Gifted Flag Quilt

I forgot I hadn’t posted this, but since it’s especially appropriate today, let’s just say I held it until now on purpose. 😜

This was one of two flag quilts I started in early September (here) and took to my longarmer pal before we left on vacation. (I gave the second one to my Guild for their veteran recognition program.)

Binding and labeling* happened when we got back …

Forgot to get a good pic of the label…

before I passed this on to my friend on October 22…

and she presented it to her 94-year old Korean War vet dad the next day. I think he liked it. 🤩

Happy Veteran’s Day to all who served. 

* I designed the label on my computer, including a flag in the background, and added name, rank, dates and ‘thank you for your service’. Pretty pleased with how it turned out. 

Back To It

What a week. The election, then the Mountain Fire. Marie worked an election site from last Saturday through late Tuesday night, so we planned to have the girls overnighting from Sunday to Wednesday. Then Wednesday the Mountain Fire started - fortunately on another side of town and blowing away from us - and  smoke was impacting their apartment … and Marie got called in to work/volunteer doing traffic control for the sheriff’s department… plus schools were closed … so we got to keep them the rest of the week. 

Highly recommend the free app Watch Duty. They had the most current info during the fire.

Matt’s house had the power turned off Wednesday due to the fire (it came back on Friday night), so they’ve been hanging out here in the evenings to shower and recharge batteries (people and i-gadgets). 

 Home-made cheese puffs. So good!

Apparently, I’m too old for 24/7 fun and excitement anymore … so tired. Hoping to get back to a regular schedule when the kids go back to school…. Wednesday? Very grateful the fire wasn’t closer to us and incredibly sad for everyone who lost their home. I haven’t heard of any lives lost, which is a miracle - the fire was huge and moving soooo fast. 

P.s. can you tell that Jac cut the cheese puff dough? Gave her the pizza cutter and let her go. 😂

Trick or Treat

Jac came home sick from school at noon and I thought trick-or-treating was dooooomed

Leo’s pumpkin

but fed her a sandwich (to counteract all the sugar she ate this morning 🙄) 

and it looks like she’s good to go again. Hooray!

Jac asked to be a wolf princess this year and Leo is a character from the game Call of Duty. 

Donovan is a skeleton and really loves this costume (I want his shoes…)

Matt and Mary always go big (literally) with decorations.

Jac’s little white pumpkin is now a brown unicorn. 

So artistic!

Leo used a picture as a guide but did all the carving herself. 

It’s amazing!

Pumpkin Bash

We’d planned to take “studio” pictures of the grands in costume today, but…

Since I was determined to get Halloween pix,  

Plan B became a trip to the local pumpkin patch, 

which I’m sure the kids enjoyed more anyway. 

Jac was first out of the Amazing Maze

The pumpkins were *very* picked over 

but there was something to please everyone, 

although Donovan had to pick up a couple before he found one to his liking…

and was not thrilled when his hand landed in the pumpkin guts spilling out the bottom of this one. 😜

Leo was the only one to get a big traditional orange jack o’lantern.

”Look, GramGram - if you hold it this way ⬆️ it’s a butt and if you hold it this ⬇️ way it’s a baby!”

Jac tried out a few that were small or fancy 

before settling on this all white one that cradled well in her arms. 

Photo bomb!

The biggest surprise though? Donovan spotted this little striped cutie and his search was immediately over.

I love how different their choices are. 

Donovan discovered he loves Dr. Pepper, especially when it belongs to Sissy…

Happy Halloween!

Rule of 3

It’s a rule, right? Three related things happen and you’re done. Firm rule, no takesie backsies…

Doorman, er bunny 

Over 10 days, we’ve experienced kidney stones, cataract surgery and a 36-hour hospital stay for chest pains. (Surgery scheduled for mid-November; eye is improving; lots of tests with negative results is good… may need a couple more…)

Good news is that Los Robles Hospital is much nicer - facility and people - than Pleasant Valley. At least we know where to go now…. 

Halloweeeeeeen!

We’re a bit behind with decorating this year - 

too much other stuff going on -

but Jaclyn begged Pop to let her help put up the Halloween stuff.

So while I made a sweet reward (German pancakes are always a winner)

the two of them got the inside decorated Friday 

and the outside done today,

including 2 (3?) trips to the hardware store. 

It’s starting to feel trick-or-treatish!

Cyborg

I made it to … let’s just say ‘a bunch’ of years old before body parts started to need replacing.

My eyeball having its own serial # makes me officially a cyborg, right?

Cataract surgery went well and took about 15 minutes from OR wheel-in to wheel-out. Tomorrow’s follow up with the ophthalmologist should give an idea of how successful this is going to be. And then it’s on to the left eye… maybe in January? Or sooner? A lot will depend on how differently the two eyes see now (the left was much worse for double vision) and if my brain can process things. Should be interesting!

Experiments

Jac raced through two days of math homework - 

“we didn’t have time to do it at my mom’s house yesterday”- 

so she could work on her “experiments” with some leaves she brought from school.

She talked all the way home about growing up to become a scientist and getting to ‘experiment’ all day, every day.

Donovan had No! Interest! at first but Jac’s enthusiasm won him over. 

Plus, who can resist food coloring, baking soda and vinegar?? 

KaBOOM!

Visit Fail

My niece Lacey, James and the lovely Gemma came for a long-planned visit today

Gemma doesn’t like camping so she hides out in the van.

so these two helped me make Medieval Times Tomato Soup* (so good! Recipe here.)

to go with the bread I made last night. (Fast and easy recipe here. I sub garlic salt for the regular salt.)

Jac was in charge of stirring and adding sprinkles of spices - “A little more sea salt… and a bit of that leafy stuff…” -

while Leia tried out the new immersion blender (so cool!)

Then we settled down for a nice afternoon chat and… hubby got a kidney stone. So he and I spent the next 4 hours in the ER while Lacey hung out with the kids until their parents arrived. Not how I pictured the day going! I’m seriously bummed to not have had more time with one of my favorite nieces, but not as bummed as hubby who gets a follow up visit with a specialist for his very big stone. At least it didn’t happen on the cruise! Small blessings. 

* Note to self - and whoever else didn’t know that a “stalk” of celery is the entire, multiple rib package. That’s a *lot* of celery.