My “Big” Day out

So Friday I had big plans.

On Thursday, I went on-line to “Fandango.com” and completed an offer on “Vista Print” to get a free movie ticket to see “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II”. The offer was for a coffee mug for $1.99 with my choice of a personal photo on it.  I used a photo from my 4th of July fireworks pictures I had taken.All I had to do was select the photo, and pay for the mug and shipping to get the free ticket…about $5.  Movie tickets run between $7.50 and $9.

First I should say I have been a fan of the Harry Potter movies since a girl friend of mine introduced me to the first book when it came out. She bought the book for her grandsons, but read it first.  She liked it so much, she lent me her copy to read….Then my 2 sons read it and we were hooked.  I now have all 7 books and “Tales of the Beatlebard”; and yes I was one of those mad people who would stand in line for hours at midnight waiting for the next one to go on sale.  I have also seen all 8 movies now….and I’m a little sad at seeing them end.We all could use a little fantasy in our lives and these books and movies had it all.  After all, can’t you think of someone in your life you would love to turn into a toad or make eat slugs or “blowup”as Harry did?

My middle son has gone with me to every movie and book release.  I’m not one to go to a movie by myself, so we decided to go together to the 1:15 p.m. showing.Now this was going to have to make for some schedule changes as Fridays are usually a “run” day….run the husband to the Flea market, run to the store for groceries, run the youngest son to work, etc….I usually mow the lawn on Fridays , too but did this on Thursday evening when it was a little cooler….Temperatures in the 90s f (32c) with a heat index over 100, old age and stiff joints don’t mix well.

While mowing the lawn, my neighbor stopped me to tell me “my” fleas were jumping the fence into his yard…(Huh??) Didn’t know you could confine fleas to a single yard in the first place,  After all they do live in grass and therefore travel over vast amounts of yards…He showed me some spray he bought to use on his yard so I had my son buy a bottle along with the flea drops we use each month on our dogs.

Surprisingly, when I told my husband that if he wanted me to take him to the flea market Friday he’d have to get his butt in gear and not mope around as usual, He suggested I take him after I returned from the movie…(Let me pick myself up off the ground). And my youngest son said he’d either ride his bike or walk to work! So having settled all the transportation problems, My son and I packed 2 sodas in my oversized purse, bought candy at the Dollar Tree for the both of us and headed to the mall….What a great movie it was!  I had my doubts if I would enjoy it when a woman with at least 6 kids sat behind us and they talked all through the previews…(After all, the movie theater was less than 1/10 of the way full and they chose to sit directly behind us!!)

After the Movie, I went home and sprayed the yard down with water first as the instructions on the Flea spray said to do.  Then you let that soak for an hour or two before treating….So by the time I got back from the flea market run and the store run, the yard was ready for step 2.  My neighbors wife said the bottle is for 8000 square yards, but she ran out about half way through her front yard, not even getting to the back…Don’t know how she did it, but I covered my entire backyard twice with one bottle and still had enough for our front yard.

Next step, wash the dogs since they could not be out in the yard until it was completely dry.  I fooled the dogs by putting a leash on them and leading them to the tub where they both in turn got a flea bath (and gave me one shaking the water off!). Since I have white dogs, they  have to be completely dry before allowing them outside (to roll in the dirt). So we then snapped leashes on the 2 and I took them for a long walk to the Fairgrounds.  We were there for some time as one man passed by us 3 times in his walk around. I must have been gone too long as my youngest son was home and walking towards us as we approached our street on the way home….Our female dog, even though she is the younger of the 2, was slowing down to almost a crawl….I guess I wore her out.The male was still zig-zagging from side to side to sniff every inch for strange smells.

Now I am tired and ready for a shower. 

Saturday, I put the flea drops on them before letting them outside….to roll in dirt and look like they had never been bathed.

But I was outside for over 5 hours that day!

Hugs and Love to all!!!

Hiding out

Just too hot out here!  So I’ve been hiding out….Can you see me?

How about now???

The Beauty of Friendship

Years ago, friends were people you knew from the neighborhood or from school.  That was before personal computers and the internet.

Now we can go on-line and meet people from all over the world.  And I have been blessed to meet so many new people whom I can now call friends.  It’s like I knew them forever! 

I started off with people I met on Windows Live Spaces with some of my older brother’s friends who started following my blogs there.  Then it snow-balled and met lots of new people who then became close friends of mine.

We read each other’s blogs, we laughed together, cried together and conspired with each other.

Then Windows got stupid….They did away with the Live Space blogs….and now if we want to blog, we have to find another means.  Some of us have chosen “Wordpress”, others use “Blogger”….and some of our friends have done away with blogging all together.  We use Facebook to keep up on every day things now.

Thank-goodness that I still have most of these precious friends!

I love every one of you and I am so glad we met….

To each and every one of you, thanks for being there whenever I need a friend, for a shoulder to cry on, for your support and uplifting words….You are very important to me and I’m so glad you call me friend, too.

Hugs and Love to each and everyone of you!

And if you know some of our friends from Windows Live Spaces that I have missed, please suggest their new blogs so we can re-connect!

 

(Whooo! Thank-goodness I figured out how to download Windows Live writer on this dinosaur!)

Things that make you say Hmmmmm

Every year, twice a year, our little town has a big parade. July 4th and mid November for the annual Christmas parade, groups come from all over to be in the parade.

Scouts, Churches, businesses (like Pizza shops, Ice cream shops, even Old Navy, Wal-Mart and Kroger), police/fire/rescue units, Service groups, the Library and Floats of all shapes and sizes.  Dance groups, Gymnasts, Boxing, Fair queens and Politicians. Marching Bands, Rest homes, hospital and Care facilities, “Meals-on-Wheels”, Antique cars, Antique Tractors, Horses, Long Horn Cows and dogs.Veterans, and Antique Military Vehicles…..You can see them all.  

Sometimes we are lucky enough to have the Columbus Zoo bring a few animals.

July 4th we usually have 1 or 2 big attractions.  This year we had the Marine Corps Marching Band.  We also get a Civil War Re-encampment group….both Union and Confederates that usually set up a weekend camp at a nearby Park.

We have had some nice size parades in the past where our Parade ran well over 2 hours. The children and families line the parade route to get Candy, freeze pops, snack cakes, coupons for Pizza and Ice cream, flags and Beads thrown or passed out by walkers all along the route.  Even the local Donut shop makes a pass and gives out donuts. 

The Parade always takes the same route.  It starts at the Fairgrounds, travels down North Columbus street to Main Street where a block later it makes a left hand turn and travels back to the Fairgrounds down Broad Street. The streets I have lived on since moving here have given me an advantage.  I live 1 block from the fairgrounds, in the middle of the parade route.  I can see the beginning of the parade all the way through, then walk to the other end of the street and watch the last half or so all the way through a second time.

It always seems to amaze me the number of people who leave one side in their cars, turn left and end up being blocked on the end of the street by the parade which is still going on…Every Parade it happens.  People who have lived here all their lives still seam to think if they go down the street away from one end of the parade, they can get out on the other side…Maybe if they had turned right, they could have. 

Our street is a one way street…Today a bicycle Policeman rode down our street the wrong way to direct traffic that was backing down to the alley to get out…He was heard saying “I don’t know what they were thinking”.  Some sneak down the street and break into the parade to get out…Pretty dangerous when you think of all the children walking out to get candy….

I take my my camera every year.  I usually come home with hundreds of pictures.  This year, I wasn’t really excited about it.  Usually I have several grandchildren along.  This year, It was just my mother-in-law; and some of my neighbors who have moved in this past year. 

I only took 48 photos.

I haven’t decided yet if I am going over to the Fairgrounds this evening to watch the fireworks…I may go over and take my camera to see if I can get some good shots.  With the grandkids gone, it just doesn’t seem that exciting to me anymore.

Hugs and Love to all! 

Woooo! Am I ever Glad!

I am so glad I don’t live any closer to my mother’s house than I do.

Don’t get me wrong!  I would love to be able to see my mother every day and visit with her whenever I wanted to; but there is one really big thing wrong with her home….DRAMA!!! And I mean every day, too much drama.

First of all, I have 2 brothers still living there.  They have both been to jail more times than I would care to even remember.  They both use drugs and drink.  Neither of them have a driver’s license but still drive.  And they fight like a bunch of wild animals!  For years they have fought and argued.  Many times the police were called and my mother’s home is considered a violent one.  by law enforcement

My middle brother, being a convicted felon, is not supposed to be around or own a gun. He doesn’t own any, but he lives in my mother’s home, where the youngest brother owns several guns.

The youngest brother has been married several times. (well, at least twice)  Both times he has come out of the marriages with more money than he’s had his whole life from any legal, gainful employment.  And both times he has spent the money foolishly.  The first time I think it took him less than 6 months to blow through the money.  He’s trying hard to do it again.  He has several guns…and when he gets mad about something, he threatens to shoot whomever he’s mad at.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in our Constitution, and I believe people have the right to own and bear arms.  Some people take it to the extreme….as in my oldest and youngest brother.  Neither live in extremely dangerous places.  My oldest lives in a rural county, and does not hunt for food.  And the youngest brother just doesn’t have any reason to own  gun except that he can and my oldest brother does…His wife is under 5 feet tall,maybe 100 pounds soaking wet, (or there about) and over 60 years old. I don’t care how many times you have practiced with a gun; when confronted by someone who is over a foot taller and maybe 2 or 3 hundred pounds heavier than you; you CAN be overpowered even with a gun even if you are the one who owns it!!

There may be some places where it may being important to own a gun.  And I am all for that.  But too many times I have read of instances where people have had their own guns taken from them and used against them.  I have read of young children and teenagers who have found their parents guns and shot people accidently with them.  Nothing is more tragic than reading about a 10 year old who accidently shot his baby sister.  And I have read many times how silly arguments among teenagers and neighbors have ended up in someone being shot; either wounding them or killing someone.

“AMARILLO -- As of Friday morning, the 22-month old girl who was shot Thursday night is listed in extremely critical condition. Police say the gun was fired by one of the girl's two brothers. Because he is less than 10 years old, the child is not criminally responsible.”

“Telferner, Texas--  A 4-year-old boy , is dead after his 5-year-old sibling shot him while playing with a bolt-action rifle in their home on Wednesday. Their parents were home at the time, although not directly supervising their kids at the moment the shooting occurred.”

“Chicago, ILLINOIS--A Chicago family is in mourning, as one of a set of five-year-old twins suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the abdomen at the hands of his brother. Five-year-old Jonathan and his twin brother had just been given their baths and were playing in their room, about to settle down for the night before their first day in kindergarten.“They were in the house playing cops and robbers and found the little gun,” said an aunt of the twins.”

“An argument between two friends on Facebook has led to a teenager shot dead and two people facing murder charges.Alysha Tann, 19, was shot to death in Texas over the weekend after an online feud with her friend Nikki Bogan, 18.”

First of all, if you do own a gun, I see no earthly reason why you should go about bragging about owning one.  If you own one for protection, I think it would be 100% better if you go through all the proper channels, get a concealed carry permit and practice with it as often as you can.  But don’t go about bragging about the type of gun, the size of it’s shells or the size hole it could leave in someone.  You are just inviting someone to break into your house while you are away or heaven forbid asleep and take the guns by force. And for god’s sake, don’t sleep with it under your mattress or pillow!!! It should be kept in a safe place. 

If you have a hunting gun, then you may be using it to boost your food stores, and there is a limit in most places on the amount of game you can take.  Here where I live, some of the hunters go out and get their limit, keep what they can use for their family and donate the rest of the meat to food pantries.  And to me this is Okay.  Some species of animals will get over run in population if they are not thinned out every year or so.  But if you don’t hunt, why own a hunting rifle??  So you can target shoot??? Don’t they have places where you can go to do that sport and rent rifles?? I know they do!!

I have 2 adult suns who live at home. They both have owned hand guns and cross bows.  They never bragged to anyone about them, never threatened to shoot anyone, and kept their guns and ammo under lock and key at all times well hidden.  NO one but us knew they had them.  Most of the time, I even forgot they were there.  When my middle son got out of the Navy and had no further use for the gun, he sold it.  After all, that was why he had bought it to begin with, for the military use.

I have spent the past several days fielding phone calls from the middle brother.  My oldest brother and family were visiting Mom last month and she had to go to court over some cars the middle brother insists upon working on in a residential neighborhood'; which is not allowed.  My mother, being the property owner is responsible for what goes on in her home and yard.  I won’t get into details, but “supposedly” she was told to evict the middle brother.  She admits that she could not hear and did not understand much of what the judge said, and I wasn’t there so I won’t speculate on what really happened.  But growing up, I do remember my father telling us that as long as there was a house, we would always have somewhere to live. 

My nephew also lives there.  His mother (my middle sister) left him and his brother with my mom when they were 8 or so.  She lives nearby, but she talks a mile a minute and like my oldest brother, “invents” things that never happened. Last week he had a friend over with a convertible that he had borrowed.  Some words were exchanged by several boys riding past when they were outside that resulted in a fire bomb being thrown into the opened roof of the car and it being burned down to the frame….in front of my mother’s home….

For these reasons, there is too much Drama in my mother’s home for me to want to go back there, even for a vacation, unless the guns were gone and I had a car to escape in when the Drama starts.

I’d rather be at home….where I can hear all the Drama but not be a part of it!

Hugs and Love to all!!!

Another day

Another day closer to the end of the month. I am patiently waiting for the 1st of July so I will have the money to pay my phone bills; since it’s obvious that someone doesn’t think I need the class action lawsuit check…Still no word on it.

I don’t know why I check the mailbox anymore.  Mostly junk mail, cigarette coupons….and I don’t smoke…and “Direct TV” or “Free Funeral Expense/Burial Plot” adds. (do they know something I don’t?)… I was kind of hoping for something a little more personal; like a letter from a friend or family member…like my Mother since my brother and family have gone back home. 

Since my cell phone has been suspended for almost 2 weeks, I am only allowed to receive incoming messages.  What good is that?? I can’t answer them! So I have been keeping it shut off and only turn it on in the evening to delete all the messages I couldn’t answer.

I finally got a letter from my mother today. She told me in the letter that my brother-in-law bought my younger sister a cell phone.  I had given her one that I had bought for my daughter since I had almost 8 months left on that contract.  My sister kept sending me a text message from a number I had never seen before.  Today I decided to use my home phone, which I plugged back in recently, and called the number.  Since she has a new phone, she no longer needs the phone I was paying for. She has it all boxed up and is adding some bath and beauty things that she received as gifts and doesn’t use but hadn’t mailed the box yet.  She told me a neighbor asked about the phone.  I told her if she can sell it, that’s okay by me.  That would give her the money to send the package to me, and if there was extra, she could send me the money.

I thought about giving the phone to one of my grandchildren…but they don’t contact me with the ones they have now. I also thought about sending it to my Mom.  My sister said she could hear real well on the phone when she was home, and since she had no long distance service, she’d be able to call the 3 of us that don’t live near her.  But she has always said that she hates cell phones, so I will save myself a little money.

So I decided to call my cell phone provider and cancel the service on that one.  That will save me about $30 a month, more or less. If my son does what he said, and get his phone transferred over to his name, that will just about cut my cell phone bill in half….but I’m not counting my chickens just yet. Do you know that even though I have had no use of my cell phones for over 14 days, I still have to pay the full month of service??  What a rip off!! My usage for this billing period is 4 minutes!!

Oh well, something else I pay for and never get to use….like my car that my son always has….

Hugs and Love to all!!

I started it

I have been putting it off for awhile.
I think it is because it seams so final.
On Friday, my son and I walked up to Arby’s for “dinner”.  We were the only 2 home at the time, and we very seldom get to go out anywhere to eat anymore so it was kind of a treat.  I really can’t afford to spend extra money on such frivolities, but what the heck! I needed a break and so did he.
Since my youngest son had taken my car to his friends house for about a week, give or take a few days, we were on foot.  What I like about Arby’s is the variety, although their prices are so much higher than most fast food restaurants.  They have several different potato products; home style fries, curly fries and stuffed potato wedges (ymmmy! my favorite!) and onion petals.  And if you so desire you can get dipping sauces like warm melted cheese or ranch.
The dark cloud in the western sky didn’t stop us from stopping in at Jo Ann Fabrics to snoop around.  I found a clerk to ask her for a suggestion on which fusible webbing product she would recommend to make a T-shirt quilt.  I never knew they made so many…. So she showed me what most people use and I bought 2 yards to try it.  I looked through the yarns as I need a particular shade of purple to finish a scarf I am working on, but they had nothing near the color I need; and I hadn’t brought the piece I keep to match it anyway.  I also tried to decide what color of material I want to use for the borders of the blocks, although right now I am leaning towards a yellow as all the teams had that as one of their colors.  For the outside binding, I am considering a series of 3 colors; Purple, then Yellow then a navy blue for the football team and the schools. And we continued our walk home, and got caught in the rain….It wasn’t a down pour, but a gentle shower and the trees along the side walks helped to block  most of it.

When we arrived home and I had taken in the stray cat that followed us home and given it a flea shampoo and wrapped it in a warm towel, I went up to my son’s room to retrieve the Iron and get the bag of T-shirts from it’s safe place in my room.  We bought the iron to use on his uniforms and it remains in it’s box in his room….That way we can always find it.
I still have not brought myself to take the football T-shirts apart, but I have done a few; the school football shirts, an old football youth team, my grand-daughter’s track and soccer T-shirts, the youngest grandson’s wrestling tournament T-shirt….and some scout shirts from day camp have had the scissors taken to them and have been cut in two with the sleeves removed.
The fusible web seams easy enough to work with so far, but I still have to see how it is going to do when I sew it on the machine.  I haven’t decided on a backing yet.  And I either have to “splurge” and buy a new machine; find a good used one, or borrow my mother-in-law’s machine.  (Last time I used it, it really gave me a fit.)
I haven’t decided how big the quilt will be, but the T-shirts are pretty much deciding that for me.  The patterns on the shirts come out nicely in a 14” block.  I have found that I can not “eye” the proper  block, so will need a quilting square to help me when I get down to the football shirts and final assembly.  But I am not that close yet.

I will have to go to the Screen Printer and order some shirts later.  I want to include a shirt for my oldest grandson’s middle school team, and All the boys number/name blocks for their assorted teams…mainly their football numbers….For my oldest grandson, that is 3 teams with different numbers.  The younger two only have the one team and they kept their same number for 4 years.
In the past, I have quilted my own quilts after they are assembled but I am considering having this one professionally quilted….depending on how it turns out…There is quite a cost to do that that I am not sure I can afford, but a local shop may give me a “demonstration” of their Long arm quilter and do it for less. It may turn out that each block has a different quilted pattern inside…Like the basketball one would have the basketball sewn in, the wrestling one would have wrestlers sewn in, and the football ones could have footballs, helmets, etc. I kind of like the wings for the track shirt. 
It’s for me anyway…although if it turns out nice, I may enter it in the Fair.  I am considering entering the fair anyway…I’ll check on it and sign up for a few of their different  categories…maybe quilting, knitting and photography and at least get the 7 day fair pass.
If I can’t be with my grandchildren, I can snuggle myself in a blanket of their sports t-shirts and my memories of watching them play.
Maybe they will find a way to let me see them “play” sports again this year.

Hugs and Love to all!  I will post more quilt photos as it progresses.