Marines, Samplers and Friends

Dear friends!

     Okay.  I have so much to tell you!  First, and most importantly, allow me to introduce you to the newest Marine in my family!  

Private Tyler Malinovich, USMC.

He graduated from boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina on 2-14-2014. 

Isn't that an awesome graduation date and an awesome official portrait!?

Do you know our young marines have to buy all their uniforms?  

Including their dress blues you see in the picture above.  

Not only do we pay our guys and gals squat, they have to pay for their own uniforms.  Grrrrr....

This next picture was taken on Family Day (the day before the graduation) and Ty got to show us all around the depot.  Marines only get to pass through these doors one time... the night they arrive for in-processing.  

That's when the torture transformation begins.

Tyler was so honored to have not only his dad and me at the graduation but also 

my parents and my uncle Charlie and his fiance, Nelly.  

My uncle graduated from Parris Island in August of 1959 and this was the first time he'd been back.

My dad has a brother who was also a Marine and I wish he'd been alive to see this.  

He would have loved it, I think.

You may notice that Matthew is not in the pictures.  

His flight on Wednesday evening was cancelled due to mechanical trouble and by the next morning, the big snow storm had hit and his flight was cancelled due to bad weather.  

So... he wasn't able to attend.  

We (and Matt and Ty, especially) were so disappointed.

It was a cold and windy day on family day and by the end of the day, we were all a little worse for wear but as you can see, all happy to be there.  

Not sure that Tyler had relaxed enough to smile at this point.

Uncle Charlie and Nelly, my mom, Ty, me, Rob and my dad.

My dad and mom on the left, Tyler and Uncle Charlie after graduation.

Rob, Ty and me.

Before Rob and I arrived at Parris Island, we spent a few days in Savannah.  

What a beautiful place that is with so much to see and do.

We had a most wonderful dinner at The Pink House and just shopped and bopped around town for a couple of days.  

The problem with blogging is that instagram and facebook often get the pictures before I get them up on the blog because it's so quick and easy.

So, all you guys that are FB friends and Instagram followers, 

my apologies for the duplicate pictures.

This was taken at the best store (IMHO) in Savannah, The Paris Market.  

They had this sweet banner hung up for pictures and we couldn't resist.

Actually, some other people that we didn't know were taking our pictures, too.

Why would anyone want pics of someone they didn't know?

This may be my favorite wall of all places I've ever been.  

It is in the DAR cemetery in Savannah and I just love it.  

These are headstones that have floated out of their resting spot at some point and put on the wall for safe keeping.

Finally, some stitching:

This pic is from my friend Lynn's FB page but it's a part of the group of 13 friends from our guild (Kindred Spirits Sampler Guild) that will be stitching a Friendship Sampler over the next year.

Edwina, Lynn, Mary, Pat and Nancy (in back), Julie, me and Paulette.

We all will stitch the same band on each others sampler but because of the rotation, threads and fabric selected by each individual stitcher, they will all look different.  Each person provides their own threads so no two samplers will look the same.  

You may or may not choose to stitch something at the top of your band.  

I chose to stitch something in advance because I know when I get it back in a year, I will not want to put one more stitch in it!  

This is what I came up with:  

The top portion was taken from "A Quaker Pincushion" from A Carriage House Samplings.  Because this is a friendship sampler, I amended her words (a name and removed the quaker medallions) to include this passage from the Bible.

The bees and skep were taken from A Goode Huswife chart called "The Bird Tree" and the flowers are from a Blue Ribbon Designs chart called "Heart of Gold".

I'm pretty pleased with how it came together and can't wait to see what the other 12 bands will look like!  Each band is supposed to be 20 stitches tall and 80 stitches wide.  We are able to increase or decrease the height slightly but the width is an absolute.  Check back in a year for the grand reveal.  

Tonight is Ty's last night with us before heading to the 

School of Infantry in North Carolina for about 8 weeks or so.

I wish him luck and love!

I'm so very proud of him.  

He has worked hard and overcome some major obstacles to get the right to earn the title of 

United States Marine.  

OooRah!

Have a wonderful week, everyone!  Thanks for stopping by and for all the lovely comments you leave.  They make this process of blogging worthwhile.  After all, if no one read or commented, what would be the point?  So a hearty thank you!!!

Check me out on FB and Instagram if you haven't already.

Love and Peace,

Terri