Unexpected Blessings

Two good things happened yesterday that were quite unexpected. First, a cordless phone that Finn had thrown in the pool last Friday and hadn't worked since then began suddenly working again.

Second, Callie the Cat had been missing since Saturday. We scoured the neighborhood looking for her, made posters and put them up around the neighborhood. Yesterday afternoon I received a call from a lady saying she believed she had our cat. She brought her over and indeed it was Callie. She had followed some ladies who were jogging and made it to the other side of the neighborhood where she wandered around until this lady took her in to be with her other cats. She was very sad to hand her over to me, was crying and had renamed her "Puppet". I didn't not ask this woman if it ever occured to her that this was someone else's cat that they were missing, I just thanked her for returning her.

Callie is back home and being loved and squeezed whether she wants to or not. As well as lying in wait for me to leave my laptop so she can lay on the keyboard and refuse to get up. We honestly didn't think we would ever see her again but God is good and brought her home.

Some Finished Quilt Blocks

I finished some quilt blocks, there are 14 in all. That's about all I've accomplished.

Family Beach Day

Saturday we went to Villano Beach. The water temp was perfect not freezing but cool enough to be refreshing. There were enough waves to have fun in them but no so rough that Finn & Rylin couldn't go in. We got there about 11:30am and left around 4pm it was a pretty fun day and it's great that Finn is old enough now that we can all go to the beach without too much hassle. After two years of sitting home. We invested in a dining canopy that can be set up easily on the beach to provide some shade which makes it much more enjoyable to be able to get out of the sun whenever you wish.

Reunion Trip

Last Friday Frankie, Rylin and myself took a trip up to Canton, Georgia to visit my friend and sister of my heart if not by blood. This was our first opportunity to spend any length of time together as adults, wives and mothers. Our conversation differed from what it used to be as girls as a lot of the things we wondered about as girls we now have the answers too. It was wonderful to sit by the pool and knit and watch our children play together our ideal when we were younger was that we would live near each other and watch our kids play, we are not near each other but as it turns out we will never be too far away.

Animals and Aliens

Here is a turtle the visited us in our yard. This is the second one we've seen in the neighborhood since we've lived here.


Then there is Rylin and Finn playing war.
































And where do roosters go during thunderstorms? In the grill of course!

A Birthday.

Here are pictures from my 30th birthday. Bob took us all to The Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was quite delicious. He also made me a brownie and cream cheese frosting cake.

I spent the day with my children and my friend Cindy Minota. We had a swim, did a tiny bit of sewing and broke up fights between the children. Some things never change.

Everyday Doings pt. 2 - Projects

Here are some things I've been working on or thinking about working on.

I picked up a Double Wedding Ring Quilt kit with the acrylic templates. I also purchased the fabric the black will be the backsround, the batik will be the rings and the yellow & green will be the little squares where the rings meet.





Here is the tote I've been knitting for a thousand years. The knit side is the wrong side. The purl side is the right side. In the end I will felt it and have a beautiful bag. In theory.




























Here is some messing about I did with my embroidery machine. I am planning a Disney Cars quilt for Rylin's birthday, he has been pestering me quite a while for a new "blanks".

Everyday Doings Family

The new 'pool boy' started his job.






















Finn rode a horsey.

















Until the horsey refused to get up anymore.
The horse wouldn't give me a ride, in fact when I got on he screamed, "Get off! Get off!" I won't be giving that horse any oats.

Child Labor

When I came back from a quick run to the store this is what I found. Bob had the little ones washing his bike. I can't even get them to flush the toilet...

OOOPS!

When I looked at my blog a little while ago I realized some of the pictures I had put on here from the church picnic and 4th of July weren't there. Blogger kept giving me some kind of error so it may have something to do with that anyway here they are.


Awesome sky.






Some of the ladies.











Finn eating watermelon again.



Rylin enjoying some as well.



Bob and Finn and a pretty pregnant Leslie.

The Wandtke Family 4th Of July

It's been a long weekend for sure. Jacob flew in Friday, wearing a mohawk. Bob swiftly removed it Saturday before my friend Barbara's BBQ.







Friday night we watched Bob's Big Firework Show, some of the fireworks are pictured on the truck behind him. (I think we've been in the deep south too long, Bob never wears a shirt anymore) We oohed and aaahed appropriately and I even set some off.

We picked up some citronella tiki torches to keep the 'skeetos' away during the fireworks show. The kids thought they were very neat and I had to keep a pretty good eye on them so they didn't get all "Lord of the Flies" with them.
















We were all pretty tired at this point as we had spent the majority of the day in the pool and ate ribs, cheeseburgers, sausage and macaroni salad until we were about burst. We actually made it a pretty early night. It was a nice family long weekend, Saturday evening we went to a barbecue down the road for a friend's birthday and Sunday was the church picnic. I think we could all use a weekend to rest from the long weekend.

Annual Church Picnic

Sunday after the morning service we went to the annual church picnic in the pavilions at a park close by.

There was losts of yummy food and Finn enjoyed some watermelon.









If you notice the picture of me it is a definite oddity. #1 I'm sitting. #2 None of my children are near by. The picnic was definately enjoyable.
















Then I took a picture displaying the Baptist male physique. Left to right: Jacob, Bob the husband &Finn, Bob Patterson, Pastor Troy Grant, Assoc. Pastor Jason Weathersby and Andy Barker. We always joke that whenever us Baptists get together there's food involved... these men indicate that it is true.












Finn ate him some more watermelon like a true southern child. A good time was had by all and around 3 pm when the last of us were leaving a huge thunderstorm moved in that lasted about 3 hours. That shows God's perfect timing.

4th of July funnies

Have you ever heard about how animals and their owners tend to take after each other? Finn and Callie are definitely a good example of that.















I found her lying there sleeping with one of Finn's blankies. The blanket was eventually repossessed by the owner and the cat was left blanketless.









Rylin chased Peeker the chicken and she flew into pool onto a floatie we watched her float around until she got near the side and we got her out. Of course, I had to run for the camera because that was just too good to pass up.






















Then there is this a... situation you can have a laugh about at my expense as it's the Fourth of July and therefore a holiday I will gift this to you.

Apparently, I have been in denial about something for some time sort of like the time I came home from having a sonogram found out that I was going to receive a boy at the end of it all and continued in spite of this knowledge to knit a pink afghan. Like if I refused to accept this fact it therefore wouldn't be true.

Well, remember how my hen wasn't laying eggs? Well, it's all been explained because Peeker turned into a rooster. I have sort of been forced out of my denial when around 6:30am every morning I hear a screeching, "COCKA DOODLE DOO!" The first time he did it I was sitting out back at the table and just looked up at him and said,"No." Yeah, like that's gonna fix it.

He isn't terribly loud (this might again be part of that denial thing) and I like him, I think his ways are pretty cool. Like the way he walks up while I'm sitting out back reading, looks around (checking for wee folk most likely) says to me, "Ba Bach!" Which I think is poultry for "hello Jess" and then eats Gizmo's dog food. Unless of course, there is no dog food and then the conversation is extended where in the chicken yells at me until I go and get dog food for the bowl. (Someone is training someone here, huh?) And it's pretty neat that when the kids come outside he hangs out before fleeing in terror to check for the possibility that they're bringing him bread pieces. But in spite of his cool persona, he will never, ever, not in a million years, lay me an egg. Anyone up for a chicken barbecue??