Hey there!  Suzanne here.  Yes, I’m still alive.  I’ve just either been GONE, or not in the mood to blog.

Gone?  Yup.  Gone.  As in, road trip times two.

First was a trip to Machine QUilter’s Showcase in Overland Park, KS.  (I usually say Kansas City, but I suspect that to residents of the area, that is a faux pas, not to mention the fact that the 2 young literalists that I live with always want  me to clarify.  I swear, the two of them will NOT let me get away with generalization, hyperbole or any other variation of figurative language.  Twice recently, Joe has opened his mouth to get all literal on me and I’ve told him to give me a break.  He just grins at me).

That trip was by myself.  It took me 5 hours to drive down, but more than 6 coming home.  I get in the car to drive a long distance and I start to have a painful need to close my eyes.  I take lots of breaks.

The show was very nice.  Lots of inspiration, but it didn’t seem like there were as many over-the-top jaw-dropping show-stopping quilts there this year.

I didn’t take any classes, just wandered the quilts, the vendor mall and visited with people.  I bought some wide backs from Sew Batik and some thread.  Really exciting, I know.

I was home for a few days, and then the whole family went on a really big adventure.  The boys even got to miss 3 days of school!  Mark’s cousin graduated from West Point, and about a month ago we decided that we need to go — Mark’s family isn’t very big, he only has 2 first cousins (the graduate and his older sister), and we decided it was important to go support Bryce on this momentous occasion.

And on top of that:  President Obama was the guest speaker at graduation.

The entire experience was worth the 40 plus hours we were in a car driving.  Thankfully, my husband is a superhero and can drive for long stretches without stopping.  If I’d been driving, we’d still probably somewhere on the way home.  The boys are pretty good travelers.  Of course they are:  it’s like heaven for them.  THey get to play on their Nintendo DS for as long as the battery holds out, and then they can watch a movie on their iPod.  We did make them read for stretches, and both had a bit of homework to do.

Me?  I did a lot of Sudoku, I napped (badly), read, and knitted.  A lot of knitting.  If my project were close I’d snap a picture, but you’ll have to just imagine many rows of stockinette in a bright pink.  It was very boring knitting, but I didn’t think I couldn’t handle anything that required much thought.

As I said, it was worth it.  I’ve never seen a President in person (well, we had to use the binoculars…but still…), West Point is a beautiful place, and it was exciting being there for Bryce.  Each graduate walks across their stage to get their diploma — all of them got to shake the President’s hand.  I told the boys that when they said Bryce’s name, they had to shout with me, and…yeah.  I was pretty much the only one that made any noise.  None of the other adults did.  Sheesh.

The boys were particularly impressed with the saber he was carrying.  And the fancy knife he brought home with them.

Back to reality for now, though.  I have a lot of quilting and other stuff to catch up on, and I think I might finally be recovered from the trip enough to accomplish some of it, so…I better get moving.