Colorado Vacation

What a great week away from home, away from the computer and time spent with family. It was my parent's 45th wedding aniversary this summer and a great time to celebrate. Everyone was there except my husband and daughter. He had to work and she had tennis. She is going to play on the high school team and had practice and a tournament, which she won.

Lots of driving. I saw where our tax dollars are going, that's for sure. 100,000 orange cones all along I-80 and I-70 and every other road from here to Colorado and it also paid for 4 workers, 3 of which stood and watched the other guy actually doing something. On the way home, I got so sick of seeing the 'cone zones' that I would actually cheer when another one came in sight! I was hoping to see the elusive worker. There were plenty of buldozers sitting on the side of the road. I was traveling during the middle of the week, so maybe they take Thursdays off?

I got some quilting done while on vacation too. My mom and I took a day and went quilt shop hopping, hitting two quilt shops in the Denver area. At the first quilt shop, I picked up a DVD on feather quilting and we watched part of it while there. Then, my mom put together a quick stripie quilt so we could practice on our feathers. I did three rows of feathers on the quilt and left the other three rows for her to finish up. I got a little fabric too for a surprise quilt I'm going to make for my mom.

I also picked up 8 quilts from my mom for the kids in Kazakhstan. She has been busy this past year working on cleaning up her scraps and turning them into something useful.

She has the same sewing machine that I do and I learned a couple of things about the sewing machine from her. She is able to use any type of thread on her machine, mine is really fickle and I can only use three different types of thread. We both have the Janome 1600DB P. I can only use Signature, King Tut and YLI. The difference is she goes the middle speed (bunny) and I go full speed ahead (jackrabbit). When I tried to speed up her machine, the thread kept breaking too. She also uses a size 14 needle and I use an 18. Same idea. Speed of machine. Slow down and you can use a wider variety of threads and needles. For me, I have a need for speed. 20 minutes to quilt a top :)

When I got home, my friend had brought over 25 quilt tops that she had finished up this week, so I have a big backlog of quilting to catch up with. That makes me happy. I will have plenty to work on when school gets started and a great way to destress after a long day of talking and talking and talking.

I'm a bit in panic mode before school starts for me on Tuesday. The kids come back on Thursday so there are lots of things to prepare before then. I always feel like I have to get everything done before the first day, but never get it all done and the world has not come to an end just yet. This year will be very different. We have a new principal, much bigger class sizes and smaller staff. We have teachers who were laid off and teachers who have come up from the middle school and elementary school to teach at the high school who don't want to be there. It is going to be an exciting year to say the least.

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.