Good morning girls. It is going to be a beautiful day here so I am going to try and get out and get the leaves cleaned up and get the patio and bbq stuff put out on the deck today. I am running out of time to do it before I go in the hospital and I know Jack would just leave it sitting in the garage all summer! I may have to do a little at a time, but I want to get it done.
Here is the horeshoe lace sweater I made and I decided to give this one to my sister instead of the red one. I think the red one might just be a bit small for her so I am going to give it to my girlfriend in Indiana for her birthday instead. The color is much darker than this almost a blue, but you can never tell with a camera what it is going to do.
Jean: Sounds like you had a busy day yesterday. Hope you enjoyed the roast. We just had some Subway sandwiches as Jack was all involved in the college basketball tournaments, the NCAA seeds for their tournament and the NASCAR race. I gave up trying to figure out when I could have dinner and decided a sandwich was best! lol Sounds like the Easter music was lovely. I can't go to a Passion Play. It just tears me up because it is so realistic. Makes you face what Christ went through for us.
I am now finishing up a two colored felted backpack handbag that I may or may not line this time. We shall see. It is a cool color combo of a red/gray striping and then a solid red. I am doing the striping yarn overall with the red as a couple striped accents, the handles and the drawstring. I am a good halfway done with it.
Only one more week from today and I have my last dr appt before my surgery. I hope all goes well and we are ready to go. Jack talked to his sister yesterday and she will be here the week of my surgery so that will be nice for Jack. It is tough to be alone when someone has surgery.
Better get going, get the laundry in the dryer and get the day started. Have a good one and smile, smile, smile!
Faye
Good afternoon from cool Virginia - only 44 degrees after being 72 yesterday!
Faye, I love the sweater and the color. I know quilt book publishers try to find quilts with no green or brown to photograph - at least the ones I have sent quilts to. I had a beautiful blue quilt that came out a washed out aqua! I'm glad your sister-in-law can come and stay with Jack. Surgery is scary enough without being alone waiting for word.
I've got Corned Beef, Cabbage, Carrots and Potatoes in the crockpot today for a quick dinner. My grandmother's parents came from Ireland during the potato famine.
Good Afternoon, Flowers! I got up to wet snow this morning -- yuck. Most of it has melted again so I suppose the streets will be slippery if it gets cold enough tonight. Today was a "ho-hum" kind of a day at school. Most of the kids that cause me problems were AWOL today and the rest seemed pretty mellow. I have card club tonight.
"Gma" -- The sweater is beautiful and I, too, love the color! Whomever gets any of your creations love them, I'm sure. I'm sure you are counting the days until your surgery is over and you can put these past few months behind you. Will you have to stay in the hospital very long or will they even tell you that much? It's nice that Jack's sister can be with you both.
Susan -- We had corned beef sandwiches at school last Friday. The Kreative Kitchen made them in a panni (sp?) pan. Yum!
Hope you all have a relaxing evening and a terrific Tuesday tomorrow!
Good morning all! It is very balmy this morning. Supposed to be mid 70's today so if the rain holds off I can finish the deck. It took an hour to blow out the leaves to the corner of the garage and I was more than exhausted from that. My hands actually "hummed" for about an hour after finishing. They hurt and were shaky the rest of the day and are a bit stiff this morning but not bad. I have no leftover pain from achy shoulders either, which is good. I can wash down the deck this morning and clean up the glass patio top and put out chairs, umbrella and bbq grill then I will be finished with it.
I am starting a cardigan sweater in a beautiful soft peach. It is an easy pattern and looks cute, but you can get hung up if you aren't careful. I decided since I bought the stuff for the red sweater specifically for my sister I would send it and the sweater along with the purple one and just give her a big present this year! If it doesn't fit she can give it to one of her dd's or send it back to me and I will give it to someone else. I am going to make the cardigan for my friend instead.
Jean: You and Susan can have the corned beef. I don't care for it. I will eat the cabbage instead. I don't think I have ever had a pannanni before. I see them advertised on different food places, but I don't think I have ever had one. Hope your wet stuff is gone and didn't freeze. I know you have to be ready for spring, which comes in a couple days.
Susan: Chicago has a great Irish celebration each year and even South Bend really gets into the act because of Notre Dame I guess. There isn't much of an Irish population in South Bend, actually. There are more Polish , Hungarians and Germans that live up there. I have not a drop of Irish blood in me. I am German, Jew, Indian and some Dutch thrown in.
Guess I should get to balancing the checkbook and start on paying the bills this morning. It isn't too hard as I am a stickler for my budget and have it set up on a spreadsheet so I just go into it and pay what is listed for whichever payday then check them off so I know they have been paid. Works for me!
Just a quick note to let you know Stan is back in the hospital. He has internal bleeding somewhere. He's in intensive care. They did a CT scan in the middle of the night so hopefully they'll be able to tell me if he's going to need surgery. The doctor said sometimes it stops on its own - which is what it did when he had it before. But there wasn't this much blood. So I'm worried. Let you know more when I do.
Good Evening, Flowers! Not much going on in my corner of the world. It was a blah day weatherwise and at school. We had a sub and she ended up writing a kid up because he kept popping his gum and she told him to spit it out. He didn't and she asked again, looked at me, and I said, "write him up." He'll get a Saturday School which he won't do so will spend Monday in the ed. lab. It is time for a break!
I finally asked what the IAs are supposed to be doing during this testing on Thursday morning. "Gee whiz!" No one thought about us and the 2 day a week principal will check into it! He won't be there tomorrow so maybe we'll hear week after next!
"Gma" -- It sounds like your are ready to use your deck! It will be awhile before our weather is that nice. We have a coffee shop in town that makes pannini sandwiches. Sometimes the crusts get too hard and are hard to bite into.
Susan -- I'm sorry to hear that Stan is back in the hospital. Please keep us posted. You both are in my thoughts and prayers!
Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday tomorrow! I am off to unload the dishwasher.
Good morning to everyone. It is balmy but raining squirrels and pigeons. I thought I would use something other than cats and dogs. They get a bad rap!
Susan: I have prayed for the two of you and know that God will give you comfort and strength and Stan's current problem will be found quickly and rectified. I will continue to pray and have had my sister and my friend put you two on their church prayer group lists. Hang on, help is coming!
Jean: You have the most screwed up administative staff I have ever seen in my life. No one seems to know what is going on. No wonder the kids run rough shod at that school. You poor thing. Just think only 3 more months of it though.
I worked and got all the patio furniture and bbq stuff out and discovered that I threw out the cushions last year so have no cushions for the chairs! I found some at Walmart.com that I can order and they will ship free to a local store where I can go and pick them up. I had to find a solid color that will go with the flower colors in the umbrella since there is nothing wrong with it.
I am reading this really good book by Jodi Piccoult called Plain Truth about an Amish teenage girl who gets pregnant out of wedlock. I am also about 2/3 way done with the backpack bag and started the cardigan sweater so I have lots to keep me busy besides the normal cleaning I always seem to have to do! lol
We talked to our son last night and he told me they got a blue toaster from Macy's from me addressed to Alicia, but he didn't know why as they already have a toaster. They put it in Jackson's room so he can make toast if he gets hungry in the middle of the night. That boy! I told him he did NOT get a blue toaster that I knew he got the baby clothes I sent, but as long as the gift went to Jackson than that was ok! He is forever teasing me about giving the two boys gifts all the time. "Ain't that what bein' a grandmaw is all 'bout?"
Have a good day girls and Susan, you are in my prayers and thoughts constantly!
Faye, I agree - grandma's sole function in life is to spoil grandchildren rotten. I was lucky enough to get some nice cushions for patio chairs at the end of the season at Target last year for 75% off.
Jean, you are a saint. I don't know how your school functions. Is there no one looking over what the school is doing? One day the kids will riot and take everyone hostage.
I spent all day at the hospital yesterday. You can visit the ICU from 8 am until 6:30 pm. Mainly I wanted to be there when the doctors made their rounds. I tried to tell the nurse they were giving him too much fluid via IVs but she insisted she had to do it. The Nephrologist came in, took one look and went out and grabbed her and told her to disconnect it immediately. She countered they had to keep it running to keep the line clear for antiobiotics every 3 hours. He told he to disconnect it and then reconnect it when the bag came and stop it immediately when it was done. Fluid has to come off with dialysis and they can only take 4 liters safely. Then the vascular surgeon came to look at his surgical incision and said it was looking really good. Then the cardiologist came and said his potassium was back into the normal range and his heart looked good again. Finally the gastro doctor came. He is a really good, caring doctor (might be muslim his name is Hassan Hassan) but a little hard to understand because of his accent. He is also good to explain all possibilities. He had looked at the cat scan and said Stan either has a very, very bad case of colitis or it could be colon cancer. They won't know until they can do a colonoscopy and they can't do that until the inflammation subsides. He is still bleeding bright red blood so that isn't good. He was hoping it would have stopped by then. He did put him on a clear liquids diet and said he'll leave him on that so he won't have to drink all that nasty stuff to clean him out before the test. I called Stan this morning before I came to work and he sounds better and said the pain is lessening so I'm thinking it's probably the colitis.
We appreciate everyone's prayers. Please keep them coming!
I told you last week about how nice the car dealership is - well, the service manager brought chicken soup to the house Monday his wife made for Stan. I put it in the freezer so he can have it when he comes home.
I have quilting bee tonight and I'm going to go after the hospital puts me out just to be with some of my friends. The fact the place we meet is next door to a Dairy Queen is probably not good for my diet.
Good Evening, Flowers! I had bell choir practice tonight and should be picking up my kitchen. I made a WM run after school . . . haven't been there since we got home almost a month ago. Tomorrow is our half day of testing and some of the teachers were lamenting on how many will skip out tomorrow. I sure don't blame the kids who have all of their homework done and have no detentions, etc., to have to sit in study halls for 3 hours while the Mexicans, Asians, and Sudanese are taking the language test. Heck, I'm wondering what I will do for 3 hours besides watch the kids and the clock go around.
Here is the link for the t-shirt picture at school. www.stormlake.com The picture is on the front page of the 3/19 paper. As you look at the picture, I am on the right side, half way up, wearing a bright pink shirt. I'm standing in front of a bright yellow shirt/student and there is another gray haired teacher in a pink shirt in front of me on my right. The picture is a lot bigger in the paper than online. Students who didn't buy t-shirts were invited to come for the picture but I don't think any did.
'Gma' -- At first I thought you really did send a blue toaster! Am I tired or what? Grandmas are definitely meant to spoil their grandchildren! Remember when I ordered the horse from WM and they said there was no local store to ship it to? I hope they know you have a local store and some idiot doesn't put the cushions out on the floor to sell.
Susan -- I sure hope that Stan gets along ok. I know it is a worry for you, but he is where he needs to be right now. Hopefully, the colonoscopy will show only colitis which is bad enough. I hope you enjoyed your time with your quilting friends tonight. You take care of yourself too.
I have to find Bob's black shirt and iron it for his church play tomorrow night. Hope you all have a terrific Thursday!
Good chilly morning to you all. Well our warm weather came and went and it is pretty chilly this morning. It is supposed to warm into the 60's today though.
Susan: I put you guys on two prayer lists and I will continue to pray. I hope they can get him cleared out so he doesn't have to drink go-lightly. He would never get it down! At least with a colonoscopy they put you to sleep! I hope he gets to really feeling better in the next couple days. I know how much he has to be hurting as colitis and diverticulitis attacks can feel about the same. I never had any bleeding with my stuff though.
Jean: The newspaper said the picture was on the school website so I yahooed it and went and looked there. It is a bit bigger. Your row has a Hispanic girl on the end in a pink tshirt, then next to her is someone in a black shirt then you? You are between a person in an aqua tshirt and one in black right? From that distance you look like Paula Dean! lol You know how you get ideas how people look when you haven't seen them ever? Well, until you said something a couple weeks ago when I was talking about SUVS and said you were something like 5'2" my vision of you was a very tall, woman with dark hair! Missed that one didn't I? lol Is Bob tall? I am 5'7" and Jack is 6'2" so I come to about his chest. I can imagine where you fit on Bob if he is tall. You would be a real hoot standing next to my son, he is 6'5"! lol My older sister is only 5' and she goes to hug Jay and she is around his belt buckle! lol I would say you should take a good book to read while just sitting.
I got the new Cold Water Creek catalogue and they have some of the most beautiful spring and summer clothes. Of course, the prices are right up there too. I saw a skirt that was just gorgeous and they wanted $100 for just it. I would probably pay that if I was like you two and worked outside the home, but sheesh! Besides the fact most of their stuff won't fit me, the only things I have bought there have been clearance! lol I did get a beautiful silk sleeveless shell there in a pear green. I love it and wear it with a nice starched pear green striped man's style dress shirt as a jacket.
Well, Jack should be down in a second and he likes to play Freecell solitare when he eats breakfast so he needs the computer. Have a good day gals!
Stan is doing much better and they moved him to a regular room during the night. Still blood in his stool, however, and massive diahrea. There is a sweet little resident (girl) who is on the floor and she comes in this morning and tells him she's going to call the gastro and see about sending him home because his white count is normal. Think she needs to go back to school a little longer. I call the doctor myself and he said it won't be happening until the bleeding stops and they can do the colonoscopy and he can actual eat food without upset.
Jean, I followed Faye's lead and looked at your picture. I vote for Paula Dean! I'm 5'6", strawberry blonde going gray hair, and very fair and freckled.
Work is piling up so I need to get busy! Have a good day.
Good Evening, Flowers! Spring vacation has officially begun for me and I'm doing the happy, happy dance! This morning's testing was typical; the ones who normally skip on a half day skipped and those that were supposed to stay and make up detention afterwards thumbed their noses and headed out the door. What will happen to them? Nothing! It was a beautiful day in my corner of the world -- 60 degrees with snow on the way for the weekend.
I took "Mom" to the vet later this afternoon to see what is up with her. She has liver/kidney failure which is typical of older cats. We are trying a prescription cat food and some pills to see if we can slow the process down. They have to shave a cat's chin in order to draw blood -- her hisser and growler work just fine. She is by far the best cat we've ever had; she was a stray who moved into the garage, had her kittens, and then moved on into the house. She is 80+ years old so has had a good life.
"Gma" -- Yes, I am where you described in the picture. I wish I had Paula Dean's money! Actually I'm 5'4" and Bob is just shy of 6'. He is the shortest guy I ever dated but was the best one! Sioux City has a new Coldwater Creek store and it carries the trendy clothes for the younger jet set imo. There was nothing I would try on let alone buy. I love to look at their catalogs because everything looks so elegant.
Susan -- I'm glad Stan is feeling better. I'd say the resident doctor needs to study her books a bit more. I'm glad his doctor over-ruled her. I guess I am the short one in the bunch.
It is getting to be my bedtime so guess I will head that direction. I have a much needed haircut in the morning to start my day. Have a fantastic Friday!
Good morning to you all. Hope your weekend is starting out well. (Ooopps, it's only Friday isn't it? I am not used to Jack being home on a weekday! ) I have commissary shopping to do today. I did get the upstairs cleaned yesterday and will tackle the downstairs tomorrow.
We are going out to breakfast with Tom, Kelly and Thomas in the morning on Sunday then they are coming back to the house for an egg hunt for T. I don't know how long they will stay after that as I think they usually do stuff with Tom's parents. She has been out of town for work again so it is sometimes hard to get email back from her when she is traveling. It is pretty much nonstop work when she travels.
We have started the dreaded NCAA tournament so it will be basketball for the next week, UGH! I will just listen so some books on tape and knit I guess. I am not a fan of basketball at all. Funny because I loved it in high school. Maybe because the guy I had my eye on played basketball???
Jean: Bet you don't sound like Paula Dean either! She ya'll's you all over the place and honey that woman must own stock in a dairy. I have never seen anyone put so much butter in so many things! That's the south for you, fat, fat, fat. We have a pretty famous little restaurant/diner here in town down on Beale street that deep fries their hamburgers!!!!! We have never been there, but they pop up a lot on different travel network shows about food. People love their hamburgers, but I don't know, deep fried??? Our Cold Water Creek isn't too bad here. I have never bought anything in it, but I have looked a couple times. I do love all the color they are using this year for their spring line.
Susan: Glad Stan is getting better little by little. Hope the diahrrea and bloody stools stop for him and he can start eating better. I know he doesn't need to lose any more weight and have the problem too. I belong to a big medical practice and when I was in the hospital I think I probably had 4-6 residents and interns looking at me everyday. They would come in bunches like I was an animal at the zoo. They were all very nice though so I can't really complain.
I am plugging away at the backpack bag. I used double strands of yarn and it is on size 10 needles so it is slow going. My hands get tired fairly quickly. I kind of determine how many rows I am going to do then put it down for a bit then go back, etc. It keeps my hands from being sore for very long.
Well gals, I need to skeddaddle. Hope you have a relaxing rest of the week, weekend and a very nice Easter.
Good Evening, Flowers! It's been a dark cloudy day here and the streets look wet so I'm wondering if it is misting and I just can't see it. I got up early and went for my haircut . . . my pet peeve is having to wait and I thought sure I would be "on time" since I was first in line. Not so . . . she let me in (her shop is in her house) and went back into the house for 10 minutes. It was almost 2 hours by the time I got back home again. She had another lady come in and started on her while I was under the dryer. I'm beginning to think that I have less and less patience every day as I get older and crabbier. We are took Easter stuff to Maddy and Kolby since Beth had the afternoon off. I'm thinking tomorrow we'll deliver Ian and Zowie's depending on how "Mom" is doing.
"Gma" -- I've never heard of deep frying hamburgers. I would think they would fall apart. I'll bet Paula's cooking is hmm, hmm good with all of the butter and fattening ingredients she uses. I know you will enjoy spending time with Thomas on Easter.
Susan -- I hope Stan continues to improve and you enjoy the weekend.
Hope you all have an enjoyable day tomorrow. May your Easter weekend be a special one.
Good morning to the most beautiful flowers in the world! Looks like it is going to be a nice day here. It has been so nice here the last few days, I hope it continues. Looks like it is going to be a bit cooler the next few days, but still nice.
We got the shock of our lives yesterday. I was sitting at the computer and Jack was watching the NCAA games and a commercial comes on about our local news and they say something about the mayor resigning! Yup, our corrupt mayor is resigning July 31! Sounds really fishy to me and he won't give any specific reasons, but rumor from a couple people that know him is that he wants to be school superintendent again, (Heaven help us he was the superintendent when we lived here with the kids while Jack was still in the Navy and he was awful) or he wants to run for congress, how wonderful! No word as to how they are going to go about getting us a new mayor, but Jack and I can't stand him so we are glad he is going.
Kelly called here last night after I had gone to sleep wanting to know if we were going to color eggs tomorrow. I had asked here about this a couple weeks ago and she never said so I let it drop. Thank goodness I bought eggs at the commissary, but she was at the store when she called getting food for an impromptu karaoke party she was having and wanted to know if she needed to buy Paas and I said yes. So we are going to color eggs. I had a lot of fun with him doing it last year so I am glad we are doing it but I have a lot to do today with cleaning house, baking cookies and now getting eggs boiled. Ahh well, the plight of a grandma, which you know I hate!
Susan: Hope Stan is coming along. I have my last dr appt on Monday before surgery so I hope he still says it is a go. We leave for Indiana in 12 days so of course I am all excited about seeing the kids and Jackson before I go in for surgery. The kids may come down here as Jack sister will be here and Jay wants my sil to see the baby, but he doesn't know for sure. I am already having the fidgets about my house having guests and the only person to keep it clean is my husband. My sil told Jack she thought maybe she should stay in a hotel because she didn't want me worrying about housework while I was in the hospital. Does my family know me or what??? I just always want everything to be perfect for everybody so I am always doing something to try and keep it that way and that just isn't how life is. At least Jack told her absolutely not that we have a guest room and she is staying at our house. If Jay and Alicia come down they always stay in a hotel so that wouldn't be a problem.
Jean: I desperately need a haircut, but am trying to wait until next week, maybe on Monday when I have a dr appt. My hair grows fairly quickly so I don't want it all grown out again by the time we go to Indiana. I have a lady I go to at one of these cheapo chain places, but sometimes I have to wait 45 minutes to an hour to get my haircut. I just take my knitting and knit. I always just give myself plenty of time and try to go first thing when they open.
The commissary was dead yesterday. I have never seen it with less people in it. It was nice not to have to fight with other customers in the aisles. There was one black lady that I think had her two grandsons with her, not sure about that one, but they were little hellions and all over the aisles and such and you would almost run over them because they ran free. Other than that I was able to get finished fairly quickly.
My shoes ran out.... I ordered these cute mary jane sandals from Lands End and they were too big so I sent them back and ordered a different style because the green I wanted was sold out. Well, the green in all 4 types sold out!!! So, no new shoes for me because I specifically wanted the green shoes. Since I will probably be convalescing for 6-8 weeks I am hoping they restock and I can order them for the remaining part of the summer later. I just wanted them to take to Indiana with me.
Steel Magnolias #8
I may have to do a little at a time, but I want to get it done.
in Iowa!
I don't think I have ever had a pannanni before. I see them advertised on different food places, but I don't think I have ever had one. Hope your wet stuff is gone and didn't freeze. I know you have to be ready for spring, which comes in a couple days.
It will be awhile before our weather is that nice. We have a coffee shop in town that makes pannini sandwiches. Sometimes the crusts get too hard and are hard to bite into. 
in Iowa!
I found some at Walmart.com that I can order and they will ship free to a local store where I can go and pick them up. I had to find a solid color that will go with the flower colors in the umbrella since there is nothing wrong with it.
. . . haven't been there since we got home almost a month ago. Tomorrow is our half day of testing and some of the teachers were lamenting on how many will skip out tomorrow. I sure don't blame the kids who have all of their homework done and have no detentions, etc., to have to sit in study halls for 3 hours while the Mexicans, Asians, and Sudanese are taking the language test. Heck, I'm wondering what I will do for 3 hours besides watch the kids and the clock go around. 
Am I tired or what? Grandmas are definitely meant to spoil their grandchildren! 
in Iowa!
in Iowa!
I am not used to Jack being home on a weekday! 
We are took Easter stuff to Maddy and Kolby since Beth had the afternoon off. I'm thinking tomorrow we'll deliver Ian and Zowie's depending on how "Mom" is doing.
in Iowa!