I just love writing about my ailments. I had a rough night, running a fever, and hacking up a few lungs. I finally decided maybe just maybe, there could be a slight possibility, that I just may need to see a doctor.  Well I should have gone sooner. I have pneumonia in my right lung. He said it was moderate and put me on some pretty sweet medications to the tune of $115!

Maybe it is time for me to slow down just a bit.

Although one thing that did disturb me about getting the chest X-ray was he said my lungs were full of scar tissue(?) Then he proceeded to lecture me for the better part of 10 minutes about quitting smoking. Funny thing is, I have NEVER smoked in my entire 34 years on this planet. I have been around plenty of second hand smoke and I don’t think he believed me. He looked at me with those eyes that said, “Don’t lie to me, you have been smoking since birth and I have the x-rays to prove it!”

Anyway, like I stated yesterday until I am feeling better I am going to stay off this computer.

We decided to go on a quick fall camping trip before the weather turns cold. Just for the weekend we traveled to Inks lake in Hill Country Texas. 

Hill Country has some of the most beautiful parts of Texas.  Although it was a bit warmer than what I would have liked it was still a good trip.

See there are actual trees and hills.

We did have a few trouble spots during the weekend:

1. Hayden has a new arch nemesis!  It is known as cactus

See all those thorns. We spent probably an hour or more on Saturday pulling out about 50 (or more) from his arms, hands and feet. He was covered in teeny tiny thorns that I had a hard time getting out. I said, “it’s one thing to pull out a thorn or two but what did he do, roll around in the cactus!”

2. Then he went and put his hand in some new breed of fire ants and it was all swollen. Even with benadryl it would not go down (it was a tough weekend for the little guy!)

3.  We did some hiking.

4. We lost a beloved member of the family– the GPS! No geocaches were found as a result– it was a really bummer.

This was Carley’s first camping trip. I am going to rate her a 4 on a scale of 10 for camping. Only because she did not sleep well in the tent and wanted to play the whole time. Nobody gets any sleep when she is climbing all over them and laughing. She kept Hayden awake until midnight the first night. She needs more camping experience.

We did take the boat but I forgot to take some photos.

Now for the bad news, I have the flu–I will not be back online until I have fully recovered! So–until then

Look up in you search engine tool bar. Do you see the little red horse next to www.saddletrip.com?

This is the small version but here it is larger

I got this little red horse several years ago from a dear friend, Mari.  She was from Sweden and according to her these little horses are completely handpainted and are loved toys by all children in Sweden.  They are officially known as the Dala Horse. In addition, because they are all hand done, no two horses are identical.

I thought, this horse would make a great favicon.

Using my camera, I snapped this photo.  I tried to take a picture of the horse on a white table and that did not work. The flash worked better on the brown table.  Then using a photo editing program, I set the background to transparent and shrunk it down to favicon size, saved it on my web site and poof— little red horse as my icon!

If you can’t see the little red horse you may have to clear out your browsers history or reload the page.

I am really digging the little red horse.

When Carley was born, Denis & Nanette Sever, Vice President at Midland College, dedicated a brick in her honor.

It is located in the center of campus in the Court of Honor. Each brick cost $100.  I thought this was a very nice gift. It even came with a fancy card stating the brick had been donated in her honor. The money is used throughout the college to support its mission and goals.

What I think is really great is that they (the Severs) do this for every employee who has a birth.  They said it was cleaner than pampers and lasted longer.

To say yesterday was a tough day it probably an understatement.  Actually it was the last two or three days. Here is a quick recap:

1.  Hayden burnt his arm really really bad over a pot of chicken noodle soup.  Who would have thought steam could burn that bad

2.  Hayden took it upon himself to pee in Landon’s play shoes-  He filled one up with urine.

3.  Carley decided she needed to play with steak knives. Luckily, no one was injured.

4.  Someone poisoned the neighbors dog with anti-freeze and he died.  He was probably fed something with the poison on it. Landon informed us Hobbes would be easy to poison because in his words “he will eat anything!”

5.  Hayden decided he wanted more flavor to his mac n cheese and squeezed an entire tube of Desitin in his bowl.  He must have taken at least one bite because he brought the dish to me and said, “this doesn’t taste good!” Duhhh

6.  Carley tries to tear up library books and had a fit this week at the library.  Note to self: a 13 month old baby should never be taken to the library.

7.  Jeff ate all of the M&M’s when I most needed a chocolate fix

8.  I had to go to wal mart

9.  I then spent $450 at that store (no wonder they rich)

10.  I don’t have a number 10 right now but I am sure I will think of one later. But at least I am finally getting over my cold.

I need a vacation.  Anyone up for a corn-maze!

So I have been playing around with facebook.  I came across this:

What I found particularly funny is highlighted here:

I had a really good laugh here! I have been married for almost 10 years– surely they don’t need to confirm this. Isn’t my word good enough for facebook?

So I went jeff’s facebook account and it said “you have a relationship request from Kristi” Do you wan to confirm you are in  a relationship with Kristi?

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha– I may be laughing about this all day.

Hayden made his own jacuzzi.

He used the water hose and sprinker head for the jets.

since he did this about an hour before bedtime, I like to think of this as creative bathing.

I think the water was a little cold! Don’t you wish you could still fit into a bucket.

If you are going to live in a desert where everything is prickly and play out side; you have to wear shoes.  Carley got some new ones and she does not like them.  She is trying her best to take them off!

Still trying to get over this crazy cold. It has quite a grip on me this past weekend. I am hoping i am on the downhill now.

Weather has turned cool finally–look for us outside this week and maybe even a little geocaching!

My fellow Texan over at Blue Yonder gave a nice interpretation of how the summer’s in Texas make her feel by the time September rolls around,  OVERBAKED!  How true– this year is no exception.  It has been too hot for way too long.  At last, some relief has come. All this week the high will be in the upper 70’s and the low’s in the 50’s! (my air conditioner will thank me) We just got new windows in our house just in time for the fall weather.

As we are cooling off this week, I have come down with a cold. Nothing major but breathing through my nostriles has become increasingly difficult. So I am going to be taking a break from the computer for a few days. I will most likely be back towards the end of the week or the beginning of the next.

Until then,  enjoy the weather!

I love it when I can give the boys an idea and they just run with it.  Literally in this case. Landon and Hayden were having races around the yard when I suggested that they make an obstacle course.  (really I just wanted them to run around for a little while and wear themselves out before bedtime)

It began simple enought:

Start in the corner of the yard

around the tree

over the slide

through the pirate ship tunnel and out the door

over the blue garbage can lid and all the way around the garden (although going around the garden was thrown out later on because it was not fun enough)

Finally over the red wagon (not pictured), yellow dump truck, and yellow tricycle then onto the swing!

I think the swing was what they wanted most of all.

They they got crazy and added more obstacles. not sure about the dog.   jump over the flower pot and the baby toy was added later on for more effect.

Then there were other obsticles to get around.  Carley really wanted to go down the slide– the boys just rolled right over her.

Finally the races were on–

About a year ago I had this big idea for a quilt.  I was sitting around thinking about what I was going to do with all of the baby blankets that I have gotten over the bast 6 years when the big idea hit me

I will cut them up and quilt them into a larger blanket. One that we could use and would always remind me of the time of when the kids were babies. After about nine months of work, I have officially completed my first real quilt.

Since I had more pink blankets, I decided start with Carley.  It is not a very complicated pattern.  Just blocks. But it works and I needed something for a beginner.

I paired it with a somewhat solid backing (it has a very light plaid in the background, but it appears almost solid) I did have a pink and purple backing for it, but Jeff said it was ugly and did not go with what I was trying to do. I took his advice and picked out this pink color. This quilt is made entirely of flannel. Which I do not recommend for your first quilt. It was extremely difficult to work with. In addition, in my opinion, it almost has to be quilted by hand.  Quilting flannel by machine and keeping it from bunching is like trying to trying to negotiate with a used car salesman.

Although it has many flaws, which are surely from lack of experience, I think it turned out really well. I quilted most of it by hand (which took forever) but last week I got really tired of having it hang around unfinished and I quilted about a third of it by machine. I like how the hand quilting turned out better and I think I was getting pretty good at hand quilting.  It is just more time consuming and I like to see progress and finished works.

So far everyone likes the feel of the blanket. It is very soft and warm which I think is due to the 100% cotton batting. I prefer the cotton batting to the polyester.  Here Jeff is enjoying the blanket while watching his favorite football teams on ESPN360.  You can also get a feel for how large the blanket is.  It measures 63″ x 81″  I intended for it to be twin size– so this is pretty close.

Jeff snuggling with the new blanket. I have enough blankets(fabric) for one more flannel baby blanket quilt. It is going to be blue/green colored. If I decided to hand quilt it– give me about another year. If I machine it– well give me about a year.

I did learn a few things during this quilting process:

1.  The hardest job is in the planning and cutting stage.  Don’t skrimp here.  It will pay off later!  I discovered the invention of the rotary tool after I cut this blanket.  Get a good one, it makes a world of difference

2. review a ruler and know how to stitch in a straight line. Can’t stitch in a straight line– next time do free motion!

3.  Get familiar with your iron.  I hate ironing!  This quilt has never been ironed— never.  It cost me dearly when it was time to quilt.

4.  Alway, always, always pre shrink you fabric and batting– I hope this quilt does not ruin when I go to wash it soon!!!

Depending on if the blanket will last, I may give it to Carley when she is old.

I hope you like it and let me know what you think about it.