Day Two of Competition

Kelsey did well in the preliminaries, and today is the finals. 

Sorry for the blurry pictures, the telephoto was on all the way.  This is her rope competition.

Hoop!

Ball

Ribbon!

On to the finals this afternoon.  Will get videos up tonight.

HOT - HOT - HOT

Had a fairly uneventful drive to Iowa for our first stop along the way.  We made our goal of Davenport so we could go to breakfast at The Machine Shed, where the cinnamon rolls are large enough to be split between 5 people with some to spare and the pork chops are the shape and size of Texas.  We recommend to anyone traveling to the Plains to stop and experience these restaurants.  The farm theme is seen inside and out. 

Arrived in Lincoln around 3:30 pm on Saturday.  Stepped out of the car and thought we were gonna die.  The temp was at 97 degrees and the heat index was at 115.  We are use to hot and humid in MI but this is awful.  We spent a bit of time acclimating ourselves to the city of Lincoln with only a few wrong turns and then hit the hay to prep for the begining of a busy week. 

Today we had a nice breakfast at the hotel then headed to watch Kelsey practice her routines.  She did fantastic when she couldn't see the other athletes practicing at the same time.  Watching the other participants practice gives us hope for success for Kelsey  :)  During Opening Ceremonies we were amazed by the amount of people in the arena.  47 of the 50 states are represented, including Alaska!  There were so many people shouting and clapping.  Some were even blowing horns and yet Olivia still managed to take a 45 minute nap in the middle of it!  For some reason the blogger is not allowing us to put up pictures so we'll put some on facebook and keep trying on this.

Saturday Morning Cartoons

We dropped Kelsey off at 5 pm in Grand Rapids, she hardly gave us a backwords glance. We are now in Davenport, Iowa and getting ready to hit the road again. Olivia has done well so far, we have sang, laughed, watched Hannah Montanna and done it all more than once. We are going to have breakfast at one of our favorite heading west restaurant the the Machine Shed. If you are ever in Iowa, Ill, MN or WI be sure to check this place out. It is like Cracker Barrell only for the prairie states. Need to find the camera in the trunk somewhere so I can get some pictures up here.

We're BACK....

Gosh, it has been a year since I last posted. Sorry about that! Life happens. I will be using this blog to keep everyone informed of the goings on in Lincoln, Nebraska this next week.

Kelsey qualified for the National Special Olympic Games this past year. The Michigan SO officials were allowed to take 2 contestents for Rythmic Gymnastics. They put everyone's name who had taken a gold medal in the event at the 2009 Summer Games in a hat and pulled out Kelsey & Moriah. What an honor.

Anyhoo, we are leaving this afternoon to drop Kelsey off at the Grand Rapids Airport Hilton. She will spend the night there with her coach Cornelia and Moriah and then fly by private jet in the morning to Lincoln, Nebraska. We, Mark, Nancy, Meegan, Olivia and Becky Armstrong (Kelsey's teacher) will set sail for the west after dropping her off. Wish us luck with 5 of us (one a 3 year old) in the Impala for a 686 mile trip. We plan on stopping somewhere in Iowa this evening.

Will update you all later.

Hey look Ma, I'm flying.

Last hurrah on the trampoline!!

It left the yard yesterday. We have totally redone the backyard. It now looks like some adults live in the house. Will post pictures if this rain ever stops.

Olivia and Aunt Kelsey jumping good-bye.

What happened to May & Olivia needs to learn how to spell

I know it is still May,,,but it is almost gone.  I moved my sewing room up from the basement and am in the process of trying to convince Olivia that even if my sewing stuff is in "her" room it is hands off.  She is determined to use my computer and every time my back is turned she is typing away.  She has renamed all my icons on my desktop.  At almost 3, her spelling should be much better.

Here it is over a month after the last post.  No excuses.  Have a beautiful new hardwood floors in the kitchen, family room and hall to the bedrooms.  House has been totally torn apart.  Then came March Madness with our favorite Michigan State Spartans going to the Final Four after an awesome win over Louisville.  Sorry any Cardinal fans.  Yesterday, my sister, my daughter one of her friends and I went to the outlets in Birch Run.  Still looking for drapes or side panels for the new chocolate brown master bedroom.  Neither the Restoration Hardware or Pottery Barn Outlets had anything that I wanted.  I keep leaning toward toile of some kind.  Afraid I may have to make them.  

Can't post without a picture, so here is one of Olivia looking for the ladybug inside the flower.

Peek-a-Boo Grandma

Busy, Busy, Busy

We have been refeathering the nest like crazy.  I haven't taken many pictures, YET.  Mark is in the process of painting our bedroom a chocolate brown.   We finally decided on "Sleigh Bed" from Valspar,  it is one of Martha Stewart's colors.  It looks so rich with the cream woodwork and the tan carpeting.  Our room is very small with a king size bed.  I was worried that it might be too much, but I love it.   This photo is off Valspar's site and show's the colors.  I will not be having a red bedspread.  I will post "underconstruction" pictures soon.  I am looking for fabric to make roman shades for the windows, Mark is afraid the neighbors are looking in through the sheers I have hanging now.  

Out with the Old...

No I am not talking about my hubby.  This is the fan in the family room that came with the house.   I have looked at it from the recliner for 2 years now.  And I hate it.  I have threatened to take it down and spray paint it.  Figured if I covered up the brass it wouldn't be too bad.  Maybe even paint the blades and the housing.  But I really hate the lights also.  I just don't like looking at the lightbulbs.  Mark knows my feelings and I think he shares some of the same.  Men just don't have the same type of feelings for the decor of the house as they do for snowblowers or such.

While at Menard's on Saturday looking for humidifier filters (those are important to guys), we found a fan on sale.  This fan is just what I have been coveting and it being on sale was the frosting on the cake.  Into the basket it went.  Sunday night, I asked my son the troll (he lives in the basement)  to help me put it up.  We hadn't even got one blade off the new one before Mark took over.  He had been too tired before we started.  I learned a long, long time ago how to get him onboard with any of my projects.  Just start it myself or with one of the kids, he can't stop himself from getting involved.   

Anyway,  here is the new.

 

Now I need to work on decorating the top of the TV.

PS.  Mark solved the problem regarding the decorating of the TV top.  52" high defin in time for the Super Bowl.

Now I have to work around the black monster in the corner.

Christmas Joy!

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Years.  

This Christmas was one of the most laid back one we had in years.  Mark, Josh, Kelsey and I slept in until 8:30, opened our stockings, and had breakfast. Megan, Ben and Olivia got here around 10 am and did their stockings. We puttered and did dinner prep until G and Amber and the grandkids, Trisha, Keegon, Vaughn, Gage and Bree came and then opened presents. My sister Marsha, her husband John and my nephew Tyler came next. More present opening. G and Amber and the kids had to leave for another Christmas.

Santa  did come!!

Olivia in the new dress Aunt Raija made for her.

Olivia and George!

Josh opening his stocking

Santa brought me a new hat!

Santa brought us all new hats!

Wonder if he had help from Grandma and her embroidery machine?

The grandkids checking out what is in their stockings.

Bree had already emptied hers into her new castle.

My sister and brother-in-law, nephew Tyler and his girlfriend Ashley

My Aunt Audrey and some of her clan.

Nicolas and Olivia

We could have saved a bunch if we had just given them

the empty boxes.

Around 7 pm my Aunt Audrey and my 4 cousins and their spouses and kids came over and we did a "White Elephant Auction".   Great fun.  Poor Ben ended up with the 25 year old salmon that rears it's head every year.  We are running out of ways to disguise it. 

Hope you and yours had blessed holidays and that 2009 will be your best year ever.

Deck the halls & bah humbug

I have been a bad blogger, I will get nothing for Christmas.  I waited until I had pictures to add and still did nothing.  Now, if my friends at Facebook had not turned me on to the game Wordpath, I might have posted earlier.  

Here are a few shots of the Decked Halls...

Light in family room.

Wreath from Meegan and Ben on door between living room and family room.

Living room tree, with all my breakable ornaments.  This small tree we bought for $20 the year we moved on New Year's Eve.  I decorated the tree with then baby Olivia's stuffed toys, rattles, teething rings etc.  All of our Christmas decorations were still packed in the storage unit until we bought our new house.

Family room tree decorated by Kelsey and Olivia.  All unbreakable ornaments, years of Hallmark & kid's crafts.  Kelsey put all of the ornaments on one side of the tree and Olivia put everything on the bottom 2 feet.  Mom & Grandma (me) rearranged everything after Kelsey was in bed and Olivia had gone home.

  

Dark picture of mantle in living room,  better take a do over.

Almost forgot the Bah Humbug.....

Woke up to no school!  At least 9 inches of fresh snow and more predicted.

Wish Us Luck

Tonight we are playing for the championship in our local DJ trivia.  How in the world did we end up here?  We just stopped in for a quick bite at our local bowling alley earlier this fall and they were playing trivia.  Since it was free, always important, we played along and had a fun time.  The DJ gives the question and you have the length of the next song to turn in your answer.  So, Mark and I told Meegan and her husband Ben about it and they wanted to come back the next week.  It suddenly became a Thursday night date, even our 2 year old granddaughter, Olivia came.  Our youngest Kelsey, who is nineteen and has Down Syndrome, became our "runner" turning in the questions.  Before we knew it we were in a Trivia League.  Somehow we ended up coming in second for the Thursday night league,  then finished 4th in the semi finals with another league. SO, tonight we go against the top teams from all the different places that participate in the local area.

Our mascot, Olivia with mommy and grandpa

and here's Kelsey, our runner.

P.S.     We came in 7th of 17 teams.  None of us knew the name of the guy who hosts "American Justice".  We knew who he was from the picture they showed, if we could have come up with his name we would have taken 2nd.

Procrastinator Extraordinaire

While searching for a title for this blog, many different ideas went through my head. I wanted a name that reflected my love of machine embroidery, sewing, knitting and crocheting; therefore the "needle" part was simple. My husband, Mark, the wordsmith that he is, also suggested that the word needle could be used as a noun or a verb. Is there too many commas in that last sentence? Now the hard part of the title is what kind of a needle will I be? Simple, eager, slow... my sister, Marsha and Meegan, one of my daughters came up with the procrastinator part. I wonder why?

• Is it because when I get home from work, I need to light a bomb under my rear to get out of the recliner?
• Is it because I get 3 or more books from the library every week?
• Is it because I am afraid I will miss something new and exciting on HGTV?
• Is it because my sewing room is in the basement and I'm too lazy to go downstairs, where my son, the troll dwells?

I did get the embroidery done on my swap gift this weekend. AND I did get it mailed out before the deadline. Like Martha says, "That is a good thing". Sorry, I was in such a hurry to get it mailed I didn't take any pictures. Someday I will make a list of all the projects going in the sewing room, many are years old. Maybe I should just concentrate on the one's that need to be done before Christmas. Oh well, tomorrow's another day.

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Enough said.

Happy Thanksgiving

There is a little "frost" on the pumpkin. It is a cold crisp Thanksgiving morn here in Michigan. 
  I have much to be thankful for this year; I hear Mark puttering in the kitchen, see Kelsey watching the parade, smell the turkey cooking, and feel the cool air as Meegan, Ben & Olivia arrive to share the day.  This will be the first year celebrating the holidays without my mom, but knowing she is with Jesus and is free from a body that no longer worked is another reason to be thankful.  I hope you all have a family filled thanksgiving.

My First Post

After lurking and looking at many different blogs,  I decided to jump in and test the water.  Outside the snow is blowing and any water is frozen so this first test will be very quick.