Ah, Christmas!

The Whipkers are having a wonderful Christmas! I was lucky enough to have Christmas Eve off work and Tim started his vacation the 18th or so. The kids first day of break was the 23rd, which was nice, they'll go back on Jan. 3rd -- so they only have about a week and a half off. That works out better than getting out the 17th and having a whole week before Christmas. Plus, with the snow days we've already used, we don't need any other unnecessary days out! The "built in" snow days are gone, so any more will have to be added on to the end of the year. HOWEVER, Seniors have a "Hard" last day -- meaning, Max won't have to make up any snow days, so he is seriously hoping for tons and tons of snow and ice, LOL.

More later, and maybe even pix, but time to get to work and get the newsletter out!

Operation "Santa's Elves" proceeds ;0)

Oh it was a fun weekend! I was getting worried that although Ellen and her pal had a great plan for the needy family - there was still a mom across town worrying because SHE didn't know that Santa's Elves were coming. So, Saturday I told her we had to at least drop off the card with money so the parents had time to shop. And we needed to put in a note about the Wii so they'd know that a big gift was on the way. We got that done super-sneaky-spy-like and it was a hoot! Ellen got a FWD email from a friend of the daughter later and they were blown away. So excited and just befuddled about how anyone knew they were in need of some assistance, and who on earth did this! Perfect, just the result we wanted ;) We have all the other gifts now, and just want to find someone to impersonate Santa and deliver them. Or, maybe we'll drive in to town in the middle of the night (gee, after midnight mass would work) and tuck the bag in between the door and the storm door?? Oh, the plotting and planning of "Operation Santa's Elves"!!

By Monday, Ellen was sick - turns out she has bronchitus. No, don't get all sympathetic for her -- it also turns out she hasn't been taking her Asthma meds, like AT ALL! Lucky she still can breathe at all. So, she's got a Steroid, plus all her regular meds to take and she feels yucky too.

Tuesday, Marci is flushed and feeling yucky. She's coming down with something, the clinic couldn't really say what - it was almost like we got her there too early, not enough symptoms to make a difiniative call, LOL! Tylonal, fluids and rest for her.

Max made it to school all three days, and today, on the first day of break, he thinks he might be getting something. Poor kids, all puny for Christmas. I'm washing my hands, staying at work as much as I can, and not breathing in around any of them!

Presents are all done, needing wrapped and I hope to get some quiet time tonight to do that. I need to find a gift for Tim from me, because the kids report that he got me something -- we usually don't. Not sure what, but I'll nose around a little today after work. Well, that is, when I finally get out of here. It's almost 2:30, my regular quitting time, and the bulletins are still printing -- oops. Too much dilly dallying I bet.

Good stuff, yucky stuff, and what's left over

Well, the good stuff is that little Ellie-Belle has a plan. One of her friends shared that she found her mom crying over the fact that it was 11 days to Christmas and it looked like there would be no gifts or celebration due to finances. I know mom has been off work some for surgery, not sure of dad's work situation. But they are a good family who live modestly and believe in crazy stuff like, if we can't afford gifts, we'll just have to do without (instead of the 9,385,937,264 others in the world who'd say, heck, just charge it, I have room on this card!)

SO, she offered to take her Christmas money from Gr'ma (usually $100) and forgo a gift from Santa (thought to be around $50 budgeted) and buy the extra Wii I ended up with - then give it to this family! Looks like one kid was raised right!!!! YIPPEEe!! So I said. . . . . "No."



Well, I said, "No. We'll just give it to them. You don't need to buy it. Now, what else do they need?" She had a pretty big grin that's for sure! Her friend and co-conspiritor spent the night on Wednesday (we were 98 % sure we had a snow day coming, and we were right for once!) And that friend's mom will be able to get an extra set of controllers through her work (free, yeah!) and then that family is going to buy a new Wii family game for them. We are going to put some cash $$$ in the envelope (Ellen's and my Christmas money from Gr'ma - a nice amount X 2) so mom and dad can do some shopping for kids (there are 2, one is a Sophomore in HS, one is 11, so maybe a 6th grader). Tim wants to buy and put in a gift certificate to Jonny Corino's resteraunt using some of his overtime $ that he saves to take us out over Christmas, and I have a certificate for a meal from a local pizza place that the Cheer Fund gave us for helping there.

I also turned their name and addy in here at work to receive a food basket from the church here - so, looks like it might be a happy Chirstmas afterall! Ellen is looking forward to her friend coming back to schoool after break and sharing this amazing "Santa came!" story as it is all going to be annonymous, and just from "Santa & Mrs. Claus!"

The yucky is that Tim is over his virus, but I threw up yesterday, so I might have it. And of course, I was in the car . .. . . . . . .driving! Yeah, moms can do most anything! I have a headache today, but that could be from lack of caffiene yesterday or the fact that I forgot my glasses at home today or the lack of sleep last night, no, I never sleep well, so I'm probably used to that. So far my tummy is only a little wiggly, and I'm going to finish up here and get the bulletin done in case I need to go home early ;)

Tim started vacation today, the kids get out of school after class on Wednesday, and I plan to take Christmas eve off. Should be a fun week leading up to Christmas (though the kids dooooo have some rooms to clean, oh, and maybe I do too, LOL)

I'm home free for Christmas!

I delivered the last customer quilt yesterday - yippe pippy!! Gabrielle loved it, which is a relief, because she is one customer that still makes me very nervous to quilt for, LOL. It was the 12 Days of Christmas panel, and I'll post pictures later. I didn't go with an allover in the middle, but did a loopy background fill, and added some gold thread touches to most of the blocks somewhere. It really did look nice.

So now . . . . . . I can do some sewing and quilting for me & mine ;0) First up, I MUST BIND ELLEN"S QUILT! It's only been done for, oh, 2 years maybe, and waiting on binding. How very sad is that??? I know, big crocodile tears sad! Plus, I have the cute matching doll quilt all done, washed and ready to give her - but it won't match anything if I don't give her the quilt, eh? Oh such a tangled web of UFO's!

I'd also like to get some coasters done for Seester - with leftover Jim Shore playing card fabric. They would be perfect for the family get-togethers when we play Shang-hi all day.

And, I'm going to make Max a cuddly blanket. The girls already have them, and it was easy peasy to make, so I found brown furry fabric and I'll hopefully whip that up while he's at work this Sunday.

OH! AND! There are actually FOUR chickens laying eggs right now - I'm so excited I can barely stand it! Turns out I'm not feeding a flock of complete free-loaders afterall! You know, the first year with chickens went so simple and easy, but this year has been full of little hiccups. Maybe next year will go back to easy.

Off I go to play with fabric and scissors ;0)
peace out and purring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

December is here!

How did that happen??

We've been having great fun helping at the Firemen's Cheer Fund. They collect toys and buy new ones, then prepare gift boxes for needy families. We've been helping fill the boxes for several nights and it is good work, though it does break your heart a little too. For some families this is all the Christmas that will be under the tree. I think the numbers for this year are 470+ families being served, and gifts given to over 1100 kids -- WOW!

The one customer with two quilts should be picking up today or tomorrow, I finished the last one last night. They both look nice, and I think her kids will be pleased with them as Christmas gifts. Next up is the 12 Days of Christmas panel - again. But I had a message from the owner, an allover is fine. So I'll keep my border ideas, which are looking great, and do a simple all over in the middle of the panel. It seemed like such an easy peasy one when I took it in, but boy! It's been super stumping me with that panel part. *sigh*

Ellen was home sick with a headache/migraine yesterday. All better today. She was pretty upset the day before because they tested for "chairs" in band, and she is the 9th out of 9 flutes. She says she got too nervous playing by herself and messed up. Poor dear. It's not fun. And apparently, missy #8 is being a bit of a snot about it too (maybe I can send some coal for her music stand???)

I found cute earrings for Seester for Christmas, on clearance too! And finally found a coat for me. . . . . . after returning a second one that I changed my mind about, LOL! The one I am keeping is remarkably like the one I'm replacing - the pockets are just a tad lower which is driving me stark raving mad! But the color and fit are good so I'm happy - and both of my good pairs of gloves will still match, woo and hoo!

must get back to work now. If I finish the bulletin, I might be able to sneak out a bit early and that would be great!

Thanksgiving time :0)

You know, I really like to think that I'm a grateful person most of the time, I try to have that attitude of gratitude all through the year. But it is nice to have a long weekend with family be especially mindful of it!

We did have a nice holiday, the Deans joined us, but Grandma Tootie begged off for the day. No one can agree on her reason, though she said she just wanted to stay home, wear her jammies all day and get some things done - sounds perfectly plausible to me. We had plenty of food and enjoyed some Wii time after dinner. It is always fun to do the Kayaking one with folks who've never Wii'd - that's how I got hooked, LOL! Ellen went to a friends about 7pm for an overnight so they could go Black Friday shopping. All in all it was a nice day.

Today, Saturday, the kiddos and I are off to Gr'ma Bobbie's to play cards with the Stier side of the family. We are all bringing various leftovers for a real pot-luck meal to nibble at all day - but not get in the way of cards! The cards are the most important thing, LOL!

So off I go, hope the card Gods are on my side today ;0)

Just a quick post before Thanksgiving swallows me up ;0)

Gosh, it's sure been a productive stretch here! My batting didn't arrive over the weekend, so I took the "down time" from customer work and finished up the last Quilt of Valor, since I have a seperate roll of batting just for QoV's. Then I went to my leftover batting stack and found pieces large enough to use for both charity quilts for guild and got them knocked out too.

The batting came Monday and so the next customer quilt went on the frame and by last night was about 2/3rds done -- woo and hoo!! That customer came by yesterday and dropped off the next one, and visited her quilt on the frame. She likes how it's turning out, so that's great! And you know, she's just a doll anyway so a visit with her lifts my spirits -- a good thing! I told her that both quilts would likely be done by the end of the holiday weekend. She was shocked and pleased -- that gives her extra time to bind them before Christmas (they are both gifts.)

Marci is still coughing and then fainted this AM, so she's home waiting on the Dr's office to call about an appointment today (yeah, the last day before a long holiday weekend, we might get squeezed in about dinner time, LOL) Hopefully a simple change of meds will tackle it!

Max has been driving to school without incident, and taking Ellen along. It is fun to hear them be cooperative with each other in the AM. So nice, almost like a glimpse of when they were little and LIKED each other, LOL!

Tim is off on vacation for now. He always has a few vacation days that need used by the end of the year, so he scatters them around for some long weekends, and extends his T'givng & Xmas breaks too. Me -- I'm at work (supposed to be working too, and actually have a LOT to get done today!!) but once I'm done here, I'll be off for a long weekend too.

Dinner is at our house tomorrow at 3pm. Gr'ma Tootie isn't coming, but I'm ok with that. The DIL is going to try to talk her into coming -- but you know, sometimes you just want to be 74 years old and hang out at home and get some stuff done. You might not feel like coming over and eating with a loud, rambunctious group of people -- some of whom you might feel like you see too often anyway, HA! Besides, I think she may be starting to have some "stay close to the bathroom" or wear Depends type things going on. And it's less embarrassing to stay home, than to be out in public then, ya know? So I vote for leave the gal alone, she knows we're only a couple of miles down the road. If she changes her mind, she knows she's welcome to come over. We love her and will go with whatever she decides.

OH! And Marci found my camera!!!! It was on top of the computer tower, in the cabinet. Looks like I was downloading pix and forgot, oops! So I'll add a few photos as I get a chance.

For now, I've got a newsletter to write, a bulletin to write and both to get printed all before I can start my long weekend - so it's back to work for me ;0)

Hey, I feel good!

Not sure why, but I feel really good today. I tossed and turned plenty, and maybe fell asleep around 2 am. But I woke up feeling good and even, *gasp* energetic! Maybe aliens have taken over my body?? Who knows, I'm just going to enjoy it!

Today I'll be delivering the VBS Tshirt quilt that is a retirement gift for a Pastor at Sandy Hook United Methodist. I think the customer is really going to like it! I wish I could find my camera so I could get some pictures because it really did turn out well. I'm going to have to pray and search hard this weekend, because I'm starting to worry that it might not be simply misplaced :(

On the homefront, everyone is healthy and relatively happy. Max drove to school for the first time today - WOW! He had to take Ellen too, but they seemed to be getting along just fine. Ellen said "Today is the best day of my life! I missed the bus and didn't get yelled at & then I got to lock my sister out of the house!" I had Max & Ellen wait to leave until Marci's bus left so they could lock the front door. Apparently Ellen had a little too much fun with it all, LOL~!

I have two small charity quilts to do tonight from the guild's work day. There is also one Quilt of Valor to finish, but all three should go super fast. I'm waiting on a roll of batting to arrive so I can start the next customer quilts - they are all large, but getting fairly simple quilting designs. I think there are 5 that are needed before Christmas. And I even have one booking for January - yippee! Of course, there is still that darn "12 Days of Christmas" wall hanging to do. . . . . just stumped on what to do in the blocks still *sigh* Maybe it's time to drag out the plexiglass and audition some design ideas on the top itself? Yeah, that's what I'll try, cause I have got to get this one done and out the door~really don't like it hanging over my head ;o)

Productive few days - yeah!

Had a pretty good last few day and got lots accomplished too! YIPPEE! If only I could find my trusty camera (missing since quilt show, not a good sign!) I'd even share some pictures ;)

Mt. Washmore has almost been tamed - about 2 loads of laundry to go and it's all gone (for now, it always grows back, like a bad wart only much, much bigger!) The kids have a few piles neatly folded on the table to put away, and well, I have a lot of piles on the table to put away, LOL. The dishes are done, and the kids are on schedule for doing them on their nights. We've even had hot food several nights in a row - wow! The house is tidy, my bedroom is next on the project list for a good cleaning. But first I have to recover from the last project: the chicken coop! (Yeah, I took a vacation day and hurt myself -- that's just wrong!) It still hurts, though not as acutely, but yeah, it hurts. And the only pain pills in the house are from the last baby's birth -- 1998! Not helping so much, LOL.

Monday I got the grocery shopping done and stayed in budget, always a plus. I also set an appointment with a quilt customer. She came Tuesday morning to pick up her quilt and loved it. I always worry, even though I've been doing this for 4 or 5 years now, I always worry that they'll not like what I've done on their quilt. Hers did turn out well though, and I found that place between quilted to death (where I usually go) and not quilted enough - hers was light and open, just right.

Monday night I threw on a top for a minister who is retiring. It's the last 10 years of VBS shirts - cute. And by last night, all the shirts were done, the top border, and the main center part. I have one part to decide about today, and the three other borders to finish and then it's done too! The customer will be pleased and suprised because I will be finishing about a week sooner than expected. They need to bind it and will present it to him on the 28th at their Sunday morning service. I also ordered a roll of batting because the last of it went into the VBS quilt. I bit the bullet and ordered King size this time, up from Queen - but more $$ too.

The checkbooks all got balanced and bills paid too. The first payment on Ellen's Band trip is due, and I hope to make it out of mostly quilting money. The budget for Christmas is set and that is always a relief too ;) So basically, the house is in order and our financial house is in order . . . . life is ok!

Probably shouldn't have done that. . . . .

Well, I took a vacation day yesterday to get some quilting done and some stuff around the house. I started out in the chicken coop, rearranging and getting it all set for winter. Took about 8 or 9 cinderblocks out, and I'm pretty darn certain that I didn't carry them or pick them up right because I was in pain the rest of the day *sigh* My lower back, *ugh* And of course, the only leftover pain pills are from the last childbirth . . . . . 1998 - probably not at their peak effectiveness! I took a couple at bedtime, and two more 4 hours later, and was able to toss and turn more comfortably, but no sleep.

Today, still hurting, and learning not to move certain ways ;) I'm sure it will work its way out. At least the chicken coop looks great! The nest boxes have fresh straw and the roosting perches are moved around a bit, added half a bale of bedding and more DE. The girls and 2 guys seemed to like it, so that's good. The polish rooster is finding his crow. He practiced a lot yesterday, and it's so cute. I'm sure it will get more manly as he practices - they always sound so bad at first, LOL! Duckie (the mentally challenged and sleep apnea roo) is deciding he'd like to have a little action. Problem is, all the gals are taller than he, so he's mostly getting girls up in his face backing him down, but not the action he wanted!

Max took his first solo car drive last night. He went to town and picked up pizza for dinner - cool! Of course, I paid, but still it was cool to have dinner being handled while I was getting something else done! I took the "12 Days of Christmas" panel off the quilting frame and moved on to the next one in line. 12 Days has me stumped, but the next three in line are easy peasy - so I decided to knock them out and go back to the panel.

I also installed a new leadergrip system. It eliminates the need to pin quilts on. There is a learning curve, but I can see that it will cut my loading time down a lot once I really get the hang of it. Cool!

Bunco is hosted by me tonight, but at the dance studio -- very awesome, no house cleaning required!! I'm looking forward to a nice evening of chit chat, food and fun. I'll be making pasta salad so Leslie will be thrilled! Hope to roll lots of Buncos, and no snake eyes!

Marching season ends, Cheering season begins

Ellen has her last marching band competition tomorrow in Mason, OH. If they do well in the AM, they'll stay for the finals in the PM. And Marci has her first basketball game to cheer at in the AM too. She's been benched for it though - and it's my fault :(

Last Wednesday she was home sick from school. I left work about 11:15 am for a funeral and got back about 2:15 pm, planning to stay late and get the newsletter done. Marci calls from home to remind me that Ellen is waiting on me to pick her up afterschool for bloodwork at the hospital today -YIKES! So I race home, grab Marci & the paperwork I need for El. We get Ellen's bloodwork done (long ordeal since it involved needles and Ellen getting WAYYYYY too worked up about it!) We got her some drive-thru food and took her to band practice. Then took Marci to PromtMed to see what she had. An hour or so later, it turns out, nothing that needed Rx - that's good. Just a cold or something and she should start feeling better in a day or two. We finally get home, it was about 7pm or so by then. Went to tuck in the chickens for bed, and two are missing -- one is a favorite! After searching 30 minutes or so, we find them, but a predator got them. Dug a hole and buried what was left of one, nothing left but a pile of feathers for the other. Decided not to go back to work and finish up the newsletter at this point, since it's after 8pm. Ellen gets home from practice and we all go to bed and call it a day.

What did I forget???? I didn't call the cheer coach to tell her Marci wouldn't be at practice.

So, she gets a strike and is benched for the game tomorrow, and it's my fault. Yeah, I'll pass on that Mother of the Year trophy for now! I see their point and I get that rules are rules - but I wish there was some compassion for the suck day we had and how I just *might* not have had the best grasp on all that I should have been doing in addition to all that I was doing.

Ok, rant over. Feeling a little better? Well, no not really. Especially since one of our favorite chickies is gone to chicken heaven. It was Silver Belle - the one with the twisted frame, probably a birth defect. But she was sweet and loved to come to you for treats. She would always come to the sound of my voice - even when I wasn't calling her. We were on the deck playing cards once and the kids saw her at the foot of the stairs, baffled about how to get to my voice through this "wall" (since she can't see much because of her poof, it looked like a wall to her!) silly girl!

This was Silver Belle as a little chick, about 5 weeks old. We'll miss you pretty girl!

Where are all the days & weeks going???

September? Really, September already?? How is this possible?

The days just keep flying by. Kids are getting older & taller, Tim & I are just getting older - maybe a teensy tiny bit shorter even.

Everything is good though. Ellen started high school this fall, and likes it a lot. A boy even asked her to "Be his girlfriend" - guess that's the equivelent of "going together" for us old folks. He sounds like a nice fellow, and I have a few mom friends checking for info behind the scenes at school (gotta love it when you know folks that work at the school!) She's been marching with band and doing well. The band is much smaller than when I was there, but still a dedicated group. She already missed 4 days of school (UGH!) and her grades took a hit, but by mid-term time they were getting back up where they belong. Her room is a pit, but she was actually working on it last night, and even *GASP* threw stuff away!!! Dear me, what is the world coming to??

Max has to get a "Senior Project" done (OMG - I almost typed "Weiner Project"!!!! ROTFLMAO!) He plans to make a video of the Archetectural tour at the Visitor's center. I think he has bitten off way more than he knows, but that will be good for him. I'm sure there will be lots of angst and drama over this project before it's presented in May - so stay tuned. Grade-wise, he's doing ok. Getting A's in his two blow-off classes (that account for 4 mods of his day) and a C or D in Spanish, B's in english and enconomics. He has worked for the Lykins' several times in the tobacco field, topping, cutting and hanging. Although he has decided that he is not getting paid enough to cut and hang, so he's not going to do that anymore ;0) Still hasn't taken his driver's lisence test, but all he needs to practice is regular and parallel parking again. So hopefully soooooon! Mom is getting really, really tired of getting up on Sunday morning to get him to work by 8am!

Marci just tried out and made the cheerleading squad again at Rockcreek so she is excited. Although, this year's coaches each have daughters on the squad and Marci is getting peeved about them favoring their daughters. I told her she's allowed to whine about it for 15 minutes each day but that's all, cause the topic is getting old, and it's not like we can change the situation. Her grades are great and she continues to be super-responsible about her school work, which is awesome.

I've been busy of late getting ready for the Quilt Show in October. I'm doing Publicity, after being "encouraged" to step down from Chariman of the Show. Hopefully the show will be great and tons of people will come. Mostly, I just really really hope that I can get my wholecloth quilt done - it will be so beautiful and might bring in some new customers too!! I'd say it is 1/5 of the way done - and gee, only 7 days till it has to be turned in, nothing like procrastinating, eh?

Tim tried something new over the summer for the pain in his shoulder and numbness in his arm & leg. It was a steroid shot in his spine, but unfortunately, it didn't work. So, we have an appointment on Oct. 18th to see Dr. Chambers and we'll probably start talking about surgery again, *sigh* poor guy. The kids keep talking about what a grouch he is all the time and I try to remind them that he is probably in pain all the time, and that will get to you. I usually try to bring this up when they have an ouchie or big boo boo of some sort, so that they can really relate and get an idea of what it might be like to be hurting all the time.

On the homefront, not much has changed, been fixed, or gotten done - bummer! We do have a washing machine that will be meeting a repairman on Friday, but all other things are at least humming along normally. Someday, we'll get some remodeling and "pretty-ing up" done, but I just don't know when. For now, I'd really be content if I could get the house to stay tidy and presentable on a daily basis. Gee, I'd probably be better off trying to find the cure for cancer huh?

Again, I disappear for months - but I'm baaaaaaack!

Not sure why I fall off the face of the earth "blog-wise" for months at a time, probably because I'm a mom, and secretary, and small business owner and flock mistress to a herd of chickens, and . . ... on and on.

But school's out, summer vacation started today, and I'm finally caught up on the quilting - YEAH! So, I feel like I can sit a moment and catch up on other, less pressing things . . . . like the ole' bloggy.

All the kids made it through the year. Marci's a little ticked at a B+ that prevented her from making Gold Honor Roll (reminds me of her Godmother!) Ellen had her first marching band practice last night and seemed to like it. So that bodes well for her summer, which is full of band. We also wrangled a carpool with a Senior - so less driving for me, YEAH! And, on a side note that only I will appreciate, her band director is a Drum Corps Alum! Too Cool. He marched with Star of Indiana. I was asking questions about the DCI finals, and he finally said, why such interest in Drum Corps? I said, that I was a former member. He says that in 20 years of teaching, I'm only the third other alum he's met. Of course, he's the first for me, LOL!

Max is working at the radio and also the HS auditorium. But not working on school work too much. He did get C's in all classes but two. One is a blowoff class that he SHOULD have aced, and did. The other is his english class that looks like a nice solid D right now, to average with his pretty D- from last 9 weeks ------ looks like he'll have to take it over if he wants to raise the GPA and get the tech. honors diploma. We'll see.

Tim & I got new bikes. Really nice ones, from the real bike store (translation: expensive!) And his is a trike - like an old person's three wheel bike. I told him he might as well get one because with all the spine and balance issues, he'd need one soon enough. He agreed ;0)

The chickens are all good. 7 Hens, 4 little chicks from spring, and 10 polish chicks that are only 2 weeks old (gee, I don't even have any pix, THAT'S how busy I've been!) AND, 5 meat chickens. The key with the meat chicks is, don't name them and don't get attached - it's hard to eat them once you do that!

All for now, peace out and purring - kat

Remember me?

Yeah, well. . . . . as it turns out I didn't fall of the edge of the world. Just had a worser-than-usual bout with my depression. You know, it was a perfect storm kinda thing too -- as my body is betraying me by succumbing to this chemical imbalance that is Depression, my life gets complicated and crazy adding to the imbalance and increasing the Depression! Sheesh!

So, all that matters is that I got to my Dr., spewed out honestly what was going on & where I was at with my symptoms, added what complications were currently in my life and VOILA! He changed my meds. The new combo is working very well, and I am pleased with it. I always expect winter to be a little worse due to the reduction in sunshine, but this went beyond that. I'm even a little hopeful that as the sunshine returns I might even feel great soon, wouldn't that be cool?

So as for life . . . . I have a quilt loaded on the frame, and have fielded 4 phone calls in the last 1 1/2 weeks -- yippee! I met with a customer Sunday and the other three are T-shirt quilts that should be ready to come in March and April. The quilt on the frame is a really ugly (I know, "There are no ugly quilts" but this thing is UGLY!) double wedding ring. It's from a garage sale I think and I got it through my dear MIL. The best part is, since it's mine, and it's ugly, there is like -- totally no pressure to "do a great job" LOL! Anything I add to this quilt will be a help. It's going okay, although a bulky seam tripped me up last night and I have to re-time when I get home today. Hopefully that will go smoothly.

Also tonight is a basketball game, Marci is cheering this year so I've been going to all the games. MAN! Basketball is way more violent than I even knew!!! We've had a girl get a broken arm by being stepped on during a game, a boy knocked completely out of bounds into the bleachers, and numerous scuffles for the ball that really look more like playground fights between 2nd graders than a basketball game! One of the guys here at work-church printed off a summery of the rules for me, since I'm clueless about how (and why!) the game is played. I'm really good at watching the center line and seeing if they get the ball across in the 10 seconds, and if they bring it back across (a big no-no). She only has a couple more games and then a big Cheer Day thing for all the elementary teams left, but she has really had a blast with this. I'm sure she'll try out again next year, and maybe even in Jr High.

Max . . . . . . . .uuuuuuuuggggggghhhhh! Still trying to get him to turn in homework and to care about school work and his life. I looked today and he had a 6 out of 50 on a homework worksheet. I'm guessing he only did one or two questions and turned it in. So, on one hand - you want to rail on him for not getting his homework done, but on the other hand, at least he turned it in - in the past he'd have skipped that step and had a big fat ZERO! Although, really, how much better is SIX than ZERO??

Ellen is still the quiet in the middle girl. I did clean her room just before Christmas. She had an overnight with a friend so I took her & dropped her off. When I got back home I went to her room and started in ----- 12 hours and 16 bags of trash later it was beautiful! It's stayed pretty good too, and I've hounded her each day. Friends went into a retirement home and asked us to take their long haired Siamese cat (he's soooooo gorgeous!!) so he is living in her room at the moment because he's too skittish to let outside. After 2 weeks we are opening her door at night when the dog is closed in my room and letting Smokey out to investigate the house. Other than these middle of the night treks, he lives under her bed and lets no one near him.

Tim turned 45 yesterday - wow, that sounds old when you put it like that! He went around the house singing made up "It's my Birthday" songs! It was funny. I thought it would stop after a few, but hours later he walked into the kitchen for something and started singing a new one, LOL!! It drove Ellen NUTS! The rest of us just laughed. Poor fella has been working 7 days a week for almost a month now. No end in sight either. His body is not happy - arthritis appreciates rest and gentleness -- not hard factory work all the time!

So, my bloggy blog - you are caught up and hopefully we'll chat more frequently. If you notice my extended absence - come find me this time!