Happy Birthday to me!!

Today I celebrate having enjoyed 60 summers and surviving 60 winters.  It seems to me that the winters are always so much longer than the summers.  It must be because I’m a summer baby (guess that should be…was a summer baby) and I just like summer better.

I already blogged about the surprise party the other night.  I had to work tonight and the guys on my shift surprised me with cake and ice cream.

Happy Birthday You Old Bag

As they pointed out…anyone can be nice to you on your birthday. In case you can’t read the writing, it says…”Happy Birthday You Old Bag”.  Apparently they think 60 is old.  Of course, when you are only 30 something I guess it is old.  I used to think it was old, too.  But as they say: age is a frame of mind.  I don’t feel like I used to think someone 60 would feel.  And to top it off, Wendy stopped in to see me and brought me a gift certificate for a massage and a pedicure.

I had a really, really hard time when I turned 50.  I was depressed for 6 months prior to my actual birthday.  Once it arrived I was okay with it but it was a long 6 months.  I didn’t feel that way this year.  I keep telling everyone that I’m that much closer to more discounts.  ;o)   On my 50th birthday I spent the day rock climbing for the first time.  What fun.  I climbed regularly most of the summer and for a couple of additional summers but it’s been awhile since I found myself “on belay”. I miss it.

It rained today.  AGAIN!  Soooo, I didn’t spend any time sitting in the sun reading a good book.  Actually, I’m not even reading anything right now.  I just finished Natural Girl by Carl Hiaasen.  He has such a weird sense of humor.  What’s a girl to do on her birthday when it’s raining?  Shop, of course.  And what better place to shop than the quilt shop.  And what’s better than a quilt shop having a 25% off EVERYTHING sale.  That’s what I’m talking about.  I spent a good hour wondering around the shop, just looking at anything and everything.  I came out of there with two books, a pair of quilting gloves and a nail file.  One of the books and the file are for my MQR secret sister gift which is due to be mailed August 1.

Fast, Fun & Easy Fabric Dying plus 100 Tips from Award Winning Quilters

All in all, it was a good day and a good year.  The coming year will be exciting and eventful; at least that’s my plan.

Thanks for stopping by…

;o)

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A “welcome to summer” surprise birthday party cookout

That is quite a title, huh?  We or rather Bill, has been planning a cookout for a month or so.  He has wanted to have one for several years and decided this was the year.  Soooo, we sent out some invitations to people we like…coworkers, family, friends, neighbors, etc.  Altogether there were about 40 people and most responded with “yes, we’ll be there.”

Last night was the night.  It has rained here for the better part of the month but yesterday it was sunny and warm, not humid and not…one…drop…of…rain!  The cookout started at 6.  The kids came, along with beautiful Ella.  She is pulling herself up now and says a few words.  She is just so cute!

There was tons of food…

and everyone seemed to enjoy the new firepit.

While I was snapping this photo, Bill announced to everyone that this was a surprise birthday party for me, as I’m turning 60 on Monday.  It was a surprise to everyone except the kids.  It sure was a surprise to me.  Some of my friends had brought along a card or gift, but we exchange on our birthdays anyway.  I didn’t think anything of it.  I was very surprised.  I have said it before, Bill is an incredibly generous man.

My sister-in-law (actually x sil) brought me this beautiful basket.  We have remained close friends even after my divorce.

Isn’t it beautiful?

Bill gave me a new iTouch.  I’m looking forward to playing with it.  One more thing to keep me entertained instead of quilting.  Oh no.

Greg and Vanessa gave me a $100 give certificate to the local quilt shop.  Oh my, what to buy, what to buy.  That was way too generous but I will spend it well.  I almost broke down and gave Greg his quilt, even though it doesn’t have a binding.  However, I held off.  I really want it to be done before I surprise him with it.

My former Captain brought me my favorite candy…non-pariels.  The joke was made…if these are non-pariels, what are pariels?  haha

It was a really nice evening.  After everyone left and the “kids” went to bed, Bill and I sat by the fire, alone, just enjoying the quiet.  It was a special night, with family and friends, good food, warm fire and No Rain.  What more could one ask for?

Thanks for stopping by…

;o)

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Happy Birthday Ella Marie

It’s always amazing how quickly time passes when I look back, seems like I was just having babies.  Beautiful Ella was born one year ago today, early in the morning.  She was about one month early but her mom was on bed rest for the previous month, so she could have been much earlier.  They live about 2 1/2 hours south of me so I don’t get to see her as often as I would like but mom and dad are very good about visiting regularly.

I love being a grandmother much more than I ever thought possible.  She is truly the apple of my eye and I enjoy watching her grow so much.  I know any grandmothers out there reading this understand exactly what I’m saying.  I’m looking forward to her next visit.

Ella contemplating her cake

She was very subdued with the cake and didn’t make much of a mess.  I think she preferred the feel of it rather than the taste.  Plus I think she was getting tired, she had that “deer in the headlights” look.

Greg and Ella opening her quilt

She didn’t enjoy opening gifts very much but she did enjoy playing with the tissue paper.  Her dad was excited about the quilt and the fact that it was designed for her to carry around.  I hope that she drags it around with her to the point of destruction.

I will be making her mom a quilt sometime in the not too distant future, one with butterflies.  I’m still collecting fabrics, much easier to find than bee fabrics.  Ella will get another little quilt to go with her mom’s when the time comes.

Ella Bella, Belle of the Ball, happy First Birthday beautiful girl.  It’s only the beginning of a beautiful life!!  I love you.

Thanks for stopping by…

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A 4th birthday celebration

and it wasn’t mine.  Well, I did have one, eons and eons ago, but I digress.  Trevor, Bill’s grandson, turned 4 on the 16th and his party was Sunday.  We traveled to Minot, about 1 1/2 hours north, to his grandma’s house, which just happens to be across the street from his house.  There were grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles, hanburgers and hotdogs, chips, salads, soda, wine and of course, CAKE AND ICE CREAM!  Everyone had a good time and he got lots of fun stuff and a few clothes (not much fun when you’re 4, but necessary).  His dad, Scott, got him a set of golf clubs and he has a pretty good swing.  We enjoyed seeing him and look forward to the next time he comes to stay overnight.

Can you tell that there was REALLLLY blue frosting?

Not much sewing getting done since I’ve been on vacation, then dogsitting.  Tomorrow I’m going home and I’m gonna sew, no matter what else needs to be done, like laundry, cleaning, ironing and sew on.

On another note, there was a showing on my condo Saturday evening.  The report I received today was that all the comments were positive.  They liked the improvements I had made and thought it showed very well.  the “lookers” are trying to decide between my condo and something new.  Keep your fingers crossed, please.

Thanks for stopping by…

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Happy Birthday To Me

Yet another year has passed and I have turned 59! I was so unstrung the months before my 50th birthday. I dreaded the sound of being 50, yuck. However, I’m looking forward to turning 60 next year. It will bring so many new opportunities. At least, that’s my plan. First of all, I can retire. YEAH! Enough driving a fire truck around and taking care of other people’s emergencies. I’m ready for a simple, unexciting part-time job. That’s only because I know I will have to work, a little anyway. I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed every night.

Bill took me to Quebec to celebrate my birthday. We love Quebec City. We drove up on Friday, arriving around 6 PM and stayed at a very nice Motel 8 in Sainte-Foy. The drive into Vieux Quebec was only 8-10 miles and very easy to manipulate. We had dinner at one of our favorite restaurants, The Primavera. We love the pizza there, cooked in a brick oven. We ordered two pizzas and shared them. It was a beautiful evening and we took a short walk after dinner. The city was busy, which we hadn’t experienced in our previous visits. Back to the motel and to bed.

We set the alarm for 8 so that we could get a decent start on the day. It dawned overcast, which is typical for any traveling we do. We ate the continental breakfast provided by the motel. It was fairly good but nothing special, quite crowded. We drove into the city, parked in a lot by the river and spent several hours wandering around. We saw some sights that we have seen many times and a few that were new for us.

The sight that saddened us the most was the remains of the historic Armory building that suffered a devastating fire in April. The building was built around 1885 and covered a full block. Many of the museum artifacts were saved along with some musical instruments. Although the building was sprinklered, it was undergoing some renovations and the system was out of service. Murphy’s Law in action. We spent some time at the Joan of Arc gardens which were in glorious bloom. I’m envious although between us we have a number of the same plants.

We stumbled across a bridge along the edge of town that we didn’t know we could walk over; so we did and took a couple of photos. I try to get at least one decent picture of us together wherever we go. It’s fun to look them over at the end of the year and see where we have been.

It started to rain about 3:30 so we headed to our other favorite place to eat; The Portofino. We sat outside under an awning and an umbrella but it eventually was pouring rain and we moved inside. I usually have a wonderful ravioli dish that is the best I have ever eaten. However, the price was up to $24 and I just couldn’t see spending that kind of money for a plate of pasta. Instead I had salmon in a wonderful sauce, along with some vegetables. Bill enjoyed a small steak and fries.

It continued to rain. We walked to the funiculare and bought two rain ponchos. We made quite a site, covered from head to toe with plastic but the $4 was well spent. We continued to wonder around finding our way to the Petite Champlain where we visited the chocolatier and Bill purchased six of my favorite chocolate candies…chocolate covered cherries filled with liquor. Yum, they are fantastic! I eat them sparingly because they are sooooo good and a little pricey. I always forget that they have a pit. Luckily I haven’t broken any teeth. We finally had enough, so we headed back to the car and returned to the motel sometime after 7.

The next morning brought more rain and my birthday! We had breakfast, packed our things and returned home. We saw two deer on the trip up and a moose on the return trip. The wild lupines were blooming along the side of the road in and around Jackman. What a beautiful sight. We met Wendy and Dan for dinner at the Back Street Grill. Wendy brought me a nice arrangement of flowers and a gift certificate to Keepsake Quilting. After finishing a game of cribbage with Bill I headed home to sleep in my own bed.

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Welcome Ella

Ella Marie arrived four weeks early this morning at 12:36. She weighed 6# 9oz and stretched 18″. Of course, I think she is beautiful. Greg called this morning around 1:30 while I was working overtime to let me know that he was a new father. Doesn’t seem real!

Bill and I made the 1 1/2 hour drive to the hospital and visited for a couple of hours. There was some concern regarding her blood sugar since she is considered a late-term preemie. They did some blood work and eventually discussed the situation with a neo-natal specialist. After checking her over he determined that she is just fine and there is no reason for concern. This is a “problem” routinely faced by babies delivered between 32 and 36 weeks. However, it is very important that she be fed every 3 hours!

Vanessa looked tired but otherwise appeared to have handled the natural delivery very well. Although they had never considered a natural delivery, it happened so fast that there wasn’t a whole lot of other choice. They weren’t sure whether they would be released tomorrow or Monday.

Auntie Wendy was disappointed that she couldn’t visit along with us but her annual Memorial Day party was tonight and there wasn’t time to go and get back in time. She hopes to visit tomorrow or Monday.

Wendy heard from her friend Jenn today that Baby Ryan, who was born in January at only 24 weeks, finally got to go home today. My best friend, Su, called to say that her son, Jamie, and his wife had delivered their second child today also, a girl. We are thankful for a very good baby day!

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Wendy’s Birthday

Today is the 28th celebration of the day my daughter was born, my beautiful girl, my “Piglet”. She got that nickname because she had such fat little legs and her dad said she had porkchop legs. Somehow that turned into “Piglet”.

I never would have imagined how much I would grow to love her, to love the young woman she would become. She was a somewhat “difficult” child; very independent. That is a trait that serves her well as an adult. However, as a child I wanted her to comply and follow the rules “because I’m the mom and I said so”. On the other hand, she believed that there must be a better reason than that and I didn’t always have a satisfactory explanation.

She is a strong-willed individual. She is an honest and responsible adult with a Master’s Degree in Occupational Health. The final year of her education was a tough one. Her dad and I had divorced a couple of years earlier. Alone for the first time, she was very lonesome and homesick, but she persevered. She spent three months in Pensacola, FL and another three months in MA working on her internship. She and I drove to FL and shared the trip from hell with lots of car problems and hours sitting in a garage office in Willington, CT. However, we got where we needed to go with only a few minutes to spare before the apartment complex office closed for the weekend.

She was engaged for more than a year; however, it was not a healthy relationship and I was never more impressed with her strength than the night she broke off the relationship. I have been in that position myself and know how incredibly difficult it is.

She and her boyfriend have been together for five years now. They live together in a beautiful house that Dan built with his father and share their space with three dogs…Guinness, Amber and Ginger. I don’t believe that they will ever get married and I don’t think that she will have children. I may be wrong about this, time will tell. It doesn’t matter to me as long as she is happy.

I am grateful for her beautiful “self”. I not only cherish her as my child but also as my friend. We check in with each other most days, not long conversations but a nice chat just catching up on the day’s news. She is beautiful inside and out. She is strong, intelligent and compassionate. She is my daughter; she is my friend. The words “I Love You” are inadequate to express my true emotions. It is so much more than those three words; so much deeper. They will have to suffice…I Love You, Wendy.

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My new toy

Yesterday I decided to break down and finally purchase a new Janome MC6600P machine. I have been wanting it for a couple of years but last year the money necessary for the purchase was used to replace the AC in my FL condo. Since the government is being so kind and sending me $600 to stimulate the economy, I did just that! Although my plan was to go to the shop and just look, again, Bill talked me into buying it Now! I think that was fortunate…I was told that the price is going up within the next couple of months, possibly as much as 20%. I also looked at the Nolting Fun Quilter on a New Joy frame. The machine and the frame are both metal which is an advantage as opposed to the plastic frames I have seen. It’s a starting point and I will continue to do research. The Machine Quilting Show is next month and there should be a number of dealers there with demos and other information.

I’m really excited. I know it’s not the longarm machine I want to own at some point but it does have a larger throat and that should make some of my quilting easier. It was so many features that I wasn’t even aware of that it was even more exciting than I anticipated. All I wanted to do last night was sit home and play with my new toy. Alas, I had agreed to cover one of my coworkers for the night shift. All I had time to do was drop off the machine at home and get ready for work. It was a 14 hour shift which ended with a fire in an abandoned 4 story mill building that came in at 0500. Luckily it was spotted early and we were able to extinguish it within an hour or so.

Today was Bill’s 59th birthday, mine is right around the corner. He wasn’t feeling that well and I didn’t get released from work until 0900. We met at AJ’s for coffee, went back to his place where he opened a couple of gifts and we watched a movie, Happy Feet. It was a Netflix rental, animated musical with an imbedded story about diversity as well as environmental protection. We had dinner at Mike’s Clam Shack so we could say hi to Jenna.

It has been pouring rain most of the afternoon and is forecast to last into the early morning hours. Thankfully it is not snow. We stopped by Wendy’s to feed the dogs and let them out. I also wanted to check the driveway and be sure I wasn’t going to have trouble getting in later. I’m spending the night sitting with the “grand dogs” as Wendy and Dan went snowboarding. They are so good when W&D aren’t here, especially Ginger, the problem “child”.

I finished the binding on my granddaughter’s quilt. I think it came out well and I’m really happy with it. I have also decided to order a blooming 9-patch kit from The Cotton Club. It is called Goldsun and includes blues, pale pinks and rust. That will probably be my first project on the new machine.

Other notes from this past week: Wendy and I had lunch together on Thursday at Back Street. She got off early because she already had 40 hours in and they aren’t allowed overtime. It’s always nice when we can spend some time together, just the two of us.

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