Saturday, February 20, 2010

Thank you all for your very kind and sympathetic comments.  I really really appreciated each and every one!

My flight out to NH went very smoothly.  No delays whatsoever.  Some of the people on my flight had been stranded overnight, so I felt lucky not to be one of them.  Flying is great when all goes well, otherwise...

Many old friends came to pay their respects on Saturday.  Her old house was many times a gathering place for my husband, his brothers and their many childhood friends.  Till the end of Glennis's life some of those childhood friends were still stopping by to spend time with her.  Amazing.

Their were stories about her picking up kids hitchhiking around town, her infamous Whoopie Pies, the decorated birthday cakes for the boys, and her kind and easy going spirit.  Glennis was not a complex person and lived a simple but rich life.  She and her husband were able to travel to many far away places.  She loved to swim in the lake where they owned a summer place.  I bet it was hard for her being the only girl amongst 4 men, but she held her own.  One of my favorite memories of her was when she was lost in a fit of giggles once when we playing Trivial Pursuit.  She wasn't playing, but she couldn't resist yelling out the answers!  We had a blast that night. 

I'll leave you with a photo of the back of our house taken after we returned.  We didn't just have icicles, we had this crazy mass of ice that formed on the brick from water dripping behind the gutter.  It was huge!  It fell down in one big whoosh, scaring the daylights out of me!  I am sure we need to do something to prevent this from happening again.  And I hear snow and rain are in our forecast once again!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Glennis

I feel like I'm stuck in a revolving door. 

My mother in law died in her sleep on Feb. 9th.  There isn't going to be a funeral or any other kind of service right now, just having friends and family over to her house on Saturday.  She spent her last few days in a beautiful hospice facility.  I'm so glad they were able to move her from the nursing home. 

I am trying to get out there to be with my husband and thus the revolving door!

I am really having trouble getting a flight out of town.  I've changed flights 2 times already and now am going to try to catch a flight early tomorrow morning.  It would have been best if I had camped out at the airport today and waited for an available seat.  The airport in Philadelphia, where I need to change planes, is finally up and running again, but flights are delayed and probably over booked.  This storm had really messed things up. 

My knitting needles and yarn are packed, the cross stitch is staying home this time.  It's much easier to knit than to stitch in poor light and poor conditions. 

Wish me luck!

Monday, February 8, 2010

a little knitting, a little stitching

I am one sorry excuse for a blogger!  That's why I have the "blogging without obligation" gadget LOL.

I've been knitting!  I'm making an baby sweater for one of my managers at work who is due very soon.  I'm pretty sure she will appreciate something handmade since she majored in fashion design in college.  Everytime I knit a sweater I swear I'll never do it again and then proceed to try just one more time.  At least with a baby sweater fit is not so important.  There will be a lot of sewing to do though, something I am not crazy about.  I still need to finish the left front, the sleeves and the neckband.


I also stitched up this Prairie Schooler santa and I'm not sure how I want to finish it yet.  It's stitched on 18 count Floba, a fabric I really like to use for Prairie Schooler designs.  It's got a simple homespun quality about it. 

We've had our fair share of small triumphs and setbacks here in our little household lately.  DS seems to be buckling down (fingers crossed) and working hard at school.  I'm finding that an art major can spend quite a bit on supplies!  DD was accepted at the 5 colleges she applied too but hasn't figured out which one she wants to attend.  4 of the schools are in Ohio and 1 in Indiana.  We'll wait to see what the numbers add up to and make a few visits before she commits.  I am so excited for her...it's almost as if I'm going off to school, not her!  A severe case of senior-itis has set in though and this last semester will be rough for her.

My MIL is now in hospice care and Mark has been with her in New Hampshire for the past 5 days.  We don't expect her to live through the week...it's just a waiting game now.  I may have to hop on a plane and head out there later this week.  Her birthday is in 12 days, her 91st.  Mark and his brother have been by her side for many many hours lately and did the right thing by moving her from a nursing home to the hospice facility.

Hoping we don't get a lot more snow in the next couple of days!   I have been spoiled by a man who loves snow and always does all the shoveling.  I sure do appreciate it.