2023 Ornaments

This year's assortment of ornaments is a bit worldly.  Grandma Stuetz brought back an ornament from Italy, because of BB's love of all things Italian.  She also brought us a nativity one from Israel.  We have a T that we got from Mexico as well.

 

Grandma & Grandpa Thompson also got us a family ornament.

This year Little Man got an ornament to remember his first musical: Spamalot

Little Lady's ornament is a nod to her broken leg this year.

Little Guy wanted a Red Sox ornament.  His love of baseball has been off the charts this year.

BB wanted a math ornament, because he's loving advanced math at the middle school.  Decoded the ornament reads: I 8 sum pi... it was delicious. 

Lindsey Stirling

I went with my friend, Melissa, to a Lindsey Stirling concert over the weekend.  We drove to Topeka, ate by the venue, and walked to the concert.  It was so much fun.  I don't know what I expected but it was way better than anything I could have thought of.  She was so impressive.  She danced in high heals, did splits mid-air while twirling on a hoop and singing and playing the violin.  It was insane.  I didn't even know she could sing or do acrobatics.  I'm not sure it's fair to have so much talent in one little body.

It was also moving.  You got a little piece of her and her beliefs and struggles in the concert.  I loved it.

Downtown Topeka is pretty cute as well.

Lunch Date

Sometimes you need friends and food.  It's cheaper than therapy and does wonders.  We went to the cutest place - it's called Vivilore, and it has a cute restaurant on the bottom floor and multiple floors are unique artsy things for sale.  It was so much fun!  We need to go back in the Spring when the gardens are in full bloom.  

I Spy

My November blocks ended up being super simple and quick.  If I had looked at it earlier I would known I could complete it quickly and get it off my list, but I procrastinated.  It was just 2 "I Spy" blocks meant to fussy cut with interesting things to look at.  

All 3 months worth of blocks are now in the mail and December is our off month, so I'll be back at it with do.Good Stitches in the new year.

Do.Good Stitches

 Miracle of Miracles I finished September and October blocks before the end of October.  Sadly, I haven't actually mailed them yet, but I'm thinking of completing the November blocks before mailing everything. 

Double Concerts

As Joel's belated birthday gift we went to see Lauren Daigle at the T-Mobile center downtown.  It was a great concert.  We went with friends out to one of the nicest restaurants I've ever been to.  It was a lot of fun, and we ate so many amazing foods including bone marrow with lobster and A5 wagyu beef.  

Lauren has an amazing voice, but it's her personality that shines through.  I liked her almost more than her music. It was a really enjoyable concert.

The next day my friend invited me to see Taylor Swift in the theater.  It was for her birthday.  I'm not a huge Swiftie, but I do enjoy some of her music.  While I was there I realized there were certain albums that I knew most of the songs and then there were certain albums I must have missed completely.  It was fun, but I will say it was almost more entertaining watching the fans crying at the concert. 

Things are Buzzing

We had the oddest occurrence happen in our yard this week.  We had a swarm of bees take up residence in the tree above our driveway.  It is really rare for this to occur in the Fall.  It normally happens in the Spring when there is more than one queen, so a group leaves with the second queen to find a new hive.  These bees decided to form an open-aired hive on our tree.  It would not have ended well for them when Winter came.  Fortunately, I remembered this happening in our neighborhood a couple of years ago.  They had a bee keeper come pick up the swarm.  I called the same man and he came straight out to get them.  He's going to try to keep them alive through the Winter. 

A Fishie Finish

I listen better when my hands are busy, so I try to have a quilt I can hand bind during General Conference.  This one went quickly.  I love the fishes!

A Quick Note

 Just a quick check in to let you know our cats are as mischievous as ever.  Make yourself at home, Stella.

Fishies

I finally got my act together and pieced together the fish quilt top from last year's do.Good Stitches.  Later is better than never.  It was fun randomly deciding placement and background shades of blue.

Piecing Things Together Late

I completed my July and August do.Good Stitches blocks...in September.  The struggle is real.  I don't get any sewing done during the summer and then life got super busy in a different way as soon as school was back in session.  My kiddos are living their best life and I'm their ride.  

The first block a very large 16.5". It needed to be blues and greens in the 9 patches and gray for the background.

The 2 August blocks were any combination of the primary colors with one half solid and the other half parented.  Gratefully, both blocks came together quickly. 

Finally!

 The crew showed up on Monday to work on the cabinets, but they didn't have enough time reserved.  They thought they were only fixing one of the doors, so they went through the things that still needed to be done and then left.  I was bummed.  Yet another delay...

Gratefully, they came back later that week and finished the cabinets.  It's a Christmas miracle in September!  It took almost 11 months, but the cabinets are finally done in our kitchen.  Sadly, they left quite a bit of stuff in the garage, so it's still not usable.  I have to try to get a hold of the company to come get all the stuff.  Hopefully that won't take another 11 months.  I'm tempted just to rent a dumpster and get rid of it myself.

Here's the before and after:

It's a major improvement from the 90s built-in desk.

Two More

I went to 2 more new temples when I was in Utah.  Red Cliff Temple is in St. George and is about ready for the open house.  We stopped on our way up to Cedar City, and then on our way down we stopped at the Cedar City Temple.  It was absolutely gorgeous.  I loved the stained glass. 

These are temples #85 and #86 for our family. 

Cedar Breaks National Monument

Up by Brian Head, Utah is Cedar Breaks National Monument.  It's a small national park with beautiful rock formations.  You can drive the main highway through the park and stop at 4 lookout points.  We also chose to do one of the easier hikes.  

Pictures don't do it justice.  It is absolutely gorgeous!  The weather was also perfection.  It's about 10,000 feet above sea level depending where you are in the park, so it's very temperate.  Low 70s and sunny.  It was glorious after being a sweaty mess in Kansas heat and humidity.  I definitely felt the elevation though, because I live at about 900 feet elevation.  

The hike had a cool pond, and there was a guy painting it.  I swear it wasn't that long, but I think I may have almost killed off a friend or two on the hike.  They claim it was 5 miles instead of the 2.  In fairness I thought it said 1 mile, but uh we learned it was longer when we were already on it.  It had some steep sections, but it was so pretty and the weather was great.  I totally got sun burnt. 

We celebrated the hike by going to the pizzeria that is a well known establishment in Bryant Head.  The meatball calzone was massive!  We got the smaller size and still split it in half.  So yummy!  We also had fun watching sheep cross the road.  Everything about this area is so beautiful and fun.