SHOW OFF MONDAY

I am bragging about my 10 year old grandson, who has been taking riding lessons this summer. They had an exhibition for the parents and grandparents to show what they had learned. He won the trophy for his horsemanship knowledge. He competed against older kids when they were doing that part. His other award was showing that he completed Horsemanship I. He is going to continued to take lessons this fall. He demonstrated Western Pleasure, which he had a set pattern that he had to memorize. He really did a good job. His instructor has this palomino and Arabian that she gives lessons on and they are amazing how well they adapt to each of the students. There was 8 students all together.

We have found something that he really likes to do. They have homework just like school and it test their knowledge to how much they know about horses.

It was a very enjoyable evening ending with setting around a fire roasting marshmallows. His instructor only lives approximately 2 miles from them so they can be there in no time.

Have a great day.

Sunday Evening

These are some of my latest embroidered tea towels. My August makes me think of fairs, pinics with the lady bugs and bumble bees. I am getting better at putting in my pictures of my work, but I need to take better pictures at times. My Christmas sleigh is to get me in the mood to start my Christmas shopping started early. I always do that so it doesn't seem like it cost that much. Christmas will be here before we are ready. I took on a little bit bigger project that is about half finished. It is a teapot table topper. I think it is really going to look cool when I get it finished . I am learning new things about blogging so I hope this does what I want because work will come early for me on Monday.

I just got some new iron on patterns from my family for my birthday that they found in Branson, Missouri. The boys helped mommy pick them out. I always have more than one project going.

Saturday's Journey

We decided to go for a drive. It was over 360 mile drive and we saw a lot of countryside. We went out to Hamilton, Missouri and turned down highway 13 through Lexington, Warrensburg, turning at Clinton, Missouri going to Warsaw, Missouri . The restaurant on the river was still there that we had ate at a long time ago. We went downtown looking at the shops and their courthouse square. Of course, my camera was at home. We were going to visit a friend that lives outside of Warsaw, but he wasn't able to meet us in town and it didn't appear that his wife wanted company. We didn't push it, We just said that we would try it another time. We crossed Truman lake a couple of different places. There was some beautiful scenery there. We came home through Sedalia, Missouri. This was the last weekend of the state fair. We came up Highway 65 to Chillicothe, Mo Highway 36 to Cameron, Missouri and home. It was a very enjoyable trip, traffic wasn't real bad as the major highways.

We had several different kinds of airplanes at the airport today. Some was going to the air show in Kansas City. We always have a lot of things happening here because they also have schools for flying over in war zones. Some of our guys have been home approximately a week for Afghanistan. We get foreign planes in to go to their school.

We have had rain early in the week, but the weekend has turned off pretty nice for our Trails West Festival. They have had a lot of different entertainers here. It will end tomorrow evening. Their craft vendors are chosen, and juried in if they want to come back the following year. You have to submit pictures of what you do to see if you can get in. Most are out of town crafters. They want so much just to be there and then they want a percentage of your sales. I don't think I would like to do it. To purchase food you had to purchase tickets, and if you don't use them all that is tough luck there is no refund. They thought they weren't being paid properly. The arts group have got a little greedy. The first year it was free admission, but not any more. Taylor Swift performed here before her career really took off.

Must close. Have a good weekend.

Wet Monday

Have you ever tried to dry yourself with paper towels after you got soak from the rain? That was my experience this morning when I went to work. It was absolutely pouring and I parked as close to the door as I could get, but the hair came straight from the rain. All of us had wet clothes. I was lucky because I had a sweater in the car which helped a little.

We had rain up until noon and then the sun came out this afternoon. This coming weekend is Trails West, where we have bands, crafts, and food vendors in town for three days. Usually it is hot and where they hold it, and isn't wheel chair friendly. They up the price this year. If you buy the button in advance, it is good all three days, but if you just go for one day it cost more then what the button did and it can only be used that night or day. I just don't understand why they don't move the main events to the civic arena, where it is air-condition and you have seats to set in. Today was a trip to the city for a doctor visit. It didn't make me feel very good after we left. Basically they can't tell us what cause the episode that put him in the hospital for a night for observation. If he has another spell, then we will go from there. Everything was o.k. with the labs, EKG, and the x-rays. I always did say that he like to complicate things a little more.

They were suppose to come today and fix my outside security light. They didn't make it as we are still in the dark. You don't realize how much you miss something until it doesn't work. You can't look out and see what is going on at the moment.

Wednesday is the big day at work. We will have lunch, but I don't know what it will be yet. It is my choice because of it being my birthday. We were going to cook on the grill, but we always have all the free loaders showing up at noon for a free lunch even though it wasn't meant to be that way. I will come up with something more then pizza that is for sure. It is also the day we have to watch out for the school buses as school starts. They are going just long enough for it to qualify for a full day. They had to go to the end of May here in town last year because of snow days so this year they are trying to build in extra days.

My prayers go out to those in the south eastern states and hope they don't have any hurricane damage. Take care.

Sunday Afternoon

Have you ever got your blog all type and lost the whole thing. That is what happen to me earlier today. I was feeling so proud of myself only to lose it all. I took a break and ate supper so I will try again.

We had a downpour, but it didn't last very long. It started yesterday evening raining really hard. I was thankful that we got home before it hit.

I don't like driving in real heavy rain where the visibility is pour. We have stayed in the 80's, but they are forecasting rain for most of the week.

We spent the day yesterday running errands and then taking a drive through the countryside.

One of the interesting things was the Noah Ark decorating the back yard. It had a ramp for the kids to climb to get inside of it. I would really liked to have been able to see it up close. It looked like it would be so much fun for the boys as if they don't have enough things to play with. We enjoyed looking at some of the old houses in Atchison, Kansas. They give guilded tours around the holidays as a fund raiser. I would love to see the inside, but it isn't something we can do unless my husband is having a really good day without using the wheelchair.

The second picture is another tea towel that I finished. I have a set of napkins done, but I haven't taken the pictures yet. I have started a table topper, but it will probably take a little longer to do.

You all have a wonderful week.

SUMMER IS HERE

Summer has arrived with 90 degree weather and triple digit heat index. We had a storm go through Sunday evening dropping the temperature 14 degrees in a half hour. They had some people without electricity here, but the worse storm was to the north of us. The winds were clocked at 65 miles a hour. They clocked ours at the airport across the river at 50 miles a hour. It is time for school to start and that is usually when the hot weather hits. They will make the kids go to school long enough to make it count as a full day.
I am posting a couple of tea towels. I want your opinion. I want to know which blue birds you like best. The design across the bottom of the towel or the smaller design. I have been busy embroidering this past week to help relieve the stress. I have been told if I am not careful I can get the shingles back. I don't want another bout of those that is for sure. I still have problems with the after effect of the first time.
Birthdays have been big at our house this month and I have another wedding invitation. We have had five wedding invitations, two 50Th wedding anniversary celebration, a surprise birthday party coming up this weekend. We either don't have anything to do or our calendar is full. I just wish they would spread it out.
They have started on the new training facility for the Chiefs football team on our college campus. They are suppose to have camp here starting next year. They say that it will bring us a lot of tourism. We just finished a 14 and under girls National Softball tournament. It was very hot and humid for that one. We have some more sports bringing tournaments to our town. They did start a baseball team back this year so the St. Joseph Mustangs. It was all college age kids with several of our local kids playing. The last home game we had over 4000 attending. They had fireworks every Saturday night after the game. I still think it really helps with the kids helping in the community and having local kids. I need to get back to the set of napkins that I am working on now.

Hot Saturday

Today has been hot and windy. We had such an unusual July with the weather cooler then normal that I think this month is going to more then make up for it. We had 96 today with a 105 heat index. The pollen count is high so the allergies are giving me problems.
We can be thankful that the birthday party was last weekend when it was much nicer. I keep thinking about our son and family. They went to Branson before school starts. I don't know where the summer has gone. It seemed like it just got started. We went to our friends 50Th wedding anniversary. They were so surprised. She had her wedding gown on a form there for everyone to see. It was absolutely beautiful. I saw her daughter who ice skated with our daughter. It was so much fun talking about the good old days as we like to call them.
I have another one of my tea towels done. I have a three ready to put the border on. I had such a stressful week that I spent quite a little time embroidering to help me relax before I would call it a day. Monday, I hope will be back to normal as much as possible. Maybe I can get my work done instead of being down stairs.

I don't know what tomorrow will bring. I will just have to wait and see how hot it is going to be. We may stay pretty close to home in the air conditioning.
Have a wonderful weekend of what is left.

A New Week

This is three of the tea towels that I have finished. The sleigh and candy cane are linen tea towels with a tiny green and red stripe. My blue birds are something that I experimented with the design goes clear across the bottom of the towel.
I can't decide which of my blue bird towels I like best. I have been doing quite a little the last few nights because of the stress at work. We are working short handed. It always adds that much pressure and I am trying to finish my year end to go to our accountant to do the taxes. I just take it to that point.

The birthday party. The younger ones are 4 and 5 year old. The older two are ten. They had so much fun and the weather cooperated beautiful so that it could be outside on their back deck. He had all of his pirate decorations.

Sunday was family reunion time. There was five brothers and two sisters there which wasn't bad. There was two sisters and a brother not there. The youngest was 5 weeks and the oldest will be 80 in November. We didn't for some reason have as many. Some were taking a vacation before kids go off to school whether it is college, grade school, or high school. We had someone in each category. It was an enjoyable day.

We had a rain storm go through this morning with lightening and thunder. I watch an impressive lightening show as I was driving to work this morning. I was wondering if it was smart, but it was necessary that I go to work. Have a good week.