Do you like cliffhangers? I do! That is, so long as I’m not left
hanging so long the roots of the tree I’m clutching take a parting from the
side of the cliff and let me go scrabbling dowwwwwwwwwwwnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn............
Here’s my cliffhanger:
I got an email from the AQS Quilting
Show. News at eleven.
The children are out of school this
week and next; Friday was their last day before Christmas vacation. They had Christmas parties and exchanged
small gifts. Lydia made these little
cardboard soldiers, boxes that held pencil pulls tiny yoyos, for each of Jacob’s
classmates, using an electronic Sizzix cutter called Eclips. The soldiers’ heads are the lids.
I remember lots of fun (and harried)
times, making things for our kids to give their friends, too. Oh, the midnight oil I spent!
Last Monday evening, Victoria arrived
home with visitors – or, more accurately, she sent the visitors on ahead of
her, and then she arrived a couple of minutes later. I, not expecting company, had not washed the day’s
dishes, as I was doing the laundry and trying to get Christmas things
done. Fortunately, most of the dishes were
in the sink, and the living room and music room were clean. Those clothes of Victoria’s that I had just
washed and folded were sitting on the steps awaiting transport to her room (or
possibly preparing to trip the unwary). At
least I wasn’t in pajamas.
I headed downstairs to continue
Christmas preparations; the girls headed upstairs. It wasn’t long before they were coming back
down again; I could hear them clomping down the wood steps,
clumpity-clumpity-clumpity-clump. Soon it
was silent again. I had no idea what
became of them. Tabby deserted me and
went to check on things.
This photo -->> and several others through this post are from our trip to Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
Tuesday, someone made a typo in a post
to the quilting group: “I’ve been spending
time with the sewin groom...”
The one male of the group asked, “Hmmm...
A sewin’ groom. How many of you ladies would like one of those?”
I needed me one o’ them thar thangs, on
me weddin’ day when me groom hisself stepped on me train, and train/bustle and
gown took a partin’ o’ ze vays!
Fortunately for me, I had a friend
there who regularly carried monkey wrenches, piano benches, and the kitchen
sink in her purse. And in the middle of the accumulation and hotchpotch,
there just happened to be a sewing kit.
The song that was my cue to walk in was
playing as the lady sewed me back together again. I stood and grinned at
my nervous brother, on whose arm I would be depending as I made my way up the
aisle, while the stitches went rapidly in and out, in and out. My father,
the pastor, was already on the stage awaiting his chillen.
And then she tied a knot, and I trotted
merrily down the aisle to tie THE knot.
‘A’ knot and ‘the’ knot are knots of
different calibers. One should last longer than the other, yes indeedy it
should.
I made a bit of supper for Loren Tuesday
evening. He didn’t want any meat, since he had roast beef from our
brother-in-law John H., so I took him mixed vegetables, broccoli, turkey
dressing, vegetable soup, and cherry jello.
(He said he could use some vegetables, after all!)
You know how Facebook sends out emails
asking if you wish to be friends with this one or that one – and they uncannily
offer a name of someone you used to know, decades ago? How do they do that? Did the person do an online hunt for me? I rarely do any searching for anyone. Well, I got a note asking if I wished to
befriend a certain individual whom I used to know when he was quite a small tot,
some decades ago. The thumbnail looked,
uh, peculiar; but it was too small to be seen clearly. Curiosity got the better of me, and I clicked
on the link.
I discovered that the bloke has a very
wide extraneous eyebrow tattooed over the top of his original left eyebrow upon
his rumpled brow. Makes him look like a half-surprised howler monkey.
Furthermore, he needs his mouth washed
out with something a whole long stronger than sodium hydroxide, aka ‘lye’.
Someone oughta tell the powers-that-be
at Facebook that it is not always bad that we lose contact with people we used
to know. :-O
Would you believe, the late mother of
that person had originally planned to name him ‘Christian’, but changed her
mind. You know, when you saddle someone
with the moniker of ‘Christian’, they frequently turn out like the devil
incarnate, just out of spite. Some famous personages (who are themselves
famously short on morals) recently named their newborn babe ‘Saint’. In
the comments under the article, someone wrote, “Why did they hold back?
Why not just go for it, and name him ‘God’?”
Sacrilegious, I’m sure, but it still made
me snicker.
Victoria, upon
hearing this story, started to say something, stuttered, and then exclaimed, “Whooaaa! I had so many thoughts there, it overwhelmed
my mouth!”
That evening, Larry stopped at Dwight’s
shop and worked on getting that loader we picked up in Idabel, Oklahoma, attached
to his tractor. It will work, with a
couple of modifications to the mounting brackets. That’s Larry’s specialty: modifications.
As I worked on photos for the DVDs I
wanted to make, I listened to a CD of Christmas music Penny had given me. After quite a lot of organ music, an album of Rudy
Atwood arrangements came on. He’s my favorite pianist, bar none.
I did enjoy a number of the organ songs.
You know I like lively toe-tappers. Not so much those things where they
play along, evidently make a gargantuan blunder and try to cover it up by
blundering madly through the rest of the song. At least, that’s what it
sounds like to me.
Just about the time I think, “Okay,
that’s quite enough of that,” and begin making motions as though to go clobber
the screen and fly it clear outa the room, something nice comes on, and I
settle back in to have a listen.
I like Lorin Whitney most of the
time. I like Dino until he smashes into the above-mentioned
non-blunder blunders. Others made me feel like I should go shopping for
groceries in the 1960s. At Christmas time.
I like chimes so long as one can tell
what key the song is actually in. Otherwise, it’s no better than Ernest
T. Bass playing a gasoline can.
Our organist, Amanda, played chimes during
communion last night on the children’s sweet Christmas song, For You, For Me. It was so pretty, I wanted to sing it.
At the moment, somebody with a title of
‘Fredkir’ is playing Away in A Manger. Well, he’s not in the manger at
the moment; in fact, I don’t know WHERE he is. However, the song he’s playing
is indeed entitled Away in A Manger. It’s chimey and low-pitched and very
nice. His chimes are on tune, thank you
kindly, Fredkir!
Kurt’s mother, Ruth, made cinnamon
rolls Wednesday, and they gave Victoria a little plate of them covered with
foil. She left them right here on the table, right under me twitching li’l
nosey. There they sat, and they were not mine. They were Victoria’s. Does that seem like cruel and unusual
punishment to you?
Maybe they were getting even for
Victoria giving Kurt a small pumpkin pie, for he himself only, leaving the rest
of the family drooling.
But there they sat. Cinnamon
rolls. Soft. Gooey.
Homemade. By Kurt’s mother Ruth, who is known for her scrumptious baking.
They were not mine, I tell
you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
((...drooling...))
I consoled myself with a soft peanut
butter cookie with M&Ms.
And then, about the time we had
overcome the trauma, that girl of ours gave us the last one to share.
After church Wednesday evening, Larry
and I went to Wal-Mart to purchase a 100-disc pack of DVDs. But!! – they were all out! Totally, completely, entirely out. They
had no packs of DVDs in any size. None. Zilch.
According to Walmart.com, the nearest Wal-Mart with DVDs in stock is
Seward. That’s 52 miles to our southeast. Radio Shack has a few... and
so do Walgreens and Menards, but they’re higher in price. Wal-Mart’s price for 100 is $34. Walgreens’ price for 25 is $13. That’s 52 bucks for 100! Good grief.
I’ll betcha I have a flock of friends
who are making music DVDs for their friends, I’ll betcha I do!
Home again, I went back to working on
photos, staying up very late (early,
actually), with the intention of getting back up in not too awfully long to get
back at it. Instead, I peacefully slumbered away until I’d had 7 ½ hours of sleep. That’s a good half hour too much
for me to get up without creaking. Have to admit, I did feel quite
rested.
The wind chill was 15° Thursday morning,
what with wind gusts of 30 mph.
My photos were all edited, and I began collecting
into one location all the pictures I wanted to include in the DVDs.
I took Loren some supper that evening –
again heavy on the vegetables, along with ancient grain-encrusted cod, apple
salad, and one lonesome peanut butter cookie with M&Ms.
Friday, since Amy was quite sick with
an infection and high fever, I took the grandchildren to school. They were having Christmas program practice
that morning, so Leroy came, too. He’s
four, and just started to Sunday School in the middle of November, so this is
his first time to be in the program.
As I helped him off with his coat, I
asked him, “Do you have two songs to sing?”
“Yes,” he replied, and quickly added, “And
one more!”
I would soon learn that that was indeed
the case, when the little ones sang two songs and one more, just as Leroy had
said!
I stayed and waited while the children
practiced, working on photos on my laptop.
When the four- and five-year-olds were
done, they were allowed to go, so I took Leroy home again. Here’s a contrast: on the way to school
at a quarter after 8, Leroy never peeped a word – partly because his elder
siblings were carrying on the conversation nicely, so there was no need; and
partly, I think, because the little guy was nervous about this his first foray
into CPE (Christmas Program Excitement). However! – the route home was another
matter: he jabbered and exclaimed and remarked and conversed all the way
home – partly because he was the only kiddo in the car, and could therefore get
a word in edgewise without much trouble at all, and partly out of sheer relief
that the practice was over, and he’d done it with aplomb.
He’s such a little sweetheart!
And, just for good measure, he’s absolutely adorable besides.
And no, of course not, I’m not the
least bit prejudiced. Whatever made you think that?!!
Little Grant, who’s two, came and gave
me a big hug when I went in with Leroy. I
think he was glad I brought his brother and best playmate home again!
Leroy was good as gold... he stuck out from a few of the other children, just
because he stayed right in line, sang nicely, never got out of place, and was
quiet as a church mouse (which is what a mouse should be, when a mouse is in
church, heh heh).
Amy’s antibiotics were beginning to
take effect, and she was starting to feel better.
I got home... pulled up my email... and
discovered an email — that my Mosaic
Lighthouse quilt has been accepted for the AQS Quilting Show at Daytona
Beach, Florida, in February!
I can tell you right now, it won’t win;
there are too many flaws. The judges will surely notice that I squished
down excess fullness at the lower center with quilting, because some of those
multitudes of seams are not perfectly straight.
Or maybe they will think I was terribly
skilled, and made the side of the cliff extra realistic. Ha! No...
it might look spectacular from a distance, but the closer one gets, the better
able one is to see those flaws. Judges will see them. I need to pin
a big sign on it: “TO FULLY APPRECIATE, STAND BACK. WAAAAAAAAAAY
BACK. FARTHER!!!”
But I’m pleased it was accepted, nevertheless.
Now to decide if we can afford to make
a trip there during quilt show week, just for the fun of it.
Since Earl May Gardening Center cuts
hours during the winter, Victoria went back to Super Saver grocery store, where
she worked when she was still in school, and inquired as to whether she’d be
able to fill up her spare time with a bit of work there, and they were pleased to
have her back again. Her old boss had often asked her to come back, any
time he saw her in the store. The Earl May job is the one she really
likes, so Super Saver will have to work around that. She told each employer what she wanted to do,
getting agreements with both before taking further steps, so all is well, and
they will work together nicely.
That afternoon I picked up the grandchildren
from school, then took a wire basket with apples and oranges to my former
coworker LaVonne. She has had a bad bout
with cancer this year.
Friday evening, we took Jonathan his
birthday gift – a school bus with attachable letters and numbers. Kurt and Victoria came a little later,
bringing Jonathan a little farm set.
Saturday, I uploaded photos from our
trip to Kansas and Oklahoma:
I enjoy photography. I have a
good camera... sooo... I figure if I snap the shutter button often enough, I’m bound
to get a good photo now and then!
Larry’s pickup is a big ol’ tough
thing, which translates into ‘bouncy’. Meaning... I deleted a lot of
blurry shots. But I got enough to allow the trip to be
well-documented. ;-)
I got the labels for cards and photos all
printed, and got half of them affixed to photos.
Larry helpfully cooked up some yummy
sandwiches while I cooked broccoli and green beans (not in the same
dish): ham and cheese on butter croissants, cooked in a pan on the stove
like grilled cheese sandwiches.
Here’s one of the young squirrels,
helping himself to the bird seed: There
are more photos here, including one taken immediately after he lost his grip on
the edge of the feeder: Working
Squirrely Hard for Breakfast
Poor little guy, he nearly bought the
farm a time or two! Guess I should get a
real, honest-to-goodness squirrel feeder. I like to watch them... they’re
so cute and funny. They can sure create
havoc when they get into the eaves, though.
Last night after church, Kurt, Jared,
Victoria, and Robin were singing, and Victoria was playing the piano. They were singing We’ll Soon Be Done with
Troubles and Trials. When they got to
the part, “gonna shake hands with all the elders”, Jared tapped his (slightly)
older cousin Robin on the shoulder, she turned and looked at him, and he stuck
out a hand—and they shook hands. He then
shook hands with Kurt, also his ‘elder’.
:-D
I finally (belatedly) decided I
really do need a duplicator that can duplicate more than one copy at a
time. I looked at them on Amazon... saw
that if I gave Amazon Prime a trial run, I could have 2-day free shipping. The duplicator would get here Tuesday.
I ordered a five-target duplicator (it
can copy five discs at once).
Every year I think I will buy one that
copies multiples, right after Christmas... and every year after Christmas I
decide I don’t want to spend money on that particular item. So then when
Christmas rolls around again, I wonder why I didn’t have enough wits to get
one! So now one is on the way.
When the DVD is full, it takes, oh,
maybe 7 minutes or so to duplicate itself. But I can’t start until I get
the original done, and the original is nowhere near being done!
I plan to continue working on it
tonight until it is ready to be published.
A cup of hazelnut crème coffee sits on
my table, and I just had a handful of craisins and a handful of sliced almonds. Larry is bringing me a pack of gum and a
blueberry/white grape energy drink.
Whooaa... Tabby just yawned so big, you
could’ve seen his toenails! Made. Me. Yawwwwnnnn. Too.
There is a 70% chance of snow Thursday
morning. I love the snow. I did
when I was young, and I do now, though it does make work difficult for all my
friends and family who are in construction. I even enjoy driving in the
snow (though I do wish all those other idiot drivers would stay home). heh
Cold makes the old arthritic bones hurt
a bit, though, so I don’t stay outside much these days. As Grandma Ruby,
Larry’s grandmother, used to say, “It gives me a hitch in my get-along.” A
crackling fire and a hot cup of coffee (with COL) (Cat On Lap) are just the
ticket after a cold outdoors excursion.
When I was a little girl and we’d go
visiting my mother’s relatives in North Dakota at Christmas time, we’d take
Daddy’s new Studebaker down country roads where the snowplow had made one pass
– and the banks of snow at either side of the car rose far above the roof of
the car. Sometimes the wind would blow drifts over the top, so that it
was truly a tunnel we were driving through. If we met up with another
vehicle, someone had to back…and back… and back… until they got to a plowed
lane where they could get off the road until one vehicle could pass. I
never remember getting stuck – at least, not for long. Daddy had chains
on the tires; he always carried chains with him in the wintertime. He was
an excellent driver, fearless and intrepid, quick and well-coordinated. I
recall him spotting drifts covering the road up ahead, sizing it up
lickety-split – and hitting the accelerator. He enjoyed
driving in the snow. That suited me just fine.
Why is the clock going around and
around (and around!) at such an alarming rate??!
I’m in such a rush, I keep misplacing
myself. Where’d I go, where’d I go, where AM I?!
((touching my nose))
((peering in the mirror))
Oh. Never mind. Here I am.
,,,>^..^<,,, Sarah Lynn ,,,>^..^<,,,
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