Me, Myself and Memories

Updates from November, 2017 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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  Noreen 5:55 pm on November 26, 2017 Permalink  

  This was the culmination of the Thanksgiving weekend. Dennis enjoyed the trade show at Jackson over the weekend and came home this evening having enjoyed catching up with all the ole traders from multi states.

  Today Carrie and Megan returned to Stauffer Avenue. Success! Megan finished stitching up what she has planned for her to give as Christmas presents. All she needs to do is literally keep it all under wraps until Christmas. Just between you and me . . . she would have liked to have sneaked my sewing machine home with her when she left. Tomorrow Megan will be back in school with the busy routine of a 7th grader and stitching will take a back seat to her violin and skating lessons while getting the usual homework done.

  It’s been a busy great weekend and I am ready for a bit of a sedated week. I checked the schedule and there is nothing. The older ones on Stauffer can handle it.

   
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  Noreen 5:25 pm on November 24, 2017 Permalink  

  Yesterday Kersten, Kevin and Sophie came for the official Thanksgiving Day. The day was full of good food, visiting and of course I had a bit of a job jar. It sure feels good to get it empty but it is humbling to ask for help.

  Today Carrie and Megan came and sure enough, we had good food. Megan said it was better than the fare they had had yesterday at her aunts, but then she may have been a bit partial to Grammie’s.

  By the time the girls left for Eden Prairie, Megan had sewn a new pair of PJ pants. It was a practice pair with the hope that more will be put out as she is planning for some Christmas giving. It gave her an idea of what went into the entire process. Lots of giggles and laughs but the best part was, no seams needed to be ripped out for a re-do.

  Thanksgiving is important enough that it should last for more than one day and I enjoyed every bit of the food prep as I knew I had great backup from Dennis . . . my major elf takes up the soap bubbles to do dishes.

   
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  Noreen 5:10 pm on November 23, 2017 Permalink  

  What a great day for Thanksgiving. Mild weather, some house windows open and full tummies. It’s going to take awhile tonight to cover all the bases in my prayers. Life is pretty dog gone special.

   
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  Noreen 5:26 pm on November 22, 2017 Permalink  

  I did bundle up today for my walk. Southwest wind was tolerable. As I was heading west toward home there was a zip past me. It was Pasqual on his bicycle. He had been out to the salvage yard. Knowing our neighbor as I do, he was do doubt working on fixing a bicycle as he has several in service.

  The remaining portion of my day was doing some prep work for Thanksgiving day. Enjoyment of the day is always sweeter when not everything is left to the last minutes. I am trying something new and that is a turkey breast fixed in the crockpot. Believe me I have been surfing the web these last days for all the tips I can pick up. Time will tell.

   
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  Noreen 5:44 pm on November 20, 2017 Permalink  

  Just about a shirt sleeve day out. The first thing on my list this morning was to hit the sewing studio and get two quilts wrapped and packaged up for the mail. Both quilts headed out to two of Orlin’s nieces. One is in Wisconsin and the second in southeastern Minnesota.

  Orlin’s brother Eugene and his family were having a tough time with children that were his, hers and theirs. Carrie and Kevin were mere toddlers and our family would grow over the summer months. Evelyn was about nine and Joyce was thirteen. There were challenges to say the least. It brought us face to face with working hard to understand what the girls were going through at their age with the home environment they were accustomed to as we were working through going from diapers to training pants and getting our kids to sleep in something other than cribs.

  We made it through and the best part was there are more soft memories than harsh ones at this time in our lives. Orlin has been gone a bit more than ten years and the girls have my email address and they use it when a bit more support is needed in their lives. The scrappy happy quilts made me happy to make and then send on. I have always told the girls to save the best and leave the rest. They are now wives, mothers and grandmothers. It doesn’t seem that long ago that Joyce and I would have serious conversations about make-up and pierced ears. What did I know of such things at that time. Nothing as far as Joyce was concerned, but we did find compromises.

  After the quilts were wrapped this morning, I headed out into that warm weather and the two-mile walk melted away as I thought about those summers when Orlin and I were barely aware of what babies needed let alone troubled family members.

   
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  Noreen 4:50 pm on November 18, 2017 Permalink  

  Today is all about learning how to coordinate design images with the desired size with fabric and the correct stabilizer for embroidering. Hmm. The design as purchased does not display the correct thread colors . . . as per the ONE that knows. Forget the sewing mindset and get online and seek and search the images to find how it should look using my correct thread colors. The easiest thing was to print it out. Hard colored copy in hand, tomorrow will tell the real story. I enjoy a challenge and any project that I turn out needs to be the best that I can do. It’s a good thing I am patient, have lots of time, a good choice of thread colors and that there is no deadline. It’s a good thing.

   
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  Noreen 5:28 pm on November 16, 2017 Permalink  

  It was a raw southeast wind today. The first time that my eyes teared up and of course with hands that are encased in gloves and topped off with mittens the tears just had to fall. I know I had a tissue in my pocket but my huge covered hands could no way fit into the pocket. But . . . on the up side, these last several days I have not perspired through my clothes. I have no idea how far away the corn husks had come from as they scurried across the county road. In my younger days I might have tried to pick as many up as possible to make corn husk dolls. Ya . . . my sister and I tried every type of craft possible that took no capitol. By the way, do any of you still have the Christmas trees we made using Styrofoam bases covered with dyed chicken feathers? They were just fantastic! It was beyond Dad’s head as we all got together and did the last of the heavy hens for the freezer and Elvera and I were slowing the process down as we were choosing the best of the breast feathers to save. Yup, cheap but classy.

   
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  Noreen 4:20 pm on November 15, 2017 Permalink  

  We had a great trip north to my favorite sewing shop in Bird Island. Karen and Al are turning their shop over to daughter Amanda and her husband Kelly. While Al and Karen took in the Bernina show in Las Vegas to keep up with all the new technology that is coming, Al came down with H1N1 flu, swine flu as we are familiar with. The bottom line when all was said and done and time had lapsed to try and regain his health, he was down to having two weeks to live. It came out in the news that the strain of flue was running rampart at that time. Al’s lungs remain very fragile. He is teaching his son-in-law the repair ropes. Al and Karen are moving to Duluth in January, as it is touted as having the cleanest air for such health issues.

  I know I will enjoy working with Amanda and promised to see her and Kelly in six months. I came home with some new items to try working with my HP Notebook and existing designs on my flash drives. I can change the size and/or add multiple rows of text choosing so many different fonts, it will be hard to decide. I have had the HP Notebook since Christmas 2015 loaded with Windows 10. I would not be able to tackle this download if my Dell with Windows 7 was still my #1 laptop. Humph . . . things do have a way of falling into place. Go Grammie!

   
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  Noreen 5:37 pm on November 14, 2017 Permalink  

  It may have gotten to high forties today, but with rain, drizzle and enough gray to make huge elephants it left something to be desired. Fog is setting in over the supper hour. We have a road date tomorrow, heading for Bird Island. Every six months the sewing machine is taken in for a grease job and oil change . . . so to speak. I do clean it often and oil it to the degree that I can. I know Al will have it all but turned inside out working his magic. With the fog setting in this evening, I am happy about our 11:30 appointment. Of course we need to leave home early enough to stop along the way for a cup of coffee and a “Hi.”

  My track phone was needing the 365 day air time to be bought. Locally if the brand is not Verizon, track phones cannot be worked with. I surprised myself by getting the job done via the Internet with just a few prompts and just as many minutes. My original program allowed 400 bonus minutes every year when I bought 400 minutes for $97.00. Humph . . . I now have 3,025 minutes. That is not to say I use our land line phone to any degree. I am not a phone person but the cell phone is more of a safety precaution to have on my person when I am on my daily walk . . . or to find Dennis when I have lost him in Sam’s Club.

  Well, I had best get that sewing machine packed up for a huge day on the road tomorrow.

   
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  Noreen 6:07 pm on November 11, 2017 Permalink  

  Yup, Indian Summer is here. We enjoyed a trip to Eagle Lake to celebrate a great grands 3rd birthday. Grandpa Dennis had his first piece of Dairy Queen ice cream cake. It was great to get home just as it was getting dark. There’s no place like home.