More Quilts

I think I forgot to post a picture of the baby quilt I made for my brother, Charlie and his wife, Mel.  It was one of the hardest quilts I made so far because it has a million small triangles.  Thank goodness it wasn't a large quilt or I would have given up.  It is called the Kissing Fish quilt.

This next quilt Mario saw hanging in the quilt shop and insisted I make it.  He loved it because it is full of optical illusions.  I went ahead and bought the pattern and the special ruler.  I have yet to buy the fabric. I guess that will be a quilt on my to do list after I finish the Sunday Ride and a quilt for Eric (whenever he figures out the college he's going to because I want to make it in his college colors.)  So many quilts and so little time.

Sunday Ride Quilt

I was 4 months behind on my block of the month quilt. I didn't quilt the entire summer so I could spend time with the kids. I think Mario was getting nervous that I wasn't ever going to get back to my appliqué quilt. But this week I finally made time and completed 2 blocks in just 2 days. I had to improvise because one of my trees was floating in the sky. No one noticed except me but it drove me crazy so I added a third bird in front of the tree so it wouldn't be so obvious. My appliqué is not perfect but I LOVE doing it. I'm so glad Ann from the quilt shop showed confidence in my abilities and told me I could do it. I have my very first official quilt class tomorrow at the quilt shop. We are making Christmas placemats or table runners. I haven't decided which one I will make yet.

My First Adult Student

I'm so proud of Ian! He worked hard several times a week with me for many months and now he is a college grad!



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Mario's Work Schedule

Mario is working in an office that has to be manned everyday, all day and night. So he has to work some crazy 8 hour shifts. Sometimes he works 5 am to 1, 1-9 pm, or 9 pm to 5 am.

Although he has to work crazy hours including weekends, the perk is that they have so many people to take shifts, he only has to work 8 of those shifts for the entire month of November. He does have 4 office days that month that he has to go in a anywhere from an hour to a few hours depending on how much office work he has to do.

So it's great because we get to spend lots of time together, just the two of us. The other day, we watched a movie in the late morning and ordered a pizza to be delivered when we got hungry in the middle of the movie. It was like we were in college again.

The only downside to this is I am getting nothing done. No quilting, no cleaning. Nothing! I'll enjoy this schedule while it lasts.

Homecoming

These pictures are proof that I shouldn't have a camera in my hand.  I am a horrible photographer! Eric attended Homecoming with Caitlin (of course!) and three of his buddies.  The only one on Homecoming court (one in green shirt) is the only one without a date.  A couple girls apparently turned him down.  He's such a nice guy too (and the high school cross country star.)

Ethan, Allison, Eric, Caitlin, ?,?, and Nick

Erin went to the "Mormon Alternate Activity" first and then went to Homecoming for an hour.  A real photographer that just moved into the branch offered to take pictures but these are from my camera for now.  We bought Erin's prom dress on clearance for $15 at JCPenney.  We cut it down to make it Homecoming length.  Unfortunately the shrug was from the designer store in town so that cost $55 (glad her dress was cheap!) Hopefully she can wear it all again in Spain.  She looked absolutely beautiful (and I'm not just saying that as her mother, other, unbiased sources thought so too!  They couldn't stop commenting.)

Erin, Chastity, Savana, Ben, and Hyrum

She must not have seen the camera

Or else she would have hid like this!

My Last Day in Spain

Wednesday was my last full day in Madrid.  Mario had to go to his tutoring session, so I went back to the Temple.  I think I will enjoy my time there because of all the English speakers that work there. What a blessing to have a Temple in Madrid.  I am really excited about our opportunity to move there. Nothing is a for sure thing with the military until we are on the plane, but if we do get the opportunity to live there, I am sure we will love it.  I started my Rosetta Stone today.  I get marked down on my pronunciations.   I don't think I'll ever learn to roll my r's.  But if I could just understand it, I'll be happy.

Here are some random pictures from our wonderful week:

We rented a paddle boat at the park and pretended we were in Italy.

Giant statues everywhere

The Spanish Air Force Headquarters where Mario will work.
He's excited about his giant office and it has windows overlooking park.
It will be so much better than working underground.

The International section at the grocery store.  Not cheap!!

All the Prius taxi cabs lined up at airport

We saw them in person at the mall

The characters from the above book.  I didn't want them to see me taking a
 picture so I went far away.  It was very odd especially since
it was in the middle of an expensive department store.

Nice walkway between large multilane street.  Unfortunately
people don't like to pick up their pet droppings.

Huge, confusing roundabouts, everywhere!

Underground Metro

My Itinerary

Hmmm!  Nebraska???  We didn't try it.

Staircase where Mario was tutored

That is a driveway to parking garage thru Mario's tutoring building.
It is very narrow.  I didn't believe a car could fit until I saw the cars parked on the other side.

Freaky motorized stuffed animals at the mall

Another Nebraska restaurant.  Why so popular here?

The grocery cart??

Segovia

Monday was the day I got a metro pass and went all over the city while Mario was in class and then with him when he was done.  We were both exhausted by the end of the day.

Mario took Tuesday off from his tutoring so we could do a day trip.  We opted for a city about an hour away.  Again, we were brave and pulled the little rental car out from the parking garage of the hotel.  Mario and I were filled with major anxiety every time we got in that car.  Our car insurance doesn't cover rental cars in Europe.  We paid for the insurance there but it still had a huge deductible. The parking garage had a tiny amount of space to drive and it had several poles that we had to weave in and out of.  It only had room for one car to go at a time, so there were lights directing us when to proceed and when to stop.  We saw a lot of cars with dents in their doors, so I'm assuming they were from those tiny parking garages.

Anyway, we had borrowed a GPS and we were on our way to Segovia.  It was a great drive but a little intimidating because we didn't understand all the highway signs.  I remember at one point Mario thinking one sign was trying to tell us that traffic was going to be coming head on.  I think in reality the sign was trying to tell us to shut off our headlights.  Big difference.  I was desperately searching my little Spanish book that I bought at the airport for clues to what all the signs meant.

After paying outrageous amounts for tolls, we finally made it to Segovia.  It was well worth it.  It was a beautiful city with an amazing aqueduct, cathedral and castle.  Mario and I paid to take a tour of the castle.  We enjoyed walking around the city for a few hours before heading back to Madrid.

the dungeon

overlooking Segovia from the castle tower

the castle

On the way back from Segovia, we stopped at a small outlet mall.  It had a couple of familiar stores, North Face and Nike.  It was so small and still expensive, so we didn't purchase anything.  After the outlet mall, we took a quick nap and then took the metro to the Temple that evening.  I tried to talk Mario into driving the car to the Temple, but he had enough of driving for one day.  I think it took about 45 minutes to go by metro.  It was so nice to be in the Temple.  I was so glad to hear some of the Temple workers speaking English.  I had to wear the headset since I was the only one in the session that didn't speak Spanish.  I thought maybe I didn't need the headset since I go so often, I probably have it memorized.  Oh my goodness, was I wrong.  I really needed that headset.  Mario did well in Spanish and he said he understood everything.  He's awesome.  Maybe one day I can do it without the headset.

Tuesday was probably my favorite day.  It was so relaxing (other than the driving).  It was so nice to spend time with just Mario.  We had so much fun together.  Mario said he has never heard me as laugh as much as I laughed on this trip.  We really did have a great time and it made us both realize that we'll be just fine when the kids all leave us.  We have much to do and see even when it is just the two of us.  We both feel so lucky (blessed) to have each other.