Jana is Married!

My only sister got married last week. She finally found the right man--Robert Berntson. All my siblings were there for the wedding, so the picture opps were too good to pass up. Jana looked beautiful, and she and Robert seem very, very happy.

Grandbaby #7

I'll get in trouble for posting this before Kathy updates her own blog, but I figure it's worth it to show off my newest grandchild. John Alexander Bitter was born on 10-8-10 at about 8:40 AM. Kathy was super-mom with her hynobirthing, and Brice was a dedicated and attentive coach/partner. I was privileged to be there and see it. Baby John weighed 9 lb, 3 oz--same as Kathy did as a newborn, and was 21" long. The nurse said she probably could have stretched him to 21 1/2", but new baby John wasn't too pleased with the measurement process. Kathy went home that evening...baby and all! They're doing very well, except for a tiny bit of jaundice in the baby.

Overheard After Dinner

As John and I left Iggy's restaurant last night, a mother and her young daughter exited at the same time.

Daughter: Mom, time me and see how fast I can run to the car. (Daughter takes off running at high speed, arms and legs flying, and arrives at car)

Daughter: OK, Mom. How long was that?
Mom: That's not our car.
Daughter: WHAT!?!...Well...pretend it is our car. How fast did I get here?

Who cares about the destination, as long as you arrive fast! Kind of a dangerous philosophy, but very funny to witness.

Canning Season

What would fall be without a post about canning? This year's unique weather brought all the peaches and pears on at the same time. Fortunately and unfortunately, there is not an abundant crop of either peaches or pears. The storage room is empty of pears, but still has lots of peaches from last year, so the the pears on the back porch are getting top billing. I've done over 10 dozen quarts of fruit since last Saturday. I'm tired. I'm afraid I'll lose some fruit before I can get it all done, but I'm going as fast as I'm able--and that's all I can do.

Mono and Coxsackie!!??!!

Here's a surprise: I ended up with mono and the coxsackie virus over Labor Day weekend! I think the mono has been around for a while--I've been slowing down gradually over the last few weeks. But the coxsackie virus, which has symptoms like strep throat and the flu combined, hit hard for the holiday. Thanks to great homeopathic treatments, lots of rest, and loving care from my family, I've now recovered to the point of just having a bad head cold, and am improving by the moment. I missed two days of school and felt so guilty leaving my kids in care of a sub, and so guilty leaving a sub at the mercy of my kids :) Can't wait to be back to normal. We're so grateful no one else caught it...at least no one that we know of. We've offered some pretty powerful prayers of protection, and I think the Lord was merciful to us in that regard.

School Is In Session

First week of school is now behind me, I'm totally prepared for next week, (unless I change my mind about some lesson plans) and canning season is about to commence--the corn is on. I'm debating about freezing some of our overabundant chard as well. The summer was short, but eventful...that's an understatement...but the school year has lots of mini-vacations in it. I don't think a month goes by without some kind of 3 or 4 day weekend in it. With school starting, my mind is telling me that I must now be super busy. But if I actually look at my schedule on paper, I'm not overloaded. I just need to budget my time and choose which things are most important to do at the moment--same as always.
Have a great 2010-11 school year!

SCORE!!

Imagine having so much fabric that you could stack it 18" deep on six banquet tables, as well as piling it to overflowing onto five round banquet tables, as well as spreading a vast selection of notions, patterns, lace, and elastic on sheets spread on the lawn, and do that for 3 weeks straight at a garage sale on a busy street corner! That's the kind of fabric supply I found due to a thoughtful phone call from a neighbor.

While a Lindon family was in process of cleaning out the house of a deceased relative, these stacks of fabric were found. Supposedly the woman didn't really even sew much, she just hoarded. The family in Lindon is emptying the house gradually and selling all the fabric for $1 a yard--and if the fabric is in multiple yard lengths, they round down to the nearest yard! What a find for someone like me--I couldn't believe my good fortune. The yard sale went for two weekends, and they say they'll do it again in two more weeks. Unbelievable.

Those of you who know me may laugh at my purchases...I do have (what I thought was) a sizable fabric stash of my own, but this opportunity was too good to pass up. Plus, I'm about out of kids' fabric. Not any more!! As you can see, I scored. And I didn't even include pictures of the cone thread I was able to buy as well. Huge cones for $2 each. I'll be serging freely for a fair while, and even longer.

I'm sure you realize that these fabric purchases were actually completely altruistic. I do have grandkids to sew for, you know. If I happen to get a darling red skirt and a pretty white knit top out of the deal, well...that's just lucky for me :)