Monday, February 22, 2010

WORST- (in no particular order)
1. Jenna is having a really hard recovery from her surgery. She is in pain, throwing up the pain medications, and missing tons of school. And I can't do anything to help. On the other hand, she is good friends with the Pott's family (Bro Potts in her student ward bishopric, and she has become excellent friends of everyone in the family.) Anyway, Sis. Potts is taking care of her at the Pott's home. That makes me feel much better. And fyi--Sister Becky Potts is a saint.

2. Allie's stuff (from moving back home) is a huge unsightly mess in my living room. I've tried to get her her to do a few boxes a day, but she isn't getting much done at all, so I started doing it myself. I get more done in an hour than she has done in a week. But I hate doing it. We have actually found more than $1500 in checks that she hadn't deposited. We were able to deposit all but $255. That check was too old (2008.)

3. In March, I was supposed to go to the Lancaster PA quilt show, but now I can't go. Disappointing to say the least. I may try to make a long long day trip to the Hampton VA show this weekend to make up for it. (Six hour drive round trip plus at least 8 hours there needed......)

BEST (in no particular order)
1. We had our quarterly quilt group retreat. We all did a paper piecing quilt. We always have so much fun. A lot of the time, I was really frustrated because everyone else seemed to work on theirs with out major problems. But mine kept having such problems! I was so frustrated. But in the end, I got it done and it looks amazing. Now to find a backing and quilt it. Here is a pic. But the border will eventually be a scalloped border instead of straight.

2. Katie and Connor are going to have a baby in August. We are all so excited! I am exercising great self control. I have known for a week and haven't made a single baby quilt.

3. I am nearly finished quilting the 4 queen quilts for my mom. One left to quilt then three to bind. (Binding is the part I hate so I keep putting it off.) I can't figure out how to get these to Utah--they are so huge! I will probably have to wait until April when I go out for Natalie's graduation. But since I am going to Utah straight from Boston, that too, is precarious. sigh....

4. We have had no measurable snow for more than a week. This is very exciting. But we hear more is on the way. Bryce was able to finally clear the bumpy ice mounds from the street in front of the house/driveway. Allie had gotten stuck there, as had other neighbors, but it was an ice sheet several inches thick (several, not a couple). But this weekend, it warmed up into the upper 40's, and he attacked it. YAY.

5. Stake temple day was on President's Day. We spent quite a few hours there and among other things, was able to do sealings for Shirley Lucia's family. (The elderly lady I helped take care of for several years until she passed in her mid 90's. She was baptized when she was 90, but was never able to attend the temple.) We sealed Shirley to her husband, daughter, and to her parents. Happy times.

Guess that's all. My kids are happy. I am happy. This is good.

Sunday, February 14, 2010




Best

1-We finally saw a snow plow. After nearly a week, our street was plowed. Now, dont think that this means the street is now clear. But the top 20 or so inches was cleared. And it also meant that a 4 foot by 3 foot wall was dumped in front of our carefully shoveled driveway. Because we went out every 6 or so hours during the storms, and shoveled about 6 inches each time, our walk ways and driveway were pretty clear. On Friday, we ventured out into the world.

2- During the storms I made 5 quilt tops. One small wall quilt and 4 large queen tops for my mother (to give to home teachers, friends, etc.) Now I need to put them on the longarm and quilt them. Here is the pic of the wall quilt--a replica of the Washington DC stamp. Sorry it's sideways. I dont know how to fix that. :o)



3-Allie moved home yesterday. Some conflicts with her landlord/friend/roommate that they couldnt resolve. So until she finds another place in her price range, she is home. It will be nice to have her around.

4- We have church today. (Shortened because the wards cannot overlap while the parking lot snow piles take up a quarter of the spaces). We have had church cancelled twice recently for the snows, so it will be nice to be there. It was supposed to be stake conference (the satellite broadcast to the stakes on the east coast), but they were all cancelled because of the weather.

5- I have joined our ward's The Biggest Loser contest. We are all on teams, and the team that loses the most percentage weight, wins. We get the support of each other, the motivation to lose, but NO public weigh-ins wearing tight yoga pants and sports bras. ICK. Hopefully joining this group will motivate me. I am going to try to get some of the participating ladies to walk with me in the mornings. Exercise is what I need.

WORST
1- Because of all the shoveling, my back is constantly sore. Sometimes just sore, sometimes extremely painful. Heating pads, medicine and my shiatsu massaging chair are all used constantly.

2- Allie's boxes are all in our living room, piled against one wall. Looks terrible. But we dont really have a place to store them. I will clean out a section of the playroom downstairs and put them there, probably this week, but I really dont want do it. Hard to get motivated.

3-Molly and Allie both want the premier bedroom in the house (Natalie's room.) Molly uses it as a second bedroom and as a "friend room" to goof off and watch movies when her friends are here. But Allie will be there as soon as I can move Molly without creating a major disturbance.

4- Because of the 10 foot by 6 foot snow walls completely lining our streets, we have no parking anywhere. We have to cram 3 cars into our driveway, then anytime anyone needs a car, we all have to go move the other cars. So irritating. This is already old, old, old. But we dont expect the snow to melt before late spring. Great.

5- Tomorrow is President's Day and the kids in our county have to go to school as a snow make up day. I told Molly she didn't have to go, but in the end we decided that making up a missed day of work wasn't worth it, so she will go.

I think that's all. I am trying to enjoy yesterday, today and tomorrow. Not only is that a generally good idea, but a snow storm is coming on Monday night and just thinking of more snow is making me cry.

Monday, February 8, 2010

The Blizzard of 2010 and more quilts


WORST
1-The Blizzard of 2010 (see best #1 as well). Snow like the DC area has never seen before. Crazy. We got 26 inches. We expect to be trapped in our house for another couple of days. A few people venture out, but we see a lot of them have to abandon their stuck cars. It's pretty bad. The above picture is of our picnic table and trampoline. Yes, both are under snow.

2-Schools, businesses, and governments are closed. No one can get out. And we have 5-10 inches of snow coming on Tuesday. This amount of snow puts us over the record snow fall for the DC area in recorded history. And remember--because we average about 4 inches of snow a YEAR, there just isn't snow removal equipment here. So it takes forever to clear streets, etc.

3-Bryce and I both have hurt our backs shoveling snow. Yes, we were careful and did it properly, but it was just too much for too long and it ended up getting to us.

4-Bryce is flat on his back with either food poisoning or a stomach bug. Probably the sickest I have see him. Sad stuff. The roof of our shed collapsed. The shed is DEAD. I called our home teacher to ask if he and his 3 teenage sons can come help me dig out the critical stuff (lawn mowers, spreaders, etc) so they wont get ruined. They will come help in a little bit--they have a truck and live close, so they can probably get out. Bryce and I will deal with the rest, the junk and removing the shed if the winter ever ends.

BEST
1- Blizzard of 2010. Can't go anywhere. We went out every 4-6 hours and shoveled about 6 inches each time. We have power. We eat, watch movies and TV, I quilt and quilt and quilt. It's a nice pace from running everywhere all the time.

2-I finished the final touches of a quilt and made 2 quilt tops. I also started a third quilt top which I hope to finish today or tomorrow. I am making 4 queen quilts for my mom--for her to give to 2 home teachers, to Naomi (the lady that drives her to the temple), and to Joyce Binns (the one that comes and cuts her hair every month). They all provide such Christlike service for mom, so together we are making them quilts.

3- On Saturday, we had a snow party. The neighbors on either side of our house treked through the snow and we had a potluck dinner. Chili, sloppy joes, chicken and rice, lasagna, veges, cherry cobbler, apple pie, and ice cream. And as great as the food was, the company was better. The VanGilsts, Bakers and Kennys. Nice time. Then everyone borrowed movies and headed home.

4- We actually had some fun shoveling snow. A snow plow actually shoveled the snow from the townhouses across the street, pushing the huge pile of snow onto the sidewalk between our house and the Kenny's house. Bryce took it as a challenge to shovel through it. First, for fun, he built stairs which Molly attempted to climb. I tried to post the video two times. Each time it looks like it is working, but then, no.


5- We have missed tons of days of school, and probably will miss most of this week. We have missed so many days that they really cannot have us make everything up. At least not reasonably so. Hopefully the days will be "forgiven" by the legislature.

6. I love Jenna's new blog posts. Insightful. Sensitive. She shouldn't be spending so much time on them, but I like them. Check it (Good Happens) out at http://lifesblessingsandthelittlethings.blogspot.com/2010/02/you-can-do-hard-things.html

That's all. As usual, after I post, I will think of things I forgot. Oh well.

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