It is hard to think about Global warming today. (maybe tomorrow)

Baby, it's cold outside!!!!

I am home, don’t let me out again!

This is short and sweet…just enough to let you know I made it home.

This has been a good Christmas and a lousy one. A mixed bag for sure.

The weather has changed our plans more times than I can count. We heard of another snow storm to hit on Wednesday, so we thought we could dig ourselves out and run over and see Sallie. If it was horrible, at least we could hunker down with her for the Christmas day.

The freeways were OK, but it was near impossible to get out of her apartment complex. They don’t belive in shovels! Nothing. She had 7 inches over night and on top of the several inches of ice and snow already coming earlier in the week, she was housebound and we could hardly get in her apartment complex with our 4×4.

We drove 6 miles from the ferry to her house in one hour..yes, that is right…ONE hour!!! Ice chunks on the roads were so bad, we couldn’t stay in one lane. People are idiots in Lynnwood and they drove like they were in the middle of July. Cars were tossed like twigs in a wind storm. No lanes, you sort of drove and hoped not to hit another person.

Christmas eve morning, we were on the way down the freeway to Erin’s house when we got a phone call on Sallie’s cell phone. Seems the brothers were trying to reach me via my cell phone. (I don’t talk on the cell phones much and never turn them on.) They called Sallie and told me mom was in the hospital and very ill with asthma.

It is her yearly event. Something happens in winter and she usually ends up in there for a week. Her lungs fill and she is miserable. to say the least.

I spent a few days with the kids, while Mike and Sallie returned to Lynnwood Christmas evening. (Is everyone following the story so far?) I had promised the kids I would stay and hated to disappoint them. Mom was doing OK and nothing I could do for her at the time.

Mike too, Sallie to work and cooked dinner for her. I know..you are wanting to know…pork chops. I think it is one of his 2 things he can cook.

Erin and family drove me up to Sallie’s house on Saturday. We all went out to dinner and it was great…my whole family together and no dishes to cook or wash for me. I loved it.

That night, they went home and Mike and I went to visit mom. Nice hospital and she was holding her own. We went back again on Sunday and visited.

Monday…we came home…we were gone a full week and I am worn out…not from doing anything really, but all the weather stress and worry about everything and everyone. I have mastered needless worry to an art form.

The house looks and feels sooooo good@ My bed looks even better.

I hope to nail the doors shut and stay inside for a few weeks, but know it will be most likely days before we will have to run over and do something. We will see.

Happy New year…

The Christmas pictures

Every year, Erin takes a special picture of the child/children around the tree to send and share.  Today, she thought she would get the kids to pose.  Kaylie, she is a natural ham and loves to pose!  Peyton, on the other hand,  just want attention!  He has a pretty short attention span..well, let’s face it, he doesn’t have an attention span at this age.  Erin said he went from laughing, to ignoring, to scrunching his nose to tears.  Finally, he demanded his blankie. 

Here are a few pictures that made me smile.

I know I am blessed!

At times, we muddle through the season, the weeks and the months of the year and often forget to take stock of the people around us that keep us grounded, happy and loved. 

The other day, an old friend came by to pay a visit.  She brought me a wonderful hand knit cowl for my morning walks.   She has this gift within her to always understand the person she is giving to.  She observes and remembers their favorite color, or taste …the smallest detail of what they love in life.  I love to walk, even when the temperatures are falling into the teens and this is such a perfect gift for me.  It got used right off the bat, too!    Thank you Pallas.  You are such a treasure to those of us you can call you friend, mom, or grandma.

Earlier in the week, Mike heard some thumping on the front door.  My elf friend Jan, tried to sneak a wreath she had made me and run!  I get all her gifts when I least expect them and usually, on a porch.    I even got a flock of flamingo’s in my yard once from her!! 

She had gathered all the cones, holly and salal for the wreath and put it together with a lovely bow.  She will never know how it brought my spirits up.

I normally don’t enjoy Christmas.  I guess the years of trying to just piece it in through shift work has left its toll on me.  I have spent many a Christmas alone.  Mike was at work and I got to see him, but maybe I had to wait until after midnight!   With the girls having their own lives and miserable weather inbetween us, there have been many times we didn’t get a family dinner until well after Christmas.  Since we have never had family near, it has been more of a lonely time, rather than a joyous one.

This year, because of Pallas and Jan, it has been a year to remember for me.

Good excuse to sew

 

 

My friend Jackie is going to be a grandmother again.  (In fact, she is getting 2!) Of course, I am happy for her in the traditional way…who doesn’t want to get their hands on a cuddly, warm, sweet smelling baby and rock them to sleep?  Who doesn’t want to snuggle your nose next to their little cheeks and give soft kisses on their neck?  But, for me, it is an excuse to make a baby quilt.

I love to sew baby quilts.  They are small, easy to handle and I have enough fabric around the house to give JoAnn Fabric’s a run for their money. 

This one is a for a boy or a girl and the topic is Snoopy, if you can’t see the pictures well enough.  There are stars, clouds and moons.  I still have to embellish it with some yellow buttons, my sort of trade mark.  Instead of tacking the quilt to hold the layers in place, I always use buttons.  They work well and always come in nice colors that can work with the colors in the quilt.

I spent 5 days with Kaylie and Peyton this week.  Kaylie was in a winter concert for her school and then on Saturday, she was a reindeer in a Festival of Lights parade in Montesano.  She was in a hissy mood for being a reindeer.  She asked Erin to french braid her hair and in KK’s mind, it was ” crooked”.  It wasn’t and it was so pretty, but when it is a bad hair day, Kaylie can go into a mood that is unbelieveable! 

We took her to church where they were to meet and she continued to pout and convince herself that she was miserable.  Finally, Erin and I just threw our hands in the air and left her with her Girl Scout troop.  It is the only way to hand her mood.

As the parade went on, there was our favorite little reindeed bouncing along…all smiles and pink cheeks.  Peyton and I sat on the cold, cement street and huddled trying to keep warm.  

It was a LONG parade and finally, went the snow started, I gave up and retreated to the car.  I missed about 5 minutes of the parade, but once you see one dump truck decorated in lights, you have truly seen them all.  Northwest Rock, where Erin works, got the Grand Festival Award.  It was lit up and had firewords shooting off of the back of the truck.  People were ooohing and ahhhing as he drove down the street. 

We got up and left for home on Sunday with a little bit of snow on the ground.  We limped home and all was well.  Soon after, Erin called and said it turned a lot worse.  I think we were glad to make it home.

I am dug in now, until Christmas eve when we pack and leave again.  I love seeing the little children, and my children, but I would like to be home one year and let everyone come see me.  I guess, that isn’tgoing to happen.  Sallie is working the day after Christmas….Erin is always dropping off and picking up Kaylie..Victor is fishing…I guess that leaves me on the Road AGAIN!

I do give Thanks for health enough to get in a car, money to afford the gas and children that still want us to show up.  In spite of all the whining I do, (and at times, I am the Queen) I am happy to have good family and friends!  Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.

Just what every girl wants..a hole in a wall.

I love to remodel, but this house here does not lend itself to adding on, taking out or rearranging anything.  As the current statement says…”it is what it is.”  The house was built in 1959.  Nice floor plan, but the window are of that same vintage.  They are very wide and narrow.  The picture windows are huge and that is all well and good until you go to put window treatments on them.  Everything is very modern looking and all my things are antiques or vintage looking.  It is a challenge for sure.

So, nothing doing.  I have repainted, wall papered and done all kinds of surface changing, but nothing earth shaking.  Well, our neighbor has a near clone of my house.  He remodeled and his contractor did a clever thing.  There is a wall in the kitchen that becomes the wall down the flight of stairs to the basement.  The guy took out the wall, except for three feet from the floor.  Then they painted the stairway a really striking color, different from the kitchen and hung a classy looking lamp in the staircase.

I didn’t want to give up the whole wall because I like being able to shut the door at the top of the stairs.  Keeps Peyton herded, too.  So, we went with a hole in the wall…a window.

Mike had his hands full with this job.  We have brick everywhere in the house and the walls are plaster over drywall!  What a flipping mess.  We ate dust for days while he cut and chipped.  Finally, it was done and we left for Tennessee.

When we got back we started to fill in the cut hole with wood and it came out nice.  Now, the paint.  I chose a cocoa brown and decided to keep the wood white and then carry the color into the sunroom off the kitchen and paint the brick.  The brick is a pain…a huge, giant pain.  The brick looks like when they made them, they took nails and gouged the sides.  Pretty, but to paint, it was horrible.  The one wall took 3 hours to prime and 3 hours to paint.  You had to dab each brick, but the results…just what I wanted.  I love it.

Not sure about the highlight color yet, but so far, I am in love with everything.  Check out the pictures and see what you think.

the hole

 

note the painted brick