I'll Never Catch Up :(

My nephew, Graham, with his wife, Sherry, and their two children, Danielle and Grayson

My sweet 'baby' who was afraid Mom would leave him in Hopewell

Midori and Stoney's pet turkey (my niece and her husband) that follows you around like a puppy! :D
My sister, Flan, who is going to kill me for posting this picture, and the turkey following us :D

My niece, Midori, at her house with her 'baby'


My niece, Carmela, with her children, Ian and Rowan

I have gotten the paperwork caught up---finally---but the rest of the mess is taking a lot longer to deal with. :/ I did pull out my Fall wallhangings in spite of the dust and dirt. :)

We had a wonderful time at my sister's house in Hopewell, VA. I got to see two of my nieces and my nephew and their families, none of whom I had seen in so long that their children are well on their way to growing up. They each had us over for dinner and/or lunch, and it was great getting to see where everybody lives and spend time with them in their world. :) They are all wonderful adults, and I wish I could have had more time with each one of them. Maybe one of these days they will come visit me in my world. :D I have photos to post for them and thank-you notes (will emails work? LOL) to send. :)

We spent LOTS of time gabbing, which is what the Graham seesters usually do when they get together. :) I had a wonderful time prowling around outside (in spite of the heat!!) in my sister's flowerbeds, picking out the things that I hope she will get me starts of for my poor 'weed' beds.

Randy has had some really acute back problems since I got home, and we've spent several days with me taking him for drs. appts. We were gone today from 9:15 a.m. until 5:00 this evening in first the dr's office, then a stop at the pharmacy, then on for an MRI this afternoon. Tomorrow he has to go for a bone scan and more blood work. Then next Monday he has an appt. for a bone density test. They have to rule out before they can try to pinpoint the main problem. One cause of concern today was that his white blood count was elevated. So we just take one appt. at a time, and hope that they can get to the root of the problem and help him with the pain.

Eventually, I will get my chores caught up, and get back to piecing quilts and baking bread---oh, I had to order me a special bread pan yesterday (along with a couple of other goodies), thanks to The Wandering Quilter's post about her recent bread-baking. :D In spite of the temps outside, my inner calendar tells me it's time to start thinking about baking breads, making pots of soups and stews, a roaring fire in the woodstove, and all of those wonderful sights, smells and tastes that fairly scream FALL to me. :D

Hello, hello, I'm Home Now :-)

I'm baaaccck! Actually, I've been home since Monday night, but I am exhausted, so I haven't even attempted to post anything. Thyroid levels were down, so they increased the synthroid, but it will take a while for it to start to work sooooo....

We had a great trip!! I cannot believe that I was gone for 9 days!! They blew by--quick as a wink, and we were packing the car to head back home. I will do a more lengthy post about our trip soon, but for now I just wanted to say "hi", I missed my blog buddies something fierce, and NO I did NOT sew one stitch while I was gone!

Now my house and paperwork are demanding my attention, and it's past time to start pulling out those pumpkins and scarecrows, so I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from my trip. Hope everyone has a lovely weekend! :)

Car trunk loaded to the gills for the trip :D
Seesters Lilie and Nita (with Badger and Snuggles) on a picnic break halfway to Hopewell
Snuggles and Badger

Dancin' As Fast As I Can :D

Lots to do...decisions to be made...can she get it all together before Sunday morning??? ROFL Probably not, but she's going to go for it and see how much gets accomplished. What ISSSS she talking about? :D Well, a sister invited me to go with her and another sister to ANOTHER sister's house, and I would be gone almost a week, from start to finish. Randy's mediation schedule is so tight next week that I'm surely insane to try to get all of the paperwork ready in one fell swoop for 9 mediations, plus just get the laundry caught up, pack for me and Badger, oh, you know all that goes with trying to leave home---for even one night for some of us :D, much less a week. Lord, I haven't even considered being gone for that lenghth of time in years!!!! What ever am I thinking???? :D But I REALLY REALLY WANT TO GO, soooooo.....I won't be around here for a while.

Leaving you with the trees just getting a bit of glow to their leaves, a deer just lying in the water cooling off (which we've never seen them do before in 5 years of living here), Badger Baby got a new toy :D, a sunrise with CLOUDS... honest-to goodness CLOUDS!!! Oh how I long for a couple of cloudy cool days (and I DON'T want them to come until I get back from my trip,I do NOT want to miss them if they EVER come to SHIP'S Landing again lol), and an applique block that I'm playing with.

Have fun, get lots and lots of sewing/reading/baking, etc. done while I'm away, and I'll yell when I get back. :D

I've lost this entire day :( cuz I woke up at 3:00 a.m. and couldn't go back to sleep. Got up, made a cup of tea, read until 5:00 a.m then dozed until Randy got up at 6 or 6:30 a.m. I tried going back to bed but that didn't work. Soooooo, it's been a 'recline on the couch and read' all day for me. On the one hand, it was great to finish this thriller book I've been reading ...on the other :/ I feel like I wasted the entire day. Hopefully, sleep will come and stay all night tonight :D and I'll feel like a million bucks tomorrow.

Happy September

Oh I'm so glad this summer is on the way out the door. It has been the hottest one that I can ever remember, and I've pretty much been miserable with the heat. I know we still have some hot weather to go, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel! :D

I've spent the day watching Appalachian State beat Michigan---what an upset!!--and Va Tech win their opening game :) All the while doing needleturn applique. I have several hand projects going right now so I just sew on one a while, then go to the next for a while. :) I'm stuck on my little pumpkin motif for finishing the outer border on the punkin quilt. I'm going to at least finish the quilting on that tomorrow and get the binding ready for it.

Flea Market is going on in Hillsville, VA, this weekend. It's a humongous affair. I have a sister that lives there, and it used to be an annual family affair for all of us to gather at Nita's house. It still is, but the faces have changed, I think. ;/ Now I think the gathering mainly consists of my neices and nephews, along with a bunch of greats thrown in there too, rather than Nita's siblings. :) I hope they are having a fun time...the weather really cooperated this year. I can remember years that it rained from opening day (Thurs) to the last day (Mon), and was one huge mudhole. I miss gathering with my siblings. Maybe I should have gone this year but I didn't. Maybe next year?

My tree swallows have been gone all summer, but I'm hoping that they will be back for the Fall and Winter. I miss them. They are such graceful birds with a really sweet song.

The cherry tomatoe plant is a volunteer and I hope you can get an idea of just how big it is from the picture. It is huge!!! And FULL of tomatoes! :D I haven't posted a picture of the 'boys' in a while. This was one of our last trips on the boat before pulling it out for the Winter. Badger is on the left and Dewey is on the right. It's rather dark, but as usual, you can click the picture for a larger view.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.