Pictures

These are some of the flimsies that I want to get quilted this summer. Above is Mayhem in Manchester, which was a mystery quilt class at MQX taught by Mark Lipinski. It's not the best pic, as it was so bright out that I couldn't see the icon on the camera.
This is a log cabin, blue and green. I like the way the colors are kind of subtle.
This was a mystery on the Quilteville website with Bonnie Hunter. I started out working with the group as the clues were posted, but got behind real fast. Bonnie used orange where I have blue, and called it Orange Crush. I call mine "I found my thrill on blueberry hill." It has 1800 pieces, and is assembled on the diagonal, which was interesting.
This was a mystery class at Quilted Treasures, taught by Libby. I call it Gingerbread Dreams, because the brown squares are gingerbread, and the large green squares and border are pine. Steph has already claimed it.
I started this for Julianna before she was born! The big squares are all umbrellas, and it's so cute and girly!
This was a class at QT also. I love the round secondary pattern, and it's named "The wheels of the bus go round and round." It needs another border to make it a good queen sized, as does Blueberry Hill.
Our HGTV group made a comfort quilt for Lou, who is ailing. A lot of us made blocks, and because some of the group was off to retreat, others made two blocks.
Here's blueberry hill again. We use a program called eye-fi, which downloads the pix from the camera when you put the camera near the computer and turn on the camera. I hate it, and I'm not going to use it anymore. I download the pix to easyshare, then download the ones I want to use to my documents, where they get a number, and I can find the pix to move them to my blog. Ralph insisted on helping me, and he loaded them on the blog, and I have no idea how he did it. He said my way takes too many steps- but- I can do it myself that way!

The blog is supposed to be fun for me, and if he makes it "easier" but I can't do it, it ain't fun! So I'll keep the camera not close to the computer, and do it the way I know how to.

We went to dinner with Steph and Dan last night at Cheesecake Factory, and we all had enough for lunch. Steph had to get memory for her laptop, because she's going to work from home one day a week. And her cell was acting up, which Verizon fixed by taking out the battery and blowing air into the space.

Sam and I got together with her hospice nurse this morning to discuss the progression of her illness. Pam was able to answer her questions and re-assure her. Lou is pretty stable for the moment.

Mom is doing well in rehab. She gets PT every day, and they're watching the fluid in her legs. Her ramp should go in next week (they said that last week, too). They haven't given her a discharge date yet, and she's sick of the place.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

First week of vacation!

Vacation may not be the best word, since it's not paid time off. Summer break is more correct. The last week of school was exhausting! Our building is closing, and merging with another school. That meant that everything in the building had to be packed, re-assigned to another building, or tossed. And of course we didn't get the packing boxes til last week, so it was all done in a rush. The nurse who's school is merging with mine has seniority, so I'll be re-assigned, along with most of the staff of my building. It may be the end of August before I know where I'll be in September.

With everything going on in my real life right now, where I work isn't a huge concern. I'm pretty high up on the seniority list, so I'll have a job. Mom is in rehab, and doing pretty well. The diuretics took 30 pounds of fluid from her, mostly in her legs. Thirty pounds! At 8 pounds per gallon, that's almost 4 gallons of fluid! She acknowledges that she waiting way to long to allow us to take her to the ER.

Sam and Lou are both stable, neither gaining or losing any ground at the moment. I worry about the two of them constantly, and see them almost every day. Good thing they only live 2.2 miles from us! Ralph is such a good help to them also.

Yesterday was Ben and Manda's first anniversary! They went to San Antonio, to the Riverwalk, for a long weekend at a B&B. She said they had a wonderful time.

So I have some summer goals, not huge goals, but goals. I want to clean one closet per week, and I want to put one quilt to(flimsy) on the big machine per week. I actually had the same goal last summer, but I was still recovering from the surgery and did no quilting and only cleaned one closet.

So we'll see how that goes. I'm still plugging along at using up every scrap of yarn I have. The current project is a granny stripe in pastels. I manage to sit down in the evening with a glass of wine and crochet and watch The View on the dvr.

And so it goes!
Holly

Sick!

Ick! Sunday morning I was fine- worked at my Mom's a bit, then met Ralph, Mom Florence, Frank and Charlotte at Florence's house to do some sorting. We went to a late lunch afterwards, and I started to not feel so good. I got home, laid down, got some nausea and started shivering. By the time advil kicked in, I had a sheet, a quilt, an afghan, a blanket and two dogs trying to keep warm! I spent most of the night being sick and trying to replace fluids, and shivering. By Monday late afternoon I started to feel somewhat human. I called out again on Tuesday- good thing- I slept half the day! From what I hear, it's viral and going around. I don't know where I got it, and wouldn't wish it on anyone!

Because of being sick, I didn't go see Mom or Sam since Saturday. Everyday they say they may send mom to rehab the following day, but it hasn't happened yet. Saturday morning we'd been to Sam's, and were going to see Mom. I tripped over my own feet and fell flat on my face in the hospital lobby. I bruised my knee, and my right wrist is sore with certain movements. No swelling, no bruising, and minimal pain, so I don't think there's a fracture- that would be all that I need!

Saturday afternoon we went to Nadia's 13th birthday party- another teenager! It started to rain, so the party moved inside. Tori was there- she's going into 10th grade, and she's the best of Kevin and Kim. They'll need a baseball bat to beat the boys off! Or for Kevin to be in his police uniform when any boy dares to pick her up!

Heather had her last shift in NC! Tomorrow they load the moving van, and drive up on Thursday. Mixed emotions- they really liked NC, but jobs are scarce, and all their friends and family are here. Not to mention that in NC they were 5 hours from a beach! they both have jobs waiting for them here.

Steph and Dan are eating their way around New Orleans! Manda and Ben visited them for the weekend, and had a good time. They get back Friday, and pick up Toast and Whiskey. Good little dogs, but still a lot of work.

Sam's birthday is this week- she'll be 59. She's steadily declining, which is heartbreaking. Lou's bad episodes are increasing in frequency. It's heartbreaking to watch.

And now I'm off to bed!
Holly

Summer is here!

I'm sitting in the AC, with a fan blowing on me, and I'm still sweating. This is ridiculous. We had a nice week of cooler weather, going into the 50's at night, so we could have the AC off. Monday it started getting hot again, and yesterday and today were awful, and tomorrow is going to be just as bad- the upper 90's and typical jersey humidity. School dismissed early today and will tomorrow.

Last night we had to call 911 for Mom. She was short of breath, and her legs are incredibly swollen, shiny, and weeping fluid. Of course they kept her, and are doing some tests. They're talking possible rehab, which would be great. A ramp is in the works, and Big Mike is going to the zoning board meeting tonight for approval, and he has a contractor ready to go.

Comcast is making me crazy. They decided to "upgrade" the onscreen guide. I could use the other one to set the DVR. Changing it lost all my settings, so we had to figure out how to use the new guide and set it. Comcast must never have heard "if it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Sam is having good days and bad days, as is Lou. It's a mess- 2 hospices, 2 nurses, 2 social workers, 2 home health aids, and 2 nursing team leaders. There were also clergy coming out- one actually asked Sam if she was seeing dead people! I was able to talk to both hospices and put a hold on the clergy. Lou's social worker found out that their anniversary is this week, and that they always went to Oyster Creek for dinner. This year they're both homebound, and it'll be their last anniversary, so Hospice is providing them with dinner! Sam cried when she told me. Next week is also her birthday- she'll be 59. Lou was having a bad spell last Saturday, so I stayed over so Sam wouldn't feel alone. I am so too old to sleep in a recliner! When she woke him up at 0530 to make sure he was OK, I left and came home to my bed.

Today is Manda's 30th birthday! She always said that Heather was the oldest, Steph was the youngest, and she was the middle-ist. I sent her a check for the yarn winder she wants from etsy, and Ben is taking her out for dinner.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Hot,, hot, hot!

It's been in the upper 90's yesterday and today! Not all the district schools have air conditioning, so we were dismissed 90 minutes early both days. It's too hot, too soon.

There may be a thundershower tonight, not unusual with such heat. Hopefully it will cool things a bit, not just raise the humidity.

Sam seems brighter and more alert, which is great! It's such a bumpy road.

Ben and Manda have returned to American soil after their ten day trip to Italy. Manda took 400 pix! Now they just have to recuperate from the time changes and vacationing.

We have June birthdays. Manda will be 30 on June 8, and Jake will be 11 on June 9. My mother's grandchildren range from 30'something (Heather) to 11 (Jake).

Heather, Ed, Eddie and Julianna move back to Jersey in two weeks! We're so happy they're coming back where all the families are.

I'm eating leftover eggs, potatoes and pork roll from the diner, and Miss Millie really wants some. She's meowing at me like she hasn't eaten in weeks. She's gotten to be quite the people food eater in her old age.

I have the second scrappy yarn afghan done, and I ran out of scraps. So I put it aside and I'm making a couple more baby afghans of nice bright colors.

I read C.J. Box's new book, Cold Wind, and Susan Wittig Albert's new one, Mourning Gloria. Both from the library, and both very good.

Holly