South Jersey Quilter

Thursday

2012-02-09T17:23:00.002-05:00

We had a little snow last night, very little- under a half inch, which is fine!

PT three times a week, and my right knee is showing no improvement. I had the MRI, and I see ortho tomorrow. I strongly suspect a tear somewhere. Then on Monday, I see my cardiologist- what a way to spend my birthday!

Amazon is still having hundreds of free books every day, and I'm averaging about 15 a day that I download. Anything that looks like Mom or I would like, I download.

With working, PT, and my knee hurting so that I'm still using the cane, I haven't done any quilting. I've been crocheting, but not a lot. I've been playing Words With Friends on my iPad, but that only takes up a few minutes each day.

Poor little Whiskey had a sore leg and visiting the vet. He doesn't have Lyme's, and he's not diabetic, two good things. He's on an antibiotic, and seems much better since he saw the vet.

Cliffie has only been out once in the last two days, so she's a real house cat now.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

It's February!

2012-02-05T10:07:00.001-05:00

We made it thru January with no snow. We've had maybe 1/2 inch this whole winter so far, and it's been as high as 62 degrees!

I got the MRI of my knee done yesterday. I think there must be a tear, because it still hurts too much too often. Tomorrow I'll make the ortho appointment. And the big side effect of the new cardiac med is fatigue, and it sure is. I'm sleeping entirely too much.

We stayed with the kids yesterday so Heather and Ed could go to the AC Boat Show. I took the iPad and the Fire. I bought 3 Dora apps for the iPad, which Julianna had a great time with. Eddie was playing with all the apps on the Fire. One is called Where's My Water, and you have to send the water to the alligator's pipes so he can take a shower. It's a problem solving app pretending to be a game, and he did great with it.

In January I read 16 books, 15 from the library. I worked on another scrap afghan, and sewed the tops for 3 tablerunners for Christmas gifts.

February is my birthday! Wow, I'll be 59- how did that happen? Better than the alternative, as my Dad used to say. Doris Doone's birthday is also in February.

Cliffie is laying beside me on the ottoman. She's taken it over as her favorite spot.

And so it goes!

Holly

Not a fun week

2012-01-29T14:55:00.002-05:00

Tuesday night I was walking down the hallway to the sewing room and my heartrate suddenly went way up and irregular. I knew I was in atrial fib, and hoped it would convert by itself, so we waited about an hour, then went off to the ER. Two doses of IV meds and 7 hours later, I was back in sinus and admitted to have my meds changed.

I was there til Saturday morning, getting tests, IVs, and different meds. The hospital is no place for sick people. Entirely too noisy. I was lucky to have 3 nice roomates at different times.

Ralph brought me in my iPad, pillow, and afghan. I sleep much better with my own pillow, and hospital blankets leave a lot to be desired. Having the iPad was as good as having a laptop. I was able to keep up with Words With Friends and my internet group, and my email.

Today would have been my late girlfriend Linda's 59th birthday. She's been gone for two years now. It would also have been my late grandmother's birthday.

Cliffie is enjoying being a housecat. She goes out occasionally, but not for long.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Knee update

2012-01-21T15:11:00.001-05:00

I was really getting discouraged with my knee. I had the injection Wednesday morning, and Friday night it still hurt like the Dickens. One of my fellow nurses had told me it wouldn't kick in for 72 hours, and when I got up this morning it actually felt a lot better. Not pre-flare up, but much better.

Last night Ralph and I watched Eddie and Julianna for the time between when Heather left for work and Ed got home. I took the Kindle Fire and the iPad with me, and they had such a good time. Julianna taught me how to play Angry Birds- how pathetic is that, that she knew how and I didn't! I have Fruit Ninja's on both devices, to they played that for a long time. Eddie figured out every game that I had on the Kindle! Amazon has a free app every day, and I get anything that looks like the kids would like.

I'm also playing Words With Friends on the iPad with 3 of my internet group. It's basically scrabble, and two people play, which means I have 3 games going on.

We got about 3 inches of snow late last night. Usually when one of us gets up, Cliffie goes and stands at the door to go out. Depending on how cold it is, she's out for five minutes or an hour. Today she didn't even go near the door. She's sleeping on the ottoman next to me. As the weather gets and stays cold, we want to wean her away from going out. She was a garage cat for so long that we don't know if we can make her a total house cat, but we're going to try.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

My sore knee

2012-01-18T12:28:00.002-05:00

My knee didn't get any better, so I went to the doctor last Wednesday night and she ordered an xray. She suspected it was the arthritis, based on the clicking and crackling when I extended the leg. Turns out the arthritis is significantly worse than the least xray, which was maybe 5 years ago. So I went in today and got a cortisone injection.

I was a nervous wreck, based on what I've heard about cortisone injections. It turned out to be not bad at all. She put a topical spray to numb the skin, and the injection also had lidocaine in it, for more immediate relief. I have no restrictions, and can drive. I can go back to work tomorrow, as long as I feel up to it. The lidocaine gives immediate relief, and the steroid will kick in sometime tomorrow. I also have referrals for PT, ortho, and an MRI. It actually feels better already!

I've done some sewing this week! My friend Barbara has decreed that we will each do a Christmas present or project per month. I'm starting small- I found a tablerunner pattern I like, and I'm making 3, one for each daughter. Two are now flimsies, and the third is cut out and partially assembled. When I get that done, I'll pull backing and quilt all three. The hardest part will be to not give them to my daughters now.

I took the big Kindle, the DX, up to my mom on Christmas Day for her to play with. She was apprehensive of it at first, but now she's getting used to it and really enjoying it. I had about 300 books on it for her. Amazon has been listing hundreds of free books every day for a month now.

I have both the kindle and nook apps on the iPad, so I can read on that, but the screen is kind of big. I took an iPad 101 class, and learned a lot. iPad 102 is at the end of the month.

Cliffie is mostly a house cat now, and is using the litter pan. My friend Sandra suggested putting some dirt on the litter, and that helped. She's the biggest and most solid cat we've ever had, and one of the most talkative.

And I'm off to ice the knee!
Holly

Welcome to 2012

2012-01-10T17:31:00.001-05:00

We've made it thru the first ten days of 2012!Cliffie is settling into being a semi housecat. She only goes out for short periods of time. She hasn't used the litter pan yet. That will probably happen on a snowy cold day.

All of a sudden I'm having a flare up of arthritis in my right knee. I have ice on it, but I may have to go see my doctor.

Work continues at Sam's house. Stephanie is going to rent it, starting next month. The last of the old furniture should go out this weekend. Today the sump pump was replaced.

Poor Toast has Lyme's and another tick borne disease, so she's on two meds.

I cashed in years of change, added my Christmas money, and bought myself an iPad! I love it! I'm taking an iPad 101 class this Sunday.

And so it goes!
Holly

It's just another New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T23:14:00.002-05:00

I've learned some things in 2011. One is do not save every cardboard box you ever get something in. This was the pile in Sam's front yard after we cleaned the attic! It took weeks to get it all out in the recycling. Ralph was crushing and tying piles each week.

This is a 20 yard dumpster. I ordered a ten yard, but they didn't have any available so they gave us a 20. It was filled from the basement and some from the attic. Junk. Broken ceramic, broken things, just junk. I knew Sam wasn't good at throwing things away, but had no idea it was this bad.

I kept the wrappers of all the yarn I used in 2011, and probably the last two months of 2010. Today I counted the wrappers. I used 93 skeins of yarn, ranging from 3.5 to sixteen ounces. A total of 613 ounces, or 40.9 pounds of yarn! That's a lot of yarn! I didn't keep track of how many afghans I made. Manda took about a half dozen baby afghans to give to her friends having babies. Some of the adult sized afghans were given as gifts, some are earmarked for different people.

In 2011 I read 141 books. 49 of them were on the Nook, Kindle, or my own books. The rest were from the library.

In 2011 I finally listened to my friend Roseanne and hired my niece to clean my house. One of the smartest things I've ever done!

In 2011 my longtime friend Sam died after fighting the good fight for ten years. I was able to go there every night for 6 months to perform a nursing procedure, so she wouldn't have to have the on call hospice nurse do it. My 19 year old cat, Miss Millie, also died in 2011. The two losses left a big hole in my life.

In 2011 I did very little sewing and/or quilting. I was so upset all year that I did a lot of crocheting, which is mindless once you get it going, which is how I used up so much yarn.

A big lesson from 2010 was Sick People Do Not Make Good Decisions. That was reinforced in 2011. I also learned (again) that as long as I have Ralph with me, I can do anything.

I hope 2012 is kind to us!
Holly

A week of Christmas!

2011-12-29T21:19:00.002-05:00

We had our immediate family Christmas celebration on Monday, December 26, at Ed and Heather's House. Heather had to work Christmas Eve night, so we waited til Monday. Manda knitted matching hats for Ed and Eddie!

At least two years ago Manda and Ben vacationed in Colorado and bought this beer holster for Ed. They finally remembered to bring it to him!

Julainna had a great time opening gifts.

Eddie got a digital camera from Aunt Steph.

This was Dan's first Christmas with us, and we look forward to many more.

Manda and Ben watched Julianna opening gifts. Eddie's playhouse is in the background. Julie got a pink princess castle/tent.

Mom Florence looks more frail every time I see her. She had a busy weekend- Xmas Eve dinner at Kevin and Naureen's, Christmas Day at Sharon's, and Monday with us. She got consumable gifts- 2 bottles of wine, cookies, and chocolate!

Mom Mary Jane is also showing her age. She was at Mike and Donna's on Christmas Day, and Ed and Heather's on Monday.

Our beautiful hostess Heather! Her birthday is today. How did I get old enough to have a daughter of that age? She and Ed worked very hard and had a wonderful dinner for us.

Ralph grew his goatee, and I haven't decided if I like it yet.

Too much partying for Ben!

Manda got on the floor with Eddie and Julianna to play with their toys.

And what is the holiday without a disaster? Our sewer line got clogged on Christmas Day! Lucky Mom is only 2 blocks away, and we went there and showered every day. Ralph tried a snake, having the system pumped, and finally rented a big machine and cleared it out.

Disaster #2- Mom broke a tooth on Christmas Day. It was a cap, and it broke off at the gum line. The dentist is on vacation all week, and she has an appointment next Monday.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Christmas Vacation

2011-12-23T21:13:00.000-05:00

We had a half day today, and now we're off til January 3, 2012. The kids at school were so ready to be off- I don't think a lot of learning went on this week.

When I stopped at the bank and the card store, I was wished "Happy Holidays". I know the employees can get in trouble if they say "Merry Christmas," but when I responded with "Merry Christmas", both workers said Merry Christmas back. We are entirely too politically correct.

I had dinner with the nurses Wednesday night, which is always fun. With everything we all have going on, we hadn't got together for 3 months, so we had lots to catch up on. Manda and Ben got in late last night, and Steph and Dan picked them up at the airport. We fed them Amish Market food when they got here- chicken croquettes, twice baked potatoes, and various desserts. Today a friend of theirs came down from CT, and they're all out together at Steph and Dan's

. I went to visit Lou today- I try to get there twice a week, and Ralph goes once a week. He seems to be settling in, and is using the walker. It's only been 8 weeks, and of course he's still grieving.

Ralph took Cliffie to the vet, and it turned out as we expected, that Cliffie is a she, a spayed female. We've been inviting her in, but she comes in and goes right back out. We figure when it gets really cold she'll move in. We miss Millie so much! I automatically look for her when I come into a room.

I have 2 more gifts to wrap- the last package came today. Tomorrow we're going to Kevin and Naureen's for Christmas Eve dinner. Sunday is Mike and Donna's for Christmas dinner, and Monday we go to Ed and Heather's for dinner and presents.

And so it goes!

Holly

Rest in Peace, Miss Millie

2011-12-15T22:00:00.001-05:00

We lost our Miss Millie today.

She was about 19. She just showed up on our deck one day, and wouldn't leave, so we invited her in, and she never left.

As an aside, blogger is acting weird today. When I upload the pictures, all I see is computer language, not the picture. It's new, and disturbing.Anyway, Manda named her Milly, but I always spelled it Millie. Millie and Frenzy, our sweet faced but evil gray cat, never got along. They couldn't even use the same litter pan or eat in the same location.

Millie decided years ago that she was Ralph's cat. She slept on him, and curled up with him whenever any part of him was horizontal.

She did enjoy helping me sew. She was great at keeping the fabric still.

If she was helping me, I wasn't supposed to try to move the fabric- that got me a swat.She's been slowing down a lot this past year, and losing weight. A visit to the vet didn't do anything but upset her. This week she pretty much stopped eating, and didn't move around much. She did not seem to be in any pain, and we didn't want her last experience to be traumatic for all involved, so we just keep a close eye on her. She laid down in the closet last night, and passed away peacefully in her sleep.Like with my friend Sam, knowing the end is near doesn't make it any easier to bear. My heart breaks for Ralph. I'm grateful that she, like Sam, passed peacefully in her sleep. I wrote on Facebook that no one else better die this year, or even get sick, or I'm going to be really mad at them. I'm so tired of grieving, tired of crying, tired of being sad. I'm just tired.Holly

Good grief, another weekend!

2011-12-11T18:12:00.002-05:00

So much for posting more often!
Heather and Ed had a couple of friends over yesterday, and at the last minute invited us and his parents and Mike and Donna. They had a sandwich tray, and the usual munchies. I always enjoy spending time with Ed and Jeanne and Mike and Donna. We old folk all left together about 8.30, and the young ones probably went on for hours.

Steph and Dan had a ski weekend in Stowe, and will be home late tonight, so Toast and Whiskey have been visiting us.They are well behaved, but they do have to be taken out, and it's cold out!

It's six weeks today that Sam passed, and two weeks that Lou has been in the assisted living. He's looking so much better, and is putting on weight. Ralph had him to the eye doctor on Friday, and they think glasses will help, so they're ordered. And he's asked for physical and occupation therapy, and a walker with a seat! Sam always discouraged him from doing anything for himself, and I'm so happy he's taking the initiatve. I talked to the nurse on duty, and they'll get the order tomorrow for the PT/OT. I just want him to be happy for however much time he has left.

Miss Millie is getting even skinner and more frail. She wants whatever we're eating, and is glued to Ralph.

We're looking forward to Manda and Ben coming home for Christmas! My shopping is coming along slowly. Most of it is from amazon- love amazon!

And another week starts tomorrow!
Holly

It's December time

2011-12-03T07:54:00.003-05:00

Every day I think I should do a blog post, then I go to do something else and forget. November was very busy and somewhat stressful. Every weekend we worked at Lou's house, cleaning and sorting. I stopped to see him on the way home from work every day for 20 minutes or so.

Last Friday we moved him into the assisted living. I was so afraid the weather would get bad and none of us would be able to get to him, and I swore to Sam that I'd make sure he's taken care of. He went back and forth between "Get me there now" to "I don't want to go." His wonderful aide packed up his clothing and toiletries, and I called his hospice for help. When we went to pick him up, he was all dressed and ready to go, which was a relief. I took him and his clothes, and Ralph took his old recliner and side table with lamp. When we arrived, the director whisked him off to have lunch, while we unpacked for him.

When I saw him yesterday, he seems to be settling in. He told me how his waiter tells him the specials, since he can't read the menu. His food arrives cut up. He told me every meal he's eaten! He's interested in going on the bus trips the asst living runs to local stores, even if he just stays on the bus. His aide does his laundry, showers him, and takes him outside. He's lonely, but it's only been 5 weeks since Sam passed.

Thanksgiving was wonderful. We ate at Mike and Donna's as usual. I made sweet potatoes, broccoli, little hot dogs in crescent rolls, cranberry crescent appetizers, and of course Joseph's Trifle. Heather, Ed and the kids were there for most of the day, then left to go to Ed's parents for dessert. Steph and Dan started out at his parents, and joined us for dessert. The food and the company were great. Jake gave me printouts of the items he'd like for Xmas. He tried to teach me how to play Angry Birds on my new Kindle Fire. Mom Florence enjoyed a few glasses of wine. We took the Mom's home around 6, and we were yawning by 9.

Ben's team at work has adopted a family for Christmas. The two year old girl of the family wants a blanket, so Manda called to see if I had an extra small afghans. I have some pretty pink and white yarn, so I immediately started a small afghan.

Heather and Ed put up their tree last week. I asked Julianna about it, and she told me it would be prettier if it was pink and purple. She said Mommy decorated it in "brown and red." I asked Heather, who clarified that the tree is gold and red. Julianna would like the world to be pink and purple!

Eddie informed Heather that he needs a laptop because he is almost a teenager. As it happened, Sam had a nice laptop that she wanted Steph to have. Steph already has a laptop, so she gave it to Heather and Ed. Ralph restored it to factory setting, and we took it down to them. Heather said that day Eddie kept asking her when his laptop was coming. It's so wonderful to have them living back in south jersey, where we can see them so much more often.

I didn't read much in November, only 7 books, which brings the year's total to 129 so far. Of the 7, 2 were read on the Nook and the rest from the library. I was working on another scrappy afghan, then switched to work on the pink and white one.

We have December birthdays! Ed's is on the 8th, nephew David is the 19th, Heather is the 29th, and Kamee and Megan are right before Christmas. Ben and Manda arrive a couple of days before Christmas! They did Thanksgiving/Xmas in Nebraska, and we get them for Christmas. We only have one nurse schedule to work around now, since Ralph is retired. Heather is working Christmas Eve night. She'll go home, see what Santa brought, sleep, and go visit Ed's family. On the 26th we'll do gifts and dinner at her house. She and Steph have decided to rotate houses for the Christmas dinner.

Not doing Christmas on Christmas was hard the first time. But the alternative was to not have at least one nurse present. Once we slid the day a few times, it's gotten to be second nature for us. It works out great for Mom Florence, since she gets to do the holiday twice, once with Frank and Charlotte's family and once with us.

We'll see Mike and Donna at Mom Mary Jane's Christmas morning. Mike and Donna pick up bagels on their way up, and we have breakfast together.

Miss Millie is really showing her age- she's at least 18. She doesn't have many teeth, sleeps all the time, and forgets that she's just eaten and tortures Ralph to feed her. She can't jump- she has a little staircase up to the table her food dish is on, and she uses her claws to get up on the bed. She's velcro'd to Ralph. She isn't in any pain, and she's eating and using the litter pan, so we just watch her.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Twenty yards of trash

2011-11-19T16:38:00.002-05:00

I ordered a ten yard dumpster, but they didn't have one available, so they sent me a twenty yard one. Good thing! Sherry had her nephew and a friend of his out yesterday to Lou's, and they filled half the dumpster and cleaned about half the basement. The basement is 800 square feet, and it was filled with boxes 3 deep of old paints, pieces of wood, wooden cut outs, ceramic greenware pieces, and just plain trash. A lady starting a ceramic store had already picked up the usable greenware and bisque after it was listed on craigslist.

Today it was back to the basement. We had Sherry's guys again (17 year olds saving for cars), Steph, Dan, Ralph, and 3 other guys that are relatives or friends of Steph and Dan. They all wore masks and gloves, and went up and down the steps about a zillion times. We split the crew, and some worked on the basement with Sherry supervising, and Ralph went in the attic and handed down boxes to others. I was the sorter, making executive decisions as to what can be sold for money. Not much. Most it it was out and out trash- bags of old clothes, yarn empty appliance boxes, broken small appliances. There were 5 Xmas trees! Mom wants one to put outside a window for birds to roost in. The others were put outside, and a man passing by stopped and took them.

Another man who scavenges metal took the junk metal. People in a huge truck came and took the wood scraps for kindling. The attic and basement and sunroom were a lot of trash and a very few treasures. It was incredibly sad, going thru and wondering why on earth items were saved.

Lou didn't handle it well. He wanted everything gone before he'll leave to go to assisted living, so we're not wasting any time. I want him safe and settled before the bad weather starts. He did some yelling and some cursing, and retreated to his bedroom. A hospice nurse came by, and she was talking to him.

I just keep telling him that I swore to Sam that I'd make sure he was well cared for. His hospice nurse told me that nothing I do will make him happy, so just do what I have to do. My friend Barbara gave me good perspective. She said that he knows that no matter how much he yells at me, I'll come back, so I'm his soft place to fall. I can live with that.

I fell the other night. I missed a step, tried to move fast to catch my balance, and it a brick wall with my right hand- the same hand I hit when I fell in Kennedy Hospital last spring. For a day or so I thought I'd fractured it, but of course nurses are the worst patients and I wouldn't go get it looked at. It feels better each day.

And that's the week so far. A little crocheting, some reading of quilting boards, but not a bit of sewing.
Holly

I'm buried in papers!

2011-11-13T17:19:00.002-05:00

It's 2 weeks today that Sam passed.
Yesterday Ralph and I, and Steph and Dan got to the house around 10. Hospice sent out a nurse for 4 hours, heaven knows why, but it worked out because she entertained Lou and cut bubble wrap for us.
Lou is adamant (at the top of his lungs, several times a day) that he can't leave til the last thing that was Linda's is out of the house. Except the furniture, because he thinks Steph wants it all.
So we came armed with boxes and bubble wrap and trash bags. We started packing and sorting, and we had so much for Sherry's charity that we called her and asked her to come over. She and Tony came over and helped for a couple of hours, and left with a carload.
Today Steph and Dan and I went down for a couple of hours. I took Lou coffee, as I always do. Steph and Dan were packing in the office room, and I was sorting in the living room, and talking to Lou.
I've brought home boxes and boxes and bags of papers, and sorted them. Deeds are mixed up with receipts from the grocery store. The bag I just sorted was old checkbooks of Sam's parents, and lots of papers of her Aunt Carrie's. Most to burn, so to just trash.
The moral of the story is, don't save every piece of paper you've ever gotten in the mail!

Tomorrow I hope to meet with Lou's hospice nurse on the way home from work, and get some input from her.
Tonight I think I'm going to veg out in front of the TV and crochet for a bit.
Back to work tomorrow.

Holly

In the middle of the night

2011-11-11T04:55:00.002-05:00

Even the cat is asleep. She looked at me like I was nuts when I came into the family room a few minutes ago. Sleep issues and middle age seem to go together.

It's 12 days since Sam passed. Lou is having a hard time- he's grieving, and lonely, and frustrated. With his vision and hearing issues added to the weakness from his strokes, he is so limited in what he can do independently. His hospice nurse is on vacation til Monday, and his social worker got the bright idea that he needed to go to their respite care- in Trenton! 9 PM Wednesday she's at the house making this strong suggestion, which I flatly refused. So then she decided he couldn't be alone and had an aide come out for the night, which was OK but she annoyed him all night.

We had an appointment to take him Thursday morning to see the assisted living that Ralph's mom lives at. It's close to us, maybe 6 miles away. He was very impressed, and was talking to a couple of the men who live there. We had lunch there, and as long as his hospice nurse approves of the place, says he'll go. He's so lonely, and there is plenty of stimulation there, and he'll be safe.

Lou is a Marine, served in WWII and Korea. He says he is on duty, guarding the house until we get all of Linda's things (which includes her mom and aunt's things) out, then he can leave. So we're going to do a big packing this weekend. He doesn't care if it takes months- I want him settled in as soon as possible. I swore to Sam that I would make sure he is taken care of.

Who ever thought that an 86 year old husband would outlive his 59 year old wife?

And that's why I'm up in the middle of the night.

Holly

It's November

2011-11-06T20:03:00.002-05:00

It's November! The time changed last night, so it gets dark really early as the year winds down.
I was at Lou's for a couple of hours raking out the office room. 4 more bags of trash out of there. Then Ralph and I met Steph and Dan at the Olive Garden for dinner, and now I'm ready to call it a night.

In November we have birthdays! Kevin, Franny, Morgan, Donna and Joseph. It's also a great month to work in a school We're off Tuesday for Election Day, Thursday and Friday is teacher's convention, the day before Thanksgiving is a half day, and off Thanksgiving and the day after.

I read 18 books in October. 16 from the library, and 2 of my own. I just finished the next to last Bay Tanner mystery by Kathryn Wall. The library doesn't have the most recent one yet. I'm almost done another full sized afghan, this one with 2 strands of yarn worked together.

Good night all!
Holly

I'm exhausted.

2011-11-05T21:07:00.002-04:00

This morning Ralph and I met Steph at Lou's. Sherry, who is another long time friend of Sam's, met us there with husband Tony and nephew Brandon. Brandon is 17 and wants a car, so he's been hiring himself out to Sam all year doing yardwork. Sherry manages an animal rescue charity, and was getting ceramic greenware and bisque from the basement to sell for the charity.

I haven't had the nerve to go into the basement. For years Sam had a ceramic business, and the basement was for storage. Things got damp from the last big rain, and it smells musty big time. Sherry and Tony made about a million trips up and down the steps. Ralph alternated between helping them and working in the yard with Brandon.

Steph tackled the kitchen. The cabinets were packed, as was the countertops, stove, and table. I don't think anyone has eaten at the table in at least 20 years. Steph went thru and bagged duplicates of pots and pans and glassware to go to Goodwill- she filled two boxes. Stale cereal will go to the birds, and fresh cereal, which Lou doesn't eat, was taken by Brandon.

I tackled the bedroom. Lou could barely get in to go to bed, and I'm so afraid of him falling when he's alone. He's given us carte blanche to clean and get rid of things. There's very little of Lou in the house, it's all Sam, with a touch of her mom. There were piles of clothes on the floor, in boxes, and on a hanging rack. Lou said they haven't used the closet in years. I boxed up all the usuable clothes for Goodwill, and tossed the worn or stained. I ended up with about 8 big bags for Goodwill, and at least that many trashbags! We cleaned out the closet and hung Lou's clothes in in, and the extra rack can be taken down. He had all his socks, tees and underwear crammed into one drawer of the 3 drawer bureau, now he can use all three.

We took a pizza break, then everyone got back to work. When we stopped at 4 PM, all the leaves that have fallen so far have been put out to the curb for the boro to pick up. Steph and I made a Goodwill run, and every trash can if packed, and there's probably 10 trash bags filled. When we left, Sherry was still in the basement sorting.

Lou was, as he said, staying out of the way, but checking on the progress each of us made. He was amazed by the fact that there is a floor in his room! And he can walk from the living room to the bedroom without turning sideways!

Last night Ralph and I hung out with Eddie and Julianna for the time between when Heather left for work and Ed got home. Whenever a toy commercial came on, Julie wanted the toy. Eddie's a little pickier about what he wants. He was leaning against me and I was rubbing his back- it's just so wonderful to have them back in NJ.

Ralph is already sleeping, and I'm about to go to bed. We ain't 21 anymore, we ain't even 41 anymore!

Holly

Hoarders R Us

2011-11-01T19:49:00.002-04:00

On the radio today it said that one in 25 people have hoarding tendencies. They were so describing Sam! Ralph and Dan carried out the old couch, and we started cleaning and recycling. We worked for about an hour and a half, and had to stop when we ran out of trash cans and recycling bins. Plus we were all starving.

We got Lou fed and settled for the night, and headed out. Ralph took me to pick up the Caravan, which now has two new tires. On the way in today, the car started to get a little shaky. Here, the one tire was like shredded on the inside! He had to come put the donut on for me.

We did a good afternoon's work, and Lou can now walk down the hall without danger of falling.

A new chapter

2011-10-31T23:54:00.002-04:00

When someone passes ( I can't bring myself to say she died), it creates a whole new set of things to do. People to contact, various arrangements to make. sorting to be done.

None of us slept well last night- the mind just keeps going round and round. I went to work today, and on my lunch break got a lot of the phone calls made. I went to see Lou after work today, and the hospice people had just been there to pick up equipment. The funeral guy came to get a signature. Lou's hospice is stepping up his care to everyday. Ralph will put the cameras in tomorrow.

Sam had an old couch that she basically lived on for the last years, and it's worn out. Lou wants it gone- seeing it is a constant reminder of his loss. I called the boro, and amazingly all we have to do is put it out at the curb on trash day. So Ralph and Dan will do that tonight.

We went to sleep at 8 tonight, we were so wiped out. Ralph is still sleeping, and I'm about ready to go back to bed. I'm hoping Lou will sleep tonight. I have another list of things to do tomorrow.

Sam loved Halloween, and she passed on Mischief Night day- how funny is that!

I have no regrets, no "if only's". I'm happy she had the passing she wanted- going to sleep and not waking up. I promised I'd never lie to her, and that I'd take care of Lou. And I'm starting to ramble, which means it's time to go back to bed.

Holly

Rest in Peace, Sam

2011-10-30T18:04:00.002-04:00

Today one of my best friend died, after fighting the good fight against breast cancer for over ten years. It wasn't unexpected- she's been under Hospice care since March. She's had medical issues that required everyday care, which I was able to help with. She's been getting weaker by the week. None of us had expected her to live til her 59th birthday this past June, and we were all, including her, shocked that she got thru the summer.

She was tired. Tired of laying on the couch waiting to die. Tired of laying watching Frasier reruns for half the night, and squabbling with her husband over stupid issues. Tired of the parade of people coming thru her house- nurses, home health aids, physicians, social workers.

No matter how prepared you think you are for that phone call, it still catches you totally by surprised. LifeLine called to say that Lou had called them and they dispatched the paramedics. Luckily Ralph was home to go with me. I put on shoes and went out in my pajamas.

It's been a long exhausting day for all involved.
Rest in Peace, Sister of My Heart.

Holly

65 Days til Christmas!

2011-10-20T21:21:00.002-04:00

Ack- this year is just flying by! Steph, Heather, Julianna and I went to Lancaster for the weekend last week, to start our holiday shopping. We did a lot of shopping, but not much was for the holiday! It was a beautiful fall weekend, and half the world was in Lancaster. Kitchen Kettle Village was jammed! We bought a lot of stuff in the jam and jelly kitchen- so much that we borrowed a wagon to tote it to the car. We had my Caravan, with the final row of seats out.

Then it was off to the Mt. Hope Winery, right down the road from Kitchen Kettle. If you bought a case or more of wine, it was 25% off! We couldn't turn that down. Between the three of us, we bought well over a case, and we tasted their holiday wine.

We stopped to secure a hotel room, then off to the outlets. We shopped and shopped (Julianna and I spent part of the time on benches or in the car), took a break for dinner, and shopped some more. The stores closed at 9 p.m., and Heather and Steph shopped til then.

The hotel was OK. They called the beds queen, but I'd call them fulls, and the mattresses were too soft. But the price included a continental breakfast, which we figure saved us at least $20 and an hour. We shopped til about 12.30, then headed home. Heather did all the driving this trip, and she did a great job.

We got home, unloaded, relaxed for a little bit, then headed to Sharon's for Justin's 6th birthday party. It was nice to get together with the family. It was a school night for all the kids, so the party broke up early.

Yesterday was a district inservice day at work- the kids were off. We had universal precautions, right to know, and CPR recert. CPR guidelines have changed- ABC is now CAB. The method of teaching and testing has changed, for the better. Much easier on the knees.

The grand dogs are here, while Steph and Dan take a long weekend in Western Pennsylvania. The dogs are always restless the first night, then they settle down. Toast is in bed with Ralph, and Whiskey is sitting on the ottoman watching me.

Yesterday was icky and rainy, but today was sunny and fall-like. The leaves are turning, and the temps are in the 60's. Two more weekends and the time changes.

And tomorrow is Friday!
Holly

Sunday again

2011-10-09T11:47:00.002-04:00

Manda has moved her blog. The new blog is at www.meadow-lands.blogspot.com She's recently posted her Cozumel cruise pics.

We had a nice day yesterday. Carol is chairman of the Salem County something, and they were having a fundraiser at the Riverview Inn, which is right on the Delaware Bay. It was a very good turkey dinner, and we got to visit with Carol and her son Joe. Some people had paid and not come, and their dinners were boxed up, and we got to bring home dinners for my Mom, Sam and Lou. It was a nice change for them.

I was supposed to go to a baby shower today for Roseanne's DIL Mary, in Wildwood, at the home of Mary's sister. Yesterday Mary's BIL collapsed, needed CPR, and was airlifted to Philly. Needless the say, the shower was postponed, and we're all sending positive thoughts his way.

I talked to John this morning, and it's been raining in Florida for the last few days. He said they really need it. We caught up on all the family news.

Speaking of family news, my nephew David is now engaged to Juliet! They've been going together for a few years, and we all like her, so everyone is happy with the news. She will be niece #3 for me. I used to refer to Sharon as my favorite niece, but then Kevin and Naureen got married, so I had two favorite nieces. Now it will be three favorite nieces. I have 7 nephews, and they're all my favorites.

We're off tomorrow for Columbus Day. A three day weekend is always appreciated! I think the staff gets more excited than the kids.

The leaves are just starting to turn colors, and a lot of them have already fallen. We're getting nights that are downright chilly! Time to start thinking about Christmas shopping!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

October!

2011-10-01T12:09:00.007-04:00

Leave it to Miss Millie to find a new place to cuddle. The blankets had been used to pad the table when it was being moved.
Our new kitchen set! It had been Heather and Ed's, and when they replaced it with the dining room set from Mom Florence's townhouse, we got their set. My other table was 28 years old, bought with income tax money the year Steph was born, so I guess it was ready to be repurposed. The old one is now Ralph's work table in his computer shop in the basement.
I've always liked this set. It's got almost a peachy tint to the wood. And the top is tiles. Just really nice. And it's sturdy as anything, and weighs a ton!
And it's got a cool design on the tiles border. It really doesn't take much to make me happy!

We watched the kids Thursday night, for the time between Heather leaving for work and Ed getting home. The kids make me laugh. Eddie offered to sleep in his school clothes to save time in the morning. They were so good, as they always are. I think Julie has grown 2 inches in the last month! She's going to be tall, as is Eddie.

October! Jean's birthday is today, and Mom Florence's is Monday. Charlotte's in the 11th, and Justin is the 24th. We have a long weekend coming up for Columbus Day, which is always nice.

Tomorrow Steph and Dan and friends are going to the Ren Faire, so we're dog sitting. Steph is going to drive my minivan, and leave me her car. Frank and Charlotte and Ralph and I are taking Mom Florence to dinner for her birthday.

Manda and Ben are in Cozumel today, on the cruise for their friend Dave's wedding. It's a short cruise, Thursday til Monday. I'm totally jealous.

It's been getting deliciously cool at night, wonderful to sleep with the windows open and snuggled under a quilt.

I read 16 books in September, 14 from the library and 2 of mine. That bring the yearly total to 104 books, 39 of mine. They were all mysteries or romantic suspense, and all good.

I'm almost done another scrappy afghan, using the bits and pieces left over from other projects. I can't believe I have so much yarn stockpiled- it was enough to last an ice age! I've got it down to 2 totes and a clothes basket.

My work computer isn't working- I talked to technology, and it seems like the moniter and the tower aren't getting along, so they have to come out and fix it. There's so little I can do without the computer.

Amazon announced they are releasing a 7 inch table called the Kindle Fire in mid-November. I was seriously considering an iPad, but that would cost a fortune and require another data package. The Fire is much cheaper, and I can get amazon prime for a yearly fee, and get 2 day shipping and stream video thru the Fire. So I've pre-oredered, and it should come the last week in November. I love my Nook, and would never get rid of it, and will continue to use it for my e-reader, and use the Fire as a tablet.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Somedays I hate the computer

2011-09-25T10:56:00.002-04:00

Or parts of it anyway. Ralph installed this eye-fi program that downloads pix when the camera is near the computer. Fine, but I can't then find the pix. And when I then download them to easy share, I can't transfer them to my documents and then to the blog, til he gets home and does something. That's the long version of why there are no pix lately.

September is always hard for me, trying to get back into the work groove. I end up coming home and napping a lot of days, because I'm so tired from getting up early for work.

We had a nice day yesterday. It was the party for Eddie's birthday at Heather and Ed's house. My mom actually surprised me and went! There are two steps up onto Heather's porch, and mom got up the first, and decided she couldn't make it. Ralph, who is so patient, helped her up the other.

It was nice visiting with Heather, Sharon, Steph, Donna, Charlotte and Jeanne- we had a long conversation about cruises that makes me want to sign up for one. Frank is a cruiser, but Ralph won't even consider it, and Mike will only cruise in his yellow car. Some valium may be in order for the two of them.

There is a flock of 15 turkeys that live and roost in their yard and in the woods beyond, and the turkeys and ducks were fun to watch. The kids were all running around and having a great time, except for the mosquitoes that are so bad in jersey this year.

We had meatball sandwiches, a sandwich tray, salads, and cupcakes. When we left, I took meatball sandwiches and cupcakes for Sam and Lou, and mom took sandwiches.

I just finished "A sheetcake named desire" by Jacklyn Brady. It was a mystery set in and around a bakery in New Orleans, and is the first in a new series. I'm almost done another afghan, another scrappy granny stripe. This one will be huge.

I got new glasses, and they're making me crazy. I think the bifocals are set wrong, and I have to call the eye doc. My eyes water and hurt when I put them on, which is not good.

Tomorrow is Back to School night, which means we have to go back to work from 5-7. Since I leave work at 3.15, and get home 4-ish, it means it's not worthwhile to come home. I'll go do some shopping, and get some dinner, and go back. We were scheduled to be off Friday for Rosh Hashanah, but then someone higher up realized that the holiday is Thursday. Rather than cancel or change it, they added Thursday as another day off. Since I don't think any of the 11,000 kids in the district are Jewish, the whole thing is ridiculous and typical.

I counted out the work days til Barbara and I think we're going to retire, at the end of June, 2015. Right now there are 725 work days, and 170 of this year.

And when Ralph gets home and fixes the stupid picture program, I'll have pix of our new-to-us kitchen table.

Holly

Bucket list

2011-09-11T21:27:00.002-04:00

I read Bonnie Hunter's quiltville blog all the time, and I have a couple of her quilting books. Bonnie is a quilter who travels all over the place doing classes for guilds. She recently taught on a quilting cruise to the Caribbean and posted lots of pix on her blog.

I just added quilting cruise to my bucket list, right after knee replacement. I can't do the cruise til after the knee, because I want to be able to walk around. And I can't do the knee til I get the leg muscles in better shape, so that's this year's goal. Of course, I also have to catch up to my wandering mojo before going on a quilting cruise.

And tomorrow is Monday again.

Holly

September 11

2011-09-11T11:35:00.001-04:00

Never forget.

The Weekend!

2011-09-10T18:32:00.002-04:00

A four day work week is finished, and we have 180 work days to go. I just figured it out, I have 735 work days til I can retire! That's four school years, including this year.

I love my new work building! It's small, all one floor, clean, and I have a huge window! The staff is very nice. I go a different way that I used to to get to work, and traffic has not been horrible. I've cleaned the office, and thrown away a lot of junk. I've talked to the administrator about an idea I have, and she's thrilled with it.

The first couple of weeks of school are always hard. I go to bed earlier and earlier, til I get adjusted to being on a schedule again. I haven't even put the serger away- it's still in the case on the kitchen floor.

We added texting to our cell phones. I never thought I'd get into texting, but it's like emailing, only on a small keyboard. Convenient for short messages.

After several days of wonderful weather, it got humid again, and the AC is back on. We've had a lazy day- slept late, went to the diner for breakfast, then home, took a nap, and laid around and read. Ralph was in the basement organizing for a while, then he and Miss Millie settled in the recliner with the TV and the laptop.

Sam and Lou are blessedly stable. Steph and Dan are celebrating the six month anniversary of going out, Manda and Ben are in Nebraska to attend a wedding, and Heather and Ed are settling in to the new house. Eddie and Julianna started school this week, and love it.

Settlement went thru on Mom Florence's townhouse, which is a big burden lifted for Ralph and Frank.

I'm reading the new C.J. Box book, "Back of Beyond". It's not one of his Joe Pickett series, but I'm enjoying it. I haven't been in the sewing room for 2 days! Too tired after being at work all day.
And the beat goes on!
Holly

It's September!

2011-09-02T14:13:00.002-04:00

Staff went back to work yesterday. I went to the school I was assigned to, sat in the empty parking lot for a half hour, then called health services, who had to go find someone to track down my school. Who knew they met at the high school the first day? And wouldn't it have been nice if my letter from HR had mentioned that?

Once I got to my new assigned building, I love it. It's one floor, bright, clean, and I have a window! After 21 years working in a school, I finally have a gorgeous window! It's huge- really 3 windows next to each other, and the bottoms open! The staff were happy to see me, and very pleasant.

We're off today, which is ridiculous, but worked out, since we could take Dan and Steph to the airport. They're spending the holiday weekend with Ben and Manda in Houston.

Mom spent 36 hours in the hospital after falling- or oozing, as she called it. The did a bunch of tests, and the CT showed she has a big sinus infection, so they discharged her last night on antibiotics.

We have birthdays in September! Linda G. is the 3rd, Roseanne is the 6th, Barbara and Sharon are the 9th, Mikey is the 13, Pat the 15, Ralph the 22, and Eddie the 23.

In August I read 12 books, bringing the total for the year to 88. Of the 12, 4 were mine, either on the Nook or DTB's, bringing that total to 37 for the year. I had an eye doc appt last week, and have new glasses ordered. I knew the Rx had to be changed.

Next week Julianna starts preschool, mornings, and Eddie starts 3rd grade! Steph and Dan started back to college classes this week.

Tomorrow I have a class to learn how to use my serger, which I'm excited about. After the class, we're invited to Frank and Charlotte's for a barbecue.

I'm still crocheting, tho I did a little sewing- I hemmed 2 pair of pants for Steph.

The dogs are here for the holiday weekend. Toast had her tenth birthday yesterday! They're both curled up next to me. Sam and Lou are both stable.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

It's deja vu all over again

2011-08-31T16:11:00.002-04:00

The phone rang at 0700 this morning. It was my mom- she'd fallen and was on the floor. We went up, and helped her to stand- she has bad arthritis and can't get up from the floor by herself. She'd gotten lightheaded and oozed down to the floor. No loss of consciousness, no fainting.

She refused 911 because that costs money. She was able to use the walker and get to the car with assistance. We took her to the ER, knowing that a person of her age, with her history, would be admitted. Chest xray, EKG (back in afib), labs, CT were done. CT showed a big sinus infection, which may have caused the lightheadedness.

She's being admitted for observation. There is a new unit, for the elderly who are mentally competent and she'll be there overnight at least.

So today is the last day of August! My nephew Kevin and his wife Naureen are celebrating their anniversary, and my cousin Denise has a birthday that she's celebrating in Disney World.

And tomorrow staff starts back to school. I hate the first day in a new building!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

After the storm

2011-08-28T17:55:00.003-04:00

It's a beautiful day- the sky is blue, fluffy white clouds in places, a nice breeze, temp in the upper 60's- just gorgeous!

Ralph has to fix the leak in the laundry room and the one around the skylight, but other than that, we were very lucky.

This morning I spent a half hour sitting at the kitchen table watching 3 hummingbirds fight over the feeder hanging from the porch. When Ralph was in the kitchen later, there were a dozen! So we just stopped over Mom's to borrow 4 more feeders for them. Apparently they don't play well with others.

This is my last couple of days before going back to work. Staff goes in Thursday, then has a four day weekend, which is ridiculous. I have to go find the school that I'm now assigned to- I'll do that tomorrow or Tuesday.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

We made it through Irene!

2011-08-28T08:07:00.002-04:00

We're in a lull now, before the last band of rain comes. The power flickered once, and the skylight leaked.

It rained and rained and rained! The winds picked up in the middle of the night. We were lucky- we're on a hill, and the water goes by us and our basement stays dry.

We were up and down all night, checking outside, checking the computer for weather, checking facebook to see who else was up.

Irene is now hitting NY, and NYC. The news is showing scenes from Long Beach, NY, which is a mess.

I'm glad Irene is almost past.
Holly

Irene is arriving!

2011-08-27T13:51:00.004-04:00

The rain has started. It started as a drizzle, and it's coming down pretty good now. We've ordered a final pizza before the big storm, and we're waiting for it to arrive.

I'm no fan of our Governor. I actively dislike the man. But he said two things that make me laugh. He saw tourists on the news that were still at the beach yesterday, and told them to "Get the hell off the beach" and evacuate. Then he addressed anyone who refused the mandatory evacuation, and told them to put an index card in their shoe with their name and social security number on it, so we can identify the body.

The worst of Irene is to arrive late tonight. Rumors are flying that the electric company is going to shut off everyone's electric at 10 p.m, even tho the electric company has denied that. I'm not sure it would even be possible on their part. I'm hoping that our power stays on- call me optimistic.

Updates to follow, as long as we have power!
Holly

More scariness ahead

2011-08-25T20:02:00.002-04:00

The hurricane is making it's way up the East Coast. It look like we're right in the projected path. I'm so glad Ralph is retired, and we don't have to worry about him being able to get to work, or to get home.

I've been to the grocery store, and we're good for several days. Hopefully the power will remain on! We've got plenty of cat food, and the cell phones, Nook and Kindle are charged. Mom has enough meds and food and library books. I took Sam to the grocery store 2 days ago, and Florence can just stay inside the assisted living. Steph is working from home tomorrow. Heather is off after tonight, and Ed has an on call list.

It's thundering off in the distance, and I don't remember if hurricane's have thunder and lightening with them.

I used to be brave, now I'm not. I want Ralph here for hurricane's and blizzards. The years of him going to work and getting stuck there for days are thankfully over.

And the beat goes on.
Holly

Well that was scary!

2011-08-23T18:24:00.003-04:00

I was sitting at the kitchen table and the entire house started to shake! My first thought was that I was having a stroke! But the house continued to shake, and I yelled to Ralph, who said he thought we were having an earthquake.

An earthquake?! In New Jersey?

Yes, it turned out to be a 6.0 earthquake with the epicenter in Virginia. If it shook our house, it must have really be scary 200 miles away! I think everyone on the East Coast immediately got on Facebook!

Office buildings were evacuated, flights grounded, cell service overwhelmed.

And the cat never stirred. Either did the one sleeping on the deck.

And we have the weekend to look forward to, when we could get hit with part of the hurricane!

Wow.
Holly

124 days!

2011-08-22T23:46:00.002-04:00

124 days til Christmas! A little over four months! So the year is almost 2/3 over! I'm starting to think about what to get everyone for Christmas gifts. Ben and Manda found some things they want in a Nebraska Red catalog while they were up. In another month I'll ask the rest of the kids and kids-in-law to start thinking about what they want.

Another important number is four. That's how many years I have to work in order to retire with a decent pension and social security. A friend and I are saying "Four more and out the door." In reality, I'll reassess at that time and decide if I want to work longer. To get full social security, I'd have to work 7 more years, or not start collecting immediately. Decisions that I don't have to make at the present time.

And then there's the number 185, which is the number of days the staff works in a school year. We go back on Sept 1, then have a four day Labor Day weekend, then staff works the 6th, and kids come in on Sept 7. It's ridiculous- staff could work Sept 1 and 2, and the kids come in on the 6th. These calenders are not set for the benefit of the ten month staff or for the kids.

Another important number is 8, which is how old Eddie will be next month! He's going into grade 3, and is absolutely adorable, a handsome young man. That number is also the number of years that I've been quilting, since I started while Heather and Ed were expecting Eddie.

Totally unrelated, tonight my brother Mike and I went to a viewing for one of mom's neighbors. Tony lived across the street from my parents since I was in about first grade. He was always a good neighbor, and since my dad died, Tony watched out for Mom, and took her trash cans in every week. He was a semi retired mechanic and auto repair shop owner. Last week he went to work, did a brake job, and came home and basically dropped dead of a massive heart attack. How funny that he and dad both died so suddenly.

I just made a list of the things I have to do before returning to work next week. Tomorrow my car goes to the auto repair shop here in town to have the oil changed and a checkup. That's number one on my priority list.

Manda and Ben are back in Houston, and we're getting back into our routine here. Next week Steph and Dan start back to college classes. Heather and Ed are settling into their jobs. Eddie goes to grade 3, and Julianna starts morning preschool. Every day she asks Heather if it's September yet.

Next week is settlement on Florence's townhouse, so that will be one less thing Ralph is dealing with.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Those were the days

2011-08-21T16:26:00.003-04:00

It's been a wonderful 3 1/2 days! Manda and Ben's flight from Houston was delayed, as it frequently is, and they arrived in Philly a little before midnight Thursday night. When they walked in the door at 12.30 a.m. Friday, courtesy of Steph and Dan, I had chicken croquettes and twice baked potatoes waiting for them. We visited until entirely too late.

Friday morning Steph picked up the rolls and the cake for me. Ralph and Steph took Manda and Ben off to explore the Amish market while I got the food going for the summer birthday party. Late afternoon, we had a bet going as to whether my mom would actually come, since it was sporadically raining. She did, which was great. Frank and Charlotte picked up Mom Florence and Charlotte's mom Doris. Heather and Ed and the kids, Sharon and Jim and their kids, Bob and Kelly and Katie were here, and Franny and Jake stopped in for a while. Manda and Steph's friends Kate and Tim were here, and Kevin and Naureen and Nadia came after they went to dinner with Tori for her birthday. We all sang Happy Birthday to all the summer babies.

Saturday after breakfast we went down to see Heather and Ed's new house, and play with the kids. Eddie is growing like a weed, and I can't believe he'll be 8 next month! Then we went to dinner, and to Steph's apartment, to see the puppies. We left Ben and Manda there, and they went out for ice cream with Steph and Dan.

When they all came back to our house, I took advantage of the free young muscle! I had a lot of furniture that I wanted re-arranged, and Ben and Dan were nice enough to do it.

This morning Ralph went off to church with his mom, and I went to a buffet brunch with the kids. It was very nice, and we lingered as long as we could, but Ben and Manda really had to get to the airport. Once their flight was boarded, a wing flap issue was discovered, and they were unboarded and had to wait two hours for a different plane. They hopefully got in the air before the bad weather hit- it's about ready to pour and storm. We had rain a couple of the nights they were here, and they were able to open windows and fall asleep to the sound of rain.

I managed to not cry when they drove away. It's taken me literally years to be able to not cry when they leave! We know we'll see them again in four months, at Christmas.

Stephanie was such a huge help while they were here! She and Dan picked up the travelers Thursday night, and she took off Friday to spend time with them and drive them to the Amish market. She also picked up the cake and rolls for me Friday morning, and stopped during a monsoon Friday night to get the beer for the party. Saturday night she and Dan took Manda and Ben shopping, and today drove them to the airport. Living the closest to us, she's my go to girl, and I don't know what I'd do without her!

It's now 4.45, and the flight has been delayed first for paperwork, and now by the weather. I feel so bad for them!

And the beat goes on!

Holly

Getting ready for company

2011-08-17T23:32:00.003-04:00

Manda and Ben arrive tomorrow night around 11. I've promised them chicken croquettes and twice baked potatoes from the Amish market when they get here. Oddly enough, they don't have chicken croquettes in either Nebraska or Houston.

My house cleaner did her thing on Sunday morning, which was great. Ralph has taken almost everything off the dining room table, and will finish in the morning. Julio has moved from the dining room to Ralph's truck, and I've insisted that the chain saw be taken from the dining room floor and relocated to the basement.

Even though he was terrified, Ralph had his colonoscopy and doesn't have to have another for 6 years. I really pushed for it- I told him if he died of something preventable, I'd be really mad at him.

The yard sale went OK. Everything not sold was taken to Goodwill. We're all glad that it's over with. The heater wasn't working right at Florence's house, so the repair guy was out today and replaced the igniter.

I turned off the AC on one of the rainy days, and it wouldn't go back on. We had the HVAC guy out, and it was some kind of circuit breaker out on the compressor- a kind of inexpensive fix. While Danny was fixing it, he replaced some bad wiring on the compressor.

After fooling around with a dying fridge for two weeks, Mom wanted to go to Sears Scratch and Dent in the rain on Monday. We drove all the way up there, she trudged with her walker to the back of the store, picked out a fridge- plain white, freezer on the top- then found out that there would be a $70 delivery fee, as well as $10 to haul off the old one!

She finally agreed to let me go to Lowe's and order her a fridge, which I offered to do two weeks ago. It was delivered yesterday.

I got my letter from the Board of Education, so I know what school I'll be in as of Septempber 1. It's in a Good Will store. Special needs high school students attend classes a half day, and learn to do a job the other half.

I'm off to get some sleep.
Holly

Yard Sale Day

2011-08-12T23:58:00.002-04:00

Since it's after midnight (barely) the yard sale is today. There's a garage full of stuff waiting to go to a new home, one way or the other. If it isn't bought, it goes to Goodwill.

It's kind of sad, to have the house sold and belongings dismantled. Florence took what she wanted to go to the assisted living with her. Charlotte and I took a few things, and the grandchildren took what they could use. The rest will be sold or donated.

We all found items that we'd given Florence over the years. Some of the items had obviously never been used, which is sad. None of us just buy any old thing, we try to tailor the gift to the person, and it's disappointing to see the items still in the original boxes, just put away.

Behind the china closet we found a certificate from when Frank Lopez, Sr, served a term in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. That went to Kevin, the oldest great-grandchild of Frank and Susie Lopez. There was so stemware of Susie's. Some of it went to great-grandchildren, some will be put away to great-great-grandchildren.

As hard as it is to let go of treasures, Florence seems to be happy that many of them are going to her family. Some things she just couldn't let go of- her cheesecake pan and pizzelle iron are being stored by Charlotte for her.

I'll be relieved when settlement happens. Ralph has put in so many hours getting the house ready to sell, and even more hours keeping up with Florence's paperwork. The amount of paperwork will decrease a lot when there is no longer house bills. Frank has been a huge help, but he is still employed, and his employer kind of expects him to be at work.

This week I am reclaiming the dining room! The table has been buried in Florence's papers for 6 months now, and it's got to go. As soon as the yard sale is over, Ralph promises to relocate it to his office.

This morning we finally got to take Sam and Lou to the latest Harry Potter movie. I hadn't seen any of the previous ones, but I had an idea who the characters were. They both enjoyed the movie, but were exhausted when we came out.

And now I'm off to get some sleep!

Holly

Rain!

2011-08-09T17:57:00.002-04:00

Ralph and I met Charlotte at Mom Florence's townhouse to start getting ready for Saturday's yardsale. So much stuff to price! Charlotte bought price stickers, and worked her way thru. Ralph was moving things around in the garage, and throwing away unusable things. Heather and Ed came up with the truck and a trailer and took the dining room set, the computer desk, and some odds and ends.
There's a lot of "stuff" to go in the yard sale, but few big ticket items. I doubt that a lot of money will come in, but hope a lot of the stuff goes out. Settlement is in 2 weeks, so everything has to be gone by then.
While Ed and Ralph were loading the trailer, it started to thunder and rain. They just got everything covered in plastic when the rain got heavy. We stopped for gas and a quick lunch, then went to their new house, which is very close to their previous NJ house. Florence's dining room set looks great there. They have a great covered front porch, and a back deck that's partially covered. A two car garage is wonderful, and the back yard is a decent size, and backs up onto woods.
They hope to sleep in the new house tomorrow night. Eddie and Julie are happy with their rooms, and with the yard. We sat on the front porch and watched the rain for a while.
So it's been a busy day for all! At least the rain dropped the temp and the humidity, at least for a little while.

Holly

August Already!

2011-08-03T14:00:00.004-04:00

It's already starting to get dark a little earlier, and light a little later. It's still brutally hot, and looking outside it looks like we may get another thunderstorm.

Summer break is nice, but it seems the less I have to do, the less I do. I've been keeping a daily log of what I get done, and it's mostly laundry, food shop, go to Sam and Lou's, read, and crochet. My quilting mojo hasn't returned from wherever it's been hiding for the last year. I just finished yet another double crocheted scrappy afghan. I still have two totes and a clothesbasket full of yarn! What was I thinking when I bought it all? (The same thing I was thinking, or not thinking, when I bought all the fabric that I'll have to live to be 122 to use!)

I finished going thru and alphabetizing my paperbacks. There's about 600 or so, and that's after getting rid of two totes and a bag! Steph is going to put a lot of them up on a paperback swap site that she uses. I was able to free up a bookcase, which Steph and Dan may be able to use.

I've got some rearranging of furniture planned. In the family room we have a recliner which is comfy, and a couch that isn't. So my plan is to remove the extra bookcase from the bedroom, and put my small desk there, which frees up a wall in the dining room. The couch can be moved there, and the other chair brought into the family room. Since I know I have no decorating sense, I consulted with Steph, who thinks it will work.

This month is Ben's birthday. He and Manda will be home on the 18th thru the 21st, so we're having a party, of course. We'll have the usual party food, and a cake for all the summer birthdays- Steph, Dan, Manda, and Ben.

We haven't seen them since last Thanksgiving! They visited Heather and Ed in January, and met Steph and Dan in New Orleans in June, but we haven't seen them, so I'm excited for their visit. And we have to compare everyone's schedules to decide when we're doing Christmas. With hospital nurses- only Heather, now- we rarely do Christmas on December 25.

Julianna is enrolled in morning preschool, and Eddie will be going into 3rd grade! How can that be! He'll be 8 in September!

Board of Education minutes are up, and no staff assignments have been made yet, so I still don't know where I'll be in September. If I didn't have so much else going on, I'd be totally stressed over it. I'm #14 in seniority of 40+, so I'll have a job, I just don't know in which school.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Hot, hot, hot!

2011-07-31T13:16:00.002-04:00

Even with the AC and fan on, it's hot! Too hot to be outside, which is why I'm not. I've been sorting books all morning, and putting them in alphabetical order by author. I've probably got about a thousand paperbacks that I haven't read. Once I read them I pass them along. Since I got the Nook I rarely buy real books. And I can never find what I'm looking for, so I'm putting them in order. I got A-F done, and I'm taking a lunch/computer break.

After we went to Sam's last night, we got salads from Saladworks, and I'm eating leftovers. I doctored it up with strawberries and blueberries, and raspberry vinegerette, which is my new favorite.

In July I read 15 books, of which 9 were mine and 6 were library books. That brings the total to 76 for the year so far. I'm working on a greens granny stripe afghan, and a scrappy double crochet afghan using up scraps of yarn. I also cleaned off the table in the laundry room, which is sort of like a closet. I haven't put any flimsies up on the HQ16- I just haven't felt like it. Summer break is about halfway over.

The new fridge is working very nice, and the dishwasher pipes are holding up well. The AC has been working fine- knock on wood- since the day it had to be reset. Mom Florence's townhouse is listed with a Realtor- paying taxes on an empty house is just not good economic sense, and she needs the money for the assisted living fees.

Ed and Heather are looking at houses in Mays Landing. They want to be settled before Eddie goes into 3rd grade (how can that be?) and Julianna starts pre-school. Manda and Ben are coming home for a long weekend in a couple of weeks. We'll have the family and friends over, and have a birthday cake for the summer birthdays- Steph, Dan, Manda, and Ben. We haven't seen Manda and Ben since Thanksgiving week last year! They've been doing a lot of travel this year- it's the time to do it, before a mortgage and kiddies. Steph is enjoying the break from classes, and Dan is taking an on-line class. All six of them are busy, busy! Good thing I have Facebook, so I can keep track of them all!

Tomorrow is house cleaning day! I love it when someone else cleans!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Ridiculous, Part Two

2011-07-25T11:07:00.002-04:00

Our fridge died. Last week, the freezer motor got real noisy. Last night Ralph went to get something and the ice cream was half melted. We moved the savable frozen food to the freestanding freezer, and put the fridge stuff in an ice chest. This morning the freezer was cold, but the fridge was 60.

So off to Lowe's we went. We hit the last day of a 10% off sale, and the fridge we picked comes with a free ice maker kit. Free delivery tomorrow, and they remove the dead fridge. We're getting another white, freezer on the top model. I just don't care for the whole stainless steel look.

Here's the most annoying part: Several years ago we found the receipt for our fridge, and realized it was 18 years old. We decided to be proactive and replace it before it broke down. That was maybe 6 or 7 years ago. My brother Mike took the old fridge for his garage to keep beer and soda in, knowing that its days could be numbered. Of curse that fridge is still running well!

So now within 2 weeks we've had to replace the pipes under the kitchen sink, and the fridge. What a pain!

At least it's cooler today, only low 80's so far, and very humid.

Holly

This is just ridiculous!

2011-07-24T09:56:00.002-04:00

It's been in the vicinity of 100 out every day this week. The AC runs constantly, and I don't even want to know what my electric bill will be. We have it set at 78, which feels wonderful when coming from outside.

We picked up Mom from rehab on Thursday. The social worker said be there between 10 and 11. Fine, but the nurse wasn't ready with paperwork til almost 11, and we got there at 10.05. I wasn't thrilled with the rehab, which is part of the Kennedy system. First off, Mom's mattress was lower on one side, by over an inch, and she kept feeling like she'd roll off. We told the nurse on Saturday, and she said she'd call maint. Told an aide on Tuesday, who insisted no one would fix or replace it. Told a nurse on Tuesday, who said she'd call maint. Finally on Thursday I called the nurse mgr, who had it replaced that day.

There was a storm, and their satellite TV went out for an hour or so, and MSNBC, Mom's favorite channel, lost it's sound. Again, told everyone and their uncle. One nurse checked the other rooms, and they were fine. The TV was never fixed or replaced.

The food was consistently wrong. She'd order her meal, and it was always an adventure to see if she got anything resembling her order. Heather actually had to take her tea bags and sweet and low, because dietary managed to get her hot water, and most of the time forgot the tea bag.

She had so much trouble getting her tylenol before PT, that I actually left her some tylenol there. She had some good PT's, and she says some were downright nasty. OT was ridiculous- Mom crochets every day, and her issue was not her hands, so why did they have her playing with silly putty and tinkertoys? Rhetorical question- so they could bill medicare of course.

So how do you know when you've had enough rehab? When the insurance money won't pay any more, of course.

Hospice is another institution that's getting on my last nerve. Sam's hospice nurse is a very low key, kind person named Pam. Sam has to be "tapped" for ascites every day, and it requires a set up which included a liter suction bottle, tubing, and dressings. The bottles come in boxes of 10. From looking them up on amazon (what did we ever do before amazon?) we know the bottles cost $90 each, which is highway robbery. When Sam gets to less than 3 bottles, she gets very anxious. It's an easy fix, make sure her supply is kept up. It usually takes a phone call to Pam to get the bottles sent. Sam likes to be tapped at night, so she can sleep. I go down almost every night around 7 or 8 to assist her, and if I'm not available, the on call hospice nurse comes out (and of course bills her insurance).

This week Vitas sent someone new out with a new type of bottle. Instead of suction, it has a bulb that you squeeze once and then gravity takes over. I went down, looked at it, and there was no dressing to put on afterwards, so I called Vitas for directions. They sent out the on call nurse, Julie. Julie is kind of snarky, and funny, and Sam and Lou love her. She couldn't believe they sent out that kind of set up, first of all. She said it would take hours to drain Sam by gravity. And the connections didn't match. Again, it comes down to money- this setup is way cheaper than the suction bottles. Luckily Julie had a bottle in her car, and used that. So the cheaper set up got trashed, and they had to pay the on call nurse to come out, and they had to send another person out with more bottles the next day.

Yesterday Franny, Ralph and I went to Pennsville to the Riverview Inn, which is right on Delaware Bay. We met Carol and Kamee there, for the second annual lauau to benefit the Pennsville Library. It was two hours of music, appetitzers, and door prizes, and a chance to get together. We had a nice time, and contributed to the library.

So another rant- why on earth do library funds get cut? Anyone with half a brain wants kids to read- readers are smarter than non readers, and to be a success in almost anything you have to read. In addition to books, libraries allow computer access to people who can't afford a home computer, and librarians are the smartest and most helpful people in the world! A lot of libraries even lend ebooks electronically.

This has turned out to be a post of rants, but I'll get off my soapbox now. I have to do some fun things like put the laundry away and clean out the fridge. Then I'm going to sit down and finish my book- Obsidian Prey, by Jayne Castle. Another Harmony book. The dust bunny in this one is named Vincent.

Stay cool!
Holly

157 days til Christmas!

2011-07-20T22:55:00.002-04:00

I only know because of the counter I have on the blog. With the weather being in the 90's every day, Christmas is about the last thing on my mind.

The ramp is totally done, and Mom comes home from rehab tomorrow. She's been either in the hospital or rehab since June 8th! Being a patient gets old real fast, as I know from experience.

Being sick gets old real fast also. Sam is totally sick of being sick. She and Lou are together 24/7. They have the distraction of the dog, hospice nurses, and home health aids, but that's all. We plan to take the to see the final Harry Potter movie, but it's just too hot this week for them to be outside even for that short time. We're hoping for early next week.

Tonight was dinner with the nurses night. Mom Florence's senior meeting got cancelled due to the weather, so Ralph was able to join us. It was the first we've see Jean since her brain surgery for a benign tumor. She looks wonderful! She's hoping to be able to drive by the next dinner.

The week was house cleaning week! It's so great to have someone else clean the kitchen, both bathrooms, dust, and vacuum the entire house. Last weekend the dishwasher backed up, and when Ralph started touching pipes, they crumbled. $200 in parts later, we have a new faucet and a bunch of pipes. Then Monday afternoon it got really warm in here. When Ralph investigated, he had to turn the AC off and back on, and thank goodness it went on and has been behaving- knock on wood. The unit is almost 20 years old, so we decided that as soon as I get back to work and get a couple of pays, we'll replace it.

My brother John is coming up from Florida next week to visit Mom. Her being in the hospital and rehab scared him more than it did us. It's hard to be 1000 miles away.

I'm reading a cool set of books by Jayne Castle, about the planet Harmony. 200 years ago, a curtain lifted which allowed humans to colonize Harmony. Then the curtain closed, stranding them, and Earth technology soon became useless. Humans had to fight to rebuild their own civilization, and were aided by psychic energy. My favorite are the little creatures called dust bunnies. They have blue eyes, and a second set of eyes for hunting. They have six legs, and love pretzels. They're more companions than pets, and are predators. The old saying goes, by the time you see the teeth, it's too late.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Summer Loving

2011-07-17T09:24:00.015-04:00

Yesterday we went to Jay and Christine's wedding. They had a beautiful day, temp in the 80's, skies blue and clear. The wedding was at 2 p.m. Steph was a groomswoman.
Kate was also a groomswoman. One of the bridesmaids told me that they started out calling Kate and Steph female ushers, which morphed into flushers. Steph, Kate and Jay have been best friends since high school. They frequently went on ski trips together, and spent a lot of time together.
Dan was there as Steph's escort. They started taking dancing lessons at the library.
Christine's Dad is in a wheelchair, so he waited at the alter and her brother escorted her down the aisle.
Jay and Christine make a beautiful couple!
Christine has 3 sisters. She and one sister are nurses, and her sister worked with Ralph in the ER. Small world!
The week before, we went to MacKenzie's 4th, and Connor's 9th birthday parties. Kenzie loves Toy Story, and Sharon made the cake for her.
Get some little girls together, and of course they play dressup! Kenzie is in the middle, and Julianna is on the right.
Our sweet little princess!
Mom's ramp is in, and almost done. A new door was put out the back of the porch. There's a big landing at the top.
Another landing near the bottom, and the ramp turns.
Looking out the new back door. The ramp is solid, and meets ADA standards. It's a gentle slope, for a wheelchair or her walker. There will be a round railing to grip over the flat railing.
The landings are nice and wide, and solid. Mom is due to be discharged on Thursday so she can come home and try it out.

Our dishwasher backed up into the sink yesterday. Ick. So Ralph started checking, and pipes starting crumbling. At the moment, the sink is on the floor, because of course it happened right before we had to leave to go to the wedding. He's at church with Mom Florence, and will get started fixing and replacing when he gets home. New drain, new faucets, and who knows what else. All the pipes are at least 20 years old, and don't last forever.

Ben interviewed for a job in Seattle. Seattle- can they get any further away? They'd be 3 time zones away from us, and a more expensive and longer plane ride. But as Steph says, Seattle is much cooler than Houston. And they have to be where the work is. It just seems so far away.

Heather and Ed are both settling into their new jobs, and very happy. The kids are loving staying at the O'Flynn grandparents. They have a pool, and cousins that visit frequently.

Steph is now working from home a couple of days a week, which the dogs love. Dan is taking a summer class, but it's online so he doesn't have to go to the school. They learned to waltz at this week's dancing lesson at the library.

I actually bought some fabric! There's a line called "Hoo's in the Forest" which is adorable. I bought the charm pack, jelly roll, and layer cake packs of it. Steph loves owls, so I'll make something for her- I've been looking at quilt patterns.

The wedding had a fountain of Malibu Bay Breezes. Rum, pineapple juice and a hint of coconut. They were so good! I only had one, and they must have been weak, since I didn't get a buzz, which is fine. I'd never tasted them before.

I just finished the new Jan Burke book, Disturbance. She writes a series about Irene Kelly, journalist. This was a kind of followup to the book Bones, which was really scary. This book was very intense, and really good.

I've gotten hooked on reruns of Frasier. It's all Sam's fault- the nights I stayed there, we saw a couple of episodes. Frasier was a spinoff of Cheers, and takes place in Seattle- is that an omen? Most of the new comedies I don't find funny, but Frasier makes me laugh.

I'm still crocheting up a storm. Mindless, and uses up yarn. Sam and Lou are both stable, but declining. I see them almost every day.

It's another beautiful day, with a blue sky. It's supposed to get wickedly hot again this week.
And the beat goes on!
Holly

July 7

2011-07-07T09:19:00.012-04:00

Today is my baby's birthday! Stephanie Susan is 28 today. One of the birthday parties for Julianna and Grandmom was on St. Patrick's Day, so Steph, Heather and Julianna got into the Irish spirit!
Steph loves being an Aunt to Julianna and Eddie. It was hard on everyone when Heather, Ed, Eddie and Julianna moved to NC, but they're back now, and the kids will have more time with all of us.
Two years ago Steph, Manda, my friend Linda and I went on an Alaskan cruise. It was fabulous! Every night Steph would look at the activities list for the following day, and schedule her day. She made the most of every moment. One shore day, when the rest of us rode a tram up a mountain, Steph went on a five mile hike!
This is Whiskey. Steph adopted him from a rescue, and gave Toast a little brother. He just turned 10, and is so full of energy! He's very needy, and when you create a lap, he wants to be on it.
Toast is still the Princess. She'll be 10 in September, and has some back issues.
Last year, Steph held our Christmas with Manda and Ben at her apartment. We celebrated two days after Thanksgiving that year. Due to nurses in the family, Christmas is hardly ever celebrated on December 25. Steph made a wonderful dinner, and we enjoyed being together.
When Manda and Ben got married, Steph was maid of honor. Becca and Heather and Julianna were also in the wedding.
This past Christmas Steph, the dogs, and Ralph and I went to NC.
My girls! What a cute bunch!
Steph and her favorite niece!

We're so proud of Steph. She got her BA in Fire Science from Holy Family University, and is going for her Master's at St. Joseph's University. When she was a teen, I really wanted her to become a country western singer, but she refused to try, just because she inherited the lack of singing talent from us. Not that that ever stopped some of the singers out there! She's found her niche at the company she works for. She graduated with highest honors from Holy Family, and is doing wonderfully at St. Joe's.

Steph was born the day after my brother John's birthday. I really thought she'd share his birthday, but she wanted her own day.

Happy Birthday Steph! We love you!

Holly

It's July!

2011-07-01T09:38:00.002-04:00

2011 is officially half over! July is a busy month for us. We have lots of birthdays- Dan is July 3, John is the 6th, Steph is the 7th (my baby will be 28!), Connor will be 8 on the 12th, Kenzi is in there somewhere (I have to write it down), Polly is the 19th, and Nadia is the 29th! Wow!

Jay and Christine get married on the 16th. Steph and Kate are Groomswomen, something I never heard of until recently, but I like the rationale of it. Jay, Steph and Kate have been Best Friends for years, so it makes sense for them to stand up with Jay. Jay and Christine are genuinely good people, and I'm so happy for them to have found each other, and I wish them the absolute best!

I read 7 books in June, bringing the year's total up to 61. Of those, 24 were either my own or my own on the Nook. The rest were from the library. I've gotten to where I prefer to read on the Nook- I can change the letter size anytime, and it's so portable!

I just finished another granny stripe afghan, this one in pastels. The leftovers are being added to the scrappy double crochet afghan- not real pretty, but functional!

Happy July!
Holly

Pictures

2011-06-30T12:45:00.005-04:00

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!

2011-06-27T08:39:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-06-14T23:16:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-06-08T17:54:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-06-01T17:22:00.002-04:00

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

Memorial Day

2011-05-30T12:38:00.002-04:00

Lots of Veterans in our family. Ralph, my dad, Bobby and Pop are Navy, Big Ed, Rocco and Lou are Marines, George and George are Army. Ralph is at a Memorial Day ceremony now.

Sam is not doing well. Last night she called me 12 times in an hour while I wasn't home, to say that her phone wasn't working. When I called her back she knew something wasn't right. I called Hospice, and the nurse met us there. They changed her meds a little.

This morning her hospice nurse called, and I met her at Sam's. Lou said they were up til 4 a.m., and she fell in the bathroom. She was still somewhat confused, but sleepy. The nurse assessed her, which she dozed during, so we left them both asleep. Sam is looking weak and gray, but insistent that she will pass at home. I don't think it will be long, and I hope for her sake it isn't.

Sam has always been a private person, and it's so hard for her to have the constant parade of people thru the house. She was always the care giver, of her mom, aunt, and dad, and Lou, that it's hard for her to accept being taken care of. She's so apologetic when she asks for anything.

I know I'm too close to the situation for any objectivity. Ralph and Barbara and my physician friend Tom are doing the objectivity part for me, I'm just trying to follow her wishes. Four of the dogs and the cat have gone to their new homes, and when she passes I just have to make a phone call for the little dog to go to her new home. The wonderful hospice nurse took Freebe, the 23 year old cat, home with her. Who ever heard of a 23 year old cat!

It's been a 10 year battle since she was diagnosed, and I see the end of the road being in sight. I've been telling her that it's OK to go, that her Mom is waiting for her, and we'll be OK. Between us all we'll care for Lou and follow his wishes, and her plans.

When we were younger we used to joke about Death, and how we had our copy of The Final Exit handy. It's not so funny anymore.

Holly

39 years

2011-05-27T20:19:00.003-04:00

Today is our 39th wedding anniversary! It's hard to believe it's been that long. When I got home from work today, Ralph was holding Miss Millie, and he said she was my present. That made me laugh, since she's so his cat.

We had a nice dinner out with Steph and Dan to celebrate. They leave for New Orleans two weeks from today. Manda and Ben are having a great trip to Italy- they've been to Rome, Pompeii, and Tuscany.

Steph asked us what we've learned in 39 years. My immediate response that we're each others best friend.

The part of the vows about being together in sickness and in health has described us. His kidney stone and brain tumor, my hysterectomy and arrythmia, and we've gotten thru it all holding each others hand.

The best thing we've done together is to have our three lovely daughters! We're so proud of each of them, and so glad we survived their teenage years!

All of a sudden it's hot out. It's been 90 a couple of days. Typical jersey, a week of spring then right into the hot weather.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

A Long Week

2011-05-21T20:15:00.002-04:00

Last Sunday my cousin got really confused, so I spent the night with her. I'm too old to try to sleep in a recliner! I took Monday off, and slept part of the day, while Ralph stayed with her and her husband. I never did catch up on sleep- I'm still up for an hour or so in the middle of the night. So today I slept late and took a nap!

Manda and Ben arrived in Italy this morning, for a week with Ben's parents. It was over a 12 hour flight for them, in addition to the time changes. And Heather has started packing out of season items to the trip home. We're all so happy that they are coming back! Steph just finished day 3 of a 5 day seminar- the other two days are next week.

I guess the world didn't end at 6 pm, always a good thing.

This week is Sharon and Jim's 12th anniversary! And next week is our 39th anniversary! I don't know where the time goes.

I decided to use up all the little balls of leftover yarn. I made one afghan, just double crochet, and I still have some left! So I started scrap afghan #2. It's an easy pattern, and takes no concentration, which is good since I don't have any concentrating skills at the moment.

I DVR The View and Ellen every day, and I do manage to keep up with them, catching up over the weekend. All the other shows I like get DVR'd, and I'm way behind in watching them.

My friend Jean had brain surgery, which was scary. She had a benign tumor that was messing up her balance. The doc predicted 4-5 days in the ICU, then a week on the floor. She was out of the ICU in one day, and home in 4! Since Jean has been a nurse for over 50 years, we figure they sent her home for some peace and quiet. We love you, Jean!

And my friend Roseanne just became a grandmother for the 3rd time! Zachary was born last weekend. Her other two grandchildren live in California, so it's great for her to have him nearby.

No big plans for tomorrow. Ralph will do church with his mom, then we're having dinner with Frank and Charlotte. When we were all first married, we went to dinner together a lot. Then children and later grandchildren, and jobs, kept us busy.

Miss Millie is failing. She can't jump much, and her mouth is tender. She's about 17 now. Every time Ralph sits or lays down, she's right there on him. Getting old stinks, whether you're a person or a cat.

And so it goes.
Holly

So much going on

2011-05-10T22:29:00.002-04:00

Life is hectic right now, and not in a good way. Work is work. We're getting close to the end of the school year, with all the paperwork that goes with it.

Heather and Ed and Eddie and Julianna made a real quick visit up, and we got to see them last night. Steph came over, and Dan came over when he finished his final, and we had pizza together and visited.

Florence is thriving in assisted living. She has friends in the same facility, so she can hang out when she wants, but have her place to retreat to. The cat seems perfectly happy- she has a nice sunny window to bird watch from. And Florence went to the Acme on the bus ran by the facility! We're so thrilled for her! (doesn't take much to make us happy).

I'm up almost every night at 0400 until 0500, then I doze off, so I'm exhausted all the time. Ralph and Steph are also not sleeping well- too much on our minds. Ralph has been doing a lot of yard work, getting rid of a lot of wood and cement pieces.

We dog sat Saturday while Steph went to a wedding in NY. Those dogs are world class nappers! of course Millie decided to go around meowing at 0400 and woke us all up, and the dogs decided they may as well go outside since we were up.

I'm working on yet another afghan, this one with all the little balls of yarn left over from the last several projects. It's just double crochet, so it doesn't require any concentration, which is good. It should be nice and warm.

I was given a Kindle DX by someone too sick to be interested in it anymore. I have it registered to me, and I've downloaded a few books that I can't get on my Nook. So I'm reading about 4 books and once, and i couldn't tell you what any of them are about.

I made 2 blocks for a block swap, but I can't put up pix of them yet. Eventually I will.
And so it goes.
Holly

May 1

2011-05-01T21:05:00.002-04:00

237 days til Christmas! Spring break is now over, and we go back to work tomorrow. I hope being off settled the kids down a little. I was busy over break- spent some time with Sam, dog sat for a day, finished an afghan and started another, and I sewed! Just two blocks, but it felt good. I also cleaned off the sewing machine table, and the work table.

I read 9 books in April, 4 from the library and 5 either from my Nook or from my bookshelf.

Mom Florence and her cat go to Assisted Living tomorrow. We're all hoping she likes it, since she can't live alone anymore. Mom Mary Jane is having in home physical therapy.

The Royal Wedding- I didn't watch it live, but I saw several replays of it. It's amazing how many people from all over the world went to London to watch it. I loved the hats- The View ladies and Oprah did wedding shows complete with hats.

This is cleaning lady week, which always make me happy!
And the beat goes on!
Holly

Easter morning

2011-04-24T10:07:00.002-04:00

The trifle is made and chilling, the roasted veggies are roasting, and when they come out of the over the potato casserole goes in. Then the mini hot dogs wrapped in crescents. When they all come out, it'll be time to go pick up Mom and head to Mike and Donna's. If Mom doesn't change her mind, as she well may.

Last night was a good night- I talked to all three of my daughters! Manda and Ben are having friends over, and eating dinner on the wedding china. Heather and Ed are waiting til tomorrow night to have the big dinner, when Ed, Jeanne, Michelle, Mia, Sienna and Bella are there. Steph and Dan are having brunch with his family, then dinner with us. Dan gets to ease into meeting the family- Mike, Mikey and Joe today. The men in the family can be overpowering, and they're all protective of Stephanie.

I made a new trifle, instead of Joseph's trifle. This seemed more springlike. Ladyfingers, banana pudding, strawberries, pineapple and bananas. It called for whipped cream on top, but there's no room in the trifle bowl.

We ate at Applebee's yesterday, and I had a new dish. Served on a hot plate, it's 2 corn cakes, topped with a half a chicken breast, topped with shaved ham, cheese, bacon, and barbecue sauce. It came with corn spiced with jalepano, which I substituted with fries. I brought half of it home, there was so much. But it was really good!

And so it goes!
Holly

Good Friday

2011-04-22T08:26:00.002-04:00

We're off for the next week! The kids at school really need the time off. Food fights are starting, and they just need a break from school. As do the staff.

It was nice and warm, in the 80's, and now it's chilly again, and overcast. I never listen to the weather, I just call Mom and she gives me a report. She's got the TV on constantly, which would annoy me, but I think she uses it like I use the CD player, for background.

Easter dinner will be at Mike and Donna's. I have to go food shopping this morning. My contributions will be mini hotdogs wrapped in crescent rolls, roasted vegtables (Steph's favorite), a new potato casserole that I want to try, and a new trifle that I want to try. Our family dinners are great places to try out recipes, because there's so much food that if one thing isn't good, it can be avoided. Steph is going to make a vegan dish.

I'm still having nights of not sleeping well, so by the end of the week I'm so tired that I go to bed around 7. Both doc's agree that it's hormonal, but since I go right to sleep I don't want to take anything. And I don't want to take anything when I wake up at 4 a.m. because I have to get up at 6.30.

My goal for the week off it to get one of my flimsies up on the longarm and get it quilted. And to clean at least one closet. Sam has been wanting to go to Wegman's, and it's a place I've never been, so we're going to do that one day.

Steph is bringing Dan to Easter dinner. We've met him twice, and he reminds me of Ralph, which is a good thing. Heather and Ed and the kids will have dinner at their house, and Easter Monday Ed, Jeanne, Michelle and her three girls are going to NC for 4 days to visit. Ben is working the next launch, so Ben and Manda have to be in Houston over Easter. I haven't asked my Mom yet what she's doing Sunday. She said the other week that she doesn't feel up to going to Mike's.

The crocheting continues- I finished the purple afghan, and started on a multicolored baby afghan. The quilting patterns I want are all organized and stored, and the rest of the magazines went out in the recycling.

And my spring cleaning is being done! This week Sharon did all the windows, and what a difference! Last year I was too sick, and last fall didn't feel like it. Ralph said that having the house cleaned every other week has made him more aware of cleaning up after himself- I should have hired her years ago!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Brrr

2011-04-15T19:09:00.002-04:00

It was really nice for a day, then rainy for several, then nice-ish, now it's chilly again and rain is predicted for tomorrow.

Last week was kind of rough. April 5 was the fourth anniversary of my Dad's death, and April 7 was his birthday. I was glad to be at work and my mind occupied. This week my Mom started in home physical therapy. The therapist asked what her goals are. Mom said she's perfectly content to stay in the house, but the family wants her to go out. Yesterday she had a doctor's appointment, and Mike took her. She had a hard time coming back up the steps. She told me last night she won't be able to go to Easter dinner at Mike's. I knew she was going to try to get out of going. I try not to get upset, because I can't change anything, so I just keep her supplied with library books.

I'm over halfway done the purple afghan! Ralph found 3 plastic totes of yarn that I have no memory of buying, and don't know what I was going to do with them. So I packed them up and took them into the home ec teacher at work. She teaches all the kids to knit and/or crochet, so the yarn will be put to good use.

I went thru an entire bookcase full of quilting magazines, and tore out the pages I wanted, and put the rest out for recycle. I have about a hundred patterns that I saved, and it freed up the bookcase, which is now in the dining room holding cookbooks.

Steph had a scary allergic reaction and ended up in the ER and got a shot of epi. She's referred for allergy testing. We just got back from having dinner with her and Dan at Dublin Square, and she looks good. She was maroon in the ER, which is never good.

My work space at work is totally organized- I can put my hands on anything with no delay. My house is another story. It's getting better since we have the house cleaned every other week. That forces us to declutter on a regular basis, which is good.

I'm so looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. This getting up at 6:30 a.m. gets old real fast.
And so it goes!
Holly

Raindrops on Roses

2011-04-03T13:27:00.013-04:00

Some of my favorite things are the green and cream quilt that hangs on the family room wall, and the green and cream striped afghan that lives in the family room.
My sewing machine- a Janome 6500 that I bought in 2004, when I got addicted to quilting. It weighs 37 pounds, and it's name is Moose.
The quilt that my HGTV quilting group made me to "fix me" when I was so sick last year. It took awhile, but it worked!
My Nook, which has a whole lot of books on it, and gets a whole lot of use. It has a skin with trees on it, and is in it's new cover. A lot of people name their Nooks. My Nook may be named Elvis- I'm not sure yet.
This is the front of the Kate Spade cover. I loved it, but didn't want to pay $85 for it. When it went on sale for $19.99 with free shipping, I ordered it.
The spring Vera Bradley collection is out, and I fell in love with English Meadow. Today is nice and sunny and a good day for some retail therapy.
Manda knitted me socks for my birthday! I love them! They're a kind of wool that can be machine washed, and air dried. The color is so pretty! I can't believe she taught herself to knit by watching you-tube videos.
Last weekend Steph and I went to a small quilt show. I have this pattern, so I took a pic of how it can look.
This quilt is made of all fruit and veggie fabrics!
A bunch of different pointsettia fabrics.
Bargello- I love the colors.
Paper pieced- I have a couple of books on these quilts, and it's on my bucket list to make.

April is here. A lot of the northeast got a real April Fool with a lot of snow. We had rain, which is fine! My niece Naureen's birthday is today. Mike and Donna and Frank and Charlotte have April anniversaries. My Dad and Father in law were both born in April. And this year Easter is the end of April, so late that when we go back to school it will be May.

In March I read 17 books- 7 from the library and ten either from the Nook or my paperbacks. My favorites were the Krista Davis series, about Sophie, who is an event planner and has a fun group of family and friends. Sophie tends to fall over dead bodies.

Ralph found 3 totes of yarn downstairs that I'd forgotten I had, and don't remember why I bought. So I bagged them up and have been taking them in to the home ec teacher at work. She teaches the kids to knit and crochet, and some of them really get into it and make beautiful things.

I went to a baby shower yesterday for the daughter of my longtime friend Roseanne. The food was good, the company enjoyable, and the gifts gorgeous. The women at my table who were around my age were telling the young women how many things we didn't have when we had babies. Ultrasounds were rare, disposable diapers were expensive and leaky, the baby sat in a carseat in the front with us, there were no baby moniters or registries- they were incredulous. And of course no cell phones or digital cameras to take pix with, and no computers to send the pix by.

This week my cleaning person comes, and I look forward to the house being gorgeous. I find that we, especially Ralph, aren't cluttering as much, since we know we have to declutter before Sharon comes.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

A long year

2011-03-24T20:29:00.002-04:00

On the happy side, it's been a year since Manda's bridal shower. We had such a nice day, being together with a lot of friends and family. The final countdown to the wedding started.

On the down side, it was the week that I had the medical procedure that was supposed to fix some medical issues and instead let to a spiral of sickness that led to surgery and missing three months of work. A year later, I'm a different person. I tire more easily. The inactivity led to my arthritic knee getting worse- I'm a mess on steps. I have nights where I'm up for an hour or two in the middle of the night, which is really annoying, since the alarm clock continues to go off at 6.30. Today I came home from work and took a nap.

I'm hoping for good things during the rest of 2011. Heather and Ed and Eddie and Julianna are planning to move back to NJ. North Carolina is a beautiful place to live, but job opportunities are few and far between. And when your entire support system is 9 hours away, it's hard. We'll all be delighted when they get back for good.

I finished the blue granny stripe afghan, and made a blue and cream baby afghan that Steph needs to give a friend. I stated another granny stripe, in shades of purple and cream. The stash is slowly diminishing. The 2.5 strip die for the Accuquilt arrived yesterday, so I have to play with that.

I just finished the last of the Wedding Planner mysteries by Deborah Donnelly. I had the first 3, and got the last 3 from the library. I just started the last of the Diva mysteries by Krista Davis, on my Nook.

Ben and Manda gave me a Lady Gaga CD for Christmas, and it's become Ralph's favorite. If he's working around the house, the CD is on. He's been working on cleaning up the basement. This was the week that the housecleaner came, and the house was all sparkling clean. I should have hired her years ago- it's well worth every penny!

When I got to work this morning, the rain turned to snow! It looked pretty, but I'm so glad it didn't lay- we've had enough of snow this year! Tomorrow night the pups come to stay, while Steph has class all day Saturday. One more Saturday after that and that class will be done. It's been hard on her- work all week, and class all day Saturday.

And tomorrow is finally Friday!
Holly

Another week

2011-03-20T10:12:00.002-04:00

Last week was the longest ever. The time change did me in- I just couldn't catch up on sleep. And I had a week where I was up almost every night for an hour, which didn't help. And my back hurt from where I fell.

Friday night I finally slept all night, and slept in til almost 9 a.m. Heather, Ed and the kids are up for a race, so Ralph and I had lunch with Heather, Eddie and Julianna, then we went and visited with my mom for a couple of hours. The kids are growing so fast!

Today Ralph is at church and mom-sitting for Mom Florence, so I have a quiet morning. I'm reading two series- The Diva series by Krista Davis, and Deborah Donnelly's Wedding Planner series. Diva is on the Nook, Wedding is some of mine and some of the library's. Both cozies.

I'm also crocheting and catching up on shows that I've DVR'd. Last night I watched some of CSI:NY.

I just ordered the 2.5 inch strip die and mat for the Accuquilt. Amazon has some of the best prices, as it does for everything! And I went thru a stack of quilting magazines and marked the patterns I want to keep. I'm sitting here with a cup of lemon blueberry tea made in the Keurig.

And so it goes!
Holly

Daylight Savings Time

2011-03-13T13:40:00.002-04:00

It will be so nice to have that extra light time in the evenings! I'm not looking forward to having to get up earlier tomorrow, tho.

It was one of those weeks at work that you think will never end, just go on and on. I was so glad to see Friday come! And I managed to fall out of a chair, leaning forward just a little too much. The chair went one way, I went the other, and landed on my tailbone. It seems to be muscular pain now- I'm OK standing and OK sitting- it's going from one to the other that hurts. A lot.

Target has teaspoons on sale, 6 for $4, so I went and got 18. I knew the teaspoons were disappearing, and blamed Steph. Yep, she'd taken 4. So now I have plenty! I stopped at WaWa for a few things for Sam, and went and visited with her and Lou. She's actually got an appetite, and looks so much better than last week. Then I dropped of library books to Mom, and headed home to do laundry.

I just read "Night Vision" the new Doc Ford book by Randy Wayne White. Doc is a marine biologist who works for an ultra secret government organization. It's a fast paced series.

The blue afghan is almost finished. We dog sat for Friday and Saturday while Steph had all day classes, so the pups kept me company in the sewing room. I'm happy to see them come, and happier to see them go home!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

An up and down week

2011-03-05T09:13:00.002-05:00

The week started out great with birthday cake at Frank and Charlotte's for Frank's birthday. It was fun to visit with the family. Mom Florence looked good, though tired.

Monday the week fell apart with a call from Sam at the hospital. She was so short of breath she could barely talk, and she asked me to pick up Lou and take him home. After I took him home I went back to see her- she looked and sounded so bad I was afraid we were going to lose her, from various medical issues. We had The Conversation- what her wishes are. Neither of us could believe we were having the conversation.

Tuesday and Wednesday crept by. The high point of the week was when they made Sam aware of Vitas, the hospice program. I'd always heard good things about Vitas, and they are living up to their reputation. Thursday Sam came home under hospice, and Lou will also have them as a main medical provider. There will also be home health aids, visiting nurses, and social workers. Vitas leaves Virtua's program in the dust.

When I talked to Sam last night she sounds clear and like herself. We all know she won't recover, but she is better and they have a plan.

Tuesday we decluttered so that the house could be cleaned by a professional. She swears that she will keep the secret of how messed up the house was, and will consider not blackmailing me. Roseanne has been urging me to get a cleaning lady for months- at this point in our lives, we'd rather pay someone to clean, and enjoy our spare time. The house will be cleaned every other week, which forces us to pick up things.

Thursday was birthday day for Mom Mary Jane and granddaughter Julianna. Heather and Julianna made a strawberry cake with pink icing and purple decorations, and strawberry ice cream. Pink overload! When I called, Julianna told me that she'd just gotten out of the tub and had more cake, because it was still her birthday.

Ralph and I met Mike, Donna, Jake and Steph at Mom's. Mike got pizza and Steph got me a cake from Sweet Eats. Mikey stopped by after work. I got Mom new phones, because she wanted one that she could attach a head phone to. Seems her arm gets tired when she talks to her girlfriend for two hours.

So it was quite an eventful week. I barely went into the sewing room, much less crochet or sew. I didn't even watch any of the shows I DVR'd this week. I'm ready for a quiet weekend in my sparkling house!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Beautiful Sunday

2011-02-27T12:48:00.002-05:00

The sky is blue, it's warm-ish out, and the snow is gone! Of course the last time the weather was this nice, we got 6 inches of snow the next day.

I'm having a nice lazy weekend. Yesterday we went to the diner for breakfast, then to the Amish market for chicken croquettes, twice baked potatoes, broccoli salad, pasta salad and rice pudding- enough for all weekend. Today Ralph is Mom-sitting, so I went to Target and did laundry.

Tonight we're going to Frank and Charlotte's for cake for Frank's birthday, which is March 1. Mom's is March 3, and Big Mike's is March 31.

I just had a nice phone chat with my girlfriend Pat, who lives in Florida. We only talk once every couple of months, but we always pick up right where we left off. Our conversations range from who in our family is making us crazy, to what we're reading, to our jobs, and everything in between.

I'm working on an afghan in shades of blue and cream, which is coming along nicely. I still have a lot of green yarn, but I had to switch colors or go insane. I was visiting quilt shops online, as part of the fab-shop-hop, and I ordered some springy charm packs.

Manda and Ben were in Florida for the final launch of The Discovery, and they spent some time with John. They hadn't seen him since the wedding. They've been married 7 months already! She's back to knitting, with the assistance of Kitten. She finished the second sock!

And now it's time to put the laundry away.
And the beat goes on!

Holly

President's Day

2011-02-21T08:59:00.013-05:00

Last week we had a party. Ralph and Miss Millie had to rest up after cleaning up the house for company. When they were done, we could see the dining room table!
Julianna will be 4 on March 3, and they came up for a long weekend, so we had her party. It was hard to get a picture, because MacKenzie never stops moving! They loved the princess crowns.
When Mackenzie ran off to play outside, her Mom Sharon decided to be a princess.
Steph couldn't be at the party because she had class, but she picked up the cakes for me.
March 3 is also Grandmom Mary Jane's birthday, but she didn't feel up to coming out. We has the party on my birthday, so it was one big party! The chocolate cake had a filling of banana and strawberry.
Grandmom Florence was able to come to the party, and she looked wonderful. Julie needed some help to blow out the candles, and the 5 little boys were happy to help her.
Princess gifts are always a hit!
After the party, Miss Millie and Ralph were playing around.
I took saved Christmas and Birthday money and got myself an Accuquilt. Joann's Fabric had it for the cheapest I've seen it. I've been wanting one since last fall.
It folds up really nice, so I can store it under the sewing machine table. I do love my gadgets!
Here it is opened out. It uses a die system to cut fabric to specific shapes. It came with one die, and I have to order the ones that I'll use a lot. As with most things, Amazon has the best prices. What did we ever do before Amazon?
I cut the fabric for the ABC swap I'm in . I chose the letter "P" for Peace Symbol. I have to get the squares packed up and mailed to the swap hostess. There are always swaps going on at the HGTV quilting boards, but I only participate in the ABC swaps.

We just had the news on, the the midwest is getting terrible blizzards. Even NYC is getting snow. Here, the sky is threatening, and we got some drizzle. The 60's weather last week was just Mother Nature's tease.

Yesterday I met Steph at Joann's Fabric, and she picked out fleece. A friend of hers at work wants to give his wife a snuggli, and she asked if I'd make it. A snuggli takes 3 yards of fleece, which we got on sale 50% off. It takes less than an hour, and it makes a wonderful snuggli- the commercial ones can't compare. Then she took me to lunch for a birthday gift. We went to an Italian place in Voorhees, and it was really good. I got fettucine, and had so much left that Ralph had it for dinner.

It's nice to be off work today. It's the last holiday til Good Friday, which is late in April. Luckily I haven't used my personal days, so I can take a long weekend somewhere in there.

I read a fun book by A.E. Hotchner called "Paul and Me". It's about the author's life long friendship with Paul Newman, and how they started the Newman's Own products, and how every cent of profit goes to charity. Then I read "Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind" by Ann B. Ross. Miss Julia is a 60-some lady from NC who was widowed when her husband had a heart attack. She discovers that she is now rich, and the slimy minister from her church tries to get her money. And a young woman and a child show up, and the child is the spitting image of her late husband. The book is the first of a series, and I may read some others in the series- the library has them all.

I finished another afghan, in shades of green. This one will be a shower gift for a friend of Steph's who is getting married. Steph and Kate are being grooms-women, since they and Jay have been best friends for years and years.

I was scheduled for jury duty next week. The walk from the parking to the courthouse is long and not paved, and would hurt my knee, so my doctor wrote me a note, which was accepted, so I'm excused. Uneven ground is really hard for me to walk on, so I'm relieved.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Flowers!

2011-02-08T19:01:00.002-05:00

When I got home from work today, I had a lovely surprise- Ralph got me roses! They're not quite open, and they smell wonderful! Some yellow, some pink, and some red.

I was so surprised, because my birthday isn't until Sunday, and of course Valentine's Day isn't until Monday. And he made dinner- cheese ravioli. And he vacuumed up, and started raking off the dining room table.

Weather permitting, Heather, Ed, Eddie and Julianna are coming up for the weekend, so we're having a Dora party for Julianna's 4th and Mom's 81st birthdays. Originally they predicted bad weather, but now it's supposed to be nice. Unfortunately, Steph has an all day class on Saturday, followed by a concert, so she can't attend. The grand-dogs are coming over Friday night to stay the weekend.

I had been having some issues with my front teeth, so yesterday I went to the dentist. Turned out that the bonds on my lower 2 teeth were crumbling, and he recommended caps for both. Good thing I have dental insurance, and it still cost $700. But it should solve the problem for good. He also did some gum work, and I don't want to know what that means. He said the area may ache for a few days, and it sure does. It was worse today than yesterday. I can't bite down onto anything.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

This is getting old

2011-01-31T21:28:00.002-05:00

Tonight it's supposed to start snowing around midnight, and tomorrow they're not sure- could stay as snow, could be that awful wintery mix, or it could warm up and turn into rain- it depends on which way the storm goes.

We had snow days last Thursday and Friday. The side roads were still not good over the weekend. It's a good thing Ralph has the big pickup with 4 wheel drive, or we would really have had a problem.

So it's the last day of January. It's the birthday of my nephew Jim. Tomorrow is his grandmom Doris's birthday. Also in February is my birthday, and my nephew Nick's.

I read 9 books in January. Five were from the library, and four were on the Nook. It seems strange to read a "real" book after reading a few in a row on the Nook.

Talking to Manda and Heather over the weekend, it was 70 in Houston and 60 in NC. Kitten was looking out the window, and the kids were playing outside.

Ralph didn't have to stay with Florence today, so he did lots of errands. He was to the post office, paid our water bill, paid our taxes and took my mom's, and went and paid his mom's taxes. I stopped at Perk's on the way home to food shop, since he would be here to carry the bags in. I also stopped at the library on the way home, to pick up books for my mom. I don't think she's been out of her house since Thanksgiving.

Steph has started her second semester of grad school at St. Joe's! One night a week, and several Saturday's. Best of all, her work is picking up the entire bill! They must agree with me that it's a good investment.

And now off to sleep!
Holly

Family Rules

2011-01-26T17:50:00.002-05:00

Every family probably has rules of some sort. Here's some of ours:

Joe's Rule of Employment: It's OK to quit a job, as long as you have another job to go to the next day. Big Mike constantly broke that rule- he'd quit a job, pump gas at the gas station down the corner, and someone would come along and offer him a job. Made Joe crazy.

Joe's Rule of Birth Control: Keep your pecker in your pocket. If you can't keep it in your pocket, put a raincoat on it.

Ralph's Rule of Plugs: Never give a woman a gift that has a plug attached, unless she specifically asks for it.

and our newest rule-
Ed's Rule of Toys: If you give a child (especially his) a toy that has more than 50 pieces, be prepared to help the child with the toy. Puzzles are exempt from the rule.

We have snow. Again. My usually 30-40 minute commute to work took me 2 hours this morning! We had a 1 p.m. dismissal, and the ride home was 35 minutes. We're getting more snow tonight, amount to be determined.

Mom Florence spent 24 hours in the hospital, after having blurry vision. All the tests were negative, thankfully.

Speaking of ERs, I was in one Sunday night. I was having intermittent nausea, tingling across my shoulder blades, and it felt like my heart was beating hard. Those things made me anxious, which didn't help, so we went off to the ER. Enzymes, Chest Xray, EKG, all good. One abnormal lab, so off to CT. All were absolutely normal, and by then I felt better, so I was discharged at 4 a.m. Monday. Women present so differently than men with cardiac issues, and the ER doc and nurses told me that I was absolutely right to come in. I've been feeling fine since, and if the ride to work didn't kick in an issue, nothing will!

I've been reading real books from the library. After reading on the Nook for a couple of weeks, it feels weird to hold a heavy book!I'm working my way thru the Jake Lassiter series by Paul Levine. He's an ex-football player, now lawyer, in Miami. It has a nice set of supporting characters, and Jake can't do anything the easy way. I'm enjoying the series.

I finally used up all the soft baby yarn, almost. I have enough left to make a couple of scarves. I started another granny square afghan to use up more of the greens. I also signed up for an ABC swap on the HGTV quilting board. You sign up for a specific letter, so 26 people participate. You sent 27 squares, 6.5 inches square. The extra square is for the hostess. I picked the letter P, because I'd bought some Peace Sign fabric. When all the squares are mailed to the hostess, she swaps them out, and you get back 26 squares, one for each letter. It's fun to see the fabrics that everyone picks out.

And so it goes!
Holly

A Party!

2011-01-23T10:25:00.008-05:00

When we told Miss Millie that we were going out for the day, she wasn't interested- she'd found a nice warm spot, even if it is a strange spot. A strange spot for a strange cat.
Aunt Marie is the older sister of my late father in law. She'll be 90 next month! She thought she was going to her son's 60th birthday party. Surprise, Marie! Ralph and I picked up Mom Florence, Frank and Charlotte, and Stephanie and we went off to NE Philly. Brookside Manor is near where Steph's first apartment was.
The centerpieces were beautiful, and high off the table so they didn't block the view. The food was delicious.
Aunt Marie looks so much like her late mother, Nanny Rose! Uncle Jack died a few years ago. She's with her sons, Jim and John.
Marie and Florence are the matriarchs of the family. This was Mom Florence's first big social outing since her surgery. She was so happy that she was able to go see Marie and her nephews.
Ralph, Frank, Florence, Marie, Jim and John. Stephanie went with us, and she sat at the "kids" table. The kids were John and Jim's children, and they and Steph were trying to figure out what kind of cousins they are. Hmm, their grandmother and Steph's grandfather were siblings, so their father's are cousins, so that makes them- cousins of some sort.
The families never visited much due to some tiff years ago that no one remembers, and was probably something totally trivial. It's become a funeral get together family, so it was delightful to get together for a happy occasion.
John is retiring next year, so he was asking Ralph for tips on how to spend his time. Ralph had a lot of suggestions for him.
Also at our table was Ralph and Frank's cousins Frannie, Gerrie and her husband Joe, and Michael and his wife Debi. It was great to visit with them.

It's 13 degrees out! Sunny, with some breeze. But 13! Is that necessary? I know it's January, but really! When it's this cold Steph has to drag Whiskey out of bed. She takes the dogs out, and as soon as they're back inside he jumps back in bed and doesn't even want to get up to eat. Now that's a dog with sense!

Plan for today- laundry, possible trip to Target, go to my Mom's to swap out library books, and to stay warm! More snow is predicted for Tuesday, possibly a significant amount.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

More snow!

2011-01-21T08:22:00.002-05:00

We're on a two hour delay for the second time this week. It's great because the staff gets to wait til after rush hour to go to work, and the kids aren't on the streets when people are driving to work. The city I work in never plows, and it's a walking district- a bad combination. And since we're there four hours, it's a day we don't have to make up in June.

I haven't been out yet, but it looks like a combo of snow and slush out there.

Yesterday was a sad anniversary- it's one year since the death of my friend Linda. It's been a rough year for her daughter Megan. Megan is 6 days older than Heather. Megan's older sister died of Reye's Syndrome in 1981. Megan said on facebook yesterday that it isn't getting less painful. "They" say the first year is the hardest, with all the firsts without the loved one. My dad died almost four years ago, and I thought the second year was as hard as the first. The pain of loss didn't start to blur on the edges til year 3. Now I go entire days without thinking of Dad, which amazes me. My brother John took and uses a lot of Dad's tools, and he said he talks to Dad everytime he uses the tools.

Manda and Ben are in NC- they arrived late last night. They'll be visiting with Heather, Ed, Eddie and Julianna until Sunday. Luckily the NC weather is holding, and no snow in their forecast.

Tomorrow we're going to a 90th birthday party for Aunt Marie, the older sister of my late father in law. It'll be Mom Florence's first big outing, other than going to doctors. Ralph took her to the hairdresser's, which was good for her spirits. She can't be left alone, because she forgets how to get up, and we're afraid she'll fall. It's a good thing Ralph is retired- he goes to Frank and Charlotte's when they have to go out and stays with her.

I finished the donation afghan for this year's farm fair, and I'm almost done a baby afghan using the last of the soft yarn. Fun Fur was on sale, so I got enough to make several scarves for next winter- I don't think I'll get them done for this year.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Long Weekend!

2011-01-16T11:05:00.010-05:00

Miss Millie approves of the latest afghan I finished. It's shades of green with cream, so it goes very well with the family room colors, and co-ordinates well with Miss Millie.
We had a snow day on Wednesday! We got about 6 inches, and the roads were a mess Wednesday morning. It was the first, and I hope the last snow day this school year.
It's nice to have an unplanned day off, but we have to make it up in June. We're already up til June 20 before we get out. The problem is, the kids are "done" after Memorial Day. We can hold school, but we can't make them learn!
It's been a while since I've done a quilt on the HQ16. I did this one a couple of months ago. The room formerly known as the living room is now the HQ room. It gets plenty of natural light.
You get it all set up, then it's kind of like drawing. Sewing on a regular sewing machine is like drawing, but moving the paper instead of the pen. With the mid-arms and long-arms, you draw by moving the needle, or "pen". It's a lot of fun when all is going well.
I was doing a meander all over. I have groovy boards and pantos, but I like the look of a meander.
Just loops all over.
This the needle area when there is no quilt loaded. Last year my goal was to quilt all my flimsies (quilt tops that haven't been quilted). The Fates laughed, I got really sick, and didn't do any. Hopefully this year will be better.

Ralph is at Frank and Charlotte's, Mom-sitting while they go out. Mom Florence can't be left alone- she's got residual forgetfulness from the stroke. She's doing much better since she's out of rehab, and she and Sheba are so happy to be reunited!

We're off tomorrow for MLK. I wonder how the man would feel knowing his birthday has become a day off? I wonder if he, along with Lincoln and Washington, would rather the children be in school learning about them? Lou shares MLK's actual birthday, so I always remember Lou's birthday.

I'm reading "Night Vision" by Paul Levine on the Nook. He writes a series about Jake Lassiter, Miami lawyer and former football player. It's an interesting series, mysteries of course.

I have enough soft yarn left for one more baby afghan, so I started that last night. I'm trying to not buy any yarn, except for the fun fur that I need to make a couple more scarves. They go fast, and I like the fuzzy look.

Manda and Ben fly in to NC this week to visit Heather and Ed and Eddie and Julianna. They haven't seen each other since Manda and Ben's wedding, so they have a lot to catch up on. Between talking, the Wii, the trampoline, and the ATV's, they should be busy without ever leaving the property!

Manda had sent me a recipe that I tried last night. Deli turkey, tomato, and a topping made from mayo, yogurt, and shredding cheese, grilled on wheat bread. It was really good, and goes in the keeper file!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

A New Look!

2011-01-08T06:12:00.003-05:00

I'm having one of those nights/early mornings when I can't sleep, so of course I'm on the computer. I've been thinking for a while that the plain pink borders to my blog are boring, especially compared to other blogs I've seen.

Blogger made it so easy to change the look! I love it- a new look for a new year!

I spent some time on Calibre last night organizing the books I've downloaded for my Nook. Like Manda, I've put a lot of books on the Nook that I had actual copies of, which I can now pass on. Right now I'm reading The Cat, The Professor and The Poison by Leann Sweeney on the Nook. I started a library book called Holiday Affair by Lisa Plumley, but that's going back unfinished.

Today is the big moving day for Mom Florence- she goes from rehab to Frank and Charlotte's house, where Sheba will join her. Poor Mom thought yesterday was Saturday, and was all ready to be sprung from rehab. I can sympathize- I spent so much of April and May in the hospital, and it's awful. No matter how kind the staff is, no matter how many visitors you have, it gets to the point where you just want out!

Yesterday morning it snowed. Not a lot, but enough to make the side streets slippery. We had to hold the kids in the cafeteria until all the staff could get to work. Luckily the snow stopped by noon, and by dismissal the roads were fine.

Ralph and I gave each other a Keurig for Christmas, and I bought a variety of teas and coffees. I've been drinking lemon blueberry herbal tea, and it's so good! I have to order some decaf for Ralph- some of those coffees are really high caffeine!

Gas is now $2.93 a gallon! Heather said it's higher in NC, plus in NC you have to pump it yourself! I never realized how great it is to have someone pump your gas til I travelled.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Three King's Day

2011-01-06T11:24:00.002-05:00

We are off work today because it's Three King's Day, which is a big holiday in some hispanic countries, and our district has a lot of hispanics. Ironicially, I'm never found a kid yet who knows what Three King's Day is, or who celebrates it. It's a bonus day off for us.

So I've already been to the lab and had bloodwork drawn, after I slept in for an hour. I have to go to the grocery store for a few things. Snow is predicted for tonight into tomorrow, so the store will be filled with people buying bread and milk.

January 4 was a day of anniversaries. It was Ed and Heather's 9th wedding anniversary. How fast that time has gone! It was also the 6th anniversary of Ralph's Dad Rocco's dying. R.I.P. Rocco.

Mom Florence is scheduled to be discharged from rehab on Saturday, to Frank and Charlotte's house. She's using a walker with supervision, and a wheelchair.

We have some birthdays this month. Lou will be 80 something on January 15. Later in the month Zachary will be 10- how can that be? His dad Jimmy will be a little older than that a few days later.

My girlfriend Linda would have turned 58 on the 29th. I attended her funeral last year in January when she died entirely too young. This has been a rough year for her daughter Megan.

I love Facebook. Because of Facebook I'm now in contact with my Aunt Diane, the widow of my Uncle John, and my friend Doris, who was my maid of honor. I keep track of some of my cousins, including one who I haven't seen in about 30 years and who now lives in Idaho. Steph says I stalk her on Facebook, which isn't true.

I just finished The Cat, the Quilt and the Corpse on my Nook. It's a cozy written by Leanne Sweeney, who is also on DorothyL. I'm starting another one by her called The Cat, The Professor and The Poison. I've got over 500 books on my Nook!

I finished another granny stripe afghan last night. This one is in shades of green, and I love it. It may take up residence on the coach with the quilt that my internet group made me.

And now I really have to go to Perks!

Holly

January 2, 2011

2011-01-02T10:22:00.012-05:00

I'm going backward in time, posting pictures from Thanksgiving. Mom and Manda were very intently looking at proofs of the wedding pictures on my laptop. We were at Mike and Donna's house. Manda and Ben used up most of their vacation time getting married and honeymooning, so they spent the long weekend of Thanksgiving with us, then went to Omaha and spent a long weekend in December. They were in Nebraska for Becca's college graduation and then did "Christmas" with the Briles. They spent the actual Christmas in Houston, and Kyle and Danielle went to visit them the week after, and spent New Year's Eve with them.
Ralph and Ben chatted while waiting for dinner to be served. Ben looks really different without the long hair- his hair is so curly!
Wild turkeys were in the backyard! Sometimes the yard is just covered with them. They keep a bunch of pairs of binoculars in order to wildlife watch.
Ralph and Mikey got to visit. Mikey is so good about taking Mom to doctor's appointments and shopping- he and Steph both do a lot for their grandmother.
Joseph's birthday is always Thanksgiving week. He turned 24 and couldn't believe how old he's getting. He's a busy guy with college and working, but always finds time to visit his grandmom. Taylor also works and goes to school, so they are a busy couple.
And Jake! I can't believe he's 10! Jake and Eddie have very similar personalities- very sweet kids, and kind to others.
Mikey and Grandmom enjoying each others company.
Steph brought a tofu-turkey with her. Some of us were brave enough to taste it. She's been a vegan for quite a while now, and says it makes her feel so good. She just finished her first semester of grad school at St. Joe's in Philly, and got all A's! In Addition to working full time, and sharing her life with Whiskey and Toast.
Poor Xena, the Warrior Princess. She was kind of creaky from arthritis, and she died the following week at 13. She will be sadly missed.
Dessert! Pumpkin roll, pumpkin pie, Joseph's Trifle, and coconut cream pie!
When I posted the Christmas pix, I missed posting one of Julianna and Eddie in her Dora jeep that Santa brought. She played in it for about an hour before she realized that it had a battery and she could drive it outside!

Christmas break is almost over- I go back to work tomorrow. Mom Florence was having a good day yesterday, and asked for an Italian Hoagie for lunch today. Ralph went off to feed Sheba and go to the Gallery for the hoagie, then off to lunch at rehab with her.

Ben called on New Year's Eve day to tell me that they were in Galveston, and there was a Rita's Water Ice there! Before then, the closest one to Houston was in Florida, so they are really excited. I see a lot of trips to Galveston in their future, luckily it isn't too far! And it's open all year!

I spent some time yesterday tidying up in the sewing room. It was a total disaster, since it was also wrapping central. I've been catching up on shows that I DVR'd- I watched all the Blue Bloods and Hawaii 50's, and I've started on the Glee's. I crochet while I watch, so I don't feel like I'm just wasting time.

I also downloaded a whole bunch of books to my Nook. I'm getting seriously addicted to reading on the Nook.

Here's hoping that 2011 will be kinder to us than 2010 was.

Holly

It's just another New Year's Eve

2010-12-31T20:02:00.012-05:00

We celebrated Thanksmas at Stephanie's, two days after Thanksgiving. Manda and Ben couldn't come for Christmas, so we improvised. We already knew that Ed, Heather and the kids couldn't come up in December.
Our newlyweds- Ben was doing his surprised face.
Steph and Whiskey were ready for presents! Steph made us a wonderful meal of pasta, salad, pineapple stuffing, and cranberry sauce.
Manda, Toast and I cuddled on the couch.
I wanted to try to make a crocheted poncho. Steph modeled it for me, and decided it would keep her warm at work.
Ralph, Steph, Toast, Whiskey and I drove to NC on Christmas Eve Day. After dinner, the kids were allowed to open some gifts. My Mom gave Julianna the Hallmark dog, which she named Jingle Bell.
I crocheted her a scarf with fun fur. The children loved all their gifts. Christmas night Heather had to go to work, so everyone tried out the Wii. During the night it started to snow, and we got about 5 inches.
Eddie and Julie played on Eddie's new trampoline, even in the snow. The dogs weren't crazy about the snow!
It sure looked pretty!
Ed and Heather have a nice view from their deck! By Monday the roads were totally dry, and the snow was mostly gone by the time we left for home on Tuesday. It was supposed to be a 9-10 hour trip, and ended up being a 12 hour trip! General slowness on 95, then a standstill near Philly airport with all the crazy football fans clogging up the road, so they could go sit in the snow and watch the game.

It was a fun trip. Next year we hope to get the family in the same place at the same time to do Christmas. The date will depend on Heather's work schedule.

Mom Florence is still in Rehab. She's had a series of small strokes which has left her very forgetful. She'll be discharged to Frank and Charlotte's next week sometime, if she's physically ready. They're also taking Mom's cat Sheba. Sheba is at Mom's house right now, and is so lonely!

While we were in NC, we took Heather out to lunch to celebrate her birthday, which was December 29. We also did some post-Christmas shopping for bargains!

I took the Nook with me on the trip, so I could do a little reading. In December I read 12 books, which brings the total for 2010 to 150 books.

We're having a quiet New Year's Eve. We had a nice dinner of ravioli, salad, and garlic bread. Today I cleaned up the desk and the computer desk. What a bunch of junk I had! I filled up a trash can!

I've pretty much given up on New Year's resolutions. I would like to get back to sewing and quilting- this year has been a bust for those.

Goodbye 2010, and Welcome to 2011! I'm hoping for good things from 2011!

Holly

December 16!

2010-12-16T06:41:00.004-05:00

How did that happen? December is flying by, and I can't keep up! Mom, who watches the news, tells me that we have a chance of snow later today. It's sure cold enough, we've been living in a deep freeze for days now. 18 degrees in the morning is hard to deal with!

Mom Florence had a stroke Monday night at rehab. Her speech got slurred, so rehab called Ralph and he went down, as did Charlotte. By Tuesday her speech had cleared, and they plan to move her back to rehab today.

Xena, The Warrior Princess Hound, died the week after Thanksgiving. She was 13, which was old for a Blue Tick Hound. Mike and his family were heartbroken. Big Mike felt the best way to honor her life was to start the life cycle again, with a puppy. So now Abby, a 10 week old dobe puppy, is the new member of their family. She's driving them all crazy, in a good way. She barks at her reflection in the sliding glass door, she chews shoelaces- she's a puppy.

Barbara came over with a twin sized quilt for her granddaughter and quilted it on my HQ16. We're getting better at loading, we got it right the first time. I finished the poncho I was crocheting, and now I'm making Eddie a scarf from Lion Brand Homespun. It's textured, and awful to work with! I'm glad I only got one skein, and I'll never buy it again.

I just finished The Reversal by Michael Connelly on the Nook, and I'm reading Painted Ladies by Robert Parker- the latest and possibly last Spenser.

Steph and Kate went on the Ski Club trip to Stowe last weekend, and we dog sat the herd. They were really good. Whiskey goes out, does his thing, and will come right back in. Toast wants to wander around, no matter how cold it is. Ben and Manda leave tonight for Omaha, to see Becca graduate from college and to do Christmas with his family. Then they'll do Christmas in Houston, and in January they're going to visit Heather and Ed and the kids.

We're going to NC for Christmas, weather permitting. It'll be a short visit, because Steph has to be back to work the next Tuesday. Julianna is convinced that Heather has a direct line to Santa, and can call Julie's order in anytime.

And I have to get dressed and go out in the cold and go to work!
The beat goes on!

Holly

It's December!

2010-12-04T16:39:00.002-05:00

Wow, it's December already! It's true, the older you get, the faster the years whiz by.
We have December birthdays- Ed is on the 8th, David the 19th, and Kamee the 23rd, and Heather the 29th. Megan's is also around the 23rd, but I'm not sure of the exact date.

I only read 8 books in November, one of which was on the Nook, and the others from the library. I finished Kate's afghan, and am working on a poncho. The poncho might be for Manda, or it might stay here- I haven't decided yet.

I got the bulk of the Christmas shopping done. Heather and Ed want a Wii, Manda and Ben got tickets for TSO, and Steph got a ski trip. Eddie, Julie and Jake are getting various things.

Thanksmas was lovely, tho neither grandmother was able to attend. Mom Florence is in subacute rehab, and Mom Mary Jane wasn't feeling up to it. Steph made a salad with field greens, apples, cranberries and a vinigerette dressing that was fabulous! Stuffed shells, roasted veggies, pineapple stuffing, and cranberry sauce. Really good! We listened to Christmas carols, visited, and exchanged some gifts. A very nice day, after which Ralph and I went home, the they met up with friends and saw Harry Potter. It was hard to put Manda and Ben on a plane the next day.

Last night was a cookie-less Cookie Swap. We went to Franny's, and Jake cooked for us! Salad, lasagna, meatballs and sausage, and pumpkin roll and doughnuts. Carol knitted us each a skinny scarf of fun fur, and we had fun choosing which one we wanted. Franny got us each an ornament in the shape of our initial. We caught up on each others lives, and had a nice evening.

I've done some mending, but no creating on the sewing machine. I'll be 7 months postop on Monday, and I'm pretty much back to myself. I tire easier, and my hair is awful. I consulted the Cookie Swappers, and we decided I need some layers, so I'll get to the hairdresser and get that done.

I'm reading The Reversal by Michael Connelly on the Nook, and Audition by Barbara Walters from the library. When I talked to Manda yesterday to remind her about Free Book Friday at Barnes & Noble, she said how she loves her Nook, and didn't know she needed one til she got it. That's good to hear, because I wasn't sure how much she'd like it.

Next weekend is Steph's Ski Club trip to Stowe, so the grand-dogs will be here. I hope it's not too cold when they visit.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Gobble Gobble

2010-11-25T09:15:00.002-05:00

It's Thanksgiving morning! Manda and Ben are here for a few days. Mom Florence has been moved to subacute rehab, and is going to Frank and Charlotte's today for dinner.

We're going to Mike and Donna's for dinner. I have Joseph's Trifle and cranberry-pineapple sauce made. Sweet potatoes are in one crockpot, broccoli casserole in another, and brussels sprouts in a third. I have to put the veggies (yams, potatoes, carrots and brussels sprouts) in to roast, and get the piggies in blankets ready.

Manda got her Master's degree in Physics from the University of Houston in May. It got overshadowed by the wedding, so we surprised her with a graduation gift when they got here. We got her a Nook! Something she didn't know she needed, but is already loving it.

It's so good to have them home. Steph went and got them from the airport Tuesday night, and I had soup and sandwich fixings ready. Yesterday they went with Ralph to see Mom Florence at rehab, then we met Steph for dinner at Carrabas.

Heather and Ed and Eddie and Julianna are going to her friend Angela's for dinner today. Heather is introducing them to pumpkin roll and pineapple stuffing. Angela and her husband are from Michigan, so they're also newcomers to NC.

What I'm thankful for today: my family, close and extended. That Mom Florence is doing so well at rehab. That it's not snowing!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Almost Turkey Day!

2010-11-21T10:49:00.002-05:00

November is such a fast month- so many days off of school. Election Day, Teacher's Convention, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Mom Florence is in acute rehab and doing well after her surgery. This week she should be transferred to sub acute rehab. Sadly, she'll be in rehab over Thanksgiving.

Ben and Manda will be home for Thanksgiving! They get in Tuesday night and will be here til Sunday. Thanksgiving will be at Mike and Donna's. I just got back from foodshopping for the dishes I take. I make roasted veggies (yams, potatoes, carrots and brussels sprouts), a broccoli dish in the crockpot that everyone likes, a new to us brussels sprouts dish in another crockpot, sweet potatoes, pineapple in cherries in yet another crockpot, a chunky cranberry sauce, and Joseph's Trifle. The bad news is that because the newlyweds used so much vacation time for the wedding, they won't be able to visit both families for Christmas. Rebecca is graduating college in December- Yay Becca!- so they're going to Nebraska for that and an early Christmas. They'll go to NC for a long weekend in January for yet another Christmas celebration.

Saturday we're doing Thanksmas at Steph's. She's making us a Vegan meal, and we'll do gifts with Ben and Manda. She had to make some adjustments to the meal due to Ralph's soy allergy and my almond allerty- two foods that are good for you if you're not allergic to them.

It looks like Ralph and I and Steph and her babies are going to NC for Christmas. The weather will determine when we actually leave- right now it's looking like Christmas Eve day. It'll be nice to have Christmas morning with Eddie and Julianna.

I just finished reading The Last Lie by Stephen White, the latest in his Alan Gregory series. It was very good. I hemmed two pairs of pants for Steph, and fixed her jeans yet again. I sewed more patches onto Ralph's vest. I'm still in crochet mode, and am almost finished the current project.

This week we have Morgan, Donna and Joseph's birthdays! Three of my favorite people!

I'm missing my Dad. He loved Thanksgiving- what's not to love with a holiday that revolves around eating! And my friend Pat's husband died 9 years ago this month. He's missed terribly.

It's a clear day with a blue sky and it's chilly out. Hopefully Manda and Ben will remember to bring coats with them.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Veteran's Day

2010-11-11T17:02:00.002-05:00

Thanks to all those who serve! We are the land of the free because of the brave.
Ralph was in the Navy Seabees and served in Vietnam. My cousin George is retired Army, and his son is in the Army. My Dad was in the Navy for WWII and Korea. My grandfather was in the Navy in WWI. Ralph's Dad was a Marine during WWII. Ed's Dad was a Marine. Lou was a Marine during Korea.

My mother in law Florence is in the hospital. She fell down some stairs and cracked her left hip. She had surgery and 3 pins placed. Now she has rehab in front of her. We're all very worried about her.

It was nice being off today. My friend Barbara came over and we muddled thru a quilt for her on the HQ. I made the mistake of observing how well it was going, which meant that immediately after we had issues- batting too short, thread breaking.

The time changed, which means it's almost dark out already. B101 is playing Christmas music on it's website, so it'll soon start on the radio. I love Christmas music.

Steph told me that Toast is feeling much better. She's still on the anti-inflamatory, but hasn't needed the pain meds lately.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Steph's Phone Case

2010-11-06T13:47:00.011-04:00

Someone on Facebook was figuring out how to make a fabric sleeve for her Nook. It would be like making a phone case, but larger. To make Steph's phone case, I measured her phone. Since I have the same phone, it was easy. I added a half inch to each side for sewing allowance- I use 1/4 inch seams, being a quilter. I figured out how long to make the strips- I positioned paper how I wanted to fabric to fall, and measured it. I cut two strips that size.
I put them right sides together, and sewed the two long ends and one short end.
I put the phone on the strips, and folded the bottom up and the top down to decide where the velcro should go.
I sewed the velco pieces on, then I topstitched all around.
This is what the case looked like open.
The case closed. I like the look of the white thread, but matching thread could be used.
The case isn't large, but it's lined and gives the phone some protection. I don't need one for my Nook, since I have a leather(ette?) case I bought when I got the Nook.
Of course Millie had to get into the act. Ralph was pinning patches to the leather biker vest that he bought to wear when he goes with the group that greets returning servicepeople.
She got shooed away, so she retreated to the edge of the work table.
Good thing my Janome is such a workhorse- sewing the patches to a leather vest needed a jeans needle, and a good heavy machine.

Holly

Four day weekend!

2010-11-05T23:31:00.002-04:00

November is a terrific month to work in a school. We were off Tuesday for Election Day, had school Wednesday, and we're off yesterday and today for NJ Teachers Convention. I feel that I've used the time well.

Tuesday I went to an inservice from 8-1. It was sponsored by the county, was held at the middle school in my town, was free, and we got 5 CEU/prof dev hours! And they had a continental breakfast. And it was interesting, which few inservices are.

I'm still feeling virtuous- yesterday I had a colonoscopy for the first time. As the doc said, the prep will kill you, the procedure is nothing. I had to be there at 6 a.m., and was home by 9 a.m. The hardest part was getting the IV put in. They wheeled me in, the nurse anesthetist said Nighty Night, and then I was in recovery. The results were good, and they'll see me in 5 years. So this year I've had a mammogram and a colonoscopy, not to mention the hysterectomy. What a year!

So it's November! We got no trick or treaters for Halloween- we're at the end of a dead end street, and it's too much trouble for the kids. So I was feeding Reece's to my co-workers.
Tomorrow is my nephew Kevin's birthday, and great-nephew Justin's birthday party. Later this month are my friend Franny, sisters-in-law Donna and Morgan, and nephew Joseph's birthdays.

I also finally quilted the quilt that's been up on the HQ for about a month. My friend Barbara has a quilt she wants to do, so that motivated me to get to it. It still needs to be trimmed and bound. I've been in crochet mode. I finished an afghan for Steph's friend Kate, and started another one.

In October I read 9 books, which brings the total for the year up to 130. I added several books to my Nook. Barnes and Noble announced they are coming out with a Nook Color, which is like a mini iPad. It's not an upgrade, but a different product. I read the specs, and I don't want one. LCD screen (hard on the eyes), 8 hour battery life (mine will go about a week) and it has to go to BN when the battery needs to be replaced. And I don't intend to either read magazines or kid's books on it, so I don't need the color. And it's only WiFi, no 3G's.

I've been going over recipes to decide what to make for Thanksgiving. We celebrate with the moms and Big Mike and Donna and their kids and whoever else is around. This year Ben and Manda will be with us. Donna does the turkey, ham, mashed potatoes and pineapple stuffing, and I do a lot of sides and a dessert. I do a broccoli casserole in the crockpot that the "kids" all like, and I found a crockpot recipe for brussels sprouts that looks promising. Sweet potatoes in another crockpot. Cranberry something. And Joseph's Trifle, which I make almost every year.

And since Ralph is retired now (and job searching) he doesn't have to work any of the holidays!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

It's Autumn!

2010-10-24T09:44:00.018-04:00

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Gettysburg, PA, for the wedding of my girlfriend's son and now daughter in law. We stayed at the Gettysburg Inn, right on the square. We were in the Eisenhower Suite. It had the king sized bed.
Beautiful couch, with the TV armoire to it's left.
Nice little table area.
Jetted garden tub, which I tried out. Very relaxing!
Separate shower.
Electric fireplace. Very convenient- just turn the switch on!
The wedding was in a beautiful church high on a hill. There were some unusual guests! This is Brody, the couple's first dog. He sat so nice thru the ceremony! On the other side of the aisle was their other dog, who was more restless.
Courtney, the bride, looked beautiful. The two flowergirls ran up the aisle to their Moms- so cute, and so fast I didn't get a picture. The reception was in the Gettysburg Hotel.
Rob, the groom and his minions AKA groomsmen, made the floral arrangements. The chunks are pieces of pumpkin, in clear glass vases. Very creative! Place cards were tiny pumpkins with the guests names attached with hatpins. Very seasonal!
We passed on battlefield on the way to the wedding. An open field with a marker- very sad. We didn't feel the need to go to any others. On the way home the leaves were starting to change.
We knew we weren't in Jersey, because it wasn't flat! Look at those mountains in the background!
Miss Millie was waiting for us. She curls up in the strangest places! Last Saturday Steph dropped off the dogs, and she went to NC to visit Ed, Heather, Eddie and Julianna for a week.
Toast is on the left, Whiskey on the right. My hair was wet and just brushed back. Everytime I'd sit down, Whiskey would be right on my lap.
He'd settle for Ralph if I wasn't sitting down. The dogs were both good all week- we're just not used to having them around, and going outside with them several times a day.
Whiskey sleeps like the dead. They both slept with us, and he would go under the covers down by our knees, and not stir all night. He wouldn't even wake up in the morning when Toast got up to go out!
I think Whiskey is under the throw, and Toast on Ralph's leg. Steph got home last night and picked them up. She had a really nice week in NC. She and Heather made pumpkin rolls, and she brought us one in a cooler! They did some shopping, and spent a lot of sister time together.

I've been working on another granny stripe afghan. It's coming along well- I'd have Whiskey on my lap, working on the afghan over him, and Toast on the ottoman. I'm reading the new Lee Child novel about Jack Reacher called Worth Dying For. Very good, but Reacher stories always have a lot of violence in them.

I've also downloaded several more books, mostly free ones, to the Nook. I've been reading the Nook and Kindle boards, mostly looking for book recommendations. Since the Kindle has much more of the market share, their boards are much busier. Both boards frequently compare the two. I decided on the Nook because of the touch screen, and the ability to download books from various sources, and to borrow books from libraries. I see the e-readers like cars- basically the same, with the difference in the details. I'll never read exclusively from the e-reader, because I'm too cheap to buy the newest fiction when I can get it from the library for free, and Mom can also read the library book.

It's gotten so nice and chilly at night! The leaves are turning nicely. We have neither the heat nor AC running, so I feel like I'm beating the utility companies out of money!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

I think I'm losing my mind!

2010-10-17T13:34:00.002-04:00

I can't get anything accomplished, and my memory is totally gone. Add that to thinning hair, anxiety attack and sleep issues! The latest problem is that I have a referral to a specialist, and an appointment on Wednesday, and of course I can't find the referral. I've torn the house apart, and it's nowhere. I just left a message on the non urgent line of the primary, asking for a duplicate.

Steph went to visit Heather, so we have the dogs. Everytime we dogsit, I remember why I don't have a dog. They're constantly underfoot- you can't get up without at least one of them going with you to where-ever.

We went away for the weekend last week, to Gettysburg. My friend Barbara's son got married on 10-10-10, so we left here Saturday and stayed over Saturday and Sunday. We had beautiful driving weather. I have pix, but haven't gotten around to downloading them. We drove past a battlefield, but didn't take any tours- it's too sad a place. Too many people died there for me to act like a tourist.

Yesterday we went to Pennsville to the Riverview Inn for a fundraiser that my friend Carol was involved in. It's right on the Delaware River, with the twin bridges in sight. The food is always good there- we had a turkey dinner with all the trimmings.

I've managed to not take a nap every work day this week! And our timeshare company finally got Steph's account fixed, and her week deposited. The lady who called said they did it as a courtesy, and I wasn't having it. I responded that they were correcting their own error, so it wasn't a courtesy at all.

I've been watching all the Views, Ellen's and Oprah's that I've been DVRing. It's so great to forward thru all the commercials, especially the political ones. I saw my first Xmas commercial, for Kmart's layaway.

I fixed Steph's jeans (again) and she picked fabric for a phone case. I've got lots of things I want to sew, but no inclination to start. I finished up all the soft baby yarn I had, and now I'm working on a scrappy afghan. I've also downloaded more free books to the Nook.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

What a week!

2010-10-07T16:34:00.002-04:00

Our thief was back! I've been keeping the car locked, but we leave the garage door open, as we have for years, for Cliffie the garage cat. The snowblower, ladders and lawnmower are chained. On Monday Ralph realized that the Rascal Scooter was missing. He'd seen it, and taken a pic of it, on Sunday. He called the police, who came out and made a report. The "person" had been arrested last Thursday (after he'd been outside our house) for stealing power tools, but was out on bail. The police were going to investigate. Since we never had a problem in 22 years, and I don't believe in coincidences, it was either him or someone he told. The scooter is pretty old, and worth only a couple hundred dollars, but I'm really pissed off. I hope the next people he tries to rob have a really big mean dog and it rips his throat out.

So now we close and lock the 8 foot gates, and lock the car, and use the alarm. What a pain.

I've been downloading a lot of cheap and free books to the Nook. I've also been watching the Kindle boards, since sometimes the sale and free books are different. Rumor has it that both devices will go down under $100 as the holidays approach. That makes a lot of sense- practically give you the device, so you get addicted and spend a fortune on e-books. If the price goes that low, I'd get a Kindle to keep my Nook company. I have more than one sewing machine, why not more than one e-reader?

Yesterday I had a tooth break on the back of my partial, so I took off today from work to get it fixed. Since I was already off, I had bloodwork done also. Entirely too much fun- I'd rather have been at work.

I just finished a terrific book (from the library) Vermillion Drift by William Kent Krueger. He writes a series about Cork O'Connor, who lives in Minnesota. Cork is sometimes a police officer, sometimes a PI. There's a mystical side to the books, and a great sense of place. He's probably written a dozen or so books about Cork, and they're all really good.

Much as I love my Nook, I have a price limit of $5 or so. And anything my Mom would like to read, I get from the library. I don't think DTB's (dead tree books) will go out of style anytime soon.

So tomorrow is Friday! And I have to spend the afternoon in a Universal Precaution class. We have to have a class every year, not that anything ever changes. And we have to teach the staff at our school. I refuse to teach the class til after I have to sit thru it. And when I teach it, it's short and sweet, "If it's wet, don't touch it."

Ralph and I had to run over to send our CD player out for repair, so we ate at Chipolte for the first time. They're known for using local produce. I had a chicken burrito and Ralph had soft tacos. It was too early in the day for Steph to meet us, and we wanted to get over and back before rush hour. Lots of food, reasonable prices.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Wow, it's October!

2010-10-02T22:56:00.002-04:00

It's feeling like fall. Last night it got down to the 50's- we actually had to close all the windows. We got about 5 inches of rain between Thursday and Friday.

We have October birthdays! Florence, Charlotte and Justin all were born in October, as well as my friend Jean. And we're going to an October wedding on 10-10-10 in Gettysburg. My friend Barbara's son is getting married. We're making a weekend out of it, since it's probably 3 hours to Gettysburg, and we've never been there. For the first time ever, school is open on Columbus Day, so Barbara and I put in for a personal day.

John is up for a long weekend to visit with Mom, so we're all going out to breakfast at the diner tomorrow morning. Tonight Steph, Ralph and I went to Pasta Pomodora for a surprise retirement dinner given for Ralph by his ER friends. He didn't suspect a thing, since we frequently have dinner with Steph. He was totally shocked!

I read ten books in September, all from the library. That brings my total for the year so far up to 121. I'm still getting adjusted to being back to work, and a couple nights a week I nap when I get home. Last night I went to sleep around 10, and slept til after 9 this morning. I think I only crocheted for an hour all week, and I've been reading the same book for days- Nevada Barr's new one, called Burn. It's really good, I just can't stay awake.

I was talking to Manda the other night- they've been married for 3 months already! Now that they're not worried about getting laid off, they're settling into being a married couple. And Steph is settling into her first semester at St. Joe's, working towards her Master's.

I was talking to Heather yesterday, and she's waiting for her pecan tree to start dropping pecans. It's a huge tree, right near her deck, and it produces lots of pecans. Last Christmas she made fabulous cookies with them. Between cookies and the wine she's making, she'll have a lot of gifts ready to go.

The days are getting shorter, and the leaves are just starting to turn colors. Christmas is a short 3 months away!

The other morning, as the students were coming in to school, one of the 8th grade girls said to the girls she was walking with, "The next time I get in trouble I'm doing it with a smart person!" We laughed all day- words to live by!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

The times they are a'changing.

2010-10-01T18:43:00.002-04:00

Twice during the summer, in the middle of a Saturday night, a white sedan parked outside of our house. Since we're the last house on a dead end street, and the road literally ends in front of our house, it was strange. The first time a person in a hoodie got out and walked back into the woods, and was gone for a couple of hours. The second time, the person walked back up the street. We were concerned, so we stopped at the local police station for advice.

The officer we spoke to said if it happened again, to call the police. He said any car parked outside in the middle of the night is suspicious.

At 0400 Thursday morning, in the rain, the car was back. Sitting running. So Ralph called the police. Two police cars pulled up, and the officers walked all around, shone flashlights into the car, and talked to the occupant.

A third officer went up our driveway. Our garage sits about 100 feet off the street. The officer asked Ralph to look around and see if anything was missing, as the guy in the car is a known scavenger, especially of copper. Things had been moved, but nothing was missing.

Then they opened my car door- I never lock my car in the garage. The car smelled like smoke, and the $18 I had in the console, as well as the several dollars in change, were missing.

Because no one witnessed it, the guy couldn't be charged. The police told him to go away and stay off this street. The one officer came in to talk to us. He said our little town isn't the way it used to be. There have been burglaries, and it's not safe to leave my car unlocked.

Ralph went thru the car- my library books were still there, the papers I had in it to take to work weren't disturbed, and the GPS was still safely under the seat in it's little pink bag. The next morning I realized something had been taken. I'd been out to lunch with the work group, and I'd brought home a piece of cream cheese bread, and forgot and left it on the passenger front seat, and it was gone, to add insult to injury.

So even distance up a driveway, and motion sensor lights aren't enough to stop a determined thief. I hate it, but that's the way it is, and I have to lock my car everytime I come home.

And so it goes.
Holly

Rainy Days and Mondays

2010-09-27T18:14:00.014-04:00

No one wants to get up on a dreary, rainy Monday, even Miss Millie.
Last weekend I had a burst of energy and a little spare time, so I loaded a quilt onto the HQ16. That's as far as I've gotten, I haven't even put the batting on the frame yet.
The HandiQuilter 16 gets it's name from the 16 inch throat. It's not a commercial machine, more for hobbyists, which is me. I can't picture myself quilting for others for money- then it would be a job, and I already have a job.
The backing goes face down, with the bulk rolled back onto the front roller, if you do it correctly- I've been known to forget to roll it back onto the front rollers. The top goes face up, and the batting will go in between. The first thing to sew is to run a row of stitching across the top, to hold the layers together.
The backing has to be at least 4 inches bigger than the top- I have plenty of extra.
Last weekend Toast and Whiskey came for the day. I couldn't get a pic of Whiskey, he was always on my lap or underfoot. This weekend Ed, Heather and the kids came up to go to a wedding. Saturday was Ralph's last shift in the ER. Ralph and Eddie's birthdays were both last week, so we had a party!
I got a big cake from Sweet Eats, half white cake and half chocolate, to please everyone. They did a gorgeous job of decorating it.
Of course we all sang Happy Birthday. That's Julianna in the Spiderman mask. We had to make the 5 boys come in to do cake and gifts- they were having such a good time playing outside that they didn't want to come in.
Auntie Steph lit the candles for Spiderman Eddie.
The ER staff gave Ralph the "No Work Zone" sash to wear.
Eddie is so grown up at 7, even with a mouth full of candy! He's changed so much since his last birthday!
Julianna had her pretty dress on, and stayed close to Mommy. It was a nice party- it started at 4, and everyone was gone by 8.30- the kids had school today. Ed and Heather and the kids left around 9 to go back to Ed's parents house- they don't sleep here because of Ed's cat allergy.

They left after breakfast this morning, and didn't hit any traffic. Heather called a while ago, and said they were ten minutes from home. We probably won't see them again til Christmas, or whenever we decided Christmas is this year. I hate that we see them so infrequently, but we all have to work- except Ralph! Ralph is actually looking for a non-nurse job. He's ready to move on, after 29 years of nursing, most of it in the ER.

I just started the new Nevada Barr, "Burn" from the library. I'm only a chapter in, but it's already good.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Thursday night

2010-09-23T21:30:00.002-04:00

Wow, it's almost 2 weeks since I posted! I thought about it, but never got around to it. We've had gorgeous weather, in the 70's and low 80's til yesterday when it went to 92. Last night we had a thunderstorm- it sounded like lightening hit right outside the house. I was amazed that the power didn't go out.

Being back to work has been hard. I didn't have a routine from the end of March til Sept 1- I was used to sleeping when I was tired and getting up in the middle of the night if I couldn't sleep. Now that school has started, I'm up at 0630 and staying up! At least a couple times a week I have to come home and nap after school.

It doesn't help that I've been having anxiety attacks a few times a week, in the middle of the night. My primary said they're absolutely hormonal, so I have to consult the gyn. Stupid things- what if I get appendicitis? What if I can't work and Ralph isn't working, and I run out the sick time and we have no benefits? What if someone in the family dies? All legitimate concerns, but not for the middle of the night.

And my knee has been bothering me big time, but I won't go to the ortho, since I can't have it replaced right now. I just limp a lot.

On the positive side, it sure was nice to get that first paycheck of the school year! And it's nice to see my school friends every day.

And, I loaded a quilt on the HQ16! I haven't quilted it yet, but it's waiting for me! And I'm still churning out baby afghans- I'm determined to use up the baby yarn. I've got 4 or 5 done, and enough yarn for one or two more.

I loaded a bunch of books onto the Nook, but the silly library wants its books back, so they have to come first. I love Free Book Fridays on www.bn.com, and usually download them. Two weeks ago it was a biography of Budda- I passed on that one. Snore!

September has been a good reading month- I've read Coming Home, the new Mariah Stewart. Veil of Night by Linda Howard, who is almost always good- she had a real clunker about 2 years ago. Whiplash, the new Catherine Coulter, which was fluffy but fun. Summer in Sonoma by Robyn Carr, who's getting to be one of my favorite authors. Dog Tags by David Rosenfelt, also a favorite author.

The last time I talked to my girlfriend Pat we had a discussion about e-readers, and she's now the proud owner of a Kindle! Another convert!

Tuesday was Ralph's birthday, today is Eddie's, and Ralph is two shifts away from retiring from the ER! Ed, Heather and the kids will drive up tomorrow to go to a wedding on Saturday, so of course we're partying! A birthday/retirement party on Sunday with a Spiderman theme. Any time they come up we find a reason to have a party.

And so it goes!
Holly

September 11, 2010

2010-09-11T10:39:00.001-04:00

Remember.

Beautiful Saturday

2010-09-04T09:49:00.003-04:00

The sky is blue, there's a nice breeze, and it's about 76 out. The gorgeous weather will be here for a few days, then back to the 90's during the week.

It's September! We have important dates! Kevin and Naureen had their 5th anniversary on the 1st. Sharon and Barbara both have birthdays on the 9th, and Mikey turns 26 on the 13th. Ralph turns 62 on the 21st, and his last day of work before retirement is the 25th. He also has jury duty on his birthday. Eddie turns 7 on the 23rd- how can that be?

Ed, Heather, Eddie and Julianna are coming up for a close friend's wedding, so we having a joint party on the 26th. The usual goodies- meatballs, keilbasi in sauerkraut, salads, and of course a cake from Sweet Eats!

Manda and Ben are in Nebraska for the long weekend. Polly and Randy are throwing them a wedding reception on Sunday. I would have liked to go, but with school starting it would have been just too hard. I know it'll be fun for them, and Manda will meet more of Ben's family.

Steph got back from her business trip to Chicago last night. She was about to do some touring of Chicago, and enjoyed it a lot. The puppies are cute and adorable, and I was so glad to see them go home! They greeted Steph like she'd been gone for years.

I've been in crochet mode- I have a lot of soft baby yarn, and I'm determine to use it up. I've made 2 baby sized afghans, and I'm working on the 3rd. I probably have enough yarn for at least 2 more. I'll store them til they're needed, along with the flannel receiving blankets that I've made. I have the larger pieces of flannel on the work table to be cut into PJ bottoms.

In August I read 12 books, all from the library. I've also downloaded several free and low cost books onto the Nook. We started back to school on Wednesday, the kids came in Thursday, and I went to bed at 9 pm on Thursday. I haven't had time to play with the new phone. Ralph is getting really proficient on his.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

The AC is back on!

2010-08-31T09:39:00.002-04:00

Ralph called Firehouse Electric, the company that had replaced the circuit board about two years ago. They are busy with a big project, and can't come any time soon. I was totally mad, but it was a good thing. He called the hardware store in town, and they recommended a company in the next town. We called them at 11 a.m., and said they'd be here at 4. At 2.30, they called and said they were on the way.

They replaced two sizzling circuits, and said there was water in the bottom of the circuit box. A wire at the peak of the house had had water coming down along it into the box, messing up the wires and causing the problem, and that part of the service should be replaced. They were amazed that the previous electrician hadn't told us of the issue- it's a no brainer for an electrician. So as soon as I get a paycheck or two, we'll get the work done- estimate $1,600. Yay for Gibson Electric!

They were done by 4 pm, and the AC got turned back on. It was mid 80's in the house, and it took til bedtime to cool it down. And today is going to be another 90 degree day.

I saw Dr. Lamorte, the cardiologist yesterday. He wanted a holter moniter before deciding whether to take me off the coumadin, so I have that on til 1 pm today. What a pain! It has a belt clip, which won't stay on, it's constantly falling off. I told him how much the one med costs- $528.oo per month (Lucky I have a good Rx plan!). He was shocked. He said that's criminal, since the med has been around for twenty years.

Tonight the grand dogs come. Steph has an early flight to Chicago in the morning. She'll be back Friday afternoon. I'm so hoping that Hurricane Earl stays away!

Today I have to finish laundry, and pack my work bag. I also have to get lunch fixings from the grocery store, and set out clothes. Ralph is working tomorrow, so I'll have to feed the dogs and take them out before I leave, so I'll have to get up a little earlier.

So the work routine will start again. Five more school years and I can retire!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Ack!

2010-08-29T18:44:00.002-04:00

The lights on the fan in the sewing room have been flickering intermittently - just enough to be annoying. Before we went to NC Ralph changed the bulbs. It kept doing it, so today he checked the light bar for loose wires- nope. He decided to change the outlet. He went downstairs to turn off the breaker and heard a sizzling noise- that can't be good.

He isolated the sizzle to the breaker that services the sewing room, and turned it off. He also turned off the breaker to the AC- and it's 92 today! I left the windows closed, I'll open them late tonight and close them again in the morning. Of course today is Sunday and we can't call the electrician that just put a new service in 2 years ago. We'll call them first thing tomorrow, so they can evaluate.

So in the meantime I can't sew or watch TV in the sewing room.

We went to the diner in town for dinner. I had a chicken salad wrap and tomato barley soup. Ralph had one of the specials- stuffed peppers- and cream of turkey soup. I brought home half my wrap- either he'll eat it later tonight, or I'll eat it tomorrow.

I was so aggrivated with I-95 after our trip to NC and back, that I went on mapquest and played around. I found a route that goes west at Baltimore, and avoids DC and Richmond. According to mapquest, it takes a half hour longer than I-95 at it's best, and would be shorter than I-95 at it's worst (which is most of the time.) I emailed it to Heather, and printed it out for us. The soonest we'd be going down is Easter week, but at least I have it printed.

I downloaded the free book of the week onto the Nook, and ordered a matching skin for my laptop. I love internet shopping!

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Back from North Carolina

2010-08-28T22:54:00.011-04:00

Ralph and I left on a Saturday afternoon to go to NC to visit Ed, Heather, Eddie and Julianna. Traffic was terrible- from the Delaware Memorial Bridge to Richmond should take 4 hours, 5 tops. It took 7.5 hours! No accidents, roads clear and dry, just volume. Traffic would be backed up as far as we could see, then it would move for a mile or so, then jam again. When we finally got of I-95 and onto I-85 around Richmond, all of a sudden if was fine. We drove to South Hill, Virginia, which is about 12 miles before the NC border, and 330 miles from here. We stayed at a hotel, and the above picture is what we woke up to! Fire trucks all over the place. Turns out that an air conditioning unit in one of the rooms caught fire, and they had to evacuate five rooms! I'm so glad we weren't one of them! We got on the road by about 8.30, and drove the last 180 miles. There were scattered showers, one so bad we got off the interstate for about 15 minutes. We got the their house about 12.30.
We were so glad to see them! Julie is holding her build-a-bear that's name is Pinko de Mayo, Pink Bear for short.
My Mom sent them down a bunch of Beanie Babies and other stuffies. They had a good time playing with the birds.
Eddie was the bigger goose, and Julie was the baby. On Monday we went shopping. Ralph and Eddie went to Harbor Freight, and Heather, Julianna and I went to Hancock's Fabric, where Julie got the wings and wand below. Then we had lunch at Cici's Pizza. It was a new place to us, and it's a buffet. All kinds of pasta, pizza, and salads, and brownies and cinnamon cakes. It was cheap- $5.99 for adults, and $2.99 for kids, all you can eat.

Monday afternoon Heather and I went food shopping, and Tuesday morning I put kielbasa and sauerkraut in the crockpot. I only make it a few times a year, because the sodium content is ridiculous, but it tastes so good! We'd brought down Jersey corn, tomatoes and peaches, and we had the corn also.
Wednesday was Eddie's first day of school as a second grader. He was fine and excited, Heather was nervous. He had a terrific day. The county had redistricted, and he was in a new school. He knew his teacher's aide from last year, and there were some girls from his previous class there.
He looked so grown up!
Heather wants to learn to sew, so I took my travel machine down to leave for her. We had Sewing 101, and she did great! We put the straps on the sundresses I'd made for Heather and Julianna. The one Julie is wearing has the little mermaid on it.

One night at 11.30, Ed made us omelets of duck eggs (which taste just like chicken eggs) fresh spinach and Jersey tomatoes. They were wonderful! Wednesday night he cooked on the grill- boneless chicken breasts in foil with fresh spinach, tomatoes, italian dressing, and spices, served with penne pasta. It was so good!

Heather also made soft serve ice cream with the Jersey peaches blended in. Eddie said it was the best ever! We packed up, and after Eddie left for school on Thursday we headed out. We had to drive straight thru because Ralph was working on Friday. It was so hard to leave them, but I didn't cry til we were out the driveway. I miss them so much, but I think they made a good decision in moving.

Coming home, we were doing great til we got near Baltimore. The I-95 tunnel was closed, and the flashing lights said 895 had major delays, so it routed us to 695. Bumper to bumper for several miles, then we got to the Francis Scott Key bridge. It's a long, scary, high, 2 lane bridge. If I was prone to anxiety attacks, I'd have had one! I looked straight ahead, and kept telling myself to breathe! I survived it, and the bridge over the Susquehanna, which is also scary. After those, the Delaware Memorial Bridge was a piece of cake! We lost 1.5 to 2 hours by the detour, and the trip took 11.5 hours! I do all the driving, because Ralph hates to drive, and I hate to be driven. He's a terrific navigator!

So we're home. Monday I have to go into work and have Ralph set up the computer, and set up my office, then I have an appointment with the cardiologist. Wednesday staff reports to work, and Thursday the kids come in for a half day. Steph has her business trip to Chicago- we'll pick up the grand-dogs Tuesday night, and she leaves early Wednesday and will be back on Friday afternoon.

I'm reading a series by Susan Mallery, who's become one of my favorite authors. It's about the Marcelli family, who are wine makers in California. There are four sisters and one brother, and they each have their own book, and guest in the other books. I would classify them as romances with a plot.

I'm still using up the soft baby yarn. I'm on the 3rd baby sized afghan, so I'm way ahead of the game! And I have some big pieces of flannel, so my daughters are all getting flannel pajama pants for Christmas.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Rain! Finally!

2010-08-18T14:29:00.002-04:00

It's been drizzley and dreary all day, which is great because we need the rain.

Ralph and I are going to NC to see Ed, Heather, Eddie and Julianna! I'm really happy- the "plan" has changed about 97 times, and at one point it seemed that the trip wouldn't happen due to Ralph's work schedule. The darn hospital insists on being open 24/7, and needs ER nurses to staff it. We hit it lucky when staffing called him and asked him to work a Saturday instead of a Monday, which freed up several days for us.

It's a 9-10 hour ride to Albemarle, which is near Charlotte. We're leaving a day early and making a detour to visit with a retired friend of Ralph's. That way we'll break the travel up into 2 days. Coming back, we'll probably have to drive straight thru. From NJ to DC is a really pain, and from DC to Richmond is annoying. We make a right at Richmond, and it's a nice ride after that.

It's almost time for school to start! Staff in my district go back September 1, and the kids come in September 2. I hated school when I was a student. Looking back, I was bored to death. The most valuable class I've ever had was personal typing in grade 8- I type with all my fingers. The accounting class that I took in 11th grade was valuable, and my mom had to insist to guidance that I be allowed to take it. I was college prep, and I guess accounting was not considered to be preparation for college. In my senior yearbook, my history teacher wrote "I trust I spoke softly enough as to not disturb your reading". I got all A's that year and never, ever brought a book home. To me that says the school's expectations were not very high.

My nephew Mikey says he never learned anything new since second grade, and sadly, I think he's right. Because of NCLB (talk about a fiasco) the teachers have to teach to the test, and have no time to actually educate the students. The kids who are readers can self educate.

The other problem is that the teachers are forced to stay on the level of the kids in the middle. The kids below get lost, and the kids above get bored. I have a lot of admiration for teachers. They're sure not in it for the money, no matter what our idiot governor thinks. I don't have the patience to be a teacher to large numbers. One to one, I can do patient education, and I've been guest speaker to classes, but I could never do it all day, every day.

And the beat goes on! (and on, and on)

Holly

Some sewing done!

2010-08-15T15:49:00.009-04:00

Toast came to visit! Steph was having a bunch of people over last night. Whiskey loves company, especially when they hold him and pet him. He's a lover. Toast barks for a while at new people, and sometimes at people she met before.
She's more high strung than he is, so Steph brought her over to us yesterday afternoon, and picked her up this afternoon. She's so used to being here that she'll just relax wherever I am.
I just finished these book, from the library. From the back cover of Killer Mousse- Meet Della Carmichael, owner of a cooking school in Santa Monica, and star of a brand new cable cooking show. But now she's about to add an additional credit to her resume: suspect. It's the first of a series, and I've requested the others. Melinda Wells is the author.
The Cluttered Corpse is by Mary Jane Maffini, also from the library. Charoltte Adams is a professional organizer and lives with her two mini dachshunds, Truffle and Sweet Marie. It's not the first in the series- Organize Your Corpses is. Both books are cozies, and I enjoyed both. I requested the further books in the Charlotte Adams series.
I still need/want instant gratification in my sewing. I had a whole storage tote of flannels, mostly two yard cuts, so I decided to make receiving blankets. (No one is pregnant in the family! Or if they are, they're not sharing) This way I'll have some when they're needed. I buy the flannel when it's on sale. I made some in boy prints.
Some in gender neutral prints- love the duck!
And some girly ones. It's easy- I take a two yard cut of flannel, cut off the selvedegs, fold it in half so it's 36x42ish, right sides together. Sew the three sides, leaving an opening to turn it. Turn right sides out, and topstitch along all sides. Makes a great oversize receiving blanket. I made several when Julianna and Mackenzie were born. They wash up great.

I'm on my second baby size afghan of the granny stripe pattern. I'm determined to use up the soft baby yarn, and I'll have some gifts for later. The first one is going to Manda to give as a gift for a friend who's pregnant.

We're still waiting for the photographer to make the wedding pix available. She had the nerve to go on vacation!

It's overcast and cooler, with a humidity of about 900%. It drizzled for abut 5 minutes. We're supposed to get showers every day this week- I'll believe it when I see it. We desperately need the rain.

So many people on blogs I read have the ipad! I went to the site and read about it. Not cheap, and you have to get a monthly data account (about $25 per month). It's so cool, but I can't afford it at this time. We just got new cell phones, so that bill went up. Another thing I'm drooling over is the Accuquilt Go, which cuts fabric with precision. Another thing on my mental wish list, but not for right now.

Yay- it just started to rain! Hopefully it'll last a while.

And the beat goes on!
Holly

Monday, Monday

2010-08-09T19:30:00.014-04:00

I had the urge to sew, but didn't want to start a quilt. I needed instant gratification, so I got out the fabric that I had bought at Joann's Fabrics that is smocked at the top. You just sew the side seam and put straps on the sundress. I had enough pieces to make 3 sundresses for Julianna. Two are pink and the Princesses (they're different) and one is blue and is Tinkerbell. Miss Millie heard that I was sewing, and decided I needed supervision.
She acts as my quality control officer. As she's gotten older- she's about 17 now- she doesn't (usually) wrap herself up in the pieces.
She didn't understand why I didn't want her to lay on the piece that I'm actually sewing on. I'm OK with her laying on the finished or not started pieces.
We moved TV's around. I wanted the bigger screen with the DVR in the sewing room, so we took that from the bedroom, where it was rarely used. The sewing room TV went in the kitchen, and the kitchen TV went downstairs to Ralph's office/computer room.
Millie was so tired from helping me sew, that she moved into the bedroom and did her doorstop imitation.
Another night, she was keeping Ralph company while he watched TV.
She likes to lay on the arm of the recliner. She's decided that for the most part, she's Ralph's cat.
This is the book I'm reading from the library. It's about number 5 in a series, and takes place at the shore in NJ.
This is the quilt that's on our bed. It was one of the first quilts that I ever made, and I love the bright colors.
This is a close up of some of the colors.
This is a baby sized afghan in the granny stripe pattern that I just finished. I had some of the soft yarn that I wanted to use up. It doesn't have a destination yet.
This is a full sized afghan, double crochet worked in the back loop. I'm taking it with me to NC, for Ed and Heather. The brown/cream yarn reminds me of the beach, so I did wider strips of that alternating with the soft white. It's long enough to snuggle under- not that it's cool enough to want an afghan over you at the moment.

Summer is winding down. When I didn't work for almost 3 months, I was too sick to enjoy being home. I'll be 15 weeks postop this Thursday, and generally feeling good. I'm not lifting anything very heavy yet. I figure it'll be December before I'm back to my normal. I just have some little issues at the moment.

It's already getting dark earlier, and light later.

Ben and Manda got new cell phones, and when she described them to me I wanted one. I want to become a cell phone user. (My children can stop laughing any time now). Ralph and I were due for new phones, so we went Saturday morning to the Verizon store and got 2 Ally's. Boy one, get one free, and a good rebate. I even got a bluetooth reciever, and we got a car charger. The phones are just so cool- we've been playing with apps and backgrounds. We can get Google email on the phone, and when we figure out how, we can get facebook. We still need to set up our voicemails. We put every phone number in our address book into the phones. And we have Ben and Manda for tech support.

Our newlyweds have been married six weeks! The wedding pictures should be available this week from the photographer, and I'm so eager to see them.

I got my letter from school. We go back September 1, and the kids come in September 2. I'll got in the last week of August to set up the computer, and go thru the piles that will be in my mailbox. Much as I love summer, I'm looking forward to a new school year, and feeling good.

And the beat goes on!

Holly

How can it be August?

2010-08-01T10:08:00.005-04:00

Miss Millie is so goofy. She decided to lay down on a plastic grocery shopping bag. She also likes to lay in doorways.
Ralph moved his friend. He was trying to get Millie to lay on it's lap, but she wasn't having it. Steph came in the other day and it startled her, so it's not just me.
I just finished the new Nora Roberts book from the library. It's about a girl who has 3 Labs, and heads up a Search and Rescue team on an Island off Seattle. She was the only survivor of a killer, 10 years ago. The book grabbed you right from the beginning and never let you go. I highly recommend it. Nora Roberts is one of my favorite authors.
If you read the label, Vicky's Fabrics is in Hawaii! Manda and Ben brought me back 3 packages of 3 Fat Quarters- do they know me, or what?It was so thoughtful of them. And great news, no one on Ben's team got a layoff notice!

It's August! We have birthdays- Great niece Tori will be 14, and new son in law Ben will be 26. One of the milestones of life is turning 25, because that's how old you have to be to rent a car.

We had a scare when DMIL Florence spent two days in the hospital. Thankfully, everything was negative, and she's fine.

The granny strip afghan is finished- it worked up really fast, and I'm very happy with it. It'll be really warm, because it's really heavy. Last night I started a new afghan, just rows of double crochet, picking up the back loops. It's alternating soft white and a variegated yarn called sand.

I went to Joann's Fabric yesterday. I got another piece of smocked-on-the-top fabric for a sundress for Julianna. This one has the Princesses along the bottom. Gotta love the Princesses! We're going to NC in a few weeks to visit Ed, Heather, Eddie and Julianna. I'm taking my Janome Jem with me. Heather decided she wants to learn to sew, so I'll leave the Jem with her to use. It only weighs 12 pounds, and it's a good travel or learner machine.

I read 12 books in July, mostly from the library. I also borrowed the DVD "Old Dogs" with John Travolta and Robin Williams, from the library. It was mildly amusing, not wonderful. Our governor wants to cut library funding! Has the man ever set foot in a library? Our branch of the county library is always crowded, and any bright person would want to encourage library use, not cut funding. I didn't vote for him and I won't vote for him next election. He's already pissed off the cops, fireman, and teacher's unions, and now the library people. I think he forgets that we're all taxpayers and voters! OK, rant over.

I like living in a smallish town. I went to school with one of the owners of the local grocery store. Two guys bought the auto repair- I went to school with one, and the other has been friends with my brothers since grammar school. They're doing a booming business. And if you hit the grocery store at the wrong time, it can take hours because you see so many people you know. And the guys stocking always ask how my mom is.

And the beat goes on!
Holly