Friday Update...

Quote for the day:

Sickness comes on horseback but departs on foot.  

~Dutch Proverb, sometimes attributed to William C. Hazlitt

Not only did I bring back from our trip some wonderful memories...I also brought back some illness...

My little grand-nephew had the flu while we were there visiting and unfortunately, we were not able to contain it.  

Tuesday morning I woke up with the flu and by Tuesday evening it had turned into strep throat and an ear infection.  I went to the doctor on Wednesday morning and was started on antibiotics and steriods.  I am feeling a little better, though not as much as I would have hoped, by this time.

Regardless, the show must go on and I will be returning to work this afternoon.  Wish me luck...

Loretta 

Family...

Quote for the day:

"Some family trees bear an enormous crop of nuts."

~Author Unknown 

We had the pleasure of visiting with relatives this past weekend.  :) 

 

My brother's family live in Ohio, about 6 hours away from us, so we drove there for a visit this past weekend.   His daughter that lives in Uruguay was also there visiting for the Christmas holidays, along with her husband and 2 children.  And upon hearing we were coming, my sister, her daughter, granddaughter and grandson also made the trip up from Indianapolis, IN.  

 

It was a houseful and a whole lot of craziness and laughs!  We had a great time and didn't want to leave, but a winter storm was predicted and we felt we needed to high-tail it out of there before we ended up getting snowed in...although my dear sister-in-law said we could stay until the freezer ran out of food!  LOL   I think she meant it, too!  :)

 

The quilt in this post was made for my niece Rebekah and her husband Gabriel, the couple that live in Uruguay, so I took this opportunity to gift it to them.  They were VERY surprised and I think they loved it!  :)

 

 

Look at the way Gabriel is "fondling" the quilt in the second picture!  He was so excited to receive this quilt that when he read the quilt label and found BOTH their names on it, he pointed it out that he got to use it, too...not just Rebekah!  LOL  They both are so sweet and it was a pleasure to make it for them!  :)

Here I am with Rebekah (in the middle) and my niece, Susana (on the left) holding the quilt for picture taking...

 

 The rest of the pictures are just miscellaneous pictures that were taken during the visit...

 

              My brother, Jack and one of his grandsons, Zacharias...                                                          

His wife, Celeste, and me

 

My sister, Sharon, and her granddaughter, Monica

 

                                           
                                          Celeste and Rebekah...mother and daughter...
 

                             Andy stretching himself trying to reach up to Gabriel's height!!!  LOL

                                             My niece, Leah (Jack & Celeste's daughter)

Gabriel & Andy in a hot game of chess!!!  LOL  Note the concentration going on!!!  

 

 

Rebekah & Susana...cousins!!

 

I realized that I don't have a picture of Jack's daughter, Sarah.  She was there some of the time, but had to go to work on Saturday, which is when most of the pictures were taken.  

We had a fun time!  Too bad we couldn't have stayed longer...but you know the saying..."House guests and fish both start to stink after 3 days!"  LOL  

Thanks for stopping by my blog!  Hope you enjoyed the pictures of my crazy family!  :) 

Loretta

Just a Horrible, Horrible, No-Good Day...

Quote for the day:

In my friend, I find a second self.  

~Isabel Norton

 

 

Today a very good friend and co-worker of mine became very ill and I have spent the day crying and praying for her ...and feeling very helpless to do anything to help her or her husband and family.

Susan is a friend that I consider a "sista"...we have so much in common.  :)   She was taken to the hospital today and I'm going to go see her tomorrow and take her these...

She will be in an ICU where patients can't have real flowers, so I got a bouquet of silk flowers put into this cup for her.  This cup has "Susan" written all over it...well, not literally!  It actually says "The best things in life are God, friends, and a hot cup of coffee."   She loves coffee and coffee cups and classy "country" things.  Even the "colors" are her!

The cup was acquired in one of the boxlots we bought at the same auction where we got the Pfaltzgraff stoneware.  I don't even remember what was in the box that we wanted, but there always miscellaneous "stuff" thrown into boxes and then the boxes are sold at rock bottom prices to get rid of them.  This cup reminds me of something that would be sold at a specialty coffee shop or gift shop.  It's in excellent condition but I just couldn't figure out what to do with it so I had Andy take it out to the "yard sale" box.  However, since it is cold out and he didn't want to take it all the way to the garage, he put it down in the basement on a shelf.  

Lucky for me!  :)   Because almost from the time I heard that my friend had been taken to the emergency room and then life-flighted to the university hospital, I knew I wanted to do something  to cheer her up.  

I took the cup to a local florist and asked if she could put a "bright cheery holiday" bouquet of silk flowers in it for me.  I returned to the shop a half hour later after doing some errands and she had this arrangement waiting for me!  It's BEAUTIFUL!

And when the holidays are over, Susan can take the flowers out and use the cup and be reminded of how much she is loved!  :)  I hope she enjoys it!  :) 

I'm taking it to her tomorrow.  We are headed out of town for the weekend to visit with my brother and his family and we will stop by the hospital to see my dear friend on our way out of West Virginia.

I continue to pray for Susan, her husband and her daughter.  They are going through a very trying time right now with this illness and it will take every ounce of strength and endurance they have to see this thing through to the other side.  Susan is strong and will be encircled by a lot of loving friends who will help her.  I know she's gonna be okay...  

Loretta

Christmas Came a Little Early at Our House...

Quote for the day:

Nothing's as mean as giving a little child something useful for Christmas.  

~Kin Hubbard

I, on the other hand...LOVE a useful gift!  Especially when it is something that I've wanted for a while now!

For several months I've been waiting for Black Friday so I could get a really good price on a GPS and an MP3 player.  I've also been thinking it's time to replace my digital camera because it has "issues"...namely it eats through batteries like they are candy, and all the pictures come out REALLY dark and so EVERY picture has to be edited.  

I ended up not going out on Black Friday because my darling daughter said she'd get the GPS for us and my beautiful daughter-in-law said that they would get me MP3 player...and the camera was not a "necessity" since I already have one...so I didn't go out and get anything on Black Friday.

Erin ordered our Christmas gifts online and had them sent here and they arrived the beginning of this past week.  I asked if she wanted us to wait till Christmas to open them and she said "no"...instead, yesterday (Saturday) we got on webcam with her and Dale and opened the gifts they was giving us then.  

One gift I knew of...the GPS...the second gift...I didn't know what it was...but it was A NEW DIGITAL CAMERA!!    YAY!

So last night after opening the presents, I started playing with the camera.  Instead of having an instruction booklet with it you have to read it online.  It has a "share" feature where you can upload pictures directly to social networks and certain photo sites.  I'm still trying to get that feature figured out.   That would be handy for adding pictures to Facebook!  :)  If I ever get it figured out...

I have the GPS opened, but my brain was too overloaded with technical information last night that I didn't have the brain power left to give that instruction booklet a go, yet.  LOL

We are taking a trip this weekend and can't wait to use the GPS then!  That means that I'll have to read the book and get it set up by then!  Can't wait to hear what voices they have available!   I have a funny story about a friend's GPS voice that I'll have to tell you sometime...but it has to be told in person...it would lose it's humor if I tried to put it in writing.  

So...I've been working on machine quilting the "bug jar" quilt:

 

I have to work on it in "sessions" with lots of breaks.  Machine quilting is WORK!  You are fighting with the quilt the entire time to get it through that little space between the needle and the sewing machine.  And the quilt weighs a TON!   So I do it in "sessions" so I don't too frustrated with it.  However, just about the time I'm getting into my groove with the machine quilting...nice smooth stitches, nice straight lines, nice rounded curves, etc...it's time to take a break and rest my back and arms.  

I also have my whole-cloth quilt in my hand quilting frame that I'm working on, too.  

After the quilt is finished and washed, the blue lines will wash out and all you will see is the stitching.  As you can see in the last picture, I thought the printed lines were too far apart (2") so I went and added additional lines between them so the lines are only 1" apart!  It will now take me TWICE as long to do it!  LOL

It's snowing here and it is NASTY outside!  :(  Hopefully, it will stop...eventually...sometime...before March.   

While I was outside taking this picture a deer ran across our neighbor's yard, across the street and across the neighbor's yard that lives across the street from us.  (That's a lot of use of the word "across"...but I can't figure out how else to say it!  LOL)

I have an Ebay auction of Pfaltzgraff ending tonight.  So far there are no bids, but with any luck it'll get a bid at the last minute.   

I have gotten rid of most of the Pfaltzgraff pieces that I didn't want and have been using the baking dishes that I saved for myself from the boxlot that I bought.  These dishes clean up so easily!  And they look so pretty!  They are really fun to use because they can make even MY food look good!  LOL  Even Andy has used them in his cooking!  

All pictures are compliments of our new camera!  :)  Love it!  

Thanks for stopping by!  Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and let me know what you have "released into the wild" recently!  

Loretta

Cyber Monday...

Quote for the day:

 I've never been married, but I tell people I'm divorced 

so they won't think something is wrong with me.

- Elayne Boosler

 

Thanks for stopping by my blog and checking in on me... I know I haven't posted in several days, but trust me, I am still around!

 

I got a great phone call from my niece, K.B., announcing her engagement!  I so terribly excited for her!  She's had to bide her time for Mr. Right to come along, but her patience has been well rewarded!  :)   Blessings and congratulations, K.B.!  May you live a long, happy life with J!

 

I actually did some decluttering yesterday, but didn't take a picture of it...it wasn't very exciting!  LOL  I decided to go through the file cabinet and dispose of old records that aren't needed anymore.  I ended up with 2.5 medium-sized garbage bags of shredded documents/records that went out in the trash pick-up this morning.

 

Thanksgiving was a non-holiday for us this year because it was just Andy & me...no family...which we all know is the ingredient that "makes" Thanksgiving or Christmas.  Andy made a beef roast dinner for us.  I spent the day working on Andrew III's "bug jar" quilt and Andy spent the day doing whatever he does when he has a day off....watching TV, kicking back, etc....you know...the strenuous stuff!  LOL

 

I have the "bug jar" quilt sandwiched...which means that the top, batting and backing fabric are all laid out and basted together with safety pins.  It is ready to be machine quilted.  I'm not a great machine quilter...but so far I've never had anybody give the quilt back to me in disgust!  LOL

 

When it is quilted, I will post a picture on here so you all can "ohhh & ahhh" over it appropriately!  ;)

 

Yesterday I had 3 auctions of Pfaltzgraff items end on Ebay and all three got bids and sold!  So today I took the packages to the post office and mailed them out.  I have gotten rid of 90% of the Pfaltzgraff items that I didn't want out of the boxlot of items I purchased.

 

All told so far, I spent $7.50 on the boxlot of Pfaltzgraff and so far have made $46.69 on the items I have sold from it.  Plus, I have added 8-10 very nice baking dishes to my own collection from the box.  :)   Not enough money to retire on...but still a decent amount for the investment!  :)  

 

What doesn't sell by the time Ebay starts charging for listing fees for their auctions again, I will just put in the yard sale box and sell next summer on the yard sale.

 

Thanks for stopping by!  Please leave a comment to let me know what you have "released into the wild" recently!  

 

Loretta

Dishing it out...

Quote for the day:

You can’t have everything….where would you put it? 

~  Unknown

Hello and Happy Sunday to you!  Hope you are doing well!

This morning I had to get some fasting blood work done, so after I had my blood drawn, Andy & I went out to eat a late breakfast.  That's kinda our routine when I have to have labs done...it's my "reward" for being a  big girl and letting them stick me with a needle!  I especially like it when they give me a "special" bandaid with a cartoon figure on it.  Today, I just got a stupid, old beige bandaid.  What fun are those????  And I didn't even cry when I got stuck!  I really think I deserved a special bandaid!  :(

On top of getting stuck and not getting a special bandaid, I feel like I'm coming down with a cold.  WAAAHHHHHH!  I've started winding the echinacea and Vitamin C to me to see if I can fend it off. 

I have an Ebay auction of some of the Pfaltzgraff dishes ending today.  It has a bid so that will be more "stuff" leaving the house as soon as I get paid for it.  I have another Ebay auction ending on Tuesday.  So far those items don't have any bids but sometimes things don't get bids until the last 24-48 hours.  *fingers crossed*  

The good thing is that right now Ebay is running a special where you don't pay any fees to list the item...you only pay the usual selling fees after the item sells.  So I don't feel bad about an auction if it doesn't sell because it didn't cost me anything to list it.  If the auction doesn't get any bids, I just turn right around and relist it.  So far everything I've listed of the Pfaltzgraff dishes has sold either on the first or second listing.

I've also listed 2 more additional auctions this afternoon for more of the Pfaltzgraff.  I'm slowly but surely getting it all sold and out of the house.  I've also set aside the baking items from the set to offer to Erin & Trinity as they are still "setting up" their houses.  If you've gotta cook, you might as well do it with pretty dishes!  If they don't want them then those items will get listed on Ebay, too.

Since I am keeping the loaf pans from the Pfaltzgraff dishes, I can "release" some of the plain glass loaf pans that I had been using before.  I also found a microwave bacon cooking dish in my cupboard.  Since we don't cook our bacon that way and I've never used it, it too is being "released".  All of these will go in the box for the next yard sale.

Thanks for stopping by my blog!  Please leave a comment to let me know you were here and tell me what you have "released" into the wild recently!  

Loretta

Not Gone...Just Away...

Quote for the day:

Absence blots people out. We really have no absent friends.
~Ambrose Bierce

Thank you all for stopping by the blog even though I haven't had any new posts for a few days.  Sorry 'bout that...

Life has gone from "Park" that is has been in for the last 5 weeks to "1st gear".  Not much of an increase, but a little movement towards my returning to my "normal" life.   

I have started back to work this week, but at 4 hour shifts instead of my normal 8 hour shifts.  I will be doing these 4 hour shifts this week and next.  Then, hopefully, by the week after Thanksgiving I'll be able to physically return to my full shifts again...barring anything bad happening and that I can do the work without too much back pain.

I am continuing with physical therapy 3 times a week until I return to 8 hour shifts.  Then I will drop down to 1 day a week of physical therapy.

I hope to get a good post for you this weekend, so please keep checking back!

Thanks again for visiting my blog.  Please leave a comment letting me know you were here and what you have "released" into the wild this week! 

Loretta