[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! We got up to an orange sky at 5:30 this morning. It was so weird and then it got dark as it is at midnight; the wind kicked up with the rain right behind. We had some small hail for a few minutes to add to the mix. Ernie really doesn't like that noise! It's still pretty windy, but the sun is shining now. Bob is playing in a golf tournament -- the hospital vs. the nursing/retirement home. Last year he has to play with the cat hater next door as part of his foursome. It's not a nice golf day that's for sure.

My hometown (Charles City) is flooded big time. (Storm Lake was mentioned on the Today Show this morning . . . not sure why except we are in the middle of flooded farm land.) Anyhow Charles City closed the bridges and all highways leading into town. There is/was a 100+ year old suspension bridge -- the kind suspended by cables and it swings in the wind. It is gone! I always thought it was up pretty high above the river when I was a kid. My kids loved to run across it when they were little. There are lots of flood pictures in the state newspaper if anyone is interested . . . www.desmoinesregister.com

My "mom" has some water seeping in her basement in one corner. She lives about 5 blocks from the river and it was up to her driveway when I talked to her Monday. She is nervous about leaving her house with the river so high and more rain is on the way. My "sister" lives next to a little creek which is getting close to being out of its banks so they are also nervous about leaving. Their new house is pretty close to the water and since they live in the country now there are no close neighbors to check on the house for them. Her MIL is in the hospital with a stroke which happened Monday. My "sister" from AZ is not coming back. They were set to leave and she was having some pain; is still being treated for the tumor on the liver. They did a CT and put a stent in a pancreatic duct and another stent in a liver duct. Bottom line is we don't know if the rest of us are going to MN or not! I am nervous about leaving in case the electricity would go off or the sump pumps would quit for whatever reason. Bob was going to line up his farmer friend to check if we got a lot of rain. I also am having the cat sitter keep an eye on the basement.

To add injury I pulled a real stupid yesterday! Bob had gone to the cabin to mow and take a key to the cleaning lady. I made a meat loaf, baked potatoes, and scalloped corn to surprise him when he got home. I have a huge oven thermometer that was in my way so I took it out and set it on top of the stove, pulled the meat loaf out and picked the HOT thermometer up with my bare hand to move it out of the way. Needless to say I had 5 burned finger tips. I dropped it on the stove top but luckily didn't crack that. I put Vitamin E on them and eventually the pain went away. A couple fingers are tender today but I don't have any blisters.

Adding insult to injury . . . the AZ relatives are buying plane tickets first and then asking if it is ok that they use the cabin! Bob was not a happy camper! The guy coming is his brother's son and really the only cousin that Jason has the most in common with. Jason said he would be in charge. We are having everything ready to go and won't even be the first ones to get to use it this summer. Of course MIL thinks she will get to go up while nephew and wife are there but it is while we are gone (I hope) so she is stuck here. Too bad!

"Gma" -- I had to laugh at your description of the ball fans! I'd much rather watch the fans or half time shows than the announcers rehashing the plays. I could never figure out why companies send little items in big boxes. Usually you could put a dozen in the same box and still have room left over. I'd love to get some new towels. I get in a rut and use the same ones over and over. I have a bunch that belonged to my mom and they are all "short" in length . . . good to have around but I rarely use them. You'd look good in pink hair -- add some spice to your life.

Susan -- It is 60 degrees here and windy so it is a long pants kind of day. I wish the weather pattern would settle down and just be summer at its best! I didn't realize we were having Friday the 13th until you mentioned it. I hope that is not an omen for our MN trip.

I need to keep moving. I don't know whether to start packing boxes and clothes or not. Have a great afternoon and a terrific Thursday tomorrow!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[QuilterInVA]

Good evening!

Jean - hope the floods miss everyone and the rain stops! I know school is out, but I think 19 comes after 18 and before 20. When you go on vacation you go! I was looking around for 19, but its getting late for me.

Have a good evening!

[gma22]

Good morning to all. Iowa is in sad shape right now. I just read a headline about a boy scout camp where 4 are dead and 48 injured. I opened the story and it talks about all the flooding and nothing about the boy scout camp. I had to look somewhere else to find out it was a tornado that took the poor kids completely by surprise. I guess the tornado hit before even the storm hit.

Susan: I bet you would look real cool in Lime Green hair. If I could find that light cotton candy pink, I might just do it to shock my kids. I like to keep them on their toes! lol
Jack once got his ear pierced to shock them. He did and then let it grow closed after the shock wore off.

Jean: Hope the weather calms down for you guys. I know you have to be so anxious about your home and the cat and such while you are away. We haven't had much rain at all. Our part of the mississippi doesn't seem to be in trouble, but who know what will happen. We don't live that close to the river so we aren't in much trouble anyway.
I told Jack last night that watching the baseball fans and their nutty outfits was like watching the old "Let's Make a Deal" show! Let's see, last night an old guy at least in his 70's and sitting in the front row right behind the home plate was wearing a woman's pink Cubs baseball cap, another lady had on a headband completely decked out as a birthday cake with candles sticking sky high, then there are the nutso men fans who sit with no shirts on and their chests spelling out a player's name or something. The right fielder for the Cub's is a Japanese guy and they signed him just this year. He doesn't even speak English and has only been here since April. He said the weirdest thing he has seen are the guys out in right field spelling his name out on their bare chests. He says they don't do things like that in Japan. Well, Kosuke, truth is America is the Land of the Free and the home of the nuts!

I got my dil's stuff last night and the towels are to die for. The wash cloths, hand towels and bath towels are oversized and extra thick and soft. Even the stitching is heavy duty and won't fray right away. I am tempted to go back and order some for myself if they are still available. I toted up the retail cost of everything then what I paid and I saved around $75!! Woohoo! The bath set I bought for my dil has a lovely off white handbag and it holds a couple large bottles of creams and bath gels, a scrubber and a very nice pair of bath slippers. I did cheat and keep the cucumber fabric and room spray as it smells really nice. I am going to send her just the lavender one.

I took Jack to work today so I could do some errands and they have the exit road to the plant tore up. They are redoing the exits and widening the road and it is a mess. Doesn't help that the refinery is on that road and the tankers pull out onto it after filling up with their fuel. It makes for a real mess. On top of that, they are reopening the steel mill and have put a rail yard out by it so the traffic has increased 10 fold. You have a devil of a time turning left onto the main road from the side road where the plant is.

Saturday is Thomas's spring recital so we are going to that then going out to lunch with them for Father's Day. That should be fun. I am looking forward to it.

Well, I need to do some chores before I get cleaned up and out for errands. Everyone have a great Thursday! Keep cool and dry!
Faye

[Jean]

Good Morning, Flowers! The sun is shining, the sun is shining!!!!!! Hooray!

Man, did we get rain last night! It poured for over an hour! Bob was home and was going to leave for the office about 8:30 just to check messages since he didn't go in during the day. There was a wet area in the garage on the other side of the bedroom wall and upon investigating back inside, the bedroom was flooded big time! We used to have a door at the end of the hallway which we enclosed and turned the bathroom door 90 degrees to make it a little bigger and it's right next to the bedroom. The rain came so fast there was a lake on the patio and it was high enough that it came in where the door used to be. I have always said that cold air came in there like the missing door was left open! Anyhow, my catch-all spare bedroom had empty boxes and "stuff" that we had to move out! I probably have 75 -100 of the old 33 rpm albums that were sitting on the closet floor . . . all were wet to some degree. We moved the dresser and my mother's desk out by the front door and Bob started vacuuming water out of the carpet! The wet vac holds 25 (50? -- big!) gallons and he dumped it twice plus another half. He dug a hole by the patio cement and put a sump pump out there to pump water on around the end of the house. We are lower than the houses behind us and we could see the water running down the yard. Not a good thing to see!

This morning the basement has water coming up through the floor where usually it doesn't unless we've had a lot of rain in a short amount of time. Poor Ernie had wet feet getting to his box, but he didn't seem to mind. I wiped his paws off before he came upstairs and tracked wet litter all over. I will not complain about the water after seeing and hearing what the rest of the state has to put up with. I can't imagine leaving my house and/or watching it wash down the river like the guy in Wisconsin who has been on TV.

My heart goes out to the boy scouts who lived through the tornado. I can't imagine having my child away at camp or being responsible for other kids during a storm.

Susan -- I guess I wasn't paying attention to the thread #. Sorry I missed #19! Hope your day at work is going along without a hitch.

"Gma" -- Where did you order the towels from? Everything will be appreciated and enjoyed by your DIL, I'm sure. You are so thoughtful! This morning on the Today show they interviewed one of the scouts who lived through the tornado. I just can't imagine what that must have been like for those kids.

Hope you all have a great day! As far as I know the MN trip is still on although we may wait and go up on Sunday rather than Saturday. It depends on the weather!

Jean -- from sunny Iowa!

[NannaX3]

Okay guys, I'm trying again to post with ya'll. I have been having a hard time getting into the 3FC site. I have tried every day for the past week and finally today I was able to get in.
Andy (my husband) and I were in Richmond last week. I think I told you guys about that, anyway, someone measured the asphalt temp on Saturday and it was 124 degrees. We learned a lot at all the different seminars that were offered but it was hard to get excited about the outside activities because of the heat.

Jean - I hope the water goes down soon.

I started training for a new job on the 9th, we are doing it online with the phone for the audio part, it can be a little weird, the instructor is a little brusque but I guess with us being as far behind as we are she may not have a choice. It would be nice if I had received the equipment they were supposed to send me. Allbut 3 of us seemed to have gotten it. It was a little hard to follow what they were trying to teach this morning since I didn't have the equipment with their programs on it.
We took the oldest GS (Jake) for a haircut last night, he did really well, except that he wanted to keep looking at what the lady was trying to do, and he kept trying to shrug her off. He moved up into the next class in preschool on Monday, he wasn't sure about going into that class instead of the one he was used to but by Tuesday morning he knew right where to go!
Annie (7 month old GD) is getting so cute, she is trying to move around the room but isn't real good at it yet. ALex (her 20 month old brother) is a real pistol, he is trying to do everything his big cousin does but doesn't quite have the dexterity to do some of the things he does. He still tries to ride his little bike by pushing it with his feet on the floor but is trying to do it using the pedals and usually ends up going backwards further than he goes forward
Lee

[QuilterInVA]

Good evening, ladies! Lovely day today (that means low humidity) and only in the high 80s.

This has been the week from H... at work. Got the computer back this morning with a new hard drive. That failed by noon. I was so disgusted I told them to get me a new computer pronto. I dug the spare out and finally got it working again. I'm expecting the computer people to call me and leave a message what time they will be in tomorrow so I can go in and get it set up. Instead the guy at work calls me and says the old one is fine and he'll just use that and he called and cancelled the new one. (He's #2 boss so he can do that). So I don't have to work tomorrow.

Went to Curves tonight. It sure helps get rid of stress.

Tomorrow is day quilt guild so I'm going to that - 3 quilting meetings this week!

Faye, where did you order those towels? You need to share with us! Two weekends in a row you get to see Thomas - how great is that!

NannaX3, glad you caught up with us. I don't see how they could expect you to do that class when you didn't have the equipment. Sounds like you have some cute grandchildren.

[gma22]

Good morning to you all. We got a quick shower while driving home from Jack's work yesterday, but that was it. We went out and grabbed a bite to eat then came home and camped for the rest of the evening. I have yet to get my behind upstairs and clean those bathrooms. I really need to do that today.

For those of you interested in the towels, sorry they seem to be sold out. They were at Kohls.com and I just checked to see and though you can go to the section they are in, it gives you an error so I imagine they are sold out. If you want to try anyway, it is Kohls.com, then the clearance tab at the top, then the homestore category, then bath. Good luck. There are only three colors, but they are wonderful thick lovely towels and like 75% off so who cares????

Susan: Have fun today since you don't have to work. You can visit me and we can clean bathrooms.... Better yet, maybe we should go to Iowa and help Jean out and get her dried back up. I just looked and it is 12 hours from my house to hers so maybe you better come here and we can then go to Iowa! lol Yes, two weekends in a row seeing T and then he and his parents are going to go to Indiana over the holiday like we are so I will get to spend the weekend with both my boys in 3 weeks.

Nanna: Hope you can continue to get in here. Maybe now that they have their big mess all cleared up you will be able to. Jackson just had his birthday (see pic) and I don't even know if he is walking yet. He has to be pretty close as he was when we were there last time. They did the cutest cakes for his birthday. He had his own little cake (which is on his face!) in the shape of a baseball and on the side was his name, then the big cake was a big round one and it was red white and blue (Chicago Cubs colors) and had a big red "C" on it. They took him to the game on his birthday Tuesday, but my son was mad because he said the seats were terrible. I don't know why that boy didn't look at the seating chart first!

Jean: I hope you can get a handle on your house problem. What an awful thing to happen. Are you delaying going up to the cabin until you see what is going to happen with your weather and such? Poor little Ernie, hope his bathroom doesn't become underwater! lol It's bad when you can't even go to the bathroom without getting your feet wet. I read one article where this guy in Wisconsin just finished their dream house, 4000 sq feet or something like that, everything in the house was new and it is all ruined and gone now. You need to keep Bob, he is one handy dude. Jack would be calling somebody to help us as I am not sure he would have a clue. Guess that is why we live in a condo.

Gail: Did you fall off the earth? I know you haven't had the weather Jean has. We are worried about you so hope you can peek in soon.

Gloria: Hope all is well in your part of the world too!

Maggie: Hope you aren't frying like we are here in Memphis. It was 96 here yesterday.

Everyone have a terrific weekend. Jean, be sure and keep us updated on your house and when you think you will be going to the lake.
Faye

[Jean]

Good Afternoon, Flowers! It's a beautiful sunny day, with a little wind, in my corner of the world. I live in the northwest corner of the state and not near a river, thank heavens. The southeastern part of the state got hammered with snow last winter and now they are getting all the water from a river that comes from MN and goes through my hometown which is in the northern part of the state. My 2nd basement room is beginning to dry up so it looks like we will be leaving for MN tomorrow. I've been doing the last minute laundry and checking things off my "to do" list. I still need to make a grocery run, but will get most of that once we get to MN.

NannaX3 -- Glad to see you are with us again! I would be totally lost if I were on a computer that was different from the game plan. I am NOT a computer person anyhow. I do well to get it turned on, find my email, 3FC, and can go to a couple other sites I visit from time to time. I would say 124 degrees is way too hot for me! Your grandchildren sound busy! They grow up much too quickly that is for sure.

Susan -- I don't envy you the computer related stress! I'm glad #2 boss made the decision to use the old computer so you don't have to work tomorrow. Having a 3 day weekend is nice. Hope you enjoyed your quilting today.

"Gma" -- I know you are looking forward to spending time with Jackson and Thomas together. The picture is cute but Jackson looks pretty sober; his eyes are so blue! Bob will try and fix just about anything before he will call for help. This spring he had his tractor all apart to put in some new part and it worked the first time. He was pretty proud of himself on that one! As the plan is now we will be leaving for MN in the morning and home again next Saturday. I feel guilty leaving Ernie but his sitter will spend some time with him.

I'm off to do some packing and count the clothes. I can't find my last year's packing list so figure I will have to buy whatever I forget! Have a great week next week!

Jean -- from Iowa!

[QuilterInVA]

Good evening, ladies! Hope you have all escaped the Friday the 13th bad luck. I had a fine time at quilt guild then 10 of us went to lunch afterwards. Did a bit of shopping, got a pair of white capris and 3 new bras. It's amazing how much better you can look with a good fitting bra. I have a hard time finding them (34D) so when I see them I get them. The ones I have been wearing are 36C and just didn't fit right since I've been exercising and losing fat. So I saw the fitter was in at JCPenny's and made and appointment. Then I went to Curves, stopped at the library and came home just in time to make myself a barbecued chicken breast, an ear of corn, and salad for dinner. Now I'm drinking iced coffee so I'll probably be up half the night.

Faye, Jackson looks like he was posing for a very serious photo. His eyes sure are blue! I'm glad you'll all be getting together for the holiday.

Jean, glad you are able to go to MN and the water is receding. My cat, Cupid, can't stand to get his feet wet so he'd be yowling a lot.

Maggie, Gloria, NannaX3 and Gail, hope things are going well and that you post soon!

[Maggie]

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

OK it is HOT here. 104 degrees outside and 90 inside this MH. The air conditioner only makes it 10 to 15 degrees cooler in here than out there. I am trying not to move much. But thank goodness for the humidity to be down to 21. Been real busy doing computer stuff for my main squeeze and then when I took a time to post and clicked on the button to start my post it took me over to another website. AH but I got in today.

JEAN WOW part of your state is sure underwater. I am glad you aren't in that area. Have a great time in MN.

SUSAN It is so important to find the correct bra size. I am glad that you were able to get some.

DONNA Your new towels sound so neat. I love a good towel. Tomorrow should be a good day for you ~ T's recital.

NANNA That is so strange that they expect you to do that work withough the proper tools.

Everyone have a lovely weekend. And be safe in what ever you do.

OH BTW I did show a bit of a loss ~ going in the right direction ~ at yesterdays weigh day.

[gma22]

Good morning to you all. We had a thunderstorm this morning and it dumped a bit of rain, but doesn't look like it did much except make it muggier. Is muggier a word Maybe, more muggy!

Susan: Sounds like you had a great time and a nice meal. I sure do miss corn on the cob this time of year. Ahh well, better than pain that's for sure. I am not brave enough to even try it, though I imagine it would probably be ok as long as it wasn't all the time. Yes, Jackson's eyes are very blue. My family is a bunch of weirdos genetically. My husband has dark brown hair and brown eyes, I had blonde hair and blue eyes. The kids were both born blond, with Jay having green eyes and Kelly has hazel eyes. Kelly suddenly changed hair color to red when she went away to college then gave birth to a red head with blue eyes I think. Now Jackson has light colored hair and blue eyes and his mom is half hispanic and has very dark hair and brown eyes. Such a mishmash. My little guy can be one serious little dude then the next second have a huge smile on his face.

Jean: Hope things got packed and you are off for the cabin. Have a grand time, we will miss you!

Maggie: You poor thing. Hope you cool off some today. We have to keep the house very cool because the upstairs gets so hot. We don't get direct sunlight on either side of the house because our garage is in back and the clubhouse is right across the walkway in the front. Jack has this thing about the windows always being covered so the downstairs stays so cool I wear long sleeves and cover up all day long. The upstairs except for our bedroom has one vent in each room so the extra rooms get very hot during the day.

I ordered some clothes and they are finally being shipped. I ordered a couple tops with my Mother's Day gift card, then this open crocheted sweater, then two pant suits from HSN. They offered me an HSN and a QVC credit card and this fancy deal so I ordered a couple outfits from HSN. I also found some cute cute capris sets at Walmart. I bought a little white tshirt then a pair of red and white checked capris and a camp style shirt to wear as a jacket over the tshirt. I am thinking about getting another set in maybe a solid color. They had several to choose from.

Well, I better get going. Have a good Saturday all!
faye

[QuilterInVA]

Good morning, ladies! A pleasant 75 degrees at 8:30 am heading for 90 today. We are getting the smoke from the fires in Suffolk (about 50 miles from here) and North Carolina. People with breathing problems are being told to stay inside in air conditioning. There's a 30% chance we
will have thunderstorms tonight and that would get rid of the smoke. You can really see it when you look out over the water.

Maggie, hope you are keeping cool. I always wondered how well AC did in mobile homes. Glad to hear the scale is cooperating!

Faye, its always nice to get gift cards so you can get what you really want.

Have a great day!

Well, I'm rearranging the living room today. I figure that will give me plenty of exercise.

[Maggie]

GOOD AFTERNOON MAGNOLIAS

It is another warm day here now at 1:45 it is 97 outside and 87 inside but since the humidity is low it doesn't seem that hot. Anyway I am not complaining and I am not miserable ~ just not doing much. I didn't want to cook our pizza inside so Will did it on the grill. I have a stone we use out there that is on a rack and it cooks one in half the time than in the oven. My little electric oven inside is also stone lined. Makes a great baking oven.

SUSAN Good for you that it is nice and cool day for changing your furniture around. It is neat to do that and have a fresh look to the room. Don't you just hate that smoke! I remember when we lived on the north west corner of Yellowstone just outside the park when it burned and the winds came our direction big time. Not a pleasant experience. When the Maricopa burned a few years back we were in a campground there and Will was taken up to the mountains by one of the Cal Trans drivers, whose job it was to scoop up the rocks that the heat popped out of the mountain onto the road. He had to get the rocks off the road and down the mountain. If they didn't get those rocks AKA:bolders, off the road they melt down in making horrific holes. Plus in the road they make it difficult to get the fire trucks where they needed to be. I had a brother that was a firefighter up until when he died and now have a nephew, his son, that is one. What stories I have heard about fires.

DONNA What neat sounding outfits you have ordered. Isn't it fun to get new clothing. There was an outfit I wanted in a catalogue I receive and didn't order it in time. AH ~ but then the sale catalogue came along and there it was. I got a 4 piece outfit, pants, jacket, shell and a long sleeved top for a fraction of what they were origionally. For instance each piece was $65 and I got the whole set for $50 something. The only thing in that set they were out of was a skirt which I wouldn't have worn much anyway. It is an avacado green with an orange trim around the bottom of the jacket. Krinkle cloth and kinda hippy looking. I like it a lot. I try not to get too many outfits at a time because I am about the business of shrinking. I want to reach goal then do a huge clothing shopping excursion. I also try to buy things that I can alter easily as I do go down a size.

ALL OTHERS I hope you are well and happy.

Pray for our troops this day! Type at you later.

[gma22]

Good morning to you all! It is already or still hot and muggy here. We are going out to lunch with Kelly, Tom and Thomas today then do some errands afterward. Jack needs a couple pair of shorts to take to Indiana.

Boy I hate it when you order something ongoing then decide somewhere down the road to cancel and they drive you nuts about it. Jack had Nascar Track Pass where he could listen in on his favorite driver etc. Well, we got MLB extra innings this year so we could watch more Cubs games so don't watch Nascar much this year. I tried to cancel the track pass online but they said you had to call. Jack finally called last night and he must have told them 10 times he wanted to cancel and they just kept at him trying to get him to keep it. I told him if they did it once more, not to be polite but firm and tell them in no uncertain terms to cancel, but the woman finally canceled it. It was only $3 a month so it wasn't like they were making some huge amount of money off of us! lol They are like telemarketers who won't take no for an answer.

Thomas's recital went perfect. He was the only student in our time slot that played two instruments. He got up and did his violin and not only did he had it memorized, he kept looking out at the crowd smiling. He played his piano piece later and did the same thing, both without one mistake. I am amazed how fearless he is. They had a lady who looked to be in her 70's and is taking violin. I was so proud of her getting up there and playing a piece. You get a lot of sour stuff, but there was one poor child on the violin who was playing a duet piece with his teacher and boy this kid was truly awful. I think he is going to have to go back to basics because he literally could play one note right. It was very sour. Maybe it was too difficult for him or something, but poor thing literally could not play one note correctly.

Maggie: Your pizza sounds lovely. Those stones are perfect for that kind of stuff. I have a few pieces of the stone type ware including bread pans that work great. I have a couple pieces of this jersey stretch stuff and I love it so I bought two more outfits of it. One is a solid kiwi green and the other is called cappuchino with lighter tan pants and a patterned top. They don't wrinkle no matter what you do and I love to travel in them because they are so comfortable. I bought them to take to Indiana then to Houston in September when we go.

Susan: Hope you got your room all rearranged and it is now to your liking. Hope you didn't get too much smoke into the condo and you stayed indoors and protected yourself. I know I have been having some real allergy problems and have to resort to taking my Zyrtec everyday to try and combat them.

Everyone have a peaceful and beautiful Lord's Day!
Faye

[QuilterInVA]

Good afternoon, ladies! Only 78 but so humid!

We had a little rain last night. Heard some thunder but we didn't get much rain - the ground is dry looking again already. Still overcast so I'm hoping for more. At least it was enough to clear the smoke.

Faye - Thomas is amazing. Maybe he'll be the one to find a cure for cancer. I love jersey, too.

Maggie - I have some of those stone tiles you put in the oven on the rack to make bread or pizza. Love them!

I went to church this morning, then did my grocery shopping. Laundry and kitchen cleaning this afternoon. Then I am sitting and quilting until Army Wives comes on tonight. That is one of the few shows I willing to stay up for. I need to figure out how to do the VCR so I can record it. Stan always did that stuff. I just need to get the manual and give it a shot.

Have a great day!