Meeting a New Friend

I was looking for a photo to post and ran across this one -- it's actually 6 years old because that's Grandpa Bill with our first grandson AJ -- he was just 5 months old at the time.  Bill really loved being a grandpa!  Looks like he just came in from working outside -- bibs and dirty shirt and all!

Anyway -- the reason for the post is I finally made time to meet a fellow blogger today.  Bren taught a couple of hand quilting classes at Acorn Quilts in Rockford and now every month the hand quilters/hand piecers/basically anyone that wants to do some hand work, meet once a month at the shop.  Today was the day.  And even though my hand isn't recovered enough to do any handwork yet, I wanted to meet Bren.  And I'm glad I did -- she's just as personable as her blog and I enjoyed the hours I spent talking with her.  I hope next month I'll be able to bring some handwork along.
I wasn't sure I was going to be able to make it at first -- my double size garage door broke last night when I closed it after parking my car inside.  Thank God for our good friend and neighbor, Squire.  He got the rollers back into the rails and opened it so I could get my car out and closed it afterwards.  I have a call in to a garage door company to come out and fix it permanently.  I hate this being alone thing -- Bill used to take care of everything that broke.
Yesterday I spent two hours picking up sticks and walnuts (boy do they make a mess on the driveway).  Then I went out and talked to Bill about what a mess it is to pick up and why on earth did he plant more walnut trees when we first moved in 16 years ago!  (Squire asked if he answered me -- and yes, the answer was that he always cleaned up the walnuts and sticks and I never had to deal with the mess before!).

Blessings:
Meeting new and old friends at the quilt shop.  A truly enjoyable afternoon.
What a blessing our friend, Squire is to me and was to Bill.
The garage door didn't fall on my car!
Dinner out with a wonderful friend last night -- Friday night fish fry was good and the company was terrific.

Fall is almost here

I put some fall decor out and my fall quilts, too, a couple of weeks ago.  I should have been cleaning the house, but it was more fun to put up quilts.  Since then, I've been spending a lot of time on medical issues.
First I had my 5 year colonoscopy (such a lovely test to go through -- especially the prep ahead of time!) -- the test results were good.  Next day I had carpal tunnel surgery on my right hand (I am right handed).  I had a hard cast on for a week -- impossible to write, typing was a struggle -- even using a mouse was trying to say the least.  I managed to do a little bit of piecing only because I precut a Schnibbles® quilt and was able to chain piece the first two parts -- but found I couldn't use the iron, so they are still in one long chain waiting to be pressed and pieced some more.  Showering with one arm in a plastic bag held above the head was really fun....not!  And I could either dry my hair or brush it, but doing both was impossible!  Last Friday the cast came off and now I have a large bandage over the stitches and a hand brace to wear 23-1/2 hours a day.  Next Friday the stitches come out. 
The Monday after the surgery, I had a ct scan, which revealed I have a small aortic aneurysm and a fatty liver.  The aneurysm they will watch by ct scan yearly -- the fatty liver I need to do something about (it is caused by too much alcohol or eating the wrong foods).  Since my middle name has been stress for the past 3 years, I'm going to go with eating the wrong foods and not exercising at all or definitely not enough for the past year.
So -- looks like I will be seriously watching my diet from here on out and getting back on that treadmill or walking outside soon -- like this week! 

My scarecrow is sitting on my new acquisition of a couple of months ago -- a beautiful school desk -- and a Schnibbles® quilt I made last year.  I love the colors of fall.  I bought some mums to plant and four to leave in pots on the porch.  They are sitting on the sidewalk right now getting some rainwater and sun -- my porches are in dire need of sweeping and pressure washing, and maybe I'll be able to do some of that after my stitches come out.  It's definitely time to start thinking of getting the yard and house cleaned up for the season.  I've had a couple of more trees fall and have a call in to my tree cutter to come and clean up the mess.  I think it's going to be a busy season!

Blessings:
So far the trees have not damaged anything on their way down!  The latest one fell across the lane, but it was dead and didn't hit any other ones.
I had to have my wedding rings cut off my hand, so I took them in to be made into an eternity ring along with Bill's wedding ring.  Can't wait to get it back.  I'm having my anniversary ring made larger to fit my ring finger on my right hand.  I have very arthritic fingers.
Had a ball at the Pec Thing yesterday with Kris -- we both came home with a cool box made from an old fruit box.  I put mine in the living room and stacked dvd's in it and hung a quilt over the edge.