Training For Skippy and Ginger

Today I walked around our property three times with our poodles (Skippy and Ginger) to begin to give them a little more training. I decided to post again on this funny little blog I started for fun. Training these dogs is waaaayyy past due, but better late than never. I have a strong motivation for doing this...My husband, Cliff and I have become parents to a beautiful little girl who we will be adopting sometime before the end of the year. I need to have our dogs prepared for a two-week boarding with a friend when we travel to pick her up. They have very little training and I want to be sure our friend is not overly stressed out and challenged when we leave them with him. I need a lot of help, but they were troopers. I worked on the word, "heel" with them today. They did real well...especially Skippy. When we were done, Ginger did her business immediately upon command (something she has been refusing to do at all!!! Go figure... I am so dog-challenged it's not funny. Its very hard for me. I was a "cat" person most of my life. They just eat, purr, sleep, poop in a box and whatever they want to do. But, I will not give up. They are not the problem...it's me. I have to get a grip on this before we bring a little toddler into the home. It will be a much smoother transition for all of us if I develop a better connection to them first.

Finished My Life Quilt!

As I last posted, I had a strong desire to finish my life quilt by October 31, 2008. I did it (but forgot to post). What a desire fulfilled for me. It was my father's last birthday before he passed away January 20, 2009. My husband, Cliff, was the one who knew I deeply desired to learn to quilt and kept encouraging me over the years to do it. He spent numerous hours with me in fabric shops and quilt stores picking out just what I needed to keep going. He was my inspiration and my encouragement all the way...

My Life Quilt

I have uploaded a picture of what I call my Life Quilt. I started it about four years ago and it has been a learning experience...one that I am looking forward to finishing as soon as possible. The pattern was found in a book entitled, "Teach Yourself To Quilt." This sounded simple enough; however, shortly after I had purchased all the fabric and started into my 2nd or 3rd quilt block, I realized it was not a beginner project!! Yikes...I have made so many mistakes in it and I have definitely lost the original thrill of wanting to see it completed. My husband and I chose the colors to match a wedding ring quilt that we have in our guest room. I'm determined to finish this "puppy" before I pass on...hence the name of Life Quilt. I have learned a lot while working on it. I have invested so much in the learning process by making mistakes along the way that I really don't want to hang it on the wall anymore. This quilt was almost finished (I thought) when I realized every block had to be hand quilted. I have been working on this part for almost as long as it took me to put the whole thing together. I keep poking my fingers and having to stop working until the bleeding stops...but I am determined to finish it. I could actually set another goal for finishing the quilt, but I've surpassed each time limit I've put on this one. (I have also finshed at least four or five simple quilts in the meantime.) I need to finish this one soon. Here goes...I'm going to put a goal of finishing it by 10/31/08. This is my father's birthday and his mother was the quilter in our family who inspired me the most. Thanks Grandma! I'm going to try to do this for you and pops!

A New Season

If someone would have even suggested that I would be sitting in my kitchen in Ellsworth, Maine, looking out over a beautiful forrest of brilliant fall colors on our 2+ acre piece of property, waiting for a daughter to come from China to become a first-time mother at the age of 57, I would have thought they were from outer space! But that describes my current status in a nutshell. I will also add...working in the fabrics and crafts department in Walmart and establishing a brand new way of living on the other side of the United States from where I was born and raised and lived all of my life (in California) until January of this year. No family, no friends...everything new and different. I am learning to adjust and asking daily for God's grace to embrace His divinely ordained "season of change" for my life. He is giving the grace and I am dragging my feet and complaining all the way...but we are beginning to meet somewhere in the center of this walk of "obedience" He is calling me to follow Him in.

Since joining the world of adopting a daughter from China, I have encountered the world of blogging. It is a very different world and one I thought I would never enter until I continued to read and enjoy so many of my fellow Chinese adoptive families' blogs. It is a fascinating world that I jumped into and began to share my life in by setting up a blog about our daughter to be. This website is on hold for now (due to the slow down in adoptions), but I may update it as we get more news from our agency. However, just this morning as I was reading some news on the adoption websites I came across a blog of a woman who was sharing her sewing and knitting and crocheting projects online. This caught my attention and I decided to jump in on a more personal level. I read more about blogging and it indicated it was a way to keep a journal and to organize your thoughts and your life. I could definitely use this!!! So....here I go. I may even get brave enough to not be afraid who sees it or comments on it. This would be a HUGE change for me.