Hallelujah!!!!

We did it, we finally have DSL. I should have known better than to believe that young man who tried to tell me I couldn't get satellite internet, without paying him $500 to do a custom install. lol I might have been born at night, but not last night.

I called Hughes Net, and within the week, an installer was here putting it on the roof. Hooked it up and now tada I have high speed internet. Oooh where do I want to go first? lol

Lots of snow in the last few days. Should be out snow shoeing. :-)

This week coming I have an appointment with the occupational therapist to help me get mobility back in my wrist. And maybe some strength in it too.

I'm also feeling lots better and starting to get that itch to clean! lol Poor Wayne. He complains cuz he can't find anything once I'm thru. What he doesn't know is I actually found it and put it away again.

Kids have been sick. Dakota has a virus that is causing high fever each time the Tylenol wears off. Allie had both ears infected. Jeesh, how do Eric and Hollie do it? Lol

Got a new applique quilt pattern last week. It's called Autumn Pathways, by The Quilted Crow. They're from Australia. Just love those Aussie quilters!

Well, that's about all that's new. Take care,  sylvia

Another new day...

Hello All... I'm trying to keep this up a little better. lol

Lots of good news since I last wrote. Allie had her first MRI and it came back clear. Thank God! She has to have an MRI every three months, but we can do that. The doctors are very positive that they "cured" this cancer. From their lips to God's ears...

I've also gotten the hard cast off and a soft removable one on. Whew.. what a relief. Although I didn't realize how much I'd gotten to where I relied on that hard cast. Guess I can't pound nails with my arm anymore... lol

Wayne and I have been spending some time at the camp lately. Headed down on Valentine's Day and started ripping down the old ceiling. We got the ceiling out from where the bedrooms used to be before we ran out of heat. Propane bottle empty! lol I've since ordered the natural gas fireplace insert and also got another propane bottle... this one full! lol Once the weather breaks and we don't have to use a salamander to keep warm, I'll take the propane bottle back.

Here's another block of my Baltimore's Country Cousins applique that I've been working on. Love the "blue bells". lol














This is the wreath block from the Baltimore's Country Cousins I've been working on. Fun but lots of leaves!!! lol

That's it for now. Thanks for tuning in! lol  sylvia

Welcome Back...

Anybody out there? Lol I'll bet you're wondering what happened to me. Well, the last day of the year, New Years Eve Day I managed to fall out in my driveway and break my arm!!! The Radius bone down by the wrist. I was in so much denial that it wasn't until the next day that I asked Wayne to take me to the hospital. Xrays and cutting off my wedding band later, it was put into a temporary cast. :-( By Monday of the next week I got into an orthopedic doctor and good news was it didn't require surgery. The break was in place. Bad news was temporary cast taken off and a hard permanent one put in. Today I'm finally out of the hard cast and into a soft removable one. I take it off while I'm at home. It's been tough! lol

We are hoping to get back to working on the camp when the weather breaks. We went down a few weeks ago and looked things over after the high water and it was 16 deg F in the sun!!! lol We're both eager to get the old ceiling down and new one up with insulation. Then we can stay there. But there are a LOT of leaks to be plugged!

Here's a photo of my new little hand sewer! lol I found these Lace Up cards in a Clotilde Catalog and remembered them fondly from when I was little. I used to sit by the hour and "sew" with them. Allie enjoyed them tremendously even though it was a struggle shoving that big plastic needle and yarn thru the holes. It was my girlfriend Louise that reminded me that they used to be shoe laces rather than needle and threads.




Take care all, and hope it's been a good year so far for everyone!  Love and best wishes to you... sylvia

It's Almost Here...

Christmas is almost upon us and I'm just about ready! lol Presents all got wrapped yesterday, everything is in "grocery sacks" to be distributed maybe tomorrow. Caramel corn turned out yummy as usual even though I only made 8 double batches this year. lol Elderberry jelly is hopefully going to be as big a hit as my currant jelly is. The currants did so badly this year due to cold, rainy conditions they just didn't want to ripen. Only got enough for one batch of jelly. :-(

Having trouble getting into the spirit? You need a little one in your life. I had Allie a lot last week and what an inspiration she's been to my holiday spirit. We baked cupcakes and listened to Mickey Mouse's Christmas sing-a-long tape. We laughed and sang most of the morning. She also helped me put up my Christmas village. Now it's HUGE let me tell you. I've got it on most of the surfaces in my good living room. Town on a table top, country village on the bottom of the parlor table, Skater's ponds on the coffee table, and the farm on top of the piano. She was so good about helping me get it set up. It was ME that dropped a piece and chipped it. lol Boy did she give me the evil eye!!! lol

I had the opportunity to take Allie to Wayne's Christmas party at work. She enjoyed all the kids there and was just settling down to eat lunch when who should appear... SANTA! I got to experience that wonder and amazement this year and what a gift it was. She also received a gift from him: a ballarina skirt and tiara with jewels. We put it on and she danced (in her snow boots) with me. Thankfully Grampa was clicking away with the camera. I'd post a photo but it's still on his card!!! lol

I have some sewing to do today to complete my gifts, then hopefully will travel the country side spreading good cheer!

Take care all, and I hope to be more conversive in the future. I think there are a couple people who actually read this! lol sylvia

It's Finally Here...

November 17th is finally here. It's Allie's last day of radiation. Yippee! She's handled this like a little trooper I tell ya. A lot better than most of us. :-) I hope they take the PIC line out for her also. That's the line in her arm that they put medicine into her with or draw blood with. It's been great to have, but we all can't wait for it to be gone... Allie most of all I suspect.

I guess when this is all done, we wait 3 months for all the swelling to go down and go from back for testing then. This will tell if anything has come back or whatever. I don't know how often Allie will be monitored but I supect it will be closely.

November 17th is also the day the new Star Trek movie comes out. Yippeee! lol I loved it and can't wait to buy it and watch it again in the luxury of my own home. It's the best ST move ever!

I got the swine flu last week, after getting home from the Ronald McDonald house. lol It seems I had it before... 1976 to be exact. It came around the first time back then and I must have caught it. Why? Because even though it wasn't fun, it wasn't as awful as some have had it for me. It seems once you've had it, you build up a slight immunity to it and don't get it so badly the second time. Whew. But I'm feeling much better. And quite honestly, this is the FIRST week I've actually felt retired! lol

I have had my older grandson Tony for a couple of nights now. It's nice to visit with him. I see him so rarely now that he's a busy teenager. One thing that surprised me was when I went to pick him up from his indoor track practice, he told me to tune my radio into 93.1 WEST. It seems he's involved with the West High radio station. It was really neat to hear his voice on the airwaves!!! lol

I've been working on the Baltimore's Country Cousins blocks. They're a LOT of work just to get them prepped and not even sewn! First of all, she doesn't give you an entire template, nor one the correct size. So, from there you're enlarging, and printing out mirror images to get an entire layout of the block. Then the overlay, then templates. It's taken two days to do another block. I'm almost certain I won't be doing the whole quilt. I don't want to get wore out from it. lol

I haven't heard from my friend Kirsten in the UK for quite some time. I hope and pray she is all right. Life sometimes has a way of getting us overwhelmed. I hope that's all it is...

Take care!

Where has the time gone?

I'm currently living in the Ronald McDonald house in Rochester, NY with my DIL and DGD who is almost thru her 5th week of radiation. It has started to finally kick her little butt so that now in the afternoon she's napping, and by nighttime, she's ready for bed. She's all but off the effects of the steroids and back to her sweet little self. :-) I'm honored to be here to help them get thru it.

I managed to finish my "Waiting Room Quilt" and am thrilled with the results of my first totally hand appliqued project. It is a Piece O'Cake design that I did thru the Applique Cafe yahoo group and their bom beginner's class. Loved it, and all I learned from it. I've enjoyed hand applique so much I've even started a second project from Susan McKelvey's Baltimore's Country Cousins book. It's like a Baltimore Album quilt, but a bit more countrified. lol

Yes, it's finally official. I am retired. I wasn't sure my "boss" was ever going to get convinced. She in her infinite wisdom, refused to believe me when I told her and proceeded to put me on November's schedule. When I called the HR department to tell them what she had done, the laughed and suggested I #1 NOT report to work, and #2 NOT worry about it. I told them I had NO problem doing either of those suggestions. lol

My Mom is doing quite well from her hernia surgery. My husband is also doing well from his knee surgery. AND, quite unexpectedly, my MIL is doing well from her emergency surgery on a cyst that ruptured inside of her. Oh yes, I'm ready for all of the stuff to stop and some sort of quiet normalcy to replace all this. lol Quiet? ME?

If I can figure out how to do it, I hope to include some photos in this post. I think I've forgotten everything in the time I've been away! lol

Take care, and enjoy the sunshine. We see so little of it this time of the year. lol sylvia

Vacation, and cleaning...

I am still officially on vacation folks, so I don't consider myself retired yet. I did call down and make my selections on my retirement so it's only a matter of doing the paperwork. Isn't that always the way it is? LOl

Allie, Daddy, and Mommy are in Rochester this week for her first radiation treatments. Had to make some adjustments to the mask to hold her face, and to her meds to put her into sleep mode. Once she woke up, they got her out and headed back to the Ronald McDonald house. From there they went to the zoo to see the elephant, nocerous, a turtle as big as a tractor tire, and lots of other things. Then they went to Eric's dream place: Fantasy Hobby. All about RC cars and slot cars and on and on... lol Glad they're making an adventure out of it. As of today, only 5 weeks and two days to go.

Me... well now let me tell you. Life has changed. I get up when I want, go to bed when I want. LOL And this is only vacation!!! I decided to start cleaning my bedroom. Moved everything, cleaned all of it, took curtains down ( who know they would be fuzzy on top from dust!!!) tore the bed apart and washed all my bedding. Including the mattress cover and a down comforter that's never been washed before. Now I wasn't really sure how to do it so thought, ok, just do it. Washing came out all right, but wasn't sure of drying. You ever seen a down comforter when it's wet??? Not pretty. I dried, and dried, and DRIED it. Thought everything was all done and put all my bed clothes back on the mattress. Crawled in that night after 10pm which is LATE for me. Laying there sort of drifting off, when I thought, "I'm damp!!!" Yup, that darn comforter was still slightly wet. Jerked it off the bed and went back to sleep. Woke up at 3:30 am and thought, I still feel kinda damp. Got out of bed, and guess what, that mattress cover never really got all the way wet. Soooo there I am, drying everything. The hint on down comforters is ever ten minutes, take them out and shake the feathers out of them... they lump up. You can tell it's dry the bigger it gets! I have so much down and such in the lint trap of my dryer I think you could crochet a chicken!!! LOL Finally got everything dry and threw it all back upstairs on the clean floor because I decided to let the mattress dry! OMG, it's only my first week off! lol

Shopping today. Going to get a hair cut in a bit. Then on to mall to pick up stuff for my MIL.

Hope this finds everyone well. Enjoy the wonderful fall weather, I know I will be!