I have been...

HelpingBobbi and Jayme at their house lately. We painted in the room that they are turning into a large walk-in closet. Now they are getting it all organized. I knitted a scarf with a crochet hook. And last night Bryan and I went to the rodeo. I was not one of the competitors but I did get whacked in the head by elbows, smacked on the cheek with a light saber, kicked in the head by cowboy boots, smacked with a purse and got my hair pulled. I think I would have sustained less injury riding some of the "bucking" broncs. (3 of them just walked out of the chute) In case you are concerned that it is a wild audience, it's not. I just had 3 little boys sitting behind me, with their grandpa, who bought them light sabers. Honestly, they were good and having fun. They were just boys.

A couch, re-covered...

Bobbi has a nice couch but it was yellow/tan. So I re-covered it for her so it would look nice in their grey living room. I messed up once and got it right the second time. Rather proud of how it turned out. I only have a picture of it from the back before...so imagine it dirty old yellow tan...then admire the after. Hahaha and for some reason Blogger on my iPad won't let me put the pictures in the order I want. So... After then before.

When you clean closets...

You find lost things like...the only set of VW keys...but you have already rekeyed the car...
They were in the pocket of an old sweatshirt I never wear...well, apparently I wore it to drive the VW once. I plan to hang these as a decoration in the family room.

My ring...

The other day I picked Boden up and felt something scratch my hand. I looked down and realized that my diamond was gone from my wedding ring. Instant panic. I had been outside with the kids, gone to the clinic, done laundry and been to the store. It could be anywhere. My instant reaction was to pray and ask God to help me find it. I reached into the front pocket of my sweatshirt to get my phone to call Bryan and a piece of lint came with it. There in the lint was my diamond. Amazing. Why do we ever doubt God and the answers He gives? Even the answers we don't understand or like?
Now on the subject of rings...I had to create a huge diamond ring for a set at church. Good thing Bryan is a welder. He created an amazing ring then all I had to do was create a box to put it in. Look in the box to the left of the ring you will see a ring of mine for size comparison. I am pleased with how it turned out.

Pumpkin Pasties -

Sometimes the girls and I just need to enjoy something related to Harry Potter. So tonight we had pumpkin pasties. Not hard, you just bake pumpkin pie filling in a dish and then make little tarts out of it. Then when they are warm out of the oven cover them in cinnamon sugar. Delicious.

The things we do for love...

Bobbi headed to Texas on Friday so on Saturday the rest of us got together at the Kessler house and started work on painting and cleaning and all sorts of projects that she and Jayme had planned. The biggest one was a new floor in the kitchen. While Bryan did that we painted trim and walls and cleaned and repaired things. We finished today right before she got home. It felt like we were an extreme makeover show trying to get it all done.
But it looks amazing and they have a nice, clean place to settle in to.

Mirror Image?

People say the girls look alike...

 Jayme had gotten this frame at an antique store called Cool and Collected {Indian Village} 

so she and Ashley were posing with it. 

Then she said "Mother, enough photos!"

Dawn...of a new year-