Good morning all Well spring might or might not have sprung for you up north but down here it's officially Autumn and the weather is glorious! Eat your hearts out!! I mustn't talk too soon though as there is a cyclone in the Mocambique channel and that normally means a bit of rain for us - don't mind that as long as it's a 'bit'.

Wow, Jacqui, isn't it a bit late for snow? And you girls in the mid-West seem to be having a dreadful time. Keep dry and safe.

Mary

Good Noontime to you all!

Hope your weekends were happy ones ...

It is sunny and a bit cool here, but the sun is warm on the south facing glass. One of my cats is on the back porch mat leaning on the storm door to soak up as much warmth as she can .... ... the other cat is curled in her favorite basket in a south facing window and soaking up the sun in her black fur ... this cat loves the summer ...

The birds are happy with the weather ... except I saw a predatory bird on my fence close to the sparrow's favorite bush ... it was much smaller than the usual hawks I see. I am not sure it was a smaller hawk or something else. It was not a red-tail hawk like the other two. It flew away to fast for me to get a good look. I have the feeling it will be back.

I got not much sewing done all weekend, but it was a good one all the same. I got to see all my kiddos and my DS1 brought his GF again. These two are looking more and more like it could be a lasting relationship. DD is having a bit of a rough spot with her guy, because of his really busy schedule and when she does see him he is tired. He had to work yesterday and did not make it for brunch. I pointed out to her that he is graduating senior this year and that the transition from college to real world can be very stressful. He has an internship to finish and he has not set the details in place for this or decided if he wants grad school or has found a full-time job or a place to live after he graduates. She needs to be a bit more patient with his stressed out moments and not take it personal. He is a nice kid. They seem good together. On Saturday, my DD left her job at a store in the mall, where she liked the work and the customers, but not the management, and took a full-time summer job at a nearby amusement park as a ride operator; she starts weekends at the end of April. She still has her other part-time flute lesson position. So she will be around all summer this year. My DS2 seems to have finally moved on from his last bad relationship and, although he too is graduating this June, he has been accepetd at grad school, has applied for grad housing with his same roomie and best buddie, has started a paid research postion at the college, and may be able to keep his part-time engineering job (they want him to take a full-time postion after he graduates and if he does not accept it they may look for someone else full-time and may not be able to keep him on part-time, but he seems okay with this) so he feels the future is unfolding as it should and all is right in his world.

Must go get the house cleaned, good dishes put away, and the accumulated laundry done from the weekend ... then I hope to have time to sew ...

Happy Quilting! Pat

GOOD MORNING!!!!! It's another sunny day here! Small chance of flurries tonight, but that's OK. It IS still March. Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter.

Oh, I'm so excited!! I got an e-mail from Sarah at www.rusticthreads.com this morning, telling me my name had been drawn in her bi-monthly draw for a free pattern or e-pattern (she offers stitchery patterns). Can you imagine the excitement I felt??
I went and had another poke around her site and ordered a snowman pattern (you'd think I'd had enough of winter, right? Wrong!! Not when it comes to snowman stuff!!). I just had to share.

On another note, I have booked the movers for April17/18!!! So around that time I will be offline for a few days - can I stand the not getting the news from here?? I'll have to, won't I?

Pat, that's great news about your kids!! Thanks for sharing. Everyone else, hope all is still well for you all. Well, I'm off to sneak in a bit of packing - I have the granddaughters today - daycare is closed for Easter Monday, and DD is at the hospital. Her boyfriend is under the knife as I write, getting his knee fixed. He has been in Kung Fu for decades (owns his own studio - 20+ years already), played hockey as a teen/adult, and works as a machinery tech in the neo=natal ward of one of the hospitals. So his knees have taken a beating over the years. He's already had a couple surgeries on the other knee. My grands are watching a Scooby Doo movie, so I should be able to get something done, AS LONG AS I DON'T COME NEAR THE COMPUTER!!!!! Later, gators!!!

Gerda

Gerda! It's nice to see you so perky! LOL How about some new house pictures? Pat, you must be really proud of you children, they sound like hard workers for sure!
We finally had a whole day at home on Easter. I managed to do some housework and fix a row in my 3D quilt. Still way behind schedule on this one though!

Bill has said he will be updating the site one of these days soon! I took some pics last week when we were installing kitchen cabinets, but there is still STUFF in the way - saws and boxes of flooring to name but a couple!! Please be patient - he has to be in the mood!

Gerda

To those who know more about birds than me,

I live in Idaho. We are having these cute little birds on the bushes by our house. They are only about 3 inches tall, they are a kind of brownish-red, they have tiny little beaks, and they have a black mask on their eyes. If this makes any sense, do you know what they might be? I am really curious to learn about them. I tried to take pictures, but they fly away.
Thanks, Vicky

Vicky-why don't you run that question in the
gardening thread or the NHGC homecoming thread.I don't know,but someone will.

Sounds like everyone had a nice Easter. We sure did, even with the cool temps and wind. The wind made it feel so much colder than it was. The little ones had to really bundle up to go hunt easter eggs.

Went to see DH's surgeon yesterday and he is scheduled to have his surgery tomorrow at 10:30 am. They are going to remove the cyst on his wrist and do the carpal tunnel surgery all at the same time. Had a pre-op evaluation with the physical therapist today. Thank heavens we don't have to be there at 6:00 am as we live about 1 1/2 hours away. It will be outpatient so I should have him home by late afternoon. Now to see how we get through the next 4 to 6 weeks. They said that with the type work he does, he won't be able to go back to work for about 6, maybe 8 weeks because of the heavy lifting. I'm not complaining, it will be practice for retirement.

Barb Mcf

Here's the scoop on my FIL, the one who DOESN'T have Alzheimer's. Since he lives alone, he has decided that he doesn't use enough dishes to warrent running the dishwasher. Last Wednesday evening he wanted to do up his dinner dishes and turned on the hot water to fill up the sink. Then he got distracted.

The water filled up the sink, ran across the counter and into the silverware drawer which he always leaves slightly open to hold his dishtowel. It filled that drawer, ran into the drawer beneath, and into the cabinet beneath that. From there it ran back into the cabinet beneath the sink and down through the holes cut for the plumbing.

So much water ran down that it saturated the ceiling tiles, which all fell down on the pool table and ruin the felt. The table has to be checked to see if it warped. That side of the basement is one large room, 25' by 12'. It is carpeted. The carpeting is like walking in a marsh! The water wicked up most of the paneling and it warped so most of it will have to replaced. At least two pieces of furniture under the sink got totally drenched, so they will have to be re-upholstered from the frame out. He had a storage closet that held his horde of paper products: paper towels, toilet paper, napkins (serviettes to you Canadians!), kleenex- it's all in the trash. There were also some clothes stored in there which have to go to the dry cleaners.

The insurance company sent out a team to clean, they brought a huge de-humidifier for the basement. All the carpeting has to come out, and according to the adjuster, so will the cabinets and the linoleum in the kitchen. The cabinets have too much water damage and they are concerned that the sub-flooring in the kitchen also soaked up water and is compromised.

I keep wondering what his gas bill and his water bill are going to be like?

This is the third dumb thing he has done since Christmas. He did several thousand $'s damage to his car when he got impatient and decided he didn't need to wait for Doug to drive him somewhere after an ice storm. Last month, he let a door-to-door salesman talk him into changing his phone service. Not only did he have no phone for a week (thank goodness he didn't have an emergency), but they gave him a new phone number. Doug got the phone service switched back, but the phone number he had had for over 50 years had already been re-issued. He can't remember the new number, so there is another little thorn to deal with.

I give Doug a lot of credit for being willing to deal with him. Oh, BTW, one cousin showed up after I called and chewed them out. The other cousin called to check up on him.

When do you think these people will see that there is something wrong and admit that we didn't make this stuff up last year?

Barb
Hugs to you ahd your hubby, i am praying for him to have a smooth and easy surgery and recovery and for you the energy and strength to go through this with him and while taking care of him during this 6-8 weeks. I pray that you both can enjoy this time once heis healing and you both can see how retirement will be~of course minus the down time for surgery.