Fun-ish Wednesday

 Today was the day that Emily and I had chosen for our birthday outing, and even though half the things we planned didn't happen, we had such a special day.  In spite of the memory of last night's tantrum-filled debate.

It upset me so much that I actually wanted to call off our plans - or the ones I could.  She had so much going on today that she had had to schedule me into her day, and I tried giving her an out, but I think we both needed that lunch.  

My first stop was a mammogram at 9:30.  I have to go back every six months for a suspicious teeny calcium thing seen vaguely on the films.  I'm not complaining for sure.  I told the tech that I was thankful for it all just to leave there with peace of mind.  I also told her I was on the verge of a panic attack though.  So many things.  I felt like I might burst out crying if things didn't go just the way they should.  She said, "I saw that travesty last night too."

I got the last parking spot at the hospital and then had to walk in those doors.  It's a beautiful hospital, but it's also the one that has so many sad memories for us, the first one.  

Our first visit there, we noticed a huge fire in a fireplace and a grand piano being played in the foyer.  Beautiful shops and beautiful architecture and a Starbucks right inside the door.  We went up those open stairs with so much excitement because we were going to see our Baby Gray for the first time.  That's a memory I'll never forget.

All the beauty in the world can't hide the sadness that I see in some person almost every time I visit there.  It's a hospital, after all.  Maybe I'm looking for it, looking for the mirror of how we felt that fall four years ago.  I was sure if I had seen just the wrong sadness, I would have lost it.  But I didn't. 

Things were a little different as far as checking in and all the details, but Jackie the tech was sweet and patient.  After the x-rays,  I had to wait in the exam room for what was only a few minutes, but it seemed like 20!  I read all the things on the walls and paced and got some more hand sanitizer and looked at the time and paced a little more, and then I got to hear the words, "You're fine!  Just one more 6-month visit, and you're cleared for once a year."

I realized I hadn't been worried about bad news especially but thinking anything out of the ordinary might have sent me over the edge.  I'm going to have to get some little purple pills or something for days like this.

As I went out the back door, I saw our favorite shopping place.  Lily and Pearl, I think the name is.  Emily and I go in there needing nothing, and all of a sudden we think we need to go home with something or buy something for someone else.  It's that kind of store.

But not today.

I went from there to Target, skipping the quilting store for today.  I got in there and wondered why I was there.  I knew I probably needed to stock up on household stuff, so I put some stuff in the cart and then went and got a couple of grocery things.  The only thing I bought that I enjoyed was some cute Halloween stickers for the girls.  And then I was done.  Out of there!  

I met Emily in her parking lot.  I forgot I was supposed to call her when I got there, so we lost 5 minutes of our appointment.  We talked about where to eat and ended up going to one that was closed and then finding Agave Cocina open.  It was very nice and different, not your usual Mexican restaurant.  Emily got a salad with lots of good stuff in it.  I don't remember the details.  I think mine was wild mushroom and spinach quesadillas.  I got her to share one of them and then ate the rest!  

We did have a happy lunch, talking only about happy things - and maybe some outrageous things - and laughing a lot.  When we got up to go with not too much time left for HomeGoods, she mentioned going to the bathroom, but she didn't want to go in the restaurant one, and I said, "Do you just want go back to work?"  Both of us jumped on that.  HomeGoods can wait.  It's a place for wandering, not rushing in and out of.  We enjoyed the heck out of our beautiful day, and now we have plans to take the girls back one weekend and redo the day - most of it anyway.  

I was feeling so good by that time that I took the interstate home.  I just don't like fast driving, but there were very few cars out, and I remembered that I used to be a pretty good driver before I started being scared of things.  I had to laugh at our conversation about roundabouts.  I hate them, but I didn't realize Emily did too.  I don't mind the ones I go through a lot, but new ones make me nervous, afraid I'm not going to understand the flow of traffic.  I had two of them on the detour on the way.

She just seems to drive without any hesitation, but I found out today that she doesn't go to Target much because of the new roundabout.  I think she was half kidding, but that is one that no one seems to know how to navigate.  After a few times of it, I found a side entrance on the opposite side and told her about it.  My good deed for the day.  If you want to know short cuts and ways of keeping out of traffic, just ask me.  I'll go 10 miles extra to avoid an interstate!  

It was good to be home, and the cats were thrilled to see me.  I guess.  In their way.  Looking up from their naps and blinking and going back to sleep, if that's excitement.  I joined them in a nap and called it a good day.  

I'm going to avoid reading too much opinion about the debates.  I'm just worried that there are people who are praising Trump for his performance, and I know there are.  Those who don't care what he stands for, his racism and bullying. His lack of leadership.  His narcissism. The mammo tech was talking about the debate and said, "I don't like either one of them."  You don't have to like either candidate.  You just have to try to save this country from further harm.  There's one I know something about and one I know too much about.  I don't worship the first and find it strange that people worship the latter.  I'll choose the one who will try and lead us with some dignity, and I know enough to know which one that is.  

NOT ruining my night, and I seem to be good for several more hours!  I finished the girls' aprons this morning and have them ready for them.  

Graysen's second Mimi Time is Friday afternoon, and I have to find something for us to do.  I might be brave enough to go back to Issaquah tomorrow and look for some pillowcase fabric, maybe Halloween.

I forgot about Katherine's day Monday.  She's so easy.  She comes in looking around, just trying to remember how it used to be, and she knows exactly where I keep the snacks.  She's okay with a cookie and ABC Mouse for a while.  I caught my sheet-washing evidence too.  Everything!  All of it!  And pillows on the balcony to sun.

Her "strong" shirt.

A little work on putting the gems on her stickers and a little time lining up the dominoes.

Not too much interest in sewing yet, but she can sit and sift through a button box for many minutes.  She loved the little iron, and little scissors, and the owl pincusion.

She wanted to make a bracelet out of buttons, and I found some pipecleaners which made it so easy for her.  She was so proud!

Such special times with them.  I hope they never outgrow it.

Debates

 Against my better judgement, I watched the first presidential debate, and I am beyond disgusted.  I'll just leave it at that.  No decency, very little discussion, just name-calling and bullying from the one who is supposed to be the leader of our country.  And what is sadder is that there are people who actually were cheering their heads off for him. Or probably just watching Fox News who makes it sound like he was dignified and made sense.

 If he is elected for 4 more years, we know that more than half the country has no desire for making things better.  They just want "their guy" to win and keep on with the racism and violence we have now.  I can't believe he is still talking about raking the forests.  Like a 10-year-old very ignorant brat. 

If my girls read this one day, I'm sorry that this had had to happen to our country.

I Sewed it Myself!

 

My sewing day with Graysen finally arrived - way overdue.  Her 7th birthday in February was supposed to be the occasion of her getting her own little sewing machine, but we were not totally into it at that time, and then look what happened just a month after that!  No more sitting side by side and working together.  

Lately we've been relaxing a little on our togetherness, and it seemed the right time to give each girl a little special time.  Emily planned to bring Graysen by after school and take Katherine home to do something fun with her.  As they approached, I could tell Katherine was not happy with the idea though.  She wanted Mimi Time right then!  I bribed her with a maple leaf cookie, and she was happy enough to leave.  She ended up making most of these birthday cards that afternoon.  She just couldn't stop!

I didn't have any special way of introducing Graysen to the sewing machine, but I had sewed two pieces of fabric together beforehand to show her what a seam was.  Her eyes lit up when she saw it, and she said, "I want to make something!"  Those are scary words.  I only planned to show her how to keep her fingers away from the needle.

She was content to go over the names of things and was quite fascinated by the way the bobbin wound and where it hid and those buttons!  I think any little machine I get her will not have a needle threader, thread cutter, and up and down presser foot buttons, but I knew she would enjoy them.  And she did and remembered the proper sequence in which to press them - which I forget sometimes.

The seam I showed her was on two approximate squares of fabric, so I let her do a seam on the opposite side.  Wow!  She was so excited.  Then we sewed up the bottom, and I was thinking "beanbag."  She wanted a button on the front and went to my decorative button box and chose a bunny.  I pretty much had to sew that on since we had waited until we had a pouch done before we did it.  We then sewed the two sides of the top, leaving an opening, and she understood that.

And then the rice.  We didn't even make a big mess.

Once it was sewn together, she was SUPER proud of it.

 She enjoyed the decorative stitches a lot, and so did I.  I hardly ever use them, so I'm not sure what's there, so now I have a sampler.

She spent the rest of her time working on her stickers.  She's gotten quite fast with it now and loves using the stylus.  I forget she's left-handed, so I might have to take that into consideration when she sews.  

 While she was working, I was noticing this tree outside my window.  My favorite.

 The Little House aprons are now cut out and ready to sew together.

I woke up to Elise cleaning the kitchen, her birthday gift to me, including taking out all the shelves in the refrigerator.  I like that gift!

I haven't even thought much about football in nearly a year, and the game yesterday was kind of haphazardly watched.  It was recorded and watched after the actual game and then just whenever we happened to light somewhere. Emily and I liked the players' new shoes!

 Here's a video I found on a friend's Facebook page with a comment by an Alabama news guy.  The video is at the end.

Rick Karle WVTM 13

 

Yesterday at 11:48 AM  · 

Wow! I am truly impressed with the way the

Auburn University

Marching Band performed at today’s game.

As each SEC School is handling their numbers differently, in my mind the Tigers did a great job.

Banned from the field to perform by the SEC due to CoVid concerns (as are all SEC

bands), the 400 member Auburn band has divided into two 200 member bands, the first of which performed today.

First, a beautiful pre-produced video of the band was played on the big video screen, after which the 200 band members, with plenty of room to social distance, played pregame songs.

Horns had bell protectors on them and band members wore masks with special slits so the kids could play their instruments.

Click on the video below to see the pregame activities, and then give me your opinion.

My observation?

Officials from all SEC schools might want to look at what the Auburn folks did today:

They gave their fans and band members every slice of enjoyment they could find as they made the best of a tough situation.

What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqQK-Aae6Bc

It's taken me a long time, just picking it up every once in a while, but I did finish this puzzle for Mike! It's not pretty, and I did get some things started off wrong. The only thing I had to look up was Morocco's country, because I had MOO. It was MOR which made more sense. Clue: Round things? It was drinks, and I had doinks.

Close-ups of my birthday dahlias. So pretty.

Best Birthday Ever!

 According to my girls!  They were hungry for a celebration after months and months of isolation.  And they did it up right.  I'm too tired to do much more than post pictures right now.  I'm not used to this much celebrating either.

It was a beautiful day after all the rain, and I walked over to Steller.  I did have to have a ride home though because of the rain.

That white pumpkin is mine, picked out by the girls last night at the grocery store.

So excited!  They had been planning just how everything would look and happen and were falling all over themselves to make sure I saw everything.

There were biscuits from scratch, eggs, and bacon for a delicious tailgating brunch.

We got a little football in when we could pay attention.  War Eagle!

Such a sweet gift from Noreen.  

Much art work and cards from the family.

I always feel like I don't need a thing as far as gifts but only want good thoughts and good times, but some of the little things I got this year were just so unusual and thoughtful that I wanted to get pictures of them.

Emily always apologizes for picking me "strange" gifts.  I guess we're both strange then, because I love everything she picks out.  A puzzle without straight edges or corners.  It kind of messes up my mind thinking about it.

If this is the way it looks finished, I may be wanting to frame it.  Both of them.

This is an unusual one too - a picture of someone putting together a puzzle.

Another card with a picture to be framed.  It's from Kathy and reminds me of our mother-in-law Eleanor who loved hummingbirds.

These are big notebooks and just beautiful.  I'm picking one just for keeping my books and audio books straight.  I'll write down suggestions to request from the library in one place and then can't find it, and then I put books read or listened to in my planner.  I need to write a little review after I read them so I won't wonder if it's a duplicate or not.

The prettiest to-do list!  It's almost a shame to write the things I have to do on it.  I need to get a more interesting life.

Everyone seemed to know exactly what would make be smile.  Thanks to Debby and Barbara who know what I like.

Boxes of cookies from Fresh Market that I kind of hinted for since we don't have Fresh Markets here.

And the most unusual gift was a 51 year-old-picture from my one and only golf tournament.  I think our team of 4 won, but it was in spite of me.  I never quite gravitated toward golf but played only because we got free lessons through work.  I still have the same hair style.

The very sweetest was piggy-bank money in the girls' cards.  I asked if I should spend or save it, and they both yelled, "SAVE IT!"

I'll save these memories, for sure.  This was the first time in more than 6 months that we've relaxed and visited without masks.  We're all fairly well isolated and pretty careful, and somehow today we felt like just not restricting ourselves.  I'll worry about it for a while, of course, but those snuggles and hugs were sooooo good, and I needed it a lot.