Unexpected . . .

It was a busy day - getting boys to school - Bob to PT for his shoulder - stuff at home - pick up new glasses and then pick boys up from school.

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As I was leaving the doctor's office after picking up my glasses I reached deep into a section of my purse for my keys and there I felt a watch.  It was Mom's.  I had put it in my purse on December 26th, the first night she was in the hospital after the first stroke.  She wanted me to take her watch and her rings so I put them in my purse - in a section that I rarely use.  Then she had the massive stroke and the ring and watch stayed there.

My sister wanted the rings so she took them shortly after Mom passed.  But the watch stayed deep in that pocket and I never thought of it again - until today.  Walking across the parking lot, reaching for my keys in a place they never are - there was Mom's watch.  A visit from Mom - a loving visit.

Sunday night -

We have survived the weekend and the best news is - so have the grandsons survived us.  One thing for sure - grandparents in their 70's are too old for 10 days of grand kids with school, birthday parties, after school activities, homework, lunches to fix and all that goes with it!  A few more days to go and we will all return to our "normal" lives.

Yesterday we all went to see the movie "Home" and we all had popcorn with some added "butter" - whatever that stuff really is.  Today we have all had stomach problems from cramping to quick exits to the closest - and it had better be close - potty.

School week again tomorrow and the boys are showered and fast asleep.  Good job, Grandma!

Tonight I will share a wall quilt I made for Weston a little over 9 years ago before he was born.  He is 9 and a half now.  I had just started quilting and it is a panel that I trimmed a bit and added a border. Then I quilted all the animals.  It was great fun!  One of my favorite projects!

Whew! But we are getting better!

No photos today!  I am just feeling lucky to have made it to Friday.  We have our grandsons with us this week.  Weston is 9 and Walker is 5 and of course they both go to school, want cold lunches, have some homework, after school activities.  And for this old grandma it has been quite a change of pace.
We will have them until the middle of next week when their parents return from a trip to Spain.

We are patting ourselves on the back for just getting through the week.  LOL!

Things are coming together . . .

It is going to be a busy time so it is a good thing that I am doing better with Mom's passing and all the surgeries for Bob and Stan.

Stan and Rainy (our son and daughter-in-law) want to build a house but feel they need to sell their current home first.  They mentioned about a month ago or so that they had a chance to rent a house for 9 months or a year and thought that might be a way for them to get their new house built and do some of the finishing and get more space which they need.

We made them the offer to come live here for the time it takes - even for a year.  We would love to travel, but are not comfortable leaving the place for very long without someone checking in regularly or living here.  And now we can be vagabonds for the year.  Well, they found the lot they like and the sale is in the works for that.  There is some interest by private parties for their current house which is really nice but quite small and they have two little boys who just keep getting bigger and having more and more friends.  It is all good.

And now we have to get with it!  We want to redo our bedroom - paint - new carpet - new bathroom tile - the works.  So we would need to clean it out anyway.  And now we are going to just clean it out for them to live in and then redo it when we get back and settled.  They are ok with the old - it isn't that bad.  The little boys both have "their rooms" here already.  But it means cleaning out closets, drawers, and all of that.

We are kind of planning on this taking place the middle of June after school is out.  Our motorhome is not new but it is in good condition and we enjoy it.  This will be home . . .

This was taken a couple years back.  But all still looks the same.  We are kind of planning to stay in Montana and the Pacific Northwest through September with at least one trip to the Black Hills to fulfill a promise made last summer to the grands.  Lots of places here we want to see and then we want to spend some time in Portland and we want to head out to the Hood Canal right after Labor Day in September.  That is about all we know so far.  Of course we will head south in the later fall sometime and plan on coming home in March or April next year.  So it will be about 9-10 months.  We can always come back here this summer as we have lots of room for parking the motor home right here should we want to catch up for a few days - maybe use my longarm.  I will be taking a sewing machine for sure.

We are thinking it is going to be lots of fun and something we have wanted to do for a long time.  So glad we have the chance.

It rained and rained - in March

It is very unusual to have lots and lots of rain in March.  It rained almost all night here and we live in "winter mountain country" if you know what I mean.  The grass is starting to green and I have heard tell there are buds on some of the trees.  Way too early.  But we are enjoying the lack of severe cold. We had lots of cold in December and the first week of January and then this amazin. easy, moderate winter here in southwest Montana.  

Art Quilters group today and an errand to do.  Easy day.  Trying to be kinder to myself and have some easy days so I can heal up and get back by creative muchness. 

Here are a couple of pics from the past.  

These are memories from a March visit from my good friend Gail several years ago.  We made purses and this one is mine from then.  I have never used it and I think it was 5 years ago.  

And she made this quilt which I then quilted for her.  It hangs in her home in Denver and it is very pretty there.  It was a nightmare to make as we changed up too many things from a pattern she had and we had lots of issues.  Good memories of lots of laughter and lots of wine - and a few tugs of hair we pulled out.

Good days . . .

We came back today from a few days at Fairmont with our son, daughter-in-law and grandsons.  Here is the little guy in the wonderful warm hot springs heated pool water in the sun.  There is a huge pool, hot tub (inside and outside), big slide and it has all been redone.  The air temperature was a little cooler yesterday than Wednesday, but so nice for March in Montana.  It is supposed to be mid-60's here tomorrow.

Bob and I took a ride around Georgetown Lake which is not too far from Fairmont.  Here is a picture of the lake with the ice still on, snow melting away and beautiful blue sky peaking through the clouds.  Fun times.

Struggling to get some new glasses to fit right so I can see and read.  I had a exam a month ago and got a new prescription.  Today I went back to the doctor since the opticians have remade them twice with that new prescription already to no avail.  So I went back to the doctor's office today.  The prescription is wrong according to the technician, but nothing can be done until I can get into the actual doctor in 10 days.  It has been a month already.  I love the frames as they are red and quite different from my wireless ones I have so loved for several years.  But I can't see distance and can't read with them.  I have never had something like this happen in my almost 60 years of wearing glasses.  It is annoying.  But it is life!  I will keep working to get it all fixed.  Or I will be riding my broom into the doctor's office.  It will not be pretty as I have little buoyancy yet.

And then life brings more learning. . .

I always feel we should feel blessed for all that we have. . . that no matter how difficult things are there are so many who have it worse.  And then this morning I came across this quote from Winston Churchill . . .

"If you are going through hell, keep going."  

That has given me strength and humor this morning.  Sometimes I don't have to feel blessed that Stan survived his heart surgery and recovery last fall, that Bob survived his carotid surgery in December, that Mom had lived a good long life to 93 before she passed in January, that Bob survived his shoulder surgery and is recovery so well.  Sometimes I just want to sit at the edge of the road and exhale.  The quote just seemed to fit - it felt like hell at the time - so I just have to keep going.

This weekend I also realized, with a smile, that it had felt like one of those old cartoons where the character was run over, flattened by a car like a pancake, and then able to get up all flattened out, go back into shape and take off again.

And a picture from the past of my creations just so there is a picture here.  My sister-in-law made this quilt from Kaffe Fassett prints with a traditional quilt pattern.  I did the quilting.  Sometimes I amaze myself that I used to be able to quilt like this.  I want to again.

Pause - Wait - Turn - Change . . .

Yesterday and today I just plain forced myself to go to my studio and do some work.  I have not run my A1 quilting machine for months.  This quilt has been on the machine since late July.  I am working on it again - seemed strange at first and now it is all coming back.  Doing the freehand ginkgo leaves in metallic gold thread.  There will be more quilting on the rest of the quilt.  It is an old UFO and a good project for getting me back into quilting and getting any bugs out of my machine and me.

I had just started it and found my 48 year old son had serious heart issues that resulted in open heart surgery.  After surgery he recuperated here for a couple weeks.  Then it was the middle of September and we started preparing for Bob's shoulder replacement surgery that we have known needed to be done for several years.  We were aiming at having the surgery in early November and then found out he needed to have the carotid surgery first before they would clear him for the replacement surgery.  So the carotid surgery was the 2nd of December.  And then Mom had the strokes and passed in early January.

So now Bob's surgery is behind us and he is doing well.

I also finished my first weaving project - a scarf.  Not sure how I will wear it and it is quite primitive in technique but I love the way it came together.