It's About to Begin!

High summer is about to begin! The dictionary defines that as the hottest part of the summer; to me, it is the best part of summer, the time when our kids flock to Indiana for a visit and we get to see everyone!

The visits are spread out this summer, with some coming today, some next week, and others coming mid-July. But an extended high summer is a-ok with me!

 Sarah, JC, and Trinity are slated to arrive early evening today, with Todd flying in on Tuesday.

They stopped in Missouri today to visit briefly with Isaac. (As he put it, "I see that squinting is a genetic trait." Yep!!)

I cannot wait for them to get here and the fun to begin!

Tick! Tick! Tick!

A Magical Soccer Evening

The FIFA Women's World Cup is underway currently, with the US National Team having made it to the semi-finals. As I watch the games, many of the players are familiar to me. Some I have even been lucky enough to meet.

Thanks to this gal, Ella Masar.

A close friend and high school classmate of Curt's, she was a soccer phenom at Urbana High School. She went on to play for the University of Illinois, then as a professional for the Chicago Red Stars, Paris St. Germaine, magicJack, the Houston Dash (currently), and the US National Team.

Ella, #16, playing for the US National Team in a match against Germany, 2011.

In 2009, we went up to Chicago to see Ella play against the Washington Freedom. Ella got us seats behind the bench and then invited us back to the clubhouse after the game to meet and mingle with the members of the Chicago Red Stars team.

Curt and Ella after the game.

Ella scoring on Hope Solo, who is the current US National Team goalkeeper and the best women's keep in the world. (Yay, Ella!!)

Mary Therese McDonald, Ella's friend and a member of the Irish National Team, also played for the Chicago Red Stars that night. (The University of Illinois, too.)

Mary Therese McDonald in a cap for the Irish team.

After mingling at the clubhouse for a while, we took Ella and Mary Therese out for a very late dinner.

Mary Therese (left) playing for Ireland against her Chicago Red Stars teammate, Megan Rapinoe (middle), who is playing for the US in this picture.

Megan Rapinoe and Ella.

Rapinoe has had a major impact in this World Cup for the United States, but when she played that evening, I really disliked her. She did not share the ball much, and Ella was open many times and could have scored had Rapinoe passed her the ball! (Still haven't forgiven her for that.)

Another of Ella's teammates who has been playing in the World Cup is Cristiane, a member of Brasil's national team. (Brasillian players only go by their first names.)

 Cristiane sticks her tongue out when she scores.

We met her in the clubhouse, and she was delighted that Curt could speak to her in Portuguese!

Playing opposite Chicago that night was Abby Wambach, the US's best player and one of my favorites.

Ella and Abby were guarding each other during the match. I don't have a picture of it, but at one point they were fighting for a ball, and Ella took Abby down and won it!

That night was a real highpoint for me as a fan of women's soccer. And so, as I watch the World Cup, I think back to Ella's generosity that evening in letting me meet so many of the world's best players.

Thanks, Ella!

Shades of Noah

Parts of Indiana have had 16 inches of rain this month! Especially north of us, areas are flooded, including roads and homes. Crop losses are expected to be heavy since there is so much standing water in fields, drowning out the corn and beans.

We're lucky in that we have not had quite that much (maybe 9-10 inches) but it is still impacting us.

 The road to the barn is partially underwater.

 Normally this is a pretty lawn.

 The lane to the new barn is also flooded.

Fortunately, the pastures are in good shape - they're squishy, but not underwater. At least, not yet.

This soybean field is mostly underwater.

Rain is forecast for the next seven days. I may need an ark!

Ian Cracks His Daddy Up

(And the rest of us, too!)

When we have patriarchal blessings on Sundays, I put out several tissue boxes for the recipient and any family members who come along. Sometimes I don't get them put away, and two Sundays ago, Ian used one of them to show us he had learned some manners.

I think what I like best, though, is how Curt is cracking up over his son's behavior!

Ian's Quiet Book - the Opening

This is the "big moment" for me - the time when a child or grandchild opens their quiet book and sees the pages for the very first time. So much time, effort, thought, and love go into the book, and I hopehopehope my gift is liked...

Last Sunday Ian opened his with help from his mom and dad.

What is this? He reaches into the bag...

...and pulls out the pillow that is made from leftover cover fabric. (I always make a pillow.)

Awwww! It's so soft!

Then Ian grabs the book and draws it out of the bag.

Curt pulls his son onto his lap and they begin to look at each page.

At this point I am holding my breath, hoping the family will like my gift.

Ian absolutely LOVED the stoplight.

He figured out right away how to pull off the lights. Mom and Dad show him how to reattach them. (Velcro makes it easy for little fingers.)

Ian also liked the turtle and pulled its head waaaaay out. It's attached with elastic and quite stretchy.

Curt exclaimed over the Caps for Sale page, just as I'd hoped he would.

Opening the tipi by using the zipper.

Looking at the five monsters on the counting page. (I thought they were pretty cute, but I had a hard time finding five different ones!)

The look on Curt's face makes all that time and work worthwhile.

Pulling the jack o' lantern's other face pieces out of the pumpkin.

The shoelaces for the football's lacing arrived the day after Ian opened his book.

I love this dinosaur page. Since I designed it myself, I was pretty anxious to see if Ian and crew liked it.

They did! And they opened his mouth immediately to discover what the dino had been nibbling.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stickers!! Curt loves the Ninja Turtles, and I thought the stickers would be something quiet that Ian could play with in church.

Success!! They like it!

"Exotic" Bird Feeding

I enjoy feeding the birds that live around us, and have two seed feeders and two hummingbird feeders placed around my yard. We get a lot of interesting birds that come up and have lunch on our dime.

But these two were certainly unexpected!

 A pair of wild mallard ducks!

They've been coming up for over a month - the first picture was taken in May.

And this one was taken this morning.

They do not seem to have duckings like the other water fowl that we see by the lake, so I assume that something happened (nest failure, coyotes, etc.)

Somehow they have discovered that there is a seed bonus on the ground, and so they come compete with my other ground feeding birds.

While I would prefer the mallards remain down by the lake, still I do enjoy watching them and listening to their low pitched quacking as they "talk" to each other while they eat.

Ian's Quiet Book - the Pages

Poor Ian! The last born of the quads, and the only one who lives locally, ended up having to wait two months after his first birthday to get his quiet book! I just couldn't get it done, what with the end of school and all.

But it's done now!  Curt and Vanessa requested dinosaurs in the book - a challenge since I had no patterns for pages with those at all.

 But, the cover fabric could have dinos! It is a soft flannel - orange, of course.

The first page is modified from one I usually do as the last page.

 And it reflects Ian's parents' Illinois and Purdue heritages. (I got the appliqués from Amazon.)

Curt had this stop light in his quiet book.

 He asked that I include it in his son's.

The turtle, too, although I changed it up by moving the hole in the shell up higher so the turtle's neck (which is on elastic) would fit more easily.

 I also drew the cattails in the back and added a frog on a lily pad for interest.

The book Caps for Sale is a family favorite, and I found this flannel board tree and man with caps online on a teachers' supply site.

 I didn't like the monkeys it came with, so I used others I got at the fabric store. Curt was very excited when he saw this page.

Another tradition is the "Where did the Indian hide?" page.

Mine is a little more politically correct (Where did the little boy hide?") and was made from Illini-orange fabric. My mother drew the native figures and I copied them onto the tipi.

This page takes FOREVER to do, but it is fast becoming one of my favorites.

 And, I was able to get a dinosaur on it, too!

Another favorite from Curt's own quiet book.

The addition of the two little chicks improves this page - maybe I'll draw some sand or grass under them next time I make it.

Since Ian LOVES my Wiggles Guitar, and The Wiggles are from Australia, it was only fitting that this page, with a kangaroo from Australia, be included.

 I wish I had included a reference to The Wiggles, but I had added the text before I had the idea.

Here's a perennial favorite - the flowers in a vase.

 I think this page is in every quiet book I have ever made! It was my mother's idea to have the dashes denoting the flight path of the bees. Love that touch.

I have only done the football/lacing page one, maybe twice. Kyle advised me to make it LOOK like a football (the one in his book is just plain brown and doesn't look much like a football aside from the shape.)

 I'm pleased with how this turned out, and I bought some long shoelaces for the lacing.

Finally, what just may be my favorite page of all! Modified from the whale with the zipper for a mouth, I drew a dinosaur instead of a whale.

I'm not an artist, but I am very pleased with how it turned out. And I love the "teeth" effect that the pinking shears gave the T-rex's mouth!