Follow Up on Easter

Wellll, we went to church on Easter Sunday and then Dad and Bob went to pick Grandpa up from "The Manor" (nursing home) to bring him to brunch with us.  Mom had given the nurses instructions the night before that he was to be shaved, put on the suit she had layed out for him, and not to send him to the dining room for lunch.  Dad and Bob showed up to get him and he had not shaved, he had on his jeans and sweatshirt, and had gone to lunch.  The nurses put the blame on Grandpa and said he wouldn't cooperate, which very well could be true.  The guys got him shaved and dressed and after about 45 minutes of Mom and I waiting at the restaurant, the three of them slowly, and I mean very slowly, came walking in.  Grandpa looked good, but you could tell he was slightly confused and not happy about being brought there.

He wouldn't eat anything, said nothing tasted good.  At $16.00 a plate, by the way!  Which was OK, not the point.  I managed to find a few chocolate eggs hidden in the buffet table decoration that he ate.  Later in the afternoon, Mom and Dad took him back to "The Manor" and he was very happy to get back into his comfortable space, with all his familiar stuff around him.  He got back into his comfy clothes and wanted to go down to the dining room for dinner. 

So now we know.  He  likes being where he is, and for that we are all grateful.  We would feel so bad if he didn't want to be there.  He's happy going to Dairy Queen once in a while, but that's about it.  He's happy when we come to visit him and bring him chocolate and marshmallows.  So now we know!

While we were at the restaurant I received a text picture from my DIL, Diana, with a picture of Riley in her Easter outfit.

Isn't she just beautiful, sitting on her daddy's lap?  That's my son, Brandon.  I think he looks pretty cute, too.

I really miss them. They're in Spokane.  Dee and Riley will be home in a couple of weeks for her uncle's wedding.  Then in June Brandon graduates from his Air Force Survival Training School and Bob and I will be going out for that. 

On Monday I received another text picture of Riley wearing the pink hat with the mink flower that I knit for her and had just sent for Easter.

Is she cute or what??  Can you tell I'm really missing her?

Happy Easter

Happy Easter, this beautiful sunny day. 

I wish all of you a beautiful Easter Day. 

This is a different Easter than we're used to.  None of the kids are home.  Brandon, Dee and Riley are in Spokane.  Austin, Melissa, Logan and Landen are with her family in New York.  But it's still a beautiful, quiet, Easter Sunday.  We'll be going to church with mom and dad, then going to brunch.  Grandpa will be going to brunch with us for the first time in at least three years.  When grandma was living, he would not leave her side, nor would she let him.  I hope he can enjoy his first Easter without her. 

Baby Shower Ideas?

Thank goodness the blog problems are fixed.  That was just so frustrating yesterday.
Back to the good stuff.
 I've finally had time now to work on baby things.  As I've mentioned, we have two new grandchildren arriving shortly.  Baby girl, Leanna Rene, will be welcomed into our lives around July 11.  Our other baby will be coming in September, but we don't know if we are waiting on a girl or boy yet.  We should know that in the next few weeks.
Leanna's birth date is coming up soon, so I'm going to be giving my DIL a shower on May 8 here at my house.  This will be her third child, but the first two were boys and it's been over four years since the second boy, Landen, was born.  She needs some new pink stuff this time.  And I love pink. 
I got started on the baby quilt that I showed the fabric for last week.  It's coming along better and faster than I expected.  I like to design my own patterns.  I draw it out on graph paper first and make sure I have all the dimensions and measurements correct.  Without a finished colored picture I don't always know what I'm going to get.  I get a picture in my head, but that doesn't always translate into what the finished quilt will look like.  So far so good on this one.

I fussy cut the little teddy bears out of the printed teddy bear fabric.  I'll also use this teddy bear fabric as the border around the quilt.

There will be 12 - 9" squares total.  I now have half the squares completed.  I should have it finished in time for the baby shower.

I want to stick with the color theme of pink and chocolate for the colors and food at the shower.  I'm working on ideas for this.  Strawberries and chocolate brownies.  Or strawberries dipped in chocolate.  Pink fluffy jello salad.   I have some pink dishes - might need more.  I have pink votive candle holders.  I'll have a cute pink and chocolate cake with teddy bears, or maybe individual cupcakes.  If you have any ideas for me I'd love to hear them.  I'm just starting to think and plan on this so I'm very open to ideas.

Blogger Issues Anyone?

I have been going crazy all morning wondering why my blog isn't showing any pictures.  I've run Malware, removed programs, shut down the computer, restarted, clicked here, clicked there, and nothing.  So I finally whent into Blogger Buzz and Known Issues.  There is an issue in Blogger - Unable to upload images!  Great!  They are working on this problem. 
Well now I feel better that it's not me or in my computer, but I have now wasted a whole morning.  From now on I'll know to check this Blogger site out first.
I was going to post about something else today, but  I'm so frustrated and wasted so much time that I have to get in the shower now and get dressed for an appointment with my attorney regarding our on-going zoning issues.
More later when I'm calmed down and have more time.

Things I Need To Do vs. Things I Want To Do.

I'm struggling right now between things I need to and have to do versus things I like to and want to do.  They are not usually one and the same.  Part of the frustration is coming from being so distracted by other life events over the past month that I've gotten behind in all my normal activities under both headings that I'm maybe trying to catch up in everything all at once. 
Under the heading of Things I Like To Do, this is what I've accomplished this week:

I took pictures of a really cute hat I finished knitting while riding in the car and sitting around at  hospitals.  It's knit from sheared mink that was woven into yarn. No minks were killed in making this hat!

No makeup on this day.                                                  

Also took picture of the red tweed fingerless gloves I knit, again while sitting in hospitals, to match the red tweed hat I made.

I've also been working on a set of three mini quilted pillows for  Spring to put in my Etsy shop.

I have two of them listed on Etsy and I hope to get the third one up today.  If you would like to see my shop, please go to:  http://charmingbynina.etsy.com/

That's another thing I've been working on this week:  Getting my Etsy shop organized and some expired listings re-listed and advertising again. 

Last night and this morning I worked on a fun project of exchanging our Florida time share for a time share resort in St. Thomas for the week of December 4-12 of this year.  The daughter of very good friends of ours is getting married there and we have been invited to the wedding.  We are looking forward to this fun event and vacation.  This is where we'll be going.

This will look and feel really good by December.

I also really enjoy working out on my deck and in my yard and gardens.  It's bothering me right now because the snow is gone and the sun is out quite a bit, but everything looks so bare and dirty.  I need to get out there and trim, cut, clean, etc.  This is all on my calendar for the month of April.

Now under the heading of "Things I Don't Mind " is cleaning the house, laundry, ironing, grocery shopping, and cooking.  I'm caught up on all of this except for the ironing.  The only thing I really iron are My Bob's dress shirts.  Every one of them is washed and hanging up, ready to iron.   I really have to get to this.

I Need To:  Get the taxes done, catch up on bookkeeping for My  Bob's financial planning business, set up a new web site for My Bob,  get mailers out for My Bob, well, you get the picture. 

Now that I put it all in writing I sound pretty selfish, don't I?  As Bob says to me, "which of these 'things to do' makes us the money so that you can knit, sew, Etsy, and go on vacations?"  I know, I know.  I'll get to it.

Oh - BTW, I really LOVE blogging about it all!