Quilt Therapy

Can you hear it?  The desperation?  The once-positive energy channeled into one single life-altering action?  The praying that is so constant that sparks are flying, like a welder who is putting two pieces of metal together?  The pleading for leniency, just one full day of sunshine?  The rope, that is so close to being at the end, the frayed end is visible?

That’s me.

On my knees.

Doesn’t seem to matter – our 10-day forcast is ugly.  Any hopes that we’ll be fully moved into our house by the end of June dashed.  I sit here in my wares because the rains soaked my jammies as I walked to my office this morning.  I would cry, but there’s enough moisture in the air right now, it wouldn’t do us a darned bit of good.

Let me list the highlights of our week – there *are* a few good things:

1. Monday, we were able to get a load of possessions out of the storage unit and moved into the house.
2. Tuesday, the appliance idiots finally showed up with our range and refrigerator.
3. Also on Tuesday, I finally finished printing and burning an order for 600 CDs and got them mailed.  HUGE sigh of relief at accomplishing that, despite the obstacles!
4. When getting ready to push the fridge into the allotted space, the no-brain idiot asked me, in a very condescending tone, “Did anyone think to measure for this fridge?”  As my husband calmly assisted in pushing it back, he explained that yes, of course, the space was measured…and his wife is a seamstress, so when she measures, she measures down to the millimeter.  The fridge fits perfectly, just as I planned!
5. This would also be the idiot who didn’t listen to DH when told how to ease out of our yard with his big truck, to avoid getting stuck.  Did he listen?  Need I answer that?  JD just walked away from them, as it became their problem the minute they tuned him out.
6. The icebox and stove are beautiful and I can’t wait to put them into action!
7. We were able to get another load from the storage units on Tuesday, completely emptying one of them.  One down, one to go!
8. Wednesday started and ended with rain, and lots of it.  JD decided to make lemons … errrr, a fire.  We had chickens, brisket and pork loin to smoke for the upcoming family reunion weekend, so he made fire and smoked meat all day.  I couldn’t stand it by evening and I asked him to hack off a piece of the pork loin … I finished cooking it in the kitchen and we ate it for dinner.  It was DIVINE!
9. Sent photos to the home manufacturers of the house warranty issues.  No word from them, to date, about what they’re going to do about the carpet in the living room.  And, of course, we cannot put the baseboards or trim up until we find out whether they’re going to replace the awful mill end of carpet. 
10. Furniture truck showed up to deliver JD’s new desk, some bookshelves that we’d ordered and our new dining room table.  They are gorgeous, if’n I do say so myself.  I’m excited about all the possibilities.
11. Furniture truck got stuck, too.  Mud is mud and it’ll suck you down.  They did listen to the man-person, so he helped them by pulling them out of the goo with the tractor. 
12. Got approval on the soil sample to proceed with the septic tank that we’d planned.
13. The hole that JD dug for the septic tank is now an unplanned swimming pool.
14. Neighbor man called and offered us the use of his backhoe.  I just love neighborly folk!  And if you’ve rented a backhoe recently, as we have, you know that this will be a HUGE savings when JD is ready to dig the drain field for the septic system!
15. I took two showers in my new house, septic system be damned!  I will not be put off!
16. I cleared out most of our belongings from MIL’s house.  We emptied out the bedroom that my two oldest daughters have been using, and cleaned the room and bathroom, including adding clean sheets to the two beds.  I got all of our “very important because we set them on this just-as-you-walk-in-the-door table” crap sorted, organized and culled.  With the family reunion coming up this weekend, MIL needed the space and I needed to jump in feet-first and clear it out.
17. Today, I need to tackle our camper as there will be friends staying in it over the weekend.  We’ve lived in the camper for a year, so you can imagine that I have my work cut out for me today!
18. We are hosting a birthday party for my MIL on Saturday.  Thankfully, it’s in town at her church.  Unfortunately, there is a swollen river between us and town.
19. Friday, many friends and family folk will be showing up for the family reunion, which happens annually here over the July 4th holiday.  As it stands right now, it’ll be an over-nighter in the houses & camper instead of a camping adventure as it usually is.
20. The kids LOVE mud!

ummmm, right …

And on a less muddy note, our living room carpet has been installed and JD brought the first load of belongings from the storage unit!

Youngest Miss came to me the other day.

“Mom,” she said, “when was I borned?”

“March 10,” I replied.

“No no no, I mean, WHEN … you know, 2000-something.”

“Oh, well, you were born in 2001.”

“Right, that’s what Mama Lu said.”

“So, Mom?”

“uh huh”

“When did I come out naked?”

“Well, you were born on March 10, 2001.” I replied.

“WOW, MOM!” she very excitedly told me.  “I was BORNED on my BIRFDAY!”

Yup, you heard right.  We don’t have a septic system in our new house yet, but we are ALL SO ANXIOUS to get moved into it that my dear husband went down and taped all of the potty chairs closed … and then put our lovely CAMP POTTY in one of the bathrooms!  This way, we can move our beds into the house … sleep there … and still have a place to tinkle, if we need to.  WOO HOO

He’s going to the storage unit to get MY BED (insert happy dance here) tomorrow!!

I spent the day shopping — UGH, do I hate shopping!  BUT, it was necessary and important … as we left most of our appliances in Utah when we sold our house. 

First, I bought a new range:

And then I purchased a new refrigerator:

I also spent time choosing wood molding for the great living room — I hope it’s as pretty as I imagine it will be!  I will need to stain all of it, yet – got crown molding for the ceilings, baseboard molding for the floors and beautiful door & window moldings, too.  I’m so excited to see how it’ll all turn out!

The contractor finished his set-up work yesterday — finish work, is what we’ve decided it is.  He fixed all of the doors (they kinda get off balance when the house is moved and set), finished the carpeting where it wasn’t done, got the ceiling fans working (mild wobbles now), added the beam to cover the seams in the ceiling and fixed the dining room wall (where it broke in transit) so it is amazing!

Our living room went from this:

taped & mudded

To this:

painted & textured

Ah, what a relief it is!  The “hard” part for ME gets a big DONE stamp!

The contractor said the kids’ rooms were finished and they could move their stuff in.  Our oldest went right up to the house and camper and got her prized books and drawing binder and moved them into her new room!  It was so cute to see!  Then, the youngest Miss went up to the camper and got her coloring books and moved them into her room.  hehe  You think they’re ready for a home of our own?

JD started digging the holes for the septic tank today.  He got the 2 holes that the county inspectors need to come out to look at finished AND he nearly finished a 6′ x 6′ x 11′ hole that the septic tank will go into!  He installed alternative wastewater treatment systems for 5+ years here in this part of the world (before we moved to Utah), so he’s pretty knowledgeable about these types of things (whew).  He said once he dug the example holes, and found that the digging was pretty darned easy (i.e. no rock shelf like his mom lives on, up the hill from us), he knew that we could go with a conventional septic system and not an alternative (read:  $$$) one.  I gotta tell you, when he told me that, I was *beyond elated.*  Now, it’s just a matter of him doing all of the pipe work, setting the tank, digging the drain field and getting the county to come out and make sure all is well with what we want to do.

AND, the AC was installed today!  woo hoo – life is definitely getting better!

Next for this mom is Father’s Day – we have a great plan for what to get the dad-person (shhh, it’s a secret!).

And the only thing that’s “hugely” left for the house (does that make any sense?) is for the carpet installers to come out and install the carpet in the living room.  Once that’s done, our lives will go into high-gear to get stuff moved in!

I’m ready.  I’m beyond ready.  Just another week or two!

We will still have to wait on the contractor(s) for the warranty work — like cutting a hole in my bedroom wall for the closet door and some holes in the floor.  We don’t have to wait on them, though, because we’re READY!

Like peas in a pod …

Like oats and honey …

Like cats and dogs!

I traded in my computer for my visor today … worked on our house!  We asked for drywall in the great living room, but the factory would only do what they call “blue nail drywall” … that’s to say, they’re too lazy to actually finish the drywall off … they would only nail it to the walls.  JD and I had to go in and do the floating, taping & sanding of the walls.  And we did it!  Well, I did most of it because it’s not his kind of thing … he worked on the water softener all morning.  We have applied 2 coats of joint compound to cover the seams, nail holes and imperfections of the drywall.  I was down at our house until 1 am yesterday, sanding.  I gotta tell ya, though, that the power sander is WAY better than the hand sanders we used with the first layer!  

Oh yeah, me and that power sander are like peanut butter and jelly!

And my visor above, that’s mostly just sweaty from working in a hot house.

THIS is my foot after spending a couple of hours sanding the chalky walls — ewwwwwww

This is a photo of victory for an eight year-old boy at Boy Scout day camp.  Ah yes, can you smell it?  Victory.  Sweaty little boy.  All in a days work.

The manly man & his manly-man nine year-old cousin (and the dad-person volunteer) completed a week’s worth of bb gun shooting, archery, swimming, leather crafts, camp songs and the ever-present grunting on Friday.  The award, for which the manly-man is celebrating, was that his egg survived the egg drop.  I have no clue how far they dropped their boxes from, but his survived.  We put the egg into a bag of (what else?) popped Boy Scout microwave popcorn … then wrapped the popped corn bag in strapping tape … then put the bag into a box and wrapped the box with the leftover plastic wrap from our move.  Can you tell that we made do with all of the moving items we still have?

The cousin’s didn’t fare as well as the son’s, but he decided it was his Tio’s fault, so he felt better for the faux paus.   His mom said he did an egg drop at school this last term, too, and his egg survived … so, he probably wasn’t as heartbroken as he could have been.

Daughter #1 returned on Friday from her confirmation camp – looking refreshed, renewed (though a bit sweaty as her cabin had no AC) and replenished.  She had a great time and I hope it made a world of difference to her soul. 

It never ceases to amaze me.  No matter how much you quilt, there’s always something new and different that is ‘out there’ waiting for you!  At the last meeting of our little local quilt group, the last program was about foldy potholders.  Foldy things.  Foldy fun!

I’ve never done foldy work before – sure, I’ve seen finished pieces of it, but didn’t have a clue how to do it.  It’s not just FUN, it’s SIMPLE!

Since we’ve been traveling on the weekends so much lately, I prepared some foldy potholders and pressed them before leaving home, and then I did all of the hand-work in the auto.  We’re talking MINIMAL hand-work.  My MIL calls these little stitches that you have to make in these foldy potholders a bar-tack.  I sure don’t feel like I’m in a bar or messing with tacks … but, that may be the best term to use for putting a single stitch in the point of a piece of fabric.  It’s WAY SIMPLE!  Here’s my first few examples – none perfect, but all quite entertaining and useful:

From Karen:

Question: What is your favorite book of all time? The book you’ve read over and over so many times you could quote parts of it? The book you’d never part with but you’d buy a new copy for a friend?

Plain and Simple by Sue Bender is the book for me. Sue writes a simple style, short chapters (I call this type of thing mom-interrupted chapters) and meat … yes, she really writes the meat of her feelings, something that I find marvelous because it’s not how I am.

Plain and Simple is a first-person narrative about how Sue goes to spend time with some Amish families, yearning for a simpler way of life. I grew up near the Amish in Iowa and found their lifestyle quite amazing. Through it all, Sue finds that she does prefer her own life in CA, but she also finds time to focus on the simple things, like a nine-patch quilt. The basics … this life is about taking yourself back to the basics of life and love, and growing from those basics.

I have actually loaned this book to a few friends — friends who led hurried & harried lifestyles. Frankly, they didn’t “get it.” I’ll share it again and again and again — it’s like the Bible, we are witnesses to His saving grace. I share His word over and over and over again, whether people get it or not.

Installers left before noon on Saturday, said their work was done.

ummm, I don’t think so!

When JD asked installer Joe about the gap in our house, his response was nonchalant — sometimes they just don’t come together.

ummmm, I don’t think so!

The manufacturer’s representatives have driven down from Waco to view the gap.  And installer Joe is coming back out with them.  They’ll be here in an hour.  And they’d better figure out how to make this the house that we ordered or I’ll be one unhappy woman.