Deadline: check!

Confession: I have a dream of being a children's book author. I LOVED to read when I was a kid. The baby-sitters club series was my favorite. I finished my first book about a princess that's really wants to be a pirate and stows away on her uncle's pirate ship (with her faithful sidekick cat, Rico) and ends up saving the day. Luke made me set a deadline to submit it to be published because I was procrastinating. I set it for April 1. Last week I submitted a query letter to a childrens lit agency and they asked to see my work. I sent off my manuscript yesterday. I should hear in about a week if they want to sell it to a publisher. I know that its hard to publish a book and it can take tens of submissions before and if you get a contract. But I am hopeful that God will bless me with success. I have a wild imagination and the ability to make up stories on the spot. I would like to be able to share my stories with children everywhere. And support myself so that I can work from home.

In other news... Were super homesick!!!
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More quilt

Here is the quilt with all the blocks sewn together. I'm thinking skinny black border then then fat (unsure of color) border. The orange would have been good, but I'm pretty sure I used it all up. Not sure what I'm doing with the quilt yet.
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Dumb Things I've Done: Vol. 18

When we first got married Luke accidently turned on the wrong burner about three times. Once exploding a pan of brownies (it exploded when he brought it outside and set it in the snow), once lighting a box of tea on fire, and once melting a bottle of Alpine Touch. I have always made fun of him for this. Well, this morning the tables have turned. I had baked an apple bread/tart thing last night and it was on a cookie sheet on top of the stove. Then this morning I went to turn on the kettle for some oatmeal and heard a sizzle but didn't think anything of it. A few minutes later the kitchen is filling with smoke and I realized the pan and the apple concoction is burning. We live in an apartment building and I really didn't want to set off the smoke alarm. My first thought is to get the burning pan outside. Once again, we live on the top floor of an apartment building. So I stuck it in the oven, hoping it would dissipate. Um, the smoke kept coming up through the vent of the stove. The kitchen is FILLED with smoke now and we've opened both the sliding glass door and the window in the kitchen. So now the 30 degree air is streaming in and smoke is sort of streaming out. And the stove fan is on. Then we sprayed febreeze in the kitchen everywhere. And I am waving an oven mitt in the air trying to get the smoke out. After a few minutes of cold air it seemed to do okay, but we had to leave for work so now I smell like smoke. yuck.

Big Changes!

Guess what?! I am gainfully employed. woo hoo! The massage thing wasn't working out based on the fact that a) the economy downturn means more people are giving up the leisure activities such as massage, and b) arthritis does not allow me to comfortably and without pain do the amount of massages needed to make money. So now I am working as a temp-to-hire receptionist/admin asst. at Parker Integrated Sealing Systems (parker.com) I'm definitely over qualified, but its a job, with a steady paycheck, and the promise of benefits upon hire. yay! What more could a girl ask for? Today is day 3. And a little slow. But thats okay.

The weather in Virginia has been very Montana-like. We've had three big snow storms, plus its been cold. When there is snow they close down schools and government and churches and Luke and I just laugh. I don't ever remember a snow day growing up, and these kids got all of last week off of school because it snowed on the weekends and a country road may not be plowed for a bus to get down it, so they close the schools. Its craziness. Plus, luke's school has had a 2 hour delay the past two days because of the promise of snow. Not even blizzarding, just snow. But, I will say, the snow days have allowed me to get a lot of quilting in! I spent most of Friday and Saturday sewing and watching Gilmore Girls on dvd. It was pretty much awesome!

Epic snowfall

Snow is not common in Virginia. If it snows, and for several days after it snows, or if they think it will snow, they close all the schools. Yesterday my office was closed so I stayed home and quilted and watched Gilmore Girls. Also in Virginia they have freezing rain, which is rain that turns into ice balls by the time it hits the ground. So yesterday it snowed, then rained, and today its snowing again. Here are some pictures from my phone looking off our deck. The branches have snow and ice chunks on them and its still snowing! Its like I'm back in Bozeman! Except people aren't supposed to leave their houses unless they have to.
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Stringing Along

I started a new quilt this weekend. Its a scrappy string quilt. Basically you start with a square of paper, glue a thin strip of the same fabric in the middle of each block, then add on random sized strips, pressing as you go. I went with the black center and the rest is random fabric from various projects...quilts by me and my brothers, hooter hider fabric, clothing projects, Christmas aprons, etc. I might have to make more blocks because otherwise it will only be 32" by 40" without borders. It would make a good baby quilt but I think it would be better as a lap or bed quilt. Hmmm.
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