I was rereading the Constitution of the United States, and amazingly did not find that the government was to be run by either the Republican or Democrat parties, or by any political parties at all. I propose that once elected to a public office the political party of that elected official become unimportant or invalid. To continue to delineate elected officials by a particular party puts too much power in special interest groups instead of in the several states and the populace who elected them. In other words the media and press should stop emphasizing what political party people are in. Maybe then the officials could actually do the jobs they were elected to do!!!!!! We did not elect the Democrat Party as president. President Obama was elected, whether we voted for him or not. So stop calling him a Democrat President. According to the constitution he is "President". The same goes for the members of congress. Lets return to WE THE PEOPLE, not to political parties ruling this country!!!!

I have been working on my scrapbooking of the last trip we took to visit family.  So I need to post these updates.  This part is of the trip from New Jersey to Norfolk to visit Leah and family.

We traveled south from Cami's and stopped in Princeton, New Jersey.  This was a beautiful place to stop.

It is fun to remember this fun trip.  It will be neat to complete the memories, but that will take another day.

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to teach the lesson in RS at Williamsburg.  It is always fun to teach those sisters.  They respond so well and are so nice.  I used the talk by Elder Tad R. Callister that was printed in the BYU magazine.  It is entitled our Identity and our Destiny.  It is an excellent talk about recognizing that we are literal sons and daughters of God and that we can grasp a vision of our divine destiny.
We can do our family genealogy and go back many generations and find many interesting people in our lineage.  But our spiritual lineage only goes back one generation to our Heavenly Father.  That thought really impressed me, and made me really think.

Christmas Project

This Christmas I worked on some fun projects.  A couple were service projects as part of the family project to help others this Christmas.  We replaced all of the hymn books in the Cache 1st branch.  A lot of them were really falling apart and most had been donated from other wards a long time ago.  It was fun to see the smiles as the members of the branch got to use new books.

The next project was making blankets for the Emergency Department at the hospital.  

We donated 24 blankets.  I hope this will help when kids need a blanket to keep them warm.  Sometimes they come in with no blanket, sometimes their blanket gets soiled.  It is fun to see the smiles when they get a new blanket.  The moms always are grateful.

The other large project was making quilts for my kids for their presents.  I hope they enjoy them as much as I enjoyed making them.  While working on each quilt I spent hours thinking about memories of that child and their families.  It was good for me!!!!

Quilt for Mike and Laurette

This was fun, because I quilted each section separately each block is quilted differently from the others and then put them together using a rag quilt method.  The back of each square is beige, light yellow or lavender.  I used purple flannel for the batting so it would fringe nicely.

Quilt for Leah and James

 This Quilt was made with strips that were sewn into blocks and then each seam was machine embroidered to give it added depth and detail.  There are ants, shells, boats and other fun designs.  It is quilted in fairly straight lines with swirls for the sky, waves for the water and bubbles for the sand.

Quilt for Tovi and Miki

This quilt is regular patchwork and log cabin patch squares set on the diagonal.  It almost has a
three dimensional look.  It was fun finding all of the different colors for the blocks.  The back is brown with white spots.  I quilted this using the pattern from one of the pieces of material with a swirling flower design.

Quilt for Cami and Brian

 This was actually the first quilt I started on and one of the last to finish.  I used strips for the outside border and square blocks for the center.  The inside center section is set on the diagonal and then I crocheted a long chain with navy yarn to make the celtic knot.  The design is one long string added after the quilt top was pieced.  I quilted each block with kind of a leaf/celtic design.  The back has kind of a swirly pattern material in the center.

Quilt for Jon and Holly

This quilt was a real challenge.  I am glad it turned out looking like a bookcase.  Each section of books was sewn on and then a book name was machine embroidered on the spine of each book.  I quilted this one with the leaf pattern in the border fabric.  The back is dark brown.

Happy New Year 2013

Amazingly another year has zipped past.  I am amazed constantly at the speed that time flies.  I also am very disappointed in myself for not keeping up on my blog postings.  I assume that others will eventually ignore me!

I opened a fortune cookie at work -----  "You shall soon achieve perfection"  
I guess this means that either I will die soon or become Mary Poppins!  I got a good laugh from this and decided to post it in my office space to remind me of my potential!!!  It was also amazing since just the day before I almost swore at work!  Wow, what a change 1 day can have.


Anyway I will try to catch up on my past blogs.
Starting with Christmas !!!

My Flower arrangement in the dining room.  Notice the Zebra stripped flowers.  The vase has red, clear and black marbles.  It is very modern and looks great!

I picked up a couple of skinny trees for decorating this year.  They are black and I went with a Zebra strip theme.  Because you all know that the wise men traveled on giraffes, zebras and elephants!!!

I even made matching zebra pillows and blanket for the couch in the Living Room.  What a fun decorating time I had.  Mike even liked it.

Visit with Jon and family in Omaha, June

 I went with the family to the zoo in Omaha.  I thoroughly enjoy zoos. Especially when I am with kids.  I love to see the expressions on their faces as they see things.  I guess I get just as excited and probably get an excited look on my face too.  This picture is of Ady looking at the penquins.

 My favorite animal in the whole world!!!!!  I love their giraffe display because there were lots of trees and grass.  I love it when animals in zoos get a friendly habitat.

 Love this picture of Ady and Will riding on the giraffe!!!!

 Will loves looking at everything.

 Ady and Will in the zoo!

 They had a great butterfly house.  I loved it and really didn't want to leave.

Love the butterfly bench.

Heidi's Funeral

 These are some pictures taken at the Wasatch Lawn Cemetery in Salt Lake City.  It was a beautiful funeral service and there was lots of good music.  It seems amazing to me that Heidi has gone.  It was an emotional day, but it is wonderful how the spirit can touch your heart to let you know that she will be resurrected and that Don and Heidi will be together for eternity.

Mike and Don.

 Ryan's new baby.  She is very cute and was so good the whole day.

 A display of some of Heidi's favorite things.  She was very talented and loved to make things and spend time with her family.

 The Bryson Boys:  Don, Ralph, Layne and Mike.

 This is an excellent picture of Heidi.

 Christopher's wife Chantel played the bagpipes at the cemetery.

Maureen, Ralph, Sandy, Bonnie, Mike at the family dinner.