2014 Already

It's not hard to write a blog.....write once a year and you're done! Ha. I really really plan to keep up this blog this year.  See, already changed the title to include 2014......

Matriculation Day - Feb 14 2014

It is February 2014 and can't believe the months are going by so fast. 2013 was pretty much taken up raising Michele.....24/7 .....  but what a sweetie. She is a very special girl and we miss her so much now that she's gone off to Advanced Training in Oceanside CA. Graduation/matriculation ceremony was Feb 14th and as usual, it was fun, hectic, sad, joyful, and in the end she just walked away with her new friends and never turned around to say goodbye. No news until April 4th. The first couple of weeks are spent getting checked out medically and temperament tests too and then into training. Training reports are sent first Friday of each month so we have to wait until April. That's the hardest part. In the back of your mind you know they can be released at any time but we're trying not to think about it. Just have to have faith that she'll want to be an assistance dog and graduate in August.  In the meantime we have Levi around to keep us company. He's now the "church dog", taking Michele's place in my office.  

Life has gone on pretty much as usual. Very little snow this winter and no rain so far. Hopefully that will change but we don't hold out much hope - I hate the thought of fire season. Gene's greenhouse got a little damaged during one of our snow storms this winter so he's got work to do to get the thing back in shape and start planting. There was nothing planted in the GH for the winter so that was good. 

Still working at the church 4 hours a day....singing in choir and playing bells. Also helped form a bell quintet and am going to sing with the Santa Fe Community Orchestra this spring for a performance of Elijah! At the Cathedral Basilica. Should be fun. 

Quilting still matters......joined the Modern Quilt Guild here in LV - we're not exactly sure what "modern quilting" really means or how to describe it, but we are learning. Right now we're working on Round Robin quilts....or as I like to call them, Circular Chicken quilts. Why? Because the name of our group is the Chicken River Modern Quilt Guild. (The river that sort of flows thru LV is the Gallinas River and Gallinas means chicken in Spanish so therefore...the CRMQG.  Alos have gotten some machine embroidery done - made dishtowels for my sister for Christmas with some software I found in the drawer for the machine. It was fun to do although changing thread is a pain in the patoot! One of my goals for 2014 is to finally learn how to use the serger I inherited. It's so intimidating to even look at it. The closest Viking dealer is in Colorado Springs so that's a bit of a drive to learn how to use the thing. But I guess I'll get out the instructions and see what damage I can do. 

Yes, I will keep up this blog!!  I will. I will.  I will try.