Give Away!!!!

Wow, I am way behind on my blogging but I have to tell you about a great give-away! Rachel at P.S. I quilt is giving away a $50 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop!!!! Can you believe that?! Hurry on over and sign up! You don't want to miss this!!! You will also find all kinds of neat quilts on Rachel's site!

Happy Blogging!

~Charlene

Less than 3 weeks until school starts!!!

Have you ever had those kinds of days where it moves really slow and then bam... next thing you know it's been a fast week?! Crazy!

The kids and I are trying to get back onto a school sleep schedule and its tough to do when it stays light out until 9 pm. Something tells me it's going to get easier once school does start and so do the sport and Awana schedules! (Please please please please!!!)

Lydia is already signed up for her ballet/acrobat classes and Cal has decided to do flag football this season instead of soccer. He hasn't lost interest in soccer but I think it's a smart move on his behalf to give football a try while the opportunity is available! Ty is bummed that he is too young to sign up but you can tell he is excited to hang out at Cal's practices!

We have met many of our new neighbors and the boys are excited that it's not an 'all girl' neighborhood anymore! It should be a fun year and hopefully since Chris is gone, it will be a busy year that passes at just the right tempo!

By the way, did I mention that Chris' cousin, Amanda took some photos of us?! She hasn't gotten all of them ready for me yet (she is very busy with tons of weddings this summer) but here are three of them...

Kaaren's bug bit me!

I love my blog-land pals and today I was especially excited about Kaaren's post. She has joined a Signature Block Swap and now I have too! If you like civil war era fabrics like I do and would like to do a swap then this is a must for you! Visit Melissa at Cornbread-and-beans-quilting's weblog or just click on the badge on my sidebar and follow the directions to join. This is a very easy block to make!

Awesome Give-Aways!!!

I love my quilt/craft/fabric blog friends! Sometimes you get so many neat tips and ideas and every now and then there some give-aways! Here are three for this month:

The first give away is from Just Another Hang Up. She is giving away a Butterflies & Bloom tote! It is really pretty (lots of work went into it!) and would look great on anyones shoulder this summer! You have to visit her Etsy store as well... lots of neat things to buy!

The second give away is from Candle Lite Quilter ... it's her 100th post! Hooray for her! She is giving away two charm packs (cut by her local quilt shop) and two 1/2 yard cuts from the Natures Chorus collection by April Cornell. Her blog is lots of fun to read too so be sure to spend some time visiting!

The last but not least give away is really big! Green Fairy Quilts is celebrating her 99th post by doing a huge give away to 4 lucky winners! I will leave it up to you to visit the site and see what she is giving away, she is another one who has a fun blog to read and trust me... I spend a lot of time there reading and am in awe of her quilting abilities!

So, there you have it... three fun give aways! I do want to make a special mention on behalf of Green Fairy Quilts... She and her husband have a charity that could use your support. Here is what she posted on her blog along with some links so you can learn more about what they do and hopefully support them!

Green Fairy Quilts Charity was started last year with my husband taking quilts over to Romania to people in need. We have our trip booked and are leaving September 7, 2009, only 8 weeks away, to go and give more quilts to the people there. The picture above is my stash that I have gotten ready to take, but I would love to take more quilts. If you are interested in donating some quilts, please email me at judi@greenfairyquilts.com

Please take a moment to watch our video and read about our charity.

You can verify our charity by following this 'link'

You can watch our charity video 'here'

And you can read about Clint's trip last year 'here'

4th of July and deployment

4th of July is a favorite holiday in our home. We love fireworks and the flag ... being a military family we especially love our country and the service members who serve Americas needs. This year it marked the end of an awesome year of having Chris home (first time since I have known him that he has been able to spend 365 days in a row at home every night~ we've known each other 17 years!). Chris left for Colorado Springs the next day to prepare for a deployment to Afghanistan in the middle of the month. Here are some pictures of our day and then some of the next day when we drove to the airport.

Cal and Chris took charge of the grills. Cal has the smaller one and did the dogs while Chris had the larger one and did the burgers. Cal does an awesome job at grilling the dogs (none of the kids like them charred) and is looking forward to continuing these duties when Chris is gone.

After we ate we headed to the Fort Leavenworth festivities. There were a few jumps and so the kids and I had fun going over to landing site to watch some of the jumpers come in. It was a really windy afternoon and we're very thankful that they still did the jump and were able to do it safely!

Cal had fun looking for different state flags. He found the CA flag (state of his birth and my home state) as well as the IL flag (Chris' state flag) and the KS flag (our current home). Lydia and Ty couldn't find their flags as they were born in Germany! It was especially fun to cheer for our flags as they were called out in order of when they joined the union (and yes, a cannon went off for each flag!)


Finally it was dark enough (after 9:30 pm) for the fireworks to start. The wind blew most of the rain clouds over to MO and we only had a few sprinkles at the end. The Army did a great job with all of the fireworks!



Everyone always hates it when the fireworks are over, I especially was bummed it was over because I knew we had to let Chris go the next day. After church Chris finished packing and then it was one more 'toss the football' moment with Dad and then off to the airport. Cal was in charge of pictures once we were there. Here are the photos... one of Chris with the kids and then the ones Cal took.

Ty was very sad and very quiet on the way home. We went to the evening service at church where we BBQ'd afterwards and then played softball. It was good for me and the kids to have somewhere to go and something to do instead of sitting at home. While Ty and I were in the outfield he saw an airplane fly over... I know because I heard him say 'Bye Bye Daddy!' and wave.

Flight school at our house~

Well, the Robins and the Barn Swallows are teaching their chicks to fly! It's been fun watching them do take offs and returns.

The two Robins are a little slower (of course they were born a little later as well). One flew to a higher branch when we approached the nest and then landed next to us on the grass and proceeded to hop his way to our porch, poop and then run the rest of the way through the bushes. The other Robin stayed in the nest and didn't move. There is still a blue egg in the nest and we know it's a bad one so there it sits

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The Barn Swallows are quite regal looking. Almost like mini hawks with the white line drawn from their beaks!