A Change is Gonna Come

Just so you know, I just yesterday opened any of that candy I showed you that I bought when I was excessively blue....
So I VOW that today was the LAST day I am giving to FarmTown.....those of you who know me, know that I have a bit of an addictive personality. It's good though that these things don't last too, too long, and they haven't been damaging. There have been many over the years. Tupperware, gardening, teaching, working with birthing families, parenting, grandparenting, cooking, gardening, reading, eating, quilting, blogging (remember those 100 days in a row????) even a spell of excessive exercise.
FarmTown was the latest and I could continue to do it daily, but I have got to stop. There is just so much more I could be doing, want to be doing, should be doing. So today was the end of obsession. If only I could find a way to balance all the things I like to do rather than being overwhelmed with one thing.

Depression Candy

Do you have a particular type of treat that really calls to you when you are feeling down and out, blue, out of sorts, depressed, tired, lethargic, cranky or just sad? I'm not really much of a sweets lover. Carbs with salt are my drug of choice. But the last few weeks I have felt at least all of those things. Bronchitis is the physical cause I believe but I'm pretty sure there are some emotional virus's running around in me too.

At least this time I didn't wait for my congestion to make it all the way to pneumonia. But I've gone through my antibiotic, prescription cough syrup and way too much Mucinex and still I am coughing. Granted it is not as bad. But now I get to add on a UTI (bladder infection). So now I have another antibiotic to take. No wonder I feel so bad.

So this is what came home from the store with me tonight.
At least they were on sale....

it's a RANT!!!

GRRRRRRR!!! Nothing frustrates me more than poor customer service. And once you treat me poorly, I don't come back. I haven't been in an Albertson's store now for about 14 years. I'm sure they don't miss me.
We have a few local businesses here in Lynden that I have frequented almost weekly since I moved here 10 years ago. One of them lost my business tonight.
For months their reader board has advertised hours of Open 8 - 9. This was a big deal because previously they had closed at 6:30. It's a small dairy. I have bought my eggs, milk, cream and butter here every week for almost 10 years. Their high school aged counter girls over all those years have changed, but their attitudes never have. They never say a word. Not a greeting, not a thank you, nothing. Nada....most of the time. I've tried smiling, saying hello. Sometimes I would get a response, most often not.
This dairy serves a HUGE Canadian population. It is about half a mile from the border crossing and the Indian community in Vancouver is enormous and they buy gallons and gallons of milk.
Anyway, I've put up with these anti social counter people because I like their product, and I like to shop local, if possible.
Tonight, I arranged to meet Jeff at the dairy and he could get the kids there. I pulled in at 7:29. There was a girl standing in the door and when I opened my car door, she shook her head and said no, they were closed. I was stunned!! There was still a family checking out. Then I saw a sign on the door that said their new hours were 8 - 7:30. My clock said 7:29. She said hers said 7:30 so I was out of luck. I was amazed. I said "are you kidding?" She crossed her arms and said no she was not. I pointed to the fact that there were still customers in the store. In the meantime another car pulled up and a guy walked up and she turned him away as well.
This is not a big store. I would say maybe 14 x 24. So it's not like going into a big grocery store or department store and wandering around. I just wanted milk, cream and eggs.
Why weren't their new hours advertised on their big reader board as they had been before?
This place is only convenient to me when I am taking the kids home, or picking them up. I go out there to give them my business.
But not anymore. I stopped at Food Pavilion on the way home and got my eggs, milk and cream.
I'm pretty sure they won't miss me at the Dairy. I'm pretty sure they never even noticed I have been there nearly every week for the last 10 years.....
What happened to customer service?

Book Stuff

I always have several books going at a time. Audio, go to sleep, and bathroom.....
Just finished listening to The Friday Night Knitting Club. I have this book in print, and had tried to read it a year or so ago, and just didn't get into it. Then sister Carol mentioned she had listened to it, and I had an audible.com credit, so I got it, and LIKED it!! So now I'm listening to the sequel, called Knit Two.
For my "go to sleep" book, I have two going. The Lost Quilter, by Jennifer Chiavarini and On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet. Neither has really captured me, but I will finish them both.
In the "library", I am reading The Family which is about the origins of the conservative right wing residence in DC called "C Street". Very, very interesting.
My book club selection this month is The Help. I listened to it earlier in the year, and just loved it. I still miss those lovely southern voices coming from my car speakers.....
What are YOU reading?????

Bird Feeder?

I have three suet feeders in the back yard. One in particular seemed to be empty much quicker than the others. And finally I caught sight of the culprit!!! He leaps from the shrubs in the back onto the shepherds hook!! Buggar!!!

He needs to beware though, since Rocco has decided he can just catch his own food, and I have found two squirrel tails (ewwwwww.......) near the front door, which seems to be Rocco's favorite feasting spot. One day it was the whole bottom half of a squirrel.

So maybe it's a cat feeder, actually......

First Trip on the School Bus!

Getting up at 7:30 in the morning is pretty unusual for me! But I HAD to do it to get photos of Ethan's first day to ride the school bus. I had done this with Jillian and intend to even be where Carter and Henry are when they have their first days of school.

This first photo is the two of them waiting for the bus. I love how "big sister" like Jillian is and how Ethan is looking up at her. They are such good friends.



And right on time, the bus arrives!!! They are one of the first kids on the route and so therefore, the last kids OFF the bus at the end of the day, so it makes for a long day. The bus arrives at 8:15 and school doesn't start until 9:10. They get out at 3:10 and the bus arrives back at their house at 4:55.

More often then not either Krista or I pick them up after school.

Once they got on the bus, Krista and I got in my car, went to the local Starbuck's and got a coffee to go, then proceeded to the school so we could catch him...
getting OFF the bus at school.

He was all smiles!! Jillian walked him to his classroom and through the outside window we could see her help him get his coat hung up and into his room, before she ran off to her class.

Krista and I could have stood there all day and watched him through the window.....

Another big milestone, and another wonderful memory....

Rock On!

Okay, my friends. I'm gonna be back, even if it's just a thought of the day. I've been so tired lately. Completely unmotivated. In fact, getting out of bed has even been a drag. I've worked quite a bit in the last two weeks, which has been mostly a good thing. The "plan" is that I will be working at least a couple of short shifts each pay period. What I really need is to get back into an exercise routine. How many times am I going to say, post, think, dream, hope, plan to do this before it actually happens? So, I thought that maybe getting back into my blogging routine might actually be a good place to start.
Isn't this pretty? My friend Jackie came by to show it to me before she finishes and gifts it to her daughter in law. This was created from the blocks that I designed and taught in a block of the month program last year. The students had a choice of 4 different color ways to create their quilt. I called this one "romance". I have mine from the same fabrics ready to go to the quilter.

There is a photo of it somewhere back in my 100 photos I did that began at the first of the year. Jackie loved the floral print so much, she got the large scale print to make a beautiful backing.

That silly Rocco thought he needed to be part of the picture I see.

It's almost as satisfying seeing a quilt I designed get finished as it is to finish one myself.

The binding on Kyle's quilt will be on either tonight or tomorrow so I can bring it down to him on Sunday, when we go south for the day to celebrate Carters second birthday. I'll snap a photo of it before it goes.

Hope all is well with whoever is out there in blogland......

School Starts Tomorrow

Today, I was honored with taking Jillian and Ethan to the school so they could officially meet their new teachers and check out their classrooms. First we went down to the kindergarten section and found Ethan's room.

It's going to be interesting to see how he does. He has Mrs. Hoekstra as his teacher. This is the "other" kindergarten teacher as Jillian had Mrs. Anker. They are both fabulous and it will be fun to work with her. Ethan acted a bit shy while we were there, but he did sit at his desk, and check out his "cubby"...with the help of big sister, of course.

You can see a bit of anxiety on his adorable little face.....

Then down the hall we went, all the way to the other end of the building in fact to meet Jillian's teacher Mrs. Van Dyken and see the classroom


This teacher just discovered that she was going to have the third grade class last week. There was some shuffling round the district at the last minute and she was reassigned from 1st grade to 3rd. But she originally was a 3rd grade teacher and is thrilled to return to them. She and Jillian had a pretty quick connection!

A big moment too for Jillian to get to have the big kids desk, that opens up. She immediately put all her supplies very neatly away into her desk.

It was great getting to watch her in action when she got to see friends, and big hugs when they discovered they were in the same class this year.

Once we left the school we hit the grocery store and got our last few ingredients and came home to make our mondo batch of Geema's special back to school cookies. I think they are also known as ranger cookies.....LOL!

It's going to be a great year for us all.

A Lovely Weekend

It was a rare treat that I got to visit with BOTH of my dear sisters this weekend. Sister Carol (the young one) came up on Thursday and we had a few days of sister time. Besides our regular casino "fun".....we got pedicures and went to the movies. I love when she visits too, because she always appreciates whatever I cook for her. We weren't very close friends as we were growing up. Not until we were in our 20's did we start to share friendly activities. We both have strong "gaming" genes, and share a bit of competitive spirit. Back in the early days of video games we used to meet at a little house, that had once been the water department office in Boulevard Park, that had video games like Pac Man, Ms Pac Man, Frogger, Centipede and we discovered a great game called The Nibbler.

And sister Nancy ( the middle one ) was in Bellingham for not quite such a great reason. Her brother in law had been seriously injured while felling a tree on his property and it hit him in the head. He is in the ICU. It appears right now like he has neurological function, but is still basically comatose. So Nancy and her husband Terry drove up to get more details and spend some time with his family.

They were able then to come out to Lynden and have a bit of a visit.

We usually only get to be all three together on holidays. I am the oldest, and since we are each 3 years older than the next, we didn't ever get to go to school together. But it is now, as we are getting older, that I so appreciate having Sisters. I want to find one of those merry go rounds like the one in the photo above and take a current picture of the three of us. Because as the world goes round, and round, and round and round...it's nice to have sisters to share the ride with.

I love you both so much...

In My Mail today!!

AWESOME!! It took a little investigative work to find out it came from Kyle, Genie, Carter and Henry for my birthday. This is a HUGE book, like an old Sears catalog. And filled with lots of great info about spices, and tons of recipes.

Can't wait to dive in and choose something to make first.

Speaking of the Sears catalog.....do any of you remember those days when the catalog would come in the mail? I could spend hours turning page after page after page. Sometimes one sister or the other would sit with me and whoever was on the left side got everything on the left side of the catalog. We would snicker and giggle over the ladies underthings section. Most of my school clothes up until about 8th grade were ordered out of the catalog. OH! And when the Christmas catalog came it was like a holiday all in itself!!

On the occasion we would actually load into the car and go to Sears in Seattle, it was a major adventure. We always parked in the back, and got a bag of popcorn as we came in the back door. By the shoes....

One of my first "real" jobs was working for Sears. My Dad loved it because he could go into the employee discount store.

It is still a bit sad when I pass by on I-5 and look over and it doesn't say SEARS on the top of that building anymore....almost as sad as not seeing the Rainier beer logo.....gosh I loved those commercials! What a rambling post today...