Well, what do you know . . .

I really like to look at shoes online. So this morning, in my email, is my daily ad from Endless.com which has a lot of shoes and purses for everyone - at every price. And this morning. . . the ad tells me that "Purple Reigns". So, just click and here and you can go see it just like I did. They call it "fuchsia". Whatever the name, it fits into my love of purple. Now, for only a bit under $600 I can buy this little fuchsia purse. Would that qualify as part of the financial bailout to do you think? I love shopping at Endless and they have free overnight shipping. I think I will have to pass on the purse.

Just a couple more days. . .

October is almost over. Here is a cute picture of my Meagan in Portland with her newly carved and painted pumpkins.

She also sent me this cute picture of her in a new Snow White dress. Darn it, sometimes Portland is just too far away and I miss too much! She will be all grown up too soon.

Weston is here this afternoon and we are meeting Bob at McDonald's for supper - his favorite place to eat so we have learned to like it - again!. His Mom and Dad are going to celebrate their wedding anniversary - 8 years. It was a beautiful day like this one and we were all in the mountains in western Colorado. Good memories!

And here is a cute quilt I loaded just before Weston came out today. It is kind of like a song. I love the purple, but it is not what would be expected. I guess when my customer took it in to buy the backing, another customer in the quilt shop told her that it was awful - the purple part. She then went on to say, "Why would you ruin a quilt with that color combination?". Maybe that is why I like it - I don't have time for people like that! My customer felt really badly as she had made it for a good friend of hers who is a veterinarian and horsewoman and whose favorite color is purple.

Sometime I wonder what has happened to kindness and manners.

A good day . . .

Have you ever had a "hospital day"? I had one today and now I am ready to get something done. Of course the day is almost over, but it sure has been a good day. The rules for having a "hospital day" are:
1. You have to wear your most comfortable pajamas and you have to wear them all day.
2. You can't leave the house or yard - so technically you could sit on the patio if the weather was nice or you wanted to bundle up in your jammies.
3. You can eat whatever and whenever you want.
4. You can do whatever you want - you can watch movies, read, sew - or you can just sit and do nothing.
5. You have to proclaim at the beginning of the day, "this is a hospital day" so there are no expectations to fix meals or go anywhere.

It has been a wonderful day.

I spent Friday and Saturday in Missoula. Dad is doing a bit better in his new room in the nursing home. He was moved from the rehab wing and he had a very difficult time with that change. He really wants to "go home", but there is no way that is possible in Missoula and he doesn't want to be moved here. He wants to be close so he can see Mom when she comes to visit. This week, he was kind of "out of it" all week and very angry with everyone. I hope the change in meds and getting used to his new surroundings will help that. The nurses in that part of the nursing home seem to be very caring and tuned in so I am hoping that will help him not be so scared. It is part of the journey.

What is going on?

It was just Sunday - or that is what it seems like. I just put up a new post and what happened to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. You know what they say, "Time flies when you are having fun." So the good news is - I must be having a ton of fun.

Today is Thursday and I have a long list. I have been picking up some new customers for quilting and I am so excited about that. For the year I was gone, I put my quilting business on hold and then when I came back from Wyoming, things got very busy. I have taken little brochures around with a discount coupon, handed them out at the quilt shops and carried some with me to hand out when people say, "Are you guilting for others?" It has paid off and I am going to do it through November. And, the best part is, I have some nice new quilts to work on.

Remember this one - it is not one of the new ones. But it is what I am working on now. It is a vintage top that was not finished by the original maker from the 30's and needs to be squared up by moving a couple stars around. It is now a huge parallelogram. The nice part about having Hoke (my IQ) is that I have a fleese baby quilt loaded that I am having him drive Miss Daisy around to quilt while I sew. It was one of those projects that got put aside during my year away. The owner is not concerned as she had three to do and this is the last one. She has had them unfinished for several years. It is nice to have understanding customers. I will finish it completely with a remodel, quilting and binding.

Today I am going to vote as I am going to be gone on a "college girls" retreat starting the week of November 2. There are several of us who get together every couple years at a different place. We have been friends since we were freshman in college. In fact, the rest of the group all have been friends through junior high and high school all from the same small town in Montana. They "adopted" me. And - they even introduced me to my first husband. But, I have forgiven them for that and I suspect he has as well. We are heading to Lake Couer d'Alene for a wonderful, cool, quiet, retreat away. We will get in a shopping day to Spokane as well. There will not be much sewing, however, as only a couple of us are quilters.

I am heading to Missoula tomorrow and looking forward to the trip. I have been doing "day trips" - over and back in the same day and trying to go each week. It is such a thrash as it is a 3 hour drive each way. So, I am now going to go over every-other week or so and stay overnight. Mom has a second bedroom in her apartment that she uses as a computer/music room, but there is space to set up a roll away for a visit. It will be good to have time to visit and to "just be".

A good friend shared this with me this morning: "Days pass and years vanish while we walk sightless among miracles." It is all good!

The weeks fly by . . .

We went to the football game again yesterday and it was 68 degrees with lots of sunshine. Last week we were in a blizzard and this week lots of the fans wore shorts. Only in Montana!

Here are a couple pictures of a small wallhanging I quilted for a friend. She wanted to throw it out, but we decided to give it a shot to see what it would look like after it was quilted. It was her first effort at needle turn applique from a class she took in Hawaii. I think it is nice and the quilting really added a lot. It is for an area in her bathroom and it goes with the color scheme in the bedroom.

I will be more attentive to my blog this week I hope. I am working on lots of projects. Weston is coming to visit on Tuesday and I am heading for Missoula on Friday. I will meet with Dad's doctor to review the meds he is taking. Something has changed this past week and he is not recognizing anyone who visits. Dad is 90 and I want to make sure something has not changed with his meds. I can accept his aging, but not drugging him into a stupor just because he is aging. Nothing is simple in this whole story.

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference."
--Reinhold Niebuhr

Ah - winter is here in the Northern Rockies

The cold weather came in on Friday and the snow started Friday night. It has snowed off and on since. We went to the Homecoming football game yesterday and were fortunate to be inside in a sky box area for alums. It was a total whiteout at times with snow blowing so hard you could not see across the field. And of course we lost to Weber State from Utah. They were just a much better team and tough.

This morning we have about 6 inches with some drifting from the wind. The leaves are still on many of the trees so there will be some broken limbs. The picture is taken just opening the door to the back deck. The weather man is predicting it will all be gone in a few days, but sometimes these early snows never really leave until spring. I wonder if that will happen this time. The mountains just south of us have up to 30 inches and I am sure that will be there with more added for the next 6 months.

Finally -

After all the crises of this week - family, weather, work, financial - Meagan's quilt is finally headed to Portland. Here is a cute picture of her from yesterday - it is taken from a cell phone so it is a bit blurry, but she is so proud of her outfit for "school pictures". Below are a couple of pictures of her Halloween quilt with the purple minkee backing she loved. At some point "done" became better than "beautifully done". I hope she likes it and remembers the fun time we had picking out the fabric and cutting the first little squares

Work break . . .

"Change is a measure of time and, in the autumn, time seems speeded up. What was is not and never again will be: what is is change." Edwin Way Teale

I just had to share a couple cute photos of Weston and Kassie from yesterday. We are getting some cold weather and I suspect the leaves will soon be all gone as is normal for Montana by mid-October. We will still have some warm days, but summer is certainly over here. Some days he just looks too grown up! Where has the time gone?

One for the memory books . . .

Yesterday was quite a day. The only way to talk about it is through a list so here goes. . .
1. Leave home at 5 a.m. to take the neighbors to the airport for their month long trip to Australia.
2. Pick up Weston in his jammies at 6 a.m. for a day trip to Helena to visit one of my best friends for breakfast and drive on for a day in Missoula to visit great grand parents (214 mile drive with Helena about half way)
3. Flat tire on the LilyB about 50 miles from home off Interstate 90 in the middle of rural Montana. Call to OnStar for repair assistance
4. Three year old being very good - watching Toy Story 2 on the DVD in the LilyB - the one we didn't think we would ever use.
5. State trooper stops to assist, but OnStar repair also just pulls in.
6. Tire changed, but tire not repairable.
7. Drive on to Helena - 50 miles - thank goodness for cheese sticks and grapes.
8. Find a new tire - very difficult as the LilyB has the new large wheel, low profile tires.
9. Three year old being very good - changed from jammies to clothes in Starbucks across the street from the tire store.
1o. "We can make you a very good deal on the other 3 tires as your tread depth is quite different".
11. Buy three more new tires - wait another hour for those to be put on - more cheese sticks, grapes and fish crackers with chocolate milk
12. Thank goodness for a wonderful friend and a great neighborhood park as the three year old is still being very, very good.
13. Head for Missoula after a three hour delay - another 100 plus miles - more DVD time with "Little Einsteins and the Golden Pyramid"
14. Take Great Grandma Jean to a spectacular park in Missoula and we all ride the "second fastest carousel" and play in an amazing playground - I didn't go down the slides though.
15. Have a fun visit with Great Grandpa Roy in the nursing home.
16. Supper at MacDonald's with a Happy Meal that has a Batmobile. . . of course Grandma had to arrange a trade for the original "Madame Alexander" doll - now I know he is "pretty", but it is clear he is all "boy" when we bought the Happy Meal - hmmm?
17. Head for home - 3 plus more hours in the car. Three year old loving "Charlotte's Web" - watched it twice.
18. Arrive back home 16 plus hours later after we stopped to put the jammies back on about an hour from home and a couple more cheese sticks and a banana
19. Great Day!

Certainly one for the memory books.