This past weekend Steve and I were in Branson for the State Fire Chiefs Convention. So hearing this morning the Branson area was hit by a tornado sure caught my attention. We were there from Thurs. thru Sunday. We stayed at Big Cedar Lodge and what a beautiful place to spend the weekend.

The entrance to the lodge.

This is the view we had from our room. Table Rock Lake is in the background.

The weather was great.

The end of Feb. and we were sitting out on the balcony.

Here's Steve in the lobby of our lodge. I didn't know Grizzly bears were so large.

Our room was beautiful. The window looks into the bathroom over the Jacuzzi tub.

How many of us have Raccoons in our bedrooms? And yes, I was watching Nascar!

This shot is looking up to our lodge from the road below. The water fall is from a natural spring.

This dinosaur greats you in the lobby of the Registration Building.

The hall in the convention center. The door on the right was where our banquet was held. Look at those ceiling lights.Their covered with antlers.

This is the fireplace at the entrance to the Convention Center. The picture before this was taken to the left of the fireplace.

Just down the hall from our room was this elk.

We love staying there.

While Steve had meetings on Friday and Sat. I checked out the local quilt shops.

Friday it was off to Springfield. I spent the day at 5 different quilt shops there.

There are a huge amount of fabric stores in the area. Sat. I found 2 in Branson.

I purchased alot of great fabrics and finished finding the fabric for my class that is coming up on the 22nd.

I was looking at photos today of the tornado damage in Branson this morning and happened to see one with the quilt shop called Quilts & Quilts. It looked to have some damage. Part of the roof missing was about all I could see from the picture but I'm sure their windows were blown out and couldn't see what the back of the building looked like. The building just to the left of it, in the same strip mall was completely destroyed.

It's hard to believe I was just there a few days ago.

I think the next time we are away from home staying in a hotel, I will find the tornado shelter when we first arrive. I noticed Big Cedar had a tornado shelter in the bar we were in Sat. afternoon while we were watching the MU/Kansas game, but I never even thought about seeing where the one was for the actual building our room was in. After all, it's Feb. Events like today certainly make to think about it.

I hope we get to stay there again.

Until next time. Deana

It's just me and the dogs here today. Steve had a meeting out of town so I have spent the day doing just what ever I feel like doing. I've done some sewing on a new table runner. I'm using the same Jacob's Ladder pattern I made in my beginner quilting class I took back in the fall. I just finished sewing the blocks, now I'm ready to start stitching the blocks together. It takes 12 blocks to make the runner.

This time everything seems to be going together nicer. I was pleased with how well my points meet on my class piece this one seems to be more acurate in my cutting, sewing and pressing. I didn't realize how accurate pressing can change the size of a block.

I stayed up late last night finishing up House # 9 of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow. Now onto House #10.

I stopped by a thrift shop yesterday and this is what I call my Friday Finds.

The pretty glass plate for $1.00

And a pretty glass bowl for just $1.00

An oak shelf for $5.00

And this cute little sewing machine for $5.00

It looked new in the box so I'm going to play around with it and see how it sews. Then I can set it up in my sewing room for Austin for when he comes to visit and wants to sew.

I had some ready to bake cookie dough in the freezer I needed to bake so while their baking I've been posting this. Looks like the last batch is about to come out, so I'll finish this up and see you later on.

The creeping crud finally found me.
 I been running around dodging it every where are work this winter and day before yesterday it caught me. I can't breath but I can cough alot. I'm popping the Cold Eze and hopefully will feel much better by the start of a new work week.
While I'm posting this I'm listening to Adele's 21 CD. I love her. Did anyone watch the Grammy's the other night? I was so happy she won the 6 Grammy's. She has one of those voices I could listen to over and over again.
And another great event this weekend.....NASCAR is starting a new season. I love, love, love, Nascar!
And of coarse my favorite driver is Carl Edwards. You know he lives just about 40 min away from here.
One night last fall, Steve and I were in Columbia eating at the Longhorn restaurant when in comes.........
Carl's mom and stepdad. (You thought I was going to say Carl didn't you?) If you've see his mom, then you know that thick blond hair she has. But not only that, she had on a Carl Edwards Aflec jacket. I'd love to have talked to her, and she'd probably loved talking to me about her son, but I didn't want to bother her. I'm sure she gets enough interruptions when she's out and about in Columbia.
The puppies are growing and playing all the time.  Here's the newest pics of how they look now. They will be 7 weeks Sunday.

Everyone loves puppy kisses

I intented to post a little more stuff but the Bud Shoot Out is starting, so I must go for now. I hope Carl gets the pole. Wouldn't that be great!

GO CARL!!!!

The puppies are growing too fast.

It's so much fun to watch them exploring their surroundings and playing with anything they find. Occasionally, they will get to playing so hard, we'll find them asleep behind a table, chair or on their blanket. It's like having twins in the house with them wandering in opposite directions. We try to put them back in their basket when they get tired then their usually good for a 2 hr nap. They were 5 weeks on Sunday and Emmie is starting to wean them away from her. She is not spending nearly as much time with them. Hannah is still the leader when it comes to weight. But TJ is close behind. Both now a little over 1 lb.

Here's TJ snuggled up with his stuffy.

Hannah sitting in her pen.

I love this picture of her with her cow. Those little back feet straight up in the air.

And TJ almost ready for a nap.

Then we have babies and big sister, Sage. She wants to play but doesn't understand how fragile they are.

 Since the last posting, I went to my stitching group. The 1st time back since Steve had his knees replaced last April. It's was good to see everyone and catch up on what everyone was doing.  I'm still stitching on house #9 of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow, but I'm getting close to finishing it. I started a quilted table runner from the same pattern that I made in my quilting class. Last Sunday I went to Apple tree Quilting in Columbia for their Super Bowl Sunday Sale and to sign up for a new class. I am going to take a paper piecing class that is a pineapple table runner. I'm anxious to get started. It's 3 classes for 3 hours. I went ahead and purchased my fabrics while they were on sale. It took me over an hour to pick them out. Does everyone take that long??? With all the cross stitching I've done over the years, changing out fabrics, changing threads and picking frames, you'd think I could choose quilting fabrics with confidence. But no, I pulled bolts and bolts of fabrics putting some back, pulling more,and changing the colors. I just get so intimidated when I see all those bolts. When I took my other quilting class, I decided I wanted to use the 1930's fabrics so I picked the one I really liked and then I had help from the teacher picking the other fabrics that would look good with it.  This time I wanted to try choosing them myself. I hope they look good together once I start sewing them together. Again, I started by pulling the one fabric I really wanted to use, a small print, a pretty shade of red. I quickly found it and then the hard part started. You know you'd think if you needed red, green, yellow and black, that would be pretty simple. I ended up putting the red back 2 times because I couldn't find anything I like to go with it. Then I found other reds I liked to try.  But nothing I pulled to go with it was just doing it for me. So for the 3rd time, I pulled the original bolt of red from the rack, and started all over. Frustrating!  Finally found what I thought looked really pretty together. Next dilemma, borders and binding. I couldn't even begin to think about those colors. I'll start putting it together, then start looking for fabric again.

Until next time,

Deana

The puppies will be 2 weeks old tomorrow and they have their names now. This is the little boy. His name is TJ. As in Tanner Jr. after his dad.

He is sooo cute. He is smaller than the girl but they both have made it over 10 oz. now.

This is the little girl. Her name is Hannah. I think she will end up looking like her mom.

Look at those puppy pot bellies. Their eating well. TJ's eyes opened a couple of days ago.

We could see just a little peek of one eye today on Hannah. Eating and sleeping is all they are doing right now. And they still fun to look at. They must be having puppy dreams, they wiggle and jerk in their sleep.

They have a portible pen for them upstairs and one downstair depending on where we spend time.

At night they sleep in a Pack N Play at night. So to move them we use this basket. Just put both of them in it and tote them back and forth. Here I had put them to bed one night and Emmie was not in the bedroom so I could put her in there with them so I just set the basket in the floor. A few minutes later when I went in the bedroom to go to bed, here Emmie was sitting in the basket. Wonder what she was thinking? So I took her out and put her in with the babies.

I haven't been showing stitching stuff because I really haven't had anything worth showing. Here is the progress I've made on House #9 of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow.

And here's the latest on Yellow House Sampler. I have been stitching on it forever.

I am not going to stitch on anything else when we are downstairs watching TV until I get this one finished.

Both of these are over 1 thread so very slow progress.

The puppies are now 5 days old and how they have grown. We've been weighing them every day and they have gained over 2 oz. since their birth New Years morning. 

Here's a pic of mom and pups.



And here's little boy. Reminds me of a panda bear. He even looks like he has a grin.

 Snuggled in for a nap.

 And another nap with mom.

 A nap for mom and lunch for the kids.

 More naps and a snack

 Still more naps and dinner.

 And Sage says "I'm board! I have nothing to do!"

Is that not the most pitiful picture you ever saw?

Tanner won't play. Babies and mom are sleeping and this isn't even her bed.

This week has gone fast. I've not accomplished anything. What happened? I don't remember wasting the evenings away but something happened.

Until next time have a good weekend.

Deana

Happy New Year to everyone.
It has been an exciting day in our household. In the wee hours this morning Emmie had 2 babies. One little girl, 4.2 oz, all brown except a dab of white on her neck and cheek. And a little boy, 4.8 oz that is brown and white. The girl was born at 2:30am the boy at almost 4:00am. (I never thought when I purchased my postal scales I'd be weighing puppies with it.)

This is our 1st experience with puppy births and I don't think I want to do it again.
Yesterday afternoon, Emmie laid on the couch with me and took a nap and when I got up at 4 she got up too. She almost immediately started pacing, and panting really hard. She continued this all evening. I tried to go to bed but I couldn't get to sleep because of her pacing and panting all around the kitchen and hall by our bedroom. Then I heard this little squeal. Reminds me of a little mouse squeaking. I jumped out of bed and she had just had the 1st one. So, like she was one of our human family members, I started coffee and waited it out until she was done. By that time I was to wound up to much to go to sleep. It's so cute to watch her care for them. I've enjoyed watching her today.She is going to be a very good mommy. She is also very protective of them. Tanner, the proud papa, tried to walk up and take a peek when she snapped him in the nose and sent him running under the couch.
I have really enjoyed having this week off from work. I did plenty of it around here though. I demolished my sewing room and did some major cleaning and reorganizing. 2 full days and I almost have it finished.
Now I'm hoping for some quality sewing time in there. 
For now, I think I will hit the recliner for an afternoon nap.
Take care and have a great New Years Day.
Deana