Does it ever end?

I can't believe everything that has happened since I last wrote. I went to my Technology Academy day and learned a LOT! I now know how to use the "Inspiration" program software to create graphic organizers, how to do lesson plans on Excell, and I have a web site for school, and also know how to keep the department web site updated since I'm now the dept. head.

The next day I went down to a friend's house and she taught me how to paint on fabric. It was really fun to do, and she has me hooked. I created three pieces of fabric to use in a challenge quilt for the Ladies of the Lake quilt show at an art gallery. There is a watercolor painting that we were to use as inspiration and do something to interpret our own vision. I will be doing the November sky at sunset, over Lake Michigan. Now, we face East to the lake, so the sunset is behind, but the sky can be absolutely beautiful over the lake to the east. I have wanted to do something with that for many years, and this challenge seemed to fit. I made three pieces, one for "sky," one for "water," and one for "land." I need to make a new "water" though, as I feel mine is too blue. It needs to be more steely gray. My friend is so talented and I felt honored to experiment with her. WE also did some sun painting, which is putting something on the fabric as it dries. Whereever ther is something on it the image appears as lighter on the finished piece. Way cool! We tried some fern fronds that I brought down. I stayed over night and we went to her church for a salad supper (yum!) and then I helped her clean up, along with others. A woman, who was in the group who put on the supper, had died and her wake was that night. We helped so others could leave and go to it. I washed and/or dried dishes for a couple of hours. My good deed for the day. =-) After we got home we watched the weather since we found out that there were tornadoes heading towards us. It kept heading right at us until right before it got there and then it turned south and missed us. Pretty scary. We were prepared to go in the basement, but didn't have to, although her two daughters went down there for awhile. The next day there were shingles all over the neighborhood. This was probably from houses in a sub division that was demolished in Stoughton. Debris was dropped all the way north up to Appleton!

When I got home DH and I went up to our trailer and had a relaxing weekend. Even though it is relaxing, I am not home to do anything! I haven't been able to get at my machine quilting! I do make DJ blocks up there, and last weekend I made a bracelet with beads.

I've been doing things at school. I spent a day at a "data retreat," which sounds like fun, but it isn't. It is a day to look at test scores and also at the questions that many students got wrong to see what kind of questions they were so we could give them more practice on those. Most were analysis questions where they either had to read a passage and answer questions based on it, or look at a graph, chart, timeline, or map to do the same. Hmmmm, sounds suspiciously like WORKSHEETS!!!!! See, you drop somethig for more creative teaching and it comes back to bite you in the butt! I also met with my co-worker (and friend) to work on our presentation for the inservice day. I had a haircut one day, and I saw my therapist whom I still see once in a while to keep in touch about my depression. We had our inservice day on Friday and it went well. I felt a bit less prepared that usual, but it was still god. I think I felt that way because I have had so very much going on this summer and can't spend as much time on anything I do, and also feeling a bit nervous due to stress.

Friday night we went to the trailer again. I was so tired that I went to bed early. Sat. I got up and made a bracelet with beads! My first one. This one was using jump rings. They were pretty much a pain in the butt, but I did it. I still have to put a clasp on. I left it up there because I want to show the other up there. I also cut some fleece bead mats to give to the beaders up there. One camper showed us how to do the bracelet the week before, but I didn't have any supplies till I went to buy them last week. We also had Halloween at the campground last weekend. It was fun. Our "loop" of seasonals all got together and had a pot luck, and we wore costumes and then gave out candy. Two campsites went all out. One is the parents of the wife in the other one. They had stuffed "bodies" with gruesome masks on, and at the one right across from us they dressed up and sat or stood among the fake people and when someone would get close they would move, or talk and scare them. So many kids walked by us and never saw us because they were looking at the site across the street... or were running away screaming! We resorted to yelling, "We've got candy! We won't scare you!" Next year we will sit at the next campsite down! It was fun though. Only one child was led away crying and they felt bad about it because they hadn't seen that there was a little one there. Most were older kids who were having fun being scared. One adult sat with a "head" with candy in and stayed really still and kids would go take the candy out of the head bowl. Every once in a while she would yell, "Not that one!" and the kids would scream. They were laughing though. We just brought up some pumpkin lights and a scarecrow to put out. No time for anything else!

We left the trailer Sunday morning to go to a surprise 70th birthday party for DH's oldest brother. Hard to believe he is that old! But, I guess we are all getting there... it is better than the alternative! After the party we went down to Sheboygan to see dad.

Last Tuesday Dad had his knee replaced. I had been going down quite a bit to see him, and help mom if I could (at least with moral support). When I was down there last week dad was really out of it. He kept falling asleep and he was talking nonsense. Finally they took him off of that particular drug and now he is lucid. He was really scaring me last week, because he also had blood in his urine. He looked SOOOOOO much better yesterday. He is doing pretty well, and was even able to walk to the end of the hall with his walker and get his feet up on the bed by himself. Such an improvement!

When we went to see dad, however, we got the surprise that one of my sisters was also in the hospital there, one floor up! DS had fallen down her basement stairs, when she mistook that doorway for her bedroom in the middle of the night. She somehow dragged herself up those stairs and called her daughter. My niece took her to the emergency room and right now she is in ICU. She has a broken collarbone, three broken ribs, a punctured lung and a bleeding spleen. They are watching her to determine if they need to take the spleen out. They used to automatically take it out, but now they only take it out if they determine that it will not heal itself. It looks like maybe the blood in there is old blood and that she has already stopped bleeding. In that case her spleen will heal along with her broken bones. She is in really bad shape and she is in so much pain. It feels so frustrating to see her like that and not be able to do something for her! I will be going down there later today.

Toiday was going to be my quilting day, I promised myself last week. Well, the best laid plans... You never know what will happen. I hope to spray baste some baby quilts this morning before I go down to the hospital. That way at least they will be ready to quilt when I can steal the time.

I called for a Dr. appointment this morning. My right ear has been bothering me for over a month (when we were in North Carolina and Virginia). I don't know if I have an ear infection or a sinus infection, or if it is my TMJ, or any combination of, or all of the above! I had put off calling because I have been so busy, and also it hasn't hurt THAT bad, and I kept hoping it would go away! Alas! It didn't! I couldn't get in until tomorrow at 4. It is our first teacher workday, so I'll be attending meetings and working in my room all day and then heading over to see the doctor.

Well, I guess I had better get going if I am going to get anything done!

WOW...I am actually home for a couple of days... but

...tomorrow I have to go to a technology day because since I am the new social studies department chair I am in charge of the dept website and also I am doing one of my own.

I have been doing so much... way too much... I need to learn to say ,"No!"

Last night I got 2.5 hours of sleep. I was working on my homework for my archaeology class. I had to have everything in today (we upload to a web site). I was up doing that, and then had to get up to take DH to the Dr. for his colon thingie today (ugh). I read 2 quilting magazines while there waiting, and then took him to Perkins for breakfast. I dropped him off at home, and went to school because I had worked on a lesson in May for archaeology class and I had forgotten to e-mail it home. I went and picked up my keys and then did my mail. It was a good thing I went in, too, because there was an e-mail there telling me they lost all of my information for the technology thing tomorrow due to a "computer glitch" so I had to re-register at the web site. Then I ran to get cat food (well, I drove my car, actually), and then I came back and worked on homework again. Then, all of a sudden I realized I had DJ club tonight and I hadn't prepared anything for it (I usually prepare it a couple of weeks ahead, but I would have had to be home to do that... with no homework, too). So I whipped out something for that, too. (pant, pant). It went fine. I came home after and made two phone calls so an hour later here I am.

Last week I was at my class, and Thursday night (my last night there) DH called me and told me he was losing vision in an eye and lots of floaters and flashing lights. So here I am, 4 hours away, without a car (my friend drove) and it is 9 PM, and he calls me about it because he doesn't know if he should do something. So there I am, 4 hours away, remember, freaking out telling him his retina might be detaching and he needs to go in right away. He went to urgent care and the Dr. there didn't know diddly squat. She couldn't "see" anything (so nothing's wrong... even though in order to see the retina etc. his eyes would need to be dilated and she would actually have to know what she was doing). She wrote he had floaters and told him to call an ophthalmologist in the morning. Well, lucky for her he didn't totally lose his sight. He does have a "separated" retina, which when I looked it up on the internet said it was the same as detached, but there is no tear with vitreous fluid leaking, so he doesn't need surgery... right now. He has to go back in a couple of weeks, and I am writing him a list of questions to ask because he never asks anything and it drives me nuts!!! Whew. Now that's out!

One of my phone calls tonight was to a friend to thank her again and again for helping me on Thursday night. After I got DH's call I was freaking and didn't know what to do so I called a good friend and she and her husband went out to see if they could find DH and eventually found him at home. They made him promise that if anything happened he would call them and they would come to help. I was concerned about him driving himself to the Dr. with failing vision, even if it was only one eye. He still has reduced vision, with tons of floaters, both large and like pepper. He drew me a picture of what he sees and it must be awful. Eventually his brain will learn to see through it, but it is bad right now. I have floaters, too, (doesn't everyone who is older?) but his are a lot worse.

We went up to the trailer on Saturday, and I practically slept the whole weekend. DH had to work on Sat., so we couldn't go until late Sat. afternoon. I was able to work on some homework on Friday night and all day Sat. so this was a good thing. So on Sat. we got there, and I took a nap. We sat at a neighbor's fire for awhile that night and went to bed early. I slept late Sun. Got up and sat at friend's trailer for a couple of hours, and then went and took a nap. A bunch of us went out for dinner together on Sunday night, and then came back to our campfire because DH had made dessert. He had made it to take to carving on Wed. and messed up and doubled the recipe so we took the extra up there where we never have to worry about getting rid of anything! We all crashed about 10. I woke up late on Monday, got up and sewed on some DJ blocks. Then I ... you guessed it... took a nap. Then we came home and I started more homework. So it is a good thing I got all that sleep over the weekend or I never would have made it through today. Time for bed now! Yawn! Have to go get some sleep before my head explodes, or I have to get up at 5:30, whichever comes first!

Back to the Grindstone

I am sitting here today wishing that I could stay home! But, alas, I have to leave for LaX today for another week of archaeology. Even though it is interesting, and I am glad I am doing it, it is hard to go today after what I did this past week. I just returned from four days of sewing and laughter at a quilter buddy's cottage, with quilter friends. Couldn't get much better than that! I feel like I got so much done! I finished putting borders on a "Garden Pathways" quilt that I started THIRTEEN years ago! Now I have another top in my rubbermaid tub. Well, on the stack of quilt tops that is in the tub... it is a foot higher than the tub at this time. Oh My! I also put a binding on a small Christmas quilt. I made that one around the same time. I still have to hand stitch the binding to the back. I am going to take it along for the ride to LaX, since I am not driving this time. I worked on some more bookcase blocks, too. I have two sets finished and one partially done. One set this time I just made books all the way across. You can't have something on EVERY shelf! The second set has books along with a bug in a jar cut out of a panel. The perfect size! They are so cute! The third set has books and a bowl with fabric scraps in it. I have that one 3-D so scraps are falling out (stitched in with the sewing that anchors the bowl fused applique. I just ironed them right in there and stitched over them.) I like how they turned out. I will take photos and post them when I return. No time now... in fact, I should be in the shower, and I still have to pack. It is always so nice to go to the cottage with friends. We realized that this was our 5th year. What a nice time! I don't go outside much, and enjoy the lake, though. Since I only have so much time to sew, I get obsessed with that, and ignore the beauty around me. The first day we were there it was incredibly HOT and HUMID and we were all dripping (or was that MELTING?). After that a storm came through and it cooled to a perfect temperature. We have so much fun together, and my friend is such a good hostess. We all bring food, and try to help, but I know she works hard to have us there. What a wonderful time! That's what makes it so hard to have to go back for archaeology class! I will be OK once I get there, but I wanna stay here to QUILT!!! Waaaaaaah! sniff

My co-worker and I are going today so the drive is over and we are ready to go tomorrow. We are taking an extra day and are going to see the SPAM museum in Austin, Minnesota tomorrow. I know we will do other things, but not sure what. We will be going to Iowa Monday night and meeting our class at Effigy Mounds National Monument on Tuesday morning. That night we'll be back in LaX watching one of our teacher's slides from Egypt, while having a pizza party. Wednesday we will be back out at the site. We'll see what the second group of teachers did at our feature (and the others) and we are also "walking the creek" to see if we find any more mastodon bones washed out. The found an ulna there a number of years ago, and don't know where it washed out of, so every once in a while they walk the creek hoping to see where it came from. Another thing we'll be doing is testing an area looking for a burial. The brothers who own the farm were using a small bull dozer to make a road in to another site, and pushed the soil they took off into a big pile. A young boy who was visiting picked something up from the pile and it turned out to be a human skull! So we will be looking for the rest of the burial so that it can be protected from further disruption. We'll also be having a picnic with the brothers that day. They are 81 and 78 years old; I think I mentioned that in a previous post. We'll have a day of school talk, as well. On Thursday we'll meet in groups and share our overviews of how we will be implementing this into our classrooms. My co-worker/friend and I have a 16 day unit planned that will begin the 3rd day of school, which we will do only with our 5th period classes. We'll be trading classes some days so these students will have both of us. The rest of our classes will be learning things the "old" way so that we can compare test scores. I know that the other classes will be jealous, so I will have to do some of the activities with them later in the year. Friday we will be driving home. Then it will be a weekend with DH at the trailer. I am hoping to be able to sew on the following Monday and Tuesday so I can quilt some baby quilts that are overdue. I can't believe that summer is almost over. Sigh. I want to do so much and the lack of time can be so frustrating!!! Better get packed so I am ready when my friend arrives to pick me up. I hope I can stay awake today. I didn't fall asleep until 5:30 AM last night (this morning). Now today I am drinking coffee so the caffeinne keeps me going. I keep typing double letters and having to go back to edit. =-) Oh, I almost forgot... I found my DJ journal, and added the blocks I had made since my last entry, and found I had 99!!! So I took one that I only had two little "melons" to stitch on yet, and finished it. So now I am at 100 blocks! I'm a Jubilee Jane! Yahooooo!! Off to PACK now; I have to go as much as I'd like to stay! Stay tuned for the next episode of "Adventures in Overbooked Land!"

Whirling Through Life

Whew! I can hardly believe that my life is this busy! We got home from our vacation, and spent the next few days cleaning and catching up on appointments, etc. The first day back I had two Dr. appointments, plus I did DJ Club at the quilt store. (Luckily, I had prepared for it when I prepared for the June date.) Then, besides cleaning, I went to have my car mirror fixed the next day. I'm embarrassed to say that I hit the edge of the garage door with my mirror and broke the mirror. Because I have such a fancy-smancy car with a memory type mirror, it was over $400! And, that was because they gave me the wholesale price on the mirror and only charged for labor besides that. The next day I had a haircut, and, oh, did I mention that I did cleaning? That's what happens when you aren't around to clean for two months! The next day was Friday, and I cleaned. Saturday I got up very early, and I drove to Naperville, IL, near Chicago. I met some QuiltChicks there for quilt store shopping and lunch. On my way back I stopped at a store I like for buying things for my house, and then got to a surprise birthday party for one of my sisters' 60th birthday right before the birthday girl. After the party I met my DH at our trailer get-a-way. Monday morning I was back at cleaning. The next two days I went to a training session so I will be one of the leaders of my school's first day required inservice. One of those days I came home and fell asleep, the other one I came home and cleaned my refrigerator. The ice making machine part had stopped working. DH looked at it, took it all apart and put it back together again, thinking that maybe a circuit board needed to be replaced. I don't know if thawing it out did it, or something DH did, but the ice machine started working again! We are both claiming we fixed it! Thursday I went to lunch with some friends who used to teach Family and Consumer Ed. when I did. We get togeter every couple of months, and call it networking. Only three of us made it, bu we had a great time sharing stories of our summer. One has an active 2 year old who must be sort of like the Tasmanian Devil... he gets into more trouble than I do! haha After lunch I drove down to the birthday girl's house for a four sisters slumber party. We had a good time being together and talking. We can't stay up as late as we used to, but we did OK. I stayed Friday so I could have dinner with everybody. During the day my DB, DSIL, DN, DNDW, and DGN arrived, too. I got home really late. We didn't go to the trailer because DH had to work this weekend. I was lazy Sat. morning, and totally forgot I had signed up for a beading class for that morning until it was already over. DRATS!!! Maybe they will let me take it at another time. I signed up for it in May. DH got home earlier than we thought he would so we went up to the trailer for the rest of the day and night. I had started reading the latest Harry Potter book on Friday, and read it part of the day on Saturday, and finished it on Sunday. I also worked on some DJ blocks. Between the last two weekends I have made 8 blocks. I think that puts me in the 90's. I can't find my DJ journal so I can add these. It's driving me nuts, because I know that it is right here, somewhere! I'll look for it again as soon as I post this. Today I got up early so that I could go get tickets for my nephew, his wife and their baby to tour the Packer Stadium, or should I say, the "shrine." They spent some time with me before and let me hold the baby. She is just as cute as a button! She sure smiles a lot. I can tell she isn't going to stop once she gets moving! =-) So, now I am going to finish cleaning up my sewing room and SEW today. I think I will work on quilting a baby quilt. I have three left to do. One is quilted, and I have a label ready to go on it. I'll sew that on and then get it ready to mail. Hey, I may catch up a bit and then I'll stop procrastinating. I keep putting it off since I don't feel like doing the machine quilting... but my big tub of TOPS is sitting here waiting for me! I have to take advantage of today to sew, because tomorrow my friend is coming over to work on our units and the rest of the work we need to do for our last summer week for Archaeology. I have to get it all done tomorrow because on Wednesday I leave for a friend's cottage with some quilting buddies, where we will have our own retreat for 4 days. Saturday night I'll be coming home so I can pack to go to my class for a week. Pant, pant, pant, can I breathe yet? On to sewing.... Heigh Ho Bernina, Awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!