Christmas 2009

I feel like a big, woolly bear, crawling out of my cozy den on Christmas Eve to just have a look see. After a long stretch, a healthy yawn and a sigh, I want to wish my friends out there in blog land a very Merry Christmas. Add to that a healthy dose of good wishes for a bright New Year, and back into that warm, cozy spot, I go.

Life has had it's challenges for my family this last six months but in reflection, we really are doing well. All the surgeries except one have been accomplished with good out comes. SIL Joe goes next week for a out patient procedure to check and possibly repair the vein that had the clot in it this fall. We are in deed a lucky bunch and I celebrate that with all my heart. Good health is, indeed, one of life's greatest gifts.

May you all be so very blessed.

Goal for the New Year........health and quality time with my poor neglected sewing machine.

Life

No quilting photos as I have had to take a break. Life has really happened in our neck of the woods these past two weeks but I am happy to say, things are starting to get somewhat normal.

Son in law Joe was hospitalized with a blood clot in his chest. Long involved story but it was a congenital condition that required surgery to remove, then an additional surgery to remove the rib from that side of his chest. Then, he developed a hematoma which required another procedure to install a drain. Needless to say, this left us all scrabbling to make sure the grand kids were taken care of and that we could help our daughter as much as possible. The combined efforts of Joe's family and ours, kept kids safe and secure. He is home now, recovering slowly but surely and they are trying to get life back to normal a bit at a time. He will be on blood thinners for a long time, as well as having a projected long recovery process but, we are giving thanks for a good outcome.

I went ahead with my cataract surgery last Wed. It went very well and things looked good until sometime over the weekend. My night and far vision are awful. A post op trip to the surgeon confirmed what I already knew, the lens had slipped and will require them to redo it. This leaves me with the choice of doing it next or doing the left eye first. I think at this point we are going to do the redo first. The vision in this eye is now not very good and I would like to have at least one eye at a time in good working order. I do have confidence that it will work second time around...........not sure why, but I am OK with this. It was like a punch in the stomach at first, then talking with my great white hunter and my daughter has made me just want to move on. So Oct. 28, we try again. Got to come up with something cool to decorate my eye patch with for Halloween!!!

During the past two weeks, I have had enormous support from my blogging friends. Amelia, Granny Lyn and Finn have been there sending prayers and good wishes from the very beginning. I can not tell you how very much this has meant for all of us. I am truly blessed and amazed at the gifts this blog has given me.

I got up this morning determined to face the day with a positive attitude and get on with life. My near vision is very good so hope to find my self back with my Jewel Box quilt and getting a start on some Christmas projects. Life is good again in AZ!

Jewel Box Quilt

The sewing/spare bedroom looks like a hurricane hit, but it is creative mess. A few years ago, I bought some 6 inch batik squares on Ebay. I won two sets and I loved them. There weren't enough to make anything and they were small but there was a wonderful assortment of color and texture. Being the fabric addict that I am, I was content to take them out now and then, drink in their wonderfulness and enjoy them. During that time, I added a few batik remnants, a fat quarter here and there and there were some wonderful batik fat quarters in the fabric that I found at Goodwill. Still not what anyone would consider a "stash" of batik, but a great assortment.

Then I found this "Jewel Box" quilt pattern, and my batiks had found a home! (Sorry, but I can't get the link to work. It is from the About.com site) My great white hunter does not care for the black in this quilt, but I think it gives the punch needed to showcase each and every one of these lovely fabrics. It has also provided more practice on half square triangles, I WILL master those someday!

Here are the first two rows. All the units for the other blocks are sewn, so it just needs to be put together. It will have a black border and I will buy actual batik yardage for the back. (be still my heart!) Seriously thinking that this one will be a winter hand quilting project.




It is the first day of Fall and the TV says 99 degrees. We have planted fall tomatoes and cucumbers, flowers are next!

We are headed to the mountains this weekend for a quilt show, I am really looking forward to it, having gone to this one several years in a row. I will try to have pictures to post.

Finn asked for the date of my cataract surgery. It is the 30Th of this month. I have had my pre op appointment and have my eye drops and signed all the paper work. I am still not very comfortable with this whole thing, keep thinking about what the loss will be if it fails but trying hard to be positive. I love color so much and everyone says colors are brighter.......will concentrate on that for now. Thanks for asking, dear Finn!

Alive in AZ

I am still alive, have not fell off the face of the earth or been abducted by aliens! Really having a lazy summer where I am avoiding anything that feels like a obligation of any kind. I will come around soon........


We went on a wonderful run away from home trip to Colorado. We just drove until hungry, stopped when tired and forgot what day it was as often as possible. We saw some awesome countryside. I learned that even though I left Colorado for good almost 40 years ago, it is still home. I have lived in AZ longer than I did in Colorado but, where you grow up is always home.

On a personal front, I am headed to surgery the end of Sept. to remove the cataract from my right eye. Then the end of Oct., will repeat the process on the left eye. Now I always thought that cataracts happened to "OLD" people so I was surprised to say the least. Good news is they are going to implant lenses that will also correct my severe near sightedness.........so no more glasses if all goes well. Having worn glasses since I was 13 or 14, this will be quite an adjustment! I am also letting my hair grow back to its natural color, so no one might recognize me when things are all done!(Now if I could afford a face lift and loose a few pounds, it would be a whole new Norma.) I am very nervous about having work done on my eyes, but the cataracts will not go away without it and just get worse until I can't see at all, so thankful there is something to be done to take care of them. Meanwhile, I would be very thankful if you would include me in your prayers!

Promise to be back soon, maybe with some honest to goodness quilt content! I do miss my blogging friends!

Kid's New Pet

Julia and Colin have a new friend, actually two new friends as they added a friend for this guy after reading that this type of rat did best in same sex pairs. OK, he came to our house to visit but will live at their house so they can have all that the Momma and the Daddy will allow. This guy is Zion, and the other one is Bryce. They named them for the parks they visited on their vacation to Utah, Colorado and New Mexico earlier this month. He is a rat but cute. Can a rat be cute?



My great white hunter and I are excited. The kids come tomorrow to spend their last two weeks before going off to school. It is just during the day but Papa is working nights again so it will be fun. A great way to end the summer for them, and a fun time for us. We will live in the pool and have a few other fun things planned.

Hope summer is going well for everyone. It has been a odd summer weather wise. June had record breaking low temps and July has been HOT. Not much monsoon rain but we are getting the humidity and the threatening storm stuff. Just three months to go............ugh!

The Facebook Experience

My plan to stay off the computer has been a failure. I am addicted. I have tried to limit some things but just added others, so the time factor is the same. Is there a twelve step program that addresses fabric addiction along with computer over use out there?

My kids are big Facebook, Twitter users, something I resisted for a long time. Sharing every thought I have with the entire world was a concept that I did not warm up to easily. Then the Momma (DD) mentioned how she had hooked up with several of the folks she graduated from school with, and how fun it was to reconnect with them. I have been a member of Classmates.com for awhile but still thought this would be a great way to see if I could make contact with some friends from High School.

I joined Facebook and found a friendly face........our own beloved Amelia was one of the first to ask me to be her friend. I did find my graduating class although I was disappointed that there were not many names listed. Then I figured out that looking at the friends of classmates might lead me to someone that I knew. That worked wonderfully and I made contact with one of my best buddies. We exchanged information about our kids and where we lived. I was on a roll.

When you live in a small town all your life, even when you leave, you hear about people you grew up with. I read the local newspaper on line and have run across obits for former classmates, not a fun experience at all. There was one guy on the class list that had not grown up there, he had moved to town in our Senior year. I remembered him as being a really nice fellow and had often wondered what became of him. So I contacted him. He had NO clue who I was and that was apparent from the very beginning. He sent me his information, he lives in Washington D.C. and looks quite successful. I sent some of my information, but he never commented on it so figured he was not interested and was ready to move on. A comment about the summer after graduation brought a long message from him telling me his story. Two tours of Vietnam, three wives and a long affair with the booze bottle took us to 1985 when he became sober and straighted out his life. We talked about that........not once did he ask or comment on what I had been doing since 1965. Finally I decided that this was a one sided conversation that I did not have time for and wished him luck and that was that. So I have found one good friend, one high school buddy and one guy whose name was on the list.

I then made contact with another classmate, had good conversation with her about her family and life after school. Hey, this was fun.

About this time, the great white hunter son #2 asks me to be his Facebook friend. Now I didn't expect for my children to want me to have access to their private lives this way, but I said fine. That opened two more doors that had been closed for many years.

First was tgwhunter son #2's high school girlfriend. This girl and I had hit it off from the very beginning. There were times when I think she came to our house to see the family as much as to see my son. If he was working, she would call or just pop in. I jokingly called her my "other daughter" and she called me "Mom". When they broke up, she and I cried. She asked if she could still come to the house or could we at least meet now and then. I had divided feelings, I didn't want to lose someone that I cared about but our house was my son's home. I told him what she asked and he begged me to tell her no. So, I did and have not seen or heard from her in 20 years.

She made contact with him through Facebook last fall and found me on his page. My "other daughter" wasted no time in contacting "Mom". She is divorced and has two lovely boys. We have chatted a couple of times. She is headed to AZ to visit her family and told me she will be on my doorstep with her boys and we will do lunch or something like we used to do. This is a blessing I never expected.

Another one of tgwhunter son# 2's friends contacted me. This was a young man who was around our house a lot. His girl friend lived in the neighborhood and was in and out of the house all the time. When they married and had a son, they proudly brought him to our house. I remember sitting on the floor holding that baby. But as often happens, life takes over and people move on. I hadn't heard much about either of them for years.

Today, I got a long message from him. He and the girl friend divorced, he remarried and that fell apart. He wanted a mother to listen to him and console him.........and he chose me. I had to tell him that I am not the one he needs now. Mostly because he was feeling so sorry for himself and all that the world had done to him. My children could tell him that doesn't work with this Mom. If I chose to be his substitute Mother, I would tell him that he needed to look at his actions and ask what he did to get himself to this place, to grow up and take responsibility and then try and fix his life. I know that is not what he want to hear from me, so it is best he look else where.

So far this Facebook thing has been interesting to say the very least. Things seem to have calmed down for now. I might not find anymore "friends" and that will be fine. It has been a lot like life, pros and cons and more than one way to look at things.

This Internet thing is amazing.

Revenge

Ya'll remember late last winter and spring? You know when you were suffering though the dregs of winter, thinking it was never going to go away. I was posting pictures of my flowers and my new tomato plants and my lovely spot on the patio swing.

Well, folks, here is your revenge. This is what I saw when I climbed into my car this afternoon about two o'clock. Yes, you are seeing right, 118 degrees!



Granted the car had been sitting in the full hot sun for several hours and that temp did go down to 113 after I drove down the street a ways. July is not a fun month and this year it is really hot

So, now that you know I am getting mine, back under the AC with my iced tea...........

Just had to Comment

I read this and found it very interesting considering the recent developments on this show. It states how I feel about the entire matter. Years of watching that poor guy get treated like the family dog seem to have had the expected result, and I am amazed that folks are surprised at the out come.

Meanwhile, my prayers go out to those eight little ones...........with added prayers that the parents and TCL wake up and protect them. Oh wait, there is the large amount of cash involved. Hopefully the sponsors will realize that this is no place to showcase their products.....but then, there is that cash again.........


Should Jon & Kate Plus 8 Be Taken Off the Air?
This once-endearing show about raising twins and sextuplets has turned into a spectacle highlighting Kate's inability to handle the daily stress caused by her many hang-ups. Meanwhile, Discovery is essentially condoning her abusive tendencies...
http://www.associatedcontent.comarticle/506701/should_jon_kate_plus_8_be_taken_off.html

AGGGGHHHH!

To my reader at sbcglobal.net network out of Springfield or Miller, Missouri,

I really am not planning on posting much in the near future, you can rest and go check out someone else for a while.

Still smiling here in AZ,

Your friend,

Norma

Time Out

I have become very discontent with the blogging process lately. It is starting to feel like work. Life is very much the same from season to season and coming up with fresh new posts is not always easy to do. Reading blogs and trying to comment, plus answering comments seems to take a lot of time that could be used more wisely elsewhere. So, think it is time to take some time off and see if I can't maybe come back with a fresh prospective, or maybe fill that time with more constructive things. Time will tell on that one.

I am also disillusioned with a lot of what I am seeing and reading in some of the blogs now days. For the most part, I have made wonderful friends in blogland and I value those friendships so very much. I will be visiting those blogs and making a major effort to keep in touch with those people. You all know who you are. I may take a day and read and comment on others at random, but for the most part, Norma has "Gone Quilting/reading/crocheting/stitching and maybe, just maybe doing some much needed work around her home.

Have a great summer and I will be around later.