Our Latest Addition

We have a new family member!! One of Ron's co-workers gave him an adorable floppy eared bunny a few days ago. He has yet to be named, and since Sarah has been given the honor of naming him it may be a while before he has a name! When Ron brought him home the whole family rushed out to see him, it was quite the event. He lives out in his cage in the back yard now and Justin asks to visit him daily. Here are some pics of his arrival day:

Sarah gently holding the bunny, she is so good with animals.

Cat and boy sniffing and inspecting the new arrival.

Park Day

My mom's group went to a local park this week and the kids had a blast! For those of you who live out of the area, I am blessed to live in one of the most beautiful places in the US, (in my opinion!) Redwood trees abound here, and we can hop in the car and go visit them anytime. The ocean is just a few minutes away as well. One of our local parks has a redwood forest nearby, and some redwood trees right in the middle of the park with slides coming out of them. The kids love this park!! Here are some pics of our outing:

Sarah and Justin hanging out on the base of a redwood tree.

One of Justin's good buds ready to go down the slide.

The beautiful redwood trees!

Friends hanging out under the tree together.

30th B-Day Apron Present

My friend Bethany had her 30th birthday recently and I made her this apron from the Bend the Rules sewing book. Bethany is a wonderful cook and is in the kitchen lots, so I figured an apron would be the perfect gift for her. The fabric is from Scottie Dog Quilts. I love the "Martini" fabric I used for the skirt part. She looks fab in it!

Doesn't she look great, not a day over 20 in my opinion!

My first ever kangaroo pocket - easy and fun.

Vintage Finds

I hit an amazing garage sale a few weeks ago! The lady who did the sale used to be our neighbor and gets rid of some of her vintage stuff every few years. There are always great deals on nice vintage items at her sale. I saw her add for the sale and knew I had to be there! The prices were great and I got all these items plus a vintage sheet and a few vintage shirts for only $15! Can't beat that!

I love this cool vintage clown cushion! It's not a weird/scary clown face in my opinion, and the kids like it, plus it looks cute in the play room. It squeeks when you get up, too funny!
It has cute numbers 1-10 on the side.

This old county scene print had to come home with me!

This is an old enamel pitcher and it looks great in the bathroom.

Quilt Exhibition

My friend Deanna and I headed over to the Redwood Acres fair grounds to check out the quilt exhibition today. It was so much fun to see all of the beautiful creations! I love to go to exhibitions like this because I get all kinds of ideas and inspiration. I bought some cute fabric and a purse pattern as well. Here are some pics of the fun!

Tatum Fei went along for the ride with sister Rowan. I could put these two in my pocket and bring them home with me!

Close up of a beautiful quilt from Scottie Dog Quilts.

My friend Liz was at her shop booth, Scottie Dog Quilts. She is an amazing quilter!

One of my favorite quilts from the show. I love the lines of this one.

A pretty red work embroidered quilt.


Close up of a pin wheel quilt Liz did. I love these repro fabrics!

Pin Wheel quilt done by Liz, beautiful!

Thai Cuisine!

We had the Thailand team over for dinner last week and had such a great time! I decided to go all out and make real Thai food! I got most of the ingredients from a local Asian store. Here are some pics from the night:

Here's the team that will be going to Thailand, minus one three year old

Sarah was very excited about the Pad Thai!


Pad Thai with chicken. It was so good that we made it the next night!

Fresh squeezed lime made the Pad Thai even better!

The ingredients for the Pad Thai. If you want the recipe let me know. Blogger wouldn't let me paste it in for some reason.

I made one of my favorite deserts of all time - Thai sweet rice. This rice is different than Jasmine rice. It's called sweet rice and is imported from Thailand. You soak it for around 6 hrs. Then you put it into this special basket and steam it for about 20 minutes and flip it. This is the hardest part! You roll it into a ball by moving the basket around then flip it over and steam it for another 20 minutes. Then you serve it up with coconut milk and fresh mangos, yuuumy! I didn't get any pics of the final product unfortunately.

Soaking the rice. This rice is SO delicious. It's very sweet and is the best rice I've ever had.

The basket which you can get at any Asian food store. This one cost around 3 dollars.

Bath Tub "Napping"

The other day Sarah came running up to me and said, "Mom, you have to come see Justin in the bathroom!" I went in and this was the sight. Sarah had made a "bed" for him and he was all settled in. He wanted the door shut and I think he would have taken a nap in there if I hadn't said no! I just can't go there - my kid isn't going to nap in the bath tub!

Coin Quilt Gone Wonky

I attempted to make my first mini coin quilt this past week from the book "Pretty Little Patchwork". I decided to make it from cute batik fabrics, some of which I had and some I went out and bought. Make a long story short, this project didn't get too far before I realized that the blocks were uneven and wonky! The strips are 1/ 1/2" wide so it's tough to get them cut evenly. They weren't lining up properly either which is a pet peve of mine! So, I decided to make lemonade from the lemon. I've been needing something to go on top of the down stair's bathroom's toilet. Now the loo is fancied up with my wonky creation! It actually looks pretty cute if I say so myself!! Glad I was able to salvage what I had done and use it for something.

It's a wonky creation...
but looks cool on the loo!

Employee of the Month!!

Today Ron was awarded the ambassador of the month award for Redwood Memorial Hospital! He has only been there 10 months. There are around 250 employees at the hospital, so this is a big deal. I'm so proud of him! He got a cash check, coupons for the cafeteria at the hospital, a certificate, balloons, and will have a write up in the hospital news letter. Here is the write up that will be featured in the newsletter:

…RMH’s Ambassador of the Month for July.

Our Service Standard of the Month is Customer Waiting.

Ron Alexander understands the needs of his customers and never keeps them waiting.

He has been instrumental in optimizing PAR levels of supplies and is prompt when extra supplies are needed.

Ron has served on several hospital-wide Rapid Improvement Events and is very involved with the Supplies/Inventory value stream project. He is eager to problem solve with departments and works to improve processes and reduce excess inventory.

Ron brings a positive “can do” attitude to his role. His “positivity” is contagious!

Congratulations, Ron, on being selected RMH’s Ambassador of the Month for July!

Ron with the balloons they gave him when they congratulated him at work.