Fluffy Stuff (which means: not much content)

Hi, all!

Sorry for the lack of writing but it’s been just that…not much to write about. Went to church today and volunteered to work in the kitchen during Sunday School in preparation for our after-church pot luck. Ended up having so much fun I worked through church, too (my feet paid the price for that one-they were throbbing little puppies as I hadn’t worn ‘practical’ shoes…oh well…).

I’m currently battling my son’s left-over cold/sinus thing; I sound about four octaves lower voice-wise; was really glad the choir didn’t sing today as I should have been placed in the basses! Kleenex, hot tea and Sudafed have become my close friends lately (Atchooo!).

Not much planned for tomorrow (the holiday); middle son’s ‘newest/used’ car died on Friday (won’t start…nothing) so I’m back to my old job of chauffeur (oh, joy). Is it me, or are we seeing a trend here in his cars? This one sort of ‘died’ the same way the other one did…a little smoke, then poof, it won’t even start! THIS time we’re pushing him to have it towed to a place for an estimate instead of letting it sit for almost 5 months while good old Mom does all the driving. The really ‘fun’ thing about all this? His college classes start Weds! Good thing he only has one 6-credit English class and it starts at noon! Youngest son starts high school Tues. and we’re now experiencing the ‘total picture’ of bus schedules and high school hours. He will be attending from (get to bus by 7:05) 7:25-2:10, daily. Man! I can remember when I rode the buses for public school and dashed out of the house to make it to the bus stop by 7:30…we went 9-3:10 (ours was the first people picked up in the morning and the last ones dropped off at night), so that meant I got on the bus at 7:30 and got home at 4 p.m.! Long days. My middle son said that they are not even being issued books for the first two weeks of school…I can’t imagine that! Ah, the ‘new experiences’ of being a Homeschool family morphed into a public school family.

Have been trying to cut back a little on my afghan-sewing-together thing; it seems that each time we send a shipment to Ghana there are more afghans than the time before. This time we’re already at 30+, so I’m trying to wean myself off a little. That might sound a little strange, but the last time I went to deliver them I noticed that they’d left an entire bag behind from the previous shipment! That could be because they needed the plane room for some important medical supplies (I didn’t want to mention that I noticed them in the corner). I don’t even know the procedure for them being distributed, so I’ll just remain in the background as the creator and not the final decision maker…works for me!

I’ve been reading more lately-again fluffy stuff. Sometimes a girl just needs something ‘light & fluffy’ to kind of do that “Calgon Thing”: “Fluffy books…Take Me Away!” These have been knitting novels (are you surprised?), two were really good, the last two were so-so. I finally learned that this old lady can actually USE her library card to reserve books from her home computer! I now have two more awaiting pick up soon, and I’ll take the others back in a few days. If you’re into knitting novels, Debbie Maccomber writes some good ones; more sequence novels, actually. I had read her #1,3,4 and finally #2 just came back to the library. (I found out that #2 had been checked out by one of my friends in MY knitting group…how funny!) My other knitting group (that only meets during the school year) will be starting up this coming Friday, so it will be a pretty busy week coming up. MY knitting group on Tues., and the other one on Friday, plus all the ‘regular’ stuff I do doing during the week: babysit grandson, Special Needs group, running my kids everywhere, etc. (Hey, I’m learning…all this activity actually keeps ya young!)

Time to close for now; enjoy your holiday!

Hugs;

Pammie

Justice is Served

(photo is NOT our bike)

This will be a difficult one to write without becoming too wordy, but I’ll try. Back in June my middle son took his bicycle out for a ride in the late afternoon, returning home for something to drink and a brief rest; he parked his bike in our porch where it usually resided. While in the house watching tv, he heard the porch door slam and got up to see what caused it, only to see an older man coming out of our porch with his bike. He woke his dad up from his afternoon nap and the chase began. To shorten this up greatly, husband called police on cell phone, and ‘tailed’ the man while keeping the police appraised of the situation and whereabouts of said ‘thief’. Further down the road the man pulled into a gas station, the cops got him. The court case just ended and he was found guilty. It’s been a long, drawn-out affair with much detail work by the local police and prosecutors office; it wasn’t his first robbery. We are all very grateful to our police department and the work of the justice system; I’m not going into all the details but they did a great job of putting all the pieces together (and there were many).

It’s been another hectic week here, as usual. Hope things are going well for all of you-our weather is still gorgeous: perfect 74 degree days with sun and light breezes. Knowing this will all be gone soon is a good motivator to ‘get out and enjoy these last summer days’!

Hugs;

Pammie

VROOOM! VROOOM!

It’s in the 70’s, sunny and a mild breeze. What’s that I hear outside? Why the sounds of LOTS of ‘classic’ cars and trucks driving by…it’s the “Dream Cruise” in Detroit! This is “THE” weekend to be in Michigan if you really like old cars, trucks and motorcycles; if I were of that mind-set I could sit in my front yard and admire all day long, from Friday until Monday…this is ‘the time’ for a lot of people around here, and even those from out state. Me? I’m not so inclined…most of what they’re calling ‘classics’ were around when I was growing up…it’s hard for me to think of them as ‘antique’, if you know what I mean.

Since it’s summer I’ve been visiting our local fruits & veggies stand and bringing home loads of fresh cucumbers, green peppers, zucchini (I know…don’t ’start’! I don’t know anyone who’s giving them away, so a girl has to do what she needs to do to fulfill the zucchini cravings)…where was I? Oh! Fresh tomatoes and corn on the cob…YUM! The stand is famous in our area for growing the sweetest corn on the cob and we’ve not been disappointed in that area. Tonight’s dinner will be BLT’s; tomorrow is Taco’s-using the fresh veggies for both. Yesterday we had a great dinner of grilled country spare ribs, a huge tossed salad and corn on the cob-I love the fresh veggies of Summer.

This afternoon I picked up our youngest son from his second canoe adventure this summer (actually, both were this month!). He is sufficiently exhausted after a 3-day canoe and camping trip. This was his last big adventure of this summer; he goes for High School orientation in 2 weeks.

Today also found me seeking out a bargain and executing a ’special project’: our porch was sorely in need of curtains and I, being the frugal Scotswoman that I am, didn’t want to spend a lot of money on them (they’re only porch curtains, for crying out loud! ) I found a great deal at “Big Lots!”- bought one long curtain made out of a rather heavy almost canvas-like striped material. It was just long enough to be able to cut it in half and make the needed two curtains; also purchased a $1.50 rod (already had one) so the whole project cost me $6.50 and I must say, they improved the porch look by quite a bit. I love a bargain!

Still working on sewing ’squares’ together; other than the above, that’s about it for this week in Lake Wobegone…Oh, wait! Sorry…here in the “Motor City”! (that’s what they call Detroit…but I don’t live in Detroit, just in case you wondered…only mentioned it because it’s the Car Capital of America).

Hugs;

Pammie

ps: Just in case you wondered why I had the photo of the 1970 Chevelle Supersport 450/454 – I used to race one “back in the day” (we’re talking early 70’s, drag strip) Yes, I miss that car…it was great to drive, handled well and sounded really great! The photo is not the car I had, that ‘died’ a sad death from a cracked block, thus ending my dragging days…which was probably much safer on me in the long run!

(side comment on “Momma’s comment”…she knew me back ‘when’-I didn’t drive “Demo“…demolition derby, I drove the straight tracks, also called Drag Strips: how fast can you drive the quarter mile)

The Three “B’s”…

which would be: Belated Birthdays, Bowling and Boys! Yesterday found me spending the day with our youngest son, Eric, who just turned 14 last week. He chose to celebrate the day with his good friend who couldn’t make it on the actual birth ‘day’, so the celebration was belated by a few days. There was much video gaming, eating, more video gaming, mixed with three games of bowling at our local establishment, followed by pizza and then the requested Dairy Queen Ice Cream Cake! It was a rowdy but fun-filled day and all were happily exhausted at day’s end (especially me!).

HAPPY 14TH BIRTHDAY, ERIC!

Hugs;

Pammie

Of Saturdays and Small Scares

Today is a balmy 84 degree, breezy & sunny day. Just spent about 45 minutes outside peacefully sewing squares (are you surprised?) and letting my mind ramble. My husband called out the diningroom window to bring my attention to a beautiful butterfly flitting from one flower to another (alas, he was too quick for me to get the camera, so I did the ‘next best’ thing and found a stock photo on line).

It’s been a ‘usual’ week for me (maybe not for others)-what with babysitting my grandson, coordinating my knit group, keeping up with the adventures of my special needs adults group, playing nurse to my 19 yr old who just had two wisdom teeth removed (he’s fine), and attempting to plan an overnight/birthday celebration for my now 14 yr old youngest. Last night our 19 yr old took the 14 yr old and another friend to see the newest Batman movie; normally that wouldn’t be something to cause any alarm except that this new friend lives about 24 miles away! They were gone the expected amount of time and called home to tell me they were on their way back home (this was around 10:45 p.m.). I calmly sat and watched several sit-coms on TV and right about the time I thought they’d be pulling into our driveway I see a cop car in front of our house, lights flashing and another small car he’d pulled over. Doing the typical ‘Mom’ thing, I tried my hardest to see the front seat of this car-attempting to see if there was a passenger in the seat…to no avail (a light post blocked my view…even with BINOCULARS! YES, I was freaking a bit, I’ll admit it!). While all this is going on (remember I live on a major thoroughfare/45 MPH in front of our house, 4 lanes and a middle turn lane) I see a small car in the turn lane attempting to turn into our drive…THANK YOU, LORD! They were home safe (the cop car and it’s detainee pulled away just as the boys were pulling into the drive). This was around 11:40 p.m., so you know the ‘why’ to my little ‘freaking out’ PLUS the 19 yr old hadn’t driven much in about 4 months, as his old car wasn’t driveable and he wasn’t willing to spend money to buy another one (that’s been resolved-we sold the van and he bought a Neon). Ah, the life of a Mom, eh?

Hoping that the next two days will be calm ones; enjoy your summer while you can!

Hugs;

Pammie

Hot Days and Afghans

Here it is-Afghan #100!

Hi!

Sorry I haven’t written lately, not much going on except the ‘usual’ sewing afghans together. My dear friend, “Momma”, delivered another seven completed afghans yesterday. She has taken on the task of crocheting the borders on my sewn-together afghans, thus freeing me to sew more. This time, she used her ‘creative license’ and chose new varigated colors for some of the borders, which gave the new afghans a totally new look-very clever! Since we recently cracked the “100 Afghan” goal, I thought I’d throw in a few photos of some of the recently done ones. For “Afghan #100″ I felt it only fitting to include a Teeny Beanie Teddy that’s done in Red, White, and Blue!

Here are a few of the other afghans recently completed:

Since I also mentioned the heat, thought I’d add that while I was photo’ing these, it was 98 degrees out at 2 p.m. – WHEW! That’s pretty warm! (Being a fair-skinned red-head, I really tend to burn easily, so this was a very quick photo session!).

Well, friends, that’s all for now-enjoy your summer; since it’s now officially the first day of August, our summer is fast disappearing!

Enjoy your day!

Hugs;

Pammie