Fun Traveling - Part Two

When I left Texas I flew to London and then on to Athens to join Andrew where he was working in Kinetta, Greece. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort right on the seaside. This was the view from our room. Nothing but villas and olive trees with a mountain in the horizon.
Andrew had to work so I suffered through the days by the pool.

In the evenings when Andrew got back to the hotel we usually went for a drink at the bar by the beach where this was the view.

As always, Andrew made a new friend, Dionysus, who told us that he was named after the Greek God of wine, women and merriment. It seemed like a natural choice of professions for him to be a barman!

On the last night in Greece we went into Athens to stay with one of Andrew's work colleagues because we were flying out to France very early the next morning. It was my birthday so they guys took me to a fantastic German restaurant for my birthday dinner! I know, German food in Greece? But they told me it was the best and they were right! In case you are wondering, yes, they do the embarrassing birthday cake sing along in Greece too!

Girls Trip - Padre 2009

What a blast! There were 13 of us in one house and all related. We had a fantastic time hanging out and just chillin'. We spent a great day at the beach and some even went back a couple of more days for fun in the sun.

Some of us went out for an evening cruise on a boat to watch the sunset and fireworks show for Memorial Day weekend. I think this is a cool picture because you can see the moon beside the fireworks explosion.

We had a stupid human tricks competition and personally I think this one was my favorite! Go Kim, go Kim - who needs wine!

And on our last night we had a great dinner on the deck of a restaurant looking over the gulf watching the sunset. We surprised Telee Welee with a birthday treat!

Fun Traveling - Part One

I know this first picture doesn't have much to do with traveling (other than I did have to get here first) but isn't Lilly just the cutest!
I felt like I was on the road forever again but it was really only seven weeks. I had such a great time catching up with everyone in Texas. One of my favorite things was the Mother/Daughter banquet for Mother's Day. We are truly blessed to have so many remarkable women in our lives. Of course, it would have been better if all the ladies from our family could have been there but considering the size of our family I think it is great that we got this many together!

We were asked to wear our apron to this banquet which set me in a bit of a predictament as I didn't actually own one. I had hoped to make a couple to bring over but with trying to finish-up Lilly's quilt I just didn't have any spare time. Kimberly didn't have one that she wanted to wear either so I asked her what type of apron she would like if I could make one in time. I know it will be no surprise her response was "an animal print, GRRRR!" I had wanted to make something that would sort of represent the area that I had been in (Kuwait). But I couldn't really think of anyway to tie the two together. The only thing I came up with is the Kuwaiti women really know how to "bling" up things well so I thought I would work on this idea. This is what I created with the help of Holly, who took me to her sewing class and let me borrow her pattern, and Kelly, the sewing teacher, who was very patient with me trying to figure out how to use a paper pattern for the first time.

I had an amazing time just hanging out with the family and spending some real quality time with Mother. Call me spoiled if you want to but I got her all to myself and I wouldn't trade that time for anything!

The other thing I wouldn't trade for the world was getting to spend time with the boys. Unfortunately, Justin and Melanie are in Virginia and I didn't get a chance to visit with them this time. They are getting ready for their wedding ceremony on July 3rd and both are extremely busy with all the plans as you can imagine. It was really wonderful getting to be with Zack, Amber and Lilly and seeing how their little family is growing.

I also got to spend some time with Brandon and Kate and of course there was the immense joy of watching Brandon walk across the stage at graduation. Go Brandon!

We spent time together in both Austin and Dallas and I have to say this might be the hardest part of being so far away. Just being able to share the day-to-day little things with each other. Zack and Lilly came out to the house for lunch one Sunday and had a fun afternoon. No trip is complete without a ride in Uncle Dwight's wagon!

Life in Kuwait

I know that some people have this somewhat preconceived notion of what day-to-day life is like in the middle east. I did too before I came here for the first time. I have to say that it was very little like I had envisioned beforehand. So, I thought I would share a little of what our social life is like when we are here. Before we came out here the first time Andrew had told me that the most important thing I could do was to develop our social circle as the key to surviving in a new culture was having a social outlet. So, I started going to the British Ladies Society coffee morning and once in a while to the American Women League and of course to the quilt group meetings. There are so many amazing people here of different nationalities once you get out and meet them.
We spent our anniversary here this year and couldn't figure out how we would celebrate it. But on our actual anniversary we were invited to a reception for Prince Andrew (British Royal Family) on the HMS Richmond which was in port here. That was nice and we were out on the town so very unexpected as well.
Then that weekend the Irish Society was hosting a St. Patrick's Day Ball. These are always fun because we get to dress up for the black tie occasion.

It was at the Hilton with a nice plated dinner and a band that played 70's-present music.
During this time period our friends the Dishongh's had their parents out visiting from Hot Springs so we had a lot of fun hanging with them. Frank and Johanna decided to host a party for Ray and Daisy(the parents) and asked Andrew's band to play for the evening. Here is the guys at their best.

And of course the "groupies" some of the ladies having a good time! There was a house full of around 50 that night and everyone had a great time just mingling and relaxing as you would anywhere else.

Other than that we have our couples cards night about once a month and that is always great to see the guys relax and have fun without talking about work. None of the guys work at the same company so the conversation usually stays very lighthearted and it gives them a break from the stresses. We ladies love to watch them just relax and enjoy a fun night.

Ignore the look on Andrew's face! If you see the clock on the wall it says 10:15. That's about two hours later than we are normally in our room already. :)

And of course, there is always my quilting. I will dearly miss many of the wonderful ladies that I have had the privilege ofmeeting here that have now moved on to different parts of the world. My closest and dearest quilting buddy is Betsy. She left before we returned this trip. (Don't feel too bad for them. Their next assignment is Vincenza, Italy!) Betsy, the one sitting at the sewing machine, is truly the one that inspired me to try quilting and held my hand pretty much all the way. She worked full-time for the last two years but stopped working at the end of 2008 so she could enjoy the social scene in Kuwait before she left. She started a very small quilting group on Wednesdays which I was part of and had a great time. I am hoping to start the group back up with the ladies that are still here now.

So, you see it isn't really that different from life anywhere else. Of course, other than I have a lot more opportunities to meet great people and experience all sorts of things that I might not otherwise get a chance to do.
One last thing....the shopping. Here is one of many, many shops that sell those wonderful handbags and other items that I get to bring back from time-to-time.

Lilly's Birthday Quilt

I have wanted to blog about this project for a couple of months now but had to wait until after I gave the quilt to Lilly. I wanted to make an I Spy quilt for her second birthday so that it would help Lilly learn new objects as well as colors. I had all of my charm blocks cut out to the appropriate size when Andrew came home and said "I have an idea". He really liked the Bug Jar quilt we had made Myka last year and thought it would be fun to make this quilt into a bug jar as well. So,I was determined that I wasn't going to recut out 70 blocks into a different size and if we were going to make this modification it would take a little magic formula to make it work. Andrew went to work with his engineering mind and in just a little while had figured out the pattern dimensions that we needed to modify it.
The next thing was how to do the back. I had found this really cool "Very Hungry Caterpillar" fabric panel that I wanted to use but it wasn't going to be big enough to cover the entire back. So, again Andrew went to the drawing board and it took a wee bit longer but he came out with a formula to incorporate the color panels from the top with the caterpillar panel to make a back big enough for what we needed.



I have a friend in Kuwait whose parents were visiting from Little Rock about the time I finished the top. I didn't have time to get it quilted before I had to leave my sewing machine behind so I sent it on to my friend Kyra in Round Rock to be quilted then to Mother for the hand binding. We got the top boxed up and sent it back with the visitors who mailed it to Texas for finishing. I couldn't have pulled this one off without this wonderful resource of helpers. Thank you.

I had so much fun making this quilt it just made me giggle everytime I finished a square! :) And now I know why....it must be a very happy quilt!