We're Back!

Yep, back to Seattle yesterday and here sits Gene as we wait for Aime to pick us up. It was a fantastic time for all of us although Gene had some rough times with his equalibrium. The food was fabulous and plentiful, the service absolutely superb at every level! I am in awe of the friendliness we found in every single crew member we encountered. I could have cruised forever. Our bed was made, clean towels each day, those cute towel animals with candy on our bed, room service. Ho hum, life will be very dull again in comparison, LOL! The day of departure was a gorgeous day and we sat on the pool deck as we headed out. I wish I could say the weather held for the rest of our trip but it didn't and we had clouds, rain and wind. It didn't dampen our spirits though nor keep us from heading off the ship at each port. Skagway was miserably cold and windy but we still managed to walk into town and hit the quilt shop, yarn shop and a few other stores as well. As the days go by I will try to share a little more of our trip and pictures too. Today we have Jaiden and she's spending the night with us. She helped me hull the strawberries for dessert using a straw and did a great job. Love that little trick! It is warm and sunny here and finally feels like summer will arrive :-) One more day off and then back to work for me. I admit I was thrilled to indulge in my own coffee this morning and real coke this afternoon, LOL! The ships coffee left a lot to be desired and they serve Pepsi, not Coke. Very minor disappointment when everything else was beyond my wildest dreams. Definitely hard to return to the real world, hahaha!

It's A GIRL!!

Where does the time go?

Goodness but it has been at least a week since I updated here. Life moves along too quickly sometimes for me to stay caught up, ha! The excitement is building around here, the cruise is almost here, YAY!! We leave Saturday and are practically counting the hours, LOL! Aime will drive us to Seattle to the cruise line dock and drop us off. Then she'll come back here to pick up our dogs. What a great, fabulous daughter we have to take them on for a week! They are getting baths and haircuts before going to spend the week there and I've warned them about bad behavior. Let's all please pray, then pray some more that they will behave.

Ethan and Jack are both crawling and we tried for baby races in the hallway yesterday, hahaha. Before we know it they'll be running like the wind, climbing the trees and taking things apart.

The computer charting at work has not been the nightmare I'd feared but it hasn't been a whole lot of fun.

Friday we will all be holding our breaths to hear the word from the ultrasound on whether Jennifer is carrying a girl or a boy! We're all impatient to know and excited as all get out to find out. How great we'll know before we leave on the cruise!

I'll try to post more later in the week. Until then enjoy Spring if you have it. We had a beautiful weekend but today/tonight is rain, boo hoo.

Computer charting

Yesterday we went live at work with computer charting. It wasn't nearly the nightmare I thought it could be but was still very slow and confusing! As we get familiar with where to find what needs to be charted it will get faster but I'm still reserving my opinion for what is going to happen when we are back to back with critical patients who need 1:1 nursing for a long period of time and lots of interventions. Charting will take a big backseat, patient care always comes first no matter what and our patients are all considered critical until they are stable on their own after anesthesia. I did my best to maintain an "up" attitude, hide my mounting frustration and smile, LOL!!

Today I slept 12 hours! Can you believe it? I think I'm fighting off a cold and sure hope I win! Our cruise is less than 2 weeks away. Jennifer has a doozy of one poor thing. My grandson had a doozy on Mother's Day but how can you NOT hold them and kiss on them? It just isn't possible, ggggg. This year the bugs going around have been awful and everyone has been sick all winter and spring with flu and colds repeatedly. I'm just "SICK" of it, pardon the pun, LOL!

Off to clean and polish my hutch in the dining room. Then to wash everything and put it back in. Then hubby will be able to get the rest of the room painted. The 2 red walls are done and the new floor down. Can't wait to take photos to share!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's day to all of the mothers, grandmothers and mothers to be!!! Of course I must share a few pics of the day or you'd wonder what had gotten into me, LOL! I hope that in some manner you celebrated yourself today!! Celebrated for all that you have achieved; for all the love and faithfulness you have given; for the selflessness you practiced and the disrespect you probably endured at some time over the years, ha! The lack of sleep, the worry and the joy that all comes with being a mom. I paused to reflect on the years. They spin by so quickly. Now my daughters are grown women, one is carrying her first child and the other a mom of a son and a daughter. I can never say enough how blessed I am to have my daughters close in proximity as well as of the heart. For many reasons not all of us are as lucky and I'm well aware it can be a day of pain as well for some. I find I celebrate my daughters in my heart on this day, for their presence in my life is what gave me the title. They've made me very proud to be their mom. So thank you girls for loving me back, for nurturing our relationship and letting me celebrate life with you.

Today we all met at a local restaurant called Kelley's for breakfast. We had to wait about 45 minutes but the weather was nice and the food delicious!! I had a crab, shrimp, tomato, onion and avocado omelet covered in Hollandaise sauce; served with homemade sour dough toast, homemade raspberry jam, and yummy hashbrowns. Topping it off was oh so good coffee!! Everyone enjoyed their meals and it's always so nice to be able to gather together. We missed Ted who had to work.

TWO MORE WEEKS!

Yep, we'll be on board the cruise ship two weeks from today and right about now will be meeting the Sew Many Places folks. Jennifer was here awhile today and we searched through the information that finally arrived. After she left I searched through my clothes to be sure I had everything I might need, tried on some pants, new shoes, etc. and stayed so hyped! Even the sun blessed us with its presence part of the day. Those of you who have taken cruises, do you have any tidbits or suggestions for us? It was suggested we buy a set of small walkie talkies to stay in touch on the ship. Jennifer picked hers up on her way home. I'll get ours tomorrow.
Tomorrow is Mother's Day and my family will all meet at a local restaurant in the harbor. Hopefully the wait won't be beyond reasonable, especially if it is raining. Nobody is taking reservations in the area unless we wanted to spend a small fortune. So we'll take our chances with this plan and if all else fails there is always Costco muffins and coffee, LOL!
Since I'm on call all night (12 hours starting at 7pm) tonight and tomorrow night I think I will go gather what I'll need. Have a great evening!

Rain, Rain and then some wind

Lots of rain with a little wind thrown in. What a spring we've had so far, NOT. Today is a grandma day and I have Jaiden. (Ethan had an appt this afternoon so he stayed home with his daddy.) We went to Wal-Mart and bought her a replacement umbrella for the one I bought last week, LOL. None of us can find it! It is Cinderella of course so this one is Ariel. Now when it is found she will have one for both houses. We picked up grandpa and went to lunch at Costco for hot dogs and yogurt swirls. Back home for a little rest time now where she is happily reading in her Cinderella sleeping bag, hahaha.

We got a huge tomato plant at Costco, 2 new books and a set of Yoga DVD's. I wasn't able to sign up for the 2nd series of yoga classes at work. I have really noticed the stiffness creep back so am determined to find a routine I can do at home at least twice a week.

Tonight is our quilt guild meeting so Jennifer and I will go to that together. 2 1/2 weeks until our Alaska cruise, yipppee!! I still need to find a good pair of walking shoes and continue to scout the stores for a small backpack for shore excursions. We are all very unhappy though with the lack of communication from Sew Many Places with whom we booked our cruise. They have provided no information whatsoever to us and the little we have acquired came from numerous calls to obtain it.

Here is a picture of the bed quilt I have finally gotten started on for Jaiden:

I am making it from Clothworks French brights which is what I used for her curtains. The original kit was too small a quilt and I struggled with other ideas for using the panel and precut pieces in the kit. I cut the panel apart with the idea of doing them in a twist and turn method of setting them and afterwards came across another pattern. At last I knew I'd found the perfect answer for the amount of fabric I had. Here's the pattern which can be found in McCalls Quilting Fall 2008 designed by Pat Sloan: So that is what I'm working on currently, what are you up to in the sewing/quilting/knitting or crafting department? Speaking of knitting? UGH, I spent last night ripping out 6 rows of the aran afghan and found out those cables are a bear to rip out! I will definitely be more careful so I hopefully won't have to do that again, LOL. Here is what I bought the other day to add to my already overflowing notion collection, ha! It has a cover!! Perfect for classes and traveling which my summer will be full of if I'm lucky.
That's enough chatter, have a great evening. I'm off to get up the Princess and do something fun with her. Wonder what she'll want to do.............

Favorite sewing tool?

What is your favorite sewing/quilting tool or notion? One of mine is the Hera Marker which my sister told me about. It is the perfect marker for quilting by making a slight crease on the fabric creating a sewing guide such as for use with marking for a half square triangle. If you've never heard of one or tried it I encourage you to do so, I think you'll be glad you did.

Island Quilter and Vashon Island Quilt Show

Today my quilting group met for a "field trip" to the quilt show on Vashon Island. We took the ferry from Southworth over to the island and our first stop was at Island Quilter, the quilt shop in town. WOWEEEE! It is such a great shop. None of us could believe the number of fabric bolts and amazing variety of fabrics. I think most everyone dropped a few pennies there and left with bags of new stash. It is definitely on our list for a return trip! From there we headed across the street for a nice lunch with lots of chatter. On to the quilt show which was small but enjoyable. The return trip to the ferry dock was not as straight forward as we'd have liked but it definitely added to the days' adventure and had us laughing. The weather was on the drizzly side but who would have wanted to spend the day inside a quilt shop and show if the sun was shining, LOL! After charging up my camera and talking about being sure I took it, imagine my surprise when I got to the show without it, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! Last evening darling hubby washed my car and together we cleaned the inside. How nice it was to drive a clean car today!!!

Other news would include that we leave in THREE weeks for our cruise! YIPPEEE. And the day before, on the 22nd, Jennifer will have another ultrasound. Hopefully that is going to give us the sex of my newest grandbaby to be!!

Everyone stay healthy and do something that makes your heart sing this weekend.