I Fell Off the Face of the Earth...

or at least it feels like I did. Has it really been a month since I last blogged?? Where, oh where does the time go? My baby was 7 weeks old on Tuesday this past week and I guess that's a reminder as to just how fast it flies. It seems like just yesterday when I was whining about how long the pregnancy was taking and Could_We_Get_Her_Out_Of_Me_ALREADY!!!! LOL

I will start out by telling about the "big news" I mentioned in my last post when Blogger wasn't playing nice and wouldn't let me post photos. On August 20, Jim and the boys and I went to see Big and Rich in concert...again. Wink had to wear his "Big Kenny" hat that I made him last year, of course...AND we had tickets in the fifth row. I think one of the neatest things B&R does is bring a little kid up on stage at the end of EVERY concert and present them with a guitar just like Big Kenny's. Wink kept asking me if I thought it would be him...and I said, 'we'll just have to wait and see'. NEVER did I think it REALLY would be him!!! But sure enough, Big Kenny noticed him towards the end of the concert (it was the hat, I'm sure!!) and the security guard came over and got him shortly after that during the encore. We were SO excited and so was he!! Now, for those of you who don't know my Wink, he is SO shy. The security guy didn't even give him a chance to say NO, he just pointed to him, J handed him over the crowd and up on stage he went!!

Needless to say, we were THRILLED. What an honor to be picked from a crowd of 11,000 people to get to go up on stage. And especially since Wink just absolutely loves Big Kenny. :) So here's just one more pic of him on stage with the guitar Big Kenny gave him...it says LOVE EVERYBODY on the back (just like Big Kenny's!) and it is hand-signed on the front by Kenny and has the B&R logo. Wink also got a really nice case to put it in and a bunch of pics that are also autographed. Now he wants to take guitar lessons!!!

Anyway, it's been a month and we're still riding high :) Can't wait to see them in concert again :)

On the quilting front, my small group finished up our Round Robins and had our 'celebration party' last Thursday. OMG - the quilts turned out absolutely GORGEOUS!! I will post pics of them soon, I promise!! I also made a really funky little purse this past weekend for my friend Sharon. I used up the 30's prints leftovers from her Round Robin and embellished it with some ribbons, rick rack and old buttons. I gave it to her yesterday and she seemed to really like it :) Now to just get back to my list of "to-do's"...

I've been busy just trying to keep up with everything...a rambunctious two year old, a newborn, two boys in school with homework, open houses, book fairs, etc...and a grumpy-ass husband who is thinking all of the rain we've been getting lately is WAY too late in the season and is doing nothing but ruining his mood by delaying harvest. Bad thing is...doesn't look like there's an end to the rain in sight... we've had over 8" in the last three weeks and now this weekend it's supposed to rain again today, Friday, Saturday and possibly Sunday. It's nice to still have him home most nights at a decent time...but it just delays the inevitable and ~ at this rate ~ we'll still be in the field when Santa's doing his nightly duties in December!! I also heard that the Almanac has predicted this to be a wetter winter than normal...I'd better start getting the boys' snow gear ready now! They've already told me they can't wait for snow on the ground!

I'm off to pick the boys up from school this afternoon...I've been promising them we'd go to the apple orchard. I'm in the mood for Caramel Apple Upside Down Pie (yes, I'll post the recipe later)...and I think I'm going to can a bunch of apple pie filling for us to eat through the winter. I did get around to canning some caramel spiced pear butter and Pearberry Jam a couple of weeks ago...I guess all of the rain is good for something :)