There has been debate about who Eli looks like. Wallace has received ancient (ummm… 31 year old) photos that put that put that question to rest.

Isn’t that the coolest thing? Wallace is so talented.

Here is another picture for you to enjoy, taken with my cell phone while babysitting when W&J were getting haircuts.

Here is Eli’s latest video outing. Such a strong happy baby at 1 month old.

I’ve rambled on about Eli, now some news about the rest of the family.

Matt and Molly have sent out their “Save the Date” cards and have decided on their invitations. Everything is falling into place. A block of rooms has been reserved at the Radisson Hotel, information can be found on their wedding blog, Matt & Molly’s wedding. A bridal shower has been planned in Arlington in mid June, hosted by a family friend and Molly’s sister-in-law. I have my plane reservations. Molly gave me a recipe for vegan French Toast, and it is wonderful. One of the things I have missed most about having an egg allergy was French Toast. Molly has a very bright and informative food blog, where she writes about her adventures in cooking, gardening, and other life experiences. I have found her writing to be interesting and humorous. I have added her blog to the blogroll on the right, I encourage you to check it out. You will learn something about vegans and hopefully gain some insight into Molly as a new member of our family.

Julia was disappointed to learn that she would extend her college time by a minimum of 1.5 years if she transferred to UT in Austin. So her plans have changed and she has decided to take the fast track and stay at UNT to get her teaching degree.  She wants to teach 5th graders and Texas has just changed the requirements for teaching middle school. She is working with an advisor at UNT to plan out her final classes and trying to decide on a specialty to teach. She is also looking for housing in Denton, so she won’t have the long commute and will be able to be more active in the social activity at the university. Her current lease ends at the end of June. Julia is a responsible pet owner, her puppy, Hurley, was spayed this week and is doing well.

Ted was in Westcliffe over the Memorial Day weekend. His roommates have a band and came home to play a “gig” at the new local night club. Ted had a part in two songs, playing rhythm instruments. We went to watch the band, which was supposed to start at 9:30 pm, but didn’t get started until almost 10. We stayed for 4 or 5 songs, but couldn’t make it till Ted’s appearance. While we thought they did a good job, it was rock music, loud and past our bedtimes, so we had to go. Ted said it was one of the largest crowds to attend a musical event in the new club, but since most of the audience was under 21, the income to the club was limited – not enough liquor sales. But it is our understanding that they will be invited back to play. Ted is still looking for a job as a bartender in Denver.

Jay is enjoying his new business. He gets a lot of traffic and loves talking to the customers who come through the store. We removed the back office and have expanded the floor space significantly. He has a new display cabinet for jewelry and small expensive items, a new wall rack for rifles and a display rack for handguns. We ran out of space in the first gun safe, and now have added a larger gun safe to accommodate the rifles. Jay and Louis moved it from the trailer into the store by themselves. It took 4 people to move in the first one. Obviously, the learning curve worked. Our landlord, Elton, created the two gun display racks. He has done an outstanding job. Jay has an antique washing machine that he puts outside the front door, it does a great job of attracting visitors. He doesn’t want to sell it, he likes it so much.

We are having more visitors this summer than last. We are so excited. Jay’s friend from law school, Al, was here for Memorial Day weekend. We had a great visit, except that it rained every day that he was here. Apparently there is a monsoon season in Colorado, and this week was it. But it was not constant and we need the water for the plants, wildflowers and the water table. We went to Mission Wolf and got the opportunity to go into 2 different wolf enclosures to meet wolves. We got to meet Merlin, an elderly male wolf. Wolves greet you by smelling your teeth, licking your face and looking you in the eye. Those of you who know me may be amazed that I let a wolf lick my face, I was!, but I did. We also went into a cage with Raven, a female, but she didn’t make it all the way down to my end of the que before she got distracted. The wolves were all howling at one point, it was amazing to hear their voices echo across the area. We also got the first glimpse of 4 new wolf pups on their first adventure out of the den. Mother wolf was out also, keeping a close eye on the pups. The staff with us were very excited to see the new pups, ensuring we knew how special we were to be there at the exact right time.

Our niece, Courtney, is working as a counselor at Horn Creek, a Christian camp here in Westcliffe. She arrived Memorial Day weekend, and we are looking forward to visiting the camp, something we haven’t had the opportunity to do yet, and for her to visit us at the house and the store. More details about her adventures later.

My brother and sister-in-law, Joe and Jane will be here in June, after visiting their son and my nephew, (funny how that works)  Jeff and his new wife, Krissi. Jeff is getting ready to get deployed to Afghanistan (A-stan) in a few weeks. They are currently at Fort Lewis in Tacoma WA and there will be a family event for the soldiers who will be shipping out. I hope to find out a way to stay in touch with how Jeff is doing while overseas.

I am a procrastinator. I admit it. Sometimes I do my better work under the pressure of a deadline. I knew Eli was coming for nine months. I can’t tell you what I was doing that prevented me from starting his quilt in the early days, but I did get started in mid March, when Julia, Matt and Molly were here for their spring break visit. However, I still didn’t make the push to get it finished before he was born. I left for Austin on April 30^th, with my sewing machine, supplies, and 35 6”blocks and the extra fabrics for the top and backing.

Upon arrival at Wallace’s house, I set up my sewing table, machine etc. and took advantage of the time that I was not needed to do something else, to work on Eli’s quilt. It is flannel, in browns, reds, blues and greens. A big boy quilt, not a baby quilt. The blocks have appliquéd stars on the background fabrics. I had prepared a small sampler quilt with the fabric  remaining after cutting out the stars from smaller squares of fabric, in effect a reverse appliqué. This 9 block quilt was finished with the binding. You can see it in the background in some of the pictures. It gave me an opportunity to try out different appliqué stitches around the stars, before working on the bigger quilt. So, Wallace and Jen had an idea of what I was going to do and Eli has a mini-quilt right now.

I didn’t get the whole quilt finished while I was there. But I did get the top finished and the quilt sandwiched. I did some quilting in the ditch along the blocks and inner borders. I plan to hand quilt the stars in the center of each of the blocks and stars along the brown outer border. Then I’ll put the binding on the traditional way, machine stitch the binding down on one side and hand stitch the rest. Here are some pictures of the quilt in progress.

Since it is hot in Texas in May, June, July, etc… I don’t feel too bad, since I can’t imagine that Eli would want to be under the quilt at this time. But I’m going to get cracking on the hand quilting so he will get it before fall.

Eli is a wonderful baby and his parents are doing a great job. I got to visit the pediatrician’s office and the midwifes at Austin Area Birthing Center. Eli weighed 9 pounds even at birth, 9 pounds 12 1/2 oz at his two week check up with the pediatrician and 10 pounds 3 oz at the midwives three days later. Wallace has done a fine job of putting videos of Eli being cute on Youtube. So if you need a reminder of how to find them or the photos on Picasa, let me know and I’ll send you the link again.

Julia drove down from Fort Worth on Friday morning and she and I visited the UT Education Department and then looked at apartments in Austin. Jay and Ted flew down on Southwest Airlines on Friday afternoon. Wallace picked up Jay and Ted at the airport and took them to his house to visit and meet Eli. After Molly, Julia and I joined them at the house, we headed to a downtown Austin restaurant for dinner. The purpose of the trip was to check out a restaurant to use for the rehearsal dinner for Matt and Molly’s wedding. Everyone liked the restaurant and the room for the party and that it was on the famous 6^th street in Austin. Everyone did not include Eli and his parents. Eli was in seclusion, except for family visits to the home, under doctor’s recommendations. And since this was at the height of the swine flu panics, no one complained about keeping Eli away from germs.

Saturday, we spent time at W&Js and got to visit for a little while with Wallace’s best friend, Josh,who’d come to visit Eli. I kept working on Eli’s quilt, Julia studied for exams, and Jay and Wallace tackled a plumbing project that he’d been saving for a special day. They even got to do the traditional run to the hardware store midway through the project. Matt and Molly joined us later in the afternoon. They brought a t shirt for Eli, that says “keep Austin weird”, which I believe refers to the music industry in Austin and the attitude of the city. We then went with Matt and Molly to check out the venue for the wedding, Mayfield Park, and the location of the reception following the wedding. We enjoyed seeing the park, and all of the peacocks that live there. It will be a beautiful spot for the wedding. The reception will be at a nearby synagogue, and it will be a wonderful spot and also serve as a back up location for the wedding, in case of inclement weather.

Sunday was Mother’s Day. It was wonderful to have everyone together. We had a lovely bagel, lox and cream cheese brunch all together at the Printz’s. After packing up my sewing machine, table and accessories, giving Eli extra hugs and kisses, we all left.

I dropped Jay and Ted at the airport, picked up my road trip buddie, Audie, and we headed back to Westcliffe after 10 days in Austin. It still took us two days, but that was by design. It was a great trip and the travels went well. We were both glad to be home and happy to have spent quality time with our kids in Austin. Isn’t Eli cute? Not that I am prejudiced, mind you!

I drove to Austin with a friend from Westcliffe who’s daughter lives here. Audie and I had a good “girl’s road trip”, stopping in north Dallas to spend one night with her sister-in-law and my BFF Denise (respectively). The short visit with loved ones was refreshing and we started out on Friday, May 1st with glad hearts and gloomy skies. The weather in TX has been warm, humid, and overcast almost all of the time. How quickly our bodies forget humidity! But it has not been oppressive heat and humidity, just omnipresent.

We arrived in Austin about 12:30 pm and after dropping Audie off at her daughter’s, I scooted down Mo-Pac to see Eli. He is as cute in person as he is in the pictures. His parents have done such a good job, both creating him and nurturing him since he has arrived. He is a solid little bundle with hair so soft and sweet smelling. I love this stage, but then I can get sleep at night! Wallace does a great job of taking care of Jen, and she is doing a great job of taking care of Eli.

Wallace has posted a public Picasa web album where he will be placing particularly cute and brilliant pictures of Eli and his family. If you have not received the link via email, and you want to see more pictures than I post here, let me know and I’ll provide the link for you. Also, he has some YouTube videos of Eli on the web, so same deal, if you want to see them, let me know.

We went to see the pediatrician on Monday morning for a two week check up. Eli now weighs 9 lbs 12.5 oz and is 21 3/4 ” long. He has gained about a pound and a half in two weeks, since he lost some weight at first and has grown three quarters of an inch. Good job, Jen!

I took this picture with my cell phone on Friday afternoon. It is the current photo on my phone wallpaper, so every time I flip it open, I get to see this beautiful face looking so serenely at Grandma. I imagine it will get updated as he grows. No, not a proud grandma at all.