Long Time No Post

Goodness, I am not sure where the last nine months went to...let’s see if I can do a highlight of those months.

December
Now I remember, this is where all the fun started. I think it was the 13th around 11 am when I got a call from the temp agency asking how soon I could report for work. By 2 PM that day, I was filing a huge stack of paperwork. To make things interesting, I had barely started my Christmas decorating and still needed to do all of my Christmas baking and shopping. The later part is the most unusually thing for me not to have done before Thanksgiving. So needless to say, I played catch-up for the rest of the month.

January
The New Year started out recovering from the horrible cold that my mom brought over at Christmas time. It was not long after I started to feel better that Don felt like he ran himself over with the semi-truck and the snow really started falling in the mountain passes. The last weekend of the month was Don’s 60th birthday, when the worst storm of the season hit our area. Don was still 200 miles away from home with one mountain pass in his way. Here at home, the night started out with freezing rain then a bunch of snow and by morning freezing rain again. With the roads closed, Don was lucky enough to be within walking distance to a town with a motel. Boy, was he antsy the next morning waiting for the roads to open. As soon as they did open, he slapped every chain that he had on the truck and trailer and headed home. Normally it would have taken him an hour to get here, but it took 2 ½ hours.

February
Hmmm...nothing significant comes to mind except that our snow melted and left us with a muddy mess.

March
Another month that did not leave a lasting memory except the question of whether spring was ever going to arrive. Finally by the end of the month, we started to get some nice days and the spring bulbs started to show their color.

April
During the first week, our outdoor cat population had a boom...from 2 to 10! Emmy and Boo had their kittens within 24 hours of each other. After a bit of a traumatic start, both moms and nine kittens found safety and a great home in the kitty camper. The last week of April was the most memorable. Don and I finally made it to a Mariners game and they won!!! It was an exhausting trip with all the unplanned site seeing that Patrick, my moms new husband, took us on prior to the game that also made us late for the game. That weekend marks when my relationship with my mom became rocky for the first time since 1989. Even though four months have passed, I am unable to see how it will ever be mended. This has me not looking forward to the upcoming holidays. Besides this, my work assignment ended and another kitten passed...hence my emotional low.

May
Another month with not much to report except I completing the third RR square for Jodie’s project. Since several stitchers had fallen out of this RR, I volunteered to stitch for those absent members and only had one taker. It really felt good to help another stitcher out. In the garden area, Don helped me spread the manure and till it in until the tractor would not turn to the right. We sure have bad luck with our outdoor equipment but I guess you can expect some breakdowns for as old as all of it is.

June
For most of the month, I was filling out job applications, sending my resume to possible employers and a couple of interviews. To help lift my spirits, I started a new project since I could not muster up any ambition to stitch on my long list of WIPs that are falling into the UFO category. So what was my new project... an embroidered dishtowel. It was amazing how much I remembered from thirty plus years ago. On the garden front, I leveled the spots that Don & I got a little wild with the tiller. Now if the weather would have cooperated so I could plant some veggies. I also picked, prepared and froze 7 bags of pie cherries. This equals 7 cherry pies this year!!!

July
Instead of getting 100 degree weather during the 4th of July holiday, we had pleasant weather to watch the fireworks from the front yard and start a couple of home improvement projects - a fence for the front of the property and remodeling one of the spare bedrooms. Still no job, but lots of job hunting activities. In the garden, a hostel take over was occurring. Weeds and more weeds!!! So I fight back by spraying them except for one small area that I was going to flat hoe.

August
I still cannot believe that eight months have passed and it feels like very little progress has been made on our projects. We are at a bit of a standstill on the bedroom remodel since we have old electrical wiring that runs through the attic needs to be replaced. I did discover that we have hardwood floors underneath that hideous 70s carpet. Unfortunately it might take too much elbow grease to get them to look respectable even for a vintage farmhouse look. Don almost has the fence finished and it looks soooo good. I have finally picked up one of my WIPs that was starting to slip over to the UFOs...and the good guys prevail again. It is the Smokey Joe a Pam Kellogg design that I started four years ago. I am determined to complete it before picking up one of my other WIPs that think about slip over to the “dark side”. hehehe