quilting and oil changes

I'm sitting at the speedee oil change place for the third time this week. I only have one more car so at least I'm almost done hanging out here. I'm getting to know these guys well. What else am I supposed to do with my time off? What do people who work full time year round do when they have chores to do?

I guess they make time to do the necessary things to make sure things run smoothly. 

We also had an air conditioner repair guy come out because we have a two story house and the upstairs and downstairs wouldn't work at the same time. Turns out the air conditioner is working fine. It is the ducts that need replacing. Or so says the fix it guy. $5200 to fix it and we will be getting a second opinion. Or just tuning one story at a time and praying for cooler weather. 

We have mice and rats that get into the attic since we live so close to a big field and they may have chewed some holes in the ducts   

The joys of home ownership

 

 

 

she's off

New adventures await!

It was hard to watch her drive away.  I know she's only moving to Southern California, but she's not coming home again to live.  She is starting a brand new chapter in her life and I'm not at the center of that chapter.  She's all grown up.  She doesn't need me like she used to.  My help isn't necessary any more.  Things are the way they are supposed to be, and I know I did a good job raising her to be strong and independent and capable, but somehow feeling less needed still hurts a little.

She left this morning around 8:30 and will rent a uhaul tomorrow to get the final stuff into her apartment tomorrow

I was all set to make the trip with her and help her do all of this, but she made it pretty clear that she was ready to do this on her own.  She would tolerate my help, but it really wasn't necessary.  Sometimes you just have to swallow your pride and let them do things on their own and be ready to help if asked but not overstep.  I signed the loan papers for the car, called the insurance company and got all of that set up but need to start letting go of some things.

It's only a 6 1/2 hour drive or 1 1/2 hour plane ride.






Plus, I have these guys to cheer me up.  There is always at least one of them under foot causing trouble or making a mess.  Looks like I have some cleaning to do to keep me busy today while she drives home.

Enough of this pity party.  There are quilts to be made and work to get done.  There's always dishes and laundry and weeds to pull.

thrifting

Yesterday was my daughter's last day at 'home' before she started her new adventure of being an adult.  Today she moved out to Southern California.  Of course we had to spend our last few hours together doing the thing we both love the most and that was thrift store shopping.  We managed to hit three stores before we both ran out of steam.

I'm not sure if it is the thrill of the hunt or the 'saving money' that is so much fun but I have a hard time buying things at actual cost when I know I can get a t shirt for $1.99.  She can find brand new dresses for $5 with a tag still on it that says $80.  Who can pass up a deal like that?  Even if you don't need another t shirt or dress, it's a bargain and everybody loves a bargain!  Especially if they have a 50% off day.

Just look at this treadle machine for $199.  If only I had a place to put it.

She got a great purse for work and had plans to put her lunch and a good book in it.  She got a few dressy shirts.  She will be working for a bank as a program manager, which means she will be making sure everyone does their job and gets things done on time.  She has to dress up (business casual) so t shirts and jeans or sweats aren't allowed.  We looked at a lot of shoes as well.  That's why I don't wear dresses.  I have to be on my feet a lot and the shoes just kill me.  I used to wear nice clothes and tennis shoes, but when I started teaching high school and they said I could wear jeans every day I figured comfort was more important than dressing to impress.  I added about 10 shirts to my growing collection.  I plan to organize them over the next couple of weeks so I have a better idea of how many I have and am better able to find the one I want when I want it.

She also found a shelf for in the bathroom-regular price $30 marked down to $10.  It was a Target return, brand new, but open box so hopefully all the pieces are there.  We looked and it seemed like everything was there, but she won't know until she starts to put it together.  That's another exciting thing about thrifting.  You never know if you will get a deal or a steal.

My daughter loves elephants and found this cute oversized shirt which is lightweight and comfy.  She actually wore it today on the trip home.  It suits her personality.  She has quite the elephant collection.

It isn't as much fun thrifting alone.  My older daughter will be home in a couple of weeks for a few days so I will get another 'fix' in then.  I can't wait!

the things we do for our kids

We are having a heat wave here in Northern California. If you watch the news you would think this is the first time temperatures have reached 100 ever. They give tips on staying cool and how important it is for the elderly to stay out of the heat especially in the afternoon. 

Well sometimes when you have a mission all intelligent thought goes out the window. My daughter needs a car because she is all grown up now. She graduated from college and is starting a real job in a couple of weeks. 

So we went car shopping yesterday. It was hot!

She picked a practical Toyota Corolla and we got out of there for $15,000. 

She was really pleased with her pick and even though it took about 3 hours for the whole process it was an enjoyable afternoon spent with my daughter because I know it will be one of the last ones we get for a long time. 

 

 

 

 

heading home

My daughter is graduated and partly moved into her apartment and we are headed back to Northern California to lol for a car for her. We will do some thrift shopping to find some things she needs like a set of dishes and a couple lamps. Towards the end of the week she and I will make the trip back down again to rent a uhaul to move the bigger pieces of furniture and do some grocery shopping. 

Her apartment complex is older. You can tell because of the mature landscaping but has recently been completely renovated. She and her boyfriend have a one bedroom 710 foot place and it looks huge now. I remember when my husband and I got our first place that was 800 square feet and how we thought it was humongous. That empty feeling lasted about 2 months and then I had every nook and cranny filled. My daughter isn't a hoarder like I am so she should fit better for longer. 

 

 

graduation time

My daughter graduated from UCLA today. She has a degree in mah and economics and has a job working for a bank in program management don't ask me what exactly that means because I always explain it wrong. She helps the different departments work together and manage their projects or something like that. She will be staying in Southern California for at least the next two years. 

At least she didn't get a job all the way across the country like my oldest daughter. 

 
 

 
 

getting hot

It really is summer around here with temperatures reaching almost 100 today. I managed to talk myself into getting a walk in early and it was already getting hot by 8:30 when I got back. That will make for a nice afternoon of indoor quilting time. I won't feel guilty staying inside this afternoon and keeping my cool. 

I have lots of quilts to put bindings on as well. I think I brined ou my binding buddies. All of them are off camping or on vacation somewhere. Summers for me mean lots of time to quilt. Most people have less time in the summer to spend indoors making quilts. 

I've been storing the finished quilts in my car and most of the time I don't bother locking it. This morning I went out to water and saw that the car door was open. Not just unlocked but actually open. Someone had dug through things in the car. Not sure what they were looking for. I didn't see anything missing. Thankfully the quilts were still there and even though they had dug through the glove box I could find anything missing from there either. They didn't even steal my brand new box of tissue. 

I really should lock things. 

 

I'm back

I've missed quilting more than I realized. 

This one is going to a local teen who has aged out of the foster system through a group called Heart 2 Heart. 

This one went to our school library assistant who has cancer. 

School got out two weeks ago tomorrow and I was sick for the first week. I'm finally feeling well again and now my summer can begin. My machine is still broken but I sent the power supply for the robotic part in yesterday so hopefully that will be. Ack in a couple of weeks and I will really be back up working again. 

 

 

stupid migraines

 
 I'm not sure why the Botox didn't work this time around but I've had one day in the last three weeks where I haven't taken medicine for a migraine. Not only do I have a headache every day but they are really bad as well.

 
 

 I'm feeling nauseous and the pain is severe. Most of the time I can do normal things but the past three weeks u have come home many days and just crashes on the couch. I emailed my neurologist to see if their is anything else I can do and he didn't get back to me. It's pretty frustrating. 

 
 

Yesterday and today I have been trying to get some quilting done because my machine is working and I want to get quilts finished and into the hands of kids who need hugs. 

 

 

I had several ladies offer to help with binding and I want to keep up with them. Plus I keep getting fabric donations so I need to keep cutting kits or I will soon get buried in fabric again. 

 
 

I am hoping to get another box of hats and preemie blankets in the mail soon so that things leave the house faster than they come in. That's the only way to get ahead in the game. 

 
 

asking for help

 I'm not very good about asking for help sometimes, but yesterday I asked Carla to send out an email asking for people to help with binding quilts because Rhoda, my friend who has done most of the bindings for the Binky quilts found out she has arthritis in her wrist and her shoulder is giving her troubles.  She is unable to bind quilts for us for a while.  I hope they figure out what is wrong and she can help again, but we have quilts piling up.

 I also asked for people to make preemie quilt tops or blankets or whole quilts.  I had a great response and dropped off quilts yesterday and today to three different people for binding.  I think there were 20 quilts that will be bound and ready to go over the next week or so.  That's great considering we've been pretty quiet lately.  Carla's machine is acting up and doing the same thing mine did before it died so hopefully she will be able to get hers fixed faster than I did and she will be back to working on quilts again quickly.

 I also had several people offer to make some preemie quilt tops and some blankets out of fleece or flannel.  I need to get busy cutting some fabric kits because there are some people who also want kits to work on.  I should just quit my job and work on quilts full time.  I could fill my days with all of the things I could be doing!  I have enough fabric to last about a year if I worked full time at it, that's for sure.

I could also use some help with school work.  I have needed to get things done over the weekends, but last weekend I had such terrible migraines 2 out of the 3 days and yesterday I worked all day.  We have to change around the way we are teaching science.  Every few years someone way up in the government decides that their way is the best way and this time around it's called Next Generation Science Standards.  It's been in the works for several years and there are more projects and less of the teacher telling the student the answer.  So, no only do we have to change the order of how we are teaching (Physics will be taught 9th grade year instead of Earth science) but since we are changing the name of the course 10th grade year and I have an old credential, I will have to take about 4 tests to teach the exact same class.  About 3 years ago our school changed the name of the class from Integrated Science to biology because my credential didn't allow me to teach integrated science.  Well, we are going back to Integrated Science so I have to get the new credential, even though I've been teaching the same class for 15 years.  And people wonder why teachers leave the profession?

new camera cord

Yay, my camera cord came today and now I can post pictures again.

 I put my machine to good use this weekend working on quilts and am happy to be back working again.  I had some troubles with it shocking me for the first couple of days, but it must have been the weather because after the first couple of days, it hasn't shocked me since.  My knitting machine also was shocking me so maybe it was me doing the shocking.  I do have an electric personality!

 I did get some bad news this weekend.  My primary binding buddy has arthritis in her wrist and has pain in her shoulder so she won't be able to do any bindings for me for a long time.  I will need to find some more people to do all of these bindings now.  Probably lots of somebodies.  It's hard to find people who love to do bindings as much as my friend Rhoda did.

 It has been raining like crazy today and the winds have been insane.  We've been having sustained winds of 50 miles per hour.  It feels like the house is about to get blown over, especially up stairs.  It's pretty funny because about once a month I wake up and tell my husband to check for an earthquake.  He always thinks I'm crazy, but will check anyways.  Tonight he's the one who thought there was an earthquake because the house was shaking so much from the wind.  I'm just worried the big trees we have around will get blown over.  They are coming down all over the neighborhood.  Fences are falling down everywhere too.

 The creeks and rivers around town have been cresting and one has even reached flood stage.  In 2005 it flooded and a friend of my daughter came to stay with us for a couple of weeks because her apartment flooded and her mom had to find a new place to stay until the apartment was fixed.  We were just notified that the same creek is flooding again, which means the roads around it are flooding.  I hope that they have fixed the drains enough so people who had flooding last time don't have to deal with those same issues.  Some of our students live in those houses and I have a good friend whose house flooded.  She stayed home last week to keep watch on the creek.

We asked for rain, but this is a bit too much.  When I came home, the house was really cold and I couldn't figure out why the heater wasn't keeping up to keep the house warm.  I had to eventually take the dog door out of the sliding glass door.  The dogs will not go outside with this much rain and wind anyways, but the 50 mile an hour winds were just blowing in and cooling the house down to 62 degrees.  It was 'freezing' in here.  I know some of you have real cold weather, but for this California girl I'm not used to dealing with anything this cold and stormy.  Once I took the dog door out and got the wind to stop coming in, the heater was able to keep up and the house has warmed up nicely.  Finally I can go to bed and hopefully sleep through the shaking and blustery wind outside.  It's a good thing my days at school are long and exhausting so I can sleep well at night. :)  There's a silver lining to every storm.  I just hope I wake up in the morning and the trees are still standing and the roads are open.

Another exciting adventure awaits.

back to work

A short week ahead but long days. On Tuesdays I run the tutoring center after school which means I can't start getting ready to leave until 4:15. I had a meeting before school too which meant an even longer day. I'm trying to make good use of my time during the day so I can use my time to do fun things when I get home but I'm so tired at the end of the day it's hard to get off the couch. 

Maybe I should stop and quilt something before I ever sit down. 

There's always tomorrow. 

having camera issues

I am so happy that my quilting machine is back up and running. I got 5 quilts done today but can't show them to you because I lost the cord to the camera again! I swear there is a Bermuda Triangle here somewhere. 

I do have some more hats to show for the days efforts though as I spent my day working to finish up 50 boy preemie hats. I had 50 girl ones done plus a few extras and was hoping to get boxes shipped out this week with preemie hats for a group called God's Tiny Angels that I found on the Internet and a box of adult and kid hats and scarves to a friend in Idaho and some yarn to my cousin (well second cousin) in Colorado and another box of yarn to a lady in Southern California who also does charity knitting. 

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