I could leave this as an 8x8 layout and put those three extra blocks on the back. OR....
I could spend some time cutting into some more scraps in order to make thirteen more blocks to complete the bottom row and an additional row on the top. 
And OF COURSE!!!! Once I was done cutting and piecing.... I found a HUGE stack of "extra" 4-patches from the swap. **hitting forehead** I guess I'll have to see about doing some kind of pieced border on this one. 
Aren't these FUN!??? Candace has snack tomorrow, and a cousin of Paul had posted sunflower cupcakes like this on Facebook last week that she had made for HER daughter's snack day. With the girls' help, we made up 24 cupcakes, and enjoyed eating a couple too :0) {{Candace only needs 17 for her class}}.
Instead, I spent a couple of hours this morning cutting up the rest of my HSTs for Jamestown Landing. 420 HSTs awaiting here, and will be my leader-ender until finished up with Blue-n-Gold Pride.
While I'm doing that, Paul has potatoes on his mind for today. He checked "pigs" off his list yesterday. And even though he requested that the girls stay inside...."they don't need to watch this".... the girls had other thoughts!!! They were peering out the window, watching him with fascination, so he finally just said "Well, you might as well come out and learn something then!" They were pretty enrapt with how the tendons/muscles worked to move the pig foot. Besides, this is about the only "non-gross" picture I took, and I didn't want to push my luck here on the blog :0)
We truly have a great student-body this year; some amazing seniors! (and yeah...even that clown peeking through from the background. :0) )
And our Queen didn't let us down (although our King did) :0) {{In all reality, I'm actually glad our King Jesse decided to back-off on the icecream eating. Afterall, he had a big football game to play a couple of hours after this craziness!!!}}
And our amazing Mrs. Amanda, 7-12 secretary, kept the days running smoothly with her lovely southern-drawl announcing over the PA system. I don't remember where she hails from, but she CLEARLY came from the south somewhere; her southern hospitality is always shining through when she needs to bring out her "people-skills."
The Homecoming "Royalty" - pictured is our 2011 Homecoming court. Upper middle shows our King and Queen. (yay Kellie!!! My volleyball captain from last year, and once again a captain this year, was voted Queen!)
The crazy Homecoming Pep Rallies and CRAZY games to fire up the School Spirit. {{Pictured in Grade 4 teacher: Mr. Kevan. ALWAYS a crowd favorite!!!!!}}
The wacky "dress-up" days all week long. Our 8th grade class is showing off some of the "Pirates" that were wandering the halls yesterday.....
The week of Homecoming at our school often is quite chaotic, but ALWAYS great fun and an excellent demonstration in school spirit! Having missed out on "Pirate Day" yesterday, my partner-in-crime for the last 13 years, Miss Everson (aka: Jan) and I were NOT going to miss out on "Identical Day." And....ya see?!?!?!?! MORE FOOTBALL LOVERS!!! Sportin' our Green-n-Gold (and white) Green Bay Packer jerseys!!!!!
These two characters are the two crazies that are in charge of much of the Homecoming 
Anyway....so after school today, I head to the locker room to change. Before I even reached the door, it hit me!!! I forGOT to pack a sports bra. Gah!!!!! Stupid, stupid, stupid. **hitting forehead** I wasn't about to let that hold me back; rather I asked a fellow coach if she could "hook me up." Sadly.....she couldn't.
So.....as I'm getting dressed, the next thing hit me! NO HAIR TIE!!!!!! Really Amy!??!!?!? You're just TRYING to come up with anything so you DON'T have to run!!!!
And the new graphs-----ooooooohhhhhhh. This math teacher is in LOVE!!!!!
I always was able to install my "speed zones," but they never really did anything before. NOW.....with one lil' checkbox, they can now be shown on the "speed" graph to get an idea of how 
I grabbed a new book for my soaking time: Linda Howard's "Mackenzie's Mountain." I haven't read a paperback in a bit; I've mainly been reading stories on my Kindle for my iTouch. However, I wasn't about to try that in the water :0)
After the bath, I found a little bit of motivation to get back downstairs. However, Blue-n-Gold Pride stayed exactly where it was; still in rows waiting to be pieced into a top. A few of you had been asking about the pattern used: this is one that has been stewing patiently on my "To be made someday" list. The design is Scrappy Stars by Melissa Erickson. I didn't follow her cutting directions nor some of her piecing directions, but the design is all hers.
Instead, I started cutting more Blue/Neutral HSTs for Jamestown Landing. 
And I pressed the HSTs I already had finished. The quilt needs 840 HSTs, and I had exactly HALF completed already! As a mathematician, that was just TOO FUN of a coincidence!!! Go figure!!! 
When walking through the living room, this was what I saw. They are under there with the laptop playing a DVD; their own "homemade theatre" :0) Eventually, they made their way to our bedroom, which is MUCH DARKER once the door is closed and the blinds are drawn.
Paul helped a buddy butcher his pigs yesterday morning, so on his way back home, he stopped by a meat shop and picked up some steaks. Paul definitely loves his mushrooms and onions; I pass on that topping. I cut up some pieces of steak for the girls, and after Candace took her first bite, she asked: "What is this?"
To finish up this post: I can't resist showing one (final?) garden goodie shot. These are the ingredients for the vegetable juice I made up after dinner last night. It all looked SO YUMMY, and the final cooked product certainly was!
Yup...Angela was right. It didn't take too long to whip up the missing blocks {{and IF I actually DID make them originally, and IF they decide to show up.....they'll either make some great backing additions OR an excellent pillow accessory.}}
Here is my 2nd load of tomatoes for the day; the first load is in the canner for their 45 minute bath. Always something to do during the process, and once started, there isn't much downtime. {{Obviously I have some downtime right now, though!!!}}
The 2nd load has since been skinned and cored, and is currently getting up to boiling temperature. Then, they'll be loaded in the jars and OFF for their 45 min. bath too.
With those Blue-n-Gold Pride units waiting patiently all week long, I was anxious to get downstairs this morning to start the FUN-n-EXCITING stage of staring to piece them all together.
Piecing-n-Pressing has been much of my morning
And the first glimmer of a quilt top is enough to keep me pushing along at warp speed :0)
Too much of a good thing isn't always good when other things are also pressing in for time! With lunch needing to be made, and an afternoon of processing tomatoes on the priority list, I must set my B-n-G Pride sewing aside for now. The good news, though.......I was motivated and busy last night prepping for all of my classes and grading all my homework papers. Therefore, I have NO SCHOOLWORK looming over me for the rest of the weekend. I'm betting I'll be back with B-n-G later this evening :0)
Holy tomatoes Batman! With the 100% certainty that frost/freezing temps are hitting tonight (24 degrees F forecasted), I ditched out of school shortly after gathering up my girls directly after the ending bell in order to get home and into the garden. With the girls' help, we picked a whopping load of tomatoes! Bag upon bag upon bag was emptied onto the tables (see the little one in the background?).
It was Cassie's idea to get this angle to show that we simply didn't have enough table to lay the tomatoes in one layer; many have been doubled up. 
After hanging the basil up on our kitchen over-hang, he snapped this picture.
Yeah, yeah. It wasn't too long ago that Cassie had her hair cut to make a donation to Locks of Love. And lil' Candace begged and begged to have her hair cut. Recall at the time....MOM was NOT too keen on the idea. I LOVE her hair!
This is the FIRST time her hair has been cut, other than a lil' trim here-n-there, and of COURSE her bang cuts.....
She BOLTED to the bathroom mirror once I made the complete cut across the pony-tail, squeeeeeling and giggggling! Caitlyn wasn't far behind her, either. 
And if she weren't a whole foot (and then some) shorter than Cassie, I would have a hard time telling the two of them apart from the back.
I don't teach Health of any biological sciences, BUT.....
Yesterday in the mail, I received the give-away scrap box that Nancy (Patchwork Penguin) graciously gave-away earlier last week. I didn't even open it yesterday with all the tomato fun we were having :0).....
But nothing held me back today. My GOODNESS!!!! The "scraps" were JAM-PACKED in there! And....WOW! So many GOOOOOODIES! 
In fact, I put one of the fabrics to work straight-away as I started piecing more 9-patches together -- a blue strip here, a yellow strip there
And it worked!!!! ALLLLL the units for Blue-n-Gold Pride are now completed. And as BADLY as I wanted to keep going and start piecing the blocks together.....it was already 11:00, and I had LOADS to do yet if we were going to get out on that boat in the afternoon to enjoy the last NICE day we'll probably have before Fall weather really takes over.
From 11:00 - 1:30 ... more canning! 6 half-pints of pickle relish, and another 10 half-pints of salsa. Amidst that time, I also made up some lunch and picked up a friend of Cassie's who we invited to tag along on the boating excursion.
We did get on the road around 2:30 to enjoy the rest of the afternoon on the water. As we were heading through town, the Bank's sign was letting us know EXACTLY how beautiful of a day it was!!! 91 degrees! LOVELY!
But it didn't stop the girls (too much) from enjoying the afternoon. Even I dived in to cool off........and that water CERTAINLY did the job today!!! However, after lounging in the sun on the boat with legs propped up, face looking up towards the sun..... ahhhhhhhhH! It was a BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL toasty warm afternoon on the lake!!!!!
While dinner was cooking and the girls were finishing their baths, I took the basil leaves out of the dehydrator to give 'em a whirl in the small food processor.
Using the words of Judy L, ..... they were pulverized to a lovely fine seasoning flake.
Paul knew what he was doing when he "recycled" some old seasoning jars after we emptied them. Golly...all I'd have to do now is print off an adorable little label, and I could sell basil seasoning for a living!!! ;0) As for the dehydrated tomatoes -- they weren't quite dry enough yet. I'm predicting tomorrow :0)
