the (mostly) true story of Christmas 2010

I am sure many of you saw Rachel of p.s. i quilt is having a little giveaway with Fat Quarter Shop, and as lucky as I've been lately I should let someone else have the luck, but I resisted all of a day and a half but I want some fabrics they have and I can't resisit any longer.

First things first, APQ bloggers, I finished the last of the blocks tonight (as part of my "new years eve finish it up" fun) I can't find my sharpie so when we go out tomorrow I will get a new one. I also want to include a little piece of Montana for y'all so I will be mailing next week! WAHOO! I hate that it's this late but I am SO GLAD to cross those off my list!

k, so I need to tell you a story about Christmas and how some packages fell off Santa's sleigh. at least from my experiences Christmas Day

Well, it started Christmas eve. I took the girls to "midnight mass" at 10 pm. They were SO WELL behaved, I was shocked. I brought some coloring things, barbie, a baby doll and three wood puzzles. The puzzles were the main entertainer, they even got the older lady next to us to play with them. We came home, I used the Night Before Christmas that my Nana (who passed away last Feb) and Pop-Pop recorded for them and off to bed they went. Then I baked cookies...until 1 am. Then I crashed!

I woke up Christmas morning, and got ready for work. I Was only scheduled 17 hours that week so when the other store called to say they needed someone to help out Christmas day I jumped at it (my store was closed!) and I worked 9-3:30. Oh! when I left there were no presents. Still none when I got home, but we found a note from Santa on the cookie tray we have that said:

There were no cookies that I could see

So I left you no presents under the tree.

Now don't you worry. Don't you fret!

I'll be back with presents for you yet!

we went out to A's mom's house (I was told by one of my co-workers that I am a saint for dealing with her so gracefully this year! She hates me!) I gave her a picture of the girls sitting at her parents headstone smiling from Memorial Day that I blew up onto canvas thanks to Costco, and I gave her sister a Bead For Life necklace and two mug rugs that I made at the last minute (I did the binding backside at the church saving everyone seats for mass!) and her daughter Duplo Lego's and a memory game.

I came home, and we DID leave cookies out this time and when they dropped me off to take care of the ham (htey were driving around looking at lights but the ham had to be glazed and was almost done so they let me out of the car and then they finished the rounds), there were the presents, and the stockings filled! We came home, ate dinner and opened presents. Santa did well for A, R, and H.

Let me pause and tell you a little H story. So she got her stocking, and there was a bag of Goldfish Crackers. That was the end of her Christmas. She proudly carried that bag all around the house, and finally about 30 minutes later got A to open it for her, and she sat and ate them one at a time until she lost interest. No cares about the rest of the presents, so R opened them for her.

k, back to the story. However, under the tree there was not much for me. There was stuff I bought myself, an IOU from A and something R made at school, but nothing from Santa. I thought I must have been naughty, but I thought I was a good girl....at least this last month or two!

After the girls went to bed I was on facebook and saw this from my brother:

B: Santa got into the liquor that the parents left on the coffee table...
December 25 at 12:45pm

so of course I called home. Apparently, according to my dad, Santa saw my moms collection of Rum (I think...I don't remember what all she has any more, I only visit twice a year!) on the clock table which is where she keeps the nativity set that Santa always has to put Baby Jesus in when he visits, and helped himself. He left a note there saying something along the lines of "thanks for the special treat! Most people leave out cookies and milk but Santa appreciates a little nip here and there, especially on such a cold night!" Mom said he had more than "just a little nip"

Well that makes sense! Since they are an hour behind us, he left the note here, then there, and since our presents were still on the sleigh, and he was a little tipsy, when Rachel said some presents had fallen off, mine must have been some of those! Hopefully Rachel and FQS can help replenish what should have been mine! Have any of you who live west of Montana (or Washington since that's where he was drinking) seen packages with my name on them?

Let's make a Kindness Quilt

alright, I think I got enough "Yes's" that we'll try this out!

So let's make Julie's Brother and Sister-in-law a kindness quilt to help them and keep them strong for their little boy! (and maybe he can use it when his quilt needs washing)

For those of you who are just joining us, we are making quilt blocks to put together for Julie of Jaybird Quilts family. Her nephew was diagnosed with Leukemia and while she made a wonderful quilt for him, I wanted to do something for the family too and came up with the idea for a kindness quilt for his parents, since they will be spending time with him wherever he needs to go for treatments and who knows how long they will have to be away from home themselves.

Here's what I'd love to see from interested people:

*A six inch (finished so 6 1/2 unfinished) block of any style
*Bright/cheerful colors
*NO Fusible/raw edge applique (I want this quilt to be able to be washed, used, and abused and I am always a little nervous about doing that with applique, I might be wrong, but don't want to chance it!)
*A 2" scrap with your name, a short thought or prayer for the family...something that I can use on the back sort of as an over sized label when all together. This is only if you wish, I won't exclude your block because you didn't do this.

*anything else you wish to include. I'd love to see this not only as a quilt but a little care package for everyone in Elijah's family, himself included but that's just above and beyond, very far from an expectation.

When you are ready to mail, leave me a comment, or if you are a no-reply blogger, shoot me an e-mail at lisapotpie_bubbles@hotmail.com and I will give you my address.

Any questions, comments concerns?

Now go spread the word. There may be a giveaway in store for those who send in a block!

*edited- I forgot to come up with a deadline...let's try and have all the blocks in the mail to me by the end of Jan, OR let me know one is coming by the end of Jan, and get it to me as soon as you can thereafter!

just a thought

Do any of you read Jaybird's blog? She is a wonderful young (I think shes a year or two older than me so I think I am REALLY young) designer. And from what I can gather via her blog and the giveaway of hers I won ages ago, I think she's a very kind person. The kind of gal you'd want to be friends with (and maybe raid her stash here and there)

She recently mentioned how her nephew has cancer, and she made him a quilt to brighten his stay at the Hospital. I have been thinking about it since. Now I make quilts for Seattle Children's, for their sick children already, but there was something else I have been chewing on, since she does seem like such a lovely lady and I want to do something for her and her family.

So here's what I was thinking: Since her nephew is so young, I am sure a parent is with him as much as possible, if not all the time, they might need some TLC too. I was wondering if anyone would want to make a block for a kindness quilt. I was thinking about 6" blocks that were creators choice, maybe with a 2 1/2" piece of fabric with the creators name, or a kind word to put on the back of the quilt. The only thing I am not sure about is raw edge/fuse able applique, I was considering asking people not to use it for their so that the quilt could be used and abused, and loved.

If this were to come together, I would send it out to be quilted, in fact I THINK a few people who read my blog are professional quilters (Therica, JoAnne) and might be able to make room for a project. I also would love to add a few extra "grown up" things, like I have a whole bunch of books that I might never get to re-reading. And I work at Starbucks, I could mark out some coffee. (and I am sure unused toys, books, things for him or his baby sister would be appreciated as well but again anything beyond a quilt block, heck even a block would be a blessing)

So anyone interested? I was thinking of e-mailing Rachel (of ps. I quilt) to see if I could post something on her blog, and maybe word could get out. but I wanted to check with you all first and see if it's something to pursue. If it's a go, I want to get started ASAP!

giveaway to check out

I HAD to enter this giveaway, look at those LOVELY fabrics!!

I didn't WANT to share, but it was one of the rules to enter, so I guess I have to. (click the picture to get to the giveaway if I did it right.

unrelated, H's quilt is ready for binding but I wanted to make the girls bindings match and need to go get a little more. Darn right? Today I will head out for it. who cares about all the snow that fell last night and all the ice under it!

DEC FNSI take 2

Well, I had a good friday night.

I picked up the living room, A vacuumed for me.
I finished working with the cookie dough. I hav eto bake the cookies but I was able to roll stuff into balls and roll up my pinwheels. R wants to help so I did as much as I could without her. She will put them on the tray and count them.
I got H's Dora quilt basted and just over 1/2 way quilted.

And I wraped presents.

Good friday night, even if I didn't sew as much as I'd have liked, it was all fun stuff

you know you're a quilter if:

I am sure some of you have seen this already, but my aunt just sent it to me (she's not a quilter)


You Know you are a Quilter If...
There's more fabric in the house than food
"Fat Quarters" are not the heaviest part of your body
Your ironing board is always set up but you never iron clothes
You think of your job as an interruption of your quilting time
You pet fabric
People are always picking threads off you
You can measure a scant 1/4 by eye
"Featherweight" doesn't mean boxer
Your "UFO's" are not from outer space
You clean up your sewing room & they think you are leaving!

one picture for you

So R did something, and the camera worked for a little bit, I got one picture for you guys. It's the quilt I worked on during the FNSI. It's not all together, but you can see what I am doing with it. The border is what threw me off, but I found just enough more fabric to make some more green and cream patches. (I am out of the cream now. well, I have a LITTLE but can't get a 3" cut from it). I laid out what I have done (the center is done) and my plan for the border, not yet done. As soon as I have time to play with the machine (the girls should be good today, neither took a nap and R had school so she should go to bed early) I will sew the borders, and hopefully get them on.

When it's not FREEZING outside and I charge the batteries on the camera I will take some pics of the items I am committing to for Myra's PHD challenge again this year. All of them (except this one here) are finished tops. I need a little nudge to get them quilted and bound. I love doing bindings, but HATE the quilting part. Only because I don't baste perfectly and it's not as exciting as seeing a quilt come together. I also need to get a better shot of that little strip in this quilt. It's cute!

dec FNSI #1

I think I am calling it a night early. I want to wrap some presents before A gets home from work and I have to go to bed (OK, I go to bed WAY before he comes home but still)

I almost have a top done to donate, I am sort of at a creative stand still. I want to do one neat border but I don't have quite enough to do what I thought of in the first place. I am trying to come up with an alternative. I think I wore out the creative juices for the night.

The top is pink, cream, and green. Four patches that became bigger blocks (12 4 patches per "block") and I have four "blocks" with a very thin border between them. Quite girly. I need to make somethign more masculine!

Next week there's another one. I have stuff for the family planned for that one.

I am thinking of borrowing someones camera to take some pics soon. I also plan on taking all my tops out to my folks house so we can go to a fabric warehouse and get backings for less than normal prices. I should have three, maybe four ready by then.

night all!

ughhh

Just so you don't think it's all flowers and kisses here, Here's a story about R

H was already in bed after fighting it for a little while. I have learned she needs a timer to keep me from going in too quickly, I set it for 10 minutes after her crying starts and if it hasn't worn down or if she's escalated then I go in and we try again latter. Most the time she's out or close to worn out by the time 10 minutes is up....

R was REALLY fighting going to bed. She had woken up at 5:30AM on my ONE day to sleep in this week (remember I am usually at work by 5am) and had school, and it was going on 11 and I had to work in the morning, open..so yup, 5AM. I snapped at her.

she ran out into the hallway

and cried. I let her have a few minutes to herself (and took deep breaths myself) then I went out to her.

"R, what's wrong?"
"I want my own."
"your own what?"
"parents."
"well honey, you have your own parents. Daddy and I are your parents."
"I don't want you, I want NEW parents."

oh really? I actually found this funny, but she's FOUR!

she finally fell asleep on the floor in my bedroom at about 11:45 while watching Tom and Jerry.


p.s. I am so sick of sitting at my sewing machine! Anyone else feeling over committed for Christmas gifts? I was going to quilt H's quilt, but that just doesn't sound pleasant. I am going to do some crossstich tonight and give it a rest and maybe tomorrow will be back at it.

being heard

Today, as I was sewing some fabric that was gifted to me into a quilt top that I plan to give to Seattle Children's Hospital, R came and sat down next to me (I have been using the kitchen table, so she was sitting in her spot while I was sitting in mine with the machine) and asked who I was making the quilt for.

I answered simply "sick children who are in a hospital away from their bedrooms and favorite things."

She asked to go visit them to make them happy.

I told her when she's older she can volunteer for the hospital or organise a collection drive, but for now she can just pray for the children.

She said she wanted to make the kids happy NOW. And then she looked down at her crayon and paper and said "can I give them coloring?"

I thought she meant can she send them things she drew, so I said "no" and somehow was trying to explain that kids wouldn't want something she drew without hurting her feelings when she interrupted me...

"No mommy, I give them COLORS" (lifting up her crayon and shaking it at me.) "I use my "sharing" money to go to the store and give them colors. Please?"


Ahhhh, sometimes the lessons I am trying to teach are being heard!

(I have one quilt done to donate, one top done, one top that needs one more border but I can't decide yet, the one seam flying geese that I need to go buy more brown for, and one the one I just started today! I think I need to start quilting these things but all I know how to do is stitch in the ditch, and thats dull)

10 totaly random thoughts!

sorry for all the posts lately. I opened on Monday, off at 1:30pm, then had Tues, and Weds off, closed yesterday (and didn't have to be in until 2:30! usually for a close you have to be there at 1) and have today off. I open the next three or four days so I am enjoying this and knowing it's not common. The girls are behaving much better than normal, a wonder what a semi-structured morning can do for the evening! I really wanted to share some random kiddo/life thoughts for you....very very random, but so fun


1) R went outside to play in the snow but left her snow pants at school on Weds, so today she put on leggings, then sweatpants, boots, a tank top and her coat, then gloves and two hats. Gotta love four. So she's been outside for a while and I don't hear anything. I poke my head out and see her, try to run away before she sees me since it looks like she's having fun, but nope I am caught. She said "mommy, puppy is getting cold, can we come inside please" puppy's getting cold huh? mind you this is a stuffed puppy. So sure. come on inside, take your wet things off, puppy gets a hand towel and R gets the afghan Nana made me oh 10 years ago or so. (I asked for if for Christmas one year from her, and got it the following one and she was so touched that she made every grandchild one, then had to give up big projects because they were too much for her) but it has "holes" so R needs "hot tea" aka hot cocoa. I made it and have snowman marshmallows I bought by accident, a candy cane from the tree AND green sugar sprinkles. Sometimes I can pull a supermom move out!

2) the little song from the Lego Duplo's commercial chokes me up EVERY TIME!! (both girls love the legos and I am not ready for the little ones in the house yet even though I think R would like them)

3) speaking of being choked up, did anyone watch the CBS (I think) Hallmark Hall of Fame Movie special presentation, it was November Christmas this past weekend, I was crying my eyes out! and not only during the movie, because it was the Hallmark special they only showed Hallmark commercials....I balled my eyes out for all those too! I slept well that night (and highly recommend the movie if you can see it!)

4) one of my regulars got two elks and a deer this hunting season, and gave me some elk steaks and ground venison, and sausage of some sort. The city girl in my is a little weired-ed out by the thought of eating deer and elk, the money savvy mom in me is so grateful for free meat! (I have to write a thank you card....)

5) have I ever won a give-away from you? I most likely sent you a thank you card! I know I lost a few addresses here and there but I think I've sent most of them. If you did not get one, I am sorry I am so thankful for your generosity and kindness, most the time people include a card with such kind words! Quilters are GREAT!

6) apparently my small tweek in Nana's Peanut Blossom recipe was a huge hit. A ate 12 plus the night I made them, and after taking 2 dozen out to mail to my brother and his girlfriend and her cousin (who is about to have her first baby, lost her parents a year ago, and is the first in her generation in her family AND her group of friends to have a baby, so I am sending her a little care package) they are all gone now, and I made a double batch!

7) R just said "mommy, this is really good tea" while finishing off her hot cocoa!

8) H is almost really a walker she walks for a while until she realises it and then sits and cawls, and she won't walk to you unless you have somethign she wants and she's standing in the first place. Usually a baby doll or food.

9) it's time to get R re-dressed and ready for school, she loves school and her favorite part is Chapel, and her best friend is T, who is almost as bossy as she is!

10) when R goes to school, it will be H's nap time so I will be sewing!! I SHOULD fold laundry but I am going to sew!

APQ Swap

hey those of you who were part of the APQ swap...I found the blocks I shoved in the back of my sewing room shelves out of frustration, and started looking at them, I made the last 4, with everything except that border. here's my question...I am not thrilled with them. I am but I am not, my machine and I hate sewing triangles and it "ate" a few corners. The points don't match up all the time, but the colors are fun. I am torn between my desire to send them out because I feel bad waiting this long and wanting to try again knowing my machine and I will end up in tears together (yes, little pfaff throws fits too, it is 14 years old after all, entering those teen years!)

How would you all feel about non-perfect blocks? They are CLOSE just not perfect.

I am sorry it took me so long to get them out! Everyone is getting a little something special with their blocks!

math problem

so remember in high school math class, when you were trying not to doze off or play calculator games (the graphing calculators the kids use now you can program games into and play in class making it look like you are doing calculations with the teacher...then again I guess now kids just use their cell phones, but we were not allowed to have them on at school)

The teacher would always say "I know you don't believe me but you will need to know this at some point in your career so pay attention."

and you thought "yeah yeah yeah, I am going to be a singer, actress, journalist, novelist, something else grand and wonderful, I won't need THIS"

Well, I needed my algebra today. For quilting.

if you have 77 blocks and want to make a quilt using as many if not all of the blocks, and you want the quilt to be longer than it is wide, how many rows and columns do you need?

x*y=77 (ish)
xy=x+2?
y=x+3?
y=x+4?

so 77 can be 7*11
it could be 8*9+5
it could be 7*10+7 (maybe for the backing I could do a little row)

I am leaning towards the last one, each block is 6 1/2" unfinished, so finished my choices are:
42*66 (I think a little TOO dramatic a difference)
48*54 (dramatic enough?)
or 42*60 (maybe)
oh or I could do 42*54 with 14 for the back and/or a pillow case

I am thinking the last two...what do you think? And are you chuckling over there at me?

one thing one week!

Katie inspired me to go ahead a join the One thing One Week challenge this go around. And I DID IT!!! I told myself I wanted to finish the top of A's quilt. I did! And I even had the foresight when I first cut into the Simpson's fabrics to cut a bunch of extra pieces that will go the same way so none of the fabric in the borders or even the top goes in other direction besides up and down. I did a very thin black border around everything and then the Simpson's stuff, and it will be finished off with black binding so I didn't think I needed another back border but if I change my mind I have some cut, measured, and ready to go on....you know just in case. But I will gladly call it "done".

(and thats all I told myself I would do, I told him he wouldnt get a finished product but he would get the top. I dont know how I want to quilt it since it's serioulsy jumbo size I am thinking tie quilting but part of me thinks stitch in the ditch would be better for hard wear and tear. Opinions?)

now if only I could get a picture. Any guesses what I am asking Santa for? A camera, maybe with a backup one too? What is with me and Cameras? Three in four years!!!!


For those of you who didn't hear all about it when I had a camera, I made A a flannel quilt with this wild "where's Bart" Simpson's fabric and alternated that with nine patches, 5 black 4 assorted bright colors....it's got 32 Simpson's blocks 9 inches each and 31 9 patches also 9 inches finished, then a 2 inch black border and a 5 inch print border. I had a hard time getting it together until it clicked together perfectly. I think I was over-thinking everything!!

100 books

I am sure you have seen this around Facebook, but I wanted to share it here. Some good titles to check out from the library, and interesting how many books I have not finished. Ever since I was in high school I realised I couldn't NOT finish a book, No matter how much I don't like it I just have to know how it ends. Many of the unfinished ones are books I had to read for school, something about being expected to read a book made it less fun and therefore I didn't finish.

Here's the deal if you haven't seen it yet:
Have you read more than 6 of these books? The BBC believes most people will have read only 6 of the 100 books listed here. Instructions: Copy this into your NOTES. Bold those books you've read in their entirety, italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4. The Harry Potter Series- JK Rowling
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22- Joseph Heller
14 The Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenberger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House- Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited- Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 The Grapes of Wrath- John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma -Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The DaVinci Code- Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick- Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From a Small Island- Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Inferno - Dante
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

so I have read 31 and started 12, oh one of those 12 I didn't finish because I Renewed it three times from the library and still didn't finish it, I might be able to now that I've been reading a lot again. Davinci Code is on the list now!

Thanksgiving 2010

This is now the third year I've done this sort of post, and I am so thankful I did it in '08 (the first year I made my own real Thanksgiving dinner) because I couldn't find the same recipe for how to brine a turkey that I liked and had it on here. I hope you don't mind.



Menu:

Turkey (Adam bought a 13 lber for me and it fit in my batting storage tub, which also nicely fits in the dishwasher for afterwards.)

Mashed potatoes

baby peas in butter sauce (oh from the box if I weren't working until 1:30 I might do my own)

Family Fruit Salad

Rolls

sparkling cider

pumpkin pie?



easy this year, especially since A likes his potatoes out of the box, but I am adding some Gouda and garlic to them to jazz them up a bit *update, Adam said ABSOLUTELY NOT! make them plain so he can add gravy*

so I brined my turkey again, this is the way I think I will do it from here on out. If you look back to Nov '08 I have directions, but I just found this site today when I was looking for times to cook since I got a smaller bird this year than in the past.

Mashed potatoes out of the box, no adjustment, easy peasy

warmed up the gravy from Costco

sliced cranberry sauce

made fruit salad last night (I might have shared the recipe, but it's got mandarin oranges, pineapple (omitted this year) maraschino cherries, grapes, marshmallows and whipped cream...do as you like.

crescent rolls thanks to Pillsbury

Pumpkin pie (follow the Libby's pie directions)

then a Peanut Butter Pie I chose this one because it is similar to a chocolate cream pie I make , but this one looked good too.

Peas in Butter Sauce thanks to Green Giant

oh and I made dressing in a caserole dish with dried out bread, butter and onions melted down and a littel garlic for fun, added a little chicken stock, then baked in the oven next to the bird for the last 20 or so minutes.

and four happy people!!!

silly confession

I had to share....I am blushing just thinking of telling you this but I want to provide you with a little laugh here.

A came home last night and I had picked up the living room, vacuumed and had worn my high heels last night (and one of my favorite cardigans) and had a glass of wine. So when I came home from work (and then preschool) this afternoon he said "who did you have over when I was at work yesterday?"

no one

"why did you get all dressed up and clean up and everything."

brace yourself


well, while I was working on his quilt (the flannel Simpson's one, I am working on getting the rows all put together and debating borders) and those flying geese for my donation quilt, and after the girls had gone to bed....I sort of imagined that I was being interviewed for a quilting magazine.


now I have no interest in designing quilts, no real plans for my quilting other than to make myself happy with it. But it was so fun to pretend.



he just rolled his eyes at me

nov FNSI

this FNSI was a success. I wish I could show pics to prove myself but you are stuck with my word here.

First I got the man to vaccuum the living room for me (so I cleaned it up except my desk first)
Then I made teh girls food and got 1/2 of them down at a decent time,'
The second one I bribed with movies and marshmellows. (great parenting eh? once a month won't kill us)

Then I got to sewing.

I made:
37 one-seam flying geese. (I can get 18 per fat quarter. I cut four FQ's a a time and a bunch of the brown squares and I did two full FQ's worth plus one that I had left over from my last cutting session)
17 -9 patches for A's Simpson's quilt that I forget why I set it aside but am making blocks like mad...again the only thing that stopped me was needing to cut more of the black fabric (11 more to go then I can match them all up with the 32 blocks of Simpson's fabric!! I Think this might be a Christmas present)

R got a little sewing time in too with her quilt we are working on together. She's using my only two 1920's reproduction fat quarters but they had "puppies and flowers" so whatever...she's using a 5/8 seam because it's easier to see on the foot I use and is doing an OK job. I help guide the fabric while she uses the pedal, does most the fabric guiding (I just correct when it gets bad) and pulls the pins I put in out. So cute! I will have to get a camera to show you her work.

So not a ton done, but so much fun anyways. Imagine if I could have started earlier....or if I had cut more in advance because it's either the ironing board on my table or the cutting mat and I chose ironing board.

pst..see my new button and my updated PHD list =) I think I am going to start a new one for 2011

fyi

really quickly, Retro mommy is having an awesome giveaway!!!

projects...and a request

hey there. I have a cute little post about H's baptism and the family's visit, but that will have to wait for now. I am having technical difficulties again. I think I just want a new computer =) I think I Am going to ask a friend to come over later this week and see if he can look at it and fix things, but I am not sure at this point. I wish I knew more about computers but it has never held an interest for me. much like I wish I could draw but I am thrilled I can quilt.


So first things first, I was working on a quilt from ages ago again and almost have all my blocks done. If I have to I can say I DO have all my blocks done, but what I am looking for, if any of you have it is six more 2 1/2" squares of Sandy Gervais Candy Kisses fabric in red. I used three of the reds from the line, candy kisses on red, the heart flower trails in both the large print with pink hearts and the small print with red/pink hearts, but I would be thrilled with any of the reds. I looked online and after search page 6 coming up with one print per store that had it and many that said "sorry this item is no longer in stock" I threw in the towel, thought I'd ask here first, then maybe check out eBay or do another search when I am feeling more patient. Please spread the word, if you have it I will reward you with something from my stash...depending on what you like. Worst case scenario I finish the quilt with what I have and I probably will be the only one who knows that it's unbalanced. See my controlling side?

OH, exciting news, I have all the APQ swap blocks done (ok I need to write on them still but they are DONE) and I just need to wait for my next payday to make it to the post office and get them out, FINALLY!

and I chose an awesome deep chocolate brown that's totally solid, no little hint of anything and it's looking sharp. I couldn't find a deep rich grey, or one that wasn't soft, light, like a sidewalk pavement color, and I wanted crisp to come to mind when you saw the wild prints against the background. I am thrilled with the brown I found, and I only bought 2 1/2 yards but I plan to go back and get more if needed, they had three bolts at the Ben Franklin that I can walk to from home.

I am sorry there are no pics, it would have helped a lot. But camera's acting funny and computers acting so strange. And I am too tired to fight with either today.


Edit:
Katie recommended I give a link to the ones I am looking for, what my descriptions aren't good enough (just kidding, I thought it was a great idea) so I found the line on moda's site, and have the names of the three I used. Any of the "lipstick" would be fine and dandy, but I used :

http://www.unitednotions.com/fcc_CandyKisses.pdf

17408 11Tossed Hearts Lipstick

17411 11*Trailing Hearts Lipstick

17416 11*Candy Kisses Lipstick

two quick questions

well I can't find a pattern for both a jelly roll and a charm pack in one quilt, but I did find TWO jelly roll quilts I want to do off the Moda Bake Shop....so help me pick one now, and one for another time. Remember I am using Sent With Love and white, so which is better?

Sweet Menagerie
or
Avignon Picnic
?

Also....
Ages ago I got a fat quarter bundle of Jennifer Paganelli's "Poodle" and I am going to make a quilt using the one seam flying geese Ricky Tims demonstrated recently. I was thinking of doing grey first, but am leaning towards a deep rich solid brown. What do you think?

hey hey the gangs all here!

I am finally showing off all my wins! I got the most recent a couple days ago and the UPS man scared the bejebers out of me! I was singing and dancing around with the girls, the door was open since we made something stinky for dinner (I think it was french onion soup and I had a roast of some sort in the crock pot and the combo of flavors was overwhelming) and he went *ahem* oh my....so here's what I won in the fall into fall blog hop:

This was the last arrival. a charm pack, and a jelly roll of Moda's Sent With Love line. I have a few ideas for either jelly roll, OR charm pack, does anyone have a great pattern or link to a quilt made with one of each? I don't mind going out and getting a yard or two to make something too, but I have no ideas! This was a second prize added by if she got 200 followers, and when she said she did and she was throwing everyone from the fall into fall give away into the pot I posted "oh oh me me I WANT this" (or something along those lines) and she sent an e-mail saying I won...then moments later another saying "hahah! I just read your comment on the other post (about the second prize!) too funny!

I saw someone (I am sorry I forget who it was Marsha?) made this already, you might need to send me a tip or two. The directions look easy enough but I don't like "new" to me. How else am I going to learn. This is Scrabble Jack, and his teeth are to say "happy fall y'all" it's made by Happy Hollow Designs and they have a ton of other cute things, so if this works out well, you know I'll be asking Santa for another project or two. I saw a Santa I want to bring home with me.

This was a MAJOR score of a win.

I got two books, (Beyond the Log Cabin and the Cats Meow)

A few quilt patterns (I think three)

Two things of Connecting Thread's Essentials (if you have not tried it and can't afford Auriful, give this a shot, it's AWESOME! also I had a great experience when I bought from them ages ago.)

A thingey to hand up pictures in a window or any other glass surface (my broken 60" TV perhaps?)

a men's t-shirt to make a cute quilt with their patterns...I have to find that again, I will practice with this one

AND eight cute half circle napkins folded to look like a Christmas Tree. R LOVES those!

That same give-away I won these too, but I don't think I will be using them. After the hair pulling experience when R's Halloween costume this year I am not going to follow any of McCall's patterns any time soon! And I love the colors of the threads, but my machine can't handle Coats and Clark. Strange eh?



(this will be passed along in a give-away soon, I just have to figure out how to make it better!)

The last thing she had I am debating keeping to try, but again I HATE these type of patterns (give am a quilt pattern any day though) but these look easy, and winter is right around the corner but you'd never guess it from the temps right now! I will make a decision latter!

Lastly, this came in the mail for me. I was part of a team of test quilters for Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks by today's top quilt designers VOL 2! My name is even in the book on page three or four. They sent me this mug as a thank you! How cool!!!

well, I think I bragged enough for one day. Soon I'll show the blocks I am FINALLY making for the rest of you guys.

pics from R

R got her little hands on my camera while I was at work yesterday. I had to give her her own post. So here's what she took and the stories she told me about them:

"That's H, She's so cute. She's still a little baby, but soon she will be big like me. And she didn't say cheese because she's a baby, but she can say "baba" and "mama" and "dada" and "baby" but not "r"."" That's a funny picture. That's my eyes. My eyes see. See my eyes?" (can she be Dr Seuss?)

"That's my bears. Bears, Bears. They wear costumes. There's a pumpkin and a scary thing like the neighbors have in the grass on the way to school. We don't walk on peoples grass. It's disrespectful. We can walk on those peoples grass (the people kitty corner to us are regulars at my store and said we can walk on their grass to avoid the huge puddle that forms on the street in front of their house). You talk to them. They say it's ok."

And there's R's post!

a few finishes

I have one more package from the Fall Into Fall giveaway before I brag...I mean share what I won. Brace yourself though, I will be having a little give away and I think a bigger one will be coming down the pike. (or is it pipe?)

I wanted to share of my latest finishes. Too bad they were all small..

First up (you can't see the binding but it's done) is this little heart. I made one of these for my swap partner last year, and thought it was a great little quiltlette so I made done for K (my brothers girlfriend)

I had four abandoned mistake blocks from the block lotto over the summer...actually I had five, I put these four together for a little doll quilt and the fifth went to Joanne (or will whenever I make it to the post office) I also binded that with the black dots.This last one needs the binding and then it's done. There's a doll quilt that matches that has the binding sewn on one side and just needs the hand stitching. Someones costume took precedence. Remind me to tell you all about THAT when I am done with it.

Oh yeah, R's dora quilt just needs the hand binding in back done too...it's on my bed right now anyways. It's the warmest quilt we have in the house and A refuses to turn the heat on in the bedroom, thst's ok I just crank it up in the living room hehehehe!

quick note

I just wanted to tell you guys I have not vanished!

It's been a rough week, but it's making me a stronger person.

I won some goodies at the fall into fall giveaways (THREE!!) I will share about those later

And I need some new authors. I like Janet Evanovich, Cleo Coyle, Catherine Coulter, J.A. Jance, and sometimes Nora Robberts. I DO NOT like Mary Higgins Clark (I'm only 140 pages into it but shesh I don't want to finish except I have this thing where i can't NOT finish a book)

I am charging my "new" cameras battery but I DID snap these pics before it died:

H sleeping in her new crib (her old one had a drop side and with all the recalls it made me nervouse...see the cute foot hanging out the side? She does that almost every night!

R being a smiley sweet girl! I need to cut her bangs!

oct FNSI

last night was another FNSI and I signed up at the last moment. I didn't get much done, the kids were good all day until about 5:00 then it all went to hell. They just were not happy and R was becoming wild. I was planning on working on quilting one of my tops to cross off my list and instead I worked on some of my hexagons while watching project runway on the computer and I fused fabrics together for the girls costumes (I am doing fleece on the inside and the fun shiny clown material on the outside. I don't know how long the two fabrics will stick together but hopefully long enough to sew the stuff together.

anyways I need to get ready for work, the fall into fall giveaway stuff is closing up and people are announcing winners....wahoo!!

just wondering

why and how both of my rotary blades and my pair of fabric only scissors all go missing at the same time. And on the day I buy a little bit of fabric to make Halloween pillowcases for the couch pillows!!

updates on the girls

to start with, look what I stumbled upon today: here. How neat is that? Lots of good things to check out, lots of great patterns, and did you see the CD giveaway? It looks like it's a relatively new site so check it out, then be sure to check back.

I have been sewing like mad, but not getting anything accomplished. How does that happen? I have two little quilt blocks to sew the back binding down on, a little four block doll quiltlette thing to sew the binding down on....and R's HUGE Dora quilt that is SO WARM! I used flannel on the back and then warm and natural batting. I don't think I need to worry about turning the heat on in her room with that quilt in the winter! I have H's ready to quilt, well I have to pin it all together and I HATE that part, but I think I will make hers as warm too and use these as the girls "winter" quilts and use what we have now for summer quilts.


H is still not walking but she's SO good at climbing up onto the couch and off it by herself. I also think she's not walking because she doesn't want to, not because she can't. I bet the one day she decides she wants something that's at eye level a few steps away while shes standing up, off she will go and she will be unstoppable.

R is loving school. she's quiet in the class, and doesn't tell us much about school but thanks to the weekly newsletters and her giving away little bits and pieces throughout the week I can get a general idea of whats going on. I know it's a lot for her to take in and then share! I am moving out to the Seattle area at the end of the school year, She will have a place at the school my mom subs at and the principal will save a spot in either K or pre-K depending on what we want. I WANT to say she's so smart let's go for the K but she will be the baby of the class and I am almost leaning towards Pre-K for her for one more year. Let her play a little longer and learn how to be in a classroom before worrying about reading and writing and math and all those other things. We have parent teacher conferences in Jan and I will be visiting my folks about then too and talking to the principal so we will figure it out then I guess. I know no decision will be "wrong" but I sort of wish the right one would fall into my lap.

Anyhoo, off to the library then folding laundry!

sewing again!

well, it's been an age and a half since I have posted anything. Honestly, nothing much to tell. R's loving preschool, H just cut four molars sometime between bed Weds night and this afternoon (totally explains why she was crying over EVERYTHING!) and A is still driving me up a wall and slacking on house chores. Such a man! (well, young man I guess!)

The good news is I have finally been sewing again! I quilted a little thing, it was like an over sized four patch turned doll blanket for R's "baby" who was having a birthday and needed a quilt for her "big girl bed" so I obliged. Apparently I just needed a little something to get over my hurdle. I quilted another little doll quilt from mistake blocks for the block lotto from a few months ago, then I quilted R's HUGE dora quilt. I meant to make it twin size but when I laid it out on my bed 1/2 way through quilting to roll the other sides in, well I think it's almost as big as my comforter on my queen bed. Oh well! I need to go get some binding fabric for it next week when I get my tip money and then work on the binding.

I also quilted two lost blocks for Joanne's wall. one if for a BOTM that I was trying to do at my LQS before A lost his job two years ago and I wasn't able to finish. The other was a block that didn't fit into a quilt I made. I was going to make a little pillow with it but it's sat for over a year and I never worked on it, either buying a pillow or making the rest of a case for it so what the heck? She wants it I'll give it to her!

I am sorry I don't have pictures, my aunt is loaning her old camera to me so it should be here in a few days. I guess technology and I don't get along!

oh, have you been seeing all these give aways? I am almost dizzy there are so many going on right now! Shesh!!

cleaning and halloween!

I am working on cleaning the house, so I used the "need to blog" as an excuse to sit for a few minutes. I wish everyone would leave the house for a few hours and let me clean by myself but in the mean time I am plugging away hopeful that I can finish at least one room tonight. I will never know how two children plus one grown man can make such a huge mess in next to no time! I take the blame for the mess in the laundry room (OK I only take 1/2 the blame there, the sprinkler system guys destroyed everything in their way so I moved a ton of stuff into there so they wouldn't mess anytime else up) and my desk, but the rest it the three of them.

So as for my excuse, I am trying to figure out this pattern for Clown costumes for the girls. I am NOT a clothing sewer, I am a quilter. I am still going to try. R has decided she wants to be a ferry too. I am excited about the clown costume for her since I am going to do fleece in the inside and shiny clown stuff on the outside. I want them to be warm but not have to wear a long winter coat either over or under it! I will make her ferry costume too if she insists. I don't mind making other costumes for her, Dress up is so fun to play!

So speaking of Halloween, I wanted to let you know about a fun blog hop that's coming up. Do you remember last year I followed one around and made those awesome tree quilts from one of the bloggers. They are doing this again, but for Halloween! WAHOO! you know what I will be checking out soon! Gudrun is having a little give away to celebrate the start, so check her blog out and maybe hop around!

lack of sleep

A co-worker and I were talking about the effects of sleep deprivation and how husbands don't get that mom's don't get enough sleep (and how they don't understand that while our job is not as "important" as theirs, or whatever it's hard and we can't just call in sick) and I saw this on Wikipedia this evening:

According to a 2000 study published in the British Medical Journal, researchers in Australia and New Zealand reported that sleep deprivation can have some of the same hazardous effects as being drunk.[29] People who drove after being awake for 17–19 hours performed worse than those with a blood alcohol level of .05 percent, which is the legal limit for drunk driving in most western European countries and Australia. Another study suggested that performance begins to degrade after 16 hours awake, and 21 hours awake was equivalent to a blood alcohol content of .08 percent, which is the blood alcohol limit for drunk driving in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K.[

That explains it! On days I work I usually am up for 18-20 hours, especially if I open!! SHESH!

anyho, take care of yourself, I hope you get enough sleep!

the weekend away

I am home from the weekend! Oh my what a weekend!

Dad and I stayed at the Grand America Hotel in Salt Lake City, it's 5 star and oh wow! I felt so much like Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman. I had to remind myself not to gawk and checked myself for drool as subtly as I could! I have stayed at nice hotels before but not like this! As strange as this might sound I think I'd rather stay somewhere less "nice" and more full of character charm.

The bummer of the weekend was that Patrick Dempsey was at the track and I didn't get to meet him. I saw him doing a press thing and didn't get close enough, so Dad and I went on and came back latter and he was in hiding or had left for the evening or something. The day after our race Dad said "oh, we should have told Geri that you haven't met him yet, she always knows where he is and loves making sure her special people have had a chance to meet him. That's OK, none of you would belive me without pictures anyways.

I missed the girls a ton, but I was so glad to not have to worry about them, and secretly I was overjoyed that A would have to be in charge for the whole weekend, do two night nights with them, take care of everything. True the house was not picked up at all, but other than that he did a decent job.

Today is cleaning!

a dose of positive prospective

I am feeling a little sorry for myself today. Nothings wrong, I am just tired. I have a huge list of things I want to get done before Friday. And a male customer pointed out to me that my pants had one of "THOSE" stains on them so I had to run home and change my pants. And the fridge is still broken and the waters still leaking..


So I am not going to post a whine-y post even though I WANT to...I will think about other things.

1) R is like 75% potty trained. She's still better for me, but that's just stubborn. She is scared of poop so that's what we are wearing our diapers for still. She is predictable about the time and knows its going to happen so she changes out of her undies. Also night time is not ready yet. I know she's not going to have this problem forever so I am not too concerned.

2) H is almost completely away from bottles now. R bought her a sippy cup two weeks ago at Target (Christine, (and anyone who needs baby gift ideas) TARGET is my favorite baby stuff place, great quality, great prices, and they have clearance constantly being updated) and H took right to it. So I went and bought two more with plans to get one or two more so we can wash them but she LOVES her sippy cup! And I am so proud of R for thinking of her sister.

3) I have started sewing again. Not on the machine, that will have to wait until R goes to preschool starting Weds, but I had to perform surgery on three stuffed animals and that was all I needed to get past my quilters block and start hand sewing some hexagons. I have been trying to do that instead of snacking at night watching TV and movies.

4) I am going away for the weekend without the kids or A! I am meeting up with my dad in Salt Lake for a car race and we will be staying at a 5-STAR hotel!! We will share a room and he IS a snorer so I am getting earplugs but at least no little one will wake me up and I will go almost three days without changing a single diaper. Fortunately one of my regulars who has children 5 and 3 years old lives across the street and over one house from us, so I asked her if she'd be available if he had an emergency and she said yes and even offered if he had to run out quickly to drop the kids off with her. How kind!

5) My family will be coming out for H's baptism (FINALLY) in NOV and A and I have been gutting out the crevices of the house in anticipation of our mad cleaning, and before its too cold to go outside and put stuff in the garage. Hopefully by the end of the month we will call the local charity store and have them pick up all our extra stuff.

I think that's a good enough positive perspective dose for today! Check back tomorrow in case I need another!

back online

my computer caught a nasty bug. or several as the case was. I had a friend who knows oodles more than I do about computers fix it and the virus corrupted so many files he just whipped it clean. I need to go get a new Office program and better antivirus, he had one more trial offer one that he installed but said I should go get something a little more aggressive, especially with some of the stuff A does on the computer (music/video downloads, video games, etc.)

I have been computer less for over a week now and I KNOW I am missing some good reads but I am not going to sit here and read...I guess it's close to 2 weeks worth of blogs now. I have children to care for, a house to clean (Oi Vey! I decided it was time to declutter the whole house, starting with the closets...the living room and hall way are a mess, the fridge is broken and apparently that means no dishes can be washes? Ask A about that one!) and well...other things to do to be honest.

please let me know if you posted something phenomenal or if there's an awesome give-away I need to check out but unless I hear otherwise I'll just start reading again today! Fair?

Anyhoo, I need to go figure out what we are doing for dinner. I think A said he brought home something I can microwave (oh yeah, the freezer's working fine, bazaar!)

TTFN

Happy Birthday H!!

8/5/10
Dear Hazel,


Today you are one. How did that happen? You are still so little it's hard to believe you are no longer an "infant." It seems like just last week we were eagerly anticipating your arrival and now you are a whole year old! You have been such a blessing in the lives of me, your father, and your sister. You have brought us many laughs and many smiles. You Are such a wonderful gift.

You have done all the "normal" baby things, grown from someone who was totally dependent on me, to someone who knows what she wants. You are so close to walking right now. Today we caught you standing up on your own in the middle of the room, you have been cruising along furniture for a while now.

Something that is unique to you and not your sister is your size. You both are so thin and beautiful, but your little body is longer and skinnier than your sister at the same age. It's almost comical how you are now 12 months old and wearing 6 month clothes...and the pants are falling off. It's not for lack of eating, oh boy do you have a good appetite. You are eating us out of house and home. When you went to daycare for the first time yesterday the lady was shocked you ate all your peas, your raviolis, chicken sticks, and STILL tried to steal your sisters lunch too. You must just burn everything off trying to keep up with your sister.

You love to be silly. You giggle as much as you can. If you hear music, you have to stop whatever you are doing and dance. You love to arch your back when I am holding you and say "weeee!" You love to play in the water, no matter how cold it is, if your sister is having fun in it. You want to do whatever Regi's doing and sometimes are accused of "bugging" her.

Your temperament is mild, almost passive. Without Regina being your bigger sister I think you might be walked over when you get older. You are learning how to fight for what you want. It will serve you well in your life. Without her before you, you might not be the person you are becoming. Remember this when you are frustrated with her. Your love for her shines on your face, and vice versa.

You are a snuggler, like me. You fight sleep. I think it's because you don't want to miss out, but you need your sleep. Without enough you are crab cakes, babe! You wake up smiling, singing to yourself, talking to any stuffed animal near by. You play peek-a-boo and patty cake until someone comes and gets you our of your crib, where you leap into our arms, or at least spring up as we lift you out.

We love you so much and are glad you are here, dear, sweet girl!
Love
Mommy

the ant

Regina just took an ant off the couch and said "You can't be on the couch" walked it to the door opened the door and said "You have to go to your home, this is OUR home. We are not ants."

p.s. not to make you all ill, but 1) R knows what she wants to be for Halloween, and wants H to be one too, AND 2) I know what I'm giving at least four people for Christmas!!


on the other hand I went to sew two days ago and it's too hot to turn the iron on...AUGH I need to buy some fans!

Sunday at work

OK, I wasn't going to post again for a little while, but DUDE! You HAVE to hear about my day yesterday!!



So la-te-da, off to work I go. I slept in an extra 10 minutes, but that's OK because I lay my stuff out for work the night before and I left my lunch there from the day before when one of our regulars brought in left overs from a huge party they had Friday night...(I LOVE my regulars!)



6:15 I leave the house 6:21 I am in the parking lot at work. Did you know I live a mile away from work? yeah, I do. I walk when I don't have to do the deposit, or when it's not below 20 outside. 6:22 I realise that's a LOT of newspaper on the ground....and they have color comics. 6:27 my co-worker pulls in. (did you also know I am insane about being late so I am always really early!) and I investigate. Two bundles of newspaper had been thrown/dropped from over the railing into our lower lot...so an almost two story drop. They were our Sunday papers. Lovely. We pick them up and put the ones we can back together. Seriously?



oh yeah, Sundays we open an hour and a half latter than the rest of the week. Thank goodness for small favors right?



6:49 I answer the phone.

"This is the H* Police Department, we received a distress signal from this location, is everything alright?" Um yeah! "We need you to exit the building and talk to the officer to the northern corner of your building. what are you wearing" um...black slacks, and a grey jacket. I am walking to the front door right now, using my key, oh shoot! Dagnabit, my key is stuck! "When you are walking I need you to keep your hands where the officer can see them, both hands up and clear" OK I am out, I am walking....I am in front of him, may I please hang up now?...talk to the officer, with his MAJOR gun.(he's a regular too)



Sad thing is this isn't the first time I've done this.



6:55 we are open for business.



7:05 someone walks in and says "we are here to pick up a donation for the spay and neuter clinic"

um...what? Call the other store to make sure they didn't have one ready. Nope. So either someone miss communicated on their side or we didn't approve it because nothings written down, I don't tell them that. I just say :give me 30 minutes I'll have 5 gallons of coffee ready for you and everything to go with it"



7:30, my one working bar is acting funny. Dripping water all over the counter. I take the machine apart and back together (well "apart" not much I can do but check that everything locked in tight) and nope. I try forcing a clog out of the drain. nope. Oh, by the way when you steam milk, steam comes out where the shots should be coming out of. Interesting. 7:40 machine reads "Please Insert Card" and will not work. At all. Nothing. Shut off, restart, try again after 10 minutes rest for the machine plus the whole reboot process.



7:55, nothing. Turn machine off for day, make note to call it in.



My other machine was supposed to be serviced on Friday, the steam wand's broken. It won't steam on "auto": (where it shuts off when it hits the right temp) So I am working on a broken machine. Dumb tech! (we have big problems with him but corporate is working on it)



12:10 doing the deposit, do NOT set off alarm.



12:20 done with deposit, but have a counterfeit $1 bill. Lovely

12:35 call the HPD non-emergency number, for a $1 bill I know but we have had a lot of fake $20'sand such around the state so I call it in anyways.

12:55 officer shows up. another regular I actually went to college with. He laughs, I ask him if he was part of the action this morning. No he was at an accident, but he heard the call come in and went over the radio "oh, Lisa's working." (TOLD you I'd done it before!) Yeah yeah yeah. He couldn't believe we had a fake $1, seriously! Who'd make a $1? Anyhoo, he fills out his stuff, I fill out my stuff, and away we go. He does say "You made my day with this!" lovely!



3:00 I clock off and go home.







p.s. I was laughing about it the whole day!!