[ a giveaway! ]

I entered this giveaway...wish me luck!

(click on the picture to enter for yourself!)

[ twinlow ]

On Friday, I went to one of my other favorite places on earth...Twinlow! This past week was Senior High Camp, so lots of my favorite people were there as deans and leaders, so I took the opportunity to visit them! I loved getting to see them and have lunch with them in Post Falls. It made for a long day (Twinlow is about 1h 15m from Priest Lake....Post Falls is another 30m from Twinlow in the opposite direction), but it was so worth it.

I went to Twinlow as a camper, a counselor, and a dean (once!) since I was in 2nd grade...that would be 1989. I've only missed about 3 summers, I think (I've lost count now). There is something about Twinlow that makes me exhale as soon as I get out of the car. I have so many wonderful memories and experiences there and have met many lifelong friends there. It holds such a special place in my heart.

While I waited to see my friends, I sat on my favorite log (which looks like it's about to die....sad) and watched the lake...

It was wonderful. sigh...

[ priest lake, take 2 ]

I came back to Priest Lake on Tuesday (don't be jealous!) with Mr. Samdawg. Along the way, we safely drove while we took pictures...

We made it! :)

We arrived back at the house to Melissa and Jessica, Ronan, and Liam Fife! We had a fun few days that included Trent's for dinner, swimming, cards, ice cream, and movies! Yesterday (Wednesday), Bonnie Weir, Jeff, Scott, and Bonnie's sister Sandy came to visit. We had a nice afternoon chatting with them and enjoying the shade.

They left today, so I'm at the lake for a few days by myself again. Probably twenty minutes after they left, a huge cloud rolled in with thunder, lightening, and rain! Love it!!

[ quick trip home ]

I decided to run to Connell for a few days to welcome Mom & Dad home from Alaska and send them on their way to Nashville. I'm so glad I did (even with the LONG drive!).

On Monday, I received this in the mail:

YAY YAY YAY! I love it! I couldn't stop looking at it and I even brought it back to the lake where it is resting on our coffee table. I'm so excited about it! In fact, I'm at the PL Library again today to "slurp" (seriously, that's what it's called!) the first half of 2009 to make another book. I've already posted more in 2009 than I did in 2008, so I figured I'd better split it into two books. The 2008 one is 150 pages!

Monday evening, Mom and I went out to enjoy the Heider harvest time. I love harvest. Since childhood, I remember it being a time of family, laughs, and bonding. I love the history of our family and how, on my Mom's side, all 4 of my great-grandparents, were wheat farmers. There is such a rich history and longevity of wheat farming, I can't help but appreciate the hard work and perseverence it takes to raise a successful crop.

As we were enjoying being in the field and then dinnertime with the Heider, I loved remembering times around their table with these special family members for many years earlier. The only thing that's changed is that we're all older! We even got to enjoy the traditional Mud Pie!!! Even the smell took me back to childhood - a mix of dust, sweat, and wheat chaft. I'm so glad we went out there.

The Heider Farm

My uncle Mark. He probably deserves his own blog post! I love this guy so much.

[ quiet priest lake ]

Samson and I are on day #3 of our solo Priest Lake trip. It's so quiet around the house, the resort (I guess you could call it that...for lack of a better term), even around the lake, there aren't many boats or watercraft.

Yesterday, we were lazy lazy lazy. Seriously - I could barely finish a double scrapbook page spread! However, I did check one thing off my summer-want-to-do list!!

I found out about www.blurb.com - it's a place where you can upload your blog posts, format them, and publish them into a book! I've been wanting to do this for a while, but the formatting part was pretty time consuming. Well, when I got to the lake, I have nothin' but time. :) So, it took me about 9 hours (during which time, I found out that with Grandm's new DISH TV, we have Showtime...which has Big Brother After Dark!!! Happy Dance!), but I got it done!

I came up to the public library, where they have free wi-fi and I'm uploading my book to the internet, so I can order it! I'm pretty excited about it!!

Now, onto the next thing on my list...that darn rag rug.

[ 4th of July @ Priest Lake ]

Now that it's over a week since the 4th of July and I'm heading back to Priest Lake today, it's probably time to post pictures, eh?! :) Here's a photo journal of our weekend. I think the pictures speak for themselves...

[ Quilt Parade ]

You have to check out this wonderful blog of quilting goodness!

Camille and Carrie posted a challenge on their blogs a week ago. The challenge was to post a blog with pictures of your first quilt and your last quilt and tell something you learned along the way. It is so fun to see all the beautiful quilts and read the tips. It makes me so happy! (Click on the picture for Camille's blog link or click on their names for links to their respective blogs.)

Here's the link to my "My First Quilt" blog.

I also had to leave you pictures of these two wonderful quilts. They are my inspiration right now!

This one is from Allison at cluckclucksew.com. It's made from vintage flat sheets! I'm now on a quest to find some beauties like this. (The first place I'll look is the dresser at our home at Priest Lake!!)

This one is from Rachel at P.S. I Quilt. She did a pinwheel block swap and this is the result. I love it. I could look at it all day. Probably because pinwheels scare me. :)

EDIT: oops...it wasn't a block swap. Rachel posted a comment and clarified how she acquired these beautiful pinwheels:

and just so you know...this wasn't actually a pinwheel swap, this is for the virtual quilting bee group that i host.every month there is a new 'designer' and we all make blocks for that person according to the fabrics they sent us, and the kind of pattern they want.my month was march and i wanted everyone to make pinwheel blocks.

[ seattle-tacoma-olympia trip ]

We just got home from a (seems like) whirlwind trip to the WEST SIDE.

We pulled out of our driveway at 5:32am on Wednesday morning and made it to the UW Hospital in time for Mom's 9:30am CT Scan. She survived it and we headed to U Village to pick up a few things and meet my dear friend Andrea for lunch. Andrea and I were roommates for two years in college and hadn't seen each other for 3 years (we think). We met for lunch at Zao, a delicious Thai restaurant that Andrea and her Mom introduced Mom & I to years ago. I love any opportuity to dine there, but with Andrea is even better. I was so glad to catch up with her. We spent most of the time talking "educator" talk and swapping school stories. :)

We went back to UW to meet with Mom's surgeon, Dr. Mokadam, and get the results of her CT scan. We were in the waiting room longer than we met with him! He said the scan looks great and he'd like to see her again in six months! Great news!

I showed them a few of the places we worked at on our Mission Trip and took them to see the church we stayed at. We continued down 1-5 toward Tacoma, but detoured in Kent to see Kevin at his work. He works for the Seattle Thunderbirds hockey team, so he showed us around the hockey arena. It was good to see him...I'd been missing him!

We stopped at the Tacoma Mall to get Dad some birthday presents (clothes...his favorite!) and then met Tara, Janelle, Tyler, and Alex for dinner. Here's some pictures Mom took after dinner:

These guys are crazy!

Tyler is 10 (5th grade), Janelle is 14...almost 15 (9th grade), Alex is 9 (4th grade)

We then made our way to Olympia. I hadn't been there since I was 1o or 11. Dad had a meeting at the Capital this morning, so we drove around town a little bit.

My (not so) favorite...OSPI
This is where Dad spends a lot of time while he's in Olympia...

This morning, while Dad was at his meeting, Mom & I found a shopping area and played around there for a while. We picked him up and slowly (again) made our way home after stops at Cabela's in Lacey, lunch at Panera in Lacey, DQ in Cle Elum, and finally home!

Now, Mom & Dad are having a fashion show getting ready for their cruise to Alaska (they're leaving on Saturday) while I'm watching the first episode of BIG BROTHER 11. SO EXCITED!!!! I love love love Big Brother!

[ third post of the night ]

I'm off my blogging hiatus for today!! This is my third post tonight, so make sure to scroll down to check the others out. (btw - thanks Jenn Lloyd for letting me "borrow" your class reunion pics from your blog!!!)

I'm home from Priest Lake today...heading to Seattle tomorrow for Mom's dr appt (1st scan since surgery on 4.9.09)...then to Olympia for a meeting for Dad....then back to Connell...Friday grooming day for Samson and I (groomers for Samdawg, nails, pedicure, and haircut for me!)...Saturday sending off Mom & Dad on cruise to Alaska and hosting a bridal shower and hanging out with friends...Sunday is church and a BBQ with friends....Monday, back to the lake!

Hopefully, I can sneak in a visit with my dear friends the DeWulfs while they're in town from Minnesota.

Whew!

[ CHS Class of 1999 10-Year Reunion ]

So, my 10-year class reunion was a few weeks ago. I haven't posted anything about it yet because I was kind of waiting for one of my friends to send me some other pictures, since I didn't take any the whole weekend. Whoops! Well, I haven't got them yet, but I didn't want to forget to blog about it (and Jennifer's been asking!)...

We started off the weekend with a dinner at the TRAC on Friday night. There weren't a ton of people there, but it was still fun (more fun than I anticipated!). Most of the people there still live around the Connell-Basin City-Tri-Cities area, but it was fun to hang out. Seriously, why don't we do that more often?!

More people stopped by after dinner, so I think we ended up with about 25 classmates on Friday night. Three others came on Saturday that hadn't been there on Friday. We missed everyone that wasn't able to come. Hopefully, the next one will be better attended.

Saturday, we met up at the Pioneer Park Pavillon in Connell. Everyone brought their kids, so I took Samson! :) I hung out with Kutter the whole time, so life was great!!

I am glad we all were able to get together. It was great to see everyone!

Our whole group on Friday night:

The girls put together a table memorializing classmates we've lost:
Mandy Hastings, Meggin Bailie, and Alan Scheenstra

Jilayne McGary Jenks, me, Stephanie Winder Garza, Sora Stocking Smith, Libby Bailie Davis, Kelli Knight Stapleton, Lindsay Poulson Hailey, Juanita Castillo Mauss, Hannah Taylor Shaw, Jennifer Salisbury Lloyd

At the picnic: Kelli, me, Kutter, Sora, and Kaylee

At the picnic: 3 pregos and two chicas:

Jenn, Hannah, Libby, Lindsay, and Stephanie