Crochet Me Crazy

It was a face paced trip to Houston. We didn't get into town until the wee morning hours Wednesday. We went to bed and spent Wednesday doing a lot of running around. Michael had his eye appointment which took quite a long time. The good news is that his eyes had changed but not a lot the doctor said. That is great news because they usually change every year and we haven't seen the eye doctor in 2 years. We asked about contacts for Michael to swim in. They were going to do the fitting if we wanted to but after talking money, we decided contacts are not in the near future. It was hard to fit in all the things we wanted to get done plus make sure Alison got to see her old friends and say hi to all our old neighbors. Thursday, we checked in at the stables and it looked like we weren't going to have to be back so we made plans to stay until Saturday. Jeff decided to order some tires for the truck which we really needed to get taken care of. I called my sister and asked her if she wanted us to come visit her Friday night. That was all in motion when we got a call Friday from the stables saying we needed to come back. I called my sister to tell her and found out she had taken a half a day of vacation because we were coming. I felt very bad! Alison was pretty sad to leave early after she thought she had another day. It took everyone a little while to get used to the idea of going home Friday. I dreaded leaving so late and getting in late again but we had to wait for them to put the tires on the truck. So...we got in late last night. It was almost midnight. We went straight to bed and got up and went to the stables. Jeff got Michael to go in early this morning to feed the horses and let Alison sleep. We were all pretty tired because we didn't get a whole lot of sleep in Houston. All the commotion and visiting plus being in a strange place affected our sleep. Anyway, it wasn't an extremely busy day at the stables today...we had about 14 riders. We're home and back to our normal life. I'm about to sit down and make the grocery list so we can go grocery shopping tomorrow. There is no food in the house. We had BLT's for dinner.

Now, I'm asking for a little help from you guys. I'm going to have to change the way I cook and come up with some new ideas for food this summer. Sometimes eating at the stables can be quite a task if we are busy. I need some recipe or food ideas for easily transportable things...cold foods preferably. We have a refrigerator and I need foods that don't require preparation. Even sandwiches don't work. I usually bring tuna, potato salad, chicken salad, boiled eggs but that is going to get old when we start working 7 days a week. If you have any good recipes or portable picnic food ideas, please email them to me at summerysmile@yahoo.com I get bored and can't eat the same thing every day! HELP!

We're going out of town for a few days. We're leaving tomorrow night after Alison's dance class to drive to Houston. Michael needs to have his eyes examined and he has a trusted eye doctor there. I haven't found a doctor here yet and I can't afford from someone not to get his prescription right. He has special needs with his eyes so we decided to just go ahead and make the trip. Of course, Alison is very excited to see her old friends! We may come back before the weekend, depending on what's going on at the stables this weekend. If it's not busy, we may stay through the weekend....we'll see.

Anyway, have a great week everyone!!

We colored eggs at the stables today.




I looked tired because those darn neighbors were at it again last night. I can't believe they actually brought their own "stripper pole"...yes, you read that right. Anyway, thank God they all left today so it's back to reasonable peace and quiet around here.

Here's a picture of Alison's surprise!



A mug with pictures of her and Princess all over it. We only have 3 coffee mugs and she was wanting one to drink out of when she wants coffee on the early mornings so I knew she would love this

Here's the next snowflake....

Our neighbor's kept us awake half the night last night so I woke up tired this morning. They were carrying on and yelling until late in the night. Poor Alison had a harder time waking up early to feed horses. I don't have to get up quite as early as Jeff & Alison do. We had a busy day at the stables today. I'm beat tonight. The neighbors don't seem as rowdy tonight so I'm hoping tonight will be better. We have rides again tomorrow but we're not starting as early. I'm boiling eggs right now to take to the stables. We're going to dye eggs up there unless a slew of people show up or something. My kids are getting big and they aren't getting much of an Easter basket this year. I did get Alison a special present she is going to LOVE. I can't wait to give it to her! I had a free online coupon for it and I ordered it online. I won't give it away yet in case she reads my blog...will post pictures tomorrow!

The peace and tranquility of our RV park has been destroyed. A whole caravan of travel trailers moved in yesterday. One minute it as peaceful and quiet, the next time I looked outside, the hole section around us has been taking over by a big group and they all have motorcycles! I just decided I don't like motorcycles. They are too stinking loud! Geez! Quite an unfriendly group as well. If you wave in greeting, they just stare at you. Well, with the bad comes the good...we had some horse rides today because the people are coming in for the holiday weekend. Tonight, these people are particularly rowdy and obnoxious. Lots of drinking going on. It's very comforting to know that they started drinking the second they pulled in and then after hours of drinking decided to get on their bikes and go for a ride to the town beer joint. It's no wonder we have so many motorcyclist killed here every summer.

Jeff just left to go pick the kids up from youth service. They had dinner and a movie tonight. They watched The Passion of the Christ. I'm sitting outside and am about to go in and go to bed because we have to get up early for horse rides tomorrow.

May you all have a blessed Easter weekend!

My computer was doing something funny all day yesterday and I couldn't use it and we didn't have cell phone service all day either. I STILL don't have cell phone today! The cell phone tower is supposedly down or something.

So anyway, I got one snowflake starched.



I have some more pinned and ready to starch...

I've made 4 or 5 snowflakes but haven't gotten around to starching them yet so ... no pictures. I'm into the thread crochet right now so thought of starting a doily but don't have a pattern. I have some on my hard drive but I can't print them out because my printer broke. So in the meantime, I've been working on my scrap blanket. We went over to our storage this past weekend to get some stuff out and organize a bit. While we were there, I found some of my scrap yarn balls. I brought those home to add to my blanket.

So these scraps

are turning into this rectangular granny blanket.


I brought it to dance tonight to weave in ends while I was waiting. I got lots of compliments on it. I was a little embarrassed to bring it because I figured it was too a little too"scrappy" for most people's taste.

Well, we had a lot of fun catching up with my high school friends that came to visit. Jeff grilled fajitas at their cabin Wednesday night when they got in. Then we came over to our RV and lit a campfire and talked.

Thursday, we went on a trail ride and messed around up at the stables for a bit.




Then, we went on a hike in the state park.




They came with me to watch Alison dance in ballet class and then Jeff had hamburgers ready for us when we got home. Sent the rest of the night visiting. We had such a fun time and it was great seeing old friends!

Since we were at the stables most of the day yesterday, we didn't get to make it to the grocery store so we spent the stay in town shopping for groceries and running errands today. We had to rush back home just in the nick of time for Alison to get dressed for dance and then her and I left again. Lucky for me, that means Jeff had to put up the groceries! (Ha, Ha...not my favorite thing) Jeff cooked some chicken on the grill while we were gone so we just got finished eating dinner and I'm just now settling down to check my computer stuff.

I had an idea of getting one of those cheap styrofoam ice chests and using the lid or even the side of it to block my snowflakes on. I will need to pin them onto something until they dry. I did buy my liquid starch today but I didn't find a styrofoam chest. Walmart was out of the cheap ones...figures. They are always out of everything. I hate Wal-Mart, by the way. I avoid it as much as possible. I wonder why they have 40 registers but never more than 3 open? What's the point of taking up all that space? Anyway...

Anyway, the news at the stables is that they aren't keeping "Tex". Too bad....I really liked that horse. I hate to see him go but they don't want anymore horses they can't use on the trail to feed. He's been used as a roping horse so it would take time to get him slowed down enough to be a trail horse. The ferrier is coming to get him tomorrow. He is going to sell him for them. They are also selling another horse that was pastured at another ranch. He used to be a trail horse until he figured out that he could try to wipe the tourists on his back off onto trees so they retired him. He was pastured with another horse named Maria. They brought her back to the ranch because she can't be left alone. Well, she is Princess's (Alison's horse) mother. I haven't gotten to meet her yet but I saw her out in the pasture this evening when I stopped by so Alison could say hello to Princess. Maria is a bit of a celebrity. She was in the Brooks & Dunn music video for the song "My Maria"...hence, her name was changed from Lady to Maria.

Anyway, we have a very busy week ahead of us this week! My two high school friends are coming to the area this Wednesday! We're going to hang out with them at their cabin Wednesday night and then, Thursday, we are taking them on a trail ride. They will leave on Friday. Should be a fun week!

Not an extremely busy day riding today but everyone was buzzing around getting other stuff done. We got there today only to discover that they got another new horse yesterday! Some man came by yesterday with the horse and said if they didn't take him, he was going to shoot him. He couldn't afford to feed him anymore and he wasn't going to spend the money to take him to auction. Okay....so....they have another horse now! He is a roping horse and looks to be in great shape. He is super sweet and beautiful. It's hard to imagine someone was going to put such a great horse down!

His name is Tex....isn't he is just gorgeous? I just love him!



We got Little Boy, one of the miniature horses out today and brushed him down, let him graze and spoiled him with apples today. He is such a little sweetie.



He wants another apple...isn' he cute? :)



We tried to catch the other miniature horse, Cricket, but he wouldn't let us catch him. He's scared. I guess we need to work on him a little bit.



They have such great horses. We are very fortunate to have gotten to know them all. I just love each and every one of them so much!

We have to start figuring out where we are going to move to. The last month we can stay in this park is May.

I started making snowflakes yesterday. I have one done and working on the 2nd one. My finished one looked pretty puny right now though because it needs to be starched and blocked so I didn't take a picture. I'm not too sure how I'm going to do that as of now. I had better space and facilities when I made them when I had my house. I used to have this nice piece of styrofoam I used to block them on but I think my son has since confiscated that.

Well, this afternoon/evening the kids did a Pancake Supper for donations at the church for a youth fundraiser. They seated and severed people and cooked and cleaned! We went over there for dinner. When we picked them up tonight, Alison said she never wanted to cook sausage again! LOL! It was a big success though. I bet all 300 people in that little town came and had dinner there tonight. They made over $900! These little towns really support their young people. It probably would have been the same no matter which church was doing it.

Well, tomorrow we work at the stables. Alison is happy, happy, happy...she's been having Princess withdrawals so tomorrow will an entire day of bliss with Princess for her!

Have a good weekend ya'll!

Well, I made this little purse as a quickie until I figure out what I want to work on next. This is such a cute little pattern. I will definately be visiting this pattern again. It has such a nice shape. Next time, I believe I will leave off the handles and sew a zipper in it to make it a cosmetic bag.



This is a free pattern I found. Click HERE for the link to the free pattern

I think I want to make some snowflakes but I have to get some thead out of storage.

I finished my fish bag last night!



Now, what to do, what to do.....

Not a good day today. Jeff's truck broke down and he called me to come pick him up. I had borrowed a Surburban from a friend to tow him back but luckily, I didn't end up having to do it. Jeff got a friend to tow him back. Now, the truck is starting but we are going to have to get it fixed soon. I really hope this isn't too expensive.

Spent the day in town shopping yesterday on a long overdue trip to get groceries. We made some extra stops. We've been looking for a bathing suit for Alison but no luck so far. She's been swimming in her shorts because she's grown and last year's suit isn't working for her activity. She wants something modest but finding something like that in her size is proving to be challenging. It's looking like we may have to plan a trip to San Antonio before summer. Michael got a long overdue hair cut! He doesn't like hair cuts but he was actually asking for one this time. Now that he has started swimming, it's getting in his way. Now he says he feels like he going into the Army! LOL!

This morning we got up and went to church and then went by to see our old neighbors who moved to a different RV Park down the road It's a very nice place over there. It's actually the same place that my friends that are coming to visit in a short time will be staying in a cabin. We came home and the kids went swimming at the river. It's HOT today! We sat around and watched the humming birds for a little while.






Jeff spotted this bird in the trees. I'm not sure what kind of bird it is. It doesn't look like a Cardinal to me.


I'm sleepy and feel like taking a nap but I will resist. Thinking of walking down to the river in a minute to see what the kids are up to. It's a lazy day today.

I am resisting crocheting some eyes for my fish bag I'm forcing myself to finish. It's cute but I'm just not into it. I need to finish it now though or I never will. I'm so close so I will crochet those eyes tonight so I can move on.

Looks like its a lazy dinner tonight......chili dogs! That's so healthy for us, I know.

I was just sitting outside on my laptop earlier today catching up on a few things. Maybe because its such a beautiful day...the breeze is blowing, birds are chirping...also, more good neighbors and friends left today. I see my other neighbors getting ready to leave in the next few days. I went and visited with some dear people we met last year here that are getting ready to leave in the next few days. It means a change in season which means a big change in season for our lives coming soon. It means we'll need to leave soon too. We've really been blessed to have the experiences we've had this winter. We need to start thinking about where we are going to go this summer. Will we need to go back to the state park again? Should we go ahead and go now so we can be sure and get a good spot? I'm not too sure I'm ready yet. Anyway, I guess it will work itself out in good time.

Well, here's that last hat I finished....



I'm thinking about making some thread crochet snowflakes next....I don't know though. I could change my mind.

Well, we were holding out to go to the grocery store today but Jeff got home too late from finishing up a cabinet job he was working on. We were really out of food so Jeff went and picked up pizza and we rented the move "Secretariat" and went over to the game room and watched it. What an awesome movie...and what an amazing horse!