raw beauty

good times

we had so much fun last night. aaron was the shop manager and robin was the managers wife. i was the worker and they determined when i got my break (yes, i finally one for 2 minutes about 9pm last night. we worked until 11). we listened to bob dylan and talked and got some jeep seats done.

me on break.

aaron being the mean manager.

robin backing up her husband. get to work- NOW!

thanksgiving

a happy family eating. we had a fire and emmylou harris light of the stable playing. owen was all about the turkey leg and ate it down to the nubs. he was so excited. they all loved everything. owen and jule ate themselves into stomach aches then announced they were ready for pie! serious partiers they are.

prideful reenterance

upon careful consideration, will agreed to off the velcro shoes and came to show me his new choice, which i must say are much better fitting. way to see the light willy!

egg intervention

terry came in this morning entirely too excited with his new st. vinneys find. (our shop is one building away from saint vincent de pauls thrift store- our favorite place in the world). the egg wave is the awnser to perfectly cooked eggs from your microwave every time. just because you can, doesn't mean you should. my warning has been noted.

what the heck.

today has been a strange one for havasu. it rained. kindof. on and off all day, but was clouded over all day. very pretty, but strange all the same. i highly recommend listening to diva (annie lenox album) in this kind of weather. i tried to go get some firewood but i missed them by 20 minutes so mike will have to go up to my parents to get some for tonight. jule douglas is all about the fire place this week. he has preped the paper and wood every night for me to light for him. he doesn't ask, just comes to get me when he is ready. the boys watched the charlie brown thanksgiving movie by the fire with their favorite blankets last night and will again tonight because the girls will be here late and they want to wait for them to get here. jimee is coming to stay and jazzy is here for the holiday. mike is excited to see them both as are the boys. i will make the pumpkin pies tonight as i have to work thursday so i will prep tonight and tomorrow night. the turkey will cook while i am here and i will leave early. also a must listen, the the. pillar box red, wonderful song.

thrilled.

homework enthusiasm at its best.

i am not sure that multi-teaming is as productive as multi-tasking. this is why god created women so that things can actually get accomplished.

its all fun and games......

till there is no more food. he he. we had a bash for mario and lois (frans wife) saturday night. mario turned 25 and requested yellow cake with chocolate frosting and lois turned 73 and wanted strawberry cake so we had both. fran made drunken chicken and a big pot of beans with pork sausage he let cook for 2 days. he also made marios favorite pea salad (yes, he is a freak) . so, eating time comes, we put the beans on the table and the pea salad and much to the dogs delight the table shattered. so, we had drunken chicken, cake and pie. i get to tile my table now which i have been wanting to do. we have a very bad history with glass tables in out household. jimee put her hand through our last coffee table 4 years ago. that was a fun run for some serious stitches. so, no glass in our house and now apparently, outside either. the party was great lasted until about 1 am and fun was had by all and felt the next morning. we moved mario and heather sunday afternoon into a much nicer house and i made chili and corn bread (with straight bacon fat, yum) for everyone. we ran some to fran and ate ours at marios new place. very busy weekend, and we are only down a pot of beans some pea salad and a table. not bad. oh- and upon delivering the goods to fran last night he handed us a new batch of pea salad with "no glass" for mario. very nice.

music appreciation

i am here alone today so the stero is only playing what i want it to. makes for such a great day. i am partying with bob dylan, blood on the tracks, right now. i wore out the cassette, am on my second cd which is about done and my record player is having issues without the receiver working at the moment. so, i think i should get another cd for the moment, but there are always so many others that jump out at me when i go. i always forget what i went after until i put on my dying albums. last night i wound up with 6 new cds, none of which were the 3 worn out ones i was out to replace. so, rule of thumb-- don't let becka go music shopping without a list! speaking of music shopping, i found the find of my life in llano texas. i got an original long john baldry album produced on one side by rod stewart and the other side by elton john. it is my all time favorite album EVER and i have nearly worn out my dads copy, so i was so excited to find this one. i had been looking for 15 years for another one. sometimes you round the corner and get smacked by something wonderful. good times.

Velcro Intervention

this is one of my best friends. he is truly one of the greatest, most inovative brains you will ever meet, invented many sucessful industry changing machines, and more, but has succummed to the power of the velco shoe. the ease of putting these on is not worth the embarrassment of choosing to do so. please beware of the evil powers from the velcro darkside. it belongs on the bottom of boat seats, not shoes!

Happy Birthday Mario

mario is older tomorrow and he wanted a new truck interior so we customized him out and his interior is beautiful. custom main stitch embroidery in back seat middle and suede headliner and visors. one of the pics below is a before picture. it was light grey, boring stock interior.

wish me luck!

8:30 am my ex-employee vs. me in court. she stole from me and thinks i owe her money. so.... tomorrow the judge will decide.

as promised.

okay, here are the six random things i promised to post last week or longer ago.

1. i am an old woman at heart. i love to sew, needlepoint, quilt, mend, anything that is a needlecraft. oh, and i like to sit by the fire in my rocking chair to do it.

2. i love music. LOVE LOVE LOVE it. i love most kinds. i do not like to watch tv. i love to listen to music.

3. i want a red fiddle. i have always wanted to learn how to play one and i found a red one in laramie, WY that i want badly. there is a store where they handcraft them there.

4. i love to bake and cook. i do this nightly. i also love to clean.

5. my boys make me happy. i love children. i will be a happy grandma one day.

6. i don't like things to match. i like to walk into a hodgpodge of happiness that all goes together. most everything in my house was made by my friends, my kids, my family or mike and i. i love homemade things. (jovi- i love the sweater you made me).

superdorkdome

my running partner kelly and i have crossed the line into superdorkdome. we wear headlights in the winter since it is still dark in the mornings, have water packs around our waist (mine is blue hers is pink) and now are starting a new program that we haven't memorized so we had the book out at the gym this morning to make sure we were doing the right things. yep. the line has been crossed.

shes changing the way she feels about wasting her time and tears.......

my family

owen in his jammies and ready to relax!

fred and mike watching football. the regular.

ian painting a picture for nana in germany. it turned out amazing finished.

the crazy brothers. they love to hang out in ians room.

do you see any grey here? i don't i am sure of it. i have looked in every light and i only think it is getting lighter. i do not think that i have grey yet. damnit!

sunday at the aquatic center

ian nesby washed out!

owen diving through the waves

my swam out boys all cool and tough.

playing at the outside attractions.

owen and jule douglas in battle

party at my house!- kindof

jule bug sporting his newly toothless mouth. the other top tooth came out so he is a gapmouth.

christopher and sopie chilling out (getting ready to sleep) in the patio chairs

sampson got to come (he is romos brother) so the dogs had a blast.

i taught heather to crochet and brought home yarn and informed her that she is going to make a blanket for her baby by the time it is born. she took on fast and is into it so far!

what do you want to cook? we have lots of fire!

leaving early!

it is 4:30 and i am getting ready to leave for the grocery store. we never close early, but we are today and i am thrilled. mario, heather and christopher are coming over for dinner and to hang out and i am making cookies tonight and will hopefully needlepoint some- we will see. i intend to work on robin and aarons quilt tomorrow. i finally finished a needlepoint i have been working on for the last 2 years (my time is so small) and have it stretching and drying right now. it is to go into a leather bag i am making for mom. i am really excited about it so i hope that she likes it. owens team did not score any points today, but owen actually played hard and tried which was fun to see. usually he is just excited to be there and that is about how far it goes. ian had a good day at martial arts and tried to earn his next belt, although he needs some more work. i am happy that he is trying though and doing a great job. i am so happy with his teacher and the facility that he has created. the class is so well controlled but the kids are having fun and love to be there. he is such an amazing teacher. jules soccer team did win and dominated the entire time (as usual). jules teamates are all larger kids like he is. they are tall and stong and fast. they dominated every year so far. jule is a great goalie and loves to play. mike and i started life coaching yesterday and will go on wendsdays from now on. i am very excited about it and hope that good comes out of it. we are going to the same one that i have been taking ian to. she has been amazing with ian. his attitude is so much better and he has goals daily that he tries to acheive (mainly personal but some physical too like getting his homework done......). hope you all are having a wonderful weekend and i will post some pics next time. i didn't remember to take the camera with me today.

throughout the day

this is dicks brother, terry, who comes over to see what we're up to throughout the day and talk about football with mike. he is a fun guy and we love having him around. the boys on the forklift being wild. the shop is full of fun things to mess around with, climb on and fight with. they love to battle eachother with the cardboard tubes that the material comes rolled on. we have hundreds of them and they make great swords, castles telescopes..... the possibilities are endless.

how many dogs can you find in this picture. it is like a highlights magazine question. awnser: 4.

pocket war

yesterday i was in las vegas for a neurology appointment with ian . pockets prevented the boys from installing a few peices on the carrera we are currently working on so mike took the reigns and decided to make a pocket. thank god i was on the phone with him while he was doing this and told him to stop and i would make them today. now, he is proud of his pocket, and for not knowing what he was doing, it turned out great (in all fairness)....... however, it is not the main stitch quality our customers have come to expect. so, my pocket is on the top, and mikes is the one on the bottom. keep in mind these examples are uninstalled. funny times around here. i think we would make an awsome tv show. it would simply be call "the upholsterers" and would make people laugh. sometimes i am amazed at what we do and somedays i shake my head at the craziness and am amazed that we are able to do what we do despite ourselves.