Misc. ramblings and resolutions

By popular request, here's a photo of the pasta drying rack DH made for me. As usual, it's larger and fancier than really necessary, but it comes apart completely for storage. With the state of the real estate market, maybe he should go into business selling sturdy pasta racks. This is the last project he completed before we started the complete overhaul of his workshop. Even before the broken pipe incident, I had bought him epoxy floor paint for Christmas. Romantic gift, eh? To use it entails moving everything out of one half, sweeping and scrubbing the floor, then painting, allowing to dry.....that's as far as we've gotten. Crawling around on a cement floor is very exhausting and every muscle I have is achy. It looks great though and it has been a good way to do a thorough cleaning and get rid of a lot of junk.

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I spent most of the day yesterday working at a funeral lunch at my church. A 63 yr. old man had died while shoveling snow with his wife on Christmas day, really tragic. Spending a day in this manner is a good way to put things in perspective. For one thing, you never know when the day will come for you. Not a happy thought I know, but thinking about it can change the way you live your life if you let it.

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As promised, here's the New Year's resolutions for 2009 in no particular order-
1. Lose another 25 lbs. ( I've gained back part of the 25 I lost last year)
2. Don't gain back weight you tried so hard to lose!
3. Exercise at least once a week to start with.
4. Be a better listener, not always thinking of how I will respond.
5. Give more compliments, especially to my kids.
6. Remember when things get tough that other people have it waay worse than I do.
7. Along with #6, be thankful and grateful for everything I have instead of thinking about everything I want.
8. Read more books.
9. Sort my pictures and print off/back up all digital pictures.
10. Be kinder than is necessary.
11. Don't watch so much tv.
12. Go to bed earlier.

Okay, that's it. I realize I'm leaning a little close to the "change your entire life" resolution area, but I think naming several gives me a little more room for success. I'm looking forward to a great New Year's Eve spent with friends and I hope you will have a wonderful 2009!

Pasta Machine Success!

Here's the meal we had last night.....Lemon Pepper fettuccine with Greek shrimp, homemade French bread, and salad. It was very delicious and it was fun to experiment with my new pasta machine. First I made the bread dough in the bread machine, made it into a french loaf, glazed it with salt water and baked it. We made the sheets of pasta and laid them all out on the counter to get them ready to cut. Then we ran the sheets through the pasta machine again to cut it into the fettucinne. We laid the noodles all out on a plate....don't do this! When it was time to boil the noodles, they were all stuck together and we had to run it all through the machine and cut them again. DH is down in his workshop right now making me a noodle drying rack...you've got to have someplace to hang the noodles. While the noodles were cooking, the shrimp part was finishing up in another pan on the stovetop. It consisted of olive oil, lemon juice, onion, garlic, shrimp, parsley, and salt and pepper. When both parts were done, they were mixed together served with a few crumbles of feta cheese on top. Yum! I think we're going to make this again for New Year's Eve. We are getting together with four other couples and each are bringing part of the meal. The others are better cooks than we are, one of the couples even did a cooking class trip to Italy, so I hope this dish will pass muster! I wish I could get my pictures to lay out the way I wanted them!

An Extra Day

We expected to spend about 6 hours on the road today on the way to and from Iowa to celebrate Christmas with DH's family. The icy weather in Iowa prevented the trip, so here we are at home with a free day and no plans for anyone. Nice, Huh? DH and I have been working a little on the remainder of the cleanup from our broken pipe incident of earlier in the week. The kids have been doing various things and are talking about getting together with friends later. Later tonight, I expect we might dive into the giant cheese ball that I made to take along today and probably have a glass of wine and maybe get into the hot tub to soak my back which is still bothering me. All in all I think it will be a pretty nice day. We had temps in the 40's most of the day yesterday, so it was nice to have the streets melted off and the sidewalk and driveway cleared of ice again. We have snow predicted tonight, but that's okay with me.

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I read an interesting post from a blogger named Lisa about New Year's resolutions. Will you be making any this year? I usually do, sometimes I make the "I'm going to change all of my bad habits at once" type of resolutions. Last year DH and I resolved to lose weight. We both did lose quite a bit and I'm still down 25 lbs. from where I was last Jan. 2. We'd both like to lose a little more, so I'm sure that will be on the list. I'd also like to come up with something else in the realm of self-improvement that is specific and attainable. I'll let you know Jan. 1.

Snow Caps

Have I mentioned we have a lot of snow? We've had more than 20 inches so far this month. Today however is a balmy 38 degrees F., so we've actually got some melting going on. Unfortunately, we are supposed to have "a wintry mix" tomorrow, so that may prevent us from going to Iowa to get together with DH's family. I've really gotten into being a homebody the last few days. Today I'm putting away the remains of Christmas wrapping and bows, getting rid of boxes and bags, cleaning, and doing a mountain of laundry. I may venture out later to the grocery store and maybe the bank. Then again, I may start the third Twilight book and stay home with a cup of coffee and a blanket.

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We had a nice relaxing Christmas yesterday with just DH and I and the kids. We didn't go to overboard with gifts this year, but everyone was happy with what they got. I got a pasta maker that looks like it will be fun to use. I think DH was just as excited about it. He and SD made ravioli with it last night and they turned out great. We had the ravioli with a tomato sauce, lettuce salad, and garlic bread and some red wine. Probably the least Scandinavian Christmas dinner ever! DH did make himself his favorite Christmas pudding like his mom makes. It's actually tapioca which I really don't like, but I ate a little even though the texture really grosses me out. We also watched a couple of movies, played ping-pong, and just relaxed.

Merry Christmas to All!

Wishing everyone who happens by a very Merry Christmas! Here's the top of my kitchen buffet with a quilt I made last year, sitting below it is my electric skating rink and a couple of little trees. The skating rink is a little corny, but I've had it for about 16 years and the kids insist that I put it up every year. It plays Christmas music while the skaters go around. It's really kinda fun. Do you have any of those type of decorations you'd rather get rid of?

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We had a nice Christmas Eve last night. We went to DH's brother's for dinner, then went to Christmas Eve service at church, then back to their home for the rest of the evening. Our church service was really nice. SD played her violin with a string quartet for 15 minutes or so while everyone was getting seated. I was really proud of her and it sounded beautiful. The other three were all professional musicians in one form or the other. She and I also played a couple of songs with our handbell group and DH and I sang in the choir while the quartet accompanied.

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This morning the boys got up and did the paper route; it has to be delivered by 7:30 a.m. on holidays. It was hard to get them up and they went back to bed as soon as they got done. Now I've got a couple of butter braids in the oven and as soon as everyone else gets up we will eat and open our presents and have a quiet day around the house. Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful day with family and friends!

Please Pass the Peace

Here's another word of peace in today's picture of my Christmas decorations. These new stocking hangers that spell "peace" and the red "peace" and berries in yesterday's picture are the only new decorations I got this year. I guess I've been thinking a lot about needing peace in my life and here it is in my Christmas decorations.

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I definitely needed some peace today or more likely I needed to shout "Serenity Now" like they do in that old Seinfeld episode. DH left the garage door open for an extended period of time last night and froze and burst a pipe in the garage. I think it ran water steadily for several hours. When SD went into the garage this morning there was about 4-5 inches of water on the floor of the garage. The floor drain was clogged with leaves and gunk, so the water couldn't go down. Sooooo......the water overflowed into a hatch we have leading to the basement and under the garage wall into DH's workshop in the basement, so there was an inch or so of water in places down there. The water also somehow got into the ceiling in the finished part of the basement and the sheetrock is looking a little ripply and drippy. We were working on cleaning up the mess until everyone left for various other obligations. I'll go down later and get back at the clean-up, but for now I'm venting and blogging. I'm glad we had done quite a bit of cleaning when the furnace guy came a few weeks ago, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. It also could have been really bad if we weren't at home to discover it.

Catch Up Blog

Wow! I've had quite a break from blogging, so I thought I'd better catch up my reader(s) on everything I've been doing instead of blogging.
***I hurt my back shoveling snow and was laid up for a couple of days with back pain. I found that the old "push and scrape move" with one foot on top of the shovel is a sure killer. I missed church and one day of work. When I went back I foolishly demonstrated to a coworker the "move" sans shovel, that hurt too, but fortunately there was no reinjury. I've got to find a new move!
***Baked more cookies. Ate a lot of cookies. Baked more cookies. DH made two kinds of lefse. He's still feeling proud that his kringla made one of my coworkers say she was weak in the knees. A friend tells me that someone may try to steal him away.
***Moved CS home from college late last Weds. night. It was great to get that done and nice to have him home although he spent most of the weekend at his girlfriend's family Christmas somewhere up North.
***Surviving bitterly cold weather and lots and lots of snow. The actual temp was -13 F. this morning. More snow predicted tonight and tomorrow. I mean come on, this is getting a little ridiculous! But we've passed the winter solstice, so the days are getting longer!! Yay!!
***Went caroling to a couple of area nursing homes. Very heartwarming and the old folks appreciate it so much.
***Read the "Twilight" book and DH took me out to eat and to the movie last Friday night. I liked the book, liked the movie better I think. Not fantastic or anything, but enjoyable and I'm reading the second book now. DH has read the entire series already, SD owns all of the books.
***Watched a lot of movies at home, some from TV, some from Netflix, some from our own collection. Watched "ELF" from TV last night. Looking forward to our annual watching of "A Muppet Christmas Carol". I love that movie, the music is great too.
***Had a "Snow Day" from school finally. Last Friday was our final day of school before winter break, so it was a little weird to miss that, but the kids are so excited that day anyway that noone missed much. Some classes watch a movie or play a game, but there aren't any real parties or anything anymore. The high school kids have a huge assembly, so it was too bad they missed that. They spend the month of Dec. raising funds for a particular charity and then have the assembly as a final push and celebration. Each of the high schools in town pick a charity and there is always competition to see who raises the most money. They do all sorts of creative things like selling "Saran Wrapping" where they go into a class and plastic wrap someone either alone or with another person (maybe a potential couple or something) or even a teacher. The person has to pay an equal amount to get out of the saran wrap, so it makes a lot of money.
***I finished all of my decorating and cleaning once. Things are a little messy again, so I need to do a little more cleaning, wrapping a few gifts, and a little shopping to be totally ready for Christmas. We are keeping things a little more low key this year with the amount spent on gifts, traveling, cards, decorating, entertaining, etc. Really the only place we've overdone is the baking.
So, I think that's about it, all has not been wonderful, but I'm focusing on all that is and there's a lot to be thankful for. More holiday cheer later!!

Skywatch Friday and a Good Day!

For this Skywatch post, I'll give credit to my daughter. She took this photo of a summer sunset from our front yard in July. I've been using this photo as my desktop background for a few weeks. The actual temp. when I got up this morning was -3 F., so it's nice to think back to July and a warm summer evening.

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We had a late start for staff training for school today and the topic was CPR and AED (Automatic External Defibrillator) certification. Every school here has an AED, so it was good to learn how to use it. It was surprisingly easy, so if you're ever in that situation, don't be afraid to try to use it. The device automatically calls 911 and gives audible instructions of exactly what to do. In our county they have made a Google map with pin points for all of the available AED's and also lives saved by CPR or AED's. I would suggest that you Google it for your county and see if a similar thing is available.

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It's been kind of tough week with some ongoing extended family issues, but I'm feeling like the worst is over in that I'm trying to be able to let go of what is out of my control. It's important to remember that we can take control of our own attitudes and how we react to difficulty, so that's what I've been working on. There has been good news in that my mom is recovering well from her broken hip and may be going home quite soon.

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Our staff training ended early today, so I went out for coffee with three of my coworkers. It was very enjoyable to have a chance to visit outside of work and catch up with each other. Tonight, SD has a piano recital, probably her last ever, so it will be nice to hear all the Christmas music. She has made her decision on college and will be attending the same one as CS, so we're all happy about that. She bought herself a lap-top this week and is in the process of getting signed up for housing, so things are moving along. Happy Friday everyone!!

No Snow Day

We have plenty of snow today, but it was not a "snow day" for school. Our school was delayed 2 hours while nearly every other school for miles around was closed. I was counting on that snow day darn it! I had the family help me carry down all of the tubs of decorations and DH carried down the tree last night. It would have been so great to have the whole day at home with everyone's help to get it all done. Then this morning when I would have gotten started, my sister called and we talked about an hour and a half about this wonderful (not) family issue we have going on with my brother. The whole reason my Thanksgiving trip was fraught with stress and anxiety by the way. Anyway, there's still this evening, so I hope we can get some of the decorating done. I have a skinny tree for the family room that I left entirely decorated, wrapped tightly with a sheet, and had DH carry to the attic above the garage, so at least I'll make a place for that and get it plugged in. The snow is very pretty, so I hope to get time to take some pictures some time today. Watch for that and my completed decorating later in the week.

Cookie Baking Crazy

Today DH and I hit the cookie baking hard. We have a tradition of making everyone's favorites for Christmas and putting them in the freezer so we can pull them out for cookie trays and to take to holiday gatherings. I started on Saturday by making 12 dozen Christmas tree shaped spritz with green sugar for the youth bake sale at church. I made them with butter and they tasted great. Today, after spending the entire morning at church, we made a shopping run for a few ingredients and then got baking. Not before putting on our oldest sweat pants however. You've got to have an elastic waits to bake cookies. :) I made almond crunchies, caramels, turtles, and chocolate covered caramels. DH made chocolate no-bake cookies, peanut butter blossoms, and Norwegian Kringla. We had a funafternoon and evening and I have a ton of goodies for the freezer. I'm glad that DH likes baking, it is a lot more fun with help and he even helps clean up and wash dishes. Here are some pictures of his kringla, just like his mom makes. We still have a few favorites to make and I realized I've got to make something with a little color since everything is brown or white so far. This week I plan to finally start my decorating and get the tree up, etc. Since we have about 6 inches of snow on the ground I don't think I'll be able to do outside lights again this year. We always seem to be busy on those nice late fall days when we should be putting up our lights.

Skywatch Friday and Surgery Update

I took this picture out of the van window as we were driving home from the visit to my mom in Iowa over Thanksgiving weekend. I liked the way the sky looked, but I didn't realize it had that greenish tinge. There were many birds migrating and I could see large flocks flying from Northwest to Southeast. They must have known there was a storm coming in a couple of days. My hometown is in central Iowa in the midst of some of the best farmland in the country. Now that I've lived in the city in Minnesota for several years I am always surprised by how very flat the land is. You can see for miles and miles. This time of year it is pretty desolate and colorless with farm fields showing black dirt or grain stubble. Then there's the smell of hog confinement facilities which have popped up all over Iowa in the last few years. My husband's hometown is in the county with the most hogs I believe. It is so sad to visit his old farm, now in a state of total disrepair, with hog facilities in every direction and not a single farm with a family living on it in sight. Stepping outside at his parents who live in town was really disgusting. They pump the liquid manure out of the facilities and spray it on the fields surrounding the town so as you can imagine it really stinks! As a former farm girl it is rather depressing to see so many deserted farms and see how the family farm culture we grew up in is disappearing fast and nearly gone never to be regained.

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A quick update on my mom...she came through her surgery on her broken hip okay. She's in quite a bit of pain, particularly when she has to be moved for some reason, but I guess that's to be expected. She'll be in the hospital a few days and then move to the nursing home for the rest of her recovery so she can have therapy, etc. I hope it will all go well, so many things can go wrong along the way.

Bad News

My 81 year old mother broke her hip this morning. She was getting out of bed and fell, I suspect it was already cracked or broken before she tried to get up. Thankfully she wears one of those call buttons around her neck so the ambulance came and got her. She'll have surgery tomorrow morning and then quite a long recuperation I'm sure. I'm glad we got to see her over Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving with DH's parents and then went to my mom's an hour away on Friday. We hadn't seen her for quite awhile, but she seemed to be doing pretty well then. Anyway, I hope her surgery will go well tomorrow, prayers would be appreciated.

My Favorite Christmas Music

Moving right past Thanksgiving (which was okay,but not great) I started listening to Christmas music yesterday to try and get a little Christmas spirit and thought I would share a couple of my favorite Christmas music CD's. I have 234 Christmas songs on I-tunes, so I usually start that up on my computer in the kitchen in the mornings. Some of the songs are the kind you have to be in the right mood for, either too corny, too sappy and sentimental, too experimental, etc. but they're fun once in a while so I keep them. One of my pet peeves is when an "artist" really butchers one of my favorite Christmas songs. We have an all Christmas radio station which I enjoy, but some of the songs are really out there. I can't get into the metal version of many Christmas songs for instance. Anyway, these two are my favorites right now. I've loved A Charlie Brown Christmas since I was a kid. We also have the piano music, so I also have the memories of my kids playing the songs on the piano. DH got me the Josh Groban CD for Christmas last year and that is a great one too. Enjoy and if you have a favorite, leave a comment.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm definitely getting a little lazy about posting. This time of year gets a little stressful for me for a variety of reasons and blogging is one of the easiest things to let fall through the cracks. When the days get short and gray, money gets tight, family stresses have to be dealt with, etc. it's kind of hard to get in the mood for holidays. On top of it all I have a cold, so I took a sick day today. I'm not that sick, but I'm hoping taking a day to catch up on things around the house, take an afternoon nap, and stay in out of the cold will help.

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On a brighter note, we go to pick up college son for the weekend tomorrow. It will be good to see him and he is definitely ready for a break from school. TB is having a good time with his marching band in Disney World. They are performing in the Magic Kingdom parade today. SD is busy with school and a little stressed too, but she got some good news yesterday. She was one of 10 kids from her high school invited to be a part of a special program about research at the Mayo Clinic. It is basically a recruitment tactic to get kids interested in going into research. She is really into science and interested in being a veterinarian, but that is enormously competitive, so I'm glad for her to get some information about other uses for a Biology degree. I think she's close to making a decision about college. Business has been slow for DH, and he worries about it from time to time, but we're all doing a pretty good job of keeping positive. Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to anyone who reads this. I'm trying to follow my own advice....be thankful....for friends...family...material blessings...health...faith....more than I can list. It does help!!

Furnace Issues

The furnace has suddenly started making a high pitched whine and running constantly instead of the usual on and off thing. I doesn't sound good. I'm having a guy come to look at it on Friday, so hopefully the news won't be too bad. Fortunately we have one of those service plans with our gas company that covers most furnace issues. The furnace is in the middle of my husband's workshop which is a complete mess right now. Maybe I'll be able to convince him to clean it up a little before the repairman comes. Anyway, with overnight lows in the single digits predicted for the end of the week, I sure hope it doesn't completely quit working!!

A Place to Lay Your Head

I mentioned the choir benefit in my last post. I wanted to pass along a comment from the pastor of the host church. In welcoming everyone and mentioning the free will offering he encouraged everyone to give generously. He said that although the tough economic times are hard for everyone, none of us have to wonder where we will lay our head. That comment has really stayed with me. I fear that times will be tough for us this winter, but it really puts things in perspective. If you're able, give to the poor or homeless in your area, if not monetarily, than of your time, household items, clothing etc. We do have a lot to be thankful for.

Meals, Music, Movies, and More Meals

We had quite a nice weekend, I know it's Tuesday, but I'm still thinking about all that happened. On Friday night, our church choir participated in a choir benefit for an agency that supports homeless families in our town. Churches, including mine, take turns hosting the families for a week at a time. The church provides the evening meal and places to sleep, usually on air mattresses in Sunday School rooms. During the day, the clients go to a day home where the agency works with them to find housing, jobs, etc. It has been a pretty successful program and has really changed my view of what it means to be homeless. Most are young women with children. Anyway, there were about a dozen choirs participating along with an orchestra and a brass group. It was fun to hear the other choirs perform and also to sing two pieces as a mass choir. The event raised $9,000 plus, so that was nice considering the tough economic times for most people. Afterwards, most of the choir went to a Mexican restaurant for a late supper and drinks. On Saturday, I did some things around the house and also got the leaves in the front yard picked up again. It was cold enough to see my breath, so I felt a little silly, but I used the mower with the bagging attachment to get the leaves. Late in the afternoon, we met four other couples to go see the new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace. I didn't really like the movie that well, but all of the "boys" did. After that we went to an Italian restaurant for a fabulous meal, so that made the evening worth it. I was pretty exhausted by the time we got home. I had recorded the Gopher hockey game, so I watched that mostly on fast forward. We had to be to church early on Sunday as the bell choir and the regular choir I'm in performed at the early service. We played bells at the beginning of the late service too and then I came home for a quick nap. I had to make it quick since we were hosting a Fellowship Tables meal Sunday night. For this there are four couples who get together three times during the year for a meal. It is a nice chance to get to know some people we wouldn't otherwise. I knew the other couples only a little, so I wasn't sure how it would go, but we had a really nice time. Everyone brings part of the meal, so it isn't so much work for the hosts. I also managed to watch most of the Sunday afternoon hockey game while I was working around the house and kitchen. I've never been much of a hockey fan, but the goalie is from our town and I know his parents, so it has been fun to keep up with it. He had his first shut-out and is undefeated so far this year.

Moon Over Minnesota

We had an incredibly bright moon last night, actually this morning at 4:34 a.m. What was I doing up at that hour? Letting out my elderly dog. I'd love to sleep through the night once in awhile, but it doesn't happen anymore. Sammy isn't usually the reason; it's usually snoring or worrying or temperature issues. I'd appreciate any ideas on how to get a middle aged woman to sleep through the night. Ha If you enlarge my shot, you can see the trees a little and some wierd flecks of color. I think I must have something on my lens. I also heard an owl hooting while I was out there, so between that and the moon, and getting to go back to bed and sleep a few more hours, it was worth it. Happy Friday everyone, it's been a looong week!

Block of the Month Progress

Here's the progress on my last year's block of the month. For those quilters who are interested, its the WinterBerry fabric line from Maywood Studios. The patterns are created using templates from Marti Michele (set B). This was definitely a learning experience for me. Lots of little triangles, lots of margin for error, lots of errors actually. I also got my new machine mid-year, so that didn't help any. All in all though, I'm happy with how it turned out. It took a lot of creativity to make everything square, so my most important lesson was how important accuracy is. I made the first block for this year in a big hurry and it didn't turn out too well. After futzing so much with this quilt, I decided to start over and do it right from the start this time. I still have the outer borders to add, but it seems that a sewing room reorganization is in order first, so it may take awhile. Now off to the dentist!

GRRRR!

I chipped my front tooth today. I originally chipped it on a fork at Olive Garden, had it repaired, it fell off again, had it repaired. This will be the third time. I chipped it while blowing my whistle at some naughty kids at recess. Having a decent sense of humor, I do realize it's funny. Even the girl at the dentist laughed when I told her how I did it. I'm just afraid they'll want to do a veneer this time. Not exactly what I wanted for Christmas!

What a Difference a Day Makes

I had to show pictures of this bush in our yard. I don't remember it being such a bright red other years, but it is about the last color I have in the back yard so I have really been enjoying it this week. Incidentally, my flash went off on the picture on the left. I took it after work yesterday, around 4:45, and since it starts getting dark so early I needed flash. It is so strange to have it completely dark outside by 5:15 or so.

Skywatch Friday or Not Ready For This!

I woke up this morning to this; gray sky, snow falling, the ground completely white. It's really pretty, but after the record highs we've had this week, I wasn't ready for this. We don't have school today due the end of the first quarter. I would be sleeping in, but we're off to our Block of the Month class this morning. I'm just about ready to show a picture of last year's completed top, maybe tomorrow.

Voting as a Celebration

My polling place, coincidentally is at the school I work at. I noticed it was pretty slow in the middle of the afternoon so I slipped in to vote on my afternoon break. After school I usher the kids onto their buses and as I was coming back inside, I ran into two of my daughter's friends. They were grinning ear-to-ear and told me that they had just voted for the first time. They said they felt powerful and were really excited about it. Later as I was walking through the parking lot to leave, I overheard an older lady talking to some younger ones about the 60's, reminiscing I guess. People were coming in a steady stream at that point, hurrying in after work. I got into my van to drive home and got to thinking about what a privilege it is to be able to vote in the way that we do. In my town, the voter turnout is expected to be the highest ever, around 80%, so I'm happy that so many are taking advantage of it. It really is a celebration in many ways. Part of my celebratory mood had to do with the fact that the ferocious campaigning is over, part of it that the weather is still so beautiful, part of it that I think my candidate will win. We'll see, but if you haven't voted yet, get going!! And please, tomorrow, can we just all get along no matter what the outcome is? In other words, no sour grapes? I'm going to be tempted to leave a few "neenerneenerneener" comments at some blogs tomorrow, but I'll take the high road.

November Nice

After a beautiful weekend, it's lovely again today. 74 degrees, in Minnesota, in November, unreal!!! Our weekend included a fun Halloween party Friday night at some friends house. We were all supposed to come dressed in black and then there were many costume parts to choose from as embellishments. I spent the night in a red wig and scarf. I looked ridiculous I'm sure, but it was fun. I kept having these rather serious conversations with people forgetting I had this wig on. DH wore a hat with long dreadlocks coming out underneath. Everyone told him it looked quite natural on him. We spent a lot of the evening outside around a fire, having smores, and visiting. I did a lot of cleaning on Saturday and then watched Gopher hockey game. We had to be at church early for choir for All Saints Sunday. After a nice nap, I got in some more sewing Sunday night. I'm finally making some good progress on getting last year's BOM put together. I hope to be able to show the finished top by the end of the week. I think I'll be ready to crash early tonight. Sammy is still on Daylight time and has been waking me up at odd hours, so I've been tired all day. It looks like a couple more nice days until we're back to the usual weather and possibly some snow later in the week. :(

Skywatch Friday

This is kind of an experimental Skywatch Friday entry. It's seagulls flying around near the Lakewalk area in Duluth Minnesota, but you can imagine they are bats in honor of Halloween. This isn't my best sky picture, but I wanted to give it a try. I'm getting together with the girls to do some serious sewing tomorrow morning. I'm hoping to get all 12 blocks from last year's block of the month set together or at least framed. After that, it's off to work. All of the kids at the school I work get to go to the nearby Rec center every Halloween to spend the afternoon swimming, skating, or playing ball. It's usually a fun day to supervise. I would rather have a good old-fashioned Halloween party, but that's not PC anymore unfortunately. DH and I are invited to a party tomorrow evening, so that should be fun since I haven't been to a Halloween party in years.

Comment Fishing

I like comments on my blog as well as the next person, I'll admit that. After blogging around a little more than usual this morning, I really don't like what I see. I can't decide if some of the outrageous material I'm seeing is "for real" or "for comments". Many of the ones that I think are "for real" really scare me. I see the terms "Christian" and "praying" thrown around with reckless abandon by people who are not acting like Christians in my opinion. I see racism thinly veiled as political belief. I see greed portrayed in many ways. Here's an interesting exercise that I suppose many bloggers have tried before me. Read the comments on a blog about any particularly divisive issue-lately it's been the election of course. Follow some of the particularly vitriolic comments back to their home blog. There you'll find that hate filled person blogging about babies and flowers and friends and puppies and kittens, etc. , etc. and they're often also mentioning God and how much they love Jesus and are praying for a particular issue. Give me a break! Here at Sew Many Days I'm sticking with the "fluff", family, friends, sewing, pictures of pretty things, etc. I'm not the kind of person who wants to "stir things up" for the sake of getting comments. I'll continue to be extremely careful about my comments to others, usually re-typing many times to get my meaning across without causing offense or portraying myself as something I'm not. If that means I'm stupid, apathetic, un-American, or un-anything, than so be it. That's my election platform! Of course I may change my mind once elected. Ha

Fire and Wine

Last night after a long, tiring, and super busy weekend and a busy first couple of days of the week, I enjoyed a few of my simplest pleasures. In thinking about it this morning, I realize that I'm very lucky to be able to enjoy any of these things, much less all in the same evening. Yesterday was our coldest day so far this fall, starting out in the low 20's. It was also very windy, but the temp improved as the day went on. I pulled some leftover soup out of the freezer for supper. We also had several kinds of leftover salad from the weekend. Later on, we had a fire in the fireplace for the first time in a few months. Then we had a little wine, a little Halloween candy, and watched "Chuck" on Tivo (no political commercials). If that wasn't enough, we got into the hot-tub later and soaked all of the soreness out of our muscles before going to bed. Oh yeah, and I had just washed the sheets and put on my electric mattress pad for the winter. It was so great for DH and I to have a night completely off with no meetings, no company, no practices, and no place to drive anyone to. I think I'll make it a Tuesday night tradition.

Politics and Families

Can I just say how much I hate our political system? All of these advertisements are about ready to make me scream. If I didn't have Tivo, I wouldn't be able to watch TV at all. What does it say about a person that they will subject themselves and their families to all of this? I think it is so tacky that most of them are using their families in TV spots, trotting them around to talk shows, or just neglecting them for that matter. My kids don't want to be identified or even mentioned on my blog. Of course I mention them, but I don't use their real names and I've tried to maintain some level of privacy. I know it wouldn't pass much scrutiny, but I don't think my three or four readers are really scrutinizing anyway. I would have liked to know the types of conversations that the candidates are having with their teenagers/spouses to convince them to go through with all of this. Here's my take:
"Yes, everyone, I'm talking millions of people will know that you are pregnant. They will probably start saying all kinds of bad things about you, but you'll just have to deal with it. Oh yeah, can you babysit for about the rest of your life? I'm going to be busy, at least looking busy, and I don't want to be bothered with all this kid stuff."
"Remember that ad you made for me the last time I ran for office? I want to run it again and have you say how great I've been in office, etc. I know you were 13 then. You looked fine, most teenagers would love to show old pictures of themselves on tv."
"Remember how I didn't divorce you for being an alcoholic? I want to make an ad where you say what a great husband I am and how I didn't leave you and stayed by your side. It will make people think I'm going to be great in office."
Wake me up when its over!!

The best picture

My best picture got totally cut off in my last post, here it is again. Aren't the colors wonderful?

Our Trek to Duluth

We had a wonderful trip to Minneapolis and then to Duluth over the last weekend. I'm pretty proud of some of the pictures I got. The weather was great the whole time and the fall colors were spectacular. I forgot to carry my camera with me in Minneapolis, but here are some from Duluth.
We visited Glensheen Mansion pictured above. It was built in the early 1900's by the Congdon family. It was lavish at the time and worth millions today. Unfortunately, the youngest daughter and one of her nurse's were killed there in 1977 and that has become one of the reasons for it's notoriety today. It is now owned by the University of Minnesota Duluth where we were visiting with SD. She won't be going to UMD, but I''m glad we got the chance to check it out. The mansion had a beautiful little garden with many varieties of Dahlias. I was surprised to see them blooming so beautifully so late in the year. They must have been about 8" across.

Here are a few pictures I took while on the lakewalk in the downtown area. They still have a lighthouse at the entrance to the harbor. The sailboat had just sailed from the harbor under the aerial lift bridge and out into Lake Superior. It was very windy that day, so I'm sure they were moving fast once out in the lake. The city has developed the lakewalk in the last 15 years or so and it provides many beautiful vistas of the lake. I had a little trouble arranging my pictures the way I wanted. The statue below is of Leif Erickson, true "discoverer" of America. The sandy walk was at the end of a skinny island on the south side of the lake. We traveled the length of the island after driving over the lift bridge. All in all it was a great get-away and we spent a lot of time just relaxing at the hotel too. It was so great to not have to worry about work, cooking, the dog, or being anywhere on schedule.

Coffee-A good investment

I met some friends for coffee this morning. I'd love to do that more often, but holy cow, $3.79 plus tax for a medium vanilla latte?? Sometimes I economize and just have a "coffee of the day", but it's just not the same. I can have coffee of the day at home for pretty much free, so what's the point? Anyway, I think someone has got to be making a lot of money on my special treat latte. I doubt it's a poor coffee farmer though and apparently it's not the owners of the coffee shop as the place is for sale. I noticed it wasn't as full today, maybe the coffee regulars are taking a break due to the economy.

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I don't know if I'll get around to posting tomorrow. We have a couple of days off from school this week, so we are heading out Thursday to do some college visits with SD. Our main destination is Duluth. I love the area and I hope the weather will be good enough to do some walking around. The have a beautiful lake walk and lots of fun shops and restaurants. It's quite a bit further from home, but I won't be surprised if that's where she ends up going.

Leaf Therapy

The fall colors are at their peak right now here in southeast Minnesota. This one red leaf outside my back door caught my eye. I wonder if the rest of the vine will turn red too or just this one brave little leaf. Yesterday I bagged 5 huge bags of leaves, but with today's strong winds you can't tell. I find it rather therapeutic to rake leaves. You can always tell what you've accomplished, having a clear lawn and bags of leaves to show for it, but it takes no real mental effort, so the mind can wander to other things. I was teasing SD, that I came up with a theme for her grad party. I'm really getting ahead of myself with that one since I should be thinking about TB's confirmation in a couple of weeks. Besides that no one really has a theme for their grad party. I was thinking more of her invitations and something to do with rock-climbing. Last night at dinner we were throwing around some ideas...Scaling New Heights...Climbing Towards the Future...etc. etc. Any other ideas? After dinner we went to a choral concert and really enjoyed it. Our favorite piece was "Agnus Dei" arranged by Barber if you're familiar with it. It was really beautiful, especially with the strings accompanying it.

A Super Easy Fall Project

I have finally gotten most of my fall decorations out, but I still needed some kind of a table runner for under my fall leaf candle holder. I got this leaf at a Partylite candle party a few years ago. I had intended to make a lovely quilted table runner for my dining room table, but it hasn't happened yet. Last night while I was in a cleaning flurry, I decided to look for the fall leaf fabric and came up with this little project that took about 15 minutes. I think it looks nice and it would be a good use for any large pattern fabric and could be made by anyone with a sewing machine and an iron, so I thought I'd post directions. First cut two pieces of fabric the same size in a square or rectangle. Then iron on some Wonder-under type fusible webbing to one of the fabrics on the wrong side. Peel the paper off of the backing after you've ironed it on. Pin the two squares together right sides together. Sew a 1/4 to 3/8 in. seam around all 4 corners leaving an open space a little larger than your hand on one of the sides. Turn the whole thing right side out and push out the corners and seams so they are flat. Lay it out on your ironing board and pat it out flat checking to see that the side seams are even and the opposite side fabric doesn't show. Start ironing on the side opposite the opening and use a hot iron to get the fusible webbing to stick. When you get about 2/3 done, fold the ends in on the opening making sure that side looks "square", pin if necessary and finish ironing. I used a little iron on hem tape to close the opening after I had ironed everything else. That's it, you now have a little table topper that you've created yourself. I put Christmas fabric on the other side so I can flip it over when the time comes. I may still get that runner made, but this will do until then.

Weekly update

Here's what I've been doing lately...

*****

I started a new block of the month group on Friday. It's at the same shop I did BOM at last year. It's a really good deal, you pay $5 for the first block and each month you return with a finished block, the next one is free. I was the only one from my group that got the whole top for $5. Of course I spent money on other stuff at the shop, so it's not like they lost money on me. The new series has applique, I told myself I can't do it (it costs extra) unless I get last years top all put together by next month. We added another friend this year and we all do breakfast afterwards, it's really fun and I look forward to it each month!!

*****

We had the last home football game and the after party at our house on Friday. It was pretty chilly here Friday night. We lost the game, but the band has really improved since their first game. The band will be doing an indoor concert later this month. They travel to Disney World over Thanksgiving and will be in one of the parades there. I wish we could have gone too, but there wasn't enough extra cash around.

*****

We got Senior Daughter's senior pictures taken last week. We got the proofs back and they turned out really good. Another thing to cross off the list. She has already applied to three colleges and we're doing some more college visiting in a couple of weeks, so we may have a college decision soon too.

*****

DH and I are both a little over-committed when it comes to church activities. I'm in two choirs, women's group, helping with confirmation class, funeral coordinator, etc. We have a funeral this week, so that adds a little extra work. DH is helping with a lot of carpentry work for a renovation project and has spent several evenings at church. It may be nearing completion this week, we're ready for a break.

*****

Meanwhile, I have not done any sewing since I got SD's dress done. I should be down there right now, but it's not going to happen tonight. I'm going to be putting in a few extra hours at work this week, so I will be happy for a little larger check next month, but it pushes everything else aside. Things have slowed down a lot for DH. He's a realtor and the uncertainty of the financial system is keeping people from the housing market. Hopefully it will settle down soon.

Canine Capers

Okay, there were no capers, but I was trying to think of a cute title for a topic that's not so cute. Once again today, I did something I never thought I'd do when I was growing up on the farm. I paid good money to have the dog's teeth cleaned. It feels wrong in many ways, but I guess there are worse ways to spend money. Drugs, gambling, booze,.... okay maybe not booze, but there are worse ways. It had gotten to the point where he had breath so bad it could knock out a horse. I could actually smell his breath when he slept under my side of the bed. I started thinking it was probably bad for his health and feeling guilty for not taking better care of him. So now we need to be responsible for brushing his teeth everyday to avoid this problem in the future. When I was at the vet, I noticed they had a job opening so I told SD about it and she went right over and applied. She wants to be a vet, so the experience would be great for her. Maybe I could get a discount!! They were nice enough to dress him up in a Halloween neck scarf when he went home.

A busy weekend

It was quite the busy weekend around here. It was homecoming weekend, so that meant a parade Friday afternoon, game Friday night, and the dance on Saturday night. It also meant getting college son to and from college to spend the weekend. I had a women's retreat most of the day on Saturday. I wouldn't have gone, but I was the only one from my church on the planning committee, so I was obligated. After I got back, I fixed daughter's hair and make-up for the dance and spent the rest of the night on the couch. Sunday we had obligations at church all morning, an afternoon baseball game for TB, and then DH and I drove CS back to school. So a few highlights:
* The weather was perfect for the parade, game, retreat, dance, and the drive to the cities. A few clouds here and there, but the fall colors are getting so pretty.
*The dress turned out pretty well. Her friends thought it was "retro", I don't get that, but she looked nice in it. Her date's tie turned out a little wonky, but I think he just wore it for pictures. He brought me flowers as well, not sure what to make of that, but it was a nice gesture.
*The retreat was nice; held at a church camp in a beautiful area fairly nearby. There were several friends there and as I said the weather was nice. I didn't benefit from a true retreat on a spiritual basis as I would have liked, but there were too many contributing factors for that to happen.
*Lastly we always enjoy taking CS back to school on a Sunday night. We usually take him out for dinner before we drop him off and it is a nice chance to catch up. We went to an Indian place with a buffet last night which was kind of a stretch for a couple of Iowa farm kids. It was okay, but a lot of new flavors and some of it was really spicy.

Lovely Fall Day

It is a beautiful day here today. We got some much needed rain last night, so everything seems very crisp and clean and the sky is a brilliant blue. I hope this nice weather will hold for the homecoming game Friday night. TB's marching band puts on a special show after the game. College son is coming home for the weekend for the first time since going back to school. The dress turned out good enough for Senior Daughter to wear, so I am very happy about that. It may be awhile before I tackle something like that again. I'm anxious to have the time to get back to some quilting. I have many projects waiting for me and I would especially like to make something for fall. I finished a wall-hanging this summer that I am rather proud of, there are quite a few errors as usual, but it's finished. It took me a long time as usual. I'm a firm subscriber to the "Better finished than perfect" philosophy. It was intended as a spring/Easter wall-hanging. I finally finished it in the middle of summer ( a couple of years after the Easter in question). I decided to hang it up for awhile anyway. I think I will take it down today and bring out my Fall decorations. I was inspired by Joan and her beautiful Fall decor. Usually it nears Halloween before I get things out. Ha

Peter Mayer

I went to the most awesome concert last night. It was my first experience with a house concert and I loved it. DH and I and four other couples went to this concert in a neighboring town. A couple we didn't know hosted it in their home for about 50 people. Everyone brought some hors d'ouerves to share and some brought wine. Peter Callahan, a local musician opened for him with three songs. Following that, Peter Mayer played a long set, we had an intermission time where we could munch on food, mingle, have a glass of wine, purchase CDs, etc. and then he played another set. If you are not familiar with Peter Mayer, he is a folk singer based out of the Twin Cities who writes his own songs. Seeing him live is wonderful as he intersperses his playing with stories that are wonderful, spiritual, funny, and thought provoking. He will be performing at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it would be fun to go then too. After the concert, we invited all of our friends back to our house for dessert. It was the kind of night that was good for the soul; beautiful weather, laughing and visiting with friends, trying something new that turned out so well, and of course the music.

Wierd Flowering Houseplant

My houseplants are the kind that can stand up to a lot of neglect. Several of them get moved outside for the summer so I don't have to worry about watering them. My problem with throwing anything away shows itself in my plants too. I have nursed several of them along for years, repotted their babies, given them away to friends, etc. This plant is one I bought about 14 years ago when we bought our first house. Since then I have whacked off the top when it got too tall several times. What's left grows a new shoot and I rooted and replanted the top. I have 5 of them now and have given a couple away, but I'm not really sure what it is. Anyway, I noticed this week that this one is flowering a very interesting bloom. It looks like there is another one in the works. I don't remember this ever happening before. Can anyone tell me what it is called? I think it might be some kind of diffenbachia (sp) but I'm not sure.

A Sewing So and So

I've been doing so actual sewing, seamstress kind of sewing, the last couple of days. When I got my new sewing machine, I convinced my daughter to let me make her homecoming dress. How hard could it be, right? Nevermind that I haven't made any clothing other than pajama pants in the last 15 or so years. I'm coming along okay on the dress, but its made out of slippery fabric, so that has added to the challenge. I'm used to working with quilting fabric and this stuff wants to go everywhere. The hem is a little wonky, I'm hoping she won't notice. What I have left is doing a fitting on my daughter, adjusting if necessary, and putting in a ZIPPER. What the &*(^#@ was I thinking? The class for my machine that includes zippers isn't until next week. By that time, I will have finished the dress, daughter will say she hates it, and we'll have to go shopping to buy something that will probably be overpriced and ill-fitting. No optimism here!!

Friday Night Football or It's All About the Band

We had our first real home football game this Friday night. What made it real was the band performing in uniform. I did watch the game from time to time so I know that we won 8-6. The score should tell you that it wasn't the most exciting of games, but it was the first win of the season, so I am happy for the football team. As a sophomore, it is TB's first year in marching band and this was their first half-time show, so I was there to cheer for the band. There is quite a group of friends that we sit at the game with to watch our kids in the band. We visit and pass candy we've brought from home and stand and cheer at the appropriate times. We had pretty decent weather on Friday, it got a little chilly, but there was no wind so that helped a lot. The band has a tradition of making the big "C", upper left during each game. This year the music theme is ABBA, so songs from the Mamma Mia movie...Mamma Mia, of course, as well as Dancing Queen, and The Winner Takes It All. I managed to refrain from singing along, I was too busy taking pictures. The kids wear their hats backwards after a win. Next time TB will have to wear a t-shirt that matches his uniform a little better.