Back to "Normal"...

Quote for the Day:

"Normal is just a setting on the washing machine"

~Erma Bombeck

Last week was a first for us.  Our granddaughter, Sera, came to stay with us without her parents for five days.  Sera is five...she will be six in two months.  It's been quite a while since I've been responsible for the care and feeding of a small child for more than an hour or two!  Wow...were those skills ever rusty!  LOL

Let's just say that they need LOTS of food throughout the day...small snacks, say, every 15 min. or so!  LOL  And they need LOTS of activities as they are in CONSTANT motion.  And the caretaker needs LOTS of sleep, caffeine, and sugar just to keep up!  LOL

On July 4th, I drove four hours each way to Kentucky to pick Sera up from her mom and dad.   Andy had to be on-call for his work so he was unable to go with me....to do the driving, of course.  (That's his job as the man of the family...driving on trips...and opening tough jar lids..and killing large, ugly bugs.  Those are his jobs.)

While Sera was here we were suffering through an oppressing heat wave with outrageous humidity, so the outdoor activities were limited to what could be done in the morning before it got too hot and what could be done in the shade.  Most of the mid-day was spent indoors playing Wii, Memory, watching movies, and coloring.

Note to self:  A woman of my age whose brain is chock full of useless information, like the lyrics to "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog" should NOT play "Memory" with a 5 year old whose brain is still in the "soaking up knowledge" state.

It took me 3 days before I was finally able to beat her!  Out of the 3467 games of "Memory" (or "Membry", as she called it), I won exactly TWO!

Here's proof of one of my wins...I had to take a picture so that I could be sure of this info in the future.  My stack is on the left!  :)

Grandpa bought an inflatable pool and it was a GOD SEND!   Not only did it keep her entertained, but it kept her COOL, too!

On Friday, we went to the park before it got too hot.  Let's just say, we were back by 11:00 AM!  Whew!  It was cute to see her play in the same park, on the same equipment that her mom had played on!  In fact, the first week we moved here, this park equipment was being built by community volunteers, and Andy went down and volunteered and helped to build it!  :)

There is a huge wooden "castle" with connecting tunnels, etc., that connects all the slides and other equipment, and she enjoyed playing that she was a "princess" in the castle!  :)

Andy, Sera, and myself all went yardsaling on Saturday and she had a great time and got some "new" toys to take home with her!

On Sunday, Andy & I took her back to the meeting place (Cracker Barrel, LOL) in Kentucky to be reunited with her parents since I had to return to work this week.  :(   Another long, eight hour car trip, but this time Andy was there to do the driving.

On the way coming back we were looking for an Exxon station to get the car gassed up, and lo and behold, looky what we found at the same exit...

 
We took it as a "sign from God" and went in for a browse.  Although the prices were not bad on most things, there was just nothing that jumped into our car, so we left empty-handed.  (I find it hard to pay "retail" prices after yardsaling the day before!  LOL)

With Sera here for five days, I didn't get much any quilting done and was starting to go into withdrawals.  Luckily, yesterday I was able to get a couple hours in before going to work.  

As you can see, I'm on the last set of blocks before I get to the last two borders!  I'm very close to being done with this quilt and have given myself the goal of having it done by July 19.  That will be six months from the day I put it into the frame!  This quilt is a over-sized queen. 

Here's a close-up of the hand quilting.  There is a LOT of quilting in this quilt because each flower/stem/leaf/petal has to be outline-quilted to five the flowers definition!  

Loretta