Not much to say, even though I haven't posted for a month!

It seems that the WORST leads to the BEST this entry. So I wont separate them. I'll add quilts at the end, especially if the computer will let me add pictures today.

We are in the cold capital of the world. Usually the DC area is pretty mellow for December. But one of the largest snowstorms ever happened on Dec 19^th. And still now, some of the snow hasnt melted. Its been just too cold.

The 19^th, the first day of the snow, Katie and Connor were supposed to fly out to Utah to spend Xmas with his family. But every airport closed, every flight cancelled. So 12 hours and 22 inches later, it was Sunday morning, the 20^th. Church was cancelled. Everything was closed. Streets impassible. But we got up, shoveled driveway, cars out, sidewalks and a passway to the main street. And Bryce and I drove Katie and Connor to BWI Airport. Yes, BWI. It was crazy. But we made it. And with all the cancelled flights, for some reason, theirs was not cancelled and wasnt even late. So they got home to Utah. YAY.

The day before (the 18^th), Allie came over (she lives close), and the rest of the girls were here, so we had a family Xmas dinner, opened gifts to and from Katie and Connor and had a really nice family time. Then the next day, since we were all snowed in, we played games, watched movies and helped neighbors dig out of the snow. (Especially neighbors who were widows, ill, etc.) It’s a good time to do service. After returning from the airport on Sunday, we helped shovel walks of widows and the like in the ward, the ward building walkways, neighbors again, etc. We were really really sore on Monday.

Natalie and Jenna are back at school. Jenna is taking a few GE classes and an ASL class. She has a 20 hour a week job from 12-4 m-f. How perfect is that? Natalie graduated in December (Math ed major) She is looking for jobs and interviewing whenever she can. She is anxious to start earning money because her savings are dwindling with lots of expenses and no income. I miss them.

Allie's car, Wilson, is about dead. It still drives in the horrible way it always did, but now it wont pass inspection (exhaust leak) and the repairs will cost about 6 times what she paid for it. So we've been looking for a car and found a beauty yesterday. 2003 Toyota Corolla only about 77.000 miles. Nice shape. We pick it up on Monday. Now she needs to find a better paying job so she can start earning more than her meager living expenses. (She wiped out her savings to buy the car.)

I have made about 9 quilts recently. I tried a dozen times to add pics, but it wont let me. I finally allowed one picture. The rest, check out my facebook where i put pictures of nearly all my quilts.

BYU football, Thanksgiving, Black Friday and sewing withdrawl

WORST-

1. as usual, my body doesnt seem to want to cooperate with the happiness plan. All kinds of problems. Then, for almost 48 hours, I had restless legs so bad I couldnt even sit at the computer. I had to stand, walk, etc. I got about 3 hours of sleep two nights in a row. By Saturday night, my brain couldnt even function because of sleep deprivation. It's funny how rls (restless legs syndrome) works. The more tired you are, the worse the rls gets. But the worse the rls, the less you can sleep, so you get even more exhausted which makes the rls worse, which makes you more exhausted....... you get the picture. Finally, Sat night, I actually fell asleep and got a regular night's sleep.

2. Yesterday we had to finish raking leaves. Katie and Connor volunteered to help over Thanksgiving weekend, but of course, it rained most of the time so we couldnt rake. They left Sat morning and by Sat afternoon, it was sunny and beautiful. So we had to finish the raking alone. Bah!

3. Sit down for this one. It's really bad. My sewing machine is in the shop for cleaning, adjusting, etc. It has been there for a week, just stitting in the queue. And he wont get to it until next week sometime. I could have been using it all this time. But no....it has to sit in the store, just to stay in the queue. I am suffering severe sewing withdrawl. I try hand quilting, etc which helps. And I've cut out pieces for 2 quilts. Now I just need my machine.

BEST-

1. BYU won the annual BYU vs. U of U football game. We were able to watch the game (instead of listening to it on the computer). Brad and Keva Cochran (ward members) invited us to come watch at their home. They had family in town and everyone was a rabid BYU fan. So that made it even more fun.

2. This weekend, I made some major contributions to the economy, especially on Black Friday. Got some incredible deals. Got most of my Christmas shopping done. Didnt deal with many large crowds or lines. It was all good.

3. I used a gift card (from one of my 5th grade students when I left) to purchase a blender thingy (like magic bullet, but Cooks brand). With the huge holiday sale, and a customer satisfaction coupon, and my gift card, it only cost $1.76! I'm excited to use it. Hope it works as well as I expect it to.

4. I finished quilting (on the longarm) 9 quilts for other people. I should make about $750 on them. Which is being used to buy some more expensive craft and sewing items. Items that I want but dont need. So I use quilting money.

5. On Thanksgiving we went to see the movie, Blind Side. It was so good. The rest of the day I felt uplifted and happy.

6. Earlier that day, we had Thanksgiving at the church. Every year, I organize a potluck Thanksgiving for families in the ward who want to share Thanksgiving with others, but don't have family near by. We had about 35 people this year. No one wanted to bring turkey this year, so I had to do it. I was pretty nervous that the turkey would be dry and awful, and that I would ruin everyone's Thanksgiving. But I used the huge roaster that Bryce had given me for Xmas 2007, and the turkeys were perfect! YAY! Even my gravy turned out. Miracles do happen!

7. For the first time in nearly 30 years of marriage (I think for the first time), I have ideas for multiple gifts for Bryce for Christmas! He is impossible to buy for, but this year, I have like 4 good gifts. Exciting.

8. Our 30th Anniversary is coming up. But we have no idea of what plans to make for it. Sad stuff. ---- Maybe this should be on the worst list. (But how can you put info on 30 years of happiness on the worst list? You cant! So it is here.)

quilting, fall leaves, and Elaine Dalton

BEST-

1-I finished quilting 8 quilts (for pay) just in time for the Christmas shopping season to start. And I think I will have about 3-4 more before Christmas arrives. Yay for extra money.

2- I finished an amazing gift for one of my girls. Cant be specific since they all read this. :o) I also made some math geek bags for Natalie and some of her friends, using my YUDU and then sewing the bags.

3- I got some organizing done in the basement. After that, I looked at the dining room/computer room on the main level, thinking I would tackle it next. I think I have decided it might be easier to torch it rather than try to clean/organize it.

4- The fall leaves raking is done (nearly done). Very little left. This is the worst part of the fall, so it is so nice to have it done. (However, my back is aching because of it. Maybe this should have been put under the WORST section.....)

5-I have subbed again for the 5th grade. It's so funny how those kids treat me like a celebrity. I have a couple of days lined up in the future as well, including this Wed.

6-Thanksgiving at the church--every year I organize a potluck Thanksgiving at the church for those who have no family near by or who dont want to fix a whole feast just for their family. Everyone brings part of the feast, we eat all together, then all of us take home mixed leftovers for the next day. It works good. This year, our numbers are smaller, about 35. But often, in the last few days, we pick up a few. Normal numbers are 35-50. It's always fun.

7- The BEST OF ALL. Last Sunday, we went to a fireside for YW and their mothers with Elaine Dalton (general YW pres). I have to say, it was the most amazing thing ever. Really life changing. The YW in my car talked on the way home. They kept repeating stories, lessons, principles, etc. It was as though they had met a rock star, but one they wanted to emulate. She was so personable, and spent hours meeting and greeting and hugging every girl there that wanted to meet/greet/hug her. (And there were thousands!!) This is something that those YW will remember their whole lives. (and the moms that went as well.)

WORST

1-I have to bring my sewing machine in for servicing. It costs a lot, plus I am without my machine for about a week. AAAAHHHH. I hope I survive.

2- I have no idea of what to get a couple of my kids for Christmas. It will come, but I dont like being stumped this late in the year. I could always go with socks and underwear, right?

3- Holy canolli! Is that all the worst? I cannot think of anything else. hmmmm.

Friends, quilts and other stuff

The worst

1. My house is a wreck. I'm spending too much time doing stuff I will talk about in the BEST section.

2. Bad headaches this week. And a lot of them.

3. Jenna had another panic attack and ended up in the ER again. What are we going to do to control them?

4. I am so tired! All the time. I think the fact that I dont sleep at night has something to do with it.

The best

1. We had an old Stake Young Women Presidency reunion last night. Fun stuff. Heidi, Angie, Tashia and I met at 6:30ish at Outback. We ate too much food, shared desserts, and talked, talked, talked. Heidi donated her $100 gift card so it only cost each of us $5 for the tip. YAY for Heidi! We had missed hearing updates and stories from everyone (especially the hilarious Heidi). We got updated on what is happening in stake YW now. We talked kids, YW, wards, weirdness, dysfunctional families, and more more more. Finally, at 10:57 we decided it was time to go home. These ladies are a blessing in my life. They are amazing women! I am blessed to be around them.

2. I finished the green quilt retreat quilt. It is so beautiful. Everyone who made a quilt there wants to make another one with the same pattern. It is such a great pattern....it's stunning without being too difficult to do. I would take a pic, but it is so large that I dont have any flat space that large. I will have to take a pic at the church during quilting this week. It is fun to look at and remember what a nice time we had at the retreat, sewing with such good friends.

3. I used my YUDO machine! I finally got the nerve. It really was quite easy to use. I used it to silkscreen fabric pieces that I had cut out to make "I love math" bags for Natalie and some of her friends. They are turning out super cute.

4. The General YW President is here from SLC and speaking at a fireside in Maryland tonight for YW and their mothers. I am very excited to go.

5. I figured out TWO, yes, TWO Christmas gifts for Bryce! That is a miracle.

6. On Friday I subbed a half a day in the same school but a different 5th grade class (and will sub in my old class on Monday.) When I came in to the school, it was crazy. Kids ran down the hall in droves to hug me. They were saying, "Come back and be our teacher." "We missed you." and the like. Throngs of admiring 5th graders. It was hilarious. But it was about to get worse. I looked up and the teacher I had subbed for was running down the hall to me. She pushed through the kids, gave me a hug and said "Come back and be the teacher." (I laughed and mentioned I was going to be there on Monday, and she said, "NO! Permanently!" ) It was so funny. (FYI she was out on maternity leave with her 3rd child, the oldest is 5. She she is really having a hard time leaving them.) I wrote on my facebook that I felt like Taylor Swift.

7. Friday night was our annual RS Focus on Sisters. My neighbor, Carol VanGilst came with me. Vicky Carlson, a former member of our ward, whose husband is/was a) the highest ranked mormon in the military (4 star general in Air Force) and b) is now a member of the 2nd quorum of the 70, spoke at it. The theme was the 10 virgins. But she tied it into her experiences dealing with the difficult call to full time church service, and how it changed all the plans they had been making for 37 years (retirement). It was a great program. Carol VG and I enjoyed it. Afterwards, Carol and I talked about some things in our church, prophets, apostles, etc. Carol VG is a righteous Christian woman and a good friend. She likes coming to these with me, and I love having her come. It was a good night.

Its been a good week.

Quilting retreat extraordinaire! and more

GOOD-

1. Just got back from a quilt retreat all day Friday and Saturday. We quilted for about 26 hours total. We all worked on the same pattern, one that we had all wanted to do, but it looked so overwhelming that none of us dared try it. However, we thought if we all did it together, we could help each other. We were right. It was a huge job, very tedious, but it wasnt has hard as we thought it might have been and with 10 quilters there, we were all able to help each other through the trickier parts.

We held it in Mike Ray's garage, actually, in a huge workshop in his brand new multi-car garage. Heat (including a heated floor), a super long workbench, the perfect height for cutting, room for tables, trashcans, ironing boards and irons, etc for 10 quilters. The floor was so clean we could lay our quilts out on it. It was an amazing room! Then upstairs from that was an in-law suite of sorts. We slept, showered, etc there. (The Ray's home is also where the longarm quilting machine is kept/used--Karen Ray is one of the three owners --Karen, Sharon and Carol.)

So this retreat had no cost, super friends, endless quilting. How can it get better than that? (Oh, I just remembered, it COULD get better! We decided that next retreat will include a visit each evening from a lady in our ward who is a massage therapist. THAT would make the experience complete!)

This is the quilt we were working on. Everyone made it in different colors an sizes. You can see that mine was green and white. I made the largest size so it could fit on a queen sized bed. I still have to add borders but I cant figure out what I want to do for the borders. And because I am a really quick quilter, I finished my top (except the borders) Only one other lady finished her top, and hers was about a quarter size of mine. Everyone's colors were so different! And all were beautiful!

2. I have gotten a lot done around the house. Ran a lot of errands. Helped a family in the ward one early morning, fixed some real dinners, caught up with laundry, started organizing the Thanksgiving dinner at the church. This extra 10 hours a day is really great.

3. Molly got straight A's the first quarter! We were sweating it out in a few classes. But the schedule switch was good choice. It is possible for her to work hard and achieve success with this schedule. The teacher with her other schedule would have made it impossible to achieve success, even with an unreasonable amount of work and effort. YAY for Molly and her hard work!

4. For the first time, the computer let me add a picture to the blog. That is pretty exciting stuff.

5. Four of the teachers I worked with took me out to lunch to thank me for my hard work. We went to Mike's American Grill (the best/most popular restaurant in the area.) It was fun and nice of them.

WORST

1. I miss the kids in my class. I don't miss anything else though.

2. There is still so much to do around the house. Things I have been wanting to get to. But now that I have time, I am overwhelmed with all the things I want to do. How do I prioritize?

3. I now have the YUDU machine and all the accessories I need. But I am too chicken to actually try it. Yikes. (and dumb)

Another excellent week (if you dont count H1N1, migraines, fall leaves and obnoxious elections)

Worst--

1. non-stop headaches. Not fun. I can't figure out why they are so bad right now--I'm not stressed, not sick. Frustrating. Nothing seems to make them go away except percocet, and I cannot take that all the time.

2. Now I have to really start working around the house, since I dont have any excuses not to. (see best #1)

3. I miss my "kids" already. (see best #1)

4. The leaves are falling in droves. With so many kids gone, we are going to DIE trying to rake all the leaves this year. I actually fear how bad it is going to be.

5. Election day is Tuesday. We are getting 3-5 items in the mail every day, and get phone calls as often as every hour. This is insane!

6. H1N1 Swine flu. Everyone is dropping like flies. I sent two kids home Thursday, two on Friday. Families in our ward are reporting new cases every day. Last week, the high school reportedly had 300-400 kids out. EVERYONE KEEP AWAY FROM ME AND MY FAMILY!

BEST

1. I finished my long term sub on Friday. It really was a great experience, and I enjoyed it. (I didnt enjoy the 10 hour days, though.) My kids were so sad. Many brought in nice cards or gifts. (I got gift cards, chocolate, books, etc.) We had a really easy, fun day, with a 2 1/2 hour read-a-thon at the end, complete with candy, cookies, cupcakes, punch, etc all provided by excellent parents.

2. A lady I quilt for brought over 7 quilts for me to quilt, bind and tag. It will be A LOT of work. But I will make between $500 and $600. Excellent! I already have some of the money spent (in my mind anyway.)

3. Halloween was fun. Lots of trick or treaters. I gave away air heads. Molly was a princess, her best friend, Katherine, was a frog (Princess and the frog-new disney movie.......). I handed out candy while Molly, Katherine, her brother Andy, and Molly's friend Paloma trick or treated around the neighborhood. I tried to sew, but found I was interrupted too often to get anything done, so I gave up.

4. The stake High Priests annual dinner and social was Friday. Good company. Good food. We sat at a table with Kirk and Shawnee Marsh, some of my favorite people. One crockpot casserole was so good, I sat by the crockpot when the activity was over, waiting for the person to pick it up so I could get the recipe. It turned out that it was made by Ed Reid. It was an easy recipe that he just told me right there. I am making it for Sunday dinner. The entertainment that night was a sing-a-long, led by Pres. Erickson and his banjo. We sang a collection of unknown and bizarre ( but funny) songs--typical of Pres. E.

5. Michael Buble has a new CD out. I love the song "I just havent met you yet" Google the music video on youtube and watch it. It is so fun.

7-2 It must have been a good week.

Worst:

1. Headaches are back in full force. Migraines that last days. With medication, I function, teach, etc. But the same medication that takes an edge off the pain also makes me dizzy and loopy. I'm not even feeling stressed right now. I cant figure it out.

2. My house is becoming less clean. I am actually looking forward to some time to do deep cleaning.

3. nothing else???

Best:

1. My school kids have been fabulous this last week, especially when I've been suffering from headaches. M-Th will be pretty easy days this week. Friday is halloween math, PE, art, and a long read-a-thon. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Then I am done. I will love the free time, and time to accomplish much, but will miss (most of) the kids.

2. While still officially teaching, I have applied for some discount cards. Barnes and Noble, Virginia Science Museum, and will try for a couple more this week.

3. Next week, my first week off, I will attend a quilting retreat on Friday and Saturday. I am having fun anticipating endless quilting. I finished my homespun quilt this week (see pics on facebook since my computer wont let me download pics to the blog). I also made a super cute fabric box and started a purse.

4. I am reading "Three Cups of Tea" and loving it. I'm trying to convince Molly and her group of friends (who are starting a club to do service) to fundraise for this organization. Pennies are easy to collect.

5. Spartanfest was yesterday. I took Molly and two friends. I spent less $ than usual, got a new longarm quilting client, and also bought some cool stuff, including a long wooden board that says "Let us be silent that we may hear the whisper of God", a cool clipboard, notebook and mini scrapbook, fudge, etc. Next year, I am hoping to rent a booth and sell some quilts, maybe purses, and longarm quilting services.

6. I have signed up for Relay for Life walk. If you are able, I would love for you to contribute a little to my fundraising efforts. For years, I have helped fundraise for ACS (American Cancer Society). When I was a poor college student and diagnosed with choriocarsinoma, my insurance covered very little of our bills. The ACS gave us a grant to help with medical expenses. I have always been appreciative. This is another way to give back.

7. I bought a YUDU machine. To do silk screening (t-shirts, bags, etc). I am super excited. Used quilting money to do it.