Porch dog?

Who knew?!

We have recently discovered, Bella wants the front door open, all the time. She likes to be able to go outside and come in whenever she pleases. She also likes to be inside with which ever human is here with her and look outside to enjoy this beautiful warm fall weather we are having. Normally, she just sleeps on the couch or bed all day. But she has decided she likes to be outside whenever she can. Its cute.

If I close the door, she wants to go in and out every 5 mintues. But, if I leave the door open, she is perfectly happy. I like a perfectly happy dog.

Back to Food

Since my quilt is done and I am getting more inspired to cook really good food, I will discuss my latest indulgent find at our local grocery store. Sometimes you buy the store brand item trying to save money and it just is not the same as the name brand item that you are craving. Then there are other times the store brand knocks it out of the park! This is one of those times.
Our local grocery store chain is Kroger. Out west, Smith's is the same company. I love Kroger. Good prices, good produce and meats.
We love ice cream. We love good ice cream with great mix ins too.
Kroger has recently started selling upscale ice cream from their own brand. Because Trae loves peanut butter almost as much as he loves me, I picked up the triple peanut butter flavor to try.

It is amazing. Peanut butter flavored ice cream would be really good. But they put large ribbons of peanut butter and huge chunks of peanut butter cups in it. Delicious! If you like peanut butter, get this.

Look at all of that delicious peanut butter goodness! I know I didn't make this concoction, but I'll take grocery store help any day to have deliciousness!

My mom got the New York Style Pumpkin Cheesecake flavor. It is equally legit and delicious in its own right! Get that one too.

 

Is that what I think it is?

Yes, that is my finished quilt. After only 19 months of working on this thing it is now complete! I am so excited to be done working on it. It is not hanging over my head just waiting to be finished. The fabric is Heather Bailey's Pop Garden. The backing and binding is all Paisley blue from the Pop Garden line. Since I am without a big fancy quilting sewing machine and sending it to a long arm was entirely too expensive for my budget, I hand quilted in simple straight lines. I like the simplicity of the quilting and how it does not compete with the variety and business of the fabric.
I am really happy with the way it came out. I may not do another hand quilted one for a long time.

Please enjoy the pictures!! I worked so hard! Yay!

Masters Research Project

Yes. I will be beginning my master's research project this semester and will be working on it until I graduate. Lots of work, but I have the opportunity to have our research published at the end of it all! That is actually pretty enticing to me. I am not sure what our specific topic and direction our project will go.

In other news, Trae and I will be starting P90X in the next few weeks. We are both extremely excited about that. Of course, that might dwindle after day 1. Trae wants to bulk up and I would love to loose a little softness. We have family that has had success with this particular program. I an interested to see if Trae and I can really do this program together. For this program, we have purchased 3 sets of dumbbells, and pull up bar, and push up handles. More to come on how this goes.

Summer

I have two more weeks of school for the summer semester, followed by 1 week of break and then back to the grind for the fall semester. I have a few projects for the break. I am absolutely determined to finish my quilt over the break. My sister has commissioned my sewing skills for a large body pillow cover for her apartment at school. I am ready for a break. This semester has not been bad at all. It has been a nice change from hard core nose in the books to paper writing and research of journal articles.

Trae in Mississippi!

He made it! He has a job now in Jackson. And he is registering for fall classes tomorrow at a local 4-year school! YAY to all of this! I can not tell you how amazing and complete I feel with him and Bella here with me.

Three weeks ago, we had professional portraits done for our 5th anniversary! I am so excited to see how they come out. It rained and we got in the lake, on purpose! Really really can not wait to see them!

Other than this great news, our life is great. We are being so patient on God. I don't think we have ever been this patient waiting for God's plan and direction for us to be revealed. I also think we are being blessed tremendously by it! There are a few things yet to be worked out, like a place to live, which is a major thing. Somehow, we are at peace and feel that we are where we are supposed to be and letting God lead.

School is good. I am so thankful for this semi-easy and non-stressful semester after the previous 2 crazy intense semesters I have had.

New Design

After trying to fix my blog title font problems, I decided it was just to difficult to fix it. I tried this for several hours before giving up. Oh well. This is so much simpler and less fun, but oh well. I really liked the old design, but I guess this is a little more grown up.

Trae is in Jackson! YAY. He is applying and interviewing for jobs here in the area.

Our house went on the market this past week.

We are trying to decide if we can afford to get another place here and where that might be.

I am super stoked about all of these things that are happening.

Please being praying for a enjoyable well paying job and for the house to sell!