Cotton Spice Blog

2 yr olds have their own way of making their world their own. One way is to name the people in their lives. Sometimes they are similiar to their given names, other times not!

Mike, who used to be Papa and sometimes Pop Pop, is now Pe-Pa. Me, who really never had a name is Me-Ma and I’m thrilled.
Riley is Schless-Schlah.  You figure it out, we can’t. Chris is Ris and Blair is sometimes Ris as well, but now and then he’ll call her Bear. Not too bad.

We all have colds, so we’re not doing much except blowing noses and sneezing and coughing… More later.

Karen

I have absolutely no idea who will be voted off…

The girls were better than the guys, but only Latisha shone. (She was the last one right? I get mixed up on names) So, it’s anybody’s guess - and I have none.

Karen

I have to say there is only one word to describe the show last night…. Boring. Oh so Boring! With the possible exception of Sundance, Blake and Phil - who all seem to have potential - they all sounded exactly the same. The whining boy voices singing love songs.

Oh my gosh… where are the Men? Where’s the man who’s brave enough to sing a rock song? Where’s the man who can do some blues with rhythm and feeling? Where are the men?

All I can do is hope the girls have at least a tiny bit of talent stuffed up their sleeves.

Karen

With the magazine safely at the printers, I felt like I had a few days to play. And since it was the weekend, and most people do take the weekend off from work - I thought I might too!

So, Saturday, I spent the day making my brown pants. They’ve been cut out for weeks, waiting patiently on the shelf for me to sew them up. I finally felt like the time was right!

I wasn’t real happy with the way the zipper turned out, but I always wear shirts over, not tucked in, so I didn’t worry about it too much.

I made some Clam Chowder for dinner, heated up some leftover bread and that was dinner!

Sunday, we had a time fiasco and didn’t go to church. It’s too complicated to relate here, just trust me… it was complicated. It’s what happens when I decide what time I want to get up, while still asleep.

So, I decided this was a great day to make some new pillowcases. I’m eternally irked by the packagers of Queen sheet sets. They come with Standard size pillowcases. WHY? If you have a queen size bed, don’t you also have queen size pillows?????? I managed to finish 2 pair of new pillowcases…

and….

And, then last night we made our famous White Pizza and 1 pepperoni pizza for those who don’t like our famous pizza, Mike and Shannon cleaned up and then Mike and I went to bed to watch TV and all the younger people stayed up for we don’t know how long.

No school today, but it is a work day! have a happy one! karen

I had intended to post a few days ago. With some pictures. But I think I broke Mike’s camera. We’re not exactly sure what’s wrong with it, but it ain’t workin’! Luckily, Shannon’s here now with the other camera! Ta-daaaa!!!!!

Mike and I drove to Kansas City yesterday, a lovely 3 hour drive with uninterrupted time on many fronts - time spent with my honey, time spent listening to good music, and 3 hours of knitting time! when does that ever happen?
We arrived and collected our Shannon and our Jack and drove home in the snowy night on some icy roads. But we made it and we’re here safe and sound.

I have pictures to catch up on, and I will, but not today!

I will also spend 15 minute sewing on my quilt project as I was very kindly encouraged to do so by Judy, because I confessed it was turning into more a 15 min a week quilt project.  So, I will spend 15 min today, sewing on my quilt!

Karen

I’m wondering if I should have named this ‘My 15 Minutes a Week Quilt Project’ as I haven’t had 15 minutes a day for the last few days. But I am progressing!

Next week… cutting them!
Karen

I can’t believe I’m doing this. But yesterday I cut strips for this quilt.  What am I thinking? Besides the fact that I really like the quilt, and Judy’s directions are always easy to follow… what am I thinking????? I don’t have time to make a quilt.

But I’m doing it. I think it will be more like, Quilt for 15 Minutes, but even with 15 minutes a day, it will get done.

This is one of my favorite pictures -

This was one of the first pictures we took for the magazine. Being new to this whole business, it was quite a process. We had to take the pictures several times.

Jack loved it, Grandpa… not so much!

It was a spring day, and it wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t really warm either. It wasn’t a ’sprinkler’ day. Jack didn’t care, he loved to play in the water no matter what. He’d be shivering with goose bumps and blue lips and still not want to come inside.

What we wanted, was a picture of Jack playing in the sprinkler and then coming to Grandpa who was holding the quilt, which he’d wrap him up in. A wet little boy in a warm quilt with a Grandpa.

Well, Jack didn’t want to go to Grandpa, he wanted to play in the sprinkler! Mike was trying to get Jack to come to him, without actually getting into the sprinkler himself! Well, we got some cute pictures, but not the one we wanted.

So, Mike, being the man he is, the Grandpa he is… bit the bullet and went into the sprinkler! At the very moment the picture was taken, he got Jack in the quilt and the sprinkler sent a spray right up his shorts, which accounts for the look of surprise of his face!

But, we got the shot and we all got to come in and get warm. Well, Jack still wanted to play out there, but his lips were getting blue and we thought he should come inside and get warm. And since we’re bigger than he is, we won.

In the process we got some cute pictures of Jack which we had to include. Well.. we did have to!

A house can only go so long without demanding the ‘C’ word. When the dust bunnies develop fangs, and the ones living atop the ceiling fan grow claws that reach out and snatch the carrots out of our salad… it’s time to bring out the big guns.

The Pledge, the SOS pads, the Future Floor Wax, the Blue Window Cleaner and extra paper towels. Scrub brushes and sponges, more trash bags to clean up the clutter and the debris.

Kind of sounds like we’ve been living in a dump! Well, it’s not quite that bad. But it was time to clean, and clean GOOD! With proper care and maintenance this should last a good 3 months or so. And then it will be time to do it again.

I thought we’d put away all the Christmas decorations. Not so! Found a few. But we’ve already put away all the big Christmas storage boxes, so they may live with us out in the open for about 10 months.

And Yes, I know today is Super Bowl. But that’s nothing compared to the fact that today is Our 2nd Anniversary! 2 years of marriage to a truly wonderful man. We have that marriage that I always dreamed about, that I wondered if it even existed. Well, it does. And I have it. In the 2 years we’ve been married, we’ve never had a fight. Not even an argument. Doesn’t mean we always agree with each other, but it does mean we respect each other enough to listen and talk out the issues at hand. I have to say, I LOVE not fighting. It’s lovely, it’s peaceful, it’s endearing, it’s the true meaning of Jesus command to us to ‘consider each other as more important than your yourself’ (my very loose interpretation) and I can tell you that it makes for a Very Good Relationship.

So, last night we went to dinner at our favorite restaurant to celebrate. It went really well and we were having a great time until I got sick. Just out of the blue - as soon as our dinner was set before us, I got all hot and cold and knew I was going to share what I’d already eaten. I had to get out of there, quick! I went outside, which was very cold - about 10 degrees - and took some big gulps of freezing air… and started to feel better. We got our dinner ‘to go’ and went home. And then I felt fine. Had some really good lunch today!
Well, back to cleaning. I’ll be back to work tomorrow, nose to the grindstone!

karen