My Mother, the Methodist!!

Just goes to show that we are never too old to change. Last Sunday, Grandma joined the Methodist church. Here she is with the pastor getting "sworn in."
She's not given any indication that she's in fear for her immortal soul, so I'm guessing that being a Methodist must be O.K. now.

Time marches on....

It seems to me that when you get old, time should slow down. After all, when there is less of it left, we ought to get to savor each moment of it. But, no, it just speeds faster and faster. So....in the past few weeks, things have sped on, even if I wasn't paying too much attention. We had five days of rain and chilly weather. A HUGE deal for us, and at the same time that Chicago was hot and sunny. What kind of a deal is that? Spring has been arriving anyway. I planted tulips in pots last fall, and these are the ones on the deck just outside the living room windows. I've enjoyed them so much. Even when it was too cold to go out, I had the bouquet just outside my window.I drug a whitebud home from Topeka last spring and worried that it would not survive last summer's heat. But look how cute it is! Blooming beautifully in it's first year.
At some point in late February, I met Linda for lunch at the Chinese place in El Dorado. She brought me up to date on the many transitions going on in her famiy.My computer got sick and it seems to be terminal. Something about the Mother Board going out. I guess it was no shame since it was seven years old. See my new one? Now I'm trying to get used to Windows 7. A few curses here and there.Toby got sick last week and had to go to the vet. A great huge trauma for both of us. Fortunately he got well without intervention so my night of terror was all for naught -- thank goodness.And in addition, Kellie has moved, Carrie has vacationed in Hawaii, and T should by now be eating solid food. Time moves on.....

End O' Feb!

Another month bites the dust! And the last of our February birthdays with Linda turning 48 on Tuesday. Things have been rather calm around here the past couple of weeks. I even got in one gardening day when the temp hit 63 on Wednesday. I finished the New York puzzle last week.It was fun to do because it reminded me of a particularly wonderful trip to New York at Christmas time. Now I'm working on the bears and butterflies that I got from the Barkers. The first part was easy, now....not so much. A few clouds, a lot of white sky and thousands of blue butterflies!My bigest techno-accomplishment to date occurred this week. I installed my new printer, got it wirelessed, and printing. It was a significant challenge. At times I thought I might have to give up and call the computer guy. But only a few hours later, it was printing beautifully.Toby kept me company the whole time, which, of course, made the task easier.The quilt I started last August was returned from the quilter last week, and I got the binding on it. This is the one where I learned to do curves. LOTS of them!

Exciting (?) Events in VC

At Kellie's urging, I have been investigating medical alert systems. Grandma seemed O.K. with the idea and I discussed options with her. My choice was Phillips LifeLine because it is the only one with the super "auto alert" which can sense a fall and will automatically contact the monitoring agency. That means that the person can be knocked unconscious, unable to push a button, and help will still be on its way. The device arrived on Friday, and we got her attached yesterday. BUT.....the reality was not nearly as agreeable for her as idea of it. I got a lot of frowns, sighs, and pursed lips during the process. The smile below is only because I forced her to do it for the camera.Maybe the smile will become less forced after she gets a few encouraging comments from her granddaughters.

And then there is the vacuum deal. When Grandma got a cleaning service, it seemed a good time to retire her 30 year old clunking vacuum. That became the perfect excuse for me to invest in the Dyson that I've been wanting. As luck would have it, I found the top super-sucker model on sale at Best Buy. It's truly wonderful. It will suck the paint right off of the wall. But.........it won't go under my beds, the dressers, or the coffee table. And my cats do. So, that meant that I had to keep my old vacuum for those special places. After a trip to WalMart. Grandma had a brand new vacuum for her house. That left me with my old vacuum, my little quickie vacuum that lives in the coat closet, the super-sucker and a carpet cleaner for upstairs maintenance.
There is another upright vacuum and a hand-vac for the downstairs. That seems to be a grand total of FIVE vacuums and one carpet cleaner. Yes, I DO recognize that this might be indicative of a certain personality "issue"!!!

End of another week ....

It was a relatively calm week, thank goodness. Bud and MaryAnn were here Tuesday night in order to get MaryAnn to the opthalmologist for an early a.m. appointment on Wednesday. She and Toby had a bonding moment while watching me cook. The eye thing is not going well for her, I'm afraid. She's on lots of medications trying to get a big infection conquored.Kyle the Handy-guy was here on Wednesday doing a bunch of kitchen related things. He took off the window frame and insulated the window so that I wouldn't have to put packing tape on it in the winter. He also re-calked around the cabinets, leveled the oven, glued a chair, and is making a divider for the cabinet where I keep my cookie sheets and assorted big stuff. LOVE that guy!A bunch of people from our graduating class got together for breakfast yesterday. I don't know why THEY are all getting so old!I've had some time to spend in Quilt World this week. My small quilt group is making 35 of these funny looking pincushion-scrap bags. Don't they look like something Grandma would have come up with? Not my idea, but I'm doing my best to be a team player. Only five more to make.I got a few more blocks made in my circles project. I'm not sure what the final product will be, but for now it's just circles-in-progress.Grandma has been feeling pretty good this week. We go back for the results of the cardio tests tomorrow. She's been enjoying the attention from her granddaughters. She's got SUCH good granddaughters!

This Week

After a far too eventful week, we finally got to the end of it. Grandma was feeling better than she had earlier, although I'm not sure why. I took her to get a pedicure.It seems that she can't see well enough to cut her toe nails and nipped her toe the last time. Well, you know I just don't do foot things, so a pedicure seemed the best option. She insisted on paying for it herself, and didn't like how much it cost. I may have to do foot things after all.

The week began well with my small quilt group coming for lunch on Tuesday. It was our Holiday Luncheon, but a bit late. I made Swedish Meatballs for the very first time and served them in my new blue casserole dish and we initiated my new tablecloth. They were yummy! (The meatballs) And....very easy.I'm not sure whether I ever told you all that we did finally close on the sale of Grandma's house. The money is in the bank, and I'm so very relieved. We can pay Grandma's rent for a long, long time. I also gave the boys' quilts to Jason and Julie. They loved them.

We go back to the cardiologist tomorrow for a stress test. Neither one of us is looking forward to that. More later..........

2012 -- Catching Up

I've been a lazy blogger of late. Time gets away from me -- because I am sooo lazy!-- and then catching up seems overwhelming. So, going back in time:

Mom and I went to Linda's for a post-Christmas luncheon.In addition to yummy chicken & noodles with mashed potatoes, Linda also made a very lovely apple pie -- from scratch!! Impressive.And then on January 2, we had visitors from the far north.Joe came with them this time. I was more than trepidatious after hearing Sandy's story of her much-in-love neice and boyfriend at Christmas. But Sam and Joe were a delight. What a nice guy she's got!We had a wonderful afternoon at the Zoo, taking Great Gram along in her wheelchair. The weather was great and we got to watch feeding time with the tigers. Cool!! Sam bought a stuffed otter for Shelby. Now, wasn't that nice? She named it 'Otto' and fell quite in love with it.Stella visited for a few minutes at the beginning and at the end. Next time I will make sure she stays the majority of the time at the local doggie resort. I can't take the guilt of having her in a crate in a dark garage. Clearly, she's much too elegant for that.We had a couple of games of Scrabble, which let Grandma join in on something that she felt good about. A nice multi-generational afternoon.All too soon, it was time for them to leave for a night at Linda's and then on to Chicago. The van was packed with Grandma's dresser in the back, T and Shelby in the front.Stella, Sam and Joe were cozy in the middle.And then to help with that post-visit at-loss feeling, I cleaned house and finished my table cloth.