Tomorrow we actually just drive to Pittsburgh to the airport. We live 2-1/2 hours from the airport and since I leave at 8:00 a.m. on Thursday, Bob and I like to go down the night before to have a nice dinner and a good sleep at the Holiday Inn. It also will break up the drive for Bob, instead of five hours in one day.
I've been very busy getting ready to leave. As with any trip no matter how far or how long, I have to clean my house before I leave. Being gone for this long, there is no way it is going to stay clean until I get back, but I have to leave it as best I can.
Last weekend, my older son, Austin, and his two dogs spent the weekend with us. His wife and three children were in New York visiting her family, so it was very nice to spend some time with Austin without the interruption and distraction of the kids.
Isn't he cute? It's been a long time since we've spent time with just him. I so enjoyed it!
Next weekend, Bob is going to Cincinnati to pick up his 23 year old nephew to stay with us for a month or so. He needs some big time help and guidance in making a decent life for himself. His home life has not been great and I give him credit for at least realizing there is a better life for him out there. Bob is going to try to help him get into the military, but we'll see what happens with that. The selfish me is not looking forward to raising a 23 year old for an indefinite period of time. The caring and nurturing me really wants to show him what a good home and life and job can be like.
So, I needed to clean the guest room for Kyle, not that he'll know the difference, but I will. Of course, I'm laundering every sheet, towel and piece of clothing in the house. I have two more shirts of Bob's to iron so he has at least a couple of weeks without having to launder or iron his own.
Yesterday we had new carpeting installed in our bedroom. It looks so nice, but that sure makes a lot of work. While all the furniture was still out of the room, I gave it a good cleaning from top to bottom. Then I did a slight re-arrange and junk clean up. Very slight, but enough so that it feels like a brand new room. We also got a new bench for the foot of the bed. I've been looking for a bench for quite a while and we found this one in a small furniture store on sale last week. This is it with my suitcase on top as I have been packing all day today.
I'm only taking one carry on suitcase and a carry on duffel bag. I don't need to take anything other than T-shirts, shorts, some sweats and a pair of jeans. If I need anything else I'll get it there. Now I just need to throw in about three different colors of flip flops and I'm ready to go.
I finally finished sewing the second curtain for Riley's bedroom. I'm ironing it right now.
This matches the first curtain and the quilt I made for her nursery.
Then about three days ago, I decided I needed a bag/tote/purse that would be easier and more convenient for traveling. I wanted a cross-over bag with lots of pockets that would work double duty as a purse and would also hold a small knitting project and a book. I knew exactly what I wanted and how I wanted it to look, so I dug through my stash of fabrics and found an old pattern that I altered to my specifications and Voila!, here's my new bag.
Perfect! Don't you just love my artistic manequin? My artistic son, Austin, gave it to me. It's come in very handy in taking pictures of scarves, neckwarmers, etc. for my Etsy shop.
Here's a closer-up of the bag.
It has four pockets on the outside with velcro closures, and four pockets on the inside. Then, of course, I had to embellish with lace, buttons, ribbon and charms.
This is the cell phone pocket.
OK, my break is over and I need to finish my ironing and packing. I'll be three weeks away from my computer and the break from high level communication probably isn't such a bad thing. I did get a new cell phone, though, that I can e-mail and facebook from if I can figure it out!
I'll be back in about three weeks with plenty new baby pictures!
