Prom 2011

Briana and her date, Alex Vaughn.

Briana's dress was so beautiful! The earrings were make by a Portland jeweler. Again, I cannot make this picture go upright. Grrrr!


Silly picture of the two kids!


Briana and good friend Malinda Allie



These three met up with seven other kids at the Rhinelander German Restaurant. After that they went on to the Oregon Zoo (go figure) for an evening of dancing. Afterwards, they all went for ice cream. Briana was home by one a.m. They had a great time! The only downside to this whole evening was that both Briana and Alex had to be at Mass at 8:45 to take pledges for the New Orleans Service Project trip. Oh, well!!

Vintage Store Find of the Season

LOOK what I found at a little shop on the coast for just 3 dollars!

Crafty Spring Projects and Quilts

Here's the little scrappy quilt that I mentioned earlier.



Instead of giving it to Granny, I gave it to Shammy (Shamu). He loves it!!



This next Project is a cute little chair that I found at Good Will. I cleaned it up and painted it white. Briana and Alex painted the circles.


I also made a little companion quilt out of a vintage top I found at a G Sale a few years ago.


I believe, if they come, I will give this to Chloe, Jim and Jessi's daughter at Easter. (That would be Bob's granddaughter)

Briana's 18th Birthday Party

On Briana's birthday, we had a massive Bingo Game. About 25 people came and lottery tickets, candy bars and sombreros were the prizes. It was most obnoxious; just the way we like it!!


Don and Kendall we so silly together!



Cole and Kendall helped Don call the numbers.



Briana blew out so many candles, she needed Granny's nebulizer!!
Fun Day for all!!

New Couch and Love Seat - sorta!

I finally took pictures of our recently recovered couch and love seat. The pillow are made from Pendleton Wool.
They are still the MOST comfortable couches ever, and there is no dog vomit or cat shreds on the arms. The base fabric is a tough micro fiber and the interior wood is solid hickory. I have a feeling the couches will live longer than the rest of us!!

First Official Day of Spring Break

And this is what it looks like!!


All three of us are home for the whole week. It's raining and cold, but there is hope. Briana's 18th birthday party is Sunday. PIZZA and BINGO!! You are all invited!!

I finished a rather over sized baby quilt for my friend Michelle. I know it doesn't look very baby-ish, but I was thinking that a quilt should not only be utilitarian but versatile as well. This picture shows much brighter blues than it really is - a deep cerulean blue border with five inch squares.


I have four more finished quilt tops in the queue and will be posting them as they are completed. Right now I am working on this sweet little scrappy quilt I think Momma would like for Mother's Day. We'll see.

Okay, so I am posting a picture of a deer that lives in our neighborhood. It doesn't look like any of the white tails that we have around here. It is over a year old but is very small, and his head is odd. I call him our donkey deer because he has the coloring and body of a skinny burro. The Adamses up the street say that the other deer chase him away whenever they see him. He's pitiful and an orphan, but I can get within ten feet of him before he cautiously slinks away. Don feeds him - naturally!

What do you think he is?

Well, I'm back to my machine for a little creative quilting!!
Dottie

I'm back!!

Wow!! For some reason I could not log in to Blogger, but I found a back door, so I'm BACK!!!!

Several things
3/15 - Ides of March
DDHS started laying off teachers
I'm in the middle of testing - - High Stakes, that is!!
The fourth reactor went up in smoke.

3/14 - Pi Day
Began testing with my students
Folded 10 loads of laundry
3rd reactor at the Fukushima Nuclear power plant in Japan let off some steam

3/13 - Sunday
Can't wait to be a li'l old church lady
Set my clocks
made a great meat loaf
Nervous about the Nuclear power plant in Japan
Briana got home from Idaho at 2:30 a.m.
Posted 6 weeks grades

3/12 - Saturday
We got our taxes done and we OWE way too much
Very dark and rainy day
Pictures from Japan's Tsunami and earthquake are CRAZY scary

3/11 - teacher work day
Giant earthquake in Japan followed by a tsunami
Michelle's shower at 12
Bagels and coffee for staff
graded like 300 assignments
cheese pizza
Found a tax lady

3/10
Picked up cupcakes - - so cute
taught all day
Finished Michelle's quilt
Watched Bones

3/9 - Ash Wednesday
Unfortunate bystander at a food fight at DDHS - - I had to borrow clothes to get through the rest of the day
Snowflake said her final farewell to us all. She was 19 years old.
Mass at St. Henry's.

CHA CHA CHA - cue the music!

I am happy to announce that at this very moment I have finished entering and posting all of semester one's grades. I am at ZERO status as far as papers to grade!!
In the last three days, I have scored 177 hand written essays. Yup!! I'm that good!!

CHA CHA CHA!!!!

Dot

Poem

My parasitic twin is on the inside.
Her limbs are within mine.
Brain, spleen, heart, lungs,
all inside me.
I'll call her Baby.
Baby feeds on me.
She consumes my oxygen, devours my energy.
When I work she gets so tired I must rest.
When I am sad Baby gets a headache.
She doesn't like it when I am pissed or frustrated,
and she lets me know it.
We don't have the same inclinations as other twins often have.
Baby wants to go to strange places and do and see weird things;
I want to read a book, write, quilt.

Baby is restless.
She wakes me in the night and reminds me of all the bad decisions,
useless fears, stupid embarrassing moments that have happened in my life.
She chides me, throwing in my face all that is imperfect about me.
Baby would have done things differently.
No regrets, oh, no, she would have been proud of that or this.
She'd be somewhere exotic!

Once, I considered having her removed, but the surgery sounded too risky.
One of us might not make it. She didn't care.
Secretly, Baby hoped that I'd be the one to perish.
I fixed her; I opted to keep her
Trapped in me
Forever
Who's in charge now?

Dottie 2011

Okay, so I am not crazy nor am I suffering multiple personalities. I just saw this TLC special about a boy with a parasitic twin. That opened up so many possibilities and weird situations that I couldn't stop thinking about it. This is what came of all that obsessive imagining!!
Enjoy!!

Today is January 6, 2011

2011 is such a big year for so many people. Briana is graduating from high school and going off to college. Don is retiring. Lots of my friends are having babies. BIG STUFF!!

I think this year I'll push myself a little to explore some writing. Mom has inspired me with her sweet, sweet little book.

Thanks, Mom!!
I LOVE your style!!

Dottie