buildings I was so tired from all the walking. It was a Saturday and a three day holiday so there were sooo many people there. It was not much fun. But we did go into the Space mouseum, the Natural History and US History Buildings. I've included pictures of these.

Smithsonian

There are a lot of pictures here. Hope you're not too bored or don't want to take the time to look at all of them. I'm grateful for this experience to see our Nation's Capitol and all the sites there.

50 Year High School Reunion

I've been waiting to post this until I received the group picture of my high school class. Our 50th reunion was held over labor day weekend at the Chaparral Suites in Scottsdale. Actually it was an all years high school reunion honoring the 1959 graduates. It was a fun evening. My brother, Ron, went with me. He's of the class of '61. We saw a few of our neighbors who lived closed by. Fifty years sure does change everyone. Our graduating class was about 120 to 130 students. Only 19 showed up for the reunion and none of those I ran around with in high school. I don't think I would have recognized anyone if I had passed them on the street.
Here are a few pictures. On some of the pictures you can click on and see their high school picture.

Back Row: Robert Rapp, Ted Allen, Mikkie Niemi, Bob Munsey, Rudy Salas, Amos Sales, Mico Acuna, George Mason, Eddie Nadolski, John Pazour. Front Row: Jean (Sharp) Beck, Virginia (Chavez) Vasquez, Marty (Bihlmeier) Larson, Barbara (Ross)Forman, Yolanda (Lopez)Navarette, Mary (Garcia)Parker, Damaris Riley, Linda Budrick, Janice (Hall)Hartman

Janice and Barbara Foreman. Barbara now lives in Sierra Vista.

Our neighbors down the street- Christy and Rosalie Arias. Christy was my sisters age.

Janice, Bob Munsey, Dorothy and Mikki Niemi. Mikki lived down the street from us. I believe he was the biggest change in looks of everyone.

George Mason and Mikki Niemi. George lived several rows of homes behind us. He was senior class president. I always thought he was cute with rosey cheeks.

George Mason and his (3rd) wife, Jamie, Dorothy and Mikki Niemi

Barbara Foreman, Janice, Ron (my brother),and Damaris Riley

Virginia Chavez, Mary Garcia and Janice. I don't remember them at all but took a picture anyway.

Amos Sales and Bob Rapp. He doesn't look anything like his high school picture.

Marty Bihlmeier, Jean Sharp and DAmaris Riley. Marty, I remember as being very popular. Jean is now an artist.

Saying for the Day

"Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind."
Dr. Seuss

Quilt Camp Was Fun

I went to the Cactus Patchers Fall Quilt Camp in Prescott at the Emanuel Pines Camp. What fun I had. Mary Hartmann was my traveling companion and roommate. We left Thursday and came home Sunday afternoon.
First we visited all the quilt stores in Precott Valley and purchased a fat quarter of purple fabric for the fabric raffle. I didn't win but last year I won the thread raffle.
We got our sewing gear set and proceeded to sew. There were 24 of us Cactus Patchers at this year's camp. What fun we had. We didn't have to cook all weekend. The food was so good. See some pictures of camp below.

Make a Smilebox photobook

One Block Wonder Top Is Finished

I finally finished the One Block Wonder quilt top. It took some time but I am pleased with the result. There were quite a few little borders to add which was tedious. Trying to get the sides all the same size was my biggest problem and there is a little bit of puffiness in the center but I think it will quilt out OK. Now to get it quilted. What name should I give this quilt???

A Relaxed Maggie

Maggie is so sweet. Doesn't she look so relaxed and comfortable? She sure has added a lot of delight to our family. She has a cute personality. We really love her. Her only down fall is, she loves to bark. Julie is constantly quieting her down so she won't bother the neighbers although she is not barking as much since one next door neighbor moved with his dog. Shes a sweety though and really loves us too.

One Block Wonder

I have been working the last few weeks on a one block wonder quilt. About two years ago this September, Mary and I went to Fall camp in Prescott. At this event Mary suggested we get fabric for a one block wonder quilt. I agreed and we both got quite a few yards of one fabric to make this quilt. We got together to cut out the blocks and Mary finished hers and I'm just now working on mine. The quilt is made of one fabric and one block but the way it is cut out produces and entirely different look than the original fabric. I needed a large design area to arrange the blocks. This meant finding a large enough wall in my house to put two flannel backed table cloths. The only space I had was in my bedroom so now my bedroom is in disarray with rearranged furniture.
I sewed the strips of blocks wrong. I didn't read the instructions too well so I had to take out the last few inches of the top and bottom to add the black points. I think everything turned out well.




Now I'm going to add an outside border and include some smaller blocks in it. I think an all black border is too much and pinkest coral is just not the right thing. I'll show the finished quilt when I get it done.

This is where I lived growing up!

Bisbee 1000 Stair Race October 18, 2008

This is a video of the 1000 Stair Race in Bisbee. As you know Bisbee is built on the side of a mountain. To get to many of the homes, you have to climb up the stairs. There are some fantastic views of Bisbee. I actually lived in Lowell or Galena which is a housing area a few miles from Bisbee. But I was in the last highschool class to attend the Bisbee High School. It was built so that all three stories came out on the same street. There is one very quick view of the high school in this video. Bisbee was a great place to grow up in. My 50th highschool reunion is coming up in September so I have been doing a lot of reminiscing.

Great News

I am so thrilled with the report from my doctor on the thyroid cancer I have. After 4 weeks on a no salt/iodine diet and no medication of synthroid, I had a blood test which was a cancer marker and a complete body scan. The cancer marker was very low and the scan was negative. The cancer is gone. I am so grateful for this. Thank you all who included me in your prayers.I am still recovering from the side effects of no medication for so long. It seems that it takes the nurses forever to order tests and get back the results so instead of 2 weeks for the diet and off meds, it turned out to be 4 weeks. I am still weak, tired and my poor hooded eyes are even more hooded and hanging on my eyelashes. I learned about the hooded eyes when Mary Hartmann and I attended a Mary Kay glamour workshop. We both have hooded eyes. Up close you can see the puffiness of my eyes and my cheeks and hands are puffy. My eyes are now dripping and running. I guess the swelling is beginning to go down although my eyes still feel heavy. I had horrible cramping in my feet and legs and went to bed with a heating pad every night to relax them. I found some dried apricots with no salt that are good for potassium so that helped. I ate so healthly but now I can eat anything. I'm still going to eat some surgary things but try to stay away from delibertly eating chocolate, candy, pies, cakes and cookies and hope that will help with IBS I have. I am on the mend but still have a few weeks before I'm really up to par. If it took me 4 weeks to get in the position I'm it, it will probably take that long to really feeling good and up to par. But the good news out weighs the bad. The picture of me was taken at the Mary Kay Glamour Workshop. Actually the picture was before we did any glamour. I really think I looked better before the glamour than after so I'm not showing the after picture. So much - for glamour. Mary looked great afterward!