Laura is here!

Richard and I took the boys over to Battlepoint Park today to ride their bikes around. Walter fell and scratched his hand and stomach but seemed okay.... just a little grouchy. Richard thought he was hungry so we stopped on the way home at an Indian restaurant and had a delicious meal. Walter's attitude improved immediately so I guess he WAS hungry.

We decided that Laura needed to have kitty litter, dry food and Fancy Feasts for her kitties when she arrived so we stopped and picked up supplies. No messages from her so I assumed that she left in the morning and would arrive before eight as she had stated the previous evening. I dropped Richard and the boys off at home and left at 4:15. Two hours later he called to say that Laura was there so I drove back over there and sure enough, she had arrived. One of her kitties, Rika, had run up into the garage rafters and wouldn't come down but the other two were doing well in the library. Laura enticed Rika out of the rafters as the evening progressed.

Richard cooked the rest of the salmon and made a terrific salad to go with it. We drank champagne and some box white wine that was pretty good.

It's been very stressful for Laura over the past 10 days having to quit her job, pack up her goods and decide what to bring and what to leave behind. She said that when she drove into Richard's driveway, she broke down and cried for 10 minutes. Poor thing... she had to drive for 9 hours with 3 cats across cold, snowy roads and a major pass into Seattle.... then get on a ferry. The release of emotion must have overwhelmed her. I knew she was stressed out and now I want her to take some time and just chill.... just a few days. She's talking of getting her resumes out tomorrow but I think she should take five days or so before she does that.

I'm happy she's here. I hope things work out well for her. We'll see how it goes; I think it will be good for her.

Paranoia, election drama and sunshine

The dinner I was little afraid of went very well. Salmon and salad was the main course but there was some good wine and cheese as well as a pre-dinner cocktail... a Manhattan prepared beautifully by our host. The conversation was good. My daughter in law's mother leads an interesting life and she's a very upbeat, amusing person... so I'm sure it was not due to me or anything I did that the event went well. I arrived at six; left at nine. Perfect!

Yesterday, since the boys were out of school, we threw a bike in the back of the mini-van and headed for the bike shop to buy a bike for the 6 year old future bike rider. Found a nice green one. The salesperson was great... fitted the bike seat to H's long legs and installed the training wheels. Then we were off to Fort Ward, or what I'm going to call Bean Point since it evidently was Bean Point prior to WW1 when an armory was installed there and it's name changed. I think Bean Point sounds better than Fort Ward although maybe Mr. Ward, whoever he is, might not think so.

The boys raced each other up and down the path, then parked their bikes and went down on the beach to explore under the rocks. It was low tide so there were lots of birds shopping for dinner on the seashore, too. There are old pier posts from the beach extending out into the water and cormorants perch there with their wings open as if welcoming the breeze to dry their wings after diving into the water. At times, I've seen a white-headed eagle sitting at the end resting up or maybe watching the water for a fish to swim by.

Then it began to hail. There was a big black cloud right over top of us and even though the sky was blue, we had to leave... boys riding fast ahead of us. We headed back to Richard's to have a glass of wine, watch CNN and talk politics. Richard has such a cool head and says he's going to follow party line and try not to get involved in the 'dustup' of the candidates, which we both think is instigated by the media anyway. I am surprised at the amount of hatred directed at Senator Clinton in this race but we who root for her must prepare to be good losers and rally around the candidate if she's not chosen. If we don't, we may end up with 8 more years of the same old-same old. I hope not.

Laura is heading over this way today... at least that's what she told me last night. This move will be good for her, I think. She'll be around more people, be able to attend more events than she could back in that small town she's lived in for the last 10 years... and her friends will come visit, I'm sure. Hopefully she'll arrive by 8 o'clock tonight even though the pass has snow and is still below freezing. I hope she'll get through it during the day when it's warmer and she can see where she's going.

The forecast here is for a beautiful day.

Dinner...

I've been invited to go over to Richard (my son) and Abigail's (DiL) to have dinner tonight. I have purchased the bottle of wine I'm going to 'bring with'. But still, I wonder if I should just stay home... I don't know why I'm such a hermit but it's nothing new with me. I've always been a hermit; nothing to do with any particular people but sometimes for days on end, I find ways to amuse myself all alone... or talking on the phone and ignore 'real' people. A failing in me perhaps....

I bought two new pairs of Spring flavored shoes last week - online, of course - so I'll wear my sparkly zebra-striped Skechers skimmers. They're very cute and will perk up my attitude possibly and make me feel conversational to the other guests.

Must remember not to talk about politics, adoption, Canada or my family... I'll just nod appropriately as they say things and ask questions. Hope that works because there's nothing I hate worse than leaving the party and wondering why I said what I said... then thinking of what I should have said instead of what I said. That can bug me for the rest of the evening and make it hard to get to sleep. Paranoia... yep, I've got it.

I had a bad dream that woke me out of a deep sleep last night. Seldom I remember dreams but I remembered this one. Snowy landscape, cleared road leading to a large new house with smoke coming from the chimney... someone is telling me that the man hit his son on the head with a hammer repeatedly and he's to stay away from his family. We enter the living room where there is a 30-ish dark-haired woman on the sofa... she turns to look at us as we enter and greet her. The fireplace is burning. A 8 or 9 year old blond boy comes into the room. I wonder if he's the one who was assaulted. He won't meet my eyes. I turn to look at the woman and suddenly the fireplace explodes in flames and smoke making it hard to see. A loud voice tells me that the boy did it and a man with a hammer is in the smoky room... and I think "That's why he did it." I wake up scared out of my wits and can't return to sleep easily. My heart is beating fast. Oh, and the woman spoke French... we were in Quebec. Yikes... what is going through my mind to dream that?

Anyway.... into the shower with me... off to dinner!

Continuing on...

My mother died on March 3rd. She was almost 94 years old and had been having mini-strokes for years. Six weeks before she died, she had another while she was walking down the hall at her assisted-living residence and she fell. She was unable to walk or talk after that, or feed herself, or sit up... basically, she lost most of her functions. When she was returned to her residence, it was to the full-support floor and her day started at 8am when she was fed and wheeled in her bad to a sunroom, where she spent all day until 5pm. At 5pm, she was wheeled back to her room. So, it was difficult to hope she would remain alive under those circumstances. Poor mom... I just know that she wouldn't have wanted to die the way she did - slowly over a period of years. Anyway, I am now motherless. But, since mother didn't recognize me since 2003, I suppose I've had some time to get used to that feeling. I wasn't sad when she died like I was sad when my father died.

Age may have something to do with a person's sadness level. I was 42 and an emotional wreck (because of a lot of things) when dad died.... page ahead 26 years and mother's death was almost anti-climactic... to me. Maybe not for my brother who took care of her for so many years. He must miss her.

I have to post more often. There are a lot of things happening in my life that I want to talk about... and lots of things not happening, or happening to other people that I want to talk about too. But I'll save some of that for later. It feels good to be back after a long, dry spell.

Been quiltin'

Rather I have been making blocks for a quilt. I'm working on a Dear Jane quilt; you can see it here... The blocks are only 5 inches unfinished and some of the blocks have more than 25 pieces in them... it's really quite an endeavour. So far I'm enjoying it even though I am not a very good applique-er and there's lots of appliqueing in this quilt. The others who have made or are making this same quilt have a motto, which is "better finished than perfect" so I have been adhering to that as I go along. By the time I've finished this quilt, I should have learned some new skills which will make me a better quilter overall. I hope. I have done 57 of the blocks and 14 of the triangles that go around the edges. In total, there are 159 blocks and 52 triangles so I have a way to go. I've been working on it, off and on, since September 2007.

As I figure out how to post pictures, I may post a picture of each block as I complete it. We'll see. Currently, I'm keeping track of the quilt by putting a tiny picture of each block on an Excel spreadsheet so I can see how the colours all look together as I go along... and I do pin them onto a 'wall' also.


So, I'll be back... now that I don't want to post at the previous SofA site any more. I try to understand how people who take our children for their own can be so cold about contact and really anything after they sweet talk a girl into giving her child to them to raise. Rich vs. poor. Ever the story....

Quilting

I completed the quilt for Dean... the one with tiny pinwheels. I also completed Liza's wedding dress.... it had to be let out. grrrrrr The kitties have grown up.... they got fixed in March when they were 6 months old. It hasn't slowed them down.

Still love my place. I have a nice sewing center fixed up finally and I'm working on a Dear Jane quilt. Seventeen blocks done and 4 triangles. Sent Laura a wall hanging for her birthday and Mom a pretty pink flowered quilt for Mother's Day. I still have to finish Liza and Shawn's Double Wedding Ring and I have a UFO that needs to be quilted and sashed.... want to learn how to machine quilt so once I do that, I'll finish the quilting on it and put the binding on.

Shawn hurt his leg when he laid his bike down before the wedding. He was able to walk down the aisle though. A week ago, Kevin crashed his quad up on a mountain trail and hurt himself pretty bad... no broken bones but the quad landed on him and he's very sore with cuts and bruises. He'll be off work for 6 weeks.

Liza and Laura drove over here for my birthday in August; it was so nice to see them. Walter and Hugo were very happy to see Liza who they haven't seen for a few years. We did some shopping... ate some good food.

Life is good.

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This is Jaik and Jules... my new kitties... both boys! They were born on October 7th 2006 so that makes them 12 weeks old... 13 weeks on Kevin's birthday - January 6th. They're too young for shots but those can be combined with them getting neutered at approx. 5 months old. Don't want to leave it too long and have them start spraying.

I took my Christmas tree outside today so the birds could use it as a roosting place if they want. With two cats out there periodically, they might want to stay away. The red-breasted nuthatches and downy woodpecker were at the birdfeeder today but I may have frightened them away with all the activity. Jaik in particular likes to sneak up on birds and try to catch them.

Trying to undress the tree and wrap my ornaments to store them away was quite an endeavor with 'the boys'. They batted the tissue paper off the table to the floor; they fought with the Christmas tree lights both inside and out as I took them down... wound themselves up in it all... just plain had a wonderful time! This was after knocking over the leopard vase that I treasure... it was in the middle of the table on a nice white tablecloth at the time, so I had water on the table, the chair and the red oriental carpet. I worried that the red from the carpet would bleed onto the beige carpeting underneath so had to lift the rug to allow it to dry completely. Grrrrr

Oh well, it distracted them from my plants that they love to climb into and knock over. Better they lock themselves in the bathroom and have to curl up to sleep in the sink like they did the other night... haha... that taught them absolutely nothing, I'm sure. They are fearless.... or dumb, maybe!