Fifty-One Blue Schoolbus Photos & Peppermint Patty

Hang on folks,

it is about to be one of THOSE posts.

But before that, 

I did finish this little penny rug above

and

some painting for orders,

but,

I can't get to them right now.

as you will see later in this post.

(Well, truthfully you won't SEE,

because while I am all about truth, reality and telling it like it is...

sometimes SHOWING it is a little beyond even my

sense of

full disclosure)

So,

I am going to try to recreate the events of yesterday as accurately as my brain

and time

will allow.

So here is how yesterday was supposed to go.

Starting at 4:30 when the alarm woke me up.

Coffee

Walk

Get ready

Few things at work

Dialysis Driver

A few thrifts shops looking for a dresser

Run a few errands

Deliver some shirts to a customer

See a woman about doing some custom painting in her home

Stop to visit the three of the cutest little grandchildren in the world

Pick up the Dialysis patient.

Deliver her home.

A little work at the shop..

Fairgrounds to work for the evening.

Home to finish painting a coffee pot.

Bed

Neat and tidy,

right?

Well neat and tidy for my world anyway.

And then somewhere about

Few things at work,

the plan started to unravel.

Just a little unravel.

Stopping at the shop, with the dialysis patient in tow,

I hear,

"So you have a little time to kill while your MIL is in dialysis, right?"

(Did anyone see "time to kill" on that list above?)

Perhaps you could stop at that JoAnn Fabrics in Kittanning and get material for these.

He holds up a flag for the fair.

Now, thank goodness this was not JWS that said this.

It was his Best Fair Buddy,

who has not had the privilege to see my dark side YET.

Close...but not yet.

I look at the flag closer.

It is handmade.

I narrow my eyes.

"And just who do you think is going to make these before Saturday IF I manage to find the fabric

and

by the way, there has not been a JoAnn's in Kittanning for over 15 years?"

His answer of

"I have an Amish lady that will make them"

saved him from the dark side

for another day.

OK, little detour

little kink in the day.

I head to Kittanning,

drop the

Dialysis Patient.

Head to Pittsburgh to what I think is the closest Joann's.

40 miles or so.

Halfway, I think I know where another one is.

Punch it into my trusty smart phone GPS,

it takes me right to the door.

Fabric...bounced my debit card,

who knew it would cost that much?

Anyway...there is so much more to tell,

we won't go into that fiasco of the day.

I did manage to find the yarn pictured below for .50 a skein.

What a deal!

Mission accomplished,

and by the way,

the initial Joann's that I was heading to?

Closed!

Five years ago!

it is time to sniff out some second hand and thrift shops in this area.

A junk one,

then the Habitat Store in New Kensington,

(that was a pretty cool place, I would go back there)

then this little gem.

Diamond Antiques

Oh my gosh!

It is just the greatest little shop.

So clean,

So organized,

and

Great Prices.

It is in Tarentum, Pa and if you ever get a chance, go there!

Click on the pic or the name to link to the website.

This is an inside pic. 

Everything was color coordinated and the lady running it was so nice. 

I'll be back.

A few more shops,

no dresser and now it is time to pick up my MIL

The Dialysis Patient.

Load her up and we head to fast food.

Not the healthiest,

but you can sit in the car and eat and

she has to eat pretty quick when she gets out of there.

We eat, we talk.

She asks if I found a dresser.

NO.

Did I check that shop in Kittanning?

NO,

fabric,

other shops,

etc.

She suggests we go through town and she will sit outside and I can run in and look.

Great.

We pull out, start down over the hill and she begins to slur her words.

AND

then proceeds to turn gray and pass out.

ONLY

I did not think she just passed out.

Get the picture? 

I am yelling and pushing on her while I am trying to turn the car around and head back to the hospital.

and she comes around

a little.

Scared

does not begin to describe where I was.

She is still slurring her words and now she is sick.

I am heading as quick as possible,

not knowing where to take her.

Our local ER can have a bit of a wait time.

And that dark side?

Well they, at the ER, managed to see that over a year ago.

And I am sure that they remember me.

Oh well,

can't hurt the reputation any more.

I go straight in and tell them (in as nice a way as possible)

what has happened and that if they can't see her immediately

I am heading to another hospital.

They come with a wheelchair and take her right away.

I am sure that someone there is looking for my mug shot to put back up on the wall.

There has to be a big red slash through my face with the

B word written underneath it.

I see that the waiting room is packed,

There would have been a big wait time.

Tests,

calls,

more tests,

IV,

JWS on the phone telling me that this is normal.

I go to the hall and hiss into the phone..

YOU WERE NOT THERE AND THIS WAS NOT NORMAL!!!

Dark side again.

He brings clean clothes,

They release her.

Dialysis must have taken too much fluid from her.

JWS finally "gets" what happened.

He takes his mother home.

I have the truck.

Was it wrong to go to one more shop to look for a dresser? 

So, here's the deal.

When JWS and I got married, we built on to his house.

A separate wing,

We had our own area and my living room set went into our bedroom.

No bedroom furniture.

We had this old hand me down living room set in the family room.

I didn't like it.

Not the color,

Not the style,

Nothing

But

Whatever.

It worked.

Well eight years later,

it does not work.

It is worn,

It is broke

It is embarrassing.

I thought if I could find a dresser,

take the living room furniture from my bedroom to the family room

The family room stuff to some camp

or wherever.

Life will be fine.

So I make one more stop.

On Market

in

Kittanning.

A shop I love to frequent.

And there it is,

Triple dresser,

Large mirror

Three Drawer nightstand.

The drawers all slide nice.

Good Price.

Pay,

Load it in the truck.

Three women over 50.

Empowering.

The mirror won't fit.

Drive to Shawnee's to pin up a pair of pants for her that have to be hemmed for tomorrow.

Take Brian's truck back to town to get the mirror,

this time with Gracelyn in tow.

Brian's truck spins a little getting out of the driveway.

Gracelyn says,

"That's OK Mama, I have a helmet on!"

Ha

Ha

Ha

How does this happen at three years old?

Her mother did not become a

sarcastic

back seat

driver

until she was at least nine years old.

Load the mirror,

Back to Shawnee's,

Pin the pants,

Have some Pizza,

Brian agrees to follow me home with the mirror so that it is at our house.

I am not worried because I don't think all the furniture is getting moved for a few days anyway.

8:30 PM

OK, I have missed helping with the fair,

that is OK.

I come in

check my emails.

Jenn wanders over,

Her sister in law just had twins today.

We have that story,

I tell her the story of her Gram.

and John comes in.

He has seen the furniture.

He knows what the next two weeks holds around here.

He wants to move it NOW.

So in a flurry of activity,

we move all that furniture,

vacuuming.

I am going to be totally honest here.

When we moved the love seat that was in my paint room,

there was a newspaper under it.

The date?

2004.

That's it folks.

Not the cleanest person in the world.

So before any of that two hours of activity,

I was going to blog my day.

I got out my phone and went to download the pics that I took

and

this is what I found.

Fifty one pictures

in negative

that Tyler apparently took with my phone

while looking at my computer.

Kind of makes you wonder how much unsupervised time he actually has?

Fifty one!

How long is it going to take me to delete

fifty one pictures?

Maybe I could teach him to clean under furniture.

I think he has way more spare time than I do.

Anyway, this is my family room with the "new" furniture from the bedroom.

I'll get a pic of the dresser another time.

When the room is cleaned up...

some

time.

And one more pic,

the 52nd of

Peppermint Patty.

So, that was my day,

4:30 AM

until

Midnight when I reset the alarm for

5:00 am this morning.

Today's plan?

Well

I have my four miles in.

Clothes in the washer.

We are taking the boys to the

Clearfield County Fair today

and they are staying overnight tonight.

Tomorrow night

Gracelyn and Garren are sleeping over.

John just told me that he is going to

the fair to do some chores.

so I have to be to work by

9:00.

Not in my plans this morning.

Sunday?

I think I'll sleep!