There is always hope!

Another friend is fighting, but two have won their battles.

Carol starts her fight tomorrow, and I hope she knows that I am there with her, even though there are miles between us.

And Kim and Sandi have both been told they are in complete remission, probably the best news they could have heard in a long time.

They are all three now survivors. You become a survivor the day the Doctor says those dreaded words to you, and every day you get out of bed you continue to survive.

Relay

I quit my local Relay job. I don’t want to go into the why’s so I’ll just give you the excuse I’m telling most people…. I did it for two years, and I felt it was someone else’s turn now. But that is a lie, I could have done that job for twenty years, and I would have, except …. well I’m not going into it.

However, I believe that it was the best thing for me, because quitting that job had allowed me to broaden my horizons and spread my skills to other events. I have been asked to help with three other Relays already, and I have happily said yes to each one of them. Those three jobs will still not be near as much work as the old job was, and they will be a LOT more enjoyable.

Just incase any of the local Relayers read my blog, which I doubt because I really think I am just writing for me, let me make one thing perfectly clear, I am not quitting the local Relay. I will be there, along with my team mates. This year I will just be a plain old team captain, and I will get to have fun with the rest of you. And I will set my goals high, and with luck and a lot of donations, I may just challenge insure-a-cure, the Quacks, the Miracle Angels and the Lighthouse Lifesavers too… with luck and a prayer!

FYI, I have already raised my $1000, so I will have another Grand Shirt in 2008. Now I will share my money with other team members so they can get one too.

I Relay for my friends. I Relay to celebrate those who are battling cancer now and for those who have battled and won. I Relay in memory of those who battled hard but sadly lost. And I Relay to fight back against cancer the only way I can, by raising money. I am not a scientist and can’t find a cure, so I will try to raise money to help those scientists be funded.

I know that my hard work is worth it, I have friends who have told me how ACS has helped them. If you need help, please let ACS help you.

Having cancer is hard. Finding help shouldn't be.

No matter what you need, the American Cancer Society can help.

http://www.cancer.org

1-800-ACS-2345

25 hours a day, 8 days a week

Mother of six, the new Erma

There is a blog I’ve started reading every day, http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/. If you have not read this, go, now… do not read my blog any further.

This lady is a scream, and a saint. Mom to six kids, and she writes the truth of every day living with those six kids.

I never questioned having kids, I wanted a large family. God knew better and only gave me two. Reading Dawn’s blog tells me why I was only given two kids.

(Why are you still reading MY blog, go read Dawn’s!)

I never questioned my motherhood, well maybe I have recently, but they are all grown up and my mothering job is over.. or should be anyway, and well…

No I’m not going to say I’m ready to be a g… Nope, I can’t say that word. I’ll be a … well you know, the parent of a parent… soon enough and I don’t want to rush things. Not like my family tried to rush me…

Well I fooled them, I waited… nope Mother Nature waited, and she is wise, she knew what I could handle… and that was two.

So you are still here… GO read this blog, http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/ it is a hoot… and thanks for reading me too.

Scrappy HAPPY Quilt Camp

The first retreat of the season is now history, and I am more than relieved to say it was a good one. I’m not real sure why newcomers make me so nervous, but they do. It seems whenever I have a newbie attending a retreat I am a wreck until I get to know that person… I guess my subconscious is still looking for that internet ax murderer.

This retreat consisted of five different groups, only two ladies I had met before. These two were Red Hat ladies who attended last years retreat http://delawarequilts.com/Retreat/Sept0706/index.html
It was fun seeing them again. Everyone else was a stranger….

There was the West Virginia contingent, (well three from West and one from plain old Virginia), the Connecticut contingent of three, two Pennsylvanian sisters and four ladies from my home state of New Jersey. I held my breath as each group came in and settled down in the conference room….

As usual, things went great, and everyone got along terrifically. Thursday night everyone was trading scraps and sharing information about where those scraps came from. Friday they were all shopping and then back in the sewing room using up all their old scraps, and sharing more. Saturday more sewing, sharing, right down to the instant root beer float party, when one retreater somehow let it slip she’d never had a root beer float… well she’s had one now!

And by Saturday night most of the scraps had turned into lovely quilts, and the strangers were all quilting friends. And not one ax murderer in the crowd!

LONG week….

Yesterday was the beginning of a long week… and a long day. I drove from home to California. No, not the state, California Maryland, but it was still a long drive. I was over there for a trunk show, which I think went well, and I hope the ladies who attended did also. Honestly it was hard to read most of them.

But it was certainly a HOT trip. I think the humidity was thicker than any humidity I have ever experienced in my long life. The air was so thick you could feel it smothering you. Sure I didn’t have to be out in it long, and yes, I had help unloading and reloading my car, part of the time… However I was advised not to leave any luggage in the back of my Explorer, so I had to lug my HUGE duffle bags out of the car, drag them up to my room and then back again. When I was done unloading the car last night I was drenched in sweat, and yes it was sweat, stinky smelly girly sweat. A shower never felt so good in my life… well except for maybe that time I had to defrost after a wet cold day at the Magic Kingdom a few years back.

I hoped this morning would be cooler, or at least less humid. But it wasn’t, and loading all the luggage back into the car was almost as bad as unloading it the night before. I was smart and saved my fresh clothes for after I had loaded the heavy stuff. Another shower for the record books. And I won’t even go into why it took me 5 ½ hours to get home. Just know that I made it… and when I got home it was pouring, and it reminded me of when I loaded the car in the morning, only the water was coming down and just not sitting in the air for me to walk into.

So I’m home now, for 40 (+/-) hours then off again for the first retreat of the season. Will be an interesting one, Happy Scrappy Quilt Camp …

Fall Retreat time again!

I am getting ready for my first fall retreat of the year, something I have done for the last 11 years. I remember fondly that first retreat, and how terrified I was the closer it got. I was meeting 32 perfect strangers from all around US and one all the way from Spain. Would these ladies like all the work I had done to make this happen, would they complain and say horrible things about the weekend and would I lose my shirt paying for all that was needed?

How was I to know when I started planning in July that the chosen weekend we would have a good old nor'easter and be stranded in the hotel? Thankfully the hotel was an approved shelter and one with a quilt shop on the ground floor. Those women put up with a lot more than just some nasty weather, and they all had a marvelous time, and many of them came back again to the following retreat, and the one after that and so on….

This retreat will probably go just like that one… There are four ladies coming who I have met before, and only 15 total strangers. And I have learned to fear the strangers less and less; I’ve learned they are just as apprehensive as I am about the whole thing. They don’t know what to expect, and all I have to do is make sure they have a good time, and that’s not hard to do. Each retreat goes about the same, and yet each one is totally different, and each one totally unique.

Who would have ever thought when someone asked me if I could host an internet quilting retreat that it would take over part of my life. Boy am I happy I said yes!

Dreams

You know those dreams you have that are so real that you swear they really happened. I had one last night. I was meeting a friend for lunch (which I am doing today so I guess that was on my sleepy mind) and we kept passing each other on the road. First it was at a red light, she was turning left and I waved at her and she made a u-turn and started following me. We got separated and next thing I knew she was coming at me in the wrong direction on a one way street. At this point I SHOULD have realized this was a dream, we don’t have any one way streets here… but anyway, there she was coming down the other side of this one way street so I made a u-turn and followed her to keep her safe. But I lost her.

Next scene, another clue that this was a dream, transition from one place to another with no passing of time or scenery; I was registering at the restaurant where we were meeting. Only she was already there, both of her. Yes, both of her, her first name was at one table and her second name was at another table. And I said, this one probably doesn’t know that one is here and went to gather them up and they were both the same person but were both talking to me and then my husband kissed me and said have a good day or something like that and woke me up.

And I never even got my lunch!

Empty nest, again…

Over the summer one of the boys moved home again. I enjoyed having him, it was nice not having leftovers in the frig, and running out of milk instead of dumping it down the drain because it was sour. He I enjoyed… his stuff I’m not real sure about. Let me explain about his stuff… he collects fish and corals, more corals than fish actually. And it seems that they all need their own tanks, this one doesn’t get along with that one, and this one needs more light than that one, and if we put this fish in that tank it will eat that coral…. And all that meant that we have a billion tanks all over the house. OK, I exaggerate a little.. we only had eight tanks, in one room. And another two in another room. And I’m not even sure how many are in a closed closet upstairs, being quarantined from day light to kill green hair algae. I’m impressed I remember why it is in the closet. And I am wondering when it will come out..
And do you know how much other stuff there is to maintain all of that stuff… I can tell you. A garage full. So full that there is barely a path to walk through the garage. And my car, well it hasn’t seen the inside of our garage all summer.

Well summer passed and school has started so he had to move back upstate. He decided he needed a “real” apartment this year, not on campus, and not in a basement. He wanted a real place for him and his stuff (and a certain female too, which is fine by me, I like her lots, and she takes care of him… he’d better take care of her too!) After much trauma, not from me, it is all mostly gone now. Notice I said mostly… all of the billion tanks, except the ones in the closet and one in the living room, and two on the back porch, all with creatures of one kind or another in them are still here. And there are several, too many for me to count, still in the garage… and for some strange reason there is still just barely a path to walk through the garage… strange…

Sigh…..

Giggles

Have you ever gone into a fit of giggles, and no matter how hard you try… you can’t stop? That happened to me today and the sad part of it is that I was here alone at home and only laughing at memories. Memories of retreats gone by, special memories, but mostly memories of one special friend.

She wasn’t originally a friend, but a student of mine, and honestly, and she knows this, she was not a favorite student. First of all, she was hard of hearing. That made teaching her anything hard, since she never heard what I was saying… and if you’ve ever met me you know I am not a quiet person. I had to repeat everything to her many times, and I was never sure she was hearing me at all… her hearing aid screeched back at me when I got too close, and I never understood how she could hear anything at all over the noise it made.

But as I taught her things over and over again, I learned a lot about her. She was a very special caring person and was nursing her ailing husband of whom she spoke as he was a true saint. The love she had for him was remarkable, and I knew that was hard when he passed away, and I worried about her. But she’s a survivor, in more ways than one. She had breast cancer and survived, and has survived two husbands.

Our friendship grew and she became more and more special every time I saw her. And even when I didn’t see her, like when I had emergency surgery and woke up to find a hand written note from her on my table… I will never know how she knew I was in there, but she did, and kept me company as I slept after surgery.

Then she started attending my quilt retreats, and I got to spend more time with her. The first retreat she attended she rode up with me… I learned a lot on the three plus hour trip up, and on the way back with a car full of goodies she has bought for every friend and neighbor she had. And what fun we had while at the retreat… She decided one retreat a year wasn’t enough, so we’ve spent a lot more time together..

And she decided she wanted to join my Relay For Life team, and raised over $600 all by herself, and was sorry she hadn’t raised more.

Or there was the time she decided I needed a secret sister, and did a darn good job at keeping the secret part secret… God bless you Pinocchio, God bless you!

I can’t begin to tell you the special memories I have of this extraordinary lady, or explain why just thinking of her gives me the giggles.

I could only wish that everyone could have a friend like her.

Love you Joanie Bolognie, and I’m thankful to have you as a friend!

Does anyone really know what time it is?

Unlike some people, I don’t post here daily, or even often… more like rarely. Most I post when I’m moved. Moved meaning emotional about something….

Today it is time. Does anyone really know what time it is? Last night hubby and I were talking about time. I said I hadn’t downloaded what ever patch or what ever was needed to update DST… wasn’t it just easier to set the clock myself? He said sure, but in a month or so it would set itself again. No problem, I can change it back.

So I reset my time, shut down and went to bed. On the way I reset the kitchen clock, and the one at my bedside.

Well when I woke up this morning it was 6:30, and my sleepy head thought, too early, so I turned over and went back to sleep. When I woke up the clock said 8:30, yikes now I’d slept too much. Came downstairs and the kitchen clock said 9:30, and when I turned on my computer it said 10:30… I’m not real sure what time it is right now, but I’m awake, and “moved” enough to be sitting her typing this goofy message.

Sooner or later I’ll figure out what time it really is, but until then I’m going to sew. There is nothing on my schedule until Tuesday night, surely I will have it figured out by then!