Tolentreasures

Voted Most Popular Girl at Dialysis. That would be my mother-in-law. She is passing out these bags to everyone there. I finished these up yesterday morning just in time for her to take a new batch in to hand out. Who would have thought that there would be such a great use to all those heavier fabrics? That is my justification for why I don't get rid of anything. Hoarder's Unite!

If you read my previous post, I was perplexed as to what to make for lunch. I left it to what jumped out from behind the meat counter in the morning. It was burgers with some Italian mild sausage mixed in and lots of peppers and onions in sauce. I called them Fair Burgers. Pasta salad to go along with it. I am not much of a pasta salad girl, not really caring for Italian dressing much, but I made my own dressing and I really liked it. After I cleaned up the kitchen, I made a nice big pitcher of lime water. I love having this in the fridge, so refreshing and it makes a nice still life with these little lilies that jumped onto the belt at the check-out. So summery! I just know that summer and good health are just around the corner. Last night was the boys' sleepover and were they excited! They burst through the door naming everything that I had promised them we would do. Jumping and running and everywhere at once. Apparently their parents were not real happy that I had told them a...

This is what my yard looked like when I came home from work today. I knew that they were going to dig, but nothing really prepared me for this. The GAS company (follow any of my earlier rants) decided to replace the lines in the ditch across from our house over a year ago. Ever since we have had water in the basement of our house. See that hill across the road? Apparently there were some good springs on that hill that ran out in the ditches that the gas company closed in. It even blew up the middle of the road one time. Since the pecking order in all of life is this, First: God, Second: IRS, Third: Peoples Natural Gas Company of Pennsylvania, and from what I see, God and the IRS are hanging onto their spots by a thin line right now, we were left to somehow fix the problem ourselves. So here we go! We have to redirect the water that they redirected onto us to somewhere else. Will it be someone else's problem now? I don't think so, but who knows? In the meantime, we have dirt (m...

that I had in my last blog post on Monday afternoon. Shortly after that, I got myself dressed and went to the drugstore for my meds and somewhere around halfway through the trip home, it hit me worse! The doc in the ER had told me that I had not hit the bottom of this disease yet. She said that Monday and Tuesday would be worse. She told me that she had it and that if it ran the same way, I had not hit bottom yet. I couldn't begin to imagine that she was right, but she was. Monday was terrible, Tuesday was worse. Finally on Wednesday, I managed to make it to work for an hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. Yesterday, I managed to work an entire day again, my first full day of work in two weeks. Unbelievable. Enough whining, I am hopefully on the mend now. I did manage to finish a few things in my rare moments of clarity. This scarf only needed the fringe on it. And this towel was so close to being done, who knows why we put them away when they are t...

No pics to show unless you want to see some failed attempt at hats OR the pic that my dear husband snapped of me unknowingly at the ER last night. I have threatened him with severe retaliation if that one ever surfaces and I know where he sleeps. I called the Dr. on Wednesday AM, they called me back on Wednesday PM and gave me an appointment for Friday PM. By Friday PM, things were getting much worse, coughing and wheezing and high temps (well high by my standards, I thought I was delirious) and really weak. The doctor gave me doxycylene (not sure of that spelling, too lazy to get up and get it) and I, in my limited medical knowledge questioned that as I headed to the pharmacy. When the time came to write the check, $2.87, I really questioned it. Wow, just walked to the kitchen to pour a cup of coffee and found that the precious man that I am married to at some point threw away a tomato that was rotten and that was placed on the berry vine on the window sill and left all the rott...

First of all, the rant that I am about to go on might be attributed to the fact that I am still sick. STILL SICK! When is this going to end? Or it might be attributed to MENOPAUSE! Not the cat, actually mine, or maybe, just maybe I have a legitimate gripe. It all started 16 + years ago. We bought the building that our business is in and it had a coal/wood burner as it's heat source. For obvious reasons, that was not going to work, obvious being while I have had experience with coal and wood burning heat sources, I was therefore experienced enough to know I was done with that portion of my life. The day, the coldest day in January that year, was the day that the gas company was to hook up the gas to the new furnace. They didn't show up, the coal burner was unhooked, the pipes were going to freeze, the LADY on the phone didn't care, so what, I ranted, I raved and finally with the threat of suing, lawyers, media intervention and one well placed phone call, they came an...

He brings home a CAT? I woke up Sunday morning not feeling the greatest. Yucky, tired, weak. Of course, my dear husband attributes this to menopause. Why not? Break a fingernail? Menopause. Constipation? Menopause. Upset because he screwed up the checkbook? Menopause. Tired after a long day at work? Menopause. Wanting to scream bad words and stomp my feet if I hear the M word one more time? Menopause. I am getting really tired of everything being attributed to the turning of 50. By the way. it was almost two years ago now. The bug really knocked me down. I missed work yesterday. That does not happen that often. Temperature, aching, and coughing. At one point, I was wanting to be checked for the swine flu. Is that still around? I think I had it. Last night he shows up with this cat...and feeds it. Anyone else know what that means? I think we have a cat. We HAD a cat when we got married, well Dianna had a cat. Buddy. Buddy was the epitome of nasty cats. He would roam the countryside, he ...

I was upstairs in my sewing room happily still making messes on my SECOND Saturday in a row with NOTHING planned. Well, I did have that short little jaunt to the church to change the flowers to something a little more "springy" and that quick stop for milk and those cheddar sour cream chips that jumped off the shelf at me. (It has been so long since I had those and they are my favorite) But, back to where it started. John comes to the landing, sans shirt and does that half whistle thing that scares the crap out of me just as the sewing machine comes to a halt. "Do you have a minute to come down here?" he questions. Of course I immediately mentally scanned the house, Did I leave the coffee pot on? the front door open? ice cream melting on the counter, water running in the sink? Nothing. I walk downstairs to see him sitting at the computer with the bank statement in front of him and a guilty look on his face. YESSS ! It is not my fault!!! He picked up the...

Both of my grandsons were at work with their mother and I. Both of them were wound up, kicking balls, throwing balls, running, laughing. We hated to stop their fun, but well, it was getting a little out of hand. We gathered all the balls, we encouraged them to play something else. That actually went better than you would think. Later in the day, Tyler spots a golf ball on my desk. In a perfect, organized world, you would not have a random golf ball on your desk, but that is obviously not my world. Tyler asks for the golf ball. The conversation goes like this. Tyler: Gramma Cathy, can I pullease have that golf ball? (notice how when pleading, please becomes two syllables.) Me: Promise me that you will not throw the golf ball. Tyler: I promise that I will not throw the golf ball. Me: Promise me that you will not kick the golf ball. Tyler: I promise that I will not kick the golf ball. Me: If I see you kicking or throwing the golf ball, I can take it off of you. Tyler: If you...

And entire FREE day! Woohoo ! Really! Nothing at all to do, no where to go, no one to see, nothing! Those just don't happen too often, now how to fill it up? Oh, there was laundry to do, several trips up and down the driveway to my MIL's since we still can't wash at our house, and there was some vacuuming to do and wouldn't you know the sweeper quit sucking. Several nasty words, some banged up fingers, a knitting needle shoved through the hose to unclog it AND the "wash every six months, I just found this after two years" filter cleaned, the sweeper was back up and running. By then, I was out of the mood to sweep. So I retreated to my sewing room and the guest (otherwise known as another place to store your stash) room and I played, ALL DAY! I dumped out cupboards, I sorted and stacked and cut. Found these already cut, two inch squares. I can see pillows or maybe pin cushions. And cut. Four, five and six inch squares, some for me, some for the lad...

who needs toys? These two entertained themselves with cardboard tubes, and cardboard boxes. They also managed to pull all the shirts out of the cabinets and jump in them like leaves, but we won't go there, that might not make them appear quite like the little angels that I would like you to believe they are. Another new project. Because of all the time spent in hospitals lately and because my MIL now has a walker, I realized the need for these. There were tons of patterns on the internet for them, apparently many other people have always known there was a need for them. What a great way to use up some of the heavier fabric that I have accumulated. These are walker bags. I hope to make some "manly" ones also. Another fun project, using up fabric and going to a good cause. And last night, we had our get together at the church to make dresses. It went well and I think everyone had a good time. We are planning to do it again. It was fun to see all the designs tha...

My Dad builds rocking horses and I always get the job of painting them. Seems as though we have had a lot of rocking horses for little girls so when this one was for a boy, I had to think on it for a little while. A Pinto Pony seemed like just the thing. This one was by far the most fun to paint. I looked for a silver concho to glue on and then just decided to paint one rather than keep looking. And of course he needed a bandanna. The finished product. I am once again an "empty nester" I have had a week and a half of having at least one grandchild staying with me and last night when I was alone it was sort of sad. I miss them! Most of all I am going to miss the smile and 'Good morning" this morning. Not to worry though, I pick up Kendall at 7:20 for the day and Logan should arrive at 9. Not lonely for long!