Back to Blogging

I'm back to blogging after being absent for six months. Time flies when your having fun moving huh???? We are finally settled in LeClaire, Iowa it's a pretty little town outside of the quad cities (Bettendorff & Davenport on the Iowa side and Moline & Rock Island on the Illinois side. It's the birthplace of Buffalo Bill! And best of all it has a wonderful quilt shop: Expressions in Threads. The house is about 10 years old and was ready to just move in, we didn't have to paint, carpet or anything which is a real plus when you move so frequently. There were some wonderful older homes in the area, but they just needed too much work on them to move into. I guess an "old home" is a relative term after seeing people live in homes 300 years old in the Netherlands! After having so much snow and it being so cold, it is hard to remember that it was so green when we moved in!

Ed is traveling quite a bit, probably about 50 - 60% of the time. He gets to go to Argentina, China, Canada, China, France and Germany. He's usually pretty thoughtful and brings me good presents back!

Big news is our son Brad is living with us! He is working full time as a programmer during the day and a part-time student at night. He is still working on his own business too of building websites. He has one of his own that he has had for a while, Mactips. Check it out if you are into Macs or if you have i pods, it's really good! Of course I'm biased! Brad brought a little friend with him when he came home! Not a girl friend thank God, but a cross-eyed orange kitten named Jasper. He is adorable and constantly messing with the other cats, very cute!


















In October, while Ed was in China, I decided I really, really needed a dog. Actually I had decided a long time ago, but significant other did not agree. He stopped protesting as loud as he once had, or maybe I was just wearing him out? Anyway, I ended up finding an 8 month old golden retriever named Bear at the Davenport shelter. He has been a handful! The poor thing developed a severe infection after he was neutered and then he had kennel cough. After me babying him for two weeks, I had a monster of a dog on my hands. After three months, he is becoming a wonderful dog!!! I just adore him. I take him to obedience every Wednesday night and I think I'm being more trained then he is. It is so much fun to see all the dogs and puppies!!



















Life back in the states has taken some getting used to. I got used to not eating fast food overseas so I really didn't want to get back in that habit. I miss our friends, the flowers, flea markets, cheese and the cows and so much more!!!! My hometown is about 35 minutes away. It's been hard coming back to this area. Lots of memories. It has been wonderful to reconnect family that we don't get to see often. Don't know if the sadness ever goes away when you loose your parents, grandparents and others though.

Other big news is I'm going to school! I will graduate from Western Illinois University hopefully in 1 1/2 years! I'm taking 16 credit hours right now, so it definitely cuts in on quilting time, but this is something I've always want to do and why not now?

I'll get more pictures up soon and try to fill in the last six months!