And the world spins madly on.*

*Bonus points to whoever can name the band who sings that song. No cheating via Google. Only answers off the top of your head welcome here.

Will I evah get caught up with life? Well, I don't know 'bout that, but I suppose I'll just have to try. Lord, have mercy, this past week has about done me in with how busy it was, and with the holidays approaching, I don't suspect it will slow down anytime soon. So from this point forward, I vow to put my best foot forward and accomplish what I can. Period.

One thing I would love to accomplish this weekend is to see this movie:



I read the book about five or six years ago, so I remember parts of it, but not how it ended, strangely enough. The mysterious ending will make me enjoy the movie even more, since my memory won't allow me to compare the book to the movie. It's amazing to think that it was Sue Monk Kidd's first novel. If I could crank out something that compelling, well, I'd be pretty pleased with myself!

So what has this prairie queen been up to lately? A little o' this, a touch of that. Here's the skinny over the last week or so: I played with my son during his Fall Break, I joined the little quilting ministry that just started at our church, I went on a road trip with my mom to Kansas City for my cousin's baby shower...


my beautiful cousin, C, myself, and the baby shower honoree, my other beautiful cousin, R (both of them are pregnant, but I only just found out that C is expecting her 3rd, the shower was actually for R)

...we "puppysat" another of my cousins' newest baby...


Lola, a beautiful 9-week-old Weimeraner, full of super-sharp little teeth!

...we took our boy to the circus (no one does it quite like those Ringling Bros.), we coordinated dinner for 50 or so hungry teenagers, and we all know what I was up to last night. All I can say about last night is, magic. I sure got some laughs from folks my age about going to see Neil Diamond, but I doubt anyone that was born in the 70's especially could deny their own ability to sing along with most of his songs. We were singing along at the top of our lungs to "Sweet Caroline", and I could hardly contain myself during "America". Way to go, Neil. I am forever a fan. (And it was that much sweeter that we scored our tickets for free. Take that, all you haters and teasers.)

Before all the craziness that was last week, I actually got some sewing accomplished! My quilts finally came back from the long-arm quilter (almost three months, people), and I did my best to hurry and get the bindings on them so I could actually start to enjoy them.


I used a vibrant Kaffe Fassett print for the binding -- purple with red polka dots. Thank you very much to my own personal Vanna White's -- Tex and Minnie Pearl, the naughty Italian greyhounds who will not stay off my red velvet sofa.


I used more polka dots from my stash on this quilt as well, this time brown on brown.

And how 'bout a treadmill update? To tell you the truth, I fell off the wagon towards the beginning of the summer. Yipes. That's a hard pill to swallow, and even harder to admit. I was a quitter. But the good news is that I got myself back on. After two and a half weeks back on, I have walked over 38 miles. Which also means I am getting back to my nightly viewing of Gilmore Girls, via the complete DVD collection in my basement. (I'm on Season Two now. Lorelai, oh Lorelai, how could you possibly let Max go?) Going back through the show from the beginning is fun, and it helps me to actually look forward to stepping on the treadmill every night. Speaking of, I didn't realize that it was weird to get on the treadmill every night instead of every morning. Somehow getting on every night just before bedtime doesn't affect my ability to fall asleep, thank goodness.

And so, with the treadmill on my mind, that is where I shall retire to...